Chapter 63: Candor

Liao Xiaoqin was currently brewing the Pu-erh tea provided in the hotel room. Holding a small soup spoon, she scooped up a mouthful of the tea, tasted it lightly, furrowed her delicate brows, and poured the tea out immediately.

"What kind of lousy tea is this!"

Given her extremely picky palate, let alone complimentary tea like this, even if she bought it from a specialty store, it might not necessarily satisfy her.

I asked again.

"Sister-in-law, where is the Golden Silkworm Molt?"

She sat in her chair, arms folded across her chest, and stared at me expressionlessly.

"Are you a repeater? I'm not deaf!"

"Then answer me."

"I don't know."

"......"

"Eh? What's with that expression? You look quite dissatisfied."

"Liao Xiaoqin, can you be a bit more honest?"

"How do you want me to be honest?"

"You figured out long ago that Jiang Sheng'er was the mastermind behind the scheme that trapped you in the Marquis of Guo's secret mausoleum two years ago. You deliberately used me as bait to lure him into the tomb for revenge, didn't you?"

She lit a slender women's cigarette, blew a few pretty smoke rings, a playful smirk playing at the corners of her lips, and tossed out a phrase in Cantonese.

"What do you mean?"

Watching her arrogant and despotic demeanor, I felt extremely irritated. I snatched the cigarette right out of her hand and stubbed it out directly.

"First, when I was dealing with Old Man Kui of the Nine Nether Hall in Changshi, you made an extremely solemn phone call to warn me, saying the other party was known as the 'Little Zhuge' and urging me to be on my utmost guard. But judging from my clash with Old Man Kui, although he was cunning, his level was far from making you nervous. In fact, your subtext was hinting that there was a huge trap waiting for me ahead, only I didn't catch it at the time!"

"Second, although you like playing tricks at the entrance of the Green Seal Gate's盗洞, I remember you once said that either you don't play, or if you play, you will cripple all followers playing the mantis stalking the cicada. At the盗洞 entrance outside the Marquis of Guo's secret mausoleum, you only rigged crossbows to wound people without inflicting fatal blows, completely violating your usual style. The reason for not dealing fatal blows was, firstly, you were afraid of accidentally harming us, and secondly, you were reminding me once again through this method that this盗洞 was your handiwork!"

"Third, the blood-stained iron fan on the main tomb chamber's floor looked identical to the one you usually use, but the one you carry with you is a nine-rib fan, while that iron fan had eleven ribs. This shows you weren't in trouble at all, but deliberately used it to lure Jiang Sheng'er and the others from the Western Zhou tomb above down to the Warring States tomb below, intending to wipe them out in one fell swoop using the Mohist mechanisms!"

After hearing this, Liao Xiaoqin tossed her hair and giggled shrilly.

"I said it before, those who dare to cross me never come to a good end!"

My guess was spot on!

Ever since Liao Xiaoqin sent me out on my apprenticeship to find Xu Qingguo, she had everything calculated: first, to have Xu Qingguo cure her legs; second, to use my wandering around in Changshi to tie down the forces of the Nine Nether Hall; and third, through my contact with Xu Qingguo, to lure the real mastermind Jiang Sheng'er into revealing himself and entering the tomb so she could trap him.

Three birds with one stone!

The main reason she didn't share her plan with me was that she worried I might accidentally leak it if I knew.

Facts proved that Liao Xiaoqin's consideration was entirely correct.

If I had known the whole plan, back at the old clinic in Changshi, when Jiang Sheng'er used a drug from the Old Skin Sect on me that could make someone speak the truth in a daze, this scheme could never have succeeded.

Such a femme fatale!

According to Liao Xiaoqin's explanation, ever since we entered the tomb through that fake盗洞 at the Green Seal Gate, she had actually been tailing us closely from behind the entire time.

Liao Xiaoqin had originally intended that once Jiang Sheng'er and the others entered the tomb-owl secret chamber as planned, she would secretly intervene to rescue the few of us and let the enemy fall completely into the Mohist mechanisms below.

However, a major accident occurred during the process: Jiang Sheng'er and the others used the Mandarin Duck Rope to bind our lives together, making it completely impossible to separate.

Before Liao Xiaoqin could figure out a foolproof strategy for us to safely shake off Jiang Sheng'er and the others, we rapidly cleared the tomb-owl secret chamber, entered the bronze crying-face corridor, and triggered the "tears of fire drawing the cold pool" mechanism. The stone door outside the corridor was completely sealed shut, and everyone was trapped inside.

She had no confidence in whether I could break the Mohist mechanisms in the corridor. Driven half-crazy with panic, she had tried to open the sealed stone door of the corridor, but it was completely useless.

Just as she was frantically searching for a countermeasure, she never expected that I actually managed to break the mechanism and the stone door of the corridor opened.

She let out a long sigh of relief.

After that, Liao Xiaoqin followed us all the way down to the main tomb chamber of the Warring States tomb. It wasn't until the cocoon-men finally appeared and Jiang Sheng'er and the others cut the Mandarin Duck Rope to save themselves, causing us to tumble to the bottom of the dwarf mountain, that she immediately crept over in secret, opened the small bronze door, and rescued us.

As for the culvert behind the bronze door, two years ago, while hiding from a blood feud in the Corpse Accumulation Pool, she had accidentally discovered that there was a dedicated passage leading straight to the main tomb chamber of the Warring States tomb.

After understanding the whole process, my liver was trembling.

"You almost got your own people killed setting up this trap. You really are ruthless!"

"If you had just stayed in the tomb-owl secret chamber a few minutes longer, I would have had a way to resolve the bondage of the Mandarin Duck Rope on you guys. Who knew your brat's speed at breaking mechanisms would be so fast!"

"Is it my fault for being fast?!"

"Is it not your fault for being fast? Could it be my problem?!"

"Fine, you have no problem! Given the level of Jiang Sheng'er and those other tomb-blind idiots, coupled with the cocoon-men in the Warring States tomb, they stood zero chance of coming out alive. This matter is settled. So, please tell me, Princess Iron Fan, where is the Golden Silkworm Molt?"

"I'll say it again, I didn't take the Golden Silkworm Molt!"

"Where did it go?"

Liao Xiaoqin stared at me coldly, lit another cigarette, took two puffs, her pretty face grave.

"Two years ago, I hid in the Corpse Accumulation Pool for many days and accidentally discovered that culvert. At that time, the spirit-language insect poison had not yet acted up. After waiting for the people from the Nine Nether Hall to leave, I followed the culvert into the Warring States tomb to check the black stone treasure box coffin. Back then, it looked exactly the same as the one you saw this time."

"The Marquis of Guo's secret mausoleum had never been opened by anyone before. There is only one possible reason for the Golden Silkworm Molt to suddenly disappear from the black stone treasure box coffin: during that massive chaos two years ago, someone seized the opportunity to sneak in quietly and take it away."

I was somewhat stunned.

Liao Xiaoqin continued to explain to me.

"I went down into the tomb before you guys this time precisely to try and find the answer. After repeatedly checking and confirming inside the tomb several times, the skeletons of those who met their demise due to hidden arrows and poisonous gas during the chaos back then were basically all accounted for, with only two missing. Without a doubt, one of these two people is the one who took the Golden Silkworm Molt."

"Which two?"

"One is An Yishou's."

"And the other?"

"Your brother's."

As soon as these words were spoken.

My mind felt as if it had been struck by five bolts of thunder.

I had seen An Yishou's remains; he had turned into a terrifying cocoon-man, trapped at the bottom of the tomb for two years.

Could it be that the coffin-guardian near the black stone treasure box coffin who almost killed us was my brother?!

Did he seize the opportunity during the chaos back then to take the Golden Silkworm Molt, eventually turned into that ghostly appearance, and stayed trapped beneath the tomb for two whole years?!