Chapter 473 - 406: The Search

Chapter 473: Chapter 406: The Search

「Thunder Shock County.」

The Celestial Sword Sect had booked the entire Hongyun Inn, using it as their temporary base.

「Night had fallen.」

In the main hall, Celestial Sword Disciples were either polishing their longswords, talking in low voices, or resting with their eyes closed, preparing for the changing of the guard and patrols that would begin at midnight.

On the second floor, in a spacious, high-class room, the lamps were brightly lit.

The entire upper echelon of the Celestial Sword Sect was gathered here.

The two Supreme Elders, Sword Five Jiang Buyu and Sword Seven Ye Guhong, sat primly on the main couch, their expressions solemn.

Seated below them were three Elders: Jian You, Sword Fear, and Sword Fool, who had rushed over from Hidden Emperor Castle.

"Supreme Elders, we searched three city districts in the west today, covering over thirteen hundred households in total. We found no trace of Hua Wuxin and the others."

"However, it was not entirely fruitless. In the course of the investigation, we incidentally rooted out thirteen notorious bandits who were lying low in Thunder Shock County. They have been handed over to Magistrate Thunder Shock for transfer to the Jingwu Bureau for processing... One of them is rather special.

This man is nicknamed Ghost Hand Elder. He has been committing crimes across many parts of Jiangnan for over twenty years, specializing in kidnapping young boys and girls. His methods are secretive, and his movements are unpredictable.

Jianghu rumors say that the missing Little Commandery Princess from Prince Ning’s Mansion very likely fell victim to this man and her whereabouts are still unknown. I have had this beast detained separately in the inn’s woodshed under strict guard."

As Jiang Buyu and Ye Guhong listened to the report, their brows remained tightly furrowed.

They had no interest in the thirteen bandits. They were just dregs of the Jianghu, to be cleaned up at their convenience.

But when they heard "Ghost Hand Elder" and "Prince Ning’s Mansion"...

"The Little Commandery Princess from Prince Ning’s Mansion?"

Jiang Buyu, who had been resting with his eyes closed, slowly opened them, a sharp glint flashing in their depths.

"Yes. Prince Ning flew into a rage over this matter, offering a reward of ten thousand gold coins. Many in the Jianghu have searched for her, all without success. If we could escort him to Prince Ning’s Mansion..."

Jian You did not finish his sentence, but his meaning was self-evident.

Jiang Buyu pondered for a moment before speaking. "A mere rat, not worth mentioning. However, a favor from Prince Ning’s Mansion is not entirely useless. Sword Fear, keep a close watch on this man. After our business here is concluded, deliver him to Prince Ning’s Mansion. This is a favor Prince Ning will be forced to acknowledge. It may prove beneficial to our Celestial Sword Sect in the future."

"Yes," Sword Fear acknowledged.

With the report concluded, the room fell silent for a moment.

Ye Guhong asked in a low voice, "How many districts in the county town have yet to be searched?"

Jian You replied, "Thunder Shock County Town has a total of seventeen districts. We have searched twelve, leaving five. If we continue at today’s pace and assign more men, we should be able to finish searching all of them within two days."

"Two days..."

Ye Guhong’s brows knitted slightly.

Jian You hesitated before speaking up. "Supreme Elders, please forgive your disciple for being blunt. We have been conducting a massive search in Thunder Shock County for five days, alarming almost everyone. If Hua Wuxin and the others were really in the city, there’s no way they would remain unaware. In this subordinate’s opinion...it’s highly likely they are already long gone."

"Hmph!"

The cold snort pierced his eardrums like an ice pick, and Jian You immediately lowered his head.

Ye Guhong’s gaze swept over him like lightning. "We haven’t finished the search, so what’s the rush? You’re losing your own composure!"

"Yes... Yes, this subordinate misspoke."

Fine beads of sweat broke out on Jian You’s temples.

Sword Fool looked up. "Supreme Elders, shall we proceed with the original plan for Xin’an County?"

Ye Guhong looked at Jiang Buyu.

Jiang Buyu’s finger traced lightly on the table as if in thought. After a moment, he said, "Starting tomorrow, Jian You, Sword Fear, you two will shift the focus of your search to the area around the Qingfeng Tea House, the Netherworld Ship’s stronghold. Make a big scene. Cause some conflict. Make sure everyone knows what’s happening."

Jian You and Sword Fear exchanged a glance and replied in unison, "Your disciples accept the order!"

...

After leaving the Kao Mountain Cliff Little World, Sword Five Jiang Buyu and Sword Seven Ye Guhong headed straight for Jiangkou, and had Sword Fool, who was stationed at Hidden Emperor Castle, assist them in tracking down the Netherworld Ship Black Market.

Sword Fool had participated in an operation to destroy the Netherworld Ship two years ago and had even boarded it, so he was relatively familiar with it.

But times had changed.

Li Sanli, the current master of the Netherworld Ship Black Market, had long since completely changed the old rendezvous methods, imposing strict rules and upgrading security.

Even Sword Fool found it difficult to find a way in at first.

All they knew was that there was a Netherworld Ship stronghold in Jiangkou County responsible for distributing tokens to board the ship.

But the stronghold had no core members, only a few specially trained peripheral personnel.

These people were only responsible for verifying secret passwords, distributing tokens, and providing the time and place for pickup. They were rotated out every two days.

What was even more troublesome was that these peripheral personnel had long since memorized the portraits and features of important figures in the Celestial Sword Sect.

Any Celestial Sword Disciple who went there would immediately receive special treatment.

The operatives would either play dumb, feigning ignorance to any questions.

Or they would just be obstructive and refuse to engage, let alone distribute any tokens.

When the soft approach failed, they had to resort to the hard one.

Jiang Buyu and Ye Guhong had no choice but to act, using their Divine Sense Skill, Sword Heart Clarity, to obtain a token, as well as the time and place for the pickup.

But the Celestial Sword Sect’s Divine Sense Secret Skill, Sword Heart Clarity, was completely different from Chen Li’s A Dream of Millet Porridge. The core of Sword Heart Clarity is Jianzhen.

The two Supreme Elders could use their formidable Power of the Primordial Spirit to break a person’s Heart Spirit, compelling them to answer truthfully and making it difficult to lie. However, the skill could not confuse their memories. After the subject regained consciousness, they would have a fresh and clear memory of the interrogation.

To prevent the news from leaking, the two Supreme Elders could only put the person in charge into a deep sleep.

In their minds, as long as they got the token and mixed in with the pickup boat, they could follow the trail to the Netherworld Ship. With their combined strength, they would be more than capable of sweeping through the Black Market and rooting out the mastermind behind it.

However, they had underestimated the Netherworld Ship—or rather, the cunning and caution of Li Sanli.

Li Sanli had long prepared a contingency plan for this exact kind of forced interrogation.

The personnel responsible for peripheral security and communications soon discovered that the person in charge of the stronghold had inexplicably fallen into a deep slumber and could not be woken by any means.

They immediately realized something was wrong and, without hesitation, activated their emergency protocol: they canceled that night’s pickup arrangements in Jiangkou.

And so, that night, Jiang Buyu and Ye Guhong, along with a group of elite Celestial Sword Disciples carefully selected and disguised as customers, waited bitterly in the cold wind by the river for the entire night, only to see not even a shadow.

Furious and alarmed, the members of the Celestial Sword Sect returned to the stronghold, only to find it completely deserted.

The cooked duck had flown away, and they had been made to look like monkeys.

The two Supreme Elders were so furious they were on the verge of drawing their swords and cutting someone down.

Their Martial Arts were exceptional and their Swordsmanship divine, but faced with these slippery counter-tactics, honed through years of struggle in the city’s underbelly, they felt the frustrating suffocation of punching a fist into cotton.

Yet, conscious of their status, they couldn’t just go on a killing spree against those ignorant, low-level informants.

The trail in Jiangkou had gone completely cold.

With no other choice, the Celestial Sword Sect had to find another way.

They captured several regular customers who had also received tokens that day and were preparing to go to the Netherworld Ship.

After some interrogation, they finally managed to map out the general distribution of the Netherworld Ship’s pickup strongholds across the various counties within Linjiang County.

To their surprise, these strongholds were almost all concentrated in the counties under the jurisdiction of Linjiang County.

From this, it was not difficult for them to deduce that the Netherworld Ship Black Market’s main area of operation was Linjiang County itself.

Furthermore, according to the descriptions from customers who had been aboard, the Netherworld Ship remained anchored in the middle of a vast body of water for long periods, rarely approaching the shore.

Combining this with the geographical location, it wasn’t hard to guess that the Netherworld Ship’s hiding place was Thunder Shock Marsh!

However, guessing it was in Thunder Shock Marsh and actually finding the Netherworld Ship were two entirely different matters.

Thunder Shock Marsh connected to the Grand River. It was a vast expanse of water, overgrown with reeds, dotted with countless islands like stars in the sky, with a volatile climate and shrouded in fog year-round.

Forget a single, deliberately hidden ship—even a small fleet could enter and vanish like a clay ox sinking into the sea.

Searching blindly would be no different from finding a needle in a haystack.

Thus, the two Supreme Elders made a swift decision and, taking Sword Fool and their disciples, rerouted to Thunder Shock County.

As for the Black Market at Hidden Emperor Castle, it had little business anyway, so temporarily closing it was no great loss.

Arriving in Thunder Shock County, they rendezvoused with Jian You and Sword Fear, who were already there searching for Hua Wuxin.

Having learned their lesson in Jiangkou, the Celestial Sword Sect did not immediately go looking for the Netherworld Ship’s strongholds again. Instead, they shifted their focus back to finding Hua Wuxin.

Following the contact method provided by Feng Suiyun, they left the secret symbol of the Seven Kills Association at the Earth God Temple and other locations.

But two full days passed with no response.

It was like a stone sinking into the ocean.

With their direct search stalled and their secret attempts at contact proving fruitless, the Celestial Sword Sect found itself in a difficult position.

Of course, they were not without a backup plan.

Thunder Shock County was not as prosperous as a State County, but it still had a population of fifty to sixty thousand people, in over ten thousand households.

Relying on the hundred or so disciples of the Celestial Sword Sect to find a few people was indeed difficult.

However, they could borrow strength from official channels.

The Celestial Sword Sect went directly to Magistrate Thunder Shock.

As a first-rate Sect with a resounding reputation within Jiangzhou, how could Magistrate Thunder Shock dare to refuse them, even if they lacked an official document from the Court?

He immediately dispatched a large number of government constables to cooperate with the Celestial Sword Disciples, beginning a house-by-house search and registration under the pretext of "apprehending notorious bandits and investigating suspicious individuals."

The Celestial Sword Sect’s calculations were very shrewd.

By making such a huge commotion, news would inevitably spread.

If Hua Wuxin had not betrayed them, he would likely take the initiative to appear and make contact upon learning of this massive, public search for him.

And even if Hua Wuxin had defected, as long as he was still in the city, the chances of his exposure would greatly increase under this kind of search, which was practically scraping the land clean.

Time was on their side.

Furthermore, this city-wide search was, in itself, a way of shaking the bushes.

Those hiding in the shadows, the ones with ghosts in their own hearts, might panic and try to flee. If anyone made a strange move, they might expose themselves and lead to an unexpected gain.

And on a deeper level, this was also part of Jiang Buyu and Ye Guhong’s plan.

They would clearly display every member of the Celestial Sword Sect on this small patch of land that was Thunder Shock County, causing a huge ruckus and making sure everyone knew they were there.

This way, the Netherworld Ship’s strongholds in other counties would lower their guard, assuming the entire Celestial Sword Sect was preoccupied here.

Having learned their lesson from Jiangkou, the Celestial Sword Sect would no longer send their own disciples to clash head-on with the Netherworld Ship’s tight defensive systems.

They had already scouted out informants. All they needed to do was obtain a token for the Netherworld Ship. Then, at the pickup location, Jiang Buyu and Ye Guhong would personally act to lock onto the pickup boat and silently tail it.

This time, they planned to strike directly at the heart of the enemy.

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

Just then, a light knock sounded at the door.

The five people in the room looked up almost simultaneously, their gazes shooting toward the door.

At this hour, an ordinary disciple would never dare to disturb them.

Jian You frowned and looked toward the two Supreme Elders.

Jiang Buyu gave a slight nod.

"What is it?"

He walked to the door and asked in a low voice.