Two hours earlier, at the time Cheng Chongyu was stabbed!
Er Gou cursed as he pulled the arrow from his arm, and the cook bandaged it for him. He looked down at the bleeding wound on his leg and sighed softly.
The wound on her leg had clearly scabbed over before, but now it was bleeding again.
Er Gou felt that ever since that jinx Feng Luan had arrived at their inn, their luck had hit rock bottom. First, the inn was burned down, then the three of them were chased like stray dogs by those scoundrels from the Ghost Shade Sect. After barely escaping the tiger's mouth, they hadn't even had time to rejoice before falling into Feng Luan's hands.
Now, they were being coerced by her to engage in this life-threatening business. Seeing the cook sigh as she looked at her bleeding wound, Er Gou felt like cursing his luck and then pulling the cook along to charge towards Changming Mountain.
However, his reason told him that if he dared to do so, he wouldn't even need the hidden guards to act; the cook could kill him with a single stab.
Er Gou felt frustrated. At this moment, he desperately missed the innkeeper.
"I wonder how the innkeeper is!"
Er Gou suddenly stopped cursing. The cook mistook it for him being tired of cursing. The cook, to put it politely, was brave and decisive; to put it less politely, she was brainless... well, not entirely brainless. She only used her brain where it was needed. Hearing Er Gou sigh, she couldn't comprehend his current mood and replied, "You should worry about yourself!"
The implication was, weaklings need not bother her!
Er Gou's eyes turned red with anger. If he hadn't been unable to defeat her, he would have made her taste being slammed into a wall.
"Bang~"
Shadow Six pushed open the door and threw the person he was holding onto the ground.
Er Gou and the cook heard the commotion and came out of the room.
After they were attacked at the Cheng residence, Er Gou had shouted for help. Shadow Five and Shadow Six appeared, and what was expected to be a one-sided slaughter turned into a fierce battle.
Er Gou was injured by a stray arrow while fighting one of them. Fortunately, the arrow was not poisoned, so it was not life-threatening, but it allowed the person fighting him to escape.
Shadow Six pursued them relentlessly and had only now managed to capture Feng Shuang alive.
As for Shadow Five, he had already gone to the Langhuan military camp.
Er Gou supported the cook and walked into the courtyard, where he saw the person's miserable state in the moonlight.
His jaw, arms, and thighs had all been dislocated by Shadow Six, and most of his teeth had been knocked out. Even if his jaw were reset, he would no longer be able to bite his tongue to commit suicide, let alone take poison.
The tooth where he hid the poison had been knocked out.
Er Gou felt that the wind tonight was indeed a bit too cold and involuntarily leaned closer to Gou Zi.
It seemed the only thing left for the latter half of the night was an interrogation!
...
The matches burned all night and were extinguished by the fierce mountain wind before dawn.
In the latter half of the night, the poison in the dilapidated temple had largely dissipated. Nan Shiying gave everyone an antidote that could resolve all poisons and then went into the broken temple to rest. The matches were blown out by the wind. Xiao Man drew her outer garment closer, her eyes half-open with sleepiness. She looked around and saw that Shadow One, Shadow Ten, and Twelve had not yet returned.
Searching the mountains and plains for corpses, dismembering them, and transporting the bodies to the Liao Jiang Eagle Master military camp—it seemed they wouldn't be back anytime soon.
However, since it was still before dawn and the fire had gone out, Xiao Man got up, intending to gather some firewood and relight the fire.
Nan Shiying, not sleeping soundly, opened her eyes and grabbed Xiao Man's arm.
"Little... Brother, you're awake?" Xiao Man was startled and then breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Nan Shiying holding her wrist.
"What are you going to do?" Nan Shiying asked.
Her voice was a little hoarse from just waking up.
Xiao Man said, "The fire went out, so I wanted to gather some firewood."
"No need!"
Nan Shiying straightened up, stretching her slightly stiff body from leaning against the wall all night. The biting cold wind swirled in through the broken doors and windows, but for those who practiced martial arts, it didn't feel cold. "It's not cold!" she said.
Xiao Man responded with an "oh" and slowly sat down, intending to lean against the side and rest for a bit. Seeing that her mistress seemed to have lost her sleepiness, she thought about going into the forest to find some food.
"No need!"
Nan Shiying stopped her again.
Situ Kong had actually woken up while they were talking, but he had been unsure whether to open his eyes. Now, it was no longer possible to pretend.
He opened his eyes and said to the two of them, "I'll go look."
"Mm!"
Nan Shiying didn't even look at him, merely letting out a light hum from her nose.
Situ Kong: "..."
Damn it!
I knew it, she must have discovered I was awake long ago!
Situ Kong got up and walked out of the dilapidated temple. A moment later, he returned with a wild boar.
The sun rose, dispersing the morning mist.
Shadow One and the other two returned to the dilapidated temple, carried by the cold wind. They had returned much earlier than Xiao Man had anticipated.
"Brother, what should we do next?"
Going down the mountain from the Liao Jiang side was absolutely out of the question. In fact, there was only one path left for them; they could only go down from the Lin Yuan side.
But... although they had killed these lunatics and solved the mystery of the fog on Changming Mountain, the events that had unfolded from this matter were truly bizarre and confusing, like tangled threads that couldn't be straightened out.
She actually wanted to ask if there was still a need to investigate this matter further.
But she didn't dare to ask.
Because if the sacrifices were indeed the people of Lin Yuan, then asking that question would be touching upon her mistress's unassailable taboo.
Xiao Man didn't understand. Wasn't this world Ji Hong's world? At least, it still was. Although her mistress was cold, distant, and ruthless in her dealings with people and matters, why did she consider the people of Lin Yuan her unassailable taboo?
What did the lives and deaths of the common people have to do with her mistress?
Even if Ji Hong, who was the ruler, would he even care about the lives of the common people?
Did those in power truly care about the lives of those below them?
Xiao Man felt lost.
Just as she had seen since childhood, her grandmother, herself, and even everyone in the Shadow Pavilion—their lives were not their own.
Nan Shiying glanced at Xiao Man. Seeing that her expression was unusual, she didn't think much of it. She had already made plans for the road ahead.
"Go down the mountain!"
"Go down the mountain from the Lin Yuan side!"
She only stated her plan but did not explain it.
Xiao Man had a belly full of questions, but in the end, she remained silent, not asking or saying more.
Before descending the mountain, Nan Shiying briefly searched for people from Medicine King Valley and found a few more corpses. After briefly burying the corpses and marking them, Nan Shiying went to find Qing Zhu and Qing Yuan.
Qing Yuan could already stand, but her body was weak and she couldn't walk. The task of carrying people naturally fell to Situ Kong.
Qing Zhu was somewhat silent along the way. He had learned of the deaths of Qing Yi and the others from his martial uncle.