Chapter 164: Impossible to Comfort

Xiao Li hugged the wolf cub, stroking it and doting on it completely.

Beside her, a dusty, grayish-brown lump of a person held up a heavily bandaged hand, looking utterly miserable, indignant, and heartbroken.

"I finally managed to escape! I dug and dug and dug, and I finally broke through the dirt. The moment I stuck my hand out... CHOMP! It just latched right on..."

"Do you have any idea what I’ve been through these past two days? I was on pins and needles, terrified out of my mind! That bite just now... I almost died!"

His hand trembled as he spoke, his emotions running high. It was clear he was truly frightened and wouldn’t be calming down anytime soon.

Er...

Song Junzhan really wanted to comfort this... lump? This creature that looked a lot like his good friend Cen An, but he had no idea where to even begin.

His hair was full of yellow dirt, his arms were caked in brown mud, and his face was covered in grime. His clothes were splotched with patches of unidentifiable dust. Getting any closer revealed a strange, foul stench, like the smell of rot.

Song Junzhan raised a hand to his forehead and said helplessly, "Cen An, why don’t you go wash up in the village first, and then we can talk?"

In this state, it was impossible to offer any comfort at all.

Finally getting a response, Cen An turned his head. He saw Song Junzhan’s complicated expression and Ziyue’s look of utter disgust. Then, he looked down at himself.

A tear rolled down his chin, dripped onto the back of his hand, and slid slowly down, leaving a very distinct, clean streak.

...

Some people may look like they’re still here, but in reality, their spirit has already been gone for a while.

The entire mansion had been burned down. There were no living people in sight, nor had any Corpse Puppets appeared. As for the insects that could actually make Xiao Li wary, they never showed up from beginning to end.

Cen An had been found and the mansion was burned. As for the person behind it all, there was no rush. There would be other opportunities to cross paths.

In the forest on the mountainside across the way, two figures stood side by side. One, a white-haired, masked man in gray robes, stood ramrod straight. His body was rigid, his chest showing no signs of rising or falling, as if he were a statue.

Beside him, a man in magnificent, smoke-green brocade robes nonchalantly toyed with an elegant Bone Flute, his narrow eyes fixed on the retreating party down the mountain.

Or more precisely, on the woman surrounded by the group.

"Princess Xuanyang... She’s even more interesting in the flesh. A truly fascinating woman..."

The man’s voice was casual, tinged with a frivolous and sinister playfulness. He sounded thoroughly entertained.

"It would be far too boring to let her die so easily."

"It would be best to conquer her, toy with her, and then... tear her to pieces. Hahahaha..."

He laughed, then suddenly turned to the person beside him. His expression snapped shut, replaced by a cold, mocking sneer. "You useless trash, can’t even handle a single woman. You deserve it!"

But then a thought seemed to strike him, and he broke into a smile again. "But this is better. If you weren’t so incompetent, how could it be my turn to direct this wonderful show?"

He was the only one speaking in the forest, laughing one moment and scowling the next, like a madman.

"BANG!"

The sudden explosion startled the birds in the forest into flight.

Cen An, who had been trying to wipe his face, froze. He lifted a face now even more uniformly smeared with grime. "What was that sound?"

Xiao Li was busy inspecting the little wolf cub’s teeth. Seeing it raise a paw to resist but not dare to bite, the smile on her lips deepened.

She didn’t like cubs that were merely cute, but one that was both incredibly useful *and* knew how to be cute? Now that was impossible not to like.

Hearing Cen An’s question, Xiao Li mercifully let the little wolf cub go and gave its head a rewarding pat. "Who knows?"

Cen An turned to look at her. He was positive Xiao Li knew the answer. His intuition screamed that she knew, but that she would never tell him.

Xiao Li glanced at his face, and her eyes were instantly assaulted. She couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing with a PFFT.

"Hahaha... Cen An, I really should have brought a mirror for you! Hahaha..."

----

In the mountain forest, the man in green was leaning wretchedly against a tree, one hand clutching his shoulder as blood seeped through his fingers.

Just now, some unknown Hidden Weapon had struck him directly in the shoulder after a loud bang.

What was even more unbelievable was that the Hidden Weapon had come from the forest on the opposite mountain.

’From that far away? How could they have seen me, let alone hit me???’

"Xiao Xuanyang?" His intuition told him this was definitely her doing.

He licked his blood-stained lips. "I really can’t underestimate you."

Cen An borrowed some water from a farmer’s house, washed himself thoroughly, and changed his clothes. As he came out, he happened to see Yang Jun kneeling before Xiao Li, holding a box with a look of guilt on his face.

He looked ahead, then glanced at the mountain of a man, Rong Qing, standing nearby.

"Brother Rong, what’s wrong with him?"

Rong Qing stroked his long saber, ruefully examining a new scratch on its surface.

"He failed to carry out the Princess’s order. He’s asking for punishment."

Cen An: "Oh..."

There was nothing more said. As for what the mission was, he figured he probably shouldn’t ask.

"Get up," Xiao Li said with a wave of her hand. "Go back and practice more."

Yang Jun kept his head bowed. "Yes, Your Highness."

With that, he rose and left, carrying the box.

Cen An asked, "What’s in that box? So mysterious."

Yang Jun was the Princess’s number one guard and always carried a sword. Today, he had no sword, wore no armor, and was instead carrying this strange case. It was all very odd.

Cen An wasn’t the only one who was curious; many others also had no idea what Yang Jun was carrying. But Yang Jun wouldn’t say, and no one dared to ask Xiao Li.

Only Lou Yan stared at the box, lost in thought.

--

Now that he was clean, Cen An could finally explain what had happened to him over the past two days.

In fact, he had only been brought here today. The kidnappers had taken him out of the city that day, but not to this location. They had taken him to a small, remote village.

He was only moved here this morning, and from beginning to end, he never once saw the person who had abducted him.

He could only glean from his two guards that someone had interrupted their master’s original plan, forcing that person to decide to hand him over.

Cen An was brought here, still bound, but the mastermind behind it all had no intention of meeting him. He was thrown directly into a basement and locked in with two corpses.

He was about to die from the stench, so he struggled desperately to free himself from his ropes and find a way to escape. Relying on the survival skills he’d picked up from his years of traveling far and wide, he actually managed to find a hidden passage in the basement. He followed it in the dark until it reached a dead end. However, based on the foundation stones, he judged that he was at the base of a wall. He used a silver hairpin to dig the sand and dirt out from between the stones, removed a block, and began digging his way upward.

Everyone knew what happened next. While he was struggling inside, Mo Jiang sensed the movement and started huffing and puffing as it dug from the outside.

He finally broke through and stuck his hand out, only for Mo Jiang to take a bite, which nearly scared the soul right out of him.

To summarize, the person who kidnapped Cen An was most likely Prince Yanping, for reasons unknown.

But after he had kidnapped him, and while Xiao Li was searching for him on a massive scale, someone made a deal with the prince, convincing him to hand Cen An over to a third party.

This third party’s objective was very clear: he wanted to kill Xiao Li.