Tracking

The attendants below remained oblivious to the flashing lights overhead and the Tibetans, continuing their leisurely conversation.

"If you are asking about Guo Bao, go to the East Market and ask him which restaurant he is entertaining people with today. Send him a visiting card and pay him a visit directly. However, you must change into a fine dress and wear two Golden hairpin. Be open and aboveboard. Otherwise, you might not even be able to enter the main gate in this state and will be arrested and investigated by the guards as a spy."

If you offend Wang Lang, he hunts in the North City Pear Garden every day and rides into the city through Guanghua Gate every evening, heading straight for the West Market's Hai Chi to drink. He is accompanied by a hundred hounds and cavalry, extremely arrogant and domineering. Even the palace guards dare not stop their superior's son, lest they be too slow to dodge and get trampled by his horse.

If you're looking for Lu Chai, well, you've come to the right person. Most people don't know his whereabouts. He must have offended someone these past two months; he's been hiding in Da'an Fang in the south of the city, refusing to come out. I only saw him once recently. He might have already escaped the city. Don't blame me if you can't find him."

Lu Chai, is that Lu Qi, the eldest son of the Lu Family? The Four Young Masters actually possess such power, and he's been hiding in the slums of Changsi City, too afraid to return to Ink Bamboo Mountain to mourn. Could there be more to Senior Brother Lu's death than meets the eye...?

Li Fan squinted at the gleaming Rubik's Cube in his hand, wondering what this thing even meant...

The woman wearing the straw hat paused for a moment, as if hesitating, and then said, "You mentioned leopards and jackals, but what about a tiger?"

The eunuch laughed, "I knew you were here to see Wei Tiger. What, are you one of his romantic entanglements too?"

Wei Tiger is quite famous, do I really need to tell you about him? Okay, then I will tell you. This man was the former Sili Xiaowei, Sili Xiaowei was in charge of the security of the Jingji and inspected the three surrounding areas. He was formerly known as "Sleeping Tiger" because he was able to manage everything by grasping the key points and make everyone follow his lead.

The Sili Xiaowei held a low-ranking but powerful position, and few dared to disrespect the nobles and powerful clans in this post. Commandant Wei was a true hero with integrity, a rare good official in the Li Country, which is why he was respectfully called Wei Hu by the people.

The Wei Family was a poor family that had been displaced to the Jingji due to the war. Wei Hu was poor from a young age and walked from the west of the city to the east of the city to study every day. He was intelligent and eager to learn, and was well-versed in both literature and Three Religions and Nine Schools. He also had connections with people from all walks of life. The Imperial Censor appreciated him and took him in as a disciple and tutor. He was recommended to the Guangling Heir and selected as a mourning attendant, which was equivalent to a famous scholar personally recommended by the Crown Prince and a talent that he was carefully promoted.

When Wei Hu was appointed Sili Xiaowei Jingji on behalf of the heir apparent. Unexpectedly, he proved to be both intelligent and courageous, with extraordinary methods, manipulating both the legitimate and criminal worlds. He dared to punish those powerful and tyrannical bullies who preyed on the weak, dedicated himself to punishing the wicked and upholding justice. With him guarding Changsi City, even Guo Bao and Wang Lang were hung up and whipped; what other ghosts and wolves would dare to cause trouble?

From noble families to humble backgrounds, everyone admires his methods. Even the reputation of the Guangling Heir is quite good, which makes everyone look forward to it. People say that Wei Tiger will one day become a high-ranking official, one of the Three Dukes, and head of the Censorate, bringing peace and order to the Li Country.

Heh, but what's the use of saying all this now? He's no longer in the city. The Crown Prince and the Grand Physician are both dead. Who else can tolerate a man of Wei Hu's talent and wisdom? The higher-ups have heard of him, though. It's a pity he's a remarkable person, but the label of being the Crown Prince's confidant is too heavy. They can't use him, but they can't bear to kill him either. So they sent him to serve as a military advisor in the Five States and sent him to guard the Kunlun Mountains.

My master once said that although Wei Hu came from a poor background, he had a lofty spirit. He never uttered a word of flattery in his conversations, which incurred his wrath. He was destined to achieve great things.

Since you are his confidante, I will pretend that what happened today never happened. You can leave now.

The woman paused for a moment, then bowed respectfully, saying, "Thank you for informing me."

The eunuch shook his head to avoid the question, saying, "I dare not accept such praise. As a Li Country of Li Kingdom, if I had even a shred of patriotism, I should have tried to serve my country, at least to persuade my master to save Wei Tiger. But I dare not. I can only watch as a hero like him is banished from the Jingji. What face does he have to accept thanks?"

Li Fan watched as the woman in the bamboo hat left, and the eunuch, after sighing for a long time, left to chase after his master.

Li Fan hesitated for a long time, but still did not make a move to capture the person.

Because if he were to capture the eunuch servant, his master would surely assume that the woman had caused the trouble.

Li Fan wasn't worried about a woman he didn't know being implicated; he was worried about a woman he knew being implicated.

If Li Fan wasn't mistaken, the woman in the bamboo hat wasn't there to ask about a 'tiger,' but rather a 'jackal.' However, she was quite adept at pretending, displaying remarkable composure, and calmly fooled the eunuch.

Yes, that woman in the bamboo hat is probably Lu Xing, or more accurately, the Mechanical Puppet that Lu Xing is controlling.

Because Li Fan had been completely unaware of being followed from behind, and after observing closely for a while, he discovered that the other party had no heartbeat or breathing, and he himself did not experience any uncontrollable physical urges. This naturally indicated that what was in front of him was not a person at all, but rather the kind of Mechanical Puppet that only the disciples of the Ink Bamboo Mountain could operate, the kind he had seen on the ship before.

Of course, saying that Lu Xing was the manipulator behind it was just Li Fan's speculation. There was also some evidence that wasn't actually proof, because the Rubik's Cube flashed again while he was making this conjecture.

Guo Bao is the second son of the Guo Family. Lu Chai is Lu Qi, the eldest son of Senior Brother Lu. The woman in the bamboo hat is a puppet controlled by Lu Xing.

When Li Fan made this guess, one of the squares in the black Rubik's Cube would flash white light. He had vaguely figured out how to use the Rubik's Cube, but he wasn't quite sure yet.

However, there's not much time for speculation and experimentation right now, because the Si Nan has started to waver again, and a divergence has appeared on the path of opportunity!

There were two paths: one was to follow the eunuch north to catch up with his master in the oxcart; the other, naturally, was to follow the woman in the straw hat south.

Li Fan thought about it. The eunuch had made himself quite clear. He and his master had urgent business, which was naturally about Guo Bao's selection of a heir. He was probably mediating the matter in Changsi City. As for the woman in the bamboo hat, if his guess was correct and she was indeed Lu Xing, then she must have gone to Da'an Fang in the city to find Lu Chai.

After considering it for a moment, Li Fan quickly made a decision: head south, following the woman who resembled Lu Xing.

After all, the opportunity to go north was obvious; it was nothing more than Li You's mess. Anyway, Li Fan didn't care about being a king. He just couldn't stand being schemed against behind his back and wanted to vent his anger. If he was really forced onto the throne, he could just quit and run away.

Li Fan still remembered what happened to Senior Brother Lu. Four dragons were lost as soon as he entered the sect, and he was almost killed by Chen Jinu's flying sword. He was determined to avenge this.

Moreover, Lu Chai is quite an interesting person when you think about it. He is only at the Qi Refining Stage, yet he has managed to make such a name for himself in Changsi City through his intelligence and strategy. He is like a king in the dark, a godfather in the night.

But the Godfather's father was murdered, and instead of seeking revenge or mourning, he abandoned his family business and hid in the slums without a trace. He must know something inside, maybe even who his enemy was. Or perhaps, Senior Brother Lu was implicated in the matter of this powerful son.

No matter what the situation, as long as we follow Lu Xing and find Lu Chai, we can find out the truth behind Senior Brother Lu's death.

The Rubik's Cube flashed again, subtly linking the two flashing squares containing Lu Xing and Lu Chai, as if confirming Li Fan's conjecture.

Now Li Fan felt more confident, so he followed Si Nan south to track Lu Xing's whereabouts.

As expected, it was Lu Xing. He barely stopped and headed straight for Da'an Fang, the south gate of the city.

Along the way, Li Fan also noticed that the neighborhoods in the west and east of the city were completely different. In the east of the city, there were constables and even guards on duty when entering the neighborhood, registering waist tags and strictly checking and preventing people from entering. Only nobles who came in oxcarts or rode tall horses could pass directly. At this time, he had been wandering around Changsi City for a whole day. As it got dark, many neighborhoods in the city began to close their doors and windows, and no one was allowed to enter or leave.

But when Li Fan tracked Lu Xing's puppet and arrived at a corner in the southwest at dusk, he was still stunned by the scene before him, despite the warning from the local man earlier.

There were no neighborhoods left, let alone patrolling guards. Basically, even the gates and walls of the neighborhoods had been torn down. The streets between the neighborhoods were connected by all sorts of shops, businesses, and shacks. It was impossible to tell which neighborhood it was anymore; it was just one big shack.

After all, this is a metropolis with a population of 2.4 million and 108 neighborhoods. It's astonishing that over a million people can only live in cramped conditions within a dozen or so neighborhoods. There are no detached villas in these neighborhoods; instead, people have illegally added four or five floors above and dug two or three more below. The passageways are filled with people sleeping on the floor, and there are people everywhere. Anyone who has ever shared an apartment and squeezed onto the subway can probably imagine what this scene is like.

It's basically the same as places like Kowloon Walled City or urban villages—a complete lawless slum. No wonder Lu Qi has been hiding here for so long and no one has been able to find him.

Li Fan didn't need anyone to teach him; he changed into straw sandals before going in. Moreover, he wore three sets of human skin Daoist robes to prevent someone from stabbing him in the back, cutting off his kidneys, or stealing his bag.

After all, the people coming and going were all from humble backgrounds: martial arts practitioners, merchants, thugs, and beggars. And there were all sorts of strange and unusual people. Sometimes Li Fan couldn't even tell whether these people were real demons or monsters, or wearing masks, or had gone mad from practicing martial arts, or were born freaks.

And unsurprisingly, Li Fan lost track of the person again.

Tracking is truly a skill, especially in such a sea of people. If you're wearing an 'Unknown Face' and no one can see you, you'll practically get trampled to death. Li Fan searched high and low, left and right, front and back, but in no time he could find Lu Xing's figure. She was still using a puppet, and in a city with a million inhabitants, stacked seven or eight layers high, finding a dummy was like finding a needle in a haystack.

Moreover, the Si Nan was unreliable at this point—no, it was far too reliable. It had practically evolved into a spinning top, constantly turning, and damn it, opportunities were appearing everywhere!

Li Fan was speechless and could only wander around randomly, relying on his intuition. He also discovered that sometimes, opportunities are not necessarily good things just because you can see them. These mysterious things are best left unseen, but seeing them makes you overly concerned, always wondering what awaits you ahead.

It's like a map full of question marks and exclamation points; you always feel like you're missing out if you don't clear it all. But even clearing it properly doesn't guarantee good rewards. If you're grinding for nothing, grinding becomes really frustrating...

Oh, what a stroke of luck!

Despite his annoyance, Li Fan still had to try his luck. Seeing the spoon stop spinning, he immediately rushed into the alley.

At the other end of the alley is the waterway, the Yong'an Channel, which is the water channel that brings the moat into the city and runs through the north and south of the outer city. The steps leading down lead directly to the canal, which seems to be the place where residents usually fetch water to wash clothes.

The Si Nan refers to a blue brick wall on the riverbank in the alley. Li Fan turned left and right, not pointing to the top, not the bottom, and not to the opposite bank of the canal, but to this wall in the alley.

"Could there be some kind of mechanism?"

Li Fan approached the brick wall to examine it, looking for a mechanism that could open the secret passage by tapping a particular brick from one direction to the other.

Hey, he actually found it. But it wasn't a trap; it was a flower, hidden in a crack in the wall bricks. There was a small five-petaled flower, yellow with yellow stamens, looking golden and somewhat like a peach or plum blossom, but it didn't quite look like one...

'On the hills of Kunlun, there grows a tree that resembles a crabapple, with yellow flowers and red fruit. It tastes like a plum but has no pit, and is called the Sand Crabapple. It can be used to ward off water, and eating it prevents drowning.'

Oh, placed by the irrigation ditch, it even protects you from drowning when you eat it, wasn't that planned...? Wait, Shatang?

Li Fan remembered now, wasn't Yuan Tianxiao's vixen also named Sha Tang?

Could it be that he somehow managed to lead us, through all those twists and turns, onto the path leading to the Black Lotus Sect's opportunity? And aren't you the Black Lotus Sect? Why isn't Lotus Flower some kind of Shatang...?

Li Fan picked up the small flower, and sure enough, Si Nan turned around and pointed to the ditch again, giving him a sudden headache.

Are there more and more quests coming up? It feels like there's no end to them all. The Northern Faction Ink Bamboo Mountain, the power struggle within the Li Country, Tiger Leopard Jackal Wolf, jackals, Li You and Lu Qi Yi, Lu Li Yi and Lu Xing, and now there's the Luo Sect and the Black Lotus Sect.

My goodness, the backstabbing and scheming in the Human Dao is just too terrifying! I miss the carefree days of grinding monsters and getting loot in the Ten-thousand-mountains!

Despite his sighs, Li Fan still held the sand pear blossom in his hand, cast a water-repelling spell, and followed the Si Nan's guidance down into the ditch.

The moment he picked up the sandalwood flower, the Rubik's Cube started flashing again. Moreover, the squares of the sandalwood flower, which were flashing, were aligned with the squares representing Lu Qi and Li You. In other words, all the fragments of information he had come across so far were connected in some way.

It seems that the Rubik's Cube serves a similar purpose to the three cats in some ways. However, instead of being used to 'detect lies,' it reveals some kind of 'truth' and 'connection'.

In other words, the people and events that made the Rubik's Cube flash were not independent, accidental events, but rather, like seeing the whole leopard through a tube, different aspects that Li Fan saw from the same event when he had incomplete information.

Now, the squares on the Rubik's Cube are lighting up one by one. Perhaps when all the colors of the Rubik's Cube are lit up, all the problems will naturally be solved, and the whole Rubik's Cube will be revealed.

At this point, Li Fan was also a little curious about how things would ultimately develop. Although he wasn't actually very good at solving ordinary Rubik's Cubes, let alone a completely black one...

In short, following the spoon's guidance, Li Fan, with a compass Si Nan one hand, a Rubik's Cube in the other, a sword box in both hands, and an iron mace in both, now had an extra hand to perform a water-avoiding spell and a pinch of a sand pear blossom in the other, walked into the water with eight arms outstretched, looking even more grotesque than a monster. In the dead of night, at the bottom of the Yong'an Channel where it was almost impossible to see one's hand in front of one's face, he walked along the river for three or five miles.

Then the water curtain was drawn back, and suddenly the view opened up.

A village appeared before Li Fan.

Yes, the village.

This is insane! There's actually a village beneath the Yong'an Channel! And Li Fan can see from afar that the entire hillside is surrounded by crimson crabapple trees, a sea of bright red blossoms covering the village. And those are the yellow flowers and red fruits—they must be bearing fruit now...

Li Fan walked into the village, but slowed his pace.

No... it's still flowers...

The treetops, branches, and flower buds were covered with human heads, and the blood, like clouds of rosy dawn, dyed the yellow flowers all over the mountain crimson.