Jingchan Palace

Xiao Sanchuan hurried away with the servants from the imperial estate, not daring to delay even for a moment.

Compared to Wen Qingkong, a mere Corpse Seamstress, the person behind the scenes who had taken away the mother and daughter was far more terrifying—and far more deserving of caution.

Wen Qingkong rose to his feet, watched Xiao Sanchuan gradually vanish from sight, and whistled at Little Nine.

Little Nine flapped its wings, flew out through the second-floor window, and followed Xiao Sanchuan.

Though he had deceived Xiao Sanchuan with a lie for now, he could not stall for long.

Once that Eunuch Jia had prepared for a while and found that nothing was happening, he would surely figure it out.

Wen Qingkong had one virtue: he never treated others as fools.

The most permanent solution now was undoubtedly to kill Eunuch Jia.

According to Zhao Xuan's life's flashback, Eunuch Jia himself was not much to fear. The only concern was Eunuch Jia's adoptive father, Jia Jin, the ninth chief of the Black Cloaks.

As an espionage agency directly controlled by the emperor of Great Xia, the Black Cloaks wielded power far beyond what ordinary people could imagine.

If Jia Jin mobilized his own forces, Wen Qingkong could not guarantee that he would escape unscathed.

After some thought, Wen Qingkong came up with a plan.

If he wanted to keep himself out of it, he first had to muddy the waters so that Jia Jin's attention would not remain fixed on him.

Wen Qingkong thought of the map Zhao Xuan had been escorting.

It was an incomplete map. When Zhao Xuan had picked it up beside Yan Luohua, he had vaguely seen the words "Jingchan Palace" on it.

What kind of place was Jingchan Palace?

Wen Qingkong's original self had merely been an ordinary commoner and knew little about matters of the martial world.

He had to find someone to ask.

But in order to avoid leaving traces, Wen Qingkong had no choice but to take a roundabout approach.

Wen Qingkong brought Li Lan'er and her daughter back from Corpse Seamstress Workshop Number One.

The sudden incident today had made him more vigilant.

At the same time, aside from locking the main gate, the Ministry of Justice had left this whole row of Corpse Seamstress Workshops entirely unmanaged.

Having learned his lesson, Wen Qingkong decided to dig a tunnel directly to the neighboring Sewing Corpse Chamber Number Eight. If he was away and Li Lan'er and her daughter encountered any trouble, they could crawl through the tunnel to Sewing Corpse Chamber Number Eight and avoid attracting attention.

No sooner said than done, Wen Qingkong had the tunnel entrance set beneath the cold bier used specifically for storing corpses, then began digging.

He worked until nightfall.

After the three had eaten dinner, Wen Qingkong had Li Lan'er and her daughter extinguish the candles and rest. He covered his face with a cloth, slipped out of Corpse Seamstress House Number Nine under the deep cover of night, and headed straight for the Three Rivers Gang, an underground criminal force in the capital.

The Three Rivers Gang was a middling gang among the capital's underworld forces, primarily made up of dock laborers and shipwrights from outside Yujing City.

Yujing City lay at the heart of the land, surrounded by rivers. Its large population consumed more grain than the city itself could produce. Thus, to ensure Yujing City's food supply, granaries had been built throughout the city, while every year grain was also transported from the various provinces by river.

This created a need for dock laborers and shipwrights, and over time, the Three Rivers Gang came into being.

The Three Rivers Gang's territory was mainly confined to the three streets near the docks.

Wen Qingkong infiltrated the Three Rivers Gang's headquarters, holding his breath and focusing his mind. Since the Corpse Seamstress Workshop had been disbanded, he had gained much more freedom and often walked the city streets, learning many things.

For instance, Yin Tiannan, the Three Rivers Gang's young master, was a spoiled young scoundrel who indulged in eating, drinking, whoring, gambling, and every evil imaginable.

No one knew how many daughters from decent families in the capital had been violated by Yin Tiannan.

Wen Qingkong wanted to investigate clues about Jingchan Palace without leaving even the slightest trace that could lead back to him, so he chose Yin Tiannan as his source.

Suddenly, his ear twitched.

Wen Qingkong heard sounds of teasing laughter.

He stealthily followed the sound.

He found a spacious, lavishly decorated room, brightly lit with swaying candlelight. Inside, one man and five women, their clothes disheveled, were flirting and fooling around in an indecent display.

Two bodyguards stood watch outside the room.

Wen Qingkong examined them carefully. Judging from their breathing, neither bodyguard was much of a martial arts expert. He could deal with them easily.

So he sprang forward, his fingers thrusting out like a halberd!

Before the two bodyguards could react, Wen Qingkong had already shattered their throats.

He caught one in each hand and slowly lowered them to the ground without making a sound.

Then he picked up six pebbles from the flowerbed by the door, pushed open the room's door, and slipped inside.

Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!

The six pebbles shot out like lightning.

The man and five women inside were immediately frozen in place, unable to make a sound.

This was the most basic acupoint-sealing technique. Anyone with even a little internal energy could force their acupoints open.

Fortunately, Yin Tiannan was an ignorant wastrel. His martial arts had not even entered the acquired realm, and he could not break through even these simplest sealed acupoints.

With one chop of his hand each, Wen Qingkong struck the backs of the five women's necks and knocked them unconscious.

Then, beneath Yin Tiannan's terrified gaze, Wen Qingkong looked at him with murderous ferocity in his eyes.

"I only have one question for you."

"Answer me honestly, and I will not harm you in the slightest."

"If you dare lie to me or cry out, I will kill you immediately!"

Yin Tiannan nodded frantically.

Wen Qingkong released his acupoints, and Yin Tiannan indeed did not shout.

"Hero, what are you trying to find out?"

"What kind of place is Jingchan Palace?"

"Huh?"

Yin Tiannan's eyes widened as he stared at Wen Qingkong in disbelief.

Wen Qingkong barked, "Explain it to me carefully!"

Yin Tiannan hurriedly and obediently replied, "Jingchan Palace was the residence of Li Jingchan, the number one man under heaven three hundred years ago. Back then, Li Jingchan was invincible throughout the land, and the First Pavilion he created dominated the martial world. No one dared provoke it."

"Even Shaolin, Wudang, and Emei had to give way before it."

"Later, Li Jingchan encountered Xia Rou, the most beautiful woman in the world, and fell helplessly in love with her. For her sake, he was willing to give up everything."

"At the time, the First Pavilion had already threatened the rule of the Great Xia court, and the Great Xia emperor was doing everything in his power to wipe it out."

"When the court's many experts fought Li Jingchan in a final battle, Li Jingchan was mysteriously poisoned and lost all his cultivation. He was then killed by the court's experts."

"After the battle, the First Pavilion also vanished into nothingness. Only later did people learn that Xia Rou had been a princess of the Great Xia imperial family."

"She was the one who poisoned Li Jingchan."

"After the First Pavilion fell, however, no one was ever able to enter Jingchan Palace."

"It was said that Jingchan Palace contained Li Jingchan's peerless martial arts manual, the Six Paths Fist Sutra, as well as countless treasures. But Jingchan Palace was packed with mechanisms. Even the finest craftsmen in the world could spend their entire lives trying and still fail to overcome the mechanisms Li Jingchan had set."

"To enter Jingchan Palace, one had to obtain the Jingchan Palace Mechanism Map. But it was said that the Jingchan Palace Mechanism Map had been torn apart during the struggle to seize it, and no one knew where its pieces had ended up."

Yin Tiannan poured out every rumor he knew about Jingchan Palace to Wen Qingkong.

Wen Qingkong finally understood why Yin Tiannan had been so shocked upon hearing his question. Jingchan Palace held an extremely lofty status in the martial world; any clue connected to it was enough to shake the entire martial world.