During their conversation, a shout came from inside the inn.

"Mr. Shi, Mr. Wu, where are you? Please come out to meet us. Mr. Shi, Mr. Wu..."

More sounds of guest room doors opening followed, as if someone was checking each room in succession.

Soon, the shouting occurred right beneath them.

After the footsteps had receded, Wu Jinliang quietly asked, "Weiying? Impossible! We have no grudges against her, why would she harm us? Tell me the truth, did you take advantage of me being away to grope someone? Don't think I didn't see you touching Xiang Laner all the way, too flirty."

He vividly remembered how the other had run while holding Xiang Laner, the way he held her was simply unbearable to watch. He wanted to switch places and hold her instead, but the other preferred the girl over his friend and disagreed. And yet, the next moment, he had to go and pretend to chase after Xiang Laner for the play—it felt so unfair. Why couldn't he do the chasing? He was so tall and good-looking.

Shi Chun was bewildered, wondering when he had ever touched Xiang Laner, suspecting that Wu was making up stories.

But this wasn't the time to be discussing such matters in hushed tones—he couldn't believe Wu was still concerned with groping women.

If it weren't for the dangerous situation that demanded silence, he would have kicked Wu.

He whispered, "Stop talking nonsense. The man beside Weiying, the scar on his hand, matches the one from the hand that attacked us in the carriage, located in the same spot; it can't be a coincidence."

Hearing this, Wu Jinliang immediately tensed up and tried to get a better look, but Wei Bian had already lowered his hand, making it difficult to see from their angle. He could barely make out the scar, but he wasn't clear—however, he knew that Chun Tian wasn't the type to joke about such matters.

Fearful, Wu whispered, "What do we do now? This is their territory, and they outnumber us, can easily muster more men than us, and they have an endless supply of immobilization charms. We're in trouble. Why is our luck so bad? Everything goes wrong, look at Dong and Da Shitou."

He tugged on Shi Chun's sleeve and pointed at a sloppy old man under the opposite eaves, "Isn't he an expert, can his word be trusted?"

Shi Chun replied, "Who am I supposed to ask? We don't know him at all, he won't share any details or background, and we've never tested him before. Are we supposed to trust our lives to him on the first try? This is Wukang Mountain; Weiying conducts business here as the City Lord. Are you sure he'll intervene? Unless absolutely necessary, we can't count on that old man.

Right now, the priority is to find a way to contact Feng Chi and tell her the truth. They have a strong presence here; they should be able to handle it. The problem is that we don't know where she is or if there's enough time. We need to find the innkeeper; he might know where to find her.

But wait, with all this commotion, unless she's not in the city, the inn side should've informed her by now. She's probably nearby but can't reveal herself. We need to hold on for now; she won't just watch and do nothing, she'll find a way to deal with this."

After thinking it over, Wu Jinliang nodded, "Right, we'll hold our ground and if it really comes down to it, we'll run to that old man and try our luck."

"Mr. Shi, Mr. Wu, where are you? Come out, there's no problem..."

The soul-like calling of the attendant rose again, moving away towards downstairs.

Shortly afterward, the figure of the attendant appeared to the two men, heading to the exterior downstairs.

The attendant gave a helpless smile to the shopkeeper and others, saying, "I've searched everywhere, they're not here, I don't know where they went."

The shopkeeper was speechless, questioning, "Did you check everywhere?"

The attendant assured with absolute certainty, "I've checked all over, top to bottom; they're really not here."

No matter what Weiying and the others might believe, they wouldn't simply take the attendant's word for it—that would be too easy.

Weiying glanced coldly towards Wei Bian.

Understanding the cue, Wei Bian immediately waved his hand and commanded, "Search!"

A group of Wukang Mountain disciples rushed into the inn's main gate, spreading out to search the area.

"This, this..." the shopkeeper spread his hands, unsure of what to do and could only watch helplessly.

The situation seemed to be taking an unexpected turn, and the nearby spectators found this increasingly intriguing, not taking the mild disturbance seriously.

The slender man in green robes on the roof tilted his head towards Feng Chi, seemingly also wanting to ask, "What's going on?"

Feng Chi was frowning, muttering, "Not here? Did they climb out the window from the back? Self-defense killing, why run?"

It was a widely accepted rule; even if it was a divine law, as long as the terms were clear, there would be no punishment for self-defense killings—it was a basic principle of justice.

Seeing the crowd's movement below, Shi Chun nudged Wu Jinliang, and they retreated from the corner of the rooftop.

Wu Jinliang quickly followed.

As they moved away from the hole in the roof and slid down to the ground, their bare feet brushed against each other's, stirring up the rarely cleaned gathered dust, ensuring that their footprints wouldn't be left on the ground.

The oil lamp in the corridor was dim, and footsteps below hurried.

Both men crouched halfway, squatting on the corridor floor, straining their ears to the movements downstairs.

Listening to the footsteps below and identifying the pattern of room entry, Shi Chun whispered to Wu Jinliang, "The old way, let's gamble! If we can't make it, we have two choices: one is to bust through the wall and head to the old man's place to try our luck, the other is still busting through the wall, but heading to the neighboring house."

He pointed to the oil lamp on the wall, "We can set a fire, just run and burn, the bigger the fire the better, no matter whose house it is, the more we burn, the better. It'll create more chaos, and it'll signal our location to the Demon Path. They'll have to act during the confusion. I don't believe they would just sit by after we've stirred up trouble and started fighting for our lives. They might not realize how serious things are yet; we need to force their hand."

No matter the outcome, he was clearly prepared to face failure.

Wu Jinliang nodded, "Okay."

Shi Chun then pulled out a short blade from his sleeve, pointed to the corner room on that floor, and calmly added, "Get to work!"

He didn't care whether the dagger had just been used to stab someone; as soon as he finished speaking, he clenched it in his mouth.

Wu Jinliang quickly got up and stealthily made his way to the corner room. He applied a spell to quietly open the door, checked inside to confirm it was clear, and then peeked out from the doorway to give an 'all-clear' gesture.

Shi Chun quickly removed his clothes and used the clean part to wipe off the dust brought down from the ceiling. He then quickly tiptoed into the corner room.

As the two softly closed the door, several people had already rushed up the stairs, each ferociously bursting into every guest room to search.

A leading figure arrived and immediately focused on the ceiling, shouting, "Send two people up to check."

Immediately, a couple of individuals opened the ceiling panel, continuously entering and using the Sandal Gold illumination to search the space where they had to bend to fit.

It wasn't long before one of them barged into the room where Shi Chun and his companion were hiding, vehemently pushing open the door and charging inside.

However, just as he stepped in, a short blade moved like a dragonfly touching water, landing on his head swiftly before plunging deep.

The man had never imagined that within these walls, inside Lankang City, in this very inn, someone would dare to brazenly assassinate him.

His eyes widened, his mouth opened, though no sound could escape. Trembling, he was swiftly silenced by a hand covering his mouth as Shi Chun used the man's shoulder as leverage to land quietly.

Wu Jinliang, who had come up next to the bed, gently reached out to catch the Sandal Gold illumination that fell from the man's hand.

Quickly, they dragged the body next to the bed, and Wu Jinliang hastily pulled over a blanket to cover the man's head, during which Shi Chun silently withdrew his blade, quickly stripping the man of his Wukang Mountain disciple's uniform and donning it himself.

"No."

"Nothing here either."

"Didn't find anything."

Voices responded one after another from the hallway.

Soon after, the leader once again came down the corridor, peering into the room, and asked, "How is it?"

With his back facing him, lying down as though he was earnestly inspecting with the Sandal Gold illumination, Shi Chun replied, "Nothing here either."

In reality, Wu Jinliang was lying under the bed, with the corpse wrapped in a blanket beside him.

Truly, as Shi Chun had said, this was indeed a risky gamble, with high chances of failure.

Fortunately, the leader just took a glance, disregarded Shi Chun's voice, and walked away.

Shi Chun quickly got up, grabbed the glow of the Sandalwood Gold, and moved to the door to listen carefully to the noise outside.

Soon after, someone shouted from the other side of the corridor, "There seem to be traces of someone on this ceiling, not sure if they are old or left by those two."

The leader's voice responded, "No matter what traces they are, I just want to know if there's anyone up there?"

The other replied, "No, there's no one, we three checked back and forth, definitely empty, no places to hide anyone."

"Really, after all this time, the person has surely long gone."

An uninformed person grumbled.

"Just do what you're told, no need for all this nonsense, let's go."

Soon, sounds of people descending the stairs filled the area.

Shi Chun peered out into the corridor from the door, then slipped back next to the bed and whispered, "You wait here, I'll go up and check."

Wu Jinliang hummed in response.

Shi Chun immediately slipped out of the room and once again pried open the ceiling panel to climb up, returning to his original spot to peek below.

The searching party, some inside the inn's lobby looking around and some following out the door, failed to realize that one of their comrades was missing.

The leading figure approached Bian Weiyin and saluted, then spoke to Wei Bian, "We've searched thoroughly, everywhere from top to bottom, even applied magic to the ground and didn't spare the pillars and beams, there's no one, the person is definitely not here."

Wei Bian quickly turned his head to look at a man who had previously climbed onto a carriage, who awkwardly said, "I indeed didn't see anyone come out."

Even the inn's shopkeeper and the staff couldn't help but exchange covert glances, puzzled. The person really disappeared? Didn't see anyone leave, where could they have gone?

The thin man in green clothes on the roof and Feng Chi, wrapped in a cloak, also found it odd. According to the response from the shopkeeper, the person should still be inside the inn.

Bian Weiyin smiled, turned her head to look at the Anle Inn sign, "That's really strange indeed, either you are all blind or there's a ghost in this building."

She didn't avoid the rain, and though it was light, over time, she too became wet.

She turned her head towards the inn's shopkeeper, giving a half-smile that left him quite helpless, unsure how to explain.

Wei Bian was fierce in his words, "City Lord, I'll lead them to search thoroughly once more!"

He was very aware that once the assassin Liu died, having seen those two murderers escape into the inn, he had immediately instructed his men to watch the inn closely, waiting for the City Lord's next decision. He still trusted his men.

Bian Weiyin did not stop him.

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