One by one, guests still warm from the outside passed by him. Someone accidentally bumped into him and hurriedly apologized.

More ladies stepped down from their carriages, smiling as they slowly walked into the restaurant, greeted by the attendants.

Standing in front of the restaurant, Henry Walker looked again at the street where water powder was sold, but at some point, more pedestrians had appeared there.

It was a completely different scene from the previous desolation.

Henry Walker drew in a sharp breath and quickly flagged down a carriage.

“To the Lu residence.”

“Alright, please have a seat!”

The coachman flicked his whip, and the skinny old horse immediately began to move slowly.

Sitting in the carriage, Henry Walker kept recalling the things he had encountered earlier.

That vendor, those children, none of them seemed normal.

Now that he thought about it, the smile on the vendor’s face seemed frozen, giving off an extremely fake feeling.

Thinking of the Xu family massacre, he suddenly had a sense of an impending storm.

“This city is getting more and more dangerous…” he muttered.

The carriage soon arrived at the gate of the Lu residence.

The gatekeeper saw Henry Walker sitting in the carriage and hurried over to greet him.

“Young master, you’re back?”

The gatekeeper’s surname was Wang, and he was the eighth child in his family. Everyone usually called him Little Jack. He was a clever young man, only seventeen this year, having inherited his father’s job and come to work as the Lu family’s gatekeeper.

Little Jack was quite familiar with Henry Walker, and would often tell him interesting stories and strange news from inside and outside the city.

This was something Henry Walker enjoyed listening to.

“Is the master home?”

Henry Walker got out of the carriage, paid the fare, and asked casually.

“The master went to the yamen again. The prefect summoned him, seems like he’s looking for something.”

Little Jack replied with a smile.

“Looking for what?”

Henry Walker had been busy with his own affairs these days and hadn’t paid attention to what was happening at home.

“What thing?”

Chapter 8: The Meeting (Part 2)

“Not sure. Yesterday, the master called all the big and small merchants from the guild to the residence. I overheard them chatting as they left, saying everyone was being asked to help look for something. No idea what it is, but it must be important to mobilize so many connections.”

Little Jack said with a sigh and a smile.

Henry Walker listened without speaking, his expression turning a bit grim.

He walked through the main gate, and as he walked, he asked again.

“Has anything strange happened lately?”

“Uh… Young master, although Little Jack is pretty well-informed, strange things don’t happen every day, you know?” Little Jack shrugged helplessly.

“But that Goldfish Restaurant you often visit, I heard there was a big fire there last night. Half the street next to it was burned down. The flames were so bright, even from far away we could see them clearly. Tsk tsk…”

“A big fire…”

Henry Walker’s heart sank, and he had a vague suspicion.

“Are you talking about the street where they usually sell water powder?”

“Exactly, that’s the one!” Little Jack nodded vigorously. “I heard a lot of people died, whole families, adults and children, all gone. So tragic… No one knows which heartless bastard set the fire!”

A big fire…

Henry Walker said nothing more.

He pressed the matter deep in his heart, refusing to think about it.

The time arranged by the Black Society was three nights later, in a cellar outside the city.

During these three days, Henry Walker rested and ate as usual. He could clearly feel his body growing stronger, as if the Black Tiger Saber technique he modified with the modifier had also improved his physique.

In these three days, he went again to the street near the Goldfish Restaurant. As expected, it was all charred, with many people busy rebuilding their houses.

Henry Walker retraced his steps along the path he had walked before and found everything exactly the same as that day.

Even the dead-end alley was exactly the same.

He had a sense of what was going on, but he wasn’t panicked.

Since there were water ghosts in this world, there could naturally be other things as well.

During these three days, he had originally planned to modify the entry-level manual of the Broken Jade Force he had bought.

But thinking of the Black Society, he decided to hold off, lest modifying his body again would cause him to cough up blood and be seriously injured, making him miss his chance.

Time passed quickly.

In the blink of an eye, the appointed day arrived.

Around seven or eight in the evening.

Henry Walker changed into black clothes and put on a tiger mask—a rough children’s mask he had bought casually on the street.

A carriage from the The Reed Family was already parked at the gate of the Lu residence.

He hurried onto the carriage and saw Charles Reed sitting inside, both hands clutching a marinated chicken leg, chewing away.

This fat man was also dressed in black, but whether he wore it or not, anyone could tell from his exaggerated figure that he was the young master hosting the Black Society.

“You’re here, you’re here, we were just waiting for you. Henry, get in quickly.”

Once the two were seated, the carriage slowly started moving.

All the way, Charles Reed reminded Henry Walker of what to do and what not to do once inside.

A whole mess of dos and don’ts.

Henry Walker remembered them all.

Soon, they left the city, turned from the main road onto a side road, and then wound through several small paths for quite a distance, heading straight for the outskirts.

After traveling a short while in the countryside, the carriage entered an abandoned little village and stopped in front of a stone house in the center of the village.