Chapter 73: A Cold Interrogation II
The two surviving men looked at the frozen corpse of their companion, their faces draining of all color. The suffocating terror of death broke whatever lingering loyalty they had left.
Before Lu Feng could even open his mouth to reiterate his offer, both men began shouting at the top of their lungs, spilling everything they knew simultaneously in a frantic, overlapping barrage of panic.
"Our contact is Black Rat! He stays at the Laughing Toad Tavern in the Lower District!" the man with the broken jaw yelled through his bloodied teeth.
"The faction we work for is called the Iron Hook Gang! They work under the Third Elder of the Merchant Guild!" the other shouted over him, his eyes wild with desperation. "The contractor wanted the ledger for a blackmailing purpose before the seasonal auction! That’s all we know! I swear that’s everything! Spare me!"
"Black Rat is supposed to meet and give us our pay at dawn! He will be waiting near the west docks!"
Their voices tumbled over each other in a chaotic mess of overlapping confessions, both desperately trying to be the single survivor Lu Feng had promised to keep alive. Within moments, the room fell silent again, save for the heavy, ragged breathing of the two terrified intruders.
Lu Feng rubbed the bridge of his nose and let out a long, weary sigh. He looked down at the two panting men, then turned his gaze toward Ye Chenxue with a faint, wry smile. "Well... what do we do now? They both confessed all they knew at the exact same time."
Ye Chenxue looked at the two cowering men with a face as cold as winter frost. She raised her hand slightly, a faint trail of icy white mist rising from her fingertips. "It is simple," she suggested casually, her tone completely devoid of mercy. "We eliminate both of them. Dead men tell no tales, and we already have the information we need."
Hearing her cold declaration, both intruders began to tremble violently, pressing their backs against the wooden floorboards as if trying to melt into the foundation.
"No," Lu Feng said, waving his hand to stop her. "Killing both of them right now will raise far too much suspicion. If a local faction sent three skilled infiltration experts and all three vanish without a trace on the exact night we move into the estate, they will immediately know something went wrong here. They might send a larger force or alert their backers."
He crossed his arms, staring down at the remaining two men as he deliberated. The midnight hour was passing, and making a hasty decision under the dim lantern light wasn’t his style.
"For now, we cripple them," Lu Feng declared firmly. "We will shatter their Dantians to strip them of their cultivation energy, ensuring they cannot use Qi to break free or send a signal. Then we lock them up in the estate’s secondary holding space. We can make a final decision on how to handle them when the sun comes up."
Before Ye Chenxue stepped forward to execute the order, Lu Feng held up a hand, his mismatched eyes narrowing as a crucial question crossed his mind. He looked down at the two men with a sharp, demanding glare.
"Before we put you away, answer me one more thing," Lu Feng demanded. "How exactly did you breach the estate’s perimeter so easily? This place is supposed to be protected by a middle-grade defensive array, yet you crossed the outer wall without triggering a single alarm."
The intruder with the intact jaw swallowed nervously, nodding frantically to show his compliance. "The... the outer array installed on this estate is faulty! It was built using cheap, low-grade formation flags that have long since degraded. We knew the exact weak points on the east wall because we have been inside this estate a few times before back when Agent Zhou was still using it as a safe house!"
Han Lin frowned, her hand instinctively tightening into a fist at her side. "And what about the barrier over my chamber door? I used the defensive Array flag Young Master Lu gave me!"
"That barrier was far too weak to stop proper tools," the man admitted weakly, pointing a trembling finger toward the frozen corpse lying beside them. "He carried a specialised barrier-destroying dagger in his pouch. A single stab with the poisonous tip is enough to dissolve low-grade array lines in seconds. It crumbled like paper."
Ye Chenxue glided over to the frozen corpse, crouching down to search the dead man’s leather pouch. Sure enough, she pulled out a thin, vicious-looking silver dagger with a faint violet sheen coating its narrow blade. She held it up under the lantern light, examining the dark, corrosive poison lining the weapon’s edge.
Lu Feng took the dagger from her, inspecting the strange, etched runes along the hilt before letting out a cold, bitter laugh.
"A faulty outer array... and a weak defensive array flag that dissolves under a simple trick dagger," Lu Feng muttered, his eyes flashing with a dangerous light as he looked at Han Lin. "It seems the merchant sold us an overpriced scam of a defensive array alongside this estate. He took my gold and handed me defective garbage."
Han Lin’s face flushed with a mixture of shock and anger. "I’m really sorry, Young Master... if I was as strong as Sister Chenxue, you wouldn’t have even needed to get me the defensive array in the first place and I would’ve dealt with them the moment they entered my room!"
"We will deal with all of it once morning comes," Lu Feng said calmly, though the subtle sharp edge in his voice promised a severe reckoning for the dishonest merchant.
Without wasting any more time, Ye Chenxue stepped forward. With two swift, precise strikes of her palm directly against the lower abdomens of the two surviving intruders, a burst of concentrated Ice Qi shattered their cultivation centers.
Both men let out strangled gasps of agony as their Dantians collapsed, their hard-earned Qi dispersing into nothingness. Completely drained of power and reduced to ordinary, crippled mortals, they slumped limply onto the floorboards.
Together, Lu Feng and Ye Chenxue hauled the two crippled men and the frozen corpse out of Han Lin’s chamber. They dragged them across the courtyard to the private training chamber that Lu Feng had reserved for his own personal cultivation—a heavily reinforced stone room with thick iron-wood doors. They tossed the three men inside, locking the heavy latch tightly from the outside.
With the immediate threat neutralized, the heavy silence of the night settled back over the mini estate.
Lu Feng turned to the two women, offering them a gentle, reassuring smile. "It’s late, and you both have had a exhausting night. Han Lin, go back to your room and rest. Chenxue, you should clean up and get some proper sleep as well. You’ve worked hard tonight."
"Are you not going to sleep, Young Master Lu?" Han Lin asked, her eyes carrying a trace of worry as she looked at him.
"No," Lu Feng replied, glancing toward the quiet courtyard where the silver moonlight washed over the slate paths. "Our perimeter array is useless, and we don’t know if these men had partners waiting outside the perimeter. I will stay awake and keep watch over the estate until dawn breaks."
Han Lin hesitated, but seeing the calm, unshakeable confidence in his eyes, she bowed her head softly. "Thank you, Young Master."
Ye Chenxue gave a small, approving nod, satisfied with his vigilance. "Call me if anything else occurs."
As the two women retired to their respective quarters, Lu Feng walked out into the center of the courtyard. He sat down cross-legged on the stone steps leading up to the main hall, resting his small dagger across his knees. Closing his eyes, he let his sharp, heightened physical senses expand across the entire perimeter, a silent guardian believed to be invincible by the ladies that followed him.
"I really don’t want to fight anyone." Lu Feng sighed and yawned at the same time. He was still very much sleepy.