Chapter 155: Strange Murderer

The driver learnt that there was a shortcut and took it even if the shortcut was known to be dangerous because Big Slave could easily get rid of people who tried to stop them.

And luckily they took another way because they didn’t know but some people on horses had been chasing them.

During the following days, the carriage didn’t cross any county town, therefore, Mu Yi didn’t know that in some county towns, there were some posters and on some of those posters, there were images of him and Big Slave.

If Mu Yi had seen that, he would have understood that the news that he had the key had spread everywhere. Some people were convinced that Mu Yi was the young prince’s murderer.

Nobody had seen what had happened though. And Qu Yang was adding fuel to the fire. Because of what Qu Yang was saying everywhere, people started thinking it was obvious that Mu Yi was the murderer. They just needed a scapegoat anyway, an excuse.

“Master, there’s a village in front of us. Should we spend the night there?”

In the evening, they arrived at the entrance of the village, Mister Li opened Mu Yi’s curtain and asked for instructions.

Mu Yi didn’t hide his true identity anymore since they had already left town. He was wearing his Taoist robe again. The chauffeur and Mu Yi had even chatted. Mu Yi knew his name:Li the Good. Of course, it wasn’t his real name but people called him that because he was frank, honest and simple-minded. Even Li the Good called himself that now.

“Alright.” said Mu Yi nodding. Even though they hadn’t endured the hardships of an arduous journey, they hadn’t rested either. And Mu Yi was exhausted, during the day, they traveled, and in the evening Mu Yi carried out the sacrificial ritual of the Bamboo Tree of Life.

When Li the Good heard Mu Yi’s answer, he smiled with his eyes. If he had been alone, he wouldn’t have been able to afford staying in hotels, but since Mu Yi had hired him, he also paid for good and accommodation.

The gates of the different clans were firmly closed at night in the village. There was nobody on the streets either. It was strange. And surprisingly, that small village didn’t even have an inn. It was very strange.

Li the Good decided to knock at a clan’s door.

Of course they were not willing to host them and they wanted them to go away. Finally, Mu Yi took out money, their interlocutor remained silent but finally accepted to let them stay for the night.

They just told them they had to leave on the second day at dawn.

Even though Mu Yi knew there was something dodgy, he accepted. They had no drinkable water in the carriage so he accepted.

After that, that person took them to rooms. He also prepared some food and drinks for them since they had paid a good amount of money. He also repeated that they couldn’t travel freely within the clan at night and that they had to leave at dawn.

“It’s a strange place.” said Li the Good when that person left.

Mu Yi smiled but said nothing. They were going to leave on the day after early in the morning, it didn’t matter whether those people were nice or not.

At night, when Li the Good went to bed, Mu Yi continued the sacrificial ritual. Even though he wasn’t familiar with the place, he wasn’t afraid, especially that Big Slave was on his side to protect him. And if anything happened, he would also be able to react.

During those few days, Mu Yi sensed that Nian Nuer’s Qi was becoming more and more powerful. It had broken free from the limits of the Bamboo Tree of Life a few times.

She had been accumulating Qi to the maximum level. Maybe that she was going to level up. anytime. She didn’t level up on that evening though.

“Quickly, quickly, here.”

“Hurry up and encircle him, we can’t afford to let the murderer escape!”

said some voices at dawn. Mu Yi could sense around twenty different sources of Qi outside.

“Master, what’s going on?”

Li the Good also woke up because of the noise, he stood up and looked at Mu Yi.

At that moment, some people were holding dazzling torches in the courtyard and they also illuminated the room from outside through the windows. So Li the Good’s face was illuminated too.

“I’m not sure. Let’s go out and see.” said Mu Yi shaking his head. He got off his bed. Luckily, he had finished the sacrificial ritual early on that night because Big Slave and Li the Good wouldn’t have been able to deal with the situation alone.

Mu Yi opened the door of the room and looked at the crowd.

It was beyond expectation. The leader of the group was an old woman surprisingly, she had a walking stick, silver hair, and next to them, there was the one who had showed them their rooms on the previous evening.

Apart from those people, there were servants, their faces were deathly pale and they were holding various items, brooms, wooden basins, they looked ridiculous.

But Mu Yi didn’t laugh.

“What do you want, everybody?”

The people in the courtyard fixedly stared at him. They didn’t dare act recklessly. They even looked scared when they saw his facial expression.

“It wasn’t easy to catch up with you and I spared your life, but why did you kill my daughter-in-law?” asked the old woman. She looked sad and looked at Mu Yi with disgust.

Mu Yi was surprised.

Even though he had heard of some murderer, he hadn’t thought they would directly accuse him.

“You’re mistaken.” That was the first thing Mu Yi thought of.

“Old woman, I didn’t go out yesterday evening, how could I have killed anyone? You’re probably mistaken.” explained Mu Yi.

“Cui Xiang, is it him or not?” asked the old woman looking at the young woman next to her whose face was deathly pale.

“Ma’am!”

said Cui Xiang: “That’s right, that’s him indeed. He went to the lady’s room and she struggled to stay alive, but in the end because she didn’t want to get raped and tarnished, she committed suicide by biting off her tongue.”

The young woman immediately started crying when she said that.

Mu Yi looked furious he heard her.

He had initially thought it was a mistake, now he understood it was a conspiracy.

He felt sad for those women though, they were so weak.

“What a touching story. She committed suicide by biting off her tongue? So now you’re accusing me without any clue?” said Mu Yi smiling in an ice-cold way. Those people’s eyes twinkled but they didn’t dare look at him.

“You’re a monk and you’re utterly devoid of conscience, how sad, but there are laws in this world and you will get punished.” said the old woman. She was furious.

“Laws? There are laws, but they aren’t your clan’s laws.” said Mu Yi in a cold way.

Li the Good was scared to death. He was too tired on the previous evening so he had slept really well. He didn’t know what had happened. But from what he had understood, he was convinced Mu Yi couldn’t possible do something as cruel as that.

Big Slave was inside protecting the Bamboo Tree of Life. As long as Mu Yi didn’t say anything, Big Slave’s only task was to protect the tree.

“No need to waste your time and talk to him. I already dispatched people who are going to inform the high-officials. The members of the yamen will come.” said someone next to her.

Actually, that was the one who had taken them inside on the previous evening.

Mu Yi looked at him in a meaningful way. Was that person interested in money only?

If that was the case, it would have been useless to come with such a big group of people. Besides, why would they have need to go and inform high officials? Their purpose wasn’t only money.

And since their purpose wasn’t money, then it was related to the fact that the young lady had died, but who had killed her? Cui Xiang said that the lady had committed suicide by biting off her tongue. That wasn’t something easy to do.

But why had she committed suicide? Besides, if she had really committed suicide, then why accuse him?

Mu Yi didn’t understand what was going on. He needed to see the victim who had committed suicide by biting off her tongue but the enemies wouldn’t allow him.

“Little Taoist priest, surrender now and I’ll be kind. Otherwise, I will have no choice but to make you go through hard times.” said the old woman to Mu Yi.

“You think I’m extremely stupid? You’re an old woman, how can you be so damn stupid?” said Mu Yi. It surprised everybody. Many people were even more scared and shook from head to foot.

She held her walking stick even more firmly, she pointed at Mu Yi with her other hand and said: “Alright, alright, you will have no choice but to surrender though. Someone capture him, dead or alive.”

said the old woman utterly discomfited.

“Roger, Ma’am!”

Probably because of Mu Yi’s age, when some of them heard that, they raised their weapons and surrounded Mu Yi. He probably looked and easy to bully in their eyes. They ignored Li the Good.

They were convinced that a well-behaved and honest man like him could easily be kept under control with the few servants.

Mu Yi looked at the people who encircled him, he was expressionless. How unexpected. His eyes were filled with murder. Actually, since the battle a few days before, he knew that his cultivation wasn’t very stable so he had made great efforts to make it become stable.

He could easily kill all those people in front of him but he didn’t want to go against his contradictions because of such small things. Killing tons of people wasn’t something which made him feel better, more enlightened, it didn’t make his cultivation feel stable.

But even if he didn’t kill people, it didn’t mean that he was going to surrender!