There was not even the slightest joy in Tang Xiu"s heart as he faced the grat.i.tude of the nearly 100 people. He was full of worry inwardly instead. Others may be thinking about who was the real culprit behind this poisoning, but what he was speculating about was whether this Drunken Dragon Powder was concocted by cultivators. If so, then the person must be an evil cultivator—someone who was proficient in poison.
"Mr. Tang, w.a.n.g Tao."
Tang Xiu never liked meddling in anyone"s business. Although he was furious towards those who did this ruthless poisoning, he didn"t want to have a conflict with them before he was sure of their ident.i.ty. It was because if they were not evil cultivators but good people, or if they were evil cultivators but he couldn"t get rid of them at once, there would be no end of troubles haunting him in the future. He didn"t fear them himself, but he still had family members and friends. It would be nearly impossible to protect all the people he cared about from the attack of these people.
Zhang Xinyue"s complexion was slightly pale. Only now did she feel glad that Tang Xiu came to Qinglin County. She wouldn"t have rushed from Shanghai to this place otherwise, meaning she would not have replaced her older sister, Zhang Xinya, in attending today"s luncheon.
It could be said that Tang Xiu"s emergence in this place today had not only saved her life, but also saved her sister"s life.
At present, she hurriedly spoke after seeing Tang Xiu was about to leave, "Mr. w.a.n.g, I"ve accomplished my job for this opening sale today, so I"m going to take my leave first."
With that said, she didn"t give a chance to w.a.n.g Xuegang to reply and hurriedly chased Tang Xiu to leave together.
At the moment, w.a.n.g Xuegang was truly fl.u.s.tered and yet also furious inside. He didn"t know who was so vicious that they wished to kill him and the guests, those who he had invited to purchase his villa real estate, using poison. He didn"t care about the departure of Zhang Xinyue, but couldn"t help but feel restless and more worried with Tang Xiu leaving.
"Could you please stay, Mr. Tang?" w.a.n.g Xuegang hurriedly pursued and stopped Tang Xiu at the entrance of the hall.
"Mr. w.a.n.g, the friends.h.i.+p between us has yet to reach the point where I can risk my life and die for you. It"s obvious that someone or some people want to drive you to the edge and to your death, or even keep you from turning over from your fall forever. This is nothing but a mortal enmity; it will never be a good thing if I involve myself in it. If you heed my advice, you can keep doing your business, but you should find a safe place to hide."
"I know that I shouldn"t get you involved in this matter, Mr. Tang," said w.a.n.g Xuegang bitterly. "But I don"t have any means to hide! Besides, I can"t just hide all the time since these people will definitely use all means possible to exterminate me if they really want to."
"Then sell your industries as quickly as possible if you"re really that scared, then bring your money to distant places," answered Tang Xiu. "I can"t and won"t say anything else, but for the sake of your son"s willingness to take me to Qingcheng Monastery, I"ll tell you another thing out of goodwill. This Drunken Dragon Powder is not something ordinary people can concoct, so there must be some cultivators behind it. Moreover, the refining of this powder is extremely demanding; it"s nearly impossible for money to measure its value. Therefore, it"s absolutely impossible to make such a heinous poisoning incident like today if you and the other party truly have no mortal enmity. Alright, I"ve already said what I had to say, so I"ll take my leave."
"Cultivators?"
Deep fear suffused inside w.a.n.g Xuegang"s eyes. He wouldn"t be this afraid had it been ordinary people who did these deeds. He would just relinquish his business affairs for some time and take asylum in Qingcheng Monastery to avoid them.
But… if it was cultivators, there was a possibility that Qingcheng Monastery"s people couldn"t protect him if he were to run and hide there. He would even involve and implicate the monastery.
"I"ll go to a very faraway place!"
A resolute look appeared in w.a.n.g Xuegang"s face. He was never one who liked to be tousled, nor be played at by anyone in society, no matter who they were. Since there was a possibility that the culprits were cultivators, he made up his mind to go to a distant place. No matter how much someone owed money, it was all nothing if they die.
"May I request another thing from you, Mr. Tang? You can rest a.s.sured that I"m not going to involve you in my problem. I"d just like to ask you to bring my son to Qingcheng Monastery and entrust him to my big brother."
"It"s a request you don"t need to mention; I"ll take him there," answered Tang Xiu.
But w.a.n.g Tao, who followed him outside, immediately shook his head and said aloud, "I"m not leaving, Dad! Not a chance. I must go with you now that someone wants to harm us!"
"PIPE DOWN, STUPID!" yelled w.a.n.g Xuegang angrily. "If the culprits are cultivators, then you"ll die in vain staying with me. But I"ll have nothing to worry about if you are to stay in Qingcheng Monastery. I"m going to deal with our family"s businesses as fast as possible and do as much as I can, as well as quickly gather funds and escape from this place. I"ll naturally find the way to contact you and pick you up later once I settle down."
"I…" w.a.n.g Tao still wanted to speak but Tang Xiu stopped him.
"Your father is right. Nothing good can happen if you stay; you"ll be just a burden," said Tang Xiu. "Let"s just go! We"ll head to Qingcheng Monastery first so we won"t affect the things your father must do…"
A few minutes later, Tang Xiu and the others came to the parking lot. His brows immediately creased when he saw Mo Awu, Jin s.h.i.+, and everyone else. Before he fed the soup to the chicken and sheep and waited for the result, he secretly contacted Mo Awu"s team to go to the kitchen to find any suspicious people who did the poisoning. Now that all of them had come back, it indicated that they already got a result.
"We caught two of them, Boss." Mo Awu quickly glanced at w.a.n.g Tao and Zhang Xinyue and then said in a low voice.
"Where are they?" asked Tang Xiu.
Mo Awu pointed to the window and answered, "They are inside and all of them are martial artists. Judging from today"s society, it could be said that they are two martial arts masters."
Tang Xiu nodded in response and came to the front of the car. He opened the door and saw two tied up middle-aged men in the back seat, bleeding out seven orifices and no longer breathing.
"He died?" muttered Mo Awu to himself in disbelief.
Tang Xiu quickly examined the two men"s bodies and finally concluded that they committed suicide by taking poison. However, considering that they had been tightly tied up, that meant that they had already put the poison pill in their mouth in advance. They would simply bite the poison pill to commit suicide once they were caught.
It spelled big trouble in and of itself and gave a headache to Tang Xiu as he watched the two bodies. If he knew that he would come across such bad luck, he wouldn"t have agreed to attend the opening ceremony of this villa complex today.
Behind him, w.a.n.g Tao and Zhang Xinyue watched the two bodies in the car with a fearful look. One was a second generation upstart, and the other one was a small business owner, so where had they seen such a murder case where the bodies bled from its every hole? If Tang Xiu, Mo Awu, and their group were not in this place at this moment, the two of them might have already run away in deep fear.
"T-Tang… Tang Xiu, what should we do?" Zhang Xinyue subconsciously held Tang Xiu"s arm and asked in a s.h.i.+ver.
"Don"t worry. These two dead men are nothing but p.a.w.ns, whereas the chief mastermind behind-the-scenes hasn"t yet appeared." Tang Xiu patted her back and said, "If anything, I"ll a.s.sign Awu to escort you back to the hotel first to meet with your older sister, and then… you"ll leave Qinglin County immediately."
Zhang Xinyue"s emotions calmed down. But she suddenly realized what she was doing and quickly took out her mobile phone to dial Zhang Xinya"s cell number. After some time speaking with her and learning that her sister, Zhang Xinya, was alright, she quickly hung up.
"I can"t go back to meet with my Sis now, Tang Xiu."
"Why?" Tang Xiu was confused.
"Today"s incident is too bizarre and fishy. Even so far, we have yet to figure out the real ident.i.ty of the murderer behind the scene is," said Zhang Xinyue. "They didn"t seem to fear that things will go out of control, nor were they afraid of any consequences. They might be trying to kill w.a.n.g Xuegang, but what about me? I think I"ll follow you first to make sure of things."
Tang Xiu frowned and said, "But your older sister there…"
"Outsiders have yet to find out the situation with my Sis," interrupted Zhang Xinyue. "They won"t keep an eye on the hotel as long as I don"t go back, and I"ll notice my sister to leave Qinglin County to return to Shanghai now to wait for me back there."
"But I must go back to Sis Xinya," interjected Zhang Xiaoyu all of a sudden.
Tang Xiu pondered for a moment before he nodded and said, "What you said is reasonable, so I"ll arrange for Gu Tao and Zhang Jue to escort this la.s.s to gather with your older sister and leave for Shanghai. Since you insist on staying with me, you can use your presence to attract people"s eyes and ears. However, we"ll go deeper into the Qingcheng Mountain. Can your untrained physique endure the travel?"
Tang Xiu"s arrangement was much to Zhang Xinyue"s satisfaction and she replied with all seriousness, "As long as you can endure it, I definitely can do it."
"Alright, it"s decided then," said Tang Xiu. "Gu Tao, Zhang Jue, you two are to immediately escort her away and you must not stay in Qinglin County for a long time. Xue Sha, Hei Xiong, find a way to deal with these two dead bodies. Do not leave any traces behind."
The four men accepted their orders and cupped their fists.
Half an hour later, Tang Xiu"s group of five halted their pace at the top of the mountain peak at the outermost part of Qingcheng Mountain. Tang Xiu lit up a cigarette, and just as he took two puffs, two figures flashed and appeared before him lightning fast.
"We"ve disposed of the two dead bodies, Boss. And absolutely no traces of them remain," reported Xue Sha while cupping his fists.
Tang Xiu nodded in response and looked at Zhang Xinyue and w.a.n.g Tao, who was panting and gasping for breath at this moment. Then he said, "Let"s rest here temporarily. We"ll continue to hurry along the road in 20 minutes. w.a.n.g Tao, can you tell me how long will it take us to get to the Qingcheng Monastery?"
w.a.n.g Tao gasped for breath twice and looked at the mountain range northward before saying, "If we traverse up the mountain pathway, we should arrive at Qingcheng Monastery by at least tomorrow evening. I know another path, but we may encounter some dangers if we take it since that path is deeper in the forest with a lot of wild animals."
"Ordinary beasts are not a threat to us. Rest a.s.sured!" said Tang Xiu indifferently.
w.a.n.g Tao recalled Tang Xiu"s another ident.i.ty, so he nodded and continued, "I don"t have such worries with you here, Big Brother Tang. The thing is… we didn"t prep water and food before we hiked up, so my only concern is the trouble we"ll encounter due to hunger and thirst on the way there."
"Hehe!" Tang Xiu chuckled but no longer spoke after shaking his head.
"Whether we carry water and food are not of not our concern as it makes no difference to us whatsoever," said Mo Awu gruffly, "Besides, in our eyes, this deep forest is full of fruits everywhere that can fill our stomach."