Outside the back gate of Wangting Manor lay a stretch of mountain forest. Within the forest flowed a mountain stream that entered Wangting Manor, serving as the source of water for the estate. A’Shui stepped through the moonlight, glanced at the direction of the moon, and silently walked along the stream’s course. Shen Langhun and Zhu Yan followed behind her. After walking about seventeen or eighteen zhang, they gradually saw a house built beside the mountain stream, with lights glowing inside, appearing quite peaceful.

A’Shui paused and said in a low voice, “There’s a secret passage in that house, though most likely some unknowing person lives inside. You two, please don’t harm any innocent people.”

Shen Langhun strode forward and knocked on the door. Inside lived a pale-faced young man who, upon seeing someone knocking, showed a face full of terror. Zhu Yan lowered his head and entered first, his eyes completely ignoring the person inside. The man made two single sounds – “yi wu” – he was mute.

A’Shui felt apologetic in her heart but couldn’t say much. She nodded slightly at him, then walked around the room, lifting a wooden board from under the bed to reveal a dark passage. “This might be a secret entrance.”

This secret passage was set up exactly like the one at Haoyun Mountain. The mute man was extremely shocked to suddenly see a secret passage under his bed, staring wide-eyed in amazement. The three of A’Shui descended the steps slowly and soon disappeared into the passage.

This secret passage was damp and cold, seemingly never traversed since its construction. Moreover, this was an exit, not an entrance – many narrow checkpoints only facilitated passage from inside to outside. Fortunately, A’Shui had a slender figure, and Shen Langhun and Zhu Yan possessed pure internal energy, allowing them to pass through the narrow places without hindrance. After descending more than thirty steps, everything before them was pitch black.

Shen Langhun lit a fire stick, revealing still another stretch of dark, damp passage ahead. A’Shui walked forward while he maintained his composure on the surface, though his heart was slightly startled.

What a bold woman – as if she feared neither demons nor monsters ahead, neither floods nor fierce beasts. If they hadn’t arrived in time earlier, would this woman really have come alone to investigate? She had saved Lin Bu alone, she raised her child alone, she chose to leave Tang Lici – completely different from He Niang, she didn’t seem to think herself weak. Glancing sideways at Zhu Yan, he saw Zhu Yan’s eyelids slightly lowered, walking straight forward, seemingly not caring at all whether their guide was a woman.

The passage was very narrow – too narrow to circle around Zhu Yan to block A’Shui’s path – yet extremely straight. Shen Langhun’s footsteps were barely audible, A’Shui’s footsteps were also very light, only Zhu Yan’s footsteps could be clearly heard. He made no attempt to conceal his stride, just as he showed no wariness toward the tunnel. No matter what happened ahead, he had absolute confidence to strike back and then kill.

The house above ground was only seventeen or eighteen zhang from Wangting Manor, yet in this dark tunnel the three seemed to walk for half a shichen before light finally appeared faintly ahead.

It was a kind of ghostly blue light that in the darkness seemed like specters peering from ahead. A’Shui waved to Shen Langhun, who quietly extinguished the fire stick. The three slowly approached the blue light.

The blue light emanated from the cracks of wooden boards. A’Shui moved aside from the gap, and Zhu Yan peered through intently. Beyond the wooden boards was a very narrow space with a small oil lamp lit. The reason it cast blue light was because beneath the oil lamp sat a large pale blue box, about zhang in length and three chi in width, looking like a coffin. The coffin’s material was neither stone nor wood, and even from behind the wooden boards they could feel the bone-chilling cold – it seemed to be an ice coffin. But there was no one inside the coffin.

There wasn’t a single person behind the wooden boards. Zhu Yan pushed with his left hand, and the wooden boards before them instantly turned to ash without making any sound. He stepped over the ashes of the boards and entered Wangting Manor. Before his eyes was a ghostly blue ice coffin. Because of this coffin, the small wooden cellar was filled with white mist and had even formed some scattered ice.

Shen Langhun followed behind Zhu Yan. The three entered Wangting Manor. The place with the blue ice coffin was a very small cellar with a flight of steps leading upward. Shen Langhun’s mind turned and he suddenly understood – this passage led outward all the way, built so narrow and straight for only one person to pass through. As long as one obstruction was placed, it would be enough to prevent anyone from pursuing from behind.

Zhu Yan strode forward, his eyes slightly closed, his footsteps now silent. He seemed to have thought that this might be the coffin containing Xue Tao. Though his eyes were closed, he could lower his head to avoid obstacles and walk forward unimpeded.

The steps weren’t very long. After climbing a dozen or so steps, A’Shui gripped the “Kill Willow” tightly in her hand and looked ahead from behind Zhu Yan. Above was a larger room filled with many iron cages, their bars covered in rust, sending chills down one’s spine. Shen Langhun’s gaze swept over those iron cages indifferently, as if he himself had never been confined in such cages. The three continued forward silently.

Behind the iron cages were some porcelain jars that, like the ice coffin, emanated cold air – most likely containing cold jade or ice blocks inside. Walking further forward, A’Shui suddenly felt goosebumps all over her body. In the room ahead hung several corpses. She had seen corpses several times and wasn’t afraid, but these corpses had their eyes gouged out, noses cut off, or parts of their internal organs removed, looking extremely horrifying.

Shen Langhun lightly patted her shoulder. A’Shui bit her teeth and pretended not to see, continuing to walk forward with lowered head.

She already vaguely sensed that the secrets within Wangting Manor were probably more terrifying than imagination. Passing through the room hung with dead bodies, they entered a familiar brothel layout, the same as Piaolin Mei Garden – ahead was a long, luxurious corridor with white doors on both left and right sides. Looking from here, all the doors were half-open, quiet and still, as if not a single person lived there.

Zhu Yan walked forward. His hearing was extraordinary – his walking forward indicated that there were indeed no people in the rooms on either side. Shen Langhun had A’Shui walk in the middle while he silently followed at the rear.

Halfway down the corridor, Zhu Yan suddenly stopped and listened intently.

Barely detectable sounds came from overhead. Those sounds weren’t in this corridor but three chi above the three of them. First came two “creak” sounds, then someone sighed softly, “…Indeed, without Liu Yan…” The rest was unclear, as if deliberately spoken in a lowered voice.

Then someone said coldly, “Only today did I learn that Miss Tao is actually a man.” This voice was ice-cold and crisp – exactly Bai Suche’s voice.

“Hah! Tang Lici tore the skin on his face. If it can’t be replaced, ‘Xifang Tao’ will find it difficult to re-enter the martial world.” A deep, almost unrecognizable male voice said flatly, “The plan to seize the Central Plains Sword Assembly may not be achievable.”

A’Shui recognized this as the voice of the masked man in black. Then someone laughed strangely, “Does it mean we can’t conquer the world without borrowing the Central Plains Sword Assembly or Shaolin Temple? Tao’er just likes to gain a good reputation. If he were willing to listen to me, the martial world, the empire, even the imperial throne and military power – which of these wouldn’t be in my grasp?”

Shen Langhun silently spat in disgust. This was Gui Mudan’s voice. Fu Cui had been killed by Tang Lici, yet they didn’t show themselves – it turned out to be because Xifang Tao had been scratched on the face by Tang Lici, and they were gathered here discussing how to treat it.

“Forget it, he knocked me off the cliff, and people from the Central Plains Sword Assembly witnessed it personally.” Xifang Tao’s voice remained soft and beautiful. “Even if he returns to the assembly, he won’t be able to accomplish much in a short time.” She suddenly laughed, “I originally thought Tang Lici was cautious and careful, not likely to turn against me face to face, but it seems this isn’t so…”

Several people each laughed a few times, quite contemptuous of Tang Lici’s night attack on Xifang Tao. Xifang Tao’s tone was gentle and soft, “My injury doesn’t matter. Please have my cousin come up – I haven’t seen her for a long time.”

Cousin? Shen Langhun silently exclaimed in alarm. Then came a thunderous sound as earth and wood flew before them. Zhu Yan gripped his long halberd and with one strike pierced through the corridor ceiling. Bricks and stones scattered in all directions, revealing a hole the size of a human head. As the bricks and stones fell, hidden weapons shot down from above. Those speaking above were obviously quite surprised that the floor below had been pierced through.

Zhu Yan leaped up and struck again with his halberd. With a rumbling sound, the human head-sized hole collapsed into a large opening sufficient for an adult to pass through. He burst through the hole like an underground demon spirit emerging into the world and landed on the ground.

“Zhu Yan?” Someone above cried out in surprise. It seemed no one had expected the person emerging from below to be Zhu Yan. Bai Suche glanced at him, paused, then retreated toward another tunnel.

Zhu Yan’s gaze swept and he saw among the scattering crowd a woman in a pink dress. He rushed forward and grabbed that woman’s arm. The woman turned back with a charming smile, her five fingers gently brushing toward Zhu Yan’s face. Zhu Yan suddenly retreated – those five fingers’ wind was like blades, sweeping across his face and actually leaving two scratches.

Shen Langhun pulled A’Shui up with him. The “woman” in the pink dress was exactly Xifang Tao. When she turned back with her smile, Shen Langhun vaguely saw that her cheek had indeed suffered some scratches, but they weren’t serious. A’Shui’s gaze, however, fell on another person Xifang Tao was pulling by the hand – a thin, small person wearing a brown robe, whose gender couldn’t be determined. She blurted out, “Miss Xue!”

Shen Langhun and Zhu Yan immediately looked up at the person in brown. Xifang Tao pulled the brown-robed person’s hand and instantly disappeared into the long tunnel. Zhu Yan struck with his halberd – bricks and stones shattered, tables and chairs overturned, but the figures had still vanished without a trace.

Shen Langhun hadn’t clearly seen that person’s face in that instant. “How do you know she’s Xue Tao?”

A’Shui clenched her fists tightly, her voice trembling slightly, “Her… her face…” She touched her own face. “Half her face has been peeled off. I think her… her face is on Miss Tao’s face.”

Shen Langhun’s expression changed. “Xifang Tao actually stuck his own cousin’s facial skin on his own face? How could he do such an inhumanly cruel thing?”

From deep in his throat, Zhu Yan let out a low howl. His long halberd whirled in circles, and the brick and stone wall before them cracked section by section. Relying on his extraordinarily powerful abilities, he strode into the depths of the tunnel.

“Sir, please wait…” A’Shui called out loudly, but saw the bricks and stones crack like a spider web as Zhu Yan disappeared deep into the darkness, already gone far away.

Shen Langhun’s facial muscles twitched as he listened carefully. All around was complete silence, as if the group of people who had just gathered here had all vanished like ghosts. Looking around, this was a dark, large room with tunnel openings front and back. Bai Suche and the others had retreated from behind, while Yu Konghou had pulled Xue Tao away from the front.