Later, Li Xun sat upright at his desk, a small jade bowl placed in front of him. It was the tool he used to activate the Sound-Penetrating Sand. By now, night had fallen completely. He’d been sitting there without moving for nearly two hours.
After parting ways with Gu Pin’er, he had only “delayed” for a brief mont before coming here and using the jade bowl to gather every scrap of information he could.
He didn’t miss a thing.
Maybe he should feel lucky. Gu Pin’er, at least so far, hadn’t voiced any of the doubts clearly brewing in her heart. But that was exactly what made him uneasy. That lively, talkative girl had suddenly gone quiet. too quiet.
Maybe He Mulan and the others hadn’t shown up yet, but this was definitely not a good on!
At this mont, the other side was silent, but it wasn’t a peaceful kind of silence. He could hear light footsteps, the faint rustling of sleeves, and even the soft sound of breathing. As those sounds drifted into his ears, a chill trickled through Li Xun’s mind like an icy stream.
Gu Pin’er was currently alone, patrolling the tunnels as planned.
This was truly a world of one’s own. After the previous battles, the guards and eunuchs in the secret passage were all withdrawn by Yin Sanren under so random pretext. At this point, only five mbers of the Heavenly Vigorous Sect remained in the secret passage.
In these cold, empty underground structures… in those deep and long tunnels… next to a beautiful young lady all on her own, anything could happen.
If he really wanted to, maybe…
The steady footsteps continued echoing, and with each one, Li Xun’s heartbeat thudded along.
There was a chance; no one knew this tunnel better than he did. Gu Pin’er’s cultivation wasn’t that much stronger than his. If he struck with intent while she was unguarded… there was a chance.
Gu Pin’er, simple-minded as she was, posed no real threat. But He Mulan and the others? They were a different story entirely. If she told them her suspicions, Li Xun’s situation would beco a hundred tis worse.
But even if he did act… would it actually make things better?
Without realizing it, Li Xun had already made a fatal mistake. Hesitation was the greatest taboo in a crisis like this. And just as he wavered, he suddenly heard Gu Pin’er let out a soft “Eh?”, sending a jolt through his chest.
Then her voice ca through: “Senior Brother? What are you doing here?”
“It’s nothing. Just looking around.”
It was He Mulan who answered her; they must’ve run into each other sowhere.
Li Xun felt a bit disappointed, but at the sa ti, an odd sense of relief washed over him. He quickly gathered his thoughts and started figuring out where they might be.
Just then, he heard Gu Piner say again, “What’s so interesting about this place? You might as well go take a look at the paintings and calligraphy over there.”
He Mulan gave a soft laugh. “Actually…" he began after a pause. "I’ve been thinking about sothing these past couple of days. Pin’er, didn’t you think that the person I injured that night seed awfully familiar with the palace's secret passages?”
Li Xun’s heart tightened. He clenched his fists and held his breath, listening intently.
After so ti he heard Gu Pin’er say, “Yeah! If it weren’t for you sensing the presence of the Peach Blossom Blood, we might not have been able to catch up to him at all. I an—”
“The groups we’ve run into lately… they’re nothing like that person," He Mulan said, not answering her directly. "It’s clear the others who ca afterward had no real knowledge of the secret passages. They were all fumbling around. That just makes that first person even more suspicious.”
Gu Pin’er gave several quick “mm”s in agreent. “You’re right! Very suspicious! So, Senior Brother, do you have any clues?” Her voice had perked up with excitent.
Li Xun felt the hair on his arms stand on end. His whole body was tense. He listened as He Mulan spoke again, his tone still calm and steady, as if he enjoyed drawing things out: “Don’t rush, Junior Sister. Think back. That night, in the inner treasury… rember how I first noticed soone was secretly spying on us?”
Gu Pin’er answered instantly, “That idiot actually tried using a half-baked Water Mirror Technique… serves him right for getting caught!”
He Mulan chuckled, clapping softly. “Exactly! It was Water Mirror Technique, but it's definitely not half-baked! Pin’er, look here, this fragnt in the corner, does it remind you of anything?"
Gu Pin’er thought for a mont. “Broken copper… mirror shards?” she said hesitantly.
Mirror shards?
Cold sweat stread down Li Xun’s forehead. He felt like he was about to collapse. He never imagined such a huge oversight could exist. Especially here, of all places!
That chanism! Oh Heaven!
It really was his mistake. Not just his, even Yin Wanderer had overlooked it.
This was bad. Really bad. The flaw was so blatant, it might not even be fixable now.
He heard He Mulan laugh. “That’s right. Do you still rember; after that person escaped, we were also here and saw large fragnts. At the ti, I didn’t understand what they were. But just now, I finally figured it out: that wasn’t a eunuch or palace guard’s hand mirror from the inner treasury. It was the hub of the Water Mirror Technique chanism!"
He was getting more animated. “I just went in to check again. Most of the restrictive formations inside have been wiped clean, but there are still traces. Before, there had to be a chanism installed here! Think about it. If it wasn’t soone who knew the inner treasury like the back of their hand and can enter and exit freely, who could’ve installed a chanism here, and even placed the hub of it right in this spot?"
Gu Pin’er let out a long “ah,” then clapped her hands. “You’re right! That does make sense! Only two people in the palace can enter the inner treasury freely. One is the Emperor, but obviously it can’t be him. The other is the National Preceptor… could it be her?”
Li Xun’s eyes went wide. They’re actually going there?
But then, Gu Pin’er furrowed her brows. “No, that can’t be. The National Preceptor doesn’t have any cultivation at all.”
No cultivation, my ass! Li Xun cursed inwardly. Her cultivation’s just too deep for you people to notice.
Of course, that wasn’t sothing they could hear. Back on their side, they were still building their theory.
“True, the National Preceptor has no cultivation,” He Mulan said thoughtfully, “but that person did! Now consider this: what if the National Preceptor is just a con artist who seduced the Emperor with her looks and doesn’t know a thing about alchemy? But then, why insist on refining pills for Longqing? Why ask for Peach Blossom Blood? That doesn’t add up! Unless… soone else was pulling the strings behind the scenes.”
Li Xun gave a bitter laugh. It was all wrong. Completely upside down!
But He Mulan, oblivious, pressed on: "If the National Preceptor is that man’s subordinate, she could naturally set up chanisms for him. That would explain everything!"
His theory tied itself together nicely. Li Xun’s mind raced, trying to think how he could twist it to distance himself from suspicion.
Then he heard Gu Pin’er slap her palm again. “If we’re going down this line of thought, then isn’t Li Xun suspicious too? He can also enter the inner treasury! And he even took the National Preceptor as his Master Aunt!”
Li Xun jumped up as if struck by lightning. Why did this woman’s brain only start working now, of all tis?
He Mulan clearly hadn’t expected her to turn suspicion on Li Xun. He hesitated a mont, then said, “But… he doesn’t seem familiar with the tunnels…”
“That’s not necessarily true!” Gu Pin’er said, unknowingly getting closer and closer to the truth. “What if, I an if, Li Xun was lying to us from the very start…? It almost makes sense…”
The sharp blade of suspicion had pierced halfway through the veil… only to be gently sheathed again.
He Mulan laughed, maybe without realizing the relief in his own voice. “If soone lies once, sure, they might get away with it. But lie that many tis? Can they really keep the act going? Pin’er, he’s still just a kid, after all.”
Gu Pin’er laughed as well, a bit sheepishly. For Li Xun, the imdiate crisis seed to have passed, but he couldn’t relax. He took a deep breath, knowing all too well—his good days were over.
That fleeting mont, the doubt that flashed through their minds was like a seed touched by sunlight and rain. Now buried in the heart of Gu Pin’er, perhaps even He Mulan’s. Slowly, it would take root and grow.
The human mind is a strange thing. When sothing doesn’t cross your mind, it just won’t. No matter how obvious it might seem later. But once the thought takes root, it keeps pulling you back in that direction. Even the best-kept secrets can’t stand up to soone’s imagination running wild. And in a situation like this, no matter how good his acting skills were, Lu Xun would most likely still be headed for a bitter end.
Today, the two of them had laughed it off. But tomorrow, or even just a few breaths later, one sudden spark of insight might be all it took to tear apart the carefully constructed web of lies he had built.
How did it co to this…?
In the blink of an eye, what had looked like a perfect situation had flipped on its head by just a few stray words. There’s hardly anything more frustrating than that.
Do I really have no choice but to take that final step?
The sound from the small bowl in his hands went still, while in his mind, only one thought lingered: Am I really not going to do it?
The sky outside gradually dimd. Li Xun suddenly felt tired, his vision blurring at the edges.
In a trance, five surging torrents of Vast Righteous Qi descended from the heavens, emitting a loud, high-pitched long howl. The next mont, the energy condensed into a dazzling longsword, gleaming with terrifying sharpness. A pale, slender hand grasped the blade and thrust it straight into his heart!
There was no pain. But the owner of that hand; he saw her clearly.
Immortal Master Qingyin.
“Traitor…”
This was Qingyin’s comnt for him. Spoken in that sa calm, steady tone, without the slightest flicker of emotion.
Then, the entire world began to warp and twist. A sea of blood ca crashing down on him with a deafening roar, tearing his body into fragnts. Qingyin parted the raging waves with that sa pale hand, granting him one final look before vanishing behind the blood tide.
“Worthless!”
Li Xun scread and jolted awake, just as a startled cry echoed in his ears. A maid holding a red candle had entered the study room to light the lamps, and his sudden shout had nearly made her drop the fla.
Li Xun stared at the flickering candlelight and suddenly realized. The endless sea of blood just now was made from this very fla.
He wanted to laugh, but not even a single smile could break through.
The maid, now recovered, hurriedly bowed to him. He waved her off to tend to her duties.
He had his own task now.
She passed in front of him to light the lamps. But just as she lit the second candle, she let out another shriek. This ti, the candle really did fall. Li Xun reacted quickly, smothering the fla with a strike of his palm.
“What are you screaming about?” he snapped, irritated.
The maid could only point at the ground, unable to speak.
Following her trembling finger, Li Xun saw a small figure lying face down on the floor, unmoving, alive or dead, you couldn’t tell. He stared for a mont before recalling. This was the spoils from his brief “delay” earlier. This was Xing’er, the personal maid of Consort Qin.
A single thought sprouted in his mind, slowly growing clearer.
Under his silent signal, the maid fled as if running for her life. Just before she left, she risked a glance at her handso master once more. Whether it was her imagination or not, she swore the candlelight in his eyes reflected a strange, blood-red glow.
Her breath caught in her throat.
In a daze, she kept hearing a few words echoing over and over: “The last ti... the last ti…”
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