Chapter 131: Chapter 114: Soul Detaining Envoys, Black and White Impermanence
On one hand, he had to help Feng Bei with his riding; on the other, he had to help the four women with their cultivation.
When he emerged from the dungeon, dazed and spiritually drained, the members of his household saw his expression and were filled with sympathy and understanding.
Zheng Xiu ordered a pot of hot tea and a bath to be prepared. While he waited, he strolled around the courtyard.
Xiaofeng had been left behind at the Zheng Residence for good, becoming part of the family.
Xiaofeng had always been a defective "Soul-Luring Lamp," so sending it on missions was really asking too much. In the end, Zheng Xiu decided to just raise it as a normal orange cat.
What Zheng Xiu found amusing was that every time he teased the orange cat, it would jump in alarm. Its head would swing from side to side, its panicked movements making it seem as if its little cat eyes were blind and couldn’t see Master Zheng right in front of it. Zheng Xiu found this exceptionally funny.
He crouched by the cat’s bed, a stalk of hay in hand, and gently poked at Xiaofeng’s sensitive spots. Time slipped by in the pleasant haze of teasing the cat.
Finally, the orange cat let out a startled yelp, leaped onto the wall, and vanished from sight.
As the saying goes, cats and dogs are different. An old dog knows its way home, but a cat doesn’t care for its house. A dog can mark its territory as it goes and follow the scent back home from miles away, but sometimes, a pet cat will just up and disappear. In the Zheng Residence, however, Zheng Xiu wasn’t worried. If the orange cat ever got lost, someone would find it for him. It was only a matter of how much he’d have to pay.
A series of coded whistles relayed a message throughout the Zheng Residence. The shared, hidden meaning of the whistles made Zheng Xiu blush.
"Master Zheng has gotten out of bed."
Not long after, Qing Shisan came to find him.
"Master, care to pick one?"
He held up a stack of ledgers with a wide grin. Inside were pages and pages of names.
On the lists were high officials and rich merchants, common folk, and Wandering Swordsmen.
They were all people from around the Imperial City.
Even people from the countryside who traveled from afar to stay at the Ministry of Justice outside the city would find their names added to the list the very next day.
Under each name was a record of their crimes.
They ranged from major offenses like murder, arson, corruption, and bribery, to minor ones like petty theft, slander, and adultery.
’Truth be told, Zheng Xiu had committed some of these minor infractions himself. But he wasn’t a hypocrite. Wasn’t he stuck in this dungeon himself, day in and day out? So, clearly, he wasn’t a hypocrite. The logic was sound.’
Zheng Xiu gave a yawn and lazily flipped through the registers.
"You need to take care of yourself, Master. All things in moderation, you know. You can’t rush it." Qing Shisan hesitated for a moment before deciding to offer a bit of advice as a man of experience.
"Get lost and stop talking nonsense. Believe it or not, I’ll have them drag you into the Eternal Purgatory to ’experience’ it for a couple of days. I imagine Ji Hong’ou and Pei Gaoya would be more than happy to help!" Zheng Xiu chided with a laugh. After putting Qing Pi back in his place, he pointed to a name. "This one."
"You really know how to pick them, Master. You chose an outsider. But this guy... he’s a bit of a handful."
Zheng Xiu said, "It’s no... ahem, I mean, it’s fine. Just make sure you’re discreet. If the mark proves too difficult, just pick someone else."
Qing Shisan’s flippant expression suddenly turned serious. "How can we just switch? The rules are the rules. We have to see it through."
"Indeed." Tycoon Zheng nodded, agreeing that he had a point. "I’m counting on you, Qing Pi. Don’t worry, I’ll pay you more for it."
"It’s no trouble, no trouble at all! You’re the one who does the real hard work, Master."
Qing Shisan’s serious expression lasted only a few seconds before turning sleazy again. He gave Zheng Xiu a wink, lending the two words "hard work" a rather suggestive flavor.
"By the way, have you had any contact with the Shuzhou Yizhong County Chamber of Commerce recently?"
Qing Shisan replied, "We have. Last month, Si Youqing delivered six months’ worth of profits and even sent along some local delicacies."
Zheng Xiu fell silent. ’It’s too late to contact Si Youqing now,’ he thought. ’I’ll stick to the original plan. When we get to Yizhong County, Mighty Man will impersonate me. That’s settled.’
With that, Zheng Xiu hurried off to bathe and change his clothes.
While he was in there, someone knocked on the door, offering to come in and help the Master bathe and dress. Zheng Xiu considered it.
He considered it.
He thought of Feng Bei.
And in the end, he politely refused.
「Within the city.」
While Scarface Liu was on duty in the Heaven-Gazing Prison Camp, he heard a coachman’s whistle.
Making an excuse to leave the Prison Camp, Scarface Liu got into a carriage.
The coachman drove through streets and alleys, finally emerging from an alleyway.
The Scarface Liu in the carriage had changed into another person. His face was thin, and the scar at the corner of his eye was gone.
Another "Scarface Liu" wandered the streets, bought some pastries, and then returned to the Prison Camp.
After a winding journey, the thin-faced Scarface Liu arrived at the Zheng Residence. Reaching up to his chin, he peeled off a Human Skin Mask as thin as a cicada’s wing. Following a familiar path, he walked to the courtyard near Zheng Xiu’s personal wing. Behind a decorative rockery was a hidden door, which he twisted open to reveal a passage leading straight underground.
The luxurious dungeon where Zheng Xiu usually cultivated with the four women was on the first basement level, accessible only from the Master’s room. The hidden door behind the rockery, however, led to the dungeon’s second and third basement levels, and beyond.
This was the legendary "Eternal Purgatory."
「Nightfall.」
The night was as cool as water.
The wind howled as dark clouds drifted in, obscuring the bright moon.
Rong Si, known in the underworld as Master Rong Si, was from Southwest Zhaozhou and made his living as a petty thief.
In their line of work, there were many elegant names for what they did. Some were called "wall-hoppers," others "gentlemen on the rafters," or "three-handed ones." But they, and their colleagues, preferred to call themselves... the Thief Sect.
When Master Rong Si first entered the trade, he set rules for himself: the "three steals, three no-steals, and one no-kill." That last rule, "no-kill," meant he would never take a human life. Otherwise, what was the difference between him and a common brigand? Even thieves had their honor. But over the years, life’s pressures had forced him to gradually forget his "three steals, three no-steals," leaving only one rule remaining: "no-kill."
One day, in his sleep, he dazedly fell into a black pool. At the bottom of the pool, there was a path, and at the end of the path stood a door.
