Having said that, the younger brother immediately left through the small path.
Seeing this scene, a group of people had already arrived outside Sun Tiejiang’s blacksmith shop, with torches illuminating half the street in a bright red glow.
At that moment, Qin Ying was searching inside the house. More than fifteen minutes had passed, and they should have left by now, but he still hadn’t found the secret letter Chen Jiusi mentioned. What should he do now? Moreover, could Chen Jiusi have deceived him?
As he was thinking, Qin Bao hurriedly came over and said, "Big brother, it’s bad, people from Yelu Mansion are here."
Hearing this, Qin Ying turned his head and saw the torches lighting up half the sky. His face changed and he said, "They’ve come quickly. Where’s Second Brother? Retreat!"
Upon hearing this, Qin Bao immediately said, "Second Brother, Second Brother..."
"Big brother, look here, there’s a mechanism!"
While they were talking, Qin Hu suddenly discovered a mechanism. His face was full of excitement. You see, it had to be me who thought of this mechanism, which was designed next to the toilet.
As they spoke, Qin Ying turned to look and saw that Qin Hu had activated the mechanism. A hidden chamber had appeared next to the toilet.
Qin Ying felt that the secret letter was likely inside this hidden chamber, but now he couldn’t enter. Otherwise, wouldn’t that be like trapping himself in a pot?
Meanwhile, he could hear the sound of the front door seal being ripped open, and the clanging of chains; people from Darugachi Mansion were about to come in.
No, he couldn’t be discovered.
"Close it, close it!"
Qin Ying urgently told Qin Hu at this moment, hoping that Qimu Ge wouldn’t find the mechanism so that the secret letter would remain undiscovered.
Qin Hu was confused. What did you mean close it? I just found it.
Qin Bao, with quick reflexes, immediately went over, closed the mechanism, and then pulled Qin Hu to fly up the wall. Qin Ying also flew up the wall.
At that moment, the main door of the Sun Family Blacksmith Shop was flung open, and a troop of soldiers followed in.
Escorted by guards, Qimu Ge entered, looked around, and found no one. However, his eyes quickly noticed a large puddle of undried water on the floor, which could already prove that someone had recently been here. Otherwise, why would there be water?
Qimu Ge waved his hand: "Search!"
Upon hearing this command, a group of people immediately started searching. As for Qin Ying and the others, they would wait until something was found.
With twenty people, the efficiency was much higher than that of three people. Searching wasn’t just about using Energy Transformation to overpower ordinary people; some details might still be clearer to ordinary people.
Thus, in less than fifteen minutes, a guard shouted, "Lord Commander, there’s a hidden passage here!"
Qimu Ge turned his head and saw that the guard had already opened the mechanism of the hidden passage under the toilet. At this moment, Qin Ying, Qin Hu, and Qin Bao, hiding in the darkness, all wore a frown.
Without wasting words, Qimu Ge immediately walked into the hidden passage.
He quickly entered the hidden passage, then discovered that the space here was actually large enough to store a considerable amount of military weapons. So, during that past search at Sun Tiejiang’s blacksmith shop, they could have easily hidden the military equipment here and temporarily sealed the mechanism from the outside.
Thinking of this, Qimu Ge’s brow furrowed. Why had they moved the military equipment here in advance? Could it be that someone had tipped them off?
The thought of tipping off immediately made Qimu Ge think of Nan Batian’s unusual behavior that day, especially since one of his guards had run away under the pretext of his wife giving birth, a guard he hadn’t found yet.
If that guard had gone to tip them off, then Sun Tiechui would have had plenty of time to move these military equipments.
Thinking of this, Qimu Ge’s eyes deepened.
Combining this with what happened at East City Gate, Nan Batian was very suspicious. As they searched the secret chamber, they found no items.
Only some useless clutter, shelves, and...
At that moment, a guard pointed to a copper basin that was clearly used for burning important letters, now filled with paper ash.
Qimu Ge frowned, used the scabbard of his sword to shift through the ashes, and then found some partially burned scraps of paper in the basin.
Bending down, he picked up several pieces of paper and looked at them.
One read: [Iron Ore Sealed...]
Another read: [Leave quickly!]
And another read: [Undying Holy Fire, Restore Great Song...]
Qimu Ge bent down and looked at these three pieces of paper, frowning. Although there wasn’t much information, he could make out some issues.
For example, the first one about the iron ore being sealed, was saying that Lord Yelu sealed the iron mine, affecting their production of military equipment?
The second paper, with the word ’Quickly’ partially burned, suggested they knew they were about to be captured?
The third was even more interesting: "Undying Holy Fire, Restore Great Song," a motto of the Zoroastrian Sect similar to those of rebellions like "Overthrow the Qing to Restore Ming."
The Zoroastrian Sect had always been under the banner of restoring the Song Dynasty, even claiming their Sect Hierarch was a descendant of the Song emperors, having changed his surname to Han later to avoid disaster!
Looking at this, it seemed like these were messages meant for the Zoroastrian Sect, and just as its rebels were pulling out, they had burned the messages, leaving the specific details completely unknown.
But from this content, he could infer a thing or two. More importantly, this handwriting?
Qimu Ge frowned. The handwriting looked very much like Nan Batian’s, and considering what Qin Ying and his group came here to find today, could it really be that they were in secret communication with the Zoroastrian Sect?