The mercenary Hu Bin, who had ambushed him in the Fu Realm, was indeed Hong Chenglüe!
No wonder his movement techniques, his saber style, and that look in his eyes—brimming with venomous hatred—had all felt so familiar.
"He didn't make a move over the past two months because he had misgivings."
Back at Dun Garden, Hong Chenglüe had recognized him as He Lingchuan, yet hadn't struck down his enemy on the spot because he was waiting for an opportunity to return to the battlefield and earn military merit.
With greater matters at stake, personal vendettas had to be set aside for the moment.
Conversely, now that Hong Chenglüe had finally secured that opportunity, how could he keep such deep-seated hatred suppressed any longer?
"My guess is he wanted to settle old scores before departing for the east. Making a move in Lingxu City carried too much risk, so the Fu Realm was the ideal place."
The mirror sighed. "I thought you had already convinced him at Dun Garden to give up his revenge."
He Lingchuan gave a rueful chuckle. "A man of such resolute will—how could a few words from an enemy make him change his mind?"
"Yet he still came after you..."
"He came after me because he thought I'd be easy to kill." He Lingchuan finished washing his face and flopped onto the bed. "He came after me thinking he was giving A-Jin justice, but in truth, he was only seeking peace of mind for himself."
For A-Jin's death, many parties shared the blame.
Beijia bore responsibility.
National Preceptor Shuangye bore responsibility.
Wu Qing, who had given A-Jin the Hanjiu Powder, bore responsibility.
The He family father and son bore responsibility.
A-Jin herself bore responsibility.
And, of course, so did Hong Chenglüe.
Unless he avenged his beloved wife, the guilt, fury, and torment in his heart would never subside, gnawing at him day and night.
Yet he could neither take vengeance against Beijia or National Preceptor Shuangye, nor could he turn his blade upon his own throat. All he could do was vent his wrath on the remaining targets.
During their meeting at Dun Garden, He Lingchuan had heard that Wu Qing was already dead—because he was easy to kill.
In Hong Chenglüe's original impression, He Lingchuan should have been easy to kill as well; a few slashes would finish the job and avenge A-Jin.
Only then could his conscience finally rest.
So even if Hong Chenglüe understood all the reasoning He Lingchuan laid out, he still wouldn't let him off.
Having heard all this, the mirror immediately switched tracks and asked, "He has already left Lingxu to rush to the front line. Is that good or bad for us?"
"Good, of course," He Lingchuan answered without hesitation. "Someone who knows my background and has been watching me is gone. That removes one more obstacle from our plan."
Greater matters came first. The tangled web of hatred between him and Hong Chenglüe could be set aside for now.
...
The next day, rumors flew thick and fast across Lingxu City.
Some claimed National Preceptor Qingyang had fallen or been executed, while others claimed the Demon Emperor was abolishing the Azure Palace and that all its disciples had been rounded up and imprisoned... With every telling, the tales sounded more vivid and plausible.
In reality, even Fu Shanyue, the primary victim of the elixir of immortality case, hadn't been able to extract a single shred of news from Lingxiao Palace.
A flight ban hung over the royal palace, with violators executed on sight. The goshawk was forced to return empty-handed.
And at the very heart of the storm, both Lingxiao Palace and the Heavenly Palace remained eerily silent, not letting slip the slightest whisper.
Everyone deduced that the two sides were either in mediation or had already struck a deal.
Then, toward dusk, a squirrel leapt down from a large tree and nearly landed smack on He Lingchuan's face.
It delivered an utterly astonishing message:
*I must leave Lingxu City. Immediately!*
*—Tong Wei.*
He Lingchuan was dumbfounded, for "Tong Wei" was Dong Rui's alias.
Why did this fellow suddenly need to leave out of the blue, and in such a burning rush?
In He Lingchuan's plan, Dong Rui held crucial roles at both the beginning and the end. If he left, He Lingchuan's Mount Xu Plan would be aborted before it even began.
How could he let that happen?
"Where is he?"
The squirrel conveyed that when it visited the hidden location just now, it caught Dong Rui packing his bags, and the guards outside had been replaced with a fresh batch.
"Let's go." Without another word, He Lingchuan slipped past the Tongxin Guards in the dim twilight and hurried down the mountain.
This brings us to the matter of Dong Rui's residence.
He had originally stayed in Diliu Alley in the Xidui District, which was far too distant from Pianxiang Villa. Even riding a rock sheep at full gallop took two shichen. He Lingchuan frequently needed to confer with him on their plans, and burning four shichen on a round trip was far too inconvenient. Besides, the residents of Diliu Alley looked at everyone as if they were thieves, so He Lingchuan had urged him to move.
Dong Rui had been unwilling at first, but young master He had his ways. Worn down by his nagging, Dong Rui had half-heartedly agreed. The new residence he bought was barely two li from Pianxiang Villa, a short trot for a rock sheep.
Xi Yunhe had questioned Dong Rui's relocation as well, but Dong Rui had brazenly argued that the new house was bigger and better; he had come to Lingxu City to work for National Preceptor Shuangye, so why should he curl up every day in a dingy, sunless hovel?
Naturally, he had relocated the snail-toad to another spot in the near suburbs beforehand, claiming that wild prunella spikes grew thicker there and the dew was more nourishing, so Xi Yunhe couldn't be bothered to interfere.
To him, Dong Rui was merely a healer tending to the snail-toad's injuries, not someone who warranted close attention. The elixir of immortality case had reached a critical juncture, naturally consuming all the energy of National Preceptor Shuangye and Xi Yunhe.
Yet now, the situation had taken another twist.
He Lingchuan could hardly help connecting Dong Rui's sudden departure to the massive event that had rocked the city yesterday. There was almost certainly a link between the two.
*Damn it all, I was just watching the show, and now the drama's landed on my own head!*
Right next to the residence Dong Rui bought was an inn for coaches and horses. It had gone out of business due to poor management and sat vacant since no buyer ever took it over. Its back courtyard was large, with high walls, muddy ground, and weeds growing past the knee along the base of the walls.
Some blades of grass had clearly been trampled flat, and He Lingchuan also found traces of slime on the ground—dried, reflective, and looking rather familiar.
It wasn't hard to guess what this abandoned yard had been used for.
Peering over the wall of the carriage inn, He Lingchuan saw three guards in Dong Rui's compound. They were indeed unfamiliar faces, standing around Dong Rui's quarters in a deliberate triangular formation, hemming the building in.
Shifting his angle, he caught sight of Dong Rui through a window, pacing anxiously back and forth across the room.
To sneak inside, he would have to take down at least one guard.
Now was certainly not the time for violence.
After a moment's thought, He Lingchuan summoned an eyeball spider and whispered to it, "Go find Dong Rui." Once a patrolling guard walked past, he tossed the spider toward the window.
The little thing was so light that he had to impart a sliver of true power.
The creature landed on the exterior wall, scuttled swiftly on all eight legs, and slipped through the window in a flash.
Dong Rui had just paused to pour some water. He had barely picked up the cup when a voice suddenly spoke beside his ear:
"Dong Rui."
His hand jerked in fright, spilling water over the rim. But when he looked left and right, who was in the room?
"Over here." The eyeball spider leapt onto the rim of his cup, waving a foreleg at him.
Only then did Dong Rui realize this wasn't the one Zhu Erniang had given him.
"Throw your eyeball spider out to me! Once we swap, we can talk."
*Wait, you can use them like this?* Startled, Dong Rui fished out his own eyeball spider, whispered two words to it, walked to the window, and tossed it toward the opposite wall.
Before long, the little thing scaled the wall and found He Lingchuan.
He held the spider to his ear; inside the room, Dong Rui did almost the exact same thing.
With each holding the other's eyeball spider, words spoken by one could be heard by the other, allowing them to carry on a real-time conversation without alerting the guards.
"Can you hear me?" He Lingchuan tucked himself away in a corner.
"Cut the nonsense!" A perfectly fine pair of eyeball spiders, and this bastard had somehow found a new trick for them—though Dong Rui was in no mood to praise him. "We're in deep trouble! Xi Yunhe just came to see me. He said National Preceptor Qingyang testified to the celestial gods that I was the source from whom she obtained divine blood! I can't stay in Lingxu City anymore. He told me to pull out immediately!"
National Preceptor Qingyang... had actually framed Dong Rui? The revelation was so explosive that He Lingchuan's head buzzed, leaving him momentarily speechless.
It seemed that after escaping the Azure Palace yesterday and slipping into Tianxin Island, National Preceptor Qingyang had indeed met with the Demon Emperor.
She had only one shot at persuading the Demon Emperor, and she had dragged this fellow Dong Rui into it?
These two had nothing to do with each other; National Preceptor Qingyang shouldn't have even known Dong Rui existed!
Wait. Hold on!
In his view, the celestial gods cared about the elixir of immortality case mainly for two reasons: first, to uphold their divine majesty; second, to uncover the source of National Preceptor Qingyang's divine blood. Even in Lingxu City's black market, which boasted of having everything under the sun, that substance was unobtainable. If National Preceptor Qingyang wanted to refine and sell the elixir of immortality, she couldn't bypass it.
Simply put, the orthodox deities, including Holy Venerable Lingxu, wanted to know if National Preceptor Qingyang had colluded with a god in secret!
If she had truly done so, she could never confess; keeping silent gave the god behind her a chance to bail her out.
If she exposed them, that deity wouldn't let the matter rest either. She would find herself attacked from front and rear, and who knew how wretched her end would be?
Therefore, she had to find a way to muddle through.
The best way was to find an unlucky scapegoat who already possessed divine blood and pin the blame on him.
He Lingchuan couldn't help scratching his head.
How did National Preceptor Qingyang know Dong Rui had divine blood?
A deep-rooted tree ran far; that woman truly had backup plans ready. She wouldn't be easy to bring down.
"Hey, did you hear me?" Not getting a response, Dong Rui growled in a low voice. His life was on the line; with his old temperament, he would have bolted without a second word. Leaving He Lingchuan a heads-up before fleeing was already immensely honorable!
"I hear you." He Lingchuan pressed his temples, feeling a throbbing headache. "How do you plan to leave? Using the snail-toad?"
"Of course." Dong Rui took it for granted. "With the snail-toad in hand, I can go anywhere." Lingxu City was enormous; the authorities couldn't possibly cover the entire city with anti-escape arrays and keep them running around the clock.
"Xi Yunhe went to the outskirts to fetch the snail-toad for me. The moment it arrives, I'm out." Dong Rui paused, feeling a twinge of guilt. "Apologize to Zhu Erniang for me. I can't finish her assignment." His own neck was what mattered most.
More than just Zhu Erniang's assignment—if he ran, He Lingchuan's own schemes would go down the drain as well.
Of course, He Lingchuan hadn't told Dong Rui about his goal of stealing the divine artifact from Zhaixing Tower—the Dafang Pot lid.
What should he do now? If Dong Rui left, he would vanish to the ends of the earth, impossible to trace.
He Lingchuan's eyes flickered, and he said urgently, "You can't leave!"
"What?" Dong Rui grew wary. "Why can't I leave? I can't help you anymore!"
Chapter 665