"Old Shi, you're back."

Seeing that Shi Cheng had finally returned, Wu Neng and Tie Mian, who were anxiously waiting for Shi Cheng in the study in the inner courtyard, hurriedly greeted him.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Shi Cheng immediately closed the door after entering the house, "Nothing happened in the house today, do they know that I went out quietly this afternoon?" ”

"Don't worry, Lao Shi, I told them that you were meditating, so they wouldn't come to disturb you." Wu Neng said.

Tie Mian took a letter from the table next to him and handed it to Shi Cheng, "This is a reply from Xu Jincheng, it was delivered to us at dinnertime, and he and Zhao Ping will be together at Qinglin Tower near Huibao Pavilion at the beginning of tomorrow afternoon." ”

"Zhao Ping will come too?" Shi Cheng was a little surprised, "With so many things happening in the city these days, he actually has time to eat with us?" ”

"You'll know what's going on when you go." Iron Mask said.

"It's okay, I also have something to say to him." Shi Cheng nodded, and then his expression became solemn, "Iron Mask, Old Wu, next, I want to tell you about what I found today." ”

Shi Cheng picked up the key things he encountered after going out this afternoon and coming back in the evening and told the two of them, of course, he hid the identities of Qu Changqing and the ruffian Zhang, but changed them to two Xilu Sanxiu who came to study, Shi Cheng helped them when they were hunted down by the Western Desert internal guards for no reason.

"That's the way it is, I didn't want to go on a killing spree, but if they have to go to prison with me, then don't blame me for doing everything, if they let them go back alive, a half-step grandmaster like me will be the first to be listed as the subject of investigation by the Western Desert Mansion." Shi Cheng lied and covered up the matter of Qu Changqing and ruffian Zhang.

Wu Neng was a little stunned and said, "It turns out that this afternoon, something like this happened outside. ”

Wu Neng had a lot of complaints in his heart about Shi Cheng's killing of more than 20 internal guards, but after listening to Shi Cheng's explanation, he still didn't say anything in the end.

"Dongyi is Dongyi." Iron Mask couldn't help but snort angrily after listening to Shi Cheng talk about the tragedy that happened in the city in the afternoon.

Tie Mian still had some doubts in his heart, he always felt that Shi Cheng didn't tell everything about it, but everyone has their own secrets, and it doesn't involve the big things that the three of them have to do anyway, and Tie Mian didn't bother to ask.

Shi Cheng said with some concern: "If the real purpose of the Lu Clan's series of actions in the Southern Wilderness is to intensify the contradictions between the Alliance Khanate and the Wei State, then the current situation is obviously going in the direction they want. ”

Tie Mian also sighed rarely, and said, "But we can't find out the muddy waters in the Western Desert King City now, and we don't know how to go in the future." ”

"Not necessarily." As soon as Shi Cheng's words fell, Tie Mian and Wu Neng's surprised eyes came over.

Shi Cheng looked at his two companions and said slowly, "During the previous journey to the royal city, I told you some things I encountered when I first arrived in the Southern Wilderness. ”

"In the mass grave on the outskirts of Redwood City, I once dealt with two warriors who came to steal the corpses, although I didn't force anything at the time, but thinking about it today, some of the words in the conversation between the two of them are very interesting." Shi Cheng beckoned the two to sit down at the round table, and then repeated some of the conversations he had heard.

"Both of them have Wangcheng accents, and they call the head of the forces behind them lord. Note that it's not a sect master, it's not a sect master, it's a master. Shi Cheng emphasized again.

Iron Mask groaned, "You mean, these two people are very likely to be martial artists of a certain great family in the Gyeonggi area of the Western Desert Kingdom?" ”

"Yes, it's a big possibility." Shi Cheng continued: "Another interesting detail is that those two people's description of Huang Yuan is evil, does this mean that the force behind them claims to be righteous, not the underworld family? ”

"That way, the range is much smaller." Iron Mask's tone also became much more serious.

"Lao Shi, do you already have a suspicion?" Wu Neng asked.

Shi Cheng nodded and said, "Do you remember the painting that Hu Tianming held in his hand before he died?" ”

Seeing that the two nodded, Shi Cheng picked up the reply letter sent by Xu Jincheng and said: "You have also read this letter, when I wrote to Xu Jincheng before, I specifically asked about Chu Yuantao, a painter, and he had already given me an answer in the reply. ”

"Chu Yuantao is a famous rookie painter in the eastern part of the Western Desert in recent years, he lives in the easternmost Linyin City of the Western Desert, the most famous is landscape painting, his paintings are also very famous in the big city in the eastern part of the Western Desert, and it is the object of many rich people, according to Xu Jincheng, at most, his studio can sell 20 paintings in a month."

"That's a lot." Wu Neng was a little dumbfounded.

Tie Mian thought for a moment and said, "Do you think there might be a problem with this painter?" ”

"No, I don't think it's very likely, judging from Xu Jincheng's reply to me, he should be just a painting vendor, Xu Jincheng knows more about these painters, this painter named Chu Yuantao doesn't like to go out on weekdays, and he has few friends, and it is useless for the Lu clan to win over people like him. I think that what Hu Tianming wants to pay attention to most should be the person who sent this painting. ”

"In fact, we have seen Chu Yuantao's works in three places, the scenes and time of the three works are the same, they should be from the same batch, you can think about where you saw them." Shi Cheng reminded.

Wu Neng quickly shook his head, and Tie Mian thought of a place, "Camel Bell Chamber of Commerce...... The day we found Huang Yuan's body, I remember seeing a similar painting in the Camel Bell Chamber of Commerce. ”

"That's right, the purpose of my going out today is also to check it again, and sure enough, I found a landscape painting that is exactly the same as the scroll in Hu Tianming's hand." Shi Cheng said.

"And what about another place?" Wu Neng asked curiously.

Iron Mask shook his head, he couldn't think of a third similar landscape painting he had seen before.

"There's another one I saw in Huenli's bedroom." Shi Cheng replied unhurriedly, "On the day we first went to Hu Mansion to see him, there were the seals of the authors of the paintings and the date of completion on the underneath of the three paintings, and I noticed that they were all exactly the same. ”

"And things like that." Iron Mask secretly screamed in shame, obviously he was not as careful as Shi Cheng, "So, Hu Tianming wants us to pay more attention to the matter between his father and the Camel Bell Chamber of Commerce?" ”

"No, it's not that simple, because there is another person's inscription on the painting in Huenli's house. If I'm not mistaken, there are 16 words in that line of words: 'Give a gift today, be ashamed, I wish the family a bright future'. ”

"Zhu Jia Mingtao...... Tie Mian and Wu Neng were shocked in their hearts, "But the head of the Zhu family who presided over the martial arts conference that day?" ”

"That's him." Shi Cheng said affirmatively, "I don't dare to say the one hanging in Huangyuan's room, but I have a guess that the two works in the hands of the Hu family and his son are very likely to be gifts from this owner of the Great Zhuang." Hu Tianming knew that he would definitely die on the night of the attack, and he really couldn't think of any other way to leave clues in a panic, so he could only hold the picture scroll presented by Zhu Mingtao in his hand, hoping that someone would see the problem, so as to start investigating from the picture scroll and find the person who gave the picture scroll. ”

"Lao Shi, in this way, do you suspect that Zhu Mingtao is a member of the Lu clan?" Wu Neng asked in surprise.

"Of course, this alone is not enough, but do you remember the Chamber of Commerce log I found in the Chamber of Commerce the night we went to the Camel Bell Chamber of Commerce for the second time? That diary recorded Huang Yuan's public visits to various wealthy families in the royal city, but at the same time that the Zhu family had business dealings with the Camel Bell Chamber of Commerce, the head of the family actually did not meet Huang Yuan, don't you think it's strange. ”

Shi Cheng looked at the two of them, and then said, "And the Zhu family is also in line with our previous judgment of the mysterious forces that cooperated with Huang Yuan. ”

Wu Neng and Tie Mian couldn't help but take a breath of cold air,

Tie Mian's eyes were solemn, and he said to Shi Cheng and Wu Neng: "Then what are we going to do next, Shi Cheng, your analysis is very good, but we still have no empirical evidence, the Zhu family is one of the earth snakes in the royal city, with the strength of the three of us, even if Shi Cheng and I are both half-step grandmasters, it is still difficult to bring down Zhu Mingtao." ”

"It depends on whether Zhao Ping can help me." Shi Cheng replied, "Originally, I wanted to send him a letter, but if he can actually come to see me in person tomorrow, then some things will save a lot of effort." ”

"It's just that now that the Hu family has been wiped out, and Huang Yuan and his Camel Bell Chamber of Commerce have also become a thing of the past, do we have any other hands?" Wu Neng asked in frustration.

"No, the real Huang Yuan is not dead yet." Shi Cheng spoke again in astonishment.

"Huang Yuan is not dead yet?"

"That's right!" Shi Cheng said with certainty, "We have seen Huang Yuan on two occasions, once at the Martial Arts Conference, and the other at the Camel Bell Chamber of Commerce, where we saw the body of the shopkeeper Wang. ”

Seeing that the two companions nodded, Shi Cheng continued: "However, the two times we have seen this time, I am afraid that they are not Huang Yuan's deity, or rather, they are all Huang Yuan's stand-ins. ”

"Aren't they all deities?" Iron Mask asked in surprise, "Shi Cheng, what have you discovered?" ”

"Let me ask you a question first, according to our investigation in the Western Desert, what do you know about the external image of Huang Yuan?"

Under Shi Cheng's guidance, Tie Mian and Wu Neng thought about it.

Soon, Wu Neng replied first: "Treacherous and cunning, long-sleeved and good at dancing, he is a strange person with a mysterious identity and unknown origin, but he can do it left and right in the royal city." ”

After a moment's thought, Iron Mask replied, "The monk with an unknown secret treasure on his body seems to have the ability to influence people's cognition. ”

Shi Cheng added: "In addition to these, there is another important point, that is, Huang Yuan does not always stay in the Western Desert King City, he will often personally lead caravans around the central and western states of the Western Desert Country. ”

After saying this, Shi Cheng began to fold his fingers, and said the doubts he saw one by one, "Okay, let's start with the Martial Arts Conference, in the Martial Arts Conference, most of my energy was spent on staring at Huang Yuan, have you noticed that the Huang Yuan we saw at that time did not seem to be a good communicator." ”

Iron Mask nodded slowly and said, "Indeed...... In this way, at the martial arts conference, Huang Yuan seemed to feel a little restrained, and many times it was others who accosted him first, and then chatted with him. ”

Shi Cheng was satisfied with Iron Mask's observation, and he continued: "We have also learned the secret treasure on Huang Yuan's body at the Martial Arts Viewing Conference, if we want it to play a role, we still need the owner of the Secret Treasure to take the initiative to communicate, so the real Huang Yuan must be a talkative person, not what we saw in the Martial Arts Viewing Conference. ”

"Besides, do you think that the Huang Yuan we saw that day was weird on his shoulder?" Shi Cheng patted himself on the shoulder as he spoke, "But after we later examined the male corpse found in the Camel Bell Chamber of Commerce, we didn't see anything unusual on his shoulder. ”

Iron Mask quickly reacted, "I remember, when that Huang Yuan at the Martial Arts Viewing Conference was swinging his arms, his shoulders did look very unnatural. ”

"Yes, we didn't really think much of it at the time, but I went home and simulated it in the mirror in my room and then I realized that something was wrong. Huang Yuan looked like he had put something on his shoulders and propped up his cloak to the sides. I dare say that the man in the cloak at that time, at least in terms of physical strength, may not be as good as the real Yellow Plains. Shi Cheng said, "In fact, in addition to this, I also noticed a detail that day. The Huang Yuan at the Guanwu Conference seems to have studied wood carvings very well, but we can only find calligraphy and paintings in the study of the Camel Bell Chamber of Commerce, but we can't see a single wood carving. ”

"I see." Wu Neng suddenly realized, and then he asked with some doubts, "Then Lao Shi, why do you dare to conclude that it was not the real Huang Yuan who died in the Camel Bell Chamber of Commerce that day?" ”

"It's very simple, a businessman who often runs business in the windy and sandy central and western regions of the Western Desert Country will not have such smooth skin, even if he is a monk with a lot of wealth, even if he likes to wear robes and masks, it is impossible to cover every place on his body tightly!"