A SINGLE BRILLIANT TREASURE like this was hard enough to come by. Where would one find another?
Cui Buqu reached out and laid his hand over the jade. The chill of it seeped into his palm. None of them had seen the real Jade of Heaven Lake before, so it was impossible to know whether this was the genuine article.
"What did Linlang Pavilion say?" asked Feng Xiao.
"When I asked, they said all the treasures at this auction were handled by the head broker Wen Liang. So I went to interrogate Wen Liang again, and he said this item was delivered to them yesterday by an old servant in gray. It was brought to them in an ordinary wooden chest, and the man claimed it was a family heirloom. He said his master's household was in decline, and he'd therefore been ordered to sell the jade to a pawnbroker, relinquishing their claim to it for good. Linlang Pavilion would normally never accept goods from unknown sources—if it became known they'd sold stolen items, that would damage their reputation. However, because the item had arrived on their doorstep on the eve of the annual auction, Wen Liang considered carefully. He concluded that even if the item was stolen, the owner might be present at the auction and recognize it. If so, it would make returning the jade easy. He therefore decided to include it in the auction."
"What if he'd decided not to put it up for bidding?" asked Cui Buqu. "What would Linlang Pavilion have done with it?"
"According to Linlang Pavilion's rules, they'd hold it for one year," said Pei Jingzhe. "If no owner came to claim it, it would then be auctioned off. So they only moved the date forward by a year."
"Is Khotan still sending another envoy?" asked Cui Buqu.
Pei Jingzhe looked at Feng Xiao and saw him nod. "Yes, the new envoy dispatched by the king of Khotan is already on his way. We sent someone to receive him in Qiemo, but it'll take three or more days for them to reach Liugong City."
Until he arrived, no one could prove the jade in front of them was the true Jade of Heaven Lake.
Cui Buqu stroked the jade and said slowly, "After you won the auction today, at least ten people had their eyes on you. Three looked dissatisfied, but two held murderous intent."
He noticed all that? Pei Jingzhe was shocked. He couldn't stop himself from asking, "Who?"
Cui Buqu didn't hold back. "The three people who frowned in dissatisfaction were the young leader of Jinhuan Guild, Leng Du; the wealthy businessman from Khotan, Zhou Pei; and Zhang Yingshui from the Zhang family of Anlu. Of the two with murderous intent, one was a Göktürk man dressed in black, while the other was a man in his mid-twenties, dressed in gray and wearing a bamboo hat. I've never seen either of them before. Their faces didn't stand out and they didn't do anything to give away their training, so I can't guess at their identities."
"A Göktürk man?" Pei Jingzhe looked suddenly wary.
But Feng Xiao was amused. "Whether or not this Jade of Heaven Lake is the real one, now that it's in my hands, we can expect plenty of people to come knocking."
"Correct," said Cui Buqu.
Pei Jingzhe was alarmed. "They dare make enemies of the Jiejian Bureau?!"
Cui Buqu laughed mockingly. "The Jiejian Bureau's authority comes from the emperor. The various ministries might be willing to tiptoe around you because of it, but what meaning does that hold in the jianghu? If the jade really has the power to purify the body or bring the dead back to life, of course they won't hesitate to steal it."
Pei Jingzhe opened his mouth to refute it but couldn't think of anything to say.
At that moment, Feng Xiao chuckled. "The weather is cold, the dew heavy. You've been outside listening to us for so long; why not come in for a cup of hot tea?"
There was someone outside?
Pei Jingzhe's ears pricked up. He had no small skill himself, but throughout the entire conversation, he hadn't noticed any sounds from without.
A blithe female voice rang out, clear as spring water: "I'm afraid the house is too crowded. There's nowhere to sit."
There really was someone there! Pei Jingzhe leapt up.
Feng Xiao snatched the wooden chest off the table and flung it at the door. Obviously he wasn't trying to smash a hole through the door and hit the person outside. The box hit the door just so, and it flew open. This skillful display of strength was something only a martial arts expert could achieve.
The wind swept into the house through the opening, and they beheld, on the eaves of the building opposite, a woman in yellow. She sat looking at them, leisurely swinging her legs back and forth. Her face was ordinary, her features unexceptional. Comparing her to Feng Xiao was like comparing a clod of mud to a cloud, but her voice was unmistakable.
"My apologies for disturbing you this late at night. Perhaps Feng-langjun would allow me a glimpse of the jade? Then I'll leave without delay."
Pei Jingzhe followed Feng Xiao as he stepped through the door. He noticed instantly that the woman in yellow wasn't the only one outside: three more people waited in the dark. One stood on the left rooftop, one on the right, and a third was beneath a tree.
The first wore a hat with a white veil. They were clad in white from head to toe, and it was impossible to tell if they were a man or a woman. The second was a tall man with wheat-colored hair. It was clear at a glance that he was foreign—a Göktürk. The last was another man dressed in gray, his face frosty and his thin lips drawn into a line. A deep scar ran between his brows, and he wore a longsword at his side.
So many martial experts were just outside, and yet Pei Jingzhe had failed to notice. He couldn't even sense them—if a fight broke out, he would be of no assistance to Feng Xiao. All the hair on Pei Jingzhe's body stood on end.
The woman in yellow seemed to take note of his nervousness. She chuckled. "Fear not, young man. I came alone; I'm not with them."
Cui Buqu gave two quiet coughs and slowly stepped outside.
Everyone was dressed in thin clothing, as if it was the height of summer. In contrast, Cui Buqu was tightly swaddled in a thick coat, his face the color of snow. It was clear at a glance that he was chronically ill; he looked like a man with only a few days to live. Then there were his footsteps, utterly insubstantial and lacking even a trace of the power and surety one would expect of a martial artist. Everyone's gazes alighted on him then flitted away, paying him no further heed.
Feng Xiao strolled forward, hands clasped behind his back. He showed no hint of nervousness—rather, it was as if he'd been looking forward to this night for a long time. His eyes were sparkling with amusement.
"There are still two more. Why don't you all just come out at once?"
No one spoke as they waited for the two he'd addressed to appear. The silence stretched for a long moment before a shape emerged from a dark corner. The figure might have been that of a tall and slender woman. Half their body remained cloaked in darkness beyond the reach of the moonlight, as if they belonged in the shadows.
"Who else is there?" Pei Jingzhe demanded. "Can you only hide like a rat?!"
"The last person has already left," said the woman in yellow. "If I'm not mistaken, they were an assassin from the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai."
At the sound of that name, both Feng Xiao and Cui Buqu's expressions shifted.
The Thirteen Floors of Yunhai was a new and rising sect in the jianghu. They worked in secret, and their main business was providing killers for hire. There would always be people whose existence was an obstacle to others, but it wasn't always convenient to remove the obstacle oneself. Perhaps some even lacked the ability to do so. Hence the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai came to be.
Rumor had it that business was booming for the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai. They had grown increasingly audacious and even dared to target court officials. Last month, an official from the Ministry of Justice had passed away suddenly. A discreet investigation from the Jiejian Bureau had found the cause of death irregular—they suspected murder. Thanks to that, the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai had carved their mark in the case files of the Jiejian Bureau's deputy chief.
Assassinations were a shady business. This opponent had realized Feng Xiao was no easy target, not to mention the other experts on the scene tonight. It made sense that they'd seen the confrontation wouldn't go smoothly and chosen to leave first.
But that was one. Five still remained.
Cui Buqu looked around furtively, then coughed softly twice, suppressing a smile tinged with malicious glee. Now, how will the oleander spirit deal with this gathering of heroes?