Xuanqing Guard

Chapter 292: Chapter 292: The Slip

November 30th.

Mid-3 a.m., clouds shrouded the moon.

Inside Five Rams City, it was the quietest time; after mid-3 a.m., the city would slowly begin to "wake." Some early risers would get up to start their day.

But fifty miles east, outside the city, there lay a grove of red leaf woods that rarely saw visitors, especially at this hour.

Yet today, human shadows flickered through the forest; even without lights, they could still be vaguely discerned.

The cargo was escorted by Zhang Lie, accompanied by dozens of others—most were Xuanqing Guard secret agents. Nowadays, those agents no longer had that thick military air; instead, they carried the fierce and unruly look of Black Market thugs.

Suddenly, a figure ran over from a distance, entering the woods and heading straight for Zhang Lie.

"Did you see anyone?"

"No, nothing moving on either the main road or the shortcut."

"Boss Zhang, you think they’re not going to screw us, right?"

Before Zhang Lie could answer, someone beside him curled his lip and snapped back, "Screw us my ass! We already paid seventy percent of the silver; if they try to screw us on this run, we’d make a bloody profit! Wishful thinking."

He waved his hand, and his men instantly fell silent. Zhang Lie’s gaze sharpened like a blade. "Enough. They’re here."

"They’re here?"

The men around him looked about nervously, finally noticing—aligned with Zhang Lie’s line of sight—three dark figures leaping from treetop to treetop.

"Clang!"

The sound of weapons being drawn. This was sixty-one wagons of grain; whoever came to pick up the goods should’ve been a convoy, not three people jumping from trees. So everyone instantly treated the newcomers as potential enemies and guarded themselves.

But Zhang Lie, with his cultivation, just shook his head: "Stay alert, but it’s only Ma San."

Sure enough, after a dozen breaths, the three figures entered the red leaf woods. As they drew closer, everyone finally saw their faces clearly. The lead was indeed Ma San—though he looked hunched, sickly this time.

Following Ma San were two others, whose cultivation didn’t seem weak—at least, Zhang Lie sensed they weren’t beneath him. There was even an odd feeling of déjà vu about them.

"Ha, Brother Zhang, didn’t expect you to escort this yourself. Looks like I’m late." Ma San looked sickly, but spoke with robust energy, laughing as he greeted them.

"Not late. Where’s the receipt?" freёweɓnovel.com

"Right here. The cargo’s on those wagons, isn’t it?" Ma San produced the receipt Scar had given him after seventy percent silver was paid, and as he passed it over, pointed to the covered wagons stopped in the woods behind Zhang Lie.

"Yeah, you can inspect the goods. If all’s good, we’ll handle the transfer."

"Sure."

Ma San waved his hand, and the two behind him silently moved forward, checking each wagon, tossing aside straw cover to inspect what lay beneath.

The wagons were piled with large bags of grain. The two couldn’t check every sack, but they drew out one from each wagon to examine quality. All were around two-year-old grain, decently stored, not moldy or spoiled—edible.

"No issues with the grain. Here’s the rest of the silver notes, Brother Zhang, count them over." Seeing the inspection done and getting a nod from his men, Ma San pulled out a stack of silver notes and handed them to Zhang Lie.

But Zhang Lie didn’t take them, instead asked, "I said I’m not covering transportation, right?"

"Heh, that’s true, Brother Zhang, you did say that. That’s why I brought people."

"Good." Only then did Zhang Lie accept the payment, and he told Ma San, "Move fast. Once you’re unloaded, I’ll be taking my wagons back."

"Of course." Ma San waved his hand. Now that payment was settled, the cargo was theirs.

The dozen or so men at the wagons stepped away, watching Ma San’s two men begin unloading the goods.

"What’s that...?"

"Just storage bags, Brother Zhang, nothing to be surprised about."

Zhang Lie gave a deep look at the two men who kept unloading the grain into storage bags nonstop, shock in his heart. Storage bags—for bulk grain transport?!

This was a first for him.

Ordinary storage bags, like the one Shen Hao carried, were about ten square yards. Larger bags were exponentially more valuable. Things with such limited capacity weren’t usually used for big cargo transport—convenient, but the cost was way too high. Taking this instance, to pack sixty-one wagons’ worth of grain into storage bags, you’d need at least twenty-plus bags of ten-square-yard size.

It was like using a pure gold box for chaff—totally not worth it. If any mishap occurred, the storage bags would all be lost. The risk and reward were far from balanced.

Sure enough, Zhang Lie watched as the two men swapped out a total of twenty-four storage bags, each a little smaller than ten square yards, but not by much. They were all uniformly sized—only the last held less, the rest packed full.

"Let’s go!" Seeing the goods unloaded, Zhang Lie nodded at Ma San, waved his hand, and his men began driving the wagons out of the woods.

At the same time, Ma San cupped his hands at Zhang Lie, led his two men—lugging twenty-something storage bags—quickly away along the path they’d come. They dared not linger, unsure if seeing so many storage bags would tempt Zhang Lie to go for a double-cross. Naturally, they slipped out fast.

Zhang Lie didn’t leave with his men, but went straight back to Five Rams City, where Flying Dragon was waiting sleeplessly for news.

"How did it go?"

"The goods were taken. Just three people, and they used storage bags."

"Huh? Storage bags? That big?!"

"They packed twenty-four in total."

"What...these guys must be nuts? Where’d they get so many storage bags?"

"No idea. But the two who came with Ma San gave me a strange feeling—almost familiar."

At that, Flying Dragon’s countenance changed, and he asked deeply, "You’ve seen them? They didn’t recognize you, did they?" That’d be trouble.

"Not their faces, just the feeling. Like those two were a lot like I used to be."

"Used to be..." Flying Dragon muttered, then wisely fell silent. He had no interest in Zhang Lie’s past.

Then Zhang Lie wrote down all the details and his sense of Ma San’s two companions onto a note, dispatched it through secret channels to Ghost Gate, who would pass it to Wang Jian, and Wang Jian would report it to Shen Hao.

Because the situation was urgent, even if the note would be relayed several times, the reporting speed was still fast. By mid-7 a.m., the memo reached Fengri City Thousand Households Station, where Shen Hao, stern-faced, read it rapidly and sent an urgent report to Jingxi Town Governor’s Office requesting support.

That afternoon, spies were placed around every Teleportation Array in Jingxi. All of them memorized Ma San and his companions’ faces, carrying detection-type magical artifacts to closely monitor anyone entering or leaving, watching for artifact fluctuations.

Not just Jingxi—even further south, in Hai Xia, the spies locked the arrays down as well.

But all the way until December 3rd—full three days—there was no sign at all.

Ma San’s party of three seemed to have vanished into thin air.