It was the dead of night, and not a soul remained around the inn.
Ye Xingge strolled at his leisure through the old alley by moonlight. Only after he had gone some distance from the inn did he look to either side, make sure no one was around, and turn back to look at it.
Then the voice sounded in his ear again:
"All right, take out the whip and drive it with your internal force."
A little puzzled, Ye Xingge took the yellow strip from his robes and tried to draw up Qi from his chest and abdomen and channel it into his palm.
Rustle, rustle~
The next instant, the yellow strip in his hand began to change. First, it turned dark gold, and the patterns on its surface stretched outward like snakeskin.
Then the dark-gold whip coiled in a spiral before his right hand, winding upward like a snake slithering along an invisible arm.
In the blink of an eye, it formed the outline of an arm and shoulder. It looked like... hmm...
3D printing?
In his nineteen years in this world, Ye Xingge had never seen anything so bizarre. His dantian's sea of Qi felt as though it had been hooked up to a high-pressure pump, sucked into a whirlpool, and a swelling ache spread from his lower abdomen all the way to his palm.
Sensing trouble, Ye Xingge immediately tried to drop the whip.
But Mantanghong's voice came from in front of him:
"The Filth-Severing Whip has countless transformations and no fixed form. You'll get used to it."
Hiss, hiss, hiss~
As her voice faded, the figure outlined by the long, dark-gold whip fully took shape, and its colors and details began to change.
A tall, commanding heroine in a red dress appeared two feet away, her right hand clasped in his. He could feel the warmth of her palm.
The heroine was nearly as tall as he was. Her high, straight nose and peach-blossom eyes gave her a captivating, soul-stealing beauty, while her fiery red lips were like blazing roses.
As for her figure, her shoulders were smoothly rounded, and her bodice was grand and magnificent, as though it concealed a pair of overturned serving bowls. A belt cinched her waist slim enough to span with one hand, and below it her curves swelled naturally, the skirt tracing their plump, full contours.
Even through the skirt, he could sense their heavy fullness. It seemed that without so much as a slap, a gust of wind could send ripples through the flesh all the way to her thighs and the small of her back...
With such a face and figure, she should have been a peerless mature beauty who stunned the world, but this heroine did not seem aloof at all. She was even a little cheeky.
When she saw him, she frowned slightly and curled her lips in disdain. Then she turned to look around, like a proud, prickly older sister...
*?*
Ye Xingge knew the Filth-Severing Whip was a divine weapon, but this was the first time he understood why it was called "divine."
He stared blankly at the great beauty in red before him. Once he was sure there was no danger, he raised a hand and pressed her to see if she was hollow.
Hongyu's eyes naturally went cold at the sight, and she seized his misbehaving left hand.
"What are you doing?"
"Uh... I was just looking. It's not like I took advantage of you."
Still holding her hand, Ye Xingge kept looking her over from front to back.
"Is this another miraculous effect of the Filth-Severing Whip? Didn't you lose all your power?"
Hongyu had been struck by the Flower Judge's Essence-Dispersing Needle. Strictly speaking, she had lost all her internal force and her vital Qi had scattered, making it hard to recover in a short time. Even so, her bearing remained that of a sect leader atop a mountain.
"This is the Flower and Moon Pendant's miraculous effect, [Flowers in a Mirror, Moon in Water]. I can change my appearance as I please, which is why no one in the jianghu knows my true face. My master bound it to the Filth-Severing Whip, so you and I can communicate through the weapon.
"As for my power, a starving camel is still bigger than a horse. I can still control the jade pendant, while the whip uses your internal force, so we can't let go."
"Oh..."
Understanding dawned on Ye Xingge. He knew that beneath the twelve divine weapons were countless famed weapons with all manner of bizarre effects. They could also be thought of as special skills granted to mortal martial artists.
They were ranked overall by usefulness, which could be understood as:
Peak, top-tier, premium, decent, average, Blade of Kindness!
But famed weapons were a core resource of the martial path, and those at the bottom simply couldn't afford to play with them.
Mantanghong's Flower and Moon Pendant could roughly be understood as an "external avatar." Its ability to deceive was extremely powerful, making it "the peak of the peak" among famed weapons. It was only reasonable for a leader of the Mountains and Rivers Association to possess such a divine object.
Ye Xingge pondered for a moment, then asked in puzzlement:
"Since it uses my internal force, does that mean you can't fight right now either?"
Hongyu nodded as though it were obvious.
"How could the moon in the water or flowers in a mirror exchange blows with anyone? Besides, you're controlling the whip to manifest my image, and it consumes a vast amount of internal force. You don't have the strength to fight either."
Ye Xingge asked, puzzled, "Then what use is there in you coming out?"
"To broaden your horizons."
Hongyu held one hand behind her back, a smug look between her brows that seemed to say, "Impressive, isn't your big sister?"
"..."
Ye Xingge's horizons had indeed been broadened. He felt that this great heroine was not as fierce-tempered as the stories made her out to be. Holding her hand, he walked along the dark alley as though taking his wife shopping and continued asking questions.
"I heard the Filth-Severing Whip can make someone undying and indestructible and increase their cultivation speed tenfold. Is that true?"
Unable to release his hand, Hongyu walked in front, one hand behind her back, like a great sect leader leading her young live-in son-in-law by the hand.
"That's a rumor spread by ordinary folk in the jianghu. The Filth-Severing Whip corresponds to the Lower Corpse, which governs physical lust and the instincts of life and death. Its effects naturally correspond to those: [Reversing Life and Disrupting Death] and [Blissful Illusory Body].
"Reversing Life and Disrupting Death unleashes boundless vitality when you're near death, keeping you alive so you can flee at full speed. It also consumes all your body's strength and heals all your injuries..."
Ye Xingge knew about that. Back when the Cloud and Rain Tower had been surrounded and attacked by Great Yan, it had relied on that miraculous effect to force its way out alive. But the price was that its user became a "healthy ordinary person" afterward and had to disappear for years to cultivate anew. He asked another question:
"Then Blissful Illusory Body has to do with physical lust?"
Hongyu nodded. "Yes. Blissful Illusory Body can speed up your cultivation, but only through 'dual cultivation.' The speed depends on the quality and quantity of your Dao partners. It not only prolongs your life, but the pleasure also increases..."
"Oh?!"
Ye Xingge was half skeptical.
"That overpowered?!"
Hongyu gave a faint snort.
"If it weren't overpowered, how could it be called a divine weapon? But you can imagine the consequences. Your power comes too quickly, and on top of that, the pleasure keeps increasing. You'll inevitably fall into depravity, become a slave to your desires, never be able to give up carnal pleasure, and be unwilling to die..."
*?*
Why would I give it up?
And why should I be willing to die?
It was not without reason that Ye Xingge had been chosen by the divine weapon. As he saw it, there were no side effects at all!
Hongyu saw his expression change. Her lips curled and her brows drew together as she made another face of disdain.
"And you still dare say you're not fond of carnal pleasure?"
"Uh..."
Ye Xingge waved a hand. "It's just my first time hearing about it, so I'm a little surprised. Did Heroine Yun of the Cloud and Rain Tower rely on this to cultivate?"
Hongyu gave a faint snort and gazed out at the vast world, declaring with heroic spirit:
"My master began practicing martial arts at three, mastered a hundred schools of weapons by fourteen, entered the third rank at sixteen, and was already among the second rank at your age. She only kept this thing as a life-saving charm. If she really cared for it, would she have given it to you just like that?"
"Oh..."
Ye Xingge really had never heard any scandal about the Cloud and Rain Tower, and now he felt much more reassured!
After all, she was my first choice...
But maintaining her form was consuming his internal force like a monstrous cart crushing fruit dry, and Ye Xingge really was having trouble holding out. He asked:
"Can you only take this form? Can you make yourself a little smaller? Like turning into a little bird and perching on my shoulder? My power is shallow. If we keep this up, I'll be exhausted soon."
Hongyu actually could. She could even turn into a fox spirit or a little loli...
But she certainly wouldn't display such tricks for teasing men so readily. After showing off her abilities, she vanished from the alley, and the three-foot leather whip returned to its original form. Her voice sounded in his ear again:
"Let's go. Make it quick."
Ye Xingge had meant for her to get smaller, and he was a little disappointed to find she had disappeared altogether.
But he had important business to attend to and no time to study the divine weapon. He put the yellow strip away and took out the paper containing the intelligence.
The intelligence Hongyu had given him contained a great deal of information. A cursory look showed that the Yang Tuyan affair had roughly unfolded as follows:
Yang Tuyan was a descendant of the northeastern rebels. His entire family had been slaughtered by Great Yan, and he wanted to kill the emperor for revenge. His name was not on the rankings, however, and for years he had hidden beyond the passes, moving from place to place and attacking Great Yan officials and soldiers. Recently, he had suddenly contacted the Eight Pillars Hall, asking for help entering the capital to take revenge.
The Eight Pillars Hall had formerly been the Eight Pillar States of Hezhong, a Great Zhou military merit faction from which the Great Yan imperial family had emerged. It later split through internal strife and was now a separatist warlord force in the northwest.
As a hostile force, the Eight Pillars Hall naturally had no objection to someone volunteering as a deathsworn. It therefore used its own covert network to send Yang Tuyan to the capital.
Under the original plan, after Yang Tuyan arrived by boat at Shangjin Ferry, a subordinate contact would pick him up and take him to the Linyang branch, which would then arrange for him to become a guard at Imperial Uncle Cao's residence in Linyang.
At the end of the month, Imperial Uncle Cao would enter the palace to offer birthday congratulations to the Yan emperor. Yang Tuyan would accompany the party to the imperial city, where a hidden agent would help him enter the palace and wait for a chance to assassinate the emperor.
The Eight Pillars Hall's plan seemed meticulous. With several handoffs along the way, even if someone were exposed midway, the hall's other covert agents would not be implicated. Even if the assassination failed, it could sow discord, splash mud on the imperial in-laws of the Cao Clan, and stir up unrest.
But in reality, before Yang Tuyan reached Shangjin Ferry, Mantanghong had already lain in wait, ready to kill him and seize the treasure.
Then Mantanghong was cornered by State Security, Yang Tuyan caught wind of it and fled, and the Heaven-Observing Pavilion was so focused on dealing with Mantanghong that it failed to catch either of them...
After reading it, Ye Xingge's expression grew a little complicated. He picked up the yellow strip again.
"You major powers ranked among the top ten under heaven run things like such a makeshift troupe too?"
Hongyu could hear him and replied:
"The jianghu is unpredictable, and the other powers aren't fools. No one can plan without a single oversight."
Ye Xingge thought that was true. He then looked at the strategic deployment:
There was a bounty on Yang Tuyan's head. Now that word of his whereabouts had leaked, people of the jianghu had come at the news, and the Heaven-Observing Pavilion was digging three feet into the ground for him. He could no longer leave Hexi, and if he wanted to live, he could only seek help from the Eight Pillars Hall's informant.
And since the Imperial Uncle Cao connection had not yet been exposed, the Eight Pillars Hall might try to continue the assassination if it had the chance.
So the two sides were highly likely to meet at the Linyang branch.
To keep the court from growing suspicious, Ye Xingge certainly couldn't go straight to Linyang to kill Yang Tuyan and seize the treasure. He had to put on an act.
Hongyu's plan was to start with Jiang Baichuan, the owner of the shipping firm. He had disappeared after today's incident, and the court was searching for him. According to the Mountains and Rivers Association's intelligence, he had a private residence in Muyang and might be hiding there.
What Ye Xingge had to do was first find Jiang Baichuan's superior contact, the Shunyuan Pawnshop, and forge evidence pointing to Linyang.
Then he would go back, capture Jiang Baichuan, and interrogate him for clues about the pawnshop.
That way, each link would connect to the next, tying the three places together. He could fight his way to Linyang, slaughter Yang Tuyan, and provide the court with a plausible chain of evidence...
Ye Xingge thought the plan was workable, but he still asked in puzzlement:
"I'm just an innkeeper. How would I know where Jiang Baichuan's private residence is?"
Hongyu explained, "The residence is used for an affair. His mistress is the wife of Muyang's county commandant, and no one outside knows about it. Just say that while running the inn, you heard some gossip, then asked the commandant's wife and got the location from her."
"Is that so?"
Ye Xingge had never heard that scandal. He thought the Mountains and Rivers Association really did have eyes and ears everywhere. He put away the divine weapon and the intelligence.
"All right, there's no time to lose. I'll set out as soon as I can. Hanging up now."
"Hanging up? What does that mean?"
The puzzled question came from inside his head.
Ye Xingge offered no explanation and ran straight back to his own courtyard...