Chapter 24: In the Cold Pond.
Fang Bie, as he had hoped, purchased a heavy block of black iron, weighing perhaps three or four pounds. He then took out his banknotes and negotiated with Lei Gong.
Xue Ling, observing closely from the side, saw that of the one thousand taels of silver, approximately seven hundred taels had been obtained from Ning Huaiyuan. This included four hundred and eight taels for the two bottles of elixirs, eighty taels for the secret manual, and two hundred taels of scattered silver notes from Ning Huaiyuan's possession.
The remaining three hundred taels must have been Fang Bie's personal possessions, right?
Thinking that way, Fang Bie couldn't be considered too poor.
While Xue Ling carefully calculated this from a woman's perspective, Fang Bie had already completed the transaction, placing the priceless block of iron in a seemingly ordinary cloth bag and slinging it around his waist.
Xue Ling was now certain that Fang Bie was practically penniless, but she still had no idea why Fang Bie had purchased the block of iron.
"So are we leaving now?" Xue Ling asked. The incense inside was far too overpowering, and it was difficult for Xue Ling to resist the accumulation of the drug in her body.
"Right away." Fang Bie smiled, pulling Xue Ling along to a small window in the hall's wall, barely the size of a fist.
Fang Bie passed the token in his hand, the same one he had shown the gatekeeper at the Dragon King's Hall, through the window.
Soon, a secret door opened in the hall, and Fang Bie led Xue Ling inside.
Unlike the outside, this was a small room, like an annex, with a long bench facing a white-painted wall.
Xue Ling saw Fang Bie's token being passed out from behind the white-painted wall, accompanied by a voice.
"What do you want to ask?"
The voice, indistinguishable from male or female, was neither light nor heavy, impartial, like the voice of the living dead.
Fang Bie remained calm.
"I want to know about the Shaolin monk Kong Wu."
"Fifty taels of silver," the voice behind the painted wall replied coldly.
Fang Bie rummaged through his pockets, pulled out a fifty-liang silver note, and passed it through the crack in the white-painted wall.
"Shaolin monk Kong Wu has returned from India three months ago after discussing Buddhism. He will arrive in Luocheng in ten days and will return directly to Shaolin Temple in Songshan."
"Does he carry any Buddha relics?" Fang Bie continued to ask.
"This information is worth one thousand liang of silver," the white-painted wall replied.
Fang Bie smiled and nodded.
"Then I have no problem."
...
...
After walking out of the incense-filled mansion, the first thing Fang Bie did was to take Xue Ling to a pond in the wild.
"You bathe here, I'll go to the other side." Fang Bie said quietly.
It was already approaching the Dragon Boat Festival in May, and the weather was gradually turning hot. However, ordinary martial artists would not catch a cold even if they bathed in the wild in the cold winter.
Fang Bie had already taken off his mask, revealing his cool and handsome face. He also handed over a green package: "After you take a shower, change into this set of clothes." "Do you have to take a shower and change clothes every time you go to the Dragon King's Palace?" Xue Ling asked, "Then why don't you wait until I go to the Changqing Bathhouse to take me there?"
The girl was a little dissatisfied.
Fang Bie smiled and said, "Of course, every time, if you are not afraid of being followed. Although I have not been followed once, it never hurts to be careful."
"Also, I was planning to call you before you left. Isn't this a step too late?"
As Xue Ling took the green cloth package, Fang Bie turned and walked towards the other side of the pond.
Yes, he didn't seem to be interested in spying on Xue Ling.
The girl let out a long breath.
She stood by the edge of the green pond, looking at the crystal clear stream, thinking that this might not be something Fang Bie found temporarily, perhaps this was originally one of the campsites prepared by Fang Bie.
After all, when you are outside, there is no way to dig a well to get water, and it is very difficult to find a safe and clean water source.
She opened the blue cloth package and took a look at the clothes Fang Bie had prepared. They were ordinary women's clothing, all newly purchased, with no signs of wear. Of course, such ordinary clothing wasn't expensive. Considering Fang Bie had spent a fortune on a lump of iron and fifty taels of silver on the piece of information whose use was unknown, this outfit probably cost less than five qian of silver.
Xue Ling sighed softly at this thought.
She had been Fang Bie's partner for nearly two months now.
Even now, she still hadn't fully grasped his true character.
He was cautious, careful, and meticulous, almost pathologically meticulous.
This made Xue Ling wonder if he had already guessed that she wasn't the real Lin Xue when she first approached him. He'd even said something like, "Your perfection is your biggest flaw," but in the end, for some reason, he accepted her.
Of course, Xue Ling had always approached her work as a bee wing with the utmost care. These days, she'd been cramming intel on the hive's interior, the geography surrounding Luocheng, and the distribution of various sects. Only by thoroughly understanding one's surroundings could one handle tasks with such ease.
Yet, even so, Fang Bie acted as if he didn't need her at all.
He could handle everything perfectly on his own, even offering assistance to atone for her own mistakes. If there was a bee stinger in this world who could complete a task without any bee wings, Xue Ling had no doubt it was Fang Bie.
As for why Fang Bie needed her—Xue Ling pondered it, perhaps it was because she could help Fang Bie conceal his presence.
For example, until now, Xue Ling hadn't known Fang Bie's true strength. Even after witnessing one of Fang Bie's assassination attempts, she was still unable to comprehend his true strength.
He had killed Ning Huaiyuan, a veteran third-rank master, without even using his true martial arts skills, relying solely on stagecraft to easily manipulate him.
In fact, there were times when Xue Ling could no longer restrain her urge to find Fang Bie and ask him what his current strength was, but in the end, she forced herself to suppress the urge.
She had already soaked in the somewhat cold stream water. Fang Bie even prepared soap nuts to clean her hair, because the only thing that was most likely to be contaminated by the scent of incense, besides her clothes, was her black hair.
At this moment, Xue Ling suddenly heard someone shouting in the distance.
"Help!"
"Murder!"
She suddenly became alert and just as she was about to get up, a cold wind blew, and she realized that she was now naked. She could only bite her lip and shrink her body into the cold stream again.
(End of this chapter)