The Azure Mountain

Chapter 111: Placing a Bet

Luo City in the dark night was like a giant Go board. The bluestone paved roads were straight, cutting the buildings into square and upright twenty-one lines vertically and horizontally.

The secret spies were dressed in black clothes, hands resting on their waist sabers.

Like black Go pieces one after another, they spread out along different paths towards the places they should go to.

If viewed from the sky, the secret spies invisibly connecting into a net-like shape looked like a giant black dragon, entrenched on the Go board.

On the quiet Xinglong Stronghold Street, Xi Feng walked at the very front wearing a freshly carved dragon-head mask on his face, while Chen Ji and Jin Zhu walked shoulder-to-shoulder wearing masks.

Behind them, the two secret spies Jin Zhu had arranged constantly followed Chen Ji, sealing off any routes he might use to escape.

As they walked, Chen Ji suddenly stood still and turned around.

In an instant, the two secret spies abruptly half-drew their waist sabers, watching him with cold eyes.

Chen Ji was puzzled: "Lord Jin Zhu, is this to protect me, or to detain me? Treating me like a prisoner right now, is the next step to arrest me and throw me into the Inner Prison?"

Jin Zhu patted his shoulder and sighed: "We are all smart people, why must we explicitly lay things out in the open."Chen Ji's tone was so calm it didn't hold a trace of emotion: "Lord Jin Zhu, I helped you find a way to grasp the Liu family's weak point. Seeing that the great merit is about to be accomplished, you want to dismantle the bridge after crossing the river! When exactly will you be able to trust me?"

Jin Zhu smiled: "When you can explain the many doubtful points about yourself, only then can I trust you."

Chen Ji asked with a heavy voice: "Which doubtful points?"

Jin Zhu pondered for a moment and said: "As a medical clinic apprentice, yet you could decipher a Jing Dynasty secret letter; lacking the strength to truss a chicken, yet during that time at the Chaosang Gambling Den you were able to survive in the hands of Jing Dynasty spies; not skilled in investigation and pursuit, yet you were able to shake off two of my subordinates. Do you know that even within my Secret Spy Division there aren't many people who can accomplish these things, let alone you, merely a lowly medical clinic apprentice?"

With his hands behind his back, Jin Zhu asked with great interest: "So, can you help me answer these questions?"

Chen Ji didn't answer.

Jin Zhu laughed heartily: "It doesn't matter if you don't want to answer, after the matters here are concluded, Meng Ji will naturally ask until things are clear."

Chen Ji suddenly asked: "Isn't Lord afraid that later when dealing with Liu Mingxian superficially, I might suddenly open my mouth and ruin your layout? You still need me to cooperate in acting, why don't we make a deal."

Jin Zhu unhurriedly asked: "What deal?"

However, right at this moment, a secret spy suddenly said in a low voice: "Lord, why must You make a deal with him? Every time you meet with Liu Mingxian you wear masks, so right now Liu Mingxian fundamentally doesn't know who exactly is under the mask. It's the same whoever wears it. Why don't I wear this mask of his. When the time comes, as long as I don't speak, Liu Mingxian will absolutely not discover any anomaly."

Jin Zhu smiled and looked at Chen Ji: "Sorry, on this gambling table, whoever holds the most chips in their hands will be the one who can laugh until the end. Now you no longer have any chips in your hands, but I still do."

As his voice fell, Jin Zhu actually snatched off the tiger mask on Chen Ji's face.

He looked at Chen Ji's calm eyes, and then looked at Chen Ji's involuntarily clenched fists, and suddenly sighed with emotion: "I know you are actually very angry, but you don't need to be angry either. I know being betrayed definitely won't feel good, but if you truly have no problems, I will personally apologize to you and give you a satisfactory answer. Take him down and hold him on the side, gag his mouth, don't let him make a sound and disrupt the situation."

The two secret spies stepped forward and ruthlessly gagged Chen Ji's mouth with a cloth strip.

Jin Zhu smiled. He weighed that wooden tiger mask in his hand, and finally handed it out: "Liu Tiao, you wear the mask. From now on, you are the Si Cao of the Military Intelligence Division."

Having said that, the three of them—Jin Zhu, Xi Feng, and Liu Tiao—put on their masks and continued walking towards Peony Bridge. Meanwhile, the other secret spy escorted Chen Ji into the small alley to rendezvous with the other secret spies hiding in the dark.

In the small alley, Chen Ji slowed his pace, attempting to stall for time.

But he had barely just slowed down when he was ruthlessly whipped on the back with a saber sheath by the secret spy: "Walk faster, don't get any crooked ideas."

A burning, painful sensation came from Chen Ji's back, but his expression became increasingly calm.

The hour of Yin (3-5 AM), the fourth watch.

As the saying goes: First watch for people, second watch for fire, third watch for ghosts, fourth watch for thieves, fifth watch for roosters.

During the fourth watch, the night is the darkest and people sleep the soundest; it's precisely the best opportunity for murder and arson.

Jin Zhu could already see Peony Bridge from afar. He slowed his steps and exhorted in a low voice: "Remember, later you absolutely must wait for me to confirm whether Liu Mingxian has shown up. If Liu Mingxian doesn't appear, tonight's operation is cancelled, and we will continue trying to win the other party's trust... Currently the court situation is chaotic. We absolutely must catch Liu Mingxian in the act, only then can we block the verbal criticisms and written condemnations of the various esteemed lords."

"Understood!"

Jin Zhu repeatedly confirmed that the three of them had their masks on properly without any omissions, and only then slowly walked towards Peony Bridge. In the distance, the distant time-announcing voice of a night watchman drifted over: "Safe and sound, free from illness and disaster!"

Jin Zhu shook his head. Everyone said night watchmen had it hard, needing to get up five times every night to announce the watch, not even able to sleep a full night's sleep. But wasn't his Secret Spy Division also the same?

However, just as he walked to the head of Peony Bridge and saw the carriage waiting on the bridge, he suddenly felt as if he had missed some details: "I keep feeling like something isn't quite right."

"What isn't right?"

"It's too quiet..."

"Lord, the surroundings have already been locked down by our people, it being quiet is correct."

"Wrong, wrong!"

Jin Zhu abruptly looked up at the stars: "'Safe and sound, free from illness and disaster' is the time-announcing phrase for the third watch, it's clearly already entered the fourth watch now, why would he mistakenly announce it?"

The muscles all over Xi Feng's body abruptly tensed: "If night watchmen and drum beaters announce the wrong time, they will be thrown into the great prison, the time cannot be mistaken!"

"The person who announced the time just now wasn't a real night watchman!"

"There's an ambush!"

...

...

On Anxi Street, an old man wearing black cloth shoes with white soles and carrying two packages of pastries, unhurriedly walked next to Chai's Grain and Oil Shop.

When he gazed into that gloomy and dark small alley, dozens of pairs of glowing green eyes in the small alley also turned to look at him.

During their mutual silence, the old man smiled and beckoned with his hand: "Nine Heavens Responding Origin Thunder Sound Universal Transformation Heavenly Venerate."

As his voice fell, a pair of eyes was seen emerging from the crowd. The other party walked from the shadows into the moonlight, slowly revealing a dark and furry figure.

Wu Yun raised her head and meowed: "Master, why haven't you rested yet?"

Old Yao sighed with emotion: "With all those messed up things Chen Ji has done, how can I sleep? I'm deeply afraid that the sky will collapse the moment I wake up. Come, I brought two packages of traditional snacks for you, distribute them to the cats behind you."

Wu Yun bit the hemp rope on the paper package and turned to carry it into the darkness.

The next moment, those pairs of eyes widened and turned even greener.

Wu Yun meowed, and the eyes in the alley were seen disappearing one after another, and the snacks were carried off to who knows where.

She walked back into the moonlight and lightly leaped into Old Yao's embrace: "Master, may you live a long life of a hundred years!"

Old Yao smacked his lips: "It sounds as if I don't have many good years left to live."

Wu Yun: "..."

She hadn't interacted with humans for long; she only knew she should praise people at this time, but didn't know how to praise most appropriately yet.

Wu Yun changed the topic: "Master, why did you come?"

Old Yao rubbed Wu Yun's head: "Tonight I performed a divination for Chen Ji... but ever since he learned the Sword Seed Cultivation Pathway, my divination arts seem to have lost their effectiveness on him. It's fuzzy, sometimes accurate, sometimes not. Right now I can only calculate that he is in danger tonight, but I don't know the outcome."

Wu Yun froze for a moment: "He said he wasn't in any danger himself. I had originally said I wanted to follow, but he didn't let me go either."

Old Yao smiled: "He probably didn't want you to encounter danger either."

Wu Yun hurriedly said: "Then you help him!"

Old Yao remained silent for a few seconds: "Why should I help him? I said before, I have no master-disciple affection with him."

Wu Yun was puzzled: "Then going out so late, what are you going to do?"

Old Yao thought for a moment: "I'm just going to see if I need to collect his corpse."

Wu Yun's profound respect was aroused: "Your heart is truly kind."

"If you don't know how to praise, you don't have to praise," Old Yao chuckled happily. "My heart isn't kind. If my heart was kind, I wouldn't have lived to this age. Wu Yun ah, for all the major figures in this world, the higher the position they stand at, the colder the blood in their hearts becomes."

Old Yao looked down at Wu Yun: "He came looking to find you before he left. What all did he say?"

Wu Yun thought for a moment and said: "He told me to go tell you at daybreak that he might not be able to return for several days, but he'll be fine."

Old Yao let out a light sound of surprise: "He guessed that he wouldn't be able to return these few days? But right now that kid Jin Zhu has already begun suspecting Chen Ji, and even specifically invited Meng Ji over for this. On what basis is he certain he will be fine?"

Wu Yun didn't understand: "Jin Zhu previously also said he wanted to invest in Chen Ji, why is he suspecting Chen Ji again? Was he lying before?"

Old Yao smiled and said: "Wanting to invest is true. Because Jin Zhu's cultivation pathway is to place heavy bets on other people. As long as the cultivation base of the person he bets on increases, he can share the benefits. Previously, after he successfully placed a bet on Tian Ma, within ten years Tian Ma touched the threshold of the Divine Path Realm. At the same time, it even brought Jin Zhu's cultivation realm to a new level."

"After Jin Zhu tasted the sweetness of success, he wanted to unearth the next Tian Ma every day. But failing several times in a row caused his realm to drop instead of rise, actually falling from the Path-Seeking Realm back to the Connate Realm... Now that he saw Chen Ji's potential, he naturally wanted to place another bet, helping Chen Ji obtain cultivation pathways and cultivation resources."

"So that's how it is."

"Let's talk business first," Old Yao asked: "Three days ago, after Chen Ji met you once, you disappeared. Where did you go that night?"

Wu Yun hesitated.

Old Yao ridiculed: "Cannot say?"

Wu Yun answered honestly: "Chen Ji said I could only tell you if you asked repeatedly. You have only asked twice now."

Old Yao laughed: "...Then now I am asking for the third time, where did you go that night?"

"I went to deliver a slip of paper to the Liu family's large mansion."

"What was written on the slip of paper?"

"'The Department Head is an imposter, you may seek verification from the shopkeeper of Hundred Deer Pavilion.'"

Old Yao slightly narrowed his eyes.

The skinny old man stood on the long street, turning his head to look at the boundless bluestone paved road extending into the dark night, as if seeing the end of the world in a single glance: "He wants to stabilize a weak group of stones and swallow the dragon?"

(End of Chapter)