What to do if you receive the wrong package?

Compared to Gu Yan's group, who had food, drink, and a bed to sleep in, the four people who went into the mountains to investigate were in a much more miserable situation.

Xuan Yi was the first to arrive at the meeting point. As the master of Weiyang Palace, who specializes in assassinations, his greatest skill is sneaking into a place without making a sound.

The second to arrive was Jiang Si, but he was accompanied by the corpse of a man in black.

Xuan Yi leaned against the tree without moving, casting a questioning glance at him.

"Did you run into trouble on the way?"

Jiang Si frowned, squatted down next to the corpse, and shook his head, his expression somewhat heavy.

“It’s just a little weird.”

After entering the mountains, Jiang Si did encounter a patrol team. To avoid unnecessary trouble, Jiang Si did not confront the team directly, but instead hid in a tree and waited for an opportunity.

The patrol team hadn't gone far when one of them suddenly collapsed without warning. Even more strangely, the other men in black seemed to ignore him. The remaining men walked away without looking back, as if the fallen man had never existed.

Jiang Si sensed something was wrong and quietly went over to investigate. The person lying on the ground had no heartbeat, no breathing, and was extremely cold, no different from a dead person.

But how could someone just die while walking?

And this person's body temperature dropped way too quickly.

Jiang Si originally wanted to take the strange corpse away directly, but he was afraid that if the patrolmen returned and did not see the corpse, they would alert the enemy. So he had no choice but to leave the corpse where it was and continue to sneak up into the tree to observe it.

However, the other patrol teams showed no reaction to the corpse on the ground, as if the corpse was just a hallucination of Jiang Si.

Jiang Si no longer hesitated, leaped down from the tree, picked up the corpse, and flew towards the rendezvous point.

Xuan Yi, after hearing Jiang Si's description, also became curious. He squatted down on the other side of the corpse and reached out to pull off the veil. Underneath the veil was an ordinary face, but on the left side of this face was a huge red mark, like a blooming flower.

Xuan Yi reached out and rubbed it against the mark, and surprisingly felt a slight warmth at the mark, which was in stark contrast to the cold corpse.

"Could it be a Gu poison?" Jiang Si asked.

"Possibly, but we don't know what this kind of Gu is used for?"

"If these men in black have all been poisoned by Gu, that would be no small matter. Southern Xinjiang is skilled in using Gu, so there are probably people from Southern Xinjiang behind this."

"It's better to be careful. The Gu worms may not die when a person dies. Hide the body first, and burn it when we leave to prevent the Gu worms inside him from finding a new host."

Jiang Si nodded, picked up the body, and placed it next to a tree not far away. He then covered the body with some fallen branches and leaves as cover.

After finishing everything, Jiang Si returned to the cave and looked at Xuan Yi, who was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, resting. After thinking for a moment, he left the cave, flew to a nearby tree, sat down, and waited for the others to arrive.

Xuan Yi and the other man waited for almost an hour, but there was no sign of Bai Heming and Li Hengzhi.

Jiang Si frowned slightly. Bai Heming and Li Hengzhi were both steady people and would not break their promise without a reason. He was afraid that something had happened on their way into the mountains and they would have difficulty getting away.

Xuan Yi held the bone whistle and shook his head at Jiang Si.

"The bone whistle did not respond."

"So what do we do now? Should we keep waiting?"

Xuan Yi looked at the east and saw that it was already getting light. If he waited any longer, it would be completely bright, which would make it even more inconvenient to move around in the mountains and forests.

"Let's not wait any longer. I think they should have a way to solve this. Let's continue with the plan and go into the mountains to investigate."

Jiang Si nodded, took out a tinderbox from his pocket, and planned to dispose of the corpse before leaving.

He walked toward where the body was hidden, only to be surprised to find that the body was gone.

The branches and leaves of the trees that were originally used to hide the corpses are still in the same place, but the corpses underneath have vanished into thin air.

Xuan Yi, who was following behind Jiang Si, was also startled. The two quickly exchanged a glance, both seeing disbelief in each other's eyes.

"Is he not dead?" But Jiang Si clearly felt his pulse, and there was no heartbeat or breathing.

"Whether he's human or ghost, it's interesting that he managed to slip away silently right under our noses."

Jiang Si took a few steps forward, moved the branches and leaves on the ground, and a very shallow crawling mark came into his view. The entire mark was only about the width of two hands, with no other marks except for some small handprints and footprints. It was as if the person had crawled using only their hands and feet, and moved lightly and quickly.

Xuan Yi, on the other hand, focused his attention on the branches and leaves to the side. Although the humidity in the forest was relatively high at night, the moisture on the leaves was so dense that some dew even dripped down the leaves and onto the ground.

Strange things kept happening one after another; the secrets of Qixia Mountain were deeper than they had imagined.

"Let's go, it's not safe here anymore."

Jiang Si nodded and quickly left the place behind Xuan Yi.

Using the surrounding vegetation as cover, the two carefully avoided the patrol team and made their way towards the center of Qixia Mountain. The further they went, the more lush the vegetation became, which slightly hampered their movement but greatly facilitated their hiding.

Xuan Yi and Jiang Si squatted behind the meter-high weeds, looking at the small flat area in front of them. It seemed that the plants on this flat area had been neatly cut down. A simple square bamboo shed had been built on the flat area. Inside the bamboo shed were two large stoves, and two or three people were standing behind the stoves. One of them was stirring the iron pot on the left with a large iron ladle.

Without the protection of the plants, the two dared not go forward easily. Thinking about the strange things that had happened before, Xuan Yi and the other retreated a few meters and hid in a thick tree.

"Have we stumbled upon the enemy's kitchen?"

Jiang Si squinted, but still couldn't see what was in the iron pot. His intuition told him that this suddenly appearing stove was not so simple.

"But there's no food around it. Does it mean it has to transport food every time it cooks?"

"Let's wait and see what he does."

Xuan Yi chose a comfortable position to lean against the tree trunk, and looking at Jiang Si, with whom he hadn't been communicating much, he took the initiative to strike up a conversation.

"Young Master Jiang, we're in the same boat now. Could you tell me what information you and Young Master Li obtained about Qixia Mountain?"

Jiang Si looked up at Xuan Yi, paused, and took out a white handkerchief from his pocket. It seemed that something was wrapped inside the handkerchief.

"Does Young Master Xuan know when the rumors about the Seven Star Stones began to circulate?"

Xuan Yi looked at Jiang Si with confusion, "There have been rumors for the past two years, but none have caused as much of a stir as this year. Oh, and just call me Xuan Yi."

Are you kidding me? He's the master of the Assassin's Palace, not one of those hypocrites from the Gentleman's Mansion. Why would he be called a young master?

It's so awkward.

"In fact, the rumors about the Seven Star Stones have been around for sixty years. Sixty years ago, a swordsman searched the world for all sorts of methods to revive his beloved wife and accidentally discovered the secret of the Seven Star Stones. But there are no secrets in this world that stay hidden forever. People are greedy at all times. The swordsman was single-minded in his search for the Seven Star Stones, but the entire martial arts world was littered with corpses and rivers of blood because of the Seven Star Stones, and the people were living in misery."

"When the swordsman finally found the seven locations of the Seven Star Stones, he realized in a daze that it was a bloody path built of countless bones and paid for with countless lives. At that moment, his heart wavered. So he hid the location of the Seven Star Stones in a screen, then divided the screen into seven pieces and gave them to the leaders of the seven sects who had been on good terms with him. Finally, he committed suicide in front of his wife's grave."

Xuan Yi sighed deeply after hearing this, never expecting the Seven Star Stones to appear so early. Now, it seems the same mistake will be repeated.

Ultimately, human greed is the root of all evil.

"So, what you're holding is part of the screen?"

Jiang Si opened the handkerchief and handed the white silk cloth inside to Xuan Yi.

"Yes, Hengzhi and I each have a piece of the sect, but our pieces cannot be combined."

Xuan Yi carefully unfolded the white cloth, revealing a green shrub with several yellow kerria plants on it, and red butterflies fluttering around the kerria plants.

Xuan Yi was a bit confused; he couldn't figure anything out from the painting.

"Does this painting have anything to do with Qixia Mountain? I don't see it."

Jiang Si took the folded white cloth, put it back into the handkerchief, wrapped it up, and put it in his pocket.

“My painting has nothing to do with Qixia Mountain. Hengzhi’s painting has a sky full of rosy clouds and cranes flying in the clouds.”

"So... if there's a glow in the sky, then it's Qixia Mountain?" Xuan Yi felt that this reason was a bit far-fetched.

Jiang Si smiled and patted Xuan Yi on the shoulder. "Xuan Yi, what I just said was hidden in the screen, not painted in the screen."

"Could there be another hidden meaning?"

Jiang Si nodded. "That swordsman used some method, so that only when the canvas is illuminated by the moonlight on the full moon day (the 15th of each month) will the place name appear on the screen, but there is only one place name and no other information."

"No wonder you two were so certain that the Jade Balance Stone was on Qixia Mountain. Do you know which sects currently possess the other five screens?"

"It's unclear. The sect leader said that the swordsman didn't reveal the whereabouts of the other six pieces. It was only because of the close relationship between the Qingfeng Sword Sect and Kunlun Ruins that they knew each other."

"I've heard about the relationship between your two factions before. Looking across the entire martial arts world, even the Five Mountains Alliance doesn't have a better relationship than you two. Can you tell me why you're so close?" Xuan Yi stared at Jiang Si curiously. This was a big piece of gossip. Once he found out, he could tell Mu Mu about it when he got back. Mu Mu would definitely love it.

Jiang Si's ears turned red, and his eyes darted around. How could this be explained?

The Grand Elder of the Qingfeng Sword Sect abducted the Second Elder of Kunlun Ruins;

The Third Elder of Kunlun Ruins abducted the Fifth Elder of Qingfeng Sword Sect;

The senior sister of the Qingfeng Sword Sect married the senior brother of Kunlun Ruins.

The junior sister from Kunlun Ruins married the second senior brother from the Qingfeng Sword Sect.

Such situations are commonplace; in the sect leader's words, they might be considered "in-laws." If the two sects weren't located in different regions, the sect leader would have already wanted to merge them into one.

Xuan Yi was shocked!

I had always thought that Qingfeng Sword Sect and Kunlun Ruins were both reputable sects with centuries of history, revered as masters of their respective schools by the martial arts world. I never imagined they would also rely on kinship ties.

This is absolutely outrageous.