Chapter 40

The pitch-black hole in the ground was like a deep abyss leading to hell. The Night-Luminous Pearl in the girl's hand could only illuminate three steps ahead, yet she walked on without the slightest hesitation. Chang Ning watched the faint light ahead, slightly alarmed.

The dark gray stone steps descended for ten steps, turned a corner, went down another ten steps, turned again, and then a pitch-black stone chamber appeared. It was seven to eight zhang wide and one and a half person-heights tall.

Besides a table, a stool, and a bed, there were three black iron shelves on the stone wall—two large and one small—for holding miscellaneous items. There was nothing else in the room.

A lamp on the table flickered like a bean, gloomy and cold.

Having not seen him for just a day, Young Master Qian seemed to have lost five jin and aged three years. His luxurious robes were hopelessly wrinkled, his hair uncombed and face unwashed. He sat without any grace on the straw-covered stone bed with one leg crossed, his other leg hanging down. An iron shackle was still clasped around his ankle, with the other end disappearing into the stone wall. Beside him was a coarse porcelain bowl containing two cold steamed buns, one of which had a few bites taken out of it.

Young Master Qian heard the footsteps and jumped up, puffing out his chest. He said arrogantly, "You don't need to bring me any more food. When I say I won't eat, I won't eat! Even dogs would disdain this coarse, cold stuff... You, who are you?" He saw that the visitors were two strangers.

Cai Zhao put the Night-Luminous Pearl into her robes. "The people who will save your two feet."

Young Master Qian's eyes widened as he pointed at Cai Zhao, "You, you..."

Then he pointed to the tall young man behind her. "And you, that day it was... it was you two?!" He was proficient in the Art of Body Swapping and was extremely familiar with the bone and flesh structure of the human body, so he reacted immediately upon being reminded.

Realizing it was these two, anger flared in his heart, and he began to curse loudly. "You have the nerve to come here! I was living comfortably, eating and drinking well, but you two messed everything up and got me locked up in this godforsaken place!"

Chang Ning said coldly, "Pigs also live comfortably, eating and drinking well, but once they're fattened up, it's straight to the butcher's knife. Right now, they're relying on your Body Switching Grand Method. The moment someone else learns your skills, do you think you'll be any better off than a fat pig waiting to be slaughtered?"

Young Master Qian shuddered, a look of fear on his face. "He, they said I've been working too hard, and after this period, they would find me two filial apprentices..."

Chang Ning: "Once the apprentices have learned, the master can be slaughtered."

Unwilling to show weakness, Young Master Qian stiffened his neck again. "I never wanted to teach any apprentices in the first place. If they try to force me, I'll die before I agree. You don't need to scare me; I won't say a thing no matter what you ask!"

Cai Zhao couldn't be bothered with him and turned to Chang Ning. "In that case, let's just chop off his feet and take him back to question him slowly."

"Alright." Chang Ning chuckled lightly, shaping his hand into a blade as he approached Young Master Qian.

Frightened, Young Master Qian shrank back onto the stone bed. "Don't do anything rash! This place is heavily guarded. If I shout, none of you will escape!"

Chang Ning turned back to Cai Zhao. "I think we should just kill him. We won't get anything out of this idiot even if we take him back. A shout from a stone room underground? It'd be a miracle if anyone on the surface could hear it! Unless he knows the Lion's Roar... does he look like he's practiced that skill?"

The corners of Cai Zhao's mouth turned up. "Doesn't look like he's practiced the Lion's Roar, more like the Turtle Fist—a common technique used by street ruffians in fights."

Young Master Qian's face shifted through a spectrum of colors. Finally, he said timidly, "Just ask what you want to ask. I'll tell you everything I know."

Chang Ning didn't actually want to ask anything, so he flicked his sleeves and sat down at the stone table, waiting for the girl to ask.

"Don't worry, I won't force you." Cai Zhao walked to the stone bed. "First, did they only capture you from the Thousand Faces Sect?"

Young Master Qian's face suddenly turned deathly pale. "...I don't know how many people they captured, but back then, the entire Thousand Faces Sect was slaughtered. Only my master escaped. After my master passed away, I was the only one left in the Thousand Faces Sect."

"Lying with your first sentence—the Thousand Faces Sect was wiped out ninety years ago. How could your master have lived that long?!" Chang Ning interjected.

Young Master Qian immediately said, "My master was thirteen when the sect was destroyed. He passed away ten years ago at the age of ninety-six, so what!"

Chang Ning was speechless and turned his face away.

Cai Zhao nodded. "Second, up to now, how many people have you replaced for them in total?"

Young Master Qian thought for a moment. "Not counting that man surnamed Fan from yesterday, a total of eight and a half. The half was one that didn't work out—but you can't blame me for that. I never saw the real person, only a portrait, so how could I make a perfect likeness?"

Cai Zhao asked again, "Then do you know who these eight people are?"

Young Master Qian cried out strangely, "Good lady, look at these shackles! I was captured by them. Do you think they'd confide in me? I only know the faces of those eight people, but I have no idea what their names are."

Cai Zhao asked if there was one with a round face. Young Master Qian answered very precisely that there were three with round faces, and asked if she meant oval, perfectly circular, or generally round. Exasperated, Cai Zhao then asked if there was one with a square face. Young Master Qian answered academically that there were also three with square faces, and asked if she meant a true square, a rectangle, or a rhomboid.

Cai Zhao laughed in frustration. "Among the people you replaced were some who are famous in the Jianghu. You're telling me you don't know who they are?"

Young Master Qian felt deeply wronged and cried out, "My sect is no better than a rat scurrying across the street. My master lived his whole life in hiding under an assumed name. If I hadn't slipped up a year ago, I would have never wanted to deal with people from the Jianghu in my entire life!"

Cai Zhao's palms itched with anger. To keep herself from breaking this idiot's nose, she irritably moved away from the stone bed, walking all the way to the iron shelves before turning around. "Fine. I'll ask you one last thing now—you must know the answer to this!"

She took a breath to calm herself, then said, "How can this Body Switching Grand Method of yours be broken?"

Hearing this, Young Master Qian's expression was a mixture of pride and embarrassment. He said with an apologetic smile, "Well... the best way, of course, is to wait for it to wear off. After all, it's just a trick to fool people; it can't last a lifetime. Once the time is up... hey, hey, don't come over here, don't come over..."

Chang Ning stood up, picked up the stone stool, and postured as if to smash it. Terrified, Young Master Qian kept shrinking back.

"Among the eight people you've impersonated, what's the longest it has lasted?" Cai Zhao asked, still holding onto a sliver of hope.

Young Master Qian mumbled, "...Half a year."

Cai Zhao leaped onto the stone bed and grabbed Young Master Qian by the collar—in half a year, her own father's ashes might have already been scattered!

"There's one other way!" Young Master Qian screamed, covering his face.

Cai Zhao stopped.

Young Master Qian gasped for air. "Death! As long as the person dies, the technique immediately disappears!"

He swallowed. "Didn't you see it that day? The moment Xiao Gong died, his appearance immediately changed back!"

Cai Zhao tilted her head, her thoughts returning to the last moment before she hid Fan Xingjia in the secret compartment yesterday—that's right, the earth-shattering sound of the door being battered, and on the blood-stained carpet, the corpse that looked like Fan Xingjia was twisting and deforming...

She suddenly turned back and demanded, "Does the person have to die? Can't they revert to their original form if they suffer an internal injury or a blade wound?"

"No injury will work. Unless the person is willing to disperse the technique themselves, only death will do—when a person dies, their dantian ruptures, their qi ceases, and their meridians break. Only then can their original form be revealed!"

Young Master Qian loosened his collar and said indignantly, "Why do you think the righteous and demonic paths joined forces to exterminate my sect back then? If the Body Switching Grand Method had a flaw, they wouldn't have been so wary of my sect! Hmph, the blue seas can become mulberry fields, mountains and rivers can shift the sun and moon, but the Body Switching Grand Method will never change—that's what my master said!"

Cai Zhao frowned and looked at Chang Ning.

Chang Ning said slowly, "If we kill that imposter, we won't be able to ask him anything. But if we don't, and he steadfastly denies it, what can we do? We really have to tread carefully here."

He turned his head and asked Young Master Qian, "When did you come to Qingque Town?"

Young Master Qian was taken aback. "So this is Qingque Town. Three months ago, they put me in a box and brought me here, telling me to hide in places like street corner taverns and repeatedly observe a person. I watched him for two and a half months before I dared to use the Body Switching Grand Method. That man was very imposing; everyone bowed to him."

He sighed. "Including that Fan fellow from yesterday, my skills are completely depleted now. I won't be able to transform into anything without resting for a month or so."

"So, before the grand sacrificial ceremony, you were already lying in wait in Qingque Town." As he said this, a glint suddenly flashed in Chang Ning's clear eyes.

He turned to Cai Zhao and smiled. "Yesterday, weren't you wondering why they dared to bring this person up to Myriad Waters Thousand Mountains Cliff? Now it's clear—in a month or so, Song Shijun will be coming to see his son."

A jolt went through Cai Zhao's heart. "...And another month or so after that, Uncle Zhou will be here too!"

Chang Ning looked down and gently stroked his sleeve. "The Siqi Sect is a fence-sitter, and the Grand Beginning Abbey is now half-crippled. Your father and Sect Master Qi have already been captured. If they replace Sect Leader Song and Manor Master Zhou as well, hmph, their grand plan will be accomplished."

He rose slowly, his smile gentle. "To prevent the Six Sects of Beichen from being wiped out all at once, let's just kill him first. As long as he's dead, no one else in the world will know the Body Switching Grand Method."

Young Master Qian pressed himself against the wall in terror, his voice trembling. "No, no, don't kill me. I've never done anything wrong. I've always been hiding well; I never wanted to get involved in the affairs of the Jianghu..."

Cai Zhao stood with her back to them, silently facing the tall iron shelves on the stone wall.

After a moment, she turned around, took hold of Chang Ning's sleeve, and said in a low voice, "Let's go. We've been in here too long; the people outside will notice something is wrong."

Chang Ning couldn't believe it. He said in a grave voice, "Don't get soft-hearted now. If we don't kill him, the future trouble will be endless!"

Cai Zhao couldn't move the tall young man, so she had to turn back. She forced a smile, her eyes glistening. "Have you heard of the two things my aunt was most proud of in her life?"

Chang Ning huffed indignantly.

Cai Zhao lowered her head, her voice muffled. "Before my aunt died, she said the thing she was most proud of in her life wasn't killing Nie Hengcheng, but that—no matter how compelled, she never killed an innocent person; and no matter how difficult, she never stood by and did nothing when an innocent person was in peril."

She had said this to Zeng Dalou before. At the time, she thought it was ordinary, but now she understood just how difficult it was to accomplish those two things.

Chang Ning's chest heaved with anger, his eyes cold and fierce. "Your father's fate is unknown right now. Can't you be pragmatic in an emergency?!"

The usually easygoing girl shook her head stubbornly. "No, I absolutely cannot cross that line. Once you do it the first time, there will be many more times."

She raised her head and smiled. "The first time I saw you, I didn't know who you were. It was because I thought of my aunt's words that I felt, in my muddled way, that I had to save you."

Remembering the girl from that day, as cheerful and carefree as spring water and green branches, Chang Ning's heart suddenly softened.

He said softly, "Alright then. We can always think of another way. He has no skills right now, so it's fine to leave him for the time being."

Just as the two of them stepped onto the stone stairs of the second landing, a voice suddenly came from behind them—"Actually, there was once a person who broke my sect's Body Switching Grand Method."

Cai Zhao and Chang Ning turned their heads at the same time, overjoyed.

"It was Grandmaster Beichen." Young Master Qian stood by the stone bed with his head lowered.

"Two hundred years ago, an ancestor of my sect used the Body Switching Grand Method to assist Grandmaster Beichen in eliminating demons. On the day the demons were wiped out, the gravely injured and dying Grandmaster summoned my sect's ancestor and told him to transform into anyone he wished. Although my ancestor didn't understand, he did as he was told."

"Then, the Grandmaster had a servant lead over the Snow Scale Dragon Beast he had raised for many years. He took a small amount of saliva from the beast's mouth and had my sect's ancestor consume it—the saliva of the Snow Scale Dragon Beast is a rare tonic, greatly beneficial to cultivators, so my sect's ancestor consumed it immediately."

"A short while later, his entire body turned ice-cold, as if he had died. Soon after, he reverted to his original form."

"In front of everyone at his bedside, the Grandmaster admonished my sect's ancestor, saying that all things in heaven and earth, yin and yang, have something that counters them. Therefore, there is no esoteric art in the world that cannot be broken, and no sect that will never decline. He told everyone to conduct themselves accordingly."

"Then the Grandmaster passed away, and not long after, my sect's ancestor also went into seclusion—I don't know if it's true or not; it's what my master told me." After saying this, Young Master Qian tightly wrung his hands together.

"Snow Scale Dragon Beast?" Cai Zhao said in surprise. "I've read about it in a book. It's said the Grandmaster raised many rare and mythical beasts back then, like the Gauze Feather Ice Wing Crane, the Red-headed Eight-legged Snake, and the Qilin Steed that could run a thousand li in a night... But the book said that after the Grandmaster passed away, the immortal qi of Jiuli Mountain dispersed, and those rare and mythical beasts gradually left."

"I don't know about the others, but the Snow Scale Dragon Beast should be real," Chang Ning said with a frown. "One hundred and sixty years ago, the Snow Scale Dragon Beast wreaked havoc upon the world, injuring countless people. It was eventually driven away by the combined forces of the Wulin."

Cai Zhao's spirits lifted. "Driven away to where?!"

"North from here, all the way to the Great Snow Mountain in the extremely cold region."

...

After leaving the dungeon, the two quietly returned the way they came.

The mountains and wilderness grew even colder and more desolate. The men in black still patrolled slowly like ghosts.

Not until they had left that area of the mountains did the two finally let out a breath of relief.

Chang Ning supported the slightly panting girl, but said, "See what you get for being a good person. Although Jiuli Mountain is to the north, even if you ride a fast horse nonstop, it would still take over half a month to reach the Great Snow Mountain, and who knows if that Snow Scale Dragon Beast is even still alive."

"Let's not count on the Snow Scale Dragon Beast for now." Cai Zhao caught her breath and stood up straight. "I'm going to capture that imposter. Didn't he bring many experts with him? I'll catch ten or twenty of them. If I interrogate them one by one, I'm bound to find something out."

Chang Ning couldn't help but laugh. "Hah, Zhaozhao, you talk big. To catch ten or twenty people, you'd need the entire sect to help you. How will you convince them?"

"I'll tell them everything," Cai Zhao said in a low voice. "A fake can never be real. No matter how well he imitates Master, there will always be flaws. As long as my martial uncles believe me, we can capture them all in one fell swoop."

Chang Ning frowned slightly. "I'm afraid it might not be that simple. Sometimes, whether what you say is true or not isn't the most important thing. What matters is whether the speaker can make everyone listen to them."

The two talked as they walked towards Qingjing Study. Just then, a group of people suddenly surged forward, carrying swords and lanterns, with torches blazing. In an instant, they had the two of them completely surrounded.

The person in the lead was none other than Dai Fengchi.

He gave a sinister smile. "What high spirits you two are in. Instead of staying properly in your rooms in the middle of the night, you're running all over the mountains. It's good that you're not asleep. Come with me—Master requests your presence."