The Destination

Actually, while he had been with Gu Lianwei just now, he had already learned the exact location of the Hundred Flavors Garden. He had only wanted to really pass himself off as an outsider.

After arriving at the Hundred Flavors Garden, he wandered around twice, hoping to catch a familiar scent.

After using Spirit Scent for a while, he felt as if his whole world had changed. Before, all the smells had blended together, and his sense of smell had been extremely dull.

Now, scents seemed to have become individual threads that he could trace back to their source.

For example, if he caught the smell of steamed buns here, he wouldn't even need to turn around to pinpoint exactly where they were.

He could walk down the street with his eyes closed without bumping into anyone. His sense of smell could even gauge distance. The feeling was profound and mysterious, and to him, utterly wonderful.

But he still hadn't caught the child's scent from the jade pendant, which meant the child hadn't been here for a long time.

And there was another point: the child's scent had lingered on the pendant because he had worn it close to his body for a long time.

This place was only a stopover. The child had stayed here only briefly, so the scent would naturally fade quickly.

"Could the trail really have gone cold just like that? Spirit Scent isn't living up to its potential." Lin Xuan shook his head and sighed to himself.

"Young master, fresh osmanthus cakes! Would you like some?"

Seeing Lin Xuan in brand-new clothes, with an air of distinction that made him look like someone with money, the street vendor selling snacks greeted him warmly.

"How much?" Lin Xuan asked.

"Twenty-five copper coins a portion." The vendor's eyes lit up as soon as Lin Xuan asked the price.

"Give me a portion." Lin Xuan took out a string of cash, counted out twenty-five coins, and handed them to the vendor.

"Right away, sir. Please wait a moment. I'll pack them up for you." The vendor took a specially prepared dry lotus leaf, wrapped the osmanthus cakes in it, and tied it with hemp cord.

"Wait... why does that smell seem familiar?" Lin Xuan grew a little wary. It wasn't the scent from the child's jade pendant, but something he felt he had smelled somewhere before.

He could trace the person's location. They weren't too far away.

"Looks like someone's tracking me again?" Lin Xuan sighed inwardly. The people who had followed him before hadn't met a good end. This one would be no exception.

He picked up the osmanthus cakes and slowly walked toward the sparsely populated alley Gu Lianwei had told him about.

His memory was exceptionally strong now. Gu Lianwei had only mentioned it once, and remembering it had been effortless.

The alley was narrow, with high walls on both sides. It seemed to be a dead end.

But for Lin Xuan, a dead end was just what he wanted.

He was curious why someone had started following him as soon as he left the area around the Pleasure Pavilion. Could there be a spy beside Gu Lianwei?

But that wouldn't explain how they'd acted so quickly.

Or was Gu Lianwei herself the spy?

The moment the thought occurred to him, he dismissed it. Gu Lianwei seemed quite clever. If she wanted her younger brother to disappear, why would she ask someone like him for help—someone who walked without a sound, had keen eyesight, and possessed such high cultivation?

Wouldn't that be shooting herself in the foot?

He put an osmanthus cake in his mouth and savored its sweetness and faint floral fragrance.

As he chewed, he asked indistinctly, "You've been following me all this way. Aren't you tired?"

The next moment, a physician in a gray padded coat appeared at the alley entrance. He looked to be in his forties, with a sallow face and a thick beard streaked with a few white hairs.

The physician looked stunned for a moment, then replied, "I think you must have misunderstood, young master. We just happen to be going the same way."

"What a coincidence, then. We've been going the same way since the Hundred Flavors Garden. We took a detour to West Street, then another to East Street, and from East Street we came to Benevolence Alley."

Lin Xuan put another osmanthus cake in his mouth. In truth, he had already prepared the Retractable Staff in secret.

"Tell me what you're after, and I might spare your life." Lin Xuan sounded as if he couldn't care less.

"Arrogant." The physician scoffed at Lin Xuan's words, already holding poisoned silver needles in his hand.

He flicked them out without hesitation.

Lin Xuan didn't take them seriously. With a casual swing, he sent out the Hidden Joint Staff, extending it into its full three-section form. Then he forcefully swept it toward the needles, knocking every one of them to the ground.

The needles landed with a faint, scattered clatter.

"Hidden weapons aren't much use when you throw them in plain sight."

"How is this possible?"

The physician's heart sank at Lin Xuan's response. Was the intelligence wrong? Hadn't they said he was just a young Flag Commander?

He immediately pulled out a packet of medicinal powder, intending to scatter it in Lin Xuan's face.

But Lin Xuan suddenly lunged forward and grabbed his hand. With a force of a thousand jin, he yanked hard, and the man's right arm was ruined on the spot.

The physician felt a stab of agony and couldn't help howling.

Lin Xuan pressed his advantage. "If you reveal what you know, I can spare your life. Where did Gu Wuji go?"

The physician was remarkably stubborn. "Don't even think you'll find out!"

"Are you afraid of being hacked to pieces?"

The physician sneered. "Forget a thousand cuts. Even if they carved me up ten thousand times, a hundred million times, I wouldn't say a word."

Lin Xuan said, "Fine. If you don't want to talk, then forget it."

He punched the man in the temple with a force of a thousand jin. It was enough to kill him outright, but the man had some cultivation, so one punch wasn't enough to kill him. It was, however, more than enough to knock him out.

He pulled the man's arms and legs until they were dislocated, then tied all four limbs behind his back with hemp cord.

With his joints dislocated and his body bound in that peculiar position, the physician had no chance of freeing himself. Lin Xuan would leave him here for now and hand him over to the Qiyun Sect later, so they could put the man through the real thing: a thousand cuts.

Lin Xuan sniffed the man's scent and murmured to himself:

"Talk about a pillow being delivered just when I was sleepy. If you'd just stayed put instead of tracking and watching me, I'd never have found you. I never thought you'd deliver the clues right to my doorstep yourself."

Although the physician's scent had faded along the route he'd taken, if Lin Xuan returned to a place he'd spent a long time in, he could pick it up immediately.

"Never mind. I'll work it out bit by bit. Since he's a physician, there's a chance he first noticed me at one of the medicine shops along the way."

That guess drastically narrowed the search area. There were only a few places to check. If he went looking, he ought to find the right one.

He searched high and low, but none of the medicine shops matched the scent on the physician.

That left him doubting himself.

Then, as he passed an abandoned courtyard, he detected the same scent as the physician's.

The abandoned courtyard was near the south gate of the city.

Lin Xuan stared at the courtyard and slowly walked inside. He found quite a few beggars lying there.

When they saw Lin Xuan walking toward them, confusion and fear crept across their faces.