Even traveling day and night and spurring their horses to the limit, reaching Jiuning Mountain in five days was utterly impossible.
If one were to employ lightness skill, it would inevitably consume a tremendous amount of internal force, leaving them spending more time meditating to recover their strength than actually on the road.
Had Zhou Qingmei been on her own, there truly would have been no way around it.
Fortunately, she had Fang Shuwen by her side.
Earlier, when pursuing the man who had abducted Fang Lingxin, Zhou Qingmei had already tasted the benefits of this.
This time, she simply followed the same method. Taking Fang Shuwen by the hand, she drew upon his internal force to execute her lightness skill, clearing over a hundred feet with a single leap.
Her steps practically rode the wind, covering miles in an instant.
She truly experienced the exhilaration of galloping across the jianghu on lightness skill.
Best of all, Fang Shuwen's internal force seemed inexhaustible; no matter how she unleashed or borrowed it, his reserves never depleted in the slightest.
Such profound depth led Zhou Qingmei to feel that even the master of Zhujige Pavilion could hardly compare.
Instead, it was Zhou Qingmei who struggled under the mental exhaustion of journeying day and night, needing to stop and rest for an hour or two now and then.
And so the two sprinted onward. Perhaps because Zhang Fang had died, no further Black Fiend Cult ambushes appeared along the way. Jiuning Mountain, which would normally take at least seven or eight days to reach even at a full gallop day and night, was already within sight on the night of the fourth day.
Mid-sprint, Fang Shuwen's ears twitched slightly.
"There's something ahead."
It was already past the hour of the Ox, and they were in the middle of a desolate wilderness.
Zhou Qingmei scanned their surroundings but saw nothing. Still, she halted.
"What is it?"
Fang Shuwen wore a rather odd expression.
"Someone is calling for help."
His internal skill had attained great completion, granting him hearing far beyond ordinary people; what Zhou Qingmei couldn't detect, he heard with crystal clarity.
The voice belonged to a woman, though it sounded rather strange... as if she were merely going through the motions and leaving the rest to fate. Even her cries for help carried a sluggish laziness, utterly feeble and exhausted.
Although Zhou Qingmei was anxious to return to Zhujige Pavilion, hearing Fang Shuwen say this made her decide to investigate first.
The two followed the sound, but before they found the person calling for help, they came upon numerous corpses.
Recognizing their attire at a glance, Zhou Qingmei furrowed her brow tightly.
"These are people from the Yunfei Escort Agency."
Even without Zhou Qingmei pointing it out, Fang Shuwen had recognized their identities.
The Yunfei Escort Agency was based in Julu City.
Julu City had three escort agencies in total: Yunfei, Lu'an, and Yuanyang.
Fang Shuwen knew about them because Four Seas Martial Hall's Eldest Senior Brother, Mo Beidou, served as an escort leader at the Lu'an Escort Agency.
Many of Fang Shuwen's senior martial brothers and sisters from Four Seas Martial Hall had followed Eldest Senior Brother Mo Beidou to the Lu'an Escort Agency.
Yet the profession of an escort was far more perilous than that of an estate guard instructor.
At the end of the day, guard instructors mostly dealt with "shadow hangers"—meaning cat burglars.
That sort specifically targeted wealthy households to burgle and thieve.
Guard instructors, on the other hand, were referred to as "prop hangers." Both sides communicated through thieves' cant; if matters were made clear, the intruder might simply back off without blows ever being exchanged.
If the intruder showed respect, the "prop hanger" had to return the courtesy, treating them to tea or a meal the following day so they parted as friends.
From then on, that particular "shadow hanger" would never darken their doorstep again.
Escorts were different, however.
Though escorts also relied on reputation and face, where things went smoothly if the other side showed respect, if face was denied, blood had to be drawn.
Whether respect was granted depended largely on the value of the cargo being escorted.
There were far too many intricacies and unwritten rules, and the risks of venturing out on the road were simply too high.
At the time, Mo Beidou had considered that Fang Shuwen's foundation was damaged and his martial arts had plateaued; working at an escort agency would be far too dangerous. It was better to secure him a safe living where he wouldn't want for food or clothing.
That was why he had called in a favor with Wang Tao to recommend him as an estate guard instructor for the Zhou household.
As for the Black Fiend Cult subsequently slaughtering their way into the Zhou estate, that was something no one could have anticipated...
They were no mere shadow hangers; they sought lives, not coin, so no amount of talk would have done any good.
Then again, an ordinary household would never run into such circumstances.
It could only be described as a cruel trick of fate.
To return to the matter at hand, this Yunfei Escort Agency was the very agency Zhou Qingmei had commissioned to deliver her letter back then.
As things stood, the letter had likely been intercepted right here, and the agency's escorts and escort leaders had all perished on this ground.
There was no need to ask who had done this.
A mere inspection of the wounds told Zhou Qingmei that they had died by the Thousand-Character Swordplay, and she could also discern traces of the Black Fiend Demon Skill on the corpses.
Yet the voice crying for help did not come from here. Moving farther ahead through a thicket, they spotted a wide swath of withered branches and rotting leaves scattered across the ground, as though deliberately concealing something.
With a wave of Fang Shuwen's sleeve, his internal force swept the dead foliage aside, revealing a hole in the ground.
The voice was drifting up from inside this opening.
Drawing closer, Zhou Qingmei also heard the cries for help coming from within, weak and listless, calling out as if simply resigning herself to fate:
"Help... help... ptui, ptui, ptui! Where did all this dirt come from..."
Having clearly heard the voice, Zhou Qingmei's eyes went wide.
"That voice... Senior Martial Sister Lu?"
She hurried over to the opening and peered inside. Below lay pitch blackness, resembling a bottomless pit.
Unable to make out anything, she called out:
"Senior Martial Sister Lu? Is that you, Senior Martial Sister Lu?"
"Huh?"
The voice from below was suddenly filled with astonishment, its earlier laziness and listlessness vanishing completely.
"Qingmei?!"
"It's me!" Zhou Qingmei cried excitedly. "Senior Martial Sister Lu, it really is you! How did you fall down there? Wait a moment, I'll figure out a way to pull you up."
"Don't!" Senior Martial Sister Lu hurriedly said. "Now that it's you, that's wonderful. I was struck down here by Li Nanchen.
"That bastard is in league with the Black Fiend Cult that was wiped out thirty years ago! He killed the people from the Yunfei Escort Agency, and I suspect there are other Black Fiend fiends inside our sect.
"Hurry back to Zhujige Pavilion right now and report this to Master, then come back to find a way to save me!
"The opening you see may not be large, but it's actually just a tiny fissure leading into an underground karst cave. The surrounding ground isn't sturdy; one misstep and you might fall down too."
Zhou Qingmei immediately asked, "Senior Martial Sister, how bad are your injuries?"
"I took a blast of Black Fiend true qi... Barely clinging to life, but not doing too well either. Several bones are broken..." Senior Martial Sister Lu said rather helplessly. "Even if by some fluke I survive this, I'm afraid I'll be crippled."
Zhou Qingmei's heart ached with sorrow. Just then, she saw Fang Shuwen hand something over to her. Glancing down, she saw a bundle of vines.
"Tie this vine around your waist," he said. "I'll hold you while you go down to rescue her, and then I'll haul you both back up."
Chapter 32