《Silent Yearnings Hidden Amongst Lotuses》


 Ch 1 - The figure in the shadows.

    The golden sky with ribbons of various hues of red, pink and purple was mirrored in Jingmi Lake, looking like the entrance to another dimension. North of the great lake, rises a great mountain that touches the clouds. An ancient temple of a goddess now lies, in ruins halfway up the mountain. This sacred ground has certainly seen better days, but now even the statute seems unrecognizable, the only indicator of this ethereal god¡¯s visage is the silhouette of the statue, despite being worn out by centuries, it depicts a graceful being carrying a staff in one hand and a lotus in her other hand.. Who is she? what happened to her worshippers ? Why was she forgotten For the time being, these questions may remain unanswered.


    Further up the mountain on the cliff, you can see a tall figure clad in white and silver flowing robes. On his waist hangs a silver and gold encrusted sword, and on the sword¡¯s hilt hangs a unique-looking charm; a gold lotus encrusted with lapis lazuli, while initially it seems to clash with the figure''s overall image , after a while it seems to be in perfect harmony with him.


    . When he first heard the name Xin Sui Mountain, he thought it was just an exaggeration, a mere attempt to give this ethereal mountain a black stain. Yet here he was, and it still feels like he¡¯s still in a lucid dream. This was their haven, yet he was the only one here.


    As Yang Changtian gazes around, instead of the beautiful scenery, he sees a haunting image of his friend, his companion.


    ¡° Where are you, Hei Jingyou? I know that you''re not dead, I feel it deep in my soul that you''re still in this world, so why aren''t you coming back to me? Did you want to get away from me that much? ¡° Yang Chantian had so many questions, yet no answers.


    ¡°It''s been 20 years yet I, Yang Changtian, seem to be the only one who believes that you''re still here. I refuse to believe that you¡¯re dead, no, you surely aren''t dead, so come back soon¡±.


    He wasn''t alone , a tall figure clad in black and blue robes carrying 2 large blades on their back was observing him from the shadows. The person''s face was hidden behind a gold mask with carvings of lotuses and gardenias. The hidden figure exudes a feline elegance and danger. The only visible part of the person''s face was a pair of eyes with deep pitch black irises, giving off a sense of mystery and melancholy . At this very moment , those eyes reflected the figure standing at the edge of the cliff .


    Yang Changtian lifts his head to the sky , and takes a deep breath. His hand reached out to touch his swords hilt, his fingers made contact with the lotus charm and he started to stroke it ¡° I have to go now Jingyou , I¡¯m going up North , Wang Jinlong got news that the border is suffering from a plague, there are reports of people turning into to mindless monsters and attacking other people before dying. He asked Master and me for help , so I''m setting off tomorrow with Anying , Zilong , and some other disciples. I won¡¯t be back for a while, Jingyou. But I hope that you''ll come back soon.¡± With that Yang Changtian walks towards the road that leads down the mountain .


    After Yang Changtian¡¯s back disappeared down the road. The figure comes out. Their eyes showed a sense of sadness and nostalgia. The figure looks up to the sky and sighs, ¡° Forgive me Changtian. And remember I''m always by your side¡±.


    The figure extended her hand and her palm started glowing with a blue light , the next moment a blue lotus petal appeared on her palm. She whispered something into the petal and let it float away towards the direction Yang Changtian left.


    With that, the mysterious black figure disintegrated into the darkness only leaving behind a sweet fragrance of lotuses and gardenias.


    The petal floats down the mountain and catches up with Yang Changtian and unbeknownst to him it attaches itself to his sword¡¯s charm and in the next moment the petal was absorbed by the lotus charm. At that moment Yang Changtian froze in his steps , for he could swear that he just heard Jingyou¡¯s voice in the wind whispering ¡° Take care ¡°.


    Without a second thought, he used his all-seeing eye technique to scour around the mountain, yet, contrary to all hope, no one was there. He shook his head, and increased  the scope of his search area into the surrounding mountains too. Only to end up with nothing.


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    ¡°No, No it can''t be ¡° , it surely wasn''t in his mind, right ? No he couldn''t just accept it. And with that thought he turned back , intending to check the mountain manually. But before he could do anything he heard someone yelling for him.


    ¡°Senior brother senior brother Yang ! ¡°. When Yang Changtian turned back it was Zhang Anying, his junior martial brother.


    ¡° Both Master and Prince Jinglong told me that you¡¯ll be here. Letting senior sister Hei know before leaving? ¡°


    ¡° Hmm, no matter how long it¡¯s been, it still feels wrong not to tell her ¡°


    ¡° Senior brother we all miss Sister Hei but-¡±


    ¡° Let¡¯s not have this conversation, tell me why were you looking for me? ¡°


    Zhang Anyin sighed deeply and answered, ¡° Master told me to ask you to meet him ¡°


    ¡° Then let''s go back ¡°


    After returning to his sect''s branch in the imperial capital . Yang Changtian freshened up and hurried to his master¡¯s quarters to meet him.


    After he knocked on the door , his master asked him to come in.


    ¡° This disciple pays the master his respect. I heard you wanted to discuss something with me. ¡°


    Yang Changtian¡¯s master was the current sect leader of the Guanghui sect,Long Dacheng . And Changtian was the chief disciple .


    His master was a gentle, yet regal looking man with a long flowing beard and hair always styled using the sect¡¯s crown. He always a very meticulously crafted image, in fact the only time Changtian saw his master lose his composure was when they got news that his bosom friend , and long time partner , the leader of the Biyou sect, Sun Xiandong , was attacked while he was in seclusion. He along with his chief disciple Hei Jingyou both disappeared without a trace. Many people think that they were killed. The assailants still remain unknown. Only a token with the insignia of a ghostly tiger was left at the scene. Stranger , seems to be the fact that there were clear signs of struggle ,for multiple sword marks and whip marks were found at the site along with blood splatters. The marks were determined to be from Jingyou¡¯s whip swords. Yet no dead bodies are to be seen. Hei Jingyou rarely takes out her whip swords. In all these years he only saw her use the whip sword 3 times , all when she was facing a large force alone. It almost looked as if they were attacked by ghosts.


    When his master learnt of his friends and Martial niece¡¯s disappearance , he was inconsolable to the point where he wouldn''t eat for days. Yang Changtian was no better , while he had never thought of it before , reality hit him hard, he just lost both a parental figure and the only person who would stand by his side no matter what.


    He was woken from his memories when his master cleared his throat, ¡° Child, I know you''re going up north to check up on the plague, but there is another matter I want you to investigate.¡± His master handed him an ornamental box , ¡°Open it¡±.


    What he saw inside made Changtian¡¯s blood go cold, for inside was the exact same tiger token that was left by the assailants that attacked martial uncle and Jingyou.


    Yang Changtian¡¯s hands started to tremble. Trying to calm his shaking voice , he asked his master ¡° where¡­¡­¡±


    ¡° It was found by the preliminary scouts sent out by Prince Jinlong. The scout said that it was found near the suspected origin place of the plague , an underground cavern that has a lake that feeds the local water sources.¡±


    ¡° It¡¯s them¡­, they finally decided to show their face again¡±


    Master Long sat down across from Yang Changtian, ¡° Changtian, we finally found another clue. I want you to investigate this matter thoroughly , find out what happened to my dear friend and Hei''er that day , and also find out why they decided to reappear finally,¡±.


    The next moment Master Long displayed a turbulent emotion on his face, ¡° Changtian, though we¡¯ve never discussed this openly before, regarding the problem of how their location got out¡­¡±


    This was something that always bothered Yang Changtian, the location of Martial uncle Sun and Hei Jingyou¡¯s seclusion was only known by their Bihou and Changtian¡¯s Guanghui sect''s main disciples and hidden away from other lower disciples.


    All of the Bihou sect''s main disciples go into seclusion together, when it''s the year of the neverending sun. This refers to the fact that during half of this year , the sun does not set. And since the Bihou sect derives their power from the darkness and night. They are at their weakest, hence the reason why they must go into seclusion in such a secretive manner.


    The Guanghui sect takes over Bihou¡¯s duties for this period, and they are also in charge of making sure nothing bad happens. This also means that the only person who could inform the assailants about the seclusion location was someone from his sect.


    This thought always weighed heavily on Yang Changtian and his master¡¯s minds, to think that the mole was a person who they considered a beloved disciple and comrade respectively.


    ¡° We have to be careful , not to alert them, Changtian, so you shouldn''t trust anyone ¡° , Master Long sighs . At the next moment , it seems like Master Long seemed to remember something as his eyes lit up.

 Ch 2 - The Aftermath

    The next moment Master Long¡¯s eye lit up.


    ¡°Changtian, I managed to ask someone from the Bihou sect to help you. While Huang Baicheng refused at first, Baihua managed to convince him to let someone join you. They¡¯ll be waiting for you at the Bihou sect¡¯s main gate.¡±


    Yang Changtian was shocked. After learning about the incident, the Huang twins and other main disciples from the Bihou sect were angry at their sect for allowing something like this to happen under their watch.


    After Huang Baichen took over Master Sun¡¯s Sect master position as his oldest available disciple, he issued an order to the whole sect to cut off the Guanghui sect. His twin sister Huang Baihua, a young girl who only wanted to spend time creating and studying weapons, had to step up to support her brother as deputy sect leader.


    Yang Changtian never expected them to forgive them let alone help him. Master Sun and Hei Jingyou¡¯s disappearance hit them the hardest. The Huang twins were orphans whose parents were beaten to death by the other villagers for stealing, and the twins were sold to some traffickers to be sold as slaves in the capital city. The traffickers were ambushed by Hei Jingyou, under Master Sun¡¯s orders, and she brought the Huang twins back to their sect. She became their older sister, mother, father, their whole family.


    Yang Changtian sighed, he still remembered how they reacted when they got to know about what happened.


    Yang Changtian and Zhang Anying were waiting for the Haung twins outside the Forest of the Owls, where they were in seclusion. The next moment they saw a tall figure wearing dark green robes carrying a medicine bag on his waist step out from the tree line, followed by him was a shorter girl wearing a dark green dress. Hair done up in a simple hairstyle with multiple hairpins, people who are familiar with the girl would know that the hairpins are darts that she can use to immobilize the opponent with a slight prick.


    Baihua was the first to spot him ¡° Brother Yang, did sister Hei send you to pick us up ¡°, Baihua was always outgoing and friendly. In contrast,the reserved Baicheng only smiled and nodded at him.


    At that moment Yang Changtian felt lost and helpless, ¡° Baicheng, Baihua¡­. Something happened with your master and senior sister.¡±


    The Huang twins'' smiles dropped, ¡° Are they okay quick let¡¯s go see them ¡° and they started running towards the sect.


    The helplessness Yang Changtian felt right now was massive, ¡° wait ¡­ They¡­ were attacked by some people and they disappeared. We conducted searches throughout the mountain, but they vanished .¡±


    The twins turned around looks of horror and disbelief growing on their faces.


    ¡°No¡­., No no no ¡° croaked Baihua while collapsing to the floor. Zhang Anying hurried to her side to help her but she pushed him away.


    ¡° What do you mean disappear? ¡° Baicheng asked him, his rage and disbelief evident in this trembling voice. Baicheng strode up to Yang Changtian and grabbed him by his robe. ¡° what do you even mean disappear !?!? Weren''t you responsible for their safety so why are you here telling us this ?!? ¡° yelled Baicheng while shaking him.


    Zhang Anying rushed to separate the two. ¡° Brother Baicheng, please stop. We are extremely sad about our senior and martial uncle¡¯s disappearance too. Please brother Baicheng calm down.¡±


    ¡° How do you expect me to calm down when you come here telling us that our Sister and master were attacked and are nowhere to be found ?!?! ¡° Baicheng¡¯s eyes were completely bloodshot, " he shoved Anying off while yelling.


    ¡° Sister¡­.. Master¡­..¡± Baihua was crying curled up on the ground. Baicheng went to help her and he hugged her. ¡° Shhh¡­ They¡¯re gonna be okay, that''s our sister and master. Don''t cry.¡±


    ¡° Baicheng, we need your help to look for them If I remember correctly, all sect members have their spirit lamps to indicate their statuses. It¡¯ll help us to find them if they¡¯re still..¡±


    ¡° Shut it Anying ¡° Baicheng and Changtian barked in unison.


    ¡° Baihua, they need to see their sister''s and master¡¯s spirit lamps. Now sister and master need us so stop crying and let¡¯s go ¡°. Baihua sniffled, stopped crying and then nodded at her brother.


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    She stood up and sped towards the sect , her brother, Anying and Changtian followed, heading towards the Bihou sect.


    Yang Changtian and Zhang Anying followed the Huang twins, they entered the main hall of the Bihou sect and entered a door hidden behind the seat of the sect¡¯s head. The twins soon stopped in front of a copper door, a scene of a person standing with their back turned staring out into the vast expanse of rolling mountains surrounding a lake was carved into the door looking extremely lifelike. A majestic moon looms over the lake taking the centre place of the carving. In the corner of the carving, one could make out some characters .Yang Changtian and Zhang Anying were confused as they did not recognise the characters.


    ¡° It''s a long lost script from 1000 years ago, only Sister Hei and Master knew how to read it even though we aren''t familiar with it so it''s not surprising that you don''t recognise it, ¡° said Huang Baihua after seeing their faces of confusion.


    ¡° This script is only passed down to the main disciple, so we never got the chance to learn it, ¡° replied Huang Baichen.


    The twins pulled out 2 medallions from their lapels and inserted them into 2 indentations in the door. Soon a click was heard and the door opened automatically.


    ¡° A Mechanism ! ¡° gasped Zhang Anying.


    The Twins walked into the room, Yang Changtian and Zhang Anying went to follow them but Huang Baichen stopped them ¡° Brother Yang, brother Zhang this is a part of the Bihou sect¡¯s internal yard, that is off limits to outsiders, please wait here . Baihua will come out with Master¡¯s and Sister¡¯s spirit lamps.¡±. Yang Changtian hesitated for a moment before nodding.


    ¡°Can I take a look at the door¡¯s carving again ? ¡° asked Yang Changtian.


    ¡° Be my guest, Brother Yang, ¡° said Baicheng, stepping aside.


    Yang Changtian stepped closer to examine the characters. They had a unique look to them, the strokes looked almost animalistic. But above everything, he could have sworn that he had seen these characters before, but where?


    His thought process was soon interrupted by Baihua coming out. In her hands were 2 lamps, it was Master Sun¡¯s and Hei JIngyou¡¯s spirit lamps.


    Yang Changtian¡¯s heart lurched when he saw them .Spirit lamps were mechanisms that were used to track the life sources of cultivators, hence they function as trackers. When the spirit lamp is green, it means that the individual is doing well, when it''s yellow it means that there is a threat to their life, while red means that the individual is deceased.


    But the two lamps carried by Baihua didn''t have any flames.


    ¡°What does that mean ¡° Yang Changtian asked, his voice breaking.


    Huang Baicheng was also looking at his sister.


    ¡° I don¡¯t know, this has never happened before. These flames are supposed to be inextinguishable, they are supposed to indicate even if the individual is deceased but¡­. ¡® replied Huang Baihua, voice trailing off.


    ¡° So it doesn''t show that they''re dead right ? ¡° asked Zhang Anying.


    ¡° It doesn''t, but ¡­¡­ ¡°.


    ¡° But what Baihua tell us,¡± Baicheng said. His voice rose.


    ¡° Back when I was still training the master told me that if the flame goes against the usual 3 indications, then it''s likely that the individual is no longer in their original form as their souls might have shattered.¡±


    Huang Baicheng grabbed his sister''s shoulder and asked her with a trembling voice, ¡° Are you sure? Don¡¯t joke around at a time like this ¡°


    Huang Baihua burst into tears, ¡° I''m not joking brother, you know I''d never make a joke about master and sister. What are we gonna do now brother it''s like they completely disappeared off the face of the world.¡±


    Huang Baicheng hugged his sister, his eyes were also bloodshot, as much as he would like to cry his eyes out because he too lost the two people who were there for him in his darkest time. They took him in and they became his family. But he had to stay strong for his sister.


    ¡° Shhh it''s okay, you know how strong the master and older sister are, they''ll be fine Maybe something happened and they''re stuck somewhere. Don''t worry they''ll be okay. We should worry about the people who attacked them instead.¡± Baicheng though also on the verge of tears, was trying his best to comfort his sister.


    Huang Baicheng carried his sister to her room and placed her on the bed to let her rest. As he was about to leave, he felt a weak hand grasp his wrist.


    ¡° They¡¯ll be back right brother? I was looking forward to digging up the plum wine Sister made and buried under the gardenia bushes in her courtyard. ¡°


    Huang Baicheng sat down next to Baihua¡¯s bed and patted her head, ¡° Yes, since master¡¯s with her and considering his love for sister¡¯s wine, I¡¯m 100% sure he¡¯ll drag her back from heaven if he has to drink that wine. Let¡¯s not drink that wine till they come back okay? ¡°


    ¡° Okay,¡± Baihua was finally smiling a bit. ¡° Get some rest Baihua, you¡¯ve cried a lot today. Go sleep.


    ¡°Hmmm okay, Brother¡±.


    Huang Baichen stood up and walked out, closing the door slowly behind him. He walked towards the main hall of the sect. At this point, most of the disciples who went into seclusion were here, except for their second brother Li Cheng. Huang Baicheng entered the main hall and walked up to the sect head¡¯s seat.


    Yang Changtian and Zhang Anying were waiting for him near the seat.


    ¡°Baicheng, where is your master and senior sister, everyone except Li Cheng is done with their seclusions. Is Everything alright ¡° questioned Master Li. Master .Li Xiang was the head of the Northern branch of the Bihou sect. He is a close friend of Master Sun, and sister Hei also respects him greatly.


    ¡° Master Li, I have some bad news.¡± Yang Changtian interrupted.


    Master Sun and Hei Jingyou were attacked by some unknown assailants during their seclusion and they disappeared.

 Ch 3 - The Falling out

    ¡®What did you say? Sun Xiandong and Hei¡¯er was attacked and they disappeared. ?¡± Master Li stumbled and almost fell from the shock, his primary disciple Li Heng had to help him into seat.


    The whole room exploded in chatter , looks of shock and denial were apparent in the faces of all present.


    ¡° Did you check their spirit lamps?¡± a meek voice rang out among the chatter. Yang Changtian lifted his head to see the head of the western Branch of the Bihou sect , master Bai Anmei.


    ¡°Yes , but¡­¡± Yang Changtian hesitated for a moment. ¡° They were extinguished¡± , Huang Baicheng finished his sentence for him.


    The room erupted in chatter again: ¡° What does that mean?¡± ¡° This has never happened before! " " How could they be extinguished like that ?¡±


    Bai Anmei turned to look at Wen Zhou , the head of the Southern Branch. While master Sun was initially in charge of forging and maintaining the spirit lamps, he slowly delegated that task to his junior brother Wen Zhou, when he became the head of the sect, who took over the task. Therefore at the moment he¡¯s the one who is the most knowledgeable about the spirit lamps.¡±What does this mean Brother Wen ? ¡° .


    Master Wen closed his eyes and took a deep breath ,¡°The older brother didn''t tell me much but, in most cases, spirit lamps are spiritual devices that indicate the status of the person physically and mentally. So even if the owner dies long ago , since his corpse or spirit core is still in the world in some form, the flame will remain, the color will change. But if the flame is weaker , it usually means that both the physical body and spiritual visage of the owner is at great threat. But if it''s completely extinguished , it suggests that the owners are no longer in this world in any form.¡±


    ¡°Master Wen , what¡¯s the other explanation? You said ¡®in most cases¡¯ meaning there is another explanation.¡± questioned Yang Changtian feeling a heavy weight at the pit of his stomach.It just couldn''t be true.


    Master Wen lifted his head and looked at Yang Changtian , ¡° In some records , its mentioned that in rare cases, when the owner of the spirit lamp , ascends or if their spiritual cores undergo a change , or even if their cores shatter, the lamp will extinguish as the individual will either be no longer on this plane , or their core exist no longer, but as i said before it extremely rare ¡±.


    ¡° So , master Wen , you¡¯re saying that there is a chance that they¡¯re still alive?¡±


    ¡° Well yes, but¡­.¡±


    ¡° As long as there¡¯s even a miniscule chance that they¡¯re alive , that''s all that matters¡±, Huang Baicheng cut in coldly.


    Vices of unanimous agreement rose throughout the room .


    ¡° Baicheng , till your master and sister returns , someone needs to act as the sect¡¯s head. And according to our rules , the next disciple in the ranks of seniority should be the one taking the duty over . But Li Cheng isnt here yet, but we need someone to take over urgently.¡±


    ¡° Till brother Li returns , I¡¯ll take over as the sect¡¯s head¡±, replied Huang Baicheng calmly. ¡° Now Brother Yang and Brother Zhang , I would like to ask you something. How could you allow something like this to happen ?¡±


    Li Heng , turned to Yang Changtian and asked him. ¡°Yes , Brother Yang , your Guanghui sect was in charge of making sure nothing goes wrong. How could you allow this to happen right under your eyes¡± his voice grew with rage with each word.


    ¡°How were we supposed to know ¡­...¡± Zhang Anying began but Huang Baicheng coldly intejected him.


    ¡° Zhang Anying , Yang Changtian. Our Bihou sect has always tried our best to help you , even to the point where it caused sister and master major inconveniences.¡±


    ¡° Yeah !¡±


    ¡° That¡¯s right ¡°


    ¡° I remember the last time that my older sister left to help them when they got trapped in a Ghost lair cave , when she was supposed to be resting after getting injured. She collapsed right after coming back and didn''t wake up for days.¡±


    ¡° Sister and Grandmaster did their best to help them but they allowed such a thing to happen¡­¡±


    Murmurs broke out amongst the crowd and multiple dirty looks were shot at Zhang Anying and Yang Changtian.


    ¡°Yang Changtian , Zhang Anying , tell us clearly , where were you when this happened ?¡± questioned Li Heng icily.


    ¡°We were¡­¡­¡±


    All of a sudden , the room went cold and Li Heng¡¯s forehead had veins popping out , his eyes emitting a strange blue light. He had activated his clan¡¯s special skill. This user of this skill had the ability to coerce a person to tell the truth.


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    ¡°Fang Chenmei , sent a message that she wants to say something to Brother Yang. So he decided to go see her.¡± Zhang Anying replied as if in a trance.


    ¡° I went to see Fang Chenmei, she told me that she had some urgent news to tell me .¡±


    Voices of rage broke out. ¡° What was he doing with her after everything that happened?¡±


    ¡° Shameless , how dare he go to meet that woman again after everything that happened.¡±


    ¡° You know what they say , appearances easily fool men, I just can¡¯t believe that even Yang Changtian fell for her deceit ¡°


    ¡°No , Brother Yang isn''t like that ¡° Huang Baihua¡¯s voice rang out. Everyone turned to see Huang Baihua standing.


    ¡°Hua¡¯er , are you feeling okay now ?¡± Huang Baicheng rushed to her side.


    ¡° Yes brother . But I believe that Brother Yang isn''t like that, otherwise Sister and Master wouldn''t have trusted him and helped him so much.¡±


    Huang Baicheng sighed. ¡° Li Heng , ask him what happened after ¡°.


    Li Heng nodded, ¡° What did you do after meeting her at the water prison ?¡±


    Yang Changtian didnt answer , he started to tremble looking tense.


    ¡° He¡¯s trying to break the skill,¡± Li Heng replied.


    ¡° Hold on Li Heng.¡± Li Heng nodded in return.


    ¡° Answer us Yang Changtian , what happened after you met her ?¡±. Huang Baicheng''s voice was laden with venom.


    ¡° She looked at me and laughed like a maniac. Then she stood up slowly and came closer before whispering that I¡¯ll lose everything soon. I just thought that she was doing her usual routine of threatening me. Then she bit her tongue and- ¡±


    ¡° That¡¯s enough Li Heng. Save your power , it is useless to ask more. Release them¡± said Huang Baicheng in an authoritative tone.


    Li Heng nodded and released them.


    ¡° Yang Changtian , Zhang Anying , when were you going to inform us that Feng Chenmei died, if you forgot , let me remind you that Feng Chenmei , almost destroyed both of our sects , and you didn''t even think to inform us about this ?¡±


    Yang Changtian was staring straight ahead at the 2 empty seats that once belonged to 2 of the most important people in his life and now he didn''t even know if he''ll see them again. He should''ve been more careful after that vile woman''s words. If only had he heeded those venomous words.


    Zhang Anying saw his senior brother¡¯s conflicted and tense appearance . ¡°There were slash marks in the surrounding trees and rocks. And Zhou Zilong determined that they were from sister Hei¡¯s whip sword, and while blood was found everywhere , the blood found doesn''t seem to be human, so it¡¯s safe to say that sister Hei and Master Sun , might¡¯ve fought their way out. So why don''t we stop fighting and joining forces to find them ? Brother Yang hasn''t slept for days , he''s been running everywhere looking for them.¡±


    ¡° Zhang Anying , while I understand what you''re saying. But you have to remember that Hei¡¯er only brings her whip swords out when she¡¯s in a dangerous and overwhelming situation. Also Sun Xiandong is almost completely normal during the year of the neverending sun , brother Sun loses all his power and since he was never good at combat, he¡¯s naturally weaker than most. ¡°


    ¡° I¡­. ¡° Zhang Anying wanted to say something but there was nothing left to say.


    ¡° Yang Changtian , Zhang Anying,¡± Bai Huancgeng started coldly, Firstly you allowed our senior sister and master to get attacked by some unknown assailants , when you were supposed to ensure their protection when they''re at their weakest , then when asked about where you were on the day of the incident , you visited Feng Chenmei , not a single member of our sect was allowed to see that woman after she was imprisoned in the internal water prison. And in case you forgot that woman managed to get into the sect through you .¡±


    A look of horror and disbelief flashed through everyone''s faces.


    Murmurs erupted amongst the gathered.


    ¡° What do you mean brother ? ¡° questioned Huang Baihua.


    ¡° Master and sister hid this from us for their sake , but I once overheard master and sister talking about it. Yang Changtian , I don''t think that no one , except the people who were there , knows the truth. You and your group were stuck in the Ghost lair back then ,because you were under an enchantment spell cast by Feng Chenmei , a woman who comes from the Butterfly sect. You rescued her from a brothel and felt pity for her and decided to take her into the sect , and you allowed her to join your expeditions. Don''t try to tell me that , you just did it for her safety. You clearly were holding some very inappropriate feelings towards that woman. If sister did not interfere in time , you would have given the manuals of a thousand swords and whips to the woman.¡±


    The murmurs now turn into full chatter .


    ¡°He did what ? ¡® , ¡° That¡¯s when Senior Sister was injured , she had to neglect her injury and go save them.¡±, ¡° I never expected this from Yang Changtian .¡±


    ¡° And now you¡¯re telling me you decided to abandon your duty to protect your master and sister , just to go meet that woman ? You also decided it would be appropriate not to inform us about her death.¡± Huang Baicheng''s words were venomous.


    ¡° No , that¡¯s not true , Brother Yang wasn''t under that woman¡¯s spell he just¡­..¡±


    ¡° Stop it Anying¡± Yang Changtian spoke up .


    He then raised his head to look directly towards Huang Baicheng. ¡° Baicheng , I realize that I''ve never done anything for your sister or master , even though they¡¯ve always been there for me. Hei Jingyou had to drag her injured arm to come save me . And I will spend the remainder of my life just regretting not seriously listening to that woman¡¯s threat. But I can assure you , I¡¯ll never do something to hurt your sister or master.¡±


    ¡° Stop , we don''t need your excuses Yang Changtian. It¡¯s too late. Until sister Hei and master come back safe , our relationship is severed.¡±


    Huang Baicheng , then turned to the sect members.


    ¡° Martial Uncles and Aunts , fellow brothers and sisters. As the temporary head of the sect , I propose that we sever all our ties with the Guanghui sect for the grave mistake they committed towards our Master and Senior sister. Does everyone agree with me ?¡±


    Voices rang out , all unionised into a single word ¡° Yes¡±.


    Huang Baicheng turned to look at Yang Changtian and Zhang Anying.


    ¡° Yang Changtian , Zhang Anying , from this day onwards we will sever all ties with you and your sect. We will maintain a decent relationship with Master Long , for the sake of his friendship with master. You are not permitted to step foot inside the sect till the day the sister and master returns. The relationship between our sects ends here..¡±

 Ch 4 - Outburst of emotions

    ¡° Yang Changtian, the relationship between our sects ends here. You are not allowed to step inside our sect till the day our sister and master returns.¡± Huang Baicheng said coldly.


    Zhang Anying tried to protest. ¡° You can¡¯t just do that.¡±


    ¡° I can and I will, let me remind you that for now, I¡¯m in charge of the sect. Even if Li Cheng comes back and takes over, he won''t disagree,¡± replied Huang Baicheng coldly. ¡°Li Heng asked someone to escort them out.¡±


    Li Heng nodded and signalled to 2 disciples standing in the back, ¡° Please escort Brother Yang and Brother Zhang out.¡±.


    ¡° Yes, senior brother .¡±


    They approached Yang Changtian and Zhang Anying. ¡° Brother Yang ,Brother Zhang, this way please, don''t make this harder for us ¡°.


    ¡° We¡¯ll show ourselves out don''t bother,¡± replied Yang Changtian turning around to leave. He then stopped, slowly turned around and knelt. He kowtowed 3 times each for Master Sun and Hei Jingyou, begging for forgiveness.


    ¡° Brother Yang, what are you doing?¡± Zhang Anying was mortified, his senior brother has always been a proud person some might even say arrogant. He would never bow for anyone, yet here he was kneeling.


    ¡°Zhang Anying, go out for a moment I need to speak with them privately¡±.


    ¡°But..¡± Zhang Anying wanted to refute.


    ¡°Zhang Anying! Please go out first, I''ll join you shortly¡± Yang Changtian cut in coldly.


    Zhang Anying was shocked, this was the first time brother had been short with him. He looked down,¡± Okay brother Yang, I''ll wait for you outside the gates¡±.


    Yang Changtian nodded.


    Zhang Anying bowed to everyone present and turned around to leave, the 2 disciples also left escorting him.


    ¡° What do you want to say, Yang Changtian ?¡¯ Huang Baicheng asked.


    ¡° Huang Baicheng, Baihua, Masters, I know that there¡¯s no use kneeling and I also know that you probably won''t believe my words anymore, but I promise you here today.¡± Yang Changtian took out a dagger, which was a dagger given by Hei Jingyou for his coming-of-age ritual, he used the dagger to cut his finger, he took out an empty talisman and wrote down something.¡± I promise that I will look for Hei Jingyou and master Sun, till the day I''m no longer on this Earth, this is my l promise towards your sect .¡± he blew onto the talisman, which started to float and in the next moment it burst into flames and the ashes flew away with the wind.


    Master Li recognised it, it was an unbreakable promise talisman the caster will be bound to fulfil the promise till death or even beyond death. He was surprised. Did this child care for Hei¡¯er that much, while it¡¯s true that she''s been by his side for so long and he considered her his bosom buddy and only partner, is friendship and companionship enough to drive him into making this promise? This child is obviously promising to dedicate his life to looking for Hei¡¯er and old man Sun. He was stroking his long white beard, and he sighed.


    ¡° Yang Changtian ,child, as much as I hate to say this, they might not even be alive at this point..¡± Master Li began.


    ¡° No, Master Li , I believe with all my heart that they''re alive , I won''t believe it until I see evidence that they''re dead. ¡°


    ¡° Yang Changtian , don''t think that this silly promise of yours will make us feel anything , it''s useless for you to even think that we''ll ever forgive you.¡± Huang Baicheng answered with rage apparent in his voice. ¡° Leave and remember , the relationship between our sects are severed till the day sister and master comes back, when your wrongs are righted. We will keep contact with your master , but the only reason why we¡¯ll keep contact with him is for the sake of his and our master¡¯s relationship.¡±


    ¡° I¡¯m not asking for your forgiveness nor your sympathy, Baicheng. I understand very well that I will never receive your forgiveness. But I swear in my life that I¡¯ll get Jingyou and Master Sun back, and if they are not alive , I swear that I will bring their bodies or cores back.¡±


    With that Yang Changtian did a final bow towards the crowd and walked out.


    He strode out the door , for he had no way to know when he''d lose control of his emotions. He walked fast towards the main gate of the sect , and Zhang Anying was pacing back and forth outside waiting for him. When he saw him , Zhang Anying ran up to him . ¡° Brother are you okay ?¡¯.


    ¡° Why wouldn''t I be okay? I was just speaking to them , they are not monsters to kill me.¡± Yang Changtian said, laughing slightly. ¡° Let¡¯s go back.¡±


    Zhang Anying nodded and they turned to leave. Soon they arrived at their sect¡¯s headquarters. ¡° Anying , you go ahead , I need to report to Master.¡± Zhang Anyng looked at him for a second but decided that it would be best for Yang Changtian to let their master know about what happened.


    Yang Changtian , walked across the sect and soon arrived in front of a little secluded courtyard, where his master stayed. He went up to the door , then knocked. ¡° Master , it¡¯s me Changtian, can I come in ?¡± . He heard shuffles inside the room and soon the weak voice of his master came through.


    ¡° Come in child.¡±


    Yang entered and closed the door , he then bowed towards his master, who was sitting.


    ¡°Master I informed the Bihou sect , and they said that they¡¯ll sever all relationships with us , they said that while you''re still welcomed for the sake of your old friendship with Uncle Sun, I¡¯m not allowed to even step inside till Jingyou and uncle return.¡±


    Long Dacheng stood up, walking closer to Yang Changtian. He helped him to stand up .


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    ¡° Master, they found out about Fang Chenmei ,¡± Yang Changtian whispered weakly.


    Long Dacheng sighed , ¡° I knew that this would come out eventually, no wonder their reaction was so intense, how did they find out ? ¡°


    ¡° Huang Baicheng overheard Jingyou and uncle discussing it.¡±


    Master Long nodded her head twice , ¡° Don¡¯t worry child , they¡¯ll come around eventually. In the meantime try your best to find Hei¡¯er and old man Sun.¡±


    ¡° Yes master , I already casted an unbreakable promise talisman.¡±


    Long Dacheng was surprised at this , the unbreakable promise talisman was skill taught to only the head disciples of the Guanghui sect. The promise is eternally embedded in their soul and if they break their promise , the caster will suffer major consequences such as crippling his cultivation. He had once cast it himself, to mend the friendship between him and Sun Xiandong after they had a falling out. And now here he was, witnessing a repetition of the situation only that the receiver was missing.


    ¡° Are you sure about this Changtian? You¡¯re essentially binding your life with Hei¡¯er .¡±


    ¡° I¡¯m sure master, she didn''t have a spell or promise cast to remain by my side and always help me. I never realized it but she¡¯s always been there silently behind me. She even came to help me despite being injured, and I just heard that she didn''t wake up for days after because of the toll it took on her body. If I had just heeded that evil woman¡¯s word. She did so much for me, yet I¡­.. ¡° Yang Changtian was getting choked up. ¡° I took her for granted I thought she¡¯ll always be my side. I don¡¯t even how she looks like Master. Hell, I don''t even know if she¡¯s a human. We¡¯ve known each other for 40 years now master, yet I have never seen her face, I don¡¯t know anything about her. And I¡¯ve never made an effort to find out others, cause I always thought she¡¯d be a constant in my life. My final memory of her is her bringing me and the others some pastries she made before going into seclusion, she didn''t even get the chance to talk to me since I was busy dealing with new disciples. When I think about how I might never get to eat those pastries again, how I¡¯ll never have someone else who¡¯ll guard my back the way she did. And how I ignored her because I was busy with the recruits , I feel like someone is physically stabbing me in the heart. ¡± Yang Changtian could no longer control his emotions.


    ¡° I apologise, master, but I request permission to leave.¡± Yang Changtian said bowing to his master before striding out the door.


    ¡°This child¡­.¡± Master Long shook his head sadly.


    He soon heard a knock on his door and he saw his other disciple Zhou Zilong at the door. ¡° Master, I just saw older brother walk away looking upset. Is he okay. Should I go check on him ?.¡±


    ¡° Leave him be Zilong, he just can''t cope well with his emotions right now, Hei¡¯er and old man Sun¡¯s attack was a major hit for him. Just let him sort his feelings out for a while.¡±


    ¡° Okay master., answered Zhou Zilong, Older brother¡¯s shock must be great. Sister Hei was always by his side when he needed help. He must be going to Xin Sui Mountain .Sister Hei and Uncle Sun, I hope you''re okay. Please come back soon for older brother and master.


    Yang Chantian decided to go to the only place where he was guaranteed some peace, Xin Sui Mountain. Jingyou and he came here a lot. Jingyou brought him to this place first when he was 13, his master punished him for not perfecting his all-seeing eye technique. To be fair it was during the fireworks festival and he wanted to see the fireworks.


    He decided to sneak out. He ran towards the Bihou sect and sneaked in. He managed to sneak past all the guards, but looking back now, he was sure they noticed him but decided to turn a blind eye. He reached Jingyou¡¯s courtyard, this place was made for her. He snuck in through the garden, the garden was expertly maintained by Jingyou herself, gardenias, magnolia and roses were always present in her garden giving off an irresistible scent. Yang Changtian loved to sleep amongst the bushes whenever he visited. Past the garden, is a small pond filled with lotus flowers. The moon shone bright over them, reflecting in the pond like a gateway to another world. The lotus flowers were still in bloom giving off a hauntingly mesmerising view.


    But he was not here to appreciate the beauty of the flowers. He decided that Jingyou might be asleep so he inched closer to the building. Soon a warm hand covered his mouth from behind and he felt someone appear behind him. He panicked for a minute but he heard a soft voice, ¡° Shhh Changtian it¡¯s me.¡±


    That''s when Yang Changtian found the shadows'' scent familiar. He turned around and saw that the person was wearing a gold mask with carvings of lotuses and gardenias. He immediately recognised his friend Hei Jingyou.


    ¡° Jingyou, don''t sneak up on me like that, it''s not nice.¡±


    ¡° What¡¯s not nice is you sneaking into the courtyard trying to wake me up in the middle of the night, Changtian,¡± answered Jingyou in a soft voice, a smile apparent in her voice. ¡° Now tell me why are you here ?¡±


    ¡° I want to go see the firework festival, come along with me please ?¡¯


    ¡° Sure,¡± she answered directly she never said no to Changtian.


    ¡° But it¡¯ll be dangerous for us to go to the city. How about this? I know this place has a great view of the fireworks. Let¡¯s go there .¡±


    ¡° Okay¡± Yang Changtian happily agreed, he didn''t mind as long as he got to see the fireworks.


    Together they snuck out and He Jingyoy led him to Xin Sui Mountain.


    ¡° Jingyou isn''t this the mountain that has the abandoned temple? ¡°


    ¡° Yes¡± confirmed Hei Jingyou people don''t come here anymore so the location is relatively isolated, and even if someone comes they won''t go beyond the temple. But I accompanied my master on a mission recently and I found a path to reach the top of the mountain. Follow me.¡±


    Yang Changtian nodded and followed behind Hei Jingyou.


    She soon led him into a wall covered with vines and she parted the vines revealing a cave. Together they entered the cave and Hei Jingyou pulled out a flame stick and blew on it and she held Changtian¡¯s hand with her free hand. ¡° Stay close to Changtian,¡± she said to him before going deeper into the cave and soon they saw a light at the other end of the cave.


    Soon they came out of the cave, and Yang Changtian found himself in front of a abandoned pathway running up the mountain.


    ¡° I don''t know who built it, but it sure is useful,¡± said Hei Jingyou jokingly.


    ¡° I know right,¡± replied Yang Changtian.


    They followed the path and they arrived at the top of the mountain. Hei Jingyou led him to a cliff and she sat down. Yang Changtian followed her and also sat down.


    ¡° When will the fireworks start ? ¡° asked Jingyou.


    ¡° I think soon, it''s about midnight now.¡±


    As soon as those words left Yang Changtian¡¯s mouth and woosh was heard and a flower of fire bloomed in the sky.Followed by another and another. Soon the whole sky was illuminated with fire flowers.


    ¡° They¡¯re very beautiful.¡±


    ¡° I know right.¡±


    Yang Changtian turned to Hei Jinguou and gave her a hug ¡° Thank you Jingyou.¡±


    Hei Jingyou hugged him back .¡± Don¡¯t thank me Changtian. I¡¯m your friend after all.¡±


    ¡° Still thank you.¡±


    Hei Jingyou¡¯s eyes lit up, but he couldn''t see her expression since she was wearing her mask. ¡° Let¡¯s go down now your master might be worried sick looking for you.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm, okay ¡° Yang Changtian sounded a little sulky. But he knew that he had to return soon.


    They stood up and walked towards the cave


    2 small backs, one in white and one in black, hand in hand walked towards the cave and disappeared into it.


    This spot became their safe place, their personal space. It witnessed them growing up together and as sad as it was , it was now witnessing only one of them returning to it.

 Ch 5 - Prince Jinlong

    This was the first time Yang Chantian came to the mountain alone. He half expected Jingyou to pop out from the cave. He really wished that all of this was just a dream. He closed his eyes . And pinched himself , wishing so hard that he was just stuck in a dream, and when he opened his eyes , everything would be back to normal. He believed that once he opened his eyes , Hei Jingyou would be standing next to him , carrying a bag full of lotus mooncakes. They were his favorite. He loved them so much that Hei Jingyou would make them for him a lot. Whenever she visited him , or when he visited her . She would always have some on her. The lotus filling of the mooncakes were made from the lotus seeds from the lotus she herself grows in her backyard pond.


    Those lotuses looked different from the normal lotuses , so they always piqued Yang Changtian¡¯s curiosity. They looked bigger than the average lotus , and their petals had a slight blue hue to them. At dusk the lotuses look completely blue , giving them a melancholic yet ethereal appearance.


    Him reminiscing about the lotuses reminds him, he pulled out a gold lotus embedded with blue stones , a lapel pin Hei Jingyou used to wear. He ran his fingers through the deep blue stones with specks of purple and pink. What really happened, Jingyou ? I feel it in my soul that you''re alive. But why did your spirit lamp get extinguished, in Uncle Sun okay too ?


    He closed his eyes and released a breath that he didn''t even realize that he was holding. He put the lotus pin back into his lapel. He lifted his head and looked far into the horizon. A wind blew , his robes flowing with it .


    ¡° Jingyou , I was serious when I casted the unbreakable promise talisman. I swear I will find you and if by any chance , heaven is cruel and you¡¯re dead , I will get your core or body back. Till I find them , I¡¯m alive.¡± Yang Changtian whispered , his words carrying away with the wind.


    Back in the present , Yang Changtian was feeling shocked. ¡° I never thought they¡¯d agree to help me , I still remember how Baihua looked at me when she learned about the truth. She was crushed .¡± Yang Changtian said softly , his voice barely audible.


    Master Long approached his dearest disciple and patted him on the shoulder.


    ¡° Go get some rest now Changtian, tomorrow , remember to go meet his Royal Highness Prince Jinlong before setting out , he said he wanted to give something to you.¡±


    ¡° Understood master , I¡¯ll go seek an audience with Prince Jinlong , early tomorrow. I request permission to take my leave master.¡± Yang Changtian bowed towards master Long and after master Long gave him permission , he turned around and walked out.


    Yang Changtian, walked through the building of his sect, past the main hall , memorial hall , training ground , and soon he reached his personal courtyard. Initially he occupied the courtyard given to the chief disciple , which was adjacent to Master Long¡¯s courtyard. But a few years back he felt that his quarters were extremely cramped . So he decided to move into an old courtyard that had not been used for some time. It borders a forest and small lake filled with lotuses, and has a relatively large area. When he moved in Yang Changtian cleaned up the garden and he asked his junior sister to help him with planting the garden. Now he boasts a garden filled with gardenias and roses. A group of ancient camellia shrubs border the pathway from the house to the lake. And on the lake , there was a floating pavilion. Yang Changtian liked to sit there admiring the sunset with a drink. The house was decorated simply , and had a bedroom , library and study , a small kitchen and a personal training ground. Yang Changtian was always someone who enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the people , but now that he¡¯s older he understands why some people prefer to be more reserved .


    He enters his yard , before locking the gate behind him. He removes his shoes before opening the door to his bedroom. After getting refreshed , he lay down on his bed and soon the exhaustion of the day caught up with him.


    The songs of the birds chirping , reminded him that she should wake up now. He got up and took a shower, before changing into his clothes. He heard a knock on his door , it must be Zhang Anying, he thought. When he went to open the door ,he was surprised to see Prince Jinlong standing there with his guard standing behind him. ¡°Prince Jinlong you didn''t have to come all the way here , I was just getting ready to go meet you.¡±


    ¡° That isn''t needed Changtian , you''re already doing me a huge favour and the least I could do is come meet you myself. I need to talk with you.¡±


    ¡° Sure your highness , let¡¯s head into the pavilion , it has more privacy.¡±


    ¡° Lead the way.¡±


    Yang Changtian led Wang Jinlong and his guard along the camellia lined path and soon they reached the pavilion .


    ¡° You really did a good job renovating this place.¡± exclaimed Prince Jinlong , looking around in mild surprise. ¡° It¡¯s surprising because I would''ve expected something like this from Jingyoiu , not you.¡± Yang Changtian nodded his head , ¡° I guess she impacted my preferences without me noticing, too ''cause if you told me that i would prefer a quiet place like this over a bustling and lively place a few years before , I would think you''re crazy.¡±


    Prince Jinlong gave out a laugh , and nodded in agreement.


    ¡°I heard your highness wanted to give me something ?¡±


    ¡° Ahh¡­. that¡¯s why I¡¯m here. A few days while sorting through the imperial archives , I came across this.¡± The guard handed a scroll to the prince. The Prince unrolled it and it was a painting of a beautiful lady. Her dark hair was curly , framing her face. Her eyes looked very feline , with deep pitch black pupils. Yang Changtian reached out to touch the painting''s eyes.¡± The eyes¡­.¡±


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    ¡° Familiar right , this is the portrait belonging to the head lady of the Hei Family.¡± replied Wang Jinlong observing Yang Changtian¡¯s reaction closely.


    A look of surprise and disbelief flashed across Yang Changtian¡¯s eyes, ¡° That means¡­.¡±


    ¡° Yes, that is Jingyou¡¯s mother. While we have never seen Jingyou¡¯s face before , it''s safe to say that she might look similar to her mother. Keep it , I already had the royal painters paint a copy. And it¡¯ll help greatly in your search¡±


    Yang Changtian was feeling 2 conflicting emotions at once. On one hand he was happy because he finally had an idea about what Jingyou looked like. On the other hand , he was sad because after all these years he only got a potential glimpse of what Jingyou might look like from a painting of her mom.


    ¡° She has curly hair too.¡± Yang Changtian replied. ¡° She also has the same black feline eyes.¡±


    ¡° Yes , they¡¯re certainly more exotic and rare features. No mistake in them being related.¡± Wang Jinlong said, shaking his head slightly .


    Yang Changitan agreed while still looking at the painting. After some time he stood up and bowed towards Prince Jinlong . ¡° Thank you , your highness. I will never forget your kindness.¡±


    Wang Jinlong hurriedly stood up , ¡° Stop this nonsense Changtian , we¡¯ve been friends for ages , don''t act so distant , besides Jingyou is my friend too. This is the least I can do for her. ¡° Wang Jinlong closed his eyes and shook his head. ¡° I really felt useless , i couldnt help you nor her , while you two have been helping me out my whole life, you¡¯re even helping me right now by going to investigate. So Yang Changtian , don''t thank me , it''s the least I could do.¡±


    ¡° You¡¯re highness , as your subordinates and your friends of course we¡¯ll help you, you don''t need to thank us for this. Now I request your permission to excuse myself, your highness, it''s almost time for me to set off.¡±


    ¡° Go ahead Changtian, I bid you a safe journey.¡±


    Yang Changtian bowed towards the prince and nodded towards the body guard before turning around to leave. He was halfway down the road when he heard Wang Jinlong call his name.


    ¡° Changtian ! If she''s still alive ¡­..You''ll find her right ? ¡°. Wang Jinlong¡¯s eyes misting up , likely from reminiscing about their childhood.


    Yang Changtian smiled at him slightly, ¡° Even if I have to die, your highness ,and if she¡¯s no longer alive , I will search for her remains. I will bring her back home .Then i wont see your highness out¡±


    Wang Jinlong smiled softly and nodded.


    Yang Changtian turned and continued on his way.


    Wang Jinlong turned and sat down . He turned to his guard. ¡° No one¡¯s here now Zhiyu , come and sit down.¡±


    Lan Zhiyu has been with Wang Jinlong since he was young , naturally he was familiar with Hei Jingyou and Changtian. Wang Jinlong and Yang Changtian were always rowdy and reckless, they ended up getting into trouble since young. And Hei Jingyou was the exact opposite , she was quiet and calm , preferring to keep to herself. She maintained a strict and busy schedule, but she always had time for them. Whenever she visited , she would bring some snacks for them. She even gave them to him.


    ¡° Yes, master, ¡° replied Lan Zhiyu before moving closer and sitting down. He pulled a bottle out and used the tea cups in the center of the table to serve his master some tea. The cups white with simple black paint strokes. Wang Jinlong drank the tea and he was looking at the cup curiously ¡° Master , do you really think she¡¯s still alive ? ¡°.


    Wang Jinlong closed his eyes , after a while he reopened them , they were misty. ¡° I really want her to be alive. But I don''t think she¡¯s alive. But I know Yang Changtian won''t stop, I can''t bear to make him stop either. Look around Zhiyu , you¡¯ve known them since they were young too. This whole place is obviously filled with the things she loved, and the whole building and even this pavilion is furnished according to her tastes. Yang Changtian loves flashy and lively things, yet here he is living in this isolated and peaceful courtyard. He clearly feels some strong emotions towards Jingyou, but I don''t think they''re simply what you would feel towards a friend, so how can I bear to tell him that she¡¯s probably dead.¡±


    Lan Zhiyu nodded in agreement. And he looked towards the lotuses blooming in the lake. ¡° I really hope she¡¯s alive too. When we were younger , when you and Changtian ran off and didn''t come back after sun down, your father almost punished me. He wanted to strike me with the paddle for my negligence , but right before the paddle made contact with my skin, she stopped the servant and saved me. I always thought that she''s someone cold and emotionless , but I realized how wrong I was at that moment. She managed to appease your father.¡±


    Wang Jinlong was surprised since he did not know that his father wanted to punish Zhiyu for his mess and he also didn''t know that Jingyou saved Zhiyu. ¡° Why didn''t you tell me this before? I would understand Jingyou not telling me because she¡¯s always been the type to keep to herself. But why didn''t you tell me ?¡±


    ¡° I didn''t want you to feel bad, master. You were already crying because you disturbed the whole mansion and Jingyou.¡±


    ¡° So what happened after , father didn''t punish you right ? ¡°


    ¡° No , Jingyou managed to get your father to go comfort your mother ,and after coming back she approached me and asked me if I was hurt. She then gave me some lotus pastries and wild berry candy , before asking me if I could help her find you 2. Naturally I agreed, then we spent the next 5 hours looking for you 2 .¡± a small smile grazed Lan Zhiyu¡¯s lips. ¡° We found you 2 asleep at the Temple of the Moon goddess. I¡¯m still surprised , you 3 are the same age , yet you 2 act like little toddlers while she was so mature, if i didnt know better i would¡¯ve thought she was older than me too.¡± Lan Zhiyu was chuckling while reminiscing , ¡° She then sent out a fire signal , alerting the others of your location. You two were so deep in sleep that you never even roused in your sleep. And we couldn''t carry you two back either so we waited till someone came to get us. While waiting she pulled out a blanket and covered you 2 with it. And she pulled out a bag of nuts and handed me some. I wanted to refuse so I started by addressing her formally, but before I could resume , she told me to just call her Jingyou. Then she told me to eat some nuts since I must''ve ran around a lot looking for you.That¡¯s when I realized that she was just misunderstood. She was the first person , excluding you, to treat me like a person.¡±


    Wang Jinlong moved his eyes away from Lan Zhuyi and also gazed at the lotuses. ¡° True , Jingyou was someone who didn''t care about your background or your status, she treated everyone equally, and while she liked to keep to herself , she was very kind. Me and Changtian always used to joke around that while her outer body was young , her soul was that of an old maiden , well in her 60¡¯s ¡±


    Lan Zhiyu nodded in agreement, chuckling , his smile faded off, ¡° Master, I really hope that she''s alive. She was a really good person¡±


    Wang Jinlong sighed before moving his eyes away from the lotuses back to his guard and friend¡¯s face. ¡° I do too, Zhiyu. But we can only hope for good news. Let¡¯s go back now, we¡¯ve overstayed our welcome already.¡±

 Ch 6 - Setting off

    After ending the meeting with the prince , Yang Changtian , returned to his humble home , Zhang Anying was waiting for him by the entrance.


    ¡° Brother Yang , I came to pick your luggage up when I saw you talking with his highness, the grand prince. I didn¡¯t want to disturb your conversation so I decided to wait here for you. What¡¯s that in your hand Brother Yang ?.¡±


    Yang Changtian lowered his eyes to glance at the scroll in his hand and his master¡¯s warning about a possible mole in their sect came to his mind. While Yang Changtian believed with his whole heart that it probably wasn''t Zhang Anying , there''s no harm in being careful. ¡° Oh this ? Recently his highness acquired a rare painting by the grand painter , and since he knows I like the grand painter''s work , he decided to give it to me early for my birthday. ¡°


    ¡° Oh , can I see it brother Yang? Sure Anying , just not today , since this piece is quite old it needs to be stored in a dry place away from humidity , and today is a relatively humid day , So opening it might cause some damages. So I¡¯ll show it to you when the weather is optimal.¡±


    Zhang Anying initially felt that something was off about Yang Changtian. But then again , Yang Changtian was a massive fan of the grand painter''s works , in the past he spent a lot of his earrings acquiring his paintings. And he has always been more particular and protective towards them. So Zhang Anying just brushed it off.


    ¡° Brother Yang, where are your luggage? Let me help you carry them.¡±


    ¡° They¡¯re over there by study .¡±


    Both of them entered the house and Zhang Anyng walked towards the study, Yang Changtian went into his room and after making sure Zhang Anying was busy , he lifted his silk mattress. He ran his hands over the wooden bed and pressed down . With a soft click , a mechanism revealed a secret compartment in the area where he places his head. Inside the Compartment was a box , he took the box out and opened it , inside lay the ghastly tiger medallion. He took out the medallion and hid it inside his robes. He then placed the scroll in the box before returning it to its hiding place.


    He barely managed to return his bed back to its former state , before Zhang Anying came to find him.


    Zhang Anying had all of his bags. Yang Changtian quickly stood up and walked over to grab a few bags to help Zhang Anying.


    They walked out of the door , and Zhang Anying waited for Yang Changtian to finish locking up.


    ¡° Is that everything Brother Yang ? , you sure did pack a lot .¡± Zhang Anying said, chuckling.


    ¡° What can I say , I¡¯m pretty high maintenance .¡± Yang Changtian joked back.


    ¡° Haiyahhh our young master is still so spoiled.¡±


    Jokingly, they walked towards the sect¡¯s main hall. In Front of the main hall , Master Long, Zhou Zilong and the other disciples were waiting for them.


    2 disciples approached them and took their bags, ¡° Senior brothers, we¡¯ll go load the luggage .¡±


    Yang Changtian nodded, ¡° Go ahead.¡± They then approach the group headed by their master.


    ¡°Master.¡± Greeted Yang Changtian and Zhang Anying.


    Master Long was stroking his beard. ¡° Changtian , did you pack everything you¡¯ll need ?¡±


    ¡° Master, he packed half of his belongings.¡± snorted Zhang Anying.


    And everyone burst into laughter.


    ¡° Changtian , child you¡¯re just going away for a while , it¡¯s not like you''re gonna be away for years.¡± Master Long teased chuckling.


    ¡° Master , I only packed the essentials.¡± replied Yang Changtian pouting.


    ¡° Whatever you say child.¡± said Master Long waving his hand.


    ¡° Yang Changtian , I heard that his highness the prince came to meet you today. Next time make sure you go to him, what you did was extremely rude.¡± A cold voice reprimanded him. Everyone turned around to see the head of the Guanghui¡¯s internal affairs , old madame Hua Jing. Hua Jing was the younger martial sister of Master Long. And quite contrary to her name , she was a very loud and obnoxious lady. And she was also extremely confrontational and nitpicking. She had problems with everyone. But due to his more free spirited and careless nature, she was especially at odds with Yang Changtian.


    ¡° Even Though you are childhood friends with him , he¡¯s still royalty. Do not forget that. You''ve already brought enough shame to our sect. ¡°


    Old madam Hua threw a massive fit when she heard what happened with the Bihou sect. She insisted that master Long should expel Yang Changtian from the sect , to prevent any more scandals and issues. This was quickly and strictly shut down by Master Long.


    ¡° That¡¯s enough Jing. This child is about to set off on a long journey and here you are trying to pick a fight. Stop it this instant.¡± Long Dacheng reprimanded her heavily .


    ¡° Madame Hua , I do apologise for causing an inconvenience ,but I must ask you to forgive Changtian.¡± Everyone turned to see Prince Jinlong and Lan Zhiyu walking towards them. ¡° Madame Hua , I¡¯ve been friends with Changtian since we were kids , and I also wanted to see him off before he sets off , especially since he¡¯s going on this journey to help me. So I must ask you to forgive me for causing such a commotion and inconvenience.¡°


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    ¡° You¡¯re highness , if anything he should be the one apologising. He¡¯s already caused so much ¡­¡±


    ¡° Silence Hua Jing ! His highness already asked you to forgive Changtian, so drop this matter this instant.¡± Master Long¡¯s usually soft spoken voice was stern and final.


    Old madame Hua , couldn''t say anything more , so she just kept quiet.


    ¡° We should set off now, master , we have to reach the town of Jingxi within 17 days , so we must hurry. ¡°


    Jingxi was the last city before you entered the Northern territory. From there on till they reach the border the only major town is Beifeng. Beifeng is the city that is currently hit by the mysterious monster plague. Jingxi was also the location of the northernmost branch of the Guanghui sect. Yang Changtian and his companions will stop at Jingxi for a while to gather more information and supplies before heading off to the extremely barren and isolated Beifeng.


    ¡° Okay , have a safe journey children. Remember to pick up the people joining you from the Bihou sect¡± Master Long replied.


    ¡° Yes master.¡±


    In addition to his 2nd and 3rd brothers , Zhang Anying and Zhou Zilong , 5 other minor disciples from his sect were joining Yang Changtian. They all bowed to pay respect to their master before mounting their horses to set off.


    With a kick , Yang Changtian¡¯s steed ,Lieyan , a magnificent horse of white and tan , with a long flowing mane , started to lead the group galloping towards the north. Leaving behind a cloud of dust. Their luggage carriage was trailing behind them at a slower pace.


    Long Dacheng , along with his other disciples and Prince Jinlong observed the group till the carriage was no longer visible.


    ¡ª-------.


    Yang Changtian and his group arrived at the Bihou sect. From a far they saw some loaded horses and people standing at the entrance of the sect. As they got closer they recognised a few familiar faces.


    The Huang twins , Master Li , Li Heng , and 2 other tall figures were standing together. One figure wore dark green robes , his hair was braided styled with some foreign ornaments. His eyes a unique shade of lilac. Yang Changtian , immediately recognised this as martial uncle Sun¡¯s youngest disciple , Mo Ling. A handsome lad of barely 36. He was well known for being a playboy. He was doted upon by all of his elders , resulting in him being an extremely carefree person , who always wanted to play around.


    The other figure exuded a more calmed energy. Clad in a grey robe , his hair was styled using a silver crown. His eyes were a hauntingly grey, with specks of black. Yang Changtian recognised him to be Li Cheng , Master Sun¡¯s second disciple and Jingyou¡¯s first brother. He was from a prominent scholar family from the West , so since childhood he preferred to be accompanied by books . Similar to Jingyou , he was a very quiet person , who never initiated a conversation.


    Seemingly alerted of their presence , those grey eyes were directed at the approaching group.


    Yang Changtin stopped and demounted his horse , and walked towards the group. Zhou Zilong and Zhang Anying followed him.


    They stopped in front of the other group. Huang Baihua smiled at them slightly .¡± Brother Yang, it''s been a while.¡±


    ¡° Yes Baihua , I hope everyone''s doing well ?.¡±


    ¡° We¡¯re all doing well Yang Changtian , let¡¯s cut to the chase.¡± Huang Baicheng cut in coldly. ¡° Brother Li Cheng and Mo Ling will be joining you on this mission. 3 other disciples from our sect will be accompanying them.¡±


    Yang Changtian nodded at Huang Baicheng, ¡° Thank you for lending us a hand.¡±


    Before Huang Baicheng could say anything , Huang Baihua answered, ¡° Brother Yang , this mission is for the sake of the kingdom and and for Prince Jinlong , who¡¯s been a forever ally and friend of our sect, so of course we will lend you a helping hand.¡± She smiled softly at them before turning to Li Cheng and Mo Ling. Brother Li , I wish you a safe journey , Mo Ling , be sure to behave and keep your older brother safe.¡±


    Li Cheng wordlessly nodded at her , while Mo Ling answer in an annoyed tone. ¡° Sister Hua , I¡¯m not a child , i know how to distinguish between fun time and serious affairs. ¡°


    Mo Ling helped Li Cheng onto the carriage , before mounting his own horse. The other disciples followed his lead. Li Cheng has always been weak , so riding would take a great toll on his weak body.


    Huang Baicheng , walked closer to Li Cheng¡¯s carriage and knocked on the window . After Li Cheng opened the window , he whispered something to Li Cheng. Li Cheng looked at him for a second , before nodding and patting Huang Baicheng¡¯s head. Huang Baicheng bowed at him before stepping away from the carriga and Li Cheng closed the window again.


    Huang Baicheng then approached Mo Ling , ¡° Ling , remember to be careful and cautious of everyone.¡±


    Mo Ling shot a quick glance at Yang Changtian and his group before looking back at Baicheng nodding, ¡° Yes Brother Huang.¡±


    Mo Ling¡¯s not so secretive glance was noticed by Yang Changtian and the others. Zhang Anying felt wronged, it¡¯s been so many years. He opened his mouth to say something but Zhou Zilong shot him a look that shut him up.


    Yang Changtian knew that they still held some enmity towards them , so he was a little sad.


    Huang Baihua must¡¯ve noticed the flash of self depreciation that passed through his face , because she approached him ,and secretly handed him a small bag. ¡° Brother Yang , here¡¯s a small gift. Have a safe journey .¡±


    She whispered softly, before she could say anymore , Huang Baicheng¡¯s cold voice rang out. ¡° Baihua , come back , what do you think you''re doing ?¡±


    ¡° I was just bidding Brother Yang a safe journey, ¡° she replied hurrying back to her brother¡¯s side.


    ¡° Then we will depart now Older brother , sister .¡± Mo Ling said loudly before kicking his horse.


    Yang Changtian , Zhou Zilong and Zhang Anying also mounted their horses and they soon caught up with the other group.


    The Huang twins were standing near the entrance of the Bihou sect , they watched till they disappeared into the horizon. Baihua turned towards her older brother. ¡° Brother , aren¡¯t you a little too harsh on them.?¡±


    ¡° Baihua , if anything I¡¯m not harsh enough. Let me remind you that our sister and master disappeared because of their fault. If this mission wasn''t for the sake of Wang Jinlong , I won''t even bother to lend them people.¡± With that he turned to go back in.


    Huang Baihua , still staring at the horizon, asked in a soft voice, ¡° If you hate them so much , why did you ask Older brother and Mo Ling to help them ?¡±


    Huang Baichneg stopped in his tracks, ¡° You¡¯re thinking too much Baihua , older brother wanted to go , and Mo Long is the most suitable to protect him.¡± Without turning back , he resumed his walking.


    A small smile broke out on Baihua''s face , she turned to look at her brother¡¯s disappearing back. ¡° Oh dear brother , who are you trying to fool? Even Though you still hate him for what happened , you still want to help him.¡±


    She turned back to look at the sky, ¡° Sister , look at your 2nd brother. He''s acting all tough and angry , yet he sent Elder brother Li Cheng and Mo Ling to help Brother Yang. ¡°


    Chuckling to herself , Huang Baihua turned to walk into the sect.

 Ch 7 - Li Cheng and Mo Ling

    The day¡¯s final rays were piercing through the canopy , a small breeze rustling the leaves softly. A fawn was grazing peacefully , its mother by its side . The songs of the birds saturate the environment with its sweet melody, painting a picture of peace and harmony.


    All of a sudden the deer mother stopped eating and perked up its ears, she seemed to be detecting some sort of approaching danger. At the same moment a faint thump sounding could be heard.


    The fawn and the deer were frightened, they stopped eating and ran away , shattering the image of peace .


    The once faint sound of thumping was now rapidly evolving into a thunderous roar, occasionally accompanied by some destroyed voices. A group of people on horses were galloping through the forest , a man wearing white robes , his stead a eye-catching tan colour was in the lead , followed closely by another man in green robes and the rest of their entourage was trailing behind them.


    Yang Changtian slowed down , and he gradually came to a stop . He scanned the area, they could hear water flowing and the area was covered by ancient trees. Mo Ling soon came to a stop beside him. Yang Changtian ,turned to him, ¡° I think this is a good place to rest tonight , the horses need some rest and Li Cheng must also be feeling suffocated and tired.¡±


    Mo Ling nodded at him , and turned around and signaled their group to take a break. He then dismounted his horse , and asked 3 people to join him to go look for the river. Together they walked in the direction of the noise.


    Yang Changtian also dismounted , and led his horse to rest under a tree , Zhou Zilong and Zhang Anying joined him under the tree. Yang Changtian noticed that Mo Ling didnt inform Li Cheng before strutting off in search of water . He smiles to himself shaking his head , This kid never changes , he¡¯s lucky he''s got some caring seniors. Yang Changtian got up and walked towards the carriage Li Cheng was riding and knocked softly on the door. ¡° Brother Li , we have decided to stay here for the night , Mo Ling went to find water , he forgot to inform you.¡±


    The door opened and Li Cheng stepped out. Yang Changtian extended his hand to help Li Cheng down. Li Cheng looked at Yang Changtian¡¯s face , and extended his hand to him. After Yang Changtian helped him down , Li Cheng turned towards him, ¡° Brother Yang thank you for helping me. It¡¯s been less than a day but that stupid brat already forgot that he¡¯s here to help me.¡± Li Cheng¡¯s voice was soft and peaceful as always.


    Yang Changtian was surprised that Li Cheng talked to him , he expected him to be angry at him too , but he hid his surprise to avoid making things awkward.


    Li Cheng looked towards the others ,and sighed softly, shaking his head. ¡° Mo Ling , that brat should be grateful that Baicheng isn''t here , otherwise he would have strangled him before punishing him.¡±


    Yang Changtian burst into laughter , ¡° He¡¯s spoiled since everyone treats him like a baby , only Brother Huang bothers to teach him a lesson. Brother Li , please come sit with us.¡±


    Li Cheng nodded before following Yang Changtian , they reached the tree and they sat down next to Zhou Zilong and Zhang Anying.


    Zhang Anying was shocked, he lifted his head up and saw the oldest senior brother speaking with Brother Li , Li Cheng said something and Yang Changtian burst into laughter , then Yang Changtian led Li Cheng towards the place they were resting at. And even more surprisingly Li Cheng sat down next to Yang Changtian.


    Yang Changtian saw Zhang Anying looking at Li Cheng weirdly. Zhou Zilong was also looking at Zhang Anying , knowing their junior brother well , they both knew that he was about to do something stupid.


    But before they could stop him , Zhang Anying looked at Li Cheng and asked him, ¡° Senior Li, did you forgive the oldest senior brother ? The other members from your sect¡¯s treating us like we don''t exist, they¡¯re acting so rude.It¡¯s been 20 years already.¡±


    Li Cheng was surprised for a minute but it was soon replaced with an unreadable look. He glanced at all 3 of them briefly before sighing , ¡° Look you can¡¯t really blame them for treating you like that.¡±


    ¡° Then why aren''t you also ignoring us, you did so for 20 years so why stop now ?¡± Yang Changtian and Zhou Zilong both felt like burying Zhang Anying alive , Li Cheng was being nice to them and here this idiot was , constantly asking him awkward questions and criticising him and the Bihou sect. Zhou Zilong smacked Zhang Anying on the head , and stood up dragging Zhang Anying along , he made Zhang Anying bow towards him before doing the same.


    ¡° Senior brother Li , I apologise on his behalf , he was not trying to criticize the members of the Bihou sect.¡±


    Li Cheng was staring at them with an unreadable expression , his lips pressed and eyes narrowed.


    ¡° Li Cheng , do forgive this child for his mindless words , you know he''s always been rough with words.¡± Yang Changtian was feeling so angry at Zhang Anying. After 20 years of ignoring him , Li Cheng, one of the closest people to Jingyou, was willing to talk to him. Yet this bumbling buffoon decided to potentially ruin everything.


    Li Cheng averted his gaze from Zhang Anying to look at Yang Changtian. ¡° I understand that he¡¯s just standing up for you Changtian , but he better not say anything in front of the others.¡±


    ¡° Of course Li Cheng , I¡¯ll make sure he doesn''t do that again. Anying , go gather some food.¡±


    Yang Changtian¡¯s voice was strict , clearly stating that he doesn''t want a single word out of Zhang Anying¡¯s mouth.


    Zhang Anying , looking down at his shoes sniffing , he felt very aggrieved. He half heartedly bowed towards the seniors and went to gather some disciples to go look for food.


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    After Zhang Anying left , Zhou Zilong and Yang Changtian apologised to Li Cheng again. We¡¯ll make sure he doesn''t screw his words up in front of the others again.


    Li Cheng nodded at them , after a while he looked at Yang Changtian, ¡° Changtian , I suppose you''re curious about why I¡¯m not angry at you.¡±


    Yang Changtian was taken aback , but after a while he shook his head , ¡° While it¡¯s true that I was taken aback when you talked to me , I won''t push you for answers. ¡±


    Li Cheng smiled at Yang Changtian , ¡° At first I was very angry at you , in fact when i got back and learned about it , I was breaking things left and right trying to control my rage , soon i found myself on the path to senior sister¡¯s quarters, and after what felt like hours i found myself in her garden. At that moment , the familiar scent calmed me down a little , enough for me to stop my destruction. I slowly entered my Senior sister¡¯s home and curled up in her study, and for once in my life I didn''t know what to do. I''ve always been praised for being intelligent , strategic and being able to go with the flow , but for the first time I was at a loss. So I stayed there for hours just crying. But I knew I had to pull myself up, for the sect , the legacy of Master and Sister must go on¡± Li Cheng¡¯s eye¡¯s were getting slightly glazed , so was Zhou Zilong¡¯s and Yang Changtian¡¯s.


    Soon , I was able to control my emotions , I finally had enough strength to pull myself up. I decided to walk around Sister¡¯s quarters. And I know that she would never blame you , and I knew that I shouldn''t be angry at you too. If Sister was here she would say that it¡¯s not your fault and you were taken advantage of, but I couldn''t just forgive you , so I decided to do the next best thing , live you like you didnt exist, I won''t forgive you ,but I also won''t hate you . But for the last 20 years , I had a lot of time to think and sort my feelings. I know for a fact that if Sister was here , she would be mad at me for treating you like that. But I didn''t know how to approach you , so when I heard that Prince Jinlong was sending you on a journey to investigate, I wanted to join you. My chance came when your Master sent our sect a request for assistance , so I volunteered along with Mo Ling. At first Baicheng didn''t want to help , he¡¯s still angry at you , but somehow Baihua managed to convince him.¡±


    ¡° While Brother Huang acted all angry and pissed at you , deep down he wanted to help you. He¡¯s just a big meanie on the outside.¡± A playful voice broke through the air , stopping Li Cheng from continuing. All 3 , Li Cheng , Yang Changtian and Zhou Zilong turned to see Mo Ling approaching them skipping , a teasing smile on his lips.


    ¡° Huang Baicheng hates you , yes. But at the same time , he can''t bring himself to treat you with hatred, he grew up under Oldest Sister after all. ¡° He sat down next to Zhou Zilong .


    Li Cheng had a soft smile on his face, ¡° I knew it , knowing Baicheng , I was surprised. Normally when he makes his mind up , not even god can change him , let alone his sister.¡±


    Mo Ling was chuckling now, ¡° Yeah , and he was acting like an asshole because he had a massive ego and he¡¯s embarrassed.


    ¡° He did hate you for sure ,¡± Li Cheng continued, ¡° But I can assure you that he probably wasn''t too angry at you later.¡±


    Yang Changtian was surprised at this , from his most recent interactions and his final interaction with him 20 years ago , Huang Baicheng was very angry at him. He suddenly felt a sadness in his heart. He lived the past 20 years thinking he was completely hated by the Bihou sect.


    ¡° Just to be clear , some of our sect members do still hate you. Li Heng hates you with passion . The remaining , they just don''t like you or aren''t familiar with you.¡± Li Cheng turned to gaze at the setting sun.


    ¡° Pssshh, Li Heng, that little prick is only mad because he liked Sister. I heard some juniors under him gossiping that he was going to express  Older Sister his intention to court her.¡± Mo Ling was laughing while patting Zhou Zilong¡¯s shoulder.


    ¡° Mo Ling don''t be rude , remember he¡¯s your elder and also leave that poor boy Zilong alone.¡± Li Cheng directed a warning at Mo Ling, ¡° Besides, don''t make me tell Baicheng that you just left me with them without even informing me that you were going somewhere.¡±


    Mo Ling immediately stopped his patting and sat straight , his eyes slightly glazed, ¡° Oldest brother don¡¯t tell Brother Huang , he¡¯s gonna take away my free time and allowance again.¡± Mo Ling was pleading.


    ¡° Then be sure to be on your best behavior from now on.¡±


    Zhou Zilong was looking at this scene with relish , he felt a slight sense of Schadenfreude.  Serves you right for that , my shoulder hurts from all your patting , he sneered in his mind.


    Amidst this scene , Yang Changtian was lost , when he heard that Li Heng was planning on courting Jingyou , he had a weird feeling , he was feeling jealous. His relationship with JIngyou was always strong , and he knew that she would be by his side for a long time , so he was not too worried . He had forgotten that Hei Jingyou wasn''t just his friend . She was a chief disciple , a future sect head , an older sister , but most important of all , she was a woman. She would''ve gotten married , and had a family. She was his friend and he was supposed to be happy , but for some reason , the idea of Jingyou being close with someone else and creating a family with them , left a very bitter taste in Yang Changtian¡¯s mouth.


    This feeling only developed recently , ever since she went missing , he felt insecure , he wanted to find her and keep her by his side again. His turbulent emotions were displayed on his face.


    Zhou Zilong noticed the conflict on his Senior Brother¡¯s face. At first he was confused , but soon enough he guessed that it was probably about Li Heng wanting to court Hei Jingyou. ¡® Just idiotic does senior have to be , he¡¯s clearly being jealous , he¡¯s probably imagining Sister Jingyou getting married to Li Heng and having a family.¡¯ Zhou Zilong sneered in his mind. ¡® Just how dull can he be , I¡¯m willing to bet my whole wealth , that he probably still thinks he sees Sister Jingyou as a friend,¡¯ Zhou Zilong was having a full blown conversation with himself in his head , about how much of an idiot his Senior was, but then he remembered something.


    He turned to Li Cheng , ¡° Senior brother Li , I was wondering. According to the sect rules , wasn''t the position of sect head supposed to go to you ? But brother Huang is the current sect head.¡±


    Mo Ling answered instead of Li Cheng, ¡° Oldest Senior brother always preferred to stay away from things like that , and he wasn''t really in a really good place mentally for some time. During that time Brother Huang did a wonderful job, so Li Cheng handed the sect over to him to manage. Brother Li wanted to live idly in peace , while Huang Baicheng was good with sect affairs , so it was a win-win situation.¡±


    Li Cheng gave Mo Ling a look and sighed in exasperation. ¡° What this brat said is relatively correct , but more than that , Sister was the one trained to manage the sect in the future and Huang Baicheng was always assisting her , so he was more familiar with the workings. Besides looking at this kid , almost everyone in our sect is eccentric in some way , I didn''t want to deal with them. So I just handed the position to Baicheng.¡±


    Before they could continue , a disciple that left with Zhang Anying came running , he was clearly panicking. ¡° Senior brothers , Senior Brother Anying and we were hunting and gathering food , when we spotted a group of masked people attacking a group of people. Brother Anying and the other¡¯s started to fight the assailants , but they''re numbers keep increasing. He sent me back to get reinforcements.

 Ch 8 - Normal Bandits ?

    A disciple that left with Zhang Anying to look for food was running towards them. He looked panicked. ¡° Oldest senior brother , we need back up.¡± he managed to spit out while panting.


    Zhou Zilong and Yang Changtian stood up immediately, ¡° Be clear , what happened ?¡±.


    The disciple stood straight and told them that when he along with Zhang Anying and the others went to gather food , they saw a group of people pass through , after a while they heard the sound of swords clashing , so they went to investigate. They saw that a group of masked people were attacking the group.


    ¡° They seemed outnumbered so senior Zhang decided to lend them a helping hand , but the masked assailants just keep coming. Senior instructed me to run back and get back up.¡±


    Yang Changtian and Zhou Zilong looked at each other , then  turned to Mo Ling . ¡° Mo Ling , stay here to protect your senior brother , we will lead the remeing disciples to provide support.¡±


    Mo Ling nodded, ¡° Brother Yang , take the members of our sect too , they¡¯re specially trained in hand to hand combat so they will be helpful ,¡± before Yang Changtian could refuse , Li Cheng turned to the disciples of the Bihou sect , ¡° Heed my orders ,¡± the disciples stood straight alert and bowed ¡° Give us your orders oldest senior brother.¡±


    ¡®Why can''t our disciples be as well behaved as their disciples?¡¯, Zhou Zilong thought sourly. ¡® They¡¯re like well behaved soldiers , while our disciples sometimes act like animals.¡¯


    ¡° Go provide support for the Guanghui sect.¡± Li Cheng instructed them with a firm voice.


    The Bihou sect disciples all bowed again before scattering to grab their weapons.


    ¡° Li Cheng ¡­.. Thank you. ¡° Yang Changtian then turned to Zhou Zilong, ¡° Zilong stay behind with Mo Ling to protect Li Cheng. ¡°


    Zhou Zilong nodded in acknowledgement.


    The disciples came back and formed a line. Yang Changtian then asked the disciple who was sent to get back up to show them the way. They all mounted their horses and left .


    The wind was blowing fast , brushing against Yang Changtian¡¯s face , while he looked calm , internally he was conflicted. A group of people passing through this forest ? This road was only used by people who were heading to the northern territories. And now a group of formidable assailants are attacking them , the disciples from the Guanghui sect are trained in a vary of combat skills , they¡¯re skills are far better than that of the bandits , they shouldn''t have any problem taking down hundreds of them , but they were pushed to the point of needing backup. They can''t be simple bandits. The group they''re attacking surely aren''t normal people either. We have to be careful.


    His train of thoughts was interrupted by the sound of clashing swords. He immediately redirected his horse to the direction the clashes came from. Soon enough he found himself facing a bloody fight, he spotted Zhang Anying fighting with a masked man in black , he then spotted another black man trying to attack Zhang Anying from behind.


    ¡° Anying lookout ! ¡° Yang Changtian was far away to do anything , he could only watch , hoping Zhang Anying could evade him . Zhang Anying heard Yang Changtian¡¯s warning, he killed the man he was fighting by slashing the neck and wanted to turn around and beat the other masked man too, but he was too late to react , he saw the masked man¡¯s sword coming down towards him . Suddenly Yang Changtian noticed 2 small daggers flying towards the man one after the other , one struck the man''s knife , knocking it away while the other struck the man directly in the neck killing him instantly, he expected the man¡¯s blood to drench Zhang Anying but to his surprise he wasn''t bleeding , now that he think about it , the area barely had blood , even though the degree of violence in the fight was evident, the only blood seem to come from their own injured , not the assailants.


    Yang Changtian immediately swirled around to spot the person who threw the daggers. He saw a young man , his hair pinned up using a gold crown , wearing deep blue robes with white embroidery. He was fighting alongside another man in red robes. From one look Yang Changtian knew this person was from a privileged background. The cloth used to make his robes were extremely hard to come by , only a few yards were produced every year , so it was scarcely used ,  even by the very wealthy. Yet here this man was , decked out in a whole robe made from it. What was a person like this doing here? Yang Changtian had an uneasy feeling in his heart , but he didn''t have time to dwell upon it. The young man in blue made eye contact with Yang Changtian and nodded before resuming his fight , he was accompanied by a few people also engaging in their own battle , 2 other people caught Yang Changtian¡¯s eyes , one was also likely a young man , but his feminine and soft features brought that into question, this person was wearing a black robe , the other person was a tall and rugged man with a scar across his cheek giving him a dangerous look , he was wearing a brown robe. All three of them seemed to be well trained in combat skills . The androgynous looking young man turned to Yang Changtian , ¡° They aren''t human , they''re clay puppets so the easiest way to kill them is to slash them in the neck.¡± Yang Changtian could only nod. He soon turned to the disciples and instructed them to target the necks.


    Then another group of masked people appeared, ¡° They just  keep coming like ants attracted to sugar Senior brother. One of our disciples already lost their life , 2 are seriously injured.¡± Zhang Anying reported.


    ¡° You did well, Anying , let me handle this now.¡± Yang Changtian said before entering the fight leading the disciples he brought along. Yang Changtian and his sect¡¯s disciples were taught to fight with the long sword, while robust and domineering , this weapon has its limitations attributed to its large size and inflexible nature.


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    The disciples from the Bihou sect pulled out short curved sickle like swords , Yang Changtian was surprised to see them , these swords were developed by Hei Jingyou and Huang Baihua together a few years back, they named it the crescent moon sword , and while it operated in a way similar to a short sword , the curved nature of it made it faster and sharper. In addition to that it could be used as a throwing weapon , instantly able to decapitate a man. The only limitation to this sword was the compulsory need to have a good aim , but from what he was seeing , the disciples from the Bihou sect were all extremely well trained in handling this weapon.


    The tide , which was initially against them due to the sheer number of masked men , was slowly tuning  to their favour.


    The fight was silently observed by 2 men hidden in a tree , also masked. One of them clenched his hand , he turned to the other , ¡° Tell them to withdraw for now , they¡¯re too strong , any further assault will result in major losses to us, we¡¯ve already exhausted our clay puppets.¡± The other man bowed before jumping down to pass on the order.


    The remaining masked man , likely the leader of the assailants, heard a sharp whistling sound , he turned just in time to have a dagger graze his cheek, cutting his mask. The dagger embedded itself neatly into the tree centimeters away from him. His eyes widened , he whipped his head to look at the person who attacked him , only to encounter a young man staring directly at him , a small smirk evident on his lips, he was clearly concealed by the tree , but it felt as if the youngster could see him hidden amongst all the foliage. He felt chills go down his body, this young man isn''t sometimes easy to mess with . He was no longer safe here , he had to escape. The young man clearly had the ability to kill him , yet he didn''t , it was almost as if he was mocking him and sending him a clear message. It¡¯s been a while since he felt threatened , but his senses never betrayed him , he quickly jumped down the tree and escaped , cursing the man who assigned them the task of ambushing and killing the young man and his group.


    Yang Changtian slashed another in the neck , and the man fell to the ground dead. The constant wave of assailants stopped.


    Yang Changtian saw the puppets stopping in their tracks before turning around and fleeing , some disciples wanted to give them a chase but Yany Changtian stopped them. He soon heard a sharp sound cutting through the air , he whipped around to see the young man in blue throw a knife into a tree. In the next moment a man dressed in black jumped down from the tree before escaping. Yang Changtian could¡¯ve sworn he saw the young man smirking at the tree coldly , but in the next second , his face was back to being emotionless , making Yang Changtian almost doubt his eyes. ¡® This person isn''t someone simple¡¯ Yang Changtian repeated in his mind for the hundredth time.


    The young man in blue and his companions approached Yang Changtian and the others. The androgynous looking man bowed and introduced himself first.


    ¡° Greetings sirs , My name is Jin Wei , the big man here is called Da Xiong , ¡° Zhang Anying, despite being injured , almost burst into laughter after hearing their names. Yang Changtian gave him a warning look. So Zhang Anying choked back his laughter.


    ¡®... and this here is Liu Ying.¡¯ Jin Wei introduced the person in blue , now that they¡¯re closer , Yang Changtian noticed that though this person was tall , she was a female.  Her fox-like eyes seemed to be able to see through everything.


    Jin Wei kept saying, ¡° We really don''t know how to thank you kind sirs, who would''ve thought that we would come under these people¡¯s attacks. Allow us to thank you , please accept this small token , you can hand this to the Imperial Investigation department , the officers there will reward you handsomely. ¡°


    Yang Changtian silently took the token and observed it. The Imperial Investigation department huh , Yang Changtian remembered his master mentioned them not long ago. 10 years after the disappearance of Sun Xiandong and Hei Jingyou , the current king followed the ideas of the previous king to establish this sectrevie department.


    It was and still remains extremely secretive, in fact it was so secretive that the Guanghui sect had no intel on this department , these people appearing here wasn''t so simple after all , they must be under the orders of the king to also investigate the crazy killing disease. He was lost in his thoughts while studying the token , it had a carving of a dragon roaring.


    ¡° Jin Wei dont bother , that¡¯s Yang Changtian the chief disciple of the Guanghui sect. And from the weapons they''re holding , they should be Guanghui and Bihou sect disciples.¡± a cold voice sounded , interrupting Yang Changtian¡¯s thoughts.


    Yang Changtian raised his head only to see the fox-like eyes of the girl in blue gazing at him.


    Yang Changtian pulls his sword out and points it at her. ¡° You know me ?¡±


    Before the girl could answer , the big guy , Da Xiong, stopped in front of her covering her , ¡° She knows everything , she¡¯s the archive manager of our department. She manages the gathering and storing of data. ¡° His smooth voice rang out. Everyone was surprised as they had expected him to sound similar to his looks , gruff , but his voice was calming and soft.


    ¡° Mr. Yang , I must ask you to put your sword away. You are currently pointing your sword at 3 core members of the king''s personal investigative department.¡± Da Xiong was staring directly into Yang Changtian¡¯s eyes.


    After a while , Yang Changtian put his sword away. Zhang Anying could finally breathe again , the big guy was right , while Yang Changtian himself was in a high position , standing in front of them were people with a similar status , who can only be dispatched by the emperor¡¯s direct orders , they shouldn''t be messed with.


    Yang Changtian wasnt afraid of them, but he didn''t want to clash with the emperor''s people , Wang Jinlong was still under the suspicions that he wanted to usurp the throne  , so he didn''t want to clash with these people and create any problems for his friend. In addition to that , he sensed that they don''t have any ill intentions , so he decided to drop it for now.


    ¡° So it turns out to be Mr. Yang .¡± Jin Wei spoke out, ¡° what a perfect coincidence,¡± his tone light and friendly. ¡° His Majesty the emperor heard about the mysterious illness spreading in the north that drives people mad , he was greatly alarmed to know that his precious citizens were suffering so when he heard that his Highness prince Jinlong dispatched a group of people from the 2 great sects  he personally dispatched us to come and join you.¡±


    Jin Wei pulled out a scroll with golden dragon patterns. Zhang Anying¡¯s eyes almost popped out from their sockets, he quickly rushed towards Yang Changtian , ¡° Senior brother Yang thats¡­ thats¡­..¡±.


    ¡° Yes ¡­..it''s a royal decree.¡±

 Ch 9 - The Bet

    Jin Wei pulled out a scroll with golden dragon patterns. Zhang Anying¡¯s eyes almost popped out from their shocked ¡° Senior brother Yang thats¡­ thats¡­..¡±.


    ¡° Yes ¡­..it''s a royal decree.¡±


    Jin Wei smirked and held out the imperial decree for Yang Changtian to take. ¡° Mr. Yang , his Majesty the king, instructed us to hand this over to you when we caught up with you.¡±


    Yang Changtian¡¯s eyes were locked onto the decree. Zhang Anying, ever the clueless one, could also feel that the decree wasn''t something good.


    Yang Changtian stayed silent for a while contemplating. If he accepted this , then he would be under the constant supervision of the king, but if he didn''t accept it , he risks landing both himself and Prince Jinlong in trouble. ¡®What a troublesome situation ¡® Yang Changtian sighed in his head.


    He raised his eyes to look at Jin Wei , who was looking at him with a provocative look , almost taunting him . Yang Changtian¡¯s eyes then moved to glance at Da Xiong , before settling on Liu Ying. His eyes lingered on Liu Ying for a while before returning to Jin Wei. He let out a small sigh before taking the decree from Jin Wei. While he was divided over it , he knew that refusing to accept it would only make matters worse. And he was also curious as to what the king was planning. Then there¡¯s also the matter of the attackers. Just who would try to kill them , looks like there¡¯s something to them that doesn''t match up with what they''re saying. For now let¡¯s keep them close.


    A faint look of surprise flashed through Jin Wei¡¯s expression, he heard about Yang Changtian¡¯s stubborn, arrogant and prideful personality , so he was sure that Yang Changtian wasn''t going to agree. Then what Liu Ying said about him flashed through his head.


    ¡° I¡¯m 100 % sure , based on Yang Changtian¡¯s personality, he¡¯s not going to accept this. ¡° Jin Wei snickered , he was sitting with Da Xiong under a tree , 4 days ago they received an order from the king to catch up with Yang Changtian¡¯s group and hand him the Imperial decree ordering him to merge the team from the Imperial Investigation department with is group and collectively investigate the matter of the North¡¯s crazy plague.


    ¡° That guy has always been so arrogant and haughty , and he¡¯s best friends with Prince Jinlong. There¡¯s no way he would willingly accept the king¡¯s order. ¡° Jin Wei was snickering to himself. Da Xiong sighed in his heart , he knows Jin Wei well as he¡¯s been his assigned partner since the establishment of the Investigation Department. Jin Wei was a major drama queen, he loves causing drama and worse ,  he loves interfering with other¡¯s dramas. Da Xiong could bet his right hand that the only reason Jin Wei volunteered to complete the task was because he found it fun. Da Xiong secretly rolled his eyes.


    ¡° But I still don''t understand the need for the internal analyst to join this trip , she¡¯s always stayed away from field work. A senior analyst would be more than enough for this case.¡± Jin Wei wondered out loud. Da Xiong also fell into deep contemplation.


    The Internal Analyst, the head analyst and archive manager of the Imperial Investigative department and one of its founding members . A person so rarely seen , that there were rumours starting that she wasn''t a real person. So Da Xiong and Jin Wei were surprised to find out during the briefing that they will be travelling with the internal analyst. They were more surprised when the great internal analyst turned out to be a tall and handsome young girl with fox-like eyes , her predatory eyes looking and seeing everything.


    ¡° I heard that she can only be dispatched by the King personally , ¡° Da Xiong replied , ¡° So the matter can¡¯t be as simple as you say.¡±


    Jin Wei thought for a moment , but before he could say anything , they heard a soft shuffling above their sitting place , and the next moment the very person they were gossiping about jumped down . landing perfectly on her feet . She turned to look at them , her lips curved into a smile , a sinister one.


    ¡° I should probably tell Senior Hua to discipline you two , you dare to gossip about such things out in the open.¡± Jin Wei and Da Xiong quickly stood up bowing to the person in front of them.


    ¡° Senior , we didn''t mean to-¡±


    ¡° Don¡¯t bother with apologies , i don''t mind you gossiping , cause it''s not my business , but i do have an issue with you two speaking about it in the open , where potential enemies can gather information ¡° Liu Ying replied her voice cold. She then looked at the two infront of her , taking her sweet time , as if she was analyzing them.


    Jin Wei and Da Xiong felt a shiver go up their spines. Their shivering did not escape Liu Ying¡¯s eyes, she sighed before sitting down. ¡° You two sit down first , we must discuss our further course of action.¡±


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    Jin Wei and Da Xiong looked at each other before sitting back down.


    Liu Ying looked at them for a while before bursting into laughter. ¡° Don¡¯t act like I¡¯m some sort of monster , I won¡¯t eat you. Now first, I understand both of you are confused about my participation in this case, and since you two would probably be my partners for a while I have to debrief you two about the current situation.¡± Liu Ying¡¯s voice softened , by no means was it warm and friendly but it was an improvement from her usually cold and sharp voice.  This made Jin Wei and Da Xiong feel slightly at ease. ¡° It¡¯s true that initially we suspected that the crazy plague might be something more simple like madness caused by the heavy corpse miasma due to the high concentration of dead bodies up in the north, in fact survey¡¯s show that for every alive person , we have around 50 dead ones. And with less than ideal conditions of life , with a major lack of basic needs and greater use for firewood , it¡¯s not a plausible solution to burn the dead bodies , so most of them were buried , causing a spike in corpse miasma. But recently , my scouts in the north reported that there are signs of sabotage to the only water source in the area. So the king asked me to go check it out personally. ¡° Liu Ying continued.


    ¡° Wait Senior Liu , do you mean that the plague spreading was done by someone deliberately ? But who would be so cruel ? ¡° Da Xiong was shocked. He couldn''t imagine someone doing this especially to people who are already suffering so much. He clenched his fist tightly.


    Jin Wei was also shocked after he heard about the situation , he admitted that didn''t think much of this issue , if it was corpse miasma it would be relatively easy to resolve. But it turns out to be intentional sabotage.He felt a sense of unease creep into his heart , he was starting to regret volunteering.


    Liu Ying noticed his unease , she burst into laughter ,¡± Let me guess Jin Wei , already regretting it aren''t you.¡± Jin Wei was surprised that she was able to guess his thoughts so easily, but she is lead analyst and keeper of information in the bureau , so her ability to notice and perceive should be remarkable if not legendary.


    Jin Wei steadied his expression and gave a soft chuckle , ¡° Senior, looks like the rumours about you are true , I pride myself in being able to conceal my emotions , but even I couldn''t escape your watchful eyes.¡±


    ¡° Jin Wei , I merely notice more than the normal person.¡± Liu Ying responded. ¡° Anyways, aren''t you one drama queen , I expected you two to be the hardworking and diligent type, but here you are enjoying a potential drama. I must burst your bubble though , from what I¡¯ve gathered about Yang Changtian , he will accept the king¡¯s request.¡±


    Jin Wei looked stunned for a while before bursting out into laughter. ¡° Senior Liu , while you know a lot of things about what¡¯s happening outside , I must remind you that you¡¯ve barely been outside since the establishment of the department , and Senior Lu told me that amongst the founding members , though you are the smartest , you lack a lot of real world interaction, so you end up underestimating or overestimating people.¡±


    Liu Ying scoffed , ¡° Lu Lin that bastard , you two seem comfortable enough to talk to me casually now,¡± , she then broke into a chilling smile that sent shivers down Jin Wei and Do Xiong¡¯s spines . ¡° Let¡¯s have a bet ,¡± Liu Ying pulled out a golden dagger , encrusted with precious gemstones . Jin Wei and Da Xiong knew in an instant that the dagger was very valuable. ¡° I bet that Yang Changtian will accept the king¡¯s order.¡±


    Jin Wei looked at the dagger , he swallowed before looking back up at Liu Ying , ¡° Senior Liu , I don''t have anything you would want ,¡±


    ¡° No worries , I just want something very simple from you , ¡° You will accompany me in future missions.¡± Liu Ying replied, looking at them .


    Da Xiong sighed in his heart , Jin Wei loved beautiful and valuable things as much as he loved drama. Senior Liu is clearly up to something , but all Jin Wei can see is the shiny dagger.


    After a while Jin Wei stood up and walked over to Liu Ying , he extended his hand . ¡° I agree, senior . ¡°


    Liu Ying smirked and shook Jin Wei¡¯s hand. She then stood up and turned around to leave , ¡° Jin Wei , simply based on Yang Changtian¡¯s personality , it is likely that he would reject the king . but the current situation will make him more alert and curious about us and he would be worried about implicating his friend Prince Jinlong  too , so he will surely accept the king¡¯s request. ¡°


    She then turned to Da Xiong , ¡° Da Xiong, i just received intel that a group  form the assassin guild was dispatched from the capital , the group dispatched seems to be the clay puppeteers , they are heading in the same direction as us . So they are likely heading to us or Yang Changtian , crank up our security and equip the others with swords that have good momentum.¡±


    ¡° Yes senior Liu , I¡¯ll take care of it .¡± Da Xiong replied.


    Liu Ying turned and continued back towards camp.


    Yang Changtian took the imperial decree ,  and  a cold smile flashed across Liu Ying¡¯s face , she immediately turned to look at Jin Wei. Da Xiong was also shocked , he saw this coming miles away , but he still couldn''t help but be surprised about Liu Ying¡¯s accuracy. He swore to never underestimate Senior Liu again.


    Jin Wei sighed heavily and looked at Liu Ying , discreetly nodding his head and the smile on Liu Ying¡¯s face got bigger.


    Yang Changtian and Zhang Anying saw this unusual interaction between the 3 people in front of them but they decided not to ask.


    Yang Changtian ignored them and began to unravel the scroll but he was interrupted by the flutter of a pigeon''s wings. He looked up to see a messenger pigeon flying towards him , he extended his arm for the bird to perch and swiftly united the small tube tied to its leg.


    He slowly opened the small paper .


    It was a message from Prince Jinlong.

 Ch 10 - The Kings order

    Yang Changtian was just about to open the imperial decree , but he was interrupted by the flutter of wings , he looked up to see a messenger pigeon circling around them. He extended his hand so the bird could perch on him. After the bird perched on his extended arm he used his free arm to quickly untie the small tube containing the message . He handed the pigeon back to Zhang Anying and opened the small tube to retrieve the message.


    Jin Wei quickly moved towards Liu Ying , ¡° Senior Liu ¡­¡±


    ¡° It¡¯s likely a message from Prince Jinlong ¡°, Liu Ying whispered back.


    Jin Wei¡¯s eyes light up with a mischievous glint , ¡° Then senior , I still have the chance to win our bet.¡±


    Liu Ying slowly turned towards Jin Wei and stared at him ,before breaking out into a smile , ¡° Child , when will you learn, nothing escapes my eye , and my predictions are always right, ¡° Liu Ying¡¯s voice was smug.


    Both Jin Wei and Da Xiong were supported by the sheer self confidence and smugness of Liu Ying.


    On the other hand , Yang Changtian opened the small paper inside the tube. He could recognize the handwriting in one glance , it was from Wang Jinlong. ¡° Changtian , the king has expressed his desire to help with the investigation , so he had a group of investigators from the Imperial Investigation department dispatched to join you. I¡¯ll look into them more later , for now agree with them and let them join you.¡±


    Yang Changtian folded the paper and placed it inside his robes. He then continued to open the scroll that had the Imperial decree, it states;


    By the mandate of heaven , I , the emperor proclaim that I have been made aware of the recent calamity that has befallen my loyal subjects in the North, and I have also been made aware of my Imperial Uncle¡¯s intention of sending a group to the North to investigate this matter thoroughly. For this good deed I praise my Imperial Uncle and I as the King wish to lend a hand to assist the group heading to investigate the matter, So I have dispatched a core member of the Imperial Investigation department , she will be accompanied by senior 2 detectives and some guards. I order the Chief disciple of the Guanghui sect, Yang Changtian and Senior disciple of the Bihou sect, Li Cheng ,the leaders of the investigation to merge with the group from the Imperial Investigation Department and investigate this matter jointly.


    Yang Changtian rolled the scroll and handed it to Zhang Anying. ¡° I accept the King¡¯s order, and I agree to merge with your group and investigate this matter jointly.Let us go back , since we¡¯re going to be working together we should travel together¡±.


    Yang Changtian turned around and ordered the others to return to camp. He then mounted his horse and steered the horse back towards the direction of their camp.


    Liu Ying , Da Xiong and Jin Wei all mounted their own horses before following closely behind Yang Changtian and the others


    Li Cheng and Zhou Zilong were sitting under a tree , they had a fire going as it was getting dark. Mo Ling was pacing back and forth. All three of them heard the thudding of horse''s hooves and soon the group arrived back at camp. There were a few unfamiliar faces amongst them.


    Yang Changtian dismounted his horse followed by Zhang Anyning and they walked towards them. ¡° Li Cheng , here.¡± Yang Changtian handed the imperial decree to Li Cheng , who took it and read it , Zhou Zilong and Mo Ling also joined them.


    ¡° So I¡¯m guessing you agreed,¡± Li Cheng replied after finishing. ¡° Seeing you bring them here.¡±


    Yang Changtian nodded ¡° Yes , it was the best course of action.¡±


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    Li Cheng nodded , ¡° It was the right one.¡±


    Yang Changtian was relieved to find that Li Cheng was on the same page as him.


    ¡° You must be Mr. Li , I have heard a lot about you.¡± They were interrupted by Jin Wei , he came over with Liu Ying and Da Xiong. ¡° Mr. Li , please accept our greetings , I am Jin Wei , and this is Liu Ying and Da Xiong , we are detectives from the Imperial Investigation department. ¡° Li Cheng nodded and observed them , his eyes lingered for a while on Liu Ying. He felt that this person isn''t someone simple.


    Zhang Anying and some disciples carried over some bags of food they forged .¡± Senior Brother , We couldn''t hunt anything , so we''ll have to do this for today.¡±


    Yang Changtian looked through the bags and it was barely enough for all of them.


    ¡° Mr. Yang , don''t worry , we brought food along with us , we can share it.¡± Jin Wei signaled one of the guards with them , who scurried to the carriage , and came back with preserved meat , vegetables , pickles and some rice.


    Yang Changtian and Li Cheng were looking at this with their eyebrows raised.


    ¡° Ah Mr Yang , Mr Li , Liu Ying is very particular when it comes to food , so we brought along some for her. ¡° Jin Wei explained.


    Yang Changtian¡¯s eyebrows were rising higher. The others were speechless, but they all had one thought, ¡® What a fussy person.¡¯ Liu Ying remained silent, acting as if she didn''t hear anything.


    ¡° Then please join us.¡± Yang Changtian invited them as it would be very rude not to.


    ¡° Then we won''t refuse Mr Yang.¡± Jin Wei answered.


    ¡° Please just call me Brother Yang.¡±


    Jin Wei smiled and agreed.


    They all sat down and started to eat.


    After eating her portion , Liu Ying stood up , went near Jin Wei and whispered something before moving to another tree before climbing it and settling herself down on a branch.


    The other¡¯s were again surprised at this person¡¯s peculiarity.


    Jin Wei saw their confused looks before laughing , ¡° Sister Liu usually prefers sleeping on trees.¡±


    Yang Changtian was speechless at thos , but he decided to ignore it , after all there are some peculiar people in the world.


    He then turned to look at Jin Wei. ¡° I assume you¡¯re the leader of the group ? ¡°


    Jin Wei flashed him a smile , ¡° Mr. Yang , I am but a mere detective , the leader of our group is actually Liu Ying.¡±


    The group was speechless again , they all turned to look at Liu Ying who was staring at the sky , and settled on her cozy branch.


    ¡° I thought she was just the archive manager ? ¡° Li Cheng asked, surprised.


    ¡° Senior Liu is the archive manager and the Internal Analyst in the department. She¡¯s in charge of collecting and interpreting and filing data . So she is called the ¡®brain¡¯ of the department . Despite her mannerisms and looks , she is actually one of the founding members of the Imperial Investigation department. ¡°


    Yang Changtian was surprised , he never expected this strange lady to be someone powerful. ¡® So she¡¯s the so-called expert the king sent¡¯ he thought in his head. Yang Changtian turned to look at Li Cheng , he was surprised to see Li Cheng staring at Liu Ying, who was still busy admiring the sky. Now that he thought about it , Jingyou also liked to watch the sky. Back then he didn''t understand why the quiet Jingyou loved to look at the sky, he thought that there was nothing to admire about the sky , but as he gets older , he understands.


    In his pursuit of looking for treasures to admire , he had forgotten to stop and admire the things that were already by his side.


    Yang Changtian also looked at the sky , it was getting darker , but the sky was only getting prettier. The countless stars hidden during the day slowly appeared one by one painting a magnificent work of art , admired by the clamest of hearts but somehow ignored by most.


    The moon was a perfect crescent , but by no means was the moon dull.


    ¡° Beautiful isn''t it, ¡° Yang Changtian heard Li Cheng¡¯s voice ring out from his side. He turned to face him .


    ¡° Yes , in the past I thought that it was stupid to admire and observe something that¡¯s forever present , but now ¡­.. I understand.¡± Yang Changtian replied with a self depreciating smile.


    Li Cheng patted him on the back , ¡° Even if the moon rises late , its light is still cherished. ¡°


    Yang Changtian broke into a smile after hearing this. Hearing those words again was nothing short of nostalgic.


    Liu Ying, who was visibly busy admiring the sky , from her branch knowingly let out a small smile. Before turning her full attention back to the sky.

 Ch 11 - Background Check

    After travelling for another 3 days , the group finally arrived at the city gates of Jingxi city, the final city before they entered the barren and harsh lands of the northern territories.


    Yang Changtian , Li Cheng and Liu Ying parted ways temporarily to stock up on supplies and gather data from their respective branch offices. They all agreed to meet at the city gates 2 days later.


    When Yang Changtian reached their sects branch office , he saw a man waiting for him. The man introduced himself as an informer of Prince Jinlong.


    ¡° Mr. Yang , high highness Prince Jinlong ordered me to look into the background of the group dispatched by the king. I¡¯m here to report my findings to you sir.¡±


    Yang Changtian nodded before asking the man to follow him into the study.


    ¡° You can continue now.¡± Yang Changtian gave the man the green light to continue. And the man handed him 3 scrolls , that included all the information about the 3.


    ¡° First up is the man named Jin Wei , he is from a foreign country , his mother was a dancer and his father is said to be a minister from the neighbouring country . Since he is an illegitimate child , his mother decided to flee to Jin Xiu in hopes he could have a better life here. When he was a teen he was scouted by the founding head of the Imperial Investigation department, who heard about his skill. Since his mother was a dancer , she was skilled in the art of face painting , Jin Wei inherited this skill from his mother and with further training under a senior detective from the Department , he is extremely skilled in the art of disguising. His skills in disguising combined with his outgoing personality makes him one of the best undercover agents in the department. notable missions he engaged in includes The case of the Raven sect and the embezzlement by the magistrates of the Western territory. ¡°


    ¡° Da Xiong is Jin Wei¡¯s partner , he is from a small village in the North , so he is familiar with the area. He is known for his big structure and bear-like strength. He is skilled in a form of martial arts that involves hand to hand combat that evolved in the north. His Father is said to be a fallen general , who was demoted under the previous king¡¯s rule when he tried to expose the embezzlement that took place at the war zone.  He was paired up with Jin Wei from the beginning , and they took part in missions together. Ignoring the founding members of the department , they are the best senior detectives in the department who engage in field missions.¡±


    Yang Changtian was reading the scroll while listening to the man. He expected the king to simply send 2 detectives , but never did he think that the king would send 2 of the best detectives of the department. Jin Wei and Da Xiong , played vital roles in multiple high profile cases.


    ¡° Liu Ying is a bit on the mysterious side. She was one of the founding members of the department , quiet and observant by nature, unlike other founding members she takes on a more passive role. She appeared suddenly in the capital around 12 years ago , it is said that she is from the Liu family in the South. ¡°


    ¡° The Liu Family ?¡± Yang Changtian wasn''t too suprised to hear this, from her clothes , to her pickiness about food , it was obvious that she was from a pampered background. The Liu Family was a family well known in the merchant business. 23 years back , the Liu family all perished in a house fire , leaving the youngest child , a girl, orphaned . The Feng family in the capital heard about this tragedy and took in the child out of their deep friendship with the Lius.


    ¡° Liu Ying is very elusive and prefers to stay out of the public¡¯s eye. She often supports the department''s mission from the shadows, by helping them with analyzing and planning.She is incharge of managing and maintaining the vast data net of the department, which she herself established. Surprisingly this is the first time she was dispatched to a field mission. She is known for her excellent analyzing ability. It is said that she can predict an individual''s actions simply by observing them for a while. It also seems like she has an eidetic memory , though this isn''t confirmed. While she is a person of few words , it''s said that she doesn''t sugar coat anything and is very straightforward. ¡° The man continued to report.


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    ¡° From what we have found so far , while all three of them are quite peculiar , they are not bad people , so for now we can be sure that they have no ulterior motives. All 3 of them are upright people who will fight for justice. So for this mission we can be sure that they are honest people.¡±


    ¡° What about the attackers ? ¡° Yang Changtian raised his head and asked the man. After the attack , Yang Changtian immediately sent Prine Jinlong a letter detailing the situation that transpired.


    ¡° We did look into it Mr. Yang , it looks like someone hired assassins from the assassin guild , the group dispatched were the clay puppeteers , a group of astray martial artists from the Clay wielding clans in the southwest. While we don''t have much info about the person who hired the assassins , it can be estimated that the person is someone rich and powerful.¡±


    Yang Changtian raised his head again when he heard this , ¡° How can you be sure it¡¯s someone powerful and rich ? ¡°


    ¡° Mr. Yang , the clay puppeteers , are some of the best assassins under the Assassin guild , only going out on missions that are extremely high profile. And it is said that so far they haven''t failed any missions. Besides, the deployment of this investigation group was kept top secret, only known by the King , the 4 senior ministers and the Senior detectives from the Imperial Investigation department.¡±


    Yang Changtian nodded , this reasoning was logical , it couldn''t be the King , nor can it be any of the senior detectives as they are only loyal to the King. So it was likely one of the 4 senior ministers , the prime minister , the defense minister , the minister of rights and the finance minister.


    Yang Changtian was quick to notice the informant''s face twitching. ¡° Is there anything else you wish to tell me ? ¡°


    ¡° Mr. Yang i shouldn''t say this , especially considering i don''t have much proof on it , but 20 miles away from the location you and the others fought the assassins, 5 people were found dead , they didn''t have any clothes on , and they were found near a bandit den , so it was concluded that they were some unlucky passersby attacked and killed by the bandits , but ¡­.¡± The man hesitated.


    ¡° But what ? Continue, ¡° Yang Changtian instructed.


    ¡° Mr. As I said , I don''t have much proof , but all 5 of them were martial arts practitioners and the only thing left on their bodies were some whistles that I haven''t seen before. And it is said that the clay puppeteers usually create and manipulate clay figures using a unique type of whistle , so I suspect that the dead are actually the assassins who attacked you. ¡°


    Yang Changtian slammed his hand down on the table , ¡° Why didn''t you tell me this sooner , can you remember what the whistle looks like ? ¡°


    ¡° Mr. Yang , since they were unique , I had my subordinate keep one in one in our archive , I¡¯ll have some send it over before you depart.¡±


    ¡° Good , can you also give me the autopsy reports of the deceased ?  And I understand that you work for Prince Jinlong , but can you look into it and find out whether the deceased are in fact the assassins ?¡±


    The man cupped his hands and bowed to Yang Changtian , ¡° Mr. Yang , while I serve his highness Prince Jinlong , he has ordered me to assist you , so I am glad to look into it. I shall have the autopsy reports sent along with the whistle . They concluded that they were killed by a stab into their hearts , the peculiar thing is , the fact that their tongues were cut off. ¡°


    Yang Chanhtian was confused at this , ¡° If they''re tongues were cut off , why were they classified as bandit victims , bandits usually don''t cut off their tongues.¡±


    ¡° Mr. Yang , the bandits here sometimes cut off a person''s tongue if they lied to them. Also Mr. Yang, I forgot to mention that the dead bodies had a tattoo of a lotus etched into their abdomens.¡±


    ¡° Lotus flowers ? That''s unusual . Lets not worry about that now , for now we should focus on finding out if these bodies are in fact the assassins sent to kill the investigations group. ¡°


    ¡° Yes Mr. Yang . I shall take my leave then Mr. Yang.¡± The man bowed and left.


    Yang Changtian sat for a while lost in thought. ¡® If the dead people do turn out to be the assassins , who would be strong enough to kill them , the informant said that they were some of the strongest and most ruthless of assassins in the assassin guild , so who would be strong enough to completely wipe them off , this case was getting more complex by the minute.¡¯


    He then glanced at Liu Ying¡¯s profile . ¡® I sense that you¡¯re not this simple either. What are you hiding ?  Are you good or bad ?¡® he thought . He then turned his head to look out the window, it was getting dark. So he stood up and walked outside , he jumped up onto the roof and sat down.


    The sky was clear as usual , the moon was staring down accompanied by thousands of stars. ¡° Jingyou ¡­..¡± Yang Changtian let out a soft whisper ¡° What have I gotten myself into. I feel it deep in my soul that this is just the beginning or a long chain of mysteries and troubles.¡±

 Ch 12 - An Arrival Met With Nothingness

    The informant kept his promise and came back 2 days later with the whistle and the autopsy reports. Yang Changtian , quickly sent a message at the Bihou sect branch , asking Li Cheng to meet up. Li Cheng arrived at the Guanghui Sect branch at noon . Yang Changtian led him to the pavilion and they sat down.


    ¡° Li Cheng , an informant informed me that a group of people were found naked and dead with stabs to their hearts and their tongues sliced off 20 miles away from the point where we fought the assassins. It was concluded that there were victims of a nearby bandit gang , but the informant felt that they might be the assassin that we fought.¡±


    Li Cheng was shocked to hear this, ¡° They were assassins ? I just assumed they were some random bandits , why would they attack Liu Ying and the others ? ¡°


    Yang Changtian quickly filled Li CHeng in about the assassins , and Lou and the others.


    ¡° I didn''t think they were this capable. I just assumed the King sent some junior detectives to appease himself.¡±


    ¡° I actually think they knew that they would be attacked.¡± Yang Changtian blurted out .


    Li Cheng turned to look at him in shock . ¡° Why ?¡±


    ¡° That day when I joined to back them up , all of them were carrying blades that could easily decapitate the clay figures  in addition to that , they didn''t even suffer any injuries let alone casualties , while some disciples from my set were killed and most were injured , and when i joined they instructed us to slash their necks to kill them.¡±


    ¡° That might just be a coincidence.¡± Li Cheng answered .


    Yang Changtian shook his head , ¡° No , Jin Wei usually uses a bow to fight , while Da Xiong doesn''t use any weapons , It¡¯s also mentioned that Liu Ying herself usually engages in battle with hidden weapons such as poison needles , but they suddenly had daggers and swords at hand. In addition to that I saw something ¡­..¡±


    ¡° What did you see ? ¡° Li Chneg was curious .


    ¡° That day , I saw Liu Ying throw a dagger at a tree , and seconds later a masked man jumped down and escaped. What was surprising was that I didn''t even notice him. ¡° Yang Changtian thought back to the scene , Liu Ying¡¯s smirk at the time sent chills down his spine.


    Li CHeng was silent for a while contemplating. ¡° That does sound plausible , but I also think that they¡¯re not up to anything bad , so it might be better to forget this issue.¡±


    Yang Changtian nodded. ¡° Regarding the dead people , I asked the informants to look into their identities. ¡° He then took out the whistle and handed it over to Li Cheng . ¡° Have you seen this before ? ¡°


    Li CHeng took it and observed it for a while , ¡° I¡¯m not too familiar with it.¡±


    ¡° All 5 of the dead people had these , if they are the clay puppeteers , then it''s likely to be the tool they use to shape and manipulate clay.¡±


    Li Cheng was rotating the whilst in his hand. ¡° How interesting , how about this I¡¯ll draw a picture and send it to Baihua .¡±


    Yang Changtian had forgotten about Baihua , there¡¯s no one better to ask about magic weapons and artefacts. ¡° Then I will trouble you brother Li .¡± He asked an attendant to bring some paper , brush and ink for Li Cheng to draw.


    Li Cheng drew the whistle with great detail and he summoned his messenger falcon , before sending it off ,back to the Huang Baihua.


    Yang Changtian then took out the autopsy files and handed 2 to Li Cheng , while he himself took 3. ¡° These are the autopsy reports of those dead people , let¡¯s see if there''s anything suspicious.


    Both of them began to leaf through the reports.


    All 5 people were in their early 30s  , of average height and weight. Their hands have calluses , but the probability of them being farmers or manual laborers were excluded following the logic that only people who practice martial arts get calluses on the base of their fingers and prominently between their index finger and thumb. The autopsy concluded that the fatal wound was the stab to the heart , the tongues were cut off from the root , it was determined to be an antemortem injury as the wounds clearly show signs of biological processes. There are bruises in the lower back area , and there are indentations of a rope on their wrists. Therefore it can be inferred that the victims were kicked in the lower back , tied up and had their tongues cut out , before being stabbed in the heart. All 5 victims were naked , not a single piece of clothing was found around the area, therefore it isn''t possible to confirm that this was the original location of the crime. All 5 victims were wearing a unique whistle like object. No other injuries were detected. All 5 had a lotus-like tattoo just right below the stab, the ink on the tattoos seems new and vibrant , therefore it must''ve been done quite recently.


    Yang Changtian tapped his finger on the autopsy report , ¡° I think this lotus tattoo is strange.¡±


    Li Cheng also nodded , while observing the drawing of the tattoo, ¡° This lotus feels somewhat familiar, though I can''t really remember where I¡¯ve seen it before exactly.¡±


    ¡° That¡¯s how I feel too , I¡¯ve surely seen it somewhere before , but where ? ¡° Yang Changtian replied . ¡° But putting that aside for now, if these people do turn out to be the assassins , are the people who killed them a friend or a foe ? It was complex enough that the Imperial detectives were attacked by none other than some of the best assassins from the assassin guild , now we have 5 victims who are likely to be the said assassins ,who were killed by someone ruthless and precise. ¡°


    ¡° You seem sure that these people are the assassins , may I ask why ?¡± Li Cheng asked.


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    ¡° The tongue Li Cheng. I have a gut feeling that the killer cut off their tongues to render them unable to use their magic.¡± Yang Changtian answered.


    Realisation hit Li Cheng , ¡° You suspect that the killer cut their tongues off to make them unable to use their whistle , which they use to manipulate clay warriors , which would render them weak and vulnerable.¡± Li Cheng¡¯s eyes widened. ¡° Looks like the person who killed them knew about them well then.¡±


    Yang Changtian nodded, ¡° But let¡¯s wait for the confirmation , or we''ll just be chasing after the wind. ¡°


    Li Cheng nodded, agreeing


    Yang Changtian tuend to Li Cheng, ¡° Would you like some tea ? ¡° He then instructed the attendant to bring some water to steep the tea in , and he pulled out a small bag. Opening the bag , he took out some tea leaves with lotus petals. Seeing this Li Cheng¡¯s eyes widened.


    ¡° How did you ¡­.¡±


    Yang Changtan smiled before shushing him , ¡° Baihua gave me this before we set out.¡±


    Li Cheng also broke out into a smile.¡± That girl¡­. I didn''t even notice her handing this to you.¡±


    The attendant came back with the hot water , which Yang Changtian used to make the tea. He poured 2 cups for himself and Li Cheng , before handing Li Cheng a cup.


    Li Cheng accepted it with gratitude before smelling it , his eyes widened and he rushed to taste it. ¡° Changtian , this is just like the tea Elder Sister brews, over the years Baihua, Baicheng and even Shuangyuan tried to make tea like her , but they didn''t even get close.¡± His eyes were twinkling.


    Yang Changtian was smiling softly, ¡° Over the years I¡¯ve had the opportunity to observe her make tea so many times , that''s when I discovered a secret .¡±


    ¡° A secret ? ¡° Li Cheng asked curiously.


    Yang Changtian nodded , ¡° Yes she always steeps her tea in lukewarm water . The tea leaves are overpowering when they''re steeped in boiling water , they overshadow the delicate taste and aroma of the lotus and rose petals , so using lukewarm water will result in a softer tea.¡±


    Li Chneg was surprised to hear this, ¡° So it was this easy, ¡° he replied .


    Yang Changtian just smiled at him silently before looking towards the garden , filled with peach trees in full blossom. He saw a peach petal breaking off and floating towards them.


    Li Cheng also followed his gaze, till the petal landed in the teacup in his hands , sending ripples.


    It was peach blossom season in the town of Jingxi , even the gentlest of breezes sent a handful of peach petals flying. As a result hundreds of peach petals float away before landing on the still lake surface , breaking the stillness by sending small rollies throughout.


    Yang Changtian , Li Cheng and their groups were waiting for the Imperial detectives near the gate of the city.


    After a while , they spotted the detectives trotting towards them , all of them were mounted on huge and strong horses. Each horse was easily able to carry at least 2 people and their luggage. Leading the group was Liu Ying , she was decked out in deep blue robes with silver threading , she wore a cape made of the same material with white fur lining it. Jin Wei was no better , he wore a white robe with red embroidery , with a white cape lined with fur. Da Xiong , likely the normal one out of the three, was just wearing a brown robe made with wool and lined with fur.


    The flashy group soon arrived , and Yang Changtian shot Li Cheng a look , he was exasperated with these 2 flashy peacocks . Li Cheng returns a slight smile. Zhou Zilong and Mo Ling were much more open with their reactions . ¡° Brother Jin , I thought you were going to attend a banquet or something.¡± They teased , they didn''t dare say anything about Liu Ying , her stares gave them shivers , so they collectively decided not to mess with her and just target Jin Wei instead.


    ¡° What ? haven''t you heard , even if you die you should die looking good. And believe me it¡¯s quite warm and comfortable.¡±


    Da Xiong shook his head and rolled his eyes at his partner''s shamelessness. This morning he saw Liu Ying¡¯s outfit and decided he wanted to dress like her too. Only difference was that Liu Ying looked like a phoenix though she was wearing blue . And Jin Wei just looks like a colorful chicken puffed up.


    ¡° Now that everyone¡¯s here , shall we depart?¡± Yang Changtian¡¯s voice rang out. He looked at Li Cheng who agreed , and then at Liu Ying who nodded at him.


    He then turned back to stare into the horizon , when they step out of the city gates , it¡¯ll be the barren harsh northern territory. They would have to travel for 6 days before they reached Beifeng. The journey will be hard on them , but they¡¯re doing this for the people of Beifeng .


    He then kicked his horse , ordering him to start galloping. Liu Ying followed suit and Li Cheng instructed the carriage driver to start too.


    6 cycles of the moon illuminated the sky , and gradually the moon turned from a tiny crescent to a filled out half moon. Similarly the passing scenery only got more barren and lifeless. Soon they arrived at a city gate , but waiting for them was still nothing.


    Yang Changtian led the group directly into the village through the unguarded gate. Only to find nothing again. The houses were ragged and on the verge of breaking down, a dense and heavy cloud of foul smelling smoke developed the village. Yang Changian wanted to go in and find out what happened but he was stopped by Liu Ying.


    She looked straight at him before pointing to the smog. ¡° Corpse Miasma. Wear this.¡± she said simply before handing him a white mask. She then turned to nod at Da Xiong and Jinwei , who quickly instructed their other members to hand out masks to their companions.


    ¡° Thank you, ¡° Yang Changtian replied.


    Liu Ying nodded at him before turning to go explore. Yang Changtian hurriedly caught her wrist, before quickly pulling back his hand. ¡° Aren¡¯t you wearing one ? ¡°


    Liu Ying shook her head to indicate no. Slowly a frown crept up on Yang Changtian¡¯s face , he tried to give the mask back to Liu Ying thinking that she didn''t have enough masks. But she refused to accept it, pushing it back to his hands.


    Seeing this, Da Xiong sighed , ¡® Senior should really talk a bit more.¡¯ In fact , after their initial conversation , Liu Ying barely says 10 sentences.


    Jin Wei couldn''t bear to see Liu Ying and Yang Changtian pass around the mask so he spoke. ¡° Brother Yang , you don''t have to worry about Senior , she is immune to corpse miasma ,so it''s useless for her to use a mask , it¡¯ll only make things harder for her. ¡°


    Hearing this Yang Changtian stopped trying to hand the mask to Liu Ying and stared at her .


    ¡®Immune to Corpse Miasma ? but Crpse miasma is very uncommon in the south , even less common is a child from a rich family being exposed to and becoming immune to corpse miasma.¡¯


    Seeing him deep in contemplation , Liu Ying waved her hand in front of him to get his attention , she then pointed to herself before pointing out the corpse miasma before saying ,¡± Born immune .¡±


    Yang Changtian was taken aback , how did she know what he was thinking, but then he remembered her abilities. He was impressed so he nodded at her before wearing the mask.


    After everyone wore their masks , they decided to go in and explore. They split up into groups of 3 .


    Yang Changtian , Liu Ying and Zhang Anying found themselves in one group . They were walking up a road that seems to lead to the village centre when they heard a shrill screech of a woman , before they could react a shadow pinned Zhang Anying down.

 Ch 13 - The Infected

    They decided to split into groups of three , and Yang Changtian , Liu Ying and Zhang Anying found themselves in one group. They decided to follow a path that likely led to the center of the village; the visibility was poor due to the miasma.


    Suddenly Liu Ying stopped in her tracks . Noticing this Yang Changtian and Zhang Anying also followed suit. ¡° What is it ? ¡° Yang Changtian asked after a while . Liu Ying looked at him, ¡° I heard something move, ¡° she replied in a flat tone.


    The three of them stayed still for a while longer to be sure , and resumed walking when they didn''t hear anything.


    Just seconds later , an ear-slitting screech , likely from a woman, was heard extremely close by. And before they could react , a white shadow zoomed towards Zhang Anying. It latched itself on to him , who tried his best to dislodge the crazy screeching figure off him. But his efforts were in vain. The crazy woman kept latching herself tightly to him.


    ¡° Senior Brother , Ms. Liu help ! ¡° Zhang Anying yelled.


    Seeing this Yang Changtian moved towards Zhang Anying to help him , he exerted all his strength to try to pull the crazy woman off , but again it was in vain, the woman now had Zhang Anying in a deadlock. Yang Changtian then made the decision to kill the woman. Using his sword he stabbed at the woman , but to his surprise , the woman didn''t even flinch, she just continued attacking Zhang Anying, who now had multiple ghastly scratches on his body.


    Yang Changtian continued to attack the woman , but with each stab the woman suffered , he felt his confidence dampening and panic was starting to set in. ¡® Why wont this woman die ? ¡®


    Just as the woman was about to bite Zhang Anying , Yang Changtian saw the blurred figure of Liu Ying move towards them at high speed. And in one swift motion she struck the woman on the base of her neck , then on the head.


    The woman immediately stopped in her tracks before collapsing. Zhang Anying scrambled to get on his feet. He was bleeding from all those scratches. Liu Ying shot him a look before throwing a bottle of medicine at him. ¡° Miasma can cause infections with wounds .¡±


    Zhang Anying was taken aback , but he accepted and thanked Liu Ying. Liu Ying just nodded , before moving closer to the crazy woman.


    Yang Changtian was right behind her. ¡° What is this ? ¡° he asked , his tone slightly sharp.


    Liu Ying shot him a glance , ¡° I don''t know , I still need to conduct further analyses.¡± Liu Ying answered him truthfully.


    ¡° That thing couldn''t be killed , how did you know how to stop it then ? ¡° Yang Changtian asked Liu Ying sharply. Yang Changtian felt that she was hiding something.


    Liu Ying stared at him for a while before sighing , she beckoned him to come forward, before crouching down beside the crazy woman.


    When Yang Changtian followed , crouching down next to her , she pointed to the places she smacked. Yang Changtian was surprised to find that there were needles inserted there. He turned to look at Liu Ying probingly .


    Liu Ying saw his expression , sighing again as she explained. ¡° I didn''t kill this woman , we need her for research. I just used some of my needles to sedate her. I usually use these needles to knock out larger animals. ¡° Yang Changtian was looking at her with his eyebrow raised.


    Liu Ying ignored him before going up to the roof of a dilapidated house , she squinted her eyes before looking around for a while , she then spotted something as she jumped down and started rushing forward. Yang Changtian and Zhang Anying followed her without a word. Soon they arrived at a large open space .


    Liu Ying turned to Yang Changtian urgently , ¡° I need wood , hay or anything flammable that can start a fire ¡° Yang Changtian nodded , and while he wanted to ask her why , he noticed the urgency in her voice so he turned to look at Zhang Anying and they split up to look for wood and hay. Unfortunately due to the harsh living conditions , there wasn''t much wood and hay left but Yang Changtian found some manure patties , likely used for fires by the villagers , so he brought them along.


    Liu asked them to place them in the middle ,and after they finished she crouched down and used her firestick to light the fire up , once it was burning , Liu Ying rushed to her bag before pulling out some pack , she opened them and threw what was inside into the fire, and after a while the fire started to emit a lot of smoke , so Liu Ying quickly used her cape to make a makeshift mask to prevent any inhalation of the smoke. She then moved towards Yang Changtian and Zhang Anying , instructing them to wear their masks tightly and not inhale the smoke.


    ¡° This thing shouldnt be alone , so our companions are in danger.¡± She pointed at the smoke , ¡°That is a sedative , our companions are wearing masks so they won''t be affected.¡±


    Yang Changtian nodded at her, the thought of other crazies being out there hadn''t crossed his mind.


    ¡°The sedative wont last long . ¡° Liu Ying continued explaining. ¡° We have to go help them.¡± She rummaged her bag again before pulling out a metal case. She handed the metal case to Yang Changtian.


    Yang Changtian took it and opened it. Inside it were multiple needles inside. Liu Ying took out a small bottle before pouring the liquid inside it on the needles , she took the metal case , closing it up before shaking it hard to make sure that the needles were coated with the liquid.


    ¡° These are now sedative needles , you have to stick them right in the center here,¡± She said pointing to the area at the base of her neck.¡± and another one right up here,¡± she continued pointing at the middle of her scalp.


    ¡°Do not prick yourself with it accidentally , it''s Kava Kava and Passionflower sedative , so it''s strong enough to knock off a bear.¡± Liu Ying warned.


    Yang Changtian nodded , ¡°But we can''t see clearly with this miasma.¡±


    ¡° I have a solution¡° Liu Ying replied , Yang Changtian looked at her curiously.


    ¡° I¡¯m deducing that there aren''t any sane humans left with these crazies. So we can use herbs to dispel the miasma , without worrying about how it¡¯ll affect other people. ¡° Liu Ying said confidently.


    ¡° You can dispel miasma with herbs? ¡° Yang Changtian asked , Liu Ying always managed to surprise him. .


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    ¡° Yes , some herbs can produce a smoke that will counteract against the miasma , effectively dispersing it , but it can also be dangerous for people who live in areas with miasma , as their bodies would be permeated with it.¡± Liu Ying explained.


    She rummaged through her bag again before ringing out a big paper bag , she handed it out for Yang Changtian to hold till she finished her rummaging.


    Yang Changtian took it and peeked into the bag , it was filled to the brim with some herbs he couldn''t identify.


    Liu Ying pulled out another smaller bag , and 3 paper fans. She handed Yang Changtian and Zhang Anying a fan each before taking the big bag back.


    ¡° When I add these , we have to fan the smoke to disperse it evenly.¡± Liu Ying said .


    All three of them moved closer to the fire , and Liu Ying glanced at them before nodding. Yang Changtian and Zhan Anying nodded back. And she threw the 2 bags she had into the fire, the fire started eating away at the paper bags , and soon enough began to devour the herbs , giving out a thick smoke.


    The 3 of them started fanning the smoke wildly , ensuring that the smoke distributed evenly, half an hour later , their arms were getting tired , but on the bright side the corpse miasma has dispersed quiet well , so they decided to power through 10 more mins and soon enough the corpse miasma all dispersed. And the heavy blanket of miasma smog that covered the village was lifted , making it possible to see the state of the town clearly.


    Once all the corpse miasma was dispersed , Yang Changtian and Liu Ying sprang into action.


    They split up and Yang Changtian found Da Xiong and Zhou Zilong along with another disciple , there were three crazies unconscious near them. Yang Changtian sprang into action and quickly stuck the needles into the places Liu Ying showed him.


    He then turned quickly to check up on Da Xiong and Zhou Zilong , seeing that they didn''t have many injuries , he instructed them to travel towards the center of the village where Zhang Anying was waiting with medicine.


    Before they split up , Liu Ying entrusted her medicine bag to Zhang Anying and gave him a crash course on what medicine to prescribe to each person , that paired with the Guanghui sect¡¯s compulsory first aid education , Zhang Anying was given the role of medic.


    Yang Changtian then rushed off , looking for the others; he soon found 3 other groups , but Li Cheng , Mo Ling and Jin Wei weren''t amongst them. On his way back to the village square he bumped into Liu Ying.


    ¡° I found 4 groups , one group was completely annihilated. ¡° Liu Ying informed him.


    Yang Changtan clenched his fist , ¡° Li Cheng and the others ? ¡°


    Liu Yin quickly shook her head , ¡° I didn''t see them , the dead group were all your disciples.¡±


    ¡° That means they still need our help.¡± Yang Changtian panicked.


    ¡° This is not the time to panic.¡± Liu Ying said to him sharply. ¡° Let¡¯s go up and see if we can spot them.¡±


    Yang Changtian nodded.


    And the both of them sprang up two dilapidated buildings and surveyed their surroundings. Soon enough , Liu Ying spotted Mo Ling , Jin Wei and Li Cheng being surrounded by five crazies who were just waking up, the sedative was wearing out fast , she whistled towards Yang Changtian who hurried towards her. And together they leapt from roof to roof , closing in on the group.


    Moments before Jin Wei felt a shiver creep up his spine , and from the corner of his eye , he spotted a shadow dart towards him , he leapt up just in time to dodge the figure. He quickly turned around to look at the figure that attacked him , while visibility was low , he saw that it was a crazy looking man who was drooling. The crazy¡¯s face slowly twisted into a smile straight from the depths of hell , and before they could even react , 4 other figures surrounded them.


    ¡° Senior Brother Li , stand behind me.¡± Mo Ling told Li Cheng , who immediately heed his instructions and moved behind him , but he didn''t forget to bring out a small dagger just in case.


    The first crazy person who attacked Jin Wei lunged at him again, and this time it was harder for him to doge him , so Jin Wei pulled out his bow and took aim. Mo Ling unsheathed his sword , getting into battle positions and the crazies began to attack them incessantly.


    To their horror, they soon found out that these monsters couldn''t be killed. They made the decision to flee , but their escape was interrupted with the sudden thickening of the miasma. They couldn''t even see their hands , sensing their panic , the crazies began to attack them more ruthlessly.


    One managed to slash Jin Wei in the face , and he felt something warm trickle down his cheek soaking his mask . At the same time , one managed to latch itself onto Mo Ling , who tried his best to fight it off , but he was rendered unable to move when another jumped onto him.


    One crazy person moved towards Li Cheng . ¡° Senior brother ! ¡° Mo Ling yelled, struggling fiercely.


    ¡° No, no no , ¡° He was powerless.


    Then as if by magic the crazies stopped in their tracks , falling unconscious. And Mo Ling took the chance to wrestle the now unconscious crazes off before running towards Li Cheng.


    ¡° Senior Brother Li , are you okay ?! ¡° he patted Li Cheng up and down , Li Cheng lent out an exasperated sigh before telling him that he was fine.


    Jin Wei kicked a Crazy ,before strolling up to them , he kept touching his face . ¡° Damn , this monster scratched my face.¡± He scowled , then he moved his hand up to remove his mask. Like Liu Ying , Jin Wei was also somewhat immune to miasma , so he wanted to briefly apply some medicine on his cheek.


    ¡° Don¡¯t .¡± Li Cheng interrupted him. ¡° Do you smell that ? ¡°


    Jin Wei stopped in his tracks before trying to sniff the air. ¡° Smell what ? ¡° he asked, confused.


    ¡°The air smells sweeter , I think someone released a medicine to knock out these crazies , keep your mask on just in case.¡± Li Cheng instructed.


    Just as the words left their mouths , the corpse miasma around them began to get thinner , and soon enough , it dispersed completely.


    They could finally see their surroundings . They were near some barren fields ,with withered plants. They were likely at the edge of the town.


    ¡° Stay close , there¡¯s still a chance that there are more of those monsters around. We can''t guarantee that all of them got knocked out.¡± Li Cheng warned.


    Just as the words left his mouth the unconscious crazies around them began twitching.


    ¡° Be careful ! They¡¯re about to wake up.¡± Li Cheng warned. Jin Wei and Mo Ling quickly assumed battle stance.


    They soon heard the sound of rushed footsteps . Even the crazies stopped to look up. They spotted Yang Changtian and Liu Ying rushing towards them , jumping from one roof to another . Then with one leap they jumped down and struck 2 crazies on the back and on the head. The two crazies immediately fell down motionless. The both of them moved on to the remaining 3 and they took two down with ease , the remaining one decided to escape but with great precision , Liu Ying and Yang Changtian both threw 2 small needles at it . And soon enough it too fell to the ground.


    Yang Changtian rushed to check up on Mo Ling and Li Cheng , while Jin Wei rushed towards Liu Ying to voice his grievances.


    ¡° Senior .¡± he whined ¡° Look at this , that monster scorched my face.¡±


    Liu Ying shot him a look that would usually scare someone , but now that he¡¯s figured out that Liu Ying is actually a big softie inside , Jin Wei ignored the look and kept whining.


    Mo Ling and Yang Changtian simultaneously rolled their eyes at this.


    ¡° I have some medicine that will prevent any scarring , I¡¯ll give it to you when I get my bag back.¡± Liu Ying explained.


    Jin Wei was ecstatic at this. Now that he got what he wanted , he decided to keep quiet.


    ¡° I¡¯m assuming you two are behind the slight sweet smell in the air. I¡¯m also assuming that it is a sedative.¡± Li Cheng questioned.


    Yang Changtian nodded, pointing at Liu Ying. ¡° Yes she used a sedative to knock them out .¡±


    Li Cheng turned towards Liu Ying. ¡° This sedative is unlike anything I¡¯ve smelled before. Do you mind telling me what it is made of ? ¡°


    Liu Ying nodded. ¡° It¡¯s Kava Kava and passionflower.¡±


    Li Cheng stroked his chin after hearing this. ¡° I didn''t know they could be used together like that.¡±


    ¡° It¡¯s extremely strong , but since we burned it ,it was weak . That''s why we used needles coated with the liquid sedative to knock them out completely.¡± Liu Ying pointed at the Crazies.


    Li Cheng crouched down close to one.


    ¡° Senior Brother..¡± Mo Ling wanted to stop him but Li Cheng shook him off.


    ¡° You stuck the needles in the right places too. Li Cheng admired. He then stood up. ¡° I have to thank you for saving us.¡± He said bowing.


    Liu Ying bowed back at him.


    Mo Ling turned towards Yang Changtian . ¡° Looks like god was on our side too , the miasma dispersed just in time. ¡°


    Yang Changtian broke into a weird smile. ¡° Actually¡­..¡±

 Ch 14 - The Survivors

    Mo Ling turned towards Yang Changtian , " Senior brother Yang , looks like god was on our side too , the miasma dispersed just in time."


    Yang Changtian flashed him a peculiar smile , " Actually , the miasma was also dispersed by Ms. Liu. "


    Li Cheng whipped his head around at this.


    " But I thought miasma couldn''t be dispersed manually. Isn''t that right, Oldest Senior Brother ? questioned Mo Ling.


    Li Cheng was still looking at Liu Ying deep in thought before finally answering, " Yes that''s right , so far there hasn''t been a single effective method."


    " It''s actually simple, I just burned herbs that are considered holy. Corpse miasma itself is cursed , so it''s only normal to fight cursed things with holy things " Liu Ying replied nonchalantly. " This method has been dismissed before due to the potential backlash it can cause to the people who are tainted with corpse miasma." she continued explaining. " But it''s safe to assume that there aren''t much, if any humans left in this village with all the crazies lurking around. And we haven''t been tainted with the miasma either . So any potential backlashes are eliminated."


    Liu Ying was impressed, he had read about this method a few years back. Using holy herbs such as sage , turmeric , holy basil and even lotus against corpse miasma , can indeed destroy the corpse miasma , but for people who''ve been living in areas with high miasma , who have been completely tainted with it , this method was but a death sentence During the time this method emerged , it received a lot of backlash from people for its high lethality rate, and as a result it was buried , and forgotten over the years. Even he forgot all about this method, as he simply dismissed it for being useless, but today he realised how wrong he was.


    " It will get dark soon, we better meet up with the others and find a place to settle for the night." Yang Changtian said after observing the sky for a while.


    The other agreed and they started walking to the village square. Before long, they found a chaotic scene in front of them, Zhang Anying was on the verge of tears, while Zhou Zilong was yelling at him. Da Xiong was carrying a dead body back.


    " I cant believe you''re this stupid , how in the world did you mess up the antibiotics with the anti scarring medicine ?! " Zhou Zilong screeched.


    " I was panicking, Senior brother , " Zhang Anying replied sheepishly


    " What happened ?" Yang Changtian asked, rushing towards them.


    " Oldest senior brother.. " Zhang Anying began to whine. But Zhou Zilong cut him off. " Senior Brother , this idiot mixed up the antibiotics with anti scarring medicine , and now some people who were scratched aren''t responding to any other medicine as we missed out on the golden period. Their infections are spreading fast too ."


    Yang Changtian was immediately furious with Zhang Anying. Liu Ying''s medicine bag was divided into sections clearly , even a blind man could distinguish between the 2 different medicines let alone someone who''s had first aid training , but Zhang Anying managed to mess that up. They had also used up a lot of medicine.


    Yang Changtian wacked Zhang Anying on the head before turning to apologize to Liu Ying.


    " Ms. Liu , I apologise for my junior''s mistake. I will reimburse you later for the wasted medicine." He said solemnly.


    Liu Ying just waved her hand before crouching down next to one of the infected patients, she observed the wound for a while. " This might be necrotizing fasciitis , but it seems much faster." Liu Ying said after a while.


    '' Necro... what ? " Mo Ling asked, scratching his head.


    " Necrotizing fasciitis is more commonly known as the flesh eating disease." Li Cheng explained , " I agree , the spread has been amplified. We have to treat them soon, or the infection might spread too much, killing them."


    Liu Ying nodded . " I agree but it looks like all the antibiotics were used up ." she said pointing to the now empty bottles.


    Everyone turned to glare at Zhang Anying. Yang Chang Tian and Zhou Zilong''s glares were the most menacing and Zhang Anying prayed that he doesn''t get buried alive.


    Liu Ying sat down on a rock and stared into the horizon. She was like a statue ,not moving an inch.


    " What is she doing ? " Yang Changtian whispered to Jin Wei.


    " She''s thinking . She says that zoning out helps her block out unnecessary stuff." Jin Wei replied, shrugging his shoulders..


    Yang Changtian muttered an ''oh'' before turning to look at the sky himself.


    Liu Ying jumped to her feet abruptly , and rushed off before anyone could react.


    " What the hell was that ? she scared the shi..." Mo Ling spotted the nasty look Li Cheng flashed at him, " Shi..vering lights out of me, " he quickly corrected himself.


    Yang Changtian and Jin Wei were just about to follow her , but she reappeared around the corner, carrying a clay jar.


    " We can use this to stop the spread of infection. It''ll buy us time." Liu Ying said, her eyes were sparkling.


    Li Cheng quickly took the jar from her and opened it to find honey. " How ? " he asked .


    " Honey has the ability to stop the spread of an infection , and in some milder cases , it can cure the infection completely." Liu Ying replied matter-of-factly. " We can use it to buy some time , and tomorrow we can scour the village for some medicine. And if we are lucky enough , there may be some medicine left behind."


    Liu Ying then turned to Yang Changtian , " I think it would be best to find a place to settle for the night before treating them ."


    Yang Changtian agreed and turned to instruct the others to set up camp.


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    Less than 2 hours later , camp was done. One tent was allocated as a medic tent , to monitor and treat the patients.


    Liu Ying was treating the patients while Li Cheng was helping her. Zhou Zilong and Jin Wei stayed to help them.


    Yang Changtian had Da Xiong and Mo Ling take some disciples to bury the dead away from the village. 5 people were initially killed by the Crazies , while 3 others died due to not being treated in time. While most of the survivors were not injured too seriously, there were 3 people currently in critical condition due to the necrotizing fasciitis spreading fast.


    Liu Ying covered the infected area with honey and within minutes , the spread of the infection slowed down visibly.


    Li Cheng released a sigh of relief . While it probably won''t cure the infection, honey has brought them some much needed time.


    Yang Changtian was observing them from the entrance of the tent. He felt conflicted. It was true that without Liu Ying , the casualties of this mission would be high , in fact it was a miracle if any of them survived. He didn''t expect the situation to be this dangerous.


    Yang Changtian made a mental note to immediately investigate the underground water source that had signs of sabotage tomorrow. He pulled out the ghostly tiger token from his pocket . He gripped it tightly, exerting so much strength that the token almost broke. After a while he loosened his hold , stuffing the token back into his pocket , he reached out to touch the lotus charm hanging from his sword. His fingers began to stroke the lotus, the stones gave off a slight warmth. He looked back at Liu Ying and Li Cheng hovering over a man ,trimming the dead skin off and applying honey on the wound.


    " Senior brother ," Zhang Anying''s voice breaking his trance. Yang Changtian turned to look at him. " I didn''t mean to..." Zhang Anyng continued , but Yang Chanian lifted a finger . " Your apology doesn''t mean anything here Anying. When we get back , you''re going to study the first aid course again. I will personally ask Master Bo to do so."


    " But Senior I - " Zhang Anying wanted to protest.


    " No buts , that''s final." Yang Changtian said harshly. He gave Zhang Anying a glare before turning to walk away.


    " Senior ...... Senior ! " Zhang Anying followed , still protesting.


    " Okay ! " Liu Ying breathed out. " That''s all we can do for now. " She stood up before going over to wash her hands. She then pulled out a small white bottle from her pouch and poured some of the liquid in the bottle to her hands before rubbing it all over her hands. Immediately the strong smell of alcohol paired with a citrusy smell filled the tent.


    Li Cheng sneaked up on Liu Ying to see what was in the bottle. Liu Ying spotted him from the corner of her eye, and she handed the small bottle over to him. " That''s concentrated alcohol with citronella and lime oil." She explained, they are excellent antibacterial medicines. Go wash your hands first ." She pointed at the wash basin.


    Li Cheng washed his hands and patted them dry , before pouring a drop of the liquid into his hands , rubbing it all over his hands. He then sniffed his hands. After dealing with the rapidly rotting flesh and bloody wounds , his hands were tainted with a disgusting smell that was hard to get rid of. But now , just a drop of this solution makes his hands smell clean and fresh.


    Liu Ying noticed Li Cheng''s eye sparkling. " I do apologise , I just bought this one bottle with me , so we can only share it for now. But since you like it so much , I''ll send you a bottle when we return. " Li Cheng broke into a smile at this.


    " Senior ! That isn''t fair , I want one too." Jin Wei started to whine , then looking around , he pointed at Zhou Zilong , " He wants one too."


    Zhou Zilong could only let out a confused '' Haah ?''


    Liu Ying looked at Li Cheng , before rolling her eyes at Jin Wei''s whining. Li Cheng was also trying hard not to laugh.


    Liu Ying walked over to her bag and took out a small clay bottle , and threw it towards Jin Wei. " " Here''s your anti scarring medicine , apply it 3 times a day ."


    Jin Wei immediately thanked Liu Ying and rushed out to clean his face so he could apply the medicine.


    Liu Ying turned to Li Cheng, " Let''s go rest , it was a tiring day today. " Li Cheng nodded at her, and they exited the tent together.


    They were approaching the others who were sitting around a fire. Liu Ying stopped and looked towards a mountain further away. Yang Changtian noticed this , " What''s wrong ? " he asked, turning to look at the mountain .


    Liu Ying stared at the mountain for a while before nodding her head. " I thought I just saw a small flash of light."


    Li Cheng also looked over , " It might be the sun playing some tricks ."


    Liu Ying just nodded at this.


    Yang Changtian observed Liu Ying''s expression for a while , before going back to eating.


    The flash of light was almost negligible , and the mountain was quiet further away.


    The flash had come from the reflection of a spying glass. A group of people were hidden on the mountain , spying on the village . They felt their blood run cold when Liu Ying stopped and stared directly at them. They finally breathed a sigh of relief when she moved on.


    " Brother , did that person notice us ? " one person asked.


    " Impossible , how could she notice us , it was probably just a coincidence." The leader of the group replied . " We should be on alert for the next few days." He ordered the others. "It''s getting dark now , we better go back."


    The other nodded and they packed up heading inwards. Soon they reached a cave and they entered , before using a stone disc to close up the entrance. Moving further inwards , the cave opened up into a small village , multiple wooden sheds were erected , in the cave where the roof collapsed creating a cave shelter.


    The women were cooking while the children were still running around. A kid spotted them and yelled . " Big brother Song and the others are back ! "


    Everyone stood up to greet them .


    An old lady , with wrinkled skin , but kind eyes approached the group. " Song Lian , how was it ? "


    The leader of the group Song Lian bowed towards the old woman. " Village elder , the group of people managed to catch the Crazies. Now they set up camp at the village to treat their wounded." he replied . " For now , it''s possible that they aren''t a threat to us , but we must observe them for longer to be sure. The miasma also dispersed , Elder."


    The Village elder was surprised at this. " But the miasma wasn''t supposed to disperse anytime soon. They must have something to do with it. Observe them for longer."


    " Yes Elder ! " the group called out in unison.


    " Children, let''s go have dinner now." The elder took them to eat dinner.


    After having dinner , Song Lian retired to his home and lied down.


    Liu Ying''s stare keeps replaying in his head. While it wasn''t possible , he felt that she noticed them. Song Lian shook his head to clear it. Tomorrow is going to be a long day , so he decided to stuff his worries to the back of his head and rest for now.


    Meanwhile Yang Changtian , Liu Ying and the others finished having their lunch and they were getting ready to sleep. Yang Changtian was just about to enter his tent when he spotted Liu Ying walking towards him.


    " Ms. Liu, what''s wrong ? " he asked. After she helped him today , their relationship got better , and while he didn''t completely trust her yet, he knew that she wasn''t a bad person so his attitude towards her was much warmer.


    " Mr. Yang, earlier today , I really did see a strange reflection from that mountain . " Liu Ying said, pointing at the mountain. " And I suspect there are people on that mountain."


    Yang Changtian was surprised at this. " Are you sure ? "


    Liu Ying nodded , " there should be some survivors ,and it was confirmed that a group of soldiers were dispatched here to control the situation too , so I don''t think that they were all killed. I theorise that the survivors went into hiding. And I also suspect the reflection was from a spying glass. "


    " How can you be sure that that was a reflection from a spyglass ? It could just be the light playing games with water or something." Yang Changtian asked with his eyes narrowed.


    Liu Ying shook her head." The reflection produced from a spyglass is unique. My family was involved in the creation of spy glasses , so I am somewhat familiar with them."


    Yang Changtian stared at her for a while before nodding his head. " I''ll send some people to check."


    Liu Ying shook her head. " It would be better to stay and watch. They must be observing us , so I want to try to lure them out. It probably won''t take long" A small smirk was forming on her lips.


    Yang Changtian looked at her before breaking out into a smile. He nodded his head agreeing.


    The both of them turned to look at the mountain , its imposing aura still apparent even in the darkness.

 Ch 15 - Searching the village

    The sun rose behind the mountains , framed by the morning clouds. The Sun¡¯s rays were piercing through the air , lighting up anything and everything on its path. You would expect the harmonious sounds of nature and its fauna to accompany this stunning image , but that was far from the truth. Such a lively sight was contradicted by the unlively stillness in the village.


    This stillness was finally broken by a figure  clad in white robes stepping out from his tent. Yang Changtian decided to wake up early , though he instructed the others to sleep in for a while. There was a long day ahead for them , and they went through a draining situation yesterday , so it was his wish to make sure his people were well rested for the day ahead.


    He walked over towards the small stream running through the village , his men and even Liu Ying confirmed that this water source was uncontaminated as it likely had another source, making it their only water source.


    He cupped his hands and scooped up some water to wash his face . He stood up and used a small towel to pat his face dry . And just when he turned around , he spotted Liu Ying coming out from her tent. As usual , she was dressed to impress , a shimmery dark blue robe with white fur lining it , some brown boots and her hair in a bun secured using a hair pin carved to look like a koi fish.


    ¡® I wonder how many clothes she packed ? ¡® Yang Changtian muttered under his breath.


    Liu Ying spotted him and nodded at him in greeting , so he nodded back.


    Liu Ying went on her way , she entered the medic tent .


    Liu Ying closed the tent behind her to prevent any cold air from entering the tent , she then moved closer to the paints , to check on their condition.


    The spread of the infection has stopped in 2 patients , the condition of the remaining patient was much worse before administering the honey , so the spread of the infection hasn''t stopped completely , but it has slowed down a lot.


    Liu Ying checked and discovered that all 3 of them were running a fever. She stood up before moving towards her medicine bag , just as she started rummaging through it , the tent opened , and Li Cheng came in followed by Mo Ling and Jin Wei.


    ¡° Ms. Liu , how are they ? ¡° Li Cheng asked , moving closer to the patients.


    ¡° Those 2 are better , their infections stopped spreading , but him.¡± she said, pointing towards the other man.¡± Since his condition was worser , for now , the infection just slowed down.¡±


    Li Cheng turned to look at the man , and sure enough , the black infection , while very slow , was still spreading.


    Liu Ying fished out some packets of medicine  before moving towards Jin Wei , handing him the medicine ¡° They''re also running a fever , we have to get their temperature down¡±  Liu Ying explained . ¡° Can you ask someone to boil this medicine ?¡±


    ¡° Yes, Senior . ¡° Jin Wei immediately followed her order.


    ¡° Ms Liu , you mentioned that their infections stopped , does that mean they don''t need medicine anymore ? ¡° Mo Ling was curious.


    Liu Ying shook her head , and before she could answer , Li Cheng answered on her behalf , ¡° No , the infection is still there , we just isolated it in one place , to stop the spread of it. It still needs to be treated with antibiotics.¡±


    Mo Ling just muttered an ¡®oh¡¯ in response.


    Jin Wei returned with the boiled medicine , Liu Ying stepped out for a while before coming back with a junior detective .


    ¡° Feed them a small bowl of the medicine once every 4 hours , and inform me immediately if anything happens.¡± Liu Ying instructed .


    ¡° Yes, Senior .¡± The junior detective immediately obliged .


    Liu Ying and the others waited till the first dose of medicine was administered . All 4 of them walked out.


    Li Cheng caught the sight of Yang Changtian instructing a group of disciples from the corner of his eyes. ¡° Brother Yang ! ¡° Liu Ying greeted him.


    Yang Changtuan turned and spotted them , he strode towards them. ¡° How are they doing ? ¡°


    ¡° They¡¯re doing fine for now , just running a fever. But they need medicine soon.¡± Liu Ying responded. ¡° I¡¯m planning on scouring the village with the juniors today.¡± Liu Ying continued.


    Yang Changtian nodded. ¡° Do you need more manpower ? ¡° .


    Liu Ying thought for a while before shaking her head. ¡° That isn''t necessary , the village isn''t big , so we can do it ourselves.¡±


    Yang Changtian nodded again , he then turned to Li Cheng. ¡° Brother Li , what are you planning to do today ? I¡¯m going to investigate the underground lake today ¡°


    ¡° I was going to join Ms. Liu since it would be easier for me .¡± Li Cheng replied honestly. ¡° You better take Mo Ling along with you , he would be a bigger help to you.¡±


    ¡° But Oldest Senior Brother ! ¡° Mo Ling began to protest . ¡° Senior Brother Huang asked me to stay by your side to keep you safe .¡±


    ¡° It would be more dangerous for me to descend into the cave the lake is located in. Besides Ms. Liu and the others are with me . Infact I think that Ms. Liu¡¯s fighting skills are even better than yours .¡± Li Cheng cut him off.


    ¡° Senior Brother ! ¡° Mo Ling began to whine , but he was instantly silenced by the dirty look Li Cheng shot at him. ¡° Yes, Oldest Senior Brother .¡± Mo Ling replied dejectedly.


    Yang Changtian stared at Li Cheng for a while before nodding. It was indeed true that the journey to the underground lake is hard and likely treacherous, so it was ideal for him to stay back and help Liu Ying.


    Liu Ying turned to Jin Wei . ¡° Jin Wei asked Da Xiong to go along with them too . You¡¯ll stay back to help me .¡±


    ¡° Yes Senior ! ¡° Jin Wei replied , he really didn''t want to go underground so he was more than happy to stay above the ground with Liu Ying.


    ¡° Mo Ling , go with Brother Yang.¡± Li Cheng instructed.


    ¡° Yes, Oldest Senior Brother , ¡° Mo Ling replied, pouting.


    Liu Ying turned to Yang Changtian , ¡° Mr. Yang , if it''s possible , can you please bring back a sample of water from the lake for me  ?¡±


    Yang Changtian agreed , ¡° Do you need a specific amount ? ¡°


    Liu Ying nodded , she quickly turned to enter her tent , and came back with a small bottle made from a battle gourd . She handed the bottle to Yang Changtian . ¡° This bottle would be enough. If possible can you also bring me some rocks or soil around the lake ? ¡±


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    Yang Changtain took the bottle and nodded . He then turned around and left, Mo Ling trailing behind him.


    Liu Ying turned to Li Cheng. ¡° Mr. Li , shall we ? ¡° she said, extending her hand.


    ¡° Certainly , after you Ms. Liu ¡° Li Cheng replied ,also extending his hand out.


    Yang Changtian returned to his tent  to find ZHang ANying and Zhou Zilong waiting for him.


    ¡° Senior brother . ¡° The both of them greeted him.


    Yang Changtian nodded at them , ¡° Zilong , I want you to stay behind and help Ms.Liu and Li Cheng. And you , Zhang Anying , you¡¯re coming with me.¡±


    ¡° Yes , senior brother ¡° the both of them answered.


    ¡° I¡¯ll take my leave then , senior brother, ¡° Zhou Zilong said before leaving.


    Zhang Anying moved closer to Yang Changtian who was packing his bag. ¡° Senior brother , what are we doing today ? ¡° He asked curiously.


    ¡° We will be checking out the underground water source today. It¡¯ll be a hard journey ,so go and pack enough water and some snacks.¡± Yang Changtian answered.


    ¡° Okay Senior brother , I¡¯ll go pack then.¡±


    After Zhang Anying left , Yang Changtian finished packing his bag and  plopped down on his bed . He pulled out a small wooden box from under his pillow. Opening the box , there was a small ghostly tiger token inside , he pulled it out  clenching his hand almost crushing it to dust.


    Yang Changtian took a deep breath , to calm himself. He then slipped the tiger token into his robe. He returned the empty box under his pillow , and picked up the smaller bag he just packed for today¡¯s mission.


    He stepped out of his tent , Mo Ling and Da Xiong were waiting for him outside. Yang Changtan walked towards them , ¡° Is everything ready ? ¡° he questioned.


    ¡° Zhang Anying still isn''t here , but other than that we¡¯re ready to depart.¡± Mo Ling responded.


    Yang Changtian nodded , he called down a disciple and instructed him to go tell Zhang Anying to meet them at the village center . He then turned to Mo Ling and Da Xiong , ¡° Let''s go , we can help Ms.Liu , Li Cheng and the others while we wait for him.¡±


    Da Xiong and Mo Ling nodded , and the three of them turned to walk towards the village center.


    Meanwhile , at the village center , Liu Ying and Li Cheng were rummaging through what was likely an old Apothecary , but unfortunately , now it was but a mere shell , with almost everything destroyed. Most of the herbs were destroyed or lost most of their properties due to the exposure to harsh conditions and miasma.


    ¡° While these are runed , and not suitable to administer , we can still use them.¡± Li Cheng said , Liu Ying nodded at this.


    ¡° Let¡¯s have them bring these medicines back to camp first , there''s a lot of sage and turmeric , we also have some other herbs left , they can still be used.¡± Liu Ying then called Jin Wei , and instructed him to get someone to take these medicines back to camp.


    Liu Ying and Li Cheng continued to search around. Yang Changtian , Mo Ling and Da Xiong ,joined them.


    ¡° Brother Yang ! Why are you all here , didnt you set off yet ? Li Cheng asked surprised.


    ¡° No , Zhang Anying is running late , so we decided to come and see if we could lend a hand. How¡¯s it going ? ¡° Yang Changtian asked .


    ¡° We¡¯re actually almost done , almost all of the buildings are destroyed , ¡° Liu Ying replied , she extended her hand and on cue , Jin Wei handed over a map .


    Liu Ying took the map and placed it on a broken table. Everyone gathered around the table.


    Liu Ying pointed at a red dot on the map , ¡°: Before coming I had someone draw up this map , this place is the only Apothecary in the whole village. We already found some herbs here , while we really can''t use it on humans , it can be used on our animals , or in case the miasma comes back ,we can use it for dispelling it too.¡±


    ¡° Did you find any antibiotics ? ¡° Yang Changtian asked , anxious.


    Li Cheng shook his head , ¡° Not yet brother Yang , but I think we will find some.¡±


    Yang Changtian nodded.


    From afar they heard Zhang Anying¡¯s rushed voice, ¡° Oldest Senior brother , I¡¯m here , we can go now ¡° he yelled out.


    Yang Changtian shot him a look , ¡° Next time , make sure you''re on time.¡± he sneered. Ever since they started this mission , Yang Changtian had a very short fuse with Zhang Anying , as he always managed to screw something up. ¡° Lets go, Ms. Liu , Brother Li , we will take our leave now.¡±


    Li Cheng and Liu Ying nodded at him , and they followed Yang Changtian and the others to see them off. They watched Yang Changtian and his group mount their horses . The entrance to the underground lake was inside a cave  a good 10 miles away from the village , and there was an additional trek deep into the cave to get to the underground cavern the lake sits in.


    Liu Ying and Li Cheng watched on as the group departed. Liu Ying stared at Yang Changtian¡¯s back till he disappeared . Li Cheng spotted her staring , and sensing his questioning gaze , Liu Ying quickly turned to him , ¡° I hope he remembers to bring me my sample.¡±


    Li Cheng was flabbergasted , for a while he found Liu Ying¡¯s stare strange , but turns out it was about her sample. He broke into a small laugh. ¡° Don¡¯t worry Ms.Liu , He¡¯ll surely bring the sample back .¡±


    Liu Ying nodded , ¡° Let¡¯s go back and resume searching .¡±


    Li Cheng nodded back and the both of them turned to go back in.


    Unbeknownst to Li Cheng , Liu Ying whispered something and her hands , hidden and clenched behind her, began emitting a faint blue light. ¡° Prolong and Protect ! ¡° Liu Ying whispered and unclenched her hand , and the faint blue light vanished .


    The lotus charm hanging from Yang Changtian¡¯s sword briefly emitted a faint light , so faint , that it went unnoticed.


    Liu Ying and Li Cheng returned to the Apothecary , and resumed their search. After an hour or so , they were beginning to lose hope , and suddenly Jin Wei called out in surprise , ¡° Senior , I found this small box under the shelf. ¡° He handed the small wooden box to Liu Ying , who immediately opened it.


    She scrutinized the medicine for a while , ¡° These are antibiotics , but this isn''t a complete prescription , so we need to adjust this with other herbs to have any effect. ¡° Liu Ying replied , her voice soft. ¡° Besides , this is only enough for one person.¡±


    Jin Wei and Li Cheng knew that there was nothing else they could do , that made them feel worse.


    Liu Ying patted them on the shoulder , ¡° We all worked hard today. Both of you go back and get some rest now. We''ll think of something later , also we need to be well rested just in case Yang Changtian needs back up.¡±


    Li Cheng and Jin Wei perked up at this.


    ¡° Senior, what do you mean that they might need some backup , and how do you know that ? Is it your intuition again ? ¡° Jin Wei questioned.


    Li Cheng also observed Liu Ying quietly.


    Liu Ying turned to look at the mountain where she saw the flash the other day. She stayed still for a while before sighing , ¡° It¡¯s not just my intuition . I studied those Crazies yesterday . ¡°


    Li Cheng and Jin Wei were shocked . The Crazies were violent whenever they woke up , so they were administered regular doses of sedatives to control them, and Liu Ying and Yang Changtian decided collectively to keep them locked away, but it turns out that Liu Ying went ahead and studied them.


    ¡°And ? ¡° Li Cheng asked , urging Liu Ying to continue.


    ¡° And my initial speculation was right , it was a zombie fungus , but ¡­.. The fungus seems more advanced.¡± Liu Ying explained .


    ¡° Advanced , how ? ¡° Li Cheng asked again.


    Liu Ying shook her head , ¡° That¡¯s what i haven''t figured out yet , that''s also why I asked Yang Changtian to get me the water sample today .¡±


    ¡° Zombie fungi aren''t usually found in northern territory due to the harsh conditions ,so by this we can conclude that the Crazies were an act of sabotage , they likely infested the lake , and the lake fed into the water sources of the village , and the zombie fungus infested the people , controlling them .But , as i said the fungi seems more advanced, it¡¯s almost like someone controlling them , because usually , animals infected with zombie fungus , don''t show any violent behavior towards others , and if I am correct , the fungi usually stay near the origin place . So..¡±


    ¡° So the Crazies who are infected and controlled by the zombie fungus might be near the origin source , and if they¡¯re advanced , this chance is increased significantly.¡± Li Cheng finished for her. ¡° We must warn Yang Changtian.¡± Li Cheng panicked.


    ¡° Don¡¯t fret , I already briefed Da Xiong and asked him to relay this matter to Yang Changtian on their way.¡± Liu Ying replied , ever so calm. ¡° I also had him bring along crossbows , with sedative soaked arrows. They are well prepared.¡± Liu Ying turned to stare at the mountain again. ¡° Let¡¯s go and get some rest , we have to be alert this evening. I asked Da Xiong to use his firework to notify us if they need any backup.¡±


    Li Cheng and Jin Wei were still shocked , but they were roused from their daze soon , by Liu Ying turning around and leaving.


    Jin Wei shook his head before hurrying behind her. Li Cheng looked at Liu Ying¡¯s back with a complicated expression. ¡° You remind me of her so much. ¡° he whispered under his breath. He turned to look at the sky. He broke into a small smile before shaking his head , he turned around to follow Liu Ying and Jin Wei back to camp.

 Ch 16 - The Cave

    Yang Changtian and the group soon arrived at the entrance of the cave , they dismounted their horses and Yang Changtian instructed one disciple to go and tend to the horses.


    Mo Ling approached Yang Changtian , ¡° Brother Yang , I¡¯ll take some disciples along with me to scout the area around the cave .¡±


    Yang Chagtian nodded , ¡° We¡¯ll wait till you¡¯re back to enter the cave , and bring Zhang Anying and some other disciples along . ¡° Mo Ling nodded before leaving.


    Yang Changtian sat down on a rock and pulled out a map. He went through the map of the underground cave system drawn by Wang Jinlong¡¯s scouts. The scout had marked a spot , with a red cross , this was the location of the lake , located inside a cavern that collapsed into a Karst Window around 100 years ago. .


    ¡° Mr. Yang.¡± a quiet voice interrupted Yang Changtian , he looked up to see Da Xiong .


    ¡° What is it ? ¡° Yang Changtian asked , putting the map away.


    ¡° Mr. Yang , today before leaving , my senior instructed me to hand this letter over to you once we arrive, ¡° Da Xiong answered .


    ¡° Ms. Liu did ? ¡° Yang Changtian asked surprised, he took the letter and opened it. It read;


    ¡® Mr. Yang , I examined the Crazies , they are infected with a zombie virus , it seems more advanced. Organisms infected with the zombie virus usually stay close to the origin source , therefore I predict that there might be crazies around the lake , but I am not sure. Just in case, I already asked Da Xiong to bring along some crossbows with sedative laced arrows . And as they are close to their origin source , they are likely to be more calm , therefore unlikely to be violent and attack you , but just in case please be on alert. ¡®


    Yang Changtian felt a headache coming , he turned to a disciple , ¡° Go and tell Mo Ling and the others to come back.¡±


    He then turned back to Da Xiong , before letting out a deep sigh, ¡° Your senior couldn''t say this to me earlier ? ¡°


    Da Xiong shrugged, ¡° She¡¯s a weird one. She likely didn''t say it out loud because she wasn''t completely sure. I''ve heard that during the founding days , the seniors investigated a haunting case in the southern territories , and they spent days without any progress , only for her to inform Senior Fan about a hunch she had but wasn''t sure about . It turned out to be correct and Senior Fang was pissed at her for not telling him soon, but she just said that she couldn''t say it before because she wasn''t sure. She pulled similar stunts later , so now they don''t even bat an eye. On the bright side , she did send us the necessary items. ¡±


    Yang Changtian shook his head hearing this , ¡® She sure is a weird one ¡® he thought to himself.


    ¡° Where are the crossbows ? ¡° He asked .


    Da Xiong turned around and signaled a junior to bring them over.


    Yang Changtian walked over to the 3 crates that had the weapons . He pulled a crossbow out, he was surprised at how light and smaller it was. ¡° It¡¯s lighter and smaller .¡±


    Da Xiong nodded , ¡° These are the crossbows senior Fang developed recently , they are smaller and lighter to make it easier to carry and handle , he also created a new launching system , so it¡¯s range is good too, with the limit being around 65 yards.¡±


    Yang Changtian turned the crossbow around, observing it. He lifted it and took aim . ¡° Do you have any regular arrows , I don''t want to waste any laced arrows.¡±


    Da Xiong nodded , immediately turning to ask a junior to bring over the arrows . The juniors came back with 2 smaller boxes filled with arrows and another bag , Da Xiong opened a box and took out an arrow handing it to Yang Changtian


    Yang Changtian took the arrow , placing it on the launch area , he aimed towards a tree a good 40 yards away , he shot the arrow which embedded itself halfway in the tree.


    At the same time , Mo Ling and the others came back. They witnessed Yang Changtian shooting , and they all broke out in applause. They were impressed with Yang Changtian¡¯s crossbow skills.


    Mo Ling and Zhang Anying rushed towards the arrow embedded into the tree.


    ¡° Wow , Oldest senior brother , it¡¯s almost completely embedded into the tree.¡± Zhang Anying marveled.


    ¡° You all , come here.¡± Yang Changtian said .


    ¡° Brother Yang , we just left to search the surrounding area , when you called us back urgently. What is this about ? ¡° Mo Ling questioned.


    ¡° Ms. Liu just informed us about a hunch she has . She suspects that there might be Crazies lurking around the lake , so she asked us to be on the lookout.¡± Yang Changtian started .


    Mo Ling turned to Da Xiong and snapped , ¡° She couldn''t say that earlier ? ¡° .


    Da Xiong just shrugged his shoulders , ¡° If you have any complaints , just go tell them to her directly.¡±


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    Mo Ling shut up after he heard that , he knew that Liu Ying wasn''t someone who was easy to deal with , her gaze often sent shivers down his spine , so he wouldn''t dare to say this to her.


    Da Xiong saw the fear in Mo Ling¡¯s eyes and he smirked. ¡® Weren''t you just acting all high and mighty ?¡¯ he said in his heart.


    ¡° That¡¯s enough.¡± Yang Changtian said , ¡° She isn''t completely sure, and she also said that the Crazes are likely to be less violent here , but just in case she sent us some weapons.¡±


    ¡° Weapons ? ¡° Mo Ling asked curiously , he then turned to see the crates filled with crossbows.¡° She sent these crossbows ? ¡°


    Yang Changtian nodded , ¡° She laced the arrows with sedatives. You 3 take a crossbow each and distribute the rest among the people who have experience handling bows and crossbows. How many arrows do we have ? ¡° he asked, turning to Da Xiong.


    ¡° Just these 2 boxes , but she sent us more sedatives. In case we ran out of arrows , she asked us to retrieve the arrows and wash them before lacing them with sedatives again. Ah , she also asked me to inform you that the sedatives used this time are stronger than before , so we shouldn''t come into any direct contact with it. She even gave us some leather gloves to be sure that we don''t touch the sedative directly.¡±


    Yang Changtian nodded , ¡° Da Xiong go distribute the crossbows , and also inform the others about Ms. Liu¡¯s warning,¡± He then turned to Mo Ling and Zhang Anying , ¡° You two heard him , be sure not to come into contact with the drug.¡±


    Mo Ling and Zhang Anying nodded solemnly before grabbing 2 crossbows each. Da Xiong grabbed a crossbow for himself and pulled out 4 pairs of gloves from the bag , he handed the gloves to Yang Changtian , Mo Ling and Zhang Anying.


    They wore their gloves and Da Xiong distributed the arrows and gloves , and they regathered.


    Yang Changtian turned to look at his group , ¡° I¡¯m sure Da Xiong filled you in about the situation , so I need you all to be very alert .¡±


    ¡° Yes ! ¡° all of them yelled collectively .


    Yang Changtian nodded , and turned to enter the cave.


    The opening of the cave was damp and smelled bad , likely due to the bat excrement , coating the cave floor in a thick layer. The light began fading , so Yang Changtian and the others pulled out torches and lit them , before descending.


    The cave opened up into a cavern that split into 2 paths , Yang Changtian asked Mo Ling to hold his torch and he pulled out the map. After the checking the map , they chose the path on the right that soon lead into a slope going down.


    ¡° Everton , watch your step , the humidity inside the cave has made the cave slippery , and there are loose rocks on the slope, ¡° Yang Changtian warned.


    One wrong move and you could dislodge a rock , eventually causing a rockfall or you could slip to your death. So everyone sat down and propelled themselves down the slope slowly .


    Soon the group reached the ground , further in they discovered another bigger cavern with stalactites and stalagmites. Water was dripping from the stalactites and hitting the floor causing an eerie dripping sound to echo throughout the pitch black cave.


    ¡° This is the final cavern, we have to descend another slope before reaching the lake.¡± Yang Changtian pointed towards the darkness.


    The group slowly moved towards the other slope dodging sharp stalagmites created by the very dripping that created the stalactites . Their torches casting eerie shadows that dance around the cave.


    Soon they reached another slope , steeper than the last one. It was almost a complete drop down.


    ¡° We need ropes to descend this .¡± Yang Changtian turned towards Zhang Anying , ¡° Did you bring the ropes ? ¡° he then turned to inform the others to get ready to propel themselves down using ropes.


    Zhang Anying looked at Yang Changtian sheepishly , ¡°Oldest senior brother , you didn''t tell me to pack ropes.¡± he replied meekly.


    Yang Changtian immediately whipped his head around , Mo Ling also stopped what he was doing to stare at Zhang Anying in disbelief.


    The already silent and cold environment somehow got quieter and colder , as everyone tuned to stare at Zhang Anying.


    Yang Changtian pinched his nose bridge hard , he straightened up before taking a deep breath to calm himself down.


    ¡° Do I need to spell everything out for you ? We¡¯re going underground , so obviously we¡¯re going to need ropes . Just how stupid can you be ! ¡° Yang Changtian reprimanded , while his voice wasn¡¯t harsh or loud , it was somehow worse than him yelling.


    ¡° Oldest Senior Brother , I really didn''t think - ¡° Zhang Anying began.


    ¡° Think ?! Of course you never think .¡± Yang Changtian cut him off harshly.


    Da Xiong felt sorry for Zhang Anying , ¡° Mr. Yang , I brought some ropes , we can share them. Brother Zhang made a mistake because he was too eager to help out.¡±


    Yang Changtian turned towards Da Xiong , ¡° You brought ropes ? How many ? ¡°


    Da Xiong waved the juniors he brought along to come closer , he opened their bags and pulled out a rope from each bag. There were 3 ropes , then Da Xiong opened his own bag before pulling out another .


    ¡° We didn''t bring much , just enough for each of us person ¡° Da Xiong replied sheepishly , ¡° Senior told us to bring our own supplies so we don''t bother you Mr. Yang. But the ropes are very sturdy and strong , so we can share them among the group. ¡°


    Yang Changtian sighed deeply before nodding , ¡° Thank you .¡± he then turned to everyone , ¡° We¡¯ll share the ropes and descend , 2 people stay here to make sure nothing goes wrong , we¡¯ll use these stalagmites as anchors , choose ones that are strong and sturdy. Now let¡¯s get to work.¡±


    Everyone scattered and jumped into work at that, Da Xiong took up the task of selecting the stalagmites , and Mo Ling helped him with tying the ropes.


    Zhang Anying tried apologising to Yang Changtian ,¡± Oldest Senior brother , I¡¯m sorr-¡±


    ¡° Stop apologizing all the time Anying , take some time and think just how many issues you¡¯ve caused during this journey. Today , if Liu Ying didn''t tell Da Xiong to bring their own ropes , we would have to postpone this mission for later. Time is running out , we have to get to the bottom of this soon , or if it spreads, it¡¯s going to cause more problems. And here you are , somehow messing the most basic things up. Next time you¡¯re going to stay in camp and do nothing.¡±


    Zhang Anying wanted to protest , but he stopped in his tracks when he saw Yang Changtian¡¯s disappointed look, so he just nodded.


    Mo Ling and Da Xiong finished their work and approached Yang Changtian .


    ¡° Brother Yang, we''re ready to descend.¡± Mo Ling informed.


    Yang Changtian nodded and grabbed one rope and got ready to propel himself down , he then asked the other¡¯s to follow suit and jumped down . The surroundings were pitch black , they had to put their torches out temporarily as they needed both of their hands to grab the rope.


    Yang Changtian couldn''t see anything. And the cave somehow smelt worse , it smelt like decay .


    After a while Yang Changtun felt his feet touching something solid , so he kicked his feet to confirm he had indeed reached the ground. He stepped down and tugged the rope , indicating that the next person can come down now.


    Mo Ling and Da Xiong who climbed down along with Yang Changtian also reached the ground. The three of them pulled out their torches and relit them.


    The torches illuminated the cave , and they noticed a faint light coming from the end of a long corridor. They had reached the lake.

 Ch 17 - Attacked by the Crazies

    Yang Changtian and the others walked towards the light and at the end of the natural corridor they found themselves looking at a grand lake , the roof of the cave had collapsed forming a Karst Window , the sunlight illuminated the lake which had a blue-grey hue. The walls of the cave had multiple jagged and sharp rocks , if a person or animal were to fall from the top they would inevitably get impaled on the rocks , hence why it was necessary to reach the lake from another cave.


    Yang Changtian studied the surrounding area, and on the opposite shore , he spotted some small caves , some were likely feeding the water paths on the surface .


    The air around the lake was heavy , and it smelled like decay.


    Yang Changtian turned to the group , ¡° Let¡¯s split up and investigate the shore first , then we can move onto the lake. Mo Ling ,take Zhang Anying and investigate those caves there , Da Xiong , you bring some disciples and check out the rest of the caves there. ¡°


    Everyone nodded before splitting up to finish their tasks , Yang Changtian pulled out the map and sat down on a rock , he studied the map for a while and Wang Jinlong¡¯s men had marked  the place they found the tiger token , it was nearby. He stood up and walked closer to a cave and loaded his crossbow , just in case before entering .


    The cave was small so he had to crouch down to enter it,  soon it  gave way into a bigger area that held the natural spring that fed the lake . Yang Changtian was hit with an incredibly gut wrenching odor of decomposing flesh , he scanned the area but he didn''t see anything.


    He walked around the small cave , and determined that the token was found right on the edge of the spring. He crouched down and observed the ground , he discovered some marks , they looked like footsteps. He had no way of confirming that the footprint belonged to the culprit and the scouts were down here  too , but he quickly took out a small bottle of ink and a brush , he carefully applied the ink along the foot mark and pressed it onto his robe , effectively creating a copy of the footprint. He then took out a small bag , and collected some soil and rock from around the spring .He then pulled out the bottle Liu Ying gave him , he had to collect some samples for her.


    As he approached the spring , he noticed that the stench got worse. Then he noticed something weird , while the water was murky due to its blue-grey coloration , he could spot something vague in the water , he immediately became alert , but he had to get the water sample . He quickly activated his all-seeing eye technique , which enabled him to see through the murky water , what he saw made his blood run cold , in the water there was a man . The man¡¯s lips, eyes and hands were black , he was decaying. ¡®A Crazy ! ¡® Yang Changtian thought to himself , he observed the crazy for a while. The crazy wasn''t moving , it was like he was sleeping. Then Liu Ying¡¯s words flashed before his eyes , they are calm when they¡¯re near the origin source.


    So as long as he did not disturb the crazy he should be okay.


    Yang Changtian inched his way closer and slowly filled the bottle with water, he constantly kept an eye on the crazy. He finally managed to fill the bottle without waking the Crazy up. He quickly rushed out of the  cave and signaled for everyone to gather.


    Everyone gathered , but when he looked around , Yang Changtian couldnt find Mo Ling and Zhang Anying. He turned to the group assigned to those two and asked them where they were.


    ¡° Senior brother Zhang and Senior Brother Mo , decided to check out a smaller cave over there ,¡± a disciple said, pointing at a cave on  the other side of the lake.


    ¡° Okay . I¡¯ll go look for them now , but this area is teeming with Crazies , Ms. Liu was right , I need all of you to immediately evacuate the area . We will rejoin you soon.¡±


    The others quickly began to evacuate , Da Xiong approached Yang Changtian , ¡° Mr. Yang, I¡¯ll come along.¡± Yang Changtian nodded.


    Da Xiong loaded his crossbow and the both  of them rushed towards the cave , the cave likely fed into a stream outside , as a thin stream of water was rushing through the middle.


    Yang Changtian instructed Da Xiong to avoid the water. And the both of them lit their torches before going in slowly. The cave was long , and it got narrower , soon the two of them had to crouch down. Suddenly they heard yelling from ahead, it sounded like Zhang Anying. Yang Changtian and Da Xiong looked at each other before rushing towards the voice , the cave soon gave way into another smaller cavern and with the measly light their torches provided , they spotted Mo Ling and Zhang Anying surrounded by a group of Crazies.


    Zhang Anying was yelling , and his yelling seemed to agitate the Crazies more.


    ¡° Can you shut the fuck up ! ¡° Mo Ling was yelling at Zhang Anying. ¡° You¡¯re idiotic screaming is making them mad.¡± he roared.


    ¡° You¡¯re yelling yourself ¡° Zhang Anying yelled back.


    Yang Changtian shot an arrow towards a Crazy  perfectly striking it through the neck , the Crazy immediately fell down and twitched for a few seconds before stilling.


    Da Xiong shot at another Crazy that was approaching them. The both of them worked together to create a path to reach Mo Ling and Zhang Anying .


    ¡° What happened ? ¡° Yang Changtian questioned them , ¡° Why are so many Crazies cornering you two ?¡±


    ¡° Well , genius Zhang Anying here thought it would be okay to throw a rock there to check if anything was hiding in the dark.¡± Mo Ling replied pointing to a direction.


    Yang Changtian activated his all-seeing eye technique again , and he scoured the area around them. They had their back turned to a wall , and they were surrounded by Crazies , they were even blocking the exit. To make matters worse it seemed like all the Crazies in the cave were gathering around them.


    ¡° This isn''t good , we need to get out soon . How many arrows do we have ? Yang Changtian asked, turning to Da Xiong.


    Da Xiong shook his head grimly , ¡° We don''t have enough to take on a quarter of them , let alone half . I¡¯m guessing we have around 25 arrows or so left collectively.¡±


    Yang Changtian broke out in a cold sweat .


    The Crazies gathered around them forming a semi circle , these dastardly creatures were just waiting, sneering at them.


    Yang Changtian clenched his hand, ¡° Listen , we can¡¯t confront them alone , we need to distract them first , I¡¯ll distract them. You three take the chance to escape, I¡¯ll follow you after I lose them .


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    ¡° But Brother Yang - ¡° . ¡° No, Mr.Yang.¡± , ¡° How can we do that Oldest Senior Brother?¡± All three of them began to protest.


    ¡° Stop whining , I have my all-seeing eye skill , I can evade them easily , but if you¡¯re with me , it¡¯ll only be a burden.¡±


    The three of them didn''t argue after that , it was indeed true that with Yang Changtian¡¯s skills he had a greater chance of getting out unharmed. So the three of them only nodded.


    ¡° Now ! ¡° Yang Changtian whispered , he then shot at a Crazy and leapt up ,and landed on a small ledge he discovered while surveying the area  he then pulled out a rock from the rock samples he gathered for Liu Ying and chucked it at the Crazies. He then launched himself off the ledge , before using a Stalactite to propel himself over the wall of approaching Crazies.


    Mo Ling , Zhang Anying and Da Xiong bolted towards the exit, they shot down multiple Crazies who tried to follow them, and they managed to escape.


    On the other hand Yang Changtian , was leaping from left to right , avoiding the Crazies ,who were chasing him , getting more agitated by the second.


    After he was sure that the other¡¯s got away safely , he flipped over the Crazies and did a somersault to stabilize himself , before dashing towards the exit. The Crazies began to give him a chase. Yang Changtian just managed to get out of the cave , when he felt his blood run cold. Multiple crazies were slowly creeping out from the lake , they were likely agitated by the growls of the Crazies chasing him . From the corner of his eye , Yang Changtian spotted Mo Ling , Da Xiong and Zhang Anying fighting Crazies , he felt relieved when they reached the rope. But his relief was short lived as he witnessed a crazy lunging at Zhang Anying, who didn''t even notice it.


    Making a split second decision , Yang Changtian stopped in his tracks , the Crazies now catching up to him , he quickly took aim before shooting the zombie , he managed to take out the zombie launching  the sneak attack at Zhang Anying .


    Yang Changtian turned around quickly to analyse his own situation, only to discover that the Crazies was extremely close to him , he could only pull out his sword and start slashing the Crazies, but as expected it wasn''t working , in fact it only made them more aggressive. The wave of Crazies soon overwhelmed Yang Changtian .


    Mo Ling , Zhang Anying and Da Xiong could only watch helplessly , as Yang Changtian was swallowed by the wave of Crazies.


    ¡° Oldest Senior Brother ! ¡° Zhang Anying wailed. Da Xiong and Mo Ling felt bad for Zhang Anying but they couldn''t comfort them and currently they were still hanging from the ropes. The Crazies that originally followed them , also turned their attention to Yang Changtian.


    Mo Ling and Zhang Anying bowed their heads. Da Xiong continued to watch the Wave of crazies rushing towards the already swallowed Yang Changtian.


    But Da Xiong spotted something that made him wipe his eyes and recheck  , a faint blue light was emanating from the lump of crazies, and it was getting stronger.


    ¡°Mo Ling , Zhang Anying , look.¡± he yelled at the others.


    Mo Ling and Zhang Anying both lifted their heads , and they too were shocked to see this.


    ¡° What is that ? ¡° Zhang Anying whispered . Mo Ling and Da Xiong shook their heads as they didn''t know either.


    The blue light only got stronger and stronger ,and suddenly the whole cave was illuminated with a burst of blue light , this blue light blinded Mo Ling , Da Xiong and Zhang Anying.


    They quickly covered their eyes , and when they opened their eyes again , they were surprised to see Yang Changtian enveloped by a blue barrier in the shape of a lotus.


    Just moments ago , Yang Changtian was slashing at the Crazies but they were overwhelming him. He felt himself being knocked down by the Crazies , he instinctively closed his eyes , but the pain of being torn apart didn''t come , instead he felt a cold feeling enveloping him. Now the underground cave and lake themselves were cold , but this cold felt different , it felt .. familiar.


    Yang Changtian¡¯s eyes shot open , and he found a blue light engulfing him , acting like a barrier to keep him safe , suddenly the blue light intensified , blinding him momentarily. The light died down and he saw that the light had pushed the Crazies away and they lay around him stunned and unable to move.


    Suddenly he felt his sword vibrating. He lowered his head to look at his sword and he saw a faint blue light emanating from the lotus charm . ¡®Jingyou¡­¡¯ he sighed out softly. Yang Changtian gripped the lotus charm hard . ¡° I knew you were alive.¡± Yang Changtian whispered to himself , his voice breaking. He lifted the blue lotus charm , placing it on his forehead softly , he closed his eyes and enjoyed the familiar feeling. But he was interrupted by Da Xiong yelling at him.


    ¡° Mr. Yang , you''re okay ! . Quickly you need to get out before they wake up.¡± Da Xiong yelled.


    This brought Yang Changtian back , he quickly looked around and rushed towards the rope and he quickly joined Mo Ling , Da Xiong and Zhang Anying.


    They managed to scale up the rope in record time. All of them collapsed on the ground after they reached the top .


    Yang Changtian quickly instructed the disciples to cut the ropes off , to prevent any Crazies from climbing up. The disciples sprang into action and followed his instructions.


    Yang Changtian collapsed back onto the floor. His hand gripped the blue lotus charm again.


    Mo Ling sat up after a while and stared at Yang Changtan strangely.


    Zhang Anying sat up soon after,¡± Oldest Senior Brother , for a while there I thought you were a goner. But I thought your spiritual power was white not blue ?¡± he asked confused.


    ¡° That¡¯s because it wasn''t his spiritual power.¡± Mo Ling broke the silence , his voice low. He then turned to Yang Changtian ,¡± That was Oldest Senior Sister¡¯s spiritual power.¡±


    Zhang Anying was shocked to hear this, he whipped his head around to look at Yang Changtian, who had his head lowered.


    Da Xiong , who was sitting next to Yang Changtian, was shocked to see him crying. A single tear flowed down from his eyes and landed on the lotus charm.


    Yang Changtian gripped the lotus charm harder, mumbling to himself. ¡® I was right¡­she¡¯s alive.¡¯

 Ch 18 - Returning back to camp

    A single tear drop fell from Yang Changtian¡¯s misty eyes , landing on the lotus charm he was clenching hard. ¡° I was right ¡­. She¡¯s still alive ¡° Yang Changtian finally managed to breathe out.


    Mo Ling was still looking at Yang Changtian with a complicated look , but soon his own eyes got misty as he felt his eyes welling with tears . He quickly wiped his eyes , and fought back tears. Mo Ling stood up and walked over to Yang Changtian , he tapped Yang Changtian on the shoulder, ¡° Brother Yang , we don''t have time , we need to get back to camp before sun down.¡±


    Yang Changtian broke free from his trance , and looked at Mo Ling before nodding . He tightly clenched the lotus charm again before hanging it on his sword again. He then composed himself before instructing the others to move out and return to camp.


    Maybe luck was finally on their side , as they did not encounter any more Crazies in the upper levels. They quickly mounted their horses before leading them back to camp.


    Yang Changtian glanced back at the cave once more before rigging his horse to gallop faster .


    After resting Liu Ying and the others parted ways to get some rest , they were going to regather in around an hour to discuss the issue about the medicine.


    Liu Ying suddenly felt her hands and eyes heating up. Jumping up to a tree nearby she settled down on a spot that hid her well , as her eyes and hands were now emitting a blue light , her protection spell was activated , she quickly pulled out a needle. She used the needle to prick her finger , just enough to draw a few drops of blood. She immediately closed her eyes and began to mumble something ,and the blue light in her hands began to grow brighter .Using her other hand she conjured up a single blue lotus petal , she dropped her blood on the petal before opening her eyes and looking into the blood drop.


    On the blood drop , the scene where Yang Changtian was overwhelmed by Crazies , but saved by her protection spell was shown to Liu Ying. Breathing a sigh of relief , she watched Yang Changtian get away safely.


    Yang Changtian and the others couldn''t sense her mana before , as she was masking it , but now that the protection barrier was activated , her disguise was now breaking . Liu Ying clenched her hand , crumpling the petal with her blood up , when she opened her hand , the blood and petal were reduced to some ash , she blew on the ash , scattering it with the wind.


    Liu Ying had to put up her disguise again , but she had to send a decoy , to distract the others and renew her disguise before the others discover her mana. She pulled a small knife out , and she slashed her palm. She pulled out a blank paper , she drew a small figure on the paper , she then conjured another lotus petal up before infusing it with some of her mana . The petal landed on the talisman before being absorbed into it.


    Liu Ying looked around before throwing the talisman . The wind carried the talisman far away.


    The wind carried the talisman far away , it crossed the border into the northern desert.


    Liu Ying quickly pulled out a small gold bottle from her robes , opening it , she took a pill out and swallowed it. This pill was called the pill of a thousand identities , it allows the users to change their identity and hide their original mana and power , disguising them completely .


    Liu Ying then pulled out another smaller gold bottle , opening the cap , she applied some of the oil inside to her body , this was jasmine oil , it was to mask the subtle lotus and gardenia scent she began to emit when her disguise broke down.


    Just as she finished , she spotted Li Cheng¡¯s tent opening.


    Li Cheng was just lying on his bed , when he suddenly caught a faint whiff of lotus and gardenias , he immediately sat up straight , before sniffing again just to be sure he wasn''t having an olfactory illusion. When he smelt the familiar scent again , he immediately rushed out of his tent. He looked around but he didn''t see anyone , he tried sniffing again to locate the source of the scent ,but to his dismay, the scent was gone.


    He heard a rustle , when he turned around he spotted Liu Ying coming out from the medic tent. Liu Ying saw him and walked over , ¡° Mr. Li , we should probably discuss the medicine issue now . I just checked the patients , 2 of them are doing very well , similar to how they were in the morning. The infection stopped completely , it¡¯s almost like it''s frozen in place because of the honey. But the other¡¯s condition is turning bad, they managed to break his fever , but the spread of the infection hasn''t stopped yet.¡±


    Li Cheng felt a headache coming , nodding at Liu Ying , he called over a disciple to go get Jin Wei and Zhou Zilong. ¡° Tell them to come meet us here.¡±


    Li Cheng led Liu Ying near the stream and he placed a rock for Liu Ying to sit on, before sitting on one himself. Jin Wei and Zhou Zilong soon joined them.¡¯


    Liu Ying explained the current situation to them.


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    ¡° I think we should give the medicine to the person who has the greater chance of recovering .¡± Jin Wei spoke out after a while.


    Li Cheng shook his head , ¡° I think we need to treat the most severe case first, the other two are almost completely healed , we can even transport them back , but the other¡¯s infection is still spreading.¡±


    Zhou Zilong intervened , ¡° I actually agree with Jin Wei on this Brother Li. We should dedicate the resources we have to the people who have the best chances of recovering .¡±


    Li Cheng turned to look at Liu Ying.


    While they were discussing , Liu Ying had zoned out staring into the distance. ¡° What do you think of Ms.Liu ? ¡° Li Cheng¡¯s voice interrupted Liu Ying¡¯s thoughts. She shook her head slightly before turning to face Li Cheng.


    ¡° I agree with Mr. Li , we need to focus on the person with the worst condition.¡±


    ¡° But Senior , he obviously has a lesser chance of surviving than the other two , we¡¯re practically throwing away a chance to save the other two if we use all the medicine on him,¡± Jin Wei began to protest. Zhou Zilong was nodding along with him.


    Liu Ying stood up and walked up a small hill , she stared at a mountain that rises up to the clouds imposingly further away , the very mountain she saw the flash at yesterday.


    Liu Ying turned her head slowly,¡° No , let¡¯s give the medicine to the severe patient. As for the other two ¡­ I have a plan but I need to discuss it with Mr. Yang first.¡± She turned back to look at the mountain again .


    Li Cheng stood up , he was just about to go join Liu Ying , when he heard a disciple yelling out , ¡° Senior Brother ! ¡°.


    The disciple ran up to them , ¡° Senior brother , Senior Mo and the others are back.¡±


    Liu Ying heard this , and walked over , ¡° Let¡¯s go.¡±


    Everyone nodded and followed her to the village center.


    Yang Changtian and the others rode their horses right into the city center , they saw Liu Ying , Li Cheng and the others , walking over to them.


    Yang Changtian dismounted his horse , he strode up to Liu Ying.¡± Ms. Liu , I understand that you weren''t sure about your assumption , but I would appreciate it if you informed me of such things early . We almost had multiple casualties today.¡± he reprimanded Liu Ying , his voice stern.


    ¡° Ms. Liu , I was almost ripped to shreds because of the Crazies.¡± Mo Ling chirped in.


    Liu Ying stared at Yang Changtian for a whole , she then turned slightly to look at Mo Ling , ¡° Did I not inform you to be careful ? ¡° she asked him with an eyebrow raised.


    ¡° Ms. Liu , that doesn''t matter . You should''ve still informed us beforehand.¡± Zhang Anying began , but he was rendered speechless when Liu Ying¡¯s eye fell on him.


    ¡° I did inform you beforehand , and I had taken all the necessary precautions for you all too. Besides I¡¯m sure that you all did something to provoke the Crazies . ¡°


    Yang Changtian stared at Liu Ying for a while. ¡° Why do you think we provoked the Crazies ? ¡°


    Liu Ying turned back to look at him , ¡° Well for starters , the zombie fungus becomes lethargic when it¡¯s close to the origin source , so they are in a relaxed state. Therefore there must be a catalyst that sets them off. And I¡¯m assuming one of you was screaming.¡± Liu Ying¡¯s eyes briefly flashed on Mo Ling and Zhang Anying. Mo Ling felt his face heating up , ¡° It wasn''t me , Zhang Anying started it.¡± he protested.


    Yang Changtian sighed, shaking his head. ¡° Ms. Liu , next time , please do tell me beforehand if you suspect something.¡±


    Liu Ying stared at him for a moment before nodding , ¡° I do apologise of the inconvenience I caused Mr. Yang.¡± she apologised. ¡° Speaking of that Mr. Yang , I have a proposal.¡±


    ¡° A proposal ? ¡° Yang Changtian asked incredulously.


    Liu Ying nodded .


    ¡° About what ? ¡°


    Li Cheng stepped forward to explain , ¡° It¡¯s about the medicine. We only found enough to either treat the 2 patients who are recovering well , or the patient whose state is severe.¡±


    Yang Changtian felt his head ache, nodding , ¡° Li Cheng , Ms. Liu , let¡¯s go to my tent to discuss this.¡±


    Li Cheng and Liu Ying nodded before following him.


    Once in his tent , Yang Changtian asked a disciple to get him a bowl of water to wash his face.


    ¡° Ms. Liu , what do you think ? ¡° he finally asked Liu Ying.


    ¡° I think we should treat the patient whose condition is severe first.¡±


    ¡° I think the same.¡± Li Cheng interjected.


    ¡° But the other two have a greater chance of recovering completely .¡± Yang Changtian replied .


    ¡° They are doing very well , we can even transport them back to Jingxi without any issues.¡± Li Cheng explained.


    ¡° That is if it comes to that, ¡° Liu Ying interrupted.


    Yang Changtian and Li Cheng both turned to look at Liu Ying.


    ¡° What do you mean Ms. Liu ?¡± Yang Changtian asked.


    ¡° I want to lure those people out.¡± Liu Ying simply replied.


    Yang Changtian understood Liu Ying immediately. ¡° You want to seek those people out , they ought to have medicine with them.¡±


    Liu Ying nodded.


    ¡° What people ? ¡° Li Cheng asked curiously.


    ¡° Ms. Liu thinks there are people hiding in the big mountain there.¡± Yang Changtian replied.


    ¡° I don''t think so , I¡¯m sure, ¡° Liu Ying answered confidently. With this she stood up before waking to the entrance of the tent , sticking her head out , she whispered something to a junior .


    Moments later the junior returned with a set of scrolls . Liu Ying took them and returned.


    She spread the scroll out , and pointed at a red dot , ¡° This is where we are currently.¡± She then moved her finger around , before settling on a brown triangle inside a circle marked on the map. ¡° This is that mountain. I had my informants draw this map and it includes all geological features in this land. And this map shows a circle and a triangle together , meaning there is a cave system in that mountain. ¡° she then pulled out a smaller scroll. It was a letter written by scouts of the northern army 5 years ago when they surveyed the area. ¡° Here , they mentioned that the cave is an ideal place to hide , as it is easy to defend it. They also mention that the mountain is rich in edible and medicinal plants. See , it¡¯s the best place to hide from the Crazies , the higher altitude also means that the Corpse miasma can''t reach it.¡±


    Li Cheng and Yang Changtian stared at the letter and map , before finally looking up at Liu Ying.


    Liu Ying¡¯s conclusion was reasonable.


    ¡° Okay let¡¯s say you''re right. But it also means it''s going to be impossible for us to enter their territory , even if we send a scout , they¡¯ll either kill him , or they¡¯ll evade him easily. ¡° Yang Changtian pointed out.


    Liu Ying nodded , ¡° Yes . That¡¯s why I said we should lure them out .¡±


    ¡° How ? ¡° Li Cheng asked.


    A small smirk began forming on Liu Ying¡¯s lips , ¡° I have the perfect plan.¡±

 Ch 19 - Discussion

    A smirk began forming on Liu Ying¡¯s lips , ¡° I have the perfect plan. ¡°


    Li Cheng and Yang Changtian looked at each other , they had a bad feeling about this.


    ¡° That¡¯s my plan. I need to prepare some things , so we¡¯ll put it into action the day after tomorrow . Now if you two gentlemen excuse me , I have to go administer the medicine to the patient.¡± Liu Ying said standing up .


    ¡° Ms. Liu, wait , I have the samples you asked for. ¡° Yang Changtian stopped her.


    Whipping around fast , Liu Ying¡¯s eyes were shining , ¡° You got them ? Where are they ? ¡°


    Yang Changtian was taken aback to see Liu Ying so excited. Li Cheng was trying hard to hold his laughter in.


    ¡° They are in my bag , let me get them for you.¡± Yang Changtian began to rummage through his bag , he pulled out the water bottle and a small leather bag that contained the soil and rock samples he collected.


    He remembered something. ¡° I also found some footprints there , I brought an outline of it. ¡°


    ¡° A footprint ? Where ?¡± Li Cheng asked curiously .


    ¡° It was right next to the spring that feeds the lake , but the thing is , the scouts were there too , so we really don''t have a way of telling if it was from the culprit , or if it''s from the scouts.¡± Yang Changtian explained. ¡° I didn''t have any paper so I used my robe to trace it.¡± He was about to place his robe on the table while he was still wearing it , but remembering Liu Ying , he quickly stopped himself , ¡° I¡¯ll change and bring the robe over.¡±


    Li Cheng was dying with laughter , ¡° You can change in here , we¡¯ll step out for a while.¡±


    Yang Changtian nodded , Liu Ying and Li Cheng stood up and left.


    Outside the tent ,Li Cheng turned to Liu Ying , ¡° Ms. Liu , regarding the footprint , I have an idea, years ago I have read in a book , that a footprint can be used to determine some of the owner''s characteristics.¡±


    Liu Ying nodded , ¡° Yes , it is possible , for example , by examining the depth , we can predict the weight of the owner , and by checking the size of the foot , we can also predict the height. But the issue is , with the trace Mr. Yang brought, we can only determine the height. As it is impossible to judge depth with it.¡±


    Li Cheng nodded along. The both of them heard Yang Changtian asking them to come back to resume their conversation.


    When they entered , Yang Changtian placed his previously worn robe on the table , a black outline of a footprint sat there contrastingly with Yang Changtian¡¯s usually light coloured robes.


    After observing the footprint , ¡° We really can''t say much from this , but what I can say is that the person is relatively tall , and see this here ¡° Liu Ying said pointing to the sole area of the footprint, ¡° See how it¡¯s crooked , the owner might have a deformed left foot.¡±


    Li Cheng nodded, turning to Yang Changtian , ¡° Brother Yang, you can ask the Prince if among his scouts there''s a person with crooked feet. That¡¯ll help us find out if the footprint was left by the perpetrator or a scout.¡±


    Yang Changtian agreed , ¡° I will write a letter to His Highness tomorrow .¡±


    Liu Ying suddenly stood up , ¡° Assuming we don''t have anything else left to discuss , I shall take my leave , I have to go treat the patient , then get started on testing these samples. ¡°


    Yang Changtian looked at Liu Ying flabbergasted , ¡° Aren''t you in a hurry Ms. Liu . Yes we don¡¯t have anything else to discuss , so you can leave.¡±


    Liu Ying just nodded at the both of them before walking out , hugging the samples.


    Yang Changtian and Li Cheng watched Liu Ying¡¯s back exit the tent.


    Li Cheng shook his head , ¡° I¡¯m glad she¡¯s on our side. She would be a nightmare to deal with otherwise. Then Brother Yang , I ought to take my leave too , you must be tired after today''s mission. ¡°


    Yang Changtian stopped Li Cheng, ¡° Brother Li, I still have to discuss something with you. ¡°


    Li Cheng looked at him confused, ¡° What is it Brother Yang ?¡±


    Yang Changtian stared at Li Cheng , he looked conflicted , he finally moved his hand and grabbed the lotus charm . He placed it on the table.


    Li Cheng looked at it before picking it up. ¡° This is..¡±


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    Yang Changtian nodded , ¡° It¡¯s Jingyou¡¯s hairpin ¡°


    Li Cheng clenched his hand around the hair pin. It felt cool to the touch. ¡° This ¡­. How ?¡±


    ¡° When I was in the cave today , all the Crazies ganged up on me , they overwhelmed me . But when I opened my eyes , I was covered by a blue barrier . The barrier saved my life , and it felt very familiar.¡±


    ¡° It was my Senior Sister .¡± Li Cheng breathed out. ¡° I can vaguely feel her mana in this.¡±


    Yang Changtian also nodded , she must''ve casted a protective spell quite recently.


    ¡° But why is she hiding ? ¡° Li Cheng questioned , his hands clenching tighter. Yang Changtian noticed , he quickly opened Li Cheng¡¯s hand and took out the hairpin.¡± Brother Li , don''t go crushing it now.¡±


    Li Cheng slowly turned to Yang Changtian , ¡° So I was right before.¡±


    Yang Changtian stopped wiping the hair pin , he lifted his head to look at Li Cheng. ¡° What do you mean ?¡±


    ¡° Today , when we were resting , I smelt a familiar fragrance , lotus and gardenias . ¡° Li Cheng replied .


    Yang Changtian rushed to grab Li Cheng by the shoulders , ¡° Where ? When ? ¡° he questioned, shaking him.


    ¡° Li Cheng shook his head , ¡°I dashed outside to check , but the scent disappeared ¡°


    Yang Changtian released Li Cheng , walking back , he collapsed on his bed.


    ¡° I will write a letter to Baihua, the protective barrier likely activated her spiritual core , I¡¯ll ask her to immediately check the Spirit Lamps.¡± Li Cheng said, rushing out.


    Yang Changtian lay on his bed , his hand still tightly clutching the lotus charm. He clenched the charm hard , bringing it over to his heart. ¡° Jingyou , why are you hiding ? ¡° he breathed out.


    The lotus charm still had a light coolness left , he continued to clutch the charm tightly , savouring the familiar feeling.


    Soon the exhaustion of the day caught up with him, lulling him into a deep sleep .


    Li Cheng rushed to his tent , he found Mo Ling waiting for him there.


    ¡° Senior Brother¡­¡± Mo Ling croaked. ¡° Today , Yang Changtian was saved by a blue barrier in the shape of a lotus. It was¡­¡± he broke down.


    Li Cheng walked closer to him and tapped in on the shoulder. ¡° I know.¡±


    Mo Ling sat down to stabilize himself, ¡° Why is she hiding from us ? Is she tired of us ? ¡°


    Li Cheng sat down next to Mo Ling and patted him on his head. ¡° She must have her reasons , but I can guarantee one thing , she¡¯ll never be tired of us. If she was , she would''ve left way earlier , like right after you almost got killed by that young master of the Ling family for messing with his fianc¨¦ . Now , come on , stop crying , you¡¯re so big now , why are you still crying ? Well seeing you like this , Senior Hei would probably run away further.¡±


    Mo Ling stopped his sniffling, ¡° I just miss Oldest Senior sister so much.¡±


    Li Cheng nodded. ¡° I know , I miss her too. She probably has her reasons for hiding , but today¡¯s incident proves that she¡¯s protecting us , and watching us from the shadows . We just need to give her time. Now go get some rest , your throat must be sore from all the yelling you likely did in the cave.¡±


    ¡° I didn''t yell , it was Zhang Anying who yelled and provoked the Crazies.¡± Mo Ling replied, pouting .


    Li Cheng shook his head laughing ,¡± Okay Okay , whatever you say. Now go . I have some work to do .¡±


    Mo Ling nodded and walked out.


    Li Cheng immediately pulled out a piece of paper. Writing his message on it , he placed it in a small tube. He walked out his tent and grabbed a whistle that was hanging from his neck , blowing on it , he summoned his message hawk. While the Guanghui sect usually uses pigeons , his own sect prefers using hawks. His bird soon landed on his outstretched hand , a magnificent creature of brown with streaks of black , with a temperament very much alike to that of his master¡¯s.


    Li Cheng used his free hand to pet the hawk , he then tied the tube around its foot. ¡° Take it to Baihua.¡± Li Cheng instructed. The hawk squawked , and flew off.


    Li Cheng stood outside for a while , the sky was particularly bright today. As he was admiring the night sky , he heard a rustle coming from the medic tent , he turned to Liu Ying coming out.


    Liu Ying spotted him and nodded at him in greeting, then she began walking towards him.


    ¡° I¡¯m assuming you just finished treating the patient ? Li Cheng asked her , turning his head back to admire the sky.


    ¡° Yes , I just finished administering the medicine. We had some turmeric and ginger left over , so I decided to add them in too. And the infection finally stopped spreading.¡± Liu Ying replied.


    ¡° That¡¯s good.¡± Li Cheng said, nodding his head. ¡° Ms. Liu , if you don''t mind me asking , why did you insist we save the critical patient first ? ¡°


    Liu Ying also lifted her head to observe the night sky , ¡° I have a few reasons. One , he is the person who needs help the most at this moment , he is fighting so hard to stay alive , you just can''t ignore that and just focus on the other two. He deserves that medicine , now I¡¯m not saying that the other two don''t deserve it , but he is just fighting so hard for his life. Two , he is a member of our team , we already lost quite a number with the previous incidents. We need to protect our people , even more so in this current situation, where we are isolated, they are our support system here. Those people came here to accompany and help us , so we have a duty to return them back to their homes. I couldn''t help the others who died , so I¡¯m not watching him die too. As long as there''s a way to save all of them , no matter how hard its going to be , I will choose that path.¡±


    Li Cheng turned to observe Liu Ying¡¯s serene expression. ¡® Why is she so similar to Senior sister ? ¡®. Covertly , Li Cheng checked Liu Ying¡¯s mana. But he was surprised to see that she didn''t have any mana.


    ¡° Then Mr. Li , you¡¯ll have to excuse me , I have to go do some experiments.¡± Liu Ying nodded at Li Cheng before leaving.


    Li Cheng turned to watch her leave, after their conversation just now , a small seed of suspicion was planted in his heart. How is she so similar to Senior Sister? Yang Changtian¡¯s words before and the vague scent he smelt before he saw Liu Ying coming out from the medic tent in the afternoon flashed through his mind. So he made the rash decision to check her mana. It¡¯s just not possible , they were so similar in temperament. But any hope Li Cheng had in his heart disappeared when he saw that Liu Ying had no mana.


    Li Cheng sighed deeply before walking back to his tent. Unbeknownst to him , Liu Ying had stopped and she was looking at him. A soft smile was plastered on her face, ¡° Stinking brat. You think you can fool me, you obviously did a mana check on me. In case you forgot , I taught you all of those tricks. ¡° she whispered under her breath. Still smiling she shook her head , before heading back to her tent.

 Ch 20 - Boiling Peat

    Yang Changtian woke up to the sound of metal clanging. Sitting up , he rubbed his eyes . Looking around , it was still dark. .


    He stood up and grabbed his cloak to go see what the noise was about. He exited his tent , the surrounding was cloudy and misty . From the corner of his eyes he spotted 2 shadow figures holding torches lurking around, they were carrying something heavy, and the Yang Changtian couldn''t identify them. Rushing back to his tent , he grabbed his sword before sneaking up closer to check the figures, ¡® Who is crazy enough to lurk around here at this time , they might be intruders. ¡®


    As he was sneaked closer to the figures , he suddenly felt a hand tap his shoulder.


    Yang Changtian jumped and instinctively striked the person behind him. A loud clunk rang out as his sword was blocked by the person. ¡° Mr. Yang , what a unique greeting.¡± A cold but familiar voice rang out.


    ¡° ¡­¡­.. Ms. Liu ? Yang Changtian asked cautiously .


    The figures heard the loud clang , dropping something , they ran towards the sound.


    Yang Changtian recognised them immediately , it was Jin Wei and Da Xiong. And standing in front of him , blocking his sword with one of her long daggers , was Liu Ying.


    Yang Changtian immediately put his sword down. ¡° Ms. Liu , and you two , mind explaining what you three were doing at this ungodly hour ? ¡°


    ¡° Senior asked us to find and carry that metal pot over to the river. ¡° Jin Wei explained nonchalantly. Da Xiong nodded along.


    Yang Changtian turned to look at Liu Ying questioningly. ¡° At this hour ? Speaking of time , what is the time now?¡±


    ¡° We have an hour left for day break , so for your information , it¡¯s not an ¡®ungodly¡¯ hour.¡± Liu Ying replied. ¡° I asked them to take the pot there so I can test something out. ¡°


    ¡° Test what out ? ¡° Yang Changtian asked curiously.


    ¡° You¡¯ll see.¡± Liu Ying simply replied. Then turning to Jin Wei and Da Xiong , ¡° You two let¡¯s get back to work. We¡¯re running out of time. ¡°


    ¡° If you would excuse us Mr. Yang.¡± nodding at Yang Changtian , the three of them left.


    Yang Changtian watched them flabbergasted, just a few moments ago he was so sure that they were intruders since no one was crazy enough to lurk around in a place like this when the sun¡¯s down , but he had forgotten that they had a crazy person called Liu Ying with them.


    Yang Changtian sighed deeply before returning to his tent. He walked out again and walked over to the stream to wash his face , returning to his tent , he got dressed and walked out. By the time he was done , it was a few minutes before daybreak. So he decided to go see what Liu Ying was up to this time.


    Walking over to the edge of the village , he spotted Jin Wei and Da Xiong instructing some juniors to fill the metal pot up with water from the river.


    ¡° You woke them up ? ¡° Yang Changtian asked, walking up to them.


    ¡° Yes , Mr. Yang , Senior said we¡¯ll need a lot of manpower .¡± Da Xiong replied.


    ¡° What is she planning to do ? ¡° Yang Changtian asked the two of them .


    ¡° Who knows , I doubt even god knows what she¡¯s thinking.¡± Jin Wei replied, shrugging his shoulders.


    ¡° I studied the fungi yesterday , and I have a theory , and a possible way to get rid of them.¡± A voice sounded from behind.


    Yang Changtian, Jin Wei and Da Xiong all froze , they quickly turned around to see Liu Ying looking at them with her eyes squinted.


    She was carrying a small clay pot , the bottle she gave to Yang Changtian to get the samples hanging from her belt, along with a small bag. ¡° Didn¡¯t you boys¡¯ elders tell you not to speak ill about a person when there''s a chance that person is around.


    Jin Wei let out a nervous chuckle , Da Xiong just shook his head , while Yang Changtian cleared his throat. ¡° Isn''t it supposed to be , ¡° Do not talk badly about people ¡° in general. ¡°


    Liu Ying just shrugged , ¡° No , it''s fine if they don''t find out about it . Besides i do it all the time¡±


    Yang Changtian looked at her speechless, ¡® Huh¡­ ¡® he thought to himself.


    Liu Ying walked over and placed the pot on the ground, pointing at some rocks near the river , ¡° Jin Wei , Da Xiong bring some stones over ,large ones .¡±


    Jin Wei and Da Xiong nodded before rushing over to grab the stones.


    Liu Ying used three stones to build a stand for her pot.She then stood up and walked off , reappearing a few minutes later with some dung patties and hay. Stuffing them between the rocks , she lights a fire. She then placed the pot she lit over the fire , and filled it up with some water she got from the stream. While the water was heating up Liu Ying pulled out some brown matter from the bag hanging from her belt. She broke the brown thing into small pieces and let it heat up. Once it started boiling , Liu Ying reduced the fire by removing some of it.


    Liu Ying stood up and walked over to a junior , ¡° You stay here for now , make sure the fire doesn''t go out or get stronger. I¡¯ll ask someone to take over in an hour.


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    ¡± The junior nodded ¡° Yes Senior ! .¡±


    Liu Ying then turned to the others, ¡° You all will be switching places every hour. We need to boil it for 10 hours. The others go and have breakfast now , then one hour later , one of you switch with him.¡±


    ¡° Yes Senior ! ¡°


    Yang Changtian walked over to Liu Ying who was staring at the pot. ¡° What is that ? ¡°


    Jin Wei and Da Xiong also walked over.


    Liu Ying pointed at the pot , ¡° That potentially is our way to get rid of the fungi that¡¯s infesting the water sources. ¡°


    Yang Changtian also turned to look at the pot, puzzled , ¡° That ?¡±


    Liu Ying nodded , ¡° That is peat , by boiling it with water and reducing it , we will obtain the humic acid in the peat. ¡°


    ¡° Humic acid ? for what? ¡° A voice rang out .


    Everyone turned to see Li Cheng coming over.


    Liu Ying nodded again. ¡° Theoretically, we can kill off the fungi in 3 ways. One , we need to increase the temperature of the water to kill it off , but it is almost impossible to do that .


    Two , we have to introduce a natural predator , such as another fungi, to destroy it. While possible , this requires a lot of time and much more effort. So that leaves us with one final method, lowering the Ph of the water. We can do that by introducing an acid into the water. Peat has Humic acid , and it is also very easy for us to find peat here. So by boiling and reducing the peat , we can concentrate the Humic acid , and then treat the water with it. After the acid kills off the Zombie fungi , we can use an alkaline like limestone , which is also very easily found over here , to raise Ph again , making the water neutral again. Therefore I think that this would be the best way to proceed. I¡¯m gonna test it out on a smaller batch first. This small pot would be enough to treat the water in the pot.¡±


    Liu Ying finished explaining.


    Everyone was staring at Liu Ying .


    ¡° Ahh , that''s why you had us carry that huge metal pot when it was dark Senior , since it has to boil for hours , you wanted to make sure that you can do the experiment during the day.¡± Jin Wei said shaking his head.


    Liu Ying just nodded at them . ¡° Now gentlemen I stayed up all night , therefore I wish to take a short rest. ¡°


    Yang Changtian nodded at her , ¡° Get some rest Ms. Liu .¡±


    Liu Ying nodded at everyone before going to her tent to sleep. Only to emerge well after noon.


    Yang Changtian and Li Cheng were sitting under a tree near the river reminiscing about their past , when they spotted Liu Ying coming out of her tent. She had changed into a peacock blue robe with white embroidery, hair perfectly pinned up using a jade hairpin.


    ¡° Say Brother Li , I wonder how many clothes and accessories she brought along. ¡° Yang Changtian asked. Li Cheng just burst into laughter while shaking his head.


    ¡° Honestly , I was wondering the same thing, she always dresses up so extravagantly . And since we met , I¡¯ve already seen her outfit change 6 times, each one flashier than the last.¡±


    Liu Ying spotted them and nodded at them in greeting before strolling towards the pot that was still boiling , only now the liquid inside had reduced , and was emitting a sour yet earthy scent. Crouching down next to the pot , Liu Ying used a wooden stick to stir it around. ¡° We just need to boil it for around another 3 hours , it¡¯ll be ready after.¡±


    ¡° Yes Senior ! ¡°


    Nodding at the junior , Liu Ying turned around and walked towards Li Cheng and Yang Changtian.


    They saw Liu Ying approach them and Yang Changtian stood up before giving the rock he was sitting on to Liu Ying , then he carried over another rock for himself.


    Liu Ying thanked him and sat down.


    ¡° Ms. Liu , that surely want a ¡®short nap ¡® ¡° Li Cheng teased.


    ¡° I apologise Mr. Li , Mr. Yang. I lost track of time .¡±


    ¡° Brother Li , stop teasing Ms. Liu.¡± Yang Changtian reprimanded Li Cheng helplessly. ¡° Ms. Liu , Brother Li and I were just discussing your plan to lure the survivors out. Can we guarantee that they will come out ? ¡°


    Liu Ying nodded , ¡° They are watching us , so they naturally know that we have some valuable resources with us , so they will certainly take the chance to come and take our supplies back for themselves. And today we must make a big scene about finding a way to clean the water. They won''t be able to resist when they see that. ¡°


    Li Cheng and Yang Changtian both nodded.


    ¡° Btw did you two have lunch ? ¡° Liu Ying asked.


    Both Yang Changtian and Li Cheng shook their heads.


    ¡° Should we go grab something to eat then ? I forgot to have breakfast before sleeping.¡± Liu Ying exclaimed matter-of-factly.


    ¡° Sure . ¡° Li Cheng and Yang Changtian both agreed, standing up to leave with Liu Ying.


    Liu Ying slowed down to let them catch up , ¡° I just saw another flash of light , they¡¯re watching us again.¡± she whispered.


    Li Cheng was about to turn around and look , when Yang Changtian grabbed his neck . ¡° Don''t turn , you¡¯ll make it obvious,¡± he said.


    Li Cheng nodded and Yang Changtian moved his hand to Li Cheng¡¯s shoulder. And the three of them walked away without turning back.


    Liu Ying was right , they were being watched.


    ¡° Brother Song , what are they up to ? ¡° a man asked his leader who was next to him , also using a spy glass to observe Liu Ying , Yang Changtian and the others.


    ¡° I have no idea , but let¡¯s keep watch .¡± Song Lian replied


    3 hours passed by in a blink and Liu Ying went to check on the Humic acid again, she found that most of the liquid had evaporated , and they were left with less than a cup of brown slightly thick liquid. ¡° Take this off the fire , it''s ready.¡± Liu Ying instructed the junior.


    After letting it cool for a while she turned to the junior. ¡° Ask Mr. Yang and Mr.Li along with Jin Wei and Da Xiong came here.¡±


    The junior obliged and went off to get them. Soon enough all of them, along with Zhou Zilong , Zhang Anying and Mo Ling gathered around the big metal pot they filled in the morning.


    Liu Ying pointed at the thin black strands floating in the water. ¡° Now that the eater is still , we can clearly see the fungi. Watch this,¡± Liu Ying poured the cup of Humic acid she just finished extracting into the water , she used a wooden stick to distribute it evenly.


    Mere seconds later , everyone saw the fungi strands twitching before disintegrating .


    ¡° It worked ! ¡° Mo Ling exclaimed, shocked.


    Yang Changtian and Li Cheng were shocked to see this , they didn''t expect the Humic acid to be this potent


    Liu Ying quickly walked over to Yang Changtian and Li CHeng. ¡° Quickly , they must be watching , and act very excited and happy. ¡°


    Yang Changtian and Li Cheng nodded.


    ¡° Yes !!!! We''re saved . ¡° Li Cheng began jumping up and down.


    Everyone was looking at him as if he was crazy.


    ¡° Uhmmm Senior brother, are you okay ? ¡° Mo Ling asked cautiously.


    ¡° Don''t ask questions , everyone acts very happy and overwhelmed now.¡± Yang Changtian whisper-yelled at everyone.


    As if on cue, Jin Wei began to bawl. He hugged Da Xiong tightly , who pumped his fists in the air.


    ¡° It works ! ¡° Yang Changtian yelled. He turned to Liu Ying and patted her on the shoulder. ¡° Now we can clean the water up.¡±


    Liu Ying nodded and put on a show of showing what was in her bag to the others.


    Since Song Lian and the others were hiding on top of the mountain , it was easy for them to hear Yang Changtina¡¯s and Jin Wei¡¯s yells


    ¡° What do they mean Brother Song ? They found a way to treat the water sources !? ¡°


    ¡° How ?! ¡°


    ¡° We need that ! ¡°


    Everyone began to chatter.


    ¡° You all shut it , Brother Song, look at that , what they added to the water is in that lady¡¯s bag.¡±


    Song Lian immediately redirected his spy glass to Liu Ying. ¡® Her again.¡¯ he thought to himself.


    ¡° Let¡¯s head back and inform the village elder about this.¡± Song Lian instructing his group to pack up and leave.

 Ch 21 - Luring the Survivors out I.

    Song Lian and his group packed up fast and returned back to base.


    After arriving , all of them looked for the Village Elder . Spotting her over at the kitchen , they approached her.


    ¡° Village Elder  , we have something urgent to report.¡± Song Lian exclaimed bowing his head.


    ¡° Oh ? What is it Song Lian ? ¡° the Village Elder  asked .


    ¡° Elder , the group at the village just found a way to clean the water .¡± Song Lian replied softly.


    ¡° They what ?! ¡° The Village Elder  was shocked. ¡° How ? ¡°


    ¡° They have a member  , a woman . She took something out and boiled it for a while and then used it to treat the water. ¡° someone replied.


    The Village Elder  began to stroke her chin. ¡° A woman ? Did you all see what it was ? ¡°


    Everyone shook their heads, while they had seen it was something brown , they couldn''t identify what it was.


    The Village Elder  walked over and sat down on the bench . ¡° Keep an eye on them for longer , we need to find out what that is. Our water sources are dwindling too , so we need to get our hands on that solution. ¡°


    Song Lian and the others nodded in agreement.


    ¡° You all can go and rest for now,¡± The Village Elder  shooed them off.


    Song Lian and the others returned to their quarters


    They woke up the next day , just before day break, grabbing their equipment , they departed towards the lookout.


    Kong , Song Lian¡¯s closest aid, finished setting up before the others and he got into position.


    Just seconds later , he scrambled to call Song Lian. ¡°Brother Song ! Brother Song , look ¡° he motioned towards the village frantically.


    Song Lian immediately grabbed his spyglass and positioned it . He was shocked to see that the whole village was enveloped by a thick layer of corpse miasma again. ¡® Oh no. ¡® he repeated in his head. He then spotted the woman  stumbling out from the fog , she collapsed on the ground and thrashed around , all of a sudden a shadow limb emerged from the fog , and hooked on her leg . The woman began to claw around trying to fight the force dragging her back , but she was likely weak due to inhaling corpse miasma, so she was overpowered and with a shrill yell , she was dragged by the shadow back into the fog . Soon her yelling was cut off , returning the village back to its eerie silence.


    Song Lian clenched his spyglass hard.


    ¡° Do you think there are any survivors ? ¡° Kong asked him.


    Song Lian just shook his head. ¡° Ling , go inform the Village Elder  of what happened , the rest keep watch.¡±


    Song Lian resumed his position to observe the situation with the village. Ling returned soon after and informed Song Lian that the Village Elder  instructed them to observe the situation for longer and then report back to her .


    As morning gave way into noon , no movement was detected from the village. The corps miasma got visibly thinner by noon. While visibility was low , they could vaguely make out outlines of figures scattered all over the village.


    Song Lian dropped his spyglass and turned to Kong and Ling , shaking his head at them , ¡° Go inform the Village Elder  that all of them are likely dead , but we will keep observing just in case .¡±.


    Kong and Lian looked at each other before nodding at Song Lian and went back to meet the Village Elder  .


    Song Lian stood up and went over to sit alone. He dusted a rock and settled down. He couldn''t believe that these people were wiped out so easily .


    ¡° Senior Song , should we keep watching ? ¡° a soldier asked him.


    Song Lian just nodded at him, and returned to his daydreaming.


    After a while Kong and Ling returned with the Village Elder  in tow.


    Song Lian immediately sprung up to greet her.


    ¡° Village Elder  , you didn''t have to come this far personally.¡±


    The Village Elder  just waved her hand at Song Lian. Picking up a spyglass , she wanted to observe the situation herself. She was confronted with the same image Song Lian and the others saw.


    Throughout the whole village you could vaguely make out figures strewn about.


    The Village Elder  just shook her head in disappointed , handing the spyglass back to Song Lian.


    ¡° I doubt any of them survived , ¡° she said, shaking her head. ¡° I will go back to the village and meet the shaman today , I¡¯ll have her calculate when the miasma will disperse . ¡°


    Song Lian nodded at her.


    ¡° Song Lian , when the miasma disperses , take a group and scout the whole area ,and bring back anything useful.¡± The village reached out to pull Song Lian away. ¡° Lian , I want you to find and bring back the thing they used to purify the water. Today I went to visit the water source and it¡¯s almost dried up , so we really need it.¡±


    Song Lian nodded at the village elder ,¡± I shall follow your orders Elder.¡±


    The Village Elder  patted Song Lian on the shoulder. ¡° Then I shall return and I will consult the shaman. You all can come back early today.¡±


    Song Lian and the others bowed at the Elder , who turned to leave accompanied by Ling.


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    Kong moved closer to Song Lian. ¡° Brother Song, how do we proceed now ? ¡°


    Song Lian watched the Village Elder''s aging back depart. ¡° I don''t know , we will have to wait till the miasma disperses anyways. What time is it now? ¡°


    Kong looked around , ¡° I¡¯m guessing around 3 hours past noon Brother Song.¡±


    ¡° Let¡¯s keep observing then.¡± The miasma will grow denser as the sunlight fades , we have another 2 hours max till the village is completely covered by miasma again. Everyone keep your eyes open for any movement.¡± Song Lian instructed while getting into position himself.


    Song Lian and the group spent the next 2 hours , without any luck.


    As soon as the sunlight began to fade , the corpse miasma slowly began to get thicker. Soon enough the village was once again covered by a heavy cloud miasma.


    Kong and Ling stood up and stretched , ¡° Brother Song , let¡¯s go back , there¡¯s nothing left to see now.¡± the both of them began.


    Soon Song Lian also stood up , ¡° Let¡¯s  move out now. The Crazies are likely back too so we better get back before sunset.¡±


    The group nodded and gathered their things to move out. Song Lian stood gazing down at the village for a while.¡® Something¡¯s not right . How were they taken down so easily ?¡¯ Song Lian began to wonder . It was unlikely that they survived , but Song Lian couldn''t shake the feeling that something was wrong, these people even found out a way to purify the water , a task deemed impossible by the shaman and even the doctor back at camp. And they even managed to defeat the Crazies that were haunting the village , yet almost all of them were wiped out. It just doesn''t make sense that they went down that easily.


    Kong noticed the conflicted expression on Song Lian¡¯s face and decided to approach him. ¡° What¡¯s wrong Brother Song, you look conflicted .¡±


    Song Lian just shook his head , ¡° I still can''t  wrap my head around the fact that all of them likely died.¡± he whispered.


    Kong immediately realised that Song Lian was talking about the people in the village. He let out a deep sigh. ¡° Brother Song , while I admit that they were very capable people , this is the northern territory. Over here even the smallest of mistakes and overlooks can be fatal. And from how they look, they''re likely people who grew up sheltered. So no matter how capable they were , it¡¯s inevitable that they made a mistake  ¡°


    Song Lian just nodded at Kong , he couldn''t argue back because he was right. The group were obviously from sheltered and privileged backgrounds , it was hard for them to adapt to the unforgiving conditions of the North.


    Kong patted Song Lian on the shoulder and rushed to catch up with the others , who were about to leave.


    ¡° Brother Song , let''s go before the sun sets.¡±


    Song Lian nodded and turned to follow them. They managed to get back to their hideout before the sun set. When they reached the hideout , the Village Elder was waiting for them, accompanying her was the village shaman , a cranky crow of a woman , well into her 70¡¯s who had the energy of a young lady.


    ¡° Song Lian , Kong and Ling come here ¡° the Village Elder  spotted them and urged them to come closer. ¡° I just finished discussing with Shaman Hu, and she says that it is an auspicious day tomorrow , so the miasma will disperse completely by noon before regathering at sunset . You must seize this chance and prepare to set off to conduct a search of the village tomorrow.¡±


    Shaman Hu suddenly threw her hands up into the air and began to shout. ¡° The spirits are speaking to me , they tell me that tomorrow is an auspicious day for all of us. The miasma will lift before noon. The spirits order you to go search the village and bring back the treasure that can clean the water and save us. Tomorrow at dawn I shall perform a blessing ceremony for you all to bless you and protect you.¡±


    ¡° That¡¯s what I just said , ¡° the Village Elder said softly.


    Kong snorted in his heart, Shaman Hu has always been a bit loony , but her calculations were accurate , therefore the miasma will certainly lift tomorrow.


    ¡° Understood Village Elder  , we will gather at dawn tomorrow to participate in the blessing ceremony .¡± Song Lian replied.


    The Village Elder  nodded her head ¡° That¡¯s all for now , you all go and rest now , you have a very long day tomorrow.¡±


    Song Lian and the group nodded before returning to get some rest.


    Song Lian woke up at dawn , and went out to wake the others up. ¡° Kong , Ling wake the others up , we need to participate in the blessing ceremony, I¡¯ll go over to see if Shaman Hu needs any help.¡±


    Song Lian turned to walk towards the Shaman hut , he found Shaman Hu rushing let and right carrying various bags and boxes. ¡° Shaman Hu , I¡¯m here to see if you need any help.¡± Song Lian interrupted her rush.


    Shaman Hu marched over  and tossed a bag and some boxes  to Song Lian.¡± Here take these to the center of the hideout.¡± she ordered.


    Song Lian silently followed her instructions. Shaman Hu followed closely behind.


    Once they reached the center of the hideout, the center point in the cave they inhabit, Song Lian placed the things he was carrying onto the ground.


    Shaman Hu followed suit , placing the items she was carrying down before whipping around to go back to her hut.


    Suddenly she stopped in her tracks , whipping around again , ¡°You , boy ! ¡° She said pointing at Song Lian , ¡° Go tell everyone to gather , make sure all of them are clean for the ritual.¡± Shaman Hu didn''t even wait for Song Lian¡¯s answer before she sped off.


    Song Lian just sighed deeply, and turned to go find the others. He found them in the dining hall , Kong and Lian spotted him and waved. Song Lian walked over to the,. Once he sat down , Kong placed a steaming bowl of porridge in front of him, while Lian passed over some stir fried wild vegetables.


    Song Lian ate his breakfast , and he stood up. ¡° Shaman Hu wants us to gather at the center of camp for the blessing ritual. Finish eating and gather there.¡±


    ¡° Yes Brother Song ! ¡°


    The group began to file out of the dining hall after they were done eating. Song Lian , Kong and Ling were leading the group.


    All of them stopped in their tracks when they saw Shaman Hu dancing around crazily , the Village Elder  was up too , she was standing nearby.


    A fire was lit in the center , and Shaman Hu was dancing around it while throwing something into the fire.


    Shaman Hu then began to make some noises that can only be described as screeches of a chicken being strangled.


    The group collectively took a deep breath. Ling immediately closed his eyes and clenched his hands , to stop himself from laughing. Kong shot him a dirty look.


    The Village Elder  turned around and spotted them.  ¡° What are you all gawking and snickering at ? Come here quickly , we don''t have all day , we need to be done before sunrise.¡±


    The group immediately walked over .


    Shaman Hu danced off and grabbed a big fan made from crow feathers . Approaching the fire , she grabbed something from the bag hanging from her waist and threw it into the fire again ,only this time , smoke began to bellow out of the fire  continuously . Shaman Hu used the big fan to fan the smoke towards the group.


    Song Lian , Kong , Ling and the others felt themselves being enveloped by a foul smelling smoke. All of them began coughing hard. The smoke was suffocating , and it just kept coming. After a while the smoke got thinner and just as it began to clear up , they were hit with a spray of liquid.


    The group was speechless when they found out how the water was sprayed.


    Shaman Hu would fill her mouth with water before running around spraying them with the water in her mouth.


    Even the Village Elder  was speechless at this.


    When the water spraying was done , Shaman Hu handed each of them a small round white object , looking closer , it was a small bone. ¡° These are protective charms to ward off the Crazies.¡± the Village Elder  explained. ¡° Shaman Hu , I presume the ritual is done ? ¡°


    Shaman Hu nodded at the Village Elder.


    ¡° Great , just in time.¡± It was close to day break. ¡° You all go gather your stuff.¡± The village instructed Song Lian and the group. ¡° After gathering your stuff. Come back here.¡±


    The group agreed and dispersed.