TGCFNM -Chapter 268 I Rely on Intuition

After entering the room, although Chu Ling removed the miniature arrows, she didn’t immediately start applying the poison. Instead, she looked at Bai Su, eager to understand what she meant by “everything leaves a trace.”

Bai Su sighed as she looked at Chu Ling: “It’s actually quite simple. Gugu’s daughter was named Mingyue, and my sect is called the Mingyue Sect. Our first sect leader was also named Mingyue, so our library contains introductions about the Wu Clan.”

“The Mingyue Sect is one of the major sects in our region, similar to today’s Tianjian Sect. When selecting disciples, they generally choose from families affiliated with the Mingyue Sect. My family had a body condition that required special care, so I went to the Mingyue Sect.”

“Ten years after I joined the sect, one of the sect’s uncles defected, taking some things with him. Those things enraged our sect leader at the time so much that she mobilized everyone from the Discipline Hall to catch him, but they still couldn’t. And I’ve told you before, Bai Zhuoxing also began learning martial arts and medicine ten years after I entered the sect, and he may have apprenticed under that very uncle of mine.”

“In fact, during all those years in the Mingyue Sect, I didn’t know such ruthless medical techniques existed. So it should be that the first sect leader, Mingyue, distilled a new set of techniques and medical arts from them and taught them to the later disciples. The original Wu Clan methods were shelved and untouched—until my uncle stole them.”

Chu Ling understood: “So the method of the poisonous insects actually came from that traitorous uncle of the Mingyue Sect.”

Bai Su nodded: “Very likely.”

The Ghost Scholar tapped his folding fan: “No wonder you said the source of everything was already predestined.”

Bai Su looked at Ling Da: “The origin of everything lies with the Wu Clan. After they disappeared, the Mingyue Sect soon ceased to exist as well.”

Hesitating, Chu Ling tugged at Bai Su’s sleeve: “What happened to the people of the Mingyue Sect?”

“Two years after I chased Bai Zhuoxing out of the sect, I returned….” Bai Su paused, sorrow in her eyes. “The entire sect was in ruins. Burn marks were everywhere, and wild grass was already growing vigorously from beneath the charred broken pillars. That is to say, the fire had long since passed.”

“I asked others, but they only said that overnight, a great fire consumed everything. No disciple was seen escaping, and no one dared enter the raging flames. The Mingyue Sect was completely gone.”

Chu Ling frowned: “Even if it was a fire, how could martial artists not escape? The only possibility is that they couldn’t move. So maybe they were poisoned, or perhaps their limbs were restrained.”

Bai Su nodded: “I investigated too, but other matters came up, so I only looked into it in passing. Even until my death, I never knew the reason.”

Chu Ling regretfully held Bai Su’s hand, silently comforting her.

At that moment, Ling Da suddenly pointed at Chu Ling: “Mingyue betrayed the gods, a great crime. The Snow Ghost will surely bring down heavenly fire to punish him.”

Chu Ling turned and glared at Ling Da.

Ling Da held his hands in a strange pose and looked seriously at Chu Ling: “After the Snow Ghost’s key opens the temple, the statue within will be raised to the heavens, and the treasures of the gods will appear before your eyes. But the instant you take any treasure, the god will punish you, and the temple will ultimately sink into the divine pool.”

Chu Ling looked at him in surprise: “You’re telling me to destroy the temple. Destroying it would cause it to sink?”

Ling Da thought for a moment: Seems that could work.

“The god’s guidance is timed. Once the Wu God enters the divine treasury, he can only stay briefly to receive the god’s mandate,” Ling Da explained.

“How brief?” Chu Ling asked.

Ling Da considered: “The same time it took you to drink your soup just now.”

Chu Ling: “!” That fast?!

“One last thing,” Ling Da said, looking at Chu Ling. “You might really be human, not the Snow Ghost. But I feel you are the Snow Ghost, so I’ll tell you: the Wu God said, left or right is death, up or down is death. Only the direction guided by the god is your path to life.”

Chu Ling took a deep breath, unsure what expression to show.

If she were angry, Ling Da was technically helping him. If she were grateful, he couldn’t even feel it.

Ling Da pressed his palms devoutly against his forehead and closed his eyes. “Snow Ghost, I hope you survive. If you can’t… I’ll take you to live in the place of the gods.”

Chu Ling: “……” She truly couldn’t muster even a shred of gratitude.

—

After a quick tidy-up, Chu Ling and Wan Sanjin hung their jade tokens at their waists, gathered their belongings, and—under everyone’s worried gazes—straightened their backs. With a grand wave of her hand, Chu Ling strode boldly toward the gathering place.

By now, quite a few people had already arrived at the square of the Tianjian Sect. Those who knew one another stood together in small groups—and they were all rather elderly powerhouses.

Chu Ling frowned slightly. Looks like stealing the Divine Water right under their noses won’t be easy.

Wan Sanjin was meanwhile curiously eyeing the hairpin in Chu Ling’s hair. “My lord, you really like that hairpin, huh?”

Chu Ling lowered her voice and answered quickly, “Key to the Divine Hall.”

Wan Sanjin nearly jumped. “Has Sect Master Mei frozen his brains out living in that thatched cottage?”

Chu Ling spread her hands. Who knows?

Wan Sanjin sighed and casually looked around.

Suddenly, his gaze froze. He pointed excitedly in one direction and shouted, “My lord, my lord! Zhang Zhenfeng!”

“What?!” Chu Ling lit up. “How does he deserve to enter the treasury? Hahahahaha!”

“Wow, it feels like even Heaven is standing on our side.” Wan Sanjin spread his arms and tilted his head up toward the sky, as if he wanted to give Heaven a big hug.

Chu Ling quickly yanked his arms down and whispered, “Gui Wushuang.”

Wan Sanjin immediately looked over. Sure enough, Gui Wushuang was standing beside Yuan Luo, the two of them slightly lowering their heads as they chatted.

Yuan Luo wore that perfect smile on his face, while Gui Wushuang bore an astonishingly beautiful corpse-like face, his expression hardly changing at all.

Wan Sanjin folded his arms and clicked his tongue, a deliberately provocative look appearing on his face. “My lord, don’t you think Bai Zhuoxing isn’t that old, yet his hair is completely white? Maybe he was born that way? And this Gui Wushuang also has a full head of white hair. Think the two of them might be related?”

Chu Ling whipped her head around in shock, then—smack!—slapped Wan Sanjin on the shoulder hard enough to knock him sideways.

“I think so too!” she declared firmly.

Wan Sanjin stared at her in disbelief. “My lord, don’t you care about evidence?”

Chu Ling’s eyes darted. “When you’re as capable as I am, sometimes you rely on intuition. Yes—intuition.”

Wan Sanjin grew tense. “Then… if they really are related?”

Chu Ling pressed her lips into a thin line, her gaze fixed thoughtfully on Gui Wushuang in the distance. “Then he’s the second Miss Guo.”

Wan Sanjin looked at her. “So Bai Zhuoxing is doing all this for him… Then we should be getting close to him right now!”

With that, before Chu Ling could even react, Wan Sanjin grabbed her and dragged her straight toward Gui Wushuang. Plastering on what he believed was a very friendly expression, he greeted the two of them:

“Hello, I’m Wan Sanjin, second son of the Wan family—the richest family in the Great Zhou.”