"Oh, you don't know where Yu the Sword King hides his medicine?" Tang Lici released Hua Wuyan's fingers one by one, his voice deceptively light. "The medicine is hidden somewhere, and only Miss Hong knows where? Then please trouble you to lead the way—I wish to meet Miss Hong face to face."
His words carried a smile, his expression gentle—a perfect mask of civility. Yet beneath that pleasant facade, Tang Lici's five fingernails had deeply embedded themselves into Hua Wuyan's neck, leaving five wounds that seeped blood in thin rivulets.
As a master of poison, Hua Wuyan recognized immediately that Tang Lici's fingers carried venom. Though not lethal, it would prove troublesome—particularly given his existing injuries. Many of the toxins and poisonous powders he might normally disperse through the air were now unusable. He understood this was Tang Lici's true intention in marking his neck with those five bloody crescents.
The fingers carried poison naturally—not deliberately applied, but inherent to their owner.
"Miss Hong lives in the dark red tower," Hua Wuyan said with a measured sigh. "If she doesn't choose to come out herself, no one can see her. If you and I force our way in, she'll pull the alarm bell in the tower, and Yu Qifeng will immediately know you've arrived. Though there aren't many masters in the sword manor, once word gets out, your investigation into the pills will become far more difficult. Someone as intelligent as Young Master Tang surely understands this, don't you?"
Tang Lici's smile deepened. "I wouldn't dare to be presumptuous with a beauty. Since we crude men shouldn't enter her door, we can only wait for Miss Hong to come out herself." He regarded Hua Wuyan with leisurely confidence. "I don't wish to disturb the Sword King's reception of guests, nor do I have time to wait for a beauty's favor. If Miss Hong doesn't come out to see me in a moment, I'll twist your neck. How does that sound?"
"This…" Hua Wuyan maintained his smile despite the threat. "This naturally wouldn't be good, but even if you twist my neck, she still won't come out."
"Then it's simple."
Tang Lici's hand moved like a ghost, already at Hua Wuyan's neck. Severe pain bloomed, accompanied by an ominous click. Hua Wuyan closed his eyes, certain death had arrived—but then warm breath caressed his face. Opening his eyes in confusion, he found Tang Lici had gently blown a breath at him, sighing softly: "Someone like you actually doesn't dare fight for survival. Could the secrets behind you really be that terrifying?"
Hua Wuyan gazed at that impossibly beautiful face. His neck still throbbed with terrible pain—Tang Lici's grip hadn't loosened at all. Yet that lovely face smiled, eyes intoxicated like waves, carrying an enchanting allure that stirred something deep within. He couldn't help but lean back, unable to form an answer. Tang Lici didn't ask again.
The two remained locked in this tense standoff when suddenly Tang Lici smiled with unexpected gentleness and blew another warm breath across Hua Wuyan's lips.
What was he doing? Hua Wuyan could only hear his own heart pounding wildly. For an instant, his mind went completely blank. Then Tang Lici released him with a casual wave of his sleeves. "You may go."
Under normal circumstances, Hua Wuyan would have smiled and departed without hesitation. Instead, he stood frozen for a long moment before slowly leaving, his mind swirling with doubts and complete bewilderment.
Tang Lici—besides being scheming beyond measure and ruthlessly cruel—was truly a very strange person indeed.
After Hua Wuyan departed, Tang Lici smiled and surveyed his surroundings with evident satisfaction. Spotting a dark red tower in the near distance, he walked toward it with unhurried steps.
After barely thirty paces, the breathing sounds around him suddenly multiplied—clearly indicating numerous hidden watchers. He paid them no mind, walking gracefully toward the tower entrance. There, he noticed a white figure sleeping among the flower clusters, snow-white hair spilling across the petals. He couldn't help but smile.
"Ah, you came so quickly," the person lying among the white butterfly flowers sighed, continuing to sleep with closed eyes.
Tang Lici paid no attention, raising his head instead. A slender figure flashed briefly atop the dark red tower before disappearing from view. He bowed courteously toward the upper floor, then walked to the tower entrance and pushed open the great door, simply walking inside.
No alarm bell rang.
As he stepped onto the stairs leading to the second floor, a quietly dressed woman in white materialized at the stairway entrance. She was elegantly refined like a fairy descended from heaven, her eyebrows seemingly perpetually furrowed with worry. Even before seeing her full appearance, a thread of languid melancholy had already drifted over—like orchids in mourning, like weeping willows in wind.
"Miss Hong?" Tang Lici's footsteps didn't pause as he climbed, ascending with deliberate slowness. Cool breezes flowed through the tower, and he smiled as if riding those very currents.
Miss Hong nodded, her distant mountain-like eyebrows furrowing deeper. "Who are you?"
"I am Tang Lici." He smiled, having reached the last step but choosing not to continue upward. Standing on the step below Miss Hong, he positioned himself slightly shorter than her, looking up so his eyebrows aligned perfectly with her eyes.
"You are Tang Weiqian's sworn son, Consort Yun's sworn brother, the master of 'Wanqiao Studio'?" Miss Hong asked in a low, measured voice. Though her name carried no weight in the martial world, she seemed remarkably familiar with various people's backgrounds and histories.
"Correct." Tang Lici stood downwind as Miss Hong's subtle fragrance drifted past his nose. "Tang has traveled from afar, having heard rumors that the recently circulated Crimson Ghost Nine-Heart Pills in the martial world originated from the Yu family's sword manor."
"What Crimson Ghost Nine-Heart Pills? I've never heard of such things," Miss Hong said with studied indifference. "Young Master Tang holds a noble position—how could you challenge Yu the Sword King over hearsay?" Her delicate figure remained motionless at the stairway entrance, an immovable barrier. "Please return."
Tang Lici studied Miss Hong carefully, his smile knowing. "Miss doesn't know martial arts."
Miss Hong nodded and smiled faintly. "However, I have hundreds of methods to make you die here."
"Miss excels at mechanisms and hidden weapons," Tang Lici observed with appreciation.
Miss Hong didn't deny it, her gaze roaming over Tang Lici with clinical assessment. "You have an abdominal injury."
"Correct." Tang Lici's smile never wavered.
"Your purpose in coming to the Yu family sword manor isn't for the Crimson Ghost Nine-Heart Pills, but for something else," Miss Hong spoke each word deliberately.
"Also correct."
"Can you tell me what purpose made you spend fifty thousand taels of gold to buy Shen Langhun, and even risk coming here personally?" She regarded Tang Lici thoughtfully. This person stood below her, and though she controlled seventy-one hidden weapons throughout the tower, weighing the situation carefully, it seemed not one could be successfully launched.
Tang Lici elegantly arranged his sleeves with practiced grace. "How about we exchange conditions? I'll tell you the truth, and you tell me the truth."
"Conditions? You want to negotiate conditions with me?" Miss Hong's delicate eyebrows rose slightly.
"Is there no one in the world who has ever negotiated conditions with Miss?" He smiled with disarming warmth. "Miss is well-informed and extremely intelligent. I'll give you what you want, you give me what I want. We each get what we need without hurting our harmony—wouldn't that be excellent?"
"Besides the pills, what do you really want to know?" She stared intently at Tang Lici, as if trying to see through his layers of deception. "You're a very strange person—what do you really want?"
"I want the whereabouts of two people, and the answer to one question," Tang Lici said with infinite patience.
"Two people? Which two people?" she pressed.
Tang Lici smiled without answering.
"What about the answer to that question? What do you want to ask?"
"I want to ask someone: If I died, would you shed tears for me?" Tang Lici said gently, then sighed softly—a sound that carried unexpected weight.
Miss Hong was visibly stunned. "The people you're looking for are related to the pills?"
"Perhaps related, perhaps not," Tang Lici maintained his gentle tone. "That is my purpose."
"Your purpose is really so simple?" Miss Hong's sleeves fluttered with her agitation. "Tell me who you're looking for and what relationship they have with you, and I might consider telling you where the pills are."
"How about this?" Tang Lici's smile turned calculating. "Asking about others' relationships with me is nothing more than wanting to know my weaknesses. Why don't I tell you my weakness, and you tell me where the pills are—moreover, I can tell you my weakness first. Very favorable terms. Will Miss accept?"
"Oh? I can agree to that," Miss Hong said with careful indifference. "You speak first. After hearing it, I might turn hostile and refuse to acknowledge the deal."
Tang Lici smiled knowingly. "My weakness… hmm, I have injuries, and though Miss doesn't understand martial arts, you perhaps excel in medicine and can see the injuries on my body. Though my martial arts are high and my internal energy deep, I cannot fight with others too long, or my injuries will flare up—one corpse, two lives."
Miss Hong's delicate eyebrows drew together sharply. "You're not a pregnant woman—what do you mean 'one corpse, two lives'?"
Tang Lici merely smiled, offering no explanation. Miss Hong paused, processing this cryptic revelation. "Since you've candidly revealed your weakness, the pills' location isn't particularly important. It's fine to tell you, but you must answer the previous question."
She was obviously intensely curious now, examining Tang Lici from head to toe with renewed interest. "The Yu family sword manor's pills are buried beneath that patch of white butterfly flowers outside the door. If you dig in the soil, you'll naturally see them."
"Miss keeps her promises—truly trustworthy," Tang Lici said with evident satisfaction. "Tang takes his leave now." He turned leisurely and descended the steps with unhurried grace.
"Wait! That question from before…" Miss Hong called out, startled.
"Oh…" Tang Lici turned back with an impish smile. "Did I promise to answer just now?"
"You—" Miss Hong sighed quietly, recognizing she'd been outmaneuvered. "You're truly cunning. However, though I've told you where the medicine is hidden, you may not necessarily get what you want. Since you captured Hua Wuyan alive, why didn't you kill him?"
She held a white silk cloth in her hand with something unknown wrapped inside, waving it meaningfully toward the window. "With Hua Wuyan alive, heavy troops are already positioned outside the white butterfly flowers. Since Chi Yun and Shen Langhun aren't here, they must be restraining Yu Qifeng. With only you alone, can you break through my Fengliu Shop's Thirty-Three Assassins Formation? Truthfully, I hope you can."
"Who should be worried? What are Yu the Sword King's chances against Chi Yun and Shen Langhun?" Tang Lici said mildly, deflecting the implicit threat.
"Isn't Miss Hong concerned?"
Miss Hong stood gracefully like sculpted jade at the stairway entrance, lowering her gaze and saying with perfect indifference, "On the road to the Yellow Springs, having him accompany you—wouldn't that be good?"
"Mm, a good companion indeed," Tang Lici acknowledged. He had already stepped out through the tower door, pulling it shut gently behind him. "A lady's private chambers should avoid bloodshed."
Outside the tower, flowers and grass flourished in luxuriant abundance. White butterflies bloomed everywhere in dancing profusion. Xue Xianzi still slept peacefully in the grass while several dragonflies drifted lazily about—a scene of complete tranquility with no visible signs of murderous intent.
Tang Lici picked up the flower hoe Xue Xianzi had kicked away earlier and, with deliberate purpose, struck the soil with it.
Tang Lici—unfathomably profound in all his actions.
Miss Hong stood behind the second-floor window, silently observing the unfolding situation. If this person wasn't eliminated soon, they might find themselves capsized in the gutter at the hands of this world's richest man. He insisted on wanting those pills—what exactly did he seek?
No… he didn't want the pills themselves. What he wanted was "the location where the medicine is hidden." What was he trying to prove?
What exactly was he trying to prove? What he said about wanting two people's whereabouts and asking someone a question—was that true or false?
And also… this cryptic phrase "one corpse, two lives"…
She leaned against the tower windowsill, watching intently as that enigmatic figure headed toward the white butterfly flowers. A person like this, half-real and half-false—she didn't know why, but she believed everything he'd just said was true. But what kind of person could make Tang Lici search so persistently? And what kind of person could make him speak words like "If I died, would you shed tears for me?"
Unexpectedly, she found herself gently rubbing the half-section of short flute in her sleeve, thinking of someone—that person bent over the table playing qin and singing aloud. Though his qin skills weren't excellent, he played so freely and desperately, as if in this mundane world, only he remained, with his solitary inappropriateness and his solitary heartbreak.
Tang Lici struck the flower cluster with one decisive hoe stroke.
Xue Xianzi sat up with an indignant "aiya," but before he could speak, several extremely subtle string sounds sliced through the air. He cried "aiya" again and fell back down. Tang Lici flicked his robes with practiced ease, and four hidden weapons tumbled from his sleeves, falling harmlessly to the ground.
He held the flower hoe, smiling as he faced the masked figures in azure who slowly emerged from all directions like specters materializing from shadow.
Thirty-three of them, each holding a short flute.
So revealing that the pills were buried here was actually also to surround and kill Tang Lici, wasn't it?
He leaned on the flower hoe, standing calmly outside the thirty-three assassins formation. The person casually leaning against the bamboo pavilion plucking grass was precisely Hua Wuyan, whom he'd released earlier. Catching his gaze, Hua Wuyan smiled in return—a smile that held both acknowledgment and challenge.
What kind of person could inspire such loyalty in Hua Wuyan—loyalty so fierce he would prefer death over betrayal? What kind of person possessed such presence that after being thoroughly frightened, Hua Wuyan could lead troops back and within moments become calm and composed again?
Tang Lici's eyes took on a deep, contemplative cast. The master of the Crimson Ghost Nine-Heart Pills, the manipulator of Fengliu Shop—this was a formidable figure not to be underestimated.
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