Chapter 1240: Winds Rise, Clouds Surge

Before Jia Wuqun and Wei Duo had fully recovered from the shock, they saw Yuan Cong turn one hand over and press the false face back onto his own.

Under the suction of spiritual power, the mask rapidly stretched and adhered to his features.

In the blink of an eye, he had returned to the face they knew.

Then Yuan Cong turned toward Wei Duo and suddenly pointed several times through the air.

Invisible force struck Wei Duo with dull impacts, making him grunt and stagger back two steps.

The spiritual power that had been sluggish inside him suddenly began circulating again.

Wei Duo clenched his fists experimentally and looked them over.

The restriction sealing his cultivation had been lifted.

"Protect Sir. Keep an eye on those two!" Yuan Cong instructed.

Then he flashed away.

His figure moved rapidly through the surrounding woods, darting from place to place as though searching for something.

Wei Duo looked around, trying to track the moving figure with his eyes. He could not help exclaiming, "What incredible strength!"

Jia Wuqun stepped over and traced a question across his chest.

How strong?

Wei Duo thought for a moment to make certain he understood, then answered, "Among all the cultivators I've ever seen fight, no one was stronger than him. He's truly very strong!"

Jia Wuqun slowly turned his head.

His gaze fell on the two men lying on the ground, still barely breathing.

His brows knitted, and worry gradually appeared on his face.

He did not understand.

Had Yuan Cong gone mad?

He had actually dared use such heavy hands against members of the Misty Pavilion.

This time, they had truly poked a hole through the sky.

Who knew how the matter could possibly be handled afterward?

He very much wanted to ask Shang Chaozong where he had found such a madman and why he dared employ someone like this.

Did none of them want to live anymore?

Now he finally understood what Wang Xiao had meant when he said Yuan Cong would be enough to protect his safety.

Protect him?

Yes, he certainly could.

He could protect Jia Wuqun so thoroughly that he even dared maim Misty Pavilion personnel!

After searching the surroundings for a while, Yuan Cong flashed back.

He kicked the man whose spine had been crushed, rolling him onto his back.

"Only the two of you came looking for us?"

The man's face was twisted with fear and pain. "You've got enormous nerve, daring to attack us. Do you know the consequences? If we don't return, none of you will escape!"

Yuan Cong looked down at him coldly. "Consequences? I've already attacked you. Do you think I still care about the consequences you're talking about?"

"Tell me the truth and I'll spare your lives. Refuse, and I'll make you wish for death without being able to die."

The man gave a miserable laugh. "You already attacked us. Even if I tell you, you won't let us live."

Yuan Cong lifted one foot and stepped down on his abdomen.

The pressure traveled into the shattered section of his spine.

"Ah—!"

The man screamed, drenched in cold sweat.

At the base of the cliff, the coachman staggered to his feet and desperately tried to flee.

Unfortunately, his injuries were too severe. He could barely move with any speed.

Yuan Cong glanced over coldly and crooked five fingers through the air.

Whoosh!

An invisible force caught the coachman and dragged him backward along the ground.

In the next moment, Yuan Cong's five fingers closed around his shoulder.

Crack!

The shoulder bone shattered directly in his grasp.

The coachman screamed as well.

Yuan Cong increased the pressure beneath his foot.

The man with the broken spine howled, "I'll talk! I'll talk!"

Yuan Cong eased his foot. "Who else is there?"

"No one. There's no one else. Only the two of us."

Dangling in Yuan Cong's grip, the coachman nodded rapidly through the pain. "Just the two of us."

Yuan Cong had already observed the surroundings and personally searched the area. He had indeed found no one else.

That was precisely what he found strange.

"Only the two of you?"

"I know something of the Misty Pavilion's way of doing things. If you merely wanted to ask questions, you could have done it directly inside the city residence. Why sneak us out of the city and drag us all the way to this deserted place?"

"Still unwilling to tell the truth? It seems you want to suffer a little more."

"Don't!" the coachman cried hastily. "We did this because we were following our handler's orders."

"The instructions were that after we questioned you and learned the situation clearly, we were to dispose of all of you. Quietly. No one was to discover it. That's why we brought you here."

Jia Wuqun and the others were immediately shocked.

They had actually intended to kill them?

Yuan Cong's voice sank. "Kill us? Didn't you just say you only came to understand the situation?"

"Look at the way you two are acting—sneaking around like this. You don't seem like overt Misty Pavilion personnel."

"Misty Pavilion covert agents hide their identities precisely so no one can follow the vine back to the melon. Unless absolutely necessary, they do not reveal themselves and openly question the people they are investigating. What you did today already violated the rules."

"And now you're telling me you were ordered to kill us as well. That is direct interference in the order of the world."

"Has your handler grown tired of living?"

"Do you really think I'll believe you?"

The coachman hurriedly said, "When we received the order, we knew it was inappropriate too. We didn't want to do it. But the command came from above. We had no choice."

Yuan Cong asked, "Who is your handler?"

The coachman was just about to speak when the man on the ground rasped, "Don't tell him! If we reveal everything, we'll have no value left!"

The coachman was startled into awareness and immediately shut his mouth.

Yuan Cong suddenly kicked.

The man on the ground flew away and smashed into the cliff wall.

Half his skull caved in on impact.

Brain matter burst out.

He fell to the ground, twitched several times, and stopped moving.

Jia Wuqun and Wei Duo were horrified.

He had actually killed a member of the Misty Pavilion!

Yuan Cong looked coldly at the coachman still held in his hand.

"You thought refusing to speak would make me afraid to kill you?"

The coachman laughed miserably. "I can only tell you this much. The moment I reveal the handler, I'll have no further use to you, and you'll kill me immediately."

"If I speak, I die anyway."

"If you want to trace the handler and silence him, you'll have to keep me alive."

"Otherwise, the people above know we came looking for you. If we never return, none of you will escape. The Misty Pavilion's power is not something you can withstand!"

Yuan Cong said, "Since we've already been marked, then there's no need for you to speak..."

Seeing that he was about to kill again, Jia Wuqun hurriedly waved his hands and made rough sounds from his throat, desperately signaling him to stop.

Yuan Cong turned.

Jia Wuqun hurried behind him and traced characters across his back.

Don't kill him. Leave one alive!

Yuan Cong said, "Sir, my apologies. This time I cannot listen to you. He saw my true face. He has to die."

Jia Wuqun's finger moved rapidly.

Since you already know their actions violated Misty Pavilion rules, then you know there is something strange behind this. Keep one alive. There may still be room to turn the situation around!

Yuan Cong fell silent for a moment.

Then he abruptly turned toward Wei Duo.

"Wei Duo, send a message immediately. Report exactly what happened and ask how we should proceed!"

Wei Duo's heart was pounding. "We left in such a hurry that the messaging Goldenwing is still back at the residence. Can we really return and use it?"

What worried him even more was that he had now become involved in the killing of Misty Pavilion personnel.

Would this implicate the Shangqing Sect?

The coachman hurriedly shouted, "Yes! Yes, you can! There won't be any problem. Only the two of us were assigned to this operation."

He had seen a chance to survive and now cooperated without being asked.

Yuan Cong stared at him coldly.

The coachman hurriedly added, "I'm already in your hands. If a single word I said is false, I won't survive either."

Jia Wuqun immediately traced another line on Yuan Cong's back.

It should be possible!

Yuan Cong was silent briefly.

Then the hand gripping the coachman suddenly tapped several points on his body.

The coachman's eyes rolled back, and he went limp.

Yuan Cong caught him before he fell, stripped off his outer clothing, and removed the hidden Misty Pavilion uniform.

Only then did he let the unconscious man drop.

Next, he flashed to the dead man and searched him.

He found the travel token that had been shown when they left the city.

What followed was somewhat bloody.

Yuan Cong lifted the corpse.

Both hands suddenly exerted force.

Boom!

The entire body, clothing and all, exploded into dust.

A mist of blood drifted through the air.

Yuan Cong flashed out of the bloody haze.

One hand carried the unconscious coachman.

The other seized Jia Wuqun by the arm.

"Move!"

His figure shot away.

Wei Duo followed.

They returned to the place where they had entered the mountains.

The carriage was still there.

As they climbed aboard, Wei Duo tentatively asked Yuan Cong, "When your spiritual power was sealed earlier, how did you avoid the restriction?"

"When you reach my cultivation realm, you'll naturally understand."

Yuan Cong dismissed the question with a single sentence.

He clearly had no wish to say more.

He casually pushed Jia Wuqun into the carriage, then climbed in carrying the coachman.

Wei Duo had no choice but to serve temporarily as the driver.

He led the horse by hand through the mountain path first, easing its burden and occasionally using his strength to help pull the carriage through rough stretches.

Once the carriage reached the official road again, Wei Duo climbed onto the driver's bench and cracked the whip.

The carriage rolled forward at once, heading straight back toward the Qi capital.

Inside the jolting compartment, Jia Wuqun again reached over and wrote across Yuan Cong's back.

You are not Jian Shanyue. Who are you?

Earlier, Nanzhou had sent word asking him to have Zi Pingxiu invite Jian Shanyue to serve as his retainer cultivator.

Zi Pingxiu had cooperated.

Jian Shanyue refused.

Yet afterward, another man appeared claiming to be Jian Shanyue.

Jia Wuqun had found the matter strange even then.

Only now did he learn that this man was not Jian Shanyue at all.

He had no idea what Nanzhou was playing at.

Yuan Cong said, "Who I am is not important. What matters is that I can keep you safe."

"There are some things you do not need to understand so clearly. They are not matters you should know."

Jia Wuqun wrote: You actually dared attack and kill Misty Pavilion personnel. Do you know the consequences? Do you know this may implicate Nanzhou?

Yuan Cong answered, "There are some things that, once you're involved, being afraid won't help. I cannot tell you. Don't ask."

Jia Wuqun fell into thought.

Slowly, his hand dropped away.

The travel token proved useful.

The carriage passed back through the city gates without obstruction and returned directly to the small courtyard they had rented before.

Using the carriage itself as cover, they quickly moved the unconscious coachman inside.

The carriage was then tied outside.

The three returned to the courtyard.

Following Yuan Cong's instructions, Wei Duo prepared to send a message immediately.

But when he reached the bird cage, he discovered an extra Goldenwing perched outside it.

A message had arrived.

Wei Duo quickly decoded the message and brought it into the room.

Jia Wuqun took it.

The moment he saw that it came from the Jin capital, he began reading carefully.

Then he froze.

After a while, he slowly handed the message to Yuan Cong.

Yuan Cong read it and looked surprised. "Didn't you say that once the Jin court seized the matter, that whole pack would bite down and never let go?"

Jia Wuqun gave a bitter smile and wrote across his back.

We underestimated Shao.

Jin's power failed to restrain him.

Judging from the signs, the moment he returned to the capital, he struck directly at the key points. It cannot be that simple.

There should be another force helping him from the shadows.

A force capable of evading Jin's own surveillance...

I think I know why Misty Pavilion people found us.

Yuan Cong's expression changed. "You mean the Misty Pavilion is helping Shao Pingbo?"

Jia Wuqun wrote: I cannot be certain, but it is very likely. That would explain why Misty Pavilion people came to us, especially the things they questioned us about. Looking at it now, they were gathering information for Shao Pingbo.

It was not only we who underestimated him. Nanzhou likely underestimated this as well and probably knew nothing of it. Otherwise, they would have warned us.

Yuan Cong's face grew grave.

For a moment, it felt as though winds were rising and clouds surging all around them.

Jia Wuqun continued writing.

The move in the Jin capital has failed. There is no longer any reason to act in the Qi capital either.

The situation is unclear. We cannot make another reckless move.

Send word to Nanzhou immediately and report everything.

Also, we need to find somewhere to hide.

Until we understand the situation, we cannot show ourselves again.

The enemy is hidden while we are exposed. We must first find a way to shake off every watcher and disappear as quickly as possible.

Otherwise, we are far too passive!

[End of Chapter 1240]