39: Chapter 39 Let them bite their own people first

The old mine shaft was oppressively low; Sect Master Di Kun could only walk hunched over.

The stone walls were damp, and slag was spread beneath their feet; with every step, gray-white debris sank into the soles of their shoes.

The roar of fire from the mine entrance behind them traveled through the rubble, muffled like thunder in the belly of a beast.

Loose Cultivator Gu was tied to a mine cart board, dragged in turns by the Life-Skill Player and the Sect Protection Elder; the bottom of the board scraped against the slag, leaving behind a broken trail of bloody mud.

"Don't sleep." The Life-Skill Player tore open a packet of Qi-replenishing powder, gripped Loose Cultivator Gu's chin, and poured the powder into his mouth. "If you kick the bucket now, we've been acting as porters for nothing all this way."

Loose Cultivator Gu choked and coughed twice, the powder mixing with blood as it spilled from the corners of his mouth.

He opened his eyes, his voice so faint it was nearly scattered by the mine wind: "I'm not... not sleeping."

The Speedrunner was in the lead, his ear pressed against the stone wall, his dampened finger held up at a junction.

He changed positions three times before finally pointing to a narrower crevice on the left.

"Go this way, there's a breeze."

The Sect Protection Elder frowned: "This way is even narrower."

"Wide doesn't mean it connects; narrow means there's airflow." The Speedrunner tapped the stone wall with a short pickaxe. "If it were a dead end, the wind wouldn't be sucked inward. The first rule of finding your way in a mine: don't trust the wide paths, trust the air."

The Life-Skill Player, carrying the medicine pack, laughed breathlessly: "Do you Speedrunners take shortcuts to the mall restrooms in real life too?"

"I charge for map-reading."

Sect Master Di Kun did not interrupt them. He used the tip of his blade to carve a shallow mark on the stone wall to note the direction, then patted the Storage Pouch at his waist.

The items inside the pouch knocked against each other, making faint sounds.

The ledger box, the private seal rubbing, the medicine powder samples, Spirit Stones, Qi-replenishing powder, the bronze token, and the Transfer Order.

None of these were mere treasures; each was the end of a rope that could pull out a dark chain.

Sect Master Di Kun paused briefly against the stone wall, reached his fingers into the Storage Pouch, and confirmed one by one that the seals were undamaged.

When his fingertips touched the ledger box, he paused longer.

A piece of the black lacquer had been shaved off, revealing the wooden base at the bottom of the box. That tiny bit of scent was enough to lure away a tracking insect.

The remaining scent of blood was still chasing them from behind, but the kerosene and collapsed rubble would at least block them for a while.

A panel floated before his eyes, visible only to him.

Seize the core ledger of the Abandoned Mine Warehouse, destroy the medicine powder inventory. The summoning progress for the second batch of Disciples has increased to ninety-five percent.

The Origin of the Spirit Pool still lacks a stable source.

Sect Master Di Kun's eyes did not relax.

Ninety-five percent was more torturous than ninety. It was like a pot about to boil, needing only that last bit of heat, but that heat couldn't be fueled by rotten firewood.

If he forcibly summoned the second batch of Disciples while the Spirit Pool was unstable, the Physical Body reconstruction might go awry, and the consequences would fall upon the Taichu Sect.

He looked toward the intermittent spiritual patterns deep within the stone wall.

The abandoned mine once had a Spiritual Vein, and not a low-grade one at that. The Spiritual Qi remaining in the old mine shaft was thin, yet it was more stable than the nearly dry Spirit Pool beneath the Taichu Sect's mountain gate.

If he could find the remnant core of the old Spiritual Vein, the hardest part of that final five percent might just be here, in this underground area that everyone considered waste.

"Sect Master?" The Speedrunner turned back. "What are you looking at?"

Sect Master Di Kun put away the panel and tapped the dark patterns on the stone wall with his blade tip: "This mine wasn't poor in the past."

Loose Cultivator Gu gasped twice on the board, his eyelids struggling to stay open: "In the early years... this wasn't an abandoned mine. The marketplace claimed it was mined out, but in reality, the higher-ups fought over it once, several groups of people died, and the remaining vein eyes were sealed."

Sect Master Di Kun looked down at him.

Loose Cultivator Gu swallowed the bloody foam in his mouth and gripped the edge of the mine cart board: "I only heard half of it; I wasn't qualified to touch that ledger. There might be records of the sealed vein in the old ledgers over at Iron Abacus's place."

Sect Master Di Kun did not press for more. The sound of wind ahead became clear, and a faint blue-black light was visible at the end of the mine shaft.

"Let's get out first."

Everyone picked up their pace.

The further they went, the more vine roots there were. Fine roots drilled through the stone cracks, hanging down against the mine walls, carrying the dampness of mountain soil.

The Speedrunner used his short pickaxe to dig away the rubble blocking their path. After the first stone rolled away, the cold wind from outside rushed in violently, blowing the lingering smoke in the mine shaft backward.

The fissure was hidden on the side of the mountainside, covered by vines and withered grass. Sect Master Di Kun slashed the vines open with his blade. The sky had not yet brightened, and the night pressed down upon the distant mountains; the firelight from the direction of the Abandoned Mine Warehouse flickered in the distance, like a group of red insects trampled into chaos.

When they crawled out of the fissure, they were covered in mine dust and blood.

The Life-Skill Player collapsed to the ground as soon as they emerged, his palms raw and bloodied, yet he didn't forget to drag Loose Cultivator Gu to a sheltered spot first.

The Sect Protection Elder leaned against the rock wall, checking the cracks in his short staff, his face smudged with several black marks from the smoke.

The Speedrunner climbed to a high point and peered toward the Abandoned Mine Warehouse.

"It's blown up over there." The Speedrunner lowered his voice. "The Red Snake Sect and the marketplace people are cursing at each other. At least three teams have gone toward the North Slope; there's no one on our side for now."

Sect Master Di Kun stood before the fissure and gazed toward the Abandoned Mine Warehouse.

Amidst the firelight, figures ran back and forth. From the direction of the North Slope came the braying of pack beasts; in the chaos, someone shouted that they had tracked the scent of the ledger box's lacquer, only for someone else to immediately curse that it was just a beast tied with bait.

On the other side, the Market Guards dragged the corpse of a Red Snake Sect pursuer into the clearing, and the Red Snake Sect members immediately drew their blades and surrounded them.

The wind carried the fragmented sounds over.

"You secretly released the informant!"

"Bullshit! It was clearly the retaliation brought on by your Beast Taming Ground; the fire starters are right there!"

"How did that dog surnamed Gu survive? Who opened the waterway?"

"The medicine mother is burned; you'd better think about how to explain this to the higher-ups first!"

Inside the Abandoned Mine Warehouse, Iron Abacus stood beside the half-collapsed well frame, holding his Iron Abacus in his hand; the beads of the abacus were already covered in dust.

He watched the black smoke rising from the well opening, then looked at the gray-furred pack beast that had been dragged back.

The outer lacquer of the ledger box was tied to the pack beast's back, and rope knots were still stuck near the wound.

A Red Snake Sect Disciple knelt on the ground, the corner of his mouth split from a blow: "Sir, the tracking insect went off course; we thought the ledger box was at the North Slope..."

Iron Abacus bent down and took the piece of black lacquer from the pack beast's back. The wooden lacquer was thin enough to let light through, its edges cleanly shaved.

The marketplace manager nearby said anxiously: "Sir, Loose Cultivator Gu was definitely released on purpose by the Red Snake Sect. Their Beast Taming Ground had trouble a few days ago; this time it's personal revenge!"

The Red Snake Sect minor leader immediately retorted: "A marketplace waist token was dropped at the waterway entrance; does anyone even need to ask who released him?"

Iron Abacus gripped the wooden lacquer, his gaze shifting across the faces of both groups.

He wanted to suppress this, but the loss of the ledger box, the explosion of the medicine mother, and the disappearance of the private seal rubbing—these three things colliding together had already placed a noose around everyone's neck.

Whoever confessed first would die first; whoever could shift the blame would still have half a breath left.

He crushed the wooden lacquer.

"Seal all exits. Send people to investigate Loose Cultivator Gu's former residence, investigate the Taichu Sect, and check everyone who entered or left the marketplace last night."

The ledger servant stepped closer: "Sir, what about the Red Snake Sect and the marketplace side..."

Iron Abacus watched the two groups shoving each other, his iron staff tapping the ground, the round mark pressing into the charred stone surface.

"Let them argue, but don't let them leave."

Outside the fissure in the mountainside, Sect Master Di Kun withdrew his gaze.

"Not retreating yet?" the Sect Protection Elder asked.

Sect Master Di Kun took a broken piece of a Marketplace Guard waist token from his Storage Pouch. It was one he had picked up during the earlier chaos, its edges cracked and the surface still stained with blood.

He weighed it in his hand, then turned and threw the token under the vine roots near the fissure, kicking some mine dust with the sole of his boot to cover half of it.

The Life-Skill Player's eye twitched: "Sect Master, we're already out; are you giving them overtime work?"

Sect Master Di Kun looked again at the corpse of a Red Snake Sect pursuer not far away. The man had been knocked down by the Sect Protection Elder during the fight at the well, his body half-stuck beside the rubble slope, the red snake pattern on his collar still clear.

Sect Master Di Kun walked over, grabbed the corpse's belt, and dragged the body into another stone depression, covering it with a few withered branches, leaving only one boot stained with marketplace mud exposed.

"The more unitedly they pursue, the harder it will be for us to leave."

Loose Cultivator Gu lay on the mine cart board, watching Sect Master Di Kun make arrangements while bleeding, his throat moving.

He reached into his bosom and pulled out a piece of cloth softened by sweat. Inside the cloth was wrapped half of an old private seal; the corners were chipped, but half of the character "Transfer" still remained on the seal face.

"This thing... I hid it earlier." Loose Cultivator Gu handed over the cloth, his hand shaking violently. "It matches the rubbing in the ledger box. Sect Master, I'm more useful alive than dead."

Sect Master Di Kun took the cloth, offering neither praise nor comfort; he simply put the half-seal into his Storage Pouch and retied the opening.

Loose Cultivator Gu closed his mouth, his fingers loosening their grip on the edge of the mine cart board.

The sky grew a shade paler.

The group bypassed the North Slope patrol point and headed down through a gully of loose stones. The route in the distance that should have been clear was now lined with a string of torches, and the patrols were denser than before.

The window of opportunity given by Zhao Heng was enough to enter, but not to retreat; if they really followed the original route, they would run straight into the net that Iron Abacus had rewoven.

The Speedrunner lay on the ridge for a while before shrinking back: "The North Slope is full of people. That window of opportunity from Zhao Heng is enough to enter the instance, but not enough to clear it and extract."

The Life-Skill Player tightened his medicine pack: "Don't mention clearing; my liver aches just hearing the word 'ledger' now."

Sect Master Di Kun walked in the lead, the blood on his shoulder having already stuck half his clothing to his skin. As the night wind blew, the wound grew cold and stiff.

He did not stop, only pulled the tattered edges of his breath-concealing cloak inward, leading the group into a patch of low shrubs.

The firelight of the Abandoned Mine Warehouse was blocked out bit by bit by the mountain ridge behind them.

The mountain path before dawn was at its darkest, and the direction of the Taichu Sect was still hidden beneath the gray-blue sky.

Sect Master Di Kun touched the Storage Pouch at his waist; the sharp edges of the ledger box pressed against his palm through the fabric.

"With this," he said in a low voice, "anyone who wants to devour the Taichu Sect will first have to consider whether they might break their teeth."

No one answered.

The mountain wind passed through the shrubs, blowing the mine dust from the corners of their clothes.

Sect Master Di Kun dragged his blood-stained footsteps onto the rocky path back to the sect, the Storage Pouch at his waist swaying gently in the darkness, as heavy as the night pressing down on half an abandoned mine.