Chapter 571: Unmoved
Hong Chenglue’s face twitched. “Enough!”
Though Wu Qing had handed over the Cold Dove Powder at A’Jin’s own request and had later reported the matter to Hong Chenglue, He Lingchuan was still right. A’Jin knew nothing about poisons. Wu Qing could easily have fobbed her off with a sugar pill. Why, then, had he given her a genuine lethal toxin?
Who, exactly, had wanted A’Jin dead?
“When armies clash, the disaster should not extend to family members. In that, my father acted badly. He was too calculating, too eager to weigh gains and losses.” He Lingchuan drew a slow breath. “I don’t know what feud or entanglement lies between you and whichever great figure in Beijia stands behind this. But wrongs have their source, and debts their proper debtor. My father only abducted A’Jin. He didn’t kill her, and he had no intention of killing her.”
He Chunhua had only wanted to use A’Jin to force Hong Chenglue to retreat. If he had killed her outright and made a deadly enemy of Hong Chenglue for nothing, what possible benefit would that have brought him?
Setting aside questions of morality, if He Chunhua’s plan had succeeded in driving Hong Chenglue back, far fewer soldiers would have died in the Battle of Han River.
Was that not, from his father’s perspective, the best solution after weighing all the costs?
Only, someone had not wanted to see that outcome.
“The fact that you still haven’t drawn your blade against me means you already know, deep down, that the one who drove A’Jin to her death was not me, nor our side.” He Lingchuan pressed on. “It’s just that the real culprit is too powerful. Even you can’t defy them, so all you can do is place the hatred on my father instead. In that respect, you’re really no different from the helpless commoners of Bailu Town.”
Too afraid to hate the strong, they could only bully the weak.
Hong Chenglue’s hand tightened on his sword hilt, and a sliver of cold light spilled free.
The mockery in He Lingchuan’s words only fed his anger.
Yet He Lingchuan met Hong Chenglue’s eyes directly, without the slightest flinch. “You can spread my real name and identity wherever you like. Every year, countless outsiders flee to Beijia. Some are vile criminals, some are subjects of enemy states, but Beijia has never cared. They all live here just fine.” He even smiled as he added, “What makes you think Beijia would treat me differently?”
He Lingchuan’s confidence was not without basis.
People were always drawn toward strength. Since Beijia was known as the state favored by the gods, the number of monsters and humans struggling to push their way in was impossible to count. As far as He Lingchuan knew, Beijia did not reject capable men, nor did it fuss overly much about their origins, even if they came from enemy lands.
That was the confidence that came with power.
He Lingchuan had long known that Beijia cared little for the fighting inside Yuan. Even State Preceptor Shuang Ye’s proposal to transfer some portion of origin energy to support Nian Zanli had met with opposition inside Beijia itself.
This meant that Beijia had never regarded Yuan as anything worth taking seriously, much less as a true rival. So why would the son of a mere Governor-General of Xia Province in Yuan arriving in Lingxu City be anything worth making a fuss over?
In this city, there were plenty of people with darker records than his, more tangled backgrounds than his, and far better lives than his.
What was so special about He Lingchuan that he should merit even a second glance from Beijia?
“Look around you. Who here cares about Yuan to the west? Who cares what you suffered in Yuan? And who would care that your enemy from Yuan has appeared here as well?”
All around them, the guests were smiling and chatting, the very picture of peace and prosperity.
This was Lingxu City. The people of this land favored by the gods had the right to care about no one at all.
Hong Chenglue said nothing. He only stared at him without blinking.
He Lingchuan met his gaze calmly, unafraid. “I came to Lingxu City as the State of Chiyan’s special envoy to assist in investigating the elixir of youth case. If you make a move against me now, you’ll only be inviting unnecessary trouble.”
Something shifted in Hong Chenglue’s expression. This little brat... He’s changed after just a few months.
“Oh? What trouble?” He gave a mocking smile. “You do think highly of yourself.”
“General Hong.” He Lingchuan’s expression grew grave. “Though your office has been restored, at present you’re still just an idle general in Lingxu City. If you get dragged into some troublesome affair now, you may find yourself left off the list when men are chosen to go east and fight.”
At that very moment, an attendant came hurrying over and said to the two of them, “Gentlemen, the auction is about to begin. His Highness the Crown Prince of Chiyan asks for your presence!”
Fushan Yue had noticed what was going on here.
The killing intent in Hong Chenglue’s eyes receded somewhat. Coldly, he said, “This matter between us isn’t over.”
He Lingchuan smiled and raised a hand. “After you.”
Hong Chenglue took a cup of wine from the tray of the little tree spirit and then strode back toward the auction floor without another word.
Only after He Lingchuan walked back at an unhurried pace, his face composed, did he realize that his back was already soaked through with sweat.
Was he not afraid that Hong Chenglue would expose his true identity?
He was terrified.
Bai Ziqi had been investigating his background all along and might even send people all the way to the State of Fu to look into him. The moment it came out that He Lingchuan was from Yuan and had ties to the Panlong Desert, it would be all too easy to connect him to the Generous Pot.
Given how seriously Lingxu City took the Generous Pot, nothing good would come of that for him.
Fortunately, Hong Chenglue knew none of this.
He did not realize that he was already holding He Lingchuan’s life in the palm of his hand.
He Lingchuan quietly let out a breath.
Lingxu City truly was a place where every step hid brambles.
How many enemies did he even have in total? And yet they had all somehow gathered here. Sit them down, and they could probably make up two full tables for mahjong.
Damn the whole lot of them.
Only then did he finally have the leisure to examine that little tree spirit.
Sure enough, it was fake.
In truth, it was just a crudely made puppet. In principle, it was no different from his golden-armored copper man or Wu Shaoyi’s messenger pigeon. The real difference was that this thing required an operator. When He Lingchuan moved behind it and looked more closely, he discovered that inside the shell was some kind of creature in its original form, wearing the little tree spirit’s outer skin and flying about the hall serving tea and wine like a waiter.
Though it was somewhat sluggish, it had indeed broken the rhythm of the impending clash between the two of them earlier, doing He Lingchuan a great service.
So he took out a silver ingot from his robes and placed it on the little tree spirit’s tray. “My thanks.”
The little tree spirit immediately chirped in gratitude, “The honored guest is generous!”
At once, however, a much shorter figure squeezed in beside it and snatched the silver off the tray without ceremony, scolding as it did so, “What do you mean, ‘the honored guest is generous’? Are you still pretending you work in a tavern carrying trays? You’re supposed to say, ‘thank you for your patronage!’”
He Lingchuan looked down and found a gibbon standing at his side, with a patch of white fur on its brow.
Oh, it’s the fellow from a few days ago. It was the tour guide and group leader from that one-day excursion to Lingxu City’s outskirts. Their name had been Old Ge, if he remembered right.
How did this guy end up in Dun Garden too?
He Lingchuan frowned. “That tip was for it.”
The gibbon, Old Ge, bared its teeth in a grin. “They all work for me, so the money they earn comes to me for distribution! No need to worry, honored guest, it’ll get its share!”
The little tree spirit settled down on Old Ge’s shoulder, apparently with no resentment at all.
“I thought you led tour groups.”
“I take any job that turns a profit.” Old Ge chuckled. “Steward Fang said Dun Garden’s auction was still short a few eye-catching gimmicks to brighten the place up, so I brought my people in.”
“Your people?”
The little tree spirit lifted off its outer shell, revealing its true form.
It turned out that they were a group of creatures shaped rather like mantises. They could fly, but their natural appearance was black and rather ugly, so they looked far better once dressed in puppet shells.
A thought stirred in He Lingchuan’s mind. “It appears that you really do know your way around the Lower City.”
Dun Garden’s auction might look open and relaxed, but in truth, one did not enter without an invitation, and one did not enter without rank or status. It was not the sort of place that just anyone could come. So Old Ge had not been entirely bluffing during that sightseeing tour. He really did know people at every level, from the respectable to the disreputable. He counted as half a local power in his own right.
Old Ge thumped his chest. “Why just the Lower City? I do just fine in the Upper City too.”
“Good.” He Lingchuan exchanged contact methods with him. “I’ll come find you if I need something.”
“Certainly, certainly.”
He Lingchuan then made his way back at an even pace and sat down beside Fushan Yue.
At that exact moment, another lot on the stage was struck down with the hammer.
“Next up, lot number 1,111, an unknown curiosity. Opening price, three taels of silver.”
He Lingchuan was startled. “Why is it still this thing?”
Before Hong Chenglue had drawn him off to the corner, they had already been about to auction off that horn. Yet after he finished his conversation with Hong Chenglue, then chatted a while longer with Old Ge before returning, the thing still had not been sold!
There it was on the stage, the unknown curiosity shaped like a horn, right down to its color.
A little item like this should never have taken long to sell. With a lot so minor, a chief auctioneer like the one on stage would be showing it special favor if he gave it even twenty breaths of attention.
Fushan Yue rolled his eyes, already a little impatient. He was waiting to watch the bidding for the boundless gold, and this miserable little object was only delaying things. “Just now, right when they were about to auction it, the auctioneer realized the organizers had supplied the wrong description. So they pushed it back and sold something else first.”
One of He Lingchuan’s eyebrows rose, though he kept a firm grip on himself, refusing to respond to the divine bone amulet’s continuing heat.
Too many odd things had already happened around these so-called unknown curiosities. First, the display case had been watched. Then the horn had suddenly been moved from Heavenly Rain Tower to Fragrance Hall. Then, when it first came up for sale, they claimed they had the wrong documentation...
It was almost as though the whole thing had been arranged specifically to wait for him.
The moment that thought occurred to him, a chill crawled through his scalp.
He had only just arrived in Lingxu City, and Star-Plucking Tower had already wanted to drag him in. At this point, he was suspicious of everything around him.
Whatever the divine bone amulet wanted, it was not worth taking a risk for right now.
So he simply ignored the auction for the horn altogether, took a cup of wine, and began speaking quietly with Fushan Yue below the stage.
Unknown curiosities were not especially easy to sell. The auctioneer called twice, and no one responded.
Just as it seemed the lot was about to fail and the auctioneer was ready to bring down the hammer and call for the next item, someone in the audience finally raised a plaque. “I’ll take it.”
He Lingchuan glanced sideways. What a coincidence. It’s the same grumbling customer from before.
His broad-faced, large-eared companion was still seated beside him. “You really are buying this thing?”
“Why not? It’s cheap enough.”
Once he entered a bid, the auctioneer had to begin the count again.
Fortunately, no one else competed with him for it. The hammer came down at last, and the horn sold for three taels of silver.
The grumbling customer cheerfully paid and took the item away.
The Soul-Stealing Mirror in He Lingchuan’s robes could not resist asking, “You seem to have wanted that thing?”
He gave the faintest hum of acknowledgment.
“Then why didn’t you bid?”
He Lingchuan did not answer. Fushan Yue was right beside him, and the man’s hearing was excellent. It would not do to start chatting casually with a mirror.
“Then knock that chatterbox out later and take it from him?”
He Lingchuan shook his head very slightly.
Forget it. Lingxu City’s huge, and there are treasures everywhere. The divine bone amulet doesn’t necessarily have to eat that horn, does it? Next time, I can simply find it something even tastier. Wouldn’t that settle the matter?
At that moment, the crowd below was already urging the auction onward. “Alright, alright! Next lot, next lot!”
