The people in the carriage could not believe their eyes currently. All this time they had been worried that something had happened to Lin Mu. They were thinking that his identity had been found out, and that he had been caught or something.
When Hei Shi reported to Hei Wan and Hei Bao, they had been prepared for the worst. But now that Lin Mu was right in front of them and had even shown them such a shocking thing, they could not help but gasp.
"If this the Vice captain Han Lei, they who is the other person?" Hei Wan questioned.
The Town head's skull was completely crushed and was as good as gone. Thus it was no wonder that they were currently unable to recognize him. There was also the fact that he was differently dressed right now, as usually when he appeared in public he would be dressed in the commoner's clothes and not in high-quality clothes like the ones he was in right now.
"This is the Town head." Lin Mu answered with a straight face.
"This is the Town head?… Wha.. What happened to him?" Hei Bao spoke, stuttering.
"I-I… lost control over myself and killed them." Lin Mu answered.
Lin Mu could not exactly explain why he did it, thus this was the closest manner in which he could explain it in. Though even after Lin Mu's explanation, their shock did not reduce even a little bit. Instead, it increased even more.
'What kind of kid is he? Even if he's at the peak of the Qi refining realm, this isn't something that's easily accomplished.' Hei Wan thought while looking at the nearly headless Town Head.
"Lost control? But how…" Hei Bao was just about to ask further when suddenly Hei Wan tapped his arm.
Hei Bao reeled his words back in and sealed his lips upon understanding Hei Wan's gesture. Hei Wan was even gesturing to Hei Bao with her eyes while thinking something.
Lin Mu was still thinking of how to explain this further, thus did not notice their little interaction.
"So… what exactly is the situation right now?" Hei Wan spoke after measuring her every word.
"Let me explain then…" Lin Mu said and then started to explain everything that happened while omitting certain parts and altering some.
Lin Mu told them about how he found out about their involvement and confirmed that they are part of the culprits. He also then told them a little about how he lost his self-control. He told them how he saw all the luxuries in the town head's office and how he had denied any aid to the people last year when they were suffering from the plague.
Both Hei Wan and Hei Bao patiently listened to his explanation and did not interrupt him even once. Lin Mu was expecting them to ask him more questions or to clarify his claims, but surprisingly they did not and just accepted everything straight away.
"Okay, so we just need a plan to help turn this situation around." Hei Wan spoke after Lin Mu finished speaking.
"Yes." Lin Mu responded.
Silence descended in the carriage once again as everyone started to think of possible solutions and approaches to this scenario now. They thought for five minutes and then the first person to respond was the masked man who was silent all this while until now.
"The memory confounding powder is already in effect, right? Then we only need to plant some kind of incriminating evidence in the town head's office. The others will just think that it was the work of the same people that were behind the mercenaries' disappearance." The masked man spoke.
"That is indeed a valid method we could use, but we still need to figure out more. If they investigate it deeply, they will easily end up finding out that this was false." Han Wei spoke.
"We need to make them think that it was the same people who are the actual culprits. This way not only will we expose them to the public, but the actual culprits will also be confused and may even start to suspect their own people if we're lucky." Hei Bao suggested.
"Yes! I can do that. I still have the clothes that the culprits wore. I can just show myself to the public disguised as the culprits and then appear to the others as myself. I'll also be able to plant Lu Xiao in there and make it seem as if he was attacked by the culprits while escaping." Lin Mu explained.
Hei Wan's eyes lit up upon hearing this, and the gears in her mind started working.
"This could work." Hei Wan said while nodding.
They then spent five more minutes discussing the more finer points of the plan before separating. After the addition of a few more suggestions from Hei Wan and Hei Bao, the plan was now completely formulated.
According to the plan Lin Mu was supposed to go first, thus he left the carriage and went away. The door of the carriage closed behind him and a serious expression appeared on Hei Wan and Hei Bao's face. Hei Wan suddenly slumped on the seat, as if relieved by something. Han Bao saw this but did not ask about it, instead, he spoke.
"Do you really think this plan will be successful?" Hei Bao questioned.
"It has to. We don't really have a choice after what he did…" Hei Wan replied.
Hei Bao went silent for a moment before speaking again.
"Why did you interrupt me before?" Hei Bao asked.
"At first when I met him in the morning, I was expecting him to be like the other talented cultivators from the sects and the Nobel families. But talking with him made me think that he was humble and reserved."
"But now… seeing this, I can't say the same. You saw the Town head's corpse. That is not something that can be done by just any cultivator, just the raw strength required would be massive. He even said that he only did this because he lost self-control. This only means that he's hiding much more than we thought." Hei Wan explained.
"But he lost control due to a righteous cause." Hei Bao spoke.
"Do you really think that? Were you not able to feel the change in his aura when he was explaining to us? It was subtle, but I could still feel the killing intent that was hidden within it. That killing intent was strong, very strong.
So strong that I've only felt something like that once before." Hei Wan replied.
'So that's why she felt relieved upon Lin Mu's departure.' Hei Bao thought to himself.
"You mean when Old Man Jing came to the Lord's mansion?" Hei Bao asked.
"Yes. His killing intent, while not exactly the same intensity as old man Jing, was still very oppressive. It felt as if a poisoned dagger hidden in the dark." Hei Wan answered.
Hei Bao fell silent after hearing Hei Wan's answer and thought about it. Lin Mu was on his way back to the Town head's office and was unaware of the conversation that had just happened between Hei Wan and Hei Bao.
Lin Mu was currently standing on the roof of a building and was waiting for the right moment to jump. The plan they had decided upon was that, Hei Wan was going to act as a High official from the Wu Lim city, who had come to pay a visit.
They would walk up to the office and discover Lu Xiao lying in the corridor. Then Lin Mu would show himself in the culprits' clothes and influence the mercenaries who due to the influence of the memory confounding powder would not be able to clearly remember it.
And when the time would come for it to be revealed, the Hei corps would manipulate the perception of the people and make it seem as if it was the actual culprits who had done this. Lin Mu would also be placing the corpses of the Town Head and Han Lei back in the office.
Lin Mu waited on the roof until he saw the carriage approach the town center. He then jumped from the roof and blinked to the balcony of the office. Once inside the office, he changed into the clothes of the previous culprits and place down the bodies as they were before.
Lin Mu then placed the unconscious Lu Xiao outside the office in the corridor, making it seem as if he was running away. He even inflicted some slight cuts on his body, just to make it seem more convincing. While this would hurt Lu Xiao a little bit right now, it wouldn't matter in the long run.
After this was done, Lin Mu just waited in the corridor. A minute later the sound of footsteps appeared, as a staffer guided Hei Wan and Hei Bao upstairs. They saw Lin Mu standing over Lu Xiao With a sword in his hand just about to kill him.
"WHO ARE YOU?!" Shouted the staffer.
"Stay behind, he's dangerous." Hei Bao ordered as he pretended to come forward.
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