Chapter 90

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Protagonist:

Shaowei

Liu Qi

The reason the manservant and Shaowei split up to act separately begins with the fact that, from the mouths of those Embroidered Uniform Guards who had gone to Taoxi Township to eradicate the roots, the two of them had interrogated and forced out the whereabouts of Zhuzhichiyang and his party.

The two picked up weapons and horses, brought poison and dried rations, and pursued southward all the way.

Further south, there were very few official roads suitable for horses; moreover, the opposing party was a group of such massive and mixed composition that the traces left on the road alone were sufficient to smoothly carry out this pursuit.

But after pursuing a hundred li out, those clear tracks suddenly split in two: one route continued south, while the other suddenly turned back north via another road.

With no way to distinguish further clues for the moment, Shaowei did not hesitate and decided to separate from the manservant to pursue and search.

After a slaughter at Taoxi Township, although the two of them had counter-killed all those ten-odd Embroidered Uniform Guards, they were each injured as well; and no matter which direction they pursued, they would inevitably face Embroidered Uniform Guards dozens of times more numerous than in that slaughter. Therefore, the manservant and Shaowei agreed that if acting alone, they must not rashly strike again, but only first hide in the dark to carry out assassination and reconnaissance; they would make other plans after reuniting.

As for what they were to go reconnoiter... although the two never spoke it outright, both were very clear in their hearts.

That Embroidered Uniform Guard had clearly confessed before death that Jiang Fu, after being struck by an arrow from Zhu Zhi, had been pierced through the left chest by Chiyang and perished; the corpse had also been taken away at Chiyang's decision, its intended use unknown.

Shaowei and the manservant were to pursue and investigate the whereabouts of that corpse.

The two could only tell that the opposing party's group had split into two routes, but did not know whether Zhu Zhi and Chiyang were together or in separate groups.

Shaowei pursued all the way to that post station outside Yundang Mountain, lay hidden in the dark observing for a long time, and only then learned that this route was led by Zhu Zhi, while Chiyang was presumably in the northbound group.

She was unable to find any trace of the concealed transport of the corpse from Zhu Zhi's group, and thereby deduced that the corpse must have been taken away by Chiyang.

Shaowei had a moment of regret that she had not chosen the northbound road, but that regret lasted only an instant before being shattered.

She did not want others to take Jiang Fu's corpse, but subconsciously she also did not want to see that corpse with her own eyes.

This was fine too; the matter of retrieving the corpse would be left to the manservant.

At that time, almost no hope remained in Shaowei's heart; injured, she had traveled day and night to reach here, her reason long gone, leaving only endless hatred.

She lacked the courage to face Jiang Fu's corpse directly, but the courage to kill surged vast and unstoppable.

Retrieving the corpse was important, but revenge was more important, whether for the Green Ox or for anyone else.

So she pursued into the mountain, carrying annihilating killing intent; she was determined to destroy the enemy, even if it meant destroying herself at the same time.

And on the other side, the manservant also successfully caught up with Chiyang's group.

He was more experienced and steady than Shaowei, and more trustworthy; he kept the agreement to absolutely not strike rashly.

Chiyang's group traveled at a speed much slower than Zhu Zhi's frantic party; they stopped at a post station to rest and reorganize for one day and two nights.

The manservant was very skilled at lurking and concealment; he mingled in the post station and gleaned some cryptic information from several Embroidered Uniform Guards.

For instance, Immortal Master Chiyang suddenly turned back north because he received an urgent edict from the Ren Emperor summoning him back to the capital; Zhu Zhi naturally dared not disobey or delay, and dispatched nearly a hundred Embroidered Uniform Guards to escort and follow Chiyang, while he himself took several hundred Embroidered Uniform Guards southward to handle affairs.

In the wilderness post station, with the moon high and the wind dark, the Embroidered Uniform Guards following Chiyang privately speculated: was His Majesty's urgent summons of the Immortal Master back to the capital because the Dragon Body was unwell, or because yet another omen had appeared?

In addition, they were also very curious about the identity and origin of that green-clothed woman who had been besieged and killed that day, so they sought out two companions who attended closely to Chiyang to inquire secretly.

Those two companions said in low voices that the National Preceptor had privately spoken: that green-clothed woman bore the appearance of a Great Omen of National Calamity; therefore, her corpse must be brought to the Immortal Master's sect's treasure land, and an array set up to suppress it; otherwise, her evil soul would not perish, and there would still be the danger of it haunting and causing chaos, obstructing the National Fortune.

The five or six Embroidered Uniform Guards crowded in the same room sharing a floor bed all felt a chill run down their backs upon hearing this; some even turned their heads to look toward the back courtyard.

That coffin was temporarily placed under a grass shed in the back courtyard, guarded in turns by several Embroidered Uniform Guards.

The manservant observed for a long time; waiting until the second night, he infiltrated the back courtyard, and with extremely fast body technique struck and knocked unconscious the two Embroidered Uniform Guards on watch, without making a single sound.

The unpainted coffin, still bearing a wood scent, had already been nailed shut.

The manservant had prepared in advance; he quickly pried open the coffin nails, used palm force to push the coffin lid back halfway, and as he cautiously examined it, his expression suddenly changed.

This was an empty coffin.

Only faint residual bloodstains could be seen at the bottom of the coffin interior; nothing else.

Where was Jiang Fu's corpse? And why did Chiyang have people guard an empty coffin?

The former was still unknown, but the answer to the latter was already evident — this was a trap set by Chiyang.

The manservant turned to leave, but soon discovered the scenery in the courtyard had greatly changed: walls on all four sides, no door to be found.

This back courtyard had been laid with an Illusionary Array by Chiyang; from the moment he stepped into the array, he had already been trapped.

The coffin as bait, the array as net. Once the coffin was opened, the net had closed.

And that coffin, with its faint wood fragrance inside and out, likely also contained hallucinogenic substances, intensifying this illusory sensation.

A knight-errant traveling the world must always guard against poison and bewildering drugs; he swallowed an antidote pill that could counter bewildering drugs, but it apparently did not fully match the symptoms, only suppressing half the hallucinations; he still found it very difficult to escape.

Trapped here, the manservant thought of a similar experience he had once had.

In his youth, his lightness skill had already reached great accomplishment; he was arrogant and unruly, often secretly trespassing into the Forbidden Palace; the Imperial Guard could never capture him, and the fame of First Knight of the Jianghu thus spread.

The world all believed he had never failed, but only he himself knew that he had actually been captured before.

That year, the Ren Emperor built the Xian Tai Gong; it was said that within truly resided gods and spirits with magic power reaching the heavens; he did not believe in gods and spirits, and arrogantly thought there was no place in this world he could not set foot, so he insisted on going to that Immortal Palace himself to taste for himself the saltiness or blandness of the offerings inside.

He went at night, and indeed tasted the offerings; he did not find the taste anything remarkable; he gnawed on a piece of dry offering cake, expressionlessly watching that towering statue, only feeling extremely bored, and turned to leave.

Who knew that with this turn, something interesting suddenly happened.

No matter how he walked, he could not exit this hall; circling around and around, he circled for a full hour and more.

Until a palace lantern appeared; with that lantern's entry, a figure wearing a blue-gray wide-sleeved Daoist robe walked in slowly; the array was thereby broken, and that figure teased him: "First Swordsman Zhao Qie'an, you're not as hard to capture as the tales say."

The other party seemed only to want to tease him, not truly capture him; otherwise, they would have long since shouted for the Imperial Guard.

By the light of that palace lantern, he saw a face that was casual and smiling; clearly wearing a Daoist robe, yet one felt an elegant air flowing all around.

He had infiltrated many powerful and noble mansions, but had never seen any so-called nobleman who could possess such an elegant and carefree bearing.

From then on, he often night-prowled the Xian Tai Gong; he spoke little, but could accompany that elegant person in drinking wine, perform sword dances for her to watch, and listen to her chatter on and on.

Later they became increasingly familiar; on one occasion she spoke of her sect's array — the very one that had trapped him initially —

She told him that worldly formations themselves possessed no lethal power, merely trapping people, and those trapped would inevitably panic, ceaselessly seeking an exit, thus their minds would fall into disorder and their strength be exhausted; when the formation-maker then struck, victory would naturally be assured.

Military formations were the same: it was not the formation itself that killed, but the soldiers composing it and the weapons in their hands.

Her sect's formations were mostly illusions; once someone stepped into the formation, it would shatter, so they had to wait until the person inside had exhausted themselves from charging about before revealing themselves to collect them.

Thus in the back courtyard of the post station, the house slave sat on the ground with his blade, even closing his eyes to rest his spirit.

After sitting thus for the time it takes to finish a cup of tea, he noticed a gaze finally piercing through the night to watch him; he suddenly opened his eyes, brandished his blade, and leapt toward where the gaze lay.

The formation was broken, and he saw a black-and-white shadow; its aura was icy cold, like a Netherworld Official.

Black was a pitch-black robe, white was a deathly pale face; this person was Chiyang.

As the house slave slashed his blade at him, several Embroidered Uniform Guards charged forward simultaneously.

The house slave knew the purpose of this trip; he had to break free and leave before more Embroidered Uniform Guards surged in.

Fighting as he retreated, once he had leapt onto the roof along the way, he saw a rain of arrows smashing down toward him.

He deflected the arrows with his blade, leapt into the air, jumped off the roof, and escaped.

At this moment, by Taiqing Pool, the house slave who had not clearly answered Jiang Fu's question of life or death finished recounting his escape, and finally said to Shaowei: "Looking back afterward, I think I was able to escape easily probably because Chiyang unintentionally did not let those Embroidered Uniform Guards fight me to the death."

Shaowei frowned: "You mean he deliberately let you off? Why would he do that?"

The house slave: "He must have observed me from outside the formation, but discovered I was not the prey he was waiting for."

A cold, stern air Shaowei could not name rose in her heart, as if she felt a pair of eyes watching her from afar behind her back.

So the trap of the Empty Coffin Labyrinth Formation was set for her, only unfortunately, she had chased Zhu Zhi to Wuling Commandery.

Shaowei looked at the house slave and asked with a serious expression: "You are both people avenging her; what difference is there between you and me?"

The house slave said calmly: "Probably because you are the one she chose."

Shaowei naturally knew who this "she" was, but for a moment she could not help being stunned—what did "chosen" mean?

She had not yet spoken the question when the house slave changed his words, adding: "It should not be said she chose you; at that time she went to Taishan Commandery, and along the way she never hesitated once."

The house slave redefined the matter: "You are the one she recognized."

"As to what exactly makes you different, she never actively told me, and I did not ask further." The house slave looked at the girl before him and said: "But perhaps you yourself know where your difference lies."

The house slave's voice was always hoarse and low, his tone always without fluctuation, giving a sense of a pool of boring dead water, but at this moment these words stirred a great wind in Shaowei's heart, raising a wild surge.

Her difference...

Her greatest difference lay nowhere else; it had always been hidden in Jiang Fu's way of addressing her.

She was a little ghost; in her previous life she had been a vengeful ghost gnashing her teeth with indignation, and in this life she had nearly become a water ghost in the Dongyue River beneath Tianlang Mountain.

The second attempt at becoming a ghost failed because a bamboo pole reached into the water, stirring up her anger, and then she was saved by that anger.

Shaowei had originally thought all this was mere coincidence, but now hearing it... it was Jiang Fu traveling all the way to Taishan Commandery precisely to find her?!

The reason behind this Shaowei could not discern herself; perhaps only Jiang Fu and that thing called Chiyang could give her an answer.

And the only thing known at this moment was that Chiyang wanted to kill Jiang Fu, and also wanted to kill her, whom Jiang Fu had chosen.

So Jiang Fu insisted the house slave take her far away, truly because he did not want her to fall into Chiyang's hands?

Jiang Fu's these mysterious schemes could not be solved for now; at this moment Shaowei had only one voice in her heart that was most anxious and solemn, and this voice finally drilled out from her heart: "So she must still be alive!"

This "so" that sounded firm actually had no solid evidence to support it.

And the house slave truly dared not indulge her in believing this; he said in a low, hoarse voice: "Even if that coffin is empty, it cannot simply prove she did not die; perhaps Chiyang merely moved the corpse to hide it elsewhere."

"You're wrong!" Shaowei immediately retorted: "Since Chiyang intended to set a trap to kill me, but had no certainty that the first person to enter would be me, he naturally had to use the corpse as bait, letting people see it with their own eyes, to lure me into going to reclaim the corpse! If he did not show this bait to people, it must be because there isn't one!"

"But it could also be deliberately setting up a confusing formation, just to make you and me harbor false hope, mistakenly thinking she is still alive, and thus risk our lives to enter and save her." The house slave said in a voiceless, calm tone: "After all, this longing is more suitable as bait than a corpse."

Shaowei's expression became even more stubborn; she glared at him: "If that's the case, she is even more likely to still be alive; Chiyang wants to use her, alive, as bait and as a hostage!"

Facing that pair of exceptionally stubborn eyes, the house slave fell silent.

More argument was meaningless; this was a paradox of contradiction; as long as the corpse was not seen, this longing could not be extinguished.

He was not without fantasies either; it was just that he could think about it in private, but did not want a child to become too immersed in it.

Seeing him stop speaking, Shaowei reached out and pulled up a handful of water grass, speaking to herself: "Whether she is dead or alive, if alive I'll save her along the way, if dead I'll avenge her; anyway it's all the same!"

The house slave sank into deeper silence, merely watching her.

She was already covered in injuries and must be very tired, no longer able to use avenging the green ox as a pretext; her words held only straightforward heartfelt thoughts.

But even though she was injured so severely, exhausted to this extent, and knew there were deadly traps ahead, she still had not the slightest thought of turning back, stubborn as a matter of course and lawless, looking exactly like a large rock hard enough for Nuwa to pick up to mend the sky.

Watching the girl who kept pulling up grass to vent her anger, soon a pile of water grass dying unnatural deaths under her hands, the house slave felt he must speak plainly to her.

But fearing that direct preaching would provoke her rebellion, or that she simply would not respond, he used his meager educational experience and still began with a question:

"Wasn't it agreed before that you would only secretly observe and not act impulsively? Why did you rashly attack Zhu Zhi?"

As the words fell, the grass-puller turned her head, revealing a face of complete rebellion.