Chapter 126: Dead End!

Old Soil. Lingyang.

Flame Shrine, Lingyang Branch.

A robust middle-aged man sat upon a soft tiger-skin armchair. A young woman wearing a grey robe and a veil held a silver needle, slowly driving the three-inch-long needle into the man's head.

Needle by needle, after continuously piercing in twelve silver needles, wisps of black fog began to emerge along the shafts of the twelve needles. Simultaneously, the color of the silver needles rapidly turned pitch black.

The onlookers were utterly shocked, and whispered among themselves in hushed tones.

"It's smoking, it's smoking..."

"Keep your voice down, don't disturb the Emissary Lord's treatment and healing."

"This doctor invited from the Hentshan Settlement really has some tricks up her sleeve..."

"If not for her timely arrival, I'm afraid the Emissary Lord's life would have been in grave danger."

"To think someone dared to harm the Emissary Lord, truly seeking their own death."

"What's so surprising about that? The previous White Robe was taken out, and the entire Flame Army was wiped out completely..."

"Shh, keep it down..."

——

A few minutes later, the woman removed the silver needles one by one from the middle-aged man's head, dropped them into the alcohol case before her, and handed over a bowl of cooled herbal medicine from the side, saying: "Emissary Lord, drink this bowl of detoxifying decoction, and the toxic qi in your body will be completely purged."

The middle-aged man opened his eyes, his fierce eyes brimming with a sharp glint. He accepted the bowl of medicinal soup and drank it down in one breath.

After finishing, he looked at the young woman in the grey robe and asked, "Doctor, the toxins in my body are entirely gone?"

"They have been completely cleared out," the grey robe woman said. "I used the 「Taiyi Acupuncture Method」 to clear all the meridians within the Emissary Lord's body, forcing out all the toxins. Does the Emissary Lord now feel refreshed, without that heavy, turbid sensation from before?"

"Indeed. The bodily discomfort has entirely vanished." The middle-aged man carefully sensed his condition, then looked at the young woman and said, "Lei has just arrived in Lingyang, only to be harmed by treacherous villains who poisoned my food and drink..."

"I remained unconscious for days. Thanks entirely to the young lady's rescue... I haven't yet had the chance to ask what you are called?"

"An Ning," the grey-robed woman replied.

"An Ning?" The man repeated the name and remarked, "In such chaotic times, wanting to live in peace and tranquility is no easy feat. However, I, Lei Zongnan, always repay debts of gratitude and vengeance alike. You are my savior, and I, Lei Zongnan, shall naturally repay your kindness. I wonder what An Ning desires?"

"Nothing," An Ning said. "Healing the sick and saving the dying is simply a doctor's vocation."

"What a fine doctor's vocation," Lei Zongnan laughed heartily, saying, "Few people are capable of saying such words these days... Miss An Ning, your name suits you well, embodying true kindness and purity. Your willingness to join our shrine is a blessing to us all."

"I dare not accept such praise," An Ning said calmly. "I merely seek a measure of protection."

"Miss An Ning is certainly a pragmatic person." Lei Zongnan looked at her and asked, "Are you a shrine member from the Hentshan Settlement?"

"Yes." Wang Tianlong stepped out from the crowd, bowed respectfully to Lei Zongnan, and said, "Emissary Lord, Miss An Ning is a doctor recommended by our Hentshan Settlement."

Lei Zongnan nodded. Looking at the ugly scar on Wang Tianlong's face, he said, "Such shocking events occurred in the Hentshan Settlement; I had originally intended to thoroughly reorganize the place. That is also why I never promoted you to Black Robe, because I felt the people there were untrustworthy..."

"However, you are a veteran of our shrine, and to have survived that incident by a stroke of luck shows you are a man of great fortune... You have performed a great service in recommending Dr. An Ning this time, and my life has been saved by the two of you. You have proven your loyalty to the shrine through your actions."

"Wang Tianlong, I now promote you to Black Robe Emissary of the Flame Shrine, in charge of all shrine affairs in the Hentshan Settlement. Do you feel confident in shouldering this responsibility?"

Thud!

Wang Tianlong dropped to his knees, kowtowing, and said loudly, "Thank you, Emissary Lord, for the promotion. Wang Tianlong will certainly give his utmost and will never fail the Emissary Lord's high expectations."

"Mm. 'Giving one's utmost' are easy words to say but hard to carry out. After you assume the post of Black Robe, you must properly reorganize the shrine in the Hentshan Settlement, re-integrating all available forces. I will also send people to assist you..."

"Understood. I will integrate our forces in the shortest possible time and establish the Hentshan Settlement branch," Wang Tianlong acknowledged his orders.

He knew Lei Zongnan still did not fully trust him and would certainly dispatch trusted confidants to keep an eye on him.

However, this was of little consequence.

With An Ning's help, no matter whom Lei Zongnan sent, they would ultimately become "one of us."

"Also, higher-ups have been keeping a close eye on the case of Emissary Bian Feng. That Tang Fei went to the New Star, but did he have no remnants? No accomplices? You lot must bring back a few heads to hand over to the higher-ups to close the matter..."

Lei Zongnan did not care who killed Bian Feng; he was even grateful that someone had killed him.

Had Bian Feng not died, he would never have had the opportunity to become the Chief Priest of the Lingyang District.

Yet, a White Robe of the Flame Shrine had been killed, and the entire regional Flame Army wiped out—this was a massive slap to the face.

If he could not provide an account to the superiors, they would question his administrative competence.

Therefore, he needed some heads to fulfill the quota.

As for whose heads they were...

The story could be fabricated however they pleased.

"Understood, your subordinate guarantees completion of the mission," Wang Tianlong acknowledged once more.

"Mm, go and get to work," Lei Zongnan commanded.

Wang Tianlong looked at An Ning and said, "Dr. An Ning..."

"Dr. An Ning need not return," Lei Zongnan interrupted. "It would be a terrible waste for such great talent to remain in the Hentshan Settlement. Let her stay in Lingyang and serve as the medical officer within our shrine... Dr. An Ning, are you willing?"

"I must go back. My mother is still in the Hentshan Settlement," An Ning said.

"You can have her brought here to enjoy a life of ease. The conditions in Lingyang City are far superior to those in the Hentshan Settlement..."

"My mother is unwilling. Neighbors and relatives take care of each other there; coming here to a completely unfamiliar place, I fear she wouldn't get used to it."

"If she prefers to stay in the Hentshan Settlement, I will have Wang Tianlong look after her closely. I imagine she will not be made to suffer any grievances."

"Yes." Wang Tianlong bowed in assent, looking at An Ning as he said, "Dr. An, since the Emissary Lord thinks so highly of talent, why not stay? Life in Lingyang is far better than in our Hentshan Settlement, and with the protection of the Flame Shrine, life surely won't be difficult."

"As for your mother's affairs, you need not worry at all. I, Wang Tianlong, swear here and now that I will treat her like my own birth mother, ensuring she lacks for neither food nor clothing, and suffering no bullying whatsoever..."

"Whenever work isn't too busy, you can return to visit at any time, or when I come to Lingyang to report to the Emissary Lord, I can bring your mother along so the two of you can spend three days together, and take her back when I return. How does that sound?"

An Ning pondered for a moment before saying, "Very well."

"Hahaha, Dr. An Ning, Lingyang has all the more need for a fine doctor like you. Rest assured, Lei will certainly not treat you unfairly."

He looked at the black veil covering An Ning's face and said, "Remove your black veil and let me see... I cannot simply know the name without knowing what my savior looks like."

"Milord, Dr. An Ning's face was injured..." Wang Tianlong chimed in to explain, "We fear startling the Emissary Lord."

"It's of no consequence," Lei Zongnan dismissed it indifferently. "What kind of sights hasn't Lei seen?"

An Ning hesitated for a moment, then reached out and removed the black veil from her face.

Lei Zongnan glanced at it, waved his hand, and said, "Put it back on. Dr. An Ning is also a pitiable soul..."

With a gloomy expression, An Ning hung the black veil back over her earlobes.

Wang Tianlong took his leave to return and reorganize the Flame branch in Hentshan. An Ning escorted him out under the pretext of giving him a few messages for her mother.

"Tell my mother I will find time to go back and see her, and tell her not to worry," An Ning instructed.

"Rest assured, I will take good care of her."

"The matters Lei Zongnan assigned must be handled promptly. Use the village youths as the backbone and core to recruit members from surrounding human settlements. Find a few predators who weren't rooted out before, chop off their heads, and send them over for him to close the case..."

"Don't worry, I'll handle it. There won't be a single flaw."

"Also..." An Ning pulled a small porcelain vial from her pocket and tossed it over, saying, "This is the antidote for three months. Within three months, you must make another trip to Lingyang City."

"Thank you." Wang Tianlong caught the porcelain vial and tucked it into his inner pocket.

"Don't blame me," An Ning said. "Not a single error can be made in this matter..."

"I understand. I do the same with others... Whoever dares to betray me meets only a dead end."

"As long as you understand," An Ning said.

"Is there any contact with Brother Tang?"

"No," An Ning shook her head. "These things are what we ought to do. Just getting the job done is enough."

"Understood, understood..." Tianlong looked around and lowered his voice, "Be careful, and make sure Lei Zongnan doesn't discover any clues..."

"He won't discover anything," An Ning said. "The day he discovers it will be the day of his death."

"I trust in your capability," Wang Tianlong said with a chuckle.

Who could have known that the one curing the poison was precisely the one who administered it?

And how could the method of detoxification not be a method of planting poison?

Wang Tianlong would bet his own head that this woman had by no means completely purged the toxins from Lei Zongnan's body.

He knew nothing, and yet he was able to live on safely.

Should any problems arise, this woman would likely take his life instantly.

He simply couldn't fathom how such a tiny Hentshan Settlement could produce so many ruthless individuals...

As for Tang Fei, he was a figure he could never hope to catch up with even by whipping his horse.

Having grabbed the princess's coattails, his journey to the New Star would surely be smooth sailing, soaring ninety thousand li upward!

The question was, would he ever return?

——

While the outside world was bustling and noisy, Tang Fei kept a low profile.

Every morning he practiced martial arts, ate breakfast, and went to school with Little Fatty.

Martial arts class in the morning, mechanics class in the afternoon.

Upon returning home at night, he practiced the second sword of the 《Netherworld Scroll》 in the training room.

Ten thousand sword strokes practiced every night...

However, problems arose simultaneously.

The first sword of the 《Netherworld Scroll》 was about learning, imitation, and practice making perfect.

Tang Fei only needed to follow the small figure's demonstration, practicing it over and over again...

Until it was deeply engraved in his mind, making that sword strike a part of muscle memory.

The second sword, however, required comprehension. Tang Fei tried the sword forms demonstrated by the small figure a few times and found the feeling somewhat off.

The movements were identical, but the power exerted was far inferior, not even as formidable as the first sword...

Tang Fei sensed there must be some trick to this sword that he had yet to unearth.

Therefore, while practicing the sword forms, he would sit on the floor every day watching the little figure demonstrate, over and over and over again...

Watching for too long, Tang Fei would feel his mental energy drain excessively, causing him to faint directly.

He hadn't expected watching sword forms to be even more exhausting than practicing them...

Not daring to be overly hasty, Tang Fei forced himself to slow down, progressing step by step.

He needed to find a breakthrough opportunity—perhaps looking at a flower, listening to rain, eating a bowl of rice, or even letting out a fart...

Yet until that opportunity arrived, he was unable to break through the barrier of this second sword.

Tang Fei sat at his workbench building a White Tiger. Because his beloved teacher Lu Siyu had once built a White Tiger of astonishing lethality, Tang Fei had pestered her into teaching him how to make one.

Initially, Lu Siyu had refused, mocking Tang Fei for wanting to run before he could even walk, pointing out that the mechanical White Tiger contained a vast amount of mechanical techniques and intelligent craftsmanship...

With Tang Fei's current capabilities, he couldn't even make the White Tiger's tail properly.

Tang Fei told her she was right, but insisted he still wanted to build the White Tiger, threatening to complain to the teacher that she was breaking her word otherwise...

Lu Siyu was someone who detested trouble. Since he wanted to learn, she would teach him.

Anyway, she would only demonstrate it once at the workbench; how much he could remember depended entirely on Tang Fei's comprehension.

Tang Fei's comprehension was exceptional, and he actually memorized all of it.

Many of the mechanical techniques felt extremely familiar to him. Upon closer thought, didn't the old man teach him this exact stuff before?

This served as yet another proof that the relationship between Lu Siyu and the old man was far from simple.

Tang Fei was crafting the White Tiger's head. This head was the core and brain of the mechanical tiger, requiring not only cumbersome mechanical techniques but also the installation and layout of numerous smart chips and circuit integrations...

It was indeed no easy task.

He glanced at Lu Siyu, who was deep in slumber with her head resting on a desk in the corner, feeling deeply envious. Such talent and arrogance...

If he had skills as formidable as hers, he would have gone back to sleep long ago. Who would be willing to come to class?

How could a desk in a classroom possibly be as comfortable as his big bed at home? What could the school possibly teach her?

Tang Fei did not know the specific evaluation standards for mechanical ranks, but he figured that with Lu Siyu's mechanical attainments, passing for a Senior Mechanic would pose no problem at all.

He thought once more of that mechanical snake—could it have been created by Lu Siyu?

What on earth was she trying to do? What was she testing?

The class bell rang. Lu Siyu opened her sleep-fogged eyes, picked up her small bag from the desk, and walked outside.

Tang Fei packed away the tiger head into the cabinet beneath the workbench and followed closely behind Lu Siyu toward the exit.

Lu Siyu walked to the school's underground parking lot, swiped her card at the system terminal, and shortly after, a mechanical transport device delivered a red sports car right before her.

Tang Fei felt a surge of secret envy. This woman was truly wealthy, even owning a sports car to drive...

Tang Fei calculated the balance on his card and ultimately restrained his inflated desires.

Money had to be spent on the cutting edge; now was not the time for them to splurge wildly.

After all, Princess Phoenix had transferred twenty million star coins to him, and remodeling a training room plus purchasing a pile of training equipment had consumed more than half of it...

There were still many places requiring money ahead, so whatever could be saved should be saved.

Besides, didn't His Royal Highness the Second Prince gift him a flying car as well?

He wasn't short of a car; he was short of a driver's license.

Tang Fei sprinted all the way, intercepted a driverless vehicle at the school gates, and as soon as Lu Siyu's car drove out of the school gates, he directed the driverless vehicle to tail her sports car.

Lu Siyu drove her sports car all the way west, driving right up to the borderlands of Phoenix City. Without stopping, the car ultimately headed toward even more remote mountainous regions.

Tang Fei hesitated slightly, but gritted his teeth and followed.

The car's navigation map indicated that the mountain range ahead was named Luban Mountain.

Luban Mountain? The founding ancestor of the mechanics department.

On the New Star, being able to name a massive mountain after a single person's name showed just how formidable that figure was.

Rumor had it that the ancestral home of the Gongshu family, one of the Nine Great Families, was located in Luban Mountain. Could Lu Siyu be a member of one of the Nine Great Families?

If she was a member of the Nine Great Families, why hadn't she appeared at Princess Phoenix's coming-of-age banquet?

The red sports car accelerated faster and faster, then darted into a mountain tunnel ahead and vanished without a trace.

Tang Fei was greatly astonished. He drove his car straight into the tunnel, circled the mountain, yet still failed to find any trace of the red sports car.

"Strange? Where did the car go?"

"Where did Lu Siyu go? Even if a person can hide, a car surely can't! Could she carry the car and hide with it?"

What startled Tang Fei even more was that he got out of the car to inspect, and couldn't even find a single tire track on the ground.

He had witnessed Lu Siyu driving straight into the mountain with his own eyes, and he had driven right behind her—how could there be no tire tracks? Could her car fly?

Tang Fei looked up at the sky. The sky was grey, blanketed and wrapped in a layer of mist.

When he had just come out, the setting sun had clearly looked like blood, its afterglow dyeing the river surface crimson, with one koi fish after another leaping out of the water.

How had it suddenly become overcast with dark clouds? The weather inside the mountain was completely different from the weather outside, as if he had stepped into an entirely separate world.

Having lost track of Lu Siyu, this tracking operation had ended in complete failure.

Tang Fei prepared to drive home...

He circled round and round, only to find himself driving in circles in the exact same spot.

Even more eerie was that the mountain tunnel they had just passed through had vanished, as if it had never existed in the first place.

He was trapped within this mountain, with no exit and absolute dead ends everywhere.

(End of Chapter)