Lin Mu climbed up on the roofs again as he knew that it would be nearly impossible to spot Hei Bao and the culprit on the ground. He used blink to quickly reach the top and started running towards the location that he was expecting them to be.
Lin Mu leaped from roof to roof and soon reached the area that he was expecting Hei Bao to be in. Though when he looked around, he couldn't spot him anywhere. He wondered if he had gone further or were they at the back instead.
Lin Mu knew that he was faster than the Hei Bao and the culprit, thus the chance of them being ahead was much less. He turned to the back and ran towards there. A couple of minutes later, he saw the two men on the ground fighting and knew that his guess was right.
"Let's get this done with." Lin Mu muttered.
He then jumped down from the roof and approached the fighting duo. Hei Bao and the culprit easily spotted him. No change of expression could be seen on the face of Hei Bao, but Lin Mu could tell that the culprit was getting tense now.
Lin Mu had already sensed the cultivation of the culprit and knew that he was at the mid stage of the qi refining realm, the same as the one he had captured before. While Hei Bao was at the peak stage of the qi refining realm, he wasn't using all his strength as he wanted to catch the culprit and not kill him.
Lin Mu was just about to act when the culprit did something he had not expected. The culprit withdrew a black pill from his sleeve and moved his face cover aside.
"NOO!!" Hei Bao shouted.
He lunged forward to restrain the culprit, but before he could do so, the culprit had already popped the pill in his mouth and swallowed it. Lin Mu too rushed forward and stood next to the culprit. He wanted to save him but was too late as the black pill's effect started and the culprit started convulsing.
"It's no use. You can't save him now." Xukong spoke.
Lin Mu simply nodded and kept on staring at the culprit who was now lying still on the ground, no longer convulsing.
"We were too late. I should have just taken the risk and restricted him from the very start." Hei Bao spoke in regret.
He then turned to look at Lin Mu and looked around.
"I take it you lost your culprit?" Hei Bao asked.
"No." Lin Mu replied while shaking his head.
He then withdrew the unconscious man from his ring and laid him down.
"What!? You put him in a spatial treasure! Is he even alive?" Hei Bao exclaimed.
It was common knowledge that living creatures usually cannot be kept in spatial treasures unless they are specially made for storing them. If one was to store a person or a beast in spatial treasure, they would just die of suffocation, if not from other reasons such as being splinched due to insufficient space or dismembered due to unstable space.
"Don't worry, he wasn't there for more than a minute. I was close by." Lin Mu replied, not wanting to reveal much.
Hei Bao nodded in response and then checked up on the culprit.
He frisked the culprit's body and removed a few things from there. Lin Mu had not known that the culprits would commit suicide before, or he would have done the same thing. He had already knocked the culprit unconscious and had restrained him thus was not as worried.
Hei Bao retrieved a pill and a small crossbow from the sleeve of the culprit, along with a small vial of black liquid and a quiver of bolts from the culprit's waist. He also took away the dagger that was hidden in the culprits' clothes.
The crossbow that Hei Bao had removed from the culprit, seemed to be intricately crafted and looked complex. While its size was small enough to hide within the wide sleeves of the culprit, its range and power were still sufficient to kill someone.
The crossbow was made mostly from some kind of metal and was slightly shiny as if it was polished to perfection.
"What kind of crossbow is this?" Lin Mu questioned.
Hei Bao furrowed his brows while staring at the crossbow in his hand.
"This is a special crossbow made for assassinations. There aren't many people that can make this and it is rather expensive to make as well. I think I know where these crossbows may have come from." Hei Bao answered.
"Oh? Where are they from?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Wen Dao armaments, in Xiangwei city. They are specialists in hidden weapons such as these. Their workshop isn't as big as the other major ones, but because of their unique weapons they are rather rich and powerful." Hei Bao answered.
"So this means that if we inquire there, we may be able to get the identity of the culprits?" Lin Mu asked.
"Not exactly. They won't reveal the names of their customers that easily, they are rather strict about keeping the privacy of their patrons. It will be difficult in finding out clues from them. We will need to figure out something else." Hei Bao replied.
~Sigh~
"Alright. Let's return back for now." Lin Mu spoke.
"Yes, let's go." Hei Bao responded.
He then picked up the unconscious culprit from the ground and slung it on his back, while Lin Mu stored the other culprit, which was dead now in his ring. They began their journey back and reached the town center after five minutes.
The crowd had dispersed by now, evidently having been moved to safety by the guards. There was still a squad of town's guards protecting the square though. The mercenaries were also standing there, looking a little frustrated and lost.
Lin Mu had heard their shouts of vigor before, thus could guess that they had perhaps been unsuccessful in their endeavor. He could also see the Ming brothers standing beside Hei Wan along with a couple of more people.
One of these people was the driver of Hei Wan's carriage and the other two were men who had large straw hats on their head's which hid their face. Hei Wan was vigilantly observing the area along with the other cultivators, looking ready for anything.
They soon spotted Hei Bao and Lin Mu, who were approaching from the far. After they reached Hei Wan's position, Hei Bao put down the unconscious culprit that he was carrying on his back.
"We were able to capture this one, the other is dead." Hei Bao informed.
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