Imperial henchmen? My divine skills are all hacked versions.

...

Before long, Zhang Hu had gathered ten men and they were waiting at the door. Zhao Bao was also in the group, with two knives at his waist.

"There might be a fight today, so bring an extra one as a backup."

Xu Xian glanced at him and said, "You haven't even entered the body tempering stage, so carrying ten swords won't help you."

Zhao Bao grinned, "Having more knives makes me feel safer."

...

Wu Cheng's family was not located inside the Iron Gate Pass city, but in Wu Family Village, twenty miles south of the city.

Eleven people rode fast horses for an hour and saw a small three-courtyard house standing alone on a piece of wasteland in the distance. There were no neighbors around, and the nearest house was half a mile away.

The courtyard wall was made of rammed earth, and over the years it was pitted and uneven, with withered grass growing on top. The gate was ajar.

Just as he was about to knock on the door, a familiar scent wafted from under the door, and he raised his hand to signal everyone to stop.

"Zhang Hu led three men to block the back door, Zhao Bao led three men to keep watch on the outside, and I led the remaining two to enter from the front."

When the courtyard gate was pushed open, the smell became even stronger; martial artists are naturally sensitive to qi and blood.

The stench of blood wafted out of the main house in waves. There were no chickens crowing, no dogs barking, not even birds in the yard. There was only an overturned bamboo basket and scattered broken rice at the entrance of the main house.

Xu Xian drew his goose-feather knife and used the tip to push open the door to the main room.

Seven corpses lay scattered haphazardly in the main room.

Two elderly people collapsed in front of the offering table, and a woman collapsed on the threshold of the inner room, with a three- or four-year-old girl under her.

The other two children, a boy and a girl, were lying in the corners of the wall, with the youngest still in the position of crawling towards the door.

Wu Cheng himself lay face down in the center of the main room, but without any wounds.

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Xu squatted down and touched the neck of a child; the body was still warm.

He suddenly stood up, drew his sword, and held it horizontally in front of him.

"Seal off the yard; the killer might still be there."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a cold light flashed down from the roof beam, and Xu Xian immediately raised his sword to block it.

A short gun slammed down on his blade, cracking the blue brick beneath Xu Xian's feet and forcing him to kneel on one knee.

Zhang Hu and Zhao Bao drew their swords and charged forward at the same time, but the owner of the short gun dodged to the side and kicked them both away.

Zhang Hu knocked over the offering table, and Zhao Bao fell on the threshold, hitting the back of his head on a stone and passing out on the spot.

The other two constables were swept away by short guns as soon as they rushed to the door. One of them crashed through the window and flew out, landing on the stone slab outside with a groan before falling silent.

Xu Xian looked up at the person in front of him. He was dressed in a gray cloth outfit, and his face was covered with a black cloth, revealing only his eyes.

"A bunch of ordinary people want to take on me?"

The man in gray glanced at the constables lying on the ground and sneered, "It's just a matter of killing a few more."

Xu Xian stood up from the ground, moved his right hand which had been numb from the shock, and the Dragon Elephant Prajna Skill automatically began to repair the muscle strain.

"You're only at the third level of Body Tempering, what's there to be so arrogant about?"

The gray-clad man narrowed his eyes. He had already figured out Xu Xian's cultivation level from that shot just now—the second level of Body Tempering, with a solid foundation, but his cultivation level was a whole level lower than his own.

He scoffed, "Xu Xian, you've only been at the first level for a few days? Do you even know the difference between the second and third levels of Body Tempering? Just one level difference means a 30% difference in strength and a 20% difference in speed. What makes you think you can fight me?"

As he spoke, another spear thrust came, but Xu Xian dodged to the side and used his goose-feather saber to slash along the shaft towards the opponent's fingers.

The man in gray quickly withdrew his gun, returned to defense, and changed tactics; the short gun in his hands was more nimble than chopsticks.

The two exchanged more than ten blows in the main room, and Xu Xian realized that what the man said was true—the third level of body tempering was indeed not the same as the first or second level.

Wu Cheng himself was at the third level of Body Tempering and had served as the deputy captain of the Inspection Division for six years, so his foundation was not weak. However, the gray-clad man in front of him aimed every shot at vital points such as the throat, heart, and dantian, without a single unnecessary feint.

Xu Xian could only barely manage to maneuver, and the mouth of his hand was cracked from the impact.

Zhang Hu got up from the ground and tried to ambush the gray-clad man from behind. He had just raised his knife when he was shot away by a gun. He groaned and crashed into the wall, the knife flying out of his hand and sticking into the offering table.

Xu glanced at it first.

Zhang Hu, Zhao Bao, and the others were all lying on the ground; he was the only one still standing.

The man in gray noticed his gaze and smiled. "Still have time to look at others?"

The man in gray thrust his spear forward, but Xu Xian slightly deflected it, and the spear tip immediately pierced through his right shoulder and emerged from behind.

Xu Xian's right arm instantly lost its grip, and the goose feather knife slipped from his right hand. Just as the gray-clad man managed a smile, Xu Xian caught the falling goose feather knife with his left hand and slashed it upwards.

The blade sliced ​​across the gray-clad man's right arm, the one gripping the gun. His pupils constricted, a muffled groan escaped his lips, and his right hand involuntarily spread its fingers, the gun slipping from his grasp.

Before the other party could retreat, Xu gritted his teeth and took a step forward, letting the gun pass through his shoulder and using his body as a lock to hold the gun in place. Then he bent his knee and slammed it into the gray-clad man's stomach.

The man in gray immediately bent over, and Xu Xian then kneed him in the chest, knocking him to the ground backward.

Xu Xian pressed one knee against the gray-clad man's chest, the tip of his knife brushing against his neck.

The man in gray gritted his teeth, staring at him with shock in his eyes. "You deliberately took my shot!"

"You can't catch a wolf without risking your cub..."

Xu Xian sneered and was about to have Zhang Hu tie the man up when the gray-clad man's pupils suddenly dilated, and in less than a breath, his lips turned purple and his head tilted to one side.

"Damn it!"

Xu was startled and cursed. He reached out and pried open the gray-clad man's mouth. There was no smell of poison, no black blood, so he hadn't been poisoned.

He turned the gray-clad man's body over and examined it closely, finding a pale blue mark on the back of his neck.

"Gu poison?"

Xu stood up and pulled the gun barrel, which was still stuck in his shoulder, out in one go.

Zhang Hu gasped in shock, quickly tore off a piece of his clothing and pressed it against the wound, swallowing hard.

"My brother, you're incredible! You risked your life to kill a triple-level boss! If it weren't for you, I would be dead here. My admiration for you is like..."

"Shut up and get to work!"

Xu Xian winced in pain, squatted down, and carefully examined the gray-clad man's neck, his brows furrowing slightly.

He then had Zhang Hu examine all six other corpses. Wu Cheng's parents, wife, and three children did not have any Gu marks on the back of their necks; only Wu Cheng and the gray-clothed man did.

"Load all these corpses onto the horses..."

Xu Xian used a knife to cut off a piece of his clothing to wrap around the wound on his right shoulder. "Take it back."

...

It was already evening when they returned to the Inspection Office. Eleven rode out, and the other five were able to ride back on their own.

Zhao Bao woke up on the road with a fist-sized bump on the back of his head, but his mouth, as always, was still busy.

"Where am I? Why does the back of my head hurt so much? Did you guys win?"

Zhang Hu cursed him all the way, calling him a "useless piece of trash," while handing him water.

The coroner, Old Sun, was summoned that very night. He squatted between the two corpses, his back hunched, holding an oil lamp in one hand and examining the back of the necks of the man in gray and Wu Cheng with the other.

He looked for a long time, then stood up and wiped his hands on his apron.

"Master Xu, the marks on the back of these two people's necks are from the same type of Gu, a secret technique of the Gu Dao in the Southern Region. The mother Gu is in the hands of the Gu Master, and the offspring Gu are planted in the Gu slave's body. If the Gu Master wants to kill the Gu slave, he only needs to crush the mother Gu, and the offspring Gu will take effect in the Gu slave's body."

"Wu Cheng's heart meridian was pierced by the Gu worms. I just opened his chest cavity and saw a hole the size of a pinprick in his heart, which was bitten out of the inside by the Gu worms."

He pointed to the gray-clad man's corpse, "This one too. He died faster than Wu Cheng. The mother Gu must have been nearby. The Gu worm hadn't even left the body before the host died."

Xu Xian squatted down beside the two corpses, repeatedly comparing the marks on the back of their necks. Besides Wu Cheng and the gray-clad man, the assassin at the Meridian Opening Realm last night also had this mark.

Three people, from three different directions—one was an assassin sent by Eunuch Gao, one was the killer who wiped out Wu Cheng's entire family, and one was Wu Cheng himself. All three carried the same Gu mark.

That means they are controlled by the same person.

The same person could mobilize the assassins on Eunuch Gao's side, send killers to destroy Wu Cheng's family, plant a Gu in Wu Cheng's body in advance, make Wu Cheng betray him at the crucial moment, and then silence him after using him.

"Wu Cheng is a Gu slave..."

Xu stood up and drew three circles on the ground with the tip of his knife.

"The Gu worm in his body was planted before the delegation set off. On the day of Black Wind Gorge, the Gu Master activated the Gu worm, forcing him to betray Fang Lie and injure him, and then led his men to attack the guard team from behind."

"After completing the mission, the Gu Master did not kill him, but recently Wu Cheng discovered that the Gu Master had sent assassins to kill his family. He tried to escape with his family before the assassins could reach them, but he was caught the very night he returned home. By the time the assassins arrived, Wu Cheng was already dead."

"Once we discover the assassin, the Gu Master remotely crushes the mother Gu, takes care of the assassin as well, and then wipes out all the survivors."

Xu Xian stood up and looked at the two corpses on the ground. Wu Cheng's Gu seal was a pattern of small snakes with their heads and tails connected, like a closed eye.

...

Xu Xian walked out of the morgue, and the wound on his right shoulder began to bleed again. He found Hua Xi playing with a turtle in the yard.

The little girl squatted next to the stone bench, turned the turtle over and placed it on her knees, and scratched its belly with a blade of grass.

The turtle lay on its back, kicking its legs, looking utterly hopeless. Its beady eyes lit up slightly when it saw Xu Xian approaching, as if it were pleading for help.

Xu squatted down, rescued the turtle from Hua Xi's hands, and turned it back to face up. The turtle retracted into its shell, with only its two eyes sticking out.

He looked into Hua Xi's clear eyes and said, "Hua Xi, come with me next time."

Hua Xi tilted her head. "Where to?"

"We'll go anywhere together."

Xu put the turtle back in her arms, stood up and rubbed her head, "You protect your brother, and your brother will buy you candied hawthorns."

Hua Xi looked up at him, her eyes crinkling with a smile, "Okay, brother!"