Chapter 241: Enchantress

After walking out two long streets, Wu Tie stopped by a large tree at the roadside and leaned against its trunk.

Hua Guang's eight confidants inside Triple Link City are probably in trouble.

The eight people hanging from the big tree in the courtyard are likely enemies.

Although their surface wounds look gruesome, they are merely flesh wounds, not damaging vital tendons or bones.

More importantly, their internal mana aura, though faint, flows smoothly, clearly indicating they have merely suppressed their mana with a secret art, not been externally sealed.

A venerable Chonglou Realm cultivator merely endured a whipping; if his mana weren't sealed, how could an ordinary beast‑hide rope possibly bind him?

Thus those eight people are not Hua Guang's subordinates; they can only be enemies.

Wu Tie felt somewhat agitated, watching the passersby on the main street.

These eight people are Hua Guang's most reliable and easiest contacts in the city. He still has a few other trustworthy friends inside Triple Link City, but for Wu Tie, unfamiliar with the place, finding, contacting, and gaining their trust is not so easy.

Without reliable intelligence, Wu Tie worries about Grey Master.

A vein bulged on his forehead; Wu Tie's heart surged with a chaotic wildfire. Gazing at the splendid Triple Link City before him, he felt a mad impulse to unleash his mana and destroy everything before him.

Grey Master's voice sounded in his ear.

"Wisdom is the greatest power……"

"Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm…… Getting angry won't help; destroying this city won't save Grey Master either." Wu Tie drew a deep breath, silently reciting the Multi-heart Sutra in his heart to quell the inner fire.

In the high sky, the False Sun gradually dimmed.

In the distance, the twelve pillars of light shooting up from the twelve mountain peaks became ever more brilliant and flowing.

A loud, powerful voice with a hint of madness echoed throughout Triple Link City: "Tonight is the blizzard night…… Ladies and gentlemen, blizzard, blizzard…… Get ready, count down together, and after ten numbers the snowstorm will descend!"

"Ten!"

"Nine!"

"Eight!"

……

From everywhere in the city came high-pitched, sharp howls, as countless men and women echoed the voice, counting aloud.

Wu Tie stared blankly at the sky, "Blizzard night"—what the hell is this?

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

A raging wind howled down from the heavens, and a piercing cold qi instantly swept over Triple Link City. In an instant, all plants and trees were coated with a thin layer of frost; the vegetation wilted, and many rare plants froze to death.

Thereafter, thumb‑sized snow clumps fell from the sky.

Goose‑feather‑sized snow poured down, the heavens filled with wind and snow that enveloped Triple Link City and blanketed the surrounding area for a hundred li.

Someone exerted great divine abilities and vast mana, directly altering the celestial phenomena in this cavern world to create a blizzard climate.

Wu Tie stared, mouth agape, at the sky; he finally understood what "blizzard night" meant.

"Ding‑dong, ding‑dong," "clang‑clang, dong‑dang"!

Various chaotic music sounds rose within Triple Link City.

There were harps, organs, big drums, suonas, bells, gongs……

All sorts of strange and wondrous instruments played together; some instruments were quite orderly, their players obviously possessing deep artistic skill.

But many more instruments, their players were just messing around; in a small building near Wu Tie, a suona was blown to produce a wail as shrill as a hog hung to die.

Wu Tie looked around, at a loss.

All kinds of strange and wondrous people surged onto the streets; iron buckets and basins piled at street corners and roadsides, filled with pungent oil and heaped with large chunks of coal, and with a cheer, piles of bonfires were lit.

Countless men, women, old and young, like frenzied beasts, surrounded the bonfires in the snowstorm, stomping feet, clapping, cheering, laughing; they roasted various meats on the smoky bonfires, and soon the air over Triple Link City was filled with a rich aroma of grilled meat.

Many young men and women began chasing and playing in the snow.

The heavy snow had piled thickly on the ground; once they caught up with each other, they immediately tangled together, rolling wildly on the ground like spring beasts, engaging in the most primal physical activity.

On this very street, less than a kilometer long where Wu Tie stood, at least two hundred plus pairs of men‑women, men‑men, women‑women rolled together in the roadside snow, their low panting, high‑pitched howls, and various strange sounds rolling like tides, continuously echoing far into the night of wind and snow.

Some richly dressed, powerful‑cultivation elders also shamelessly joined in.

They laughed hee‑hee, ha‑ha, and rolled together with young men and women young enough to be their great‑grandchildren.

Regardless of age or gender, everyone tore off the last pretense, turning themselves completely into frenzied beasts.

Wu Tie watched the scene, his whole body going numb.

The sky‑filling snow, bitterly cold to the bone, saw countless men and women rolling together in the snow.

They were reveling, they were cheering, they were hysterically entertaining themselves and others.

Jugs of strong liquor were brought out; chunks of half‑cooked roasted meat were torn apart with big bites; at a street entrance a hundred meters away, two young men vied for a girl, drew their swords, and brawled openly in the street.

Both young men possessed cultivation at the first and second layers of the Chonglou Realm; they did not use divine abilities, merely employing body‑refining martial arts to attack each other.

Their bodies continually showed deep sword cuts reaching the bone; copious blood spattered, staining the street‑side snow red.

The girl jumped and cheered at the side: "Whoever wins, for the next three days I am his, his!"

Wu Tie let out a heavy sigh, closed his eyes, and refused to look at those mad‑like humanoid creatures any longer.

Black wind‑sand spewed from his war boots; Wu Tie escaped into the earth, rushing toward the direction where he had marked Jin Mancang's location.

After the time it takes to finish a cup of tea, Wu Tie silently emerged from a small building.

In the corner of the small building, over a dozen men and women lay on the ground, reeking of strong liquor and half‑conscious.

Jin Mancang sat boldly in a large chair, holding aloft an old wine flask carved from beautiful jade and inlaid with seven treasures, drinking with great satisfaction.

Wu Tie abruptly appeared right in front of Jin Mancang.

Jin Mancang shuddered in fright, let out a strange "ah‑woo" cry, shook his hand, and flung the wine flask far away.

His reaction was also swift; recognizing Wu Tie at a glance, he hastily sidestepped, leaping seven or eight meters aside with a fish‑like dash, catching the flask before it hit the ground: "Goodness, this treasure is worth a fortune."

With a thud, Jin Mancang caught the wine jug, but his whole body also fell to the ground. He hehe-ly looked at the wine jug in his hand, and with his sleeve he vigorously wiped the lid: "Sir, this treasure, if left outside, is worth at least ten thousand gold coins."

Wu Tie looked at Jin Mancang, then glanced at the dozen or so men and women in the corner of the room, and said coldly: "I gave you gold coins… I thought you would go to the inn in the city?"

Jin Mancang shrugged, stood up, placed the wine jug back on the large round table in the center of the room, and said with a hehe: "I was originally going to the inn, but thinking about it, everyone around me is dead, and if I go back alone it would be too conspicuous… So, wouldn't it be better to simply save some gold coins?"

He pointed at those sleeping men and women, smiling, and said: "I mixed some of my secret medicine powder into their drink; it's enough to keep them asleep for a month so they won't cause us trouble."

Wu Tie nodded, looked at Jin Mancang in silence for a moment, then said slowly: "Old Jin, I know you're an extraordinary person."

Jin Mancang smiled humbly and quickly waved his hands: "Not at all, not at all…"

Wu Tie looked at him and said coldly: "Now we are partners in a big venture, so I have some things I need you to help with…"

Jin Mancang hesitated a moment, looked at Wu Tie, lowered his eyelids, and said softly: "What a coincidence, I also have some things I need your help with… Hehe, look, we really think alike. With you, Sir, taking action, it's far more reliable than hiring those damned bastards."

Wu Tie took a look at this guy.

Jin Mancang took a look at Wu Tie.

The two stared at each other for a while, then both laughed.

Wu Tie said in a deep voice: "Alright, I know nothing about Triple Link City; if I want to gather intelligence on an executive family, who should I go to?"

Jin Mancang slapped his hand hard: "What a coincidence, you want to cause trouble for the Twelve Executive Families? Me too… Can you, make a move… bring back a few of their direct-line clan members?"

Jin Mancang looked at Wu Tie with a beaming smile: "Look, those bastards I hired before weren't just supposed to help kidnap a few people and kill a few, right? Hehe, actually, it's just this small matter."

Wu Tie stared straight at Jin Mancang.

This guy, in Triple Link City, kidnapped the direct-line clan members of the Twelve Executive Families?

Those cultivators disciplined by Wu Tie are certainly not good guys; they'd even dare to take on this kind of trade?

Jin Mancang seemed to see what Wu Tie was thinking, he hehe-ly rubbed his hands, and said somewhat shyly: "Actually, it's not as complicated as you think; I just told them that I and those few little guys have a business dispute, just to give them a lesson."

"Alas, morals decline, hearts are not ancient… These guys, isn't it just that they haven't been paid their wages for a while… and yet, they actually bite the hand that feeds them." Jin Mancang said softly: "So, as you also know, I can't go to the inn, right?"

Wu Tie nodded and seriously put forward his request to Jin Mancang.

He wanted Jin Mancang to help him find out the whereabouts of Grey Master, and also to investigate whether Hua Guang's eight subordinates were dead or imprisoned somewhere, after all they were Hua Guang's confidants, and Wu Tie also wanted to do his part for them.

While Wu Tie and Jin Mancang were discussing, on the Golden Pyramid in Triple Link City, on a corridor near the tip, inside an exquisite pavilion, it was warm and cozy.

Inside the modest pavilion, the furnishings were extremely luxurious—tables and chairs, bookshelves, carpet, lamps, and even the brush, ink, paper, inkstone, and tea cups and pot on the wide desk, as well as the crane-shaped bronze incense burner in the corner of the desk, all had a halo of precious light, clearly they were extremely valuable antiques.

A man with silver hair flowing behind his back, tall and sturdy, appearing to be just over fifty, yet his eyes were deep and full of a rich vicissitude aura, though his gaze seemed like that of a man over a hundred, sat upright behind the desk, frowning as he looked at the several documents in his hand.

Xuan Zhu wore an extremely thin gauze skirt, standing behind the man, her hands gently kneading his neck and shoulders.

Her fingers kneaded rhythmically, and she lazily chuckled softly: "Godfather, what big matter is worth making the clan head of the Udumbara Clan worry so much?"

The current clan head of the Udumbara Clan, Hua Guang's maternal brother Hua Yan, set down the documents, lightly patted Xuan Zhu's palm with his right hand, then took her slender, fair hand and carefully kneaded it: "Just a few small matters; our clan has two not‑bad youths who haven't returned home for seven days."

He let out a cold snort and said softly: "Also, the five little rascals from the Bodhi Clan, Scarlet Lotus Clan, and Mandara Clan haven't been home for five or six days… These little things, though young, have already learned to be lawless."

"What's a big deal?" Xuan Zhu's face flushed, and she said softly: "Those young masters might just be out looking for fun."

Hua Yan smiled.

Xuan Zhu again said softly: "This is Triple Link City; who could move a single hair of theirs here?"

Hua Yan smiled confidently: "That makes sense; there's no record of them leaving at any checkpoint, so they must still be in Triple Link City. As long as they're in Triple Link City… perhaps they've gone to that village or town outside and caused trouble?"

He sighed and said wearily: "The kids are older now, they've discovered the pleasures of women and are indulging to excess… But this is good; for a clan to thrive, prosperous descendants are key. Having more is always good."

Xuan Zhu laughed even more brightly; her right hand was held by Hua Yan, while her left hand moved about unconsciously.

Hua Yan let out a light sigh, looked toward a thick slab of profound ice in the corner of the study, and saw Grey Master, calm-faced, sealed within the ice.

"This lowly werewolf, what are you using him for? For his sake you even killed Hua Ti… That little guy, actually among our clan's youth, he's quite good."

"Godfather!" Xuan Zhu exclaimed coquettishly: "Is your daughter more important, or is Hua Ti?"

Hua Yan's deep, vicissitude‑filled eyes flashed with a mysterious gloom, his breath stirred for a moment, then he let out a heavy sigh: "Xuan Zhu, of course you're important… So, if you want to kill Hua Ti, haven't I already had people move on it?"

"However, he's truly useless—he even managed to stumble to the side of the teleportation array, leaving his corpse behind but his head ran back."

Hua Yan let out a heavy sigh: "Indeed, Hua Guang has taken precautions; the few who followed after him almost got trapped by him."

A glint of cold light appeared in Xuan Zhu's eyes: "These incompetent clansmen should be dealt with, godfather, what do you say?"

Hua Yan's body trembled, his face slightly flushed, and he laughed: "You mean those wastes responsible for capturing Hua Ti… Execute them."

Xuan Zhu laughed and said softly: "Then, godfather, help spread the word that the Udumbara Clan's auction house will auction a grey werewolf that can read and write, okay?"

Hua Yan's voice became wavering: "Good, good, good, as you wish, as you wish!"