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Chapter 101: Clues

“Even the name of this establishment comes from them, sir. The guests all say that only they can bring a person to the peak of heavenly ecstasy.

“You’re quite lucky today, sir. They haven’t seen any guests yet and are still in their quarters. If you’d like, sir, I can take you to see them?”

“That would be fine,” Zhou Heng nodded slightly, with a look of pleasant surprise.

And he was indeed a bit surprised.

He had already prepared himself for the possibility that the madam would discover that the two were not there and ask him to wait.

After all, for him, just being able to confirm the women’s room was enough; he was only here to search for any clues in their room.

Being able to go straight there was naturally the best outcome.

However, he did not let down his guard.

What if the two women had already set up a trap inside the Tongtian Pavilion, and the madam was merely leading him into it?

It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility.

As it turned out, Zhou Heng might have been overthinking it.

The madam had no other intent; she did not inquire about his identity along the way, and all the flatteries she offered were aimed at extracting money from his pocket.

Under normal circumstances, Zhou Heng wouldn’t have been swayed by such tactics, adamantly refusing to part with any money regardless of the request.

But now, to avoid complications and gain smooth access to the women’s residence, he handed over a silver note worth a hundred taels of silver to the madam.

The madam’s eyes lit up with joy; she became even more attentive.

The two arrived in front of the two most luxurious rooms on the top floor of Tongtian Pavilion, and the madam stopped.

“We’re here, sir,” the madam said with a smile: “The room on the left is that of the woman in red you’re looking for, and the one on the right is for the woman in yellow.

“However, they should both be resting by now, perhaps already asleep, but their doors are always unlocked. You can just go right in for a night raid. Isn’t that fun?”

“Just go in?” Zhou Heng frowned, “Won’t they resist?”

“They won’t,” the madam replied as she took a jade pendant out of her sleeve, smilingly said, “As long as you show them this jade pendant, they will obey you without question and let you do as you please.”

“Oh? That sounds interesting,” Zhou Heng chuckled, reaching out to take the jade pendant.

“Sir, you really don’t know the rules,” the madam giggled, pulling her hand back, “Don’t be so secretive at this point.

“Here at Tongtian Pavilion, we don’t do credit. Cash in one hand, jade pendant in the other. Two hundred taels for each girl, four hundred in total. Your peachy dreams will come true – you’ll make a killing.”

The madam sure had a way with words. Zhou Heng’s eyebrows twitched, fighting the urge to let a vein on his forehead pop, he struggled to remain calm and smiled, “Alright, a mere four hundred taels, what of it? Haha!”

With that said, he took out another four hundred taels’ worth of silver notes and handed them to the madam.

Outwardly, he appeared nonchalant, viewing wealth as dirt, yet internally, he was bleeding profusely.

Even though the money was only temporarily leaving his hands, it pained his heart greatly.

“Alright, alright! Make sure you hold on to this, sir!” The madam hastily took the silver notes, her face blooming like a chrysanthemum with a smile. After giving the jade pendant to Zhou Heng, she hummed a little tune and waggled down the stairs.

Zhou Heng ignored her and directly pushed open the door to the woman in red’s room.

At this moment, the room was bathed in an ambiguous, warm glow from the soft, red drapes, and the air was filled with the scent of cosmetics. The fragrance of a woman wafted into his nostrils, creating an atmosphere that could stir restless imaginations just by standing there.

Unfortunately, the place was empty of people.

The woman in red who should have been residing here had already been turned into a charred corpse by Zhou Heng’s Palm Thunder, discarded in a pile of stray dogs.

However, Zhou Heng did not begin searching immediately but instead waited quietly for a while.

After making sure there were no abnormalities, he began to search.

The two were indeed top courtesans of Tongtian Pavilion, and their rooms, being the main areas for entertaining guests, were really spacious and luxurious, not at all what one would expect from a brothel in a small county town.

High standards indeed.

Zhou Heng’s insight was exceptional, and he thoroughly searched every nook and cranny of both rooms, leaving no secret compartments or hiding spots undiscovered.

But in the end, he didn’t find any particularly valuable clues. The only thing that could pass for a clue was a small booklet.

It contained a list of Shocking Thunder Manor disciples entertained by the two women.

At the back, there were annotations.

Either with or without.

Zhou Heng carefully went over it and noticed additional text annotations at the back.

The criteria seemed to indicate whether the person was interested in going to Yuanhe Prefecture City.

Interestingly, many were marked as “with.”

“Yuanhe Prefecture City?”

Zhou Heng’s brows furrowed slightly in confusion. Shocking Thunder Manor was located more than ten miles north of the Dongxiang County, a considerable distance from Yuanhe Prefecture City, which would take five or six days to reach by horse.

In an era where transportation was inconvenient and there was a risk of bandits and wild beasts on the roads, most people had little interest in traveling far.

Even those seeking to make a name for themselves in the martial world would head toward Pingzhou County, seeking fame within the prefectural city – after all, how many people would hear of their exploits elsewhere?

To Zhou Heng, it seemed odd that so many disciples of Shocking Thunder Manor were interested in going to Yuanhe Prefecture City. There was clearly something amiss, and perhaps they were instigated by the two women.

Given that the two women were from Honghua Palace and involved with Plague Emperor Sect’s plot, this encouragement for the disciples to head to Yuanhe Prefecture City might well be the will of these two unorthodox groups.

“The records stop half a month ago and start from a month ago. The stop is probably because Shocking Thunder Manor’s people haven’t been coming by much lately. But what significant event has happened in Yuanhe Prefecture in the past one or two months?”

Zhou Heng focused his thoughts and suddenly remembered the conversation he had overheard from a few young men and women on the same boat when he crossed Qingxia River earlier.

The martial arts tournament.

A grand martial arts tournament would be held in Yuanhe Prefecture City in half a month. The rewards were said to be quite generous, and the top fifty young experts would make an appearance.

“Is it because of the rewards of this martial arts tournament?” Zhou Heng flipped through the small booklet in his hand and thought to himself, “But could something that could stir the interest of sinister sects like the Plague Emperor Sect and Honghua Palace be in such a small prefectural city?”

Doubts clouded his mind.

However, his only goal was to kill the remaining disciples of the Plague Emperor Sect; he needn’t concern himself too much with other matters.

If the rewards of the martial arts tournament were really related to the schemes of the Plague Emperor Sect and Honghua Palace, it meant that during this period, it was highly likely that disciples from these two nefarious sects would appear in Yuanhe Prefecture City.

This was his opportunity.

“Such a pity for these gold and silver treasures, though.”

Zhou Heng looked somewhat regretfully at the gold and silver treasures and stacks of silver notes he had rummaged through, only taking five hundred taels of silver notes before he climbed out the window and left.

A gentleman loves money but acquires it in a proper way.

Taking these gold and silver treasures would be no different from theft, and he did not wish to do so.

The five hundred taels of silver notes were merely to compensate for the loss he caused to the brothel madam.

After all, the five hundred taels of silver were for “services” which he had not enjoyed. Naturally, there was no reason to pay, so he definitely had to take them back.

Taking them from this room now simply skipped a step; the essence was the same.

After leaving Tongtian Pavilion, Zhou Heng didn’t stick around. He immediately checked out of the inn, mounted his chestnut horse, and rode towards a secluded direction.

Although Tongtian Pavilion hadn’t realized that the two women had disappeared, they would eventually. The charred corpse in the stray dog’s heap would probably be discovered tomorrow. It couldn’t be kept secret for long.

Therefore, Zhou Heng didn’t plan on staying the night here but instead chose to leave directly.

However, it was late at night, and the city gates were already closed.

Leaving through the main gate was out of the question.

So, Zhou Heng rode his chestnut horse to a secluded part of the city wall, grabbed one of the horse’s legs, leapt up with a single bound, climbed to the top of the wall, and without pausing, jumped down.

He then mounted his horse again and sped away.

The entire process left the chestnut horse utterly confused, with a blank expression frozen on its face.

There were indeed guards on the city walls, a few soldiers on the night watch.

But in this relatively peaceful locale, the soldiers on the walls were there more as a formality than for any serious defensive duties.

When Zhou Heng scaled the wall, most of the soldiers were asleep, with just a few who had gotten up at night standing petrified, watching the sequence of Zhou Heng’s actions.

The expressions on their faces were also completely stunned.

(* ” fl’)!!

Someone was actually climbing the city wall with a horse in tow!

Was this even possible?!?

They had seen many wandering martial artists scaling the walls in the middle of the night before.

But this way of leaving with a horse in hand was a first for them.

Impressive!

Zhou Heng, riding the chestnut horse, returned to the official road from the remote area.

At this hour, it was quiet all around; even on the official road, there was no light on either side. Fortunately, the moonlight was bright enough, making the road fairly clear, and riding the horse was quite easy.

“Now, the question is, which way should I go to Yuanhe Prefecture City?” Zhou Heng scratched his head.

Because he originally planned just to investigate the Plague Emperor Sect near Shocking Thunder Manor, he only looked into the surrounding areas of the manor.

Such as Dongxiang County, Danyun County, Wuguo County, and so on.

Yuanhe Prefecture City was quite far from the area around Shocking Thunder Manor, and the entire Yuanhe Prefecture was also rather large, with many subordinate counties. He hadn’t paid much attention to the route to the prefectural city and only remembered that it was generally southwestward.

“Forgetit, I’ll just follow the official road. I’ll find the place eventually.” Zhou Heng gave up trying to recall the specific route to Yuanhe Prefecture City, adopting the mindset that a road will present itself when he reaches the foot of the mountain.

“I was planning to open the Fortune Bags I received previously, but those two Honghua Palace women disturbed me, and I didn’t get the chance to do anything. Now I finally have some time.”

In that last battle in Yuyang County, his loot was quite substantial.

Two Copper Fortune Bags and two Silver Fortune Bags.

Plus the Silver Fortune Bag he received as a reward for achieving Perfection in the Authentic Internal Energy Heart Method and a Gold Fortune Bag for breaking through to Eighth Rank.

Now he had in total:

One Gold Fortune Bag, two Copper Fortune Bags, three Silver Fortune Bags.

“Should I open them all at once or open a few now and wait to enjoy the rest later?” Zhou Heng, mounted on the chestnut horse, plunged into philosophical thought.

So should he rush to the peak of excitement all at once?

Or should he savor it slowly, reaching that high bit by bit?