Upon receiving the order, An Jiu led his men to conduct covert reconnaissance in the military camp and search for clues throughout the border town.

After two days of hard work, they finally uncovered a clue.

Therefore, as night fell, he led a group of men to search the border town.

"Ninth Brother, there are civilians all around. Won't innocent people get hurt?"

An Shi lay on the roof, glancing sideways at An Jiu's chilling expression.

Candlelight streamed through the window, but there was no sound from inside. An Jiu stared intently ahead and said coldly, "If you say another word, you won't need to come with me on missions anymore."

An Shi, chilled by his menacing gaze, shivered and huddled on the eaves like a quail.

As he was silently cursing in his heart, wondering why these bastards hadn't left yet, he heard a commotion coming from inside the house.

A moment later, the three people who came out of the house checked their surroundings for anything unusual.

The Shadow Guards were all agile and quickly concealed themselves.

"Nobody's here, everyone come out."

One person shouted into the house, and soon six or seven people came out one after another.

These people were all tall, though not exactly burly. They looked rather awkward in the ordinary people's short clothes; the clothes were too short and didn't fit them at all.

Upon hearing the man's shout, An Shi immediately became alert and whispered in An Jiu's ear, "It's a Tatar!"

Although the man spoke Mandarin, his pronunciation was fundamentally different from that of the people of the Jin Dynasty.

Having spent so many years in the border town, An Shi was very familiar with the pronunciation and intonation of the Tatars. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to eliminate the Tatars hiding in the border town in such a short time.

If An Shi could tell, then An Jiu would certainly be able to tell.

After the ten people in the courtyard walked out of the gate, An Jiu made a gesture behind him, signaling a team of Shadow Guards to follow them.

He then instructed An Shidao, "Leave a team of men for you to search the house. If you find anything amiss, return to camp immediately."

"Yes!" An Shi turned his head and looked down at the still-burning candlelight in the room, his eyes slightly brightening.

An Jiu caught up with the ten people who left, estimated the time it would take for them to leave, and then An Shi gave a hand signal, leading his team to surround the house.

As An Shi burst through the door, a large curved blade slashed straight at him with incredible speed, seemingly intent on splitting him in two.

The icy blade gleamed coldly. An Shi dodged to the side and instantly delivered a spinning kick, striking the attacker squarely in the chest.

With a powerful kick, the enemy was forced to retreat two steps, and finally had to cross his arms and use the strength of his forearms to block.

An Shi was parried and bounced back, staggering a few steps before regaining his footing. He had underestimated the explosive power of the bearded man in front of him.

Besides the bearded man, there were four young Tatars in the room. Seeing their own men being attacked, they quickly picked up the scimitars on the table and charged straight at Dark Ten.

The twelve shadowy figures were no pushovers either; brandishing their swords and blades, they swept through the enemy ranks with unstoppable force.

Dark Ten was blocked by the bearded man, and then launched an attack with his sword. This time, the bearded man did not have the advantage of a sneak attack. Even though he was incredibly strong, he could not move freely in the small room.

Therefore, it was quickly confined to one corner.

After forcing the bearded man into a corner, An Shiyi delivered a powerful kick, striking him squarely in the chest.

The bearded man immediately took two steps back, leaned against the wall, and placed his right hand on his kicked chest, his eyes filled with venomous hatred as he glared at An Shi.

Blood foamed from the corner of his mouth as he roared, "Release!"

What should we put in?

An Shi's eyes were sharp as he stared intently at the bearded man, fearing that he might use a cunning trick to escape.

Then a loud bang came from behind, a flash of fire lit up the ground, and the shadow in front of me disappeared for a moment.

not good!

Damn Tatars, we need to notify reinforcements!

Even if the shadowy figures reacted and released the signal with firelight, it was too late; they could only end the battle quickly.

An Shi cursed inwardly and launched another attack on the bearded man. This time, he showed no mercy. As long as he spared the man's life, he would subdue him even if it meant carrying him out with great difficulty!

After the battle, the Shadow Guard quickly tallied the casualties.

"Four Tatars died, and one was seriously wounded. Three Shadow Guards died, and two were slightly wounded."

Upon hearing this, An Shi snorted and sneered, "Well done. Five enemy soldiers, yet you managed to cause the Shadow Guard to lose three Shadow Guards."

After making a self-deprecating remark, he said seriously, "Send the survivor to the dungeon and find a doctor to examine him. Don't waste all your effort only to find that he's already dead."

After a moment, the coldness faded, and he said calmly, "The brothers who died have no family. They should be properly buried, and the Shadow Guard will take care of their memorial tablets."

The shadow guards behind him bowed and accepted the order, "Yes!"

After such a long time, there was still no movement outside. Dark Ten guessed that no one would come tonight. He guessed that Big Beard had just ordered his men to send out a signal at the risk of their lives in order to notify his companions that the place had been exposed.

During the search, the Shadow Guards found no gold or silver jewelry, so this place was probably not where they hid their treasure.

"Captain, there are so many bottles of liquor here!"

A discovery suddenly came from the kitchen. An Shi muttered to himself, 'The people of the border town are addicted to alcohol; most of them started trading with the Tatars a few years ago. The abundance of empty bottles isn't surprising.'

However, the anesthetics used in the wounded soldiers' camp were also packaged in palm-sized wine bottles, which may be evidence that the Tatars used anesthetics to act as accomplices in the border town.

An Shi walked quickly toward the source of the sound. As soon as he entered the kitchen, he saw wine bottles lying scattered on the ground.

He crouched down, picked up one randomly, and sniffed it from a distance through the bottle opening. It definitely smelled like anesthetic.

He dared not get close to the bottle to smell it because, according to the head of Kang Le Township, the smell of anesthetic was strong, and inhaling too much of it could also incapacitate a person.

Although liquids are not as good as powders, it's still best to be careful.

After inspecting the kitchen, the Shadow Guards discovered that it was full of empty bottles, and the anesthetic had completely disappeared.

This is not a good thing for the border region.

After a moment's thought, An Shi put down the wine bottle and ordered, "After counting these bottles, transport them all back to the wounded soldiers' camp and hand them over to Physician Ren for treatment."

...

Lu Qiqi, far away in her tent, was unaware of what had happened in the border town. An oil lamp was lit inside the tent, and Xiao Ye had long since fallen asleep on the ground. Perhaps Wangcai had crawled out of the tent to look at the moon and stars.

Meanwhile, she was still troubled by the loss of the anesthetic. She had been thinking about it for the past two days and couldn't figure out the key to the matter was the medicine account book where the medicine was collected.

If there hadn't been a mistake in the medicine account, or someone hadn't done something wrong, there certainly wouldn't have been no flaws that would have been exposed in front of so many doctors.

Therefore, she told Song Yanqing her guess.

However, Song Yanqing's attitude was different from usual, which made her somewhat puzzled.

Knowing the clues, why not go directly to the medicine treasury to investigate? Is he planning to play the long game and catch a bigger fish?