That shout gave Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang quite a fright. What the hell? Was someone else here?
Soon, a figure stirred in the woods behind her. Before long, someone bounded out in clothes whose style was very familiar to Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang. Ragged was the word for them-not only were they torn, but the fabric was old and worn.
At the sight of the man nailed to the tree and Cen Futong howling on the ground, the newcomer was clearly somewhat alarmed.
He was short and skinny, with dark skin. Combined with his clothes, one glance was enough to remind Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang of the Land of Exile.
They knew his face, too. Wu Jinliang took just one look over his shoulder before exclaiming, "Skinny Monkey, how did you get here?"
The man called Skinny Monkey bared a mouthful of yellow teeth and chuckled, nodding in greeting with a rather reserved air. "You two robbed me clean. Getting back on my feet was going to be hard, but this Monkey has luck on his side after all. Fortune fell from the heavens! Someone suddenly came looking for me last night and gave me a windfall, and then I got out."
Those words shook Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang badly. Clearly, he had been brought here to verify their identities.
The crux of the matter was that they had only arrived in Skyward City yesterday and had not made contact with Liyun Tower until around noon. Yet that very night, someone had been sent into the Prison of Life to find an acquaintance of theirs and bring him out. The power to enter and leave the Prison of Life so casually was anything but ordinary.
This hardly seemed like something a mere brothel in Skyward City could accomplish. Taking Feng Chi and Xiang Lan'er's mysterious behavior into account, Shi Chun suddenly felt he had stirred up an enormous hornet's nest.
Regret struck him instantly. This time, he truly regretted it. He knew he must have offended people he should never have crossed, and that the people and affairs involved were far beyond anything he had imagined.
He wanted to slap himself. In the Land of Exile, failing to reach for an opportunity meant cutting yourself off from everyone, but this was not the Prison of Life. He had to break his habit of reaching out whenever he saw an opening.
Yet he felt helpless, too. Who could have known that simply taking over when a brothel sold someone would land him in this kind of mess? Everything outside felt far too complicated.
Still, regret was useless. Just as in the Land of Exile, staying alive came first!
Skinny Monkey glanced at the hostages the two were holding, then let out an "Oh!" "You two, why are you still plying your old trade even after getting out? I hear you get punished severely if you're caught doing that out here. Seems robbery is the only thing you know how to do."
Wu Jinliang snorted. "Chuntian, this idiot doesn't know he's stepped straight into a pit. He doesn't even know he's about to be silenced for good, and he still thinks fortune fell from the heavens."
He deliberately raised his voice, making sure the people over there heard him.
When it came to sly malice, he was second to none.
Sure enough, even with his dark skin, Skinny Monkey's face visibly changed at those words. He looked nervously toward Feng Chi.
Feng Chi ignored that and asked an unnecessary question. "Is it them?"
Skinny Monkey nodded meekly. "Yes, that's them. The one holding the hostage is Shi Chun, the former Chief of the Eastern Nine Plains. The tall fellow with the big saber is his number-one lackey, Wu Jinliang. Don't let his height fool you-he's the pettiest man alive. The worst person in the entire Eastern Nine Plains is actually him."
The way he was poisoning their names-was he afraid they would not die? Wu Jinliang immediately let loose a torrent of abuse. "My wickedness was meeting your mother and producing a monstrosity like you. Chuntian, didn't I say we shouldn't have let him get away back then?"
Shi Chun said, "One more of him makes no difference, nor does one less. Why waste words on a man who's about to die?"
That sent another tremor of fear through Skinny Monkey, and he stole a glance at Feng Chi beside him.
Shi Chun gave the captive Xiang Lan'er a shake and called out, "Who exactly are you two?"
Feng Chi ignored him. Right now, she only wanted to get to the bottom of their backgrounds before deciding how to act. Above all, she did not know how the Saintess had been captured. It was simply too bizarre-so bizarre that she dared not make any rash moves. If some hidden trick was involved, she feared acting recklessly might endanger the Saintess's life.
She would never act as recklessly as Shi Chun and his companion, sticking their hands into anything regardless of whether they should. She continued questioning Skinny Monkey. "Are they connected to Wangbo Tower?"
Skinny Monkey nodded repeatedly. "Yes, they're quite close. Shi Chun is courting the daughter of the proprietress, Lan Qiaoyan..."
He understood that this woman was far from ordinary, too. How could someone who could reach into the Prison of Life and fish people out whenever she pleased possibly be ordinary? So he poured out the story of Shi Chun's pursuit of Miao Yilan like beans spilling from a bamboo tube.
He did not mention the story of Wu Jinliang calling her Mom-not because he did not want to, but because he genuinely did not know. Mainly, Wu Jinliang himself had not dared throw Lan Qiaoyan's name around in the Prison of Life. Calling her that in private was one thing, but he dared not spread it about. After all, he frequently robbed homes and plundered people.
After hearing Skinny Monkey's account, Feng Chi still harbored doubts. Was it really that simple? Why would people with such ordinary backgrounds also be heading for Mount Wukang?
There was clearly something suspicious about this!
Suddenly, she spread her five fingers and grasped at the air. Cen Futong, who lay howling on the ground, flew straight toward her.
A living man weighing well over a hundred pounds had been plucked through the air just like that. Her cultivation was truly terrifying, making Shi Chun all the more unwilling to relax his hold on his hostage.
The key was that her cultivation was simply too high. He did not even dare run. The slightest opening could cost him his life. At such a level of cultivation, she could truly kill someone with a flick of her finger.
His mind raced through ways to save himself.
Pale-faced Cen Futong had only just treated himself, sealing the acupoints around the wound on his foot to prevent excessive blood loss. Who could have imagined he would fall into Feng Chi's hands an instant later?
Feng Chi seized the back of his neck and demanded, "Speak. Why did you come to attack my young lady?"
In front of outsiders, she would not call her the Saintess. Xiang Lan'er's identity was an extremely closely guarded secret.
"Money in one hand, goods in the other. I came to collect the goods! He was going to sell Xiang Lan'er to me..."
Cen Futong spilled everything with remarkable readiness. Barely any pressure was needed before he pointed at Shi Chun and explained the entire course of events.
It would have been better if the truth had stayed unspoken. Once it came out, Feng Chi and Xiang Lan'er were utterly dumbfounded. How could they have run into something like this?
These fellows had come masked just to abduct Xiang Lan'er and deliver her to Lü Taizhen?
The fellow holding Xiang Lan'er had only intervened to pocket the difference?
They had only just left the Land of Exile and were already doing something like this. Could they possibly be any more outrageous?
How had they dared?
They believed Cen Futong was telling the truth. Even under such sudden pressure, his account held together logically, and Feng Chi really did find a banknote worth two hundred thousand in sandalwood gold on him.
These fellows really had come to exchange money for goods!
The problem was that Xiang Lan'er really had fallen into their hands.
Feng Chi did not know whether to laugh or cry. If Xiang Lan'er had not ordered those two fellows eliminated, bringing one of her own people along, the dignified Saintess might actually have been delivered to Lü Taizhen's bed.
Little did she know that was not very likely either.
"Spineless." Even with his back turned, Wu Jinliang spat the word out, naturally cursing Cen Futong. Then he quickly glanced back at the banknote in Feng Chi's hand and muttered reluctantly, "Chuntian, that's our money."
"Two hundred thousand gold..." Skinny Monkey could not help murmuring, and admiration actually rose in his eyes as he looked at Shi Chun.
He truly was impressed. To pull off a deal this big right after leaving the Land of Exile-one job could feed them for three years! He really lived up to his fearsome reputation as the Chief of the Eastern Nine Plains. Losing to this fellow had been no injustice.
Shi Chun's lips twisted. Cen Futong's words had reminded him of something, giving him a measure of confidence that he could save himself.
Suddenly, he said loudly and unhurriedly, "Brother Cen, I'm truly sorry, but I didn't bring that indenture. I intended to hand her over first and have you pay part of the money, then go elsewhere for you to pay the other half, at which point you would naturally receive the indenture. From the looks of things now, Lü Taizhen won't get the woman in my hands, and I won't get the money in yours."
As he spoke, he shook the soft, warm, fragrant woman in his arms again. "And you won't get into Mount Wukang either! If you merely came from a brothel but had kept yourself pure, you would still have plenty of room to turn things around. Since you dared go there, I imagine you've already made preparations on that end.
"But if my brother and I can't leave here alive, things will be different. The matter of your indenture will come to light.
"Then, whatever methods you think of, whatever arrangements you've made at Mount Wukang, they will never admit a woman who not only came from a brothel but still belongs to someone else. Bian Jixiong certainly won't agree, and even Bian Weikang will have no grounds to keep you by his side, because you are another man's woman.
"With the Heavenly Laws above us, however bold Mount Wukang might be, they would never dare openly claim another man's woman without her owner's permission!
"You've spent so much effort on Bian Weikang precisely because you want to use his position to enter Mount Wukang, haven't you? That's about all he's good for."
He spat inwardly. Exactly the same idea as mine.
That was also why he had guessed it immediately. If he still could not see by now that they were aiming for Mount Wukang, all his years as Chief of the Eastern Nine Plains would have been for nothing.
"Wahahaha!" Wu Jinliang burst into wildly triumphant laughter. "The Chief is wise! Exactly! Just try laying a hand on us. Do you think we're that easy to touch?"
At those words, Feng Chi could no longer quite contain herself. She called to Xiang Lan'er, "Young lady, didn't you say the indenture had been destroyed?"
She hoped the look in her eyes would give her an answer.
Xiang Lan'er could neither move nor speak. Only her eyes could move, but they darted about without giving any clear signal, because she herself was no longer certain.
Shi Chun called out, "It was destroyed. I destroyed it myself, right in front of your young lady. Jinliang, where did you get the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone to copy that fake indenture? Tell them the location properly. If we die later, they'll have somewhere to go and verify it."
With his back to them, Wu Jinliang waved his saber, his grin nearly stretching around to the back of his head again. Chuckling nonstop, he said, "I think it was called the Lin-Something Shop. I don't remember exactly, but it's easy to find. Writing supplies are among the things they sell. The shopkeeper's an old man with graying hair, and there's a big glass cover on the counter. Anyway, it's not very far from Liyun Tower. I remember the shopkeeper wanted to see what I was writing, so I tossed him a grain of sandalwood gold and told him to stand aside. Chuntian, wasn't I generous? I'm sure I left quite an impression on him. Go ask, and you'll know. Wahahaha!"