Chapter 653: “Nobody Messes With My Patient (5)”
It turned out that when Mu Qian Fan had gone out to find firewood, he had coincidentally passed this area. Unexpectedly, this group of men had been discussing their plans within the woods and the currently decreased leader of the group had not bothered how much Mu Qian Fan had heard when he was spotted, wanting only to prevent their business from being leaked, he had led his men in pursuit to silence Mu Qian Fan.
The scent of blood that Jun Wu Xie had initially detected had been from Mu Qian Fan. If the little black cat had not gotten there in time, Mu Qian Fan might have already gone to meet his maker.
“What were you discussing?” Jun Wu Xie asked.
The archer did not dare to hide anything and prattled on: “We….. We are actually from the Yan Country…… Because our Master wanted us to go explore the Heaven’s End Cliff, we were discussing our plans about our trip to the Heaven’s End Cliff when…..
[Heaven’s End Cliff!]
Jun Wu Xie’s heart thumped.
“What were you going to do at Heaven’s End Cliff?” Jun Wu Xie asked coldly.
“That….. That I really do not know….. People of a lowly status like us are not in a place to know of such matters and the only person among us who knew in detail what our mission entailed was our Boss. He had not mentioned anything about it to us….. I….. really do not know anything…..” As the archer spoke, he kept on striking his head upon the ground, pleading for Jun Wu Xie to spare his life.
Jun Wu Xie narrowed her eyes and pointed at the dead corpse before she asked: “Does he have a map on him?”
The archer nodded quickly.
“Yes! Yes! But he had never shown it to us at all. He kept it on himself all the while.”
“Find it.” Jun Wu Xie ordered.
The archer scuttled over quickly, and when his eyes saw the grisly state of the corpse, he froze a moment in hesitation.
Lord Meh Meh blew out a breath of hot air and when the hesitant archer felt the warm gush blow past him, he turned a shade paler and immediately began searching frantically.
“I’ll search! I’ll search! I’ll look for it right away! Don’t kill me! I beg you not to kill me!”
The archer had tears flowing down his cheeks as he pleaded pitifully, and he forced his hands to rummage through the still slightly warm corpse.
After a while, he finally pulled out from the corpse’s robe pocket with a trembling hand, a blood stained map. Immediately upon finding it, he quickly turned and was all jittery as he presented the map before Jun Wu Xie.
“It….. It’s this one…..”
Jun Wu Xie reached out and opened up the map. The map was not made from skin but from common parchment. A large part of the map was currently badly stained with blood and it was impossible to picture what the entire map was showing.
Based on the portion left that was still visible, the map was slightly similar to the two other maps Qiao Chu and the others were holding.
Mu Qian Fan had already drawn and plotted the map showing the way to the Heaven’s End Cliff and Jun Wu Xie was certain that the map she was holding in her hands was not showing the way to the Heaven’s End Cliff.
If the map was not showing the way towards the place, then there was only one other possibility!
The map, was one of the eight pieces showing the way to the Dark Emperor’s tomb. And the map here in her hands, was not the original, but a duplicate.
“Yan Country.” Jun Wu Xie uttered as she stared at the largely blood covered map she held within her hands. If Lord Meh Meh had not smashed the leader of the band of men dead earlier, they would have effortlessly gained the third piece of the maps towards the Dark Emperor’s tomb.
“Who is your Master?” Jun Wu Xie asked, staring at the terrified archer.
The archer gulped loudly before he replied: “The Yan Country’s Crown Prince….. Yan Country’s Crown Prince…..”
Jun Wu Xie’s eyebrow raised up, a little surprised. The Yan Country was not small and weak like the Qi Kingdom. It can be said that the Yan Country was the mightiest among all the countries and their lands were the most vast. The Yan Country and the Qi Kingdom were two extremes. The Yan Country was the first country to be founded and the Imperial Family had been adept rulers. Over time, the Yan Country had grown from strength to strength and the lands they controlled expanded rapidly. When war had broken out between the various powers a century ago, the Yan Country had at that time grabbed the opportunity and reigned supremacy since.