"Knock, knock, knock!"
The sound of knocking from outside interrupted Su Heng's thoughts.
Creak!
The old door swung open.
On the deserted street outside stood a lean figure, dark as iron.
"Li Si?" Su Heng raised an eyebrow. "What brings you here?"
"Second Young Master." Li Si bowed and spoke bluntly, "Master Su has something urgent to discuss with you."
"If he sent you personally, it must be quite urgent."
Su Heng nodded immediately, "Then let's not keep him waiting and head over right now."
The courtyard where he currently resided was located in Jiujaifang, not far from the Su Family estate, although it required passing through a narrow alleyway.
The alley was flanked by low yellow mud walls.
The houses inside the walls were empty, whether they had moved out or some mishap had occurred was unclear.
The light was dim, the air was moist, and walking on the ground gave a gritty feeling. The creaking sounds could still be heard. On regular days when Su Heng passed through this alley, he could also detect the smell of dry latrine feces.
But now,
as the residents on both sides of the alley moved away,
that smell gradually vanished, taking away much of the scent of life with it.
Just as they were about to cross the alley and step onto Jingyangfang Street, Su Heng suddenly stopped, causing Li Si, who was following behind, to almost bump into him.
"Second Young Master?"
Li Si looked up, his face filled with confusion.
Footsteps rushed towards them, quickly changing Li Si's confusion into solemnity.
It was a group of brawny men, wearing tattered wraps and holding rusty cleavers, blocking their path.
"These are members of the Black Snake Gang."
Li Si eyed the leader of the group, a tall figure with a rough black snake tattoo on the left side of his face.
Li Si's face showed apprehension. "This man is called Mo Jiu, a felon. Somehow he escaped from prison and founded the Black Snake Gang with a group of criminals. They not only defeated the officers sent to arrest them but also chopped the leading officer into mincemeat alive."
Li Si lowered his head to see an eyeball that had fallen at his feet; although he had seen Su Heng practice martial arts, this was the first time he had seen Su Heng actually kill someone.
This type of terrifying and exaggerated violence, akin to that of a monstrous beast, was simply dreadful.
It took Li Si a moment to recover from the shock.
He looked up,
only to see Su Heng had already walked far away, about to disappear around the corner of the street.
Li Si shook his head and quickly gathered his scattered thoughts, jogging to catch up with Su Heng.
...
"Did you just get into a fight with someone?" Su Gui asked, looking at the crimson blood stains on Su Heng, frowning with concern on his chubby face.
"Ran into a group of fools," Su Heng said calmly, "What did you want to talk about?"
"The public security in Changqing County is getting worse, the Xue Family's residence was attacked a few days ago," Su Gui said. "Thankfully, I heeded your advice to buy martial arts texts, store up food in advance, and recruit protectors. Only then could the vast Su Family's assets remain stable."
"And you..."
Su Gui took a sip of tea and sighed again, "Your father knows you have an extraordinary talent in martial arts, but you should restrain yourself a bit, avoid conflict with others. The Su Family doesn't lack money, when possible, let things slide, otherwise, with your overly flamboyant personality, you'll suffer later."
"Stick to the point," Su Heng interrupted Su Gui's nagging, feeling somewhat headache.
"Right, the business,"
Su Gui, flustered, put down his teacup, "You know about Heikui Mountain, right? The base of the mountain is Jiuqu River. To avoid poisoning the well water, we send people twice a day to fetch water from Jiuqu River. Normally, the protector who fetches the water should have returned an hour ago, but now there's no sign of them."
"There's been fog in Heikui Mountain lately, and also incidents of wild animals harming people,"
Although Su Heng was immersed in practicing martial arts, he somewhat understood what was happening in the outside world.
"You suspect that the water fetchers encountered some misfortune in Heikui Mountain, hmm, that's indeed possible," Su Heng said, "Has someone been sent to look for them?"
"Yes," Su Gui nodded, "and then that group also disappeared."
...
"This could be a bit tricky," Su Heng's brows furrowed.
The protectors had been traveling to and from Heikui Mountain for over half a month and were unlikely to get lost in the fog, so they probably encountered something bad.
Wild animals harming people?
The chances are more likely it's the work of demons.