Chapter 57: Ghost Town Mystery
Zhao Ji and Li Yuanfang each took out their weapons, walked into the shop cautiously.

The shop was empty, with only an oil lamp lit.

Zhao Ji looked around and his eyes suddenly fixed on a wall. A corpse was nailed to the wall with bared teeth and blood all over its face.

Just as he was about to call out to Li Yuanfang, the corpse suddenly disappeared again.

In a flash, a steel knife flew towards Zhao Ji from behind. Zhao Ji dodged it as if he had eyes on his back.

Seeing this, Li Yuanfang rushed out of the store without hesitation, and Zhao Ji followed closely behind him. In an instant, the two of them found themselves on the street.

A wonderful thing happened. The originally dark rooms began to light up. In front of each door stood four assassins in black, totaling more than a hundred people. They stared at Zhao Ji and Li Yuanfang with sharp eyes.

The leading assassin laughed grimly and taunted: "I knew you would fall into my trap!"

Zhao Ji smiled upon hearing this, not taking these rotten fish and shrimp seriously: "Seeking death? I'm afraid these rabble under your command are not enough for my two brothers to entertain!"

"You don't know how to live or die. Go ahead and kill them!"

Following the order from the leading killer, the other killers rushed towards Zhao Ji and Li Yuanfang like a tide.

"Yuan Fang, let's see who can kill more enemies!"

Li Yuanfang refused to be outdone: "Okay, let's compete."

Zhao Ji casually swung his sword and committed suicide without waiting for the assassin to come.

The sword flashed left and right, and the killer fell to the ground. Zhao Ji killed people like waves and soon he reached the leader.

The leader shouted loudly and raised his sword to stab, but Zhao Ji had already stabbed him in the chest.

After dealing with the leader, Zhao Ji looked back and was so shocked that his jaw dropped.

Li Yuanfang's chain knife rolled up a large piece of wood from somewhere and swept it across the air.

Wherever he went, anyone he touched died and anyone he brushed against was injured. Most of the killers had been wiped out by him.

At this time, the sounds of horse hooves and shouts were heard outside the town, and Di Renjie led the government troops to attack.

The few remaining killers were surrounded by government troops and had nowhere to go. Most of them voluntarily surrendered.

Jili Khan arrived on horseback first. Seeing the corpses of the two men scattered all over the ground, his eyelids twitched and he was a little shocked.

"Yuan Fang, you are really awesome. I am convinced." Zhao Ji gave him a thumbs up and said, "I am convinced by you, Gua Ling."

Li Yuanfang smiled shyly: "Didn't Chengyuan also kill that leader? We are the same."

At this time, Di Renjie came late, dismounted and asked with concern: "Chengyuan, Yuanfang, are you all right?"

Jili Khan also dismounted and exclaimed: "The two generals are so brave and valiant that they are almost inhuman!"

"Your Majesty Khan, thank you for your praise." Zhao Ji said modestly.

Di Renjie seemed to be used to it. After confirming that the two were safe, he ordered: "Order the troops to search the ghost town and see if they can find anything."

At this time, Lu Dayou led his soldiers and escorted two assassins over: "Sir, there are two survivors!"

The others were still in a daze, so Zhao Ji stepped forward and asked, "You suddenly emerged from the house earlier, there must be a secret passage. Tell the truth quickly and I will spare your lives."

The two killers looked at each other but did not give any direct explanation.

Di Renjie didn't waste time talking to them. He waved his hand and said, "Take him away and chop him off!"

“Please spare my life, sir. Please spare my life. I will tell you…” Under the threat, the two men immediately backed down.

Zhao Ji secretly shook his head: "Why do you have to go through so much trouble? It would be much easier if you just told me directly."

The two killer henchmen quickly led everyone into a house and activated the switch.

The gable of the house was actually split in two from the middle, with both sides opened, revealing a wide passage inside. There was some light in the passage, but no one knew where it led to.

This technology seems to be from the same family as the secret passage prison cell of Liu Jin in the Governor's Mansion.

Zhao Ji pulled the two assassins over and asked, "Where does this secret passage lead to? Is there any ambush inside?"

"General, this secret passage is connected to a cave, and we came out of the cave. But the stone door can only be opened from the other side, and we can't get in from this side." One of the minions said. Di Renjie said, "It's okay, you can take us to have a look."

"You walk in front and don't think about running away, otherwise I will let you know how powerful I am. Go!" Zhao Ji pushed the two of them.

Having seen how Zhao Ji and Li Yuanfang slaughtered everyone just now, the two lackeys dared not have any second thoughts and just obediently led the way in front.

Zhao Ji, Li Yuanfang, Di Renjie and others followed with their soldiers.

The passage was extremely wide, with torches on both sides, and it was brightly lit.

Zhao Ji looked up at the length, width and height of the passage and said, "Looking at the height and width of this road, it can accommodate the largest carriages. Even a small group of cavalry can pass through here."

Di Renjie nodded: "Yes, this road looks like a tunnel that can hide soldiers."

After walking for a while, the group stopped in front of a stone door.

"Sir, this is it. This door can be opened from the inside and cannot be opened from the outside." The two minions stopped and said.

Zhao Ji glanced at the gap in the middle of the stone door, thoughtfully.

If Jin Mulan deliberately wanted to let Di Renjie in, she shouldn't have closed the door.

He ordered several guards: "Go up and try to see if you can open the stone door."

Several guards followed the order, put down their weapons and torches, and went up to push the stone gate.

"General, there's no need to try. Whenever we need to pass through a stone gate, we have to first ask the people inside to open the mechanism, and then..."

As one of the minions was speaking, the stone door was slowly pushed open.

"Eh... why is it open?" The minion was puzzled.

Li Yuanfang stepped forward, grabbed his collar and asked, "How dare you lie! What's going on?"

"Sir, I don't know either. Maybe the person opposite forgot to close the door today..." the minion said tremblingly.

"Okay Yuanfang, don't make things difficult for them. Let's go in and take a look." Di Renjie said.

Li Yuanfang then let go of the henchmen and followed Di Renjie into the stone gate, walking along the passage to the end.

There were several branch roads on both sides of the passage, and no one knew where they led to. Zhao Ji and others ignored them for the time being and just walked straight forward.

The group came to the end of the passage and saw another stone door. They worked together to open the door and found another cave.

Walking out of the cave, there is a wide mountain road outside and misty peaks in the distance.

Lu Dayou exclaimed: "Sir, this is Xiaolianzi Mountain outside!"

Di Renjie looked at the peaks in the distance and nodded: "It seems that Guizhen and Xiaolianzi Mountain are connected through caves and secret passages."

Now that they had reached the end, Di Renjie ordered, "Listen, soldiers, search carefully, and don't miss anything!"

All the soldiers responded in unison, and then several captains led their troops to disperse and search carefully.

Zhao Ji and Li Yuanfang accompanied Di Renjie back along the original route and stepped into a dim branch road on the side of the passage.

The torches on both sides of the fork road had been extinguished, and Zhao Ji ordered the soldiers to light them along the way to illuminate the way ahead.

Following this fork in the road, the three of them came to a huge cave, which was filled with iron smelting furnaces and blacksmithing tools.

"Sir, everything has been matched. The rebels mined iron ore in the previous cave, then sent it here to smelt it, and finally made it into weapons." Li Yuanfang said excitedly, pointing at the scene in front of him.

"Not bad." Di Renjie nodded.

Zhao Ji walked closer to the iron smelting furnaces and observed them carefully. They looked like they had been used recently, and there was still a lot of charcoal left for fuel.

"Look at these leftover charcoals. This place is still operating, but I don't know where all the craftsmen have gone." Zhao Ji said.

Di Renjie also frowned, looked over and shook his head.

He pointed to the cave next to him and said, "Let's go and take a look over there."

(End of this chapter)