Tu Caihe"s story was dark and dramatic.It told of lifeless alleys and haunting shadows that made the heart of the dark demon city. A terrifying power that was unknown, powerful, and unpredictable. It left those with lesser courage trembling with anxiety.
Xia An was pale and nodded, expressing that Tu Caihe"s story was without exaggerations and the terrors within Xinlie were in fact as horrible and horrific.
The war council continued late into the night.
Peng Zhugen refused to admit that he was exhausted after it was all over and forced a reluctant Liu Suye to join him for a drink. The war tents scattered across the fields were not too lively, people walking back and forth with hushed whispers as though their enemies miles away might glimmer an advantage over them. Even the spirit lights were mostly dimmed, despite Peng Zhugen painstakingly setting up a disorientating array on top of a camouflage one that encompa.s.sed the entire camp.
Apparently there was no one around to appreciate his hard work, and thus he was in a bit of a mood.
His tent was big and fully furnished to reflect his status. There was a long wooden desk and a bed on the other side. Liu Suye was slouched over sitting at the table in the center of the tent, using his own knee as a headrest, completely foregoing any sense of dignity and refinement.
"Aren"t you tired? Ah, I"m so tired. Just how many hours went by in that council? You should spare me of this and let me go and sleep. I"ll even call you Senior Peng!! Peng-ge! Dage!"
"Shut up." Peng Zhugen smacked this annoying, whining Huamian-jun on the back of the head before placing the alcohol down on the table. "Be grateful I"m giving you alcohol."
"Ah, this will improve my mood but not my sleep deprivation. Tell me, how are you going to rectify this?"
Despite his complaints, Liu Suye was pouring two very full bowls of alcohol. He raised up his bowl for a toast and didn"t even wait for Peng Zhugen to drink.
Sect Leader Peng looked down at his bowl and frowned, "What is your opinion about Tu Caihe"s story?"
Liu Suye let out a satisfied "ahh" before speaking, "The whole thing about the man-devouring monsters from inside a vacant Xinlie? For someone who was there to witness all the carnage himself, he sure didn"t have many details to share with us!"
Peng Zhugen couldn"t help but be bothered and feel that this Tu Caihe was being purposely vague. Of course, there was that Xiguniang[1] to back up his words but they were childhood friends and the Sect Leader of the Hidden Mist wasn"t about to believe her so readily either.
"Aren"t you worrying a bit too much right now?" Liu Suye hummed. "Just drink. We will deal with these things after resting and able to approach things more logically."
Honestly, this Huamian-jun was acting too laid back! But it was perhaps for that very reason that Peng Zhugen wanted to be in the company of a person with such a calm personality. Swallowing down his anxieties, Peng Zhugen raised the bowl to his lips.
But the clattering of ceramic caught his attention. "Don"t drink it!"
And he looked up, he saw that Liu Suye was hunched over, a hand gripping at his gut, face pale.
"Liu Ji!" Peng Zhugen was overcome with shock. He threw down his bowl and rushed over to his friend, whose forehead was beading with cold sweat. His color wasn"t looking good.
"Ge[2]…" Liu Suye bit through his teeth, "where did you get that alcohol…?"
Where!? Peng Zhugen wracked his memories, "This was from the supply gifted to us from Ma Equn!"
He couldn"t begin to guess what was going on here but clearly it was not good. He helped Huamian-jun to the bed and prepared him a cleansing pill, hopefully easing and nulling the effects of poison.
Luckily they reacted quickly and it was unlikely there could be a poison that was so aggressive that Liu Suye"s life was endangered at this stage. But it paid to be careful. Peng Zhugen rushed out of his tent and called for a trusted physician to tend to the suffering Liu Suye.
But if his supply was poisoned, this could mean bad news for others within their troops as well! Peng Zhugen took his poisoned jug of alcohol and rushed toward Sect Leader Liu Fumao"s tent, the person that was meant to lead this entire campaign.
He was there just in time! Sect Leader Liu Fumao was just about to pour himself a cup from the very same supply when Peng Zhugen came barreling in, yelling and pus.h.i.+ng aside complaining servants and guards.
"Don"t drink it! It"s poisoned!"
And everyone froze in shock. Sect Leader Liu"s lips pulled downward as he performed a set of hand seals to confirm the truth of Peng Zhugen"s words.
"I see," he said coldly before getting up and stepping out of the tent. He bellowed out an order to confiscate everyone"s wine supply.
The cultivator"s camp fell into disarray.
"H-Honorable Sect Leaders…!" A pale-faced young woman rushed up to them with panic in her voice, "There have been others who also got poisoned…!"
Peng Zhugen cursed under his breath while Liu Fumao did what he could to maintain a calm composure. But if anyone got a closer look at the Heavenly Sword Sect Leader they could tell that his expression was severe and stiff.
A flood of rumors and gossip came through, people saying anything that came to mind.
"Is it a spy? Did the demons slip in a spy among our ranks!!??"
"An attack! Is this an internal attack!? What is going on! Why aren"t they doing anything?"
"Ah, there"s a traitor! Ma Equn is a traitor, this is from his wine that b.a.s.t.a.r.d!!"
Before long a large crowd was gathered around the large supply of alcohol that was provided to them by Ma Equn.
Said rogue cultivator was called out as well, his shoulders were held stiffly and a deep-set frown upon his face. His eyes were red, livid and nose upturned.
"It was not me!" He snarled at those who glared at him with accusatory eyes. "This was a sincere gift from honorable me. Someone has clearly framed me with this trickery! Do not be fooled so easily!"
Someone was quick to toss back an argument, "Aren"t you being too defensive? That"s the mark of someone guilty!"
Chaos erupted, fingers pointed while others shuddered at the thought that they have been so easily infiltrated.
By then there had already been around four and a half dozen cases of poisoning across the encampment. There were even a few fatal cases that arose from the victim being discovered too late. This had really gone out of hand without anyone noticing!
Peng Zhugen tried to calm down and see reason. He was angered by this oversight but there was nothing they could do about it now aside from damage control and pinpointing the culprit quickly.
This was all easier said than done.
"There were no cases of poisoning before this point," Peng Zhugen said, "and thus, it makes no sense to accuse the supply provider so readily."
Ma Equn calmed at Peng Zhugen"s defense.
"Your reasoning is sound," Liu Fumao nodded, his voice booming to ensure that those panicked were attentive to the discussion. "Now how should we weed out the culprit?"
Peng Zhugen"s eyes were cold, "We need to figure out those who were last to tend to the supplies."
Liu Fumao nodded and delegated the task of unearthing the culprit to Peng Zhugen. This was fine, he did not mind the extra work. After all, he"d been restless.
The crowd dispersed, working into the night to find those who guarded the supplies last. They were random disciples and elders from across the sects and among them was one Xu Hexian. He was the last person a.s.signed to the post.
Peng Zhugen found Xu Hexian anxiously pacing around outside his tent.
"Huh!? ...what? Did I notice anything strange?" He pointed at himself with wide eyes. "No! Not at all…it wasn"t me, if you were wondering! I absolutely did not do anything…I didn"t…" The way he looked aside was glaringly guilty.
Peng Zhugen scowled. He was good at spotting these foolish, flighty types by now! His own little brother was not too different. He did not believe this pathetic s.h.i.+di of Liu Suye"s was capable of anything malicious or gruesome but that didn"t mean he was exempt from stupidity and mistakes.
Peng Zhugen"s voice was harsh. "Spit it out. Lest you get incriminated further."
The boy jumped and flinched at the words. "I really didn"t do anything!"
"Are you admitting your guilt now?" Peng Zhugen was relentless with his interrogation.
"No! How could you say that!" Xu Hexian fidgeted under Peng Zhugen"s gaze. His face flushed, bright even under the dim spirit lights.
"…" Sent Leader Peng did not back down and eventually, the boy gave in. "O-Okay well…I really didn"t do anything but…actually my stomach was really painful after dinner. I"m not sure what it was I ate but I didn"t feel very good you know? I…ran off…to take care of business, it might have taken longer than I expected…"
"..." Peng Zhugen scowled. The kid had his head bowed in absolute shame, ears bright red. For a stupid reason as such! He wanted to spit. "And you just left your post empty!?"
"O-of course not! I asked someone to cover for me!"
"And who might this person be?"
Xu Hexian kept his gaze lowered, "That"s the thing though…I have no idea! I can"t remember at all!"
Peng Zhugen couldn"t resist the temptation to facepalm.
He went around asking people around those that moved suspiciously around the area at the time, trying to recreate the timeline of when the wine supply became contaminated.
It was honestly more like a wild goose chase than anything else, a game of "he said she said".
Peng Zhugen could barely get a good description of the man that watched over the supplies in Xu Hexian"s place. But he couldn"t help but feel it was an important mystery to solve, especially because no one came forth to claim to be this man. Either this man was the suspicious one or it was a conjuring of Xu Hexian"s imagination.
In the end, he managed to compile five different accounts before the coming of daylight. However, all these accounts were equally vague, containing similar fallacies. They all described a tall man who wore dark clothes, face shrouded with a cloak. His robes were nondescript and did not mark him as a part of any particular sect.
Each of these witnesses specifically mentioned that they had difficulties remembering and claimed to have a headache when trying to think about the matter further.
But there was one person that said something different. This witness was Chen Leike who hummed and stroked his chin with an air of indifference.
"Actually," he said, "That person didn"t seem like he had both hands, isn"t that curious?"
Peng Zhugen was not impressed by Young Master Chen"s att.i.tude. "Didn"t seem like? Did he or did he not?"
Despite his annoyance, Chen Leike only gave him a bright and charming smile, "He definitely didn"t! I swear all my fortune on it."
"..."
This was odd. Something as telling as a missing hand should be easily noticeable, so why did no one else mention this detail? Not to mention, there were only two people in the entire cultivator camp that did not count two hands.
One was an Elder from the Ascending Dawn Sect who was currently recovering from ingesting poison from the alcohol.
And the other was the newly crippled Tu Caihe.
[1] Lady/girl
[2] Older Brother (casual)