The fire had grown fierce. A loud explosion sounded from above Tongfu Inn, sending the crowd recoiling in unison.
The purple flames were dreadfully formidable. Water could not extinguish them, and in just this brief span of time, half the inn had burned away. Fortunately, the inn stood detached on its own plot, so the fire did not spread to neighboring buildings.
Yet thick black ash drifted through the air, choking the spectators into fits of coughing.
"Who set this fire?"
He Lingchuan and Fan Sheng pointed at each other simultaneously. "Him!"
Magistrate Tian's head throbbed instantly.
Seeing that the magistrate's face looked bitter enough to wring water from, He Lingchuan walked over, patted his shoulder, and whispered in his ear, "Forget it, I'll do you a favor. Put it all on the Crown Prince's tab."
It was not out of softheartedness; Magistrate Tian's arrival had simply been exceptionally opportune and well-timed, effectively stopping the other party from pressing their attack.
These two brothers from the Tongxin Guard were not only immensely powerful in their own right, but also seemed to possess extraordinary backing. With only the tiger demon Jiao Yu at his side, fighting them placed He Lingchuan at too great a disadvantage.
He knew full well what calculations his opponents were making. The moment Magistrate Tian shouted out that He Lingchuan was the special envoy of the Crown Prince, Fan Sheng could no longer feign ignorance of his opponent's identity. The battle had to come to an end.
Magistrate Tian quickly said, "Thank you, Lord Envoy."
As He Lingchuan took a step, Fan Sheng strode over and said coldly, "Thinking of leaving?"
"What else?"
Fan Sheng pointed at the giant bear. "You injure my brother and think you can just walk away? Where in the world is there such a sweet deal?"
The giant bear dared not let its forepaw touch the ground, standing on only three legs.
He Lingchuan called Jiao Yu to his side as well, pointing at the tiger's chest and forepaws. "My brother was injured by you as well. How are you going to compensate him?"
He was not lying. Several lacerations scored the tiger's pelt; though spared direct hits from the axes, it had taken several blows from the wind of their swings, and its forepaws had been scorched by the purple flames.
Magistrate Tian said weakly, "Gentlemen..." At it again?
Just then, several more people stepped out from the onlookers, and their leader turned out to be Zhongsun Mou.
Surveying the scene, he smoothed things over: "How about both of you give me some face, head to a clinic to assess the injuries, and then settle the compensation?"
"Why bother with all that trouble?" He Lingchuan boasted shamelessly. "I am well-versed in the medical arts. Just have this giant bear come over every day, and I'll treat its wounds. I guarantee it'll show improvement within a month."
Bear demons tended to be rather simple-minded. If the soul-snatching mirror shone on this fellow for thirty straight days, there was no telling what changes might come over it.
The thought filled He Lingchuan with a touch of anticipation.
Fan Sheng's chest heaved twice, his face dark with fury as he refused. "No need."
The violent bear possessed tremendous vitality and an extraordinary constitution; even without any medicine, an injury like this would heal on its own within a month.
"Then there's no issue, is there?" He Lingchuan shrugged. "Goodbye."
With that, he turned and walked away with the tiger.
Fan Sheng clenched his fists, knuckles popping.
Yet he remained where he stood, merely asking Zhongsun Mou, "What are you doing playing the peacemaker?"
"Since we can't do anything to him for now, it's better to let Third Brother Fan rest and tend to his wounds as soon as possible." It also saves some face. Zhongsun Mou mused silently, I warned you long ago not to underestimate him. Who's to blame if you wouldn't listen?
Still, his words sounded courteous enough on the surface, so Fan Sheng merely grunted and refrained from berating him on the spot.
He had assumed this He Xiao was just a teenager and a visitor from some minor kingdom—how formidable could he possibly be? Two or three strikes would have finished him off.
Who would have thought the boy was so slippery?
Yes, slippery.
His cultivation might not be overwhelmingly powerful, yet he moved like a loach, continually slipping away whenever Fan Sheng tried to land a critical blow.
Across the street stood a post relay station. Fan Sheng went over to requisition a carriage to transport the violent bear away.
Magistrate Tian was all smiles. Zhongsun Mou glanced at him. "Did you help He Xiao hide Fu Songhua?"
Magistrate Tian started, waving his hands frantically. "No, no! How could that be!"
"Without the help of a local boss like you, where could he possibly hide anyone?"
Magistrate Tian thought to himself, Baishaqu is vast; where couldn't he hide a man? Outwardly, however, he remained deferential. "Why would the special envoy need to consult me on his actions?"
Zhongsun Mou snorted, paid him no further heed, and climbed into Fan Sheng's carriage.
Watching the carriage rumble away, Magistrate Tian let the smile drop from his face at once.
These high officials from Lingxu City always looked down their noses at people. Yet Zhongsun Mou had a point: where had the special envoy hidden the fugitive?
An inn in town, or a cave in the wilderness?
Baishaqu was famous for its scenery, but at the end of the day, it was still a small place.
The young envoy acted boldly, but Magistrate Tian did not believe he would dare send away an imperial fugitive wanted by Lingxu City.
Taking Fu Songhua by force could barely be framed as the envoy requiring his assistance in an investigation. Such a clash was merely friction between two bureaucratic systems; as long as the Ruler of Chiyan stepped in, it would be easy to reduce the matter to nothing.
But if Fu Songhua were to leave Baishaqu, the nature of the act would be entirely different. Lingxu City could turn around and slap He Xiao with the charge of aiding a fugitive's escape.
So the special envoy had better not do something so reckless.
The giant bear was simply too massive. Even though Fan Sheng had requisitioned the largest carriage available, its bulk practically filled the entire interior, leaving the two men to squeeze into whatever gaps remained.
"I still have some fine medicine back at my place that Third Brother Fan could use." Zhongsun Mou's manner toward the Fan brothers resembled Magistrate Tian's manner toward him.
Fan Sheng responded coldly, "No need." He did not think much of Zhongsun Mou's medicines.
Even as they spoke, his hands did not pause, swiftly applying medicine to the giant bear, who whimpered in pain.
In that brief time, the bear's blood had soaked the floorboards beneath it. Its sleek, lustrous coat had been scorched bald and charred by the purple flames, leaving a wretched patchwork of ragged scars.
"Your origin power protected you, so the insidious force on that brat's saber couldn't penetrate." Fan Sheng lightly patted its head. "Bear with it. Your bone was cleaved as well, so it'll take an extra six or seven days to heal."
The giant bear's vitality and recuperative powers were astonishing; miserable though it looked right now, this was essentially a superficial wound for a beast like him.
"That curse master claimed he was casting a spell to locate Fu Songhua. Why did that He fellow come over claiming he'd been placed under a death curse?" Fan Sheng glanced up at Zhongsun Mou. "You sent a flying message to Qingding City asking me to come assist with the case—why didn't you mention how formidable his martial prowess was?" Had they known their enemy, today wouldn't have turned into such a mess.
"He's obstructing our investigation, so whatever he claims isn't surprising." Zhongsun Mou sighed. How did I not mention it? I warned you brothers several times! What could I do if you wouldn't listen? "This fellow is cunning and skilled with his hands; he is no pushover."
"He doesn't look old, yet his cultivation is remarkable. Given time..." Fan Sheng frowned. "Have you still not uncovered his background?"
"He seems to come from the Fu Kingdom. For reasons unknown, Fu Shanyue places immense trust in him." Zhongsun Mou shook his head. "Too little time, too little intelligence."
"Appointing a foreigner as special envoy is nothing unusual in Beijia; it happens all the time." The history of Beijia Kingdom was so long that there was truly nothing new under the sun. "You spend your days snooping around everywhere—I thought you had the skill to dig up his background."
"A man's abilities have their limits; otherwise, why would I have sought help from Second Brother Fan?" Zhongsun Mou pretended not to notice the barb in Fan Sheng's words. "Get rid of this He fellow and reclaim Fu Songhua, and then I can return to Lingxu City to report my mission accomplished."
"This task had nothing to do with you in the first place. Why did you meddle?" Fan Sheng finished applying the salve to the giant bear and began bandaging it.
"..." Zhongsun Mou said in a low voice, "I only wished to share the Demon Emperor's burdens."
Fan Sheng scoffed. Saying one thing and doing another—this fellow was merely hungry for merit, wasn't he? Only to end up kicking an iron plate.
The violent bear whimpered in pain. Fan Sheng stroked its forehead and said, "Heal up quickly, and then you and I will go slaughter that brat."
He asked Zhongsun Mou again, "Once we kill He Xiao, the favor my elder brother owes your family is settled, right?"
Zhongsun Mou said earnestly, "Once this is accomplished, I would never dare trouble the Fan brothers again."
"Then where has Fu Songhua been hidden? Surely you can find that out?"
"Not yet." Seeing Fan Sheng glare, Zhongsun Mou added quickly, "But soon. He Xiao isn't a local resident. The people he knows here are limited, making him easy to track."
...
Having sprinted dozens of paces away from the crowd, He Lingchuan still felt an agonizing ache in his abdomen where Fan Sheng had kicked him, especially whenever he drew breath.
He had no choice but to adjust his breathing to dull the pain, popping an elixir into his mouth at the same time.
Jiao Yu asked with some concern, "You took a blow to the abdomen. Are you all right?"
"Not quite," He Lingchuan chuckled wryly. "Fan Sheng's strike packed immense power."
When Fan Sheng kicked him, the soul-snatching mirror's protective function had triggered immediately, mitigating much of the damage. Otherwise, a strike potent enough to shatter boulders would have killed the He Lingchuan of before his epiphany at Three Hearts Plain on the spot.
Now, however, even as he ran, true power flowed unceasingly from his dantian to soothe the injury.
It was only in the wake of such brutal clashes that his substantial progress in cultivation became so vividly apparent.
Now was not the time to sit and recuperate. He said to Jiao Yu, "Zhongsun Mou laid a nested trap here: first engaging a curse master against me, and if that failed, having the Fan brothers waiting in ambush."
"Those two brothers are formidable indeed, especially Fan Sheng," Jiao Yu said with lingering dread. "If I fought him alone, I doubt I would last ten rounds."
Even two against one, they had been no match for Fan Sheng. Jiao Yu knew full well that if He Lingchuan hadn't pulled off an unexpected maneuver earlier, their side would have lost without question.
"If Zhongsun Mou had had someone like that at his side from the start, he wouldn't have let me seize Fu Songhua so easily," He Lingchuan said with certainty. "They must be external help he called in on short notice. Still, they underestimated us, assuming killing us would be effortless. Otherwise, if they'd had the curse master cast his spells out in the countryside, there certainly wouldn't have been so many onlookers around, and Magistrate Tian wouldn't have appeared."
At that thought, something struck him.
Could it be because Zhongsun Mou and the others had supreme confidence in the nightmare summoned by the curse master?
A monstrosity like the Hundred Faces Nightmare was indeed not something an opponent of He Lingchuan's caliber could contend with. The better Zhongsun Mou understood the creature, the more certain he would be that it could easily dispose of He Lingchuan.
In that case, there was no need for the curse master to leave the city to cast his spell, and the Fan brothers' ambush was merely a backup measure.
In Zhongsun Mou's mind, presumably, even if He Lingchuan managed to escape the Hundred Faces Nightmare's trap, his soul would be gravely wounded, leaving him powerless to pursue the curse master.
And even if He Lingchuan did pursue them for vengeance, his weakened state would leave him utterly outmatched against the Fan brothers.
No matter how one calculated it, He Lingchuan had not stood a chance of winning.
Chapter 494