Chapter 562: Trading Information
Dong Rui looked worried. “That man surnamed Mai has gotten himself into truly serious trouble if even the Heavenly Palace is investigating him. I’d better leave the city and lie low for a while.”
“Lie low, my ass. They don’t even know you exist,” He Lingchuan said with a laugh and a curse. “Also, that guy is hiding just fine. Lingxu City is enormous. Who the hell is going to dig him out so easily?”
The trip to Mount Xu would require planning and manpower. He could not afford to scare Dong Rui into running off.
“Besides, the Heavenly Palace only has the clues connected to the elixir of youth case. If they investigate anything, they’ll start there. They don’t have the time to bother with him just yet.” He Lingchuan looked at Dong Rui. “Have you found out where on Mount Xu Zhu Erniang’s shell is hidden?”
The retired old Chiyan official Xiang Yan had once said that only by placing an ancient marvel into the heart of an array could one draw forth a resonance between heaven and earth.
Even then, He Lingchuan had felt that sounded very much like Zhu Erniang’s molted shell, especially since the star chart on her abdomen was one of a kind. Still, he had to confirm it beyond doubt before taking any further action.
Dong Rui shook his head and sipped some wine. “Mount Xu has nine principal peaks. Seven of them have buildings on top; that’s not counting the smaller hills and side ridges. I’ve gone over all of them. I’ve visited every scenic site on the summits and slopes too. I found nothing.”
Both of them knew that Lingxu City had opened the immortal sect ruins on Mount Xu to the public for sightseeing, and there was not even an admission fee, all to demonstrate its supposed openness and magnanimity.
“Could it be in a cave?” Immortal mountains were always full of those grottoes and caves, aren’t they?
“I’ve gone through the immortal medicinal fields and the immortal cave abodes too. Nothing.”
He Lingchuan asked, “Zhu Erniang didn’t give you some magical artifact for locating the moltd shell?”
“She did, but the response was too faint.” Dong Rui pointed at his own eye. “You have one too, don’t you?”
The moment he made that gesture, He Lingchuan understood. Dong Rui meant the eyeball spider.
So Zhu Erniang had equipped Dong Rui with one of those little spies as well. No wonder, back in the swamp, He Lingchuan had kept counting Zhu Erniang’s eyes and always felt the number was off by one.
Once the eyeball spider entered Lingxu City, it reacted and confirmed that Zhu Erniang’s molted shell lay somewhere in the direction of Mount Xu. But it could not pin down the exact location. Presumably, one would have to get closer still.
“You even went into the Heavenly Palace?”
“I also went to Star-Plucking Tower and paid my respects to the gods.” Dong Rui chuckled. “The eyeball spider told me that something was blocking its perception. It was probably a barrier.”
When He Lingchuan first accepted this mission, he knew nothing about Lingxu City, much less what sort of place Mount Xu was. But now he knew that the floating island was where the true grandees of Lingxu City lived. Hiding the molted shell on Mount Xu, by contrast, sounded profoundly illogical.
And yet the eyeball spider had confirmed that the spider molt really was there.
“Can you determine the specific location of the barrier on Mount Xu?”
“Of course... I can’t!” Dong Rui glared irritably. “Do you really think that place is just some tourist attraction? For all you know, the gods themselves are watching us. I didn’t dare go swaggering around everywhere. You know perfectly well that the base material for my ghost ape came from Lingxu City.”
He Lingchuan gave a quiet “Oh.” That most formidable enforcer of Dong Rui’s, the ghost ape, had originally been the child of some general in Lingxu City. That was also the reason Dong Rui had once been wanted. The warrant might have been withdrawn now, but if the aggrieved party found out the monster puppet master had returned to Lingxu City, they might still make a move against him...
“So you didn’t bring the ghost ape with you?”
“I did not!”
“Then what model did you bring? Ah, what I mean is, what monster puppet?”
Dong Rui glared at him. “Didn’t you wreck them all?”
“You’re a monster puppet master. Without monster puppets at your side, you’re like a tiger without claws or fangs. How can that be acceptable?”
Did He Lingchuan think monster puppets were so easy to make? Dong Rui sneered.
“Stop hiding things. We’re on the same side now. In a few days, we may need to use them.”
Dong Rui remained unmoved. “As if life worked like that. You don’t just happen to have exactly what you need lying around.”
“So there really is something?” He Lingchuan mused. “What have you made this time? Another flying monster puppet?”
“No!” Dong Rui denied it flatly.
Tsk, then he definitely has.
This is exactly how he talked back in Demon Nest Swamp too, only to turn around later and ride out on two spider puppets.
He Lingchuan shifted the topic, “Try sounding out Mai Xuewen about where the barrier on Mount Xu is. Or rather, where the shell is.”
Dong Rui looked at him as though he were insane. “How would a wanted fugitive like Mai Xuewen know that?”
“Before you learned today that he was a wanted fugitive too, didn’t you already think his divine techniques were vast?”
Dong Rui said nothing. He had tacitly admitted it.
A man who could obtain a lost treasure from the Spring Palace’s collection, who had once helped Dong Rui flee Beijia, who could now leave nobles like the Minister of Finance frantically scrambling, and who had all but torn away the veil over the elixir of youth case by his own efforts—yes, “vast divine techniques” was an apt description.
“A man like that didn’t spring out of a crack in a rock. He must have his own network and his own channels of information.” He Lingchuan’s tone was calm. “He redirected the clues in the monster-hunting bead-harvesting case toward Baishajue, year after year, without fail. For someone to have that kind of patience, either he bears a deep and bitter hatred, or this is his assigned work. That’s the only sensible reason that could have persisted so steadily for so long.” He paused, then added, “Mai Xuewen most likely belongs to some organization. At the very least, he isn’t acting alone. Don’t the two guards in your courtyard already prove that?”
From Wan Song to Wu Kai, from Wu Kai to Cen Boqing, and from Cen Boqing up to the forces behind Qingfu Temple, the layers just kept on going up and up. Just what kind of monumental task was it to bring down the black hand behind the elixir of youth case?
If it were one organization fighting another, that was far more plausible.
He Lingchuan pressed on, encouraging him, “If you don’t try, how do you know it won’t work?”
Dong Rui hesitated before saying, “Actually, I did ask around and got two pieces of information.”
So his trip to Lingxu City had not been entirely fruitless after all.
“First, the man who stole Zhu Erniang’s shell back then committed some grave offense. He only escaped death by presenting the spider molt to the Lord Emperor, but his entire family was expelled from Lingxu City.” He paused. “That was about 170 years ago. No one knows where they ended up, and I couldn’t be bothered to investigate.”
Residency on the floating island was not hereditary forever, after all. Being driven out signified a fall in status.
“I also asked about the location of the molted shell.” Dong Rui scratched his head. “The response I got was that if you don’t want to die, don’t ask stupid questions. In Lingxu City, you’d better not even mention the words burrow spider molt.”
He Lingchuan looked at him suspiciously. “Who did you ask?”
Dong Rui gave a sly grin. “Can’t say.”
“Then—”
Dong Rui cut him off again. “Anyway, this person holds a very high position, and the information is reliable. If he says it, then it’s definitely true.”
He Lingchuan said evenly, “If, as you say, he holds a very high position, then can he get close to the molted shell?”
“Well...” Dong Rui thought for a moment. “I’m not entirely sure. Maybe?”
“Then tell him that the next monster puppet you plan to build must use material taken from that burrow spider molt.”
“My next monster puppet has absolutely nothing to do with him. Why would he help me?” Dong Rui said contemptuously. “Aren’t you supposed to be the clever one? And this is the rotten idea you came up with?”
“I’ve only just arrived in Lingxu. I need some time to get familiar with the place first.” He Lingchuan looked at him. “What was the second piece of information?”
“A little over ten years ago, Mount Xu, and all of Lingxu City with it, was hit by a major earthquake. Whole swaths of old buildings collapsed, and the casualties among the common people were severe. The rescue and cleanup reportedly went on for over half a month, and reconstruction afterward took several years.”
“That serious?” He Lingchuan frowned. “How strong is the origin energy gathered in Lingxu City? Couldn’t it suppress something as simple as an earthquake?”
One of the key uses of origin energy was precisely to ensure mild weather and minimize natural disasters.
During the first ten to thirty years after Yuan was founded, the state had been at the height of its power, and its origin energy had also been at its peak. Even when floods, fires, droughts, storms, or earthquakes broke out in various regions, they were quickly suppressed or at least greatly weakened. One did not hear of ongoing disasters that could not be controlled.
Lingxu City was known as the foremost city in the world, and even more than that, the famed land most favored by the gods. How could a natural disaster of such magnitude have occurred there?
“One of the two boys posted outside to watch over me originally lived in the northern outskirts of Lingxu City, right at the foot of Tianshu Peak on Mount Xu. He remembers that when he was little, Lingxu City had occasional tremors, but they were always just a few shakes of the ground, nothing serious. Only the great quake more than ten years ago was truly catastrophic. That evening, lightning flashed and thunder roared over Mount Xu to the north. Tianshu Peak erupted with torrents of blazing light, while dark clouds boiled across the sky, and gray ash and white vapor covered heaven and earth.”
“Blazing light in torrents?” That’s not a common way to describe things. “A volcanic eruption?”
“Yes,” Dong Rui said, taking a bite of food. “Tianshu Peak erupted at dusk. His family didn’t even bother packing their bedding. They fled toward the city at once. Luckily, they left in time. When they returned to their town a few days later, they found that the people who hadn’t fled, along with the chickens, cattle, dogs, and sheep, were all dead.”
The poisonous fumes, toxic gases, and ash from a volcanic eruption were indeed lethal to living things.
“Afterward, no one dared live beneath Tianshu Peak anymore. I think that area was turned into a military camp.” Dong Rui added, “And from what I asked around, no one even remembers the last time Mount Xu erupted before that.”
So Mount Xu’s ordinarily very stable.
“The Heavenly Palace is supposed to be the gods’ residence in the mortal realm. How could it possibly suffer a volcanic eruption?”
Dong Rui sipped his wine. “Popular rumor says the gods are keeping some great monster inside Mount Xu. The volcanic eruption was simply that monster throwing a fit. Personally, I think that explanation makes a lot of sense.”
“How so?”
“Go take a walk on Mount Xu yourself and you’ll understand.” Dong Rui sold him the mystery with deliberate satisfaction. “You’re going there anyway, aren’t you?”
“I am.” One of the main purposes of He Lingchuan’s trip to Lingxu City was precisely to visit Mount Xu. He changed the topic yet again, “By the way, I remember that Lingxu pardoned you already. You’re no longer a wanted fugitive.”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you still hiding in that house all day, too afraid to show your face in public?”
Who would not want to go about openly if they could? Dong Rui said irritably, “Lingxu City may have pardoned me, but that doesn’t mean my enemies will.”
He Lingchuan stretched lazily. “You should be heading back soon, shouldn’t you?”
Dong Rui grunted in assent and stood up, only to see He Lingchuan extend a hand toward him.
“What now?”
“The turtle pearl?” When Dong Rui left Demon Nest Swamp, he had taken He Lingchuan’s turtle pearl with him as well, though whether on purpose or by accident, no one could say. “Shouldn’t you be returning it to me now?”
Dong Rui rolled his eyes and reached for the pearl to hand it back. Then He Lingchuan suddenly added, “Oh, right, I nearly forgot something important. Do you have—” His voice dropped even lower as he continued, “A divine bone?”
Dong Rui’s heart jolted violently, though that ruined face of his could scarcely show an expression. “What is a divine bone?
