Chapter 868: You’ve Fallen for It (2)

North from Jinping County, back to Kunming.

The patient lockdown zone they revisited felt... gentler, if you could call it that. Peaceful, even.

Kids were running around. Adults sat on benches, soaking up winter sunlight that felt like a mild Kunming spring day, like they had nothing better to do.

The original atmosphere had been: the sick lying there wheezing, their families with exhausted eyes and slumped shoulders from tending them—kids still running around even then, sure, but anyway.

So what did this mean?

It meant the illness was coming under control.

Symptoms had improved, but the lockdown remained, so with nothing to do, everyone was spending their days leisurely, enjoying themselves.

When they stepped into the estate of that unknown Unorthodox Sect—some “whatever sect” that had been raising hell inside the lockdown zone—a cranky old man immediately came into view.

The Lord Physician.

He looked at Qing and said one thing.

“You’re here?”

It was an absurdly plain welcome.

Even though it wasn’t just Qing—an entire pack of martial artists had surged in at once.

“Daoist Master, this is the Lord Physician. Lord Physician, this is Daoist Master Gilun of Diancang.”

“It’s been a while, Lord Physician.”

“You could’ve come a little earlier. When things were actually busy, you weren’t here. For Yunnan business to need help from out-of-towners.”

“It’ll be busy from now on, so please be patient with us.”

From the looks of it, they knew each other.

While the Lord Physician grumbled and Daoist Master Gilun’s smile somehow turned sour as they traded light greetings—

RRRRK! BANG!

The sound of a door sliding and flying open, and a sharp voice stabbed Qing’s ears.

“Ah! Qing!”

WHOOSH—SLAP.

Tang Nanna burst out and launched herself into Qing, clinging like a cicada to an old tree as she wrapped her up in a fierce hug.

It might look like some violently intense welcome, but Qing just accepted it as normal.

Mm. She saw Jayeo cling to me all the time, so Nanna probably wanted to try it too. Whatever.

“You’re not hurt anywhere, right? No new holes, no metal shards stuck in you, no damaged or severed meridians, right?”

“I’m fine, okay? Nothing happened.”

“Lots happened. Every day without you is an incident for me.”

“Oh. I almost got fluttery. So, the prescription? Is it finished now? The patients looked better.”

“Not yet. I’m mixing this and that into the antidote for corpse poison, you know? The medicine’s pretty harsh, so I think we need to watch it a bit longer.”

Because it was poisoning layered with illness, there’d been major improvement, but she still hadn’t finalized a complete prescription.

But as Qing had already seen—the peaceful vibe of the lockdown zone—it was basically finished anyway.

That was when it happened.

Another pair of arms grabbed Qing in a hug.

Seol Iri—hugging hard enough to crush her.

Tang Nanna’s round face, caught between them, got squashed flat.

“Hey, what the hell. You. Get off.”

“Me. No.”

What? It’s me. Get off? I won’t.

She only slipped into polite speech when she was trying to needle someone, and Gunyeong was a little—no, a lot—pathetic, but she wasn’t stupid.

“San is, mm. Never mind.”

Qing was about to ask after Peng Daesan, then shook her head.

Women who didn’t seem to be doing any work were wandering left and right, tossing their eyes toward one spot like they were trying to pretend they weren’t. It was practically obvious where he was.

Anyway—Half-Sword Twin-Blade Society, regroup!

*****

Dali County.

More precisely, it was a region called Dali Prefecture.

It was the capital of the Dali Kingdom, which had been incorporated into the Central Plains, and since it was the Dali King’s fief, “prefecture” was technically the correct title rather than “county.”

But people had called it “Dali” and “Dali County” for so long that in practice no one bothered separating county and prefecture.

When you said “Dali County,” the most famous thing—obviously—was stone.

Dali stone. Marble.

That marble was this marble.

So: Dali!

But Dali was only a stopover.

Dali was also famous for a huge lake shaped like an ear—Ear Sea Lake.

As you could tell from the “sea” in the name, it was truly massive. In the unit system Qing’s people understood most easily, it was about fifty-five Yeouido worth of lake.

And on the far side of the lake, a massive natural wall—capped with eternal snow—stretched left and right.

That mountain range was Mount Cang.

And Mount Cang’s other name was Mount Diancang.

So: Diancang!

They left a few Diancang martial artists behind to guard the lockdown zone, and Qing’s group finally reached the true purpose of the trip—the moment they arrived at the Diancang Sect.

When you visit someone else’s sect, the first thing you do is greet the elders.

The Diancang Sect leader, Daoist Master Gilgam, had thick white hair—an immortal’s bearing, if there ever was one.

Which, honestly, was a little unusual.

Unlike the past, the current martial world had the Martial Alliance quietly “align” generation ranks, so sect leaders also tended to take office early and retire early, ending up roughly the same age.

If you thought of Heaven-Escape Sword Wang Juhee of the Priestess Order—how she gave off the impression of a warm, comfortable aunt—then the Diancang Sect leader’s thoroughly aged appearance really was strange.

“Heh-heh. You’ve suffered a lot.”

“No. Daoist Master Gilun was there too.”

“That’s why I’m saying you suffered a lot.......”

Daoist Master Gilgam let out a long, heavy sigh.

“My junior brother speaks without thinking—no, not without thinking. With a lot of not thinking. No—he doesn’t even pass through the process of thinking before he moves his mouth. But he isn’t an evil person. If there’s anything he said that you’re still holding on to, just think of it as meeting a senior with a prickly personality inside righteous politics. That brat—no, my junior brother—surely spoke without thinking, so he probably doesn’t even remember what he said. It wasn’t malice, so you don’t need to hold it in your heart either—(omitted)”

Qing realized it.

Ah. This is why he’s aged so much.......

He must have spent his entire life worrying about what kind of disaster his junior brother would cause the second he opened his mouth.

“I really don’t mind, so you don’t have to worry. And I tend to talk pretty rough too, so honestly I had fun.”

“How do you speak so prettily. Even your words—I’m truly grateful. So, you want to see Broken-Sword Cliff? Tch. This bastard Gilun—he abandoned all his disciples and came back.”

Because Gilun had dragged out the Sun-Shooting Sword masters—Diancang’s elite—then returned after scattering them everywhere.

Not just in Kunming’s lockdown zone—because there was talk about Bai smallpox and how public sentiment toward the Bai people was turning ugly, he’d left two in each city.

In the end, the only one who returned was Daoist Master Gilun himself.

“Uh, then... how many days should we stay? Until your disciples come back?”

“No. Even if those kids look, it’s not like they’ll realize anything. You shoot a bow and the bow improves—you don’t learn much by watching someone else shoot when you’re still lacking. It’s better to ask the masters and share insights. The ones they call Supreme Elders are idle layabouts with nothing to do—so they should contribute to the sect like this.”

They said you became black if you stayed next to black—wasn’t the sect leader’s speech getting pretty aggressive too?

After greeting in the Sect Leader Hall, they returned to the Guest Hall—

and familiar faces came out to meet them.

Among them, a kid who looked especially tired widened already-big eyes even further, rounder, as she stared at Qing.

Then came that quick, mischievous little-kid footfall—pitter-patter-pitter-patter—and the kid hurled herself in without any fear.

Of course, Qing’s chest was soft and springy and had more than enough cushioning, so there was no way the kid would get hurt.

Qing scooped Jayeo up and spun in circles.

“KIIHEEHEE!”—a laugh so high it was practically ultrasonic. What, is she a dolphin? But honestly, that’s just what kids’ laughter sounded like.

“Jayeo, you’ve been good, yeah?”

“Yeah. Yeah.”

“Heema too. Nothing happened, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah.”

Kids picked things up fast, so it seemed Heema’s habit of doubling “yeah” had rubbed off instantly.

And seeing Heema—heh.

Today, they should use one bed, just family, all cozy together.

With a sly look, Qing glanced—somehow—at Gyeon Pohee, but their eyes didn’t meet. Somehow her gaze seemed lower than usual—

That was when it happened.

“Right. The commercial guild sent word.”

“Huh. The commercial guild? Seol House Commercial Guild? How—well, no, they must’ve sent someone to the Diancang Sect.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Here. So, they said... they found it?”

“Found what?”

“They said the younger sister asked them to find someone before she left?”

“Me? Ah.”

Something flashed through Qing’s mind.

Come to think of it, she might’ve asked them to look into the owner of one of the Ten Greatest Demonic Arts Under Heaven.

“Oh, right. Oh, they found them? Mm, but I could’ve just heard it when I got back—why send someone all the way here. Ah, is it nearby?”

“Mm-hmm.”

Gyeon Pohee’s “mm-hmm” meant no.

You could say, for a grown woman, what kind of habit is that—some cutesy act—but Gyeon Pohee was basically a brain-melting provocation incarnate, so if anything it felt closer to lewdness, and, mm. Even better.

“They said Changbai Mountain.”

“Changbai Mountain?”

A hard crease carved into Qing’s brow.

In Qing’s homeland, Changbai Mountain was their sacred ancestral mountain—called White-Head Mountain.

The problem was, by Central Plains standards, Changbai Mountain was in the far east—no, the far northeast edge of the world.

So they’d have to stop by the Priestess Order anyway, but sending someone all the way to the Diancang Sect for this......

And given what the message was, it would’ve had to be a guild member personally......

Of course, by common sense, that was obvious.

But religion was never common sense. Religion wasn’t reason—it was emotion.

How could Qing possibly understand the zeal of devotees who wanted to deliver the answer directly to the living god-sage born into the world, the highest and most august being?

She didn’t know—and she would never, ever know—that when people volunteered to run courier dispatch to pass along the news, things escalated until there was actual bloodshed.

“They say there’s a monster with blood vessels all over his body bulging out black. So, mm, the Changbai Mountain mon—”

All of a sudden, Qing felt a chill she couldn’t explain.

Somehow—danger. No. Monster is bad. Isn’t it? Huh? Why? What? Why is it bad? Wh-y? B-a-d?

“—ster man, they call him.”

“Whew. What is this? Why am I relieved? Why do I feel like I almost got into huge trouble? Why?”

No one could know.

“Anyway—‘Changbai Mountain monster man,’ that’s it?”

“Yeah. Yeah. They say he has black blood vessels bulging all over and he tears animals apart and eats them raw and stuff.”

“Ah. That.”

That was the trait of an Inverted-Blood Demon—the one that Seol House’s near-top intellect had explained.

Inverted-Blood Demon—Sky-Rending Inverted-Blood, demonic art? No, not that. It had some long, complicated name. What was it?

The answer was Sky-Rending Reversed-Blood Heart-Erosion Needle-Stab Manual.

Anyone would mix it up. If anything, the weird part would be someone who could memorize it perfectly.

So this time, you couldn’t blame Qing for being dumb.

Scratching her head hard, Qing thought.

But Changbai Mountain is... mm... kind of far, isn’t it?

And to go toward Liaodong, there was no way around passing through Jianping.

While she was at it, she could stop by that cave where she’d first awakened. Back then she hadn’t had the leisure, and she’d been too busy adapting to this primitive ancient Central Plains to think straight—so if she went now, maybe something would still be there?

If she thought of it that way, then, sure—two birds with one stone, and even if it was far, it couldn’t be helped.

Mm. Still, though—too far, isn’t it......?