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墨書 Inktalez
"How can one be so careless?"
"Who could have imagined? Just a mere Thief, and yet he has such powerful drugs!"
"Exactly, don't underestimate anyone. In the Tang Dynasty, even a few lives wouldn't be enough to keep you safe!"
"Hmph, valuing life? What does that even mean?"
I seemed to have fallen asleep, and it was a deep, sweet slumber. I felt completely at ease, as if I were soaking in a medicinal bath, gradually relaxing as all discomfort faded away and my energy slowly returned.
It seemed I also had a dream. In the dream, two versions of myself were fighting, hurling accusations at each other, while Zhang Yang sat to the side, grinning at me. Wait? Why is Teacher Zhang appearing in my dream again? It's quite embarrassing.
Ever since Qiu went missing, I often found myself dreaming about Zhang Yang. Sometimes it was about the mundane things we did together, ordinary daily life; other times, he would simply gaze at me with a smile. Strangely enough, whenever I dreamed of Teacher Zhang, my sleep would be slightly better than usual, as if I felt some encouragement and strength.
So I thought, perhaps Teacher Zhang's spirit sensed my current suffering and unconsciously crossed time and space to comfort me?
Thinking this way made me feel even more indebted to him.
I slowly opened my eyes and was surprised to find myself surrounded by darkness. Suddenly recalling what had happened before I fainted, I sat up with a start.
Hmm, it seemed I was lying on a bed. Wait, no, this felt like an Earthen Bed! But where was this place?
Moreover, I keenly sensed that I wasn't alone in this room; there was someone else in the darkness!
I quickly reached for my waist. Hmm, my clothes were still intact, but my weapons—my short sword and dagger—were nowhere to be found.
A soft "crack" startled me, and in that instant, the room was illuminated. Someone had lit a candle.
The warm orange light flickered and quickly filled the entire room. I crouched on the bed in a ready position and swiftly turned to the source of the light, only to meet a pair of surprised eyes.
In the room stood a young man. He was tall and had an ordinary appearance, resembling a typical villager.
"You’re awake!" He paused for a moment before breaking into a simple smile.
"Who are you? Where is this place?" I sat up in shock, realizing that my body felt completely normal, as if I had just enjoyed a rare deep sleep. I felt revitalized and full of energy.
I clearly recalled what had happened before I fainted, and my alertness surged. It made no sense for me to be here.
"I-I-I..." The young man stammered, and after a while, his face suddenly flushed red.
"Miss, I'm sorry, I... I..."
"Cut the nonsense! Just tell me what’s going on!"
"Miss, today, I... I passed by Master Zhu's courtyard and saw that the door was open. Today, it was rumored that Master Zhu was killed, so when I saw the door ajar, I was surprised and boldly went in to take a look. Then I found you lying on the ground, unconscious..."
"Stop talking nonsense!" I interrupted him angrily. "That’s impossible."
If he had used some kind of sleeping gas to subdue me, he would have definitely tied me up because he must have thought I was related to Master Zhu. Was he really just trying to escape after using such a method? Were we playing house?
There is another possibility: after the other party released the sedative, our Constable from Yongzhou Prefecture arrived, forcing him to flee. But come on, did those little bastards really have the guts to leave me behind all alone?
Then again, what if the person who released the sedative was a third party? Their goal could have been the man in black, not me. They got rid of him and left me there. But that probability seems a bit too low; with that man's skills, he wouldn't be worth the attention of a third party. Are we writing a story here?
"I-I-I... everything I said is true!" The man anxiously defended himself.
Well, the most reasonable explanation, and the most suspicious one, should be this person in front of me.
"You entered the house of a murdered person and brought an unknown woman back to your home. Is that how you conduct business? Aren't you afraid of the Vengeful Spirit seeking revenge? Aren't you afraid of the Constable arresting you? Aren't you afraid of bringing trouble upon yourself?"
The man stammered, "Miss, you... you look so beautiful, like a fairy. You can't be a bad person, right..."
I was momentarily speechless. What kind of reasoning is that?
"Where do you live? Is there anyone else at home?"
"Why do you want to know?"
He looked a bit aggrieved.
"After all, I saved you today and stayed by your side until now. Why are you being so fierce..."
Hearing this made my heart soften a little. After all, no matter what his intentions were, during my unconsciousness, he neither touched me nor harmed me. If he had harbored ill intentions before, I probably wouldn't have been able to resist.
Thinking about it this way, I felt a bit of fear creeping in, so my attitude softened.
The fellow was quite perceptive; he immediately noticed the change in my demeanor and broke into a smile, revealing a row of white teeth that made him look very cheerful.
"If you have nowhere to go, you might as well stay with me for a few days. I'm also from out of town. I came here months ago to stay with my mother-in-law in the Village, but unexpectedly, she passed away shortly after I arrived. Now I'm left all alone. I'm twenty-six this year, yet I haven't found a wife. My name is..."
I quickly waved my hand to stop his rambling. Who cares about all that? Did he think bringing me back meant he had found himself a free wife?
At that moment, I felt both amused and irritated, so I spat out, "I'm not staying with you; I have somewhere to go. Your place looks so poor; I know how to repay kindness. I'll come back and bring you some silver."
The smile on his face faded, and he seemed quite disappointed.
My softened attitude didn’t mean I had dismissed my suspicions about him; on the contrary, my doubts grew stronger.
This guy was a Mountain Village Farmer, yet he seemed quite sharp, and his choice of words was somewhat refined. My job involved investigating cases, which often required me to interact with various people and gather testimonies. Among those I encountered were many genuine peasants. This conversation made me feel that he was slightly different from a true villager.
He resembled one, but it wasn't perfect.
As I spoke with him, I focused intently on sensing the flow of energy around him. With the deepening of my skills, I gradually gained the ability to discern whether someone possessed martial arts abilities. However, after carefully examining him for over ten minutes, I found no signs of internal energy; instead, his aura felt slightly weaker than that of an average person.
Could he be genuine? Was the culprit truly an oddball?
Moreover, it was late at night now. The bunch of rascals from Yongzhou Prefecture had lost their commander during their investigation with them—weren't they looking for him? Here I was lying in the bed of a peasant in the Village; could they really not find me?
An ominous feeling arose within me.
It was very likely that our people were trapped, and in the worst-case scenario, they might have all been harmed. Who would do such a thing? It must be the people who oppose the government. Could it be that the Mirror Gate is making a comeback?
So, this matter might indeed involve a third party. This third party has ensnared me and controlled our people, with their intentions directed at us, not that man in black.
Since it concerns us, they would not let me go.
I calmly raised my gaze to the fellow before me. He appeared to be around twenty-five or twenty-six years old, tall in stature, but compared to an ordinary peasant who toils daily in the fields, his skin was slightly pale, and his build was rather slender. The lines of his back were too straight and attractive; these were all points of suspicion.
What was this guy lying to me about?
I exchanged a few casual words with him and once again scanned his internal condition. Yes, there was something odd; within him lay a strange weakness, as if he had just recovered from a serious illness or had suffered a grave injury. If such a condition existed, it was likely that he was deliberately concealing his martial abilities.
If a person could hide their skills so well that I couldn't detect anything at all, then that person's abilities were probably far beyond mine.
If that were the case, as long as he wished, I would be utterly powerless under his control. But who exactly was this person? Why engage in so much unnecessary small talk instead of getting straight to the point?
The window was right next to the earthen bed, so I reached out and pushed it open.
Indeed, it was a farmhouse with a simple structure; outside, the bright moonlight illuminated the well.
"It's hot," I said.
He chuckled lightly.
"It's only the beginning of the first month, and you're already complaining about the heat. You really are something special, aren't you? Did I make the bed too warm?"
It was then that I realized, although it was an Earthen Bed, it was indeed quite warm, which explained why I had slept so comfortably earlier.
However, I had opened the window as a means of escape.
After some contemplation, I concluded that I probably wasn't a match for the person in front of me. But sitting idle was not my style; I had to seize the initiative. I still had a secret skill he could never anticipate, so I decided to take a gamble.
"I'm really thirsty. Could you please give me some water?"
He nodded and swiftly picked up a kettle from the earthen platform beside him, pouring half a bowl of water into a cracked Mud Bowl.
The cold wind blew in, and steam still rose from the water in the bowl, indicating it had just been boiled. He seemed confident about when I would wake up, which made me smirk coldly in my heart.
As he extended the bowl towards me at the edge of the bed, I reached out and grasped his wrist. The bowl slipped from his hand and shattered on the ground with a loud crash.
I channeled my inner energy and instantly began to draw out his True Qi from where our bodies made contact.
"Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing? That's my only bowl! Ouch, that hurts..."
If he truly had no True Qi within him, this action could kill him. But I didn't believe he was devoid of it; that was impossible—one million percent impossible!
So I not only did not stop, but instead intensified my efforts.
The man let out a light sigh, and suddenly the aura around him changed. I instantly felt True Qi surging from the point of contact with my skin, a presence that my body could not possibly bear.
How could he show no sign of panic? My attack had seemingly no unexpected effect? Moreover, the amount of True Qi seemed to exceed my expectations.
Every person's True Qi is unique, just like their appearance, scent, and personality. When this True Qi flowed into my body, I felt an overwhelming shock. It was as if I had encountered this True Qi before, tasted its essence. So far, the only ones who had accompanied me in my training were Qiu and Luo Dachun; I recognized their True Qi. This was not theirs, so where else had I absorbed someone else's True Qi?
As this answer surfaced in my mind, it nearly froze my blood.
That spring night, an unexpected encounter, False Guilin. That is to say...
True Qi continuously poured into my body, filling my Dantian with a gentle clarity like pure water, and I sensed no malice at all. The person before me offered no resistance, allowing me to take it freely while smiling at me.
"Ah Ying, that's enough. I don't mind, but if you take any more, you won't be able to handle it."
This voice was warm and carried a hint of sweetness; if one did not know better, they would never guess this was a Cold Blood killer.
I immediately stopped absorbing his True Qi and pushed him away. Unexpectedly, the man's figure swayed slightly but then suddenly froze. Following that, he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood all over me.
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