Chapter 55, Escaping Alive

Translator: StarReader

 

Gusu County City was in an uproar all night long, with constables from all three shifts carrying out a city-wide manhunt for the mysterious fugitive.

 

The martial groups conducted their own investigations. Anyone someone bold enough to steal sacred texts from Han Mountain Daoist Temple had to be an extremely skilled martial expert. Their disciples were all potential suspects.

 

The Heaven Falcon Group’s main headquarters was located within Gusu County City, naturally on high alert. Under Manager Liu’s orders, the group’s internal enforcement team investigated any disciples leaving the headquarters that night.

 

A young disciple from the enforcement team approached a bodyguard stationed at the entrance.

 

The guard quickly reported, “Yes, the main gate was locked last night. However, some disciples did leave through the back gate and returned late. Among them were inner disciples and some from the Errand Hall.”

 

Ah Chou pushed a manure cart, lowering his head as he approached an outhouse in the backyard to clean it.

 

He was intercepted by several Heaven Falcon Group’s enforcement disciples, who questioned him harshly about where he had gone that night after leaving the headquarters.

 

Upon seeing these senior enforcers, Ah Chou was struck with fear, dropping to his knees and his face turning pale despite his usual scarred appearance.

 

“Brothers, there is a lot of manure accumulated in the hall these days. I-I was afraid that you would be uncomfortable with the smell during the day, so I went out to dump some at night. I take out manure for you every day. I knew it wasn’t easy to earn these few copper coins. I was wrong, and now you suspect I stole things from the temple? Go ahead, search if you want. I will plead guilty to anything you find!”

 

After a moment, Ah Chou snapped back to his senses and began crying bitterly, overwhelmed with grievances.

 

“Get lost, stay far away!”

 

“Forget it. What’s the point? A dung farmer scum like him—what could he possibly do that’s even worth questioning? Let’s go check on those inner disciples instead and see what they’ve been up to this evening.”

 

These young senior brothers from the enforcement team all looked disgusted, pinching their noses as they waved him off. They weren’t about to search him; for one thing, his dung farmer’s clothes might very well be dirty, bringing bad luck.

 

Once they were out of sight, Ah Chou stopped his bawling and let out a few smug hums before standing up.

 

He might have low cultivation, but he wasn’t stupid.

 

Brother Chen had already warned him of the huge risks involved. After completing the task, he was to immediately return to Heaven Falcon Group and hide.

 

That was why, before setting off at night alongside Su Chen to infiltrate the Daoist temple, he had prepared a dung cart in advance for transporting the filth out of the city.

 

When he returned, it was by pushing the same dung cart back.

 

If anyone ever suspected his movements, he could always claim he’d gone outside the city to dump waste.

 

Who’d have the time to care about what a third-rate dung farmer like him had been up to after pushing his cart out of town at night?

 

The turmoil that shook Wu Region’s martial world lasted an astonishing three days.

 

By the third day, the constables of Gusu County City had grown less rigorous in their search for the missing items from the Han Mountain Daoist Temple. No longer did they go door to door.

 

The guards at each city gate also abandoned their efforts to block and question those entering or exiting the city. The gates opened again, allowing free passage for the citizens.

 

Gusu County City was home to over ten thousand households. Keeping the entire city under lockdown had caused too much disruption. Every day, a massive line of people snaked out in front of the gates, waiting hours upon hours just to make a single trip.

 

Furthermore, Gusu’s water canal served as a major hub along the grand waterway connecting the north and south of the Wu Region. With so many merchants converging there, keeping the city sealed would impact both land and water traffic—something that was impractical.

 

It wasn’t just the constables of Gusu County City who took part in the search; martial artists from various groups across the Wu Region’s martial community also set up checkpoints along key thoroughfares. Yet, despite their efforts, none found any leads.

 

The massive city-wide manhunt over the first three days yielded no useful clues about the elusive river thief. As time wore on, hope of ever finding him grew increasingly faint.

 

The fervor in the martial world, which had been so intense, declined. The theft case at Han Mountain Daoist Temple was missing a key piece of information: none of the Daoists from Han Mountain had seen the appearance of the wanted criminal. This meant that the scope of suspicion was enormous, and the difficulty was beyond imagination. If everyone were to be investigated one by one, even a vegetable vendor by the roadside or a porter could potentially be the disguised criminal.

 

However, to steal the precious scripture under the very eyes of Daoist Qinghe, this top-tier expert, and from the tight security maintained by the other experts at the Daoist temple, in just the short time it takes to brew a cup of tea, let alone small fry, not even infamous thieves could pull off such a feat.

 

Catching such a top-tier criminal was no easy task! Without locating the thief, it was even more difficult to find the scripture. The scripture itself was small, and if hidden in just any corner, who knew where to even begin searching? Considering these challenges, the search efforts of all the groups slackened.

 

Su Chen was forced to stay at Mist Terrace throughout the lockdown. Knowing that the constables blocked all exits, many out-of-town merchants and martial artists found themselves stranded at Mist Terrace as well.

 

Once Gusu County City’s restrictions lifted and civilians were allowed to move freely, Su Chen wasted no time in returning to Medicine King Estate, specifically to Errand Hall, where he kept to himself, never venturing beyond the estate’s gates.

 

Upon his return to the estate, Su Chen hid the jade slip in a secluded part of the forest at the back of the estate and avoided checking on it. Instead, he focused on doing chores at the Errand Hall to avoid suspicion.

 

For the first half-month back, Su Chen felt uneasy, lying awake every night. He feared that some clue might have been left behind during his time at the Daoist temple, leading the Han Mountain Daoists to track him down and pressure the Medicine King Group into handing him over.

 

He also worried about Ah Chou, who left early and likely returned to the Heaven Falcon Group. Since there was no news for half a month, it seemed no one suspected Ah Chou.

 

As for Mist Terrace’s Young Miss Ah Nu, she seemed to sense something amiss. However, since she had indeed been asleep at the time, there was no evidence proving his absence from her chambers. Furthermore, she hadn’t mentioned her half-hour-long nap when questioned, insisting she had remained in her room the entire time.

 

Su Chen recalled every little detail of what happened and realized that he had left no obvious clues for the Daoists to pinpoint him as the culprit. This thought eased his mind.

 

For the past fortnight, Su Chen had been working menial jobs at Errand Hall. On one occasion, he overheard several young disciples casually discussing the theft of precious scriptures from Han Mountain Daoist Temple. Their conversation was lively, as though they were recounting firsthand experiences.

 

“From constables to martial groups, even the dreaded pirates from the Whale Gang, who are known for their ruthlessness, complied after receiving Han Mountain’s notice,” one said. “It wasn’t just them showing respect to the Han Mountain Daoist Temple, but also the ordinary folks in Gusu County City as well. Despite the inconvenience of being quarantined, people didn’t voice much complaint. Can you imagine that happening with any other major groups? They’d probably be up in arms.”

 

“True,” another replied. “This incident alone shows how esteemed Daoist Han Shan is among officials, the martial community, and even commoners—a level of respect no one else could attain.”

 

“Exactly,” a third interjected. “Take our own Medicine King Group’s Medicine King Sun, for example. Though he’s been healing and helping folks in the Wu Region for decades, earning him great respect from both the martial community and civilians, I doubt he could pull off something like this.”

 

“Of course, Medicine King Sun saves lives and benefits at most a few hundred people, which is nothing compared to Daoist Han Shan. He spreads his teachings far and wide across the Wu Region’s thirteen counties, receiving reverence from countless followers.”

 

The young errand disciples nodded in agreement.

 

“But all of that is common knowledge. What’s the point? A few days ago, I went to our most formidable hall, the Swordsmanship Hall, to handle some affairs. I witnessed them carrying out their own internal investigation. Every inner disciple who has reached the first-rate realm had to provide a detailed account of their movements that night. They even required corroborating witnesses; otherwise, they faced severe interrogation. Our Medicine King Group left no stone unturned in their search for the sacred text!”

 

An older errand disciple, referring to one of the senior members, sighed deeply.

 

The younger errand disciples exchanged worried glances.

 

Luckily, only the Swordsmanship Hall and Alchemy Hall were conducting these internal investigations. The other halls didn’t need to go through such rigorous procedures… It seemed the Medicine King Group was well aware that the disciples in those other halls didn’t have the capability to commit such a heinous crime.

 

Su Chen listened in on their casual conversation. He couldn’t tell if he felt relieved or disappointed, but he let out a sigh. It turned out his two-week-long worries had been completely unnecessary after all.

 

Even the Hall of Affairs and Security Hall hadn’t been checked, let alone his own Errand Hall. The disciples at Errand Hall had no one deemed important to be checked.

 

No one believed that a mere errand disciple could steal the precious scripture from Han Mountain Daoist Temple, under the watch of Daoist Qinghe, a top-tier senior expert. At Medicine King Group’s Errand Hall, with hundreds of errand disciples across different levels, who would even keep an eye on him, just a junior executive?

 

Thinking it over, the chances of Medicine King Group even questioning him were slim at best.

 

The group of errand disciples were in the middle of an animated conversation when they spotted executive Zhou Mieyan approaching. Fearing a scolding, they dispersed and went back to work.

 

The errand disciples weren’t genuinely concerned about the incident; they merely treated it as a topic for gossip during their breaks.

 

The great waves in the martial world were too distant for the mundane daily lives of the errand disciples.

 

The martial realm had always been the domain of the elite.

 

Few low-ranking, weak martial errand disciples had the qualifications to meddle in a major martial case.

 

Perhaps disciples from Swordsmanship Hall and Alchemy Hall would be more interested. When moving about in martial circles, they would inquire about bandits and, with a little luck, capture a thief that happened to have the precious scripture, making Daoist Han Shan owe them a favor—a good deal in their opinion.

 

However, for errand disciples, each morning was about laboring away at their tasks.

 

Rather than fancy themselves the hero of the story, delivering a letter to a neighboring county would earn them dozens of copper coins, which felt like a more concrete reward.

 

Su Chen waited another month.

 

This time, even the errand disciples from Medicine King Group’s Errand Hall, distant from martial affairs, didn’t discuss the outdated incident. It showed the matter was calm in martial circles—no stir at all.

 

He finally relaxed his anxious heart, criticizing himself for being overly cautious, having left no clue for Daoist Qinghe.

 

That day, Su Chen led a task to send letters to an outer county, lasting three days.

 

He went alone to the dense forest at the back of the estate, dug out the jade slip text and those gold ingots, and tucked them away. On his way to carry out the mission, he planned to find a remote mountainous area deep in the wilderness to study the secrets of this precious manuscript.