Chapter 42
The pine forest is as dark as ink and as silent as a grave.
Gu Linzhi stumbled through the tangled darkness, carrying the cold, heavy body of Mo Ya on his back. Every step pierced the wound beneath his left ribs, pierced by Han Meng's poisonous dagger. It felt like a red-hot iron repeatedly stirring in his flesh. A chilling, overbearing numbing sensation, far more intense than the effects of "blue spider saliva," spread madly through his blood vessels, eroding every inch of his flesh. Every heartbeat was filled with a heavy, stabbing pain. The old wound on his right shoulder groaned under the weight. Mo Ya on his back was lifeless, his body slowly cooling and stiffening. The blood from his severed arm soaked Gu Linzhi's back, sticky and cold.
The sound of alarm bells, chaotic shouts, and the clash of weapons from the direction of Huguo Temple surged like a life-threatening tide at the edge of the pine forest, drawing ever closer. Pursuers!
Gu Linzhi gritted his teeth, swallowing the sweet, fishy taste rising in his throat. He forced a breath of his fading Qi, his gaze like a dying charcoal fire, searching through the dense pine needles. He couldn't stop! To stop would mean death! The secret letter Mo Ya had sacrificed his life for must not fall into enemy hands!
Ahead! In the dim moonlight, he saw a dark hole half-hidden by vines and bushes, half-covered by vines and bushes, beneath several huge, dead pines, scorched black by lightning and fire, with twisted branches. It looked like the mouth of a silent beast.
Charcoal kiln! Abandoned charcoal kiln!
Without the slightest hesitation, Gu Linzhi used up his last bit of strength, dragging his collapsing body and the cold weight on his back, and stumbled towards the dark cave entrance! He roughly pulled away the vines covering the cave entrance, bent down, and crawled in!
A strong, pungent smell, a mixture of stale charcoal ash and damp, moldy earth, hit me. The cave was narrow and low, pitch dark. Only the faint moonlight filtering through the entrance outlined the rough, jagged rock walls within. The air was stagnant and suffocating.
Gu Linzhi carefully laid Mo Ya's cold body flat on the charcoal-dusted ground. He knelt on one knee, panting heavily, each breath carrying a burning white mist and the thick scent of blood. The venom from the wound on his left rib was like an icy snake, gnawed furiously at his nerves, and the darkness at the edge of his vision grew thicker. With trembling hands, he pulled from his bosom the oilcloth wrapped in Mo Ya's blood—the secret letter purchased at the cost of two lives!
The oilcloth was cold, slippery, and heavy. Fighting back the dizziness, he peeled off the oilcloth layer by layer with his blood-stained fingers.
Inside, instead of the expected letter paper or directory, was a palm-sized, flat, square box crafted entirely from a dark, oily, hardwood. The box itself was unadorned, with only dark copper corners inlaid around the edges, exuding an ancient, cold aura. In the center of the lid lay a tiny, irregularly shaped, sunken hole.
It's the keyhole! It's the same shape as the groove on the inner wall of the copper box in Zhao Wenbi's secret room! That metal willow leaf key!
Gu Linzhi's heart skipped a beat! He immediately took out the equally cold metal "key" from his inner pocket, aligned the raised part with the concave hole on the wooden box lid, pressed it in firmly, and twisted his wrist slightly!
“Click.”
A crisp sound of a mechanism snapping was heard in the silent charcoal kiln!
The wooden box lid slid silently to the side!
Inside the box, a thin booklet with a dark blue cover lay quietly. Beneath it lay several folded sheets of yellowed, brittle stationery.
That's it! A faint light instantly ignited in Gu Linzhi's eyes! He couldn't wait to pick up the dark blue booklet and open it!
It was densely packed with records of time, location, parties involved, and amounts… the shocking "Youzhou Craftsman Workshop," "fine iron transported north," "salt smuggled on ships," "released by the garrison"… each piece of ironclad evidence, like a cold chain, bound Cao Wushang, Han Meng, the Youzhou officialdom, and even the Northern Di people, firmly to this bloody chain of interests! What Mo Ya guarded with his life was ironclad evidence enough to overturn the entire court's shady dealings!
He put down the account book, picked up the folded letters with trembling hands, and unfolded them.
When his eyes fell upon the familiar, weathered handwriting on the letter, it was like being struck by a silent thunderbolt! All the blood in his body instantly rushed to his head, then quickly froze in the icy numbness!
Handwriting! It was my father Gu Chengzong's handwriting! The commander-in-chief of the Jingbei Army, Gu Chengzong!
"...Your Highness, Gu Chengzong, weeps and sheds tears... The northern border's food shortage is not a natural disaster, but a man-made calamity! Minister Cao Wushang colluded with the Jiangnan salt smuggler Zhao Wenbi, smuggling military rations aboard salt ships and reselling them... The evidence is attached to the interlayer of the camphorwood box... Your death is not a pity, but the 70,000 men of Jingbei... will die with their eyes open... I implore Your Majesty... to conduct a thorough investigation... and redress the injustice..."
This was a secret letter, written with tears and blood, written before it could even be sent! It was my father's desperate accusation, written before the Jingbei army ran out of food and fell into despair! He had long since seen through Cao Wushang's evil hand, but before he could send the evidence, he and his 70,000-man army perished in the snowstorm of the northern border!
"The interlayer of the camphorwood box..." Gu Linzhi's eyes were fixed on these five words! Like a red-hot iron, it burned through his soul! Before his death, his father had hidden the ironclad evidence that would bring down Cao Wushang and redress the injustice of the Jingbei Army in the interlayer of the camphorwood box! Those seven camphorwood boxes! That deliberately covered-up military rations case! The source of everything! All the hatred! It all pointed here!
An indescribable wave of grief, anger, and cold murderous intent erupted like a volcano within Gu Linzhi's chest! The venom from the wound on his left rib seemed to be temporarily suppressed by this surging emotion! He clenched the blood letter in his hand, his knuckles crackling with the force!
Just then!
The vines covering the entrance of the charcoal kiln were suddenly torn apart by a huge force!
“Inside!”
"Surround him! Don't let him get away!"
Like hungry wolves smelling blood, several dark shadows instantly blocked the cave entrance! Cold weapons flashed in the moonlight! The pursuers are here!
Gu Linzhi's eyes flashed with cold light! Without a moment's hesitation, he dragged Mo Ya's cold body into the deepest corner of the charcoal kiln, hastily covering it with scattered charcoal ash and dead branches. Then, he grabbed the dark blue account book and his father's blood-written letter, along with the hardwood box, and quickly stuffed them into his arms! At the same time, his left hand tightly grasped the bayonet, and his body, like a cheetah ready to pounce, pressed against the cold rock wall inside the cave entrance!
The light and shadow at the cave entrance flickered, and a pursuer with a knife cautiously leaned in!
At the moment when half of his body entered the charcoal kiln——
Gu Linzhi moved! Like a ghost leaping out of the darkness! The bayonet, with a sharp whistle that tore through the air, pierced the pursuer's throat with incredible precision!
"Ugh!" The pursuer only had time to let out a short muffled groan before he was pushed by Gu Linzhi's huge force and slammed heavily against the rock wall at the entrance of the cave!
"Kill him!" A roar of shock and anger came from outside the cave! More dark shadows rushed towards the cave entrance!
Gu Linzhi took advantage of the moment when the corpse blocked his way and suddenly rushed out from the side of the corpse like a swimming fish! The bayonet turned into a deadly black light, instantly slicing the neck of the second pursuer! Scalding blood spurted out!
"Surround them!" The pursuers were horrified and their formation was instantly scattered!
Gu Linzhi's only focus was on finding a way out! He ignored the poison and paralysis surging wildly in his left ribs, wielding his spear in a curtain of death. Every blow unleashed a shower of blood! The narrow entrance became his killing spree! Broken limbs flew everywhere, screams rang out! Like a Shura returned from hell, he tore a bloody hole through the encirclement of the pursuers!
"Stop him!" A pursuer who looked like a leader roared and swung his long sword!
Gu Linzhi dodged the blade sideways, raised the bayonet with his backhand, and accurately stabbed the opponent's wrist holding the knife! At the moment when the opponent screamed and let go, his left hand grabbed the long knife like lightning and swept it across!
"Puchi!" The sharp blade swept across the chests of the two pursuers, bringing up a huge cloud of blood mist!
The encirclement completely collapsed! The surviving pursuers were shocked by the ferocious slaughter and retreated in fear!
Gu Linzhi no longer clung to the fight and fiercely hurled the long sword he had seized at the densely packed area of pursuers, forcing them to dodge hastily! He then used this momentary gap to slam aside a pursuer who stood frozen in fear, and bolted towards the deeper, darker part of the pine forest. Leaving behind him were only a litter of corpses and the terrified roars of his pursuers.
The icy night wind cut like a knife, slicing at Gu Linzhi's burning cheeks and the piercing wounds beneath his ribs. Every step felt like stepping on red-hot charcoal, his lungs ripping apart, and every gasp carried the heavy scent of blood and rust. His vision blurred and wavered from the poison, blood loss, and sheer exhaustion, the pine forest before him twisting into a swaying, dark green ghost.
He ran for an unknown amount of time before the shouts of the pursuers behind him seemed to fade away, drowned out by the whistling pine waves. Gu Linzhi's steps grew heavier, as if filled with lead. The poison from the wound on his left rib had completely lost control, and a cold numbness spread like a tide across his entire left chest. Every heartbeat became labored and stagnant, carrying an ominous throbbing. His vision darkened and he saw stars.
Finally, he stumbled, his body tumbling forward as if all the bones had been pulled out of him. His face slammed heavily onto the cold, damp ground covered with pine needles and rotten leaves. The pungent smell of earth and pine resin filled his mouth and nose.
Am I going to...die here?
Gu Linzhi's consciousness sank in and out of boundless darkness and a deadly paralysis. Images of his father's tearful handwriting, Mo Ya's cold body, the sobbing from the graves of the 70,000 Jingbei soldiers flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern, then shattered. Unwillingness... like a poisonous fire, scorched his last vestiges of consciousness.
At the moment when consciousness was about to completely sink——
An extremely clear and strangely chilling fragrance, like a ray of light in the darkness, penetrated into his nostrils that were filled with blood and decay.
This fragrance...Cold Pond Grass?!
Gu Linzhi's dilated pupils suddenly shrank! He struggled, using up his last bit of strength, and raised his heavy head with great difficulty.
His vision was blurry and shaky. Under the pale moonlight, a pair of moon-white embroidered shoes, stained with mud but still spotless, rested quietly on a rotten leaf just inches from his eyes.
His gaze slowly moved up along the moon-white skirt... passed over the slender waist... brushed past the black hair gently blown by the night breeze... and finally stopped at that extremely beautiful face, yet as expressionless as a thousand-year-old black ice.
Su Wanwan!
No one knew when she had appeared, or how she had found her way here. Her icy-gray eyes, like two frozen pools, reflected Gu Linzhi's tragic, dying, disheveled, and blood-stained state. Her expression was incredibly complex, and beneath the ice, an indescribable undercurrent seemed to surge—probing? Mockery? Or perhaps... a tiny, forcibly suppressed trace of... pity?
She crouched down, her moon-white skirt brushing against the cold, decaying leaves. The crisp scent of the cold pond grass became even more distinct. She said nothing, simply extending her nearly transparent white hand. Her fingertips, icy cold, pressed with exquisite precision against the edge of the wound beneath Gu Linzhi's left rib, torn by the poisonous dagger and radiating a maddening blue poison mark.
"Ugh!" An intense sensation of pain, numbness, and a strange, icy coldness erupted instantly! Gu Linzhi groaned, his body twitching uncontrollably!
Su Wanwan's icy gray eyes flickered slightly. She withdrew her hand and twirled her fingertips, as if feeling something. Then, she looked at Gu Linzhi again, her voice cold and ethereal, penetrating the whistling pine waves and clearly entering Gu Linzhi's drowsy consciousness:
"'Poison Feather Red'... mixed with the old 'Blue Spider Saliva' poison... has entered my heart meridians." Her tone calmly stated a cruel fact, like a verdict, "Even the golden needles... can't stop it."
Gu Linzhi's bloodshot eyes stared at her intently. There was no fear in them, only a cold mockery and questioning tempered by poison and despair. He tried to speak, but only a hoarse, cracked sound came out of his throat.
Su Wanwan seemed to understand the questioning in his eyes. Deep within her icy-gray pupils, a complex undercurrent seemed to surge even more violently. She was silent for a moment, her gaze sweeping over the blood-soaked collar of Gu Linzhi's shirt, clutched to his chest—there, hidden were his father's blood-stained letter and the dark blue account book.
"Want to die..." She paused, as if choosing her words. Something beneath the frozen mask cracked ever so slightly. "...or do you want to...take the blame?"
Her gaze fell on Gu Linzhi's face again. Deep in her ice-gray pupils, she clearly reflected the cold flame that suddenly ignited in Gu Linzhi's eyes, which was enough to burn everything.
No waiting for an answer.
Su Wanwan reached out her hand again. This time, she held a slender, gleaming golden needle! Under the dim moonlight, the needle tip shone with a dazzling, dim light!
Her ice-gray eyes were fixed on the fatal wound under Gu Linzhi's ribs, and her eyes were focused to the point of being cold.
"Bear with it." The cold voice fell, like the final judgment.
The golden needle, which was condensed with faint light, brought with it an irresistible chill that penetrated deep into the bone marrow, and stabbed decisively towards a vital point near Gu Linzhi's heart!
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