41: Chapter 41 Three Knives, First to Lure Zhao Heng

After the three characters "Han Lishan" were covered by mine dust, the oil lamp in the Sect Masters Hall gave a soft pop, the wick flared, and black specks splattered onto the edge of the ledger page.

Sect Master Di Kun did not continue flipping through the ledger.

He closed the first page and tapped his knuckles twice on the cover.

The sound was not heavy, yet it made everyone gathered around the desk retreat half a step, as if afraid that their exhaled breath might damage this ledger box.

"Group up."

The Sect Protection Elder immediately looked up.

Sect Master Di Kun pushed aside the ledger, rubbings, transport orders, and medicinal powder receipts one by one.

His movements were not fast, but with each item he pushed, another piece of evidence capable of crushing someone to death appeared on the desk.

"Elder, take two people to audit the ledger.

Only look at the names, secret marks, and amounts; do not judge right or wrong.

Speedrunner, look at the transport orders; find the routes, times, and recurring locations.

Life-Skill Player, look at the medicinal powder receipts; seal the samples and label the batches."

Life-Skill Player had already taken out clean animal hide, and upon hearing this, he immediately tightened his sleeves: "The receipts are mine, and the medicinal powder bottles are also mine.

If anyone has itchy hands and opens a bottle, don't blame me for smearing Qi-Replenishing Powder all over their Face."

Speedrunner squatted at the corner of the desk and spread out several transport orders: "I know the routes; I ran them once last night.

If anyone wrote a fake route, I'll be able to tell something is wrong at a glance."

Tower Defense Player raised his hand: "What about backups?

If this stuff gets stolen, do we just delete our save files on the spot?"

Sect Master Di Kun looked at him.

Tower Defense Player tucked the charcoal pencil behind his ear and spoke quickly: "There is only one original.

The enemy won't talk about martial ethics with us.

Burning the hall, stealing the box, killing people—any of these could happen.

We must at least copy the key pages three times, hide them in three places, and it would be best to make a fake ledger page for them to steal."

Life-Skill Player rummaged through the bottom of the medicine chest and found a narrow-necked porcelain bottle containing a light brown medicinal liquid.

She spread thin animal hide on the desk, dipped a bamboo strip into the liquid, and gently wiped it across a corner.

"It can be copied.

Once the animal hide is soaked in the medicinal liquid, the ink can absorb into it.

It won't wash off with water, and while it will curl if roasted by fire, the characters will remain.

The downside is that it's slow; if your hand shakes even a little, it's ruined."

Chuunibyou Player flipped his cloak and leaned in: "Such a secret Legacy record should be handled by my undying hand—"

Life-Skill Player held the bamboo strip horizontally in front of his nose: "Your handwriting looks like chicken claws stepping on snow.

Get lost and go train the servants."

Chuunibyou Player fell silent for a moment, then turned and walked toward the hall door: "Mortals always need someone to guide them; I shall go ignite the sparks of rumors."

Sect Master Di Kun did not stop him.

"Only release half-true, half-false rumors."

Sect Master Di Kun pressed a piece of blank animal hide in front of Life-Skill Player.

"The Red Snake Sect's secret beast-taming den has been dug out, the medicinal powder has been burned, and the ledger box has gone missing.

Do not mention the Taichu Sect, and do not mention that Loose Cultivator Gu is alive."

Chuunibyou Player stopped by the door, and when he turned back, his cloak was lifted by the wind: "What if someone asks where the ledger box is?"

"Tell him to go ask the Red Snake Sect."

As these words fell, the shoulders of several servants outside the hall door tightened simultaneously.

Chuunibyou Player did not continue his dialogue; he simply pulled the door open a crack and led the others out.

Sect Master Di Kun lowered his head and reopened the ledger to the second page.

This time, he flipped through it even more slowly.

There were many markings on the page edges that others could not understand; some looked like short lines casually jotted down by an accountant, and some looked like trails left by crawling insects.

Loose Cultivator Gu was placed beside the desk; his Face was as white as paper, but his eyes were fixed on those markings.

"Those aren't random drawings."

He raised his hand, his fingertip stopping beside a secret mark of a snake tail hooked backward.

"This is an internal Red Snake Sect signature.

The official seal cannot be used on black ledgers, so they use secret marks.

The people from Han Lishan's branch like to hook the snake tail backward, which means the goods take the external route, while the accounts take the internal line."

Sect Master Di Kun looked down along the secret marks.

Beast Taming Ground.

Abandoned Mine Warehouse.

Market secret treasury.

Next to every location was a similar signature, with different amounts and dates intersecting before and after, yet they all circled back to the same person.

Han Lishan was not just the person dividing the meat; he held the knife at the front of the chain.

Beast taming, medicinal powder, mine tunnels, transport—not a single one could bypass him.

The Sect Protection Elder flipped to another volume, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper.

"Here in the Sect Affairs Bureau External Affairs Office, the full name isn't written."

He pushed a page over.

The words "Deputy Chen" appeared repeatedly, followed by items for profit-sharing and hush money.

Every time, there was no official title next to "Deputy Chen," only a stamp of half a private seal.

Sect Master Di Kun placed the half-piece of the old private seal that Loose Cultivator Gu had surrendered and aligned it with the remaining impression of the stamp.

The gaps interlocked.

No one in the hall spoke.

The bamboo strip in Life-Skill Player's hand paused on the animal hide; the medicinal liquid condensed into a drop at the tip of the pen, fell, and blurred into a small dot.

Loose Cultivator Gu stared at those three pages of the ledger, his lips pale: "Sect Master, don't mess with these three pages."

Sect Master Di Kun looked at him.

"This is not an ordinary ledger."

Loose Cultivator Gu withdrew his hand from the edge of the straw mat, his knuckles still trembling.

"This is a life-saving ledger.

Someone like Iron Abacus wouldn't just record money; he needed something to hold over the people above him.

Once these three pages are made public, the Red Snake Sect will die, the market will be skinned, and someone in the Sect Affairs Bureau will have to lose their hat."

Tower Defense Player whispered: "Sounds like a trump card."

"If you throw a trump card around recklessly, you blow up your own table."

Life-Skill Player crumpled the ruined animal hide into a ball and tossed it to his feet.

"Our pathetic little Sect can't withstand all three parties going crazy at once."

Sect Master Di Kun pulled out those three pages, then placed them back in their original positions.

He looked at the items on the desk and tapped his fingertips three times.

A stack of ledgers, a stack of receipts, a stack of rubbings and transport orders.

The three stacks of evidence were like three blades, placed by him under the oil lamp.

"This stack is for Zhao Heng to see."

Sect Master Di Kun pressed down on the first stack and pulled out a page with marginal accounts.

"Let him know that Han Lishan eats the meat, Deputy Chen drinks the soup, and he can only smell the scent from the outside."

He pressed down on the second stack, his fingertips stopping on the medicinal powder receipts and the Beast Taming Ground transport records.

"This stack is to scare the Red Snake Sect.

Tell them that we have the secret den and the medicinal powder chain in our hands, so there's no need to rush to reveal the full ledger."

Finally, he pressed down on the stack of private seal rubbings.

"This stack is to lure the market manager.

Iron Abacus lost the ledger, and the market manager is afraid of being silenced; he will look for an escape route."

The Sect Protection Elder looked at those three stacks, his eyelids twitching slightly.

"Sect Master, Zhao Heng may not be willing to be used by you."

Sect Master Di Kun took a short note.

"He isn't willing, which is why I need to give him a thorn."

He did not use flowery language, only writing a line of text on the paper.

Han Lishan eats the meat, Deputy Chen drinks the soup, and you, Zhao Heng, haven't even touched the bowl.

When the pen tip stopped, a deep mark was scratched into the surface of the paper.

Speedrunner leaned over to look, raising an eyebrow: "This mockery is maxed out."

Life-Skill Player spread several finished copies of animal hide on a rack to dry: "Are all the people in the Sect Affairs Bureau this obsessed with Face?"

The Sect Protection Elder shook his head: "It's not about Face; it's about position.

Zhao Heng dared to provide an empty window last time, which shows he wants to tear a hole in this black chain.

But he only circles around the External Affairs Office; the people who actually divide the spoils don't include him."

Sect Master Di Kun folded up the short note.

"If he wants to rise, he has to step on people.

To step on Han Lishan, he isn't tough enough; to step on Deputy Chen, he lacks a blade.

I'll show him the tip of the blade, and he will come."

Dark Souls Player came in from outside the hall at this moment, his shoe soles covered in wet mud.

The cloth on his arm had been changed, and the smell of medicine was heavier, but his complexion was steadier than when he had just returned to the Sect.

"I've checked the mountain path."

He placed a broken branch by the door.

"There are two sets of fresh footprints on the south slope, which don't look like they belong to our people.

The number is small; they could be Mountain Dwellers, or they could be scouts.

I'll take two people to keep watch."

Sect Master Di Kun raised his eyes: "Don't pursue too far."

Dark Souls Player tugged at the corner of his mouth: "With my current health bar, if I pursue too far, it's easy to get myself killed."

Life-Skill Player tossed him a packet of medicine from the medicine chest: "Good that you know.

If you're going to die, pick a place close to the respawn point; don't add to the logistics workload."

Dark Souls Player caught the medicine packet and turned to leave.

Sect Master Di Kun handed the short note to the Mountain Dweller selected by the Sect Protection Elder.

This Mountain Dweller only frequently delivered firewood to the Taichu Sect and did not know the inside story of the ledger box.

His fingers pinched the paper, his fingertips were rough, and he dared not glance at the desk.

"Deliver this to the Sect Affairs Bureau External Affairs Office."

Sect Master Di Kun handed over two Spirit Stones.

"Give it to Zhao Heng himself.

If anyone asks, just say someone at the foot of the mountain paid you to deliver a letter, and you don't know them."

The Mountain Dweller gripped the Spirit Stones into his sleeve, nodded three times, and quickly exited the Sect Masters Hall.

The hall became busy again.

Life-Skill Player led two servants to copy the key pages; the smell of medicinal liquid and lamp smoke mixed together, making the base of one's tongue taste bitter.

Speedrunner arranged the transport orders in a line by time, using small pebbles to hold down every recurring location.

Tower Defense Player wrote down several backup hiding spots on the back of a wooden board, then scraped them off after writing, leaving only short lines that only he could understand.

Sect Master Di Kun sat behind the desk as his shoulder wound was cleaned again.

When the medicinal powder was sprinkled on, a cold pain suddenly bored into his bone marrow; his fingers pressed against the edge of the desk, his knuckles not relaxing.

Life-Skill Player looked up at him: "If you don't rest this shoulder, you'll eventually rot out a new Sect building."

Sect Master Di Kun lowered his eyes to look at the ledger page: "Let the enemy rot first."

She rolled her eyes and tightened the bandage.

The sun rose higher, and two of the lamps in the Sect Masters Hall were extinguished.

Near the afternoon, the Mountain Dweller returned, his pant legs stained with mud and his forehead covered in sweat.

He did not enter the hall, but stumbling over his words outside the door, he said the letter had been delivered; Zhao Heng had burned the paper after reading it and had not replied with anything.

After hearing this, Sect Master Di Kun continued flipping through the ledger.

Half an hour later, Dark Souls Player sent back a message from the mountain path.

At the abandoned pavilion at the foot of the mountain, someone was waiting alone, wearing the gray robe of the Sect Affairs Bureau External Affairs Office, with no attendants.

Sect Master Di Kun closed the ledger page in his hand.

Life-Skill Player immediately looked up: "Your injury hasn't healed yet."

"That's why I'm taking few people."

Sect Master Di Kun stood up, tucked a copied ledger page into his sleeve, and sealed the real private seal rubbing back into the ledger box.

"If there are too many people, Zhao Heng won't dare to speak the truth."

Tower Defense Player handed him a wooden plaque engraved with short lines: "I had people bury two tripwires around the abandoned pavilion; they aren't lethal, but they can delay for half a breath.

If you fall, remember not to blame me."

Sect Master Di Kun took the wooden plaque, his mouth twitching slightly.

"Your after-sales service is quite thoughtful."

Speedrunner picked up a short pickaxe: "I'll lead the way.

There's a small ditch next to the abandoned pavilion; if a real fight breaks out, we can flank them."

The Sect Protection Elder wanted to say something, but in the end, he only placed an old formation talisman into Sect Master Di Kun's palm.

The edges of the formation talisman were worn shiny, and only a thin layer of spiritual light remained.

"It can only block one strike."

Sect Master Di Kun accepted the formation talisman without thanking him.

The mountain wind poured in through the hall door, blowing the dried animal hide on the desk to flutter gently.

The three stacks of evidence still pressed beside the oil lamp, like three blades that had not yet been drawn from their sheaths.

When Sect Master Di Kun walked down the mountain path, the afternoon light shone obliquely on the broken pillars of the abandoned pavilion.

Zhao Heng stood in the pavilion, the hem of his gray robe rolled up by the wind, his expression darker than when he first came up the mountain.

Between his fingers, he held a piece of ash from the burned short note, the gray powder falling bit by bit onto the cracked stone table.