The man who had previously been fierce and brutal now slumped weakly to the side.
Wang Anfeng knew the noise from the earlier skirmish was definitely not minor, so he simply stopped concealing his presence, lifted his leg, and kicked the wooden door to smithereens. Inside was a storage room with a blazing furnace.
Wang Anfeng swept his eyes around and strode directly toward the southwest corner, raising his hand to send a palm wind that scattered all the miscellaneous items in that corner, revealing a wooden board on the ground. After opening the board, there was a faint sound of a mechanism, and before the sound had even stopped, two fierce gusts shot toward Wang Anfeng's face.
Wang Anfeng twisted his body to dodge the two vigorous Qi shots, and heard two "ting ting" sounds beside his ear as the old wooden beams outside were directly penetrated, leaving explosive-like voids, and the wooden board crashed down.
The colder Wang Anfeng's face became, the more he knew he must have touched the enemy's base. As the enemy kept trying to kill him, he no longer held back, boiling with rage, he raised his fist and struck down.
Since the Divine Weapon's Qi mechanism hadn't dissipated yet, this punch was both fierce and mighty. Someone inside let out a muffled groan, followed by a series of heavy thumping sounds.
Wang Anfeng jumped down without even glancing at the martial artist, and just ran toward the deepest part, his heartbeat involuntarily speeding up as he went further.
The dim tunnel was not very long; it took only the time of three snaps of the fingers to walk through it. Wang Anfeng kicked open the final stone door, swept his eyes inside, and instantly stiffened.
Tie Lin had some fresh red on his shoulder, and his expression was displeased.
The martial artist who had just burst through the wall had barely reached the standard of Sixth Rank and was no match for him. However, the opponent had targeted the civilians who couldn't escape in time, and he had no choice but to forcefully block an attack and then took the opportunity to wound the assailant with his waist saber.
At this moment, he was not in armor, and although there was a layer of inner armor under his clothes, it did not protect his shoulders, and he wasn't one of those madmen from the Heavenly Dragon Institute who specifically trained their bodies, so even a desperate move from a Seventh Rank martial artist had caused him a minor injury.
He then grabbed the martial artist with one hand, and with his left hand, he grabbed a rope at his waist and quickly bound the damned suspect into a twisty, dumpling-like bundle on the spot.
This rope was made from cow tendons soaked in tung oil, horse tails, and castor beans, twisted together with eight fine steel wires intertwined inside. The Ministry of Punishment's people mostly knew some medical techniques.
If they weren't very skilled in saving lives, they certainly knew how to tie up a suspect in such a way that they couldn't exert any strength, and once bound , unless their Qi mechanism was as vast and mighty as rivers capable of tearing external objects apart by sheer force, even a Middle Third Rank martial artist couldn't easily break free.
After tying the suspect up into a tight bundle and throwing him in the corner, Tie Lin charged into the house, meeting up with Wuxin, who had also sensed Wang Anfeng's actions. Knowing he had taken the opportunity to go inside, they quickened their steps. Upon entering, they saw two explosive-like voids on the ceiling beam, and their expressions changed.
Both coming from government backgrounds, they knew that such destructive power couldn't possibly come from a government official's hand crossbow or the hidden weapons from a longsword commonly found in Jianghu, it must be the handiwork of the Mo Family from Great Qin.
The Mo Family members, mostly straightforward people, where the mechanisms weren't so expensive as to be unaffordable, the key issue lay in the channels. Not to mention the specially made Break Qi Armor-Breaking Crossbow Bolts, even the Mechanism Crossbows themselves were something that ordinary martial artists would never have the chance to buy; unlike swords, these were absolutely prohibited arms within the borders of Great Qin.
The two, now on high alert, each held a blade in one hand and a crossbow in the other, moving in a chevron formation. They stepped forward into another room and saw a man lying on the ground, his eyes wide open, already breathless, yet his body still twitching slightly, with pinkish blood frothing at the corners of his mouth.
His neck was unnaturally twisted and sunken, and at a glance, it almost looked as if someone had smashed his head into his chest with a palm, the attack being crude but direct and efficient.
Tie Lin's face changed numerous times, and he said,
"Was this done by Feng An?"
Wuxin's expression remained unchanged as he simply said quietly,
With his shocking thoughts calmed, Tie Lin nodded, and the two moved further inside, seeing the scattered debris blown aside by the palm wind and the opened cellar door.
Tie Lin kicked the cellar's entrance door to pieces, avoiding being trapped later, then jumped down with Wuxin. Raising his eyes, he saw a big man almost embedded in the wall opposite, coughing up blood, his abdomen marked with a fist imprint, and barely hanging onto half a life, his eyes vacantly staring ahead.
Beside him lay a Barrier Blade, a third shorter than a waist saber, its blade tinged with a dark green, obviously poisoned.
Tie Lin's mouth twitched.
Seeing the appearance of the man, he almost could replay the entire incident in his mind.
A martial artist with a resigned heart to cover the rear held a Qin Mo Mechanical Crossbow, held his breath, and waited for the moment the door opened to unleas...