Chapter 58

Chapter 58: How Did They Kill Without Sensing Any Killing Aura?

The small village nestled against mountains had more forests than fields around it. Before the donkey cart descended the slope earlier, the entire layout of the village was visible.

With only about thirty households, most houses had mud walls and thatched roofs, appearing dilapidated and lifeless at first glance.

The bloodthirsty men reeking of cannibalism occupied the three sturdiest courtyards in the village. Their greed for comfort unintentionally simplified Du Yinsui and Jiang Wu’s mission tonight.

All three courtyards stood in the northern part of the village. Du Yinsui led Jiang Wu to the outermost one first. Dawn had just begun to break, and everyone inside was still asleep.

Du Yinsui climbed into the courtyard and used shackles to secure the east wing housing two people and the west wing holding one person. She then opened the gate for Jiang Wu, guiding him straight to the main house.

Three people slept side by side on a kang bed in the main house. Du Yinsui assigned the innermost one to Jiang Wu.

Covering the target’s mouth with her hand, Du Yinsui struck swiftly. Her blade moved cleanly, causing minimal suffering. Only a faint gurgle escaped as the last breath faded before silence reclaimed the room.

Soon only three living people breathed in the room.

Du Yinsui found Jiang Wu’s hesitation understandable. They’d learned from Wei Huiqing that Cui Wu was a repeat offender, and they’d caught him red-handed—he’d clearly deserved killing. Jiang Wu had acted decisively then.

But these sleeping figures showed no aggression. Without concrete evidence of their murders or cannibalism—just Du Yinsui’s word—Jiang Wu’s reluctance made sense.

Du Yinsui nudged Jiang Wu’s arm, signaling him to move aside. He stood frozen.

As Du Yinsui glanced at the brightening sky outside, frowning about compromising on positioning, Jiang Wu finally moved.

True to Du Yinsui’s rigorous training, Jiang Wu replicated her movements precisely. The victim’s stifled struggles sounded no louder than before.

Du Yinsui blinked in surprise—not at the kill itself, but at how it happened without any palpable killing aura.

The air held tangled scents of secret affection and indecision, while the killing intent remained vanishingly faint… How could someone kill without radiating hostility? Was Jiang Wu naturally gifted for assassination?

Even reading emotional shifts through scent, Du Yinsui couldn’t decipher Jiang Wu now. Well—more targets awaited, leaving no time for pondering.

Once resolved, Jiang Wu committed fully. He hesitated no further, working in sync with Du Yinsui to eliminate the courtyard’s three remaining occupants.

The first courtyard held six victims; the second, seven.

When they paused beside the third courtyard’s entrance, daylight had fully emerged.

"This one’s different," Du Yinsui whispered, eyeing the village’s largest compound. "Two seem awake inside. They butchered and ate people right here… Brace yourself. We’ll see severed limbs, chopped bodies, half-consumed remains. Don’t react. Give them no opening."

Even with an ordinary sense of smell, Jiang Wu detected a sickening sweetness in the air. He nodded grimly, face pale.

Du Yinsui—nauseated since entering the village—lacked energy to comfort him as they neared the stench’s source. Killing everyone first would avenge the dead. Maybe then the smell would lessen…

Tempered by the first two courtyards, Jiang Wu handled the living efficiently. Though slower than Du Yinsui, he dispatched his targets swiftly.

But sleeping versus awake proved crucial. Noise outside roused several who’d already been stirring at daybreak.

Fortunately, Du Yinsui had brought two shackles before entering the village—long enough to bind people to trees or pillars. Whether dealing with copper-ringed doors or wooden bolts, she improvised restraints to delay those inside.

After clearing the first two courtyards, Jiang Wu and Du Yinsui had developed a rhythm. They dispatched the two awakened individuals in the next courtyard, then each secured a shackle on the east and west wings’ doors. Ignoring the pounding and curses behind those doors, they focused entirely on the three men bursting from the main house.

These men had clearly lived too easily. What times were these, yet they kept no blades in their house? Three grown men rushed out unarmed. Seeing only two women, their frantic dash toward the farm tools slowed to a swagger, their mouths spewing foul language.

Naturally, two dropped immediately.

The last one managed to grab a hoe from the yard, but it was too late to help him.

Soon, the final courtyard was cleared too.

Thirteen from the first two courtyards, plus eight from the last, made twenty-one people finished off. The earlier tension eased, and Jiang Wu stood in the courtyard, feeling dazed. Twenty-one people. Eight lives ended by his hand… It felt so weightless…

Before Jiang Wu could sink deeper into thought, Du Yinsui flicked blood from her hands and gestured toward a side room beside the west wing, its door half-open. In the bright daylight, Jiang Wu could make out the stove near the door, stacked firewood inside, and…

Jiang Wu strode to the doorway, shoving the half-open door wide to flood the likely kitchen with light. Only then did he see the shapes swinging from the beams in the deepest shadows.

People!

"They’re already dead," Du Yinsui stopped Jiang Wu from entering further. "Turned into something like preserved meat."

Jiang Wu: "…"

Those weren’t people hanging from the beams. They were meat hanging from the beams. But… they were whole people…

Hearing Du Yinsui describe it beforehand was nothing compared to seeing it with his own eyes.

Yet, as Jiang Wu finally choked down the nausea rising in his throat, he realized the kitchen held more than just the "human preserves"…

"This…" Jiang Wu’s eyes fell on the large iron pot on the stove. Half-filled with soup, the oil had solidified, but bits of meat were still visible. Connecting this to the beams, his face paled again.

"Yes. Uneaten human flesh. There’s chopped meat outside too…" Du Yinsui didn’t soften the truth, hoping this hellish scene might lessen Jiang Wu’s unease after his first mass killing.

The discomfort did lessen. Jiang Wu paused, absorbing her words, looking from the pot to the beams. He couldn’t help asking, "Are they all dead? Is the village empty? Just us left?"

He felt he could kill more!

"The necessary ones are dead. Only the one on the donkey cart remains. But… there are still some alive. Locked in that empty courtyard over there." Du Yinsui pointed east. "Probably kept to sell, or as future supplies."

"Then we should…" Jiang Wu started, already stepping towards the courtyard exit.

"We can’t free them now. They’d see us," Du Yinsui said, her hands too bloody to grab him, so she blocked his path with an arm. "They’ve endured this long. Another hour or two won’t matter."

Overwhelmed and impulsive, Jiang Wu stopped. "Right… they can’t see us. That would complicate things. But… must we stay here that long? It’s daylight. Won’t the guards catch up?"

"Not yet. We need to set things up. Hopefully, they won’t pursue us before we’re ready." Du Yinsui reassured him, "It’s fine. We’ll work fast. Do what’s essential first."

Du Yinsui had taken the "antidote," restoring her sense of smell to its peak strength – capable of detecting scents up to a kilometer away. This small village lay nearly a kilometer west of where the exile column had passed yesterday. Leaving the ruined temple at night, they’d doubled back southwest to reach it. Now over a kilometer from the temple, Du Yinsui couldn’t smell anything happening there. But if the guards entered the kilometer radius centered on her, she’d catch their scent instantly and adjust their plan.

With this ability, she could anticipate the guards’ direction. They wouldn’t catch her.

So the question became, what exactly needed doing?

Jiang Wu believed handling the scene was essential. Du Yinsui agreed. Yet their approaches to this task differed vastly.

Stacking bodies, gathering bones, tearing cloth, painting flags…

Soon, the fresh corpses of villains piled high in the courtyard. A hoe served as a flagpole planted atop the heap, flying a skull flag painted in blood. Though Jiang Wu had created the latter two items under Du Yinsui’s direction, looking at the result now, it felt like another’s handiwork.

In the kitchen, Du Yinsui fed firewood into the stove. Hearing Jiang Wu enter, she asked without looking up: "You used a painting technique you’d never tried before for the skull, right?"

Jiang Wu: "…"

Painting an intentionally ugly skull hardly required technique. She overestimated him.

"Yeah." Jiang Wu eyed Du Yinsui still tending the stove and cleared his throat. "You… aren’t planning to light this fire, are you?" That pot still held human flesh stew!

"Not now. We’re heading to those other courtyards." Du Yinsui brushed ash from her hands and straightened up. "Hope the blood there hasn’t dried yet."

Jiang Wu: "…"

More painting?

Absolutely. The idea came from the rebel who’d claimed allegiance to the Tiger King the previous night. Murkier clues meant prolonged investigations. Even if authorities eventually uncovered the truth, they’d be long gone.

After arranging corpse piles in the first two courtyards, Jiang Wu painted flags while Du Yinsui gathered unstained winter clothes and quilts from rooms. Before leaving, she erased traces they might have accidentally left. Fortunately, though Daizhou was cold, no snow had fallen recently. Otherwise, masking their tracks would’ve proved far harder despite the scent.

While Du Yinsui scavenged supplies, Jiang Wu finished two uniquely hideous skulls and diligently sharpened a rusty pair of scissors.

By the village entrance near the donkey cart, Qin Chongli and Chu Xiulan waited anxiously. Straining to hear any sound from the north village left Qin Chongli’s ears aching and sprouted an anxious blister on his lip. They now understood the meaning of desperate anticipation.

Finally, the pair returned, each laden with large bundles.

"Change clothes. Strip off the prison uniforms and shoes—keep only your innermost layers. Wear these." Du Yinsui tossed a prepared bundle toward them. "No fitting clothes for the kids? Wrap them in oversized garments or quilts directly. Endure two days; we’ll buy new where we settle."

They knew Du Yinsui’s plan: to suggest they’d been "eaten." Leaving their clothes behind fit that story. Yet Qin Chongli hadn’t expected more after changing…

"Ai… ai…" Qin Chongli stroked his newly bare chin, casting a mournful look at Chu Xiulan.

"Don’t look at me like that, Father. Your beard was too distinctive—no substitute." Chu Xiulan handed the beard to Du Yinsui.

Qin Chongli’s gaze followed his beard, heart aching. But they’d come here instead of fleeing immediately precisely to mislead Tan Wang’s forces. Though success wasn’t guaranteed, if Tan Wang believed they’d been devoured rather than escaped, no kingdom-wide manhunt would follow. No relentless searches would plague their journey. Just a beard grown over years… nothing serious. *Sniff*…

"Any prior bone fractures? I mean, actual broken bones." After storing the beard and packing their discarded clothes, Du Yinsui finally asked.

Seeing unanimous headshakes, she sighed faintly in relief. Faked old fractures would’ve been tricky. Thankfully unnecessary.

"You carry this." Du Yinsui shoved the clothes bundle at Jiang Wu. She delivered a swift chop to the unmoving Liu Yaozu before lifting him. "We return to the third courtyard once more. Stay here. Don’t fear—no threats remain in this village."

Qin Chongli and Chu Xiulan could only nod, each clutching a quilt-swaddled child. Their most vital task was obedience—avoiding any complication.