Chapter 143: Why

On the lawn not far away, Liang Yiqing stared at Su Jingxing, who had vanished into the air, with an extremely grim expression.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The sound of the wind being torn apart came closer from afar.

Figures were darting toward Liang Yiqing's location rapidly from both the ground and mid-air.

"Old Liang, what's the situation?"

A burly man with a rough voice arrived first. Landing on the avenue along the perimeter of the lawn, he glanced at Liang Yiqing, then looked at the scattered corpses, and frowned as he asked, "What kind of people are these?"

"I don't know about the ones in black, but the other five are people from the headquarters of Cien Bank," Liang Yiqing said with a dark face and a deep voice, "Their superior is named Lu Chen!"

"Lu Chen? The eldest son of the Lu family who just arrived in Qinghe City yesterday?"

Ma Shifeng walked over with large strides and spoke in a deep voice, "What are people from the Lu family doing here? The Lu family has the exact same materials available on the top floor of the library!"

"I don't know." Liang Yiqing's face remained dark. "I merely stepped away for two hours, and three separate groups of people have visited the library."

"Three groups?"

The burly man who had arrived first scanned the surroundings, looking puzzled as he asked, "Aren't there only six corpses here? You said five of them were a single group, so how..."

"The third group has already left."

Liang Yiqing explained with a gloomy face, "The other party's ability to conceal their aura is terrifying. I had no inkling of their presence from start to finish. It wasn't until he soared straight up into the sky to leave that I realized there was a third person patronizing the library tonight!"

"Wait, you said he soared straight up?" A plump, middle-aged man blinked and asked, "Are you sure it wasn't just stepping on thin air, like a water-drifting lightness skill?"

"I'm not blind yet."

Liang Yiqing retorted with a dark face, "If he were just walking on air, could he possibly leave like that?"

"I was just making sure." The middle-aged man rubbed his large belly and let out a wry smile, "The third person is a Rank Four martial artist. We're in trouble now."

The burly man who arrived first fell silent.

Ma Shifeng also muttered in deep thought.

The others likewise kept their mouths shut.

Liang Yiqing's face remained dark, a flash of apprehension crossing his eyes.

Stepping on thin air and flying in the sky for a short period—most Rank Six martial artists could accomplish this as long as they practiced a decent lightness skill.

In truth, this kind of "flying" could not be considered true flight; it was merely a form of gliding.

However, shooting straight up into the sky, ascending rapidly to high altitudes, and darting away at high speed was something only Rank Four martial artists could achieve.

Rank Five could not do it, let alone Rank Six.

Even if they practiced an extremely advanced lightness skill, it still wouldn't work.

The reason was simple: their true Qi cultivation was insufficient to sustain the momentum for flight!

To shoot straight up into the sky and soar at high altitudes required at least fifty years of true Qi cultivation.

A true Qi cultivation of fifty years or more basically belonged to the realm of Rank Four martial artists.

Especially since this Rank Four expert possessed such exceptional concealment skills that Liang Yiqing hadn't noticed him at all from beginning to end; one could easily imagine just how formidable the other party was.

If that person wanted to assassinate Liang Yiqing, Liang Yiqing wouldn't have been able to hide at all.

This was the reason for his apprehension and lingering fear.

By the same token.

If a Rank Four expert had their eyes set on certain materials on the top floor of the library, could they possibly defend against it?

Perhaps they could.

Yet, was there any need to make an enemy of a Rank Four martial artist over some materials?

There was no need at all!

With a Rank Four cultivation level, wouldn't it be easier to simply come and borrow the materials directly?

Although the historical texts and reference materials kept on the top floor of the library were precious, most of them were duplicate copies, and lending them out wouldn't result in much of a loss.

Was there any need to sneak in covertly?

Moreover, the same went for Lu Chen from Cien Bank.

Why were they targeting the materials hidden on the top floor of the Xuantian University Library?

Ma Shifeng, the burly man, and the others grew increasingly suspicious and gave themselves a headache just thinking about it.

"What did these two groups take?"

Ma Shifeng took a deep breath, breaking the silence as he asked.

"I just checked. They're two maps."

A lean-figured instructor handed two maps retrieved from the corpses over to Ma Shifeng.

"There was nothing on the person in black that Old Liang mentioned," another female instructor added.

"Hmm."

Ma Shifeng nodded, took the maps, and unfolded them under the light of a streetlamp to inspect them.

The others drew slightly closer, casting their gazes toward the maps as well.

"Aren't these the Tianshui River Flow Map and the Qingyun Mountain Range Map? What are they doing with these two maps?"

"Ghost knows. Maybe they're trying to find some treasure, just like Jin Mushen's treasure that the Shi family deliberately spread rumors about a while ago."

"Heh, Jin Mushen's treasure actually exists, it's just that nobody knows where it is."

"If you put it that way, they should be searching the Shi family estate for maps instead, right? Why come to our place to get landscape maps?"

"I guess their brains must have been flooded."

"..."

Several instructors gathered together, discussing in low whispers.

Ma Shifeng, Liang Yiqing, and the others also furrowed their brows in deep thought.

Compared to the trouble brought by killing the two groups of people, they were even more curious about the motives of these individuals.

Why were they searching for maps of the Tianshui River and Qingyun Mountain?

...

At the same time.

In an ordinary residential complex on the east side of the University Town.

"Seventh Young Master, the photo is out."

Someone shouted inside a sealed room.

Immediately afterward, five people rushed out rapidly from the other rooms, arriving in the living room in just a few strides.

"How is it? How is it? Did it figure out who it is?" a young girl wearing a ponytail asked eagerly.

"Look for yourself."

A young man sitting in front of a computer pushed the monitor toward the side.

"Alright, let me see who on earth... Oh!"

The girl's mouth hung open, and she wore a speechless expression. "With that outfit, who could possibly tell anything?"

The image displayed on the computer screen was precisely the upper body of Su Jingxing wearing a cloak and a mask.

"As expected."

The young man with light-golden hair spoke calmly. "When Brother Wang came back, he already mentioned it. He had just managed to snap a picture of the target when he was discovered by the other party. To be able to detect him instantly from a distance of several hundred meters—this person is an expert, at least Rank Five!"

"The crucial point is that Xiao Wang discovered there were two other groups of people besides this mysterious masked individual!"

An elderly man whose hair and beard were meticulously groomed said in a deep voice, "The fact that these people all coincidentally headed to the top floor of the Xuantian University Library in the middle of the night—their purpose is well worth pondering."

"Uh, you mean their objective is the same as ours?" The girl's expression shifted slightly.

The young man with light-golden hair also frowned slightly. "If their objective truly is the same as ours, things are going to get troublesome."

"Indeed," chimed in the young man who had been playing with a computer mouse. "If the goal is the same, I'm afraid the information has leaked."

"Everyone wants to find the map, but the problem is that nobody knows where the map is yet. All we know is that it's in Xuantian University!"

"Not necessarily."

The meticulously groomed elderly man's eyes flashed as he analyzed, "Even though the information has leaked, the number of people who know about it should be very small. Furthermore, that map hidden within Xuantian University might not necessarily be a map at all!"