Song of Everlasting Regret - Chapter 38

The following day, Yu Jingqiu remained in the ruined temple regulating her breathing.

By noon, Meng Kuzhuo still had not returned.

The young beggar had stubbornly refused to accept Yu Jingqiu’s silver, insisting that her master would need traveling expenses for the escort job. She had therefore gone out to beg with the others as usual.

Partway through the morning, one of the beggars ran back and announced that a wealthy merchant newly arrived in the eastern district was providing relief to the poor. Not only was he distributing porridge, but he was also giving away silver.

Anyone who arrived too late would receive nothing.

The quicker beggars immediately took off running upon hearing this.

Yu Jingqiu also needed to report for duty at the eastern docks, so she followed the group to the porridge stall.

She did not see Meng Kuzhuo there.

The beggar from earlier explained, “Ground Rat must have gone inside the merchant’s residence to collect silver. Not everyone gets any. The grand master standing nearby looks each person over, and anyone who catches his eye is allowed inside to receive money.”

The beggar smacked his lips enviously.

“Ground Rat is really lucky.”

Yu Jingqiu saw more than ten beggars following a servant away with delighted expressions. The wealthy merchant’s residence stood only a short distance from the porridge stall.

“I wonder whether that boy Ground Rat left as soon as he received the silver,” the beggar said. “If he returned first, the two of you might miss each other.”

After witnessing Yu Jingqiu’s abilities at the ruined temple, the beggars now treated her respectfully.

“Should I have the brothers help you look for him?”

Yu Jingqiu glanced at the sky.

“That will not be necessary. If you see her, tell her that I have left.”

“All right.”

Yu Jingqiu departed from the porridge stall and headed toward the docks.

After reporting for duty and boarding the ship, she discovered that they would be traveling by water.

The employer had kept both the cargo and the route strictly confidential for fear of information leaking.

This was an accepted custom in the trade. Lang Ye had mentioned it before, so Yu Jingqiu did not find it strange.

Two large vessels waited in the river.

One carried passengers, while the other transported the cargo.

Yu Jingqiu was not the only bodyguard hired through the brokerage house. More than a dozen people boarded one after another.

The employer was extremely generous, stocking the ship with fine wine and meat exclusively for their enjoyment.

Yu Jingqiu had little interest in such things.

She only hoped that if the employer truly possessed so much wealth, he would spend some of it where it mattered and provide them with better weapons.

The ships waited until nightfall.

Only then did a group of porters arrive with the cargo.

The light was dim. Standing beside the railing, Yu Jingqiu watched the men carry sack after sack onto the second ship.

She assumed the contents were salt, tea leaves, spices, or similar merchandise.

Yu Jingqiu sat upon the deck.

She continued to present herself in men’s clothing. Although she did not know whether anyone had noticed something unusual, the sleeping quarters assigned to her consisted of a communal platform in the same room as a group of bare-chested men.

She felt uncomfortable there and preferred to meditate upon the deck.

Mist drifted across the river at night.

Water murmured beneath them, a solitary moon hung overhead, and the cold wind seeped into her clothes.

An overwhelming desolation filled Yu Jingqiu’s heart, making it impossible to regulate her breathing.

The moon in the sky at this time last year had been the moon above Tiger Roar Mountain.

Today, she was far from home, seated upon a ship whose destination she did not know, drifting wherever the current carried her.

Yu Jingqiu sighed softly.

By now, Li Changhong had probably returned to the sect.

Since he wanted her eliminated, he would certainly spare no effort in fixing the accusations of murdering fellow disciples and betraying the sect firmly upon her head.

But why was he doing it?

For the position of sect master?

For revenge?

Or was someone else directing him?

Without knowing his objective, she could not predict how far he would go.

If Li Changhong desired the position of sect master, both she and Lou Jing had now been driven from the sect. Would he next act against Di Hou and Yun Yao?

Would the entire Qianyuan Sect be thrown into turmoil?

The Dewdrop Emerald Pearl had fallen into his hands, placing Martial Uncle Lou’s life entirely under his control.

Yu Jingqiu bitterly regretted that she possessed no miraculous art capable of carrying her a thousand li in a day and returning her to the sect within the blink of an eye.

Even though she knew he harbored treacherous intentions, she was powerless to stop him from harming Martial Uncle Lou.

External enemies were easy to defend against.

Even an army of thousands could not trample through the gates of the Qianyuan Sect.

But when a traitor arose within the family, no one needed to strike from outside. The sect would crumble apart from within.

Li Changhong would never permit her to return safely.

Moreover, she had not cleared her own name. If she accused an elder of the sect without any evidence, the outcome was easy to imagine.

Yet she could not allow Li Changhong to stir up chaos within the sect.

Nor could she leave her fellow disciples completely unsuspecting, exposing their backs to an enemy.

Where should she go from here?

Yu Jingqiu spent the night lost and uncertain.

In truth, deep within her heart, she had already known the answer.

The Qianyuan Sect was her home.

No matter how far she traveled, she could never sever her attachment to that place.

She had to return.

Even if she could not immediately reenter the sect, she still needed to make the journey and find some way to contact Yun Yao or Di Hou, warning them to remain vigilant.

The ships left the river and entered a canal, enjoying favorable winds throughout the journey.

Yu Jingqiu watched the scenery change.

Red flowers and green willows lined the banks beneath hazy rain. It somewhat resembled the Jiangnan region Lang Ye had described.

The journey remained exceptionally peaceful.

They encountered no river pirates.

Yu Jingqiu did not know whether their luck was unusually good, whether the region was simply secure, or whether the employer had worried unnecessarily.

The employer had hired several martial escorts and fed them like fattened pigs, supplying endless fine wine and dishes.

The escorts exerted little effort throughout the journey and instead gained a layer of fat.

After several days, the ships finally reached shore.

They arrived late at night.

By the time the escorts disembarked, the cargo had already been loaded onto several carts ahead of them. Large crates were covered beneath coarse cloth.

Yu Jingqiu and the other martial escorts followed at the rear of the convoy, accompanied by a group of the employer’s subordinates.

Everyone carried lanterns.

At first, the road was broad.

Later, it became winding and complicated. With the night completely dark, the route was difficult to remember.

After traveling for a long time, they entered the mountains.

Compared with the towering grandeur of Tiger Roar Mountain, these peaks were low and delicate.

Seen from afar beneath the deep blue-black sky, the dark mountains rose and fell in gentle waves.

After passing through a bamboo grove, they arrived at a manor.

Even from the smallest glimpse, its magnificence was obvious. One needed only to see the front gates to understand how imposing the estate was.

Yu Jingqiu faintly heard one of the people receiving the cargo ask, “Have both shipments arrived?”

Their group was escorted into the manor.

Someone came to settle the martial escorts, arrange a banquet, and pay the remainder of their fee.

Anyone unwilling to travel again in the darkness could also remain in the manor overnight.

Yu Jingqiu noticed that not only the employer’s subordinates, but even the people within the manor possessed steady breathing and moved with wind beneath their steps.

Every one of them clearly practiced martial arts.

If the employer already commanded so many skilled subordinates, why had he needed to hire outside escorts through a brokerage house?

Furthermore, throughout the entire journey, they had not encountered a single river pirate or mountain bandit.

Yu Jingqiu looked at the table covered in fine wine and rich dishes.

She lifted her cup and smelled it.

The manor possessed an indescribably strange atmosphere.

Perhaps everything she had recently endured had made her excessively suspicious…

Yu Jingqiu placed the wine back upon the table, drew the saber from the man seated beside her, and threw it onto the tabletop.

The martial escorts, who had been preparing to eat, all froze and stared at her with wide eyes.

“There is something drugged in the food and wine,” Yu Jingqiu said.

In truth, she had detected no unusual scent.

But the martial world contained countless methods she had never encountered. Odorless and tasteless sleeping drugs certainly existed.

She only made the claim so that they would remain cautious.

The escorts possessed far more experience in the martial world than she did, but merely looking without tasting told them nothing.

Their eyes shifted thoughtfully.

They summoned one of the servants who had delivered the food and wine.

The group swarmed him, sealed his acupoints, and forced a large quantity of the dishes and drink down his throat.

Half an incense stick later, the man collapsed with a thud and slept like a dead pig.

One escort immediately cursed.

“Damn it!”

The food truly had been drugged.

Guards stationed outside were highly alert.

Hearing the commotion, they immediately pushed open the door, only to be met by the escorts’ wildly descending blades.

The guard’s martial arts were not weak, but one saber still cut into his shoulder, forcing him to retreat hastily.

When his companion saw this, he moved quickly and removed an object from inside his robe.

After igniting it, a red light whistled into the sky, shining with an eerie crimson glow against the black night.

Yu Jingqiu rushed through the doorway.

Before the man who had launched the signal could lower his head, he felt his waist suddenly lighten.

His sword had been taken.

Yu Jingqiu drew it free, reversed the blade, and struck him upon the forehead with the hilt, knocking him unconscious.

The martial escorts surged out after her and attacked the remaining guards.

One shouted, “Bring your master here! What is the meaning of drugging our food and wine? Do you refuse to pay us, or are you trying to take our lives?”

Yu Jingqiu tapped her foot against the ground and used several points of support to fly onto the roof.

A sudden drilling pain stabbed through her knee.

Her body swayed, and she barely regained her balance.

She had used her movement art too forcefully.

The injury had not fully healed and could not withstand the strain.

Looking down, she saw reinforcements rushing toward them and immediately shouted a warning.

The dozen escorts below heard her and understood the danger.

Two fists could not defeat four hands, particularly within another person’s territory.

Although fury burned within them, they would have to wait until after escaping to release it.

They hurriedly withdrew.

Those skilled in qinggong followed Yu Jingqiu across the rooftops in search of a path.

The others climbed trees and walls below, keeping pace as best they could.

But the manor was enormous, with twisting paths like a labyrinth.

The farther they traveled, the more it seemed they were moving deeper into the estate.

The number of guards along the way diminished, and their surroundings grew increasingly silent.

Any disturbance became exceptionally clear.

Then they heard a great commotion ahead.

Several carts carrying the cargo stood beside the path.

The coarse coverings had been pulled away.

Beneath them were not ordinary cargo compartments, but iron cages as tall as a person.

Everyone’s eyes contracted at the sight.

A vein bulged from the corner of one man’s brow to his forehead.

“Damn their ancestors! That employer is a trafficker!”

Each iron cage contained people.

The cargo they had transported was made up of living human beings.

Yu Jingqiu’s thoughts moved like lightning.

In an instant, every strange detail from the journey became clear.

These people were a gang of human traffickers.

The so-called cargo consisted entirely of living captives, abducted through some unknown method, stuffed into sacks, and loaded aboard the cargo ship.

When the man said that both shipments had arrived, one shipment referred to the prisoners in these cages.

The other had walked into the manor on its own two feet.

It was their group of hired escorts.

The men guarding the cargo opened the cage doors.

They dragged out the frightened captives curled inside, beating and cursing them as they drove them forward toward some unknown destination.

They happened to encounter the fleeing martial escorts.

Before the man in front could draw his saber, Yu Jingqiu moved like a flash of lightning.

Her sword gleamed and cut across his hand.

He groaned and clutched the wound.

Yu Jingqiu’s scabbard shot forward and struck one of his acupoints.

The other escorts rushed after her.

Some acted according to their own sense of justice and refused to tolerate the trafficking of human lives.

Most simply attacked because the guards blocked their path.

Together, they charged forward and scattered the convoy escorting the “cargo.”

Seeing the sudden upheaval, the abducted captives screamed, struggled, and fled in every direction.

The captives, the hired martial escorts, and the manor’s people became entangled in battle, throwing the entire area into chaos.

Yu Jingqiu swept her gaze through the crowd and suddenly froze.

The abducted people wore ragged clothing. Their hair was loose and tangled, their bodies filthy.

Every single one of them was a beggar.

The ship had departed from the eastern docks of the city where Yu Jingqiu had stayed.

Apart from loading cargo on the night of departure, it had taken on nothing elsewhere.

Where these beggars had come from was obvious.

Yu Jingqiu immediately thought of the wealthy merchant distributing porridge and silver before she left.

Using charity as a pretense, he had lured away beggars.

Although Yu Jingqiu possessed no proof, the more she considered it, the more likely it seemed.

Abducting beggars was exceedingly easy.

Who would notice if several disappeared?

No one cared whether they lived or died.

Yu Jingqiu’s heart dropped.

A chill entered her throat, and her entire body trembled.

The young beggar had also gone to the porridge stall.

The others had said she caught someone’s eye and followed a servant into the residence to receive silver.

Yu Jingqiu leaped onto one of the prison carts and looked down over the crowd.

“Kuzhuo!”

She called twice.

Suddenly, someone shouted, “Master! Master!”

Yu Jingqiu turned.

The young beggar was jumping up and down and waving toward her.

Yu Jingqiu flew down beside her.

Meng Kuzhuo truly had been abducted.

Her earlier guess was correct.

The so-called wealthy merchant had probably belonged to this manor and had used the promise of charity to lure away beggars.

Relief filled Yu Jingqiu upon finding her.

Yet precisely because she had found her here, worry tightened her brows.

Nothing about this manor was simple.

She did not know what powerful force operated behind it.

They had managed to enter, but whether they could leave remained uncertain.

The young beggar, however, did not appear afraid at all.

The moment she saw Yu Jingqiu, she smiled brilliantly, revealing two small canine teeth.

“Stay beside Master.”

“All right.”

While chaos filled this part of the manor, someone elsewhere had already reported the matter to the person in charge.

“Master Yao, something went wrong with today’s shipment.”

The man continued handling the medicine in his hands, showing no concern.

“Oh?”

“The group of strong captives who know martial arts somehow discovered the Red Sleeve Incense. They have escaped toward the eastern courtyard.”

The man released a sinister, cackling laugh.

“Escape? Where could they possibly go?

“Once someone enters the Manor of the Dead, they can never leave alive.”