Chapter 110

In the black night, Luò City was like one huge chessboard. The straight blue stone slab roads cut the buildings into twenty-one vertical and horizontal squares.

Secret agents in black clothes, hands resting on their waist knives, were like black chess pieces, moving along different roads, arranging themselves into their positions.

If viewed from the sky, these silent agents, connected in a net-like formation, resembled a great black dragon coiled on the chessboard.

On the quiet Xīnglóng Village street, Xī Fēng, wearing a newly carved dragon head mask, walked at the front. Chén Jǐ and Jīn Zhū, also wearing masks, walked side by side.

Behind them, Jīn Zhū had arranged two secret agents to constantly follow Chén Jǐ, blocking his possible escape routes.

As they walked, Chén Jǐ suddenly stopped and turned around.

Instantly, the two secret agents drew their waist knives halfway, their eyes icy cold, staring at him.

Chén Jǐ asked, puzzled: "Lord Jīn Zhū, is this to protect me, or to detain me? Now you're treating me like a criminal, next step is to throw me into the inner prison?"

Jīn Zhū patted his shoulder and sighed: "Everyone is smart, why must we state the obvious?"

Chén Jǐ's tone was calm and emotionless: "Lord Jīn Zhū, I helped you find the method to grasp the Liú family's handle. With great merit within reach, you yet want to cross the river and demolish the bridge! When can you truly trust me?"

Jīn Zhū laughed: "Wait until you can explain the many doubts surrounding you, then I can trust you."

Chén Jǐ asked in a condensed voice: "Which doubts?"

Jīn Zhū thought for a moment and said: "As a medical hall apprentice, you can crack the Jǐng Dynasty's secret letter; you have no power to tie a chicken, yet you survived at Cháo Cāng casino against Jǐng Dynasty spies; you're not skilled at detection, yet you shook off my two subordinates. You may know, even among my secret agents, not many can do these things, let alone you, just a small medical hall apprentice?"

Jīn Zhū clasped his hands behind his back and asked with interest: "So, can you help me answer these questions?"

Chén Jǐ did not answer.

Jīn Zhū chuckled: "It's alright if you don't want to answer. After this matter is done, Mèng Jī will naturally ask clearly."

Chén Jǐ suddenly asked: "Aren't you afraid that when we pretend to be false with Liú Míngxián in a while, I might suddenly speak up and ruin your plan? You still need my cooperation for the act, why not make a deal?"

Jīn Zhū slowly asked: "What kind of deal?"

However, just at this moment, a secret agent suddenly said in a low voice: "My lord, why must you make a deal with him? You always wear masks when meeting Liú Míngxián, so Liú Míngxián fundamentally doesn't know who exactly is under the mask; everyone wears the same. Why don't I wear his mask? As long as I don't speak, Liú Míngxián will definitely not find anything unusual."

Jīn Zhū smiled and looked at Chén Jǐ: "Sorry, in this game, whoever has the most chips in hand will laugh to the end. Now you have no chips left, but I still do."

As he finished speaking, Jīn Zhū suddenly grabbed the wooden tiger mask from Chén Jǐ's face.

He looked at Chén Jǐ's calm eyes, then looked at Chén Jǐ's unconsciously clenched fists, and suddenly sighed: "I know you're very angry, but you don't need to be. I know being betrayed definitely doesn't feel good, but if you really have no problems, I will personally apologize to you and give you a satisfactory answer. Take him down and hold him to one side, tie his mouth, and don't let him make noise to disrupt."

Two secret agents stepped forward and fiercely tied Chén Jǐ's mouth with a strip of cloth.

Jīn Zhū smiled. He weighed the wooden tiger mask in his hand and finally handed it out: "Liù Wén, you wear this mask. From now on, you are the Sī Cáo of the Military Intelligence Department."

With that, Jīn Zhū, Xī Fēng, and Liù Wén, wearing their masks, continued towards Mǔdān Bridge, while the other secret agent then pressed Chén Jǐ into a small alley to meet up with other secret agents hiding in the dark.

In the small alley, Chén Jǐ slowed down his footsteps, trying to delay time.

But as soon as he slowed down, a secret agent behind him hit him fiercely with a knife sheath: "Walk faster, don't have crooked thoughts."

A burning pain transmitted from behind Chén Jǐ, but his face became calmer and calmer.

Yín hour, the fourth watch of the night.

The saying goes: first watch for people, second watch for fires, third watch for ghosts, fourth watch for thieves, fifth watch for chickens.

The fourth watch of the night is when the night is darkest, people sleep deepest, and it is the best time for killing and arson.

Jīn Zhū could already see Mǔdān Bridge in the distance. He slowed his footsteps and instructed in a low voice: "Remember, in a moment, you must wait for me to confirm if Liú Míngxián appears. If Liú Míngxián does not appear, tonight's action will be canceled, and we will continue to win over the other side's trust... The court situation is chaotic now, we must catch Liú Míngxián red-handed to block the verbal attacks and written criticisms of the many lords."

"Understood!"

Jīn Zhū repeatedly confirmed that the three of them had their masks on properly, with no oversights, before slowly walking towards Mǔdān Bridge. In the distance, the watchman's distant call transmitted: "Safe and sound, no illness, no disaster!"

Jīn Zhū shook his head. Everyone said the watchman was tough, needing to get up five times every night to call the watch, not even getting a full night's sleep. But how was his secret agent department any different?

However, as he walked to the head of Mǔdān Bridge and saw the carriage waiting on the bridge, he suddenly felt like he had missed some details: "I always feel like something isn't quite right."

"What isn't quite right?"

"Too quiet..."

"My lord, the area is already controlled by our people. It being quiet is normal."

"No, not right!"

Jīn Zhū suddenly looked up at the stars: "'Safe and sound, no illness, no disaster' is the call for the third watch. It is clearly already the fourth watch now, why did he call it wrong?"

Xī Fēng's muscles suddenly tensed: "If the watchman and drum beater call the time wrong, they can be sent to the great prison! Time cannot be wrong!"

"The person who just called the watch is not the real watchman!"

"There's an ambush!"

On Ānxī Street, an old man, wearing a pair of white-soled black cloth shoes and carrying two packages of pastries, slowly walked to the side of the Chái Jì grain and oil shop.

As he gazed at the dark small alley, dozens of pairs of green, oily eyes inside the small alley also turned to gaze at him.

In the silence, the old man smiled and waved his hand: "Jiǔ Tiān Yìng Yuán Léi Pī Pǔ Huà Tiān Zūn."

As the words fell, one pair of eyes stood out, and the others walked from the shadows into the moonlight, slowly revealing their black, furry shapes.

Hēi Yún lifted its head and meowed: "Master, why are you still not resting?"

Yáo old man sighed: "With the messy things Chén Jǐ is doing, how can I sleep? I'm afraid that if I sleep, the sky will collapse. Come, I brought you two packages of pastries. You divide them among the cats behind you."

Hēi Yún bit the hemp rope on the paper package, turned, and bit it into the darkness.

The next moment, those pairs of eyes stared even wider and greener.

Hēi Yún meowed, and one by one, the eyes in the alley disappeared. The pastries were also bitten and taken somewhere.

It walked back into the moonlight and lightly leaped into Yáo old man's embrace: "Master, may you live a hundred years!"

Yáo old man smacked his lips: "Sounds like not many years left to live."

Hēi Yún: "..."

It had not interacted with people for long, only knowing to praise people at this time, but still not knowing how to praise most appropriately.

Hēi Yún changed the subject: "Master, why did you come?"

Yáo old man touched Hēi Yún's head: "Tonight I did a divination for Chén Jǐ... But ever since he learned the Sword Seed method, my divination art seems to have lost its effect on him. It's vague, sometimes accurate, sometimes not. I only calculated that he is in danger tonight, but I don't know the outcome."

Hēi Yún was startled: "He said he wasn't in danger. I originally said I wanted to follow, but he wouldn't let me go."

Yáo old man smiled: "He probably didn't want you to also encounter danger."

Hēi Yún quickly said: "Then you help him!"

Yáo old man was silent for a few seconds: "Why should I help him? I said earlier, I don't have any master-disciple feelings with him."

Hēi Yún was puzzled: "Then why are you going out so late?"

Yáo old man thought: "I'm just going to see if I need to collect his corpse."

Hēi Yún said solemnly with respect: "Your heart is truly kind."

"If you don't know how to praise, you don't have to," Yáo old man said happily: "My heart may not be kind. If my heart were kind, I wouldn't have lived to this age. Hēi Yún, all the important people in this world, the higher their position, the colder the blood in their hearts."

Yáo old man lowered his head and looked at Hēi Yún: "What did he say when he came to find you before he left?"

Hēi Yún thought and said: "He told me to tell you at dawn that he might not be back for several days, but he would be fine."

Yáo old man lightly said: "He guessed he wouldn't be back for these few days? But now that boy Jīn Zhū has started to suspect Chén Jǐ, even specifically inviting Mèng Jī for this, what does he rely on to be sure he will be fine?"

Hēi Yún didn't understand: "Jīn Zhū said he wanted to invest in Chén Jǐ earlier, why is he suspecting Chén Jǐ again? Was he lying before?"

Yáo old man laughed and said: "Wanting to invest is true, because Jīn Zhū's cultivation method is to place heavy bets on other people. As long as the person he bets on has growth in cultivation, he can gain good benefits from it. After he bet on Tiān Mā and she succeeded, Tiān Mā reached the threshold of the divine path realm within ten years, and at the same time, it even brought Jīn Zhū's cultivation realm to a new level."

"After Jīn Zhū tasted the sweetness, he wanted to dig for the next Tiān Mā every day, but successive failures caused his realm to fall instead of rise, actually dropping from the Seeking Dao realm back to the Innate realm... Now that he sees Chén Jǐ's potential, he naturally wants to bet again, helping Chén Jǐ get cultivation methods and resources."

"So that's how it is."

"Let's talk about serious matters first," Yáo old man asked: "Three days ago, after Chén Jǐ saw you, you disappeared. Where did you go that night?"

Hēi Yún hesitated.

Yáo old man said mockingly: "Can't say?"

Hēi Yún answered honestly: "Chén Jǐ said, if you ask repeatedly, I can tell you. You've only asked twice now."

Yáo old man was amused: "...Then now I ask a third time, where did you go that night?"

"I went to the Liú family's large residence to deliver a paper strip."

"What was written on the paper strip?"

"Sī Master is fake, you can seek verification from the shopkeeper of Bái Lù Pavilion."

Yáo old man slightly narrowed his eyes.

The skinny old man stood on the long street, turning his head to look at the boundless blue stone slab road stretching into the black night, as if seeing the end of the world with one glance: "He wants to cure the isolated swallowing dragon?"