Ghost
“Come inside first.”
Nobody inside looked up when Hong Jiu hobbled in with Tang Ye, although they probably struggled to even see considering all the smoke permeating from the hundreds of pots. Even without Trailblazer Formation, all the smoke was enough for the restaurant to be considered veiled within a formation.
“Don’t worry. If there really is someone spying, our people will take care of them,” assured Hong Jiu, picking up on Tang Ye’s apprehension.
The proof was Chang Biwan confronting Tang Ye after Tang Ye only took a few glances. Even accounting for Tang Ye’s compromised skills at present, Chang Biwan, as a swordsman, never drew his sword and gave him a hard time using only one arm. That was enough to demonstrate the skill gap. If all of the sentries were of Chang Biwan’s calibre, then virtually nobody was going to escape if they were caught spying.
“This way.”
After climbing up flights of stairs and then down flights of stairs, Tang Ye no longer had any clue where the dark building he was in was located. His intuition told him that he had seen the design before, but he could not determine where he had seen it.
“This used to be one of Emperor’s Entourage’s bases. After they cleared it out, we graciously took over. They sometimes used it as a place to sojourn, and we gave them friendly beatings. They haven’t dropped in again in the last two years.”
Once it was just the two of them in the dark room, Hong Jiu removed his fake shoulder to reveal his perfectly fine arm. He looked over his shoulder and asked, “Is Leader here?”
Tang Ye nodded. “He is staying not too far from here.”
Hong Jiu, looking relieved, responded, “Ye, bumping into you here is a coincidence. I’ll keep it short: we’re in a precarious situation.”
Since Hong Jiu sounded serious and even went as far as faking an injury, Tang Ye was convinced.
“I suspect Shifu is here.”
“… That is what Big Bro suspects, too.”
Hong Jiu slapped his thigh. “Great minds think alike. We truly are this generation’s Zhuge Liang.”
“… Even if he is here, it is…”
“A huge problem! It’s a problem like a problem, a big one like a big one.”
“… How can you confirm if it is Patriarch Ming?”
“You don’t get it.” Hong Jiu sighed as he shook his head. “Neither do I.”
“…”
“But it’s truly suspicious.” Scrubbing the back of his head, Hong Jiu elaborated, “Hangzhou has been jinxed recently. Martial world folks are flocking here like fleas; this can’t be a normal phenomenon. You can’t convince me there’s nobody rigging strings in the background. There’s also that Hua Yumeng guy and his womanising.”
Unable to piece together the fragmented information, Tang Ye just gave a confused look.
Hong Jiu nodded, checked the surroundings, then whispered, “Do you know Leader has a treasure stash?”
“I have heard a thing or two.”
Ming Feizhen did not strictly keep his treasure stash a record. At Liu Shan Men, Shen Yiren was the only one unaware of its existence (his assumption) when he mouthed off after drinks.
“Keep it a secret.” Hong Jiu carefully gulped as if swallowing saliva was potentially lethal and then, in the softest voice possible, said, “On Leader’s orders, I hurriedly transported the treasures in the underground palace. I had to bring my most trusted buddies since it was a top-secret mission.”
Tang Ye had yet to make sense of the Mount Luo issue, only to start hearing about a treasure stash, so he just went along with it. “And then?”
Hong Jiu knitted his brows, convincing Tang Ye something had transpired. Meanwhile, Hong Jiu drifted back to the night he entered the underground palace. While they were moving the stash that night, Hong Jiu picked up on a different gait rhythm. Due to the poor lighting, he had to rely on his ears for information. When he tried to look in the direction of the sound change, the darkness was replaced with pure white as blank as his mind was in the moment. He did not see a single thing or even notice a presence encroaching. Had it not been for his training in Yijin Jing, he would not have realised he had “lost track of time”. He brushed it off as just a momentary lapse in judgement similarly to standing up too fast and feeling a tad dizzy. When they all “woke”, though, all that was left was just the squad staring at each other.
“I brought all our best boys for the task. All of them are famous in the pugilistic world and could take me in a one-on-one fight; if I had to fought two of them, I’d lose. Yet, none of us could tell if it was a human or ghost intruding. We don’t even know how long we lost awareness for, but it felt as fleeting as a few seconds. How could chests of money go missing in seconds? The only thing they took was the money and valuables. Besides putting it down to a ghost, I can’t explain it.”
Tang Ye contemplated it and then shook his head. “I don’t believe in ghosts. It was definitely the work of man.”
“I believe so, too.” Despite what he said, Hong Jiu showed no interest in exposing the trick. Instead, he rubbed his face as if he took a blow to the face. “Third’s qinggong is unmatched; even Leader wouldn’t be able to stop him unless he went all out. Even then, Third wouldn’t be able to easily avoid my detection, and I’d lay him out if I caught sight of him even once. Of course, that would be putting it lightly.”
“So you suspect…”
“I don’t know if anyone can pull it off, but if there is someone, the only person I can imagine successfully pulling it off would be our shifu.” After a silent pause, Hong Jiu added, “Hua Yumeng rumours started surfacing in Hangzhou afterwards. I can tell you that as soon as I heard about Hua Yumeng going after ladies, I fled the mountain with my brothers.”
Previous Chapter l Next Chapter
