"... Qitong, Lu Xiaofeng, what happened to you since you entered the desert?"
Upon hearing Huazhaolou's inquiry, Lu Xiaofeng and Huamanlou told each other everything from the time they were attacked after leaving seclusion to the day when the King of Golden Bell wanted to melt the rusty sword in the palace.
Finally, Lu Xiaofeng made a concluding speech.
"Now it is basically certain that those who died were members of King Jinzhong. Otherwise, I can't imagine how Chu Qi's existence was exposed."
"They were replaced with the corpses of civilians just last night, and King Jinzhong got the news today... The only people who know about the Divine Sword, besides them, are members of our caravan. If they are not them, how can they still be there?" Anyone?"
Hearing this, Huazhaolou couldn't help but nodded and said:
"This matter is indeed strange, and you said that every dead soldier has a falcon tattoo behind his ear? According to the information I have found out these days, the name of King Jinzhong is Chalab, which is indeed a falcon. Meaning, those dead soldiers must have something to do with him."
Huamanlou still felt that there was something wrong with this pile of things, but for the moment she couldn't think of what was wrong, so she had to put it aside for the time being.
"Right now, it seems that the one who attacked us all the way was King Jinzhong. But, I can't figure out why he did this? Just to prevent Lu Xiaofeng from helping Princess Jinling investigate the whereabouts of the Golden Eye Orb? And...why? Can those dead soldiers accurately find our location time and time again...?"
"Qitong, who are you doubting?"
"...Old Bu. Except for him, I brought everyone else from the Hua family. He is the only one I am not familiar with."
As soon as Huamanlou said this guess, the one who couldn't accept it the most was Huazhaolou.
"But this is impossible! Qitong, you don't know, Lao Bu has been friends with our family for more than ten years, and there has never been anything wrong!"
"Brother Hua Wu, please don't get excited. That old man is indeed suspicious. I didn't think it before. Now that I think about it, when we were attacked for the first time after we came out of seclusion, I looked around after walking out of the tent. , I didn’t even see Lao Bu appear.”
"I'm pretty sure that he only appeared again after we arrested all those dead soldiers!"
Huazhaolou was obviously stunned by the news. He held his head and looked a little depressed.
"It's not that I don't believe you, it's just... I just can't believe it."
"Qitong, you know that since I took over this trade line seven years ago, Lao Bu has taken me through this desert every time I leave the customs. Your fifth brother, I think I know people well. Youdao, I don’t believe that the old Bu I know would do such a thing.”
Huamanlou silently put his hand on Huazhaolou's shoulder. The atmosphere in the room was a little dull for a while. It wasn't until Chuqi couldn't hold it in any longer that he opened his mouth to break the silence in the room.
"Is it possible that this old guy is pretending?"
After hearing this, the three grown men raised their heads and looked at each other, then nodded.
Lu Xiaofeng secretly gave Chu Qi a thumbs up, and then naturally skipped the topic about Lao Bu, and naturally received the question of why King Jinzhong was like that.
"When we were walking around the palace with the Prime Minister today, we happened to pass by the treasure pavilion that Princess Jin Ling mentioned was originally used to store the Golden Eyes Orb. At that time, Huamanlou, you were so focused on Brother Hua Wu that you might not have noticed. , there are almost no guards there.”
“Besides, don’t you think the attitude of this Golden Bell King is strange?
He does not hesitate to offend the Central Plains and destroy trade routes, but also forces the caravan to pay for redemption;
He seems to be greedy for money but neglects to take care of the treasure house with countless treasures;
He has the ability to attack and kill a group of foreign caravans from thousands of miles away, but he has no ability to capture the helpless Princess Jin Ling..."
"All these are completely inconsistent, unless...he already knew that the Golden Eye Orb was stolen."
Lu Xiaofeng's speculation was by no means unbold, but Huamanlou still found a loophole in it and raised questions.
"But didn't Princess Jinling say that the orbs in their hands at that time were all fake? In this case, wouldn't it make sense?"
"Tsk, that's right. Zhu Ting, Zhu Ting, you said you had nothing to do and why did you go outside the customs?
Lu Xiaofeng scratched his hair in distress, took out the secret room key given to him by Zhu Zuyou from his arms and began to criticize his friend for being unkind.
But as he stared at the dazzling golden key, the more he looked at it, the more he felt something was wrong. Finally, he stood up suddenly, grabbed the key, and approached the candlelight.
"Lu Xiaofeng? What did you find?"
Chu Qi also leaned over curiously. Although she didn't see anything, she felt inexplicably that Lu Xiaofeng must have discovered something.
"Do you think this key is a little too new?"
Lu Xiaofeng said, passing the keys in his hand to everyone for everyone to touch.
"Indeed, it doesn't look like something from more than ten years ago, but it's also possible that the previous King with Golden Eyes cherished it more and often took it out to wipe and maintain it?"
Hua Manlou touched it very carefully and found the problem. She shook her head and said:
"Fifth brother, no, look carefully. If that's what you said, then the grooves of the key should be smooth."
"It shouldn't be like now, a little sharp and easy to cut your hands."
