Chapter 2271

Not long ago, twenty miles east of Yiling City, Shixin Town.

In a secluded hotel at the town’s edge, a gray-clad elder sat in a heavily worn leather armchair, his murky, yellowed eyes fixed on the black-and-white phone screen before him.

“Mr. Yin, still no news?” Suddenly, a voice asked from behind, it was also an elderly person, short and plump, dressed in a black tracksuit, with a square backpack strapped to his back.

The gray-clad elder addressed as Mr. Qi couldn’t help but frown, his rough hand instinctively rubbed the severely faded mechanical keys of the elderly phone. They were from the Chamber of Commerce, and the employer for this mission was Sheng Jingxuan, the current dean of Yiling Academy.

According to their agreement, they had arrived three days ago to wait in secret. As soon as they received a call for help from within the city, they would immediately go in to provide support.

To be safe, there was a fallback plan. They would communicate using a secret code every half hour. If delayed and they hadn’t received city communication, any message delayed by more than 15 minutes would trigger immediate entry into the city.

“How long has it been since we last received a message?” A hoarse voice spoke from behind the gray-clad elder and the black-clad elder, where a third person sat cross-legged on the bed.

This was also an old man, slender and tall, wearing a conical hat and a white martial arts outfit. When the elder slightly raised his head, it revealed the pale face beneath the hat, covered with death spots.

Facing this inquiry, the gray-clad elder dared not conceal the truth and responded in a deep voice: “It’s been almost 40 minutes, 10 minutes later than our agreed second contact.”

Upon hearing this, the white-clad elder sitting on the bed hesitated no longer. He slowly rose and said firmly, “Something’s happened inside the city, now the two of you follow me and enter the city to quell the disturbance immediately.”

The black-clad elder frowned but politely asked, “Elder Xie, shouldn’t we contact Chairman Lu of the local Provincial Chamber of Commerce first, as we were advised before coming…”

“Too late.” The white-clad elder took a deep breath and turned his head toward the window, “They’ve already arrived.”

As soon as he finished speaking, zither music resounded from outside the window, deep and melancholic, seeming to penetrate the deepest recesses of the heart, evoking memories long difficult to forget.

Following the zither music, a series of cries echoed, from men, women, elderly, and children. It wasn’t loud crying but soft sobbing, eerily unsettling.

“Ha, such a trivial trick, how dare you show off before an expert!” The black-clad elder turned and pulled off his backpack, revealing a black miniature coffin inside, and without hesitation, he threw it out the window, shattering the window with great force.

The next second, an even more piercing cry exploded outside the window, like a baby’s high-pitched scream. Soon, the previous zither music was entirely drowned out, and the cries of men, women, and children disappeared.

With a wave of his hand, the white-clad elder vanished from the room, then reappeared on the roof of the three-story hotel, where on the roof of a neighboring building, someone was already waiting for them.

The arrivals were also three people, the furthest left was a veiled woman, about 40 years old, with long black hair draped to one side, holding an ancient zither with a mottled surface. Clearly, the earlier zither music was her doing.

To the right was a tall and robust middle-aged man, equipped with an iron sword and iron armor, looking like an ancient person who traveled through time, with a square face, thick eyebrows, and large eyes, his expression stern and cold, exuding a chilling murderous aura.

In the center was an old man leaning on a dirty, candle-like crude cane, his body hunched and skeletal, appearing extremely frightening.

Most of his hair had fallen out, with only a few tufts of withered yellow hair on his head, hollow eye sockets, wax-yellow skin, lips, nose, ears, all severely shrunken, giving him the appearance of a melting wax figure—or rather, a wax corpse.

Though the weather was not particularly hot, and the sun was not overpowering, murky wax-like liquid continued to drip down the old man’s cheek, making the scene eerie.

“Waxman Zhang…” The Chamber of Commerce black-clad elder’s pupils suddenly contracted, instantly identifying the person’s identity, and unease rose in his eyes.

“Heh heh…” The old man, called Waxman Zhang, hunched his body, craned his neck, and scanned the faces of the Chamber of Commerce’s three people with his sharp and unpleasant voice: “Cold River Lonely Elder Xie Yanyan, Broken Blade Guest Yin Lishan, Little Coffin Immortal Ji Xuan, to have invited you here, it seems Sheng Jingxuan this time has indeed gone to great lengths.”

“Commissioned by others, loyal to the mission. As far as I know, the Yiling Academy matters shouldn’t be related to your Patrol Defense Office, right?” Xie Yanyan asked bluntly.

“Of course, it’s unrelated. We just happened to pass through, but you might not know, there’s a commotion with an Evil Cultivator inside Yiling City right now. We pursued fleeing Evil Cultivators to this place.” Waxman Zhang replied with a sarcastic smile, with several solidified wax patches on his face.

“Ha, I can’t believe it, what kind of Evil Cultivator would be influential enough to warrant pursuit by the likes of you three.” Xie Yanyan retaliated.

Currently, Xie Yanyan could sense that the other party had masters beyond the three in sight; there were at least ten experts nearby, though none were Netherworld Envoys.

“Whomever we are pursuing is none of your business, it’s part of our Patrol Defense Office duties,” Elder Waxman Zhang responded.