The First Jasmine - Chapter 80
Chapter 80: Secrets Within the Mountain's Heart
After more than an hour, the rain finally stopped. The weather in the Southern Frontier shifted quickly; the rain cleared up just as fast as it had arrived, and shortly after the downpour ceased, warm sunlight flooded the earth. The ground, freshly washed by the rain, emitted a crisp, earthy scent—which would have been even more delightful were it not for the near-omnipresent fragrance lingering in the air. The moment the rain stopped, An San emerged from the inner room. Glancing at the three people sitting and standing in the parlor, he showed not a shred of surprise at the presence of the additional person. Ye Li pointed to the dry rations placed on a nearby table and said, "Let's fill our stomachs first. I doubt our hosts will be sending us breakfast this morning."
An San nodded, taking a seat to eat his fill at an unhurried pace under the watchful gazes of the three others. The Sickly Scholar watched An San's meticulous chewing with keen interest, and smiled at Ye Li, "With a martial expert like Guard Zhuo protecting you by your side, Young Master Chu, no wonder you dared to venture alone into the Southern Frontier. Brother Zhuo, when did you get up? Were you awake the entire night?" An San raised his eyes to look at him and replied indifferently, "My young master travels with only me by his side, so I naturally have to remain vigilant." The Sickly Scholar's gaze darkened slightly. Finding even a single bodyguard of this caliber was already exceptionally difficult. Judging from Zhuo Jing's words, Chu Junwei typically had quite a few people around him, making this situation where he served as the sole escort an unusual exception. In that case... this Chu Junwei's identity was likely far from ordinary. The scholar cast a subtle, fleeting glance at Han Mingxi beside them; anyone capable of befriending the younger brother of Tianyi Pavilion's master was naturally no ordinary person.
Noticing the Sickly Scholar's probing gaze, Han Mingxi flashed him an entirely innocuous smile. Don't ask him—he had no clue what Junwei's true identity was, either.
After tidying themselves up, the four of them stepped out of the guesthouse. The sunlight outside was splendid, and the floral fragrance pervading the air had grown increasingly intense. However, thanks to the antidote provided by the Sickly Scholar, this had no adverse effect on the four of them. Returning to the neighboring cabin, they found that Master Liang, his steward, and the guard named Zheng Kui had indeed already vanished. Han Mingxi looked at the Sickly Scholar with unconcealed gloating and remarked, "It seems they've been gone for at least an hour. How do you plan to find them now?" With someone familiar with the terrain guiding them, even in rainy weather, an hour was more than enough time to escape far away. A cold, chilling smile touched the corners of the Sickly Scholar's lips as he replied indifferently, "As long as he remains within the Southern Frontier, he will never escape my grasp. Besides... why do you suppose they waited for us here? The destination they are heading to is certainly no more than twenty li away from this very spot."
The Sickly Scholar leisurely drew a small, delicate box from his robes and opened it. A tiny, cyan-colored moth fluttered out from within. After hovering on fluttering wings and resting briefly atop a small porcelain bottle the Sickly Scholar held in his palm, the moth took flight once more, heading straight toward the depths of the settlement. "Let's go," the Sickly Scholar said indifferently to the three of them as he smugly retrieved his small medicine vial.
The three followed in the wake of the little moth, discovering that the entire village was indeed deserted. The previous night's darkness had obscured the details, but aside from the two guesthouses they had occupied, all the other structures in the settlement were exceedingly crude. It looked less like a civilian settlement and more like a temporarily established outpost. The moth led them deeper into the mountains. Along the path, venomous snakes and toxic insects perished in droves under the overwhelming potency of the Sickly Scholar's poisons. Though no one was actively driving them, these serpents and creepy-crawlies possessed an innate instinct to avoid harm and seek safety, so they did not swarm together to launch any coordinated attacks against the group. After walking for the better part of an hour, the moth halted at the edge of a sheer cliff, fluttering restlessly in circles around the Sickly Scholar and refusing to fly any further forward.
"Could it be that the young master's little moth led us down the wrong path?" Han Mingxi teased with a chuckle.
The Sickly Scholar cast an indifferent glance at him, safely stowed the moth back into its box, and instructed Han Mingxi, "Go down."
"Go down?" Han Mingxi froze, before instantly reacting with a look of sheer disbelief. "You want me to go down?! Do you have any idea where this is? This is the Southern Frontier! Who knows how deep this drop is, or what kind of venomous snakes or monsters lurk down there—and you're telling me to go down?!" The Sickly Scholar replied, "Your lightweight kung fu is the best among us. Or would you prefer Young Master Chu to go down first?" Han Mingxi's handsome face turned ashen as he watched the Sickly Scholar casually stroke the fingers of his left hand with an air of nonchalant indifference, before glancing over at Ye Li and An San standing nearby. Despite having known each other for only a short time, Han Mingxi knew very well that Junwei's lightweight kung fu wasn't actually all that impressive. If something went wrong down there, she wouldn't even have time to run for her life. He let out an irritated hrumph. "Down I go, then. You just wait for me!" Once we leave the Southern Frontier, this young master is going to make sure you pay for this!
Han Mingxi tapped his toes lightly against the ground, his entire form transforming into a giant, dark-red butterfly that fluttered gracefully away before plunging downward over the edge of the cliff. The Sickly Scholar murmured in mild praise, "Second Young Master Han's lightweight kung fu is indeed far more superior than Mingyue's." Yet it was only lightweight kung fu, after all. Compared to the deep-scheming and multifaceted Young Master Mingyue, the Sickly Scholar didn't hold Han Mingxi in particularly high regard. As long as he spared Han Mingxi's life for Mingyue's sake so that the pavilion master wouldn't have a hard time explaining it, that was quite enough.
"Zhuo Jing." Frowning, Ye Li stepped to the edge of the precipice and looked down, seeing only rolling billows of white clouds with no sign of the scenery below. This cliff was likely twice as deep as the one beneath Mount Heiyun. Trying to descend directly to the cliff base relying solely on lightweight kung fu was completely impossible. An San stepped forward, reached his hand out over the abyss, and flicked a slender silver thread tipped with a weighted hook rapidly plunging down into the mountain gorge. After a long while, An San slowly reeled the thread back in, winding it around his palm as he turned back to report to Ye Li, "My lord, the bottom is at least a hundred zhang down, and... the cliff walls are exceptionally smooth." Ye Li fell into deep thought. One hundred zhang translated to nearly three hundred meters, and a cliff face this high was remarkably smooth with scarcely any vegetation—clearly, it could not have formed naturally. It seemed the Sickly Scholar's moth had indeed led them to the right place.
Watching An San's actions, a flicker of curiosity crossed the Sickly Scholar's eyes. Just as he was about to speak, a figure burst up from the gorge, landing in a somewhat disheveled heap upon the ground. Before he had even caught his breath, Han Mingxi launched into a tirade, "Sickly Scholar! You just wait for this young master. If you've gotten me killed down here, I guarantee the Tianyi Pavilion will hunt you to the ends of the earth!" The Sickly Scholar's expression remained unchanged, seemingly entirely unfazed by Han Mingxi's threats, as he coldly asked, "What is down there?"
Han Mingxi sneered, "What's down there? A whole lot of nothing! Even if there were something, could your pathetic lightweight kung fu and wretched physique get you down there? Don't even think about relying on me to carry you down unless you want to be smashed into a bloody pulp right along with me!" Seeing the Sickly Scholar frown, Han Mingxi viciously mocked him.
Evidently, he had genuinely encountered danger down in the gorge just moments prior, causing him to temporarily cast aside his dread of the Sickly Scholar and resort to biting sarcasm to vent the anger and terror raging in his heart.
"Brother Han," Ye Li called out in a deep voice. Provoking the Sickly Scholar at this juncture served no positive purpose.
Han Mingxi wasn't entirely impulsive either; reminded by Ye Li, he quickly swallowed his fury and explained, "There's a sea of poisonous flowers at the bottom of the cliff, though I suspect those blossoms are venomous. The flower beds are infested with countless venomous snakes, and there are also several skeletal remains scattered about—who knows whether they accidentally fell or were tossed down there. However, about seventy zhang down the cliff face, there is a fairly sizable cave opening that looks like an entrance. But..." He shot the Sickly Scholar a mocking, half-smile. "The cliff walls have been deliberately treated, so there's basically nothing to grab onto for leverage. I wasn't joking earlier; with my lightweight kung fu, it's utterly impossible for me to carry someone down without plummeting straight into the snake-and-toxin-filled gorge at the bottom. As for the three of you... relying on your own lightweight kung fu to climb down by yourselves is sheer wishful thinking." Despite his complaints, Han Mingxi remained fiercely proud of his own prowess in lightweight kung fu.
"No wonder there wasn't a single guard stationed along the way—were they entirely certain we'd never find the path?" the Sickly Scholar muttered thoughtfully. If anyone other than Han Mingxi—whose lightweight kung fu was peerless—had gone down there, death would have been certain for them. "There must be another route. I refuse to believe those people are all masters of lightweight kung fu." Han Mingxi stated loftily, "Naturally. Do you think supreme lightweight kung fu is something anyone can easily master? But... even if another route exists, can you find it right now?" None of them were experts in mechanisms, especially in the unfamiliar territory of the Southern Frontier. More importantly, those Southern Frontier people weren't fools; they certainly wouldn't just sit around waiting for them to discover a hidden entrance.
"You..." The Sickly Scholar frowned as he looked at Han Mingxi, who promptly scurried behind Zhuo Jing's back, refusing to even stick his head out. "Don't look at me. Even if I could get inside, it wouldn't help. When it comes to brute martial combat, I'm truly useless; if I went in alone, I'd probably just end up alerting the enemy."
"What on earth is hidden inside that is so important?" Ye Li asked, furrowing her brow.
"Do you have a way in?" the Sickly Scholar countered, fixing his gaze on her.
Without answering, Ye Li repeated her question, "What exactly is it that the young master is looking for?"
The Sickly Scholar let out a cold hrumph. With three people on the other side and only himself, trying to capture Chu Junwei to use as leverage was entirely unrealistic. After a long silence, he finally spoke in a low voice, "It's a rare and lethal poison."
Hearing this, the interest of the others instantly plummeted by more than half. Han Mingxi asked with casual curiosity, "You yourself are renowned throughout the world for your mastery of poisons, Gongzi. What kind of poison could possibly tempt you enough to risk your life for it?" The Sickly Scholar offered a sinister, gloomy smile, his eyes flashing with toxic malice as he replied, "A poison... that makes a person wish they were dead yet unable to die." Ye Li held no interest in what kind of poison could drive a person to such extremes; the world offered countless ways to inflict suffering, and there was no need to personally risk one's neck hunting down exotic toxic substances. As for wishing to die without the release of death—if someone truly desired death, countless methods were available, so the inability to die simply meant they still clung to lingering hope or worldly attachments while alive. However, the malignant venom flickering in the Sickly Scholar's eyes gave Ye Li a jolt, sparking a hazy, embryonic notion in her mind.
"You are already a grandmaster of poison yourself, Gongzi. Why take such risks to seek out some bizarre poison?" Ye Li asked with an unruffled expression.
The Sickly Scholar let out a short, harsh laugh laden with deep-seated resentment and malice, which immediately triggered another violent fit of coughing. "Indeed, I possess plenty of fine concoctions, but it's still not enough... The most excruciating poison in this world exists right here in the Southern Frontier. Hehe..."
Ye Li widened her eyes, staring at him as a slight note of curiosity edged into her voice, "I've heard that the most agonizing poison in existence is the Heart-Splintering Bone-Corroding Dan. Those afflicted suffer ruptured organs and shattered bones, shrieking in agony for forty-nine days before perishing. Could there truly be a toxin more terrifying than that?" The Sickly Scholar smiled with a trace of smugness, "Indeed, the Heart-Splintering Bone-Corroding Dan is vicious enough, but it requires oral ingestion and carries an extremely pungent medicinal odor. Even if masked by other scents, it cannot fool anyone proficient in medicine or endowed with a keen sense of smell. But this one is different—the poison crafted from it is completely colorless and odorless, requiring merely a single drop to cast a victim into an eternal abyss of damnation from which they can never escape!"
"The Youluo Underworld Flower?" Han Mingxi asked curiously.
The Sickly Scholar dismissed the notion with a contemptuous hrumph. "Do you think the Southern Frontier only has the Youluo Underworld Flower? Compared to whatever Youluo Underworld Flower is hidden away in the sacred grounds of the Southern Frontier, this is the true supreme treasure—the Biluo Flower."
"The Biluo Flower?" Han Mingxi looked blank. "The name sounds quite elegant, but I've never heard of it." The Sickly Scholar sneered dismissively. Ye Li furrowing her brow, murmured softly, "From the azure depths of the firmament to the murky springs of the underworld." The Sickly Scholar smiled, "Precisely. The poison derived from it is indeed named Biluo Huangquan—Azure Heavens, Yellow Springs."
"It doesn't sound all that terrifying," Han Mingxi remarked. Compared to names like Heart-Splintering and Bone-Corroding, this title practically bordered on poetic.
The Sickly Scholar chuckled. "It sounds benign, but once this poison touches the human body, it immediately infiltrates the bloodstream across all meridians and pathways of the body. Unless you drain away every last drop of blood from your body, this poison can never be cured. Because even if you resort to a complete blood transfusion, as long as a single trace of infected blood remains, it will multiply and spread through the fresh blood at astonishing speed." Han Mingxi remained baffled. "Why call it Azure Heavens and Yellow Springs, then?"
"Hehe... One resides in the heavens, the other dwells in the earth. Those poisoned by it retain a perfectly intact outer appearance, but their internal organs rot away piece by piece. The more the internal toxicity accumulates, the more exquisite and beautiful their outward appearance becomes. However... they can never touch any living person or animal ever again."
"It's contagious?" Ye Li lowered her gaze and asked in a low voice.
"No, how could it be contagious?" the Sickly Scholar laughed. "Mucking about with poisons whose spread you cannot control leads to massive trouble. The reason they cannot touch any living creature is simply because any warm, living being will cause them to experience agonizing, soul-torturing pain while accelerating the rate of internal organ decay. Thus, they can only hide away entirely alone in an isolated, world-forgotten place, letting themselves rot and putrefy in solitude. Ah... their limbs will stiffen and paralyze first, and perhaps long before their flesh fully rots away, they will simply starve themselves to death."
A collective chill washed over the three individuals present, particularly amplified by the Sickly Scholar's ghastly, eerie tone, which made the hair on their arms stand on end and sent a biting, bone-chilling dread rippling through them despite the blazing overhead sun.
"That's impossible. If it were merely a poison, it wouldn't command such extraordinary value," Ye Li pointed out calmly. No matter how precious a poison was, it remained just a poison; outside the hands of someone like the Sickly Scholar, it likely couldn't even compare to a standard pill capable of dispelling a hundred toxins. The Sickly Scholar replied in a deep voice, "Indeed. The Biluo Flower is rumored to possess the legendary ability to 'flesh out skeletal bones and revive the dead' when paired with another specific herb. The so-called antidotes capable of curing a hundred poisons today can actually only neutralize common toxins. However, an antidote crafted using the Biluo Flower possesses miraculous properties: as long as a person still draws breath, any poison or injury—no matter how severe—can be completely healed overnight, alongside prolonging one's lifespan. Tell me... wouldn't people tear each other apart for such a treasure? If Master Liang successfully refines it into pills, not a single person would complain if a single pill cost ten thousand taels of gold."
Ye Li concealed the flashing light in her eyes, nodded placidly, and remarked, "So that's how it is. It is indeed a treasure. Is the young master seeking it out to cure an illness?"
The Sickly Scholar sneered, "Curing illnesses and crafting poisons serve both purposes simultaneously."
"In that case... receiving a single pill as our reward at the end should be considered a fair compensation, wouldn't you agree?" Ye Li asked.
The Sickly Scholar fixed his cold gaze upon her. "Reward?"
"Surely the young master doesn't expect people to help for free? Since you mentioned it can both cure illnesses and forge poisons, I can assume the Biluo Flower isn't exceptionally scarce. I am not well-versed in pharmacology, and the Biluo Flower itself is useless to me. Therefore, asking for a single pill that can detoxify and prolong life shouldn't be considered excessive." The Sickly Scholar's expression shifted uncertainly for a long moment before he finally muttered, "I agree."
"Very well."
"I can manage on my own," the Sickly Scholar retorted, rejecting assistance. Being carried down would make him feel like the weak link, something he simply could not accept.
An San glanced at him coolly. "If the young master isn't afraid of being dashed to pieces, you are welcome to try descending on your own."
"You!" The Sickly Scholar's expression darkened, but before he could retort, he saw Ye Li wave a hand toward him, already taking up a length of rope and securing an iron hook firmly to a designated spot specified by Han Mingxi before tossing the rope down the abyss. Ye Li grasped the rope and slowly slid down the cliff face. Han Mingxi peered over the edge to watch, catching sight of her gripping the rope and making her descent point by point down the rock face. Though seemingly measured, her movements possessed a strange, practiced efficiency and speed, and within moments she vanished completely into the swirling sea of clouds.
After a short while, the gently swaying rope steadied. Then, with a sudden, violent jolt, the iron hook anchored to the stone began to pull loose. "Ah—" Han Mingxi panicked, frantically lunging forward to grab it, but An San spoke up in a deep voice, "There's no need; my lord has already made it." Sure enough, once the iron hook dislodged completely, the lower half of the rope seemed to be pulled taut from below and rapidly whipped down into the gorge. Beside them, An San was already preparing himself by replicating Ye Li's method. The Sickly Scholar ceased his stubborn arguing; once An San began his descent, the scholar leaped forward to latch onto An San tightly, and the two began their downward journey together. This descent was noticeably slower than Ye Li's.
Left completely alone at the edge of the cliff, Han Mingxi stared curiously at the iron hook and thin rope still lashed tightly to the boulders, murmuring softly to himself, "Junwei really is an extraordinarily strange fellow..."
When Ye Li slid down about sixty-odd zhang, she indeed spotted a cave opening large enough for a person standing slightly off to the side. She inwardly thanked her foresight in extending the length of the slender, sturdy rope significantly back when she first discovered its utility; otherwise, she might never have reached this depth. Swinging slightly to the right with controlled force, Ye Li landed with precision right at the threshold of the cave and steadied herself with a graceful twist of her body. Han Mingxi's assessment hadn't been wrong: this was indeed an extremely deep, bottomless cavern, resembling a tunnel carved directly into the cliff face, leading forward into pitch-black obscurity. Spotting the fresh footprints clearly left upon the ground, it was evident the occupants were so confident in their security that they hadn't even bothered posting a guard at the entrance. Carefully reeling in her rope, Ye Li advanced a few steps and waited quietly. After another lengthy interval, An San appeared at the cave opening carrying the Sickly Scholar. Just as the two of them landed and before An San could even stow his rope, Han Mingxi swept in like a phantom, breezing right past them into the depths of the tunnel.
"They definitely came through here." Ye Li pointed toward the footprints on the ground and the rocky ceiling overhead. "Be careful. There should be mechanisms up above. When I climbed down just now, I observed that the cliff face likely features some sort of mechanism control system, which is why they could descend without relying on lightweight kung fu. Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of time to search for it slowly." The Sickly Scholar's complexion looked somewhat grim; though being carried down by An San hadn't required much physical exertion on his part, it had been thoroughly jarring. "Let's move. Never mind the mechanisms for now."
Ye Li frowned and asked, "Can you manage without coughing?"
Nodding stiffly, the Sickly Scholar pulled a small medicine bottle from his robes, emptied the entire contents straight into his mouth, and looked even more sallow than before. "Don't worry, I won't cough."
Ye Li nodded. An San took the lead at the forefront, the Sickly Scholar followed immediately behind, and Ye Li and Han Mingxi brought up the rear.
As they ventured deeper, the tunnel grew increasingly dark and gloomy, though the air remained relatively dry. Once natural light vanished entirely, the Sickly Scholar produced a flint and ignited a fire striker. Ye Li frowned slightly; striking a fire inside an oxygen-deprived tunnel was hardly a brilliant idea, but under the circumstances, they had little alternative. Walking behind them, Han Mingxi watched An San and Ye Li mirror each other's posture by keeping their backs to opposite walls, raised an eyebrow, and chuckled softly, "Junwei, aren't you two being a bit overly tense?" Ye Li shot him a sideways glance. "Compared to the peerless lightweight kung fu master Brother Han, how can I afford not to be tense?"
The Sickly Scholar cast a glance back at the trio, holding the flickering flame aloft as he continued forward. This subterranean tunnel carved into the mountain was evidently not built merely as a decoy to confuse intruders, for they encountered no branching forks or labyrinthine turns along the way. Furthermore, the terrain sloped steadily downward, and by the time Ye Li estimated they were nearing the base of the mountain, she finally caught the sound of activity up ahead. The Sickly Scholar raised his hand to extinguish the flame, stepped up to the edge of a corner to peer outward, and instantly spotted two men clad in Southern Frontier attire standing a short distance away. Behind them stood a heavy door, from which muffled, chaotic noises spilled out.
Clearly, these two guards never expected anyone to approach from this particular direction, and they were currently clustered together chatting and laughing in low tones. However, the straight corridor stretching before them was at least a hundred meters long and exceptionally narrow. It was impossible for any of them to approach and incapacitate the two guards silently across that distance without alerting them. And the moment either of these men raised an alarm, everyone inside would be instantly notified.
Without a word, the Sickly Scholar drew a delicate mechanism-box from his robes and aimed it straight ahead. With two sharp whoosh sounds, both Southern Frontier men instantly froze in place, utterly immobilized. The four of them hurried forward, the Sickly Scholar darting through the doorway first. Pausing as she passed the threshold, Ye Li glanced sideways at the two men standing rigidly upright, noticing a thin trickle of dark blood leaking from the corners of their lips—they were clearly already dead. Her gaze darkening slightly, Ye Li slipped through the gates as well.
The interior of the stone chamber contrasted sharply with the dark, chilling gloom of the outer tunnel; it was stiflingly warm and brilliantly illuminated. Not far away, people bustled back and forth, and security appeared significantly tighter. However, all four individuals possessed martial prowess well above average, so evading these guards proved relatively straightforward.
Crouching behind a natural rock screen formed by a massive boulder, Han Mingxi cast a curious gaze outward. The exterior was bustling with clamor, accompanied by the steady, rhythmic clang-clang of a blacksmith's hammer. "What on earth are they doing here?" The Sickly Scholar replied coolly, "They are forging weapons." He pointed toward the distance, where numerous already-formed weapons had been stacked neatly in rows. An San inspected them and gestured a hand signal toward Ye Li, who acknowledged it with a silent nod. The armaments being forged by these people were not the style favored by Jianghu wanderers or typical martial enthusiasts, but rather standard-issue military hardware used on battlefields. Producing such vast quantities on a massive scale clearly indicated they were manufacturing arms for a specific army.
"This is none of our concern, let's keep moving." The Sickly Scholar had zero interest in what kind of weapons these people were manufacturing; his sole objective was the Biluo Flower.
"Do you know where the fellow surnamed Liang is?" Han Mingxi asked.
The Sickly Scholar sneered, "He can't run far." Han Mingxi nodded. "I remember now—you poisoned him, didn't you? Where's your little moth?" The Sickly Scholar shot him a cold, scathing look and strode away toward another section. Han Mingxi shrugged, flashed an apologetic smile at Ye Li, and followed along. An San murmured quietly, "My lord, those weapons are being forged for a specific military force belonging to Great Chu." Ye Li raised an eyebrow. "How do you know?" An San pointed toward a rack of sabers resting nearby. "Southern Frontiersmen are accustomed to using short blades, while Xiling blades tend to have thicker spines. Then there's Northern Rong—their cavalry is strongest, so they prefer longer weapons or massive broadswords. This particular style of saber is standard issue for our Great Chu soldiers."
Ye Li nodded, rising to her feet to follow Han Mingxi and the Sickly Scholar.
The Sickly Scholar's deduction proved correct: this was indeed a subterranean armory of considerable scale. Two spacious caverns were bustling with activity as craftsmen busily forged weapons; a large majority of these metalsmiths were Central Plains men, interspersed with a portion of Southern Frontier locals. Skirting past these laborers under the Sickly Scholar's lead, the path sloped steadily downward, leading them out of the weapon-forging grotto and into another subterranean cavern. In contrast to the rugged tunnels preceding it, this chamber resembled a meticulously decorated subterranean palace. The floors were paved with exquisitely carved marble, complemented by comfortable, aesthetic carpets.
"—Are those people dead yet?!" Just as the four of them approached, a shrill, sharp voice rang out from within. Ye Li frowned—it was the voice of Master Liang, the wealthy merchant. At present, his tone lacked its previous smug boasting, arrogance, and condescension, replaced instead by a heavy undercurrent of anxiety and murderous intent.
"Rest assured, there is no way they can escape," replied Le Jiang, chieftain of the Luoyi Tribe.
"Why didn't you send men to kill them directly?!" Master Liang demanded with deep dissatisfaction. "That sickly scholar is terrifying; if we don't eliminate him early, he'll leave endless trouble in his wake. If he hadn't dogged my steps all the way here, I would have reached the Southern Frontier long ago. No matter what I did, I couldn't shake him off! And that fellow surnamed Han clearly recognizes the plague god, too. We cannot let them live, regardless of the price!"
"Regardless of the price?" Le Jiang let out a cold, mocking laugh. "Whose price are you paying? Do you think those individuals are simple pushovers? Even a swarm of venomous snakes couldn't deal with them. Every single man in my Luoyi Tribe is precious; how many lives would we have to sacrifice in a direct clash against them? Do you take my Luoyi people as an inexhaustible supply of cannon fodder like your Great Chu soldiers?"
"Don't forget..." Master Liang roared in exasperation. Le Jiang raised his voice, "Relax, I haven't forgotten what I'm supposed to do. But you'd better not order me around for matters outside our agreed scope." The person inside seemed to choke on his words for a moment, before Master Liang's voice sounded again, albeit subdued: "But... what if those people escape? Do you think they'll let us off the hook? I don't know about the other three, but you must have heard of that sickly scholar's reputation. He is the Third Pavilion Master of Xiling's King of Hell Pavilion."
"Why on earth did you provoke someone from the King of Hell Pavilion!" Le Jiang roared in fury, his voice sharp and thunderous.
"How was I supposed to know?! Just a few days after I set out, he inexplicably latched onto me, and I couldn't even shake him off if I tried. That man is notorious for holding grudges and exacting vengeance for the slightest offense. What was I supposed to do?"
"So you brought him straight to the Southern Frontier with you!" Le Jiang ground his teeth in rage for a long moment before letting out a hrumph. "I understand. I'll send men to deal with them as soon as possible. Rest assured, the paths down the mountain have long since been sealed off, and that entire mountain is crawling with venomous insects and serpents right now. Even if he's a sickly scholar skilled in poisons, I refuse to believe he can poison an entire mountain's worth of venomous beasts!"
"Just be careful and make sure you see his corpse. If you had just killed them from the start, we wouldn't be dealing with all this trouble now."
Le Jiang sneered, "He stuck to your side every step of the way—do you think we had a chance to kill him before he killed you? I'm going to give instructions to handle this; you just stay put. And don't forget your end of the bargain—if our master fails to get what he wants, you know the consequences!" Master Liang's breath caught sharply in his throat before he hastily replied, "I know. I've brought half of the token with me. Now hand over the other half."
Le Jiang let out a cold hrumph. "This originally belonged to our Southern Frontier in the first place."
When it came to matters of profit and leverage, Master Liang didn't yield an inch either, retorting, "The item is in my hands, and only I know how to retrieve it."
"That was entrusted to the Liang family for safekeeping by the late King of Nanzhao; it was never gifted to you," Le Jiang stated coldly.
"Haha, and so what if it wasn't? You know as well as I do that it belongs to the Nanzhao royal family, not your tribe," Master Liang laughed. "The fact that I didn't simply hand it straight back to the Nanzhao royal family is already quite generous of me, wouldn't you say?"
"Wasn't it because our bid was the highest? Aside from a few polite words of gratitude from the King of Nanzhao, you wouldn't have gotten a single copper coin," Le Jiang sneered.
Master Liang replied, "You want the treasure, and I want money. We each take what we need, don't we? Therefore, you'd better hand over the other half of the token to me quickly and stop playing games. You've practically hollowed out this entire mountain by now; without me, you will never find the treasure. Besides, don't even think about silencing me—lest you forget who stands behind me..."
Master Liang's smug, triumphant tone clearly rubbed Le Jiang the wrong way, yet he was utterly helpless to stop him. He could only say coldly, "I know. I'll bring it over shortly. You'd better not play any tricks; our master has already stated that the items must be delivered within half a month at the latest. Otherwise... even if you have the Son of Heaven backing you up, it won't save you!"
Master Liang's self-satisfied laughter choked off abruptly, and after a brief pause, he finally muttered, "I know, rest assured. I am well aware of the relationship between the Prince and your master, and I know how to keep a sense of proportion. Just hand over the token, and once we reach Nanzhao's capital, I guarantee the treasure will be delivered right before your eyes."
"Splendid!" Le Jiang declared, his footsteps receding into the distance as silence descended once more upon the chamber, save for Master Liang's heavy, wheezing breaths.
What now? Standing in the secluded corner, Han Mingxi cast a glance toward the Sickly Scholar, using his eyes to ask for instructions. The Sickly Scholar lowered his gaze, a sinister, malicious smile flashing across his already gloomy face. Han Mingxi shivered involuntarily, casting a somewhat pitiful glance toward Master Liang, who was pacing back and forth anxiously inside. I wonder just how badly this old codger is going to be tortured?