Chapter 37 – Sudden News
The night was dark, so when these few personal guards of Liu Suifeng were about to break into a house, Wu Qi sprinted forward quietly and effortlessly broke their necks. The sound of their bones cracking was nothing compared to the crazy howling of Old Devil and Lord Flame. Wu Qi carefully dragged their bodies over to, and dumped them into, a water channel right beside the street.
Two figures, who were flying in the air, flew past, kicking up a wild wind. A large group of Liu Suifeng’s guards were riding their horses and following behind them. The two figures were Old Devil and Lord Flame, and they were rushing toward the City Gate. Soon, the clattering of the horses came and passed, as the guards were following behind those two flying figures toward the only gate that connected Little Meng City to the outside world at night.
Wu Qi nodded his head, adjusted his face mask, turned around, and walked into the house.
Noon, the next day.
Wu Qi and LU Chengfeng were sitting in a private room within the Green Mountain Restaurant, both looking at the empty street happily.
Last night, Wu Qi had stolen the magical storage bags of Old Devil and Lord Flame, then he killed a few of Liu Suifeng’s personal guards and dumped their bodies in a water channel. With so many incidents happening in one night, Liu Suifeng and his men were pissed.
Old Devil and Lord Flame were boiling in anger, so they led a large group of men and shut all four City Gates of Little Meng City, commencing a search operation throughout the city. They were determined to catch that thief who had stolen all their belongings, swearing that they would skin him alive and kill him with a thousand slashes.
Liu Suifeng was also boiling in anger, due to having a few of his personal guards killed. He used the authority of Military Supervisory Officer and imposed a city-wide curfew with all City Guards, no civilians were allowed to leave their home. They took turns having their homes searched, one by one. All shops were forced to close, and Little Meng City had turned into a lifeless ghost town.
Taking a large gulp of a glass of wine, Wu Qi narrowed his eyes and smiled, “I suppose that stray dogs who get their tails burned, would react like this. Don’t you think so?”
Lu Chengfeng was laughing in joy. He picked up a piece of fat deer meat and placed it into his mouth. Then, speaking slowly, he said, “Marquis Liu went too far this time. The news of him blackmailing those tradesmen, I bet it has been heard about by someone in the capital by now. There are a few tradesmen here with very powerful backgrounds. I don’t think they were expecting that.”
Lu Chengfeng leaned against window frame leisurely, watching at those guards wearing red war robes storming in and out of townhouses. Sneering, he said, “They are just a bunch of fools. Although Little Meng City is a remote city, do they not realize how many benefits Little Meng City gives those princes and lords each year? The rare treasures produced here in Little Meng City and then sent to the capital… they have to value at least a million gold a year!”
Wu Qi nodded his head, agreeing. He didn’t add on anything, but just pour Lu Chengfeng another glass of wine.
By acting so lawless, Liu Suifeng and Lu Quyuan had infringed on the benefits of many powerful men. By imposing a curfew in Little Meng City and searching for a thief, many business activities were completely stopped as well. Let’s see who would come and give Liu Suifeng and Lu Quyuan trouble for holding down the activities that produced million gold each year. A lack of profit was sure to draw the eyes of some powerful people.
The evils that one brought on themselves were the hardest to bear! Wu Qi raised his wineglass up and bid a toast with Lu Chengfeng. Both men drank their full glasses of wine at the same time.
Breathing out a sigh, Lu Chengfeng stared right into Wu Qi’s eyes and asked, “Those two magical storage bags, are you the one who took them? Those two old devils are Xiantian level cultivators, possessing a strong cultivation and sensitive senses. How did you manage that?”
Wu Qi kept smiling and stared back at Lu Chengfeng. He nodded his head seriously and shook his head, “I didn’t do it. My teacher had very strict rules for us, never allowing his disciple to steal anything.”
Lu Chengfeng stared at Wu Qi and became speechless, he just wished he could slap Wu Qi’s smile right off his face.
Rolling his eyes, Lu Chengfeng sneered and said, “If I told you, ‘I’m still a virgin’, would you believe it?”
Wu Qi stared into Lu Chengfeng’s eyes seriously and, with an absolutely confident tone, said, “I would believe it!”
Lu Chengfeng’s hands were trembling. He had met all different kinds of people, but this was the first time he had met someone as shameless as Wu Qi. Grabbing a wine pot and pouring himself some more wine, Lu Chengfeng quickly drank three glasses of wine, back to back, and finally breathed out a long sigh.
All of a sudden, rapid footsteps came from outside the private room. Xiaohei, who was standing guard outside, shouted, “Who dares to come in here without permission?”
The sound of a body being slammed against a wall was heard, in the next second, Xiaohei staggered back into the private room, followed by a few right-hand men of Liu Suifeng. One of them gazed arrogantly at Lu Chengfeng, smiled condescendingly, and said, “Acting-Mayor, our Marquis requests your presence at the General’s Office. From today onwards, our Marquis will commence the audit and review of all military related affairs. Your presence, as you are the Acting-Mayor, is a must.”
Wu Qi stood up slowly and looked at Xiaohei. He found his face was pale. Obviously, he had suffered a quick defeat in that fight just now. Putting on a proud smile, Wu Qi humphed coldly and said, “I thought the Marquis was busy catching some thieves today and had no time for his job?”
These few right-hand men of Liu Suifeng had their faces darken. They gazed at Wu Qi with insidious looks. One of them sneered and said, “Under the management of the two of you, Little Meng City has become a place where people can live and work happily, and thus business could commence in peace. What happened last night, both of you will need to provide an answer to our Marquis!”
Lu Chengfeng rubbed his butt and stood up,gazing at these men with a look hundred times more arrogant than theirs. He sneered in disdain, “Answer? What kind of answer? The ones who were on the night watch were all the personal guards of your Marquis. The guards of the Mayor’s Mansion had long since been chased off by them, so how does this have anything to do with me?”
Not even taking a second look at those men, Lu Chengfeng raised his head up and walked out of the private room.
Wu Qi gave these men a smile, patted on Xiaohei’s shoulder, and carried him out the Green Mountain Restaurant.
The angry and frantic howling of Old Devil and Lord Flame could still be heard from afar. They were shouting and ordering someone to dig three feet down under a townhouse. It was a huge blow to both of them that their magical storage bags had been stolen. They had no choice but to desperately search for their belongings. But only Wu Qi knew that both magical storage bags had been hidden at a secret place outside of the city. How could they find anything by searching the city?
The two old devils were at fault for having too much confidence in their judgement. Once they found out that their magical storage bags had been stolen, they immediately collected some men and sealed the only road connecting Little Meng City to the outside world. their believe that the thief was still hiding somewhere in the city was why they were creating such a huge disturbance right now.
It was too bad that they had no idea that the thief who had stolen their belongings was right next to them. They also never thought that a thief that could steal their magical storage bags from right under their noses. How could such a thief be blocked by simply sealing a road?
A wild wind blew past in the sky above. Old Devil, who was in his red robe, jumped across the street while clenching his teeth tightly, acted like a lunatic, and pointed at a caravan sitting at the side of the road, he roared loudly and said, “My treasures must be hiding in this caravan, search it, you all must help me get my treasures back!”
Wu Qi shook his head, letting out a laugh of disdain. By searching like this, he would never find his magical storage bag.
But once Wu Qi entered the General’s Office, his pleasant mood quickly disappeared.
Liu Suifeng and Lu Quyuan had brought a group of men in green robes here. They were currently moving countless documents and records of General Office, checking each word by word, line by line. These green robe men were the senior auditors that Liu Suifeng had brought from home. They were very well versed in all accounting matters.
Dozens of account books had been put on a long table, and Lu Quyuan was standing beside the table, flipping through and reading these books, his face covered with a gloating sneer.
“Right here, there are three hundred sets of full black steel armor that are missing.”
“Here, there are fifty strong bows missing.”
“Wow, this is getting serious. Marching Pills, Remedy Pills, and six other commonly used pills in army, there are fifteen thousand portions of these missing.”
“Tsk tsk, two years ago, of the building expenses used to build the new drill ground and camps, three thousand silver coins were not recorded in the account books.”
“Outrageous, in this record, due to barbarians attacking, seven hundred and ninety elite soldiers were killed, the same numbers of compensations were given out too, but the salary for these soldiers was still being counted as being used, and, at the same time, the extra funds were used to recruit new soldiers!”
Many of these records were babbled out continuously, each of the transactions was so ridiculous and could have been easily spotted. Even without these senior auditors, anyone could realized that there was a huge black hole in the accounts of the General’s Office of Little Meng City.
When Lu Quyuan saw Wu Qi and Lu Chengfeng walking into the General’s Office, he raised up his head and let out an evil laugh, “Elder brother, there is a big problem with your account, the amount of misappropriation and false expenses involved here, totaling to a huge figure!”
Wu Qi took a few steps forward, glared at Lu Quyuan and shouted, “Look carefully. Those account books were recorded during the period when that damn fatty, Yi Yan, was the Mayor. Our account books are only a few months old!”
An insidious smile appeared on one side of Lu Quyuan’s lips. He said, “That’s really hard to tell. The previous Mayor was a corrupt person, however I don’t think the current one is any different. All this missing money. Hee hee, elder brother, somehow you’ll take the blame for this… Right?”
Lu Quyuan spoke with a frivolous tone, trying to put the blame on Lu Chengfeng. Lu Chengfeng never responded to his question. He just placed both of his hands on his back and kept sneering.
On the other side, Liu Suifeng was pushing those auditors to hurry up and go through all the new account books done by Wu Qi. No matter what, he had to find something in them. With this, he could step on Lu Chengfeng’s head and ruin what little face he had, making him never able to come back.
Wu Qi also placed his hands on his back, glaring at Liu Suifeng and Lu Quyuan. He had made up his mind, he would definitely arrange for these two men to go have some fun with those barbarians.
Time passed, and soon it was evening. Wu Qi and Lu Chengfeng were still casually standing in the hall, but those auditors started to look tired, and had sweat all over their faces.
Liu Suifeng and Lu Quyuan kept impatiently pushing them, urging these auditors to find more loopholes in the accounts.
Just as these two men were shouting and yelling, a hasty series of footsteps approached from the outside. A man wearing black soft leather armor, and a long sword on his back, walked into General’s Office at a fast pace. He was holding a golden token high up in his hand. Behind this man, dozens of Liu Suifeng’s personal guards were following closely behind, but none dared to stop the man.
“I’m Yan Bugui, Scouting Officer under the command of Lord Jing Ke, the Chief General of the Great Yan Dynasty. By the martial law of the Great Yan Dynasty, all mid-level practitioners in Little Meng City are required to join the army and wait on my command.”
Great Yan Dynasty, Chief General, Jing Ke!
Wu Qi’s eyes twitched.
