The Cipher in the Records of Reverence for the Gods

He Lingchuan glanced out the door, pulled his head back inside once he saw nobody was around, and set up a warding barrier. Seeing him take such precautions, even Jiao Yu grew tense. He Lingchuan opened the copy of *Records of Reverence for the Gods* and flipped through it page by page. Back when he was preparing a gift for Sun Fuling, he had memorized the entire *Records of Reverence for the Gods*, word for word. However, that copy had been found for him by Second Master Shi; while the text was identical, the layout and typeface were vastly different from this one. He Lingchuan skimmed through it quickly, confirming there was nothing tricky about the physical book itself, and then pulled out Mr. Mai's booklet. Yes, the very booklet filled with cipher. "What!" Jiao Yu's tiger eyes went wide. "This cipher goes with *Records of Reverence for the Gods*?" He Lingchuan smiled, exuding calm confidence. "Why not give it a try?" In truth, Zhongsun Mou had received the book first. He Lingchuan had seen it and pondered the matter for quite a while; once the lame beggar came to deliver a copy of *Records of Reverence for the Gods* to him as well, he would have been a fool not to realize it! If the book were useless, why would that tall fellow bother delivering it to both sides? His interest piqued, Jiao Yu leaned his massive tiger head close, blocking out every bit of light. "How do we decipher it?" He Lingchuan had no choice but to shove the great head aside. "Don't block the light!" He had to admit, the fur felt first-rate, and he took the chance to stroke it twice more. General Ling ambled over as well. He Lingchuan simply took out a stalk of fluorescent grass. "The hard part of breaking a cipher like this is finding the book. Once you have the right book, you're more than halfway there." He Lingchuan pointed at the first row of cipher. "Each group has three numbers, which should correspond to page, column, and row. So this one is page thirty-five, sixth column, ninth row. Let me see..." "This character is 'five.'" Using this method, he decoded all the cipher on the first page: "Seventh day of the first month at noon, the south tea house in Xingwang Manor, Baishaqu?" The name "Baishaqu" was particularly striking right now. Jiao Yu carefully turned to the second page with the tip of a claw so as not to tear it. "Next one." "Twenty-third day of the fourth month in the morning, Hundred Lions Courtyard in Lingqu." Jiao Yu supplied context for He Lingchuan: "Lingqu is in northern Chiyan, a small town." "Is it in Qizhou?" "Yes." "How far from Baishaqu?" "Hmm, about fifty li?" Jiao Yu asked him. "Do you think these are meeting times and locations?" "Of course," He Lingchuan said with a smile. "But the handwriting in this booklet isn't Mr. Mai's. In other words, these meeting times and locations were assigned to Mr. Mai by someone else." Jiao Yu understood. "A superior?" "Very likely." He Lingchuan pondered aloud, "When Mr. Mai collected pulp beads from Wan Song and the others, he wasn't nearly this cautious, nor did he change the meeting place every time. Clearly, this superior holds a higher or more sensitive status, is averse to risk, and needs to take greater precautions." He decoded another page of cipher. "Twenty-ninth day of the seventh month, second quarter of the Wei hour, fourth floor of Chaohu Pagoda in Baishaqu!" At this, Jiao Yu's eyes lit up. "Today is the nineteenth of the seventh month. They haven't met yet!" "How long would it take to reach Qizhou from here?" "Traveling at normal speed, about five or six days," Jiao Yu calculated. "If we push through day and night, with our speed it would take at most two and a half days!" "Which means, according to Mr. Mai's normal routine, if he stayed his full ten days in Shuanglu Town before heading to Qizhou, the timing would be just right." He Lingchuan smiled. "He's going there to hand over the pulp beads." If Mr. Mai had a superior, he would have to turn in the full count of pulp beads he collected from Wan Song on a regular schedule. General Ling stood up, shook his fleece, and looked utterly impatient. "Let's hit the road right away and make sure we get there before Mr. Mai!" Travel by night? Seeing He Lingchuan frown, General Ling offered an ingratiating grin. "My deadline to head east is fast approaching, and being late brings punishment. I want to settle this matter as quickly as possible. That little Zhongsun bastard is keeping his eyes on me." He had to reach the battlefield within ten days, and now he had to make a trip to Baishaqu first. His schedule was far too tight to waste any time. "Baishaqu?" He Lingchuan smiled faintly. "We're not going!" General Ling stared. "What?" Jiao Yu also chimed in, "The twenty-ninth is the transaction day. What's the point of arriving early?" "I have an old friend in Baishaqu who might be able to help us look into things," General Ling urged earnestly. "If we prepare ahead of time, wouldn't it be splendid to catch them red-handed with the loot?" "You're forgetting Mr. Mai is on the run," Jiao Yu pointed out bluntly. "With his nest raided, Mr. Mai might well warn his superior, in which case this transaction will probably be called off." "Uh..." General Ling was struck dumb, then grew irritable. "Then what do you propose we do?" The two monsters stared at each other, then turned in unison toward He Lingchuan. They saw him resting a hand on *Records of Reverence for the Gods*, lost in thought. "Who do you think sent this book?" The two monsters shook their heads cleanly. "No idea." Jiao Yu added, "Is someone else watching Mr. Mai besides us and Zhongsun Mou?" "Hard to say, but that person certainly wants us to reach Qizhou in time." He Lingchuan thought to himself that whoever was pulling the strings wasn't sure whose hands these pages of cipher had fallen into, so they sent the book to both him and Zhongsun Mou to hedge their bets. This was likely because when he took the scrolls from Mr. Mai's study, the old gatekeeper who had been planted with the eye mite had not yet returned. In other words, the one who planted the mite in the old gatekeeper and the one who delivered the books to both groups was the same person. Who could this person be? He couldn't simply conclude that this person harbored no malice toward them. "They know exactly what Mr. Mai is doing, and they know exactly how Mr. Mai contacts his superior," He Lingchuan said gravely. "They're even in quite a rush to push the clues right into our hands." Jiao Yu mulled it over. "Could this person have a deep vendetta against the culprit behind the scenes?" He Lingchuan replied, "Or perhaps this is another trap." "A trap?" "Did you forget?" He Lingchuan certainly had not. "When we went to Mount Yulun to inspect the porcupine den, Mr. Mai took the opportunity to send Wan Song to intercept us, all because he knew our movements. What if he follows the same pattern this time... How many routes are there from Shuanglu Town to Baishaqu?" Jiao Yu thought for a moment. "Two? Three?" "Two! There are two!" General Ling stamped his hooves impatiently on the floor, caring nothing for whether the guests downstairs were sleeping. "Just tell us, what should we do now!" "I already said, we're not going to Baishaqu." "Then what are we going to do?" "We'll leave Baishaqu to Zhongsun Mou. If he cracks the case, we'll gladly enjoy the fruits of his labor." Fu Shanyue's demand was simply to find the truth; the process didn't matter, and who solved the riddle didn't matter, so long as he got a definitive answer. "We'll stay behind to track down Wan Song's whereabouts. That neatly reverses our previous division of labor." Before, Zhongsun Mou had chased the killer while he investigated Mr. Mai. Now, it seemed the tables were turned. General Ling let out a realization. "That's right! We should hunt down Wan Song!" The direct killer of his wind-boring beast clansmen was Wan Song. Naturally, he should pursue Wan Song first to make him pay in blood! It was all because the current situation was so murky that he had nearly been led astray. "So where do we begin?" "I want to return to Youtian Town," He Lingchuan said. "We left too hurriedly during the day, and there were things I didn't get clear answers to." Yesterday, after wresting Mr. Mai's address from Squire Wan, they had rushed straight here. "By the way, did you find any clues on that ivory sphere?" General Ling suddenly remembered the object. "I saw you fiddling with it for quite a while." "It's just an ivory sphere. What clues could it have?" He Lingchuan gave a slight smile. "I happen to like ivory. What's wrong with rolling it in my hands a few times?" "Uh..." General Ling started walking toward the door. He Lingchuan summoned the goshawk down from the tree and instructed, "Keep your eyes on Zhongsun Mou. Don't let his group out of your sight." The goshawk nodded. Before spreading its wings to take flight, it gave him a tail feather so he could track its direction later. Birds really are the best at surveillance and tracking, He Lingchuan remarked inwardly. Then, together with the monsters, he set off on the road back to Youtian Town. "This time, we'll let the Inspector from Lingxu City scout the path for us," He Lingchuan said with a chuckle. "After receiving *Records of Reverence for the Gods*, instead of going to Baishaqu, we're leaving Shuanglu Town for Youtian Town. The mastermind will likely assume the scrolls were taken by Zhongsun Mou, and all subsequent attention will focus on him." Jiao Yu nodded. "No matter what, we can't let whoever is behind this lead us by the nose!" "They went to such great lengths to guide us toward Baishaqu, which probably means a trap is set. If we go, we walk into it; if we don't, it's a wasted lead." He Lingchuan said leisurely, "So let's have the Lord Inspector scout the way for us. If all is peaceful, that's fine; but if he runs into a trap..." Jiao Yu chuckled slyly. "The Inspector is bold and skilled. He doesn't need us worrying about him." "Precisely." The road between the two towns was relatively flat, so traveling by night took little effort. He Lingchuan rode on the back of his rock sheep, flanked by a wind-boring beast on the left and a fierce tiger on the right. Pedestrians along the road turned back to stare, wondering what this human's background could possibly be to carry himself with such imposing majesty. He Lingchuan had long ceased paying attention to the stares of others. He said to the monsters, "As for Zhongsun Mou, I suspect he knows far more than he lets on." Both monsters felt a jolt. "How so?" "Remember when we were in Mr. Mai's courtyard, and I mentioned we discovered the killer behind the scenes was murdering monsters to extract beads?" "I remember." "Back then, Zhongsun Mou casually remarked, 'Extract beads? What kind of beads?'" He Lingchuan repeated. "After that, he never pressed the issue." General Ling tilted his head, failing to catch anything amiss. "He came here to investigate a case. He shouldn't let a single trace slip by. When we revealed such an important motive for murder, why didn't he ask further or bring it up again?" He didn't bring it up because...? Jiao Yu blinked. "Could it be he already knows what that thing is?" "I was deliberately vague and didn't specify what kind of beads they were. Besides, not just any monster can condense a monster bead, yet Zhongsun Mou didn't even ask," He Lingchuan said slowly. "That was an instinctive reaction. There was no need to ask, because deep down he already knew what it was." "Of course, we can't rule out the possibility that the fellow was merely careless, but I think the odds of that are slim. Anyone appointed as an Inspector by Lingxu City ought to possess at least some degree of attentiveness, wouldn't you say?"