Start with acting, and you'll achieve immortality!

Uncle Qin carried the unlit lamp and walked ahead.

Su Wan did not make any move.

Her sword tip was still pointing at the roof ridge.

That person has already left.

Uncle Qin spoke up.

"If we continue to keep watching like this, we're just wasting our energy."

Su Wan sheathed her longsword.

She glanced at the broken formation nails on the ground, then looked at Li Ping.

"You'll have to bear the consequences of this trouble you caused."

"Is my junior sister looking out for me?"

"You already have many karmic entanglements, so one more won't make a difference."

Li Ping smiled slightly at this moment.

"Junior sister's temper is becoming more and more like her teacher's."

Su Wan ignored him completely.

She took out a black talisman from her sleeve and used it to roll up the copper nails in mid-air.

Delivered to Li Ping

The copper nail was only about two inches long.

The copper nail was covered in black mud, and four very shallow lines were carved at its tail.

When Li Ping reached out his right hand and caught the object, a sudden numbness appeared in his palm.

The spiritual energy inside the body felt as if it had been sharply pricked by a needle, continuously leaking outwards along the body's meridians.

He immediately clenched his fist

Only then did that strange feeling completely dissipate.

Don't get any ideas.

Su Wan said,

"This thing is specifically designed to break through the core of an array, and it can also completely drain your spiritual energy."

Li Ping wrapped the copper nail tightly in two layers of oiled paper, then stuffed it into a concealed pocket close to his body.

Uncle Qin stood to the side, watching silently; the wrinkles on his face twitched a few times at that moment.

"Gentlemen, the car is already waiting outside the alley."

"The prefect has been waiting there for quite a while; his mood is probably not very good."

"The teacher waited for me personally?"

"He stayed in the study, where the light had been on all night."

Duke Qin appeared very calm when he answered.

"Young Master Ren is here too; he just arrived a short while ago."

Li Ping raised his eyes.

Ren Jun is here

Once this well is opened, even the person who has been hiding in the shadows will no longer be able to remain calm and composed.

He turned his head back and looked at the dry well.

The well opening was dark and gloomy, like a closed mouth.

The body of the man wearing the iron mask still lay prone by the well, his withered hands dangling on the blue stone.

The copper nail that had rolled out earlier was no longer there, but a thin, bleeding wound remained on his palm.

A person died

But the object was stuffed back into his palm.

Who exactly put this place here?

Is it the thing in the well, or the person hiding on the roof?

Li Ping didn't look at anything further; he turned around and walked out of the courtyard.

It's very chaotic outside the alley.

At this moment, Da Niu was being pinned against the wall by two armored soldiers patrolling the city, with half a cold piece of bread, which he had picked up from who-knows-where, still tightly clenched in his mouth.

Erhu huddled beside the wooden cart, his face covered in excrement.

He was bowing and scraping to those armored soldiers.

The moment Da Niu saw Li Ping walk out, his eyes lit up.

"My lord! I knew you were blessed with good fortune and would never die!"

A soldier frowned.

"Are you in cahoots?"

I don't know them.

Li Ping spoke first.

"It was just a ride I took along the way."

Big Bull's face froze instantly.

Erhu reacted very quickly; he immediately put on a mournful face and said...

"Sir, you've really wronged us! We're just people who collect night soil! This old man just thought the streets were too chaotic."

"They only borrowed our car to avoid trouble; we really don't know him!"

The armored soldier glanced at the cart full of wooden barrels, then looked at the short brown clothes Li Ping was wearing.

Li Ping took out two pieces of silver from his sleeve and stuffed them into the soldier's hand.

"Thank you all for your hard work, brothers."

"It's late and windy, brothers, take this and have a hot drink."

"Don't let these two stinking manure carriers delay our important work."

The armored soldier weighed the loose silver in his hand a few times, then covered his nose with his hand and released the ox.

"Get out of here right now! Don't get in other people's way!"

Da Niu quickly got up, grabbed the cart, and ran.

He ran a few steps forward, then turned back to look at Li Ping.

The carriage of Li Pingchao, the prefectural governor, tilted slightly.

Only then did Da Niu realize what was happening. He lowered his head and followed Er Hu into the dark alleyway.

They will not go back to that dilapidated house.

Now that Qin Bo has shown himself, the prefectural governor's office will naturally have someone to make arrangements.

As the carriage left Huai'anfang, the eastern sky was just beginning to reveal a sliver of white, like the belly of a fish.

The carriage was very quiet.

Su Wan was sitting in the seat opposite, resting with her eyes closed.

Her face was even paler than when she was at the mortuary, but her fingertips remained resting on the hilt of the sword.

Li Ping was watching the streets and alleys rushing past the carriage window.

"Junior sister, have you rested enough?"

"If you have something on your mind, just ask directly."

"What exactly is buried at the bottom of that dry well in Willow Lane?"

"The teacher never mentioned this to me, and I have never been down to that place myself."

"That Dragon-Locking Formation couldn't have been set up out of thin air, could it?"

Su Wan opened her eyes

"You've been staying in Xiyun County the whole time, yet you seem to know quite a lot."

"Senior Brother Ren told me personally that those nails could disable a corner of the Dragon-Locking Formation."

"He made you lose your life in vain, and you actually listened to him and went?"

Ultimately, someone needs to be responsible for finding out the truth about the situation there.

Su Wan remained silent for a while.

"There are four strongholds under Jiangning City, and Liuxiang is just the weakest of them all."

"As for the remaining arrangements, the teacher didn't even tell me about them."

"What's locked up underneath might not be anything alive."

"Perhaps it is a dragon vein that is about to dry up, or perhaps it is an ancient relic left over from a previous dynasty."

"Or perhaps it's a place that should never see the light of day again."

However, one thing is certain: the teacher put a great deal of effort into arranging this situation back then.

It is definitely not meant to be left to future generations to play with as toys.

Li Ping leaned against the car wall.

The abandoned house where the teacher lived in his early years.

Bronze box at the bottom of the well

Breaking Formation Nail

At the same time, there exists a Dragon-Locking Formation whose complete appearance even Su Wan could not describe clearly.

What Chen Boyong left behind in Jiangning was far more than what a prefect should have.

However, Ren Junming knew perfectly well that there was a pre-arranged situation in Liuxiang, yet he still sent him there to retrieve nails.

They were in a hurry to get the items.

Or perhaps he wanted to use his own hands to bring back the people in the well and the people on the roof.

Will they all be attracted out?

You're still thinking about Senior Brother Ren.

Su Wandao

I was wondering why he had chosen me out of all people.

"Do you think he wants to harm you?"

"I believe he'll lend a hand to rescue me while he's at it."

Li Ping spoke first.

"However, I don't believe he orchestrated this situation solely to rescue me."

Su Wan glanced in his direction.

This time, she didn't say that Li Ping was suspicious.

The carriage entered the back gate of the prefectural governor's mansion.

Uncle Qin led the two to the outside of the study and then stopped.

Lights were on inside the gate.

The lamplight cast shadows on the paper windowpanes, revealing the silhouettes of three people.

One sitting

One of them was standing with his hands behind his back.

Another one sat very upright, like a sword sheathed in its sheath.

Gao Min was guarding the door when she saw Li Ping and the other person approaching.

He simply lowered his voice and said

"You all go inside, everyone's already inside."

"The master didn't close his eyes to rest all night while waiting for you all."

Li Ping pushed the door open and went in.

The study was filled with a strong herbal aroma.

Chen Boyong sat behind his desk, still wearing that dark blue official robe.

Several opened urgent letters were piled up in front of me.

He looked a little tired, but his eyes were bright.

Ren Jun was standing by the window, the Soul-Chasing Silk wrapped around his wrist had faded considerably in color.

Pei Xing was also present at this time.

The senior brother carried a broadsword, and the old scars on his face appeared even deeper under the lamplight.

As he saw Li Ping enter, his gaze first fell on Li Ping's cuffs.

It fell on Su Wan again.

"Did you guys run into a tough opponent in Liuxiang?"

"It's out, and it's making quite a commotion."

Li Ping did not bow at this moment, but instead placed the formation-breaking nail wrapped in oiled paper on the desk.

The bronze nail rolled a full circle on the table.

The expressions on the faces of the people inside the room changed simultaneously.

Ren Jun took a step forward at this moment.

"The Formation-Breaking Nail is in your hands?"

"This is something we painstakingly dug out from the palm of a corpse next to the well."

"Have you opened that bronze box at the bottom of the well?"

"Not even a glimpse of it."

Li Ping looked at him.

"Senior brother didn't mention this before; that place was already occupied by the Shangguan family."

Ren Jun's arm froze in mid-air.

"My men had been keeping a close watch on Liuxiang for several days, until last night."

"That place was indeed just an empty house."

"Where is the person who delivered the message to my senior brother?"

"This is one of the secret contact points belonging to the West City Pharmacy."

"So where is this person now?"

Ren Jun remained silent.

"He just stopped breathing this morning."

Li Ping's smile was faint.

"That's quite a coincidence!"

"Zhou Cheng is dead, your mole is dead."

"Another body was found near the well last night."

"Why do all the dead people in the world seem to flock to that dry well?"

"My senior brother instructed me to obtain that item, but he didn't even bother to find out how many eyes were watching me from behind, or how many hidden blades were at stake."

"This task was handled very reliably."

Pei Xing frowned.

"Li Ping, Senior Brother Ren was also acting on the teacher's orders."

"It wasn't that I intentionally wanted to hide it from you."

"Of course I know."

Li Ping turned his gaze to Pei Xing.

"So I didn't mind being used as a pebble to test the waters."

"I just want to ask, how much does he actually know?"

The house became very quiet.

Ren Jun stared at the array-breaking nails on the table for a moment before speaking.

"In this matter, I certainly didn't see things a few steps further ahead than you."

"The fact that the teacher left behind backup plans in brothels back then is not false."

"It's true that the Si family searched the city like madmen."

"But I didn't expect that Shangguan Jue's lackeys would arrive so quickly."

Shangguan Jue

Chen Boyong suddenly spoke

The voice wasn't loud, but it drowned out the conversation inside the room.

Are you sure it's his man?

"The carriage belonging to the West City Pharmacy has a three-petaled fire pattern related to the Shangguan family carved on its shaft."

Li Ping began to speak.

"The two cultivators following behind wore iron masks, and their moves were all based on the Shangguan family's techniques."

One escaped, and another died by the well.

Chen Boyong slightly raised his palm.

Gao Min walked to the bookshelf and took down a black lacquered wooden box.