Truly worthy of the name "All-Under-Heaven House"!
Assassins like Su Xiuxing, it seemed, were not solitary wolves but operated in organized groups with structure and scale!
"There is a difficult task, though I'm not sure whether you can handle it."
"Go ahead and tell me!" A'Ce began thumping his chest again, as if he were not the one who had just been troubled by the Gates of Hell. "Our All-Under-Heaven House can do anything!"
"Would you dare go to the royal palace?" Jiang Chen asked.
In the Yang Kingdom, the royal palace without further specification naturally referred to the court of the Yang monarch.
A'Ce, known as the "Number One Assassin of the Eastern Domain," turned pale with shock. "Are you trying to hire an assassin to murder His Majesty?"
Seeing Jiang Chen stare at him as though he were an idiot, he sheepishly asked, "What would you like to do?"
First, if it were truly a matter of hiring an assassin to kill the monarch, no one would bring it up so openly.
Second, whether the All-Under-Heaven House actually had the capability to assassinate a monarch, did he not already know?
"Help me deliver a letter. It must not be revealed that I sent it."
"To whom?"
"If it can be delivered to the monarch, that would be best. If not, deliver it to the person closest to the monarch whom you can reach."
"What is written in the letter?"
Jiang Chen looked at him without speaking.
A'Ce ducked his head. "Protecting the customer's secrets. I understand."
"Thirty Dao Essence Stones for delivering this one letter. My only requirement is that no one must know this letter is connected to me."
Jiang Chen produced thirty Dao Essence Stones and placed them before A'Ce.
"Please rest assured." A'Ce of the All-Under-Heaven House began happily counting the Dao Essence Stones. "It is not as if I know who you are."
"..."
Delivering a letter — even if it had to be sent into the royal palace — was not exactly a difficult task.
Jiang Chen did not expect the letter to reach the Yang monarch's hands directly, but once it arrived at the palace, he believed the monarch would inevitably take notice.
No ruler of a minor kingdom could afford to remain indifferent upon learning of the Bone Path Holy Sovereign's covert covetousness.
The reason he had to convey the warning through the All-Under-Heaven House was that his current strength was still insufficient to confront the Bone Path head-on.
...
It was the afternoon of his second day in Cangfeng City that Jiang Chen visited the All-Under-Heaven House. He left Red Tail County that very day and rushed back to Sunshine County to take command at headquarters.
He had come to Cangfeng City specifically for two purposes: first, to rest and recover his spirits; second, to find a way to warn the Yang court.
As for finding the All-Under-Heaven House, that was entirely a whim — done as the opportunity arose.
He had originally wanted to ask about Hu Shaomeng hiring assassins to kill him, but seeing that A'Ce did not seem to recognize him at all, he let it go.
After all, Hu Shaomeng was already dead. Once a person dies, it is like a lamp extinguished — there is little point in further inquiry.
The situation in Green Mountain Town was improving. The number of new plague cases was declining, and many patients in the quarantine zone had been cured through the efforts of two medical cultivators. Deaths, of course, could not be entirely avoided.
Through the Yang court's thorough investigation, they had gained a relatively clear understanding of this outbreak.
In general, the plague spread through three primary means. The most common was flea and mosquito bites — rats were of course the root cause, and these tiny carriers of the plague venom were equally culpable.
Secondly, transmission between humans was possible simply through breathing. Contact transmission was the least common.
However, the plague within the Yang Kingdom was different. Clearing rats and fleas proved largely ineffective, because the plague venom had been transmitted between humans from the very beginning, and its spread far outpaced ordinary outbreaks.
(They still did not know of the existence of the Plague Bell.)
Thus, every plague victim was a source of infection.
From a cold perspective, death was also a way to reduce sources of plague infection.
In truth, had this plague not already spread across three counties and engulfed the entire nation, there might well have been voices calling for the eradication of Jia City...
Returning to Green Mountain Town itself — under Jiang Chen's decisive and vigorous actions, the entire Green Mountain Town district had become the most successful area in the Jia City region in combating the plague.
The number of newly infected and deceased was far lower than in other districts, while the number of recoveries was far higher. This was even assuming that the other districts had not been concealing anything.
Dugu Xiaoli, Xiang Qian, and the others had thought Jiang Chen would relax considerably, but instead he worked even harder than before.
Every day, apart from his necessary duties, he devoted himself to cultivation.
Dao arts and swordsmanship, over and over again.
Through this period of battling the plague, the small team centered around Jiang Chen had been tempered into a cohesive unit — one of the few silver linings.
Yet the fear in Jiang Chen's heart was something he could not confide to anyone!
...
Within the blessed lands of Mount Ling in the Ethereal Realm, Jiang Chen sat cross-legged.
He had truly discovered the problem only after pursuing and killing the Snake-Mask.
He had killed the Snake-Mask, but when tallying the spoils afterward, he overlooked the Plague Bell. In retrospect, this was certainly a good thing — that Plague Bell was extraordinarily dangerous and could very well have served as a vessel for the Bone Path Holy Sovereign to strike from afar.
But for Jiang Chen, the terrifying aspect of this matter lay in his "overlooking" it.
How could he have overlooked the Plague Bell?
Although he was not particularly meticulous or especially shrewd, this Plague Bell had caused him immense trouble during the battle. He should not have been able to overlook it, nor could he have.
And yet, he had "overlooked" it all the same.
This was terrifying.
It was as though another consciousness lurked within his own, interfering with his thoughts. Or rather, some sort of existence possessed the power to corrupt his will.
Because this possibility existed, he could not discuss it with anyone.
Even now, "hiding" within the Ethereal Realm, he was not certain whether he truly had a safe and clear environment for contemplation — but this was the only refuge he had.
He had no masters or elders, no powerful blood relatives. Only this enigmatic Ethereal Realm offered any hope at all.
He turned this matter over again and again within the Ethereal Realm. To avoid having his consciousness influenced, he could only think here.
First, he was certain he was not merely crying wolf.
Then came the painstaking, prolonged examination of himself.
Where exactly had something gone wrong? Where could something go wrong? What kind of problem could it be?
It was a painful process.
In the end, his suspicion settled upon his Celestial Palace.
More precisely, upon that Nether Candle.
After all, it was a relic of the Bone Path, and he had never let his guard down around it.
During the earlier annihilation of Maple City, the Nether Candle had given him an extraordinarily intense warning.
He had once suspected whether the Nether Candle possessed its own spiritual intelligence.
Before the fall of Maple City, his mood had been filled with extreme anxiety and tension. Thinking back now — could that also have been "influence" imposed by the Nether Candle?
If it could make him anxious then, it could perhaps make him overlook things now.
Although both instances of influence seemed intended to steer him away from danger, and indeed they had.
But Jiang Chen absolutely refused to have his actions interfered with by some strange existence. Even back when he was still very weak, he had deeply resented the so-called "guidance" that Miao Yu had imposed upon him.
Whatever he did, whatever consequences he would face, he wanted them to be his own choices.
If he was wrong, he would accept it!
But he would never let anyone else choose for him.
If, if the problem truly lay with the Nether Candle.
Then he would have to face a certain truth — from the moment the Nether Candle had been drawn into his body by the bone seed's attraction until now, during all the time it had "dwelled" within his Celestial Palace, what exactly had it been doing?
At the very least, from "manufacturing tension" to "making him overlook things."
This seemed to suggest that the scope of influence the Nether Candle could exert was expanding.
Le Wen