The Attack of the Wastrel

Chapter 372 – A Guest

Translator: Coca5156

Editor: Drea

A day later, Wei Lingshu activated some men that he trusted to install all 36 Recording Crystals at sites that they had agreed on previously and waited for nightfall.

On this night, Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan did not return to the Sanhe Courtyard to rest. Instead, they stayed at Wei Lingshu’s manor to wait for news.

When the sky had finally brightened again, there came a loud and bone-chilling cry from a corner of the Spirit City.

The four of them looked at each other for a moment before rushing over to where the cry came from.

As usual, they investigated the crime scene before rushing over to the Recording Crystal that was placed at that particular site.

There were two Recording Crystals that had overlooked this place. After retrieving both of them, they returned back to Wei Lingshu’s manor.

When they entered the living room, Qiao Yeshu hurriedly prompted Gu Lingzhi to retrieve the footage. Gu Lingzhi did exactly as he said, not wanting to delay the matter any further. She directed some spiritual energy towards it, activating the Recording Crystal.

When they placed the Recording Crystal there, it was evening time and there were many people on the streets. Since Gu Lingzhi had crafted it herself, it was much better than the Recording Crystals that currently existed in the Tianyuan Continent. Every detail on the pedestrians’ faces was crystal clear. If the murderer had passed by the area, there was no way that the Recording Crystal had not caught it.

“How long do we have to wait for the murderer to appear? Can we fast forward this footage?” Qiao Yeshu remarked anxiously after he had not seen anything suspicious.

“Yes,” Gu Lingzhi pressed against one of the corners of the Recording Crystals that protruded out and the footage fast forwarded.

“Okay, stop, the murderer should appear sometime around here,” Qiao Yeshu exclaimed.

Gu Lingzhi rolled her eyes. Even before he had said anything, Gu Lingzhi had already stopped pressing on the fast forward button. The footage carried on at its normal playback speed at half an hour before the killing happened.

The four of them looked intently at the footage, afraid that they would miss any important clues.

Suddenly, a silhouette appeared on the footage. They sucked in their breaths and concentrated on it.

Slowly, the view of the silhouette became clearer until they could clearly make out who it was.

“Why is this rascal there?” Qiao Yeshu commented, slightly stunned. The person who had appeared in the footage was none other than Jin Hao.

Wei Lingshu knitted his eyebrows together, “I think he’s the one responsible for patrolling that area.”

The moment he said that, he saw that a few more silhouettes had appeared in the footage, but they were all guards that belonged to the Chancellor’s Manor. They caught up to Jin Hao and were alert as they walked and patrolled the area. Jin Hao looked around at his surroundings and conversed with the others every now and then.

“That scared me, I thought he was the murderer,” Qiao Yeshu slammed against the table in frustration, “Does Jin Hao not know how dangerous the Spirit City is at night? How did he dare to walk so quickly ahead of the others, isn’t he scared that the creature would eat him?”

“Yes, that was really dangerous for him,” Wei Lingshu similarly disapproved of Jin Hao’s actions. They knew that the creature was out to hunt for Gold Class Warriors. Jin Hao was a Gold Class Warrior himself, yet he dared to venture out alone.

Later in the footage, there was nothing much that happened other than a few Warriors that had been on patrolling duty. When the footage ended, they did not spot any suspicious people or creatures.

“Rewind it by an hour,” Wei Lingshu said. Since the killer did not appear in the last half hour, it was highly possible that it appeared half an hour before that.

Gu Lingzhi obeyed and the four of them watched the footage intently once again. Other than seeing Jin Hao once again, they did not see anything suspicious.

Refusing to give up, they took the other Recording Crystal and checked it. They repeated what they did previously and fast forwarded to one hour before the killing happened. This time, there were many more people that appeared in the footage. Other than Jin Hao and his troop of warriors, there were other citizens that had grouped up together to find the killer as well. Other than that, they did not gather any new information.

“Rewind it two hours before the killing happened! I do not believe it, unless the killer has the ability to become invisible?” Qiao Yeshu rubbed his eyes indignantly.

The Recording Crystal had clearly shown the events that happened at the site prior to the murder, but there just was not any indication of anyone that had entered the house. Even after rewinding the footage two hours before the murder happened, they did not find anything strange. When they rewound the footage even more, the victim had even left his house once to use the toilet. The four of them were extremely sure that there were no creatures that had followed him back into the house. If that was the case, then how did the killer get into the house?

Qiao Yeshu asked Gu Lingzhi to rewind the footage from the very beginning so that he could monitor it from start to finish. He did not believe that he would not be able to find anything that would be useful.

Wei Lingshu agreed with him on this. However, after seeing that Gu Lingzhi’s eyes were starting to redden, he swallowed his words. He asked Gu Lingzhi to teach them how to operate the Recording Crystal instead, so that Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan could go back to their quarters to rest.

Before they left, they gave Wei Lingshu and Qiao Yeshu another two new Recording Crystals.

Having not slept for one entire night, Gu Lingzhi fell asleep the moment her head touched the pillow. Rong Yuan looked at her adoringly, his heart slightly aching at seeing how tired she was, before covering her with a blanket. He took out two high-grade spirit stones from his Storage Ring and started to cultivate.

When it was noontime, Gu Lingzhi finally stirred from her sleep under Rong Yuan’s gentle kisses.

“Wake up and eat something before going back to sleep, your stomach is growling,” Rong Yuan rubbed his nose against her face when he saw that Gu Lingzhi opened her eyes. He placed his palm on her stomach and pressed lightly.

Gu Lingzhi wanted to protest, but then her stomach growled loudly once again, causing her face to redden in embarrassment. Rong Yuan laughed lightly as he kissed her forehead.

“Get up, you haven’t eaten for the entire night and you slept the moment you came home this morning. When you’ve finished eating, I’ll sleep with you,” Rong Yuan lowered his voice towards the end of his sentence, his hand that was still placed on her abdomen squeezed her gently.

Gu Lingzhi glared at him and sat up. She looked at the table that was full of food and they were all still steaming.

After they both had their fill, they ordered the servant outside to take the plates and crockery away. Gu Lingzhi no longer felt like going back to sleep, so she intended to go over to Wei Lingshu’s manor to ask if they had any new discoveries. Rong Yuan looked at her, slightly frustrated and unwilling, “Are you sure you don’t want to sleep anymore?”

“No,” Gu Lingzhi replied, “I can’t fall back asleep.”

Rong Yuan’s intentions were so clear, and she did not want to do it so unabashedly in broad daylight.

Rong Yuan smiled cheekily at her, “There’s still time for you to rest.”

Gu Lingzhi did not reply to him but simply opened the door, wanting to leave. Without catching the murderer, they would not be able to assimilate into the Spirit City, much less earn their trust. If that was the case, then they would never get hints on how to leave the Lost Lands.

Rong Yuan, on the other hand, looked wronged. He told Gu Lingzhi that as a smart person, he needed a work-life balance. Although it was important to catch the killer, it was also important to spend time with his wife. Only then could he perform to the best of his abilities. If it was not for his hands that were running up and down Gu Lingzhi’s body in an inappropriate manner, Gu Lingzhi would have believed his words.

Just when they were bickering back and forth about whether they should leave, Chun Tao knocked on their door.

“Elders, someone’s here to meet you.”

“Who? We don’t want to meet him.” What could be more enjoyable than hugging the person he loved?

“Why not? Sixth and Seventh Elders, Sixth Brother and I have come all the way here to see the both of you, are you really not going to meet us?”

That voice... Lu Heng?

Rong Yuan pursed his lips before letting go of Gu Lingzhi. Unwillingly, he turned around and opened the door. With a smile, he addressed them, “What brings the both of you here? Second and Sixth Brother, have you been doing well?”

Lu Heng shuddered, slightly shocked by Rong Yuan’s tone.

“Seventh... Seventh Brother, what happened to you? Why are you starting to talk like that?”

Jiang Xinghai was perceptive, indeed; when he saw Gu Lingzhi’s messy hair, he knew that they had interrupted Rong Yuan’s time with his wife. Nervously, he rubbed his nose and told Rong Yuan why they had come.

“We’ve heard that the Spirit City has been in a state of unrest lately, so Eldest Brother has sent us here to see if there’s anything that we can help with. Though our cultivation level isn’t strong, we can help to run errands.”

Upon hearing this, Rong Yuan’s heart warmed. The frustration that he felt from having been interrupted gradually disappeared and he invited the two of them into the house after he ordered Chun Tao to prepare some tea and snacks.

Whilst the four of them sat by the table, Rong Yuan briefly described to them what had happened over the past few days. When they heard that the murderer was most likely a demon beast that morphed into a human, their jaws dropped.

“Demon beasts can actually morph into humans and not be discovered until now? What kind of creature could that be?” Lu Heng asked in a daze.

“If we knew what it was, we would be able to catch it a long time ago,” Rong Yuan laughed bitterly. He felt embarrassed that they had been fooled by a demon beast time and again, without finding any leads whatsoever.

“What about the both of you? Aren’t both of you afraid that you might become the creature’s meal? Why are you here even after knowing what’s happening here?”

“What’s there to be afraid of? There’s the both of you here,” Lu Feng laughed cheekily. He then lowered his voice and said, “Actually, we’re not just here because of Eldest Brother, but also because the Chancellor told us to come.”