Chapter 367: Whereabouts Revealed
In order to not rouse any suspicion, Jian Chen left the restaurant after some time and immediately went to go buy a Class 2 Magical Beast mount. After disguising himself as a mercenary, he set out for the other three gates to see if they were undergoing a similar situation.
On the way, Jian Chen had been stopped several times over by soldiers. Leisurely answering the questions, Jian Chen could only secretly rejoice to himself about the fact that the soldiers did not require everyone within the city to wash their faces as well. Although his disguise was flawless almost to the point of perfection, it would not hold against water. If he were to be asked to wash his face, his disguise would wash away quickly.
This entire day, Jian Chen could only wander around the city in an attempt to figure out where the eyes and ears of the Jiede clan and the Shi family did not extend to. Although he could see many good places to hide within the city, none were long term hiding spots.
Within the official halls of Huangpu Trading, an elder around the age of seventy could be seen seated at the first spot. On both sides of him, around twenty younger men could be seen with strange glints in their eyes.
The elder sitting at the first spot was the current patriarch of the Huangpu clan. With a bright glow in his eyes, he slowly spoke, “The city is in a strange commotion today. All of the soldiers have been ordered and dispatched to search for a person with an unknown appearance within the city. I was just notified by the city lord that all of the clans within Moonlight City must comply with the city’s operation. In the case that we find a person with a snowy white magical beast or someone with an unnatural bulge, we are to report to the lord immediately.” With that, the elder stopped speaking for a moment to look at a middle-aged man near him, “Linde, you are the one in charge of our guards. In a moment go and take half our men to search the area under our control. Then take the other half to comb through our entire compound. In the case that he is spotted, do not let him escape, understood?”
“Yes, patriarch!” The Huangpu clansmen Linde replied before hesitating for a moment, “Patriarch, this is only just a single person, is it necessary to use so much of our resources to find him?”
“That’s right, patriarch, I think this is strange as well. Just how could the city lord decree such an order like this. Using the entire garrison to search for a single person within the city, isn’t this making a mountain out of a molehill?”
Straight away all of the men sitting down at the table burst into their own misgivings.
The patriarch could only sigh, “This was a sudden development for me as well, but the situation is far more dire than you all believe. If the city lord finds that the person they are looking for was spotted in our territory or decides that we were hiding him on purpose, then the consequences will be severe and our clan may disappear.”
Upon hearing this, the group of men sitting down instantly turn pale as they all grew frightened at the consequences.
“Good, this meeting is settled then. Linde, go and lead the search yourself. Do not allow any accidents to happen or any stone left untouched. Otherwise, the damage to our Huangpu clan will be far too severe for us to handle.” The patriarch spoke with a serious look.
“Patriarch, you needn’t worry, I, Linde, will take charge of this matter personally…”
As the Huangpu clan prepared to search for the person, every other minor or major clan in Mingyang City were doing the same thing. The entire atmosphere within the city had grown to a frantic height.
Within the Huangpu clan, a squadron of guards came to the villa to search the place. Whether it was the garden or log house, they did not spare a single room from being searched. Without overlooking anything, they had even searched all of the high ranking member rooms without exception.
At this moment, one of the guards arrived at one of the abandoned rooms and began to search inside.
“Everyone be careful, do not allow even the cupboards to be untouched. Do not let a single detail escape from your eyes.” One of the guards spoke out in warning.
Suddenly, the room that Jian Chen had hidden in was opened with several guards walking in to start rifling around the place.
Sensing the nearby danger, the white tiger cub silently curled up within the corner of the room as both of its bright eyes stared out along with its ears straining to listen for any sound.
At this time, the bedsheets that had fallen to the ground and covered the cub were ripped apart, revealing the face of one of the guards as he looked underneath the bed.
It was very spacious below the bed, and despite the tiger cub’s attempt to hide, its snowy white fur was far too eye-catching to escape detection.
“Captain, I’ve found something!” The guard cried out instantly.
Straight away, the captain came into the room with a grace face, “What is it?”
“Captain, take a look under the bed.” The guard crawled down and pointed.
Crawling onto the ground to take a look, the captain soon discovered the white tiger cub that was desperately trying to hide.
“Quickly, notify overseer Linde!” The captain’s face grew shocked as he ordered the soldier next to him.
In a flash, the overseer Linde was notified and the moment he saw the white tiger cub, his face grew unnaturally grim as he barked, “Take positions, search the perimeter! In the case you find someone suspicious, apprehend him immediately!”
“Yes!” The guards all replied with equally serious expressions.
Soon after, the white tiger cub had been brought to Linde who then rushed it toward the patriarch’s room. On the way, the white tiger cub had clearly shown its disapproval of Linde by biting and scratching at his arms and chest with a growling sound.
Although the white tiger cub was not an ordinary beast and belonged to the ancient race of the Winged Tiger God, it had only just been born. Right now it was as frail as a newborn infant. Walking was already a hard task, and it did not have enough strength to protect itself.
Within the main halls, the entirety of the upper ranking members of the Huangpu clan had already gathered. Each one with them had a serious expression as they turned to look at the growling white tiger cub in the patriarch’s hands.
“Have you made your investigations? Who raised this tiger cub?” The Huangpu patriarch asked the entire group of people in front of him.
The twenty men in front of him shook their heads slowly before Linde spoke, “Patriarch, I’ve already made inquiries. Within our Huangpu clan, not a single member has raised this beast, all of them haven’t even heard of such a magical beast before.”
“Since it’s like that, then this magical beast must be the one the city lord is looking for. Linde, go and report this matter to the city lord’s mansion straight away.” The patriarch spoke gravely.
……
Even after the city lord had heard the information, the entire city dared not rest. An elder was immediately dispatched to the Huangpu clan, and even the patriarch dared not to say anything out of line to him.
This elder was the third brother of the Shi family who had been waiting in the city lord’s mansion for any information. Upon hearing that the cub had been found, the third brother had a small smile on his face, “An entire body of snowy white fur, less than a meter tall and has wings. It appears that this is the tiger that Jian Chen left behind. Haha, Jian Chen, you should know by now. I’ve already cast an inescapable net across the entire Moonlight City, you cannot escape.”
……
After an entire day, Jian Chen had already transversed the entire Moonlight City on the magical beast mount. The situation had been as he expected, all four gates were being tightly watched and even the inhabitants were being interrogated. Everyone had been forced to wash their faces in order to leave the city, thus removing any idea Jian Chen had to escape the city with a disguise. His regular appearance had already been drawn and distributed throughout the city, so even if Jian Chen were to use his regular face, he would be spotted instantly.
Jian Chen had rented a room within an inn and had given the Class 2 Magical Beast mount to a waiter to look after. After waiting for nightfall, he slipped out of the inn without a word and leaped back toward the Huangpu compound without being detected. Like a silent shadow jumping over the wall, he carefully ran toward the room where he had hidden the tiger cub.
Creeping into the room, Jian Chen knelt down beside the floor and took out a night pearl from his Space Belt to light up the room. But the moment he looked underneath the bed, it was empty! The white tiger cub was nowhere to be seen.
Jian Chen’s face blanched as he immediately looked around the room with the night pearl giving him light. As he looked, he could see a series of footsteps on the dusty ground.
Jian Chen’s heart began to beat wildly as he mind came to a single conclusion: the white tiger cub had been captured.
Within the semi illuminated room, Jian Chen clenched his fists tightly as his eyebrows furrowed together. Leaving the room, he immediately raced for the center hall of the compound.