Chapter 491 - 490: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada

Chapter 491: Chapter 490: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada

"So they haven’t given up hope yet. As long as the appointed time hasn’t passed, they won’t leave early."

The Mirror reminded him, "This all assumes Mr. Mai hasn’t communicated with the mastermind. What if they’ve already been in contact?"

"There’s no harm in trying. At worst, it’s just a bit of wasted effort. So what if I’m casting a flirtatious glance at a blind man? It’s not a big deal." ’Who can’t afford such a small cost for trial and error? It’s not like I’m the one paying.’ "Besides, based on my deductions, they probably haven’t seen Mr. Mai at all."

"Why?"

"He doesn’t even live here, yet all the clues we got from him point directly to Baisha Jue. Isn’t that interesting?"

The Soul-Catching Mirror asked in surprise, "He doesn’t live in Baisha Jue? Didn’t the old man guarding the gate for him in Frost and Dew Town say he always comes from Baisha Jue?"

"If he lived here long-term, why wouldn’t he buy a property?" Hee Lingchuan said softly. "In Baisha Jue, he only ever stays in inns. He’s stayed in several, in fact. Zhongsun Mou has records of it all."

"So Baisha Jue isn’t his residence, but the long-term residence of the mastermind."

The Mirror found this incredible. "Wait a minute, are you saying Mr. Mai led us here?"

"What else could it be?" Hee Lingchuan had been suspicious ever since receiving the *Record of God Worship*, and the recent series of events had only deepened his theory. "He guided all the clues here. Why would he sabotage things beforehand?"

He paused. "Besides, we can verify it right now."

The Mirror was confused. "What are you going to do?"

Hee Lingchuan put down his work and stood up. "Calling it a day."

...

It was 1:30 PM.

The Chaohu Tea House was only at twenty percent capacity.

The not-so-classy blind date had ended. It seemed the two parties had parted on bad terms, each paying for their own tea before leaving.

Only two tables remained occupied.

Just then, a man in white came up from downstairs, his pace slowing as his gaze swept around the inside of the tower as if looking for someone.

Including both tea drinkers and tourists, there were only seven people on the fourth floor, easily taken in at a glance.

He looked at the people, and they looked back at him.

But like the other tourists, he didn’t take a seat. He simply walked to the gallery at the edge of the Pagoda and made a circuit, as if admiring the scenery.

He wore robes of Yanghu Bai cloth, was tall, with broad shoulders and long legs, and wore a Veil Hat. This accessory was basically a hat as wide as a conical bamboo hat with a silk net hanging from the brim, offering protection from the wind and sun.

Baisha Jue had many waterways, and thus many mosquitoes along the banks, so it wasn’t unusual for fishermen and travelers to wear such hats.

But the mesh on this Veil Hat was very fine, almost completely obscuring his face and revealing only a hint of his silhouette.

After his walk, the man went to the tea counter, picked up two bags of dried sweet potato, weighed them in his hand, then took a small piece of scattered silver from his waist and tossed it to the attendant.

As he did this, the Red Jade Ring on the man’s right hand was exposed.

"I’ll get you your change."

At that moment, two other tea drinkers finished their conversation and were about to get up when the attendant suddenly dropped a few wen coins on the floor. He squatted down to pick them up, and in the process, glanced up inadvertently.

The action was subconscious, but after looking away, he seemed to remember something. He looked up again, his gaze fixed, and even forgot to stand up.

The man in white naturally did not miss this.

He took a step back, his head turning to sweep a glance across the tea room, and then he abruptly turned to go downstairs.

The attendant scrambled up and shouted, "Hey, sir, your change!"

The man in white ignored him completely, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

The old man came over to settle his bill and asked the attendant, "What’s wrong with you?"

"He... his face..." The man in white had already vanished down the stairwell, but the attendant was still staring after him. "It looked a little familiar... I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere before?"

As he was speaking, two craftsmen from the repair team nearby came over to ask him for a cup of tea.

After going downstairs, the man in white stood at the entrance of Tide Lake Tower and looked left and right.

Just as a few Officials were passing by, he opportunistically lowered his head, adjusted his Veil Hat, and then blended into the street crowd, walking quickly eastward.

A few rows of low-rise buildings, a mix of residences and shops, surrounded the Tide Lake Tower, making it stand out like a crane among chickens.

Barely ten-odd breaths after the man in white left the Pagoda, three men in commoner’s clothes emerged from a low-rise building opposite the Tide Lake Tower. Their pace was unhurried as they too headed east.

The man in white, however, walked faster and faster, before zipping into a stable and carriage house on the corner.

In just the blink of an eye, before the three men behind could catch up, the man in white had already led a chestnut horse out.

It was clearly one he had stabled there earlier.

These stable and carriage houses offered rentals as well as boarding and management services, making them very convenient.

Tide Lake Tower was on the outskirts of the city, so the roads had few traffic restrictions. The man in white leaped onto his horse and trotted off with a CLIP-CLOP, leaving his three trackers further and further behind.

The fellow was remarkably alert. The moment he sensed something was off in the tower, he had decided to leave Baisha Jue immediately, without a moment’s hesitation.

His actions were clearly beyond what others had expected.

The three men didn’t know what he had encountered in the tower, but they had their orders. They had no choice but to duck into the stable and carriage house to buy horses and hastily give chase.

They had intended to rent three horses, but renting required a deposit and registration, which was both troublesome and time-consuming. Seeing no other option, the three men abandoned the idea of renting and simply threw down silver to buy horses outright.

Much more direct.

However, one of them didn’t have enough silver coins and had to borrow from his companions to make up the amount before he could buy a horse.

This delay cost them a good deal of time.

Fortunately, the man in white wasn’t galloping at full speed. Once they mounted up and gave chase, they were able to slowly close the distance.

In the sky, a magpie was also following the man in white, occasionally landing on treetops or rooftops.

Just as the distance between them closed to less than a hundred feet, and the three men were about to speed up, a dozen or so riders in soldiers’ uniforms suddenly burst out from the woods beside them. The leader pointed at the man in white’s retreating figure and shouted, "We’ve found him! That’s him!"

The chaotic sound of hooves thundered from behind. The man in white glanced back from his horse and, without a word, whipped his steed to go faster!

"Don’t run, or we’ll kill you on the spot!" the pursuers shouted.

The man in white fled even faster.

Beside the road was a field of sorghum, growing splendidly, transformed in this season into a boundless green curtain.

The man in white decisively spurred his horse and leaped into it.

Baisha Jue was famous for its sorghum wine, so the crop was widely planted in the countryside. The stalks grew to between ten and fifteen feet (3-5 meters) high. As the man in white and his horse charged in, all he had to do was duck his head, and it would be difficult for the pursuers behind him to see him. They could only track him by sound.

This endless field was a giant maze; anyone who entered would become disoriented.

The three men deliberately fell back a few paces behind the pursuers, arriving a couple of steps late.

The dozen or so pursuers, of course, also entered the sorghum field, disappearing instantly into the green curtain. Only the sounds of men and horses could be heard.

The three men stopped before the sorghum field, looking at each other in dismay.

’To chase or not to chase?’

Their superiors wanted them to tail him closely, and preferably bring him back. If they couldn’t bring him back, then...

The leader thought for a moment, then said decisively, "Chase!"

The soldiers might get lost, but they wouldn’t, because the Magpie Demon was guiding them. With eyes in the sky, this maze-like green curtain would actually help them find their target and block the other pursuers.

One of them turned his horse to go back and report, while the other two fixed their sights on the black-and-white figure of the magpie fluttering in mid-air and chased straight into the sorghum field.

They had only galloped about two hundred feet when a mountain of flesh suddenly appeared before them.

The two men hastily reined in their horses, but one of them couldn’t stop in time.

With a THUD, horse and rider went tumbling.

The mountain of flesh turned around, its face a picture of bewildered panic.

It turned out to be a Barbaric Bull, hiding in the green curtain and secretly munching away. It thought the tall sorghum stalks would cover its tracks, but it never expected two blind fools to charge in and crash right into its ass.

The Barbaric Bull, thinking it had been caught in the act, was the first to startle. It kicked its hooves and rumbled off into the distance.

Like a bulldozer, it flattened a large swath of sorghum as it went.

Countless sparrows immediately swooped down from the sky, scrambling to eat the fallen sorghum tassels.

"Son of a bitch!" the two men cursed.

There were too many sparrows, chirping and flitting about everywhere. With all the small, flying bodies, they instantly lost sight of the magpie.

They could only continue chasing in the original direction.

After galloping another hundred feet or so, the sparrows in the field suddenly took flight in a great flock, the WHIRRR of their wings especially loud.

A goshawk swooped down and pinned some unlucky fellow in the field.

The surroundings were a mess of chaos—the sound of wind, men, horses, and birds—making it even harder for the two to get their bearings.

To their left, the sorghum stalks suddenly rustled—a sound different from the wind—and then a scorched-brown figure leaped out, fast as lightning.

The horse shrieked in terror and reared up.

But its rider had already been pounced on and knocked down.

Only then did a deafening roar explode in the man’s ears.

Crouching in the green curtain was a ferocious tiger!

The moment the Tiger Demon appeared, it bit down on its prey’s shoulder and didn’t let go. Its massive paw pinned down his collarbone, and with a slight twist of its head...

With a crisp CRACK, the man’s shoulder joint was dislocated.

It all happened too fast. From attack to success, the tiger took less than a breath and a half.

The man who was pinned down hadn’t even registered what happened before he lost the ability to fight back. Then he saw a gaping, bloody maw right before his eyes, its sharp teeth glinting coldly.

He screamed in terror.

The other rider raised his saber and slashed at the tiger’s back. But the great beast seemed to have eyes in the back of its head; it dodged with a sideways roll, not losing a single hair. Instead, the prey it held was dragged along and forcefully twisted halfway around, causing him to squeal like a stuck pig.

The rider took one look and knew he’d been ambushed. Forgetting about rescuing his companion, he tried to turn his horse and flee.

But then he saw men and horses closing in from all directions, surrounding him completely.

The very man in white they had been chasing stood at the forefront. He had taken off his Veil Hat and was using it as a fan. "Still not dismounting to surrender? You want to lose an arm or a leg?"

This person, of course, was Eldest Young Master Hee.

Trapped by the encirclement, with the tiger’s suppressed growl coming from behind, the man’s eyes darted about. He clearly had other ideas.

Hee Lingchuan immediately said, "Don’t get any funny ideas. Your companion is going to talk. If you die, you die for nothing!"

His companion’s groans of pain continued, but they were full of vigor—he certainly didn’t sound like he was at death’s door.

The man finally gave up hope. He jumped off his horse, raised his hands, and said, "I surrender! Don’t kill me!"

The soldiers swarmed forward and tied the two up like rice dumplings.

Only then did Hee Lingchuan step forward and ask, "Who do you work for?"