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墨書 Inktalez
There were no signs of a struggle at the scene. Who could have so easily taken two people away?
Yun Kong felt extremely frustrated, a few possibilities flashing through his mind. However, this place was hidden, and he had taken different paths every time he ascended the mountain. How could anyone discover such a secret location?
Yun Kong had no intention of dwelling on it any longer. He took out a Guiding Stone from his pocket, carefully aimed, and threw it directly at the door. The door creaked open with a soft sound, and as Yun Kong had anticipated, when the door swung wide, it triggered a mechanism. A large gray net descended from above, perfectly covering the spot where the Guiding Stone landed.
That was close!
After a while, everything around remained quiet; there was still no movement. The falling net did not seem to alarm whoever had set it.
Logically, those who set such traps usually reveal themselves upon hearing the mechanism activate to collect their prey. However, it appeared that the person who had set the net was not present.
How strange!
Yun Kong looked around but still did not find any other suspicious signs.
This left Yun Kong puzzled. If this net was set for him, why had no one come to collect it?
Just then, he heard a faint voice coming from the distance in the forest, "Young Master?"
The word "Young Master" filled Yun Kong with surprise and joy; it was indeed Xiang Cao's voice.
He hurriedly descended from under the tree and followed the sound.
In the dense forest, low trees were stacked upon each other, and there were no clear paths to step on. Yun Kong had to draw his soft sword from his waist to clear away the obstacles in front of him. After walking several dozen meters, he finally felt that Xiang Cao's voice was getting closer.
Before him stood a massive Banyan Tree, surrounded tightly by common Vines in the jungle. The Vines relied on the large tree for nutrients, and now the Banyan Tree was nearly half dead.
Following the traces of the previously cleared vines, there was a hollow tree hole.
The tree hole was small, barely accommodating two people. Hearing Yun Kong's quiet call, the grass-covered Herbal Wolf awkwardly crawled out from the tree hole. Upon seeing Yun Kong, it wrinkled its nose and nearly cried.
At the same time, Yun Kong caught a faint smell of blood. Using the moonlight, he discovered that Herbal's clothes were tattered, with wounds on its arms and thighs staining its clothing with large patches of red.
He was startled. "What on earth happened?"
Herbal spoke with a trembling voice, "Young Master, there's no time to explain. You must check on Miss; is she alright?"
Mei Shuang was curled up quietly in the tree hole, her eyes tightly shut, her face pale, with blood froth continuing to seep from the corners of her lips. Only her shallow breathing indicated that she was still alive.
Yun Kong was alarmed and hurriedly took out the antidote from his pocket. After opening it, he dripped a few drops into Mei Shuang's mouth. Then he pulled out another small vial and took out pill-sized medicine, which he had Herbal help administer to her.
Perhaps due to the effect of the medicine, Mei Shuang's complexion improved slightly after a while.
Only then did Yun Kong remember Herbal's injuries. He tore off a few strips from his own clothing and used medicinal powder to treat Herbal's wounds. After bandaging them up, he sat down beside Herbal and listened as it recounted the harrowing events that had just occurred.
After serving Mei Shuang for several days and nights without rest, Herbal was startled awake by Mei Shuang's scream. Looking outside through the window, it saw several mountain bandits.
"Miss was taken hostage by them. I went out to fight them for a few rounds but could only incapacitate some of them. I feared there were more, so I brought the Miss here to hide..."
"What happened to them?"
"I pushed them towards Mountain Base..." Herbal hesitated before answering.
"That net? Did you set it up?"
Under Yun Kong's slightly sharp gaze, Vanilla lowered her eyes and spoke in a much softer voice, "No, perhaps it was them who set it up..."
Yun Kong stared intently at Vanilla's youthful face, sighing inwardly, "Vanilla, when did you learn to lie..."
Vanilla's heart skipped a beat as she defended herself, "I didn't..."
"They came here, didn't they?" Yun Kong asked directly.
Vanilla's eyelids twitched, and she remained silent.
"What a clever plan. First, they set a trap with the net at the door, waiting for me to fall into it upon my return. If I managed to evade their watch, then they would have you perform a tragic act in front of me, claiming it was bandits attacking and that they had nothing to do with it..."
Vanilla suddenly raised her gaze but eventually lowered her head again. After a long pause, she glanced at Mei Shuang, who was sleeping beside her, and said softly, "Young Master, they were just following orders. Moreover, they did not harm Miss..."
Yun Kong let out a slight sigh, but the sharpness in his eyes did not diminish. "Vanilla, do you think they spared Miss out of compassion? Most likely it's because the poison in her body has relapsed; they believe she won't live much longer and are too lazy to take her life. Furthermore, perhaps some of your relatives pity you and are afraid you won't be able to report back to me. That's why they devised such a plan. If they capture me, great; if not, they think by the time I return, Miss will have already passed away. And you would have something to report to me as well. I wouldn't suspect them at all. Is that how it is? That net must have been handed over to you with the story that it was the work of bandits..."
Listening to Yun Kong's flawless analysis, Vanilla found herself speechless. Her face flushed red as discomfort washed over her.
Seeing Vanilla like this, Yun Kong softened his tone slightly. "I know you are loyal to Miss Ru and don't want to reveal the accomplices' actions that could create a rift between me and Miss Ru. But do you know? Just now I went down the mountain to meet Miss Ru."
"What?!" Vanilla exclaimed in shock before quickly understanding. "So that's how it is; indeed, Miss Ru is quite astute. She sent someone over while you were going down the mountain..."
"Miss Ru is no longer the same Miss Ru from before. While she may have honored her pact with the Eastern Kingdom previously, now I realize she never intended to truly help the Eastern Kingdom at all. We have all been deceived by her..."
At the end, Yun Kong took a deep breath and said, "Xiang Cao, you don't need to defend Miss Ru. As long as Mei Shuang is alive, there is hope."
Xiang Cao was confused. Looking at the still unconscious Mei Shuang, she blinked her big eyes and asked, "Young Master, is this young lady really the savior of our Eastern Kingdom as the Saint said?"
Gazing into the vast night sky, Yun Kong nodded after a long pause. "It should be..."
Since she had predicted the fate of the Eastern Kingdom correctly, how could she not know how to save it from disaster?
Xiang Cao glanced at Mei Shuang, who showed no signs of waking up, and reached out to check her breathing. Pouting slightly, she said, "Young Master, what evidence do you have that Miss Ru has no intention of saving the Eastern Kingdom? Miss Ru has put in a lot of effort to find her deposed sister for us... Otherwise, how could we have intercepted her so quickly on her way out of the palace?"
In fact, not long after the antidote was administered, Mei Shuang had awakened but pretended to remain asleep to listen to the private conversation between her master and servant.
As she suspected, the ambush they faced right after leaving the palace was orchestrated by their own group, and those ruthless assassins were indeed from the Eastern Kingdom. What surprised her most was that this monk named Yun Kong was also from the Eastern Kingdom.
Did Kuranami Miyako not say that men from the Eastern Kingdom rarely lived past fifteen due to Queen Himiko's curse? Yet this Yun Kong did not look like a man under twenty; how was he an exception?
With her eyes closed, Mei Shuang continued to breathe steadily while quietly listening.
It seemed that Yun Kong remained silent until Xiang Cao spoke sorrowfully again. "But this Deposed Empress Mei Shuang of the Great Qin Empire only told us to stay away from the Eastern Kingdom without explaining why. Does that mean the farther we are from that curse, the less it affects us?"
Sighing, she continued in despair, "Young Master, I always feel that either she is not telling the truth or it really is as Queen Himiko predicted—our Jiu Rang Family's calamity has arrived..."
Perhaps hearing "Queen Himiko," Yun Kong scolded softly but angrily, "Nonsense! This is merely a scheme from Yamatai! They have always dreamed of swallowing all the small nations to dominate the entire East Sea. Our family's curse comes from Queen Himiko; it is not a natural disaster—how can it be called a calamity?..."
After hearing this, Xiang Cao shrank her neck and dared not speak further.
Yun Kong looked at the tender herb. At this age, one should be enjoying the company of their parents, carefree and without worries. Now, in order to revitalize the family, he had to leave home, traveling thousands of miles across the sea to this distant land to make a final effort for the survival of his family.
Although hard work is often rewarded by heaven, it seemed that the heavens were not particularly kind to this ancient family. Their repeated efforts always ended in unexpected failure; on one hand, they suffered losses in personnel, while on the other hand, the results were minimal. Now, with only a few Eastern Kingdom people left, morale was indeed low.
The Cold Palace and Deposed Empress Mei Shuang he fought desperately to protect seemed far from the legendary figure she was said to be, or perhaps it was merely an illusion created by her Queen Meiru to eliminate her.
If that were the case, then their family might truly be facing what the herb described as "calamity."
While he was lost in thought, he noticed the herb sitting dejectedly on the ground. In the moonlight, he saw tears glistening on her cheeks.
Perhaps feeling pity for her, Yun Kong softened his tone and spoke seriously, "Herb, in this world, our brothers and sisters are few. Each of us is fighting hard and doing our best for our family. Even if one day we meet our ancestors underground, we will not be ashamed of our struggles today. They will be proud to have descendants like us!"
Yun Kong's earnest words instantly lifted the herb's spirits. She quickly wiped away her tears and nodded vigorously. "Young Master, I swear to heaven that I will not let our ancestors down!"
After a moment, with renewed energy, the herb asked, "Young Master, do you know how Miyako sister is doing? It has been a long time since we heard from her."
"No news is good news," Yun Kong replied lightly.
"Then where shall we go next?" the herb asked anxiously. "Now that we've torn our relationship with Miss Ru, she won't let this go easily..."
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