“Click.”
A small compartment popped out from the wall, resembling a drawer, located not far from the doorway.
Several thick books were stacked together. They looked quite substantial, illustrating just how many misdeeds the He clan had committed a list of crimes so exhaustive it was impossible to record them all.
Beisi lowered his hand. Yet, after waiting for a moment, no other traps or arrays were triggered. It was too strange. If these were truly such important items, why were they left so easily accessible?
The problem, then, likely lay with the books themselves.
The blue-covered book looked unremarkable at first glance.
Chi Qiqi, however, moved forward without warning. Although it wasn’t far, their hands remained tightly clasped.
Seeing Chi Qiqi about to pick up the ledger directly, Beisi hurriedly tugged at his hand to stop him, but it was already too late; Chi Qiqi’s fingers had touched the book.
Beisi didn’t even dare to breathe, fearing there might be poison. He blamed himself for his reaction being too slow.
As Chi Qiqi’s hand rested on the book, he incidentally blocked Beisi’s view. Within the grid that had only contained the book, several small, black, long-horned insects appeared. They were tiny, moving with blistering speed, giving no one a chance to react as they crawled onto his hand and began to bite without mercy.
These long-horned insects loved human blood. Their potent venom was enough to melt flesh and dissolve bone, causing the victim to experience the agony of their bones being eroded, ultimately reducing them to a puddle of blood. Even someone like the storyteller could not last more than the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, and there was simply no antidote.
Chi Qiqi’s fair hand turned purple before their eyes.
Knowing they were hidden in the dark, it seemed these insects in the compartment had been raised and trained from a young age. The clan head must certainly have possessed a special antidote to ward them off.
But no one could have known in advance what traps the book held.
Chi Qiqi could clearly feel the pain of his bones melting radiating from his fingertips. Since the fingers are connected to the heart, a single bite would be painful, let alone so many. The moment he was bitten, it felt as if he were being scorched by fire.
Even if one were immune to all poisons, one did not possess an indestructible body that felt no pain at all. Chi Qiqi’s other hand subconsciously clenched in agony. Beisi felt this tension, and as he rubbed his fingertips against it, it was as if he were smoothing away the pain. The two were already standing incredibly close.
Chi Qiqi suppressed the physiological instinct to recoil from the pain. It’s almost over…
In just a few moments, the long-horned insects were all poisoned and collapsed to the ground, dead through and through, with their legs in the air. While pretending to pick up the book, Chi Qiqi took the opportunity to shake all the insects off it.
“Look, it’s fine.” Chi Qiqi handed the book to Beisi, looking somewhat happy; being able to help Beisi seemed to be a very fulfilling thing.
Beisi did not feel happy; on the contrary, he rarely wore such a cold expression. However, he couldn’t bring himself to speak harshly to Chi Qiqi. He placed the book aside, took the hand that Chi Qiqi had reached in with, and cradled it in his palms. He examined it over and over, finally cupping it between his hands and placing a light kiss on it before saying, “You are not allowed to be this reckless again next time.”
Chi Qiqi nodded, though it was unclear if he had actually taken the words to heart. Fortunately, his poison resistance was strong, and he recovered quickly; otherwise, it would have been a disaster if Beisi had truly seen the wounds.
He still remembered the last time he tried to wrap human-world roses for Beisi. Who would have thought he would be so clumsy? He would pick up a flower, get pricked once, pick up another… in truth, he hadn’t felt the pain at all; instead, he thought that the more he was pricked, the more flowers he would have to wrap.
While he was still busy struggling with the flowers, his hands were gently pried away from them. Those hands, covered in callouses from the sword, were unexpectedly tender as they held his hands just as they held the roses. Having heard his convoluted reasoning, Beisi had said with a mix of heartache and amusement, “You fool.”
Only after Beisi confirmed that there were no injuries did he look at the book. However, the book on the ground had vanished. Turning his head, he saw it was already in the storyteller’s arms.
The two were busy with their romantic affections, while the storyteller, clutching the stack of books, could only despise the two of them in his heart, saying, “Because of the appearance of the Ai You grass, the Fengling Sect must have come as well. They shouldn’t have left yet. If we hand this over to them, the truth will be brought to light.”
The world was divided into eight major sects, with the Kunhan Sect being the greatest. They divided territories based on regional power, overseeing different clans below them, and so on. Therefore, the He clan was under the jurisdiction of the Fengling Sect.
“Follow me. I know where they are staying.”
The storyteller performed at the local tavern, after all. With so many people coming and going, wouldn’t it be easy to find out a few things? He had long since known where the Fengling Sect was staying.
The three left the He residence and followed the storyteller to their destination. Beisi and Chi Qiqi discovered that it was the very inn where they were staying.
It was midday, and the lobby was packed with guests eating lunch. The morning’s events had caused quite a stir, and they feared that if they tried to explain it now, they would be pelted with vegetable leaves and rotten eggs by the commoners before they could even finish their words.
Clearly, they could not go in through the front.
“I think I know which room they are in,” the storyteller suggested. “Let’s climb through the window.”
Beisi had never done anything like knocking on someone else’s window. He would not let Chi Qiqi learn to do such “sneaky” things.
Chi Qiqi weakly supported his head and leaned against Beisi; he was just an ordinary mortal, so how could he possibly fly up and knock on someone’s window? Furthermore, he didn’t want Beisi to do something so dangerous either.
The six eyes met in silent communication.
The storyteller was the first to concede. These two are going to be the death of me. He compromised, “I’ll go.”
Clutching the books in his left hand, he channeled his energy and flew up to the second floor of the inn.
He knocked on a window, and it opened. Before the storyteller could even say a word, a man’s hearty voice came from inside, cursing: “Are you sick or something!”
The storyteller panicked, his foot nearly slipping. He hurriedly said, “Apologies, brother, my mistake!”
Without waiting for a response, he immediately pulled the window shut with a loud “bang” a sound that echoed like a thunderclap.
He hadn’t controlled his strength well.
Watching this scene, Beisi and Chi Qiqi felt, for the first time, that it was a truly pitiful sight to behold.