Chapter 126

Chapter 126: The Old Wolf God

Unlike the time in Tanjia Village when he left a letter for his future potential junior disciples, this time he didn't hide the letter, but directly entrusted it to someone else for delivery. Mei Yinghan also used the method of scrambling the words on the page.

This naturally took more time.

Bai Zhengliu watched from the side. He saw him first write a clear letter that outlined the three most urgent matters: Old Master Chang is “Song Lang,” Old Master Chang is in contact with others who practice the "Star Capture Record," and that he and Bai Zhengliu would likely return from Jingzhou City after eight or nine days and should reach Mount Tian as soon as possible… It was concise and to the point, just over a hundred words. Then, he began to rearrange the content on the paper.

The swordsman was stunned, feeling that his lover was almost performing magic.

After rearranging, the hundred or so words changed, except for the third point. The first two points had been altered. It still mentioned the Song family, but now referred to it as “The scene of the murderer’s disappearance was quite strange” and “If he really escapes, this person will surely cause trouble in the future.”

Bai Zhengliu clicked his tongue in amazement, unable to resist saying, “You write so smoothly, won't the elders think this is the truth?”

After a moment of contemplation, Mei Yinghan replied, “I’ll add a mark to it.”

Bai Zhengliu looked on eagerly.

He saw his lover add a small ink mark at the bottom of the letter. It wasn’t large, but it was still clear enough to be seen when the letter was opened, showing what he had written.

“This is proper now,” Mei Yinghan said.

Bai Zhengliu nodded, getting a little closer, and gently waved his hand to help the paper dry faster.

After a while, he noticed Mei Yinghan's gaze and tilted his head in confusion.

Mei Yinghan's eyes flickered, then he smiled, “I suddenly thought…”

Bai Zhengliu asked, “What?”

Mei Yinghan thought to himself, “It’s probably because I previously had a 'black leopard' association with your movements. Now, watching you wave the letter like this, it also feels like a big cat moving its paws.”

He said aloud, “Earlier, Yu Han and Han Shu sent us that letter about a month after they left. Now, we are in the same situation as them.”

Bai Zhengliu clicked his tongue, “True.” Counting the days, “They’ve been gone for over a hundred days, I wonder where they are now.”

Mei Yinghan calculated the distance, “The sect they were assigned to deliver the letter from is quite far. To reach them, we would have to cross the Central Plains. And some are waiting, so it might be autumn or even the end of the year before they return.”

Bai Zhengliu sighed, “Sigh.”

The swordsman sighed for no apparent reason.

Now, the one in doubt became the swordsman.“I was just pondering,” Bai Zhengliu smiled when he met his lover’s gaze, “Now that we both understand ‘spiritual energy’ and know many things we hadn’t imagined before, since we can use a little bit of spiritual light to help the Golden Lock Red Sand find people, are there any other methods that could help us speed up our journey?”

Mei Yinghan fell into thought.

“I’m not asking for it to be too fast,” Bai Zhengliu spread his hands, then changed to a palm-down position. The Twenty-Eight Generals immediately flew towards him upon sensing their master's movement.

The sword sheath pressed steadily into his palm. The swordsman said, “…Hmm, with the Twenty-Eight Generals, this speed is already quite good.”

Mei Yinghan smiled. He sealed the nearly completed letter, ensuring that the marks would be visible once the letter was opened, then said, “This is still pretty fast.”

Bai Zhengliu’s lips curved slightly, almost as if he had chuckled.

“However,” Mei Yinghan said, “In the future, who knows, this might really be the case—well, let’s sleep now, Zhengliu.”

The night had already passed halfway, but there was still some time before dawn. Given their physical conditions after drawing spiritual energy into their bodies, this time was enough for them both to rest.

Bai Zhengliu: “Alright, sleep.”

……

……

After waking up, Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan handed the new letter to the constables, then took entirely different paths.

Two days later, the two returned to Jingzhou. However, instead of going to the Cheng family, they first went to the theater in the southern part of the city.

That day, they didn’t perform "The Dream Seeking Tale," but instead staged a story about a scholar meeting a goddess. The audience below seemed thoroughly absorbed, with some even humming along when the actors sang their lines on stage.

It seemed that even on days when they weren’t performing their famous work, the Le Shan troupe still had business.

Bai Zhengliu shook his head and quietly said to the swordsman by his side, “I remember the way. Let’s go directly inside.”

With that, the swordsman nodded. The two moved with stealthy grace, bypassing the crowd, and soon arrived at the courtyard where Bai Zhengliu had been led before.

This place, however, was vastly different from when he had last come.

“Yin energy,” Bai Zhengliu remarked, “but it’s quite faint.”

Mei Yinghan: “…It’s like something has been here,” he looked around at the building, inspecting it for a moment, “but it didn’t stay long.”

Bai Zhengliu thought the same. The small courtyard in front of him certainly had yin energy, but the dark, oppressive energy swirling above it was not as intense as that of the Cheng family. It was even less comparable to the places where the old ghosts of Mount Tian and the Chang family resided.But they still had to look deeper. With that thought, Bai Zhengliu said to Mei Yinghan, “Let’s go inside.”

Mei Yinghan nodded.

The two of them quietly infiltrated. Inside the courtyard, it was clear that someone was preparing weapons for a performance, yet none of them noticed the swordsman and the swordsman’s companion.

Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan had a clear goal in mind, and they headed straight toward the area where the yin energy was most concentrated. When they arrived, they discovered it was a small room. The door and windows were tightly shut, but just standing at the entrance, they could hear faint voices inside.

Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan focused and listened carefully. The voice was saying, “...The fresh meat you offered earlier, is it not to your taste? We’ve already removed it and replaced it with freshly bought pork and lamb. If the Immortal Master has spiritual presence, he should come...”

Bai Zhengliu whispered, “It’s the troupe leader.”

Mei Yinghan: “‘Immortal Master’?”

Bai Zhengliu’s face twitched, and his tone became strange. “Isn’t he talking about the old ghost of the Chang family?”

Mei Yinghan silently looked at him, his gaze saying: “Zhengliu, you’ve dealt with him before, what do you think?”

Bai Zhengliu muttered, “Even if I’ve met the troupe leader once, I wouldn’t know...” He thought for a moment, then added, “But he mentioned ‘freshly bought pork and lamb,’ so it seems he hasn’t harmed anyone?”

Mei Yinghan said, “If that’s the case, we could just ask directly.”

Bai Zhengliu said, “Let’s listen a bit more.”

Mei Yinghan agreed.

But as they listened further, the troupe leader’s words didn’t provide much new information. He repeatedly muttered that the “Immortal Master” had shown kindness to the people in their troupe, and that if it weren’t for the Immortal Master, they wouldn’t even know where they were now. Everyone in the Le Shan troupe would surely follow the Immortal Master’s orders, and they hoped the Immortal Master would not abandon them.

It truly seemed to show some sincerity.

Bai Zhengliu thought for a moment, leaned close to Mei Yinghan’s ear, and whispered a few words.

Mei Yinghan pondered for a moment, then nodded.

After a while, the troupe leader raised his head and looked at the meat on the offering table, which hadn’t changed at all, and sighed deeply.

His heart was both regretful and disappointed… Just as his thoughts were moving, he heard a long “creak” from the window.

The troupe leader shuddered and suddenly turned his head to look. He saw nothing outside the window, no one in sight.

Yet, his heart continued to race. He quickened his steps, approached the window, and leaned out to look left and right. Finally, his gaze moved to the window latch, which had been properly locked by himself.

The man licked his lips and slowly withdrew his head—just at that moment, he heard a sharp “clack” behind him.The troupe leader's "slow" movements instantly turned into rapid ones. He quickly turned around and saw the dishes that were originally placed on the offering table scattered all over the ground. His pupils suddenly contracted, staring in shock and disbelief at this scene. Just at that moment, a new sound suddenly came from the side.

“You cursed thing,” a strange, low voice came, full of authority. “You dare to follow such an evil path and harm others, tarnishing my reputation in the theatrical world!”

The troupe leader trembled all over, abruptly looking toward the direction from where the voice came. He saw the old wolf god statue, which had been placed on the other side of the room.

The old wolf god was the ancestor of the theatrical arts, who founded the troupe. Naturally, they had to remember to continue the offerings for him. But before today, the troupe leader had never really paid much attention to that portrait. After all, the figure in the painting was fictitious. The “Immortal Master,” who had provided him with scripts and helped him gather a troupe, and allowed him to live the life he had today, was real.

Unexpectedly, had this provoked the old wolf god’s anger?

The troupe leader's heart raced violently. For a moment, he felt as if he hadn't woken up from a dream. But before he could react, new sounds came from the portrait side.

The voice became sharp, saying, “If you were just worshiping evil sorcerers, that would be one thing. But you even drew a formation on the roof of the Cheng family’s daughter’s house, intending to harm her! Do you know your crime?!”

With a “thud,” the troupe leader immediately knelt down.

The "old wolf god statue"—which was actually Bai Zhengliu, who had hidden his figure beside the portrait and lowered his voice—saw this reaction and knew he was right. The troupe leader's guilty response proved that Bai Zhengliu had hit the mark.

“Ancestor!” the troupe leader cried, “Is it really you? Is it really you?!”

“Don’t call me that,” Bai Zhengliu said lightly. “Whether you are truly part of the profession or not, you know in your heart.”

“Know in my heart”... The troupe leader indeed knew.

Several months ago, he was just an old farmer outside the city. His health had always been poor, and he wasn’t good at farming.

His life had been a constant cycle of hunger and fullness, his old wife had passed away, and his relationship with his children was strained. He had once thought that he would have no hopes in this life, but one night, while drinking, he vaguely heard the “Immortal Master” guiding him. The Immortal Master told him to go to a specific place at a certain time the next day, where he would have a task to perform.

The next day, after the troupe leader woke up from his drunken stupor, he saw a set of new clothes in front of him. Although the clothes weren’t made from the best materials, anyone with a discerning eye would have found them inferior. But for a man who had lived his entire life as a farmer, they were already good enough.

In an instant, he realized that his dream the previous night wasn’t just a dream. Or rather, it wasn’t just a dream—this opportunity had truly fallen from the sky and hit him on the head.

The troupe leader immediately made up his mind. He would seize this opportunity, and no one could stop him! With this thought in mind, he didn’t leave a message for anyone else. He simply changed into the new clothes and, by the afternoon, arrived at a courtyard.

There, he met the members of the troupe.

Everyone had a look of confusion mixed with anticipation. They exchanged glances and figured out that they were all brought here by the “Immortal Master,” but none of them knew exactly what they were brought here for... Just then, a warm voice came drifting through the wind, along with a script.

The Dream Seeking Tale.

The "Immortal Master" said that after writing this play, he had always wanted to find someone to perform it. But after approaching several troupes, he was dissatisfied with all of them. They always had their old plays to perform, and they weren’t interested in this new, unheard-of script. After hearing their reasoning, the “Immortal Master” understood and made the decision to form his own troupe to rehearse and perform it.In the end, the people he found had no other tasks to do anymore.

—In the days that followed, the troupe leader realized that, compared to others, his previous situation had actually been quite good.

Although he had lost his wife and his relationship with his children had become strained, at least he knew who was still in his family, and where his ancestral home was. Unlike the other members, many of them had actually been sold or kidnapped. Even when they heard the words "Jingzhou," they would be confused for a moment, slowly realizing how far away this place was from their former homes. Even though they had been saved by the "Immortal Master," they could never return.

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