Chapter 250: Chapter 163: Yunhe Village
Xie Luohe’s command, "Take them all," left Chu Chengfeng and Xiao Buping stunned, their minds reeling.
’What are they planning?’
’Anything but this!’
Xiao Buping tactfully tried to distance himself, claiming he had nothing to do with the matter and barely knew the man named Chu. He suggested they should just tie up the others.
Xie Yunliu immediately slapped his forehead and let out a sinister chuckle. What a coincidence, he said. He didn’t want to bother tying them up either—it was too much trouble for no reward. It would be easier to just kill them on the spot.
Hearing this, Xiao Buping finally understood the brutal nature of these bandits and immediately submitted.
Sometimes, a person never knows just how low their principles can sink until they’re truly tested.
The bandits expertly hogtied the four of them, threw sacks over their heads, strung them onto a pole, and carried them away.
The practiced way they were trussed up secretly alarmed the captives.
These men were less like bandits and more like pig butchers.
"Damn it all, this is how you tie up a pig!"
Xiao Buping grumbled indignantly.
What followed was an endless, jarring journey in complete darkness.
Since he didn’t have to walk, Zheng Xiu was actually quite content with the idleness.
Xie Luohe didn’t mistreat them, nor did she immediately press them for what the National Preceptor had said before his death.
They traveled day and night. For more than ten days, their journey consisted almost entirely of being carried on a pole with sacks over their heads.
Even when they stopped for bathroom breaks, rest, or water, the four were kept separated under the bandits’ watchful eyes and never had a chance to meet.
For more than ten days, Zheng Xiu didn’t see Xie Luohe again.
The one assigned to watch him was, surprisingly, the hairy "Ruchen."
"Monk?"
"Monk?"
"Monk?"
Every now and then, Zheng Xiu would utter the word "Monk," hoping to awaken some dormant conscience in the bandit’s heart, only to be mocked for being a book-addled fool.
Xie Yunliu, despite looking like Ruchen, was clearly a completely different person.
Only their faces were identical.
Zheng Xiu didn’t try any tricks for the time being. He could only allow himself to be obediently taken to Yunhe Village.
The Xie siblings clearly didn’t want the four captives to know the location of Yunhe Village, hence this method of transport.
At first, Zheng Xiu tried to use the position of the sunrise and sunset to determine their direction. But eventually, he couldn’t be bothered to ponder it. No matter what, even though he knew he was Zheng Xiu, he couldn’t act in a way that would drastically contradict Gongsun Mo’s memories. What good would it do to know Yunhe Village’s location anyway?
On the way to Yunhe Village, Zheng Xiu discovered something strange.
The intense headache that had struck him when he saw the National Preceptor had vanished ever since he’d encountered Xie Luohe.
That headache seemed to be a turning point. Since then, Zheng Xiu hadn’t found himself speaking "Gongsun Mo’s lines" again.
It was as if Gongsun Mo had vanished completely.
Although Zheng Xiu couldn’t be certain, that was definitely how it felt.
The ambush of the prisoner transport would likely cause a huge uproar in the circles of both the Martial World and the imperial Court.
But the bandits of Yunhe Village must have chosen some back road, as their journey was completely uneventful.
’What did the National Preceptor’s final words truly mean?’
Whenever he had a spare moment, the National Preceptor’s last words would echo uncontrollably in his mind.
The National Preceptor had clearly been trying to say something before he died.
And he had specifically designated a Gongsun Descendant to be the one to say it.
But when the words came out, they formed a bizarre riddle.
’Damn people who speak in riddles.’
’Nie Gong’s Treasure Vault holds the secret to returning to a Human.’
’Returning to a Human?’
Zheng Xiu mulled over those four words again and again.
’Human?’
’And the opposite of that is "Mystic"?’
’Does Nie Gong’s Treasure Vault hide the secret to turning a "Mystic" back into a "Human"?’
As he was being trussed up like a piglet, Zheng Xiu suddenly had a realization.
’Wait.’
’Did "Mystics" already exist two hundred years ago?’
’Mystics... Xie Luohe?’
The complex threads of clues were a tangled mess in Zheng Xiu’s mind.
The arrow Xie Luohe had fired in the woods that night was less a form of Archery and more of a... Miracle Technique.
The power of that arrow was absurd. The mark it left on the ground looked as if an Anti-Aircraft Cannon had plowed through the earth. It was hard for Zheng Xiu to believe it was purely a form of Martial Arts.
’Now, this is getting interesting.’
’Wait, I think I get it now,’ Zheng Xiu realized with a start. ’If Gongsun Mo was a Mystic, and Xie Luohe is also a Mystic, then something must have happened between them two hundred years ago. A story significant enough to make Gongsun Mo pour all his effort into creating the Cannibal Painting to seal those memories away.’
’Something definite must have happened.’
’An event that brought Gongsun Mo, Xie Luohe, and Xie Yunliu together. A "major event" that caused the Martial World to completely vanish from history!’
’That’s it! The Historians never recorded that dark period of history, but Gongsun Mo’s painting did!’
’Right now, I’m living inside that unrecorded "history"!’
Zheng Xiu felt the mysteries piling up, one on top of the other.
Two hundred years ago, after Emperor Qian Taizong founded the dynasty and during the reign of the incompetent Qian the Second—a time when the Martial World flourished—someone had deliberately leaked the news that the Former Imperial Tutor would be passing through Kang City.
And "coincidentally," the Gongsun Clan—a Danqing Family from the Hidden World—had a strange malady in their bloodline. By "chance," a master advised Gongsun Mo to leave his seclusion, seek an official post, and make his way to... Kang City.
Over the past ten-odd days, as Zheng Xiu calmed his mind and picked apart the clues, a terrifying theory began to form.
It was as if a hidden hand was moving the pieces from behind the curtain, lurking in the cracks of history and manipulating everything.
At first, Zheng Xiu suspected the mastermind was the Former Imperial Tutor, Ben Hei. Based on simple logic, he was the most obvious culprit.
But the National Preceptor had died right before their eyes.
Chu Chengfeng, Xiao Buping, Xie Yunliu, and Xie Luohe had each gone up to check. He was well and truly dead; there was no faking it.
’There’s one more question,’ he thought. ’What was Gongsun Mo’s goal when he painted this picture?’
Comments