"Who won?"
Yin Wuxiao reached out and brushed aside the strange man's messy hair, revealing his dark face. She scrutinized him for a moment, then suddenly pinched the strange man's cheek hard.
"Ah!... Copper!" The strange man immediately bared his teeth.
Yin Wuxiao's face showed a look of joy:
"Bai Can!"
Chapter Thirteen: Sharing a Bed to Sleep Facing the Mountains (Part Five)
A deathly silence.
The middle-aged man took out a white handkerchief and wiped the beads of sweat that kept appearing on his forehead. He had fair skin and a plump build; he was none other than the Smiling Buddha, one of the Five Evil Stars.
In the dimly lit stone chamber, the face of the man sitting at the head of the table was perfectly concealed.
"Master," the Smiling Buddha straightened his knees, which had been kneeling for a long time, and said tremblingly.
"Shouldn't you be at Hundred Questions Manor right now?" the man at the head of the table said casually.
"I have failed in my duties and am willing to accept your punishment, but... I really didn't expect the young man in blue to get involved at this time..."
"Alright!" the man at the head of the table said impatiently.
"I knew you were a useless piece of trash. I've already arranged for someone else to stay at Hundred Questions Manor."
"Master...you have indeed considered everything carefully."
The man at the head of the table snorted coldly: "Has everything been arranged by the imperial court?"
"Everything is arranged. General Canghu's five thousand elite troops have already set up camp around Baiwen Valley and can attack immediately."
"Five thousand?" The man at the head of the table pondered for a moment. "If it weren't for Baili Qingyi, five thousand elite soldiers would be more than enough, but with him..."
"No matter how powerful Baili Qingyi is, he's still just one person. As long as we use sheer numbers, I believe..."
"Idiot." There was a sudden hint of disgust in his voice.
Putting aside Baili Qingyi's unparalleled martial arts skills, just based on the power of the Baili family, who in the martial arts world would dare not lend a helping hand when Baili Qingyi is in trouble?
"Master!" The smiling Buddha prostrated himself in fear, not knowing what he had done to anger his master.
"Baldy, there's one more thing I need you to do. I need you to lure away those people outside Hundred Questions Valley and prevent them from ruining my plans."
"Including people from Baili Prefecture?" The Smiling Buddha wiped his sweat again.
"Including people from Baili Prefecture."
"What about the imperial court..."
"You don't need to interfere in anything else. If you mess this up again..."
"I don't know!" the Smiling Buddha exclaimed in surprise.
"You'd better not." The man at the head of the table smirked. "I should thank you. If it weren't for you, Baili Qingyi's life wouldn't be in my hands."
He paused, then asked, "Where is Yin Bitong now?"
"They've already returned to the main hall. The lame scholar said he didn't resist much."
The man nodded: "Keep an eye on him."
The Smiling Buddha secretly pondered his master's thoughts, and finally mustered up the courage to ask, "Master, since you are so wary of Yin Bitong, why don't you kill him?"
The man remained silent.
"You want to kill him?"
"..." The Smiling Buddha stammered, unsure how to answer.
"Alright, I'll send you to kill him."
The Smiling Buddha was horrified. What difference was there between sending him to kill Yin Bitong and having Yin Bitong kill him?
"My lord! I know I was wrong. I will never again presume to guess your intentions!"
The man sat upright in the darkness, sneering.
It seems there is no man in the world more unlucky than Bai Can.
A handsome young man, one moment a distinguished guest of the Yuwen Manor, the next a hairy mud monster dwelling underground, unable to speak, and trampled underfoot by the young man in blue. This kind of... well, experience is indeed quite rare. Yin Wuxiao could guess that Bai Can had followed them to Baiwen Valley, but he could never have imagined how he had fallen to such a state.
"I know you've never been one to care about your appearance... but how did you end up like this?"
Bai Can glared at her resentfully.
After some repairs, Bai Can finally regained his handsome face, but his exceptional eloquence did not return.
So, hearing the beast-like howls, Yin Wuxiao could only look at Baili Qingyi in bewilderment.
Typical example of poor communication.
"He stayed in the underground palace for too long and was poisoned by the miasma that had accumulated over the years, which caused spasms in his mouth and tongue muscles." After a while, Baili Qingyi came to a conclusion.
"You mean, if we stay any longer, we'll end up like this too?" Yin Wuxiao's palms were slightly sweaty. No wonder, no wonder she felt so weak.
Baili Qingyi did not reply, but his expression said it all.
Bai Can gestured again, trying to explain something.
"Quiet!" Yin Wuxiao glared at him.
"Are you lucid?" she asked tentatively.
Bai Can nodded hastily.
"How did you get here?" Baili Qingyi frowned.
“This problem is too difficult for him, so let’s take it slowly,” Yin Wuxiao sighed.
"Were you locked up here?"
Bai Can nodded.
"By a man?"
Bai Can shook his head.
"Yes, I should have known." Yin Wuxiao gave him a mocking look.
"So, have you found Miss Cui?"
Unexpectedly, Bai Can did not answer. He thought about it seriously for a moment, and then shook his head.
"Then who locked you up here? That woman... was it Mu Wanfeng?"
Bai Can shook his head again.
“It’s Lianhua,” Baili Qingyi suddenly said. “She is the person closest to Xuan Hegu, and only she has the opportunity to understand this underground palace.”
"Is it her?" Yin Wuxiao looked at Bai Can in confusion. "The little girl whose face was all swollen?"
Bai Can nodded.
"Why would she do this? She could have just killed him." Yin Wuxiao asked, puzzled.
"I can." Lianhua appeared in the tunnel in the blink of an eye, her long sword pressed firmly against Xuan Hegu's neck.
She freed one hand and tossed a pill to Bai Can: "Swallow this, it will cure your miasma poison."
"Are you saving him?"
Lianhua seemed not to hear: "Young Master in Green, as long as you stay in this underground palace, your lives will naturally be safe, unless..."
"Unless what?"
Lianhua suddenly sneered: "Unless this old ghost is still unwilling to hand over the Holy Poison Scripture, Master Mu will use your lives to threaten him."
As she said this, she suddenly gasped for breath, and her wrist went limp.
"Witch, if you die here, none of this will have happened." Xuan He suddenly grinned, flicked his wrist, and pressed an acupoint on Lianhua's waist. She immediately fell to the ground, her long sword clattering to the ground.
“She…” Yin Wuxiao stared in disbelief.
Xuan He glanced at her with disdain: "This woman is pregnant and doesn't even know it. She deserves it."
"What?" Yin Wuxiao and Bai Can screamed at the same time, but one was clear and the other was mumbled.
Yin Wuxiao felt a chill run down his spine. Xuan He had seen that Lianhua was pregnant, yet he still deliberately made her carry Luo Kui with her. Although his intention was to save himself, it was too cruel to actually cause Lianhua to miscarry.
"How many months?" Yin Wuxiao tugged at Xuan Hegu's shirt.
"More than a month."
Yin Wuxiao remained silent.
It took Bai Can a moment to realize what was happening.
"Whose?" Although it's still not very flexible, it's enough to convey the meaning.
Yin Wuxiao glared at him fiercely.
"your!"
She reached out and touched the swollen girl's face for a while, and sure enough, she tore off a piece of the fake mask. Underneath the mask was the familiar face of Cui Shenghan.
Bai Can was so shocked that his mouth gaped open. Exhausted from the past few days and physically and mentally traumatized, he collapsed to the ground and fainted.
When Bai Can slowly woke up, she was met with Yin Wuxiao's cold stare.
"You, you, you..." Why are you looking at him like that? It's making him feel really uneasy.
“Brother Bai,” Yin Wuxiao looked at him for a while, then suddenly smiled, “didn’t you say that Miss Cui gave you a sleeping potion?”
Bai Can's forehead was covered in cold sweat: "Um..."
"How did that child come about? Could it be that Miss Cui was with someone else...?"
"She didn't!" Bai Can roared angrily.
"Oh?" Yin Wuxiao raised an eyebrow. "Are you really that confident that the child isn't another man's?"
"Of course not! That child is mine..."