Chapter 349: Today

The stone wall was indeed a place worth examining; the other three sides of the hall were uncarved but smoothly polished, while this one behind the stone seat remained rough, nearly in its natural state.

Wu Dong sheathed his sword, pressed his hand against it, and closed his eyes: "Empty."

"A dragon-sealing stone," Sui Sui Zaihua said. "Just like the place we're in."

Wu Dong turned back; the hall had no other exits, and the distinct damp chill he'd felt upon entering came from the massive stone hanging overhead, suspended but not yet fallen.

Deep rock and a hidden lake—this was a cage even most True Xuan Sect masters could not break.

This Dragon-Sealing Hall was designed in two stages; the deeper section had already been used—that was the stone wall before them, now lowered.

"Can it be opened?" Sui Sui Zaihua asked, standing beside the corpse.

Wu Dong pulled out a small, saw-like ring, pressed it hard into the stone wall, and immediately a grating, teeth-chilling sound rang out; after a moment, a circle of stone chips, a yard across, crumbled away, the noise softening as it burrowed deeper.

"The more cases you investigate, the more you must guard against all kinds of ambushes."

Wu Dong let it advance, turned his head—Sui Sui Zaihua had already peeled off two theatrical masks; indeed, two unfamiliar faces stared back. He pressed around them, found no traces of disguise.

The old man spread the two masks on the ground: "'Sun' and 'Liu.'"

"What do they represent?" Wu Dong walked over. "I found little useful in the case files about Zhang Huan Si Lou. I thought you might know something?"

"Because these are my vague, half-formed deductions—no solid evidence yet, so I haven't recorded them," Sui Sui Zaihua said softly. "I believe the Zhang Huan Si Lou of Shaolong is a Three Kingdoms play."

"There are four top figures: the master of the play, 'Sima,' and beneath him, 'Sun,' 'Liu,' and 'Cao'—four masks total," Sui Sui Zaihua continued. "Here, they sent two of the most absolute controls."

"." Wu Dong fell silent for a moment. "I discovered in Fucheng that Qiao Qiao Changyue had a secret meeting with the chief manager of Jin Yu Zhai, but according to Fucheng records, no change occurred in transactions between the Qi Bureau and Jin Yu Zhai after that meeting—the number of Xin Po remained perfectly accounted for."

"So I think," he looked at Sui Sui Zaihua, "they were discussing who Jin Yu Zhai would sell the Xin Po to after acquiring them."

Sui Sui Zaihua nodded.

"The Xin Po trade is a lifeline for Jin Yu Zhai. Qiao Qiao Changyue used it to coerce them into selling the Xin Po to Zhang Huan Si Lou—that's why I came to investigate Jin Yu Zhai's ledgers."

"But I always assumed Jin Yu Zhai was half-heartedly colluding with Zhang Huan Si Lou," Wu Dong tapped his sword scabbard twice.

Sui Sui Zaihua gave a slight nod, understanding his meaning.

Wu Dong had indeed summoned Sui Sui Zaihua to form a clear-dark partnership, but he never truly intended to reach this point. For Jin Yu Zhai to be coerced and controlled into becoming Zhang Huan Si Lou's puppet was far too bizarre.

Qiao Qiao Changyue's position as head of the Qi Bureau did control Xin Po's inflow and outflow, but the Shaolong Prefectural Office was wide open, and Xianrentai was just two streets away.

Jin Yu Zhai was no helpless widow, bound by two strongmen with no recourse.

If Qiao Qiao Changyue's first words were a threat to force Jin Yu Zhai to sell Xin Po to Zhang Huan Si Lou, then the chief manager's second words would have gleefully threatened to expose his collusion with Zhang Huan Si Lou on Xianrentai's desk unless he increased Jin Yu Zhai's annual Xin Po quota.

So Wu Dong believed Zhang Huan Si Lou must have offered conditions Wang Wanquan could not refuse—coercion and temptation combined—for this to succeed.

Yet Jin Yu Zhai had truly been fully controlled.

This might mean that on the Xin Po purchasing end, the force was not some shadowy group like Zhang Huan Si Lou, but a similarly open and legitimate authority.

Jin Yu Zhai could not escape such dual pressure—perhaps it hadn't even realized it was doing business with Zhang Huan Si Lou.

Thus, Wu Dong now stood here, facing this situation.

"Their desire to prevent us from reaching the truth seems even greater than completing their own plan," Wu Dong frowned at the two corpses on the ground. "Even if I die, Xianrentai will learn of the shadow behind this in half a month… Is this cost necessary?"

"Precisely," Sui Sui Zaihua said softly. "They've been extremely, extremely diligent in concealing themselves—both in actions and in hierarchy. In Bowang, I believed Zhang Huan Si Lou's upper limit in the 'Soul Theft and Sword Theft' affair was 'Tun Shen,' precisely because not a single one of the four masks ever appeared."

"Yet our first meeting afterward was with the master of the play," Wu Dong rasped.

"'Master of the Play'… that's exactly what I want to say," Sui Sui Zaihua paused. "The one you met may not have been the true master."

Wu Dong narrowed his eyes: "What do you mean?"

"This concerns the name 'Qu Zhu.'" Sui Sui Zaihua glanced at the stone wall, where the unknown artifact still drilled and cut. "You know I understand Zhang Huan Si Lou better, but my grudge with them didn't arise from nothing—its origin was Qu Zhu."

"The first time I saw him, he looked utterly unfamiliar with his surroundings—worn clothes, a cheap knife, muddy straw sandals, crouching under the eaves of Bowang Prefectural Office during rain, coughing like a destitute retainer."

That was twenty-seven years ago, in Bowang City. When summer rains came, the entire prefectural office grew tense and busy.

Twenty-five-year-old Sui Sui Zaihua was the youngest Xu Sigong of Xiangzhou; the chronic flooding of Zhuoyue Lake had prompted Inspector Yu Yu Chaocai to summon him from a neighboring prefecture for aid. As the group stepped out under umbrellas, Sui Sui Zaihua, peering over Yu Yu Chaocai's shoulder, saw the young man leaning against the steps.

He approached, saying he could design a True Xuan array to stabilize Zhuoyue Lake. The officials gave him not even a cold glance. Yu Yu Chaocai stopped, asked a few questions, then ordered his attendants to give him warm clothes and food.

Sui Sui Zaihua had seen such men before—read too many tales of famed scholars, self-important, lacking even the patience to walk on solid ground, dreaming only of soaring to the heavens.

He knew Zhuoyue Lake could not be managed by any True Xuan array.

Whether or not such an array could work, Bowang certainly could not.

That year's flood was still quelled by Sui Sui Zaihua and the Bowang Judge working together, yet somehow the young man won the inspector's favor and became a minor clerk in the prefectural office.

Sui Sui Zaihua's official career in Xiangzhou was not smooth; his superiors were jealous and resentful of talent, and without patronage, he saw no future. After four consecutive years helping stabilize Zhuoyue Lake, Yu Yu Chaocai sent a letter to the prefectural office transferring him to Bowang.

This was a crucial moment in the young Sui Sui Zaihua's career—not a moment of profound recognition, but one that cleared the clouds.

Yet that same year, the rootless youth he'd once seen had begun to rise in the bureaucracy. Sui Sui Zaihua was startled to find the young man's sharp, untamed edge had dulled considerably; when they met in the office, he now greeted Sui Sui Zaihua with a smile, showing none of his former arrogance.

Due to their differing ranks, their interactions were few, but as two young, promising officials both promoted by Yu Yu Chaocai, they inevitably grew familiar, maintaining a delicate balance of neither close nor distant.

"It was during this time I realized his talent for arrays and devices was truly exceptional," Sui Sui Zaihua said softly. "I understand arrays and devices myself; over the years, they've sometimes served as my stepping stones—but far from 'talent.'"

At that time, Qu Zhu was like a drawn sword in the Bowang bureaucracy. Sui Sui Zaihua watched his astonishing sharpness—and his astonishing clumsiness.

The thousand intricate threads of officialdom were never simple; they were a sensitive web, where one tug pulled you into a vortex. Qu Zhu charged forward with his blade's edge, sometimes achieving astonishing feats, only to stumble headfirst into bloodied failure moments later. Fortunately, Bowang was too small a pond to drown someone tall enough—and fortunately, Yu Yu Chaocai was a straight-backed inspector.

Thus, this seemingly clueless youth always rose again. He gradually learned many unspoken rules, discerned the invisible threads behind people's actions. Once, Sui Sui Zaihua was astonished to see him, blocked from some matter, standing before an old judge's gate with gifts; when the door opened, he smiled beautifully, his spine slightly bent.

Sui Sui Zaihua's deepest memory of him was the following summer's rain, when the man returned with wine to discuss True Xuan arrays for lake control. Sui Sui Zaihua explained in detail why such methods could only work in great cities like Shenzhou and Taiyuan; under night rain and wine, they talked at length.

"Brother Sui, you have no family background either?"

"Only son of a poor family."

"People like us," the man, slightly drunk, leaned on the railing, watching the rain-churned lake, "how do we reach the top?"

"Brother Qu, how high do you wish to go?"

"Hahaha."

". Inspector Yu is already very high." Raindrops splashed over the railing, soaking his robe; Sui Sui Zaihua raised his cup and drank it dry. "Higher still…"

He smiled: ". The Eight Immortals crossing the sea."

"Hahahahahaha!" Qu Zhu laughed loudly. "Brother Sui also wants to go that high?"

"." Sui Sui Zaihua lowered his head slightly, smiled. "Depends on fortune."

"I will climb up," Qu Zhu said softly, looking up at the heavy rain falling into the deep night, his wet hair revealing a cold, expressionless profile. "The arrays and swords at the top… only those who stand high can see them."

He poured a cup of wine into the night sky and chanted aloud: "Since ancient times, the ambitious suffer want before sorrow! Life upon earth—strike the oar midstream!"

Sui Sui Zaihua only learned later that these were Inspector Yu's own brushstrokes from that very day.

He wasn't surprised; the man's relationship with Yu Yu Chaocai was like that of uncle and nephew. When he was at his lowest, Yu Yu Chaocai had given him a path; in the alien bureaucracy, this elder was his guiding light. And childless Yu Yu Chaocai truly favored the young man—he'd heard the inspector often kept him overnight, the two talking by the rain.

And in those years, Yu Yu Chaocai was among the most promising officials in the regional bureaucracy.

Upright in character, tenacious in action, clear-eyed. Stationed in a remote prefecture, he never schemed for advancement, yet steadily built achievements that drew the attention of the prefectural capital. Even three years prior, whispers of Yu's imminent promotion had already surfaced in polite compliments.

Now it had finally come.

And almost as if flying straight to the heavens—a single edict: "Promote Bowang Inspector Yu Yu Chaocai to Junior Minister of the Works Bureau, concurrently overseeing the Qi Bureau, report immediately."

This was Sui Sui Zaihua's third year in Bowang City, and Qu Zhu's seventh. Yu Yu Chaocai had already prepared documents to take both favored juniors with him.

A month before departure, Qu Zhu bid them farewell.

"What's the matter?"

"I must return west for a while… today is my master's anniversary."

At that moment, Sui Sui Zaihua learned he came from a sect.

"During those days, I sensed he had strange connections. Once I saw him standing with a stranger, speaking of 'journeying west.'" Sui Sui Zaihua paused, glancing aside—the sound of the stone being cut had stopped. "Too bad I didn't pay much attention—take a look at this first."

Wu Dong nodded. They rose, pressed their withered palms against the stone wall, released True Xuan energy—the orange-segmented stone crumbled apart, revealing the space within.

Wu Dong stepped in first, raised an eyebrow, and walked forward without pause.

Sui Sui Zaihua followed, looked up—the hall was empty except for a skeleton slumped in the corner, a drawn longsword lying on the ground, utterly free of rust.

—

Great Kongdong Mountain.

Pei Ye opened his eyes, frowned, rubbed his forehead—his skull throbbed with a dry, pulsing ache.

"You've been pushing yourself too hard these days," the black cat pressed coolness into his nape. "You're not resting enough. Sleep more. You'll feel better tomorrow."

". Not the time," Pei Ye whispered. "He returned to Hushan Sword Gate again—what he experienced then is crucial. I just told you about the star sequence."

"Jianglou, Daliang, Shishen—corresponding to the seven mansions of Kui, Lou, Wei, Mao, Bi, Zui, and Shen, dominating the western heavens," the black cat said softly. "And it's called the 'Buried Star Tomb.' We've said before: since ancient times, the starry heavens have symbolized heavenly mandate. I recall you said Qu Zhou Fu once said he waited for the Master of the Western Court to claim it all."

". Yes." Pei Ye pushed himself up, splashed cold water fiercely on his face. He picked up the jade pendant, again aligned it with the eye-like pupil.

The familiar Hushan realm.

Seven years had passed. Dusk. Crows returned to their nests. That figure stepped once more from darkness into the valley.

(End of Chapter)