The straw-woven goose marched boldly and spiritedly through the grass, charging forward without hesitation. Before setting off, Wen Shuangbai had told it that it was a crucial stroke in this battle—success or failure hinged on its actions!
If they succeeded, its owner would earn a bit of money—just enough to buy it a straw-woven horse.
If they failed, there’d be no hope.
So, Four Hundred decided to take the gamble.
Gamble it all, and turn old skin into new!
The deeper it ventured into Qi Manor, the darker the night grew. Dew clung to the grass, dampening the straw-woven goose. The indistinct sounds that had been muffled before now grew clearer in the silent night.
The terrified, pained cries of humans mixed with the eerie crunching of something gnawing sent a shiver down Four Hundred’s spine.
Gathering its courage, it cheered itself on: "It’s fine! It’s fine! It’s! Fine!"
With a leap, Four Hundred plunged into the bushes at the end of the path, hiding among the grass damp with night mist. It cautiously raised its little goose head to peek ahead.
A vast clearing lay before it, where two groups were locked in battle.
One group was of the same kind as its owner, while the other resembled the village chief who had torn its piggy-skin.
Four Hundred ducked its head in fright, perfectly camouflaged in the bushes that matched its straw-woven body.
When Lu Ying, Yu Xiaoxiao, and their group reached the end of the path, they lost track of Qingling Mountain’s trail.
Lu Ying signaled the others to stay put and not act recklessly. She and Yu Xiaoxiao crept forward cautiously, lying low in the grass to observe.
At the sight before them, Yu Xiaoxiao gasped and covered her mouth in shock.
Lu Ying’s brows furrowed deeply.
Outside, ghosts were clashing with humans—but what was bizarre was why these ghosts…
The other four members of Wansheng Palace crouched behind them, not daring to move.
But suddenly, one of them felt something sharp jab his backside.
This disciple was a last-minute replacement for Bai Lijue, with low cultivation and the weakest among Wansheng Palace’s disciples.
The jab sent him leaping out of the bushes with a yelp.
"Who’s there?!" Steward Qi’s voice, dark as the night, rang out. A terrifying surge of spiritual energy blasted toward the bushes.
Yu Xiaoxiao quickly pulled Lu Ying onto her sword, narrowly dodging the attack.
Wansheng Palace’s hiding spot was completely exposed.
The humans and ghosts who had been locked in battle all turned their heads toward the bushes—then, as one, they swarmed toward Wansheng Palace’s disciples like locusts.
"Ahhh! Don’t kill me—!"
Amid the disciples’ screams, Four Hundred took advantage of its straw-woven camouflage and slipped away unnoticed.
As the saying goes: "Pick the softest persimmon to poke."
The books didn’t lie!
This time, the straw-woven goose moved with extreme caution. Before long, it found Xie Ziyin and Yin Xuan not far away.
Yin Xuan lay motionless in the grass, silent and still, as if asleep.
Xie Ziyin crouched beside him, coldly observing the chaos outside.
Four Hundred hopped onto Yin Xuan’s head, then used it as a springboard to land on Xie Ziyin’s shoulder before sliding down and hooking itself onto his belt.
Exhausted, it finally succumbed to sleep.
Xie Ziyin adjusted the straw-woven goose’s position absentmindedly. Seeing that Wansheng Palace had successfully drawn Steward Qi and the others away, he stood and nudged Yin Xuan with his foot.
"Let’s go."
Instead of retreating, the two advanced, stepping silently past scattered limbs as they ventured deeper into the night fog.
---
During dinner, Wu Ren mentioned that when Third Miss Qi Yaoling was at the manor, the guards would compete for patrol duty near the lotus pond—because Qi Yaoling resided in Lotus Pavilion, close to the pond.
Originally, Wen Shuangbai had planned to lay low for a few days, earn more sacred stones, and then visit Yaoling Pavilion at night to investigate the strange happenings deep within Qi Manor.
That way, even if something went wrong, the sacred stones would serve as insurance. The worst outcome would be losing a life in the Sacred Tower, forcing an early end to this round of trials—but not outright elimination.
Dying in the Sacred Tower did have some impact on one’s true body, but the first few deaths weren’t too severe.
Of the disciples who had died in Tian Village last round, aside from Bai Lijue voluntarily withdrawing, the rest had all returned to continue.
Wen Shuangbai suspected Bai Lijue had left more out of heartbreak than necessity.
Everything had been perfectly planned—until Lu Ying and Yu Xiaoxiao had to interfere!
The protagonists were like ticking time bombs—delaying was no longer an option.
With their protagonist’s luck, if she waited too long, Wansheng Palace might stumble upon the method to craft Spirit Veil Silk first. That would truly infuriate her.
As the books said, villains usually died from talking too much—or moving too slowly.
After much deliberation, Wen Shuangbai decided: Why wait? Tonight was the night!
Four Hundred would divert the protagonists’ attention.
Xie Ziyin and Yin Xuan would lurk in the shadows, seizing the chance to uncover Qi Manor’s secrets.
Once they left, Wen Shuangbai and Senior Sister Li Zhuohua would head to Lotus Pavilion.
Wu Ren had said Qi Yaoling was highly valued by the Qi family—and it showed.
Lotus Pavilion was extravagantly lavish, with pavilions and towers every few steps, adorned with exquisite and elegant decorations. Precious artifacts were casually placed everywhere, as if they were worthless.
What a shame—she couldn’t take a single one.
For the next few days, she still needed to work peacefully at Qi Manor and earn her pay. Leaving no evidence was crucial.
If she took anything and Qi Manor later noticed missing valuables, Steward Qi would suspect her first.
How cruel—to see money on the ground and not pick it up.
Wen Shuangbai’s heart ached. She took a deep breath, forcing herself not to look, and kept her eyes fixed ahead as she followed her senior sister.
Time was short, so they didn’t search every corner. Instead, they headed straight for the main building with the best view in Lotus Pavilion.
Li Zhuohua took the lead, cautiously pushing open the bedroom door with the scabbard of her sword, Liu Hong. After scanning the room and confirming no danger, she called out, "Junior Sister, it’s safe!"
Wen Shuangbai slipped inside.
Qi Yaoling’s bedroom was enormous—the size of six ordinary rooms combined, serving as both a bedchamber and a study.
Wen Shuangbai and Li Zhuohua both inhaled sharply. The sisters exchanged a glance before splitting up to search.
Everything in the room was valuable. Li Zhuohua even spotted a few casually discarded sword crystals on the table.
Her hand moved on its own, reaching for them.
Meanwhile, Wen Shuangbai found an entire cabinet filled with raw spirit stones…
She slammed the cabinet door shut. Spotting her senior sister’s wandering hands, she hurriedly warned, "Senior Sister, remember our mission! Resist the temptation!"
Li Zhuohua reluctantly withdrew her hand, muttering, "How is Qi Manor—just a city clan—so wealthy? I’m the daughter of Qingling Mountain’s sect leader, yet I live worse than Qi Manor’s servants."
Wen Shuangbai hadn’t expected the greatest danger of sneaking into Yaoling Pavilion to be the lure of money.
She rummaged through the drawers without turning her head and said, "Senior Sister, have you ever heard that the most profitable methods are all written in the penal code?"
Qi Manor was undoubtedly—four hundred percent—engaged in shady dealings!
Wen Shuangbai and her senior sister Li Zhuohua swiftly searched Qi Yaoling’s room. Though the items were valuable, none were what Wen Shuangbai sought.
Back in Tian Village, Elder Tian Sang had mentioned that her aura felt familiar, resembling that of Elder Ye Qingrong, and had even asked if they shared the same sect.
Auras stemmed from cultivation techniques, and Wen Shuangbai practiced the Yaoling Heart Method.
This implied that Elder Ye Qingrong was also connected to the Yaoling Heart Method—perhaps she had even cultivated it herself.
And since the third young miss of Qi Manor was named Qi Yaoling, the Yaoling Heart Method was likely created by this prodigious young woman.
Ye Qingrong had traveled from Tian Village to Zhuoguang City, probably to seek out Qi Yaoling.
Wen Shuangbai had hoped to find something related to the Yaoling Heart Method or Elder Ye Qingrong in the Lotus Courtyard, but her search yielded nothing.
Li Zhuohua asked, "Junior Sister, shall we move to the next room?"
"Senior Sister, wait." Wen Shuangbai stood still in the room, convinced the answers lay there.
The Lotus Courtyard was vast, but Qi Yaoling wouldn’t keep personal belongings scattered around her own home—that would be inconvenient. Retrieving them would require unnecessary effort.
She would either keep them in her bedroom or carry them on her person.
If this room held no clues, nowhere else would.
"Let’s search again," Wen Shuangbai said.
Li Zhuohua had great faith in her junior sister’s intellect and didn’t object, nodding before resuming the search.
During her first sweep, Wen Shuangbai had focused on hidden compartments, mechanisms, and obscure corners where things might be concealed.
This time, she altered her approach.
She picked up every item left out in the open and examined them one by one.
At the desk by the window, Wen Shuangbai lifted a brush and studied its tip.
The bristles were stiff and blackened—dried ink, evidence that the room’s occupant had been writing something before leaving.
Yet Wen Shuangbai found no trace of Qi Yaoling’s writings.
She ran her hands along the desk, feeling every inch.
Suddenly, her fingers paused beneath the desk.
She sensed a faint, familiar pulse of spiritual energy.
Her eyes lit up with realization, and she immediately channeled the Yaoling Heart Method.
As gold and crimson spiritual energy swirled, a previously smooth section of the desk’s underside revealed a hidden indentation.
Wen Shuangbai slid her fingers into the groove, and with a gentle motion, a secret compartment opened.
Inside lay a stack of letters.
She pulled them out and saw neat handwriting on the first envelope:
To My Dearest Yaoling.
Signed: Qingrong.
Without reading them, Wen Shuangbai tucked the letters into her inner robe, restored everything to its original state, and urged, "Let’s go, Senior Sister!"
Retracing their steps, they emerged from the Lotus Courtyard just as a column of fire lit up a distant corner of the sky.
Chaos had erupted in Qi Manor.
"Hurry! Steward Qi’s orders—everyone patrols their assigned areas! Not a single fly gets through!"
"What’s happening? What’s going on?"
"You know those newcomers today? They’re assassins sent to kill the family head! Two are still at large. Steward Qi says—capture them dead or alive, and the reward is hefty!"
"..."
Wu Ren sprinted to the outer guards’ quarters, shouting hoarsely, "Lu Jiayao, get your friends up now!"
Lu Jiayao stuck his head out the window, alarmed. "Brother Wu, what’s wrong?!"
"Assassins on the loose!" Wu Ren waved frantically. "Get to your posts in fifteen minutes—no slip-ups!"
Lu Jiayao nodded vigorously. "Got it, I’ll wake them!"
He rushed to Wen Shuangbai’s room, flipping the lamp on while calling loudly, "Shuangbai, wake up! There’s trouble in the manor!"
A groggy, confused voice answered, "Huh? What trouble?"
Lu Jiayao replied, "I’ll explain later—get up! I’ll rouse the others!"
From Shen Hefeng’s room came a grumble. "Who’s making noise at this hour? ...Wait, did you say hefty reward? This old man’s getting up!"
Hearing this, Wu Ren didn’t linger, darting off to alert other outer guards.
What he didn’t know was that Wen Shuangbai wasn’t in her room at all. Instead, Lu Jiayao was putting on a one-man show, modulating his voice with impressive versatility.
[A master of ventriloquism in the city?]
[Lu Jiayao’s vocal skills are something else.]
[So this is why they left these two behind—brilliant!]
Meanwhile, in two separate corners of Qi Manor—
Wen Shuangbai and Li Zhuohua slipped out of the Lotus Courtyard, while Xie Ziyin and Yin Xuan emerged from the rear lake, blending into the chaos as they converged toward their designated area—the lotus pond beside the Lotus Courtyard.
Their "territory" had been secured earlier that day after bargaining with Wu Ren. The price? Promising to help him snag the highly sought-after five-nut mooncakes from the kitchen during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Yin Xuan glanced at the moon overhead and mused, "How much longer till Mid-Autumn?"
Xie Ziyin toyed with the grass-woven goose at his waist and, out of gratitude for the four hundred coins, answered, "Soon. Less than a month."
Yin Xuan’s lips curved into a smile.
Noticing this, Xie Ziyin kindly added, "But by then, we’ll likely be long gone."
"..." Yin Xuan’s smile froze.
