Chapter 366: Ambush

309。

Seeing the room number clearly, Lin Xi's eyes narrowed slightly.

He silently reached his hand behind his back, grabbing the handle of his oil-paper umbrella, as if ready to draw it at any moment.

Seeing this, Old Lu also reached a hand into his sleeve and took out a folding fan. Only Feng Gui, standing at the back, remained expressionless, showing no intention of attacking.

Lin Xi slowly gripped the doorknob, took a deep breath, and pushed hard!

Screech—!

The door was pushed open by Lin Xi instantly. The next moment, a large amount of flour was swept up by the airflow, slamming into his face!

At the same time, a thin needle at the bottom of the door scraped across the floor at high speed, sparking. Seeing this, Feng Gui's pupils behind him contracted sharply!

"Watch out!!"

Boom—!!!

The sparks ignited the dust floating all over the room. The raging fire distorted the air and exploded, instantly engulfing the three figures!

……

A heaven-shaking roar sounded from not far away, and even the inn's floor and walls were shaking slightly.

All the guests were awakened from their dreams, walking out of their rooms in a daze. Looking through the windows at the blown-out corridor not far away and the billowing smoke rolling out, their eyes were full of astonishment.

"What happened?"

"Something seems to have exploded..."

"Heavens, is anyone hurt?"

“……”

The discussions of the crowd rang out in the corridor. Among them, four figures also gathered by the window to watch the fun, curiously examining the direction of the explosion.

The innkeeper hurried up to the third floor, horrified by the billowing smoke!

"This... this..."

"Cough, cough, cough, cough..."

A series of violent coughs sounded from the thick smoke.

Three figures walked out of the black smoke in a somewhat disheveled state. Lin Xi's oil-paper umbrella was charred black, Old Lu's hair had been burned off quite a bit, and as for Feng Gui, his appearance didn't seem injured, but the palm inside his sleeve was already pitch black.

Seeing the crowd in the corridor looking at them blankly, their expressions were as ugly as if they had eaten flies.

"Damn it... we've been played! He guessed we were coming??" Lin Xi said in a deep voice.

"Didn't you say that person was a reckless brute with an extreme personality?" Old Lu smoothed his few remaining hairs and said angrily. "Can a brute predict our actions and set up an explosive trap in advance??"

"Usually, when people discover the existence of the 【Circle】, they panic because they have nowhere to escape, subconsciously looking for a place to hide... But not only did he not hide, he set up counter-attack measures in such a short time. He never intended to be prey from the start." Feng Gui's voice was bone-chillingly cold.

"I guarantee he's hiding nearby right now, watching us step into the trap!"

Lin Xi's gaze immediately swept across the surroundings. But just in the inn, there were over a dozen people watching them, and on the alley outside the inn, more and more people were coming toward the sound, pointing in this direction.

"This place is too easy to hide in, and if he really is a Play Divine Path user, he might have changed his face and blended into the crowd..."

"What now? Arrest everyone?"

"That would make too much of a scene... And even if we arrested them, it would take time to identify them one by one. Not to mention we aren't even sure if he's in the crowd; maybe he's watching from somewhere else."

As the few exchanged words in low voices, the crowd gathering around grew larger. The innkeeper walked up with a pale face, seeing the charred room behind, his hands trembling.

"You... what are you doing? It's not easy for me to run a small business, this..."

Seeing the boss, Lin Xi asked in a deep voice, "I ask you, after that person checked in, did he come out?"

"No, he never came out."

The three looked at each other. Old Lu gave them a secret look. "Understood, let's go for now."

The three walked down the stairs in a disheveled state, leaving the inn amidst the confused discussions of the guests.

Once they walked out of the inn's front door, Old Lu's eyes narrowed. The palm under his sleeve flipped gently, and dense black dots gathered into a torrent, falling from his sleeve to the ground, then spreading in all directions.

If one looked closely, they could see these black dots were actually countless tiny black ants. The ants' bodies looked as if they were drawn by extremely fine calligraphy brushes, small, precise, and lifelike.

With Old Lu's wave, most of these ants swarmed into the inn, while a small portion radiated out into the surrounding alleys.

"Are you sure about this?" Lin Xi asked.

"We left under everyone's gaze. If he's among them, he should lower his guard." Old Lu turned to look at the outline of the inn in the misty rain. "I've locked onto this place. If anyone acts suspiciously, I can lock onto them immediately."

"A convenient skill."

"It's alright. Although the number spread out is large, the range of action is very limited. I can't be more than two hundred meters away from them."

Lin Xi scanned the surroundings and locked onto a teahouse not far away. "In that case, let's wait there... If we lock onto him, we can intercept him immediately."

"Good."

……

The innkeeper stood at the door of the blown-out room, peering inside for a moment, and sighed with a pained expression.

"Seems like a dust explosion. I see everything inside was blown away."

"Yeah, it'll cost a lot of money to renovate. Who were those three just now?"

"Don't know, but they didn't look like police officers."

"Have you heard? Liu Town is now covered by a 【Circle】, you can only enter, not leave. They must be investigating something important. Could those three just now be..."

"Ah?!! Don't say that, I thought that person carrying the oil-paper umbrella looked weird, maybe it really is!"

"Well, we've certainly seen something today..."

"It's just a pity for the boss. A perfectly good room blown up, it's truly an unprovoked disaster."

"Yeah, I don't even know who to ask for compensation..."

“……”

Amidst the whispers of the onlookers, the innkeeper walked down the stairs dejectedly. After making a few notes in the book on the counter, he turned and walked into the lounge, as if wanting to be quiet for a while.

As the door closed, the loneliness in his eyes disappeared, replaced by a pair of eyes flashing with sharp light...

He raised his hand and tore at his chin, a face mask drifting away into the air.

"Three people in total, all Third-Order. If nothing goes wrong, this should be their entire team sent to capture me... Not alerting a Fourth-Order is good news."

"It's a pity that the umbrella painter opened his umbrella too fast, protecting the two behind him. I couldn't test their skills."

Chen Ling recalled everything he had just seen, seeming a bit disappointed.