Chapter 4: Conflict, Cruelty 4

The youth threw down his whip with a grim expression. Looking at the bloodied, mangled figure, his cold fingers brushed against the wound on his own neck.

Did someone who dared to attempt to kill him truly think he would let them go?

"Master, she has lost consciousness," a burly man reported after checking Helan Jiu's condition.

The youth commanded, "Throw her to the beasts in the back mountains."

"Yes!" One of the burly men immediately grabbed one of Helan Jiu's small arms and began dragging her toward the exit. Her white hair was soaked crimson by the blood on the floor; the once clean floor was now marked by a vivid, startlingly red trail of blood left by her being dragged.

Just then, a scout hurried in from outside and knelt respectfully before the youth.

"Any news from outside?" the youth asked casually.

The scout reported, "Reporting to Master, Grandmaster Guo has suddenly made an announcement. Whoever helps him find his young disciple who left home, he will sell his medicinal pills to them for the rest of the year. According to the description, his disciple is a young girl, eight years old, very thin and small, with white hair..."

The youth murmured, "White hair?"

Involuntarily, his gaze drifted toward the doorway.

A burly man was dragging the blood-soaked little girl across the threshold—

"Wait!" The youth frowned slightly, stepping forward through the bloodstains.

White hair? Eight years old? Could it be her?

He crouched down and found a low-grade storage bag at Helan Jiu's waist.

He emptied everything out of the storage bag.

There wasn't much—only two sets of change of clothes and some miscellaneous daily necessities.

As the young disciple of an alchemy grandmaster, the contents of the storage bag were so meager that they seemed quite pathetic.

The youth used his whip to lift the two sets of clothing, when suddenly, an ancient-looking black wooden token fell out from among them.

Carved upon the black wooden token was a lifelike nine-tailed celestial fox, along with ancient runes.

The youth's expression finally changed. His fingertips trembled slightly, and after a long moment, he slowly tucked the black wooden token into his bosom. After a period of silence, the youth abruptly drew a sharp longsword, killing the burly men and the scout present in an instant. They didn't even have a chance to struggle before they all drew their last breaths and lost all signs of life.

A cold light flashed in the youth's frigid eyes as he commanded, "Ye Ling, check her."

"As you command," a voice responded from the shadows.

Soon, a young man dressed in black appeared. He crouched down to check Helan Jiu's breathing. After a few seconds, Ye Ling's eyes filled with terror, and he said urgently, "Master, her injuries are very severe. If she is not treated in time, I fear she won't survive the night. Furthermore, she has a divine sense imprint left on her by a powerful expert."

A divine sense imprint was a minor spell cast using divine sense.

Usually, it was a type of protection cast by powerful experts upon juniors or disciples they valued. When the life force perished, the divine sense imprint would dissipate along with it. The owner of the divine sense would sense this immediately and would be able to see the circumstances of Helan Jiu's final moments through the imprint.

The youth said with a darkened face, "So, you're saying she cannot die?"

"Yes," Ye Ling answered.

After a moment of silence, the youth looked toward the hall's exit and said coldly, "Ye Ling, clean the courtyard and erase all traces....Then send word back saying that this Prince has suddenly fallen ill, and ask His Majesty to send someone else to negotiate with Grandmaster Guo."

Ye Ling immediately complied and departed.

About fifteen minutes later.

All twenty-odd servants in the courtyard, from top to bottom, had been silenced.

Similarly, a messenger pigeon flew out from the courtyard, disappearing in the direction of the Great Zhou Empire's Imperial City.