Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 303: Chapter 303. Possible Location of the Culprit?

Gao Lan’s hiding place during the year after Sewer Snakes disbanded was in the slum district. It used to be one of Sewer Snakes’ safe houses. It was a small house for two people to live in. From the outside, it looked dilapidated like the rest of the homes in the neighborhood. But inside, it was orderly and well-furnished. At least, that was when Sewer Snakes still existed. When Gao Lan started using it, she never cared to clean it. It was now as messy as its outside appearance.

Yan Fan and Wei Linkun were outside of this house.

”This is the place?” Wei Linkun asked.

Yan Fan nodded and grabbed the doorknob. It was not locked. In addition to Wei Linkun, Yan Fan also brought two of his people with him. He told these two, ”Keep watch while we are inside.”

He and Wei Linkun entered the house.

The sun was low but not yet set. There was still light outside, but it was dark inside. The house didn’t have many windows. The houses in the slum were built crammed into each other. Sunlight only hit the front side of the house.

Yan Fan took out a Bright Flare Stone to provide lighting. He looked around the place. The place seemed decent enough to live for the slum standard. Yet, it was dirty. There was dirt and trash everywhere. Yan Fan despised dirty and unorganized people.

”Let’s look around,” Yan Fan told Wei Linkun.

”What are we looking for?” Wei Linkun asked.

”Anything out of the ordinary.”

”To me, this place itself is out of the ordinary,” Wei Linkun said, referring to its messiness.

”Maybe check for something that has to do with poison or alchemical stuff,” Yan Fan gave him a more specific instruction.

The two split and poked around different parts of the room. It took some time because they checked even the trash on the floor. They found several out-of-the-ordinary but useless things, such as written records of old Sewer Snake members among the crumpled paper on the floor, a pile of broken low-tier engraved weapons inside a box by the corner of the room, and a few low-tier blacksmith materials.

”I find nothing that can help us with the case,” Wei Linkun said.

Yan Fan was the same. However, he didn’t want to say so because he wasn’t ready to give up yet. He again went around the room to look another time. Wei Linkun didn’t stop him. He knew how Yan Fan was. The man could become unhealthily obsessed when trying to make sense of something. That was probably why he ended up appointed as the constable who oversaw difficult cases.

As Yan Fan walked around the room to recheck everything, he suddenly stopped. ”Hm...?” He retraced his steps before walking forward again. ”You hear that?” He asked.

”The floorboards sound different,” Wei Linkun answered.

Yan Fan nodded. ”There are cavities under here.”

Finished speaking, he stomped the floor. The wooden board shattered to pieces from his kick. His body fell into the hole he just made. Wei Linkun came beside the hole. He saw Yan Fan down there, holding the Bright Flare Stone. There was another room down there.

The door to the house opened. Yan Fan’s underlings, who stood guard outside, peeked in after hearing the sound.

”Everything is fine,” Wei Linkun waved them away. They closed the door again. Wei Linkun returned his attention to the hole. Yan Fan was not seen anymore. Wei Linkun jumped into the hole.

When he landed, he saw the room was roughly the same size as the floor above. Yan Fan was walking around the place. This place was much cleaner than the room above. There was alchemical equipment around the room.

”This room is where she concocted her poison,” Yan Fan said. He was looking at a row of small cages.

Wei Linkun came and looked at those cages. Small animals, mostly rats, were inside, but they were all dead. Some died naturally, probably due to starvation because they were not fed. Some, however, had unnatural deaths. The ones that fit this category had dried-up black blood around their corpses.

”I guess we can confirm now that she is the user of the black blood poison,” Wei Linkun said.

”I guess,” Yan Fan said. He resumed looking around the place.

He stopped at the alchemical table. On one side of the table were several small boxes containing spirit herbs and unknown substances.

”These must be the ingredients for the poison... Hm?”

”What is it?” Wei Linkun asked. Yan Fan was holding a piece of grass with dual colors. The upper part of the grass was green, like regular grass, but the bottom half was dark purple.

”This is Veiled Toxic Leaf,” Yan Fan explained. ”If an animal eats the green part of the leaf, it will be fine. However, it is another matter when they eat the purple part. This lower part is highly poisonous.”

”Then we can confirm the ingredients here is what she used to make the poison,” Wei Linkun said.

”I don’t know about that,” Yan Fan said. ”I pick this grass out of the other ingredients because this one has a unique situation.”

”What situation is that?”

”This grass is one of the kingdom’s regulated ingredients. The public has no access to it. There used to be a pill master in this city who used this grass, so shipments were conducted regularly. A small warehouse on the Northern side of the city was used to store the grass before the pill master came to pick it up. This pill master left some years ago, so this grass is no longer imported. The warehouse is closed and abandoned.”

”Do you think Gao Lan got this grass from that warehouse?” Wei Linkun asked. ”Perhaps when it was abandoned, some got left behind.”

”I’ve known kingdom officials with sloppy work ethics, so that is possible,” Yan Fan replied.

”Considering the warehouse is abandoned, it can also be where she is hiding now,” Wei Linkun said.

Yan Fan nodded.

”We should head there right away,” Wei Linkun suggested.

”I want to, but I promised Yan Wang I will go to Yan Clan to submit a report before sunset. It is sunset now.”

”If Gao Lan is there and you miss catching her because you need to report to your previous clan head, you will regret it,” Wei Linkun said. ”She might not remain there by the time you decide to go there.”

”Hm... In that case, you go there first. I will join you once I finish my report,” Yan Fan said.

”No. If Gao Lan is there and we fail to catch her because you aren’t there, I won’t be able to make it up to you. You go. I will go to Yan Clan on your behalf. I know about what happened as much as you. I should do okay if it is just reporting. You have also brought me to see Yan Wang before, so he knows me. Go and catch our culprit.”

”Don’t you want to be there when it happens? She was responsible for the death of your clan members, wasn’t she?” Yan Fan asked.

”As long as she is brought to justice, I can return and give a satisfying report to my grandfather,” Wei Linkun answered.

”All right then. In that case, I will trouble you to report to Yan Wang,” Yan Fan decided to accept Wei Linkun’s offer.

As they were walking toward the exit, Yan Fan stopped Wei Linkun. He took a talisman from his space ring and handed it to Wei Linkun. The talisman was slightly larger than a regular talisman.

”Message talisman?” Wei Linkun recognized the talisman in Yan Fan’s hand.

”Just in case I find something and need to relay information quickly to you,” Yan Fan said.

”You can just buy a set of communication devices for us,” Wei Linkun joked.

”Sorry, our relationship is not that deep yet for me to spend that many aer stones for you,” Yan Fan joked back.

”Ouch!” Wei Linkun responded, and the two laughed.

The two friends parted ways outside. Wei Linkun walked to Yan Clan alone, and Yan Fan went with his two subordinates.

*

Yan Fan stopped by the constable’s office, which was on the way, to check the ownership of the warehouse he was heading to. It turned out the warehouse had been bought by someone named San Guo recently.

Yan Fan tried to find the record of where this person lived but found that San Guo was not a local. He was also currently registered not in the city. Yan Fan couldn’t find anyone related to San Guo in this city, so he couldn’t ask anyone about him. He decided to just check the warehouse directly.

It was night when Yan Fan arrived outside the warehouse on the Northern side of the city. He expected to see the warehouse renovated since it had been bought by someone, but it was not so. The warehouse looked as dilapidated as any building that had been abandoned for a decade.

”Let’s head in,” Yan Fan told his two subordinates.