La lluvia escarlata inunda la ciudad

Capítulo 16

Chu Xia shook her head: "No means no. Do you think I would lie to you? Even if the young master came, I'm afraid he would still have to search for you one by one like this."

The man was silent for a moment, then waved to his subordinate and said softly, "Is this girl pretty?"

The subordinate, by the light of the campfire, carefully examined Chu Xia several times before saying, "Not bad."

"Here's a tip for you, do you want it?"

The subordinate calmly replied, "Whatever the leader says goes."

“Look at my subordinates in Tiangang, the leader’s word is law.” The leader looked at her again and said calmly, “I’ll give you three more days. You’d better come up with a solution… otherwise, every night I will ‘reward’ you to one of my subordinates.”

Chu Xia's body trembled slightly, but then she heard the leader continue, "I advise you to be honest and not suffer any more."

Upon hearing this, Chu Xia looked up at the leader and suddenly said, "So it's you. You are the young master's retainer. Why is this inappropriate?"

The leader stiffened, then chuckled, "The little girl is indeed quite clever." He pulled down his hood, revealing a gaunt face beneath.

Chu Xia leaned back and murmured, "It really was you."

At first, she felt the person's voice was somewhat familiar, but not so familiar that she could immediately recognize it. She then realized she must know this person somewhat within the Jun residence. This person also knew about the young master's purchase of landscape painting albums from various places; after thinking it over, she concluded he was definitely not a servant. It was the retainers, however, who, because the young master hadn't supervised them much, were most likely to be a mixed bag.

The steward, Cang Qianlang, kept the matter of Lady Wangyun's murder a closely guarded secret; almost no one in the Jun household, except for the old women on night duty, knew about it. This man in black was using this to intimidate him… Who else could it be but He Bu Tuo, who had investigated the scene that day?

"You said the same thing to me in the torture chamber that day. Although you tried your best to hide your original tone, the intonation and pauses were the same." Chu Xia suppressed her fear and said, "Why is this not right? Why...why did you kill Madam?"

He Butuo gave a sinister smile: "If I were you, I wouldn't ask so many questions. You'd better hurry up and think about how to find the place depicted in the painting. Otherwise, I'll count for you how many men are here."

After trekking through mountains and rivers for two more days, they still found nothing. That evening, the group arrived at a deep mountain forest. As dusk deepened, insects chirped and animals leaped all around, and vines spread everywhere. They had entered a canyon.

He Bu Tuo ordered his men to light a campfire to drive away wild animals, while Chu Xia sat silently to the side.

"Chief, look over there, it seems someone is coming," a subordinate whispered.

He was very cautious. He draped a cloak over Chu Xia to cover her bound body, and whispered, "Be careful."

The commotion grew louder and louder. The dark figure approached, and it turned out to be a shepherd, driving a flock of goats and singing a mountain song as he came over.

The man was startled when he saw the campfire and the crowd, and asked, "Who are you people?"

He Butuo cupped his hands in greeting: "My group consists of merchants who have come to the mountains to purchase medicinal herbs. As it is getting late and we cannot leave this valley anytime soon, we have no choice but to spend the night here."

The shepherd said "Oh," and led the flock a few steps forward. Then he turned back and said kindly, "You should turn back tomorrow. There's a small Mirror Lake ahead, but hardly anyone lives there. Besides, there are leopards in the mountains that sometimes come out and hurt people. It's better to be careful."

He Butuo smiled and said, "Thank you for the reminder, young man."

Chu Xia had been dozing off in early summer, but upon hearing "leopard" and "Little Mirror Lake," she felt a sudden tightness in her chest. She looked at the man and asked, "Brother, are you saying there's a lake up ahead?"

"yes!"

"Is there another pavilion halfway up the mountain by the lake? And a big willow tree under the pavilion?"

The shepherd was quite surprised: "How did you know? There is a plank road there. There is also a pavilion built for people to rest. But leopards often appear there, so it is quite desolate."

After hesitating for a moment, Chu Xia said, "I heard it from others. They say that Xiaojing Lake is as beautiful as famous mountains and rivers."

"Alas, it is beautiful there, but the people in the mountains call it 'Leopard Head'," the shepherd sighed. "You all should be careful."

After saying goodbye to the shepherd, Chu Xia hugged her knees, her brows furrowed, as if she were pondering some difficult problem.

"Hey! The leader's asking you a question!" A Heavenly Gang assassin shoved her hard and demanded angrily, "What have you thought of?"

Chu Xia looked slightly dazed as she glanced at He Bu Tuo and whispered, "That Little Mirror Lake is very likely the place depicted in 'Ballad of Mountains and Rivers'."

He Butuo stood up, paced back and forth a few steps, and then asked with suspicion in his eyes, "What's the deal with that leopard? You're not so naive as to think that you're leading us into the leopard's den so you can escape on your own, are you?"

Chu Xia frowned slightly: "What kind of abilities do the Heavenly Gang assassins possess? How could I be so foolish as to think... a few leopards could harm you?"

"Then why did you specifically mention the leopard?"

“I can’t figure it out right now, it’s just a guess. The other day, the young master showed me ‘Landscape Ballad,’ which was an extremely old silk painting. When I first saw it, the picture was quite blurry. Later, the young master soaked it in soapberry water, spread it out on a flat table, and rolled away the dust and dirt, and the painting became clear again. However, due to its age, there are still a few parts that are difficult to identify.”

Chu Xia paused for a moment, then continued, "I saw a few tiny drops of ink hidden in the mountains and forests. At the time, I thought they were ink stains mixed with dust. Now that I think about it, the shape of those ink stains resembled animals, probably leopards or tigers. That's why I remembered them after the shepherd mentioned them."

He Butuo walked a few more steps with his hands behind his back, and said in a sinister tone, "Alright, let's go to Leopard Head tomorrow. Little girl, tomorrow is the last day of the three-day period. If it's not... hehe, you should make plans to become an illegitimate couple with one of my brothers."

Chu Xia seemed not to hear those words. Her right hand unconsciously stroked her empty left wrist, and she gazed at the crescent moon in the deep blue sky, without saying a word.

Chapter Sixteen

"Damn it! You guys lied to me!"

With each swift movement of his sword, Qinglong would utter a curse as he slew each person, repeating this pattern until his sword never missed its mark.

"Damn it! You won't talk, huh!" Qinglong slashed down with his Phoenix River Sword, cleaving the chest of the newcomer, blood splattering all over him. But his hand didn't stop, the tip of the sword pointing at the chest of the person behind him. "And you? Damn it, are you going to talk or not!"

Seeing the corpses scattered on the ground, with only himself alive, the man gripped his weapon tightly and fought his way back.

"No one I, Qinglong, have ever wanted to kill has ever escaped!" Qinglong leaped up, blocking the man's retreat, his longsword flashing. "Where did you take that girl?"

Before he finished speaking, a sword was pointed at the man's knee, and with a hiss, a piece of kneecap was sliced off.

The man rolled to the ground, but he gritted his teeth with unusual stubbornness and didn't utter a sound.

"You won't talk, huh?" The young man narrowed his eyes slightly, and without any mercy, he thrust the sword tip forward, piercing the man's throat. "Anyway, there are plenty of you Tiangang people. I'd like to see if every single one of you is as stubborn as you!"

After the slaughter, the young man in blue mounted his horse and rode away in a cloud of dust.

After galloping for nearly twenty miles, Qinglong reined in his horse, looked around warily, and with a light step, flew up to the treetops by the roadside.

The boy's body swayed gently up and down with the treetops, his fingertips touching a bell hanging from a branch. It tinkled a few times, and after a moment, several figures drifted in from the dark wilderness.

Azure Dragon held its breath and waited quietly for a long time until the group of people approached before it gently leaped down.

Under the soft moonlight, a tall, slender young man stood holding a sword.

"Tian Gang?"

The three newcomers glanced at each other, realizing something was amiss.

Who is leading this trip? Where are they right now?

The leader of the three laughed and said, "Since you know about Tiangang, do you still have the guts to stand here?"

Without a word, Qinglong used the Fengchuan sword in his hand as if it were a steel blade, slashing at it casually. With a clang, it clashed with the weapon in the black-clad man's hand, chipping a nick in the sword.

"Where did you take that girl?" Qinglong finished off two more men with a single sword strike, then pointed his sword at the last one. "Will you talk or not?"

The man threw down his weapon, turned, and used his lightness skill to run away. Qinglong sneered, deflecting the steel sword with his toe. The sword's momentum suddenly increased, and with a hiss, the man's chest was pierced from back to front.

Since leaving Daliuzhuang, he had searched for over a dozen communication stations used by the Heavenly Gang, thus finding dozens of spies among them. However, even now, nearing Luoyang, he still couldn't find Chuxia's whereabouts.

Qinglong, filled with resentment, slowly walked towards his horse when he suddenly heard a very faint noise behind him. He was startled, realizing that someone must have been hiding behind a tree, and that he had only noticed it now. This showed that the person's martial arts skills were probably on par with his own.

Fengchuan Sword assumed a defensive stance, while Qinglong slowly turned around and asked in a deep voice, "Who goes there?"

A dark figure emerged slowly from the dense forest. Her figure was slender, and her face was obscured by the moonlight. It was a woman, who lowered her voice and laughed, "Azure Dragon, you have excellent hearing."

Qinglong frowned slightly, and after a moment, he smiled and said, "Who do we have here? It really is an old friend."

The woman chuckled and no longer tried to hide her wits: "Qinglong, you're quite clever, even managing to find the silver bell that carries messages between the Heavenly Gang; yet, you're also prone to seeking things that are completely unrealistic and aimless."

“I don’t know why the young master has been protecting you, but he’s not here right now.” Qinglong’s smile faded. “You’d better not provoke me.”

The woman ripped off her hood, revealing a bright and beautiful face. Who else could it be but Bai Xue, the young master's favorite?

She continued to giggle, took a step forward, and said, "Little Azure Dragon, now that I'm standing here, why don't you ask... where did the young master go?"

Qinglong's expression changed slightly: "How could you expect our young master to fall into your trap so easily!"

"Oh, you don't believe me?" Bai Xue smiled and said, "Little Azure Dragon, I like your face, that's why I can't bear to kill you. I've come to ask you if you'd like to follow me from now on."

Enraged, Qinglong stopped speaking and unleashed a "Wild Song of Five Willows" attack straight at Baixue's chest.

Bai Xue did not retaliate, but simply took a few feet back, still smiling as she said, "Your kung fu is quite good. I suppose you taught me everything you knew."

The Azure Dragon Sword shot straight at her, but Bai Xue flipped her hand, revealing an object, and sneered, "Take a look, what is this?"

Under the moonlight, the object in Bai Xue's palm gleamed faintly, forcing Qinglong to retract his longsword: "Who exactly are you?"

Bai Xue didn't answer, but put away the object in her hand and said lazily, "Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise. Who do you think I am, Xu Yao?"

The name "Xu Yao" was actually the Azure Dragon Envoy's real name. He pursed his lips, slightly suppressing his surprise: "You really are the Vermilion Bird?"

Zhuque chuckled: "If it weren't for me, Zhuque, you would have been poisoned countless times on your journey."

The Vermilion Bird is skilled in both poison and medicine, something the Azure Dragon already knew. Hearing this, he seemed thoughtful and said, "I heard from Chu Xia that you often go in and out of the kitchen in the Jun residence..."

"Yes, yes, do you think I wanted to go? It was Young Master who instructed me to keep an eye on things." Zhuque lazily waved her hand and said, "Besides being Zhuque, I have another identity that you don't know. Come here, I'll tell you."

Qinglong stepped forward with some skepticism and put his ear close. He then heard Zhuque whisper something in his ear, which startled him. He jumped back, his face flushed, exclaiming, "Why—why did you bite my ear?"

Zhuque stood under the moonlight, a half-smile on her face: "Sister, I like you, and I just want to tease you a little, so what?"

Qinglong was caught in a dilemma, unsure whether to turn hostile or leave. After a long pause, he finally said, "Since the young master sent you to Tiangang as an inside agent, how can you show your face now?"

Zhuque laughed and said, "Fool, it's because at this moment, the young master no longer needs me as an inside man."

Qinglong's eyes showed suspicion: "Why is that?"

Zhuque smiled mysteriously: "You'll know when the news from Xuanwu arrives."

Qinglong grew increasingly displeased as he listened. It seemed as if everyone else understood, while he was kept in the dark. Thinking of this, he became quite angry: "Then what brings you here at this moment?"

"Young Master sent me. He said you've had enough of fighting and killing along the way," Zhuque said with a smile. "You've done a good job."

"You did a...good job?"

"Yes. If it weren't for your bravery, killing and destroying things, attracting the attention of the Heavenly Gang all the way, things would be much more difficult for the young master."

Qinglong's eyes widened: "Young Master... you even anticipated this?"

Zhuque sighed softly, "Indeed. Young Master is unfathomable. Is this the first time you've known this?"

Azure Dragon paced back and forth a few steps, then suddenly stopped and said, "I still have a few questions. Please enlighten me, Vermilion Bird Envoy."

“Call me sister, and I’ll tell you everything,” Zhuque said with a smile. “Xuyao, I remember you really are three months younger than me.”

Qinglong's cheeks flushed slightly again, but he ignored her playful words and asked, "Why did you lead Chuxia to that cloth shop?"

Zhuque smiled slightly: "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

"She...she doesn't know martial arts!" Qinglong roared. "Have you ever considered what would happen if something were to happen to such a young girl?"

Zhuque seemed to think about it seriously for a moment before smiling and saying, "If something happens to her, then it's because you haven't considered things carefully enough, and it has nothing to do with me."