Chapter 25
The towering flames of Ningxiang Garden ripped through the rain-shrouded Hangzhou. Thick smoke billowed, carrying the crackle of burning wood, the shattering of falling tiles, and countless terrified cries and screams, transforming this once luxurious paradise into a living hell. The fire raged fiercely, greedily devouring the carved beams and painted buildings, licking at the delicate gauze and beaded curtains, and engulfing the priceless red sandalwood furniture, antiques, and paintings in its crimson flames. The river was reflected in a blood-red glow, and the air was filled with the acrid smell of burning, the sickening smell of scorched flesh, and... the eerie, stubborn fragrance of wisteria, mingling with the smoke and dust.
At the edge of the fire, amidst the shattered ruins, a few makeshift tarpaulin sheds had been erected. Raindrops pounded against the tarpaulins, creating a dull thud that mingled with the muffled groans of the wounded and the urgent cries of the doctors. The air was thick with the scent of blood and wound dressings.
Mo Ya lay on one of the crude stretchers, his face ashen and his lips chapped. The wound on his left arm had ruptured again in the blast and the chaos, blood soaking the thick bandage and staining the burlap beneath him. Even more serious was the damage to his internal organs, causing every breath to stab with sharp pain, leaving beads of cold sweat on his forehead. Old Man Chen, hunched over, his bony fingers dabbed in a pungent black ointment, carefully applying it to the swollen, purple bruises on Mo Ya's chest.
"Bear with it." Old man Chen's voice was hoarse. "At least two ribs were broken. You're lucky they didn't penetrate your lungs. Your internal organs were shaken. This ointment can remove toxins and disperse blood stasis, but it's very painful." He applied force with his fingertips, pressing the ointment into the flesh. Mo Ya's body trembled violently, and he clenched his teeth. He swallowed back a muffled groan, and only his Adam's apple rolled violently.
Gu Linzhi stood outside the shed, his hands behind his back. The hem of his dark uniform was stained with mud and blood, yet he remained oblivious. His deep gaze pierced through the rain and smoke, settling heavily on the ruins of Ningxiangyuan's main building, still blazing. The flames illuminated his silent profile, and the shallow scar left by the canal attack became ever more distinct, like a silent brand.
"Prime Minister." A drenched Shadow Scale team leader, his face covered in soot, stepped forward quickly, his voice hoarse and exhausted. "The fire was so intense that our brothers risked their lives to save only parts of the backyard warehouse and a few wing rooms. The main building... the main building was burned so thoroughly that most of it collapsed. I'm afraid there's no one left alive inside. Su Wanwan... Zi Xiao... not a single body remains."
Gu Linzhi didn't turn around, but asked calmly: "Have you found a secret room? A tunnel? Any traces of a mechanism?"
The team leader shook his head, a look of suppressed frustration on his face: "The main building structure was completely destroyed, and the rubble piled up like a mountain, which is difficult to clean up for the time being. The several warehouses found in the backyard mostly contained spices, cloth, and ordinary belongings. However, we found some things in a wall that was suspected to be Su Wanwan's private warehouse." He handed over an oilcloth bag that was soaked in water and had burnt edges.
Gu Linzhi took it and opened it. Inside were several burnt account books, some scattered, beautifully written letters, and a small bundle of extremely tough...almost transparent silk thread tied with a red string - ice silk!
He picked up a strand of ice silk and twisted it in front of the firelight. The thread was cold, smooth, and pliant, reflecting a strange glimmer in the firelight. His eyes then fell on the pages of letter paper. The handwriting on the paper was elegant and graceful, the handwriting of Su Wanwan. The contents were mostly private conversations, poems, and social interactions with the wives of several Hangzhou officials. But on one page, the handwriting was a little hurried and messy, as if written in a state of excitement:
"... That scoundrel Pan Qi, known as 'Guoshanfeng,' dared to extort 30% of 'green salt' from 'Bingzi Warehouse'! He's got a huge appetite! 'Third Master' is furious and has ordered me to put an end to this matter immediately. That batch of 'contraband' can't be delayed; the north is pressing hard... Pan Qi is a chess piece. If he doesn't learn his lesson, I'll have to give him up... Through 'Salt Rat,' I'll send him to see Pan Laoguai!"
"Mountain Wind" Pan Qi!
"Cing-zi warehouse"!
"Green salt"!
"Black goods"!
"Salt Rat"!
Like poisoned nails, each cold noun pierced Gu Linzhi's eyes! Pan Qi, the fierce Cao Gang bandit who fought for the empty box "No. 7" at the Dragon King Temple and eventually died! Pan Laoguai, his patron and the former leader of the "Tongyuan" Cao Gang, died in the explosion of the West Lake pleasure boat! It turned out that their deaths were all caused by the dispute between the so-called "green salt" and "black goods"! And Su Wanwan, the "Purple Owl", was actually manipulating all of this behind the scenes! More importantly, it was - "Third Master"! This title obviously refers to a higher-level member of the "Yun Ze Club", or even... it might be the mysterious leader Zhou Shihong!
"Salt rats..." Gu Linzhi's fingertips lightly traced over the three words, a cold glint gathering in his deep eyes. This was the derogatory term used by the Jiangnan salt smugglers for the lowest and most desperate of the salt traffickers. Like rats in the gutter, they specialized in the dirtiest and most dangerous parts of transportation, moving in secret and fearless.
“BOOM——!!!”
A roar, duller and more terrifying than any previous explosion, as if emanating from deep underground, suddenly erupted from the backyard of Ningxiang Garden! The entire ground shook violently! Immediately afterwards, a thicker column of black smoke, laden with mud, gravel, and unidentified debris, rose from somewhere in the backyard like the breath of a behemoth from hell! It instantly overwhelmed the flames of the main building!
"What's going on?!" Inside the tarpaulin tent, Old Man Chen was so startled that he nearly knocked over his medicine jar. The black crow on the stretcher suddenly opened his eyes and tried to sit up despite the pain, but Old Man Chen held him down firmly.
"Report!!" A member of the Shadow Scales came tumbling out from the backyard, his face filled with extreme terror, his voice distorted. "Prime Minister! The old well in the backyard...the one used for watering the flowers! It exploded...it exploded! Half of the well collapsed! A...a brother was cleaning up nearby and was...buried alive!"
The well exploded?!
Gu Linzhi's eyes flashed with coldness! He moved his body, and his black robe left a shadow behind, shooting towards the smoke-filled backyard like an arrow!
The backyard was a shambles. The rockery had crumbled, the flowers and trees had withered, and a massive, deep crater had been blasted into the ground. Thick smoke and the pungent smell of sulfur and saltpeter still rose from the bottom. The old well, once located here, had collapsed, and the accumulated debris and mud had buried most of the bottom of the crater. Several members of the Shadow Scale were frantically digging through the collapsed earth with their bare hands, trying to rescue their buried comrades, their faces stained with soot and blood.
"Be careful! Don't move!" Gu Linzhi shouted, his eyes sweeping across the pit floor like lightning. The smell of sulfur and saltpeter was incredibly strong, and some unburned black powder still lingered on the edge of the pit wall. This was no ordinary gunpowder; its power was far beyond ordinary!
"It's 'Thunder Fire'!" a familiar, hoarse voice boomed from the back of the crowd. Pan Qi, known as "Guoshanfeng," leaned on a thick wooden stick, limping through the crowd and squeezing to the front. His single remaining eye stared intently at the still-smoking black powder at the bottom of the pit, his face twitching with the ruthlessness and fear of a seasoned gangster. "It can't be wrong! That smell, that blasted pit! That's the stuff only those lunatics at 'Salt Rat' would use! 'Yin Fire,' refined from petroleum, mixed with saltpeter and sulfur, is heavy, poisonous, and incredibly potent! It's designed to blow up cellars and dark rooms, but it can also blow up wells!"
"Pan Qi?" Gu Linzhi's eyes were as sharp as a knife as he fell on this uninvited guest. This person had just been listed as an "abandoned child" in Su Wanwan's secret letter, and now he appeared at the explosion site!
"Gu Yanwang!" Pan Qi met Gu Linzhi's gaze without fear. A complex light flashed in his single eye, with fear, resentment, and a hint of desperate madness. "I'm not here to make things difficult for you! I'm here to collect a debt!" He suddenly pointed his wooden stick at the still smoking pit and said in a hoarse voice:
"Su Wanwan, that vicious woman! Zhou Shihong, that old fox! They're just killing me now! They blew up Pan Laoguai's pleasure boat with the 'Thunder Fire Ball'! Now they're trying to blow me up! If I hadn't been lucky and dodged quickly, I'd be dead by now! I know where they're hiding the salt! The iron! The shady 'black goods'! The 'C-shaped warehouse'! I'll take you there! But I have one condition - I have to give me that old dog Zhou Shihong's head!"
Pan Qi's appearance and roar, like a drop of water into boiling oil, instantly ignited the already tense atmosphere! The information he brought was even more earth-shattering—the one who killed Pan Laoguai was actually "Leihuozi"! And the "Cingzi Warehouse," the key node mentioned in Su Wanwan's secret letter, was in Pan Qi's hands!
"Pan Qi!" A Shadow Scale team leader glared at him, "Don't be so presumptuous in front of the Prime Minister!"
Gu Linzhi raised his hand to stop his men. His deep gaze lingered for a moment on Pan Qi's face, twisted with excitement and hatred, before turning to the half-collapsed old well. From the collapsed wellhead, murky water gurgled through the cracks in the rubble. The water flowed rapidly, and its color... an ominous dark red!
"The well water...the color is wrong." Gu Linzhi's voice was low and cold.
Upon hearing this, everyone looked towards the gushing well water. Sure enough! The originally turbid well water now glowed a thick, dark red like diluted blood! An even more pungent smell, a mixture of rust and some indescribable sweet-smelling smell, spread with the water's flow!
"It's... it's the dregs of 'Soul-Separation Powder'!" Old Man Chen had followed at some point, squeezing to the edge of the pit. He looked at the dark red well water, his nose twitching, his cloudy old eyes filled with horror. "No doubt about it! This fishy-sweet smell! I smelled it on the corpse of the water bandit in the canal! Did they dump the waste from refining 'Soul-Separation Powder'... into the well? Or... is this well connected to the place where the medicine is boiled?!"
Soul-Separation! Soul-Separation again!
Not only is this old well entrapped with the powerful "Thunder Fire" trap, but the water is also contaminated with the highly toxic "Soul-Separating Powder" waste! How sinister! Not only do they kill, but they also destroy the body and poison the water source! How much evil is hidden beneath this "Ningxiang Garden"?!
"Dig!" Gu Linzhi's voice was resolute, like a sharp sword drawn from its sheath, carrying a chilling force that could freeze everything. "Clear the landslide! Drain the well! I want to see... what kind of demons and monsters are hiding at the bottom of this well!"
At the command, everyone sprang into action. Lacking tools, they dug by hand! The slippery mud and gravel were quickly cleared away. Someone fetched buckets and ropes and began scooping out the dark red, poisonous water bucket by bucket. As the water level dropped, the conditions at the bottom of the well gradually became apparent.
Beneath the collapsed well wall, a twisted and deformed iron gate could be vaguely seen. Behind the gate, there seemed to be a dark cave entrance!
"There's a secret passage!" someone exclaimed!
At this moment, a member of the "Shadow Scale" who was responsible for salvaging well water picked up a hard object covered with mud and blood from the bottom of a bucket of the darkest well water that had just been brought up.
"Prime Minister!" He quickly rinsed the thing in a bucket of clean water and held it up.
In the dim firelight, it was a heavy, palm-sized waist plaque! Made neither of gold nor iron, it felt cold and heavy to the touch. Its edges had been slightly deformed by the explosion, but the pattern carved on the front was still clearly visible—a ferocious giant turtle perched above the waves! Two points of scarlet agate were inlaid in its eyes, gleaming with an eerie luster in the firelight!
"Ao... Ao Gang?!" Pan Qi's one eye widened when he saw the waist badge, and he cried out in disbelief, "'Zhenhai Ao' token?! This... this is a token only given to those above the top of the 'Ao Gang'! How could... how could it be at the bottom of this well?!"
The Ao Gang! The most powerful and ruthless pirates and salt smugglers in Hangzhou Bay and even the entire East China Sea! Not only do they control the offshore salt trade, but they are also rumored to have intricate ties with Japanese pirates and South China Sea pirates! They are even more mysterious and fierce than the Tongyuan Cao Gang!
"Ao Gang..." Gu Linzhi took over the cold and heavy "Zhenhai Ao" order, and stroked the ferocious giant turtle pattern with his fingertips. The cold light in his deep eyes was like a glacier suddenly cracking, reflecting the raging flames of the main building of "Ningxiang Garden" in the distance.
The salt permits of the "Yun Ze Hui", the ships of the "Tong Yuan" Cao Gang, the poison and the art of painting skins of the "Xue Zhu Ge", the sea routes of the "Ao Gang"... and the hidden "Third Master" Zhou Shihong!
This extremely poisonous vine, which has been entrenched in the south of the Yangtze River, sucking the national pulse, connecting with the northern barbarians, and running through the sea and land, has such deep roots and wide tentacles that it finally revealed the tip of the iceberg under this blown-up poison well!
Beneath the salt sea, thunder has begun. The real storm has just begun.
Gu Linzhi slowly tightened his grip on the cold Ao Gang token, his knuckles turning slightly white from the strain. He raised his eyelids and gazed southeastward toward Hangzhou—where the Grand Canal meets the Qiantang River, and where the Ao Gang's legendary lair lay.
"Pan Qi." Gu Linzhi's voice was low and full of unquestionable determination. "Lead the way."
"Go to 'Cingzi Warehouse'."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
