Chapter 243: Chapter 160: Distortion and Black Hole
After Chu Chengfeng forced out the effects of the alcohol, his eyes grew clearer. He walked to the railing, and his expression changed when he saw the empty streets below. "They didn’t enter the city?"
"The prison cart took a detour!"
"The Divine Martial Army must have sent scouts into the city ahead of time!" Chu Chengfeng grit his teeth.
"SHHH! Are you still drunk? How can you just say whatever you want in front of an outsider?" The Iron Fan Scholar walked step by step behind Zheng Xiu, about to knock him unconscious with his fan.
"Stop! We have to take him with us!"
The Iron Fan Scholar’s fan stopped mid-air. He asked, stunned, "Why would you involve an innocent outsider?"
He looked at Chu Chengfeng as if seeing him for the first time.
"Wait." Zheng Xiu tilted his head, eyeing the Iron Fan Scholar warily as he raised a hand. "You two... know each other?"
The Iron Fan Scholar and Chu Chengfeng looked at each other, their gazes meeting.
The Iron Fan Scholar lowered his fan, his gaze shifting uncertainly. Still, he faced Gongsun Mo and cupped his fist. "Xiao Buping, known as the Iron Fan Scholar."
Zheng Xiu looked at Chu Chengfeng, his gaze calm.
Realization dawned on Chu Chengfeng. "So you figured it out long ago."
Zheng Xiu shook his head. "I just noticed a little while ago. But Brother Chu isn’t a bad person. You saved my life, and if I don’t repay that kindness, wouldn’t it mean I’ve wasted all my years studying the sages?"
"Wait a minute," Now it was Xiao Buping’s turn to be completely bewildered. He looked back and forth between the Poor Scholar and Chu Chengfeng, then frowned. "Brother Chu, I believe you owe me an explanation."
Chu Chengfeng nodded emphatically. "We’ll talk on the way! First, let’s check out the situation from a distance!"
With that, Chu Chengfeng said to Zheng Xiu, "Younger Brother Gongsun, my apologies!"
Xiao Buping, who had just stepped onto the railing, heard the name "Gongsun," slipped, and fell from the second floor.
Carrying Zheng Xiu, Chu Chengfeng moved across the rooftops with graceful ease, each light step covering the distance of ten.
He said smugly that this was his family’s Qinggong, called "Plum Blossom Eight Steps."
The Iron Fan Scholar, who had taken a tumble, finally caught up, looking disheveled. He now moved like a ghost, silently keeping pace with Chu Chengfeng.
"Gongsun... *the* Gongsun Family? The Hidden World Danqing Family?"
Chu Chengfeng grit his teeth. "I didn’t believe it at first either, but it’s the absolute truth. He really is from *the* Gongsun Family! Back then, it was the Gongsun Painting Saint who painted the ’Four Seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter’ for Lord Nie!"
Zheng Xiu frowned and interjected, "What does this have to do with my grandfather? Weren’t those paintings lost long ago?"
Hearing the way Gongsun Mo spoke, the Iron Fan Scholar was finally convinced. He gave a surprised laugh. "Well... what a coincidence!"
"My apologies, Younger Brother Gongsun. Later, Brother Chu will definitely offer you ten jars of aged wine and risk my life to make it up to you! For now, please come with me. I, your elder brother, swear on my rank of thirty-eight on the Weapon Manual to protect you with my life!"
Chu Chengfeng did not explain his reasons.
Soon, the three of them were outside the city. The thick stench of blood drifted toward them on the wind, coming from the official road.
Under the moonlight, in the woods and on the road, bodies were strewn about haphazardly.
Some had died from saber wounds, others from long spears. Some were hacked to death by multiple blades. The trail of bodies stretched on ahead.
After rushing forward another three *li*, they saw figures moving restlessly in the distance.
Looking from afar, Zheng Xiu could vaguely make out what seemed to be three factions locked in a chaotic battle.
One faction wore Armor and wielded long spears, their military banners fluttering.
Another group was dressed in black night-crawling clothes, their faces hidden. They wore conspicuous red silk bands on their upper arms to identify allies.
The third group consisted of Martial Artists in all sorts of attire, fighting in a free-for-all with sabers, spears, swords, and staves, flinging hidden weapons, and trading blows with fists and feet.
"Wait!"
Chu Chengfeng slowed his pace, straining his eyes to see into the distance.
Zheng Xiu was also observing, searching for the "prison cart" Chu Chengfeng had mentioned.
He found it quickly: a square prison cart, completely shrouded in black cloth, guarded from behind by elite soldiers in Armor.
The cart was wrapped so tightly that no air could get through, and no one could see what was inside.
Suddenly, as Zheng Xiu stared at the prison cart, the scene before him seemed to split apart and distort. The spot where the cart stood, that black cloth, seemed to grow blacker and deeper, as if it were turning into a "black hole."
An intense headache struck him. Zheng Xiu clutched his head in agony and let out a pained cry.
The distortion and sense of wrongness before his eyes grew stronger. This strange feeling was emanating from the prison cart.
Zheng Xiu fought through the pain, and shimmering, multicolored lights began to appear in his vision as the black hole receded into the distance.
’It’s Gongsun Mo’s memories!’ Zheng Xiu grit his teeth, the realization hitting him like a flash. ’There’s something in that prison cart, something Gongsun Mo is terrified of!’
’His memories... are rejecting this scene!’
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