Chapter 56

Truly, we bump into each other in the strangest places.

“Were you thrown in here too?” Ruan Xuezong had known the other man would end up in the dungeon sooner or later, but he hadn’t expected it to happen like this. At first glance, Shen Jiangling looked utterly disheveled and wretched.

To be sure, Shen Jiangling still had his refined and handsome features, with that easy, heartwarming smile on his face that made people want to take a second look. But no amount of good looks could hide his current predicament: he was badly wounded, his fine robes smeared with straw and dust, and he clearly hadn’t tended to his appearance in days.

“Yes and no.” Shen Jiangling shook his head with a wry smile.

He seemed unsure of how to answer. After all, ever since he’d set foot in Jiangnan City, his experiences had been bizarre and hard to sum up in a few words. He could only call it “extremely bad luck.”

“This flimsy lock held you back? Why didn’t you just break out?” Ruan Xuezong asked.

His tone was perfectly even, without a hint of condescension. The jailer watched with his own eyes as Ruan Xuezong reached out with one hand. The motion was casual yet elegant. With just a couple of flicks, the iron lock securing the wooden door fell apart.

There was a dull thud as the lock and chains hit the ground with a heavy clank.

The jailer took a step back, his heart pounding wildly. He nearly screamed inwardly: “Holy shit! These martial arts masters are way too terrifying!”

Yet Shen Jiangling seemed to have a prisoner’s mindset ingrained too deeply. He didn’t step out. Ruan Xuezong simply pushed the door open and walked in himself.

Before he could find a clean spot to sit, the players—who thought they’d unlocked some special event—got all excited and cleared out the entire cell for him.

Once it was tidied up, Ruan Xuezong settled onto a clean mat.

He sniffed lightly and caught a faint aroma of wine in Shen Jiangling’s cell. Surprised, he picked up a jug and gave it a shake. “You’ve even got wine in here. You’re doing pretty well for yourself.”

Shen Jiangling smiled too, a touch of pride at the corner of his mouth. “I’m no great talent, but I’ve earned a bit of a name for myself in the Rivers and Lakes. Lord Jiang only locked me up—he didn’t mistreat me. When I said I wanted some wine, he had the jailer go buy it. Besides, the Jiangnan City Dungeon has no bugs or beasts crawling around. The conditions are way better than the Six Gates Dungeon. Staying a few days is no hardship. It’s a shame they can’t provide clean clothes or washing facilities, or I’d feel right at home, like I was at an inn.”

As a martial arts master, Shen Jiangling had weathered all sorts of storms. He wasn’t like the players, who couldn’t stand being idle. A few days in one place wouldn’t rattle his composure.

Ruan Xuezong had guessed as much. The man must have gone along willingly; a couple of cheap locks couldn’t hold back a famous hero like Shen Jiangling.

Of course, he also picked up on the undertone: beneath that optimistic tone, Shen Jiangling was treating the dungeon like a short-term safe house.

He asked, “What exactly happened to you? Enough to make the dungeon feel safer and more comfortable than the outside world?”

“You’re as sharp as ever, my friend. I can’t hide a thing from you.” Shen Jiangling sighed softly. “After we parted at Peacock Manor, I headed south first and stopped by Clear Wind Fishing Ground. Elder Gong and Miss Mingzhu have recovered nicely, and they said they miss you a lot.”

A faint pink tinged Ruan Xuezong’s ear tips, but his face remained impassive. “I miss them too.”

“I looked into the origins of the Sea Roar Sword. It’s a treasure sword forged from thousand-year iron from overseas. It’s only been in Elder Gong’s hands for about a decade, and even he doesn’t know its full history. I dug through some ancient texts on weapons and found out that the Sea Roar Sword and the Pure Shadow Sword were both made by the same master swordsmith.”

“The legendary swordsmith Bai Ye?” Ruan Xuezong was a good listener. When Shen Jiangling paused slightly, he picked up the thread seamlessly.

“That’s right—the top swordsmith from a century ago, Bai Ye. The master was shrouded in mystery from birth. There are rumors he had imperial blood, though that’s unconfirmed. As a grandmaster of a generation, his martial prowess was at its peak, and his sword-forging skills were unmatched. He crafted countless swords in his life. Sadly, most ended up lost in the Rivers and Lakes or buried with their owners in ancient tombs. That’s what I uncovered. Did you know that the Gan Jiang and Mo Ye Swords from a thousand years ago were a mated pair? Swords can have mother-child relationships too…”

At that point, Ruan Xuezong suddenly recalled Lan Cangfeng’s boast during their challenge: “The Pure Shadow Sword is the foremost famous sword of our era. In battle, it can resonate with a hundred weapons.”

“Could the Pure Shadow Sword be the mother sword forged by Master Bai Ye, with the Sea Roar Sword as one of its child swords? When the mother sword hums with battle intent, the child swords all respond?” It sounded just like “blood calling to blood.”

That would explain why the Demonic Sects stole the Pure Shadow Sword and used Peacock Manor’s birthday banquet as the stage to wipe out sword wielders from across the Rivers and Lakes—they wanted to claim both mother and child swords.

“You’re spot on, my friend. I still don’t know the Demonic Sects’ ultimate goal in stealing the sword, but once I had this lead, I rushed straight to Jiangnan City to tell you in person. Unfortunately, the moment I entered the city, it felt like I’d been marked. Before I could even reach Heart Washing Manor, the attacks started—one wave after another. My pursuer was a man.” As he spoke of it, a wry smile tugged at Shen Jiangling’s lips. He pulled open the front of his robe, showing Ruan Xuezong the gruesome wounds.

Half was fresh pink flesh, the other half raw and blackened where scabs had been ripped away. It was enough to chill anyone’s blood.

Ruan Xuezong instantly felt a pang of sympathy for him.

First chased and wounded at Clear Wind Fishing Ground, barely half-healed before Gong Mingzhu injured him again. Just starting to recover when the Peacock Manor banquet took its toll. Better after that, only to face another round of pursuit in Jiangnan City. His wounds kept reopening, cycling between new flesh and scabs.

Constant brushes with death, always pulling through at the last moment—truly the fate of a protagonist.

Ruan Xuezong pulled out a bottle of premium golden wound salve and handed it over. “Who was chasing you?”

Shen Jiangling thanked him. “I suspect Demonic Sect forces.”

Ruan Xuezong said nothing, but thought to himself: Right on the money. Nothing sticks to the Demonic Sects like a steaming pile of crap—it’s always a sure bet.

“There’s more—something utterly unbelievable.” Shen Jiangling applied the medicine, his expression puzzled and grave. “I was already injured when that man chased me for a full day and night. Exhausted, I was captured alive. I thought he’d finish me off ruthlessly, but instead he just took me prisoner. He blindfolded me and carted me around in circles to some place. When he removed the cloth, the sight before me left me speechless from shock. Forgive my poor words, but that place defied imagination. If not for the constant drip of water, I’d have thought I’d left Jiangnan entirely…”

“Was it some kind of underground palace?” Ruan Xuezong asked, startling Shen Jiangling. After calming down, he realized the description fit perfectly.

“How did you guess? Have you been there too?” Shen Jiangling probed.

“I haven’t.” Ruan Xuezong shook his head.

He filled Shen Jiangling in on everything that had happened in Jiangnan City lately, along with all the intel they had so far. “My retainers and I have been searching for the underground palace entrance these past days, but no luck.”

Shen Jiangling suddenly understood. “So I was abducted by the Flower Plucking Thief. People like me must be getting dragged to that underground palace.” Then he frowned in confusion. “But I’m a man. Why would the Flower Plucking Thief target me?”

Ruan Xuezong countered, “Brother Jiangling, do you really think the Flower Plucking Thief is a man? Think about who’s been obsessed with you since Clear Wind Fishing Ground. And that person happens to be with the Demonic Sects.”

“You suspect that one?” Shen Jiangling gazed at him steadily, his refined features sharpening as his eyes grew deep and piercing.

Now that he thought about it, the man who’d kidnapped him had struck ruthlessly but stayed completely silent the whole time. Compared to the brash Flower Plucking Thief from the city rumors, he seemed more like a taciturn assassin carrying out orders.

Ruan Xuezong didn’t mince words. “Yes, I suspect that person.”

The players who’d been listening in were totally baffled: What? Who the heck is “that person”? Why do Shen the hero and Zongzong act like they both know exactly who it is!? Damn game devs, pulling the cryptic riddle crap again!

“Nearly a hundred people have vanished from Jiangnan City. Lives are at stake. Brother Jiangling, do you remember how you escaped?” As the original protagonist, Shen Jiangling was the only one who’d entered the underground palace and lived to tell the tale. His survival instincts had even led him to hole up in the Jiangnan City Dungeon for safety.

Ruan Xuezong itched to grab the man like a kitten and shake him down for every last clue.

Shen Jiangling wanted to answer too, but even he had been kidnapped in a daze and escaped in a daze.

He racked his brains. “There were people down in the underground palace—not just one. There was someone named Qin Xiang. I couldn’t tell if he was a man or a woman, but he seemed to sense my martial arts weren’t completely crippled and that I could still run. He grabbed me and we fled some distance. He triggered some mechanism, and I tumbled into a pool. I got swept out along a raging underground river, battered by countless rocks on the riverbed.”

He made it sound casual, but the truth had been far more perilous. If not for his strong swimming skills and lingering strength—plus his martial arts still intact—he’d have drowned.

With so many bodies washing up in Jiangnan City’s waterways, one more like him wouldn’t raise eyebrows. No one would guess that the famous Rivers and Lakes scion Shen Jiangling had just escaped a den of demons.

As for why his martial arts hadn’t been fully crippled, he’d learned his lesson. After the nightmare banquet at Peacock Manor, he’d started carrying antidotes on him everywhere he went.

Ruan Xuezong was astonished. “Why couldn’t you tell if it was a man or woman? Were you that dizzy and weak at the time, Shen the hero?”

“No… it seemed like a man, but dressed in women’s clothes. I truly couldn’t tell.” Shen Jiangling smiled bitterly.

He’d turned disaster into fortune this time—thanks to an inside traitor in the underground palace who’d helped him escape. But now, hearing about recent events in Jiangnan City from Ruan Xuezong, he didn’t dare imagine that person’s current fate.

The thought made his fresh wounds throb all over, and a profound guilt welled up in his heart. The hardest debt to repay was one life for another.

“Don’t worry. His name is Qin Xiang, right? If he’s still alive, I’ll do everything to get him out.” Ruan Xuezong spoke gently, then frowned.

Easier said than done. In his previous life, the Flower Plucking Thief had terrorized Jiangnan City too, and the underground palace rumor only surfaced years later. Even if he’d exposed it early this time, he still had no idea where the exact entrance was.

Did that mean he’d have to wait years again? By then, those victims would be cold corpses turned to bones.

Just as the group was at a loss, Ruan Xuezong noticed something odd: one player hadn’t popped up to fawn over him in two days.

That was highly unusual.

“Where’s Young Hero Linghu? I don’t think I’ve seen him in two days,” Ruan Xuezong said aloud, voicing his puzzlement.

The moment he spoke, the players looked around and realized Linghu Xiao really was missing. Ruan Xuezong fell silent for a second at this display of the players’ flimsy camaraderie.

The players hadn’t noticed at first, but once they did, the chatter exploded. “Whoa, Linghu Big Bro really hasn’t logged in for two days! Is he slacking off like this? If he doesn’t grind harder, someone’s gonna pass him on the leaderboards.”

“Maybe he’s still beating up his cousin in real life? Gotta say, go easy on the little guy—one or two beatdowns to vent is plenty. No need for a full two-day marathon.”

“Don’t forget, Laugh Bro’s a total wage slave. His boss probably kidnapped him. Every manager dreams of that year-end performance rush, and every drone has to help make it happen, willing or not.”

“Hahaha, you guys are onto something… Everyone, charge! While Linghu Big Bro’s AFK, let’s boot him off the leaderboards!”

Amid the players’ laughter, a forum post blew up the game’s boards.

—【Help! It’s me, Linghu Xiao! I’ve been kidnapped (sobbing)! No clue where I am—coords: Jiangnan City 1719, 2430】