Chapter 54 Fen Shuying’s Investigation
After two hours, Lin Feng returned.
He returned to the Miracle Angel Tribe’s lair with a heavy heart, his mind filled with the gruesome scene he had just witnessed. As he approached the entrance, he could see the worried expressions on the faces of the members of the tribe.
“I bring grim news,” Lin Feng said, his voice low and solemn. “The Night Dagger Clan’s camp has been destroyed with everyone inside massacred, including their leader, Fen Gen.”
The members of the Miracle Angel Tribe were initially shocked by Lin Feng’s words, but then a wave of excitement washed over them. They began to cheer and dance, some even clapping their hands in joy.
Children ran around the lair, laughing and jumping with glee. The news of the Night Dagger Clan’s camp’s destruction was truly wonderful to them. They had despised the Night Dagger Clan for their treachery, and their demise was a cause for celebration.
Seeing their excitement, Lin Feng couldn’t help but feel distressed. The destruction of the camp had been a gruesome affair, and the loss of life was not something to be celebrated.
He refrained from speaking his thoughts, knowing that the Miracle Angel Tribe had a deep-seated hatred for the Night Dagger Clan. Instead, he left the hall and made his way to his quarters, hoping to find some solace in solitude.
Meanwhile, Han Xifeng couldn’t help but feel a sense of gleeful satisfaction in her heart. She thanked Wang Jian silently for fulfilling his end of the deal.
And vowed to fulfil her end of the deal.
As the hours slowly passed and the night deepened, the Miracle Angel Tribe’s jubilation showed no signs of abating.
Meanwhile, Lin Feng’s mind was consumed by the atrocity he had witnessed earlier, ruminating on the identity of the unknown malefactor responsible for such devastation. His thoughts were plagued with questions, perplexed by the motives of the assailant and the reasoning behind targeting the Night Dagger Clan.
As he struggled to make sense of the situation, he couldn’t help but feel deeply disappointed in the members of the Miracle Angel Tribe. Though he understood their animosity towards the Night Dagger Clan, their gleeful celebrations in the face of such destruction left him feeling troubled and disheartened.
~~
As dawn broke on the morrow, tidings of the obliteration of the Night Dagger Clan’s encampment and the death of Fen Gen disseminated with celerity throughout the neighbouring village.
Through the network of communication threads woven by the villagers, the news pervaded and permeated every nook and cranny of the Zhenguan Region.
Simultaneously with the revelation of the Night Dagger Clan’s camp’s destruction and the demise of Fen Gen, a second piece of news reverberated throughout the Zhenguan Region. It was announced that the ruthless slaughter of the Night Dagger Clan’s members was executed by a perpetrator who wielded a sword and possessed the rare attribute of lightning.
The aforementioned news was sufficient to create a strong association in people’s minds between the death of Fen Gen and none other than Lin Feng.
The news of the destruction of their camp and the death of Fen Gen, along with the rumours linking Lin Feng to the incident, reached the Night Dagger Clan’s hideout in the northern Mellow Magnolia Woods.
The clan members were horrified, their hearts heavy with grief and despair, and disbelief etched on their faces.
Fen Shuying’s world crumbled beneath her feet as she received the dreadful news. Her heart pounded with disbelief, and she struggled to come to terms with the brutal reality of her father’s death at the hands of her beloved.
She immediately ordered her subordinates and guards to accompany her to the camp to personally verify these horrifying rumours.
“Captain Li, prepare my horse and call my loyal guards. We must go to the camp immediately,” she ordered, her voice trembling.
Captain Li nodded gravely and called for the horses. “My lady, are you sure you want to go? It might be too dangerous,” he said, trying to dissuade her.
Fen Shuying turned to him with a fierce look in her eyes. “I must know the truth, Captain. I cannot rest until then.”
Captain Li nodded in understanding and called for more guards to accompany them.
As Fen Shuying was getting ready to leave for the Night Dagger Clan’s camp, her mother, Lady Xia, came to her, pleading with her to reconsider.
“Fen Shuying, my dear daughter, please don’t do this. It’s too dangerous,” Lady Xia implored. “Your father wouldn’t want you to put yourself in harm’s way like this. You’re all I have left. If something happens to you, I’ll be lost.”
Fen Shuying turned to her mother, her voice firm. “I appreciate your concern, Mother, but I must do this. I am the head of this clan now, and I must take responsibility for what has happened.”
Her mother continued to plead with her, but Fen Shuying was not swayed. Finally, her mother relented, tears still in her eyes as she hugged her daughter tightly.
Fen Shuying, Captain Li, and dozens of guards rode swiftly towards the camp.
As they neared the camp, she could see the destruction and devastation that had befallen the Night Dagger Clan. Tears welled up in her eyes as she saw the lifeless bodies of her clan members strewn across the ground.
She dismounted her horse and slowly walked towards the site where her father’s body lay. She knelt beside him and wept bitterly.
“Father, why did you have to leave me like this? Who did this to you?” she cried out in agony.
Her guards stood around her, watching her with sympathy and sorrow. They knew how much Fen Shuying loved her father and how much she was hurting.
“Secure the area,” Fen Shuying ordered, her voice trembling with emotion.
“Find any clues you can about who did this. And we must take our fallen home and give them a proper burial.”
Her team worked quickly and efficiently, tying up the bodies of the dead and gathering any evidence they could find.
As Fen Shuying’s subordinates began their investigation, they found that the wounds on the corpses matched the patterns of a lightning-attribute sword. One of the subordinates reported to Fen Shuying, “My lady, we have found evidence that suggests that the murders were committed by someone with a lightning attribute sword.”
“…No way… it really isn’t you, right, Brother Feng?” Fen Shuying couldn’t help but mutter in a hopeful tone.
Fen Shuying wandered around the campsite, her heart heavy with grief and her mind clouded with doubt. She simply could not believe that Lin Feng, the love of her life, would be capable of killing her father. As she walked around the tent where her father had stayed, something caught her eye – a small piece of torn paper on the ground. 𝑏𝘦𝑑𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝘰𝘮
The paper that lay before her eyes was of the same make as that note she found outside her bedroom, which stated her father’s surreptitious alliance with Wang Jian.
Fen Shuying stood there, holding the paper in her trembling hands, as a realization of dread washed over her.
“…D-did Brother Feng do this because he discovered my father’s secret collaboration with Wang Jian?!” She pondered with a tremble in her voice. The gravity of the situation dawned on her, and she was left shaken to the core.
Despite her desire to confront Lin Feng and seek the truth, a sense of fear and uncertainty crept in. The masterful manipulation of the scenario by Wang Jian instilled a deep sense of doubt and suspicion in Fen Shuying’s mind, leaving her unsure of what to believe.
Thus, she dared not visit the Miracle Angel Tribe’s lair and confront Lin Feng. Her conviction in her deduction had become so strong that she was afraid of facing him and even believing in him.
Fen Shuying returned to her clan’s hideout with a heavy heart, feeling lost and confused.
On the other side of the forest, Lin Feng received news from the Miracle Angel Tribe’s scouts that Fen Shuying had come to the camp and had taken the corpses back to her hideout.
Lin Feng was disheartened to hear this. He couldn’t understand why Fen Shuying didn’t come to meet him or even send a message informing him of her arrival. His heart was heavy with sadness and worry as he contemplated the situation.
Despite the news linking him to Fen Gen’s murder, Lin Feng’s conscience remained pure and untroubled.
Nevertheless, the disheartening thought crossed his mind, ‘Could it be that Shuying has given credence to this baseless rumour and thus refrained from meeting me?’
The weight of this possibility heavily bore upon Lin Feng’s spirit, plunging him into a deep melancholy.