After some explanation, Wang Li understood the situation.
He looked at Li Fei and asked. "Don't you know it is illegal to buy and sell information. Why did you buy it from them underworld people?"
"Ahh...! I didn't know about that." Looking shocked, Li Fei replied. Of course he knew it, but just won't admit to it. Otherwise, who knows he might be in a lot of trouble.
"OK then." Wang Lin said.
He also said it as a custom, not that he cared must about it. Everywhere in the Red Lion Kingdom, there are people and organizations like that even though it is a banned thing. And not so surprisingly, most of them are run by powerful righteous figures and organizations that banned them in the first place.
And they did it so because they simply want to monopolize and have absolute powers.
After all that, he turned to looked at the figures lying on the ground unconscious.
He instructed to his two guards and the Li clan members. "Go tie all these people together. And wake them up too. We are taking them to the city."
Both the guards and the Li clan members followed his instruction and tied all those people lying on the ground.
From the side, Li Fei asked. "What about the body of the Jin patriarch."
Without even looking, Wang Lin replied. "Just leave it be. I don't need him."
After hearing that, all the people simply ignored the bloodied figure of Jin Mo.
Some minutes later, they woke up all the people from the 3 clans from their unconscious state.
All of them stood in line with their limbs all tied together. In the front was Wang Lin and his two bodyguards. And in the back was Li Fei and his group.
Even if the captives want to run away, they could not. Simply because their strengths have been drained.
As they were about to head back to the city, Wang Lin called Li Fei to the front.
Li Fei walked in the front just beside Wang Lin. He was holding the lease and was leading the horse.
Their journey back to the city has begun.
Tap... tap...
However, when their journey was mid way, something unexpected happened. Sitting on his horse back, Wang Lin clutched his head in pain.
Argh....
He let out a low groan.
Seeing his reaction, both the guards and Li Fei quickly asked him. "Sir, what is happening to you?" But Wang Lin didn't answer.
Quickly, one of the guards turned to Li Fei and asked coldly. "What did you do?"
That caught Li Fei off guard. He didn't know what to respond to it.
But it was a reasonable question though. They were just going on the way and something happened to their lord. The most suspicious one would be the stranger they just met.
As the guard was about to force Li Fei, Wang Lin's voice was heard. "Its okey, don't worry. I am fine."
He stopped clutching his head with his hand.
After taking a deep breath, he asked both the guards. "Do you guys remember the faces of those five people we met?"
The two guards looked at eachother feeling puzzled. But when they tried to remember the faces of the five people, they found that they couldn't remember at all.
'As I thought.' It was exactly as he expected.
When Li Fei heard Wang Lin asking that question, he realized that he forgot to tell him that.
Quickly, he explained. "Sir, I forgot to tell you about that one. The same thing happened to me too. But don't worry, you will remember them if you see them again. Although, you won't remember their after they left."
"So, I will only see their face when I see them in front of me? Is that it?" Wang Lin said.
"Yes. Like that. But I doubt that their ability will work on people with higher level of cultivation." Li Fei explained.
At that moment, they heard someone shouting from the back. "What happened?"
Upon hearing that, they snapped out of their thoughts. Without delaying further they continued their journey towards the Black Swan City.
-----
Back at the site where the ambush took place. Five figures appeared.
It was the Nan Brothers. They came back to the place after Wang Lin and his group left.
They stood surrounding something on the ground. It was Jin Mo's bloodied corpse.
Nan Lei sat down on one knee and collected something from Jin Mo corpse and put it inside a small container likely made out of bamboo. After carefully collecting the item, Nan Lei sealed the container using a special cap.
After the process was done, Nan Lei stood up. Then, he nodded.
Understanding eachother, they all nodded.
With a gust of wind, they left the place leaving behind Jin Mo's corpse. In a few days, some will animals would eat it.
During that, none of them spoke a word.
------
After a short yet long journey, at around noon, Wang Lin's group finally arrived at the Black Swan City.
Standing before the giant city gate, one of his guard stepped up and shouted. "THE CITY LORD HAS ARRIVED...."
His loud voice attracted the the people beyond the city gate, inside. And within a few minutes, soldiers came running out.
Leading the small group of soldiers was a middle-aged man. He was just a normal high ranking soldier, not some extraordinary person.
As soon as they arrived in front of Wang Lin, they stopped. And without a word, they stood there.
Knowing the custom, Wang Lin took put a small silver tablet. Written one it. 'Red Lion.'
The moment they saw it, the soldiers knelt down. "Greetings to the city lord. We are sorry for making you wait here. Please forgive us for our rudeness."
Then, they continued kneeling. It was a rule made by the Kingdom government.
Without Wang Lin's word, they would have to kneel forever.
Fortunately for them, Wang Lin was not some kind of monster. He calmly waved his hand. "You may rise."
After receiving the permission, the group of soldiers stood up.
"Please, my lord," the captain said, showing the way into the city.
Before long, they group entered inside the city.
Inside the city, many people whispers something to eachother. They were not talking about the new city lord. But rather talking about the prisoners walking behind.
Pointing towards the prisoners, they whispered.
"Isn't that the manager from the Lin family rice store."
"Hey, I know that one. He is the manager of the Jin clan medicine store."
"Why are they all from the Jin, Lin and Meng clan?"
"Then, what about the Li clan?"
The people looked for any signs of Li clan members among the prisoners.
Soon, they found it. Not among the prisoners. Instead, they were escorting the prisoners from behind.
"Isn't that the Li clan patriarch!? Are they the one who captured the other 3 clans!?"
Like they didn't hear the whispering of the people, they continued walking down the street. Before long, they arrived at the government office.
To welcome the city lord, an old man came out. He was the accountant of the office.
After getting Wang Lin's words, the soldiers put the prisoners to the holding cells.
Before entering the office, Wang Lin turned to Li Fanh and said. "Come tomorrow, we will discuss some things."
And with that, he entered the office.
The Li clan members also didn't waste any time staying there. After receiving the instructions, the also left for their residence.
--------
Inside the basement of South Wind Pavillion, the Nan Brothers were doing something.
They stood around a small table. And on the table was Shadow, the Moonshadow Owl.
Nan Lei slowly and carefully took out a small container. It was the same container he used when collecting something from Jin Mo's corpse.
He carefully took off the cap and gave the container to Shadow.
Shadow took the container and drank whatever was inside the container. As soon as he drank that, it dropped the container like I was no more of use.
Plop...
Then, it did something, like casting a spell or something.
Some minutes later, Shadow hooted.
Coos... Coos...
Hearing that Coos, the Nan Brothers showed a delighted expression.
With relief, all of them sat down. And took a deep breath to calm themselves.
Huh....
"Finally, we will get something valuable that will let us grow without depending on our boss." With a smile, Nan Yuan said.
Hearing that, the others nodded too.
What they fed to Shadow was Jin Mo's blood. With it, they would trace his steps—to the last place he visited, where spiritual Qi surged in abundance.
The reason they knew that Jin Mo visited that kind place was because they knew Jin Mo's condition.
They have been investigating the Jin clan for a while and they knew that their ancestor have advanced to high level Body Refinement Realm. Which is an impossible thing.
With his too old age and low level talent, he would never be able to reach the high level realm.
The same goes for Jin Mo. Except he would need many years to reach level 6.
So, after digging for a while, they discovered that his body was reeking with spiritual energy. They used their ability but it was of no use, something they never encountered before.
At last the decided to use tracking ability. And to do that they needed his blood. But taking blood was a risky thing. They simply could not kill him in his own home, as that would raise many troubles.
Finally, they came up with a plan. A plan to let him do it himself.
So, when he was caught by Wang Lin's guard, he decided to kill himself. It was all the Nan Brothers' doing.