Chapter 1942 - 1941: Surveillance

Tang Rao still went the next day. Before he left, he went to find Tang Lei, said a couple of sentences to him, then stuck a syringe into Tang Lei's body. Tang Lei collapsed onto the bed and never woke up again.

"You sure this is gonna work? If your old man finds out you're the one who did this, he'll hack you to death."

Every time Bei Lin thought about how Tang Rao had laid hands on his own father, she couldn't help wondering if he'd be just as "heartless" to his own woman.

"He probably won't. My dad won't know it was me. Maybe by the time he wakes up, I'll have already brought my mom to him. Then he might even be all grateful and worshipful toward me."

Tang Rao started feeling blindly confident in himself.

"Quit bragging your ass off. With just the few of us, wanting to get your mom out, we're probably still short of something. Besides, even now I still can't be sure if it's enough for five people to go, or if there's something else we need to watch out for."

Wu Suowei only knew that to get someone out, there were lots of prerequisite conditions. As for these conditions, aside from needing the five women around Tang Rao, nobody could say clearly what the rest were.

"Of course you need other conditions. Otherwise what's the point of getting those five together?"

Just as Tang Rao's brain was starting to turn to mush, Tang Qingqing suddenly appeared in front of him.

Tang Qingqing and Tang Rao hadn't had any contact for days, and when Tang Rao left he hadn't told Tang Qingqing anything. So how did Tang Qingqing know that Tang Rao had come over here?

"Sis, how are you in this place?"

He was guilty, after all, and he was afraid Tang Qingqing showing up would ruin Tang Rao's plans.

"How do you think I'd be here?"

The more Tang Qingqing played coy with Tang Rao, the more it stoked his suspicion.

"You're not the mole my dad planted by my side, the traitor around me, are you?"

It was undeniable that Tang Qingqing showing up at this moment really did make it easy for people to suspect her.

"Of course I am. I admit I'm a traitor. But this time I'm betraying Dad to help you. So? Touched yet?"

Tang Qingqing, help him?

She'd always been her dad's spy, the dark post sent to keep an eye on Tang Rao. Since when would Tang Qingqing suddenly grow a conscience? If that were true, pigs would be flying into trees.

"I'm practically overwhelmed. But I'm telling you now, if you're here to talk me out of this, I suggest you save your breath. Everything's ready; we just need to go over there. We're almost at the finish line. Even if you want to talk me down now, it's too late."

Tang Qingqing couldn't help but snort with laughter.

"I really am here to help you. The old man knew you'd pull some dirty tricks, so he told me ahead of time: if he really got taken out by you and couldn't stop you, I was to tell you how to save our mom."

No need to keep stringing him along. If Fang Fang could be rescued a bit earlier, Tang Qingqing herself would be delighted.

"Seriously? Dad really predicted I'd do him like that, so he told you ahead of time to tell me this?"

To stop Tang Rao, Tang Lei really had racked his brains. In that frame of mind, he could still think of instructing Tang Qingqing about how Tang Rao could save Fang Fang—that was rare within rare.

"Of course it's true. Lying to you does me absolutely no good."

Tang Qingqing wasn't just going to tell Tang Rao the method; she also took the lead, walking toward Compassionate Mother Mountain.

"You haven't even said what to do yet. How am I supposed to believe you're telling the truth?"

Tang Rao wasn't stupid. He needed to know the cause and effect of things, needed to know whether Tang Qingqing was really going to do what she said. Otherwise, even if he made it to Compassionate Mother Mountain, he still wouldn't be able to calm down.

"You don't have to believe me. If you don't, stand at attention, turn around, and march back right now. If you do believe me, then keep following me to Compassionate Mother Mountain, and we'll go pick our mom up right this minute."

The choices Tang Qingqing gave Tang Rao were a bit narrow. Tang Rao was forced to trust her once. He was going to keep going—Compassionate Mother Mountain was right there in front of him. All he needed to do was take one step forward, and the distance between him and his mother would shrink as well.

"Telling you how to save her now won't help. Once we're outside the mountain, you'll naturally know what to do!"

Tang Rao wanted to know at least a little. Even getting some scraps of intel out of her was this hard. And they were supposed to be blood siblings. Tang Qingqing was really being unfair!

"Little brother, as your sister I still have to give you a heads-up: this trip is mostly danger and little chance of survival. Your decision might drag everyone around you down with you. Under these conditions, are you still going? If you're not, you still have a chance to back out!"

"I'm going. Of course I'm going. Sis, you'd better not let me find out you're playing some kind of game with me."

Tang Rao followed right behind Tang Qingqing. As long as their goal didn't change, there were still one or two things they could say to each other.

At the foot of Compassionate Mother Mountain, it was the first time Tang Rao had been so physically close to Fang Fang. The straight-line distance between them was only a few hundred meters. But on this area of the Central Island, the few hundred meters between the inside and outside of the mountain were equivalent in difficulty to a much longer distance outside the mountain.

"Alright then, we're outside now. Whatever you've got to say, say it."

Tang Rao went to find Tang Qingqing, waiting for one reliable sentence from her.

"Dad said only by becoming the 'heart' of the Five Fingers as One can you move the cold-blooded, merciless Gate of Fate. But turning the Five Fingers into One Heart is not that easy."

Hard or not, let's talk about what to do first, alright?

In Tang Rao's eyes, there were no difficult problems. As long as you gave him a possibility, he could turn it into reality for Tang Qingqing.

"You have to gather the blood of those five women, use the blood of the five to make a sacrifice to the heavens, then drip the combined blood onto your hands. Use your Divine Sense to spy on everything beneath the mountain, and then use your Divine Sense to transmit our mom out. That's it."

It sounded easy coming out of Tang Qingqing's mouth. As long as the method was right, nothing was a problem.

But once you actually did it, would it really be as simple as Tang Rao imagined?

"You said use their blood? Why? Isn't that hurting them? If they lose all their blood, how are they supposed to live?"

Tang Rao was thinking "use blood" as in using all of their blood, which was a bit horrifying. Luckily, Tang Qingqing's mind was more nimble. She immediately realized Tang Rao had probably misunderstood something in what she said. And sure enough, that was the case.

"What I mean is, you only need one drop of blood from each of them. Put the five drops together and that's enough. Not all the blood from five people. What would I even do with that much?"

Tang Rao really liked to make big jokes.

"That's all there is to it? Think again if there's anything you've missed, any other possibilities. Tell me so I can have some idea in my head, and of course, so I can be more mentally prepared."

Tang Rao wanted to ask more. Only by asking more could he prepare himself more thoroughly.