Chapter 211.1: Wolves, Bears, Tigers, Leopards and One Mouse Part 1

She always appeared at the opportune moment when she was needed, and she always wore that deliberately irritating smile and spoke in a soft, gentle voice. She never seemed fully sincere, but that didn’t mean she felt entirely false.

Frankly, it was as though a thin sheet of paper always separated her from everyone else, leaving her both close and distant at once. As she grew older, she lost some of her old slyness, but became even more practiced at putting on this act. It was deeply unpleasant.

Ye Xian made no attempt to hide her sarcasm. “As timely as ever. You always make your entrance once all the difficult work has already been handled. Very much your style.”

Lü Yingyue remained entirely unbothered. With a flick of her hands, she shook the blood, splintered bone, and scraps of flesh from the two broken blades. Her smile never wavered.

“Knowing when to arrive early and when to delay depending on the circumstances is the most important survival philosophy for anyone looking to collect a salary while doing as little work as possible.”

“Are you really of the Origin Path?”

“Absolutely.” Lü Yingyue nodded.

Ye Xian laughed coldly, openly dismissing her. She’s lying.

Lü Yingyue smiled. “A fixed salary only goes so far. Even civil servants need side jobs to support their families. As the Director, I have to learn to be a little flexible, don’t you think?”

“Flexibility is the way of White Deer and Ember. It has nothing to do with the Security Bureau.” Ye Xian held her gaze for a moment, the warning in her eyes unmistakable. “Be careful with those divided loyalties of yours. Origin may not tolerate them.”

“Well, it wasn’t easy, but they let it slide for now. What can I say? Origin can be surprisingly forgiving sometimes.” Lü Yingyue looked around at the scorched earth, growing curious. “What about you? I haven’t seen you in a few months, and you’ve already become a Celestial Being?”

“No. I’m still a long way from that,” Ye Xian replied.

Lü Yingyue sighed and shook her head. She’s lying.

But that didn’t matter. Holding the two broken blades by the hilts, she offered them to Ye Xian. “Can you take a look? Are they still worth repairing?”

Ye Xian didn’t even bother to glance at them. “They’re beyond saving. Throw them away. With the way you use weapons, it wouldn’t matter how durable they were. Don’t waste your money or a craftsman’s hard work. Just keep using whatever weapons you manage to get your hands on. Are you here alone? Where’s Tong Shan?”

“I don’t know. He hasn’t come back yet,” Lü Yingyue replied, shaking her head. “Looking on the bright side, at least he’s still alive. What about your student?”

A complicated look crossed Ye Xian’s face. “He’s also still alive. But looking at it another way, that may only mean more people are going to die.”

“I really don’t understand the relationship between you and your student.”

“To be honest, neither do I.”

“You’re the same as ever. Always saying things that make no sense.”

“No, this time, I mean it from the bottom of my heart.”

***

And so, trading occasional remarks as they walked, the two women picked their way through the broken remains of the dead and set off toward the outpost. In the distance, the turmoil that had gripped the night gradually subsided into silence.

A dazzling pillar of light surged into the sky, followed by another. As the Starcore Association’s portal opened, powerful auras spread in every direction. Some were intense, some wild and violent, some restrained, and others seemingly neither present nor absent, yet everywhere at once.

Lü Yingyue walked with light steps, calmly identifying each new arrival. “The Tong family, the Lou family, the Yu family, the Jiang family...”

She had fought her way here and secured the greatest share of the credit for ending the crisis. There was no need for her to put on an act anymore.

Ye Xian glanced at her relaxed expression. “What about Mr. Tao? As my student would put it, this is exactly when you need to watch out for someone raiding your base.”

“Mr. Tao?” Lü Yingyue laughed. “The last person we need to worry about is Mr. Tao.”

***

A sharp clatter broke the silence of the office as a handful of Go stones scattered across the board, disrupting the deadly struggle between black and white.

Lu Changsheng cast down his stones and conceded with a regretful shrug.

“I lost again,” he said.

The decrepit old man raised his heavy eyelids a little. “Why are you so... impatient?”

“I panicked,” Lu Changsheng admitted with a sigh.

Telekinesis stirred the air, producing a hoarse voice. “It shouldn’t have happened this soon. I thought you would spend much longer preparing. Why the sudden rush?”

The abrupt upheaval had indeed caught the Security Bureau off guard, but what had it accomplished? Not only had the ambushers lost the advantage of secrecy they once held, they had also exposed the chaotic makeup of their own internal structure. Aside from breaking Spring City out of its lockdown and forcibly dragging it back into the real world, they had achieved nothing. Even the contamination had been firmly contained by Mr. Tao, leaving it no opportunity to spread.

Nearly all the early advantage they had built by quietly expanding their influence in Spring City under the Security Bureau’s nose had now been squandered.

Lu Changsheng rested his chin on his hand and smiled helplessly. “There was no choice. Someone struck our weak point. Originally, I thought that was nothing more than a casual move of yours. I never expected it to prove so useful. It truly caught me by surprise. Once the curtain was pulled open by a troublesome child, the actors had no choice but to rush onto the stage, no matter how unwilling they were. Otherwise, the audience would start booing.”

They had spent years making elaborate preparations, pooling everyone’s efforts and advancing one small step at a time until they finally reached this scale. What would have been the point if they failed to seize the initiative with a show of force? Would they not have been in the same exact situation as before?

The villains had painstakingly built up their forces, only for the heroes to arrive one day and send them scurrying away like frightened rats. How ridiculous was that?

“What about my secretary?” Mr. Tao asked.

“Hm?” Lu Changsheng didn’t understand the question.

“My secretary. Where did he go?” Mr. Tao looked up at him, waiting for an answer.

“I see what you mean now.” Lu Changsheng flashed a mocking smile and spread his hands. “You think I killed him and took his place? It’s nothing like that. I am your secretary, Mr. Tao. I have been from the very beginning.”

Lu Changsheng laughed. “Ever since you awakened, ever since you began preparing all of this, the man you knew as your secretary was me. Besides, there is no such thing as a flawless method of replacing someone, just as there is no such thing as a foolproof plan. Admittedly, whenever the workload on both sides became too much, I couldn’t help but reflect on how difficult it is to serve the Origin, but there was no helping it. Competent people are hard to find, so sometimes you simply have to handle things yourself.”

He walked up to Mr. Tao’s side. Taking out a silk handkerchief, he carefully wiped away the crust at the corners of Mr. Tao’s eyes and the moisture at the edge of his mouth.

Mr. Tao cooperated, lifting his chin and exposing his neck before this great enemy, letting him do as he pleased without the slightest concern.

“I am truly flattered,” the old man remarked in a slurred voice. “I thought you were merely some spy or infiltrator. I never expected that the High Priest-Saint of the Heretic Cult would spend nine years waiting on me hand and foot like a nanny. Such resolve and endurance are admirable.”

Lu Changsheng sighed. “The feeling is mutual. For nine long years, you worked tirelessly day after day, pleading Spring City’s cause and devoting everything you had to a city that no longer existed, a city everyone else has already forgotten. Even a villain like me cannot help but admire you from the bottom of my heart. The ancients spoke of the lotus emerging unstained from the mud[1], but had the white lotus a mind of its own, perhaps even it would despise the mud.”

1. “Emerging unstained from the mud” comes from On the Love of the Lotus, a celebrated essay by the Northern Song Neo-Confucian scholar Zhou Dunyi. It describes how the lotus grows out of muddy water without being tainted by it, and serves as a metaphor for someone who preserves their purity, integrity, and noble character despite living in a corrupt or hostile environment. ☜