Chapter 1375: Troublesome Interference

Chapter 1360: The Trouble with Disruption

He Lingchuan stopped abruptly. "Deserving of death?"

Dong Rui nearly ran into his back. "I was just repeating it, repeating it! Oh, and the men in black wore masks, had black smoke rising from them, and smelled of smoke and char. Don't you think they're very similar to...?"

Black clothes, masks, black smoke, and slogans about delivering justice on behalf of heaven. Heh.

"Similar to what, a pile of crap?!" He Lingchuan retorted, his face stern. "How are they similar?!"

When the Black-Armored Leader takes action, has there ever been a smell of char?! Where did these pathetic knock-offs come from? If they want to imitate him, couldn't they at least put in some effort and make a high-quality replica?

"Where are we going now?" Dong Rui asked, following him. "Are you confident you can find Qian Yu and those fakes?"

"Not at all," He Lingchuan replied without turning. "I haven't even been to the scene; how would I know how to track them?"

A murder in broad daylight on a busy street, tsk tsk. The scene would have been trampled by onlookers long ago; any real clues would have been destroyed.

"Oh, right," Dong Rui suddenly remembered the main point. "Did these guys just steal our thunder before we even made a move?"

They had come to Shuangtian specifically for Qian Yu, tracking him for ten hours, only for their target to be violently abducted by cheap imitators of the Black-Armored Army. What kind of situation was this?

"No," He Lingchuan finally turned to glance at him. "It's already done."

"Huh?" Dong Rui was startled, then relieved. "You already made your move?"

"Yes." Last night, He Lingchuan had instructed the Nightmare to infiltrate Qian Yu's dreams and extract a lot of information. Qian Yu himself was not a general or high-ranking official of the Yao Kingdom, so he lacked elemental energy to protect himself. Furthermore, Dong Rui's bat demon puppet had removed his Mind-Purifying Talisman, making it difficult for him to resist the Nightmare's invasion. It could be said that their mission to Shuangxi was already complete.

"Then where are you rushing off to?" Dong Rui was puzzled. "Our business is done. What do we care if the target lives or dies?"

Now that the information was obtained, what did Qian Yu's life or death have to do with them? Dong Rui didn't ask how He Lingchuan had managed it. The man always had strange abilities, and Dong Rui had grown accustomed to them. Besides, who didn't have their little secrets? Dong Rui certainly did.

"How is it irrelevant to us?" He Lingchuan's face darkened, clearly displeased. "Abducting someone in broad daylight is simple and crude. Do you think we couldn't do it?"

"Uh, it would be effortless," Dong Rui admitted. If two men in black could abduct Qian Yu, it would be even easier for him and He Lingchuan.

Qian Yu's work was important, but ultimately, he was just an accountant. If he died, someone else would take over. And hadn't he been handling audits perfectly for years without incident? That's why Xue Zongwu had only assigned him regular guards.

"Then why would I go to such lengths, extracting information without letting Qian Yu know?" The Nightmare's ability, besides killing in dreams, was to gather information in a dream and still allow the person to wake up completely unaware. Qian Yu had no memory of leaking secrets last night.

"Afraid of alerting the enemy?" Dong Rui finished, then realized it himself, muttering "Damn it!" The two of them had been so careful precisely because they didn't want Qian Yu to notice anything unusual, which would alert Xue Zongwu.

Xue Zongwu was about to return to the capital of the Yao Kingdom. If anything caused him to become more vigilant, He Lingchuan's success rate in intercepting and killing him would naturally decrease. Now, the news of Qian Yu's abduction would soon reach Xue Zongwu. This meant that the difficulty for the Black-Armored Leader to kill him would greatly increase. This was trouble.

"So where are we going now?"

"The Prefectural Yamen!" He Lingchuan's mind was clear. "With Xue Zongwu's chief accountant abducted, the yamen is likely in chaos, with all the constables deployed. We can take advantage of this opportunity."

Having left the small inn where they were staying, and with many people on the road, Dong Rui had to lower his voice: "To the Prefec... What are we doing there?"

He Lingchuan countered, "Do you think Qian Yu can come back alive?"

"Most likely not."

"He definitely won't," He Lingchuan said, lowering his voice further as they turned into a small alley. "Whatever the black-clad men's motive for the abduction, since they shouted 'deserving of death,' they won't leave Qian Yu alive. Therefore, this incident is bound to alert Xue Zongwu."

Dong Rui cursed under his breath, then continued, "If Xue Zongwu actually takes these guys for the Black-Armored Army, that would be a true stroke of accidental genius!" He and He Lingchuan had gone to such lengths precisely to avoid alerting Xue Zongwu, but those fakes had directly displayed their banner!

"These men in black are using the Black-Armored Army's banner, but they haven't even managed to imitate a third of their appearance. Xue Zongwu isn't a fool; a simple questioning of witnesses would lead him to suspect these are fakes."

Dong Rui was unsure. "Is that good news?"

"Of course not!" He Lingchuan fumed. "If Xue Zongwu believes them, he'll become more vigilant against the Black-Armored Army. If Xue Zongwu sees through the ruse—which is highly likely—he'll know that Qian Yu isn't the real target of these individuals, and he'll become just as vigilant!"

"How could he tell that these people don't intend to kill Qian Yu?"

"To kill Qian Yu, using poison or a sneak attack would be the simplest and most convenient. Why would these people choose to commit murder in broad daylight on the street, and even shout slogans before acting?"

Although he knew the current situation was infuriating, Dong Rui couldn't help but chuckle. "They're just afraid no one would see or hear them." The Black-Armored Army operates ostentatiously; isn't that their purpose? It seems those people were just imitating them.

"Shouting slogans is one thing, but they did it without conviction or accuracy, just tossing them out casually," He Lingchuan shook his head. "If they truly harbored a deep grudge against Qian Yu, would they be so perfunctory?"

Dong Rui understood. "They don't even know Qian Yu well, yet they abducted him. So they have another motive? Hey, what does that have to do with us going to the yamen?"

"Qian Yu was sent to audit the public accounts. Now that he's been abducted midway, there are three known possible reasons: personal grudges, accounting issues, and his relationship with Xue Zongwu," He Lingchuan analyzed, item by item. "We just said that the possibility of personal grudges is small, so only the latter two remain. To prevent Xue Zongwu from making associations in our direction, we must find a way to mislead him."

Dong Rui pondered for several breaths, finally understanding the complex logic. "You want Xue Zongwu to believe that the men in black came for the account books?"

"When have you ever seen public accounts that are perfectly clean and free of shady dealings?" Even the accounts of the Yangshan Archipelago, which had been delivered to He Lingchuan, were now starting to reveal hidden tricks, let alone those of the Yao Kingdom, a proper, established regional power.

This was beyond his scope. Dong Rui could only honestly say, "I don't understand. I truly don't."