A damaged jade slip was spread out on the small table, emitting a faint fluorescence. It looked like a dying man, his breath barely lingering, collapsed in the ice and snow, waiting for someone to hear the last thread of truth leaking from his lips at the moment of death.
Jiang Yexue said, “Young Lord Xihe, I’ll remind you one last time. Think this through carefully. Historical-record jade slips are nothing like ancient divine mirrors. In the end, they are merely mundane objects. So if you insist on peering into their contents, then to repair their damage, they will need your flesh, blood, and spiritual power to fill the gaps.”
“Or you can choose to wait. The Sovereign may not necessarily discover within a month that the historical-record jade slip was stolen. That way, you won’t have to take the risk, and everything can proceed more safely.”
Mo Xi said nothing. His thick, smoke-cloud-like eyelashes hung low, concealing the light and shadows flowing through the depths of his eyes.
Eight years ago, when he watched Gu Mang sink into pleasure and debauchery, he had also thought about waiting.
Waiting for Gu Mang to pull himself together, waiting for time to slowly heal his wounds…
But what had he gotten from waiting?
Time could not make a fallen pillar rise again. It could only turn the carved railings and jade structures that had once existed into broken walls and ruined foundations.
“I’ve already made him wait too long,” Mo Xi said.
“…”
“Qingxu, begin.”
Outside Xihe Residence.
Zhou He had one hand resting on the goshawk at his waist and the other behind his back. Gu Mang was restrained by several attendants from the Office of Sorcery and stood beside Zhou He.
Zhou He’s gaze swept over the uneasy people of Xihe Residence, the sweating Butler Li, and Murong Lian with his sinister expression. A cold, faint smile spread across the corners of his lips.
“There’s no need for everyone to see me off. I’ll take my leave.”
With that, he was about to take Gu Mang away.
Indeed, an entire hour had already passed. There had been no news from Mo Xi, while the Sovereign’s imperial edict was firmly in Zhou He’s hands. In black and white, it clearly stated that the first institution designated to conduct Gu Mang’s trial was Zhou He’s Office of Sorcery.
Even if Murong Lian wanted to stop him, there was no room to do so.
Seeing that Gu Mang was about to be taken away by Zhou He, Butler Li’s overwhelming desire to survive made him shout, “E-E-Elder Zhou! Why don’t you stay for another cup of tea? Xihe Residence has Jade Pond Flying Leaves from a thirty-year-old mother plant on Penglai Immortal Island. It was even one of the gifts the former Sovereign bestowed upon our lord when he granted him his title!”
Butler Li’s desperate gamble was not without reason.
Zhou He was a lover of tea. It was said that this was because the affairs of the Office of Sorcery were far too bloody on ordinary days. When things reached one extreme, they swung to the other. Thus, aside from digging out people’s brains, the thing Zhou He loved most was actually drinking tea.
Every year, whenever high-grade tea leaves were put up for auction, the Zhou family would invariably send someone to bid aggressively. This was something everyone in Chonghua knew.
Sure enough, when Zhou He heard “Jade Pond Flying Leaves,” his pupils contracted slightly.
Butler Li immediately struck while the iron was hot, fawning shamelessly. “This tea has been sealed for more than ten years. We don’t bring it out for ordinary guests. Only an expert like Elder Zhou is worthy of drinking it!”
“…”
Zhou He rubbed the hilt of the goshawk in his hand. It seemed he was caught in an internal battle between the joy of digging out brains and the joy of drinking tea.
But in the end, the pervert defeated the normal person.
Zhou He pursed his lips, lifted his chin, and gestured to his attendants.
“No need. Take him away.”
“Yes!”
The attendants escorted Gu Mang toward the Office of Sorcery’s carriage, intending to stuff him inside. Butler Li looked practically like a dog who had failed to guard the house, discovered that thieves had broken in, and was terrified that his master would punish him. He clung to the doorframe, looking as though he were about to faint.
But just then, Murong Lian suddenly spoke.
“Wait.”
Zhou He narrowed his eyes. “…Young Lord Wangshu, I already showed you the imperial edict. What more instructions do you have?”
Murong Lian took a hard drag from his water pipe.
“You can take him. But let’s make one thing clear—you can’t go too far. I’m still waiting to use this trial subject here. If you use him to death or cripple him so badly that I can’t conduct my own trial…”
He narrowed his eyes and lightly tapped Zhou He’s cheek with the water pipe, his voice turning ominous.
“Then your Brother Lian is going to get very angry. And once your Brother Lian gets angry, you won’t have such an easy time living in Chonghua from then on.”
Zhou He sneered.
“Murong Lian, have you no shame? You’re only three months older than me. Where did you get the face to call yourself ‘Brother’?”
Murong Lian’s response was to take another long drag of A Dream of Floating Life before smiling and blowing the smoke right into Zhou He’s face.
“Big Brother likes it. If you’re unhappy, have your mother stuff you back inside and give birth to you again. If you were born three months earlier than me, I’d call you Big Brother too.”
“You—!”
“Hey, hey, hey, wait a second.”
Murong Lian suddenly raised a finger and shook it.
“Don’t ‘you’ me and ‘I’ me just yet. Your Brother Lian just thought of another great idea.”
“…”
“How about we do it this way?”
Murong Lian bit down on the mouthpiece of his water pipe and staggered leisurely toward the carriage.
“Since the Sovereign’s imperial edict was given to you, naturally I can’t stop you. Take the person away first, and I’ll come get him tomorrow. After all, the clues about the Black Demon on my side also urgently need to be tested. One night should be more than enough for you, right?”
“Not enough.”
Murong Lian’s eyes suddenly narrowed.
Those peach-blossom eyes of his should have been born with endless charm and tenderness. Yet his pupils floated slightly upward, giving him the characteristic three-white eyes, which naturally made him look somewhat vicious and ruthless.
“Little darling, don’t think that holding an imperial edict means you can act without restraint. You still have to live in Chonghua in the future.”
Zhou He turned his pale, glazed-colored eyes.
“Young Lord Wangshu, have you ever heard of a trial that only takes one night?”
Murong Lian stared at him.
The water pipe in his hand seemed to have become a reflection of his mood, angrily emitting wisps of blue smoke.
In the end, Murong Lian said, “…Fine. It’s also fine if you refuse to give a time limit. But at the very least, I need to make sure this person still has enough life left in him for me to use.”
Zhou He asked, “How are you going to ensure that?”
Murong Lian did not answer.
He stepped forward and rudely grabbed Gu Mang by the collar of his bathrobe, yanking him over. He lazily cast a sidelong glance at him before turning back toward Zhou He.
“I’m going to leave a tracking mark.”
After saying this, he removed the ring from his left hand. Under everyone’s watchful eyes, he cast a spell and then slipped the ring onto Gu Mang’s thumb.
The ring was set with a gemstone through which blue light flowed. Its material could not be discerned, but the moment Gu Mang put it on, he suddenly felt an indescribable sense of unease, along with a strange, inexplicable flutter in his heart.
“It’s about the same as the tracking spell the fireball left on you before.”
Murong Lian held Gu Mang’s hand and examined it for a while before nodding.
“I’ve cast a spell on it. No one can casually remove it. That way, whether you’re dead or alive, I’ll at least have some idea.”
These words sounded less like they were meant for Gu Mang and more like they were meant for Zhou He.
After finishing, Murong Lian waved his hand in great annoyance.
“Enough. You bunch of little brothers can all get lost.”
Gu Mang lowered his head and stared at the sapphire-colored ring on his left thumb. The bewilderment between his brows grew deeper and deeper.
He raised his head and looked at Murong Lian in confusion, only to see that Murong Lian had already turned his back on him. Holding his water pipe, he began sucking furiously again, swallowing clouds and exhaling mist.
Gu Mang stared at his back.
He felt that among the memories he was still missing, there must definitely be a fragment related to this ring. It was a memory he himself knew nothing about, yet Murong Lian seemed to know it very well…
But based on what he knew of Murong Lian, Gu Mang did not expect him to willingly tell him.
Still, as Gu Mang rubbed the sapphire ring, that familiar feeling uncontrollably surged into his heart.
He even had a frightening intuition.
He felt that this ring had originally belonged to him, that by nature it should have always been with him.
Why did he have such an intuition?
What exactly was the memory connected to it?
After Zhou He left, Murong Lian remained standing there, gazing at the starry night. Slowly, he finished an entire pipe of A Dream of Floating Life.
After inhaling that potent intoxicant, his entire face seemed to be immersed in spring water. His brows and eyes were filled with a floating, almost immortal-like sense of pleasure.
Yet beneath that pleasure seemed to be some extremely twisted emotion.
Only when he exhaled the smoke did that emotion suddenly disperse, gradually fading away…
“Li Wei.”
“Ah, what orders do you have, Young Lord Wangshu?”
With his back toward the government office lanterns and his face toward the endless darkness of night, Murong Lian stood there for a while.
The wooden hairpin holding up his hair looked so utterly out of place against his robe, which was woven with gold thread and overflowing with extravagant finery.
After a long while, Murong Lian turned his face slightly. Darkness filled his eyes.
“Is Mo Xi dead?”
“…Huh?”
“We haven’t been able to find him for an entire hour. Is he dead, or is everyone in your Xihe Residence a bunch of ants?!”
Li Wei hurriedly spoke on behalf of his lord and the aggrieved servants of Xihe Residence.
“Well… Young Lord Wangshu, you can’t put it that way. You saw it yourself while we were waiting just now. We’ve released nearly a hundred messenger butterflies already, but not a single one could find any trace of our lord. Besides, our lord is an important official of the Military and Government Office. If he’s inside the office, the messenger butterflies can’t pass through the barrier, and there’s no way we could enter the royal palace to look for him either…”
What he said was not wrong, but Murong Lian’s expression did not improve in the slightest.
He bit down on his water pipe and turned around, walking over.
“Throughout the entire imperial capital, besides the royal city, where else are there places that messenger spiritual objects cannot freely reach?”
“?”
Li Wei was stunned for a moment.
“Young Lord Wangshu, you don’t know?”
“Why would this prince need to know such useless things?! Does this prince normally need to send messages to anyone?” Murong Lian snapped. “Speak!”
“Oh, oh, oh, yes, yes, yes.”
Li Wei said, “Besides the royal city, places that messenger spiritual objects cannot freely reach include the Yin Prison, the Jiang Residence, Murong Chuyi’s artifact-refining chamber…”
He listed more than twenty places in total.
By the end, his voice gradually became quieter as he stole a glance at Murong Lian.
Murong Lian asked strangely, “Why are you looking at me?”
Li Wei braced himself and said, “There are also the pleasure houses and brothels opened by Young Lord Wangshu…”
“…”
“And the Cultivation Academy.”
Murong Lian said, “Send people to these places and ask about the fireball’s whereabouts. Immediately. Right now.”
“If we investigate all of these, I’m afraid it’ll take until tomorrow morning…”
When he met Murong Lian’s eyes, Li Wei’s neck shrank.
He hurriedly said, “Investigate, investigate! I’ll do it right away.”
After giving his orders, Murong Lian tilted his face and thought for a moment, apparently filtering through the more than twenty locations Li Wei had mentioned.
In the end, Murong Lian turned around and ordered his attendants.
“Let’s go.”
“Is Your Highness planning to return to Wangshu Manor?”
“No.”
Murong Lian stepped onto the padded satin footstool and climbed into the carriage, saying coldly,
“Go to the Yin Prison first, then the Cultivation Academy. They may not be convenient places for those people to search. I’ll go myself.”
Half an hour later.
Jiang Yexue sat in a four-sided rosewood official’s hat chair, his slender hands folded together over his knees, intently watching Mo Xi, who was lying unconscious beside the historical-record jade slip.
The lamps in the room were not particularly bright, but it was still possible to clearly see fiery-red spiritual energy continuously surging from Mo Xi’s chest and enveloping the damaged jade slip.
His spiritual energy seemed to have become a bridge connecting the damaged portions of the scroll, causing the entire jade slip to become much less fragmented and broken.
Some time had already passed.
Jiang Yexue raised his hand and looked at the water-clock device in his palm.
Mo Xi had been in magical sleep for one interval.
With the massive expenditure of Mo Xi’s spiritual power, the jade slip had already been restored almost completely.
It seemed that by now, Mo Xi’s soul should have been able to begin reading the information recorded inside the historical scroll.
However, at that moment, a violent knocking suddenly came from outside.
“Bang, bang, bang!”
Jiang Yexue frowned slightly.
“Who is it?”
Murong Lian’s voice came from outside.
“Dead cripple, get out here and open the door!”
“…”
Jiang Yexue glanced at the stolen jade slip on the table and Mo Xi lying unconscious beside it.
He said, “It is late at night. Jiang is unable to meet with Young Lord Wangshu. Please—”
“Bang!”
With a loud crash, Murong Lian actually kicked the door open.
Through the swirling clouds of dust and against the moonlight, the two looked at each other.
But Murong Lian’s gaze did not remain on Jiang Yexue for long.
Those two beams of unpredictable light quickly passed over Jiang Yexue and swept through the entire room before he barged into the bedroom without another word.
After searching the entire place, he did not see anyone.
Murong Lian returned to the main hall and asked, “Mo Xi isn’t here with you?”
Jiang Yexue’s expression did not change.
Although he still looked calm and composed, his slender, pale fingers had already curled around the most concealed mechanism on the armrest of his wheelchair.
Jiang Yexue smiled faintly.
“Why would he be here with me? Young Lord Wangshu, if you want to find Young Lord Xihe, you could simply ask me. Why did you have to force your way in?”
But with Murong Lian’s personality, he was accustomed to behaving outrageously and getting his way.
If a door could be kicked, he would never push it.
If it could be pushed, he would never knock.
Furthermore, he had always disliked someone as pleasant and proper as Jiang Yexue, so naturally he was even less inclined to be polite.
He glared at Jiang Yexue and said irritably,
“The dog I raised was placed at his residence for safekeeping. Now the dog has been taken by Zhou He to undergo the Black Demon trial. You tell me—shouldn’t I find him and settle the score?!”
Jiang Yexue’s gaze sharpened.
“Gu Mang was taken away by the Office of Sorcery?”
Murong Lian could not be bothered to repeat himself. Gritting his teeth, he said,
“Why can’t I find Mo Xi anywhere… Could he really be in the confidential meeting room of the Military and Government Office?”
Mo Xi was naturally not in the confidential meeting room of the Military and Government Office.
He was still lying beside the historical-record jade slip, only a short distance away from Jiang Yexue and Murong Lian.
It was just that Jiang Yexue’s bamboo house was filled with mechanisms.
The instant Murong Lian had kicked the door open, Jiang Yexue had already activated the illusion technique covering the main hall.
Thus, although Mo Xi was still lying in the exact same place, Murong Lian could not see him.
“…Fine, then if you see him, pass on a message for me.”
Murong Lian took another deep drag from his pipe and exhaled, his expression wild and capricious.
“I’m leaving.”
“I won’t see you out.”
Murong Lian left.
Jiang Yexue turned his wheelchair toward the door, closed it, and then returned to Mo Xi’s side.
The room was very quiet.
He stared at Mo Xi for a while before reaching out and placing his hand against the carotid artery on Mo Xi’s neck.
His brows drew together slightly.
Mo Xi had already entered the state of reading the scroll.
At this moment, if he were forcibly pulled out, the situation would only become even more dangerous.
They could only wait.
They could not interfere.
Jiang Yexue lowered his hand, his gaze dark and unreadable.
As for Gu Mang…
Could he hold on until Mo Xi woke up from uncovering the secrets?