Deeply moved, Cao Xiaohan knew that while clearing his name sounded simple enough on paper, executing the entire process would undoubtedly be fraught with difficulty.
“Brother Liu, thank you.” Cao Xiaohan sincerely appreciated the help this person had given him; without him, he probably would have been killed off long ago.
“You should call me Brother Bai instead. My surname is Bai, and my given name is Yiyan.” Hearing Cao Xiaohan call him Brother Liu suddenly started to feel rather grating to Bai Yiyan.
“Brother Bai, your surname is not Liu? I honestly thought you shared a family name with Magistrate Liu.” Being told Bai Yiyan’s real name left Cao Xiaohan feeling sweet inside.
Bai Yiyan grew depressed. Thinking of that shifty-eyed Magistrate Liu, he concluded the silly rabbit’s thought process was truly bizarre, not to mention how dimwitted he was. He was definitely going to have to figure out a proper way to train and educate this silly rabbit.
“Brother Bai, could you accompany me home for a trip? I want to go back and get some things.” Remembering the hidden weapons crafted by the original owner that were still left at home, Cao Xiaohan wanted to retrieve them for self-defense so he would not keep holding others back in the future.
“Unless they are essential items, you should not take the risk of going back. Right now, arrest warrants for both of us are plastered all over the city, and your house is very likely being watched.” Bai Yiyan doubted a carpenter’s home held anything truly important.
“But they really are essential items, left behind by my master, so I have got to retrieve them. Brother Bai, please…” To achieve his goal, Cao Xiaohan eagerly poured tea for Bai Yiyan and massaged his back. He figured that even if he did not take those hidden weapons, the Mo Sect’s manual on mechanism arts absolutely had to be recovered.
Since they were items left behind by his carpenter master, that made sense. Seeing the silly rabbit’s ingratiating display, Bai Yiyan decided he could take him back for a trip tonight and agreed to the request. Beaming broadly, Cao Xiaohan gave a goofy smile, thinking Brother Bai was truly a good person.
That night, Bai Yiyan prepared to take Cao Xiaohan back to retrieve his belongings. Just as they were about to head out, Cao Xiaohan grabbed Bai Yiyan’s sleeve and told him to wait, leaving Bai Yiyan looking at him in puzzlement.
“Brother Bai, do we not need to change clothes before we go?” Cao Xiaohan thought that going out in the middle of the night to evade other people’s eyes and ears required dressing in black night-walking outfits and putting on face masks, just like in the television dramas.
Bai Yiyan glanced down at his own plain sapphire brocade robe and then at Cao Xiaohan’s raven-tinted plain silk straight-collar gown; both were understated colors that blended well into the night.
“Why would we need to change?” He could not fathom the logic and asked directly.
“Are you not supposed to wear night-walking clothes when sneaking out at night?” Cao Xiaohan was equally bewildered.
“Who told you that?” He had never heard of such a rule.
Cao Xiaohan was about to say that television shows always portrayed it that way, but remembering that people here had no concept of what television was, he changed his story on the spot: “Do storybooks not always write it like that?”
Raising his hand, Bai Yiyan gave him another rap on the head and literally hoisted him out the door. “Really, we do not need to change?” Cao Xiaohan pursued the question stubbornly.
“No.” Bai Yiyan gave a crisp, decisive refusal, instantly extinguishing that strange notion of his.
Bai Yiyan brought Cao Xiaohan to carpenter Zhang’s home, surveying the quiet little courtyard in the moonlight. The yard was small, containing a main house, two wing rooms, and a small kitchen. By now, quite a few weeds had sprouted in the courtyard. Guided by the original owner’s memories, Cao Xiaohan walked into the left wing room, with Bai Yiyan following closely behind. Everything inside the room had been tossed about in complete disarray.
After Cao Xiaohan was thrown into prison, Magistrate Liu had made a complete show of pretense, sending bailiffs to search Cao Xiaohan’s home with great fanfare. Consequently, the interior currently looked as though it had been struck by a typhoon.
The room was pitch black, and the faint moonlight could not penetrate its interior at all. Unable to see a thing, Cao Xiaohan relied on Bai Yiyan, who came prepared and produced a fire starter from his chest pocket. Guided by the dim glow, Cao Xiaohan walked up to a blank wall, tapped three times on the upper right corner, and then twice on the lower left corner. A small door, just wide enough for a person to pass through, materialized on the wall.
Inwardly, Bai Yiyan was secretly startled; it seems this silly rabbit was no ordinary person. He followed silently behind Cao Xiaohan into the secret chamber. Once both of them stepped inside, the door slowly closed, and lights illuminated the walls of the chamber. Bai Yiyan was struck with amazement once more: what an ingenious mechanism! This was definitely something ordinary mechanical artisans could never accomplish.
Inside the room stood an offering table, upon which rested the Mo Sect’s manual on mechanism arts. The chamber also contained a cabinet, a square wooden table, and several unfinished mechanical hidden weapons placed neatly on top. From the cabinet, Cao Xiaohan retrieved a repeating crossbow, a sleeve arrow, and two sets of Soul Chasers.
When Bai Yiyan caught sight of those two sets of Soul Chasers, an expression of astonishment crossed his face, though he quickly reined in his emotions. Stepping forward, he carefully picked up a Soul Chaser and examined it closely. He had only ever seen this item described in an ancient text; was this the legendary Soul-Chasing Life-Taker?
“Be careful, Brother Bai, that is a very dangerous hidden weapon called the Soul Chaser.” Seeing Bai Yiyan holding the Soul Chaser, Cao Xiaohan gave a start, terrified that the man might accidentally injure himself, and hastily snatched it back from his hands.
“How did you come across this thing?” Cao Xiaohan’s words confirmed his suspicions; he was finding it increasingly difficult to understand this silly rabbit. Every time he thought he had figured the boy out, he would stumble upon something even more astonishing.
“I made it myself.” Cao Xiaohan adjusted the Soul Chaser and handed it back to Bai Yiyan, seeing that the man was clearly fascinated by it.
“Who on earth are you?” Instead of taking the Soul Chaser, Bai Yiyan looked at him with an unfamiliar, probing gaze.
Cao Xiaohan’s immediate reaction upon hearing Bai Yiyan’s question was: Oh no, has Brother Bai figured out that I am not from this era? Then he reasoned that it probably was not the case; after all, he possessed the original owner’s memories of this era and had not slipped up anywhere. Puzzled, he asked, “Why do you ask that, Brother Bai?”
Seeing the fleeting flash of panic on his face, Bai Yiyan grew even more suspicious. Just what kind of person was he? “I have discovered that you harbor many secrets, such as this legendary Soul-Chasing Life-Taker.”
Cao Xiaohan let out a sigh of relief. So that was what he was talking about; it had scared him to death. “I happen to be the sole living successor of the Mo Sect’s mechanism arts, you know. Pretty impressive, right?” With that, he proudly puffed out his chest like a proud little rooster, acting as though the mastery of mechanism arts was entirely his own innate accomplishment.
Hearing this explanation and observing the boy’s calm, relieved expression, Bai Yiyan dispelled his lingering doubts. Looking at the little fellow strutting around like a proud little rooster, he figured he had truly struck gold. Still, he needed to give the boy a thorough lecture; if outsiders ever found out that this kid was the legendary successor of the Mo Sect, he would likely face endless trouble.
Reaching out, he gave the proud little fellow another rap on the head and said earnestly, “You little idiot, do you have any idea how many people out there covet the Mo Sect’s arts? Never casually tell anyone else that you are a successor of the Mo Sect’s mechanism arts, understand?”