Chapter 1 Someone Who Knows How to Communicate with the Dead

A person who has been in the martial world for a long time will learn how to communicate with the dead.

The dead cannot speak, but they can still tell the living many things.

Moreover, the dead are often more honest than the living…

At this moment, Song Wuqi was already dead, and standing around his corpse were all living people.

These living people came to examine the body after consulting with Alliance Master Yuan.

Without a doubt… they were all experts in this field.

In just a few minutes, these people learned many things from the corpse that was broken into two pieces.

“If I remember correctly… fifteen years ago, Song Wuqi was already thirty-seven years old.”

“Yes, he was thirty-seven years old.”

“He practiced hidden weapons.”

“He only practiced hidden weapons.”

“Hidden weapon skills are easy to learn but difficult to master.”

“The ultimate state of hidden weapon skills is extremely difficult to achieve.”

“People who practice hidden weapon skills usually don’t make any more progress in their external skills and realm after the age of forty.”

“But now, this fifty-two-year-old Song Wuqi’s external skills are even better than before…”

“Internal skills… are the same.”

After those people finished examining the corpse, they began to talk all over each other in front of Alliance Master Yuan.

Their conclusion was obvious—in the past fifteen years, Song Wuqi must have received guidance from an expert, which is why he was able to improve his martial arts to a new level at an age when both his physical strength and energy had passed their peak.

Of course… even if Song Wuqi had gone from a quasi-first-rate master to a first-rate master, he still couldn’t escape the fate of being instantly killed by Yuan Qi.

“Everyone!” After a while, Alliance Master Yuan organized his words, and then used his internal energy to speak loudly to the martial arts fellows, “Everyone has seen…” His tone had obvious inflammatory undertones, “Not to mention how many martial arts scum and beasts in human clothing that ‘King Yama’ has been shielding for many years, just look at this Song Wuqi in front of you… his martial arts have greatly improved after entering the valley for fifteen years!”

At this point, the crowd had already begun to discuss.

“In this case… this Burial Heart Valley is simply a place to hide dirt and cultivate evil!” Yuan Qi had been the martial arts alliance master for ten years. Based on his experience, some things must be said clearly; because there are indeed many people who are so stupid that they won’t understand unless you point it out to them, “Presumably, the other scum who have escaped into the valley are all like this Song Wuqi… having already received the guidance of that ‘King Yama’ and greatly increased their power. Everyone… you must not be careless!”

With the words spoken to this extent, naturally everyone understood.

“Thank you for the reminder, Alliance Master!”

“Alliance Master has great foresight, I admire you!”

Many people also seized the opportunity to flatter him after hearing this.

As for the Paradise Front team…

“Let’s go.” Feng Bujue suddenly made a suggestion at this time.

“Eh? Aren’t we going to follow them anymore?” Hua Jian asked suspiciously, “There are so many free cannon fodder.”

“These people are simply unreliable.” Brother Jue shook his head and lazily replied, “Some of them have gathered here for the ‘art of immortality,’ which is for ‘profit’; and some of them are here to show off their skills in this operation, which is for ‘fame.’” He paused, “Whether it’s for fame or for profit, it all boils down to pursuing desires, not beliefs. When people reach the brink of life and death, even beliefs may not be reliable, let alone desires… Simply put, if the situation starts to get worse, staying with these people… will only be a hidden danger.”

The teammates listened to his words and pondered for a moment.

A few seconds later, Ruoyu was the first to speak, “That makes sense… the alliances formed by these gangs are already very fragile. Each sect, each person, has their own selfish motives. Now they feel that the situation is favorable, so they follow behind Alliance Master Yuan, flaunting their power and thinking about getting a share of the pie afterward… but once the situation changes, these people will reveal their true colors.” She paused for half a second, and then said to Xiao Tan and Hua Jian, “For example… several sects with better relationships may unite to frame some sects that they have a feud with, or target small sects with little power… forcing them to be cannon fodder.”

“Uh…” Xiao Tan’s expression changed slightly when he heard this, “‘Small sects with little power’… then it must be the Po Jian Tea House…”

“What is the Po Jian Tea House?” Hua Jian asked suspiciously.

“Hehe… we are the Po Jian Tea House.” Feng Bujue replied with a smile.

“Huh?” Hua Jian was stunned for a moment, but she quickly thought of what Ruoyu had said earlier… about coming to this world before, and she immediately said, “Oh… is that the identity you used when you came to this world last time?”

“That’s right, I am the master of the house, and you are all my disciples.” Feng Bujue said, and also raised his hand to signal to Ruoyu, “This is the master’s wife.”

“Isn’t the setting of the master’s wife no longer necessary?” Ruoyu said.

Indeed, in Cangling Town, Ruoyu had only agreed to it in order to cooperate with Feng Bujue in creating an excuse for killing.

“Don’t mind those details~” Feng Bujue spread his hands and responded with an expression that was enough to raise his cheapness value by ten percentage points.

“Alright, didn’t you want us to break away from the main force? Then hurry up and lead the way.” Ruoyu didn’t want to argue with him about this topic, so she brought the topic back, “Presumably, you already had an idea of where to go before you made this suggestion, right?”

“Hmph… of course.” Feng Bujue tilted his head and glanced at a forest on the left side of everyone, “Song Wuqi should have come from this side.”

The teammates all looked over there, only seeing a jumble of trees, with no obvious path.

However, after a few seconds, Xiao Tan widened his eyes and said, “Oh! There are indeed traces left behind!”

“What are you shouting for!” Feng Bujue quickly stepped forward and covered his mouth, “Are you afraid that others won’t notice us?”

To be honest… no one really paid attention to them. Those martial arts big shots in the front were either famous reclusive experts who traveled the martial world alone, or sect leaders who were in charge of high-ranking sects, and the followers they brought with them were also the disciples or confidants with the highest seniority and martial arts in the sect. It can be said… that everyone gathered here today were the best of their peers. With such a group of people, where would they have the time to pay attention to you few unknown juniors? Who knows which remote sect you came from… people are rushing to show their faces and curry favor with the alliance master, so why don't you birds find a cool place to stay.

And so…

After a brief detour and observation, Feng Bujue and the others quietly broke away from the large team of hundreds of people, left the main road that ran through the valley, and turned into the mountain forest.

…………

Like most experts who are good at using hidden weapons, Song Wuqi’s lightness skill was not bad. In the complex terrain of the mountain forest, it was difficult to track the traces he left behind. Although Yuan Qi could use his internal energy to sense the other party’s real-time location, he could not find out the route the other party had taken before.

However… this was an easy task for Feng Bujue and Wang Tanzhi.

One had a data perspective, and the other had eagle-eye vision. For them, the more complex the terrain, the lower the difficulty of tracking.

In short, after more than twenty minutes of trekking, the four members of the Paradise Front team finally walked out of the dense forest and came to a relatively wide mountain col.

At this time, the sun had completely set.

The light mist that had lost the sunlight presented a soft, cold tone similar to moonlight.

This mist light was desolate and beautiful.

The players’ hearts seemed to have calmed down with the change in the surrounding colors.

“Tch… disappeared?”

Finally, next to a small river, the traces left by Song Wuqi disappeared, and Brother Jue immediately spat unhappily.

“I don’t think it matters.” Hua Jian said at this time, “People have been living in this valley all year round, and those people’s lives must be inseparable from water sources. As long as we walk upstream along the river, we should have a high chance of reaching the manor in the opening CG.”

“That’s right.” Ruoyu also agreed with her inference, “Perhaps the disappearance of Song Wuqi’s traces here is implying… that he came along the river.”

“That makes sense!” Xiao Tan also added, “Maybe he has the kind of martial arts that allows him to skim across the water like a dragonfly or cross the river with a reed, and he came all the way here on the water.”

Hearing this, Feng Bujue immediately narrowed his eyes and looked at Xiao Tan, “That’s why you can’t be a detective.”

“Eh?” Xiao Tan replied, “Why?”

“Because people with a little bit of reasoning ability will consider… whether the other party came on a bamboo raft or a small boat before thinking about crossing the river with a reed.” Feng Bujue’s answer hit the nail on the head.

“That’s not right.” Xiao Tan asked again, “If Song Wuqi came by boat, then… where’s the boat?”

“Someone rowed it away.” Feng Bujue replied, “Who said that Song Wuqi had to row the boat down alone? It’s normal for there to be other people on the boat, right?”

“Um…” Xiao Tan smiled awkwardly, “Hehe… that’s right.”

After criticizing his teammate, Brother Jue led the team upstream.

On this late autumn night, walking in the humid fog, the players’ hair, faces, and clothes were naturally gradually covered with a layer of frost.

These moisture quickly turned into wisps of cold, making their spirits even more invigorated.

Since the terrain by the river was relatively flat, the four people’s speed was much faster than in the forest, and they had walked several kilometers in less than half an hour.

Afterwards, a clear spring appeared in front of them.

It was a small pool surrounded by all kinds of strange rocks, and the river passed through both ends of the stone pool. The terrain at the upstream suddenly increased, while the downstream gradually became flat.

At this moment, there was actually a figure… standing alone by the stone pool.

It was a slender figure, wearing a white robe.

His left hand was placed behind his back, with his fist clenched against his waist, and his right hand… was holding a wine pot.

He silently looked at the stone pool in front of him, occasionally picking up the wine pot and taking a sip.

In the middle of the stone pool, there was only water, and there was no moon in the water. No one knew what he was looking at, and no one thought there was anything good to look at here.

But… he had been standing here with great interest for a long time, and he had no intention of leaving at all.

“Hmm?” When they were still a hundred meters away, that person noticed the players’ existence.

But it wasn’t until Feng Bujue and the others approached within ten meters that he slowly turned his head and said, “This is really… a chance encounter everywhere in the world.”

Brother Jue had already recognized him before the other party spoke, so at this moment, Brother Jue calmly cupped his fists and said, “Feng, I have met Eunuch Cao.”

That’s right, the person standing by the stone pool drinking was Cao Qin.

“It’s been more than ten years since we parted in the Forbidden City…” Cao Qin said, “Master Feng is indeed a peerless person in this world, able to hide his name and disappear for decades at a time… and each time he appears, he still has this unchanging youthful appearance.”

As he spoke, he turned around.

However, in the next second, Cao Qin’s expression changed, and he lightly exclaimed, “Eh?”

“Hehe…” Feng Bujue smiled. He knew that the other party was puzzled because he had seen that his teammates hadn’t aged either, so he took the opportunity to explain, “Eunuch Cao guessed correctly… the martial arts of my Po Jian Tea House lineage do indeed have the effect of prolonging life, so my disciples are also like me…”

Unexpectedly, before he could finish his words, Cao Qin interrupted him, “Isn’t your wife already dead?”

“Uh…” Feng Bujue suddenly remembered that during the time he fought with Xu Huai Shang in the Forbidden City, in order to show off, he did say lines like “bury me with my wife,” “…well, actually, she didn’t die.”

“Hmm?” Cao Qin asked again suspiciously, “Then that girl Xu Huai Shang, was she infatuated with you knowing that your wife wasn’t dead?”

As soon as this was said, the whole world… became quiet.

About five seconds later, all the live broadcast platforms were like exploding oil pots, ushering in what might be the most terrifying round of barrage explosions in the history of game competition live broadcasts.

“Oh?” Ruoyu glanced sideways with a blank expression, casting a murderous look at Brother Jue, “There’s such a thing?”

“Yeah…” Hua Jian looked at him with some schadenfreude, “…there’s such a thing?”

“Eh?” Xiao Tan curiously asked, “…there’s such a thing?”

“No… that… actually…” Feng Bujue said hesitantly to Cao Qin, “She didn’t know she wasn’t dead yet.”

“Then why did you hide it?” Cao Qin said, “If you told that girl Xu… that your wife wasn’t dead, perhaps she wouldn’t pester you anymore.” He paused here, seemingly suddenly thinking of something, “Wait… could it be that you were playing hard to get? Intentionally not telling her that your wife was still alive?” He paused, “Or… did the girl Xu already express to you that she was willing to be a concubine? So you went the other way?”

“Damn…” Feng Bujue was shocked at the time. He cursed inwardly, “Would you die if you said a few words less, you dead eunuch? You're so gossipy and bloody at such an old age, and your memory is so good… are you trying to kill me?”

“Hmm…” At this time, Ruoyu muttered thoughtfully by the side, “I seem to suddenly understand… why you casually called her Fourth Concubine in the Harem City.”

In fact, she probably already guessed that this was just a misunderstanding by the NPCs, but… such an opportunity to tease Feng Bujue in public was really rare, and Ruoyu didn’t want to miss it.

“That… Eunuch Cao…” Feng Bujue held it in for a long time, finally squeezing out a sentence, “…can we talk about something else? Like the weather or something?”

“Weather?” Cao Qin was stunned when he heard this, and then looked up at the glowing thick fog above his head, and then “hehe…” twice, tilting his head back and taking a sip of wine. Then, he actually replied in a complaining tone, “…I’m also drunk.”