Underworld entries, starting with ghost stories.

It was afternoon, and the sun was setting behind the western mountains.

Dou Xianniang and the others looked at the young clerk.

Wu Qing squatted beside the corpse of a martial artist, his eyes gleaming as if he could see through to the truth.

The deceased had many wounds, and they wanted to examine them closely, but they couldn't figure out what they were.

So he secretly admired him, thinking that a clerk is a clerk after all.

What they didn't know was that Wu Qing couldn't figure it out either.

The skills of famous detectives like Sherlock Holmes, Shinichi Kudo, and Kindaichi were not acquired overnight.

He simply compared the scratches he saw with the prompts in the "I want to check the license plate" entry.

Then it was discovered that although they were all knife wounds, two-thirds were long and shallow, while one-third were short and deep.

"Wasn't it caused by a knife?" he wondered.

Perhaps it was because he himself had made a discovery that the words hanging on the deceased's wound had changed.

—"The wound caused by the knife in my left hand."

—"The wound caused by the knife in my right hand."

The long, shallow wounds were all caused by the right-hand knife, while the short, deep wounds were caused by the left-hand knife.

He thought to himself, "So it's a pair of swords? The swords are different sizes, so they should be a pair of mandarin duck swords, but why are there so many sword wounds?"

"Judging from the size of the deceased, he must have been quite skilled in martial arts, strong and healthy. Yes, he was killed by one of the two female bandit leaders, who was weaker in strength but had extremely fast swordsmanship."

"Like Wing Chun from another world, each strike is not particularly powerful, but victory is achieved by hitting the opponent repeatedly with rapid combos."

As he pondered.

The entries on these wounds seemed to be converging, like threads connecting to a larger entry.

—"The wounds caused by the Whirlwind Blade Technique."

Wu Qing was secretly delighted; the license plate verification function was indeed very useful.

It's important to understand that even renowned detectives, after finding a clue, still need to verify it through various means and use facts to confirm their conjectures.

This "I want to verify the card" skill can directly provide the answer as he unravels the mystery.

He stood up and looked at Dou Xianniang: "Miss, do you know of any woman in the martial arts world who uses a pair of mandarin duck swords, one large and one small, employing a sword technique that is slightly lighter in strength but extremely fast, capable of killing enemies multiple times in a short period of time?"

Dou Xianniang exclaimed in surprise, "Madam Black? Then the other female bandit leader must be Madam White!"

Wu Qing asked, "Madam Black? Madam White?"

Dou Xianniang explained, "They were two concubines of Meng Haigong of Caozhou. They were originally female chieftains who ruled the mountains, but were defeated by Meng Haigong's first wife, Ma Saifei."

"Seeing their exceptional martial arts skills, Ma Saifei persuaded Meng Haigong to take them as his concubines. Among them, Madam Hei used the Mandarin Duck Swords, a style known as the Whirlwind Sword Technique."

Wu Qing said calmly, "Then there's no mistake, it is indeed Madam Black and Madam White who have arrived."

The reason he acted so nonchalantly was because he relied mainly on cheat codes rather than his own abilities, which inevitably made him feel insecure.

The more insecure someone is, the more they will inevitably put on an air of "having everything under control".

However, upon closer reflection, perhaps this is the proper attitude for a clerk.

If you yourself don't believe in your own opinions and beliefs, how can others believe in you?

Even if it's a correct judgment, it will still arouse suspicion. Therefore, "calming them down" is what a clerk should do.

Besides, even if he used a cheat, it was his own cheat.

Dou Xianniang looked at him with admiration and said, "I never expected that they would be Meng Haigong's people. Caozhou is quite far from here, I really didn't expect it to be the two of them."

The others looked at the boy with admiration.

Wu Qing mounted a horse used for changing mounts and slowly moved forward.

He thought to himself, "Meng Haigong and Dou Jiande have not yet declared themselves kings, but they will both be among the eighteen rebel kings in the future."

"Heroes like them saw the opportunity to grow stronger during a time of chaos, but they also understood that only one person could sit on the throne in the end, so conflicts were to be expected."

Looking up to the west, he thought, "Ma Saifei, Madam Black, Madam White... So, the place I've actually traveled to is actually a chaotic era at the end of the Sui Dynasty, like in the novels 'Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties' or 'Tales of the Tang Dynasty'?"

That's quite normal, after all, people in this world really do have martial arts skills.

Dou Xianniang turned her horse around and rode alongside him, while the others spontaneously surrounded them on both sides and behind.

Dou Xianniang asked, "Qing-ge'er, what should we do now?"

She was three or four years older than Wu Qing, but at this moment she was humbly seeking his advice.

During this period, Wu Qing has begun to try to think in the way of a strategist.

If we're talking about the Tang Dynasty, then strategists like Wei Zheng and Xu Maogong were often more important than military generals, and even crucial factors in determining the course of history.

He pondered, "If Madam Black and Madam White have already captured Shan Ailian, then there's no need to mention it. We've already arrived too late and can only wait for them to contact us and offer their terms."

"But if they fail to capture Shan Ailian, and she escapes into the deep mountains under the protection of her guards, they will likely lose track of her. What will they do next...?"

He began to put himself in others' shoes, like a strategist, and a thought began to stir within him.

Then he looked up and carefully observed the surrounding mountains, especially the high ground with a wider view.

Sure enough, on one of the hilltops, a tiny, barely noticeable entry was floating around.

—"A spy."

"Qing-ge'er?" Dou Xianniang saw the mysterious smile on his lips and his confident look, guessing that he already had a plan.

"No need to rush!" he said calmly. "Just take it slow, and things will change soon."

A martial artist nearby said anxiously, "What exactly will change, Qing-ge'er? Explain yourself clearly!"

Someone else joked, "Qing-ge'er is the advisor, he's basically our mountain strategist. Does he need to explain himself to you?"

"Didn't you used to listen to storytelling in teahouses? Smart people only tell half of what they say."

"Exactly, he's smart enough that even if he explained it to you, you wouldn't understand. Besides, we roughnecks can just listen to him; it'll only give us a headache."

The martial artist said, "I know, I know... but it's so urgent! They only said there have been changes, but what exactly are these changes?"

"I told you not to rush, that's how strategists always talk."

The others nodded in agreement... it seemed that this was indeed how it should be.

Wu Qing remained calm, smiling slightly.

In his heart, he thought: "The strategist only says half of what he means and deliberately doesn't explain. Is it because, like me, he is not entirely sure about the situation?"

"As long as things aren't clearly explained, if there's a mistake, they can just make things up elsewhere?"

Upon closer examination, those strategists in history who seemed to have made perfect plans may very well have been deliberately mysterious, and their stories could be plausible no matter how they were told afterward.