Chapter 1101: A Risky Move

He had not even managed to send his own message out yet, and now another message from the Demon Fox clan had arrived. What could be so urgent?

Ao Feng glanced around. He had no idea whether anyone would come today, or whether anyone inside would be going out. If no one passed through, he would have no way to send his message out, nor any way to receive what the Demon Foxes wanted to deliver.

Judging by what he had observed lately, people came almost every day, sometimes with several groups going in and out in a single day. Of course, there were occasional days when no one entered or left at all. Ao Feng had been paying close attention to this pattern for some time. He could only hope his turn on duty today would not happen to be one of those empty days.

Fortunately, he did not have to worry for long. Barely an hour or two later, someone arrived.

Though perhaps it was not really fortune. In the end, that fire had been well set. It had made every faction pay far greater attention to the Wuliang Fruit. Otherwise, Wuliang Garden would never have seen people coming and going so frequently.

The people inside Wuliang Garden, however, had been tormented by it. They were repeatedly questioned, over and over, often about nearly identical matters.

When the formation gate opened, Ao Feng shifted closer and deliberately took up a position right beside the entrance. The moment the gate opened, a beetle flew in and landed on him.

He caught it casually. Then, with equal carelessness, he tossed aside a blade of grass he had been idly playing with. The grass, tied in a knot, landed outside the formation gate.

Wei Ye, who was sharing gate duty with him, noticed the motion.

Ao Feng had been covertly watching his surroundings and saw that Wei Ye had noticed, but he did his best to act as though nothing had happened.

Wei Ye looked as if he wanted to say something. Strictly speaking, those inside Wuliang Garden were not supposed to make unnecessary movements toward the outside. But it was only a blade of grass and hardly seemed capable of causing any trouble. In the end, he said nothing. Ao Feng's background, after all, was not something he could ignore.

Once the people had entered and left and the grand formation sealed again, Ao Feng kept watching Wei Ye from the corner of his eye. Seeing nothing unusual in his reaction, he finally relaxed a little.

After everything settled down, Ao Feng, already familiar with how the beetles were used, silently removed the hidden message from inside his sleeve. When he found a moment no one was paying attention, he glanced over its contents.

The letter said that at midnight tonight, the Demon Foxes would deliver something into the grass outside the gate. It was extremely important and would contain another message. The object was fairly large and would be difficult to bring inside, so he would have to think of a way.

It stressed that the object would be delivered precisely at midnight. At that exact time, Ao Feng had to divert the other guard's attention and give the Demon Foxes an opportunity to approach the gate.

At the same time, they would retrieve any message he might have sent out.

The letter added that Niu Youdao trusted him to handle it.

Ao Feng's heart pounded as he read. Was this some kind of joke? They actually wanted him to bring a large object in from outside, and they trusted him to pull it off? Did they think everyone in Wuliang Garden was blind?

He ground the letter to dust in his palm and, when the opportunity came, let the ashes slip away.

But its contents left him deeply unsettled. The hours that followed felt almost unbearable.

Time crawled past. Ao Feng finally understood what it meant for a single day to feel like a year as he watched the sky slowly darken.

As midnight approached, he walked beneath the archway and called softly, "Wei Ye."

Wei Ye, who had been keeping watch on the surroundings, turned at the sound and came over. "Did you need something, sir?"

Seeing that Wei Ye now stood sideways to the gate, Ao Feng clasped his hands behind his back and began pacing slowly, wearing a thoughtful expression. Little by little, he drew Wei Ye into shifting position. Only once Wei Ye's back was toward the gate did Ao Feng stop and sigh. "Wei Ye, have you ever thought about your future?"

"My future?" Wei Ye froze for a moment, then gave a bitter smile. "For a nobody like me, with no power, influence, or background, once I entered Wuliang Garden, Wuliang Garden became my future. I don't have any other plans." Even if he did, there was no chance he would say them aloud.

Ao Feng said, "So you're saying the rest of my life will be the same as yours?"

"That won't happen," Wei Ye replied. "You're the grand-disciple of the Sacred Venerable. How could I compare with you? With Mr. Ye here, perhaps one day you'll be transferred out..."

As Wei Ye tried to reassure him, Ao Feng's gaze remained fixed past him. In the darkness near the gate, something seemed to approach quickly, then withdraw just as fast.

Ao Feng swept his eyes over the surroundings. Seeing nothing amiss, he finally felt at ease and picked up the thread of Wei Ye's words. "No need to comfort me. I've offended Misty Pavilion. I'm afraid I may never get out of here for the rest of my life."

Wei Ye smiled. "It won't come to that."

Ao Feng said, "I hope you're right. If things truly turn out as you say, Wei Ye, I promise you this: I'll find a way to have you transferred out as well. If I ever get the chance, I'll find some official business as an excuse and have you reassigned from this place too."

A glimmer of hope immediately rose in Wei Ye's heart. "If that day truly comes, I will devote myself to your service, sir."

Ao Feng did not care whether Wei Ye meant it. He had never planned that far ahead in the first place. He had said those words deliberately, partly to keep Wei Ye distracted, but also because he genuinely wanted to leave the man with a little hope. A man with hope was more likely to overlook a few small irregularities during their shared shifts.

"Let's hope the opportunity comes for both of us." Ao Feng walked past him and slowly strolled toward the gate. After a careful glance, he found that the knotted blade of grass he had thrown outside was gone. It had presumably been collected.

In its place, there was now an extra stone among the grass, a long, narrow slab.

That big? Ao Feng cursed inwardly. How was he supposed to bring a stone that size inside?

The night passed. Ao Feng had assumed there would be no further chance during this shift to get his hands on the stone and that he would have to wait until his next rotation.

Yet just before dawn, when the shift was nearly over, another group unexpectedly arrived from outside.

The formation gate opened. As the group from the guard tower went out to meet the newcomers, Ao Feng went with them.

He did not stray from the entrance. He simply stepped to one side of the gate and stood there as though still guarding it. The stone lay right by his feet.

Ao Feng swept a quick glance around and noticed Wei Ye inside the gate looking at him in surprise.

Ao Feng immediately lifted his chin toward another direction.

Wei Ye turned to look where he had indicated.

In that instant, Ao Feng urgently scanned the surroundings, hooked the toe of his boot beneath the long stone, and flicked it straight up beneath the hem of his robe, concealing it between his legs.

The movement was clean and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.

Outside, the arriving visitors had already met the people who had come out to receive them and were speaking together. Wei Ye turned back toward Ao Feng, looking completely baffled, as though asking, What was I supposed to see?

Ao Feng gave no response. Taking advantage of the ongoing conversation outside, he slowly paced back through the formation gate as though making a routine inspection of the entrance. Once inside, he stopped and stood completely still.

On the surface, everything had looked effortless. Inside, he was wound tight with tension, his heart full of unease as he constantly watched for any movement from Wuliang Garden's security towers.

He knew very well that whenever outsiders arrived, the guards inside Wuliang Garden watched the activity beyond the gate intently.

His body had been between the stone and the guards when he kicked it up, which should have offered some cover. But he had no idea whether anyone in the towers had still noticed the motion.

He had acted on impulse because he suddenly realized that this instant might be a perfect opportunity. When the two groups met, the security guards' attention should be focused on the visitors. They might not be watching their own people inside Wuliang Garden.

Even so, he was so tense he could barely breathe. That one sudden, decisive move might yet cost him his life.

He was already beginning to regret it. The fear came only afterward. How could he have acted so rashly without making careful preparations first?

The outsiders entered. The grand formation closed. No one in the security towers made a move. Only then did the tension wound through Ao Feng begin to ease.

If anyone had spotted him, they would certainly have come straight for him. They would not have stayed silent all this time. He should be safe.

Wei Ye, however, walked over and asked, "Sir, what were you telling me to look at just now?"

Ao Feng looked puzzled. "Look at what? I didn't tell you to look at anything."

Wei Ye stared. "At the gate just now, you gestured toward that side. Weren't you telling me to look at something?"

"Oh." Ao Feng said, "I saw you staring at me instead of watching the surroundings. I was telling you to pay attention to your guard duty."

Wei Ye immediately apologized. "I was careless."

"It's fine. The handover is almost here. We've survived another shift." Ao Feng sighed.

Wei Ye smiled. That was certainly true. They could neither cultivate nor sit while posted here and had to stand around wasting the entire day. A full shift really was an ordeal.

After that, Wei Ye began to wonder whether he was imagining things. Ao Feng seemed to remain almost completely rooted to the spot.

He had no idea that Ao Feng was suffering in silence. The thing hidden beneath his robe was far too large. Even standing felt awkward, and he did not dare move without need for fear of giving himself away.

With the handover approaching, Wei Ye kept glancing back to see whether the next shift had arrived. Suddenly, there was a clatter beside him. He spun around and saw Ao Feng using his foot to flip several stones near the archway, apparently out of sheer boredom. Wei Ye thought nothing of it.

Not long afterward, the relief shift arrived.

Once the handover was complete, Ao Feng openly turned over a few stones in front of everyone, then picked up two of them in full view.

One of the incoming guards asked what he was doing.

Ao Feng said he was taking a couple of stones back to carve something for amusement. And so, in broad daylight and under everyone's eyes, he carried the two stones back with him.

The moment he returned to his own pavilion, he put them down, shut the door, and immediately examined the long stone. Sure enough, something was wrong with it.

He broke it open and found five skulls inside.

"What the hell is this?" Ao Feng cursed. He had no idea what Niu Youdao was playing at. After making him take such an enormous risk, all they had sent in were five skulls.

There was also a wax-sealed pellet hidden inside. He cracked it open and found a letter.

The letter told him that the five skulls were extremely important and had to be hidden carefully. When Niu Youdao next entered Wuliang Garden, that would be the time to use them.

Ao Feng still had no idea what the plan was, but he obeyed. He certainly did not dare leave the skulls sitting out in the open. He shifted a cabinet away from the corner, pried up the floor tiles, dug a pit beneath them, and buried everything inside.

After erasing every trace of what he had done, he made a show of carving the other stone.

Deep within the swamp of the Desolate Marsh Deadlands, Niu Youdao was inside a cave examining the materials the Demon Foxes had prepared for him.

Hei Yun stood beside him and asked, "What exactly do you need all these things for?"

Niu Youdao said, "Didn't you say you've already received word that the Seven-Colored Treasure Pearls have been gathered and are on their way here? They'll arrive today. Once they do, you'll know."

At that moment, an elder hurried in from outside and reported, "Word just came from that side. Ao Feng successfully got the item inside."

Niu Youdao paused and frowned. "That quickly? By my count, his next turn on duty shouldn't be for another eight days."

"It's not what you think. He got it inside during this very shift..." The elder explained what their observer had seen.

Niu Youdao's face twitched, his heart lurching at the account. He cursed, "Acting that hastily? Has that man lost his mind?"

[End of Chapter 1101]