Chapter 417 - 197: Deciphering the Qin (Part 2)

There could be no hesitation. Otherwise, even if he only played the ’Gong’ note, a pause lasting just a single breath would trigger a backlash.

His fingers immediately flickered across the strings, playing the remaining notes in one smooth, continuous motion.

From beginning to end, the zither’s music never lashed back at him.

Not until the final ’Zhi’ note faded did the Young Manor Lord look down nervously at the zither in his hands.

He glanced at his own chest, and after confirming he was unharmed, he finally relaxed.

But a moment later, his brow furrowed once more.

He was fine, true, but the zither... showed no change whatsoever.

"What’s going on?"

The Young Manor Lord’s brow was knit tightly. He cautiously picked up the Jiaowei and examined it carefully, looking it up and down. He stared at it for a long while but couldn’t spot anything out of the ordinary.

No mechanisms had opened, no secrets had been revealed.

’Could it be that the Jiaowei’s secret is simply that you have to play these notes first, and then you can play it freely afterward?’

At this thought, realization seemed to dawn on the Young Manor Lord.

But in the next moment, another question arose:

’That’s not right... Logically, every time the Jiaowei is played, there should be a sonic shockwave.’

’How is it that after I played it, nothing changed at all?’

’Could it be...’

’No, that’s impossible!’

’Who in this world could possibly forge a Jiaowei? That’s absolutely impossible...’

He took a deep breath, but his face betrayed none of the calm his words suggested.

If this was the real Jiaowei, the mechanism should have opened after he finished playing those notes.

If he had played it incorrectly, he should be dead by now.

But the reality was, he wasn’t dead, the Jiaowei hadn’t opened, and nothing had changed at all.

This wasn’t right... Something was definitely wrong!

Yet he couldn’t bring himself to believe that someone had forged the Jiaowei.

The only person capable of such a thing was Jiang Ran... Did Jiang Ran bring a fake Jiaowei zither to Sunset Plateau?

What would be the point?

The Tea and Zither Appreciation Gathering... he had organized it himself.

He had disguised himself as Man Shengming and stayed by Jiang Ran’s side. It had been a long time since they first met.

’I shouldn’t have revealed any flaws in my disguise!’

’Jiang Ran has no reason to do this...’

As this thought crossed his mind, his brow twitched. He felt an uncontrollable itch rising in his throat and couldn’t help but let out a cough.

One cough was followed by several more.

The Young Manor Lord’s pupils contracted sharply. ’Something is wrong...’

He had always been strong and healthy. Why would he suddenly start coughing so violently for no reason?

The coughing grew worse until he couldn’t stop himself from spitting out a mouthful of blood. It splattered across the zither strings and dripped onto the body of the Jiaowei.

"Jiaowei..."

The Young Manor Lord tried to suppress his coughs, instinctively using his sleeve to wipe the bloodstains from the Jiaowei.

To his surprise, the wipe rubbed away a large patch of the Jiaowei’s antique brown finish.

Revealing the brand-new wood underneath...

In that instant, the entire world seemed to fall silent.

Only the distant RUMBLE of thunder echoed from the sky.

The raincloud that had arrived with the "Young Manor Lord" and his men had finally burst.

The rain started as a drizzle, but it slowly grew heavier and heavier.

The Young Manor Lord stared blankly at the zither in his hands, let out a long sigh, and covertly took a medicinal pill from his sleeve, popping it into his mouth.

Just then, a soft sigh was heard from the cave entrance:

"Young Manor Lord, you don’t mind if I come in to get out of the rain, do you?"

The Young Manor Lord wasn’t too surprised to see Jiang Ran walk into the cave. He simply asked:

"How did you find me?"

"I tampered with the zither. I put a little poison on it. Following its trail to find you wasn’t difficult."

"This Jiaowei is a fake... But you’ve shown it in public more than once. Don’t tell me those were fakes, too?"

The Young Manor Lord looked at Jiang Ran.

Jiang Ran shook his head.

"Those were all real. Only this one is fake."

"What an exquisitely crafted fake... Since Sanshui County, I’ve compared it to the diagrams countless times. To think I was still deceived."

The Young Manor Lord sighed, a hint of resentment in his tone.

But Jiang Ran just smiled.

"You know, I... I originally thought I had terrible luck."

"I was born with an incurable illness."

"My master arranged a marriage for me, but it turned out my fiancée’s family were not good people."

"But looking at it now, my luck isn’t so bad after all."

"I thought I wouldn’t live past twenty, but here I am, still alive and kicking."

"And just when I was wondering how to bring this Tea and Zither Appreciation Gathering to a satisfying conclusion..."

"I happened to run into a divinely skilled craftsman... I suspect you know who I’m talking about."

"Ximen Feng..."

The Young Manor Lord did indeed know. He glanced at Jiang Ran.

"That idiot. I suppose he’s already spilled his guts to you?"

"Not quite."

Jiang Ran shook his head.

"But he certainly hates you now. Or rather, he hates your Heterodox Manor."

"After all, you were the ones who tricked him into bringing ’Cheng Tianyang’ to Qifeng Manor."

"Because of that, I suspected he was colluding with you, setting a trap together. I nearly beat him to death..."

This incident took place late on the night Jiang Ran was lured into the Soul Shattering Array.

Having suffered such a huge loss and even had his blade techniques countered, Jiang Ran naturally wasn’t going to just let it go.

And the root of it all was that Ximen Feng had sticky fingers. He had encountered members of Heterodox Manor carrying a chest on the road, assumed its contents were valuable, and stole it amidst the chaos.