Glorious God Throne

Chapter 75

Although they had just arrived, it wasn’t difficult for them to inquire about an event witnessed by hundreds of people, which, in a sense, had no confidentiality. Li Fufeng and his two companions quickly learned the details of the incident.

About ten days ago, the Xu family’s merchant association in the city reported that their young lady had left a note and run away, her whereabouts unknown.

This young lady, who had some martial arts skills, was dissatisfied with the arranged marriage her family had set for her. Taking advantage of her elders’ absence on a business trip, she sent away the servants and secretly slipped out of the house, leaving the city. By the time the city lord’s people discovered this, she had already left the city.

Less than a day after she left the city, the young lady who had departed with her head held high returned looking disheveled – her bundle was lost, and her clothes were covered in blood stains.

As soon as she arrived, the young lady frantically explained the reason for her disheveled state. “I… I killed someone!” she cried out, grabbing a random passerby, her voice filled with panic, fear, terror, and confusion.

It must be said that the scene shocked quite a few people at the time, and even made it to the news section of the “Martial Arts Gazette – Daliang City Edition.”

Although this was a world where martial arts were widespread, the existence of the Twelve Cities meant that this world still operated according to a set of rules, and one couldn’t just kill people at will. Upon hearing the news, the city lord immediately sent people to follow the still-shaken young lady out of the city.

Then, they found three people lying in the woods.

Two of them, a man and a woman, seemed to be just asleep, breathing normally. The other person looked much worse, covered in blood, their face swollen beyond recognition. Even covered in blood, the golden hair was still eye-catching to everyone.

Just looking at the Kunlun slave’s condition, it was obvious who the victim was. However, upon closer inspection, they discovered that the person wasn’t dead yet, at least still had a breath left.

What happened next was simple. The barely alive victim was rushed back for rescue — although according to the young lady’s account of what happened, this person might not have deserved to be saved. But even if they were a criminal, they should at least be given a chance for trial.

At this point, Miss Xu, who had discovered that the person wasn’t dead and had calmed down, told everything she knew.

— It turned out that shortly after the runaway bride left the city, she encountered a group of three people in a forest. This group consisted of a pair of siblings and a strange Kunlun slave.

Out of curiosity about seeing a Kunlun slave for the first time in her life, and because the siblings were outgoing and friendly, Miss Xu surprisingly got along well with these strangers.

The three seemed to be unfamiliar with many common sense things about this world and had no impression of Daliang City. They claimed to have lived in the deep mountains all their lives, having a deep longing and curiosity for the outside world. This was their first time leaving the mountains to see the world.

The inexperienced Miss Xu believed their story.

The reason was that a Kunlun slave with such a striking appearance would have surely been discovered if they hadn’t been living in the deep mountains. And these people’s lack of knowledge about the outside world didn’t seem to be an act.

Since she had also left home in pursuit of freedom, Miss Xu empathized with their reason for leaving the deep mountains to see the world. She enthusiastically invited them to travel together.

The three warmly welcomed this new companion.

— The Kunlun slave, who claimed to be an excellent cook, volunteered to take charge of that evening’s dinner.

After enjoying a fragrant grilled fish dinner, the excitement of making new friends gradually gave way to drowsiness. The group set up camp and chose to turn in early.

Just after Miss Xu fell asleep, someone silently crept into her tent, seemingly intending to do something.

At that moment, an instinctive sense of danger caused Miss Xu to wake up groggily. In a state between sleep and wakefulness, she saw a dark shadow cast on her face. She cried out unconsciously, startling the intruder, who quickly pounced on her, immediately trying to cover her mouth.

This, however, gave Miss Xu, who had no real combat experience, a chance to fight back. In the struggle, intense fear temporarily overwhelmed the young lady’s rationality. She completely forgot about techniques, and her body began to move purely on instinct, inadvertently unleashing all of her martial arts skills.

By the time she came to her senses, the suspicious attacker had been kicked out of the tent and was lying in the woods, covered in blood, his face bruised and swollen, his fate unknown, completely transformed into a bloody mess.

Mistakenly believing she had killed someone, Miss Xu hurriedly fled back to the city, leading to everything that happened afterwards.

The rescued criminal struggled and defended himself in vain, confirming her words without discrepancy. He only added a few details.

Such as his motive.

According to him, having just come out of the deep mountains and knowing nothing about this world, he learned of her identity from Miss Xu herself. He thought this naive, innocent rich girl would be suitable as his first stepping stone to engage with this world – if he kidnapped her, he could extract martial arts secrets or other information from this young lady. The bundle she carried when running away from home obviously contained valuable items enough for him to establish a foothold in this world, and then slowly expand upwards.

As for why he didn’t choose to gain favor, win the young lady’s approval, and then establish himself in this world through the Xu merchant association? Who made him the “Kunlun slave” in Miss Xu’s words? He really couldn’t guarantee how people in the outside world would treat a “Kunlun slave”. Just from Miss Xu’s attitude towards him and his two companions during their conversation, he could see the subtle bias.

However, Li Fufeng and his companion, who had already guessed these people’s origins, also guessed the reason this person didn’t voice.

— Compared to the results of a simple and brutal one-time heist, being treated as a “Kunlun slave”, having to please people from a backward feudal era like a servant, and clearly Eastern ancient people at that, possibly having to continue for a long time before having a chance to change one’s fate, this kind of thing, perhaps some freedom-loving modern person wouldn’t do, right?

Unfortunately, he didn’t understand the martial arts of this world, nor did he know the difference in physical constitution between martial artists and ordinary people. The drug that could easily make the siblings sleep deeply had a clearly weakened effect when used on Miss Xu who possessed internal energy, leading to the complete failure of his plan.

“…Suddenly transported to ancient times, who would be willing to be someone’s slave, trying to climb the social ladder by pleasing masters? Given the opportunity to directly rob once, you’d have the needed martial arts secrets and treasures, without needing to please anyone. Just find a deep mountain forest to practice martial arts intensively, and after gaining some strength, come out of the mountains with gold and silver, disguise your appearance a bit, and you could thrive in the backward ancient times, right?” Li Fufeng pondered the person’s thoughts, making a rough inference, “This guy…was probably thinking along these lines, right?”

At this time, the three were sitting in a street-side restaurant, with even this private room being paid for by Qing Fei.

The one who paid was earnestly eating pastries, apparently maintaining an attitude of being outside the topic of discussion.

“But it didn’t seem like that Miss Xu intended to use him as a slave, did she?” Liu Ningshuang countered, then immediately answered her own question, “Oh, Miss Xu can’t represent everyone in this world. If someone became interested in Kunlun slaves, and Miss Xu couldn’t resist, he would be in danger!”

Li Fufeng made an affirmative sound. “But, after all, direct kidnapping and robbery probably fit his mindset better, right? He probably had his heart set on it as soon as he learned of Miss Xu’s identity. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have acted so quickly. If it was just for self-protection, he wouldn’t have needed to go to such lengths…”

Liu Ningshuang nodded repeatedly, then quipped, “That’s true. If we haven’t guessed wrong, the three of them are all missing persons. In that case, what decent person would carry knockout drugs with them?”

“It’s those siblings who were implicated by him that are unfortunate…”

According to the information they gathered, the “Kunlun slave” had been executed three days ago, with his dismembered body mysteriously disappearing. As for the siblings, they had also eaten the drugged grilled fish that day and had slept heavily for a day and a night before waking up.

But as soon as they woke up, they were faced with cold shackles.

Who could blame them, since these three were originally together? It was impossible not to suspect their involvement in this incident. Even if they were also drugged, who could guarantee it wasn’t a ruse, a backup plan to protect themselves in case of failure?

Even though these two people confusedly stated that they weren’t familiar with the criminal at all, it sounded more like a cunning excuse, further increasing their suspicion – after all, wasn’t this different from what they initially said about coming from the deep mountains together?

If there hadn’t been a complete lack of evidence proving their involvement in this incident, they wouldn’t just be imprisoned now, but would have been beheaded three days ago as accomplices of the “Kunlun slave”.

“Ah, such unfortunate souls…” Learning that the two were still in jail, Liu Ningshuang couldn’t help but mourn for them. They understood that these two were likely indeed unrelated to the deceased “Kunlun slave”. After all, in the Kun Mountain incident, the missing people had come from countries all over the world!

But the people of this world couldn’t possibly know the inside story. Unless the siblings revealed the secret of their transportation to this world, and even if they exposed this secret, the situation might not necessarily improve.

Tragic, with a capital T.

Thinking this way, Liu Ningshuang felt overwhelmed.

“Looking at it this way, we were really super lucky!”

Hearing this, Qing Fei, who was sitting next to her focusing on a plate of pastries, licked the crumbs off her fingertips and looked up with curved eyes. “Ah, is Sister Liu praising me? This makes me feel a bit embarrassed~”

The little girl’s voice was so sweet that it made Liu Ningshuang feel a bit embarrassed.

Although they hadn’t explicitly discussed it among themselves, Li Fufeng and Liu Ningshuang had long ago speculated that when they suddenly appeared outside that village, Qing Fei might have seen it.

Therefore, even without knowing about the existence of Blue Star, this mysterious girl must surely know about the special origins of the two. Since she didn’t mention it, they maintained a kind of unspoken understanding. After all, no matter how special, it wouldn’t be possible to trace back to Blue Star, right?

So, Liu Ningshuang frankly admitted. “We should indeed thank you properly. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have been able to enter Daliang City, and even this private room was your treat…”

Speaking of which, thinking about how two adults had been reduced to relying on a child’s generosity, she couldn’t help but want to cover her face.

Li Fufeng beside her clearly thought the same, almost mirroring his companion’s face-covering expression.

Qing Fei waved her hand. “It’s okay. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have had the chance to come to Daliang City either.” She propped her chin on her hand, saying seriously, “Mm, we’re helping each other.”

Given your status in Shicun Village, wouldn’t you have had the chance to enter the city with others? How is this mutual assistance… Li Fufeng and Liu Ningshuang exchanged glances, feeling helpless. They could only take it as the little girl’s casual attempt to comfort them, even if it wasn’t sincere.

“By the way, shouldn’t we go rescue those two unfortunate souls next?” Qing Fei suddenly spoke up, her voice childish but clear, “They should be Brother Li and Sister Liu’s fellow countrymen, right?”

“…Not necessarily,” Li Fufeng pondered. Everything was just their speculation; what if they were actually natives? It would be troublesome if they went through all the effort to rescue them only to find out it was a mistake.

“Since they’re still in prison, we should be able to visit them, right?” he said. “I wonder how we can arrange a prison visit?”

As soon as he said it, Li Fufeng inwardly chided himself for being foolish.

There were only three people here. He and Liu Ningshuang were unfamiliar with everything in this world, and the only one who could provide answers, the little girl Qing Fei, was only twelve or thirteen years old. Even if she had talent in martial arts, how could she possibly know the conditions and procedures for prison visits?

Sure enough, Qing Fei was already furrowing her brows in distress. “Ah, if it’s about rescuing people, I could still provide some help. I already know where the execution ground is, but as for prison visits…”

Knowing where the execution ground is means you can help with rescuing people? Isn’t there something wrong with your thinking… Li Fufeng felt there were too many issues with this statement, and strangely, he found himself developing an odd mindset of wanting to correct a child who seemed to be going astray.

As a former police officer and now a member of the Special Case Investigation Team, if their time travel ended up leading a good child astray, that would truly be their fault… Deciding to set a good example, Li Fufeng immediately interrupted the little girl’s seemingly dangerous train of thought. He smiled slightly. “Prison visits aren’t some secret affair. If we don’t know how to do it, we can ask around.”

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