Truly worthy of the name "Under-Heavens Pavilion"!
It seemed assassins like Su Xiuxing were not lone wolves after all—they operated within organizations, scale, and in droves.
"There is one difficult matter, though I'm not sure if you can handle it."
"Please, name it!" A'Ce thumped his chest again, as if the one who had just been flustered by the Gates of Hell was someone else entirely. "Our Under-Heavens Pavilion can do anything!"
"Would you dare enter the Royal Palace?" Jiang Chen asked.
In the State of Yang, the Royal Palace without any qualifier naturally referred to the court of the Yang monarch.
The so-called "Number One Assassin of the Eastern Domain," A'Ce, turned pale with shock. "Could it be that you wish to buy an assassination against His Majesty the Sovereign?"
When Jiang Chen looked at him the way one would look at a fool, A'Ce sheepishly asked, "Then what does the customer wish to do?"
First, if one were truly plotting something as momentous as assassinating the sovereign, one would not propose it so openly and brazenly.
Second... did the Under-Heavens Pavilion actually have the capability to assassinate a sovereign? He was not so lacking in self-awareness as to be unsure of that.
"Help me deliver a letter. It must not be revealed that it came from me."
"To whom?"
"If it can reach the sovereign, that would be best. If not, then to whoever you can reach who is closest to the sovereign."
"What does the letter say?"
Jiang Chen looked at him and said nothing.
A'Ce shrank back slightly. "Protecting the customer's secrets—I understand."
"Thirty Essence Stones for this one delivery. My only requirement is that no one must know this letter is connected to me."
Jiang Chen produced thirty Essence Stones and placed them before A'Ce.
"Rest easy, customer." A'Ce of the Under-Heavens Pavilion happily counted the Essence Stones. "It's not as though I even know who you are."
"......"
Delivering a letter—even one destined for the royal palace—was not exactly a difficult task.
Jiang Chen had never expected the letter would reach the State of Yang's sovereign directly, but once it arrived at the palace, he reasoned, the sovereign would inevitably take notice of it.
No ruler of a minor state could afford to remain indifferent to the secret covetousness of the White Bone Sect's Holy Sovereign.
As for why he chose to relay this warning through the Under-Heavens Pavilion—his current strength was still insufficient to confront the White Bone Sect head-on.
......
It was on the afternoon of his second day in Cangfeng City that Jiang Chen visited the Under-Heavens Pavilion. That very day he departed Red Tail Prefecture and headed back to Sunlight Prefecture to anchor his base of operations.
He had made the detour to Cangfeng City for two reasons: first, to rest and recover his spirits, and second, to find a way to warn the Yang court.
As for discovering the Under-Heavens Pavilion, that was a spur-of-the-moment convenience—nothing more.
He had originally considered asking about Hu Shaomeng's attempt to hire an assassin against him, but seeing that A'Ce seemed entirely unfamiliar with him, he let the matter go.
After all, Hu Shaomeng was already dead. Once a person dies, their lamp is extinguished. There was little point in further inquiry.
The situation in Green Ram Town was steadily improving. The number of new plague victims grew smaller by the day, and within the quarantine zones, the two medical cultivators had cured many of the afflicted. Naturally, some deaths could not be avoided.
Through the Yang court's exhaustive investigation, they had gained a relatively clear understanding of this particular plague.
Normally, the plague spread in three ways. The primary mode of transmission was through bites from fleas and mosquitoes. Rats, of course, were the root cause, and these tiny creatures carrying the pestilence toxin bore grave guilt.
Next came person-to-person transmission—simply breathing could lead to infection. Contact transmission came last.
But the plague that had erupted within the State of Yang was different. Clearing out rats and fleas proved largely ineffective, because the pestilence toxin had been transmitted between humans from the very beginning, and its speed of spread far surpassed that of an ordinary plague.
(They were still unaware of the existence of the Plague Bell.)
Thus, every infected person was a source of contagion.
From a coldly pragmatic perspective, death was also one way to reduce the plague's sources of infection.
In truth, had the plague not already spread across three prefectures and the entire nation, it was possible that voices calling for the extermination of Jiacheng would not have gone unheard...
Returning to Green Ram Town itself—under Jiang Chen's decisive and vigorous actions, the entire town had become the most successful district in all of Jiacheng in combating the plague.
The number of newly infected and deceased was far lower than in other districts, while the number of recovered far exceeded them. And this was assuming the other districts were not concealing any figures.
Dugu Xiao, Xiang Qian, and the others had thought Jiang Chen would finally be able to relax somewhat, but instead he worked even harder than before.
Aside from the essential daily affairs, all his time was devoted to cultivation.
Dao arts and sword arts, over and over again.
Through this period of battling the plague, the small team centered around Jiang Chen had beeninitial tempered into something cohesive. It was one of the few silver linings.
Yet the dread that gnawed at Jiang Chen's heart—this, he could not confide to anyone!
......
Within the Blessed Land of Mount Ling in the Ethereal Realm, Jiang Chen sat cross-legged.
The true realization of the problem had come only after he hunted down the Bone-Face Serpent.
He had killed the Bone-Face Serpent, but when he later took stock of his spoils, he had overlooked the Plague Bell—and judging by the eventual outcome, this was fortunate, for that Plague Bell was exceedingly dangerous and could very well have served as a vessel for the White Bone Sect's Holy Sovereign to strike from afar.
But for Jiang Chen, the terrifying aspect of this affair lay not in the Plague Bell itself, but in his act of "overlooking" it.
How could he possibly have overlooked the Plague Bell?
He was not exactly the type to be meticulous in every detail, nor was he renowned for far-reaching stratagems, but that Plague Bell had caused him enormous trouble during their battle. He should not have overlooked it. He could not have overlooked it.
And yet he had.
That was the truly frightening part.
It was as though another consciousness lurked within his own, interfering with his thoughts. Or rather, there existed some entity capable of influencing his will.
Because such a possibility existed, he could not discuss this matter with anyone.
Even now, having "retreated" into the Ethereal Realm, he could not be certain he truly had a safe and tranquil environment for contemplation—but this was his only refuge.
He had no master or senior to turn to, no powerful blood relative. Only this mysterious, inscrutable Ethereal Realm offered any hope at all.
Within the Ethereal Realm he turned the matter over in his mind, again and again. To prevent his consciousness from being influenced, he could only think within this sanctuary.
First, he confirmed that he was not indulging in needless anxiety.
Then came a long, painstaking self-examination.
Where exactly had the problem surfaced? Where could it have taken root? What form might it take?
It was an agonizing process.
In the end, his suspicion settled upon the Heaven's Passage Palace.
More precisely, upon that Nether Candle.
After all, it was a thing of the White Bone Sect's, and he had never let his guard down around it.
Early on, during the destruction of Maple City, the Nether Candle had given him a warning of extraordinary intensity.
He had once suspected that the Nether Candle possessed its own sentience.
Before the fall of Maple City, he had been consumed by extreme anxiety and tension. Looking back, might that too have been an "influence" imposed by the Nether Candle?
In those days it could make him anxious; now it could make him overlook. The leap was not implausible.
Although on both occasions, the interference seemed designed to steer him away from danger—and indeed it had succeeded.
But Jiang Chen refused absolutely to have his actions interfered with by some strange and unknown entity. Even back when he was still weak and insignificant, he had resented the so-called "guidance" that Miao Qing had tried to impose on him.
Whatever he did, whatever consequences he might face—he wanted it to be his own choice.
If he was wrong, he would accept it.
But he would never let someone else choose for him.
If—if the problem truly did lie with the Nether Candle.
Then he would have to confront a troubling reality: from the moment the Nether Candle had been drawn into his body by the Seed of White Bone, it had been "residing" within his Heaven's Passage Palace for all this time—and what exactly had it been doing?
At a minimum, the progression from "inducing tension" to "making him overlook" suggested that the scope of the Nether Candle's influence was expanding.