Inside the Realm of the Bell, the three figures were walking down the plain with the blurry horizon. With Feng Bujue's ability to think on his feet and persuasion, he swiftly gained the NPC's trust without the use of swords. Therefore, Lu Qingning joined him and Passing Rain as they explored the area.
During their conversation, Feng Bujue still presented himself as the leader of Broken Sword Chahitsu, similar to the version he had given in Chang Lin. He explained the whole process of meeting Ye Hai and the others from the Six Flowery Blades honestly. He also brought up the fact that he had been called to help Su Tang achieve breakthrough in Ming You Mantra.
Both falsehood and honesty were mixed into his words. Some parts were complete and detailed, and the false part was mostly about his identity and background, parts that were hard to confirm. In any case, with a brainwashing from Brother Jue, even though Lu Qingning did not fully believe the two, she was sure Master Feng and his wife were not there to kill her or sent by Lin Chang. After solving the awkward situation, Lu Qingning also provided some info to Feng Bujue and what she said basically overthrew the entirety of the scenario.
…
The story began several months ago when Xie San received the duel letter from Ye Cheng. That letter was not written by Ye Cheng because, by then, Ye Cheng was not alive anymore. The one who sent the challenge was not Ye Cheng but Lin Chang. Lin Chang, the second most powerful expert of the Ye Family, the leader of the Six Flowery Blades, was known among martial artists to be the third best blade master. Normally, he was hailed as a young hero; he was an honorable man who kept a low profile. He had married in his thirties and had no children. His wife was not a member of the martial world, just a normal common woman.
In terms of kung fu, Lin Chang had quite the talent. When he was forty, he was considered one of the best in the martial world. Among blade masters, he was third, and including experts of other disciplines, he was in the top twenty. He was at the same standard as the leader of Thousand Dawn Spire, Gong Sun Qian, and the leader of Octagonal Spire, Ji Tong. Of course, compared to the main characters of those wuxia novels who were impossibly strong, he was much lacking.
Lin Chang's achievement could only be described as normal, a result obtained from daily hard work. He joined the Ye family when he was young. Due to his natural talent and hardworking nature, with no obvious distraction from the path, his growth was continuous. After he reached maturity, he traipsed through the martial world to gain experience and increase his reputation. Everything about him seemed normal.
But such a person with 'justice' written all over him became the epitome of 'evil' due to an incident.
Thinking back, Lu Qingning reckoned that the change that happened to Lin Chang occurred about one year ago.
After returning from a job, Lin Chang spent two months being very strange. Sometimes, he would not say a word, and he had heavy mood swings. During that period, many disciples of the Ye family were punished or scolded by him for no reason at all. But two months later, Lin Chang returned to normal like everything that had happened before was just a dream. He was still the same respected, kind, and honorable expert. Therefore, this was promptly forgotten. After all, it was not common for people to be in a bad mood once in a while.
But looking back, things perhaps were not that simple.
During those two months, Lin Chang's mind and personality had a drastic shift. After he 'returned' to normal, it was not him anymore; it was a disguise. After another half a year, Lin Chang had been preparing nonstop in the dark, and the plan was near fruition. Therefore, a conspiracy that would topple the entire martial world started, and the first step of the plan was to murder Ye Cheng.
In terms of kung fu, Lin Chang was invincible by then. There were few who could match him, but it was not Ye Cheng. The Blade God of a generation died without much fanfare. His body was still abandoned in the forbidden area in the Ye family, the Blade Tomb, and it was still undiscovered.
Lin Chang mimicked Ye Cheng's handwriting to write a challenge to Xie San. The letter was short and succinct. There were only one directive—'15th August, Blade Duel at Chang Lin, The Winner is King.'
He also wrote another letter to Ye Hai, saying that it was from Ye Cheng—'I am going to go into closed-door practice until the date of the duel. No one is to come close to the Blade Tomb. Elder Ye and the Six Flowery Blades should head to Chang Lin first, and I will arrive on the date of the duel.'
After that, Chang Lin Inn opened for business, and members of the martial world flocked to it. Everything was going according to plan, but one night, the night when the players entered the scenario, something unexpected happened.
Lin Chang was meeting with his fellow disciple, Shang Fei. Shang Fei was the Shadowless Blade, the second of the Six Flowery Blades, and he was also Lin Chang's most trusted person. Shang Fei was an eccentric person. He did not like to speak and tended to look down on others. Of the Six Blades, he was closest to Lin Chang. Shang Fei was Lin Chang's only partner, and why would he choose to side with Lin Chang? It was very simple. It was because of benefits. Lin Chang had enough power to have others bow to him, and as long as he could provide some advantages, it was not hard to pull Shang Fei into his camp.
Like his name, the Shadowless Blade appeared and disappeared easily. Lin Chang thought that Shang Fei was the best partner, and there were four reasons. One, this person's kung fu was powerful, and he was very good at recon. Two, with their long relationship, the chance of him betraying Lin Chang was small. Three, Shang Fei would hide a secret well. He did not often appear before others, so there was no chance of him leaking a secret. Four, to do something so big, it felt better to have a partner.
Shang Fei did his job well. Over several days, he rushed between Chang Lin and Copper Plateau and picked up plenty of news. It was Shang Fei who used Thousand Li Sound Transference to inform Lin Chang of Xie San's appearance at Copper Plateau. And it was Shang Fei who dealt with the body after Lin Chang killed the man…
In the conversation between Lin Chang and Shang Fei, even though they did not point out the entire conspiracy, Ye Chang's death, their plan to ambush Xie San, and Lin Chang's supernatural kung fu were all between the lines. Life was always full of surprises, and their conversation was overheard by Lu Qingning, who was hiding in the dark.
Interestingly, Miss Lu was not trying to follow Lin Chang or Shang Fei. She was trailing another person. That night, Lu Qingning accidentally saw the wife of the leader of Thousand Dawn Spire walking out with a handsome looking disciple. Perhaps she was a woman who liked to gossip. In any case, she followed them out of curiosity. Lu Qingning's Qinggong was unmatched in the martial world. If just comparing Qinggong alone, she was be about the same as Shang Fei. Their techniques were different, but they were good at what they did.
If Lu Qingning was sent to follow Lin Chang or Shang Fei, she would have been discovered, but she was following Si Yanran and Wang Ao.
Coincidentally enough, she noticed Lin Chang in the dark. Due to curiosity, Lu Qingning changed her target. She wanted to see what her fellow disciple was up to. By then, Lin Chang was close to the meeting spot with Shang Fei. Along the way, he had checked many times that no one was following him. Who would have thought someone would be on his tail near the end?
…
"Wait a minute, Miss Lu…" Feng Bujue heard the problem. "Based on what you said, you first saw Si Yanran and Wang Ao leaving for their mingle in the night and then came across Lin Chang and Shang Fei's conspiracy accidentally. Then you were chased down the mountain by Lin Chang. In the end, due to a strange bell ringing… you found yourself here and somehow escaped Lin Chang's pursue.
"You said it has been two hours since you arrived here…" Feng Bujue stopped to compare the passage of time with the outside world. "But the events that you described should have happened last night before we even reached Chang Lin City. We entered this realm at sundown on August 13th. It has been at least sixteen hours since you entered this place."
Lu Qingning's expression shifted. "Master Feng, what are you trying to say?"
"If we are unable to leave this place in six hours…"
Feng Bujue began, and Passing Rain finished the sentence.
"We might miss that duel…"
"But… master is already dead, and now even Xie San is dead," Lu Qingning said. "What duel will there be?"
"Yes, I also wish to know what kind of performance Lin Chang plans to show the world on the night of August 15th…" Feng Bujue touched his nose with his finger. He was suddenly reminded of something and laughed. "Haha… But it's not bad to stay here longer. We can ignore that mass poisoning plan."
"Mass poisoning?" Lu Qingning was confused.
"My husband like to joke. Those of us from Broken Sword Chahitsu likes to say things outsiders won't understand." Passing Rain looked at her before turning to Feng Bujue. "What about other people?"
Feng Bujue shrugged. "From the update to the side mission, Xiao Tan and Laughing Soul appear to have gone somewhere strange as well. If there's really a problem, I guess Jin Fugui will have to handle it alone…"
