Chapter 755: Targeted Attacks on the Patrol Guards

He pointed at the person, stammering, "You... how... how are you here!"

Turns out he hadn't been mistaken a few days ago!

"I'm back to take care of some business and visit an old friend," He Lingchuan said with a smile. "Shall we find a quiet place to talk?"

Liu Baobao had calmed down. "Follow me!"

The servant boy led the way with a lantern, the two men following behind, chatting as they walked.

"How have Blackwater City and Red Cliff Road been over the past year or so?"

"Alas, not good. My family's business has plummeted!" Liu Baobao quickly complained, as if reverting to their old mode of conversation.

"Is that so? Well, I have a good job for you," He Lingchuan said, patting his shoulder. "By the way, I'm leaving soon, but I'll be back in a few days."

As they walked past the main street, Liu Baobao subconsciously glanced north.

The Sandstorm Season had ended abruptly, and this person had suddenly appeared.

Was there a connection between the two?

He shook his head, wondering what nonsense he was thinking. How could such a major weather change be related to one person?

March this year was unusually hot; it was only the spring equinox, yet moving even slightly caused a full sweat.

In previous years, the old trees by the roadside hadn't even sprouted new buds by this time.

Under the blazing sun, a patrol from Yuheng City had just arrived at Manjia Village and immediately stopped at the inn. Without needing guidance, the horses gathered at the trough to drink greedily, while the twenty patrol guards went to cool off under the shade of the trees.

The inn had placed several tables under the big trees. Besides plain cool water, they also offered bitter, refreshing herbal tea. If one was willing to pay a few more copper coins, there was also diluted honey water available.

Aphid honey and bee honey were originally specialties of Panlong City, and also among the most common goods traded on this route.

As soon as they sat down, sweat streamed down their foreheads. Several guards simply went to the well to draw water, pouring a bucket over themselves from head to toe, which finally revived them.

"It's damn hot," someone complained. "It's unbearable in March; what will it be like in the height of summer, July? We'll be roasted alive!"

The others laughed. "Miao Mingming, isn't your maternal uncle at the City Guard Headquarters? I heard he's constantly working for the Commander. Why don't you ask him for a promotion so you don't have to suffer wind and sun every day with us poor wretches?"

Miao Mingming glanced at him. "If you want to move up, you have to earn military merits. How can you earn merits just sitting in a house in Yuheng City?"

"You're quite ambitious, lad," his companion chuckled. "But the bandits on the trade route haven't been out much lately, so if you can't fight them, you can't claim any merit."

Only by killing or capturing enemies could they earn merit. Their timely patrols only brought hardship and fatigue.

The group chatted for a while longer, shared some laughs, and were very relaxed. Suddenly, Miao Mingming asked, "Where's Xing Wu? He's been in the latrine for fifteen minutes. Why isn't he back yet?"

"Who knows, maybe his legs are weak. We told him the mushroom soup he drank this morning was dodgy, but he didn't believe us." Laughter erupted again, and someone immediately said, "I'll go call him."

But before their laughter died down, a whistling sound suddenly came from the bushes.

Whizz, whizz, whizz, over twenty arrows flew out. A few missed, but the rest struck the patrol guards!

Several guards fell backward. The one who had just stood up was the unluckiest, an arrow piercing his eye and passing through his skull.

"Enemy attack!" The guards were both shocked and furious, drawing their weapons to meet the assault.

The bushes rustled, and a group of bandits emerged, numbering over a hundred!

Miao Mingming roared, "Quick, get into the inn!"

They were outnumbered; they needed to quickly find cover.

However, a guest sitting at a back table suddenly moved behind him, wrapping one arm around his neck and quickly stabbing him several times in the waist and ribs with the other hand!

In an instant, the four or five people at that table drew their weapons and joined the ambush.

The bloody chaos at the inn lasted for little more than fifteen minutes. Besides two patrol guards who seized the opportunity to escape on horseback, the rest lay motionless on the ground.

On the sandy ground, blood flowed like a river.

The bandits put away their weapons and laughed. "We thought the Yuheng army was strong, but they're nothing special!"

Another person asked, "What about the people at the inn?"

There were still inn staff, merchants, and travelers at the inn. The smart ones had already slipped away to the back hill, while a dozen or so others huddled inside and outside the inn, trembling.

The person who had ambushed Miao Mingming glanced at them. "Ignore them."

A day later, still in Manjia Village.

He Lingchuan and his adjutant, Chao Qian, stood outside the inn, looking up at the long pole beside the horse trough—

Eighteen heads were tied to the pole, swaying in the wind.

The heads of the Yuheng City patrol.

In just one day, the heads had been sun-dried and dehydrated, their expressions even more gruesome, but this didn't prevent the victims' families from identifying them.

Chao Qian stared intently. He Lingchuan asked him, "Are they really your relatives?"

"My grand-nephew, my cousin's son," Chao Qian said with great sadness. "Though he's a distant relative, this child was ambitious. He came to Yuheng City to enlist on his own, didn't ask me for special favors, and volunteered for frontline patrol."

He sighed. "Alas, I don't know how to explain this to my cousin."

"He fought bravely; he will be generously compensated," He Lingchuan said, patting his shoulder. "Don't worry, this vengeance will be exacted."

Chao Qian instinctively nodded.

He Lingchuan knew that Chao Qian merely took his words as comfort.

No matter. He always kept his word, and soon everyone would know.

He then walked into the low courtyard behind the inn, where the patrol guards' bodies were laid out.

After being left for over a dozen hours in such hot weather, the smell of the bodies was terrible.

No one at the inn dared to approach, but He Lingchuan's expression remained normal as he began to examine the wounds on the bodies.

Most were conventional wounds from blades, spears, and arrows.

However, two bodies had unusual wounds: a row of three blood holes. Liutiao also leaned in for a closer look. "Hmm, could these be from a grappling hook?"

Many martial artists used unusual weapons, and some preferred to injure people with grappling hooks.

But she immediately dismissed her own judgment. "No, grappling hooks should cause scratches, not such deep wounds."

Claws resembling those of bears, wolves, or tigers would cause flesh to be torn and turned outwards, not straight and deep like this.

He Lingchuan silently extended his palm, shaping it like a claw, and probed the wound.

Although the size was different, the shape was largely consistent.

"Used fingers directly... no, claws? Is this a monster?" Liutiao asked in surprise. "But the witnesses at the inn said the attackers were all human."

He Lingchuan examined another body, which also had the same wounds, and a small hole in the neck.

The blood had, of course, already clotted. He stared at the wound for a long time, then told Liutiao, "Bring all the heads in and reunite them with their bodies."

"Understood."

It took considerable effort for everyone to match and place the eighteen heads back onto their original bodies.

He Lingchuan found the body he had previously focused on and took another look. "No, this one is put together incorrectly."

Everyone had to endure the stench of the corpses and reassemble them again.

Re-matching the neck cuts for eighteen heads was no easy task.

He Lingchuan was the first to find the correct match himself.

As he reattached the head to its body, Chao Qian happened to enter. "The witnesses outside have all given their statements... Mingming?"

He looked at the body in front of He Lingchuan. "This is my grand-nephew, Miao Mingming. Sir, is something wrong?"