131: Chapter 131 This is... Ishimura?

“Yeah, killing a few lackeys is easy, but once the trail goes cold, those kidnapped refugees will truly have no place to be buried.”

“But... even if you have a point, there's no need to press so close, is there?”

Ouyang Wanqing bit her red lips, feeling the waves of tingling heat by her ear and the burning sensation from the large hand on her waist.

In her entire life, she had never had such an overstepping, intimate contact with any man.

The usually dignified daughter of the Prime Minister's Mansion felt her mouth go dry and her throat parched, and even the True Qi in her Xuanguan Eleven Apertures became somewhat turbulent.

She turned her head away stiffly and muttered in a voice as thin as a mosquito's wing, yet laced with gritted teeth: “I get it... let me go first!”

Seeing that this little lady had finally behaved, Chen Shanzhi quit while he was ahead.

He naturally released his hand from Ouyang Wanqing's waist, not forgetting to give a secret squeeze to that startling softness and resilience.

Tsk, the food at the Prime Minister's Mansion really is good.

Ouyang Wanqing glared at him with her beautiful eyes, but in this situation, she could only swallow her anger and return to peering through the gap in the roof tiles.

At this moment, there was movement in the courtyard.

The three men crouching on the ground immediately extinguished their tobacco when they saw Zhang Qing push the door open and enter.

Like pugs seeing a bone, they greeted him with faces full of smiles.

“Master Zhang, you’ve finally arrived!” The leader, a man with a scarred face, cupped his hands respectfully.

On Zhang Qing's ordinary face, there was now an extremely arrogant expression.

He didn't even look at the three men directly, merely glancing at the two huge hemp sacks on the ground.

“You only caught this many this time?”

Zhang Qing frowned, his tone clearly showing displeasure. “Just two sacks? How many people in total?”

Scarface quickly forced a smile and gestured with his hand:

“In response to Master Zhang, there are six in total. Four sturdy men and two young ones under ten years old.”

“Six?”

Zhang Qing gave a cold snort and kicked a broken brick near his foot:

“You bastards, are you treating the Grand Elder's orders as a joke?

The higher-ups want quantity! Are you trying to brush off beggars with this pittance?!”

Scarface shrunk his neck in fear and complained with a bitter face:

“Master Zhang, please calm down! It’s not that the brothers aren't working hard!”

“Although there are many people in the Refugee Area, most of them are old, weak, sick, or disabled.

There were already few ‘top-grade livestock’ that meet the Grand Elder's requirements.

During this time, we brothers have been working day and night, and we’ve already caught nearly a hundred people!”

“Now, anyone who is physically intact doesn't even dare to step out at night.

People who meet the standards are truly getting harder and harder to find!”

Hearing this, Chen Shanzhi and Ouyang Wanqing on the roof both inhaled a sharp breath of cold air.

Over a hundred people?

In this seemingly peaceful outskirts of the capital, there were actually over a hundred lives—

Treated like livestock by this gang and quietly thrown into some shady project!

After hearing Scarface's explanation, although Zhang Qing's face remained grim, he knew the other party was telling the truth.

“Fine, don't pour out your grievances to me.”

Zhang Qing waved his hand impatiently. “That side has reached a critical moment; there is no room for the slightest mistake.

You guys keep a close eye on this Refugee Area for me!

Even if you have to dig three feet into the ground, you must find those hiding laborers for me!”

“Yes, yes, yes! Rest assured, Master Zhang, the brothers will definitely put in every ounce of effort!”

Scarface nodded like a chicken pecking at grain while pulling several thick banknotes from his chest with great discernment.

He stuffed the banknotes into Zhang Qing's hand with a fawning face and lowered his voice:

“Master Zhang, you are often by the Grand Elder's side and have worked hard.

Keep this bit of tea money to buy some wine.

I hope Master Zhang can put in a few good words for us brothers before the Grand Elder. Once the great cause is accomplished...”

“That can be arranged.”

Zhang Qing expertly tucked the banknotes into his sleeve, a sliver of a smile finally appearing on his cold face.

“As long as you handle the job well, the Grand Elder naturally won't mistreat you.”

With that, Zhang Qing spoke no more. He walked to the center of the courtyard and reached out with both hands.

“Hah!”

True Qi from his Xuan Guan Ten Apertures erupted as he took one sack in each hand.

He lifted the two massive hemp sacks, filled with living people and weighing hundreds of pounds, with extreme ease!

Then, Zhang Qing's legs kicked off the ground forcefully.

With a *whoosh*.

Like an arrow leaving a bow, he vaulted directly over the courtyard wall and sprinted toward the wilderness behind the Refugee Area.

“Let's go.”

Chen Shanzhi didn't hesitate for a moment and signaled Ouyang Wanqing to follow.

But in that brief moment as he left the roof.

Chen Shanzhi's eyes narrowed, a sharp light flashing in his deep pupils like a precision recording device.

He etched the facial contours and physical characteristics of the three men in the courtyard—even the direction of the scar on the leader's face—firmly into his mind.

In his eyes, these three were already dead men.

...

Two extremely stealthy figures, like ghosts in the night, trailed closely behind Zhang Qing.

Zhang Qing carried the two large hemp sacks without slowing down at all.

Before long, he had completely crossed the Refugee Area and arrived at a desolate mass grave site where weeds grew waist-high.

This was already a lawless, uninhabited wasteland.

Zhang Qing familiarly ducked into a dense poplar forest.

Chen Shanzhi and Ouyang Wanqing hid in the treetops, looking down from above.

They saw Zhang Qing walk deep into the woods and lift a layer of camouflaged withered branches.

He actually pulled out a pre-prepared, pitch-black, spacious carriage from within!

The wheels of this carriage were even wrapped in several thick layers of rags, clearly for shock absorption and noise reduction; his planning was meticulous.

“Thump, thump.”

Zhang Qing roughly threw the two heavy hemp sacks into the carriage and then jumped onto the driver's seat.

“Giddy-up!”

A low shout.

Zhang Qing shook the reins hard. The horse pulling the carriage felt the pain and broke into a gallop, pulling the black carriage under the cover of night.

It sped along an extremely secluded dirt road toward a destination further from the capital.

“This old fox prepared quite thoroughly.”

Chen Shanzhi sneered and unfolded his body. “Follow the carriage and see exactly whose threshold he's visiting!”

The night wind howled as Chen Shanzhi and Ouyang Wanqing pushed their movement techniques to the limit.

Fortunately, the carriage was carrying a heavy load, so its speed wasn't too fast.

Though the two had no mounts, relying on their extremely long-lasting True Qi reserves...

They managed to stay fixed several hundred paces behind the carriage on foot.

They ran for a full two hours!

They had sprinted for a good forty or fifty li!

Even Ouyang Wanqing, with her Xuanguan Eleven Apertures, now had a layer of fine sweat on her fair forehead, and her breathing was slightly labored.

She glanced at Chen Shanzhi beside her.

She was shocked to find that this playboy scion, who only had the Xuanguan Nine Apertures, not only remained calm and steady, but even the rhythm of his breathing hadn't been disrupted at all!

The True Qi in his body was like a boundless ocean; could it be even more profound than hers?

What kind of Heaven And Earth Treasure did the Zhenguo Marquis Mansion give him?

While Ouyang Wanqing was secretly alarmed...

The dirt road ahead suddenly began to widen.

A night breeze mixed with a bit of moisture blew past.

By the gradually brightening moonlight, at the end of the horizon, a small cluster of undulating shadows appeared.

It was the silhouette of a village!

“We’ve reached the destination.”

Chen Shanzhi's gaze sharpened, and his pace gradually slowed.

The two silently made their way to a high slope on the outskirts of the village.

Ahead, Zhang Qing had already reined in the carriage.

Chen Shanzhi crouched in the waist-high grass, squinting through the night.

He carefully observed the village before him, which exuded an indescribable, deathly eeriness.

“This village...”

Chen Shanzhi's brow furrowed sharply.

For some reason, looking at those scattered adobe houses at the village entrance, he felt an extremely strong... sense of familiarity!

“It looks too familiar!”

Chen Shanzhi's brain began to work frantically, and countless CG maps and scenes from the adult game he played in his past life flashed through his memory.

He narrowed his eyes, his gaze following the dirt road flattened by carriage wheels into the village.

Finally, his gaze fixed on a weathered, moss-covered stone tablet at the village entrance.

By the moonlight, two powerful yet eerie characters on the tablet, filled with Death Qi, burst into Chen Shanzhi's vision!

[Shi Village]

Boom!

The moment he saw those two characters, Chen Shanzhi's pupils suddenly contracted, and it felt as if a thunderclap had exploded in his mind!

Shi Village!

It’s actually here?

“Chen Shanzhi, should we sneak in and rescue the people?”

Beside him, Ouyang Wanqing hadn't noticed Chen Shanzhi's abnormality.

Seeing Zhang Qing about to drive the carriage into the village, she gripped her sword hilt and spoke in a low voice.

She was just about to stand up.

“Don't move!”

Chen Shanzhi suddenly turned his head, his hand like cast iron, roughly and firmly pinning Ouyang Wanqing back into the grass!

“No! We absolutely cannot enter this place!”

Chen Shanzhi lowered his voice, but his tone carried an unprecedented gravity as he stared intently at that stone tablet.

At this moment, a layer of cold sweat even broke out on his back!