Chapter 393: Ascending to White Cloud Mountain

"The government runners were alerted, and they ran off."

"I need to go back and report this," Wu Wu Jingsong said as he stood up. "The government office is drafting a wanted notice and will post it soon. Why don't you come with me and describe the appearance of the murderer who killed the envoy to the sketch artist?"

"How much is the bounty?"

"For an emergency diplomatic incident like this, if the murderer is captured, the bounty will be at least a hundred taels," Wu Wu Jingsong could only give a rough estimate. "If it's just for providing information, it should be about twenty taels."

Twenty taels of gold is two hundred taels of silver. As expected of Fufeng City; even providing a tip is rewarded so generously. How opulent.

He He Lingchuan extended his chopsticks toward him: "Bring the twenty gold."

"You..." Wu Wu Jingsong was delighted. "You know their whereabouts?"

"They aren't certain I witnessed the scene; at most, they are only guessing."

To kill based on mere suspicion—better to kill the wrong person than let one go. That black-clad youth is truly fierce.

"Since they are thinking of me so fondly, how could I let down their good intentions?" He He Lingchuan laughed. "So, I quietly followed them all the way to the Xiliao Inn where they are staying, right behind the temple in the south of the city."

Of course, his so-called "following" referred to the eyeball spider.

Wu Wu Jingsong slapped his thigh: "Well done!"

He rummaged through his clothes: "Put that twenty taels of gold on my tab; I'll get it for you later! Let's go, come with me quickly."

He He Lingchuan smiled, finished the wine in his cup, and followed him out.

Why take revenge personally when you can borrow a knife to kill? This is Fufeng City, under the feet of the Treasure Tree King; the official forces are the strongest here.

He once again accessed the eyeball spider's vision and discovered that the man the little spider was clinging to had already returned to the side of Fushan, and this group was behind closed doors, deliberating.

Unfortunately, this man was likely of too low a rank and was only sent outside to guard the door. The eyeball spider wanted to sneak into the room to eavesdrop, but the doors and windows had barriers; it was bounced away as soon as it got close.

Fortunately, it was small and light, otherwise the barriers would have sounded an alarm.

He He Lingchuan shook his head. After all, he was not the real Zhu Zhu Xiuer; the fact that he could not remotely control this eyeball spider was truly a major drawback.

In the night, Fufeng City seemed to have a bit of an undercurrent surging.

￥￥￥￥￥

The black-clad youth and his subordinates were nearing the end of their discussion.

There was no help for it; the target was still alive and kicking, and their time was tight, so they had to formulate a new plan on the fly.

The two men patrolling the porch were bored; one yawned, and the other, infected by it, subconsciously opened his mouth wide.

Immediately after, an arrowhead nailed into his mouth, piercing through his skull!

The other man was startled and let out a loud cry. But before the sound could escape, a monster pounced from under the eaves—looking like a bat and yet like a bird—its wings spread wide, wrapping around his head and face in one motion.

His cry turned into two "mmph" sounds, and almost no one heard it.

This thing seemed to have a numbing effect; the man, in his panic, failed to hold his breath and suddenly felt dizzy. Before he could pull the thing off his face, he fainted.

The creature jumped away on its own, revealing its true form:

A flying squirrel.

It could stretch the skin under its ribs to glide; its size was four times that of an ordinary one, and its appearance was not nearly as harmless.

Dozens of government soldiers rushed over, surrounding the guest rooms, and without ceremony, drew their blades and spears, hacking the doors and windows to pieces. The innkeeper had already confessed that this was the only group of over a dozen people who had checked in, occupying a row of three rooms.

Everyone was prepared for a fight, yet the room was silent; no one cursed, and no one jumped out.

The room was empty.

"There's an array on the wall!"

A guard looked up and discovered a formation drawn on the gray wall, with complex lines and a peculiar symbol in the center.

"This is...?"

A deputy general arrived from the rear, saw the array on the wall, and without time to ponder, issued an order: "Search! Search the surroundings thoroughly!"

Before his words had faded, he felt his feet go soft, as if he had stepped on something.

With a loud "boom," the room was blown to pieces; the rafters flew five zhang away, smashing into the gate of the neighboring shop with a "bang."

Black smoke curled upward.

Such an incident occurring suddenly in the busy market caused screams to ring out one after another in the surroundings.

……

The black-clad youth and the others were in a residential house just over ten zhang away, looking up at the black smoke rising into the sky.

A large man behind him, who had been full of vitality, was now pale, swaying, and several hairs had even turned white.

This man had just sacrificed five years of his own lifespan to barely activate the Great Mountain-Moving Array to teleport everyone here.

Engaging in a direct confrontation with government soldiers in Fufeng City was not a wise move. The opponent had vast numbers and endless reinforcements; they could wear a person to death.

Seeing the youth staring blankly at the black smoke, seemingly lost in thought, a subordinate couldn't help but remind him: "Young Master, we should go. This is no place to stay for long."

The Fufeng soldiers would search their way here soon.

A fierce light flickered in the black-clad youth's eyes.

Fortunately, he was cautious and always left a backup plan whenever he arrived at a new residence, and fortunately, his spiritual sense was sharp enough to detect the anomaly; otherwise, breaking out of the government soldiers' encirclement would have cost a great deal of effort.

From this, one could see that their residence had been surrounded three layers deep.

The government office had dispatched at least three or four hundred men; they were certainly showing them great respect in terms of numbers.

"Young Master?"

"Fufeng City must have received news of the Yin Mountain Python's death. But if that person hadn't tipped them off, the authorities wouldn't have found us," he narrowed his eyes. "Good, very good!"

That brat really was two-faced, acting one way to his face and another behind his back.

He turned around and stared at the group; the latter felt a chill all over, as if they were being pried into, but the feeling was only for an instant before returning to normal.

In reality, the black-clad youth had expanded his spiritual sense to scan everyone.

"Take off the clothes on your bodies and change into new ones immediately."

Here? Fortunately, his subordinates were well-trained; they executed the order without asking questions, quickly shedding the old and putting on the new.

"We were likely tagged with tracking spells or medicinal powder earlier, otherwise the soldiers couldn't have pinpointed us so accurately." The black-clad youth's spiritual sense hadn't discovered any abnormalities, and he clicked his tongue in wonder.

He He Lingchuan had demonstrated his ability to act after the fact: the first time was when they killed the Yin Mountain Python, the second was the night raid at the inn, and this was the third.

Three strikes and you're out; this person had tampered with them.

He did not know that the eyeball spider had originally been attached to the lackey outside the guest room door and had not followed them over.

"Move the retreat plan forward and split up into groups," the black-clad youth said quickly. "There are too many of us; we're too conspicuous."

"Are we going to retreat and leave?"

The black-clad youth acted as if he had heard a massive joke and dug at his ear: "Say that again?"

The subordinate remained silent.

He grinned, but the smile did not reach his eyes: "The target remains the same; the item must be seized, and the person... must also die!"

……

The next morning, the sun rose from the east as usual.

He He Lingchuan stretched and rose, feeling refreshed.

After opening his second dantian, not only was his true qi circulation faster, but his energy was also more abundant. Like this, he could feel spirited after sleeping for only an hour.

If it were before, he would have feared getting dark circles under his eyes if he didn't sleep for two full hours.

The black cat also jumped in from the windowsill, stretched in a downward-dog pose, and scratched at the wooden window, leaving white marks.

"Hey, don't scratch randomly; I have to pay for any damage to the doors and windows." He had hired this black cat to help out and paid by the task; today there was no work for it, but the cat had come anyway.

The kitten didn't know where it had gone to play, but the big cat came over to rub against He He Lingchuan before asking him: "Can you give me a lift when you go to White Cloud Mountain? I want to go watch the ceremony too, but it's really too far to walk."

It had short legs.

He He Lingchuan had no objections.

At this moment, someone knocked on the door; Second Master Shi had arrived.

He had changed into new clothes and said joyfully: "It's time for us to go up the mountain to watch the ceremony!"

"Aren't you busy with business today?" The Treasure Tree King's birthday celebration was also a carnival for merchants. Merchants from inside and outside Between Beijia took the opportunity to bring rare treasures, exotic flowers, and strange herbs to Fufeng City, and the various auctions never stopped. According to official statistics, there were nearly a hundred auctions every day; the treasure merchants were certainly earning plenty of attention this time.

"Everything that needed to be sold has been sold." Their main business was wholesale. "I heard the official road to Lingxu City has been cleared, and the authorities have strengthened security patrols. Therefore, we'll head out immediately after the ceremony ends today! It's safer with more people."

The sudden eruption of the Emperor's Flowing Nectar had disrupted their travel plans, and they had already been delayed for quite some time in Fufeng City. After the celebration ended today, they needed to get on the road as soon as possible.

"By the way, this is the book you wanted," Second Master Shi handed a booklet to He He Lingchuan. "It turns out Fufeng City does have it. My clerk found it after checking only two bookstores; they say it's even placed in a very conspicuous spot."

"A hardcover copy?" He He Lingchuan took it and flipped through it, dust flying everywhere. "Cough, cough, cough—so much dust!"

Second Master Shi was a bit confused. "Brother He, why do you want this? I usually don't see anyone buying it; that bookstore only stocked two copies in total, and they were both kept on high shelves gathering dust. They say this book is copied once every twenty or thirty years to prevent it from being lost. But as for anyone actually reading it, I don't think so."

"Can't say, can't say; a mountain man has his own clever uses," He He Lingchuan patted the book cover, shaking off another layer of dust. "This book wasn't meant to be read anyway, and it's so thin? Perfect!"

"Pfft." Second Master Shi rolled his eyes and urged him to get on the road quickly.

He He Lingchuan didn't have much to pack; the two of them led their mounts out, and the black cat jumped onto He He Lingchuan's mount, a rock sheep, preparing to hitch a free ride.

This rock sheep had carried him back from Three Hearts Lake; it ran steadily and quickly, and its endurance was surprisingly excellent—no wonder someone had tamed it as a mount.

Compared to horses and bo-beasts, the rock sheep's jumping ability was top-notch; it could easily leap over a zhang high, light and swift, especially suitable for mountain travel, so He He Lingchuan simply kept it for transport.

Of course, its load-bearing capacity was average; it would get weak-kneed if the load exceeded five hundred jin.

The sky had just brightened, and the streets were already bustling, with pedestrians rubbing shoulders, basically all heading north.

In this situation, there was no need to ride; they could only lead the mounts and follow the flow of the crowd.

As for carriages or donkey carts, they couldn't move an inch.

Passing by two temples, He He Lingchuan saw that the stages set up in front of the temples had already begun performances; the sound of strings and bamboo squeaked on stage, while the crowd below beamed with joy, and children chased after the candy-skewer peddlers—it was truly livelier than the New Year.

I heard that almost all my relatives and friends have tested positive; nine out of ten households are affected.

Are there any "little negatives" left? Come here and leave a comment for me to see.

(End of chapter)