Free Web NovelChapter 429: Chapter 166: Assassination, the Might of the Divination Skill
Shen Bai smiled. "So you’re spineless. I like your type. It makes finding clues easier."
He snapped his fingers.
The poison in the woman’s body receded slightly, but the pain remained excruciating. It was just enough for her to be able to speak.
Shen Bai crouched down and yanked the black veil from the woman’s face.
Beneath the veil was a beautiful face, but her delicate features were twisted in agony, giving her a somewhat grotesque expression.
Shen Bai grabbed the woman’s hair with his other hand and shoved her face into the ground, burying her right cheek in the dirt. "Talk. Who sent you to deal with me? I’m still some distance from Nanxing Prefecture, and already an assassin is trying to kill me. It seems this Nanxing Prefecture is quite interesting."
Pinned by Shen Bai, the woman got a mouthful of dirt. Her once-delicate, beautiful face was now smeared with mud.
She felt the hand gripping her hair tighten and continued to plead, "I don’t know! I’m just a drifter in the Jianghu, taking odd jobs to get by. This time, a masked man found me. He said a young man carrying a Longsword would be arriving in Nanxing Prefecture and told me to get ready ahead of time."
"He even gave me a portrait, but I don’t know who he was! Spare me, please! I was wrong!"
The woman struggled for a moment, but it was useless. She began pleading for mercy once again.
Expressionless, Shen Bai reached into the woman’s ample bosom. After fumbling around for a moment, he pulled out a portrait.
The man in the portrait was a near-perfect likeness of him.
"This Official Posthouse is completely empty, and it looks like there was a fight. Why?"
Shen Bai asked.
Although he had the Divination Divine Power, it was only at Level 3, so there was still some information Shen Bai had to ask for himself.
He could only use his Divination Skill to uncover clues when he truly had no other leads.
Hearing Shen Bai’s question, the woman didn’t even seem to care that he had just pulled the portrait from her chest. She answered hurriedly, "He said he had a way to lure all the officials away from the posthouse. A short while ago, a group of men in black showed up and caused a scene, drawing all the officials away."
The officials at the posthouse served not only as hosts but also as guards. With them lured away, the place was of course empty.
As the woman finished speaking, Shen Bai stroked his chin. ’An outline of the situation is starting to form.’
’Luring away the posthouse staff requires a significant force. They have that kind of power, yet they didn’t come after me themselves. It means they don’t want to reveal their identity, which is why they sent a Jianghu drifter to attack me.’
’In that case, it’s unlikely that Demonic Forces are the ones trying to kill me,’ Shen Bai thought.
’If it were Demonic Forces, they would have no need to be so covert.’
Shen Bai reckoned it was likely connected to one of the local powers in Nanxing Prefecture.
When the woman saw Shen Bai remain silent, she felt the hand on her head press down harder and harder. The fear in her heart magnified.
She struggled to turn her head to face Shen Bai. "Please, let me go! If I’d known what kind of job this was, I never would have accepted it! This is all a misunderstanding. I’ll give you all my money! Also, I can spend the night with you. You can see I’m not bad looking. I promise I’ll make you very happy."
The tear stains on her face, combined with her delicate features and petite figure, could easily sway any man.
’Holding a woman like this for a wild night would surely be incredible.’
But Shen Bai simply revealed a faint smile.
The moment she saw that smile, a bone-deep chill shot through the woman’s heart.
She opened her mouth, about to say something.
But in the next instant, her vision blurred.
A sharp pain flared in her chest.
Shen Bai’s Cold Moon had pierced her heart from behind. A crimson Sword Qi erupted inside her, shredding her organs to pulp.
In a flash, the woman’s life was extinguished. She collapsed, nothing more than a corpse.
Shen Bai stood up as Cold Moon returned to its scabbard. He then began making hand signs again, casting his Divination Divine Power.
A moment later, an invisible thread once again connected him to Nanxing Prefecture.
It was clear: this was the work of a power in Nanxing Prefecture.
"Let’s go. We’re heading to Nanxing Prefecture," Shen Bai said, turning his head.
The driver had kept his head down, staring at the ground, knowing full well that some things are not meant to be seen. He only looked up when Shen Bai spoke. "Lord Shen, I’ll go bring the carriage over."
"No need."
Shen Bai flicked his sleeves, clasped his hands behind his back, and began walking toward the Official Posthouse.
The driver watched Shen Bai’s retreating figure and followed silently. Soon, they were out of the dense forest.
「 」
As a Prefecture-level City, Nanxing Prefecture should have been a place of bustling prosperity.
Recently, however, the Jianghu of Nanxing Prefecture had become a whirlpool with a treacherous undercurrent.
The reason was that a short time ago, the Prefecture Chief of Nanxing Prefecture had been personally beheaded by the Yin General Department.
Right now, that very head was hanging high on the Observatory’s building in Xuanjing City, serving as a deterrent to the other members.
Although the Observatory was still functioning without its Prefecture Chief, many other powers had already begun to hatch their own schemes.
On this day, Nanxing Prefecture seemed the same as ever. The common folk, oblivious to the roiling undercurrents, went about their lives, just trying to get by.
A carriage approaching the city gate was stopped by the soldiers on duty.
Recently, due to the Prefecture Chief’s execution and the Observatory being left leaderless, the Government Office had stationed guards at the city gates to enforce stricter security.
