Is that what love is truly like? Feng Yun’ai didn’t know.
“What do you want to do now?” Sang Chencao asked.
“I’m going up Listening Goose Peak,” Feng Yun’ai said coldly, tucking the jade pendant away.
Since things had come to this, Sang Chencao had no intention of stopping her. She also wanted to see if any clues remained on the peak.
Feng Yun’ai didn’t wait for an answer. She turned to leave, saying, “You can head back to the inn to rest. If I’m caught, I won’t let it implicate you.”
“Xiuxiu, you’re so considerate,” Sang Chencao said, tossing her branch aside and dusting off her hands. “But I don’t feel like going back to the inn anymore.”
Feng Yun’ai frowned. “On the way here, you wanted to stop and rest a thousand times. You’re not tired now?”
“How could I be tired when I’m with Xiuxiu?” Sang Chencao teased.
Feng Yun’ai didn’t actually want this woman coming up the mountain with her. She had no way of knowing what wicked schemes the woman might still be hiding.
“Poor thing. I’ll accompany you on your raid of Listening Goose Peak. Perhaps we’ll even find a trace of Wen Lanxin,” Sang Chencao said with a smile. “I imagine Wen Lanxin hasn’t found Feng Rong’s body either; she must be quite frantic by now.”
Feng Yun’ai gave her a cold glare. “You are not to touch anything on Listening Goose Peak.”
“Not even a look?” Sang Chencao’s voice was strange, despite her plain, disguised face. “I want to see where Xiuxiu lived for all those years, how she practiced her sword, and what she did in her spare time.”
Feng Yun’ai remained silent for a long moment before answering, “There’s nothing worth seeing.”
It was just practicing the sword when busy and looking at flowers and birds when free. If Feng Rong wasn’t around, she would spend the whole day in silence, having no desire to speak to the flora or fauna—unlike this woman, who seemed perfectly happy talking to insects and snakes.
Talking to snakes is the truly strange thing, Feng Yun’ai thought. Does she actually expect them to talk back?
“I’ll be the judge of whether it’s worth seeing,” Sang Chencao said, looking around. “There are quite a few people buried here. How many of Feng Rong’s subordinates do you think we could find under these mats?”
Feng Yun’ai couldn’t answer. Based on what she saw, it was likely many. Feng Rong’s death had coincided with the New Alliance’s purge of the Hantian Alliance.
“Let’s have a look.” Sang Chencao turned in another direction.
Feng Yun’ai felt a dull ache in her chest. This wasn’t just Jade-Fall Heights; it was the graveyard of the Hantian Alliance. She didn’t want to see it, but she knew she had to witness the truth. Shivering with a cold that permeated her bones, she stepped forward.
Fortunately, Jade-Fall Heights wasn’t massive. Feng Yun’ai checked most of the headstones but found no familiar names. She paused, reaching down to touch the damp, fresh earth at her feet. She began to wonder if the people buried beneath were actually who the headstones claimed they were.
She wondered if Feng Rong’s body was under the soil right here, hidden beneath someone else’s tombstone to deceive the world.
Sang Chencao glanced over, took out her bug whistle, and blew a low note. “Xiuxiu, let me use the jade for a moment.”
Without even thinking, Feng Yun’ai handed it over.
Snakes and insects slithered toward them. As if they had been tamed for years, they huddled together obediently without biting one another.
Before Feng Yun’ai could ask what she was doing, the disguised woman bent down, her lips moving slightly. The sound that came out wasn’t human speech; it was a series of hisses, exactly like a snake.
Her mimicry was flawless. It was impossible to tell where the human ended and the serpent began.
Feng Yun’ai watched in a daze. It really did look as though this woman was having a casual conversation with the vermin of the earth.
For a moment, she suspected Sang Chencao was a monster in human skin. Calling her a demoness was no exaggeration.
She half-expected that if Sang Chencao stuck out her tongue, it would be forked like a serpent’s.
After a while, Sang Chencao finally stopped. She tucked the bug whistle back into her belt and said nonchalantly, “Feng Rong isn’t in the ground. Her body isn’t anywhere else in Jade-Fall Heights either. She was definitely taken away.”
Feng Yun’ai had already suspected as much.
The snakes and insects scattered. Their unnatural obedience vanished instantly as they began to fight and coil around each other, while the more timid ones vanished into the distance.
Sang Chencao returned the jade. “However, quite a few Hantian Alliance members are buried here. Their scents are very similar; they must have been Feng Rong’s direct followers.”
She counted on her fingers with a flat expression. “There are fifteen of them.”
Feng Yun’ai had expected this too. Those people would have spared no effort to eliminate Feng Rong’s inner circle. Even with Feng Rong dead, they wanted to grind her blades into the dust.
“The body is important. If some irrelevant person took it, Zhou Gui would be frantic,” Sang Chencao sneered. “It seems we have no choice but to infiltrate Listening Goose Peak and the New Alliance. Let’s go pay Zhou Gui a visit.”
Feng Yun’ai left Jade-Fall Heights in silence.
In the dead of night, the once-bustling Cloud City was as silent as a tomb. Not a single festive lantern was lit. Everything was shrouded in darkness, save for the extinguished lanterns swaying in the gloom.
Yet, despite the desolation, patrols were everywhere. They were like woodworms, boring into every corner of Cloud City until it was riddled with holes.
Feng Yun’ai melted into the night, heading toward Listening Goose Peak. Fortunately, her lightness skill was superb. Even with guards carrying lanterns everywhere, she bypassed them with ease.
A figure followed silently behind her, moving with equal grace.
At the base of Listening Goose Peak sat the former headquarters of the Hantian Alliance. The alliance’s plaque had been torn down, and the guards at the gate were no longer the faces she remembered.
Feng Yun’ai circled to the other side, choosing a treacherous path up the mountain. Unexpectedly, there was a guard stationed halfway up the slope. The man was half-asleep, snoring as he leaned against a tree.
Seeing him asleep, she didn’t want to waste time on him. Just as she was about to glide past, a pebble whizzed past her ear and struck the man squarely on the side of his neck.
Feng Yun’ai snapped her head around to look at Sang Chencao.
Sang Chencao simply smiled, looking as though she were perfectly happy to be scolded.
