Jiang Yin had at least read the original text, so she definitely had a powerful cheat.
Although the book did not include anything like a bounty board, it did mention a place that was absolutely safe and completely free from disturbance.
That place was beneath Moon Lake, where Huameng Tower and the Moon Drifting Boat were located.
To be precise, it was the five underground levels beneath the Flower Tower.
On the surface, the Flower Tower was the same as the Dream Tower, with only five floors. Each floor featured flower maidens of different styles performing, and it was widely known that the flower maidens of the Dream Tower sold their art but not their bodies.
However, the five underground levels were entirely different. In those five levels, there were no flower maidens, only flower boys.
And there was no such rule about selling art but not their bodies. As long as one had money, they could take a flower boy back to a private room for pleasure.
The kind where absolutely no one would disturb them.
Every room here was set with formations. Unless the guest was satisfied and willingly opened the door, even the master of the Flower Tower would be unable to break it open.
It was simply the perfect hiding place.
As for money, the currency used in the five underground levels of the Flower Tower was not gold or silver, but flower coins exchanged with information. The more valuable the information, the more flower coins one could obtain.
So Jiang Yin was not worried at all. When the time came, she could casually mention a few plot points she had seen in the original text and exchange them for a large amount of flower coins.
Lin Yueying understood as soon as she heard about beneath Moon Lake. The place Jiang Yin intended to go to was the same as hers.
Seeing the unconcealed smugness on Jiang Yin’s face, she touched her empty purse and let out a soft laugh. “Since Miss Jiang knows that there is another world beneath Moon Lake, aren’t you afraid that the one by your side will get jealous after finding out?”
Jiang Yin’s smile suddenly froze.
Her lips started tingling again.
She pressed them together and said awkwardly, “What is there to be afraid of? I’m not going there to find flower boys. Even if he finds out, he’ll understand me.”
‘…He should understand, right?’
Lin Yueying glanced at her guilty expression, delighted, as she put on her mask and headed downstairs. “I’ll go ahead. You’re on your own.”
Xue Zhuang’er opened the door, and Jiang Yin no longer had the time to bicker with her.
She helped Xue Zhuang’er put on his mask and escorted him all the way to the vicinity of the flower boat. After watching him successfully light the long incense and enter the Moon Drifting Boat, she finally let out a sigh of relief, turned around, and slipped into the crowd, sending the letter out along the way.
In the Eastern Profound Continent, letters were delivered using spirit birds, which were very fast. Mail to Xuantian Sect would arrive in about half a day. Judging by the timing, on the day the Moonlit Night Tour ended and the boat returned, Mu Yiqing should have already arrived.
Jiang Yin also bought a dagger for self-defense.
After buying the dagger, she came out to find a medical hall right next door. She hesitated for a moment before walking in and quietly said a few words to the female apprentice. The apprentice nodded, took out a few items from the medicine cabinet behind her, wrapped them together, and handed them over.
Jiang Yin paid the money and, like a thief, stuffed the items into her storage bag. The half of her face exposed outside the mask visibly flushed red.
Fortunately, one of Lin’an City’s unique features was masked night strolling. There were many people on the streets wearing masks, and no one paid her any attention.
Blending into the crowd like this, she made her way all the way to the edge of Moon Lake. She rang a bell to summon a small boat. After getting on, the boatman asked her, “Miss, where are you headed?”
This was the moment to give the passphrase. If she answered incorrectly, she would only be allowed into the upper five floors.
Jiang Yin cleared her throat. “To the place where women seek pleasure.”
The passphrase was simple, yet it was precisely such a simple sentence that very few women could say so calmly.
The boatman nodded and, in the darkness of night, rowed the small boat in three circles around the Flower Tower. When the final circle came to a stop, a whirlpool rose from the surface of the lake with the small boat at its center, pulling Jiang Yin completely inside.
In the next moment, she found herself standing in front of what appeared to be the same Flower Tower. The only difference was that the flowering vines coiling around the main entrance had turned into a richer, more vivid dark purple.
From afar, the boatman’s voice drifted to her ears.
“May the young lady have her wishes fulfilled, and always be joyful and pleased.”
Even though the boatman could not hear her, Jiang Yin still murmured her thanks. Then she took a deep breath and pushed open the vine-entwined doors before her.
…
It did not open.
At the center of the doors was a purple flower shaped like a lotus. Sensing someone’s arrival, its half-bloomed petals slowly extended outward, revealing a jade token nestled within its stamen.
The jade token was adorned with colorful tassels, and on it were the two glaringly obvious words ‘selling oneself’.
Jiang Yin stared at the colorful jade token, completely dumbfounded.
This was not right, was it?
The original text had mentioned that since the five underground levels of the Flower Tower were only for women seeking pleasure, there was only one way for men to enter, which was to enter the tower by selling themselves.
If one found this place on their own, once the formation at the entrance sensed a man’s aura, it would present a colorful jade token. Only by taking the token could they enter the tower. However, doing so meant that their identity in the Flower Tower for the night would be that of a flower boy attendant.
Jiang Yin tried pushing the door again, but it remained completely unmoved. Only the purple lotus holding the jade token stretched forward slightly, as if growing impatient.
Jiang Yin said speechlessly, “You’re getting impatient now?! Take a good look, am I a man? What do you mean by giving me this jade token?!”
Many of the flowers in Huameng Tower were no ordinary plants. For example, the purple lotus guarding the entrance had been mentioned in the original text. It was once planted by a cultivator from an immortal sect, and by chance had gained spiritual awareness, making it extremely sensitive to auras.
It was somewhat like a flower version of Xiao Lingchuan.
There had previously been men who disguised themselves as women in an attempt to sneak inside, but no matter how exquisite their disguises or illusions were, they could not fool the purple lotus.
Hearing Jiang Yin’s words, the purple lotus extended a leaf and poked her twice, as if confirming her identity.
After a few breaths, it flicked its leaves, tossed the jade token onto the ground, and the entire flower retracted back into the door.
The meaning was obvious.
Male. The token is yours. Take it or leave it. Without it, do not even think about entering.
Jiang Yin: “…”
Good news, it had spiritual awareness.
Bad news, it now seemed mentally impaired.
“What kind of lousy flower are you? You cannot even tell male from female?! Open the door for me, stop playing dead!!!”
She kicked the door anxiously, but the purple lotus remained unmoved. Not only did it throw out a leaf to seal her mouth, it even made a motion as if to take back the jade token on the ground.
At that moment, a disturbance sounded behind Jiang Yin. She turned to look and saw the small boat that had just brought her here. Several women dressed in tight-fitting outfits were sitting on it, each with a sword at her waist. They were clearly not ordinary people.
Seeing such attire, Jiang Yin could not help but become wary.
She turned back, grabbed the purple lotus’s leaf, and pleaded in a low voice, “Wait a moment. Good purple lotus, take another look. I really am a woman. I am not using any disguise or illusion. Just let me in, alright?”
The purple lotus nodded. Before Jiang Yin could even feel happy, it tossed the jade token with the colorful tassel back in front of her.
The small boat behind her was already nearing the entrance. Jiang Yin gritted her teeth, picked up the jade token, and hung it at her waist.
“Fine. A good woman does not fight with a flower. Just you wait, I’ll deal with you after I come out!”
There were attendants inside anyway. Once she got in, she could have them remove the token.
She was definitely going to file a fierce complaint about this blind purple lotus that could not even tell male from female. What business did it have guarding the door!
Fuming, Jiang Yin pushed open the doors and slipped inside just before that group arrived.
Outside, the night was quiet and still. Inside, however, it was lively and bustling. A rich fragrance filled every level of the building, and the laughter of women rang out like orioles. Despite being a place of indulgence, it did not make people feel uncomfortable at all.
Jiang Yin hurriedly glanced around and felt that this atmosphere likely came from the fact that the women inside were all very… well-behaved.
At least in those historical dramas she had seen, in places like brothels, the men inside would always be surrounded by companions, groping and embracing, practically eager to do something inappropriate on the spot.
But such scenes were rarely seen here.
It was probably because the women who came to the Flower Tower were seldom truly here just for pleasure.
As the largest intelligence organization in the Eastern Profound Continent, there was no way the Flower Tower would only provide a single opportunity for questions and answers once a month. If that were the case, there would probably be eight to ten thousand people participating in the preliminary rounds every day.
Aside from the Moonlit Night Tour, the five underground levels of the Flower Tower were also responsible for buying and selling information. Women could sell information in exchange for flower coins, and those coins could be used not only to purchase the company of flower boys, but also to buy other information.
However, Huameng Tower did not accept information from men. If men wanted to obtain flower coins here, they could only rely on women, selling themselves or their talents to please them, then using those ‘earned’ flower coins to purchase the intelligence they needed.
Those who could not obtain the information they wanted in the Flower Tower, or men who did not wish to rely on selling themselves for flower coins, would instead go participate in the Moonlit Night Tour.
It had to be said that whether it was the structure of Huameng Tower, its business model, or its differing treatment of men and women, all of it made Jiang Yin feel that the master of this place was truly an extraordinary woman.
Was someone like that really the vicious demon Lin Yueying spoke of, who stole others’… and personally killed their parents?
Jiang Yin felt a trace of doubt, but she did not dwell on it for long.
Mainly because she had no time to think. The moment she entered the building, she was grabbed and dragged along, half-pulled and half-hauled into a room, frightening her so much she almost cried out for help.
A woman dressed like a matron shoved her into a chair and immediately began scolding her harshly.
“What are you shouting for?! You have already come to a place like this, yet you are still pretending to be some chaste and virtuous man. Since you have hung the token, then obediently sell yourself. If it were a guest pulling at you, would you scream like this as well? No sense of rules. Shut your mouth and let the doctor examine your body!”
Jiang Yin quickly realized this was the matron in charge of managing people in the building. She had been looking for someone in charge anyway, so she hurriedly said, “Matron, you came at the perfect time. I am not here to sell myself. I am a woman!”
The matron merely let out a cold laugh. “People like you are the most disgusting. Outside, you look down on women for being weak and incapable, calling yourselves upright, real men. Yet when you want to enter the Flower Tower but are unwilling to sell yourselves, you would rather disguise yourselves as what you once despised most, dressing as women in hopes of slipping through. Unfortunately, our Huameng Tower has the immortal purple lotus personally planted by Immortal Lord Yuanyu. Such crude tricks cannot escape its eyes.”
Jiang Yin: “…It does not even have eyes.”
Just then, the doctor stepped forward to examine her. Jiang Yin grabbed onto the doctor, eager to prove herself. “Miss, take a close look. I truly am a woman. If not, you can examine me yourselves.”
“Let go!”
The matron slapped her hand and pulled the doctor behind her protectively. Her expression toward Jiang Yin grew even more displeased. “I advise you to dispel this illusion as soon as possible and go out to receive guests obediently. If you keep pretending, it will not benefit you.”
Jiang Yin was on the verge of tears. “Dispel what? I did not use any illusion at all. If you do not believe me, look for yourselves!”
What was going on with Huameng Tower today? Had everyone lost the ability to distinguish between men and women?
The matron ignored her completely and lowered her voice to ask the doctor behind her whether she was injured.
The doctor was a woman, petite in stature, with half her face covered by a mask. During the earlier scuffle, the string behind the mask had loosened. She held it in place with one hand and waved the other to indicate she was fine.
Seeing the mask, Jiang Yin’s thoughts stirred, and she quietly shut her mouth.
She was wearing a mask as well.
If the matron really came over to examine her and removed her mask, her identity would be exposed.
At that point, even if she could prove she was a woman, it would be useless. Judging from Huameng Tower’s attitude, once they discovered she was Jiang Yin, they might immediately try to snatch her Moon Shadow Branch and eliminate her.
Jiang Yin quietly shifted the storage bag at her waist further behind her.
After confirming the doctor was unharmed, the matron turned back. Seeing that Jiang Yin seemed much more obedient, she snorted. “Have you thought it through?”
Jiang Yin shook her head with difficulty. “I really did not use any illusion. I am a woman.”
The matron glanced at her coldly, her gaze lingering on the mask on Jiang Yin’s face for a moment.
Jiang Yin clenched her fingers, a little afraid that she might reach out and tear off her mask.
Fortunately, the matron had no such intention. She only said, “This young master, allow me to remind you of one thing. From the moment you put on that jade token and entered Huameng Tower, tonight… no, that is not right. Until you have enough flower coins to redeem yourself, you belong to Huameng Tower. For every day you do not receive guests, you will have to remain here one more day.”
“I know,” Jiang Yin said helplessly. “But I really am a woman.”
“Absurd.” The matron could not be bothered to argue with her any longer. “Men, take him to the lower rooms. Until he removes his illusion, he is not to be allowed upstairs.”
The lower rooms were located at the very bottom level, a place within the Flower Tower specifically used to detain disobedient flower boys.
Jiang Yin had originally thought it would be like a dungeon, but upon arriving, she realized it was nothing like a prison.
Inside separate beast cages were people whose appearances were either male or female. Every one of them was tightly restrained to wooden boards with shackles on their hands and feet, unable to move at all.
The flower maiden escorting Jiang Yin spoke softly, “Those who enter the Flower Tower with a jade token but refuse to receive guests all end up like this.”
Jiang Yin shivered. “But I really am a woman… sigh.”
She could not help letting out a long sigh.
She had already repeated that sentence countless times tonight. It was truly exhausting.
Who would have thought that her greatest difficulty right now would be proving that she was a woman?
The flower maiden smiled gently. “Once you leave the Flower Tower, would you still be willing to be a woman?”
“Of course I…”
Jiang Yin was about to answer when her gaze suddenly caught a flash of white.
In the beast cage opposite hers was a man dressed in black with a head full of white hair. As if sensing her gaze, he turned to look at her.
His features were sharp and cold, giving him an extremely fierce appearance. Most striking of all was the tear mole at the corner of his eye, brimming with a wild and untamed arrogance.
Jiang Yin’s tears hung at the edge of her eyes as she sucked in a sharp breath.
Xiao Lingchuan?!