Chapter 160: One Slash, One Kill (Two Chapters Combined)

Indeed.

Combining several clues, Su Jingxing was ninety-nine percent certain that the abnormality in Feng Tiejian’s body had been eaten out at the Top Scholar Tower.

In other words, the He family was behind the scenes, intentionally causing Feng Tiejian’s body to mutate.

Naturally, the people who had captured Feng Tiejian previously also came from the He family.

The dark shadow that used the saber spiritual weapon last night, whose cultivation realm was even higher than Li Rinzhou’s, was likewise a member of the He family.

Having maintained a low profile for four hundred years, the He family’s foundational strength was probably the number one in Qinghe City.

Even though He Rengu, who was at the third-grade realm, had died, they still possessed top-tier fourth-grade experts.

No one outside the He family knew how many such masters existed.

Although Su Jingxing was extremely eager to figure out why the He family was "raising Feng Tiejian like a pig," precisely because he knew the He family was behind it, he had no choice but to suppress his thoughts.

There was no help for it.

Compared to the Shi family, the He family possessed even greater strength.

No one was clear on how many fourth-grade experts were hidden in the shadows. Until he figured out a general idea, Su Jingxing would not probe deeply.

For the time being, it was safer for him to patiently wait for the Concentration Fruits to mature.

He had sent Feng Tiejian away to the prefecture city overnight; as long as he did not court death himself, the He family would not be able to find him.

Two months later, once Su Jingxing completed the visualization of the Demonic Elephant Treading the Heavens Scroll and achieved the solidification of the treading heavenly demonic elephant, he would have a greater grasp of the situation and it would not be too late to pay attention to the He family then.

...

Having made up his mind.

Su Jingxing returned to Qinghe City, ceased paying attention to external situations, and stayed securely at the crematorium.

As a result, that very afternoon, he received a call about a shocking murder case, summoning the crematorium's corpse collection team to transport the bodies.

Su Jingxing accompanied Kong Dabao and his partner, driving straight into the city to the location where the incident occurred.

Tailong Building, located right beside Tailong Plaza!

The person who had died carried immense weight.

Tian Huaichao, the vice president sent from the prefecture city headquarters of the Tailong Group, along with his subordinates—an elite squad composed entirely of sixth-grade martial artists—had all died on the top floor of the building.

"Tsk tsk, it is said that when this Vice President Tian Huaichao died, not the slightest sound of a fight came down. The people downstairs didn't hear a single sound from upstairs at all."

Inside the corpse transport vehicle, Kong Dabao looked at the message he had just received on his phone and exclaimed.

"What's so strange about that? The killer must have used poison," his partner said lazily.

"Poison?" The driver steering the vehicle curled his lips and said, "For big bosses of these major groups to die under toxic gas is letting them off too easy."

"Whether he died of poisoning is still open to debate," Kong Dabao chimed in. "Anyway, we'll know in a moment. What I'm curious about is that he was a vice president from the prefecture city, and the Tailong Group is also a major corporation; how could anyone be so bold as to actually sneak into the top floor and murder Tian Huaichao right on Tailong's turf!"

"It wasn't necessarily sneaking in," Su Jingxing interjected. "Perhaps he was someone Tian Huaichao already knew from the start, a distinguished guest personally received by Tian Huaichao. It's just that a conflict suddenly broke out, and Tian Huaichao failed to evade it, thus meeting his death."

"If that's the case, then it explains why no sound was transmitted when Tian Huaichao and his subordinates died," Kong Dabao's partner deduced.

"If so, wouldn't the killer be very easy to find?" Kong Dabao asked skeptically. "Not to mention surveillance in the office, surely there are cameras installed in the building's corridors, elevators, and lobby?"

"Heh, since the murderer dared to carry out a poisoning, they naturally wouldn't expose themselves," his partner analyzed. "I even suspect that there might be an insider within Tailong Building itself."

"According to you, Tian Huaichao's death was because of internal strife?" The driver widened his eyes.

"Eight or nine out of ten." His partner wore a profound and unfathomable expression.

Seeing this, Su Jingxing held back a smile.

The few of them were simply bored, which was why they were discussing it in the vehicle.

In reality, regardless of how Tian Huaichao died or who the killer was, it had nothing to do with them.

Although the subsequent impact of this matter would be massive.

You didn't even need your toes to figure out that Tian Huaichao came from the prefecture city headquarters, yet he died in the Qinghe branch, and moreover in the top-floor office of Tailong Building.

With this kind of death, it would be a wonder if the Tailong Group headquarters did not fly into a rage. Even their competitors would feel righteous indignation, prompting experts to come and investigate to figure out the cause of death.

Then, they would find the killer and forcefully suppress and execute them!

Because Tian Huaichao represented the entire Tailong Group.

For the killer to dare to break into the top floor of Tailong Building and commit murder was practically stomping the entire Tailong Group beneath their feet.

Without a doubt, this grudge was even greater.

And if there happened to be a third-grade expert among the team sent from the Tailong Group headquarters, then this good show would truly be worth watching.

Su Jingxing muttered inwardly.

...

The corpse transport vehicle arrived at Tailong Plaza.

Su Jingxing, Kong Dabao, and his partner stepped out of the vehicle, put on gloves and masks, lifted the stretchers, and headed straight for the building's entrance.

On both sides of the entrance, quite a crowd had gathered, with law enforcement personnel maintaining order.

As for the members of the Martial Suppression Bureau, they were presumably on the top floor at the crime scene where the bodies were discovered.

The moment the three of Su Jingxing appeared, it immediately sparked a small-scale discussion.

"And they said no one died; the crematorium's body collection team is even here, who are they trying to lie to?"

"Exactly, the Tailong Group still wanted to cover it up, not even looking at what kind of place this is."

"Perhaps there were some unspeakable difficulties."

"What fucking difficulties? People are already dead, are they supposed to leave the corpses in the building forever and turn them into corpse puppets?"

"..."

Listening to the discussions among the gathered crowd on both sides, Su Jingxing suddenly had a bad premonition.

Sure enough, the moment the three of them stepped through the building entrance, they were intercepted by a middle-aged man accompanied by several others.

"Wait, who let you people come in? Out, get out, there are no corpses here for now!"

The middle-aged man wore a face full of irritation, waving his hand impatiently to make the three of Su Jingxing leave.

"Hang on, you're the ones who made the call, and now you're telling us to leave?" Kong Dabao stepped forward a few paces and said with displeasure.

"We made the call? You've got it wrong, we never made any call at all!" The middle-aged man's expression turned gloomy. "Enough nonsense, this has nothing to do with you lot. Wherever you came from, go back there."

"Hey, how are you acting like this? Are you implying we're lying?" Kong Dabao stared wide-eyed. "If the corpses turn into corpse puppets, can you take responsibility for that?"

Hearing this, the middle-aged man's expression shifted, and he shouted in a low voice, "I said, this has nothing to do with you for now, and we never called the crematorium!"

With that, he turned around and left, waving at the others. "Throw them out!"

"Understood." A group of big men in black suits swarmed forward to drive away the three of Su Jingxing.

Kong Dabao was furious. "You guys wait—"

"I was the one who called them here," a cold voice rang out.

Swish, swish, swish—

Hearing the voice, the middle-aged man, Kong Dabao, and everyone else at the scene turned their heads simultaneously to look outside the entrance.

They saw Sun Ye, the commander of the Martial Suppression Bureau's West District branch, leading a group of Martial Suppression Bureau combat soldiers as he strode over.

Upon catching his first sight of Sun Ye, the middle-aged man's expression grew even uglier, turning ashen.

Kong Dabao and his partner, on the other hand, were completely baffled.

"What's the situation? Aren't the people from the Martial Suppression Bureau supposed to be at the crime scene?" Kong Dabao scratched his head.

"Needless to say, judging by this situation, the Tailong Group clearly wanted to temporarily cover it up, but someone leaked the news and exposed it," his partner replied in a low voice, somewhat excitedly.

Hearing this, Kong Dabao stroked his chin and sighed, "Viewed like this, it really is a grand drama. Large corporations are indeed complicated; it's reached the point of internal strife, and they won't even let corpses off."

"..." Listening to the two of them converse, Su Jingxing was quite speechless. "Must the two of you have such an active inner monologue?"

Imagining things was one thing, but over-imagining would only make people look ridiculous.

...

"Commander Sun, we don't seem to have called your people, do we?"

Ignoring the three of Su Jingxing, the middle-aged man blocked Sun Ye's group and said in a low voice, "This place is Tailong territory. Any matter will be resolved by us at Tailong first; if we can't resolve it, naturally we'll call your Martial Suppression Bureau for help."

"And then?" Sun Ye remained expressionless.

"What do you mean, and then?" The middle-aged man was momentarily stunned. "Wasn't I clear? If we can't resolve it, we look for you. Now that we've resolved it, we don't need you anymore. Sorry to trouble you, but however you came, please go back the same way."

"Pardon me." Sun Ye cracked a grin. "This is Qinghe City, and the land your Tailong Building is built upon belongs to Qinghe's jurisdiction. As long as it's within Qinghe's borders, our Qinghe Martial Suppression Bureau has the right to handle criminal cases!"

"Heh, you also said it's a criminal case, but we don't have any criminal cases here. On what grounds do you intend to manage this?" The middle-aged man sneered.

"Whether there is a case or not, we'll know once we go to the top floor." With that, Sun Ye pushed the middle-aged man aside and strode toward the elevator.

"Halt!"

Taking a sidestep, the middle-aged man moved swiftly forward to intercept him again. "Commander Sun, our group's chairman has stated that this matter will be resolved by him personally. The chairman is already on his way and will arrive in Qinghe City in half an hour!"

"It's fine." Sun Ye said indifferently as he walked. "Your esteemed group's chairman is welcome to come; we won't hinder him in pursuing the killer. If he can find the murderer, it will save us a lot of trouble."

"You..." The middle-aged man was fit to burst with anger. He wanted to block him, but was carried along by Sun Ye's momentum straight toward the elevator.

To put it bluntly, he was not the highest person in charge, and his strength was only at the sixth grade—seemingly on par with Sun Ye's realm—but things weren't calculated that way.

Sun Ye was the commander of the Martial Suppression Bureau, and since Tian Huaichao was dead, the Martial Suppression Bureau entering the scene was an inevitable outcome that no one could prevent.

Even if he used force to drive Sun Ye out, it would only draw out an even stronger garrison commander, or quite simply, Li Rinzhou himself.

At that point, the Tailong Group would only find itself in an even weaker position.

Given that Tian Huaichao had already died under mysterious circumstances, if they were to offend the Martial Suppression Bureau on top of that, how could the Tailong Group continue to establish a foothold in Qinghe?

It was precisely by considering this point that the middle-aged man half-heartedly yielded and accompanied Sun Ye to the crime scene.

...

"What do we do?" Watching the group leave, Kong Dabao asked Su Jingxing.

"Of course we go up," his partner replied with a grinning smile. "Didn't you hear Commander Sun say we were invited by them? Since Commander Sun is able to go up, naturally we can go up too!"

"Correct." Su Jingxing chimed in indifferently. "What are you standing there daydreaming for? Let's move."

Saying this, he stepped toward the elevator entrance.

"That's right, let's go!" Kong Dabao's partner clapped his hands, beckoned to Kong Dabao, and quickly followed.

The three of them bypassed the group of black-suited men who were looking at each other in dismay, unsure of what to do, and headed straight for the elevator.

There was nothing wrong with what Kong Dabao's partner had said.

Since Sun Ye had already gone up, the three of Su Jingxing naturally could as well.

Since these thugs hadn't received any orders, it was best for them to stand to the side.

Most importantly, regardless of where the corpses were, it was best to have them cremated first.

In case they turned into corpse puppets, subordinates like them would only be the ones charging at the front and dying the fastest.

Thinking along these lines, the group tacitly cleared a path, allowing the three of Su Jingxing to reach the elevator entrance.

They boarded the elevator and headed straight for the top floor.

Emerging from the elevator shaft, they found themselves in a spacious, flat-floor office.

The very first thing Su Jingxing did was pick up fourteen cards.

Following that, his gaze swept across the entire floor, where he saw corpse after corpse lying on the floor outside the partitions.

These people had not died of poison, but rather had been cut down by weapons.

The speed had been immense, killing them almost instantly with a single blade strike—either slashing across the neck or piercing straight through the heart.

Because of this, fresh blood was sprayed everywhere, and the smell of blood was exceptionally rich.

Inside the doorway at the very end, Sun Ye and a few others were surrounding a corpse, examining it closely.

Su Jingxing cast a distant glance, withdrew his gaze, and cooperated with Kong Dabao and his partner in moving the corpses.

Although Kong Dabao and his partner had guessed wrong, they had gotten one thing right: whatever happened to Tian Huaichao's life or death had zero relation to them.

As employees of the crematorium's corpse collection team, they had only one duty: transport corpses!

Right away, corpse after corpse was placed into body bags. Kong Dabao and his partner formed one team, while Su Jingxing worked as a single-person team. Going up and down, they made several trips, loading all the corpses except for Tian Huaichao's into the transport vehicle.

When they went to move Tian Huaichao's corpse, they were blocked by the middle-aged man, who refused to let it be moved.

In his words, the corpses of the others could be sent off for cremation.

However, Tian Huaichao's corpse could not be touched by anyone.

Since Sun Ye didn't say anything on the side either, Su Jingxing saw this and did not force the issue.

With several sixth-grade figures present at the scene, even if Tian Huaichao were to turn into a corpse puppet, he could be exterminated at a moment's notice.

Naturally, Su Jingxing had no objections to this.

He called out to Kong Dabao and his partner, loaded up more than a dozen corpses, and drove back to the crematorium.

"Hah, I never expected that Tian Huaichao didn't die from poison after all."

On the way back, Kong Dabao remarked with renewed emotion. "The person who killed him was truly formidable. I took a look at the corpse; it seemed Tian Huaichao was taken down with just a single blade strike. And that Tian Huaichao was a fifth-grade expert, yet he was taken down by a single blow—unbelievable."

"What did you expect?"

Kong Dabao's partner responded lazily. "This case was clearly carried out by an acquaintance. Without any precautions, taking down the target with a single stroke is completely normal!"

"Yeah," Kong Dabao sighed. "When an acquaintance makes a move, who could possibly guard against it? It's just like..."

"Watch out!"

Abruptly, Su Jingxing let out a low shout. Sitting in the passenger seat, he swiftly reached out to grab the steering wheel, channeling his true energy outward to wrap around the brakes and stabilize the vehicle's chassis.

"How—"

Bang!

A muffled sound came from outside the vehicle.

Accompanying the sound, the corpse transport vehicle shuddered violently as a tire blew out, the remaining components frictioning against the ground and emitting a harsh screech.

Because Su Jingxing had seized the steering wheel early on, he prevented the driver from panicking and sending the vehicle into a roll; instead, it continued straight along the road before slowly applying the brakes and coming to a steady stop on the asphalt.

Other vehicles following closely behind managed to brake in succession, preventing any traffic accidents.

Before the drivers of those vehicles could vent their anger with curses, figures suddenly surged into the air from both sides of the road—more than a dozen martial artists clad entirely in black garments wrapped from head to toe. Traversing the void, they descended directly onto the roof of the corpse transport vehicle!