Chapter 125

Chapter 125

Chapter 125: The Letter

The candlelight in the room flared up again, revealing the face of the messenger. Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan immediately recognized him as the county clerk they had seen earlier that day at the Song residence.

Looking more closely, there was no trace of Yin energy on him—he was definitely alive.

Bai and Mei had their doubts but still welcomed him into the room, asking at the same time, “What did you say? A letter?”

“This is it!” The clerk pulled something from his chest. Bai and Mei glanced at it and indeed saw an envelope. Fresh wax seals made it immediately clear that it was newly sealed.

The clerk explained, “Our master personally sealed it. After we found this at the Song residence, my brothers first took it to show him. Once he saw it, he called my name and asked me to deliver it to the two of you as soon as possible.”

Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan: “Hmm…”

The clerk scratched his head, revealing a somewhat simple, honest smile. “Our master said, if the two of you can understand it, please write a reply based on the content of this letter and I’ll bring it back to him. If you can’t understand it, then just let me take the original back.”

Bai and Mei: “…” They understood—so the county magistrate’s plan was to use them as free translators.

The sword and blade travelers didn’t mind this minor detail; after all, during the day, the coroner had already helped them once with the magistrate’s permission.

But what kind of letter could be so confusing that even the county magistrate couldn’t understand it, yet he thought the two of them could?

Curiosity piqued, they used the candlelight to open the envelope and pull out the contents.

What they saw were indeed words—but upon closer inspection, each character seemed completely unrelated to the next. Calling it “the ramblings of a drunk” was too mild; Bai Zhengliu felt it was a jumble of randomly chosen characters patched together.

His eyelids twitched slightly as he looked away from the paper, glancing at his lover.

Originally, he thought, “This thing… even if it’s me, I wouldn’t…” But seeing his lover, Bai Zhengliu’s expression changed.

The reason was simple.

Mei Yinghan was still intently reading the contents of the paper. His lips moved slightly. The clerk delivering the letter was too far away to hear him, but Bai Zhengliu could make out snippets: “Top three, bottom four… left five, right two…”

Bai Zhengliu’s Adam’s apple rolled once; he fell silent.

He realized that Mei Yinghan was silently reciting what seemed to be some kind of pattern.

And when he compared the “pattern” his lover was murmuring to the jumble of seemingly unrelated characters on the paper, Bai Zhengliu was astonished to discover that he could almost understand parts of it.

…

…“In Tianshan, the masters didn’t just teach us martial arts—they also taught us other things.”

As he said this, Mei Yinghan had already finished translating the letter and handed it back to the courier.

It was late, and the messenger had already been running around for half a day; he was exhausted. He didn’t leave the inn but booked a room there, said goodbye to Bai and Mei, and went to sleep on his own.

This left Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan alone together. At this point, Mei Yinghan spoke, explaining to Bai Zhengliu:

“One of the techniques involves writing secret letters. It’s said to have been passed down from the Patriarch. Back then, during the wars, many messages needed to be kept secret. Although there were physical methods, the Patriarch preferred to focus on the content of the letters themselves.”

Bai Zhengliu nodded. “So it’s a method of scrambling all the characters in a letter and then using some technique to reorganize them?”

Mei Yinghan nodded. “Exactly—but the Patriarch’s method would have been even more careful than today’s letter. The old letters preserved by the Tianshan sect look one way at first glance, but when decoded carefully, they reveal a different meaning.”

Bai Zhengliu thought of the young Mei Yinghan leaning over a desk, deep in thought, and found it strangely amusing.

He laughed a little before asking, “And then?”

Mei Yinghan held the letter and explained, “For example, I once saw a letter where the first character was "I" — "May all my friends be well". This character starts from the left, so the real first character has to be found from the left… Now, for this letter, look.”

Bai Zhengliu: “It’s the character ‘Autumn’. Hmm, so we start from the right?”

Mei Yinghan nodded. “Then look at how many strokes the character has—whether it’s a full character or split into left and right parts.”

Bai Zhengliu: “I see. So the real first character is in the second column, the ninth character.”

Mei Yinghan smiled. “Correct.”

Bai Zhengliu: “Once we find the real first character, we can start using the mnemonic you were reciting earlier, right?”

Mei Yinghan thought for a moment and corrected his lover: “It’s not really a mnemonic; it’s derived from the first few characters of the letter. In short, this letter says that the old ghost of the Chang family wants to tell someone that he’s currently in Jingzhou City. He’s just killed many people and used their fresh flesh to maintain his body. Most importantly, some of that flesh came from his own child.

“So his current condition is very good. He’s even found new prey—it’s the perfect time for him to show his skills.”

Bai Zhengliu objectively commented, “Using the phrase ‘show his skills’ here is a bit frightening.”

Mei Yinghan said, “That’s the original text he wrote.”

Bai Zhengliu smiled. “I understand that naturally. Hmm… afterward… he wrote that he used the opera script as a pretext so he could get acquainted with the Cheng family lady and grow close to her much faster than before…” He frowned, murmuring, “So it really was for this purpose.”

Mei Yinghan: “There is one bit of good news. If his target has always been the Cheng family lady, then conversely, no other women in Jingzhou City were harmed.”Bai Zhengliu felt conflicted. After a long pause, he said, “Well, that is indeed good news.”

But just thinking that, he couldn’t help recalling the corpses displayed in the Song family residence.

The swordsman drew a long breath and decided to continue reading the letter, partly to distract himself.

“Oh, he asks about the recipient—how they are doing now.” As he spoke, Bai Zhengliu’s fingers tightened slightly.

The softness on Mei Yinghan’s face also faded, replaced by a solemn expression.

“Not just ‘the other party,’” Mei Yinghan said. “The old ghost of the Chang family mentioned many people here, but he didn’t clearly write their identities or names—he just referred to them as ‘your brother,’ ‘your friend,’ and so on…”

Bai Zhengliu’s expression darkened completely. “The old ghost of the Chang family is alone, but his correspondents are not! Damn it, how many are there on the other side? And how many are still cultivating that forbidden technique!?”

Who would have thought? In just one night, Bai Zhengliu’s emotions had gone through such intense fluctuations.

Before falling asleep earlier, he had still thought that at least one threat had been eliminated. The old ghost of the Chang family had harmed people in two locations; this seemed to suggest that not many people knew about the Star-Plucking Record. Thinking about the previous incidents they encountered: on the Tan family side, Madame Meng’s resentment contaminated the spirit stone; the old ghost of Tianshan had been locked away in the mountains by Senior Chang Yangzi; and after that, there was just one old ghost of the Chang family.

Now that he had slain the old ghost, many people might have been saved by this act—yet recalling that recent relief, a chill ran through Bai Zhengliu’s heart.

How much time had passed? The swordsman realized that the number of people who knew about the Star-Plucking Record was probably far beyond what he had imagined! Not only that, these sorcerers were connected to each other, exchanging letters detailing ways to harm others.

Realizing this, Bai Zhengliu’s hands trembled slightly. Several breaths failed to suppress the anger and shock in his heart.

At that moment, a hand covered the back of his hand.

Following that hand upward, it was Mei Yinghan. It could only be Mei Yinghan.

His palm was dry and warm as always. At times like this, it gave Bai Zhengliu strength.

“Zhengliu,” he called the swordsman’s name, “at least now we know.”

Bai Zhengliu stared at Mei Yinghan silently, saying nothing.

“We know,” Mei Yinghan said, “so we have a chance to start preparing in advance.”

Bai Zhengliu still didn’t move, but he was listening intently.

Mei Yinghan knew this. He didn’t ask how his lover was feeling and instead analyzed, “From the contents of this letter, those connected to the old ghost of the Chang family usually stay in one place, likely disguised under some other identity.

“We may not be able to see through their disguises immediately, but one thing is certain: their forbidden arts rely on living flesh and blood as a sacrificial medium. That means many people are bound to disappear around them.”

Bai Zhengliu closed his eyes.He only felt the buzzing in his ears gradually fade, and slowly, he could follow Mei Yinghan’s train of thought and say, “So, what we need to know now is, which places consistently have a large number of people going missing…”

Mei Yinghan’s hand remained tightly clasped with his, and at this moment he nodded, “This kind of thing we two alone cannot investigate. We still need to write a letter back. Let Master inform the heads of the major sects, and they naturally have channels to contact the local authorities where their sects are located. I’ll write the letter now, and by tomorrow morning, we’ll ask that clerk to take it along.”

Of course, it wasn’t possible to have someone deliver it all the way to Tianshan. But giving the letter to a westbound merchant caravan—he believed the clerk could manage that.

Bai Zhengliu thought it over and also felt this was the best method for now. “Alright, let’s do it this way.”

Author’s note:

Here it comes!

The last day of vacation… so starting tomorrow, updates will be in the morning again!