Chapter 245: Everything Is Clear!

Chapter 245. Everything Is Clear Now!

Night rain drifts and scatters.

A lone traveler on the road.

Chen Yi followed Ge MuXiao and Lu YinNan from afar, five miles behind, his spiritual energy infused into his ears, listening intently to their conversation.

The son of the Left King?

The Left King...

Chen Yi knew there was only one person bearing the title of "Left King"—the barbarian Left King of the Muha Tribe, Mu HaGe.

The very same who, five years prior, led the barbarian army northward to assault the Mengshui Pass, causing the deaths of many of Xiao FengChun and Fu WanQing and their kin.

The son of the Left King in Shu Zhou?

Chen Yi's mind instantly conjured the image of the barbarian youth he had glimpsed during his previous visit to the East Market.

He recalled that the young barbarian was indeed surrounded by other barbarian slaves, clearly of noble birth.

Could the son of Left King Mu HaGe have been kidnapped by the soft-spoken, foreign invaders and brought to Shu Zhou, only to be sold into slavery among the barbarian slaves?

How peculiar.

What struck Chen Yi as even more strange was this: if Lu YinNan and Ge MuXiao sought to rescue the Left King's son, why not directly confront those soft-spoken foreigners selling barbarian slaves in the East Market?

Instead, they had journeyed westward from Shu Zhou, seeking the heretical monks of HuanYin Sect to rescue the enslaved barbarians?

Unless, the bandits who had stolen the Left King's son and Lu YinNan were not the same group.

Thinking this, Chen Yi mused silently: "Taking such a roundabout route feels rather unnecessary."

After some contemplation, he still could not discern the truth, so he ceased further speculation.

As long as he kept a vigilant eye on Lu YinNan and his companions, he would eventually uncover their motives.

At that moment, a flash of golden light appeared before his eyes—

[ witnessed by Ji EHu, the hidden guardian, as well as the foreign invader Ge MuXiao and the soft-spoken foreigner discussing matters. Reward: the musical score "Autumn Rain," fate points +63.]

[Evaluation: Your actions were commendable. You demonstrated the ability to witness, hear, and observe the scene. Your intervention subdued the foreign invaders Lu YinNan and Ge MuXiao without arousing suspicion from Ji EHu, a performance worthy of praise.]

Chen Yi glanced over, gave an exasperated sigh, and continued to follow Lu YinNan and Ge MuXiao in the shadows, taking advantage of the night.

These strands of fate, after all, had not been in vain for his daring venture that evening.

At this time, the surroundings were utterly silent, save for the constant patter of rain.

Especially the conical hat atop Chen Yi's head, its rhythmic tapping against his ears never ceasing.

Yet, with his entire focus, the sounds around him—footsteps, murmured conversations—were clearer than the raindrops themselves.

Most distinct of all were the voices and footsteps of Lu YinNan and Ge MuXiao.

"Tomorrow night, you should visit the Lin family to inquire about the Bright Moon Tower, perhaps uncovering someone who wishes to see the Emperor."

"I will, General."

"Huh?"

"The... the General. I had forgotten..."

"You and I are currently in Shu Zhou; every word and action must be carefully observed."

General?

Chen Yi furrowed his brow internally. This Lu YinNan's identity was not simple.

Though he could not tell whether this "General" was a title held by the soft-spoken foreigners or a self-proclaimed rank among the horse bandits under the Lord of RanDu.

After roughly half an hour, Chen Yi followed Lu YinNan and Ge MuXiao as they circled south of the city, then moved west through the market, and finally headed north from the western market.

Along the way, they scaled the city walls and ventured beyond the city gates.

After winding and turning, Chen Yi finally realized that Lu YinNan and Ge MuXiao had come to a stop.

Quickly, Chen Yi climbed up to the side courtyard wall and looked afar.

There, in a boat moored at the Curve Pool, Lu YinNan and Ge MuXiao had disembarked.

The boat was illuminated by bright lanterns.

Two young men in fine robes emerged, bowing respectfully: "Brother Lu, Brother Ge!"

Lu YinNan slightly nodded and said, "Come inside and discuss matters."

"Please..."

As several people entered the boat, Chen Yi unleashed his flowing star butterfly step, moving silently and unheard, landing atop a three-story wooden building some distance from the Curve Pool.

He cast a keen eye over the scene.

A banner hung from the boat, emblazoned with the character "Liu."

"Liu? Liu Hong's Liu? Or perhaps Liu Si's Liu? Or another Liu family in Shu Zhou?"

"And those two young men..."

After a moment of reflection, Chen Yi recalled no specific impression, so he let the matter drop.

Yet at that moment, no sound emanated from within the boat, indicating the presence of a quiet chamber inside.

His brow furrowed slightly, he dared to inch closer, cautiously approaching within two miles.

Until he reached the edge of the Curve Pool, he could just make out faint sounds from within the boat.

Not entirely clear, but sufficient for him to discern the general gist.

A foreign voice murmured: "...The Jizhou Merchant's Granary has been burned. Did those barbarian slaves notice?"

Lu YinNan's voice was low and steady: "They probably didn't."

"This time, under the auspices of Lord Liu, we have come to rescue them. We've already violated the bandits' code of conduct, so there's no way we could send them back through the Tea Horse Ancient Road. We must return them to the barbarian territories."

"This matter requires your intervention..."

A young voice chuckled softly: "Brother Lu, the ancient saying in Wei Zhou is 'A task that causes no trouble for two lords.' If you send them westward, is that acceptable?"

Lu YinNan said nothing.

Ge MuXiao coldly spoke: "My lord has decreed, the bandit alliance must not be broken."

"If those people discover our involvement, it would inevitably lead to the collapse of the recently stabilized bandit alliance."

"What kind of compensation could your father, Liu Hong, offer the lord to make up for such losses?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Yi slightly raised an eyebrow. Liu Hong's son?

In his recollection, Liu Hong had only two sons: the eldest, Liu TaoYao, and the second, Liu TaoFang.

The former, having earned the degree of a provincial graduate yet falling short of the highest imperial honors, had already entered the ranks of officialdom.

He now served as a tax clerk within the office of the Shuzhou Provincial Administration Commission, a petty official of the seventh rank.

The latter was an unlettered idler of a scholar, currently still whiling away his days at the Guiyun Academy.

Judging by the unfolding scene, the occupant of that decorated pleasure boat must be none other than Liu Taoyao.

"So, Lyu Jiunan’s rescue of those barbarian slaves was done at Liu Hong's behest?"

Chen Yi knit his brows slightly, his mind once more retracing the events of that fateful night.

First, after the barbarian slaves set fire to the eastern market granary, Lyu Jiunan swept in to rescue them.

Yet owing to the so-called Bandit Alliance of the Vashistha Kingdom, Lyu Jiunan did not spirit them out of Shuzhou, which drove him to seek aid from the Moonlit Pavilion.

Naturally, this might well have been a condition imposed by Liu Hong and his cohorts.

Second, Lin Huai'an and Liu Taofang had joined forces to manipulate the Shuzhou grain prices, a plot discovered by Liu Hong, who subsequently moved against Lin Huai'an.

No.

The chronology was flawed.

Chen Yi gave a subtle shake of his head in the dark: "The timing is wrong."

"It must be that Liu Hong caught wind of Liu Taofang's schemes beforehand, and only then ordered those barbarian slaves to torch the granary before their escape."

"That way, it all falls into place."

At this thought, the gaze Chen Yi directed toward the pleasure boat sharpened with a cold, piercing severity.

That Liu Hong actually dared to consort with the barbarian tribes was quite beyond his expectations.

He had initially believed Liu Hong, with his deep calculations and shrewd foresight, to be a "powerful minister" driven solely by the pursuit of political dominance.

Looking at it now, he was nothing but a treacherous official who would betray his country and stop at nothing to achieve his ends.

Just then, Liu Taoyao’s laughter drifted out from within the pleasure boat as he spoke: "...In any case, this venture barks entirely up the right tree for you, Brother Lyu."

"My father has given his solemn word to your Sovereign that once the matter is settled, he will bestow upon your various houses the caravans and horses that frequent the Tea-Horse Ancient Road."

"This trade alone shall be enough to net you a handsome fortune."

Lyu Jiunan’s tone remained as chillingly detached as ever, "We of the Peacock Banner do indeed cherish wealth, but we are not so desperate as to take just any coin."

"Had your father not penned a letter to the Sovereign, and had this matter not involved Muhage, the Left King of the barbarians, no amount of silver would have moved my eldest brother to breach the laws of the Bandit Alliance."

"That goes without saying."

"Hence, Father commanded me to assist you and Brother Gemu with all my might, deferring to you in all things."

Liu Taoyao turned the conversation, asking: "I wonder if the Spring Rain Pavilion is willing to take on this business?"

Before Lyu Jiunan could speak, Gemu Xiao grunted: "Someone is meddling." "Oh? Who possesses such audacity to disrupt a matter of yours?"

"'Blade Madman' Liu Lang, a senseless vagabond of the martial underworld!"

"Him?"

Liu Taoyao’s tone carried a hint of doubt as he said: "If my memory serves, that 'Blade Madman' is scarcely stronger than either of you?"

"His blade has reached mastery; within a brief span, my eldest brother and I cannot best him."

"Hmph, were it not for that, he would already be a corpse!"

"I naturally hold no doubts regarding the prowess of you two gentlemen, yet our foremost priority now remains the safe return of Asutai and his kin to the barbarian lands."

"You must not allow impulse to govern your actions."

"As for Liu Lang..."

Liu Taoyao paused for a beat, offering a smooth smile: "With Brother Lyu's capabilities, you managed to subdue even that runaway groom right beneath the Xiao family's nose, let alone some senseless vagrant swordsman."

Lyu Jiunan remained silent as before.

Yet Chen Yi’s heart grew several degrees colder.

"So it was the Liu family after all!"

Just moments ago, he could not be certain whether his predecessor’s flight from the wedding under the thrall of Lyu Jiunan's voodoo arts was tied to the Lius.

Now, the truth was laid bare beyond a shadow of doubt—it was entirely the Liu family's doing!

Small wonder, then.

With an ambition like Liu Hong's, he would naturally loathe to see Xiao Jinghong remain embedded within the Xiao household.

If he could rid them of this live-in son-in-law, Liu Hong could subsequently scheme to force the Xiao family into casting Xiao Jinghong out entirely, thereby further eroding the family's strength.

At this juncture, seeing that Lyu Jiunan and Gemu Xiao had no intention of speaking, Liu Taoyao continued to smile:

"Regrettably, that Xiao family son-in-law was blessed with a tenacious life and escaped the reaper, otherwise my father would have presented an even grander tribute last time."

"Speaking of which, I harbor a few doubts; I wonder if Brother Lyu might enlighten me?"

"Speak."

"That day, you assured me the deed was done, so why is that Xiao family son-in-law not dead? Could there be someone within the Xiao household capable of raising the dead and knitting flesh back to the bone?"

A heavy silence fell.

Only after a long pause did Lyu Jiunan offer a frigid reply: "It must have been Xiao Jinghong's doing."

"Oh? Can it be that aside from the martial path, she is also well-versed in the healing arts?"

"Xiao Jinghong arrived far too swiftly that day; before I could sever the connection, I had not yet commanded that useless wretch to take his own life. She must have revived him later using some secret technique."

"Or perhaps..."

"Agrippa!"

Chen Yi was poised to listen further when he suddenly caught Lyu Jiunan uttering a phrase in the tongue of the Vashistha Kingdom.

It was brief, its meaning entirely obscure.

Immediately following it, the voices of the conversing men vanished into nothingness.

In their place came the faint, heavy thud of wind being sliced asunder.

Chen Yi frowned slightly, masking his presence as he peered out from a distance.

He saw that Lyu Jiunan and Gemu Xiao had already vacated the pleasure boat, suspended in mid-air as their gazes swept the surroundings, evidently searching for something.

"Hmm? Have I been discovered by them?"

Before he could ponder further, a burst of laughter erupted right beside his ear.

The laughter possessed the shrill, innocent pitch of a young child.

"Hmm?"

Chen Yi snapped his head around to look, only to find a foot-high wooden puppet charging at him from the thick grass just a short distance behind.

The wooden creature was festooned with bronze chains as thick as fingers, clattering loudly with every stride.

More unsettling still were its eyes, crimson as fresh blood, which paired with that shrill, childlike cackle to cast a deeply sinister shroud over this bleak, rainy night.

At that exact moment, Lyu Jiunan’s voice boomed from the distance: "Die!"

Chen Yi's eyes narrowed, and his presence suddenly shifted. A golden sharpness surged toward the heavens, and a dazzling golden light blazed out. In the flick of his finger, a gun beam instantly sliced through the wooden dummy, splitting it in two. A sharp hiss followed by the disappearance of the shrill, piercing laughter and the rustling sound. Only the noisy rain sound remained, along with the slowly dissipating glow of the gun technique. This time, Chen Yi did not employ his sword techniques again, instead directly breaking Lü Jiānnán's head-binding spell with his perfected gun technique. Simultaneously, he removed the black cloth from his face, and his body expanded by two circles using the pillar technique, to avoid alerting Lü Jiānnán and the others that he was "Liu Lang."

"Perfected gun path?!"

"Who are you?!"

Lü Jiānnán saw the light piercing through the dark clouds and rain in the night sky, and his expression changed. Ge Muwei, beside him, was even more alarmed, already drawing the long blade from his waist. Chen Yi, hearing this, raised his hand to pull the hood over his back, and stood leisurely by the curve pool, gazing at the painted boat, asking impatiently, "I really want to know who you are."

"I was just passing through here, why do you attack me without discrimination?"

Lü Jiānnán's narrow eyes flashed with a biting edge, "Passing through?"

"Why don't you move then?"

"Damn it, I'm sleeping here in the middle of the night, why does it bother you?"

Chen Yi absolutely did not mention the conversation he overheard in the boat, then grumbled, "What, do you country bumpkin demonologists think Chengdu is your own wasteland?"

"Not licking your tail and then bullying me?"

"You?!"

At that moment, Liu Tao-ye's voice came from the boat, "Lü brother, hold your attack."

"In my opinion, this brother isn't a bad person."

After a pause, he continued, "Moreover, this is indeed my Chengdu, and your actions here might disturb others."

He didn't need to say that.

Lü Jiānnán, upon seeing Chen Yi's perfected gun technique, was already about to stop. The reason was the same as Liu Tao-ye said—acting here would only draw attention. In fact, if it weren't for the deep night and the boat on the curve pool filled with laughter and joy, their earlier movements would have already alarmed many people. Even so, Lü Jiānnán had heard footsteps approaching from afar, likely the night shift execution officer and clerks.

Thinking this, Lü Jiānnán, while signaling Ge Muwei to return to the boat, coldly said to Chen Yi, "Forgive me, I misunderstood you earlier."

Chen Yi slightly raised an eyebrow, glanced at the boat, saw Liu Tao-ye wasn't there, and continued to scold, "A misunderstanding resolved in one sentence?"

"If I hadn't been strong enough, I would have fallen for your head-binding spell."

"You..."

Before Lü Jiānnán and Ge Muwei could speak, Liu Tao-ye interrupted, "How can this brother forgive my two brothers?"

"Brother? You're also from the country?"

"Not..."

"Not from the country, but you call them brothers? What's your face?"

Chen Yi scolded him, and seeing Lü Jiānnán and Ge Muwei's faces turn more embarrassed, he suddenly shifted, "How about money?"

Perhaps his sudden reversal was too quick, and no one responded inside or outside the boat.

After three breaths, Liu Tao-ye smiled and said, "Of course."

"How about a thousand taels?"

"You think I can send away a street performer?"

"Three thousand."

"Heh, a renowned master in the martial world, can't be dismissed by a mere three thousand taels?"

Upon hearing Chen Yi's words, Liu Tao-ye also had some fire in his voice, low and asked, "Brother, name your price."

"Not much, five thousand taels will do."

"Alright."

"You can come to the boat directly to take it."

Chen Yi hesitated, looked at Lü Jiānnán and Ge Muwei's wary gazes on the boat, then grinned, "Go ahead, don't you dare to move a finger—go then!"

End of chapter.