Chapter 181: Hoodwinked By Ghosts
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Tiger Might turned around and slapped Qiao Yang on the head. “Save your breath, brat. If you continue to act like this, 1’11 send you to the pigsty to shovel shit.”
Qiao Yang covered his head and ran away while wailing in pain. He would make Xiao Jin shovel pig shit sooner or later!
Once December arrived, the weather would become increasingly colder. In particular, the temperature difference between morning and evening was especially large. Every day, it was only around four hours at noon when people felt a little warmer.
As the night got cold quickly, Su Ying didn’t let everyone work too late, lest they catch a cold and problems arose.
After the weather turned cold, night came especially quickly.
After a busy day, everyone returned home.
As the weather was cold, the cooked dishes also cooled down quickly. Therefore, Ilea Shouyi discussed with Murong De and decided to start making hotpots for everyone to eat. They then set up a few small fire stoves for them to cook hotpots.
Fortunately, Su Ying had spent some money to buy a few extra pots for backup. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be enough pots.
Su Ying looked at the boiling soup, and the whole house was filled with the fragrance of the hotpot.
What they did not know was that at this moment, there were already people stealthily approaching the Tiger Base.
Those people took advantage of the night to slowly approach the Tiger Base. As they were afraid of being discovered, they did not dare to light any torches. They could only use the dim moonlight as illumination to see the road ahead.
Those people raised their heads and could vaguely see the light of a fire not far away. It was probably too far away as the light was flickering intermittently, and they did not know if their eyes were deceiving them.
“How can there be light in this desolate place? Let’s go over there and take a look.”
“Okay.”
They slowly moved toward the light source, but after walking for a long time, they still felt that they were very far away from the light source.
“We’ve been walking for more than two hours. Why do I feel like we’re walking in circles in the same place?”
“Not necessarily. We can’t see the situation in front of us clearly in this dark place. What if that light only looks close to us, but is actually very far away from us? Let’s walk some more and see how it goes.”
The others felt that it made sense, so they continued to walk forward.
They walked until the sky began to turn bright and all the light sources had vanished, but they had not reached the place where the light was flickering.
“What the hell. No matter how far that place is, we should have gotten closer by now. But we’ve been walking for an entire night, and I feel like we’re still at the same place.”
“We’re just walking in the same spot.”
Someone spoke and pointed at the footprints on the ground. “Look! These are the footprints we made last night.”
The few of them lowered their heads to take a look. Sure enough, there was a row of neat footprints on the ground. These were the footsteps they created last night.
“Have we been hoodwinked by ghosts? I’ve long heard that the northern wilderness is creepy. 1 didn’t expect to encounter something weird as soon as we arrived.”
They didn’t know what unknown things were waiting for them ahead. If they continued to advance rashly, it was very likely that they would lose their lives. After a discussion, they decided to go back and report first.
On the top of the gate wall, Number Four, who had been watching those people circle around for the entire night, immediately went back to report the situation to Xiao Jin after confirming that those people had left.
The speed of these people’s arrival did not surprise Xiao Jin too much. “You guys continue to keep watch. If you find anyone who managed to break through the array formation, inform me immediately.”
“Yes, Sir.”
After Number Four left, Xiao Jin called Jiang Yang over. “I sent Lin Kun and the others to scout for information earlier. Did they send any news back?”
Jiang Yang shook his head. “They haven’t sent any message back yet.”
Xiao Jin’s brows furrowed. “Where have the troops that were exiled from Jin City reached now?”
“They have reached Prince Ma City. If they move fast, they may be able to reach the northern wilderness before the end of the month.”
In about half a month, even if there were some casualties during the journey of exile, most of them would be able to survive and reach the northern wilderness. At that point, there would be thousands of mouths to feed.
Xiao Jin frowned even more deeply.
“After contacting Lin Kun and the others, ask them to come and see me.”
“Yes, Sir. I will go and leave a message for them now.”
Xiao Jue had to recuperate for a few days before his injuries didn’t hurt so much that he wished he were dead.
“Your Highness, the people who went to investigate have returned.” The trusted aide walked into the room and reported to him.
Xiao Jue raised his head with hatred in his eyes. “Let them in.”
The spy walked into the chamber and knelt down in front of Xiao Jue. “Greetings, Your Highness.”
“Have you found her?” Xiao Jue asked impatiently.
“Your Highness, we haven’t found her yet. The northern wilderness is very strange. The few of us have been circling around the same place since last night. We couldn’t even get out, let alone find her. We walked all the way in, and other than the corpses that had turned into brittle bones, there were almost no survivors.”
The veins on Xiao Jue’s forehead throbbed violently. “Useless trash! You can’t even locate a woman!”
“Please forgive me, Your Highness.” It was fine if it was somewhere else, but that was outside the pass and in the northern wilderness. It was easier said than done for them to locate someone.
“Continue to search. If you can’t find her, I will chop off your heads!”
The spy did not dare to answer back. “Your Highness, please calm down. 1 will do my best to find her and bring her back.”
“Get lost!”
Xiao Jue was so angry that his chest throbbed in pain. Although the soft armor had blocked Su Ying’s dagger, it hadn’t been able to withstand the force of the dagger. Su Ying had deployed a lot of strength in that strike, and that hit even broke two of his breastbones. Every time he inhaled and exhaled, the pain was so excruciating that he felt like killing someone.
“Where is the person 1 want to see? Is he here yet?” Xiao Jue said after calming down his anger a little.
“Your Highness, they sent a message saying that he will arrive today.”
Just as the trusted aide finished speaking, the guard’s voice rang out from outside.
“Your Highness, I’ve brought him here.”
Xiao Jue took a deep breath.
“Bring him in.”
Li Da was brought into the chamber by the guards. When he saw Xiao Jue half-leaning on the bed, Li Da knelt down and lowered his head instinctively.
“Your humble servant Li Da hereby pays his respects to Your Highness.”
Xiao Jue withdrew his ominous aura and forced himself to smile as he bade Li Da stand up.
Li Da looked at Xiao Jue’s pretentious smile and sensed impending doom as a wave of despair swept over him.
“You came all the way here, but I didn’t let you take a breather. Sit down. Bring some good tea and snacks here.”
How could Li Da have the guts to sit!
“Your servant is not worthy. Your Highness, if you have anything to ask, just ask. I will definitely tell you everything.”
Xiao Jue saw that Li Da was sensible, and the smile on his face became a tad more genuine. “Sit down. You don’t have to be so formal in front of me. It’s not a big deal. 1 just want to chat with you.”
Li Da was really about to cry. He didn’t do a good job the last time, and a large number of criminals escaped. After sending the rest of the people out of the pass, he resigned himself to his fate and went back to receive his punishment. Not only was he beaten, but the higher-ups also told him to get lost and go back to his hometown. This was because the higher-ups took into account the fact that he had worked for so many years. Even if he didn’t achieve anything meritorious, he had worked hard. Otherwise, how could he still appear in front of Xiao Jue safely now? He would have been skinned alive if not sentenced to death..
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