Contact Person

Mirror of Sin had two kinds of assassins.

One kind was trained by Mirror of Sin itself. They were not listed on Mirror of Sin's "Evil Execution List" and were often active in branch offices across various regions.

Their duties were to assist assassins with missions, investigate targets, gather intelligence, accept commissions, and the like.

Chu Qing had never truly looked deeply into the specifics, nor did he have a suitable channel through which to learn more.

The other kind was recruited from the outside world.

This situation was rather more complicated. Everyone who joined Mirror of Sin as an assassin had their own reasons.

Some sought excitement, some were driven by life's hardships, and some did it for the justice in their hearts... like the original owner.

At the same time, there were inevitably people with sinister intentions, joining Mirror of Sin in an attempt to probe its foundations.

Some of them were planted by intelligence organizations within Mirror of Sin, dreaming of obtaining firsthand information.

Others were Mirror of Sin's enemies, trying to use this opportunity to discover the location of its headquarters and wipe it out in one fell swoop.

All in all, people's hearts differed, and their purposes were not the same.

In the face of such circumstances, Mirror of Sin had its own set of protective mechanisms.

Contact persons were one link in that mechanism.

Every assassin recruited from outside would have a contact person.

Their main duty was to communicate with Mirror of Sin on the assassin's behalf, while receiving commissions from Mirror of Sin for the assassin to choose from.

A capable contact person could even help an assassin devise an assassination plan.

Some of these contact persons were trained by Mirror of Sin itself, while others had earned Mirror of Sin's trust through other channels and thus gained such an identity.

Chu Qing's contact person belonged to the latter category.

Like Chu Qing, that man was dissatisfied with the state of the world.

He had once told Chu Qing:

"The powerful and wealthy run rampant, treating human lives like blades of grass. In these chaotic times, the contenders for supremacy regard the common folk as mere ants.

"Ordinary people who die amid the struggles of the martial world have nowhere to air their grievances. Even after their teeth are knocked out, they can only swallow them down with their blood.

"This is unfair!"

Chu Qing had deeply agreed, and for a time had regarded him as a kindred spirit.

As they interacted more often, he learned many things from the man.

Chu Qing's skills in disguise and changing appearance, as well as all manner of knowledge required of an assassin, had all been taught to him by that man through word and example.

Only later did Chu Qing learn that he was a contact person for Mirror of Sin.

This had also been the original owner's chief reason for joining Mirror of Sin.

What was more, that man had played a crucial role in allowing Chu Qing to discover that Mirror of Sin was different on the surface than beneath it.

The last time he had seen him, the man had already suffered grave injuries and was on the verge of death.

The last words he left Chu Qing were:

"Mirror of Sin cannot be trusted. You... you must get away as soon as possible!"

After that man died, Mirror of Sin assigned Chu Qing another contact person.

That was how Zhou Changtai's commission came about.

Yet... he had never imagined even in his dreams that this man, who had clearly died, would appear in Heavenly Dance City!

And he had even disguised himself as an Itinerant Doctor, wandering around the Chu Family's vicinity.

"What exactly is going on?"

Chu Qing reined in his gaze and did not alert the other man.

Yet the confusion in his heart continued to grow.

If that man's death had been a pretense, what had been its purpose?

Had he discovered Mirror of Sin's true nature and used this to escape from Mirror of Sin? Faked his death?

But if that was the case, why had he not said so plainly?

And if he had not wished to say it plainly, why had he uttered such words at the final moment, making the original owner suspicious of Mirror of Sin?

Which had led the original owner to outwardly obey while inwardly defying orders when assassinating Zhou Changtai, only to be pursued and intercepted by Mirror of Sin afterward...

At that thought, Chu Qing's brow suddenly lifted.

He had not previously given much thought to the original owner's experiences, but this man's appearance forced Chu Qing to consider the strangeness of it all.

If a person's death was fake, what reason was there to believe his words were true?

Given how well that person understood the original owner, he could not possibly have failed to foresee the effect those words would have.

And after his death, Mirror of Sin had arranged a new contact person.

But because of those words, the original owner trusted neither Mirror of Sin nor this new contact person.

Therefore, he had not told anyone how he intended to carry out Zhou Changtai's assassination or how he planned to escape afterward.

So how had Mirror of Sin determined his escape route?

Had they been sending people to watch the original owner all along?

No!

The original owner had been an assassin, after all. He had been in the trade for nearly a year, and he had some skill in this regard.

For people like Blood Spear's group to completely evade his notice and secretly monitor him... that was absolutely impossible.

"Perhaps they weren't watching that unlucky original owner... but Zhou Changtai.

"As long as they saw whether Zhou Changtai died, they could determine whether the original owner's assassination had succeeded.

"Besides, every assassin had a different style of operation.

"Ordinarily, without constant surveillance, trying to ambush an assassin whose vigilance was nearly at its peak would require nothing short of foresight.

"Unless someone understood him to an extreme degree and could predict his movements..."

Chu Qing withdrew his gaze, lifted his teacup, and drained it in one gulp.

"If the original owner's route had been suggested by him, then everything the original owner went through before had been nothing but falling into a trap.

"A net that had already been woven..."

As for the purpose, Chu Qing already had a seventy to eighty percent grasp of it.

Thinking of this, Chu Qing felt fortunate.

Though the original owner had trusted that man completely, he had still kept his guard up.

From beginning to end, he had never revealed his name, family background, or origins.

At first, he had withheld them out of caution. But later, he had come to feel that friendship between gentlemen lay in the heart rather than appearances. A name was merely a label; what was there to speak of?

As for his martial arts, he had not wanted anyone to learn of his connection to the Chu Family, lest Chu Yunfei follow the faintest clues and find him.

Thus, the martial arts he displayed outside were all ordinary sword techniques one could commonly see, while he had never once used the family-inherited Azure Void Palm.

This was also the greatest reason he had been able to perish together with Blood Spear.

Now that he considered it, if the other party had learned his true origins, the consequences would have been simply unthinkable.

"If my guess is correct, his purpose in Heavenly Dance City is not difficult to infer.

"It seems there is no time to lose..."

As Chu Qing pondered this, he heard the topic among the people in the teahouse change again.

"I heard that the Chu Family head is throwing a grand banquet tomorrow to celebrate Second Young Master Chu's return after completing his studies. There'll be a flowing feast for three days and three nights!"

"That's true. Over the past two days, the Chu Family's chief steward has visited several well-known restaurants, including Zhiwei Restaurant and Green Bamboo Pavilion, to prepare for the flowing feast."

The idle patrons in the teahouse suddenly began discussing another matter.

Chu Qing's ears twitched slightly, and he frowned. By then, the "Itinerant Doctor" had long vanished at the end of the street.

He did not follow him. That man's abilities were extraordinary; if Chu Qing acted rashly, he would only startle the snake in the grass.

"But... he will never let this opportunity slip by when the Chu Family holds a banquet."

Chu Qing let out a soft breath. His eyes narrowed slightly, and a plan had already formed in his mind.

Then someone else spoke up:

"I heard even City Lord Wu has been invited."

By all reason, with the Chu Family being in Heavenly Dance City, it was only natural for Wu Ganqi, as the city lord of Heavenly Dance City, to receive an invitation under such circumstances.

Yet the moment those words were spoken, everyone present wore peculiar expressions.

Someone suddenly spoke in a low voice:

"Do you think Young Miss Wu... will come?"

"Probably not. After all, Young Miss Wu once said, 'The disgrace of the Chu Clan must be engraved upon my heart; I dare not forget it for even an instant.' If she came, wouldn't that mean she had forgotten the humiliation of fleeing from the marriage?

"What kind of person is Eldest Young Lady? There's no way she would slap her own face like that."