Start with acting, and you'll achieve immortality!

"Jia Lu can't give you that."

Li Ping looked up, staring intently at the well opening, and reached his right hand into his robe to firmly fasten the spine of the book, "Jia Lu," through the fabric.

The breathing outside the wall remained steady, and not a single footstep was moved.

"You must always carry your armor with you; if you go down the well, you'll be buried with it."

"Once the armor is out of our hands, we'll only die faster."

Ren Jun stepped on the copper buckle next to Zhou Tong's corpse and shouted towards the well: "If the teacher is really outside the wall, explain clearly why I was punished for the first time after I entered the sect at the age of twelve."

A moment of silence outside the wall

"When you were twelve, you stole half a jar of plum wine and got drunk in the library. Chen Boyong punished you by making you copy the rules three times, while Qin Bo took care of it for you."

The last trace of color drained from Ren Jun's lips, but the soles of his boots with their brass buckles pressed down even tighter.

Only three people know the inside story.

Chen Boyong, Ren Jun, and Qin Bo, who copied the book for him

Li Ping's fingers tightened around the spine of the book, the hard corner digging into his palm.

"This only proves that you know Uncle Qin, not that you are his teacher."

"It's good to be cautious, especially when there's a dead person lying in the well."

The footsteps echoed around the broken wall, and the person walked up to Su Wan.

Su Wan held her sword horizontally in her left hand, the tip pressed against his chest.

"stop"

The newcomer's boots stopped in front of the sword's edge. He raised two fingers, gripped the edge of his cloak, and slowly pulled it back, revealing a deeply lined old face from the shadows.

"Uncle Qin... did you borrow the teacher's voice too?"

Su Wan did not move the sword in her hand.

Qin Bo used two fingers to reach below his Adam's apple, pinched a nearly transparent talisman, and slowly tore it off. The talisman made a soft, sticky sound as it left his skin, and Chen Boyong's aged voice faded away, leaving only his original hoarse tone.

"There are many spies in the mansion who use your voice, so the pursuers only dared to send one person over first."

"Less deaths? Does that include Zhou Tong?"

"I saw the body. As for the rest, let's get out of here alive first."

Qin Bo glanced down at Zhou Tong's corpse, his eyelids lingering only on the disfigured face for a moment before drooping again.

Li Ping squatted down again to the right of the corpse, first pinching the collar and pulling it outwards to flatten it, then using the tip of the black nail to pry open the soaked fabric along the spine.

There was a narrow wound below the shoulder blade, with little blood around the edges. The corpse's feet were covered in grayish-white stone powder, while the bottom of the well was full of black mud.

"The wound has little blood, and the stone dust on the soles of the feet doesn't match the well mud, so this isn't an ominous place. Zhou Tong must have died somewhere else."

Ren Jun picked up the broken copper buckle

"The copper buckle was right next to the body; he probably reached out and grabbed someone's clothes before he died."

"A broken button can't identify the murderer; it's possible that someone put it in his hand after he died."

Li Ping tore off a clean piece of cloth, first placing the broken button in the center, then pressing the black nail horizontally to the side, folding the four corners tightly, and finally stuffing it deep into his sleeve pocket.

The sound of tearing fabric came from above the well.

Su Wan leaned against the well edge, biting one end of the cloth strip tightly with her teeth. She rewrapped her right shoulder with her left hand, and blood quickly seeped through, but fortunately, it stopped dripping.

Uncle Qin handed over a medicine bottle

"Use the hemostatic powder to stop the bleeding first."

Su Wan didn't answer.

"Who created this?"

"Fuzhong Pharmacy"

"Then it's even more unusable."

She took out the medicinal powder from her waist, bit open the cork, and poured it onto the wound. She used only her left hand throughout the entire process, and cold sweat was already on her forehead.

Uncle Qin took the medicine bottle back.

"Fang Cheng is downstairs. Once the escaped assassins return with their men, you'll never see him again."

Ren Jun looked up and demanded, "Where is he?"

"Under your feet"

Qin Bo went around to the back of the well, took out a dark red wooden plaque from his sleeve, pressed his thumb against the end of the plaque, and carefully pressed it inch by inch into the crack between the bricks.

Karaara

A heavy grating sound of stones grinding together echoed from deep within the well wall.

Li Ping's feet trembled slightly.

A crack appeared in the well wall behind Zhou Tong's corpse, and a cold, medicinal smell rushed out. Behind the crack, stone steps leading downwards were revealed, each step carved with half a cloud pattern, the same pattern as the one on the tail of the black nail.

"The entrance to the Si family's repair shop?" Li Ping asked.

"Just because the Si family repaired it doesn't mean it belongs to the Si family; just because the old house was used doesn't mean it later fell into the hands of the prefect's office."

"Who does this well belong to?"

Uncle Qin kept looking at him

"Whoever comes out alive will temporarily belong to them."

Li Ping took out the armor book, only the cover was visible.

"You go first."

Uncle Qin shook his head

I will guard the well.

"Then we won't go down either."

A whistle sounded from outside the broken wall, closer than before.

Qin Bo glanced over Su Wan's shoulder, then his gaze fell on Zhou Tong's corpse.

"If I wanted to steal it, there wouldn't have been just one person who came earlier."

"You didn't steal it; there was just a lack of someone to open the door."

Li Ping pointed to the depths of the stone steps.

"We've obtained the Jialu, but the door still isn't open; you're still waiting for Senior Brother Ren and Su Wan. Without either of them, the door below can't be opened."

Qin Bo's wrinkles tightened suddenly, and his hand, hidden in his sleeve, remained concealed for a long time.

Ren Jun turned to Li Ping

"Since you guessed it all along, why did you only say so now?"

"They've been demanding the license plate but haven't made a move. What else could they be waiting for but for someone to open the door?"

Li Ping took out two fire talismans from his sleeve, first placing one into Ren Jun's uninjured hand, then bending down to place the other next to the wooden plaque at the entrance to the stone steps, its corner pressed against the brick seam.

"Qin Bo will go first, Su Wan will stay in the middle, and I will cover the rear. If the entrance is sealed, the fire talisman will burn the wooden plaque first."

Qin Bo stared at the fire talisman for two breaths, his shoes leaving a half-circle mark in the well mud, before stepping sideways into the secret passage.

Keep up with the pace.

Qin Bo led the way, Ren Jun protected Su Wan in the middle, and Li Ping was the last to step in. The faint light from the well opening in the secret passage was gradually swallowed up by the corner, leaving only four shadows stretching down the stone steps.

The further down you go, the more water seeps from the stone walls, the damp chill seeps into your clothes, and the medicinal smell grows stronger with each step, until the firelight illuminates an iron door riddled with small holes.

Qin Bo didn't touch the door, but simply stepped aside.

"Call out his name."

Ren Jun stood in front of the door

Fang Cheng

The sound of chains grinding came from behind the small hole.

A weak voice emerged from the darkness.

"Senior Brother, you still owe me twenty-seven coins."

Ren Jun's shoulders stiffened

Su Wan took a half-step forward, her left wrist thrusting out, the sword tip clanging against the iron gate. The shockwave rebounded along the blade, staining the strip of cloth on her right shoulder with a dark red sheen.

"Is that Senior Brother Fang?"

The person inside chuckled twice, then their breathing quickly became disordered.

"Junior sister, when you were ten years old, you broke the teacher's inkstone and cried, begging me to take the blame. You promised to wash my clothes for half a year, but in the end, you only washed two pieces."

Su Wan lowered her sword by half an inch.

"It really is you..."

"Open the door first, then identify the person."

With a soft hum, a red light shone through the leftmost hole in the door, followed by the second and third holes in succession, as if something was counting people one by one through the door.

As Ren Jun's palm touched the iron gate, a dark red line appeared beneath his sleeve. The same line also appeared on Su Wan's right shoulder wound, blood seeping along the edge of the cloth. The pain made her press her back against the stone wall.

Li Ping used his thumb to pry open the cover of the book, and with his other hand, he held down the trembling pages, leaving only the spine facing him.

The pages turned on their own and stopped on the page with Fang Cheng's name on it.

Click

The bolt retracted into the stone wall on its own, and the iron gate slid back inward with a harsh scraping sound.

Behind the door was not a prison cell. The firelight crossed the threshold and illuminated only a stone platform half-buried in the ground, its edges congealed with blackened old blood. There was no other place to step around it.

A gaunt man lay in the center of the stone platform, his hands and feet bound by copper rings, dozens of thin tubes piercing his back. His chest rose and fell very weakly, and a red glow moved beneath his skin. Each time it lit up, a blood-red name appeared on the surrounding well walls.

杜衡

Shen Zhu

Fang Cheng

Hadano

The names lit up one after another, finally stopping at the name Ren Jun.

The red thread on Ren Jun's arm immediately tightened, and he was dragged towards the stone platform.

Li Ping braced himself against the doorframe with one foot, and as Ren Jun was dragged closer, he grabbed Ren Jun's collar tightly, the fabric constricting his throat. Su Wan, pressed against the stone wall, twisted her left wrist, and the sword's edge grazed the ground as it flashed out horizontally. The red thread snapped instantly, and the blood from the broken blade splattered onto the iron gate.

The man on the stone platform twitched his eyelids twice, and the cracks slowly opened, revealing a pair of eyes that still shone with a clear light.

His cheeks were sunken, his skin clinging to his cheekbones like a layer of old paper covering withered wood; yet his eyes looked past everyone else, fixed intently on the armor plate in Li Ping's hand.

"Don't close it."

Li Ping pressed his thumb down horizontally, gripping the page he was about to turn tightly, leaving a white mark on the edge of the paper beneath his fingertip.

Give me a reason.

The red light on Fang Cheng's chest shone again, and the seventeen names on the well wall simultaneously bled.

"Because at least half of the dead people in this booklet are still alive."

He pulled on the chains, and more heavy breathing came from beneath the brass rings.

"The dead man on the armory," Fang Cheng stared at Li Ping, "is breathing right at your feet."