A Nonexistent Person

Zhou Chen had always been a firm believer in the theory of life's choices. If one made the right call at those few pivotal moments in life, everything that followed would be smooth sailing. That he had managed to climb from a refugee child fleeing disaster to his current station was all thanks to taking one such step after another. And over the past few years, the single biggest and wisest choice he had ever made was likely declaring his fealty early on to the Third Young Master back when he was still an "obscure nobody." Though Zhou Chen hadn't reaped any tangible benefits in that first year—he had even been deployed to the Northern Border front lines to carry out perilous missions—making the right choice always paid off in the end. After all, the Third Young Master was the Chancellor's own flesh and blood. Once he gained the ability to cultivate, the Young Master's standing had skyrocketed to the heavens, and as an early follower who had hitched his wagon to a rising dragon, Zhou Chen naturally caught a ride on that ascending coattail. Once the war with the Barbarians concluded, Zhou Chen immediately received a transfer order on the merits of his military contributions, moving from an idle retained elder to the head of the Black Scale Guards' branch in Zhenxi Manor. The Chancellor's Manor maintained an exceptionally thorough merit-assessment system. During the Barbarian war, his finest hour had probably been venturing alone into enemy lines on the eve of the Battle of Beifeng, besting an entire council of adversaries in verbal combat to pull off the negotiation mission entrusted to him by the Third Young Master. It was an important matter, a crucial link in the Young Master's plan. But important as it was, the credit belonged to the Third Young Master. Zhou Chen was merely the executor, and executors were often the least valued—because they were too easily replaced. The Third Young Master had already set the stage; going by the average caliber of retained elders in the Chancellor's Manor, swapping in someone else would have yielded the same result. According to the assessment guidelines for retained elders, his deeds should have earned him at most a one-tier salary bump and a handsome "hazard allowance," and that would have been that. Thus, when he received that secret transfer order, Zhou Chen himself had been utterly dazed. After thinking it over endlessly, he finally realized that the Third Young Master had pulled strings on his behalf. Otherwise, given the independent standing of the Black Scale Guards within the Chancellor's Manor, an ordinary retained elder like him had virtually zero chance of transferring in, let alone stepping directly into the role of a provincial director. Having spent nearly a year in Zhenxi Manor, Zhou Chen had adapted to life in the Black Scale Guards. Gathering intelligence boiled down to keeping three things firmly in mind: caution, ruthlessness, and human nature. Once he got the hang of the operations, having clawed his way up from the bottom, Zhou Chen took to the position like a fish to water. Once he had secured his footing, the Black Scale Guard headquarters specially approved a Grade A, mid-tier cultivation manual for him. His stipend tripled from what it had been, and on top of that, holding the office of Zhenxi Manor Director allowed him to pocket plenty of legitimate perks and kickbacks without crossing any lines. No longer strapped for cultivation resources and armed with a brand-new high-grade manual, Zhou Chen's cultivation—stagnant for years—had begun showing signs of a breakthrough. Everything was looking up. "Mister Zhou, have a seat." The indifferent voice snapped Zhou Chen back to reality. Before he knew it, he had already stepped back into the carriage. Before him, the brocade-robed young master with an unfamiliar face was quietly watching him, one brow raised. *Oh no. I was scared so bad my whole life flashed before my eyes.* Bordering the great desert, Zhenxi Manor experienced immense temperature swings between night and day, growing steadily hotter as noon approached. Yet today, with the morning sun barely peeking over the eastern horizon, Zhou Chen already felt sweat trickling down his neck. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed with great difficulty. Then, his knees buckled. Instead of sitting, Zhou Chen dropped straight to his knees on the carriage rug, twitching the corner of his mouth. "...Third Young Master, you're not dead?" "..." Xu Yuan's eyes flickered with surprise as he pointed a finger at himself. *You want me dead?* "..." Zhou Chen wanted to give himself a vicious slap across the face. Old Zhou was usually such a smooth talker, so why couldn't he string a proper sentence together right now? Regardless, the words were out, and all he could do was scramble to salvage the situation. Yet at that moment, Xu Yuan slowly looked away, opening the secret letter in his hand as he asked offhandedly, "Haven't seen you in a while. How did you get so timid?" Zhou Chen immediately offered an obsequious smile. "I was merely surprised by Young Master's trust in me." He wasn't actually timid. As a Grandmaster expert, he could look down on the vast majority of the realm. But only after joining the Black Scale Guards did he truly comprehend the supreme power held in the Third Young Master's hands—a power that decided life and death with a single word. With such a gulf in status, he naturally dared not fool around. With that thought, Zhou Chen bowed deeply in solemn apology. "Please forgive my offense just now, Young Master." "What offense?" Xu Yuan gave a light chuckle laced with banter. "Haven't you always been like this, ever since the first day we met?" His humble background had honed Grandmaster Zhou Chen's formidable capabilities, but it had also forged his wretched habits: arrogant one moment and subservient the next, dropping to his knees at lightning speed. Wiping the cold sweat from his brow, Zhou Chen glanced at the secret missive in Xu Yuan's hands and discreetly shifted the subject: "Young Master speaks the truth. Still, you must have urgent business here, yes? If there is any information you require, I should be able to lend a hand." Xu Yuan did not respond, quietly reading through the secret letter. Seeing this, Zhou Chen had no choice but to wait on his knees, gazing up anxiously. After a few minutes, Xu Yuan furrowed his brow and shifted his gaze back to Grandmaster Zhou. "You're currently the Director of the Black Scale Guards' Zhenxi Manor Bureau?" Zhou Chen's eyes flickered for a fraction of a second before he nodded. "Yes." With a casual gesture, Xu Yuan incinerated the letter. A peculiar look crossed his eyes; he had not found what he was looking for in it. He asked, "Is this all the critical intelligence from this region?" Zhou Chen hesitated slightly and asked in a low voice, "Young Master... what sort of information are you looking for? A single missive can only contain so much. Lord Mu Qing only summarized the most significant intelligence, so something might have been omitted." Mu Qing was the Chief Director of the Black Scale Guards in Xize Province, Zhou Chen's direct superior. Leaning back against the soft couch, Xu Yuan knit his brows and muttered, "Something so momentous couldn't possibly be overlooked. Has the Black Scale Guard really not caught wind of anything...?" Zhou Chen probed cautiously, "Perhaps Young Master could share a word with me?" Xu Yuan let out a soft snort, his gaze unfathomable. "A 'good friend' told me yesterday that Li Junwu captured the Divine Maiden of the Great Desert alive, but the two of them vanished together immediately afterward." "..." The air abruptly froze. Zhou Chen's droopy eyes widened a fraction as his mind stalled for a second. He recalled that Li Junwu was the Commandery Princess of Zhenxi Manor, while the Divine Maiden was the second sovereign of the Dachao people. As the identities of the two registered, a sudden wave of panic rose within Zhou Chen. Such an earth-shattering development, yet the Black Scale Guards hadn't heard a whisper of it... A beat later, Zhou Chen bowed his head to the floor. "This subordinate has been derelict in his duties. Please, Young Master, punish—" "This isn't your fault," Xu Yuan cut in. For the Black Scale Guards, this truly was a massive failure of duty, but even the cleverest cook couldn't make a meal without rice. Great Yan was simply too vast. With limited resources, the Black Scale Guards' deployments inevitably tilted toward certain regions, making it impossible to cover every province equally. And Xize Province happened to be the one where their intelligence network was at its weakest. Still, that only made the whole affair even stranger... Even without dedicated resources allocated to Zhenxi Manor, the Black Scale Guards were still a starved camel larger than a horse. The Dachao and Zhenxi Manor had kept Li Junwu's situation under airtight wraps; Xu Yuan could still understand the Mu Family Chamber of Commerce uncovering the truth through their connections in Zhenxi Manor, but how on earth did Mu Xingyi know about it? His mother was out of favor, and he had been sidelined in the family's internal struggles to the point where assassins were hunting him down. By all rights, he shouldn't have possessed the clearance to know of this. What was more, under such strict secrecy, Mu Xingyi had simply told him about it over casual conversation... Why? His thoughts raced. Xu Yuan's gaze sharpened, and he pivoted to ask, "Mister Zhou, have you investigated the Mu Family Chamber of Commerce?" Relevant details flashed rapidly through Zhou Chen's mind, and he replied in a low voice, "Of course. As the largest merchant guild in Xize Province, the Mu Family Chamber of Commerce is one of our key areas of focus. The framework of our intelligence network inside it has already been established, so it should be of help to Young Master." Xu Yuan nodded and raised two fingers, speaking measuredly: "Two questions. "First, what is Mu Xingyi's standing within the Mu Family Chamber of Commerce? He claims he is unfavored, yet he knows of such critical intelligence. "Second, he encountered several demonic beast hordes on his trade route to Monan. Who within the Mu Family Chamber of Commerce wants him dead right now?" "Young Master..." Having listened intently, Zhou Chen fell silent for a moment. Leaning forward slightly, he asked in a cautious whisper, "This Mu Xingyi you speak of... is he from a collateral branch?" "..." Xu Yuan's brow knitted tighter by the second. He let out a soft breath. "Mister Zhou, do I look like I'm talking about a collateral branch?" Zhou Chen opened his mouth, feeling the cold sweat tightening on his forehead, and forced himself to say, "... But none of the direct lineage sons of the Mu family are named Mu Xingyi." *A fake name?* Xu Yuan caught on instantly, then rattled off several of Mu Xingyi's features: "Pale complexion, as if chronically ill. Six chi tall, thin frame, aquiline nose, thin lips, peach-blossom eyes. A languid, world-weary disposition." After listening carefully, Zhou Chen racked his brain over and over, then shook his head with an expression of complete despair. He threw in the towel. After finally getting an audience with the Third Young Master, first he had been insolent, and now he was completely clueless about his primary duties. *Hahaha, I'm completely done for.* Amid the dead silence of the carriage, Bai Muxi, who had been sitting quietly to the side, spoke up. Her voice was clear and melodious: "Mister Zhou, who was the leader of the Mu Family caravan that left the city this morning?" Hearing this, Xu Yuan looked up as well. Right! Only this morning had he and Mu Xingyi ridden grandly through the streets on horseback at the head of the caravan. Locking his gaze onto Zhou Chen, he said, "This morning between seven and nine, I rode through the city alongside him right at the head of the convoy. Your Black Scale Guards should have had eyes on us, yes?" "We did have informants watching..." Pinned under two pairs of eyes, Zhou Chen reflexively stroked his stubbly chin, hissed softly through his teeth, and murmured, "The leader of that Mu Family caravan is a shopkeeper named Di Tong, a fat man." At this point, Zhou Chen stole a glance at Xu Yuan and said with utmost care: "As for the person riding beside you... "This morning, weren't you riding through the streets all by yourself?" "..." A moment of total silence. Xu Yuan rubbed his temples, baring his teeth. His voice carried a smile, but beneath it lay a distinct edge of annoyance: "Zhou Chen... I don't know, nor do I care to know, what you've been doing since being transferred to Zhenxi Manor, but failing to even maintain basic surveillance at the city gates—isn't that pushing it a bit too far?" "B-But that's what I saw with my own eyes!" Zhou Chen looked at Xu Yuan with an expression bordering on tears, anxiously explaining, "Lord Mu Qing gave orders about an urgent handover, so the moment the curfew lifted, I came straight to this vicinity to keep watch. I didn't see anyone riding alongside you at all..." Silence fell within the carriage once more. After taking down the message the Young Master wanted relayed to Di'an City, Zhou Chen scurried off with a heart full of dread, not forgetting to respectfully pull the carriage door shut before leaving. Xu Yuan lowered his gaze, exhaling a long breath of stale air before glancing at Bai Muxi beside him. "Muxi, what do you make of this?" Bai Muxi's delicate eyebrows knit gracefully, her voice hesitant: "Mu Xingyi's vitality was severely depleted, and his cultivation was only at the Soul Condensation stage. Even with an extraordinary cultivation art, he couldn't have evaded Mister Zhou's perception. Yet Mister Zhou has no reason to lie to you about this... "Therefore, either Mu Xingyi's cultivation is so profound that he deceived all of us, or he possesses some rare, extraordinary treasure." "But to what end?" "Um... could it be that he discovered your true identity, Young Master?" "Do you think that's likely?" Xu Yuan's expression turned odd as he pointed at the fresh human-skin mask on his face and the brocade robe he wore. Both the clothes he wore and the human-skin mask on his face had been refashioned from the soul-shielding garment dropped by the Emperor of Sien. Not even a Saint-level powerhouse like his maternal uncle Feng Jiuxuan could lock onto him with qi dynamic, let alone penetrate it for an inspection. Shaking his head gently, Xu Yuan manipulated the carriage with origin qi, steering it toward the city gate as he said softly, "Thinking back over the past half-month, in that entire massive caravan, besides us, it seemed only that fat shopkeeper named Di had ever spoken directly with Mu Xingyi." Bai Muxi glanced out the window and probed, "Are we going to find them?" *Thump!* Xu Yuan raised a hand and brought a light chop down on Xiao Bai's head, glaring at her. "You reek of bandit habits. You were just like this at the Feng family ancestral grounds—ready to beat and kill before understanding the situation. And what happened? Those two geniuses turned out to be fiercely loyal to our Chancellor's Manor. Until things are clear, stop jumping straight to murder and violence." With that, Xu Yuan sighed faintly. "So far, I haven't detected the slightest malice from that fellow Mu Xingyi—only those well-meaning reminders that sounded as if he couldn't care less about anything. So for now, we'll let it be." Bai Muxi hesitated slightly. "What if he's concealing his hostility?" "Hostility?" Xu Yuan grinned, spreading his hands. "Didn't I just have Zhou Chen send word back to Di'an City? If a clash really breaks out, we'll simply settle it in Thousand Thorns Gorge, each relying on our own methods. In any case, given the terrain of Thousand Thorns Gorge, military arrays can't be deployed." With that, Xu Yuan exhaled a long breath and smiled. "Just fetching a Dragon Transformation Essence, and who would've thought Thousand Thorns Gorge would be so lively? Muxi, you might even get to see that Lady Saintess again this time." "Lady Saintess?" "Yeah. The secret letter Zhou Chen gave me just now said Su Jinxuan went into Thousand Thorns Gorge together with Tianyan." "..." At those words, the silent overachiever cultivating beside them suddenly looked up, a hint of vigilance in her dark eyes. Xu Yuan chose to be selectively blind, reaching out to pat Xiao Bai's slender waist. "Alright, scoot over. I'm going to take a nap."