Chapter 424: Unlocking (3)

The so-called Path of Chivalry was often the latter.

Whether they acted for fame and fortune didn’t matter. As long as they appeared to perform a chivalrous deed, they were considered a follower of the Path of Chivalry.

And when, for their own purposes, they later committed some heinous, unconscionable act, it was merely seen as them straying from the path and falling into the Demon Path…

The human heart is difficult to fathom. Who could claim the martial world had ever been purely black and white?

And so, the search party combed the area for a full seven days.

After those seven days, Three Immortals Mountain was all but deserted.

Their numbers had been vast, and in those seven days, they had practically scoured the entire mountain from top to bottom.

Yet they hadn’t found so much as a scrap of Man Shengming’s clothing.

He had vanished too cleanly.

Consequently, all sorts of rumors began to spread.

Some said that Man Shengming had coveted the Jiaowei zither and stolen it for himself, that he was in league with the Heterodox Manor all along. For Jiang Ran to entrust the Jiaowei to him was like throwing a meat bun at a dog—it was never coming back.

Others claimed the Jiaowei zither had likely already fallen into the hands of the Heterodox Manor. After all, Man Shengming’s disappearance had been too thorough. The trail was most likely erased intentionally, and the only ones capable of such a feat were the Heterodox Manor.

They speculated that the Heterodox Manor disciples pursuing Man Shengming had killed him, stolen the Jiaowei zither, and destroyed the body to cover their tracks, all to throw everyone off the scent.

Beyond these two main theories, all sorts of other tales were also making the rounds.

There were claims that Man Shengming had lost his footing and fallen off a cliff, that he had ascended to immortality, or that he had somersaulted a hundred and eight thousand li away to the peak of the sea of clouds to spend the rest of his life guarding the Jiaowei…

The stories grew wilder by the day, each one more absurd than the last.

But throughout this whole affair, everyone agreed on one thing: the person who got the worst of it was Jiang Ran.

He had clearly won the top prize at the tea and zither gathering.

His martial prowess was sublime; he fought two Gang Leaders by himself as effortlessly as a father disciplining his unruly sons.

And the members of the four Evil Sects? He cut them down one by one, unable to even mount a decent resistance.

Only Bo Yan of the Divine Sect managed to escape with his life, and only because he fled so quickly.

Even the Young Manor Lord of the Heterodox Manor couldn’t withstand a single exchange with him.

After that battle, everyone in the martial world knew there was a new Assassin they could not afford to provoke.

His martial arts were supreme, his zither skills sublime. It had been a foregone conclusion that the Jiaowei zither would be his.

But thanks to the Heterodox Manor’s meddling, the Jiaowei zither that had been firmly in his grasp had simply sprouted wings and flown away.

Some gloated over his misfortune, while others who had suffered similar fates felt a sense of shared misery.

And then there were the drama-lovers, hoping to see if an enraged Jiang Ran would march straight to the Heterodox Manor and dismantle the centuries-old evil power.

But in the end, after waiting and watching for what felt like an eternity, the crowd found that after his fruitless search on Three Immortals Mountain, Jiang Ran had simply returned to Qifeng Manor and hadn’t been seen since.

Little did they know that at this very moment, inside a secret chamber in Qifeng Manor…

Jiang Ran, along with Tang Huayi, Ruan Yuqing, and a few others, stood well back.

In the center of the chamber, Jin Sanding was gritting his teeth so hard he looked like he wanted to shatter them. He struggled to lift his head and glare at Jiang Ran.

“You… you’re despicable! Shameless!”

“I’ll come back to haunt you! Even as a ghost, I won’t let you off the hook!”

Jiang Ran nodded.

“If you really do die and become a ghost, you absolutely must come and find me. It would be a real eye-opener. Afterward, I might even go looking for methods of immortal cultivation.”

“But for now, you’d best just play the zither.”

The zither, of course, was the Jiaowei.

And forcing Jin Sanding to play the Jiaowei was the very reason for his furious curses at Jiang Ran.

It was common knowledge that the Jiaowei could not be played lightly. Though it was said to hold an incredible secret, no one had ever been able to unlock it, leaving them to lament in frustration.

Yet after Jiang Ran had brought Jin Sanding back from Three Immortals Mountain, he had told him that he, Jiang Ran, knew how to open the Jiaowei.

But he needed a favor from him.

Jin Sanding was naturally unwilling, because one careless mistake in this “favor” could cost him his life.

But would Jiang Ran let him refuse?

He had smeared something called King Yan’s Wrath on one of Jin Sanding’s arms and then challenged him to an arm-wrestling match.

He came up with all sorts of ways to torture him.

Jin Sanding had never endured such torment in his life. He could only tearfully agree.

Of course, just agreeing wasn’t enough.

Jiang Ran had to make him play the sequence of notes correctly.

This took up most of Jiang Ran’s time.

Jin Sanding’s martial arts were actually quite decent, but he was utterly clueless when it came to scholarly pursuits like the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting.

Jiang Ran spent a full ten hours just teaching him the five basic notes of the pentatonic scale.

It was only under the threat of more King Yan’s Wrath that his progress finally sped up.

Even after that, his playing was a discordant mess.

It took several more days before he finally managed to play the ten-note sequence correctly.

But even so, as he looked at the Jiaowei in front of him, then glanced at Jiang Ran and his companions huddled by the chamber door—ready to bolt at the slightest sign of trouble—Jin Sanding’s heart was still filled with utter despair.

Just as he was about to press his fingers to the strings, he suddenly looked at Jiang Ran.

“I’ll play… but can you do one thing for me?”

“…What is it?”

“Find Lady Wu and ensure she’s safe.”

Jin Sanding’s face was flushed as he spoke, and he took a deep breath. “Promise me, and I’ll play!”

Jiang Ran frowned, looking at the prompt that had just popped up.

[Assassin Mission: Find Lady Wu and ensure her safety!]

[Accept?]

‘It’s been a while since I’ve seen one of these.’

He immediately nodded. “Alright, I promise.”

He said it casually, closing the mission interface as he did.

His past experience told him that these Assassin missions were usually a huge pain.

So he had no intention of accepting it.

Hearing Jiang Ran’s ready agreement, Jin Sanding hesitated no longer. He took a deep breath, his fingers twitched… and the sound of the zither instantly filled the room.

After days of agonizing practice, he played the ten-note sequence in one flawless, continuous stream.

As the ten notes spread through the air, ten cracks spiderwebbed across the secret chamber’s walls.

Jin Sanding stared dazedly at the zither before him, then down at himself…

“I’m still alive…”

The three words had barely left his lips when a soft CLICK echoed in the room.

A small, hidden compartment had popped out from the side of the Jiaowei.