The man got down on one knee, “Please! Punish me, Your Majesty.”
She gave him a quick glance and lowered her beautiful hand. Then, she turned around and looked meaningfully at the huge door that was now tightly shut before she walked down the stairs with lithe steps.
*
After Feng Tianlan handed over the task of ensuring the safety of the Spiritual Crystal Mine to the secret guards, she left the Misty Forest. To avoid causing trouble because of her appearance, Feng Tianlan drew a scar on her face so she would look the same as she used to.
It was quiet.
The atmosphere around them was quiet like never before. A cold wind blew in their faces, carrying hints of rotting flesh.
“Miss, it’s too quiet.” Chuling looked around at the wilted leaves that were tumbling down the trees. There was even a huge rat crawling out onto the street. This was totally different from how lively the town had been before they left. It was as if everyone in the town had disappeared into thin air overnight.
Feng Tianlan frowned, “Let’s go in and take a look.”
Misty Town was eerily quiet today. The rotting smell in the winds was not an illusion.
The stalls that lined the streets had fallen to the ground. The goods they were selling remained draped over the toppled stalls. The restaurants they walked past were also in complete disarray. There were spider webs stretching out over open windows and blood that had turned black stained the bricks of the buildings…
Looking at the desolate and lifeless town, Chuling felt a chill run down her spine. She walked closer to Feng Tianlan.
“The whole town has been massacred.” Feng Tianlan stood in front of the inn that she had stayed in before she left. More than ten corpses were scattered around the grounds of the inn. They had decomposed beyond recognition and there were no clothes among the remains. It seemed like these were ****men.
“What happened here?” Chuling turned pale. “Who would be so cruel as to kill everyone in the town? There are roughly a few hundreds of people who live here.”
“Meow!”
Feng Tianlan stroked the adorable Little Furball who sat on her shoulder and counted the number of corpses around the inn carefully. Then she shut her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m afraid it’s probably Tu Xiupei.”
Little Furball, whom she rescued earlier, continued to linger around and wouldn’t go away. It had somehow become her pet.
The situation was most likely that Tu Xiupei’s humiliating episode was witnessed by the whole town. After the force field disappeared, Tu Xiupei massacred the whole town to shut them up.
How ruthless!
“So ruthless… Is she even human to begin with?” Chuling murmured with a trembling voice. What’s the point of killing all the innocent bystanders?
Feng Tianlan frowned slightly. “One person is missing.”
“What?”
“Nothing, let’s go.”
As soon as she said these words, she heard over a dozen footsteps which were at once orderly and disorganized heading in their direction. No sooner had they stepped away from the inn did they find themselves surrounded by constables armed with swords.
“Are you Feng Tianlan?” A plump, middle-aged man wearing a magistrate’s uniform looked down his protruding belly at Feng Tianlan. His eyes caught sight of her face and his bushy caterpillar-like eyebrows furrowed.
No matter how he looked at her, she didn’t appear to be anything like the beautiful fairy that they described—more of an ugly freak.
“Yes.” Feng Tianlan straightened her back and looked at him with a sideways glance. Judging by his uniform, he was definitely a magistrate.
The magistrate examined Feng Tianlan’s face doubtfully and then said something to the constable beside him. In a flash, five or six people were brought forward.
“Is she the one?” the magistrate asked them brusquely.
A few of them looked up at Feng Tianlan. When they saw the scar on her face, they shook their heads immediately. “It’s not her. That person was a vixen! She was extremely beautiful! It’s definitely not her.”
The magistrate slapped the one who spoke across the face and shouted in anger, “You fool! This is Feng Tianlan. Let me ask you once again, is she the one who massacred the people of Misty Town?”
The man who was slapped found his head spinning in circles after the slap. He raised his head, looked at Feng Tianlan again, and answered hastily, “Yes, it’s her. It was Feng Tianlan who killed everyone in town. We managed to survive because we were fortunately not near the town. However, we all saw her commit the crime.”
