Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 507: Everything is under Control (Part )
Night, waterside, pavilion.

There are several lanterns on the eaves.

There is a pot of good wine on the table.

Murong Xiao sat at the table and drank by himself.

When he had drunk only one third of the wine in the jug, the person he was waiting for finally arrived.

That was a masked man in a full set of night clothes.

He was not tall, nor was he of strong build. From a distance, he was even thinner than some women... However, it was precisely because of this that he was able to develop a set of light skills known as "silent and invisible."

As the name suggests, this kind of Kung Fu, as long as it is combined with night clothes, can make others unable to see any trace or hear any movement at night.

Of course, at this moment, Murong Xiao must have seen him.

Because he had slowly walked under the light and stood in front of Murong Xiao.

"Mr. Murong, sorry to have kept you waiting." His voice sounded a little old.

Murong Xiao recognized the voice, and the pair of eyes that were exposed outside the black cloth. He could even recognize the wrinkles around the eyes, and the gray and white temples...

"Did you bring the things?" Murong Xiao asked calmly.

The masked man paused for two seconds before responding, "I want to discuss the reward."

"That means you didn't bring it." Murong Xiao's voice still sounded calm.

"Heh... Mr. Murong, forgive me for being blunt..." The masked man sneered, "If I really bring that thing to you tonight, will you let me leave alive?"

"That's ridiculous..." Murong Xiao said this in a tone that made it unclear whether it was sarcasm or self-mockery. "Could it be that a dignified 'Skythief' would be afraid of a useless person like me?"

But the masked man known as "Skythief" immediately put away his sneer and replied solemnly: "To be honest, I'm afraid."

He paused and said, "If I was only a little bit scared when you offered me the 'faked death' plan a few months ago... now, I am very scared."

Some readers may have understood it by now, but some may not be able to remember what is going on for a while because the book is a bit slow. I will help to explain it here...

First, Ling Sheng'er accidentally saw the ring on Sun Yixie's hand on the road outside the capital last year, in the autumn of the 20th year of Yongtai.

I said at the time, "A disaster in the future will also arise from this..." (Volume 7 "The Return of the Dragon" Chapter 1)
What is the cause of this disaster?
In fact, it was not Ding's constant coveting, but Murong Xiao's calculation.

If you look back a little, you will find that Ding Buzhu didn't learn the information about the Silkworm Ring until about half a month before Shuang Xie came back from Japan; and Xinghui Tower... was also a place where Shuang Xie wanted to go; Ding Buzhu had his men search Shuang Xie's luggage with a "give it a try" mentality, and they really found the Silkworm Ring, and he was a little at a loss.

But Murong Xiao is different...

Soon after the news of "the appearance of the Silkworm Ring" entered the intelligence network of Tingfeng Tower, Ah Xiao had already attached great importance to it.

This is not surprising. For someone with a physical disability like Ah Xiao, how priceless is the Tiancan Kung Fu?
He was born into a martial arts family, a genius with great intelligence, but was born with a disability. Could he accept this? As a person who had studied medicine and even physics, could he give up the hope of Tiancan Gong?
What's more, Murong Xiao believed that in today's world, perhaps only his wisdom could crack the secret hidden for decades in the Silkworm-seeking Ring and find the Heavenly Silkworm Skill.

The appearance of this thing is simply God giving him a chance.

During that period, while Murong Xiao was inquiring about Shuang Xie's whereabouts, he had already "laid the ground" for himself to obtain the Silkworm-seeking Ring without anyone noticing in the future.

And this move is the "Death of the Sky Thief".

The "Heavenly Thief" here naturally does not refer to the young and foolish Yu Wang, but the master who "died of a stroke last year" as Yu Wang mentioned to Ding Buzhu in the previous document, that is, the previous "Heavenly Thief" Diao Yang.

That is, the masked old man standing in front of Murong Xiao at this moment.

As for Diao Yang, he has done a lot of bad things in his life. "Stealing" is only a part of it, and it is also the part where his professional ability is most outstanding. It can be said to be his "work"; and other things like picking flowers and killing people are his "life".

When such people get old, they will naturally have more enemies...

And friends, almost none.

After all, those who hire "Skythief" only treat him as a tool, not a friend.

Therefore, the only people Diao Yang could count on in his later years were the group of disciples he had accepted...

But what kind of disciples can a person like him teach?
If one day he really can't even walk, his disciples will probably put a knife to his neck and force him to tell them where he has hidden all his savings before his enemies even make a move on him.

It was in such a state where there was no hope for Diao Yang to retire and it seemed that he would die on the road sooner or later that he met a resourceful employer like Murong Xiao.

Murong Xiao then gave him a plan to kill two birds with one stone.

First, let Diao Yang design a plan to kill all his apprentices, leaving only the youngest, the most naive, and the most gullible one to "survive accidentally."

Afterwards, let this kid (Yu Wang) mistakenly believe that the master is dead and his fellow brothers have killed each other (considering the usual morals of this group of people, this is not difficult), so he inherits the name of "Heavenly Thief" and is allowed to spread the fact that "the master and fellow brothers are all dead" everywhere.

Then, Diao Yang went to help Murong Xiao steal the silkworm ring.

After stealing and settling the bill, the job is done.

If everything goes well, Diao Yang can take this reward, plus the small treasury he has saved over the years, and escape safely to shore. After that, he can find a place to change his name and enjoy the life of a wealthy man in his later years.

As for Murong Xiao, he obtained a stolen item from a "person who no longer exists", so there was no way to trace him.

So, the two of them hit it off, Diao Yang acted according to the plan, and the first half of the plan went smoothly.

But when they were about to steal the silkworm ring, the situation changed - when Diao Yang completed the "faked death" operation, Murong Xiao received news... Sun and Huang had already gone abroad.

This is what they call "Man proposes, God disposes". Murong Xiao at that time had no way of knowing that the moment Shuang Xie showed up to look for the silkworm ring, he was on his way to Japan on the secret order of the emperor. By the time he had made his plan and was ready to take action, they were no longer in the Central Plains. You couldn't possibly let Diao Yang chase them overseas to steal them, right?
Later, after waiting for half a year, when Murong Xiao finally received news about Sun and Huang, the two had already known the value of the Xuncan Ring and had been under the secret surveillance of the Youjia Gang and the protection of the abbot for a long time... How could Diao Yang do anything about this?

Fortunately, Murong Xiao's original plan of "killing two birds with one stone" had a very solid "backup plan".

Since he can't steal the things for the time being, he can wait. Anyway, he can play Diao Yang's card at any time, and the later he plays it, the less likely people will want to get it.

You all know roughly what happened later...

When Shuangxie also came to Cangzhou, Murong Xiao knew that his chance had come.

Although Sun Huang used the "Zhengxiong Cup" to turn the Xuncan Ring from dark to light, and once forced Murong Xiao into a desperate situation, he still found a dangerous way out in the cracks.

However, this road is really tortuous...

First of all, Murong Xiao knew from the day the competition rules were announced that the items on the "prize table" next to the arena on the day of the competition would definitely be fake, and the real things would definitely be somewhere else.

So, he waited until the day before the competition and asked his father a question - "Dad, do you want to learn the Heavenly Silkworm Skill?"

This question may sound like nonsense at first glance, but in fact it has a lot of hidden meanings.

Murong Shu knew that with his second son's intelligence, he was definitely not asking about the "first level", that is, whether he wanted to, or the "second level", that is, whether he wanted to use some tricks to win the game...

Murong Xiao should have asked about the "third level", that is, whether he wanted to obtain the Silkworm-seeking Ring through off-field means.

As for Murong Shu… to be honest, he wanted to, but he couldn’t, because he had already been “guarded against” a long time ago.

This story begins a few days ago.

After the negotiations between the Baquan Sect and the Murong Family, weren't there a few days when Huo Ming, Murong Shu and Sun Huang gathered together every day for meetings?

Everyone thought that they were discussing competition-related matters intensely every day.

Indeed, 99% of the time, that’s what they discuss.

However, at the end of the last meeting, Shuang Xie suddenly mentioned something: "Although when we announce the rules to the public, we will say that the prizes will be placed next to the arena on the day of the competition, but right now... on the premise that the four of us know about it, how about we hide the real Xuncan Ring under the floor of this room?"

Huo Ming and Murong Shu were confused by this idea at first, but after thinking about it carefully, they realized that this idea was actually very clever.

The place where they held the meeting that day was the Cangzhou branch of the Baquan Sect, which was originally the "Huo Family Martial Arts School".

Then this room is considered a high-end reception room. It is not used very often. If you find a piece of floor in a corner to hide something, no one will notice it for ten years.

As long as the four of them who knew about it didn't tell anyone, no one would have thought that such an important thing would be hidden in such an unattended...random and safe place.

The most crucial thing is that the four of them, or the three parties, have formed a relatively small relationship of mutual supervision and mutual restraint.

Therefore, even if Murong Shu knew where the Silkworm-seeking Ring was, he could not tell his son.

To put it bluntly, it is not difficult for you to steal the ring from under the floor today. The difficult thing is that tomorrow the whole martial arts world will know that it was you who stole it, and then use this as an excuse to form a team to deal with you. What will you do?
"Xiao'er, I think you have guessed that the ring on the trophy table is fake, but... your father really cannot tell you where the real silkworm-seeking ring is." Murong Shu hesitated for a moment and replied.

"Oh?" Murong Xiao guessed a lot just after hearing this sentence.

"You said 'where' instead of 'who has', which means the ring is hidden somewhere, not worn on someone's body." Murong Xiao continued, "And you know it, but you 'can't' say it. Maybe when you hid it, only a few people knew about it. So once the thing is lost, you will be highly suspected, right?"

Murong Shu felt a little dazed when he heard his son's words: "Xiao'er, since you have thought of this, you should not ask any more questions. If you really guess something...if something goes wrong, I am afraid I can't explain it clearly and I can't cover it up."

"Yes." Murong Xiao nodded, "Don't worry, I won't touch the so-called 'True Silkworm Seeking Ring' you know, because it must be fake."

Murong Shu's expression changed when he heard this: "What?"

After blurting out the surprised question, Murong Shu realized belatedly that his son seemed to have already reached the "fifth floor" and above.

Ah Xiao just continued calmly: "If I were a member of Hunyuan Star Gate, I would do this...

"I will first tell you where the 'real ring' is hidden in a place where all three parties are present. Then, in a place where only two parties are present, I will take out a fake that looks more real and tell the other party... The ring I took out when all three parties were present was actually a fake. Now I will only tell you where the real one is so that we can guard against the other party.

"And in order to dispel the doubts of the person I'm looking for later, and to make him not doubt 'Then you're looking for me alone right now, maybe you're just showing me a fake one?' I have to treat it as if it were real, and then make some serious moves to contain the other party, such as each side hiring a small number of people to guard, or setting up some kind of trap or poison that can only be opened when both parties are present...

“But no matter what, this one is still fake.

"After these two deceptions, I not only set up two layers of mystery for the real Silkworm Seeking Ring, but I can also use these two counterfeits to test who will leak the secret or steal from the company.

"So... Dad, were you the one who was told when all three parties were present, or were you the one who was told by them individually later?"

Murong Shu broke out in a cold sweat when he heard this. He calmed himself down before speaking: "I am the former..."

At this point, he had nothing bad to say.

"That's great." Murong Xiao said.

"Okay?" Murong Shu said.

"Of course." Murong Xiao said, "Because the former doesn't know where the fake the latter knows is, but the latter knows the former's. So if the fake the former knows is lost, the latter will be suspected of framing the latter. Another possibility is that both fakes are lost. In addition to being stolen by a third party, it is also possible that the latter deliberately stole both to confuse the public."

"That is to say..." Murong Shu gradually caught up with his son's thoughts at this point, "When the situation of 'only the latter knows about the fake being lost' occurs, only the former will not be suspected... Is this the 'good' part?"

"That's right." Murong Xiao said.

"So what you mean is that what you want to deal with is the fake that Master Huo knows about." Murong Shu asked again.

"Yes." Murong Xiao said.

"You want to put the blame on him?" Murong Shu said.

"Yes." Murong Xiao said.

"After you put the blame on him, you only got a fake. What's the point?" Murong Shu said, "Besides, those were just your speculations. Maybe there has never been the 'former' and 'latter' you mentioned. Even if there is, where can you find the fake that Sect Leader Huo knows about? Will he tell you?"

"He will." Murong Xiao smiled. "On the day of the competition, if something unexpected happens... he will."