Chapter 1361: Driven to Desperation

Facing the river wind, Zhuge Chi turned his head toward Niu Youdao, who stood beside him, and asked suspiciously, "Contact a Zhao sleeper agent?"

Niu Youdao tossed another pebble into the river. It struck the water with a plunk. "That's right. Contact a Zhao sleeper agent. Afterward, someone will capture that agent, then leak word that you're at Boundless Pavilion. Eventually, people will discover that you and Lan Ming have dealings with each other. Don't tell me you can't even find a single Zhao sleeper agent."

Zhuge Chi said, "I can find one, but do I dare contact anyone now?"

Niu Youdao said, "They can't all be under Misty Pavilion surveillance. There must be someone you feel relatively safe using. Besides, I'm behind you. I'll send people to keep watch. If any problem appears, my side will eliminate it. The agent you contact will never get the chance to tip off Misty Pavilion."

Zhuge Chi said, "How could Lan Ming possibly have dealings with me? I'm afraid even meeting him without Boundless Pavilion's people noticing would be difficult."

Niu Youdao said, "If I say he'll meet you, he'll meet you."

Zhuge Chi said, "The moment he realizes it's me, I'm afraid he'll immediately send word out."

Niu Youdao said, "He won't. He wouldn't dare. Lan Ming is one of mine."

"..."

Zhuge Chi was instantly rendered speechless. Disbelief filled his face. "Lan Daolin's son? Lan Ming is one of yours?"

Niu Youdao said, "Put it another way. You may find it easier to understand: I hold a fatal weakness of Lan Ming's in my hands."

Zhuge Chi said, "Do I have no choice?"

Niu Youdao laughed but answered a different question. "There's something I've always found strange. With your cultivation, why cling so stubbornly to that burden Hai Wuji?"

That one sentence seemed to give Zhuge Chi his answer. After a brief silence, he said, "I've spent too long as a servant. Naturally, I've grown used to it."

Niu Youdao said, "That's not a bad answer. There's something else I want to know. How did you break through to the Nascent Soul Realm?"

Zhuge Chi said, "A Wuliang Fruit. It was something in the imperial palace's inner treasury, sealed inside a vessel and never discovered. No one could verify when it had entered the palace. It was found by accident later. His grandfather, the old emperor, gave it to me. Without the Hai clan, there would be no me."

Niu Youdao nodded. "I heard the Saints killed quite a few people who broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm in years past. It seems a fair number of Wuliang Fruits slipped out of the Sacred Realm into the mortal world in earlier times. For now, you count as a fish that slipped through the net. You've been rather fortunate."

Zhuge Chi sighed. "The world is vast. Who knows whether others are still hidden somewhere? I'm simply the one who was exposed."

Niu Youdao said, "Go. You don't need to worry about Hai Wuji. Someone will protect him properly."

Zhuge Chi said, "I don't even know who you people are. If you mean to harm me, then once I leave, I may never come back!"

Niu Youdao said, "With something like this, even if I tell you I won't harm you, you may not believe me. I don't know how to make you trust me either. So let me put it another way... You should still go. If you refuse, you won't be going anywhere at all, and that flatbread seller will probably die a very miserable death."

Both men turned their heads almost simultaneously.

Their gazes met.

Zhuge Chi felt the thick threat behind the other man's words.

Yun Ji, standing nearby, immediately heightened her vigilance and prepared to stop Zhuge Chi if he suddenly attacked.

Niu Youdao, however, looked entirely unconcerned. He turned toward the river and said with the faintest smile, "If you want to protect him, then you have no choice but to go. If you're willing to abandon him and live for yourself instead, then you have even more reason to join hands with us. How about this? Kill that flatbread seller right now, and I'll immediately tell you who I am. Then you'll have a trump card for protecting yourself as well. I keep my word. The choice is yours."

Zhuge Chi enunciated each word. "And if I agree to neither?"

Niu Youdao said calmly, "Starting now, the flatbread seller will disappear for a while. When you return after completing the task, you'll naturally know whether I harmed him. We'll let the facts speak for themselves, so neither of us needs to rely on empty words. If I haven't guessed wrong, he's already disappeared."

Zhuge Chi abruptly turned his head.

Hai Wuji was indeed gone from beside the flatbread stall.

Zhuge Chi's expression changed dramatically. In an instant, he struck and reached for Niu Youdao.

Yun Ji had long been prepared. She moved like lightning and seized Zhuge Chi's wrist.

The two locked in a brief contest of cultivation.

Zhuge Chi and Yun Ji stared directly at one another.

Niu Youdao glanced at Yun Ji's arm, which was faintly losing ground in the contest, and said with perfect calm, "Best not make too much noise. Otherwise, he'll die right now."

Threatening a man with a hostage seemed to come perfectly naturally to him, without the slightest burden on his conscience.

With that, he turned and walked away. "Why should we save the two of you and then still have to protect you? A man can't be too selfish. You can't take every benefit and refuse to contribute anything yourself. Go. I keep my word. I'll wait for your good news."

"Someone will contact you with the exact details. Oh, and remember to pack up that flatbread stall for him. If no one looks after it later, people may grow suspicious."

Yun Ji released Zhuge Chi's wrist, then retreated step by step, remaining between him and Niu Youdao while keeping a wary eye on him.

Zhuge Chi clenched both fists. His cheeks were taut as he watched the two of them leave like this, yet there was nothing he could do.

...

At Wuliang Garden, Wang Zun arrived under orders to deliver supplies. After passing inspection, he entered Daluo Hall and met Sha Rulai, who was stationed there. He handed over the delivered goods.

Sha Rulai had people take the supplies away and put them in place. Once no outsiders remained in the hall, Wang Zun moved to his side and whispered, "The people outside have already been arranged. They'll cooperate with the operation on that side."

Sha Rulai nodded slightly. "No abnormalities in message transmission?"

Wang Zun said, "Getting in and out of the Sacred Realm is very troublesome now. There's no way to smuggle anything in. We can only have couriers memorize the contents, bring them in, and then reproduce the message afterward."

Sha Rulai said, "Don't use the same person to carry messages out and bring messages in."

Wang Zun said, "I know."

Sha Rulai said, "Also, unless absolutely necessary, try not to come here in the future. Whatever that side asks for, coordinate and carry it out yourself."

Wang Zun said, "All right."

...

Within the State of Han, it was precisely the noon mealtime when a man casually entered a restaurant, went upstairs into a private room, stayed there for some time, then came out and left the restaurant. Afterward, he quickly departed the city.

All the while, several people inside and outside the restaurant secretly watched the private room.

On the street, two men hurried over and sat at a tea stall opposite the restaurant. An old man was already seated at the table.

The old man was Li Zhengfa, an Elder of Baichuan Valley, in disguise.

This group consisted of Baichuan Valley supervisors stationed at Misty Pavilion. They were here because they had discovered a suspicious Misty Pavilion man behaving furtively and had gone to considerable lengths to follow him all the way to this place.

And the reason they had dared follow him was simply that the Nine Saints had driven them to desperation.

The Nine Saints had already issued their final ultimatum: if they could not produce results within half a year, every one of them would lose his life. So after discovering something suspicious, they had even resorted to tailing a Misty Pavilion member.

"The target has already left the city. We asked fellow disciples stationed here to continue following him," one of the two newcomers reported behind the cover of raising his tea.

Li Zhengfa lowered his voice. "Find out the identity of the person he met as quickly as possible."

The words had barely left his mouth when all three men's gazes shifted away at once. They lowered their heads and continued drinking tea.

The man from the restaurant's private room had emerged. After looking left and right outside the entrance, he hurried away.

Two hours later, his identity and background had been placed before Li Zhengfa.

He was a minor clerk in the local county yamen.

By nightfall, Li Zhengfa was secretly watching a residence from outside when he turned his head.

A disciple approached and whispered, "The trackers sent word back. That man has already returned to the Misty Pavilion outpost."

Li Zhengfa looked back toward the residence with lamplight glowing within.

His gaze flickered for a while before he said heavily, "Watching like this forever won't get us anywhere. Secretly seize the man and interrogate him!"

The two disciples beside him exchanged glances.

One said, "Elder, what if he's also one of Misty Pavilion's people?"

Li Zhengfa said, "If we don't investigate his furtive behavior, how will we know what's happening? We don't know his identity, so we'll treat it as though we didn't know. If he is from Misty Pavilion, we can simply release him. We can't keep watching forever and learn nothing. Notify the disciples stationed in the city. Have them prepare to clean up afterward and suppress any disturbance caused by the capture."

At his command, several figures slipped into the residence.

With the momentum of thunder too swift even to cover one's ears, they seized the man they had watched for most of the day.

...

One day later, Li Zhengfa hurried back to Baichuan Valley.

After reporting his arrival, he was received by Sect Leader Yin Rushu.

The moment he had completed his greeting, Li Zhengfa came directly to the point. "Sect Leader, I urgently need the sect's strength to assist me!"

Yin Rushu was slightly startled. "With what?"

Li Zhengfa said, "I discovered a suspicious person inside Misty Pavilion. After tailing him, I found that he secretly met with another man. I then had the person he met secretly captured. Under interrogation, we discovered several problems."

Yin Rushu stared at him blankly.

It seemed this man truly had been driven half-mad by the Sacred Realm.

Following a Misty Pavilion member was one thing. He had actually dared capture the person who met with that member as well.

Still, Yin Rushu could understand his state of mind.

He had been forced into a dead end. If he did not gamble now, he would die.

After a brief silence, Yin Rushu asked, "What problems did you discover?"

Li Zhengfa said, "After severe interrogation, the man confessed his identity. He is actually a former Zhao sleeper agent who had been planted inside Han. He also confessed why the Misty Pavilion man contacted him. The other side ordered him to compile the list of sleeper personnel still in his hands as quickly as possible, then secretly deliver it to a location on the edge of the Boundless Desert, where someone would meet him.

"I don't have enough manpower in my hands. There are only myself and two disciples. The distances involved are also too great for us to reach everywhere. I'm afraid we can't sustain the investigation from here onward. I need the Sect Leader to mobilize the sect's strength to cooperate."

Yin Rushu pondered for a moment. "Zhengfa, I understand how you feel. But this may be an internal Misty Pavilion operation. Is it appropriate for us to intervene in something like this? If you want to investigate, couldn't you report it directly to Misty Pavilion and ask them to assist?"

Li Zhengfa said gravely, "The contact man confessed one particular sentence. The Misty Pavilion member told him the reason he had to deliver the material personally instead of sending it through the usual channel was that the old secret message route might already be under Misty Pavilion's control. So the fewer people who knew, the better."

Yin Rushu was startled.

A Misty Pavilion man feared Misty Pavilion learning about the matter.

He was obviously doing something behind Misty Pavilion's back.

Yin Rushu paced back and forth for a while, then suddenly stopped and turned. "I'll summon the elders immediately and discuss this with them!"

Li Zhengfa raised a hand. "Sect Leader, absolutely not! Misty Pavilion's reach is everywhere. Even word that the Nine Saints themselves were going to move against Zhuge Chi leaked beforehand. They're already investigating internal traitors. Neither you nor I can guarantee there isn't a problem somewhere inside the sect. If word leaks out, all the effort I've spent will be wasted.

"Sect Leader, the blade is already at the necks of myself and my two disciples. If we continue merely going through the motions and still can't produce anything to answer for ourselves, the three of us will certainly die!"

He cupped his hands, bowed deeply, and pleaded.

[End of Chapter 1361]