Notting Dark Web, Spores Everywhere

Yu Xiaogang held the gold soul coin, rubbing its edge with his thumb for quite a while.

The gold soul coin was genuine.

The serial number matched too.

Tang San had only handed his subsidy to Xiao Wu for safekeeping that afternoon, and Xiao Wu had stuffed it back into his belt in front of everyone in the Seventh Dormitory.

The apothecary owner stood at the door, speaking cautiously. "Master, I wouldn't dare make things up. The child never showed himself. A runner delivered the money and said he urgently needed a hundred-year blood ginseng."

Yu Xiaogang stared at him. "Where is the runner?"

"Liu Er from the south of the city. He usually delivers things for various households. I've already sent an assistant to find him."

Xiao Wu listened from the side, growing furious. "Tang San is lying in bed. How could he possibly have gone to buy medicine?"

The apothecary owner wiped his forehead. "Little miss, I never said it was him personally. It's just that the money really did come from that batch of subsidies he received."

Tang San leaned against the headboard, his face still pale. "Teacher, the belt wasn't lost."

He removed Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridge. Not a single gold soul coin inside was missing.

Ji Yuan remained still and silent inside the sole of the shoe.

Naturally, Tang San had not given that gold soul coin.

During the day, he had sent spores to cling to Xiao Chenyu's attendant, then used the money pouches circulating through the city to exchange for an old coin from the same batch.

The gold coins distributed by Spirit Hall as subsidies had similar batch numbers. Nothing could have been more convenient for muddying the waters.

Yu Xiaogang returned the coin to the apothecary owner. "Don't spread word of this for now."

Xiao Wu was dissatisfied. "Why not? Someone used Tang San's name to buy medicine. They're clearly trying to frame him."

Yu Xiaogang looked at Tang San. "You can't get dragged into more trouble right now."

But Tang San shook his head. "Teacher, I want to know who it was."

Xiao Wu immediately nodded. "I want to know too!"

Yu Xiaogang's expression darkened. "The two of you stay at the academy. I'll investigate."

Ji Yuan had no interest in whom they would investigate.

What he truly wanted was to use the money, medicine, runners, and guards to spread his spores throughout the city.

That hundred-year blood ginseng was merely bait.

As night had just fallen, Liu Er from the south of the city was brought to the academy.

He was thin and small, with medicinal dregs still stuck to his clothes. A teacher from the Academic Affairs Office pressed him into a chair, and his legs were trembling.

"I really don't know who he was!"

Xiao Wu stood beside the table with her hands on her hips. "You took his money, and you still don't know?"

Liu Er looked as though he were about to cry. "That man wore a bamboo hat. How would I dare ask? He gave me two copper soul coins for the errand and told me to hand the gold soul coin to the apothecary, saying he wanted to buy a hundred-year blood ginseng."

Tang San asked, "Where is the blood ginseng?"

Liu Er hurriedly replied, "He took it away. I never touched it!"

Yu Xiaogang fixed his gaze on Liu Er. "Which direction did he go?"

"Toward the black market."

The Academic Affairs Office teacher's expression changed. "The academy can't easily interfere in matters involving the black market."

Xiao Wu slapped the table. "So just because it's hard to interfere, you'll let someone frame Tang San?"

The teacher could no longer maintain his composure. "That's not what I meant."

Tang San looked at Yu Xiaogang. "Teacher, I'll go take a look."

"No."

Yu Xiaogang refused without hesitation. "Your body hasn't recovered yet. The black market is full of all kinds of people. You can't go."

But Xiao Wu had already grabbed Tang San's outer robe. "I'll go with him."

A vein throbbed at Yu Xiaogang's temple. "Xiao Wu."

Xiao Wu glared back. "Can you stop me?"

Tang San took the outer robe and said quietly, "Teacher, I'll only look around the outskirts. I won't make a move."

Yu Xiaogang fell silent for a moment before finally relenting. "I'll go with you."

Ji Yuan stretched his roots within the sole of the shoe.

Good.

Once Tang San moved, the line would come alive.

Notting City's night market had yet to disperse. The streets were crowded, and oil lamps hung outside the shops.

As the three of them passed through the street entrance, Ji Yuan's spores spread out from the soles of their shoes, attaching themselves to vendors' sleeves, accountants' abacuses, and guards' boots.

Every passing gold coin opened a new path.

Every bout of haggling was a cover.

Yu Xiaogang walked cautiously. "Don't touch anything handed to you by strangers."

Xiao Wu curled her lip. "Do you take us for three-year-olds?"

But Tang San stopped in front of an ironware shop, where the owner was speaking with a guard from the City Lord's Manor.

A wolf-head badge hung from the guard's waist. He was one of the Xiao Family's men.

Tang San's gaze turned cold.

Xiao Wu saw it too. "The Xiao Chenyu family again?"

Yu Xiaogang held her back. "Don't alert them."

Ji Yuan had already made his move first.

Spores clung to the guard's boot soles and slipped into the seams of the leather, following the scent of sweat into his pores and hiding within the meridians of his calves.

The gates of the City Lord's Manor had been pried open a crack.

After the guard left, Tang San and the others continued toward the black market.

The black market entrance lay at the end of a narrow alley. Two burly men guarded the door, but they did not stop them after seeing Yu Xiaogang's Soul Master badge.

The interior was dimly lit, with stalls packed tightly together. Herbs, beast bones, and damaged soul tools were piled in heaps.

Xiao Wu covered her nose. "This place reeks."

Yu Xiaogang lowered his voice. "Talk less."

Tang San's eyes swept over the stalls before suddenly settling on a wooden box.

Its lid was half-open, revealing a shriveled piece of red ginseng inside.

The century-old blood ginseng the apothecary owner had mentioned had already lost all its spiritual essence, leaving behind only its shell.

The stall owner was a short, fat middle-aged man. Seeing them stop, he immediately smiled. "Looking for medicine, honored guests? This is quality stock."

Xiao Wu pointed at the wooden box. "Quality stock? It's dried up like this."

The stall owner's expression changed. "Little girl, don't spout nonsense when you don't understand. It's been sun-dried."

Tang San reached out to take it, but Yu Xiaogang stopped him.

Yu Xiaogang looked at the stall owner. "Where did this blood ginseng come from?"

The stall owner's eyes shifted. "A customer left it here on consignment."

Xiao Wu sneered. "Where is that customer?"

"Gone."

Yu Xiaogang placed his Soul Master badge on the table. "Explain yourself."

The stall owner's smile vanished. "Master, the black market has its own rules."

Before he finished speaking, a commotion erupted from the alley entrance.

A drunkard knocked over a nearby stall, sending beast bones rolling everywhere. Several stall owners immediately began arguing.

The burly guards at the entrance rushed over to break it up, and the black market descended into chaos.

Amid the confusion, Ji Yuan drove his roots from the soles of Tang San's shoes into the cracks between the floor tiles, tunneling through the damp earth beneath until they reached beneath the wooden box.

He had drained the blood ginseng's essence long ago, after it changed hands at the apothecary.

Now, he was merely collecting the lingering scent and erasing any traces that could be followed.

Tang San reached out and grabbed the stall owner's wrist. "Was the person selling the medicine wearing a conical hat?"

The stall owner grimaced in pain. "Y-Yes, he wore one!"

"Male or female?"

"I don't know. His face was wrapped in cloth."

Yu Xiaogang pressed on. "A Soul Master?"

The stall owner shook his head. "I couldn't sense any soul power."

Xiao Wu flipped open the wooden box. "Tang San, there's paper inside."

Half a sheet of oil paper was pressed beneath the box. Only one line of crooked writing was on it.

If you want to investigate, then stop letting Tang San take Spirit Hall's money.

Tang San's face darkened.

Yu Xiaogang picked up the oil paper, and his first thought was that someone had noticed the tug-of-war between Spirit Hall and Tang San.

Xiao Wu snapped, "Who's rotten enough to do something like this?"

Ji Yuan withdrew his roots and coldly reeled in the net.

Rotten?

As long as it was useful, that was enough.

This sheet of paper was not meant to truly identify anyone. It was meant to push Yu Xiaogang and Tang San farther away from Spirit Hall.

Tang San asked quietly, "Teacher, was it Su Yuntao?"

Yu Xiaogang shook his head. "Su Yuntao has no need to resort to such methods."

Xiao Wu said, "Then it was Xiao Chenyu!"

Yu Xiaogang did not deny it. "The Xiao Family is also a possibility."

Tang San looked toward the City Lord's Manor. "I'll get to the bottom of this."

Ji Yuan gently coiled around his heart meridians and sent in a trace of agitating toxin.

Tang San felt a tightness in his chest, and what little favorable impression he had of Spirit Hall faded further.

On the way back to the academy, Yu Xiaogang did not speak the entire time.

Xiao Wu could not help asking, "Master, did you think of something?"

Yu Xiaogang put away the oil paper. "Someone doesn't want Tang San getting close to Spirit Hall, nor do they want him cultivating in peace."

Tang San asked, "Could it be because of my twin martial souls?"

Yu Xiaogang slowed his steps.

"It's possible."

Ji Yuan listened with satisfaction.

That's right.

Keep thinking.

The higher you look, the less you see beneath your feet.

Over the next few days, Ji Yuan did not create any more major disturbances.

When Tang San went to buy materials for hidden weapons, spores attached themselves to gold coins, copper soul coins, cloth sacks, and wooden crates.

When Xiao Wu went into town to buy sugar cakes, the owner of the pastry shop was marked.

Academy teachers entered the city on errands, City Lord's Manor guards went on patrol, and the blacksmith shop made deliveries—Ji Yuan linked every thread into his underground root network.

Notting City gradually lit up as one node after another in his perception.

Three soul masters in the east of the city frequented a tavern.

A batch of fairly old medicinal herbs was hidden in the rear courtyard of a pharmacy in the west of the city.

Two teams of guards rotated along the outer wall of the City Lord's Manor, with security at its loosest at night.

The soul power fluctuations around Spirit Hall's branch hall were the steadiest and also the most dangerous. He only planted shallow spores around the perimeter, never daring to go deeper.

Tang San knew nothing of this.

Every day, he attended classes, forged iron, and cultivated as usual, occasionally being forced by Xiao Wu to rest.

After tucking the black-market oil paper into his notes, Yu Xiaogang began observing Tang San's Blue Silver Grass more frequently.

Each time, Ji Yuan kept the signs of mutation within the range Yu Xiaogang could accept.

A little stronger.

A little weaker.

Then let out a little more residual poison.

Theoretical tools would fill in the gaps on their own.

A month later, news spread through Notting City's black market once again.

A hundred-year Blood Ginseng had been sent for auction, and its quality was even better than the last one.

The moment Yu Xiaogang heard the news, his face darkened.

Xiao Wu slammed the table. "Again?"

Tang San rose to his feet. "This time, I'll keep watch."

Yu Xiaogang was just about to stop him when Tang San had already fastened his belt.

Deep within the soles of his shoes, Ji Yuan spread dark-red roots, and the spores throughout the entire city awakened at the same time.

In the auction house's rear courtyard, the genuine Blood Ginseng was being placed into a brocade box, its roots still stained with damp soil.

Ji Yuan's underground roots had already reached the bottom of the box.

The brocade box suddenly made a soft sound. The soul master guarding it lowered his head to look, and his face changed instantly. "Why is there only a layer of ginseng skin left in the box?"