Chapter 50 Flaw

The dark, chilling muzzle of Wei Yong’s gun.
The blood continuously welling up from my chest.
And the bone-chilling cold of being soaked in water.
And then…

I could no longer remember what followed. This was my very last memory inside the Ming Fourteenth Mausoleum. When I opened my eyes once again, everything around me was stark white: a white bed, white curtains, a white cup, and even my own body was wrapped in white gauze.

I moved my body with great difficulty and felt a sharp, burning pain still lingering in my chest. Blood slowly seeped out through the white gauze, expanding bit by bit like a spreading ink wash painting.

The fact that I could still feel pain meant I was not yet dead. Yet, in my memory, Wei Yong had shot me, and my final recollection was sinking into the icy water of the sacrificial altar. Why was I here now, and where was this place?

My mind was filled with questions. Gritting my teeth, I rolled over and caught sight of a long-haired woman slumped over the bedside. Stirred awake by my movement, she lifted her head; her eyes were bloodshot and filled with exhaustion.

"Qiu… Qiunuo, why am I here?" I recognized that the person by the bed was Qiunuo, and asked in a halting, intermittent voice.

Seeing that I had regained consciousness, Qiunuo’s tears instantly overflowed. She was normally an extremely resilient young woman—raised by Wu Zetian and Shangguan Wan'er, she was someone who never gave an impression of frailty. Yet right now, Qiunuo was weeping like a child, crying and smiling at the same time.

"Brother Yanhui, you're finally awake."
"Where… where am I?"
"The hospital."
"Why am I in the hospital?" I asked with some bewilderment. "I remember… I remember being shot by Wei Yong in the Ming Fourteenth Mausoleum… I can't remember anything after that."

Qiunuo hurriedly helped me sit up, propped me against the pillow, and wiped away her tears as she spoke.

"I don't know what happened afterward either. Back then, you told me to jump into the sacrificial altar, and I swam all the way out following the drainage channel. The exit really was at Dayanhai. Later, I heard the sound of a gunshot, followed by the entire collapse of Baixiantai. At the time, I thought… I thought you had been buried inside."

I gasped for breath and asked in a strained voice, "How long have I been asleep?"
"You've been in a coma for ten days," Qiunuo said, her voice choking slightly. "The doctor said the bullet hit your rib; if it had been half an inch off, it would have pierced your heart. It was only after emergency surgery that you temporarily passed the danger zone, but whether you could survive depended entirely on your own willpower. I just knew you would pull through."

My lips were somewhat dry, and I wanted a drink of water, but I couldn't lift my arm. Hearing a sound of clinking metal, I raised my head with great effort and saw that my wrist was actually locked with a pair of handcuffs, shackled to the edge of the bed.

"What… what is the meaning of this?" I asked in astonishment.
"No matter what I tell you, you must stay strong. I never expected things to turn out like this," Qiunuo said, biting her lip.

I nodded, looking at Qiunuo with a blank and bewildered expression.
"It was Wei Yong who sent you to the hospital."
"Wei Yong isn't dead?!" I cried out in profound shock, suddenly trying to sit straight up from the bed. The movement was too violent, tearing the wound on my chest, and a large patch of the gauze instantly turned crimson.

Perhaps the pain cleared my mind somewhat. In the plan, I was supposed to trigger the self-destruction mechanism of the Ming Fourteenth Mausoleum and let Qiunuo escape, having already prepared myself to perish together with Wei Yong and his men. Since I was still alive, Wei Yong had naturally escaped unscathed.

"…How could Wei Yong send me to the hospital?" I clutched my chest and asked laboriously.

"Wei Yong holds absolute power. With this incident causing such a massive uproar, the affairs of the Ming Fourteenth Mausoleum were covered up by him so tightly that no one knows what happened on Mount Taibai," Qiunuo said, biting the corner of her lip in a low voice. "Publicly, Wei Yong announced that you and Brother Lianshan attempted to hold a serving official hostage and inflict harm upon him, and that the gunshot wound on your chest was fired by him in self-defense. In just a single day following the incident, Wei Yong placed everyone connected to you under arrest."

Hearing this, I was utterly startled, and ignoring the pain, I asked, "How… how is Lianshan now?"
"Brother Lianshan is fine, don't worry. He's been locked up."
"Then what about Brother Ting and Qianling?" I asked anxiously, burning with impatience.

"Uncle Yue has been implicated in trafficking national cultural relics and violent crimes, and is said to be linked to multiple homicides. Wei Yong has already issued a warrant for his arrest. Aunt Lan's whereabouts are unknown, and Uncle Yue's assets have been completely confiscated. Qianling is homeless right now, but she's unharmed; Wei Yong doesn't seem interested in her, so she is safe."

Yue Leiting had fled to escape punishment, and Lan Qing’s whereabouts were unknown. In my heart, I knew very well that Yue Leiting and Lan Qing were actually in Gu Xiaotian's hands. Given Yue Leiting's personality, he would never surrender, and Wei Yong would never allow Yue Leiting to talk too much and ruin his plans. Therefore, I didn't even dare to imagine the fate awaiting Yue Leiting and Lan Qing now.

Hearing that Yue Qianling was safe and sound was easily the best news I had heard all day.
"What about Anqi? Is she alright?"
"Anqi is an overseas Chinese, so Wei Yong couldn't do anything to her. Arrangements have already been made to deport her back to Hong Kong."

Judging from what Qiunuo told me, Wei Yong had arranged everything long in advance. Regardless of whether he obtained the *Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual*, he would never allow anyone who knew this secret to remain alive. He would rather mistakenly execute ten thousand than let a single one slip away. Even subordinates of Yue Leiting like Liu Hao and Huo Qian were purged, showing that Wei Yong had intended to cut the weeds and eliminate the roots right from the start.

Since that was the case, I suddenly found something hard to understand: why would Wei Yong keep me alive? To Wei Yong, my only value was the *Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual*. Thinking of this, I clutched my chest and asked with difficulty:
"Qiunuo, I told you to burn the *Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual*. Are you sure you burned it?"
"Yes, I threw it into the fire with my own hands and watched the *Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual* burn to ashes," Qiunuo nodded and replied with absolute certainty.

Since the *Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual* was gone, I had no value to Wei Yong whatsoever. Why go to such great lengths to rescue me? No matter how I thought about it, it made no sense.

Qiunuo looked at me with tender eyes and said, "Brother Yanhui, don't worry. I've already spoken with Aunt Qing; no matter what price must be paid, we will definitely rescue you. I believe that with Aunt Qing's abilities, you will be fine."

I leaned back against the pillow and smiled gratefully.
"Qiunuo, thank you so much. Actually, I'm not worried about anything else—as long as Wei Yong didn't get his hands on the *Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual*, nothing else matters."

Qiunuo handed a cup of water to me and said with a hint of regret, "Although I don't know how important the *Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual* truly is, seeing that you were willing to risk your life to destroy it, and hearing Aunt Qing say that whoever obtains that book would effectively gain the world... now that it's been burned by my hands, no matter how I think about it, it feels rather regrettable."

"Precisely because this book is so extraordinary, I could never allow someone with such malicious and ambitious intentions as Wei Yong to get it," I took the cup of water and comforted her. "The *Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual* is not like the legends say. Though it is a marvelous book, falling into the hands of different people brings entirely different outcomes. Especially for a person like Wei Yong, it would only bring disaster to the nation and misery to the people. Destroying such an ominous artifact is perhaps not a bad thing after all."

"Indeed, this wondrous book has been destroyed just like that. If my mother and Aunt Qing had obtained it, they certainly wouldn't have harbored evil thoughts," Qiunuo nodded, her expression turning somewhat dim. "Brother Yanhui, you also promised my mother and Aunt Qing that you would find the *Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual* and bring it back to them. Now it seems that will never be possible."

I took a sip of water and let out a heavy sigh. "Circumstances forced my hand; Aunt Li and Aunt Qing will understand my decision."

"Brother Yanhui, inside the Ming Fourteenth Mausoleum, you were the only one who read the *Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual*," Qiunuo blinked and asked with great curiosity. "What on earth is written inside this marvelous book, reputed to possess the power to alter heaven and earth? I still don't understand how a single book could hold such immense power."

"The texts recorded in the book are profound, vast, and extremely esoteric. I only memorized the words," I shook my head helplessly. "Yet the mysteries hidden within the book remain impenetrable to me, though some chapters I more or less..."

I suddenly stopped mid-sentence. An odd expression crossed my face, and my hand trembled slightly, causing the water cup to slip and shatter on the ground. My lips slowly parted, trembling, as I turned my head to stare at Qiunuo.

"…What… what is wrong with you?"
"I never told you that Aunt Li and Aunt Qing asked me to bring the *Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual* to them." I gazed fixedly at Qiunuo with a solemn, deadpan expression, my voice calm yet filled with suspicion. "How on earth did you know about this?!"

Qiunuo froze, unable to utter a word for a long time. Wu Zetian and Shangguan Wan'er had desperately wanted to prevent Qiunuo from knowing their true identities, so they would never have told her about this matter. Yet Qiunuo had blurted out a detail concerning an agreement that only existed between myself, Wu Zetian, and Shangguan Wan'er.

That meant on the night I met Wu Zetian and Shangguan Wan'er, Qiunuo had been secretly following me all along. She had known everything from start to finish, including the true identities of her own mother and Qing Yang. Yet Qiunuo had never once brought it up.

And even this hospital—I suddenly realized that I had overlooked a great many things. How did Qiunuo even come to be here? It was a question I had never asked her. Wei Yong would never have allowed me to come into contact with outsiders, especially someone who knew the whole story.

Yue Leiting, Xiao Lianshan, Yue Qianling, and Gu Anqi—everyone connected to the *Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Manual* had been controlled by Wei Yong, not even sparing outsiders like Liu Hao. How could Qiunuo, who had been involved in the entire affair from beginning to end, appear in the hospital safe and sound?

My lips trembled slightly as I suddenly realized I might have committed a fatal error. In a halting, broken voice, I whispered:

"You… you are one of Wei Yong's people!"