9: Chapter 9 The Hidden Powerhouse!

Usually, no one bothered Li Yuan; he handled these matters by himself.

But today, there was a Jin countryman's corpse on Li Yuan's wooden cart.

Corpse collection was strictly for the soldiers of their own nation. What was the situation with dragging back a Jin corpse?

At the pass, the corporal in charge of the gate immediately came forward to question him.

"Corporal Xu, look, isn't this person a bit strange? When I went to collect bodies, I saw this Jin man fighting with someone in black."

"The fight between the two was terrifying; even standing half a mile away, I felt I was in danger."

"In the end, this Jin man was beaten to death. Seeing that he was no ordinary person, I thought I'd drag him back..."

Hearing this, Corporal Xu immediately let him through and went to report to his superiors.

Soon, a lieutenant from City Lord Liu's side came jogging over.

After rummaging through the Jin assassin Jiang Qian's body and finding an identity token, he left excitedly.

Shortly after, Liu Shengyong of Yingyang Pass arrived.

Accompanying him was the sentry who had survived that night.

"Yes, it's him!"

"Although I couldn't see his face, I remember his build very clearly!"

"Also, there's a scar on his palm!"

Hearing this, City Lord Liu hurriedly stepped forward.

Not on the left palm, the right palm...

Sure enough, on the right palm, there was a very obvious old wound from a sharp blade; the scar was extremely prominent.

In other words, the dead man before them was that Jin assassin who had left absolutely no trace!

"Good, good, good!" City Lord Liu said excitedly, repeating the word three times.

Then he began to ask about the source of the corpse, and the conversation naturally fell upon Li Yuan.

"You, young man—aren't you the one I brought out from the City Lord's Manor?"

City Lord Liu asked with a hint of doubt; he had actually somewhat forgotten.

There were over forty thousand soldiers in the frontline military camp; he only had a slight impression.

Li Yuan gave a military salute to the City Lord: "Thank you for your concern, City Lord. This lowly one was previously a handyman at the City Lord's Manor. It was thanks to the City Lord's appreciation that I was allowed to become a Corpse Collector."

Hearing this, City Lord Liu nodded with satisfaction.

Li Yuan's words gave him a secret sense of gratification.

It was the smug feeling of having a Wisdom Eye and being able to recognize talent at a glance.

"You know how to adapt. You're a bright young man; you'll have a future."

After a few words of praise, City Lord Liu continued to probe into the circumstances.

How was he able to drag this corpse back?

Li Yuan described the encounter between himself and the assassin, only he omitted his own involvement.

He replaced himself with an expert who had concealed his appearance and figure.

Listening to Li Yuan's description, City Lord Liu's expression became increasingly serious.

He believed Li Yuan's words; without seeing it with one's own eyes, it would be difficult to point out such details.

However, if these were true, then the person who took action was at least a Seventh-Grade expert!

And a Seventh-Grade expert who was extremely skilled in movement techniques at that.

This Jin assassin had used his movement techniques solely to flee for his life, and even he, Liu Shengyong, couldn't stop him.

Liu Shengyong looked left and right; there were only four Seventh-Grade experts in the entire military camp.

And that was including himself.

If it were an expert from the army or a powerhouse from Yingyang Pass, there would be no need to hide.

Liu Shengyong frowned deeply. Seeing this, the lieutenant beside him quickly spoke up.

"City Lord, this person likely bears no ill will."

"He simply doesn't want us to uncover his identity. You needn't worry too much."

Hearing this, Liu Shengyong shook his head slightly.

The lieutenant had not pointed out the thing he was truly worried about.

"Jiu Xing, Junior Brother, do you think this person could be related to the matter of the Magical Artifact testing at Heaven-Grade Ninth Rank that day..."

The lieutenant called Jiu Xing was stunned for a moment upon hearing this.

"Wasn't the one who tested with Heaven-Grade Ninth Rank talent the Second Young Master? Why..."

Halfway through his sentence, he immediately realized.

He gestured for the others to leave first, so he and the City Lord could take another look here.

With no outsiders present, City Lord Liu spoke more directly.

"That child Weihe—I've had him go for testing several times these past few days, and he couldn't even Breakthrough to Heaven-Grade, let alone Heaven-Grade Ninth Rank."

"Dragons beget Dragons and Phoenixes beget Phoenixes. If that child had an Earth-Grade Eighth or Ninth Rank martial talent, I would believe it."

"But Heaven-Grade Ninth Rank... even though I am his father, I still don't believe it in my heart..."

Hearing his City Lord say this, Lieutenant Wang Jiuxing did not respond.

He felt much the same in his heart and was very skeptical about it.

But after all, it was the City Lord's Second Young Master who had personally claimed in front of everyone that he had received the Heaven-Grade Ninth Rank evaluation.

No matter how much he doubted, he forced himself to believe it was true.

He hadn't expected that now Liu Weihe's own father, City Lord Liu, would doubt his son.

"I previously guessed that the Magical Artifact had made an error."

"But with this assassin being slain today, I feel that in our vicinity, there might truly be an expert—and a young one at that!"

City Lord Liu continued to voice his thoughts.

The lieutenant on the side, Wang Jiuxing, pondered for a moment but still shook his head.

"City Lord, these two matters aren't necessarily related."

"Weihe is a child of extraordinary talent. What if that Heaven-Grade Ninth Rank evaluation that appeared that day really was him?"

"We still need to give him some confidence. The people from Qianqiu Mountain will be coming in a while."

"If even we don't believe in the child, Qianqiu Mountain will only have more doubts."

Lieutenant Wang Jiuxing was very socially adept.

City Lord Liu could say his child wasn't good, but he couldn't be so foolish as to join in and doubt Liu Weihe.

The most appropriate course of action was to turn it around and instead claim that City Lord Liu was underestimating his own child.

Wang Jiuxing's approach was very fitting; judging by the result, City Lord Liu approved of him even more.

However, even though they spoke this way, they each had their own guesses about the actual facts in their hearts.

In this Yingyang Pass, there was definitely a powerhouse present.

From the looks of it now, this powerhouse was a friend.

By helping to eliminate this troublesome assassin, Yingyang Pass could return to its previous state of confrontation.

City Lord Liu was still very happy with this outcome.

Giving up occupied territory and retreating was something that would severely damage his prestige.

In the Dashun Imperial Court, there would certainly be people accusing him of poor military leadership.

By pushing the front line forward again, he could rebut all those accusations.

"Junior Brother Jiu Xing, why do you think this person wants to hide their identity?"

"Having performed such a great service for Yingyang Pass, they would surely not lack rewards."

"Who has a grudge against rewards and is unwilling to take them?"

The two talked, but for a time they couldn't think of a reason, so the matter could only be set aside for now.

Returning to his quarters, City Lord Liu thought through several possible candidates.

For instance, those two Eighth-Grade Enshrined Experts in the army.

Eighth-Grade strength already belonged to those who held the sharpest edge in this world.

If they had acted and happened to encounter him, it was possible to resolve this assassin.

However, City Lord Liu knew that these two Enshrined Experts had been resting in Yingyang Pass.

Without an imperial decree or him, the City Lord, personally going to plead, the two Enshrined Experts never took action.

For so many years, no matter how difficult the situation, this had never changed.

To put it bluntly, these two Enshrined Experts didn't care about the situation on the front line at all.

They were merely fulfilling their duties to a minimal extent.