SS CH78

The saying “When you reach the mountain, there will surely be a path; when the boat reaches the pier, it will naturally straighten” was probably just a lie used to fool ghosts.

This was Gu Qifang’s first time at Mizong Ridge. It was currently pitch-black, and anyone else entering this mountain ridge would likely wander until dawn without finding a path. However, Gu Qifang was deeply well-versed in the art of night travel. Her entire being blended perfectly into the darkness, almost transforming into a flying bird as she silently swept through the mountain forest.

Yet, Mizong Ridge was filled with countless winding sheep trails with nine twists and eighteen turns, faintly obscured by vegetation. It was a naturally formed confusing array, leaving even Gu Qifang feeling dizzy and disoriented. Just then, her ears twitched, catching the sound of human voices not far away. She quietly concealed herself in a tree, revealing only a pair of eyes to spy on the source.

Beneath the pitch-black cliff face ahead, a hidden door abruptly slid open, leaking out specks of lamplight. Relying on this sparse light, Gu Qifang looked closely and saw dark shadows moving on the cliff face. Strikingly, there were numerous sentries concealed among the vegetation and rocks, lying completely motionless. If anyone were to charge forward recklessly, they would instantly be surrounded and attacked.

A squad of men dressed in black emerged from the door, dragging several bulging gunny sacks. They turned and said something to the sentries. The howling mountain wind carried snippets of their conversation over, but unfortunately, she couldn’t hear clearly.

Gu Qifang frowned as a faint scent of blood reached her nose. Seeing the men in black head off to the left, she looked back at the sentry-covered cliff face, pressed a hand against the tree trunk, and vaulted herself upward, silently following them.

Not far to the left of the cliff was a ravine. Even before she got close, the mountain wind blew a foul stench into her face. Gu Qifang leaped and landed behind a large rock. Because the vegetation here wasn’t as dense as before, the moonlight was brighter, illuminating everything before her.

The ravine was filled with the exact same large gunny sacks. However, most of the bloodstains on them had already congealed and turned black, emitting a thick, repulsive stench. Severed limbs and broken arms spilled from torn sacks, a mix of fresh and rotting flesh exposed beneath the heavens and earth.

Being closer, their voices were clearer. The man in front said, “This ditch is almost full. Burn it clean.”

As they spoke, they were all looking at the ditch in front of them, failing to notice that one of the sacks behind them shifted slightly. Gu Qifang’s gaze sharpened as she watched them turn and toss the remaining sacks down before turning to head back the way they came.

At that exact moment, she leapt down from the tree. Before her feet even touched the ground, the Jinghong blade at her waist was already unsheathed. As the flash of blood-red light swept past, the man in front couldn’t even utter a scream before a bloody line appeared across his throat, and he collapsed, instantly dead.

The four men behind him were severely startled. Before the word “Who” could escape their lips, Gu Qifang had already forced her way into their midst. In the blink of an eye, she met four attacks and defended eight. The corners of her lips curled up as she twirled the Jinghong blade in her hand and spun with the momentum—the fifth stance of the Jinghong Blade Art, “Autumn Waves.”

The name “Autumn Waves” sounded graceful and gentle, but just like a stone cast into water, the ripples expanded unstoppably. Though the blade’s momentum seemed soft, the strike was lethal. By the time she completed her spin, all four men had an extra line of blood across their throats, slicing their windpipes so deeply the bone was nearly visible. Yet, the skin and flesh of the wounds were perfectly smooth, without the slightest sign of curling outward.

Specks of blood coalesced into a single line and flowed down the blade of Jinghong. Gu Qifang wasn’t in a hurry to wipe it off. She walked to the edge of the ravine, frowned, and stared for a moment before suddenly reaching out and slicing open one of the gunny sacks. The “corpse” inside was caught entirely off guard, sheer terror overflowing on his face.

Having managed to escape that hellish place by playing dead, he was certainly unwilling to die again. After a moment of stunned hesitation, the man’s right hand quietly slipped toward his lower back, where a steel needle was hidden.

But before he could even touch it, he heard the woman’s lowered voice: “If you try to use martial arts in front of me, I will make you a real corpse.”

People who walk the Jianghu might not be smart, but they must absolutely know how to read the situation. Hearing this, the man lowered his hand, though he still watched her with undisguised wariness. “Who are you?” he asked hoarsely.

“I’ll ask you two questions, and then we part ways and mind our own business.” Ignoring him, Gu Qifang narrowed her eyes. “First, have you seen a sixteen-year-old boy?”

The man replied, “I was captured four days ago. There are many people in the dungeon, and there are at least five or six boys like you described. How would I know which one you’re asking about?”

The so-called dungeon must have been behind the cliff face just now. Gu Qifang’s frown deepened. “Then where is Helian Yu?”

“He hasn’t appeared since he killed a dozen people three days ago. I don’t know.”

Since this man was being cooperative, Gu Qifang didn’t make things difficult for him. Swiping her scabbard forward as fast as the wind, she aimed directly for his sleeping acupoint.

However, the other party assumed she was trying to silence him. Terrified, he blocked the scabbard with his left hand and drew the steel needle with his right, shooting it straight for her left eye. With a light shout, Gu Qifang tilted her head to dodge the sneak attack and raised her leg for a kick. The man was tough; enduring the agonizing pain of a fractured bone, he forcefully took her kick. However, an object fell out from inside his robes.

His face flashing with alarm, he reached out to grab it, but Gu Qifang hooked it with the tip of her toe, sending the object flying into her hand. Examining it in the moonlight, she found it to be a palm-sized brass token.

Staring at the design, Gu Qifang’s heart skipped a beat. “You are a military guard?”

The fact that her own brat had rescued two royal descendants from the hands of the Burial Soul Palace was like a fishbone stuck in Gu Qifang’s throat. It wasn’t that she took her anger out on the two children regarding her late father, but rather that she was deeply worried about the schemes hidden behind this event.

Although the Jianghu and the imperial court weren’t completely isolated from one another, they each had their own rules and regulations. Even her father, Gu Zheng, who had entered the court and left the Jianghu, had refused to excessively mix the affairs of both sides. This was because laws and sentiment were sometimes truly impossible to balance, and the conflict between private interests and public welfare had always been an intractable, deeply rooted problem since ancient times.

But the Burial Soul Palace had crossed the line.

If one were to really examine this sect, its foundations were not deep-rooted at all. It had only been passed down for two generations so far, its entire history shorter than Gu Qifang’s lifespan.

Logically, powers that rise too quickly without seniority or foundation are a common sight in the Jianghu, but they usually build tall towers in the sky—the higher they stand, the faster they fall. Yet the Burial Soul Palace was an anomaly. Its predecessor was allegedly a large clan from beyond the pass, which later split due to internal conflict. One of the lineages founded the Burial Soul Palace, devoured the main family, recruited manpower to expand their forces, and had continued to thrive until now without any signs of decline.

As the saying goes, “The strength of one person may be great, but it cannot last long.” The Burial Soul Palace was born from conflict. Although they were the victors of their family’s internal strife, they had ultimately destroyed their own heritage. Their rapid development over these years was highly abnormal. Based on the intelligence Gu Qifang possessed, although the two generations of Burial Soul Palace masters were highly capable, their prowess was limited solely to martial arts and tactics. The massive human and material resources backing them were absolutely beyond what others could achieve in three lifetimes.

If it wasn’t their own capability, then they must be borrowing the power of others.

“Is the Burial Soul Palace now engaging in kidnapping and extortion alongside murder and arson?” Gu Qifang tossed the token back. “And specifically targeting people from the imperial court? Aren’t they afraid of biting down on a turtle shell and breaking their old teeth?”

Startled, the man’s gaze swept over her before finally landing on that blade. His pupils contracted: “Jing, Jing…”

“Jing your grandfather,” Gu Qifang cut him off before he could finish, sheathing her blade. “Today, I will not kill the running dogs of the imperial court. Consider yourself lucky.”

Before her voice faded, Gu Qifang struck out like lightning, sealing the man’s acupoints. Leaping up, she grabbed him by the collar, hoisting a grown man as easily as a small bundle. Hiding him behind a concealed rock, she tossed him a discarded blade she had picked up and said, “Your acupoints will unseal in fifteen minutes. Whether you live or die is up to your own fortune.”

Harboring numerous suspicions in her heart, she naturally wouldn’t trust him easily. Since neither side could verify the other’s identity right now, it was better to leave some leeway for negotiation, lest she ruin the greater scheme.

Many thoughts raced through Gu Qifang’s mind. Although she could beat up a whole group of people alone, she wasn’t a beast of burden meant for plowing fields; sooner or later, her strength and qi would be exhausted. Moreover, she was on enemy territory with countless unknown factors; recklessly charging in was absolutely out of the question.

Therefore, creating a diversion was a necessity.

With a few bounds, she returned to the ravine. Glancing at the unbearable corpses below, she reached out and pulled out a fire starter, throwing it down along with a small flask of strong liquor hanging at her waist. Flames instantly surged up, glaringly obvious like a bullseye in the gloomy mountain forest.

It had been clear and rainless for the past few days, making the mountain forest highly susceptible to fire. Furthermore, this location was downwind. The wind blowing down from above fueled the flames, quickly catching the sentries’ attention. Someone immediately rushed over to investigate. A sharp whistle pierced the air, and the entire mountain ridge burst into a chaotic uproar.

At that moment, Gu Qifang slipped through a narrow crevice in the cliff face, leaving the boiling noise behind her. Like a tiny, pitch-black fish, she blended seamlessly into the muddy waters.

However, when she snuck into the so-called dungeon, she discovered this place was entirely different from what she had expected.

Behind the cliff face, there were no bars or prison cells, but rather a winding, tortuous mountain path. Melting her body into the shadows, Gu Qifang snuck forward rapidly. When she reached the end, she realized there was a small mountain in front of her.

It was indeed very small, completely unnoticeable amidst the surrounding peaks. There were numerous caves upon it, making it look like a stone honeycomb, and the vegetation was exceedingly sparse.

The wind swept over, and she smelled blood.