Chapter 469: Sound Ability User
In the lotus pond of the southern campus, hundreds of corpses were floating in the middle of the water under the cover of the green lotus leaves. The corpses had long turned white, and a suffocating stench was wafting from the pond.
"Sect brother! Sect sister! "
Sun Zhan dropped to his knees with a thud, his hands covering his pale face as he cried out in pain.
"Transform!"
The Dragonscale Hectoslasher transformed into 108 flying daggers, which Xia Fei manipulated to dive into the water, picking up the corpses one by one and tossing them to the shore. Soon, the green riverbank was filled with hundreds of smelly corpses.
Xia Fei squatted down and used his fingers to inspect the corpses.
"Hmm? There aren't any obvious wounds, but their muscles and bones are all broken. If I'm not mistaken, the culprit should be a sound ability user. Sound can instantly penetrate the skin and shatter all the organs.
"What a powerful technique. These hundreds of people were in different spots, but they were all targeted by a sound ability user at the same time, instantly killing them and tossing their corpses into the pond."
Sun Zhan could not stop crying after hearing Xia Fei's conclusion. He hugged the corpse of a woman in her twenties and screamed. It seemed that this sect sister had a good relationship with Sun Zhan, often bringing him around to play when he was young. She was even reluctant to eat the snacks given by the sect, saving them for Sun Zhan.
Xia Fei punched Sun Zhan on the shoulder and frowned. "What's the point of crying? The dead are gone. The most important thing is to find the culprit and avenge our brothers and sisters! "
Sun Zhan wiped away his tears with his sleeve and nodded heavily, a look of determination on his face.
He had faith, but Sun Zhan, who had never experienced such a major event, did not know where to start. All he could do was look at Xia Fei expectantly.
"First, carefully look through these corpses and see if your parents or any of your fellow brothers and sisters who managed to escape are among them.
"Second, try to recall if there are any sound ability users among those who are related to Nanming Association, especially enemies.
"I'll continue to look for clues and meet up with you in five minutes."
* Whoosh! *
Xia Fei moved quickly, immediately getting up after giving his instructions to Sun Zhan, carefully searching every inch of Nanming Association's walls.
"Sun Zhan's mental fortitude is lacking. He panics too much in the face of danger. I'm afraid he won't be able to help you much. If he doesn't handle the enemy properly, he might even implicate you." Phantom Shadow sighed.
Xia Fei helplessly said, "For a little guy who hasn't had any actual combat experience, his performance is actually not bad. At least he's able to listen to me."
Gui Ying laughed heartily, "Listening to your old man's tone, aren't you only twenty? He's only two or three years older than Sun Zhan. "
Xia Fei shook his head. How can you use age to judge a person? Some people live their whole lives and still don't know shit. The most important thing is the ability to understand and experience. "
The assassin's methods were not brilliant, and upon closer inspection, there were flaws and clues everywhere. If Xia Fei had been the one to do it, he would not have left behind so many traces. From this, it could be seen that the other party was simply out to kill and was not a professionally trained assassin. Dumping the corpses into the pond was merely a matter of convenience and was not a deliberate act of destroying evidence.
Xia Fei stopped next to the Adjudicator Union's frigate in the backyard and said, "This ship will only be docked here for two days at most. Based on the state of the corpses, the tragedy would have already happened by the time the people from the Adjudicator Union arrived. I just don't understand: Just what does the Adjudicator Union have to do with this?"
Phantom nonchalantly said, "Who cares about the Adjudicator Union or the Monastics? You've already left the Union, so you no longer have to listen to their orders."
Xia Fei smiled. "I've never really listened to the Union's arrangements before, so there's even less of a need to care now that I've left it. Even if the Adjudicator Union is behind this, I'll still drag them out."
Next to the pond, Sun Zhan rushed over the moment he saw Xia Fei. "Big brother Xia Fei, I've checked. My father, mother, and sister aren't here, but the others …"
Xia Fei heavily patted Sun Zhan on the shoulder. "Don't give up until the very last moment. Perhaps your family is still alive. The only clue we have right now is that Adjudicator who came last. He went to the dark side of the planet alone, so we might be able to find him if we follow his footsteps."
Sun Zhan swallowed and solemnly said, "Alright. I'll go get the equipment and head to the Evernight Forest."
"Equipment?"
"The dark side of the planet never sees sunlight, and it's always night all year round, which is why it's called the Evernight Forest. The environment there is extremely harsh, and there's also a lot of methane and ferocious insects. We'll need to bring a lot of equipment and supplies every time we go in to collect herbs, just in case," Sun Zhan explained.
Xia Fei curiously asked, "I was just about to ask you. If it's as you said, and the place to collect the herbs is in the Evernight Forest, then how can plants grow in such a dark place where it's impossible for them to photosynthesize? What's more, how can they grow so perfectly? "
Sun Zhan hesitated for a moment. "This is a secret of our Nanming Association, and we shouldn't tell outsiders, but since big brother Xia Fei has asked, I'll tell you the truth. The Evernight Forest is a very strange place. The closer one is to the center of the forest, the denser the plants grow. This is all because of a pond. The water in the pond is very nourishing to the plants, allowing them to grow even without sunlight.
"The more precious the herbs, the closer they'll grow to the pond. As the range expands, the quality of the herbs on the periphery of the pond will gradually decrease. I'm not sure why, but according to my father, the pond is the foundation of the entire association's existence, and we're usually not allowed to get close to it. As far as I can remember, my father and eldest sect brother only went there once when I was young. My father lost his left arm, while eldest sect brother lost both his arms and legs, becoming a cripple.
"However, the two of them never mentioned anything about the pond, and my father even chased eldest sect brother away. I have no idea why."
Xia Fei nodded repeatedly after hearing Sun Zhan's explanation. It turned out that the reason why the fruits produced by Nanming Association were of very high quality and were all natural was because of the pond. As for why top-grade equipment like the Zephyr would be used by them to collect herbs, Sun Zhan did not mention it, and Xia Fei did not ask. After all, this was not a good time to get to the bottom of things.
Sun Zhan brought Xia Fei to the main hall and moved a white glass bottle from the Hundred Treasures Pavilion. The floor rattled as it revealed a secret chamber hidden deep underground.
It turned out that the white glass bottle was connected to a mechanism. As long as it was turned to the right position, a gentle push would open the mechanism.
A bright light came on, and Xia Fei and Sun Zhan walked out of the secret chamber.
"Oh my god! Someone's already been here! "Sun Zhan exclaimed.
The three alloy doors were all open, and the path leading to the secret chamber was unobstructed. The hidden mechanism that controlled the activation of the traps and mechanisms had also been deactivated!
"Those intruders clearly have a good understanding of Nanming Association. They were able to accurately locate the secret chamber and deactivate all the traps and mechanisms. There are only two reasons for this. First, they threatened your parents, threatening them into opening the secret chamber. Second, they're very familiar with Nanming Association. "
Sun Zhan turned pale with fright. The first reason was understandable, but the second was extremely shocking!
Someone who was familiar with Nanming Association and even knew the location of the secret chamber and mechanisms? Just who could this person be?!
"It can't be. Only my father, mother, my sister, and I live in this hall. Aside from them, no one else knows of this secret."
Xia Fei silently walked forward, his mind racing. Calmness was an important rule for a warrior, and the more perplexed he was, the more he needed to be calm than usual.
"Check if anything valuable has been lost," Xia Fei said as he stood in the middle of the secret chamber.
There were plant storage containers all around him, ensuring that the medicinal ingredients would not rot even after a thousand years. There were large amounts of wild White Dews and Snake Eye Berries inside, as well as many rare medicinal ingredients that Xia Fei recognized and did not recognize. On another wall were hundreds of black protective suits and tools used for gathering medicinal ingredients.
"Oh my god! I didn't know that Nanming Association was so extravagant. These medicinal ingredients are all natural and can only be found by chance!" Phantom exclaimed.
Medicinal ingredients were valuable, but Xia Fei was more interested in the protective suits and equipment hanging on the wall.
"Many of these items are relics from the ancient civilization. Sun Zhan, what's going on?" Xia Fei asked with a frown. As one of the few experts who had studied the ancient civilization, Xia Fei could tell at a glance that these items were from the ancient civilization, so he asked curiously.
Sun Zhan, who was nervously checking the losses, spread his hands. "Big brother Xia Fei, I don't know anything about the ancient civilization. These pieces of equipment have existed since the day Nanming Association was established. I don't know how they came to be, either. Are they very valuable?"
Xia Fei answered, "To be precise, these pieces of equipment are called Excavator Sets. They're usually used by miners or explorers back in ancient times. It's a very professional piece of equipment, and you're using them to gather medicinal ingredients. I'm just asking casually."
Sun Zhan nodded and continued to check the items.
"Nanming Association is very mysterious. I'm afraid that it's not as simple as it looks on the surface. At the very least, the Assassin Sect doesn't even have a single set of such professional equipment," Phantom said in a deep voice.
Xia Fei nodded slightly, not saying a word.
Several minutes later, Sun Zhan walked over with a frown. "Big brother Xia Fei, this is all too strange. We've only lost some antidote and healing fruits, but none of the truly valuable medicinal ingredients are missing."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. There's a notebook in this secret chamber that records the types and quantities of items stored. My sister is usually in charge of this."
With that, Sun Zhan handed over an electronic notebook to Xia Fei.
"The last entry was made nine days ago. I'm sure that all the valuable items are still there."
"If it's not for the money, then why did these people barge into Nanming Association?" Xia Fei muttered to himself after some time.
"The strangest thing is that the work clothes that my father, mother, and sister usually wear are all gone. Eight sets of work clothes, seven pairs of Zephyr combat boots, and seven sets of toolboxes are missing, too."
"Eight sets of work clothes and seven pairs of shoes? Seven sets of tools? "Xia Fei was puzzled.
Normally, if one wanted to enter the Evernight Forest, the number of people should be the same as the number of sets of equipment, so why did they bring an extra set of work clothes and the exact same shoes and tools?
As for the person who appeared last, he did not take any equipment and went alone. Could it be that the Adjudicator who arrived two days ago was not in cahoots with those seven people?
Xia Fei could not figure it out, so he said, "Let's go. We'll follow them into the Evernight Forest, and everything will come to light."
Seven people, eight sets of work clothes, only taking tools and not any valuable medicinal ingredients, and the mysterious Adjudicator who arrived last had brought disaster to the entire Nanming Association.
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