Great Li Martial God

Hearing this, Hu Rui’an and the others immediately gathered around and looked in the direction Li Musheng was pointing.

After a moment, Shen Anran was the first to speak, ”All the claw marks here face upward, with none facing down. That means the large cat has been climbing up the wall here regularly.”

As she spoke, she followed the claw marks upward with her eyes and noticed that up on the wooden beam above the small hall, a hole was faintly concealed.

At that moment, the large cat, which had been lying outside the hall, appeared behind the group without anyone noticing, and let out a sudden meow.

Wu Shang and Cheng Zhong, who had been listening intently to Shen Anran and staring at the claw marks, both gave a startled jump.

They spun around at the same time, caught a glimpse of the solidly built black cat behind them, and watched as it sauntered past them with great self-importance.

Then that body, which was roughly the size of a country dog, leaped up lightly, planted its feet on the claw marks in the wall, and bounced up to the beam in a few bounds.

Only then did the large cat turn its head and look down at the group below, letting out a meow.

The look on its face might as well have said, ”Well then, you have found out my secret.”

In the next instant, the cat disappeared into the dark hole in the beam, and after a brief moment came back out of the darkness, beyond the reach of the lamplight, with a bundle in its mouth.Seeing this, the eyes of Hu Rui’an and the others immediately lit up.

But the black cat, bundle in mouth, suddenly broke into a run on all four legs and went racing along the beam toward the far end of the small hall at speed.

”Stop it,” Wu Shang called out urgently, while Hu Rui’an had already moved, raising his hand and grabbing toward the upper part of the hall.

In an instant, a hand condensed from martial True Qi took shape above the cat and snatched toward it as it ran.

But the moment that True Qi hand was about to make contact, it suddenly dissolved and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Hu Rui’an’s expression shifted sharply. At that moment, Li Musheng, standing beside him, rubbed his chin and said, ”There is no hurry. Let us watch and see. This cat is rather interesting, it does not seem to be an ordinary cat.”

At those words, Hu Rui’an let out a quiet breath of relief.

He had just assumed someone else was intervening from the shadows, but knowing it was Li Musheng, there was nothing to worry about.

He then watched as the large cat on the beam sprinted to the far end, then leaped straight down and bolted toward the entrance of the hall without looking back.

”Then let us follow this cat and see where it leads.”

Hu Rui’an moved at once and gave chase, and Wu Shang and the others glanced at Li Musheng, who was also following alongside Hu Rui’an, then all fell in without hesitation.

The large black cat, its green eyes bright, a bundle held in its mouth, moved swiftly through the darkened Tianjin Guards branch office.

Behind it, Hu Rui’an and the others kept pace at a steady distance, not too close and not too far.

After following for a while, the large black cat came to a stop before the punishment room at the back of the branch office, then pushed open a window with practiced ease and slipped inside.

Hu Rui’an’s figure appeared before the punishment room in an instant, and the copper-locked door before him was silently blown open by a pulse of True Qi.

He continued following the black cat without obstacle and watched it slip through an iron grate set into the floor of the punishment room.

”This should be the Tianjin Guards’s dungeon. Ordinary prisoners are generally held in the city’s main jail. Only prisoners of importance would be kept here.”

Hu Rui’an turned to explain to Li Musheng beside him, then raised his hand with a casual sweep. The locked iron door before him was flung clean off its hinges.

He thought for a moment, then said, ”That black cat seems to have deliberately led us here. But the dungeon below is bound to be filthy. Would Your Highness prefer to wait up here while I go down to investigate?”

Hearing this, Li Musheng shook his head without concern, his figure dissolving from where he stood as he moved down into the dungeon.

Seeing this, Hu Rui’an’s eyes stirred and he followed at once.

The dungeon had no light and was far darker than the space above, with not enough light to see one’s own hand in front of one’s face. The air inside was damp, the space cramped, and it gave off an unpleasant smell of rot along with a suffocating heaviness that pressed in from all sides.

For a martial artist of Hu Rui’an’s level, however, this amounted to very little.

By then the large cat had come to a stop before a cell at the deepest end of the dungeon.

Its murky green eyes looked back at Li Musheng and the others who had followed, then it slowly dropped the bundle from its mouth onto the ground, retreated to a corner, and let out a meow as it settled down to crouch.

Seeing this, Hu Rui’an’s brow furrowed at once.

He glanced at the bundle on the ground, then looked toward the cell before him.

By now Wu Shang and the others had caught up as well, and the group standing in the narrow passage was getting somewhat cramped.

Hu Rui’an paid this no mind. His gaze cut straight through the darkness and fixed on the figure of a person lying on the floor inside the cell.

The person was lying on their side with their back to the group. Though their face could not be made out, from the shape of the body it appeared to be an old woman.

Her clothes were filthy beyond description, and her white hair was caked with grime and dust, clumped together in matted masses.

She was clearly breathing, however, and seemed to be in a deep sleep. She was obviously not dead.

Hu Rui’an looked her over briefly, then flicked a finger to light the oil lamp on the stone wall of the passage, and said without preamble, ”Was it you behind the ghostly appearances that have been occurring in the Tianjin Guards branch office?”

The question was direct and blunt. Hu Rui’an had no idea who the person in the cell was, but he clearly had no interest in dancing around it.

At this, the old woman in the cell seemed to be roused. She sat up from the floor without a sound, then slowly turned her head to look out beyond the bars of the cell.

At the sight of this, Wu Shang and the others all flinched sharply at once.

The reason was that when the old woman turned her head, her body remained still while her head rotated a full hundred and eighty degrees, which looked deeply unsettling.

On top of that, her face was truly hideous, not only aged to an extreme but covered in festering sores and scar tissue, and in the dim yellow light it was thoroughly unnerving.

At that moment, the old woman’s clouded eyes seemed to be taking in Hu Rui’an and the others outside the cell.

Finally, her gaze came to rest on Li Musheng, and in a rough, rasping voice she said, ”Though this old one’s face is frightful to look at, I am no ghost or spirit. You have misunderstood me.”

At that point, Li Musheng did not look at her, but instead glanced at the large cat in the corner, then gestured to Hu Rui’an to examine the bundle on the ground.

Hu Rui’an did not hesitate. He reached out from a distance and took up the bundle, then opened it quickly.

Inside was a palm-sized booklet. It was covered in dried bloodstains and wrapped in a length of bloody cloth.

Hu Rui’an paid this no mind and opened the booklet directly, scanning through it quickly.

After a moment, his brow furrowed deeply. He looked at Li Musheng beside him and said, ”This is a death list.”