Limitless Cultivation System: From Trash to Immortal

Chapter 156: Interrogation [III]

The voice continued from behind the screen.

"And you know what happens to curious cats?"

No one answered.

The smile in that young, pleasant voice somehow became audible.

"Curious cats are killed."

It happened an instant later.

Xuan did not see the attack through Han Ying’s eyes.

There was no warning, no flash of steel, no movement his borrowed sight could follow. One heartbeat Han Ying was standing in the chamber with Elder Mu before him and the dark silk screen at the rear of the room. The next, the world spun sideways, and Han Ying’s head struck the stone floor with a wet crack.

His body remained upright for a breath before collapsing.

The connection should have died there.

Instead, sight tore downward.

The Marrow Centipede burst from the ruined body as if the corpse had spat it out. It struck the stone, legs scraping in a frantic ripple, and Xuan’s vision lurched with it. Everything became enormous from the floor: boots, table legs, the red-brown fall of Han Ying’s blood spreading across the stone.

Mira’s voice cut through the shock.

[ Xuan. The body is gone. We’re in the insect now. ]

’I noticed.’

His own hands had clenched around the bedding in Silent Peak.

Inside Blood Fang, Elder Mu did not flinch.

He looked down at Han Ying’s severed head, then at the insect on the floor, and his expression remained almost bored. Before the person behind the screen could give him an order, Mu moved. Two fingers snapped down and caught the centipede behind the head.

The world jerked upward.

For the first time, Xuan and Mira saw Elder Mu from this close. The thin face, the gray at the temples, the careful hands that now held their only remaining piece. His eyes studied the insect with cold interest, not disgust.

’We’ve been found,’ Xuan thought. ’He detected the centipede. What do we do now?’

[ Nothing stupid, ] Mira said at once. Her voice was tight, but not broken. [ They know something was listening. They do not know everything. Skyedge will be the obvious suspect, but that does not mean they can move tonight. Let them talk. If they are pleased with themselves, they may give us something useful before they crush us. ]

Elder Mu lifted the centipede toward the lamplight. "A Marrow Centipede."

The scribe stared before remembering himself and lowering his head.

Mu’s eyes narrowed. "Who has the wealth to waste something this valuable on Han Ying?"

Behind the screen, a cup tipped.

Xuan heard the slow sip through the silk. Porcelain returned to a saucer with careful softness, as if the cup deserved more respect than the dead elder bleeding across the floor.

"Not many," the hidden figure said. "In the Southern Continent, there is a poison sect that specializes in creatures like this. I will ask around there. In the Eastern Continent, acquiring one would be troublesome unless it came through an eccentric merchant, a private collection, or someone with very deep pockets."

The voice was young, soft, almost too pleasant for that room. A voice trained in court corners, in pleasure houses, beside lute girls and expensive liquor. Nearly feminine, but not quite. A young man’s voice built to be dismissed.

It made Xuan’s skin crawl more than Mu’s coldness had.

The figure behind the screen spoke again. "Everyone out, Mu."

Elder Mu turned his head. "Leave us."

The guards obeyed at once. The scribe gathered his paper with trembling care. No one looked at Han Ying’s body. No one looked at the centipede. The door opened, bodies slipped through, and the chamber emptied until only Elder Mu, the hidden figure, the corpse, and the insect remained.

Mu held the centipede between his fingers. "What do you plan to do now, Young Master?"

A soft laugh came from behind the screen.

"What do I plan to do?" the voice asked. "Nothing."

Mu waited.

The figure sounded almost entertained. "This makes things interesting. Losing two mines will make the Second Prince nervous, but those mines were never truly ours from the beginning. We only borrowed them for two years. We drew profit from them, used them to bleed Skyedge, and nearly broke that sect along the way. A loss, yes, but not a fatal one."

Xuan listened without breathing.

The Second Prince.

So Blood Fang was not only serving him. Someone else was standing behind the board, smiling while his brother thought the pieces belonged to him.

"But this insect..." The hidden figure let the words drift. "That is the strange part. Skyedge should not have something of this quality. Not unless they bought it through a path they should not know, or someone placed it in their hands."

Elder Mu looked at the centipede again. "Should I preserve it?"

"No." The answer came at once. "Kill it. They are probably listening through it even now, and I do not like people peeking into rooms where they were not invited. It is bad manners, don’t you think, Mu?"

"Yes, Young Master."

Mu’s fingers pressed together.

For an instant, Xuan saw the lamplight fracture across Elder Mu’s nails.

Then the Marrow Centipede burst between his fingertips.

The connection snapped shut.

Xuan returned to his room in a single, brutal breath.

He fell back onto the bed, staring up at the dark ceiling while the quiet of Silent Peak rushed in around him. Across the hall, there was no movement now. Su Qingyue’s new room had gone quiet. The warmth from earlier felt like something that had happened to someone else.

’We lost the piece,’ Xuan thought.

[ We did, ] Mira said.

He closed his hand over his chest, where his heart was beating too hard.

’But we found something more valuable than Han Ying.’

Mira’s voice was low. [ Correct. There is someone behind Blood Fang. Someone the Second Prince may not know is standing behind him. We have Elder Mu’s face, and I will not forget it. More importantly, we now know the Second Prince is not the only prince in this game. ]

Back in Blood Fang, the figure behind the screen rose.

The silk no longer hid everything. A sleeve brushed the edge of the light. A slim hand lifted the cup again before setting it aside. His face remained out of view, but the voice came through clear and pleasant, the same voice the court knew from upper rooms, music, brandy, and laughter no one bothered taking seriously.

"It seems things are about to become interesting, Mu."

Elder Mu bowed his head.

The hidden young man looked toward Han Ying’s corpse.

"I really want to see my brother’s face when he hears about this."