SS CH41

The dungeon was located at the bottom of a well. The space was cramped, cold, and damp. Aside from the mouth of the well high above, there was no ventilation whatsoever. The walls of the well were so smooth that they offered no leverage; even a master of the highest martial arts would have to expend considerable effort to scale them.

Qin Lanchang lay prone on a pile of dry straw, her back burning with agonizing pain. Her fingers dug into the dirt as cold sweat drenched her face. There wasn’t a single spot on her body that didn’t ache.

Lu Mingyuan was squeezed into this tiny plot of land right alongside her. The captors who had brought them here naturally cared nothing for decorum between genders, shoving a young man and a half-grown girl into the same cell. The result was a girl lying on the straw completely unbothered, while Lu Mingyuan, upon waking, pressed himself tightly against the stone wall, wishing he could turn into a sheet of paper just to stay as far away from her as possible.

There were no guards in sight. After howling for a bit to no response, Qin Lanchang turned to Lu Mingyuan and ordered, “Hey, bookworm, come over here.”

Though young, she spoke with the imperious demeanor of a spoiled young mistress. Hearing this, Lu Mingyuan pressed himself even harder against the wall. He averted his eyes, completely avoiding looking at her back, where her clothes had been blasted open.

“It is unseemly,” he muttered.

Qin Lanchang had clearly failed to check the fortune omens before stepping out of the house today; she had been swindled and suffered losses the entire way. By now, her temper had been completely ground away.

“They threw a bottle of medicine in here, but I can’t apply it to my own back,” she said. “Lend a hand. Don’t just watch me die.”

Only then did Lu Mingyuan turn his head. Seeing the mangled, bloody mess of her back, and then looking at the porcelain vial on the ground, he reluctantly separated himself from the stone wall. He picked up the vial and sniffed it. It was styptic powder—not high-quality stuff by any means, but enough to keep her from bleeding to death.

When the powder suddenly hit the wound, Qin Lanchang grimaced and bared her teeth in pain. “Can’t you use your hands to rub it in?”

Lu Mingyuan coughed lightly. “Propriety dictates: Do not touch.“

“…My injury is on my back. Why did you pour it all over my shoulder?”

“Propriety dictates: Do not look. This scholar did not see clearly.”

Qin Lanchang rolled her eyes. Enduring the pain for a while, she finally decided to make idle conversation to distract herself from the agony. “Why aren’t you asking me who I am?”

“Propriety dictates: Do not ask.“

Even though Qin Lanchang was currently a helpless clay bodhisattva crossing a river, she still flared up with a sudden burst of anger. Twisting her head to look at the deeply embarrassed scholar, she snapped, “If you keep hinting at me like that, I won’t be able to resist ravishing you. Right now, it’s just an isolated man and woman in a room together—even if you scream until your throat breaks, no one will save you.”

Lu Mingyuan: “…”

He was utterly stunned by the half-grown girl’s wildly uninhibited speech. He nearly dropped the medicine vial right onto her wounds. It took him a good moment to snap out of it. His movements became significantly more efficient, but his mouth opened up as he began to ramble:

“A young lady should not speak so recklessly. It goes against proper etiquette. If you were to encounter a debauched rogue, such words would invite grave trouble. In our academy, whether it be the female instructors or the fellow sisters, none behave or speak in such a manner. While one need not be rigidly bound by the Three Obediences and Four Virtues, one must still be reserved indoors and humble outdoors. There is absolutely no reason to be so forward.”

Aside from gossiping market-women, the most verbose creatures under heaven were these pedantic scholars. Qin Lanchang sighed deeply, weighing her current physical condition and wondering if she could manage to slap this incessantly babbling mouth crooked.

Before she could finish planning, Lu Mingyuan finished his task. He retreated back to resume his love affair with the stone wall, closing his mouth and falling entirely silent.

His sudden silence made Qin Lanchang a bit uncomfortable. Shifting her body, she used her hands to brace herself as she slowly sat up. “What’s wrong with you?”

Lu Mingyuan glanced at her. “I am pondering three things: Who captured us? Is my Master here? And how do we escape?”

Qin Lanchang held up two fingers. “The Soul Burial Palace, yes he is, and as for the last question, I don’t know.”

Lu Mingyuan frowned. “This is troublesome.”

“Huh?”

“They haven’t moved against us yet, which means we still have value to be exploited. However, they have already exposed their identities. To avoid future trouble, they will undoubtedly kill us once we’ve outlived our usefulness.” Lu Mingyuan shook his head, finally discarding his fear of propriety to ask, “Young lady, this scholar is Lu Mingyuan. How should I address you?”

She lifted her chin. “I am Qin Lanchang.”

“Miss Qin, although we are fellow sufferers stranded in the same boat, there is still one thing I do not understand.” Lu Mingyuan looked at her. “The Soul Burial Palace has always colluded with foreign tribes, so it is not surprising that they would target my Master and me. But you are just a young girl. Why have you fallen into this plight?”

I practically begged for this trouble, Qin Lanchang thought to herself. But explaining that would drag in a whole mess of other matters, so she summarized tersely: “Seeking vengeance. Unfortunately, I suffered defeat before victory could even be tasted.”

Sure enough, Lu Mingyuan asked no further. He sat cross-legged to circulate his qi, but unfortunately, three of his major acupoints were still sealed. With his current condition, it wouldn’t be hard to force them open, but it would take time. Just as he was about to say something to Qin Lanchang, his brows suddenly furrowed. He reached out to cover his nose and shot her a meaningful look. Understanding instantly, she held her breath, and both of them promptly collapsed onto the ground.

Moments later, a head poked out from the well opening above. He scanned the area below carefully, and once confirmed that the two were motionless, he extinguished the knockout incense in his hand and lowered a long iron chain.

The scent of the incense was incredibly faint, but its potency was immense. Even though Qin Lanchang had only inhaled a tiny speck, her head throbbed with dizziness. Fortunately, she managed to maintain consciousness. She wondered if this scholar had the nose of a dog to be so remarkably perceptive.

The masked man in black slid down the iron chain. The moment he reached out to grab Lu Mingyuan, the feigning Qin Lanchang launched a sudden attack. The wound on her back still burned with piercing pain, but her strike was executed with flawless precision. Borrowing momentum as her right foot kicked off the ground, she formed a hand-blade and chopped fiercely against the man’s nape. Lu Mingyuan tacitly caught the man’s falling body, preventing any unusual noise.

Qin Lanchang pointed to herself, then pointed upward. After Lu Mingyuan nodded, she gripped the iron chain and endured the agonizing pain to climb up.

The moment she scrambled out of the well mouth, she discovered another masked man standing in the secret room. Startled by the sudden emergence of a young girl, the man immediately drew his blade, intent on splitting her open like a rotten watermelon.

Fortunately, Qin Lanchang was small and nimble. Barely dodging the slash, she flipped onto the ground, swept her hand out, and grabbed a discarded iron rod leaning against the wall, swinging it forward with a gust of wind.

Having suffered plenty of losses recently, she had grown far more cautious. Instead of clashing directly with the long blade and making a sharp metallic ring, her iron rod swerved sharply at the moment of impact, smashing violently into the man’s sword-wielding arm. Disregarding the tearing pain of her back wound, she poured every ounce of her strength into the blow, nearly snapping his arm. Following through with the momentum, she spun around and delivered a heavy kick to his kneecap, instantly forcing him into a grand kowtow position.

Qin Lanchang hadn’t brought any red envelopes, so she couldn’t give New Year’s money to a fully grown man; instead, she rewarded him with a heavy strike of the iron rod to his head. Blood immediately welled up, and he slumped onto the floor, motionless.

She leaned on the iron rod, panting heavily. The pain from her back made her barely able to stand; her limbs were trembling wildly. It took her a long moment to steady her mind and take in her surroundings. This was a secret room. Directly ahead was an iron door, and no other guards were in sight—otherwise, she would likely be on her way to meet her ancestors.

After catching her breath, she bent down to strip the man of his clothes and mask. Lu Mingyuan, who had just climbed out of the well, stiffened at the sight.

He whispered, “Miss Qin… men and women should not touch hands or clothes…”

“If he can still wake up, I’ll take him in as my concubine!” Qin Lanchang snorted. She glanced at the man’s hideous face, now half-covered in blood and clearly dead, before adding hypocritically, “I won’t even despise him for being ugly.”

Lu Mingyuan: “…”

He felt that the chasm between himself and this girl was as vast as the distance from Jinghan Pass to the Imperial Capital. They simply could not communicate.

After a moment of contemplation, Lu Mingyuan sighed in defeat. “The Sage said…”

Qin Lanchang swore that if he dared to say “Propriety dictates: Do not undress,” she would slap him across the mouth with the iron rod.

To her surprise, Lu Mingyuan walked over, knelt down, and took over the task of stripping the guard’s clothes. He continued, “…’Opportunity must not be missed.'”

“…Which Sage said that?”

“I forgot. Also, I must trouble the lady to turn around.”

Qin Lanchang turned her back, hearing only the rustling of clothes being exchanged behind her. She had originally intended to do the same, but had forgotten that her stature was too small; wearing a guard’s uniform would be useless for her anyway.

In no time at all, Lu Mingyuan threw on the extra layer of gear, pulled up the face mask, and wrapped himself into a bundle of black. “It is done,” he said. “I will escort you out of here first, then return to find my Master.”

She froze for a moment, turning around to look into the bright eyes exposed above his mask. After a moment of hesitation, she shook her head. “I’m not leaving.”

Lu Mingyuan urged, “This place is dangerous. Vengeance can wait for another day. Do not be reckless, Miss Qin.”

“I said I’m not leaving. I’m going with you to find your Master. Do you not understand words?” Qin Lanchang lifted her chin, but the movement pulled at her wound, causing her to hiss in pain. Her defiance instantly crumbled into exasperated rage. “For a grown man to be so wishy-washy and hesitant! Beware of marrying a fierce wife in the future who will beat you three times a day, making you kneel on brambles while crying for your parents!”

Lu Mingyuan: “…”

He was twenty-one this year, and this was the very first time he had ever encountered such a fierce young lady. For a moment, he was utterly at a loss. However, the situation was critical and left no room for hesitation.

“Then pray forgive my offense,” he said.

With those words, he dragged the plundered corpse and dumped it down the well. Then, bending down, he scooped Qin Lanchang up and threw her over his shoulder. Shedding his earlier pedantic and squeamish demeanor entirely, he strode toward the door with massive steps. Qin Lanchang was just about to struggle on his shoulder when she caught the sound of a strange voice outside, and immediately closed her eyes to play dead.

_

There were two guards outside the door. One of them asked, “The Hall Master ordered us to bring Lu Mingyuan over. Why did you bring this brat out? Where is the other guard?”

Lu Mingyuan lowered his voice to a rough rasp. “Something went wrong with the one named Lu. He’s keeping watch inside. Go in and take a look.”

The two guards exchanged a glance and stepped past him into the room. In that split second, Lu Mingyuan set Qin Lanchang down and whispered, “One each.”

The iron door silently swung shut. Qin Lanchang nodded wordlessly. The two of them crept up from the left and right. The guards were currently peering down into the well when, completely out of nowhere, the wind howled behind their heads. One received a palm strike, the other an iron rod. Before they could even utter a sound, they plunged headfirst down the well.

By great fortune, these were merely low-level lackeys; otherwise, things could never have gone so smoothly. Qin Lanchang let out a sigh of relief, though a faint, indefinable thought flashed across her mind, vanishing as quickly as it came.

She recalled the palm strike Lu Mingyuan had just delivered. The scholar’s internal energy was mostly sealed, yet his strike had still been as swift as a crack of thunder. A man who previously seemed so pedantic and mild-mannered had raised his palm like the descent of heavenly wrath; with a single strike to the crown, the guard had bled from all seven facial orifices.

So, that was the ‘Thunderous Palm,’ Qin Lanchang thought to herself.

Sanmei Academy was renowned for its civil and literary scholarship. However, even though the Southern Scholar, Ruan Feiyu, had occupied a high position for all these years, he had constantly stood at the center of political storms. The assassination plots targeted at him were countless; an ordinary man would have died a thousand times over, yet he remained alive to this day.

As the old martial arts proverb went, “One Sword, Three Blades; East, South, West, North.” Were it not for the long-standing legends of the martial world, no one would ever suspect that the seemingly frail and helpless Southern Scholar was actually one of the Eight Great Masters of the Central Plains. He was exceptionally skilled in palm techniques and unconventional hidden weapons, ruling the martial world particularly with his “Thunderous Palm” and “Scattered Rain Chess.” Judging by Lu Mingyuan’s single strike just now, he had already inherited his Master’s true legacy.

A chill ran down her spine. Shaking off the slight contempt she had harbored earlier, she looked at the scholar’s eyes—which had already returned to their usual gentle warmth—and recalled the fleeting glimpse she had caught of Ruan Feiyu earlier that day.

Are all the people from Sanmei Academy so profoundly hidden?