Li Shun gazed at the tiny gnat resting in his palm. A subtle and mysterious sense of connection arose within him.
With a mere flicker of thought, the gnat shot into the air, its wings beating as it circled above.
Though its size remained unchanged, it carried an added liveliness. As its wings trembled, its speed surged to nearly ten times what it had been before.
Most importantly, after devouring the leaf of Lengshan Lord, it seemed to have developed a faint trace of chaotic intelligence.
Controlling it had also become far more effortless for Li Shun.
He released the gnat and let it circle once above Lengshan County. Watching its flight, Li Shun nodded in satisfaction.
“Next, I need to figure out how to keep it from being discovered.”
He had not forgotten that when his consciousness had once attached itself to a gnat, even flying high in the distant sky had not prevented it from being detected by Xiong Jin.
“The experts of Great Qian possess extremely sharp perception. If I deliberately monitor through it, even the slightest trace of intent might expose me.”
“The only solution is to completely sever any probing thoughts. I must treat it as nothing more than a mindless insect, not as my eyes and ears.”
“Only when everything has calmed down will I retrieve my soul and review what it has seen and heard throughout the day.”
“One isn’t enough... not safe.”
A glint flickered in Li Shun’s eyes as he stored the gnat within the Fangcun space, raising it for the time being.
Afterward, he repeated the process, continuously creating new controllable insects.
As a side note, the floodwaters he had previously stored within Fangcun had already been completely drained. Releasing a small amount each day over the past six months had ensured that no one noticed anything unusual.
Snow filled the sky, falling endlessly without pause.
Time slipped by, and another day turned over.
New Calendar, Year 573. First day of the first month.
“What? Fang Xun just left the city alone?”
Having just finished washing up, Cheng Yishu felt a surge of unease upon hearing the report from his informant.
“Are his family members still at the residence?”
“This lowly one has been watching closely. They’re all still in the inner courtyard.”
Only then did the tension in Cheng Yishu’s chest ease slightly.
Yet for some reason, that lingering sense of dread refused to fade.
“No. I need to see for myself.”
Unable to sit still, Cheng Yishu immediately threw on his coat and rushed straight to the rear residence of the county yamen.
“Fang Xun has gone ahead to the Censorate Residence’s Bifei Garden for further study, leaving instructions for you to depart after the fifteenth of the first month?”
After a round of questioning, Cheng Yishu forced the explanation out of the trembling servants.
On the surface, nothing seemed amiss. Fang Xun’s infant son was indeed still in the residence.
But…
Something still felt off.
His eyelids twitched incessantly, as though a great calamity was about to descend.
At that very moment, he suddenly caught the faint sound of a sorrowful wail echoing from deep within the courtyard.
“Xun-lang… Xun-lang…”[1]
“Who is that?” Cheng Yishu frowned.
“That is…” The servants exchanged uneasy glances, too frightened to speak.
Ignoring their attempts to stop him, Cheng Yishu followed the sound. Just as he was about to push open the door, his expression changed abruptly.
The door was as heavy as a mountain, sealed by several layers of powerful restrictions.
A fierce glint flashed across Cheng Yishu’s eyes as his cultivation surged. With brute force, he tore apart every last seal.
The moment the doors burst open, a withered figure lunged straight toward him.
Her voice was shrill, filled with both madness and wild joy. “Xun-lang!”
But when she saw that the person before her was not the one she longed for, she froze as if struck by lightning.
“You are…”
Cheng Yishu stared intently at the disheveled woman before him. Her hair hung loose, her appearance ghostlike. Only after a long moment did he suck in a cold breath. “Yu Niang?!”
The once-beautiful Yu Niang had wasted away into skin and bones, her mind completely broken.
“Where is Xun-lang? Where is my Xun-lang?” she kept muttering, over and over.
Cheng Yishu let out a cold laugh. “Fang Xun has already gone off to the capital to seek his future. He never said he would bring along a burden like you.”
Yu Niang’s frail body stiffened violently. A twisted, obsessive light erupted in her eyes. “No! I’m going to find him!”
With that, she rushed toward the door like a madwoman.
A flicker of thought passed through Cheng Yishu’s eyes, and he smiled faintly. “Perfect. I’ll send you on your way.”
Without hesitation, he seized Yu Niang and hurried out of the city.
They followed the official road, heading toward the Sacred Capital.
After traveling dozens of li, Yu Niang suddenly shrieked and pointed in a different direction. “No, not this way. Go that way!”
Cheng Yishu raised a brow. “You can sense Fang Xun’s whereabouts?”
Madness churned in Yu Niang’s murky eyes. “He is my man. Even if he flees to the ends of the earth, I will find him!”
Hearing this, Cheng Yishu was overjoyed.
“Good. You lead the way. We must catch up to him today.”
As he spoke, he decisively took out a mysterious seal shaped like a tiger tally and pressed it onto their shoulders.
In an instant, faint roars of dragons and tigers echoed. Their speed of flight surged severalfold.
Driven by Cheng Yishu’s relentless expenditure of energy, it did not take long before, deep within the wind and snow, a lone figure walking across the frozen ground came into view.
Yu Niang immediately screamed in excitement, her voice piercing and hysterical.
Fang Xun halted abruptly.
He turned around, his gaze locking onto the two of them, his expression dark and unreadable.
“For what reason has Magistrate Cheng come all this way?”
Cheng Yishu cupped his hands, smiling without warmth. “I heard that My Lord left without a word. Madam was so distraught that she caused chaos in the county yamen. I truly couldn’t handle it, so I had no choice but to personally escort her to you.”
“And also…”
“I fear I am incapable of fulfilling the role of Acting Magistrate of Lengshan. I ask that My Lord rescind the appointment.”
Fang Xun remained silent for a long while.
Then he let out a cold laugh. “Do you take the appointment and dismissal of officials in Great Qian as a child’s game? You think you can quit just because you wish to? Back then, you agreed willingly, and even drafted the official documents yourself, submitting them for record.”
Seeing Fang Xun like this, Cheng Yishu became even more certain of the premonition in his heart. He immediately said, “Even if the court punishes me, I, Cheng Yishu, will accept it! This magistrate position is not one I can bear. The county yamen cannot be without a head even for a single day. I ask that My Lord return to the city and wait until the new magistrate arrives before leaving!”
“And if I refuse?” Killing intent flickered in Fang Xun’s eyes.
Cheng Yishu cupped his hands again. “Then do not blame me for reporting everything about Lengshan to the court and letting them decide.”
Hearing this, Fang Xun suddenly chuckled softly. The frost on his face melted like snow in spring.
He shook his head with a trace of regret. “We have served in the same court for decades. Why must it come to tearing our faces apart? Very well, I will return with you…”
Before his words had even finished, a cold golden rune of true speech exploded above Cheng Yishu’s head without warning.
It split into hundreds of sharp arrows, raining down like a storm of deadly blossoms.
Caught completely off guard, Cheng Yishu was grievously wounded.
“Fang Xun!” he roared hoarsely.
…
Not long after Fang Xun and Cheng Yishu left the city, A large group of people slipped out quietly under the cover of secrecy.
Their destination, however, was the mine beneath Lengshan.
[1]:- 郎 (lang) is an affectionate term: “my lord”, “my husband”, “my beloved”