Ho Fu was concerned and asked, "Constable Cai, so is he guilty?"
"As a disciple of Dark Lotus Sect, he wanted to drive the villagers away to create chaos, so that the Dark Lotus sect could attack Feng Shou Town when the magistrate is distracted."
"So, what do we do next?" Ho Fu was shocked at what he heard.
He looked at Lin Fan and was even more grateful Lin Fan had stopped Housekeeper Lee.
When chaos ensued, no one knew what could have happened.
"I will get back to Feng Shou Town, get him on the wanted list and start to interrogate Housekeeper Lee's contacts."
Ho Fu nodded and took a puff of his pipe, happy to see the case investigation going so smoothly.
However, Lin Fan felt something amiss.
Everything went too smoothly, he thought to himself.
It was as if someone wanted this to happen.
There was no obstruction in having access to Housekeeper Lee's room.
Out of all places, the letter was left in such a prominent place.
Why would anyone dealing with an evil sect be so careless?
And Xiao Fang coincidentally knew how to read and identify Housekeeper Lee's writing.
Lin Fan would bet his last piece of silver that this was all staged by someone.
That someone was most likely to be Master Tan.
Keeping quiet, Lin Fan didn't want to voice his concern.
He had his own plan.
"Come, let's make a move. Time is of the essence."
With the letter in his hand, Constable Cai was satisfied and couldn't wait to leave.
They went back to the main hall, tried to bid farewell to Master Tan, but he was already asleep according to the servants.
So, they left the Tan mansion shortly after.
Along the way, Lin Fan turned to Ho Fu and said, "Village head, I paid my taxes so I will go back home first. Last few days left to hunt."
Puff.
While smoking his pipe, Ho Fu nodded.
"You be careful, don't go into the woods; the clearing team will be here soon," Ho Fu said.
"Don't worry, village head. I will," Lin Fan said and went on his way.
The village head didn't think much of it and went back together with Constable Cai.
Rustle.
A gust of cold autumn wind blew, sending golden leaves falling from the trees.
Ho Fu shivered from the chill and looked up at the sight of falling leaves.
This autumn was turning out to be a tough one to get by.
...
Lin Fan walked at a normal pace initially; when he was out of sight from Ho Fu and Constable Cai, he stopped his pretense and ran back toward the Tan Mansion.
Houses by the side, slowly going past him, started to become a blur, streaking by as he started to increase his strides and gained speed.
He chose to stop a hundred meters away from the Tan Mansion.
Looking around, he found a great spot to hide: tall grass growing by the side of the dirt path.
With no one around, Lin Fan quickly took cover inside the grass patch.
Lin Fan activated his Rabbit's Hearing ability.
Noises from the surrounding environment came into his ears.
The insects and birds.
Chatters of house guards discussing what had happened.
Servants sighing with relief as they left the main hall.
Then the voice of Master Tan.
And a voice Lin Fan had never heard before.
"Has it been settled?" the Dark Envoy asked.
"Yes, I've done as you instructed."
"The Constable is on his way; he didn't suspect a thing."
"We should be able to execute our plans when they leave after getting nothing out of the investigations."
"These Quan Dynasty officials aren't really known to be hardworking," Master Tan replied.
"Hurry, we don't have time left after being forced to expose our presence."
"Dear Dark Envoy, I will make sure it gets done," Master Tan replied.
After that, Lin Fan could hear footsteps; the Dark Envoy was leaving.
Lin Fan thought for a while, rubbed his temple with his fingers.
Finally, he decided to follow this Dark Envoy.
What was this plan they wanted to execute?
He needed to find out and be prepared for it.
Right now, there were close ones like Uncle Liu and Ho Fu he didn't want harmed in any way.
So, he'd better follow this Dark Envoy.
With his Hunter Instinct ability, he could see the footsteps illuminated in his vision, coming out from the Tan Mansion's back door.
Carefully keeping his distance, Lin Fan followed the Dark Envoy.
The tracks slowly led to the river.
From afar, Lin Fan could see the Dark Envoy in his dark robes and black mask, stopped by the riverside.
A few moments passed and a small boat appeared from the river upstream, inching slowly toward the Dark Envoy.
On the boat was an old man with a straw hat covering his face, rowing his oar to bring the boat to the riverside.
Seeing that they were about to talk, Lin Fan quickly activated his Rabbit's Hearing ability.
"Hall Master isn't happy with the delay," the old man said.
"The officials are on my tail; I need to shake them off first.
"When it's time, the villagers will be slaughtered in time for the blood pool.
"No one has yet to suspect a thing about the blood pool in the woods."
The Dark Envoy replied.
Being pleased with the answer, the old man nodded and threw a bottle at the Dark Envoy.
"Here's the last bottle of Nine Turn Qi Concentration pills."
With that, their conversation ended; the old man rowed the boat and slowly disappeared down the river.
The Dark Envoy subsequently turned back.
Lin Fan quickly used his Magnificent Leap ability to get as far away as possible.
Without any knowledge of how powerful this Dark Envoy was, he'd better stay clear.
Better to let the professionals handle it, he thought to himself.
Now the important thing was to find out where this blood pool was.
Lin Fan wasted no time and went straight over to the village head's house.