36: Chapter 36 Even if you have to shift the blame, you still have to win.

The stone door was lifted halfway, and the light from inside spilled out first.

Sect Master Di Kun raised his hand to signal the team to hold, not rushing in immediately. The Abandoned Mine Warehouse was wider than the outside; the wooden tracks split into three here: the left side stacked with crates of Spirit Stone, the middle lined with sacks of Medicinal Powder, and the right leading to a dark passage deep within. Two rows of mining lamps hung on the walls; the lamp oil had been added in a rush, causing several to overflow, tongues of flame dripping down the lamp bases.

The sound of bronze bells finally spread throughout the entire Abandoned Mine Warehouse.

In the distance, the Red Snake Sect's password rang out first: "Snake Tail Unite!"

Immediately following on the other side came the shout from the Market Guards: "Audit and Seal the Door!"

The voices from both sides collided above the warehouse area; neither side could match the other's secret signal. Someone cursed, and the other team immediately drew their blades, sheaths clashing against sheaths, the sound of metal becoming a chaotic mess.

The Speedrunner peered out along the edge of the stone door, a corner of his mouth lifting. "Sect Master, they aren't the same team. The Red Snake Sect wants to seal the survivors, the Marketplace wants to protect the books, and both sides are afraid the other will pin the blame on them first."

Sect Master Di Kun saw two Red Snake Sect guards on the left rushing toward the center, while the Market Guards went first to protect the Medicinal Powder and the sealed crates. Their paths crossed, and within a few breaths, they were squeezed at the wooden track junction. The chaos in the warehouse area wasn't out of control, but there were cracks.

That was enough.

Loose Cultivator Gu clutched his side, blood soaking the cloth bandage into a dark color. Seeing Sect Master Di Kun still looking at the sealed crates, his face tightened. "Sect Master Di, the Account Box is in hand, it is time to leave."

"Only take the Account Box, and leave the second batch of Disciples hanging there to watch?" Sect Master Di Kun wiped the blood from his sleeve onto the edge of the stone door, the pale silver Sect mark on the back of his right hand illuminated for an instant by the mining lamps before he tucked it back into his sleeve. "Before the Abandoned Mine Warehouse cuts its tail, we bite off whatever we can."

The Life-Skill Player had already taken two poison smoke bombs from his pack. "Which side do we bite?"

Sect Master Di Kun pointed to the mining tunnel where the Red Snake Sect guards were coming from. "Throw the smoke over there. Scatter the medicinal powder toward the Marketplace. Let them guess first who is destroying the evidence."

The Life-Skill Player's eyes lit up. "Understood, whoever coughs first is the one who starts cursing."

The first poison smoke bomb rolled into the mining tunnel in the direction of the Red Snake Sect, exploding after hitting the wooden track. Gray-green smoke spread along the ground, the Red Snake Sect guards rushing in front stumbled, coughs ringing out one after another. Someone immediately shouted: "Those Marketplace dogs are using poison!"

At the same moment, another Life-Skill Player flung the pungent medicinal powder toward the flank of the Market Guards. The dust swirled into the lamplight, turning into a yellow fog. The Market Guards covered their mouths and noses and retreated, the leader turning around to curse: "The Red Snake Sect wants to silence us! Protect the boxes!"

The formations on both sides were torn open by these two sentences.

Sect Master Di Kun moved.

He rushed to the first sealed crate on the left, thrusting his short blade into the gap in the copper plating. With a press of the handle, the lid didn't open. The Sect Protection Elder stepped up from behind and severed the lock with a sword strike. The lock flew off, hitting a mining lamp on the wall; the lamp base tilted, and lamp oil spilled onto the corner of the crate.

The lid was pried open, the light of the Low-Grade Spirit Stone piling up into a cold white in the darkness.

There were over three hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stone pieces, interspersed with a dozen small porcelain bottles, the bottles labeled with paper tags for Qi-Replenishing Powder. Sect Master Di Kun untied the Storage Pouch from his waist, held the opening wide, and with a sweep of his palm, the Spirit Stones rolled into the pouch in sheets, the sound of the collision as dense as rain hitting roof tiles. The Qi-Replenishing Powder was also swept away by him, the porcelain bottles colliding with a crisp sound that made the distant Market Guards turn their heads.

"Someone is grabbing the crates!"

"Don't worry about the crates first, the poison was released by the Red Snake Sect!"

"Bullshit! You Marketplace people even want to burn the ledgers, and you are still pretending to be good guys?"

Blade light flashed in the smoke, and finally, people on both sides engaged in close-quarters combat. A Red Snake Sect Cultivator slashed his blade onto the shield of a Marketplace Guard; the shield dented by half an inch, and wood chips flew off. The Marketplace Guard countered with a short spear, the tip grazing the opponent's waist armor and severing the red snake-skin belt.

A line of fine text popped up before Sect Master Di Kun's eyes.

"Equivalent resources seized, the summoning stability of the second batch of Disciples has slightly improved. The gap in the Spirit Pool Origin has not been filled, and summoning cannot yet be opened."

Sect Master Di Kun scanned the line of text, his brow not relaxing. Spirit Stones could stabilize the Physical Body Materials and basic supplies, but the Spirit Pool Origin was the bone stuck in his throat. The Abandoned Mine Warehouse had ledgers, goods, and medicinal powder, but not necessarily the Origin.

But there were things that could force the location of the Origin out.

"Where is the main batch of medicinal powder?" He turned to Loose Cultivator Gu.

Loose Cultivator Gu propped himself up on a wooden crate, blood seeping from the cloth at his waist again. He glanced at the sacks in the middle of the warehouse area and shook his head. "Ordinary medicinal powder is outside; the main batch won't be placed in plain sight. The raw Materials for the Tide-Inducing Drug are afraid of moisture; they must be placed in a high spot, near the fire, and far from the water."

The Speedrunner looked up at the warehouse beams. "High spot, near the fire... Sect Master, that row of hanging baskets in the upper right corner."

Three iron hanging baskets hung under the mining beams, the bottoms of the baskets padded with asbestos cloth, with two small lamps installed separately nearby. The baskets were covered with gray cloth on the outside, looking like spare tools if one didn't look closely.

Loose Cultivator Gu gritted his teeth. "Yes, that is the kind. There is a fishy smell inside; you will know it when you smell it."

Sect Master Di Kun raised his hand and pointed.

The Sect Protection Elder leaped onto the wooden crate, then used the corner of the crate to step onto the wall, hooking the basket ropes with his sword sheath. The first iron hanging basket fell, shattering the floor tiles, the gray cloth lifted, revealing bundles of dark green medicinal powder inside. The smell drifted out, like damp fish scales being roasted over a fire, so fishy it made the base of one's tongue numb.

The Life-Skill Player rushed over, first taking a sample with a bamboo tube and stuffing it into a wax-sealed small tube.

Loose Cultivator Gu said urgently: "It is impossible to take it all; these will smoke when they touch fire, and explode with moisture when they touch beast-taming medicinal liquid."

Sect Master Di Kun took a small bottle of lamp oil from the Life-Skill Player's pack, and then took out the beast-taming medicinal liquid seized earlier, the side of the bottle still stained with a scarlet mark from the old beast arena. "Then we won't take it."

The Life-Skill Player looked at the two bottles in his hand and grinned. "Sect Master, if this blows up, the medicinal powder will be ruined."

"Ruined things also have their uses." Sect Master Di Kun poured the beast-taming medicinal liquid onto the main batch; the dark green powder absorbed the liquid, small bubbles bulging on the surface. "Leave it for them to reconcile their accounts."

The Life-Skill Player immediately added lamp oil. The lamp oil seeped down along the cracks in the medicinal powder, dragging a bright trail on the floor tiles. Sect Master Di Kun didn't light it immediately; he picked up a standard fire starter dropped by a Red Snake Sect Cultivator from the ground. The end of the fire starter was carved with a snake pattern, the red lacquer worn off at one corner.

He threw the fire starter into the most conspicuous position next to the main batch.

The Speedrunner saw this scene, his hands currently pushing a wooden crate to block the road, the bottom of the crate rubbing against the floor tiles, dragging a white mark. He laughed so hard his shoulders shook. "Robbing things and framing people in one go, Sect Master, have you really never been a villain before?"

Sect Master Di Kun wiped the medicinal liquid off the back of his hand. "Villains are too crude. One must win even when passing the buck."

As these words fell, a Marketplace Guard who was rushing out of the smoke paused, his eyes landing first on the snake-patterned fire starter, and then on the main batch soaked in lamp oil. He opened his mouth to shout, but the gray-green poison smoke poured into his throat, making him bend over coughing.

A Red Snake Sect Cultivator killed his way in from the other side.

This person was much stronger than the guards outside; as soon as his blade came out, the smoke was split by the blade wind. The blade tip went straight for the Sect Protection Elder's heart, the angle vicious, first sealing his hand protecting the Account Box, then forcing him to abandon the box and turn back.

The Sect Protection Elder turned to parry, sword and blade clashing together, sparks splashing onto the nearby wooden crate. The wooden crate cracked under the shock, and empty porcelain bottles rolled out, shattering all over the floor. That Red Snake Sect Cultivator's footing sank, and as the second blade pressed down, the floor tiles under the Sect Protection Elder's feet cracked.

Sect Master Di Kun did not intervene in their frontal clash.

He bypassed from the side, his short blade slicing down along the shaft of a mining cart. The shaft broke, half a cart of mine slag overturned, and black dross rolled to the feet of the Red Snake Sect Cultivator. The man was forced to shift his footing, exposing a half-inch opening in his blade stance. The Sect Protection Elder's sword tip thrust in along the opening, prying open the opponent's shoulder armor, and blood splashed out from the seams of the red snake skin.

The opponent took two steps back, not dead, and immediately whistled.

The whistle carried into the deep dark passage, and the response from inside was the sound of a large number of footsteps. Heavy, dense, rhythmic, accompanied by the sound of armor plates rubbing.

The smile on the Speedrunner's face vanished. He lay on the edge of the wooden track on the right, his ear close to the ground, his palm pressing on the track to feel the vibration. "Sect Master, a large team is coming from the depths. They are very fast, they will reach the junction within ten breaths. If we drag on, we will be blocked in the warehouse area."

The Life-Skill Player had already lit the first wisp of igniter grass, the flame shrinking into a point of red between his fingers. He looked at Sect Master Di Kun, waiting for one word.

Sect Master Di Kun scanned the scene.

Spirit Stones in the bag, Qi-Replenishing Powder in hand, the Account Box under the Sect Protection Elder's arm, medicinal powder samples sealed. The main batch was soaked with beast-taming medicinal liquid and lamp oil, and the Red Snake Sect fire starter was placed next to it. The Market Guards were coughing and retreating, while the Red Snake Sect guards were staring at the fire starter with ashen faces. Both sides were shouting at each other, and no one could unify orders in the first instance.

Enough.

"Light it."

The Life-Skill Player flicked his wrist, and the igniter grass fell into the bright trail of lamp oil. The flame crawled along the floor tiles, first licking the edge of the main batch. The dark green medicinal powder bulged violently, white smoke rushed out from the seams of the bag, and the fishy smell was roasted by the fire, turning into a pungent sweet stench.

"Retreat!"

Sect Master Di Kun kicked a nearby mining cart over, the cart body lying across the passage entrance. He grabbed the back collar of Loose Cultivator Gu, pushing him toward the drainage ditch. The Sect Protection Elder retreated first while protecting the Account Box, and the Speedrunner kicked over lamp stands along the way as he ran; the lamp fires fell to the ground, lamp oil splashing, cutting the shadows of the pursuers into a chaotic mess.

A roar exploded behind them.

The main batch of medicinal powder didn't explode into a fireball, but first expanded, then tore apart. The iron hanging basket was lifted by the air wave, smashing through the side wall of the warehouse area, gravel and medicinal powder mixing together and spraying out. The wooden crate lids were blown off, breaking a mining beam, and dust poured down from the beam, the entire warehouse area looking like it had been bitten by a giant beast. The Red Snake Sect fire starter was pushed by the air wave to the edge of the ashes, the snake pattern facing up, the red lacquer curling black edges in the fire.

"The Red Snake Sect destroyed the warehouse!"

"The Marketplace released poison first!"

The two kinds of shouts tore at each other in the smoke.

Sect Master Di Kun did not look back. The air wave pushed against his back, and the edge of his breath-concealing cloak was scorched by sparks, leaving several black holes. He used the momentum to rush into the narrow mining tunnel he had come from, the wooden tracks under his feet vibrating more and more heavily. The entrance to the drainage ditch ahead was blocked by rubble that the Life-Skill Player had cleared again, the gap only half a person high.

Loose Cultivator Gu's waist injury slowed him down, his knees softened, and he almost knelt down. Sect Master Di Kun gripped his shoulder, his knuckles sinking into the wet cloth. "You snatched the Account Box once, don't die at the door of a stinking ditch."

Loose Cultivator Gu gritted his teeth and crawled into the drainage ditch.

Just as the Sect Protection Elder was about to follow, a very low bell sound came from the deep dark passage.

It was not the warning bronze bell from earlier.

This sound was deeper, as if someone had knocked on thick copper with their knuckles, and the firelight in the mining tunnel was suppressed by it. The noisy sounds of the pursuers actually stopped briefly after this bell sound, and even the Market Guards who were cursing each other fell silent.

Sect Master Di Kun stopped at the entrance of the drainage ditch and looked back.

At the end of the smoke-rolling warehouse area, a shadow passed through the lifted stone door. Before that person appeared, an iron staff pointed on the ground first, the tip of the staff grinding over broken porcelain, the porcelain shards not shattering, but instead being pressed into the floor tiles, leaving a round and deep mark.

The Speedrunner was already halfway into the ditch; seeing Sect Master Di Kun not moving, he urged in a low voice: "Sect Master, ten breaths have arrived!"

Sect Master Di Kun threw the empty lamp oil bottle into the center of the mining tunnel, the bottle rolling over blood and medicinal powder, stopping at a pool of reflective stinking water. He took one last look at that iron staff, bent over and crawled into the drainage ditch, his sleeve brushing against the cold, wet stone wall, the firelight behind him cut into a swaying red line by the narrow ditch entrance.