"What use is there in sitting there motionless? Have you gone simple?"
Ding Weixiang sat on the ground like a stone, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on a pile of tattered clothes for half an hour.
It was an outer robe torn in two, soaked through with mud and water. It wasn't hard to guess where it had been fished from.
But even though it was so filthy and ruined, Ding Weixiang could recognize at a single glance whose garment it was.
"It’s just a piece of clothing. As the saying goes, if they're alive, we see the person; if they're dead, we see the corpse. Don't jump to conclusions so early..."
Before Bo Lao could finish, Ding Weixiang snapped his head around to glare at her. "Ignorant junior!"
Bo Lao was stunned by the insult, but her reaction was instantaneous, her temper flaring.
"You son of a turtle, who are you calling a junior?! When I was roaming the martial world, you were still running around with a bare backside!"
Ding Weixiang’s expression was terrifyingly dark. He gripped the bundle of ruined clothes and slowly stood up.
"If Xiao Nanhui hadn't pursued Zou Sifang so relentlessly, my Master would never have followed her."
"So you're pinning this on us? I don't recall who insisted on coming along earlier—clearly weak as a chicken, yet insisted on shoving your way to the front!"
Ding Weixiang practically lunged from where he stood. Bo Lao flicked her body aside to dodge, the short blades already sliding from her sleeves. "Want to fight? Fine, let me see just how much skill you actually have."
Ding Weixiang placed a hand on his scabbard, his anger giving way to a touch of arrogance. "Senseless provocation."
Bo Lao’s eyes darted, landing on the scabbard of that peerless blade, and she finally stopped concealing her mockery. "What? Has the blade of the Dou clan grown rusty?"
At those words, Ding Weixiang could no longer maintain his aloof posture; a flicker of surprise crossed his face.
Though he hailed from the martial world, he had never truly walked it. Since graduating from the Andao Academy, his place had only ever been at that person's side. Though that person occasionally enjoyed courting danger, most who forced him to draw his blade were already dead.
He had no memory of the woman before him.
His gaze fell upon the pair of short blades in her hands, and Ding Weixiang finally recalled something.
"I heard my Master mention it before. I once had a fellow disciple who wished to inherit the blade techniques; the talent was passable, but the stature was insufficient. So it was you."
Hearing the words "stature was insufficient," Bo Lao practically gnashed her teeth. "What kind of eyesight did that old man Xie have?! To actually find someone like you..." She choked for a moment, racking her brain for a vicious enough retort. "To actually find such a big oaf!"
Bo Lao’s slightly cracking accusation echoed through the empty backyard of the Xiong residence.
Then, as if specifically responding to this childish argument between martial experts, a low cough sounded from the reed marshes.
Ding Weixiang turned sharply, blurring past Bo Lao like the wind, and in an instant, he was supporting someone as they emerged.
Bo Lao turned to look and saw Xiao Nanhui following behind, her feet covered in mud and her clothing thin.
"Weren't you two just about to have a fight? Carry on!"
Bo Lao caught the teasing note in her voice and awkwardly kicked the clothes on the ground. "We searched all night, alright? You can't even see your own feet in this hellhole during the day, let alone at night. As soon as it got light this morning, he went back in to scout the path, only to find your clothes. He's been like this since he came out."
Ding Weixiang ignored Bo Lao’s words. He quickly checked Zhongli Jing, and upon finding him uninjured, he let out a long sigh of relief before dropping to one knee with cupped fists.
"This subordinate deserves ten thousand deaths. Please punish me, Master."
Zhongli Jing merely brushed the top of the man's head lightly, his tone flat and devoid of emotion. "Enough. This had nothing to do with you; it was my own recklessness."
A flicker of gratitude actually surfaced in Ding Weixiang’s perennial 'dead-fish' eyes, though he remained unwilling to rise for a moment.
Xiao Nanhui watched from the side with a sour expression, stepping hard on Bo Lao’s foot and whispering resentfully, "Aren't you people from the Andao Academy famous for your loyalty? Something about swearing fealty to only one person for life? How come I didn't see you looking particularly worried when I was in trouble?"
Bo Lao hopped away, clutching her foot. "I was forced into this, okay?! If the Marquis hadn't shoved me onto you, do you think I’d be willing to follow you around all day?"
The words were truly harsh and ungraceful, especially in front of outsiders.
Xiao Nanhui took a sharp breath, silently reciting the mantra of 'endurance' as she carefully pulled out the Imperial Seal she had been guarding in her bosom. "Who wants you to be a tag-along? I brought you out hoping you'd be useful, but in the end, I still have to rely on myself. Luckily, this thing didn't fall into that rotten mud..."
"Don't bother holding onto it. That one is fake too."
Xiao Nanhui felt as if she had been struck by lightning. She looked incredulously at the man standing beside Ding Weixiang, whose lips were still slightly blue from the cold.
"What did you say? How... how could this be fake? Zou Sifang brought it out himself, we followed him the whole way, there couldn't be a mistake..."
Zhongli Jing donned the thick fur cloak Ding Weixiang handed him. His complexion finally seemed to ease, but his voice was strangely raspy. "He was deceived as well. As for the people who sought to trade with him, they never intended to take the item from the start; they came specifically to destroy the evidence and the person. Whether the item was real or fake, they didn't know."
From the struggle at the Zhuming Sacrifice until now, Xiao Nanhui couldn't even remember how many groups of people had come to snatch or test them. Staring at the "precious jade" in her hand—obtained through such hardship and near-death experiences—how could she easily give up?
"Where is Hao Bai? Get him to look at it. Doesn't he know the details..."
Before she could finish, a noise came from the old Xiong house. Hao Bai emerged from a side door, dragging a massive animal-skin sack.
He was bent over pulling the bag and didn't immediately notice the two extra people in the yard. When he realized, his expression became extremely awkward.
"You're out? That's wonderful. Where were we? Continue, continue..."
Xiao Nanhui raised an eyebrow at the deer antlers, mountain ginseng, and rare herbs nearly overflowing from the sack.
"No need. Brother Hao is so busy, how could we dare continue to disturb him?"
As they spoke, Ding Weixiang had already brought the carriage around. Zhongli Jing gave a light cough and stepped forward.
"Someone knew Zou Sifang was heading to his death before we did, and they swapped the item in advance. A full day and night have passed since he left the city. If you still want to linger here and waste time, then suit yourselves."
****** ****** ******
In the wilderness outside the northern gate of Muerhe, about the time it takes to finish a cup of tea by carriage, stood a very simple mud-brick house.
This place was originally meant for traveling merchants to rest. Because the nearest official post station to Muerhe was near the ferry crossing, travelers were accustomed to taking a short break here while waiting for the city gates to open, mostly for convenience. However, the route of the newly built official road had changed in recent years, leaving this house far from the main path. Taking a detour just to rest lost its appeal, and over time, the place fell into ruin.
Xiao Nanhui gazed at the house from a distance, then turned to look at the person beside her.
"When did you find out all these things?"
Zhongli Jing had been keeping his eyes closed until now. Hearing her, he lifted his eyelids and glanced at her. "I suppose I have that handkerchief of yours to thank for that."
Just as he finished speaking, the carriage swayed to a halt. Zhongli Jing said no more and was the first to disembark.
The ground, which hadn't seen carriage wheels in a long time, was overgrown with weeds. Ding Weixiang took the lead, entering the courtyard first.
The mud house was very quiet. It seemed they might have arrived a step too late.
Hao Bai was about to speak when Xiao Nanhui clamped a hand over his mouth.
There was a faint sound in the air. A sound difficult for ordinary people to detect.
Xiao Nanhui, Bo Lao, and Ding Weixiang all looked toward a corner of the courtyard almost simultaneously. In the next instant, a thin, small figure darted from behind a partially collapsed mud wall, attempting to flee over the boundary. Bo Lao intercepted them with a flying leap.
The figure was unexpectedly agile. Failing the first attempt, their feet barely touched the ground before they tried to escape in another direction.
Xiao Nanhui watched that nimble silhouette and couldn't help but let out a surprised "Eh?"
This time it was Ding Weixiang who acted. He seemed to have no patience for cat-and-mouse games; his strike was ruthless. The person gave a cry of pain and tumbled into the center of the courtyard.
Though she had a premonition, Xiao Nanhui’s eyes widened when she saw the person's face clearly.
"It's you. You were the one on Pingxiao Tower."
The struggling figure on the ground stubbornly straightened their back and lifted their head. It was the young servant named A-Lü, who usually attended to A-Xi at Wangchen Tower.
Zhongli Jing stood to the side, watching coldly, appearing neither curious nor surprised by the identity of the person before them.
"It seems the person you were waiting for was delayed on the road."
A-Lü stiffened at the words, then quickly adopted a look of bewilderment. "What are you talking about? I don't understand."
Zhongli Jing didn't even bother to speak further. Beside him, Ding Weixiang stepped forward expressionlessly, his hands moving like lightning as he pinned A-Lü to the ground. The thin youth pulled out a dagger and stabbed backward, but Ding Weixiang dislocated his wrist with a single palm strike. He cried out in pain but still refused to stop struggling until a cold blade pressed against his neck a second later.
He finally went still.
Recalling the perilous exchange on Pingxiao Tower, Xiao Nanhui felt a touch of sentiment. In truth, on level ground, the advantage of the opponent's light frame vanished; even with tricky moves, they were nothing to fear. It was just a pity the circumstances that day had been so different, nearly costing her her life.
Looking at it this way, the person who chose him was indeed clever and well-versed in such matters.
Ding Weixiang was clearly no stranger to this kind of work. In a few swift motions, he fished a box from the boy's person. The box was handed to Zhongli Jing, who gently opened the outer wooden casing to reveal the item inside.
Xiao Nanhui watched from the side, feeling a moment of disappointment.
The object in the box was dull and black. Though square, it seemed covered in a layer of grime, showing no fine patterns or carvings. There was only a small hole in the center, seemingly the keyhole for this strange box; other than that, no seam could be found.
"This... this is it?" Xiao Nanhui’s voice held a hint of disbelief.
Zhongli Jing glanced at her and removed a *chongya* from the jade pendant at his waist, lightly scraping it across the square object. Beneath the scratch, the true color hidden under the mud was revealed.
A pure, rich emerald green.
