Bright Sword: Conquer the monk at the beginning and take down Zhou Weiguo

The two slowly climbed the grass-covered slope, finally approaching the wooden house. The wood was almost white from insect infestation, a corner of the roof had collapsed, and the cracks in the exterior walls were filled with weeds and spider webs. It looked like it had been abandoned for a long time, but Qin Cang's eyes instantly locked onto an anomaly under the threshold.

“Someone’s moved it.” He bent down and gently pried open the loose wooden board with his dagger, revealing a piece of oilcloth as thin as a cicada’s wing, folded very neatly. Inside the oilcloth was a hand-drawn map that had been crumpled and unfolded many times, marked with several unknown mountain paths and three obviously highlighted red lines leading in the same direction.

“This isn’t our usual topographic map.” Xiao Hu leaned closer, his eyes suddenly turning serious. “This is… Liu, the company commander’s own marking map.”

Qin Cang silently unfolded the map, comparing it to his memory while quickly piecing together its structure. His gaze fell on the lower right corner of the map, where a symbol drawn in light blue ink stood—a strange ring with a cross in the center. He stared at the symbol for a long time, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper.

“This is a communication marker,” Qin Cang said in a low voice, a hint of secret excitement in his voice. “But it’s not the kind we usually use. It’s a signal system that Liu San set up in secret… He’s never mentioned it to anyone.”

"How did you know?" Xiao Hu asked, somewhat surprised.

“Because that was agreed upon between us.” Qin Cang smiled slightly, with a hint of nostalgia. “In the early days, when we patrolled the border, our equipment was poor and communication was difficult, so we used these simple symbols to transmit information. There were seven in total, and only the two of us could remember the order and meaning.”

His fingers gently traced the edge of the circular mark, as if caressing a memory that had been dormant for many years.

"This is an 'emergency replacement point' and also a 'backup escape route'."

Xiao Hu's eyes widened: "So... he hid the information there?"

“No.” Qin Cang shook his head, his gaze turning slightly cold. “If it were just about hiding, he wouldn’t need to arrange things this way. He’s showing me the way.”

Xiao Hu was stunned, his heart skipped a beat.

"You mean... he knew you were coming to see him?"

“I told you, he knows me too well.” Qin Cang’s voice was low. “And I also understand that he couldn’t have lingered by that fire for so long just to cover himself. He was waiting for me to find this map, and then, according to the instructions on the map, to go to another location to make contact with the real intelligence point.”

He stood up, his gaze sharp as a knife: "This place is fake. The information he really wants to convey is not here."

"Then shall we go now?"

Qin Cang nodded, but hesitated to move. Instead, he squatted down again to carefully examine the area beneath the oilcloth. He keenly noticed a smaller slip of paper tucked in the corner, containing a very short message written in extremely fine handwriting:

[Xiao Cang, don't come to save me. Take that child away and go to the fifth route.]

Xiao Hu also saw the words and was immediately stunned: "Child? What child?"

Qin Cang didn't answer immediately. His fingertips gripped the slip of paper tightly, as if afraid that the page would suddenly be blown away by the wind. His heart was suddenly in turmoil.

He remembered.

Three months ago, Liu San secretly brought back a package. He didn't tell anyone what was inside, only saying it was a personal item entrusted to him by a mountain villager. Liu San personally guarded the package and never handed it over to anyone. He also specifically instructed the night watchmen not to approach the barracks' backyard.

“The child…” Qin Cang murmured, as if something inside his heart had been suddenly torn apart, “He has always been protecting someone.”

Xiao Hu finally realized: "So he contacted that group of people because of that child?"

“Very likely.” Qin Cang nodded, his gaze as cold as iron. “That explains it—he wasn’t coerced, but rather he was actively maneuvering. In order to protect the child, he had no choice but to cooperate with that group, deliberately delaying the process so that we could get the map smoothly and then follow the fifth clue to leave.”

Xiao Hu gritted his teeth: "Shall we go to the fifth line now to find that child?"

"No," Qin Cang shook his head, "Let's go back to the campfire first."

"why?"

“He knows we’ve found the map now.” Qin Cang looked up at the sky, his eyes deep and unfathomable. “Next, he might risk giving one last hint, telling us ‘who’ can be trusted and ‘who’ must be eliminated.”

Xiao Hu swallowed hard and nodded: "Then...when do we make our move?"

"Wait for him to make a mistake," Qin Cang said slowly, his eyes as cold as frost. "He shouldn't make a mistake, but he will do it on purpose. That's when we'll make our move."

After saying this, the two quickly hid the map and note back in the tarpaulin, covered the loose wooden plank, and quietly returned along the same route.

As night deepened, the temperature in the forest dropped, and a night crow took flight from the treetops, much like a premonition of fate. Qin Cang walked ahead, his mind rapidly sketching out the terrain of the Fifth Line, possible cover, escape routes... and, of course, the child's face.

Qin Cang crouched at the edge of the woods, his gaze fixed on the campfire. The flames were much shorter than before, as if less firewood had been deliberately added, but the people around the fire remained extremely vigilant. They weren't there to keep warm, but to wait, to blockade, to await what they believed was an inevitable standoff.

Liu San stood a meter away from them, neither approaching nor moving away. His face was half bright and half shadowed in the firelight, and at that boundary between light and darkness, he stood like a person stuck in mud, barely able to stand upright but unable to move an inch.

He stood tall and straight, but his usual sharp, iron-willed aura was gone. His shoulders were slightly slumped, and his right arm hung limply at his sides, as if he had just been injured. The wound at the corner of his mouth had reopened, and dried blood had scabbed over his jaw. He stood silently, his eyes unwavering, as if he could see nothing at all, yet also as if he had seen through every single detail to the bone.

Qin Cang remained silent, waiting. Waiting for that signal. The signal he and Liu San had agreed to never utter aloud, but whose appearance would signify "it's time to act."

As the wind rose, the branches and leaves in the forest rustled slightly, and a withered branch gently fell to the ground. Little Tiger held his breath, his eyes fixed. The tense silence, heavy with impending conflict, pressed down on every nerve in their bodies. He knew that Qin Cang was waiting for a "mistake," a deliberately created loophole, a hint from Liu San.

However, Liu San made no move.

He simply turned around suddenly, as if by chance, glancing at something behind him. The glance was fleeting, seemingly just to relieve the soreness in his neck, but Qin Cang understood. He narrowed his eyes, slowly tracing the angle of Liu San's gaze in his mind—the direction of the old wooden house where he had hidden the map.