Chapter 242: Escape Art
Chapter 242: Escape Art
The old man with the sickly white head was not angered by the doubt. Fear lingered on his face as he said, still shaken, "Just as I was about to climb the wall and slip in, the owner of that courtyard opened the gate and started sweeping leaves. Damn it, who does that in the dead of night?
"I played the fool and tried to barge in. He kept sweeping, only casually waving the broom a few times, and every motion pointed at an opening in my guard, forcing me to change moves. By the third, I could no longer change and could not dodge, and could only roll away and flee."
He Jin, with yellow-black leopard markings on his face and two ox horns on his head, blurted out, "Aren’t you just scaring yourself?
"How could anyone do that? Without any contact, just waving a broom a few times, and he scares you into this state.
"By your account, that person’s strength would be..."
"Unfathomable." Hou Yang, with the sickly white head, gave his own answer.
He went on to explain it himself, "The Flame Capital is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. Perhaps some Supreme Master is hiding among the common folk."
"Do you think the Heaven-Man Realm is as common as Grandmasters?" He Jin retorted with a laugh.
The old man in the gray robe paced back and forth a few steps and said, "I’ll make another attempt."
"Do you have a death wish?" Hou Yang was startled.
We’ll have to think of another way!
Besides, Wu Zheng isn’t necessarily in those alleys. There’s not a trace of him either.
Is it worth offending a master of unfathomable strength for this?
He Jin sneered, "In terms of pure strength, you and I are about even, but when it comes to infiltration, you’re far inferior than me. I only want to confirm whether there’s anyone else in that courtyard, whether someone like Wu Zheng is there, without disturbing the master of ’unfathomable strength’ you speak of."
"If you have a death wish, that’s your business." Hou Yang was not on good terms with He Jin and couldn’t be bothered to persuade him further.
He even thought it would be better if He Jin died in that courtyard. That way, the matter would clearly exceed their abilities, and they would no longer need to worry about how to handle it. They could simply report upward.
He Jin was emboldened by his own skills. He promptly gathered information, left the Treasure Market, crossed Pingnan Street, and arrived at Tiger Tail Alley.
He passed the Cheap Wine Shop without taking the chance to slip in, only checking the terrain and memorizing the route.
So he circled to two alleys away and stopped in the shadows of a corner.
His body suddenly sank, and in a single breath he went deep beneath the stone-paved road and vanished into the night.
The Five Elements Escape Art!
This art claimed to include all five elements, but was mainly earth and wood escape. Yet when traveling underground, one often met metal and stone, flowing fire, and hidden water in the way, so it was impossible not to involve the metal, fire, and water elements.
And after heaven-earth severance, a Dharma Realm master could escape at most about four hundred meters at a time.
He Jin did not go too deep. Hugging the surface, he followed the route he had memorized through deep darkness and blurred shadows, infiltrating the back courtyard of the Cheap Wine Shop.
In this state, he could only faintly sense people and things on the ground, and only those directly above him or not far away.
Soon, He Jin reached his destination.
He sensed two people chatting in the courtyard, but could not hear what they said while underground.
The wine shop’s female shopkeeper and her lover? By Hou Yang’s account, that lover is a master of unfathomable strength... If he’s a master of unfathomable strength, why would a wine shop keeper catch his eye? He Jin already had a rough idea of the target’s situation from the information he’d gathered.
He crept toward the main building, planning to confirm, before the courtyard’s owner returned to their room, whether Wu Zheng was hiding in the inner room.
At the side of the main building, He Jin carefully poked out half his body and looked around.
Just then, he saw a broom.
That broom swept toward him as if clearing fallen leaves.
He Jin instinctively wanted to sink back underground, but this land seemed to have become his enemy, doing everything to stop him from sinking.
He had no choice but to leap out of the ground to escape this confinement and restraint.
Yet to his horror, he found heaven and earth were both his enemies. The broom grew larger and larger, sealing off every chance of evasion.
He hurriedly raised both hands to block, but his movements were much slower, as if welcoming the broom.
The guest follows the host’s lead.
Thud!
The broom struck He Jin. His eyes rolled back and he fainted, collapsing to the ground, swept into a corner of the wall like fallen leaves.
Ding Songyan turned his head toward Twelfth Madam Luo, who held the broom.
Twelfth Madam Luo lifted her chin slightly, her brows and eyes carrying a trace of a smile.
"Not bad, right?"
"Impressive," Ding Songyan replied sincerely.
He could not have done it so effortlessly if he were in her shoes. Only by seizing the moment when the target had just poked out half his body and launching a sudden ambush before he reacted could he have won in one move, as he had against Direct-Chamber General Lu when that man "inspected" the estate’s defenses.
Besides, escape arts were rare in the world. Driving off this infiltrator was easy, but knocking him out and capturing him was very, very hard.
Twelfth Madam Luo’s brows relaxed and her smile grew more obvious, as if her whole person glowed.
Twelfth Madam looks lovely when she smiles. She should smile more. Wait, that’s a disguised face, so why do I still feel this way? Ding Songyan was momentarily dazed.
He asked casually, "Twelfth Madam, why did you still give this man a chance to observe his surroundings?"
Couldn’t she have whacked him as soon as he poked his head out, like whack-a-mole?
Twelfth Madam Luo glanced at Ding Songyan in good spirits.
"Wouldn’t that be an ambush?
"If I need an ambush to win effortlessly, wouldn’t I be half a step behind you?"
Competing over odd things... If I’d known Twelfth Madam could knock out a Grandmaster this easily without making a sound, I’d have let that old man in earlier and entered his dreams... This is what they call a blessing in disguise. If I hadn’t missed that one, how would an escape art have come to my door... Is the Way of Name and Reality, with its host-guest distinction, simply too overpowering, or is Twelfth Madam truly a Supreme Master? Ding Songyan looked at Twelfth Madam Luo and put on a smile.
"Twelfth Madam, could you step away again? I have a secret art to get useful information out of this man."
"A secret art again?" Twelfth Madam Luo’s face was full of disbelief.
But she still turned and walked back to the stone table in the courtyard.
Ding Songyan immediately turned his back to the shopkeeper, letting his face become snake-like, his eyes shaped like horse ears, and blue-black scales stand out.
After disguising himself with the Celestial Heart imprint, he sent his spirit into the unconscious old man’s dream.
...
He Jin fled the back courtyard of the Cheap Wine Shop in a wretched state and made his way back to his temporary lodging near the Treasure Market.
He saw at a glance Hou Yang’s gloating expression.
"Didn’t I say so? The owner of that courtyard is unfathomable," Hou Yang spoke sarcastically.
He Jin said gloomily and darkly, "Unfathomable indeed, but the hidden master isn’t the young man you mentioned. It’s the wine shop’s shopkeeper. She’s like, like the ruler of that patch of heaven and earth, with the might of a Supreme Master.
"Your eye is terrible, and you can’t judge people. That young man is only the shopkeeper’s kept pretty boy..."
"Impossible." Hou Yang argued a few sentences, then said in a low voice, "Now is not the time to argue about this. Think about how to explain it to His Highness."
"You keep searching the nearby streets and alleys in secret, and don’t alarm the Martial Prohibition Bureau or the top sects. I’ll report to His Highness myself." After arranging the follow-up matters, He Jin went from the south of the city to the north in a few breaths.
He stopped before a grand mansion.
The mansion hung a plaque with red characters: "Prince Shen’s estate"
He Jin circled to the side and entered through a corner gate. The moment he saw Prince Shen, everything before his eyes blurred.
Next, he was sent back to his room to reflect behind closed doors, so he could only pore over the sect’s secret Five Elements Escape Art, page by page, very carefully.
...
Ding Songyan, double pupils appearing, left the main building and sat across from Twelfth Madam Luo, lowering his voice, "The one who directed this group to seize the Myriad Fires Origin Art is Prince Shen, Hong Yuanqing."
He was one of the three Supreme Masters of the Hong clan, and the current Right Vice-Director of the Department of State Affairs.
"Hong Yuanqing... What is he after?" Twelfth Madam Luo did not question the result Ding Songyan had obtained, and murmured to herself.
Is Prince Shen scheming, or acting for the Jianwu Emperor? "Fire" seems crucial, but it’s unclear where the crux lies... The underlings only know they were to seize the Myriad Fires Origin Art and don’t understand why... Ding Songyan fell into thought too.
After a moment, Twelfth Madam Luo said to him thoughtfully, "When Wu Zheng recovers, find a way to send him to the Phoenix Terrace Study. After that, stay out of it. Don’t land the Brightnight Sect in major trouble."
"All right." Ding Songyan did not play the hero.
He changed the subject.
"Twelfth Madam, the infiltrator is called He Jin. Later, we can have Chef Shi confirm whether he’s a retainer of Prince Shen’s estate.
"Er, what would have happened if he’d been knocked out while half his body was still in the earth?"
"His lower half would immediately be crushed to bloody foam by the earth, beyond the saving of any immortal," Twelfth Madam Luo answered simply.
Then I need to be careful when using the Five Elements Escape Art... Ding Songyan hissed inwardly.
Twelfth Madam Luo glanced at the main building and added, "Later, toss that man out at the alley mouth, without the watchtower noticing."
After Ding Songyan agreed, the shopkeeper suddenly smiled self-deprecatingly.
"Actually, I used to be even more competitive."
"Really?" Seeing that Twelfth Madam was in a chatty mood, Ding Songyan naturally cooperated.
Twelfth Madam Luo looked up at the deep dark sky, recalling,
"Growing up, whatever I did, I had to be the best. Sometimes it wasn’t my parents making me learn so much. I wanted it myself. Only in recent years, looking back, did I realize how much joy I had missed."
"You’ve gradually become less competitive over the years?" Ding Songyan asked at just the right moment.
Twelfth Madam Luo nodded slightly.
"Mm. The saying ’hold steadfastly to the middle way’ is something I only truly grasped in those years: accepting my own nature without indulging it excessively. Principles like these are always easier to know than to practice. I only hope that someday I can follow my heart’s desires without overstepping the bounds."
"Some principles are hard to comprehend, and some are visible at a glance. The hard-to-grasp ones are easy to practice, and the easy-to-see ones are hard to practice." Ding Songyan spoke from feeling.
...
Chilled to the bone, He Jin woke with a start, rolled to his feet, and examined his surroundings.
The alley mouth slept in the deep night. No carriages passed and no one returned late. Only a cold wind blew through bleak branches, everything so quiet and peaceful.
Wasn’t I knocked out by a broom? How am I here? He Jin recalled what had just happened and felt only that he had had many fragmented dreams that were hard to recall.
This made being knocked out by the wine shop keeper’s broom seem like an illusory dream too.
He Jin quickly checked his body and confirmed he was unhurt and had lost nothing.
The wine shop keeper deliberately showed goodwill, indicating she doesn’t want to be our enemy, only that she doesn’t want her secrets pried into? He Jin calmed down, his thoughts surging, forming some guesses. Seen that way, it may truly not be her who saved Wu Zheng. Otherwise, with her strength, she could have moved Wu Zheng elsewhere before we searched this far, then let us spy in secret to dispel our suspicion.
A hidden master has a hidden master’s ways. She would rather be suspected than let us search her courtyard.