Borrowing Longevity from Heaven (Please Follow and Vote!)

"Oh? That quickly?"

"Though this item is ordinary, it was distributed by the government, and its pattern differs every year. Records were kept of every distribution. This subordinate led men to investigate and compare them one by one..." Wu Kuang lowered his voice. "In the end, we confirmed that the owner of this piece of cloth was none other than Sun Bo—the Xiang Kingdom remnant who was already taken away by the Black-Robed Envoy!"

"Sun Bo? Are you certain?" Fang Xun raised a brow and asked with a faintly amused smile.

"Absolutely certain! This subordinate stakes his life on it—there can be no mistake."

"Enough. I understand. You may leave." Fang Xun casually waved a hand.

The study returned to dead silence.

Fang Xun stood alone before the window with his hands behind his back, gazing at the swaying bamboo shadows in the courtyard, his expression inscrutable.

"Framing someone when the dead cannot testify. Interesting."

Naturally, he did not believe that Yu Niang—that big-breasted, empty-headed woman of shallow experience—possessed the ability to deceive heaven and cross the sea, erase the mark he had left behind, and steal the Cold Mountain Venerable.

Nor did he believe that Sun Bo, the rebel whom he had tortured until every secret had been wrung from him, could still divide himself and steal the treasure in such desperate circumstances.

"It must have been that foolish woman Yu Niang. After discovering that the Cold Mountain Venerable had been stolen by some mysterious person, she understood my methods and feared retaliation, so she fled far away."

"As for the true thief, he was clearly no Xiang Kingdom remnant. He was some oriole lurking in the shadows—perhaps even right beneath my nose!"

"Indeed, even the initial leak of news about the Cold Mountain Venerable was highly suspicious. Those who knew of it were either silenced by me, or were my trusted confidants..."

Fang Xun's fingers lightly tapped the window lattice without conscious thought. Faces that might be connected to the case flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern—he did not even overlook Li Shun and Feng Guan, the two laborers who had informed. Yet no matter how many times he considered and deduced it, it all still seemed absurd.

"Interesting." A cold smile curled Fang Xun's lips. "Someone actually managed to fish chestnuts from the fire amid yesterday's chaos, steal the Cold Mountain Venerable, and then retreat with success..."

"Setting aside just how advanced this person's cultivation is, his methods of theft and concealment are truly unmatched."

"Heh..."

Surprisingly, Fang Xun's face showed little anger over losing such a precious treasure.

"It was merely a Cold Mountain Venerable. If it was lost, then so be it. At first, I had only been seized by greed for a moment, intending to use this rare treasure, seen only once in a century, to make some proper arrangements in Sacred Capital."

"But now, I hold the heavens-shaking merit of capturing alive the legitimate royal heir of Great Xiang. Barring mishap, by next spring at the latest, I will be transferred back to the central government in Sacred Capital and promoted in rank and title. The Cold Mountain Venerable has become something I can take or leave."

"As for Yu Niang..."

Fang Xun chuckled. "Good that she left. Wonderful that she left! I was truly afraid she would keep clinging to me!"

Meanwhile.

The "peerless great thief" on the mind of that deeply scheming county magistrate was currently at a complete loss.

In reality, Li Shun lay sprawled miserably on his bed, pretending to recuperate from the brutal injuries he had suffered in the hidden prison.

Yet within the Square Inch space, his main consciousness faced a long, narrow brocade box, his brow tightly furrowed.

He could clearly sense that the [Cold Mountain Venerable], capable of defying heaven and changing one's fate, lay quietly within that brocade box, so close he could almost touch it, but...

Li Shun used every means at his disposal, yet he simply could not open this tiny wooden box that Fang Xun had sealed!

"This is the sorrow of being weak and lacking extraordinary methods." Li Shun let out a helpless sigh. "A peerless treasure lies right before my eyes, yet it is as though a heavenly chasm separates us—visible, but forever beyond reach. All I can do is stare."

"If I could control that complete stone statue, then perhaps even borrowing a thread of the killing intent it leaked would be enough to split this seal open with ease."

At that thought, Li Shun's mind stirred. He directly tossed the brocade box beside the stone statue's feet.

Sure enough, beneath the pressure of the stone statue, the faint frost that had endlessly flowed across the brocade box's surface truly began to melt away, albeit almost imperceptibly!

It was just that the process of stripping away the seal was exceedingly slow, like dripping water piercing stone.

Li Shun patiently stared at it within the space for an entire afternoon, silently calculating, At this rate, to break the seal under the School of Totality without harming the Cold Mountain Venerable inside will take at least a month...

"I waited twenty-six years already. There is no need to rush over these few moments."

The Great Qian court was astonishingly efficient in its work.

A mere ten days later.

On the thirteenth day of the third month, the imperial decree granting rewards from Sacred Capital arrived at Cold Mountain County by fast horse.

Li Shun neither knew nor cared how the officials of Cold Mountain County secretly divided that heavens-shaking merit among themselves.

Yet he and Feng Guan, two insignificant laborers at the very bottom of Cold Mountain County... truly received tangible rewards as well!

Though both had been the first to report the matter, their merits were divided into greater and lesser, primary and secondary.

Li Shun had merely been the "proposer" who raised the suspicion, while Feng Guan was the one who risked danger to uncover the evidence and personally ran to report it to the authorities—the holder of the "chief merit."

Thus, Li Shun's reward was only three hundred thousand coins, a somewhat spacious but ordinary residence within Cold Mountain County City, and... exemption from Cold Mountain corvée for the next ten years.

Feng Guan's reward, however, was enough to make every hard laborer in the world turn green with envy and go mad—

He was granted Great Qian's first-rank noble title: Gentleman!

As well as complete exemption from Cold Mountain corvée, removal from the base register, and the right to return home in glory!

When he learned that the difference between their rewards was as vast as clouds and mud, Feng Guan dragged his still-unhealed body to Li Shun's bedside. His old face flushed red with guilt, and he repeatedly seemed about to speak, only to stop himself, clearly unable to bear it.

Li Shun, however, appeared calm and untroubled. He even consoled Feng Guan in return.

Having Feng Guan take the lead in reporting the matter had been a carefully considered scheme to divert disaster eastward. What Li Shun wanted was to remain behind the scenes and emerge from the School of Totality unscathed.

As for Feng Guan turning misfortune into fortune, truly stumbling into a tremendous share of merit and even receiving a noble title, that was beyond the School of Totality's expectations for Li Shun.

But there was nothing unreasonable about it.

Li Shun did not particularly care, either.

After all, he had successfully stolen the Cold Mountain Venerable. With this treasure in hand, he could cast off his identity as a hard laborer whenever he wished.

However...

After personally witnessing Xiong Jin's demonic might, able to cover the sky with one hand, amid that bloody storm sweeping across the School of Totality county—and after seeing that golden light from Sacred Capital pierce heaven and earth, suppressing all things—

Another thought arose in Li Shun's heart.

"A noble title may be precious, but one's own strength is the foundation for survival."

"The Cold Mountain Venerable... even Xiong Jin was willing to take enormous risks to seize it..."

Within the Square Inch space, Li Shun quietly watched the brocade box ahead of him as its ice melted and snow thawed, his thoughts churning.

Though the decree of reward had been publicly proclaimed, the actual issuing and transfer of the various documents, land deeds, and silver would still require several days to pass through official procedures.

The fifteenth day of the third month.

Li Shun still lay sprawled on that dilapidated wooden bed, keeping his door shut to visitors and pretending his injuries had not healed. In truth, he had already secretly released that tireless substitute puppet. Deep underground, it toiled day and night, completely filling in and compacting with earth the hidden passage that had once saved his life.

Once the rewarded residence was formally granted, Li Shun would move away from this place. Before then, he had to cut away every loose end that might expose the secrets of the Square Inch space and the puppet.

This was undoubtedly a massive undertaking that consumed both time and effort. Fortunately, the puppet never tired; Li Shun only needed to issue orders.

Just as Li Shun closed his eyes and focused his mind, he suddenly heard a bang.

The already tottering wooden door was abruptly and violently shoved open.

Li Shun's heart jolted. He abruptly opened his eyes and looked over.

Against the light, a remarkably handsome youth with a tall, straight figure strode into the room.

The youth was around seventeen or eighteen. Vigorously heroic spirit showed between his brows, and his entire body radiated the youthful vitality and exuberant life force unique to the young.

After entering, he said nothing. He simply stood there, staring fixedly at Li Shun on the bed with an exceptionally strange look in his eyes.

Could the matter have been exposed?

Alarm bells instantly blared in Li Shun's heart, and a chill shot straight to the crown of his head. Forcibly suppressing the stormy waves within, he struggled into a half-sitting position on the bed, clutched his chest, and cupped his hands in a show of weak panic. "This lowly one's grave injuries have yet to heal, so I truly cannot rise to offer proper greetings. I hope this young gentleman will forgive me. May I ask why you have honored this humble dwelling with your presence?"

The youth still did not answer. He only narrowed his eyes slightly and stared coldly at Li Shun, a strange smile seemingly playing about his lips.

Li Shun frowned inwardly.

The dead-silent air in the room seemed to have frozen solid, suffocating him.

Li Shun felt that things were increasingly amiss. He had already begun separating off a thread of consciousness and sending it into the complete stone statue within the Square Inch space.

If this youth made the slightest unusual move, he would unhesitatingly throw down the statue and descend upon him, even if it meant the fish died and the net broke!

At that critical moment, with a thousand pounds hanging by a thread...

The handsome youth suddenly threw back his head and burst into shameless laughter.

"Cripple, it's me! Didn't recognize me, did you?"

"Huh?!" The killing intent Li Shun had gathered abruptly stalled. He was struck as though by lightning, completely frozen where he was.

He stared hard at the youth's face, repeatedly overlapping it with the shriveled, aged image from his memories. A guess so absurd it beggared belief, yet so entirely reasonable, exploded wildly through his mind.

"You... you are... Old Feng?!" Li Shun's face was filled with disbelief, his voice trembling from extreme shock.

"Haha, in all of Cold Mountain County, besides me, Feng Guan, who else would come visit you, you cripple?" The youth planted his hands on his hips and openly admitted it with great satisfaction.

"How... you..."

A monstrous wave surged through Li Shun's heart. Feeling at close range the youth's nearly overflowing vitality, youthful blood, and life force, his mind went blank, and he almost lost the ability to speak.

Only days ago, he had been a hunched old man in his forties, his head full of white hair, like a guttering candle in the wind. Yet in just a few short days, he had forcibly reversed the years and become a seventeen-year-old youth brimming with vigor!

Seeing Li Shun so shocked seemed to please Feng Guan immensely. He strode carelessly to the bedside and sat down, leaned closer, then lowered his voice mysteriously. "Cripple, stop guessing. After I was granted the first-rank Gentleman title, the county magistrate summoned me personally yesterday and taught me an abstruse method. I cultivated through the night, and when I opened my eyes this morning... heh, I had become like this!"

Li Shun's mind shook violently at those words.

He had long heard that Great Qian possessed official methods capable of restoring one's youth, and they were among the goals he had been plotting toward.

He had not expected to see one first manifested in Feng Guan!

Feeling Li Shun's scorching gaze, as though it might burn straight through him, Feng Guan was just about to continue boasting when he suddenly seemed to recall some terribly forbidden taboo.

He abruptly reined in his smile, a trace of apprehension and apology appearing on his face. Lowering his voice, he said, "Cripple, it isn't that I'm being disloyal. This method... is a secret art personally created by Great Qian's present emperor. The laws are strict, and not a single word may be passed on lightly. Without the government's special permission, if I privately taught it to you, both of us would suffer the harshest punishment."

He paused. Seeing the disappointment on Li Shun's face, he finally gritted his teeth and whispered eight words into Li Shun's ear, soft as a mosquito's buzz:

"I can only tell you this method's true name—"

"Borrowing lifespan from heaven, twelve eternal lives!"