As for the young girl, she thought that the timid girl would follow her order. But it turned out that she was also quite headstrong. She refused even under that severe threat.
"I would like to see how she's going to serve the master that allowed her parents to die." Concubine Qu's lips curled up.
If she had to be honest, she planned to kill that girl's parents no matter what happened in the end. But of course, she would never reveal this plan to anyone. It was something that she had to do covertly to achieve the best result.
No matter how fast they tried to reach that City Rou.
They'll be late.
…
Blarr!
Looking at the small city, Nan Luo was stumped speechless. He was already rushing here at the fastest speed possible, but he was still too late. The city in front of him was completely enveloped in flame, rendering it impossible for them to find anything but ashes.
"The entire city is burned." Xiao Yan was also surprised.
Nan Luo furrowed his eyebrows. He noticed shadows from a distance and then diverged the horse. "Deal with the fire! Save anyone you can save, I need to chase someone."
"Young Master!"
Xiao Yan was already pushed down, so he sommersaulted and landed on the ground. With no other choice, Xiao Yan rushed into the city, looking into the buildings here and there. This part of the city was completely enveloped in fire while the other part was save because there was trench that separated them.
His parents' house was located in this area. He stopped as he looked at the other houses nearby.
There was no voice or scream.
He looked into his parents' house through the window but found no one inside. Just as he wanted to get close, the sound of wood cracking could be heard.
Crack! Crack! Boom!
Xiao Yan narrowed his eyes. Based on the large damage, the fire should have been going on for quite some time. How was it possible for the other party to reach this place much faster than them?
He turned to look at the other houses but failed to find anyone. It really felt like a ghost town.
Bang! Slash!
Nan Luo chased after the shadows with the horse. Upon reaching them, he didn't hesitate to swing his sword and slashed at the man's arm. Because of his higher position, he couldn't target their legs.
What a shame.
"Aaaaaaaaaaa!"
The man screamed loudly. He looked at his wounded arm with trepidation before looking at Nan Luo's direction. "Young Master, please don't…."
"What happened in the village?" Nan Luo asked in low tone. Anger was visible within his voice. When he heard that Concubine Qu was threatening the Xiao's siblings parents, he thought that he only meant their parent in specific.
Who would have thought that she would actually set off the huge fire that nearly destroyed the entire city?
"That.. fire suddenly started and… and…."
"Are you the one who set off the city in fire?" Nan Luo asked once more.
The man shook his head rapidly. "No! It's not me! Please believe me, Young Master. If I'm really the one who do it, why would I stay still when it's already burning for a long time."
A long time?
Nan Luo furrowed his eyebrows. He beckoned for the man to follow him. "Come with me to the city and tell me everything you know."
By now the man was already very scared and simply blurted out everything. He was actually a traveler who came here and coincidentally smell burning wood. If there was any fire in the middle of the forest, he might end up trapped, so he tried to find out the source to douse it off.
But upon seeing that the city was the one that was burning, he didn't dare to get close. When he was about to leave, he saw Nan Luo and Xiao Yan appeared, so he dashed off even faster.
Nan Luo also noticed the man's bag, so he could guess that this man might not be lying. Though, he might not be a traveler but rather a refugee.
It didn't matter either way.
They returned to the burning city. Nan Luo then saw Nan Hua along with Feng Ao Kuai. The servants who came with them had rounded a group of men.
"Hua'er, where did you find them?" Nan Luo was stunned.
Nan Hua turned her head to look at Nan Luo. When she was rushing with the carriage, she had seen smoke from a distance away. It meant that the culprit was nearby, especially since it was a bit harder to make delay burning in this era. She ordered the servants to circle the entire city and caught anyone who tried to escape.
They would interrogate them one by one.
"We're catching everyone we see on the way." Nan Hua looked at the city and furrowed her eyebrows. She was thinking hard and felt that the time was a bit impossible. Just what kind of transportation did these people use to be able to set off much faster than them?
Turning her head back, Nan Hua looked into the Capital City.
Was it smoke signal?
Smoke signal was a common method for them to relay tactics to the generals because it was hard for them to inform should there be a chance in tactic. Thanks to that, they would use smokes.
It could either change the shape by making use of cover on top of campfire or the difference in color.
Another method would be to use war drum, trumpet or something like that.
There was no voice so far, so Nan Hua couldn't think of anything but that this was already preplanned. Their visit in Shangguan Family was not long, quite short.. But if in that short period of time Concubine Qu had already sent someone, it meant that she had already planned to kill Xiao Yun's parents no matter what happened.
