When Qin Jiuya first suggested traveling with Teng Hu, she hadn't expected the journey to be so quiet.
Unlike their sharp-tongued confrontations back at the shipyard, they had barely spoken a word since setting out. No matter how she tried to strike up a conversation with others along the way, he remained silent, his face clouded with a dark, sullen expression. He was like an invisible god of pestilence, existing solely to annoy her.
At first, while they were still on the boat, it hadn't mattered much. Her mind was occupied with the news of her village, and if he didn't want to talk, she wasn't about to waste her breath. But once they disembarked and hit the narrow trails, the world suddenly fell silent. The weather grew increasingly stifling, the drone of cicadas echoed through the dense woods, and the only sounds were the heavy breaths of two people trekking through the heat—a sound that was both exhausting and irritating.
To reach the village as quickly as possible, she avoided the old road by the peach orchard and chose a shortcut instead. This "shortcut" was the "Nine-Leaf Path" in the truest sense; almost no one but her ever set foot on it. The grass had reclaimed half of the barely visible trail, and the continuous rain had turned the roots into a swamp. From a distance, it looked like a paddy field, but one could only traverse it by wading through, one deep, staggering step at a time. Teng Hu had clearly never walked such a wretched path. He managed to keep up at first, but soon began to fall further and further behind.
Qin Jiuya wiped her sweat and glanced back at the man lagging behind, his head down as he trudged along. Finally, she couldn't help but offer a reminder.
"Tighten your trouser legs. If water gets in and you walk the mountain paths for too long, you'll get blisters on your soles."
Teng Hu didn't stop, nor did he deign to acknowledge her. Within a few steps, however, he nearly slipped and fell face-first into the wet mud.
If he broke a leg, not only would she fail to reach the village tonight, she’d likely have to haul this "ancestor" all the way back.
Thinking of this, Qin Jiuya held out a freshly cut bamboo staff. "Want a bamboo cane? I'll charge you ten copper coins."
Teng Hu acted as if she were invisible and continued forward. His once-pristine white robes were now marked with several streaks of mud, making him look quite pathetic.
Seeing him in such a sorry state, the gloom that had hung over Qin Jiuya all day suddenly lifted. Half of her frustration from traveling in the rain vanished. She leaned in, feigning a look of shocked concern.
"I heard the 'White Ghost Umbrella' Teng Hu long ago achieved a body immune to a hundred poisons. With poison flowing in your very blood, shouldn't mosquitoes and flies steer clear of you? How did you end up with those three big welts on your forehead?"
Teng Hu finally reached his limit. He stopped in his tracks and glared at her. "If you utter one more word, I will have no choice but to poison you mute."
"I'm only giving you a friendly tip. You should save your strength for walking instead of trying to bicker with me." Qin Jiuya restrained herself slightly, then decided to speak plainly. "Taking you along is no different from carrying a bundle of mosquito-repelling poisonous herbs. Common thugs and lowlifes won't dare approach when they see you from afar. It saves me a lot of trouble, and once we arrive, you'll get your hands on some high-quality poison catalysts. It’s a win-win. If you insist on sulking, there’s nothing I can do."
Before her voice had even faded, he let out a cold sneer.
"Do you take me for a fool like that Duan Xiaozhou? You insisted on bringing me along because you were afraid that if I stayed at the shipyard, I would make a move on that pretty boy."
The playful look vanished from Qin Jiuya’s face. She stared into his eyes and said curtly, "You didn't have to follow."
In the next moment, he reached out and gripped her bamboo staff.
Qin Jiuya said nothing more. She didn't let go either, and so she led him forward, both of them holding the staff.
However, now that she didn't want to talk, he seemed to find his second wind. Sensing he had struck a nerve, his voice rose behind her, dripping with malice.
"You cured his Qingfeng Powder?"
This woman had no background and no standing, yet the way the Qiu brothers and that Green Blade disciple protected her made it clear they held her in high regard. He couldn't fathom what the Qiu brothers were after, but it wasn't hard to guess why a Green Blade disciple from the First Manor under Heaven would follow her so devotedly. Furthermore, as a semi-physician himself, how could he not know the details of the Qingfeng Powder?
Seeing that he wouldn't let it go, Qin Jiuya realized he was asking a question he already knew the answer to, just to see her reaction.
Had this been back when she first learned of the Qingfeng Powder, she might have truly panicked. Unfortunately for him, she had already faced enemies as terrifying as Zhu Fuxue and Di Mo. This three-white-eyed fox simply couldn't pique her interest anymore. She countered with a question of her own.
"Is the Qingfeng Powder really that impressive? You seem so concerned—did you perhaps hit a wall or suffer a setback because of it?"
Teng Hu indeed faltered for a moment.
But he could never tolerate losing face before a village girl. He snorted coldly. "A mere poison like the Qingfeng Powder? I developed a cure for it three years ago."
The White Ghost Umbrella was famous for a reason, and as a master of poisons, it wasn't surprising that he could cure it.
But Qin Jiuya had no intention of letting him have his way. She immediately feigned great surprise. "Oh? How is it I didn't know? Why didn't Master Teng Hu announce it to the world? Could it be you fear the power of the First Manor under Heaven? After all, seeing how you're chasing fame and fortune for this secret formula now, you don't seem like the type to hide your light under a bushel once the deed is done."
She made no effort to hide the sarcasm in her voice. To her surprise, Teng Hu fell silent for a long moment before finally saying coldly, "Because it is meaningless. People are only interested in things that affect their own interests; they are only grateful for the removal of their own crises. If they aren't personally involved, even if you were the savior of the world, you would mean nothing to them."
Because of her preconceived notions of him, Qin Jiuya had not expected such an answer. For a moment, she was speechless.
Teng Hu’s logic was undoubtedly paranoid, but strangely, she could understand it to some degree. Perhaps it was because she, too, was a healer.
In this world, those afflicted by the Qingfeng Powder were a small minority, and that minority all hailed from the First Manor under Heaven. For the vast majority of ordinary people, they would go their entire lives without ever knowing the powder existed. Why would they feel gratitude toward someone who cured it? A physician could pour their entire heart and soul into a cure, risking their life in the process, only for it to not even qualify as idle gossip over tea. This was the "meaninglessness" Teng Hu spoke of.
As she remained silent, his voice rang out again.
"The Qingfeng Powder isn't some once-in-a-millennium miracle poison, but being able to cure it does show some skill. However, I must warn you: for a man like him, even curing the poison is useless."
The moment he spoke, Qin Jiuya instinctively felt he was still trying to probe for information. She replied with a mix of jest and seriousness. "If you obsess over this any longer, I'll start to suspect you've actually taken the Qingfeng Powder yourself and become addicted to it."
Teng Hu gave a couple of strange laughs, his voice punctuated by the gasps of his exertion.
"Since it's just the two of us, you don't need to dodge the question. Do you know that dozens, if not hundreds, of people have escaped the First Manor under Heaven? And yet, those dozens were either hunted down and killed or ended up crawling back to the Manor on their own. Do you know why?"
Because they could never live like ordinary people again.
Even without the Qingfeng Powder, Di Mo had long ago seized their minds in his firm grip. He had forged them into monsters, and the Manor was the only place that could house them.
"Because they have no home to return to." Qin Jiuya gave the bamboo staff a sharp tug, pretending not to hear the stumbling footsteps behind her. She spoke in a flat tone. "But being homeless isn't their fault. If you put yourself in their shoes, you might not have done any better."
The tension on the bamboo staff faltered, then began to pull against her.
"There are no 'ifs' in this world, so why should I put myself in anyone's shoes? The name of the White Ghost Umbrella, Teng Hu, was made by me alone. Aside from my master teaching me his skills, what do others have to do with me?"
After spending these days together, Qin Jiuya was no longer as shocked by his rhetoric as she had been at first. She didn't feel like "playing the lute to a fox." Wiping the sweat from her face, she suddenly changed the subject.
"Since you look down on me so much, why did you agree to come with me? The Wild Fuzi is indeed rare, but it's not something every sect is fighting over. Unless..." She paused intentionally, then sighed thoughtfully. "...Unless it's something your master mentioned before. Now that I think about it, your idea of using poison to fight poison was likely a tip from the old gentleman as well. Am I right?"
The roles of the prober and the probed flipped. The woman instantly went on the offensive. Teng Hu panted heavily, remaining silent for a moment before speaking.
"You don't need to fish for information from me. If my master hadn't told me himself that to crack the secret formula and find the whole truth, I must find you lot and get the information in your hands, why would I allow myself to waste time here with you?"
As his words landed, Qin Jiuya became thoughtful.
She didn't know if Zuo Ci had truly left such instructions. After all, so much time had passed; how much trust could survive across a generation? But from Teng Hu's perspective, a man so selfish and self-serving wouldn't bother with them unless it was a command from his master.
If that were the case, there was only one possibility for what Zuo Ci had said.
"Are you resentful of your master? Can't figure out why he would do this to you?"
At her teasing question, Teng Hu snapped back fiercely, "Master's decisions have their reasons. Who are you to try and sow discord or question him?"
Qin Jiuya clicked her tongue, clearly accustomed to his abrasive tone. She spoke leisurely. "You don't know why, but I can guess a thing or two. Your master sent you to find us probably because he knew you too well. He knew that while your talent is high, your vision is narrow and you're too utilitarian. You might not have the drive to see this through to the end on your own."
The voice from the other end of the bamboo staff remained stubborn and foul.
"Fulfilling my master's dying wish is my greatest drive. I follow my master's orders and uphold his sect. What are you doing this for? Don't tell me it's out of the goodness of your heart. There aren't that many good people in this world."
Why? She certainly had her own selfish reasons, but they weren't ones she could share with the man before her.
"That's your own thought. Your master clearly didn't think so. He trusted his few friends more than he trusted his own disciple, which is why he insisted you reunite with the descendants of the Black Moon no matter what." Qin Jiuya paused here, glancing back at the "favored son of heaven" whose nose was practically pointed at the sky. "Your master had a good eye. He judged people quite accurately."
The "favored son of heaven" struggling in the mud swung his sleeve, his arrogance undiminished.
"The one to crack the secret formula can only be me. And as I am my master's disciple, the world will carve his name onto stone tablets and write it into history books—and I shall be right there with him."
These sounded like the words of a madman, and the man before her was indeed a madman. A normal person wouldn't argue with a lunatic, but looking at his insufferable pride, Qin Jiuya couldn't suppress the urge to poke at him. The words she had been holding back finally burst out.
"You're so intent on getting back Zuo Ci's final manuscript. But have you ever wondered how Di Mo knew Zuo Ci was living in seclusion on Qionghu Island and managed to take the manuscript before us? Wasn't it because of those letters your master sent out back then?"
Silence followed her words. She didn't need to turn around to imagine the expression on his face.
Teng Hu, who held his sect above all else, had clearly never considered this. He remained silent for a long time before muttering, "My master was buried in his studies; it's normal that he didn't know the affairs of the world. Besides, very few in the martial world knew of Di Mo's other identity."
"I think that's unlikely." Qin Jiuya dropped her teasing tone and spoke with a touch of seriousness. "Zuo Ci was, after all, one of the Four Gentlemen of the Black Moon. He might have known. But he still chose to send an identical letter to Di Mo because he firmly believed that even if Wen Dimu became Di Mo, everything regarding the secret formula remained a bottom line for everyone. Even Di Mo wouldn't joke about that."
The moment she voiced her deduction, she felt the bamboo pole in her hand jerk.
For Qin Jiuya, the second half of her thought remained unsaid.
If Di Mo truly was as Zuo Ci perceived him—someone who never intended to use the secret formula to cause chaos—then she had reason to suspect that everything Ding Miao was secretly implementing had nothing to do with Di Mo or the First Manor under Heaven. Or rather, even if they seemed deeply entangled, it was merely a smokescreen for a different operation.
But the foundation of this theory was the friendship between the Four Gentlemen of the Black Moon. She didn't know if a freak like Teng Hu, who was so arbitrary and never opened his heart to anyone, could understand what she was saying.
"You look scrawny, but your mind is sharp," Teng Hu's voice came from behind, breathless from the trek. "You'll never be able to associate with my master, but I could begrudgingly take you on as a medicine apprentice. Though you talk too much, your aptitude is acceptable. It would be a great honor for you."
*Panting like that and you still have to be a jerk? I hope you choke!*
The desire to communicate vanished instantly. Qin Jiuya thought viciously to herself as she began to steer them toward the most difficult terrain, leaving the man behind her stumbling and gasping for air.
Qin Jiuya was delighted, her bamboo staff swinging more cheerfully.
"What? You don't look down on my skills as a village doctor anymore?"
"What does that have to do with your skills?" Teng Hu's voice came in snatches, seemingly entirely unaware of her sarcasm. "There aren't many apprentices who can tolerate my speech; you are one of them. You just talk too much and will need to learn restraint in the future."
Qin Jiuya rolled her eyes, holding back a curse with great effort.
"If I could stomach working for you, I would have accepted the offer from Fangwaiguan that day."
"Yuan Qi? He won't live much longer anyway. Not just him—Di Mo won't live much longer either. What future is there in following two sickly men? The pills Yuan Shuqing refined back then weren't fit for dogs, and the First Manor's Qingfeng Powder hasn't had its formula updated in years. I expect they'll all be finished before long..."
Teng Hu continued his rambling "curses." Qin Jiuya listened in silence for a while, unable to help but sigh inwardly. She had previously thought this poisonous mushroom was cut from the same cloth as Zhu Fuxue and Yuan Qi, but now she saw the difference. Beneath the power and shrewdness of the other two was the phrase "judging the situation," but Teng Hu, inside and out, only cared about himself.
He looked down on everyone equally, except for himself and his master.
Qin Jiuya calmed down. She used her peripheral vision to eye his sophisticated, expensive clothing and asked curiously, "If I were to be your apprentice, how much would you pay me a month?"
"To be able to learn from me is a blessing you've accumulated over lifetimes, and yet you want to talk about wages?"
Qin Jiuya let go. The bamboo staff hit the ground with a thud, and the man behind her followed suit, falling flat on his face.
She pretended not to feel the murderous aura radiating from him and calmly extended a hand.
"In that case, you and I are currently unrelated. It's only natural to talk about money. I went to great lengths to get that Wild Fuzi; wouldn't it be improper for you to just take it for nothing?"
The White Ghost Umbrella was indeed ruthless, but he had rarely encountered someone so thick-skinned. He glared at her. "That's not what you said before..."
"I only said I have thousands of poisonous herbs and insects at home; I never said I'd give them to you for free. What? The famous White Ghost Umbrella doesn't even want to pay for his medicine?"
He had long seen that this village girl was somewhat shameless, but he hadn't expected her to be so blatantly unashamed.
Teng Hu shook the mud off his boots and narrowed his eyes. "Why would I need gold or silver to get what I want? Your village looks to have about a hundred people. If I were to poison them one by one and then sell the antidote, do you think they would cry and beg as they handed everything over to me?"
She had known he was wicked, but she hadn't expected him to be this vile. She decided to play along with the fox to the end.
"Making poison costs money too. Even if you turned our village upside down, you probably wouldn't break even. How about this: if you don't want to give gold or silver, why don't you give me two of those insects you released at the Treasure Mirage Tower? I've recently found that those things are more useful than hidden weapons. If all else fails, I can sell them at the Qingyang Market; I wouldn't lose out..."
As she was counting her black-hearted profits on her fingers, she suddenly froze. The bamboo staff in her hand trembled.
Teng Hu, who had lost his footing and nearly fell again, looked up impatiently, only to see the woman standing rooted to the spot.
"Now what?"
Qin Jiuya took a deep breath, confirming she hadn't smelled wrong. Then, she lowered her voice.
"Blood. There's the scent of blood."
***
Two or three miles outside Dingweng Village, there was a sparse grove of wild peach trees.
The rain had paused briefly, and the peach grove glittered faintly under the night sky. The nearby ponds had swollen, the falling rain stirring up the silt at the bottom. The water was murky and opaque, hiding everything beneath the surface.
In the darkness, several shadows lay half-submerged in the water, looking like small mounds.
They were several large water buffaloes, soaking in the waist-deep water, motionless as they enjoyed the brief coolness of the summer night.
However, the peace didn't last. With a *thud*, a stone fell into the pond, sending out ripples.
Startled, the buffaloes began to move, their tails swishing. The water rippled, and the sound of splashing carried through the night.
A cowherd boy picked at his ear, immediately locating the buffaloes that had snuck out. He raised a stone sling woven from cattle hair, placed a pebble in it, and swung it out with practiced ease.
This time, the stone landed on the other side of the pond. The buffaloes turned their heads slightly and began trudging toward the shore.
The boy skillfully reloaded, yawning as he prepared another shot.
But when the third stone flew into the night, it never made a sound of hitting the ground.
In the darkness, something had swallowed the stone. Along with it, the sounds of the water, the wind, and the insects all vanished.
A deathly silence suddenly gripped the world.
The cowherd boy instinctively held his breath, rubbing his eyes as he peered into the distance.
Unbeknownst to him, the buffaloes submerged in the water had stopped moving. Two shadows stood atop their backs, their silhouettes a blurry mass, black from head to toe, looking like two one-legged *shanxiao* demons.
Poor Dingweng Village was usually a place so small that even wolves and tigers couldn't be bothered to visit. Throughout the year, one wouldn't even see a weasel stealing chickens. All the legends of mountain ghosts and fierce beasts were things the boy had heard from hunters.
So... had he actually run into them today?
The boy’s legs went weak. He tried to back away but ended up collapsing onto his backside.
The two shadows on the buffaloes' backs slowly turned their heads, but they were looking toward the village. They didn't even bother to look at the panicked boy, nor did they think he could change their fate. To wolves preparing for a hunt, the people beneath those dilapidated tiles in the distance were destined to be lambs for the slaughter, no different from the buffaloes currently drifting in the water.
In the past, such tasks were handled by the Shadow Envoys. A few days ago on Qionghu Island, the Manor Master had indeed personally handed this assignment to a Shadow Envoy. Yet for some reason, the person who had sent them to this remote village today was someone else.
It seemed the rumors were true: the Shadow Envoy who had been "favored" for many years had recently fallen out with the Manor Master. Now was the perfect time for them to make their mark.
The job had to be done beautifully. It would be best not to spare even a single chicken or duck. When the sun rose tomorrow, this village would be as silent as a graveyard. Unless someone happened to pass by, it would be a long time before anyone realized what had happened here.
The two shadows on the buffaloes' backs exchanged a glance, reaching a silent agreement on the slaughter. Just as they were about to split up and begin, they both froze simultaneously.
At the end of the peach grove not far away, a figure had appeared atop the nameless stone archway. It looked like a youth, standing on the crumbling stone beam as light as a night breeze, melting into the darkness in an instant.
A murderous aura rode the damp wind—the scent of their own kind. The two on the buffaloes didn't hesitate for a second. Their weapons were drawn as they lunged forward, desperate to seize the initiative. Two gusts of wind tore into the peach grove, meeting the intruder deep within the shadows of the trees. Shredded leaves and branches scattered instantly; half-ripe fruit fell to the ground, some green, some stained crimson.
A shrill scream rang out, followed moments later by a return to dead silence.
The hunters had become the hunted in an instant. Fear spread in the silence, eventually turning into the sound of frantic, fleeing footsteps. One figure abandoned his companion and burst out of the peach grove, fleeing toward the water by instinct, attempting to dive into the murky pond.
He prided himself on his superior movement techniques. With one leap, he was nearly fifty feet away. His own shadow was reflected on the water's surface, a blurry mass. However, a cold light flashed from behind him. The shadow was instantly severed in two. A rain of blood fell, sinking into the murky pond along with the broken tip of a blade, until the last trace of a silhouette was swallowed, leaving only a few bubbles rising to the surface.
Silence returned to the world once more, as if nothing had happened.
A faint sound of gasping came from the nearby grass—the sound of someone who had been holding their breath finally losing their composure. Accompanied by the sound of feet scuffing against gravel, it betrayed a sense of panic and disarray.
The third person, who had just finished the killing, didn't even turn his head. He swung his long saber backward, only to stop it abruptly just before it severed the source of that breath.
A pair of eyes blinked half an inch away from the blade's edge. After a long moment, a small figure tremblingly revealed itself, standing up in the grass. It was the cowherd boy, who had narrowly escaped death.
The surroundings were pitch black, the air thick with the faint scent of blood. The boy’s eyes were wide as he finally stammered, "You... you're from Shopkeeper Qin's house..."
The youth had no time for him. He merely wiped the blood from his blade, using the reflection of the steel to quickly scan the area.
There were messy tracks on the ground. Some of the indentations in the mud were just wet, while others were filled with rainwater. This indicated that at least two groups had passed through here. The ones in front must have left not long ago; if he pursued now, he might still make it.
Having made his decision, he sheathed his blade and prepared to head toward the village. But as he took his first step, his leg was suddenly hugged tight. Looking down, he saw the cowherd boy looking up at him, face covered in tears and snot.
Unease and anxiety pooled in his eyes; impatience and killing intent spread along the length of his blade. The corpse of the assassin in the peach grove lay not far away, the blood from his neck still warm. The lingering scent of blood teased his sense of smell, threatening to unleash the impulse he had fought so hard to suppress.
Li Qiao slowly raised his sheathed saber. He only gave a single look, but the aura of a fellow "wolf" was as pervasive as the mist, enough to make anyone's blood run cold.
"Let go."
For an ordinary person, such a moment would be enough to make them recoil in terror.
But this time, the small, mud-stained hands gripping his leg did not loosen.
Li Qiao narrowed his eyes. "Aren't you afraid I'm with them?"
The boy instinctively shuddered, but his grip only tightened. It took a moment for him to find his voice.
"Why should I be afraid? You're one of our villagers. If I don't believe in you, who can I believe in?"
The youth before him felt like a stranger. He didn't know why the boy had become someone who could kill without blinking, but he still trusted his instincts.
After all, he had seen how this Brother Li acted when he was with Shopkeeper Qin. How could a youth with such bright eyes and a warm smile be one of the bad guys?
After a long time, just when the boy thought he was hugging a statue, the other spoke.
"Did you see anyone else on your way here?"
The boy sniffled and nodded. "When I first came out to find the cows, I saw a few people from a distance. They were all heading toward the village, but they were too far away to see whose family they belonged to..."
Whose family? They belonged to no family. They were a collection of unsheathed blades, malevolent ghosts that no one dared to take in.
And on a moonless night of slaughter, ghosts always moved in packs.
"Lead the way." Li Qiao's voice remained cold, but his saber finally lowered. "Tell me which way they went."
***
**Glossary**
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
---|---|---
野馥子 | Wild Fuzi | A rare medicinal or poisonous plant mentioned as a "poison catalyst."
九叶道 | Nine-Leaf Path | A shortcut named after Qin Jiuya (Jiuya means Nine Leaves).
山魈 | Shanxiao | A Chinese mythological mountain demon; used here to describe the assassins' silhouettes.
影使 | Shadow Envoy | A high-ranking assassin title within the First Manor under Heaven.
擎羊集 | Qingyang Market | A specific marketplace mentioned by Qin Jiuya.
