Chapter 56: My Son Has No Regrets

Even with oil shops, wineries, and charcoal stores, and despite the city's wooden architecture, burning it down entirely with such a small crew would be a huge undertaking. They needed to find as much flammable material as possible.

After everyone else left, He Lingchuan doubled back, detouring to the Zhong residence, and quietly slipped into an empty room.

The room was quite spacious, containing a large and a small bed, two stools, and a dressing table.

Earlier, after State Preceptor Sun shot his signal arrow, He Lingchuan had used the time he spent gathering his companions to circle the official residence, looking around.

He Lingchuan hadn't found any useful clues at the time, but after their recent discussion, he suddenly wanted to take another look.

Each official residence was small and functionally simple, providing only space to eat, live, and sleep. Therefore, this room must have been Zhong Shengguang and his wife's bedroom.

On the large bed, the bedding was clean, and the quilts were neatly folded. A precious saber, featuring a dragon's mouth swallowing a ring, hung on the wall above the headboard.

Only a fierce military man would hang a formidable weapon above his and his wife's bed. As for the small bed next to it—

It must have belonged to their daughter, Zhong Wuhuan.

Because the small bed was only three feet long; an adult couldn't even lie on it curled up. At the head of the bed were a small wooden horse and a wooden soldier waving a wooden sword, and across from them, a somewhat fierce-looking cloth tiger.

No, it was a cloth leopard, made in the likeness of a sand leopard, with the sand leopard's characteristic round spots.

With these three toys placed there, it told a story.

He picked it up and saw a few small characters embroidered on the leopard's belly:

My child, Wuhuan.

At the foot of the bed, a small cloth doll was tucked away.

He Lingchuan walked over to the large bed. On the dressing table, a set of cosmetics and a bronze mirror were neatly arranged.

He picked up each item to examine it, discovering a comb tucked into the back of the bronze mirror. It was surprisingly a set.

"This is it?" His eyes lit up. He picked up the comb, held it to the light, and murmured, "So it's here."

It was a plain wooden comb, simple in form and singular in function, with only a small, light blue flower painted on its head.

The pigment was derived from fine powder ground from a type of shell, capable of producing a sky-like blue.

Based solely on this floral ornament, He Lingchuan was certain: this was the very keepsake the Sand Leopard had carried away when Panlong City fell years ago!

It was also this item that had created a long-standing feud between the He family and the Grand Marshal's Residence.

However, this comb had not yet been half-burned.

“Zhong Shengguang's wife passed away shortly after giving birth to their daughter, and he did indeed keep this comb as a memento.” He Lingchuan looked at the small bed and muttered to himself, “Wait, no. Zhong Wuhuan hadn't been born yet at this time. Zhong Shengguang didn't know if his wife would have a boy or a girl, but he had already prepared a crib.”

Otherwise, Commander Zhong wouldn't have placed several boys' toys at the head of the child's bed, which looked as if he had carved them himself.

“This was likely the happiest time of his life.” His career had promise, and his beloved wife was nearing childbirth.

He casually pulled open the secret compartment of the dressing table. Inside were a few pieces of jewelry, all of very ordinary material, but He Lingchuan's gaze fixed on one item.

It was a necklace with a crescent-shaped pendant.

It looked very familiar. He Lingchuan instinctively pulled out the necklace from around his own neck.

These were essentially the same item! Except one was in the illusion, and the other in reality; even their appearances had changed.

This meant that Zhong Shengguang had been the owner of this divine bone necklace before his daughter's birth.

He Lingchuan, realizing something new, carefully placed the comb back in its original position and left the room.

As he stepped out of the official residence, he saw someone standing outside.

Maotao.

He Lingchuan jumped in surprise and couldn't help but curse, “Not a sound out of you! Trying to scare ghosts?”

“Young Master, let me go with you. I'll do all the work,” Maotao said with a fawning smile. “It feels like someone is always secretly watching me, trying to make a move when I'm alone.”

“Even if there is, it's not human.” He Lingchuan didn't refuse. He also had that feeling of being watched, and indeed, traveling together was safer. Maotao pointed a hand, “I remember there's a rather large restaurant over there.”

He Lingchuan glanced back at the Zhong residence. “This is too close; leave it for the city's armaments. We'll go farther away.”

Both knew some martial arts, so they drew on their internal energy and ran quickly.

Half an hour later, the road grew narrower, and the buildings along the roadside became sparser. Larger commercial warehouses, inns, and even threshing grounds appeared.

Such places were far from any city gate. Even if the city's armaments could reach them, one shot wouldn't be enough to ignite a wide area.

This would require manual labor.

They climbed into a workshop, found a flatbed cart for unloading, loaded it with over a dozen barrels of tung oil, and then broke off two suitable pieces of wood to make torches before pulling the oil out.

They burned as they went, splashing oil on wood, quilts, thatch, or any other flammable material.

After traveling for several miles in this manner, they looked back to see flames reaching to the sky.

Maotao pointed west. “Black smoke is rising to the sky over there. It seems the State Preceptor is working hard too.”

He Lingchuan only glanced before continuing his work. “It seems that's not the key area either.”

Maotao asked curiously, “Key area? What key area?”

“We decided to burn down the entire city simply because we couldn't find the crucial point to break this situation, so we're relying on this brute-force method. Otherwise, one fire arrow would be enough,” He Lingchuan said, his mind clear. “Conversely, burning other places is useless; only by burning the key area will this illusion be lifted.”

Maotao shook his hands and sighed. “How much longer will this take?” He was tired because He Lingchuan had made him act as the cart-pulling donkey.

Even a real donkey, pulling a cart full of oil barrels for ten miles, would be exhausted to death.

The thought of burning down an entire city made him feel numb all over.

“You should be happy,” He Lingchuan said grimly. “The crucial point to break this situation isn't in our area of responsibility; that's your good fortune from a past life. Think about Tao Bo's fate and the consequences of the illusion breaking. Can you bear that?”

Tao Bo's final fate was no better than his teammates'; there were no remains left. Maotao shivered. “Then let's meet up with the State Preceptor as soon as possible.”

He Lingchuan chuckled. “Thanks to you, it won't be finished that quickly.”

Because Maotao had come to find him, the entire northern part of Panlong City hadn't been burned yet. “Now, can you tell me why you actually came to find me?”

Maotao was stunned. “I... I was just scared.”

He Lingchuan couldn't be bothered to say more to him. “Get back to the north.”

“No, wait, I'll tell you! I just hadn't figured out how to say it,” Maotao said, wiping sweat with a towel. “Just now, when the State Preceptor was reading Tao Bo's notes, he didn't know that before I followed Old Master Situ, I actually lived in the Copper City of Baling Kingdom for twelve years and attended a private school, until my stepfather was killed during a business deal...”

“Stop. Get to the point!”

“...I can understand a bit of the Baling script.”

He Lingchuan stopped. “What did the State Preceptor conceal?”

He knew it; that old man was holding something back!