Chapter 190: Those of Divine Nature
"A death list?"
Wu Shang spoke up from behind with a puzzled tone, while Li Musheng raised an eyebrow slightly.
Hu Rui'an looked at the writing on the bloodstained scroll and said, "The death list recorded here is not quite like an ordinary one. It does not record individual people, but areas of land, ranging from a single village at the smallest to an entire town at the largest. All of them are marked as targets for elimination."
He scanned through the booklet once more and continued, "The list records dates and locations across Sheng Province over the past five years. There are nearly thirty entries in total, all marked as having been carried out, and the operatives in every case were skilled agents from the Tianjin Guards branch office here in Sheng Province."
At those words, the expressions of Wu Shang and the others shifted. Among them, Cheng Zhong said thoughtfully, "The kinds of villages and towns that would warrant the Tianjin Guards being sent to eliminate them would most likely be gathering points for forces rebelling against the court, or bases for certain martial world brigands, would they not?"
Hearing this, Hu Rui'an gave a slight nod, then glanced at Li Musheng and said, "I had the same thought. What puzzles me is why this list was hidden away. If these were ordinary Tianjin Guards assignments carried out in the line of duty, there would be no reason to conceal them. I am only concerned there may be something within it that someone did not want known."
With that, he looked at the large cat in the corner and then at the old woman in the cell.
At that point the old woman suddenly let out a creaking, rattling laugh that seemed to wheeze out of a broken bellows, cutting through the silence and interrupting everyone's thoughts.
"You have got it wrong... what is recorded there is no ordinary matter. It is the sort of business that cannot be brought into the light..."