Universe Infinite Canteen.

Chapter 472: Close before your eyes
Malu didn't expect that the red apricot blossoms in Wohugang would also be involved.

He wanted to ask a few more questions, but the big man was obviously discouraged. After saying the last sentence, he slashed his own sword.

Malu was worried about Gu Qingyi's safety. After the card game was over, he didn't have time to touch the corpse and rushed into the dyeing workshop as fast as he could.

But to his surprise, no fighting took place inside.

Gu Qingyi had searched the dyeing workshop but did not find the man with the birthmark under his ear.

In addition, the whereabouts of the lotus bowl were not found. Only a piece of turned soil was found in the backyard. After digging it up, seven or eight bodies were found underneath. Judging from their clothes, they should be the former workers of the dyeing workshop.

Gu Qingyi was a little disappointed, feeling that his fist had hit nothing again. He turned around and saw Malu staring at the jujube tree in the yard in a daze.

"What are you thinking about?" Gu Qingyi asked, suppressing the frustration in his heart.

"Thinking about the whereabouts of the lotus bowl." Malu said.

"Uh, you're just gonna... stand there and think?"

"Yeah." Malu nodded.

"Don't think about it. Even if you figured out where the lotus bowl is, it's too late."

Gu Qingyi looked up at the sky. The sun was about to set completely, and the war between the Beggars' Sect and the Tianlong Sect was inevitable.

But after she said this, she saw Malu suddenly rush out of the dyeing workshop and go straight to the packhorse outside.

Gu Qingyi thought that Malu wanted to go somewhere else, but it turned out that Malu did not get on the horse. Instead, he circled around the pack horse and put his hand into the saddle bag under the saddle.

When he pulled his hand out of the saddle bag again, there was an inconspicuous small bowl in his hand.

Malu held the small bowl up to his eyes and saw that there was indeed a small gap on the edge.

"Why did you take out the bowl? Are you thirsty?"

"No, I found the lotus bowl." Malu said.

"what?"

Gu Qingyi was stunned. His first reaction was that Malu had gone insane from investigating the case.

It was indeed very hard for them to look for bowls during this period, but it was not the case that every bowl they found would look like a lotus bowl.

However, when Gu Qingyi took the bowl and looked at it carefully, he was a little dumbfounded, because the appearance of this bowl was indeed very similar to the stolen lotus bowl described by the Beggars' Gang.

Gu Qingyi even went back to her horse and took out a scroll. She unfolded the scroll and the lotus bowl in the painting was exactly the same as the one in her hand.

The scroll was what she asked Chu Qianyuan for. It was painted by a skilled painter and was said to be exactly the same as the original.

"How did you find it?"

Gu Qingyi was puzzled.

She couldn't understand how the lotus bowl was found by Malu, even though the whole Yuchang County had been searched by both the black and white forces but couldn't find it.

"This is a long story." Ma Lu said, "Let's go to the Beggars' Sect first to stop their war with the Tianlong Sect. I'll explain it to you on the way." "Okay."

Seeing that there was hope of avoiding conflict and preventing bloodshed in Yuchang County, Gu Qingyi's eyes flashed with joy and he immediately agreed.

Malu stepped on the stirrups and mounted the packhorse, and as he and Gu Qingyi hurried towards the headquarters of the Beggars' Sect, he made shocking remarks.

"I didn't find this lotus bowl. It has been in the saddle bag all along."

"Ah, but didn't you borrow this packhorse from the Xingtong Escort Agency... um, that one? Besides, the Beggars' Sect's Lotus Bowl hadn't been lost at that time, had it?"

"When I borrowed the horse, the Lotus Bowl was indeed still in the Beggars' Sect, but I left the horse in a small village for about a week. It was at that time that the Beggars' Sect's Lotus Bowl was stolen and put into my saddle bag."

Malu has now basically figured out the cause and effect of the matter, and also understood what Han Guangzhong meant when he said that the answer is right in front of him.

However, this also made him more curious about Han Guangzhong's identity. Who is this guy? Could it be that he knew that the lotus bowl was hidden in his saddle bag? Then why didn't he take it away?

Malu continued as he thought about it, "The people who did this are the same group of people we met in the dyeing factory before, but their leader doesn't seem to be here.

“This group of people pretended to be Happy Forest and forced the Beggar Gang disciple to steal the Lotus Bowl. After the disciple stole it, they hid the Lotus Bowl in the small village where I kept the horse.

"Then spread the news to the people in Xinghua Village and let the bandits there take it."

Gu Qingyi seemed to understand what he said, but didn't understand what this matter had to do with the bandits in Wohugang.

Fortunately, Ma Lu quickly explained, "The purpose of the group that stole the Lotus Bowl is very simple, which is to intensify the conflict between the Beggars' Sect and the Tianlong Sect, so that the two largest martial arts forces in Qingzhou will go to war.

“At first, they pretended to be people from Happy Forest and lent money to the Beggar Gang disciple because Happy Forest is an important industry of Tianlongmen. I guess the red apricot flowers in Xinghua Village should also have some relationship with Tianlongmen.

"Well, maybe she is Li Tianlong's mistress or something. Anyway, if the lotus bowl falls into her hands, it will be like a shit pot on the head of Tianlongmen, and it will be impossible to take it off even if we want to."

"But doesn't Hong Xinghua know that the Lotus Bowl is a hot potato? She is just a bandit leader in Wohugang. How could she have the courage to provoke a behemoth like the Beggars' Sect?" Gu Qingyi asked.

"Hong Xinghua must have had some special way of contact with Tianlongmen, which was deciphered by that group of people. They contacted her pretending to be from Tianlongmen, and Hong Xinghua thought she was following Li Tianlong's orders."

Malu recalled the group of robbers he encountered that day. When begging for mercy, they clearly mentioned that they were working for the Tianlong Sect and warned him not to become an enemy of the Tianlong Sect.

But at that time Malu didn't take their words to heart, and he didn't expect that what they were going to do was to get the lotus bowl.

Of course, the group of people in the dyeing factory also did not expect that the goods would be robbed by Malu halfway.

Thinking about it afterwards, it's not surprising that they hid the things on the pack horses, because in this plane, no matter what kind of horse it is, the price is not cheap. Even the most ordinary pack horse costs more than ten taels of silver.

The bandits on Wohugang couldn't live without horses. They would not let go of any horses in the village, which would ensure that they would take away the lotus bowl.

However, the group did not expect that the packhorse they chose had another owner.

When Malu came for the second time, he happened to run into the gang of robbers from Xinghua Village. He beat them away and also took away the packhorse that had hidden the lotus bowl.

As for why Malu was sure that the group of people he met came from Xinghua Village, it was very simple. Because the mission was not completed and people died, Hong Xinghua felt unlucky, so she asked for leave and asked the monk Guangyin to perform rituals in the village.

After performing the ritual, the fake monk stayed in Xinghua Village and refused to leave.

(End of this chapter)