Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 592 The Mystery of the Heavenly Silkworm (Part 1)

Night, Murong Mansion.

Beside the large bath, Murong Xiao calmly removed his blood-stained clothes, shoes, and socks, revealing his well-defined muscles.

He first looked at his body with the same gaze one would use to appreciate a work of art, before slowly walking into the pool.

When the hot water completely submerged his body from the neck down, he immediately raised his head and groaned in pleasure, a look of extreme enjoyment on his face.

Some might find it strange: taking a hot bath in winter shouldn't be a difficult thing for a young master from a wealthy family like Murong Xiao, so why is he doing this?
Then I can only say that at this moment, at least 70% of his pleasure comes from the psychological level... because in Ah Xiao's past decades of life, he was unable to do ordinary things such as dressing, bathing, and even using the toilet on his own; even if he had to urinate in the middle of the night, he had to call the night watchman to help him.

At first glance, this seems to be "royal" treatment, but in reality, there is a qualitative difference between the two. Those royal nobles "actively chose" to be served, given that they were capable of doing these things themselves, and they were able to cooperate to a certain extent when being served. As for Ah Xiao, he was like an infant, forced to be helped by others, and when others served him, he was almost completely at their mercy.

Even though the servants who served him were always respectful and never complained, with Murong Xiao's keen insight, how could he not see the disdain and contempt that occasionally slipped into their eyes?

Therefore, for someone as intelligent and sensitive as Murong Xiao, experiencing these things every day and every time was actually hurting his self-esteem.

Fortunately, he can still hold a rice bowl and carry books... If he needed someone to feed him and turn the pages for him to eat and read, he would probably go crazy.

Now that Murong Xiao can finally change his clothes, take a bath, and use the toilet by himself, it is probably hard for us to imagine how much satisfaction he can get from these seemingly ordinary little things.

"Is there a problem?"

After soaking in the water for just two minutes, Murong Xiao suddenly spoke, saying something to whoever it was.

A few seconds later, someone answered from outside the door: "Uh... Second Young Master, the Eldest Young Master and the Fourth Young Master said they have something to discuss with you."

The servant who answered the call was clearly quite clever. He stopped outside the bathhouse when he arrived, not daring to speak rashly. He knew that Murong Xiao didn't like being disturbed while "enjoying life and taking care of himself," so his original intention was to wait outside the door for the second young master to finish bathing before delivering the message.

However, since Murong Xiao had noticed his presence and asked him, he hesitated for a moment before replying.

"Hmph..." Murong Xiao snorted disdainfully, "I know, tell them I'll come after I finish my shower."

"Yes," the servant replied, then turned and walked away.

Murong Xiao, however, showed no intention of washing up quickly. Instead, he leisurely wrung out the towel, spread it over his face, leaned back against the edge of the bathtub, and muttered to himself, "These two are born of the same mother after all... Seeing that the tide has turned, they've finally sided with each other..."

What did he mean by that?
Here we need to go back a bit further, starting from when Ah-Xiao and his father obtained the Silkworm-Seeking Ring.

A few months ago, after finishing up the aftermath of the "Contending for Heroes Cup", Murong Shu immediately threw himself into the task of deciphering the secret of the Silkworm Ring with Ah Xiao.

Murong Shu wasn't stupid; he knew very well that this matter was of much higher priority than organizing any kind of Young Heroes Gathering.

Moreover, at this time, he had already begun to make longer-term plans, namely, to think about what would happen after he obtained the Heavenly Silkworm Technique.

Considering all that, it's best not to tell anyone more about obtaining the Silkworm-Seeking Ring...

Firstly, the more people you tell, the greater the risk of the news that "the Silkworm Ring is in the hands of the Murong family" being leaked.

Secondly, even close relatives who wouldn't divulge the secret, such as Murong Shu's legal wife, could still pose a risk if they found out... Because if you tell her, she will inevitably tell her two sons, Murong Ji and Murong Dian. What if those two leak the secret? Or what if they do something even more foolish and terrible in their fight for it?

No one knows a son better than his father. Murong Shu certainly didn't have any grudge against his two sons, but he simply didn't trust them.

Only Ah Xiao is someone Murong Shu can completely trust and entrust with his life.

It could even be said that from the moment he obtained the Silkworm-Seeking Ring, Murong Shu had already decided to let Ah Xiao "take over," because with the Heavenly Silkworm Skill, Ah Xiao's body would most likely be cured.

As we mentioned earlier, if Murong Xiao had even a little bit of martial arts skill, Murong Shu would have wanted him to succeed as the head of the family.

You could call it favoritism, but as the saying goes, "all parents love one thing more than the other." Why favor him? Because objectively speaking, apart from his physical condition, Murong Xiao is worlds apart from his two brothers in every other aspect.

Both publicly and privately, Ah-Xiao is the most suitable next head of the family—as long as his congenital illness can be cured.

Therefore, the matter of "searching for the Heavenly Silkworm Technique" became a secret operation known only to Murong Shu and Murong Xiao.

According to Murong Shu, once they find it, he and his son will secretly start practicing it first. As for whether to pass it on to their other children and relatives, that's something to "discuss later," "we'll see," or "we'll see"...

And the operation progressed unexpectedly smoothly.

First, regarding the poem that circulated in the martial arts world thirty years ago—"Hidden in the Heavenly Silkworm Cliff is the Heavenly Cave, within which a divine cocoon buries a divine body; the divine body transforms again, divine blood appears, the blood illuminates the Heavenly Silkworm's power, which surpasses heaven"—Murong Xiao had already considered countless interpretations, and among them, he felt the most plausible one was…

The first step is to use the "re-convenient solution" method to solve it.

For example, in the first line "The Heavenly Cave is hidden on the Heavenly Silkworm Cliff", the word "Heaven" is repeated, so it is discarded, leaving "The Cave is hidden on the Silkworm Cliff".

Following this logic, we arrive at: a hidden cave on the Silkworm Cliff, where a cocoon buries the body; the body then transforms into blood, which illuminates the silkworm's work.

Once we get to this point, we'll use another solution, the second step: "Look at half and keep half."

This allows us to change the first line to "hidden cave on the Tianshan Mountains," thus pinpointing a general geographical location.

Then the second line is "the silk (cocoon) inside the cave is buried", the third line is "the body is also bloody", and the fourth line is "the bloody sun is gone (the cover is covered)"... However, the content of these last three lines seems to be related to the "condition" of that hidden place, and it is probably difficult to understand its meaning without going to the site.

Of course, the most crucial thing is that the person you're looking for must be carrying a silkworm-finding ring.

Murong Xiao speculated that the location where the skill was hidden must have some special mechanism that allowed only those holding the Silkworm-Seeking Ring to find it. Otherwise, after so many years, the probability of the location being discovered by chance would not be low.

In any case, with these hints and a general area, it's enough for Murong Shu to go and explore; at worst, even if she finds nothing after exploring, it's still a way to eliminate a wrong answer.

And so, Murong Shu casually made up an excuse to go on a long trip, and then disguised himself and went to Tianshan alone.

Logically speaking, this matter is still like finding a needle in a haystack. After all, the Tianshan Mountains are so vast, where do you even begin to search?

But the Murong father and son, at least during this period, were clearly blessed by destiny.

The fact that the Silkworm Ring, after so many years of silence and change of hands, fell into their hands during this period shows that the time is ripe for the Heavenly Silkworm Skill to reappear in the martial arts world.

At present, Murong Shu arrived at Tianshan at a time when the "blood sun spectacle" occurs only for a few days each year.

In modern terms, due to Rayleigh scattering, there is a specific area among these mountains where, on a few specific days of the year, a particularly red sunset with clearly defined boundaries can be observed.

However, the locals regard this as an ominous sign, and at this time of year, even hunters and woodcutters stop going into the mountains (of course, since it is already winter at this time of year, and they rarely go into the mountains anyway, so a few more days won't make a difference).

Murong Shu, on the other hand, had no such concerns. When he saw the words "blood sun" in the poem that A Xiao had interpreted, and when he heard the locals mention that these days were such a day, he felt that he had come at the perfect time.

So, early that morning, ignoring the innkeeper's advice, he ventured into the mountains alone.

As soon as he reached a deserted place, he encountered robbers.

The bandits had been watching him ever since he checked into the inn. They could tell he was a fat sheep just by looking at him, and he even dared to go into the mountains alone on a day like this. Weren't they just delivering themselves to him?

Then a great battle ensued, and the bandits lost their lives.

Of course, Murong Shu did not kill them all. He deliberately left one alive, or rather, he left himself a "mountain guide who could be killed without any moral pressure after use".

This "guide" was quite cunning. Although he didn't know what Murong Shu wanted to do in the mountains, he could clearly sense that the other party would kill him once he achieved his goal. So he deliberately took a particularly difficult and dangerous path that almost no one would go on, hoping to find an opportunity to escape.

But Murong Shu wouldn't let him have his way. In terms of lightness skills and intelligence, how could he, the current head of the Murong family, be outmatched by a mere petty thief like you? Go wherever you want, try to get rid of me.

Finally, after a whole day, the bandit led Murong Shu to a place he himself didn't know where.

As the sun was about to set, the bandit could no longer hold on. He burst into tears and knelt down to beg for mercy, hoping that Murong Shu would spare his life.

But Murong Shu was clearly not buying it; he was already sick of seeing crocodile tears like that.

Those gamblers who usually lose everything at their casino cry far more bitterly than this guy. Murong Shu, out of sympathy, once tried to give some silver to these people, telling them to go home and live a good life and never come back.

But what happened? These people would just walk out the door and then head to another gambling den next door, bet all their money, and then lose even more, until they had to go home and sell their children and wives.

Therefore, over the years, Murong Shu has developed a keen eye for people, able to tell at a glance who is genuinely repentant and who is just putting on a show before facing death.

The one in front of him undoubtedly belonged to the latter category, so Murong Shu didn't take the other party's pleas for mercy seriously at all, and was about to kill him while sneering.

However, even he didn't expect that at this moment, because of this bandit's crying and fussing... an avalanche would occur.