Cao Weining and Zhang Chengling were holding a bucket of faeces each. The stink blotted out the sky. Finding joy amidst misery, Cao Weining thought: A-Xiang is really full of wit and stratagems, a Zhuge amongst womankind.
Zhang Chengling did not hold the same grand worldview. He thought that Gu Xiang lacked eight lifetimes' worth of morals.
As the labourers, the two of them covered those night-soil buckets with lids, and placed much camouflage over them. Under Gu Xiang's direction, they arranged them in position on the roof, on the ground, creating the most disgusting formation in history so far--a night-soil bucket formation.
On the other hand, Military Strategist Gu covered her nose and stayed far away. After the buckets were in place, she beckoned the two over, her nose covered, and spoke to Zhang Chengling in a low voice, "Have you memorised the path I told you?"
Zhang Chengling nodded his head and said, "Be rest assured, Gu Xiang-jiejie. I won't stumble on the Drifting Clouds Nine Palaces Steps, shifu will break my legs otherwise."
Gu Xiang poked him in the head with the tip of her finger and said, "Take one wrong step, and you'll become Stinky Bug Zhang."
She took another glance at Cao Weining, swung her arm in a wide arc, and ordered, "Action!"
The three shadows diverged in the night. Like a bat, Gu Xiang clung onto the eaves of the inn, entirely still. The girl's eyes were unusually bright in the darkness, like those of a little critter that was quietly biding its time to pounce on its prey. Thereafter, her gaze flashed; out of the corner of her eye, she caught the firelight that was rising in the courtyard behind, and knew that Cao Weining was already over there. They only had to wait for the fire to blaze a little higher...
Then she heard Cao Weining, straining his vocal cords, howl from the courtyard, "Oh no! The building's going to collapse!"
Gu Xiang nearly choked on a breath of qi. Over on his side, Cao Weining had been singularly preoccupied by the thought of Gu Xiang on the roof, and had casually shouted such a sentence. Once the words were out of his mouth, he, too, had realised that he had said the wrong thing, and hastily corrected himself, "No, no, I mean, fire! Fire! Run, quick! The building's burning!"
A beat later, chaos followed within the inn. A few women in black, unkempt and hastily dressed, rushed out to check on the disturbance outside. The other guests within the inn joined in on the commotion, clamour rising from all corners of the tranquil night. Gu Xiang flipped off the roof, pulled up her mask, and nonchalantly blended into the crowd under the cover of confusion, then stealthily flung a few messenger flares from her wide sleeve. Those messenger flares shot out, and exploded amidst the noisy crowd. As the small licks of flame sprung up, shrieks rose from all around. Someone shouted, "The fire has gotten into the rooms!", and everyone scrambled in different directions, forcing the women in black apart from one another in the mayhem.
Gu Xiang frowned inwardly. This chaos was exceeding her expectations a little, and they would have to proceed more cautiously from here on out. Yet, it seemed like the heavens were helping her. Just as she was standing in the corridor like a fool, a woman in black who had been separated from the rest by the crowd shoved her abruptly and shouted, "Go check on that Gao wench! Someone could be doing this on purpose!"
Gu Xiang yearned to cackle aloud, but quickly submitted herself to be dragged along, and together, they headed towards the room that imprisoned Gao Xiaolian--her heart was beating faster and faster in great excitement. Yet, misfortune struck in her joy. That woman that was dragging her along had a keen sense of alertness; just as she was about to push the door open and enter, she abruptly glanced back at Gu Xiang strangely, and asked, "What are you trembling for?"
Gu Xiang's heart sank. Scrambling to put on a nervous demeanour, she mumbled, "I...I'm...scared…"
She did not know who this woman had mistaken her for; young maidens of her age were probably around the same build and size. The woman shot Gu Xiang a condescending glance, and pushed the door open to enter as she humphed. "Look at how useless and cowardly you are. Stand guard at the door. If you dare to let anyone in…"
Before she could finish her sentence, there was a sudden chill at her waist. She raised her head to look at Gu Xiang in disbelief--she felt her whole body go numb, and an indescribable frost crept downward from her waist. Unable to move, she toppled over. Gu Xiang hurriedly extended a hand to support her, and said softly, "Mind the threshold."
Then she closed the door from inside the room in one fluid movement. Gao Xiaolian was tied to the table. There was another woman in black in the room, who heard the commotion just as she lit the candle, looked over in their direction, and saw Gu Xiang's panic as she supported the unlucky soul.
The other woman in black came over, squatted down, and asked anxiously, "What's happened to her?"
Gu Xiang said in a low voice, "I… I don't know, she suddenly collapsed just like that. Could she be having a seizure?"
The woman in black was checking on her comrade's condition when she heard Gu Xiang's impromptu spark of creativity, and instantly raised her head in alarm. "You…"
Gu Xiang had been lying in wait for her. She raised her sleeve, and a cloud of white smoke billowed out, hurtling at the face of the woman in black. Knowing how lethal it was, the woman in black instantly held her breath. But she did not expect the sudden chill on her neck; a dagger had sprung into Gu Xiang's hand, and when she had held her breath in panic, blinded by the white smoke, Gu Xiang had slashed a large opening across her throat.
Gu Xiang had always been ruthless in her execution--in an instant, that woman's vocal cords were shredded, and she collapsed to the floor without a sound, dead. Gao Xiaolian was frozen in shock.
Gu Xiang yanked off the mask on her face and threw it aside as she said, "Stupid woman, scared of even flour." As she spoke, her hands did not pause in the slightest; in a few strokes, she sliced through the ropes on Gao Xiaolian. In surprised joy, Gao Xiaolian made to climb to her feet, but before the words of gratitude could even leave her mouth, the door was suddenly kicked in. Cao Weining scrambled in, falling over himself, saying, "A-Xiang, hurry! I can't hold them back any longer!"
At this moment, Zhang Chengling climbed up outside the window and waved vigorously at them. Gu Xiang shoved Gao Xiaolian and told Zhang Chengling, "Carry her!"
The three of them had discussed this beforehand. Cao Weining put his mask back on at top speed and hastily pulled on a long black skirt. Without caring about anything else, Zhang Chengling carried Gao Xiaolian on his back, and sprinted away from the inn swiftly, with Gu Xiang and Cao Weining pretending to chase after him. Gu Xiang even shouted for show, "Little thief, you won't escape!"
They put on an act of frailty as they pretended to chase him; Gu Xiang faked a limp, and Cao Weining clutched at his chest, wobbling as though he was about to collapse at any time. Halfway, a strong gale struck them from behind, and that Black Poison Hag's old and hoarse voice rang out, "All of you, get out of my way!"
She barrelled past the two of them like a whirlwind.
A bunch of women in black followed close behind the Black Poison Hag, overtaking these two good sisters--sisters who had not forgotten to chase the enemy down even though they 'had been ambushed and grievously injured'.
Gu Xiang and Cao Weining exchanged glances. The cripple was no longer crippled, and the heart-clutcher stopped clutching at his heart, fleeing by the route they had discussed beforehand.
Zhang Chengling and Gao Xiaolian were in a far more harrowing situation. Not knowing why he insisted on carrying her as he murmured under his breath continuously, Gao Xiaolian felt that she was a burden on him. Earlier, she had already recognised Cao Weining and Zhang Chengling in a split second; at this moment, she was touched, and said, "Little brother, put me down. I still have my martial ability, I can run along with you."
In the pauses between his recitation of the mantra, Zhang Chengling eked out a hurried reply, "No way, we still have some distance to go." Once he recalled the "night soil formation" ahead, he was despondently anxious and dared not to be distracted, reciting the mantra with his full concentration.
Gao Xiaolian could read the situation; seeing that he said this with much solemnity, she understood that they might have made some sort of arrangement, shut her mouth, and did not disturb him. Then she saw that he, utilising some unknown technique, moved as swiftly as a phantom, and was quietly surprised. It had barely been a year, she thought, what extraordinary encounter had this youth had, to become this skilled?
When Zhang Chengling caught the whiff of a refreshing stench, he knew that they had arrived. His nerves were pulled taut, and his ears pricked to capture any sound--he knew that the Black Poison Hag was nearly catching up to them. If it were any other time, he would have been scared to his wits' end, but in this moment, he remembered that he was carrying another person, and this person was counting on him to save her life. It didn't matter if something happened to him, but if this Miss Gao was re-captured by those bad women, things would not end well for her. He felt himself grow mightier, as though strength had flooded through his whole body; with a loud shout, he, astonishingly, increased his speed once more.
On this night, Zhang Chengling had actually triumphed over his timid, pushover self unknowingly, and his mentality had advanced by quite a lot. If he went even further, his martial skill would have been elevated a tier as well. Sweeping all other thoughts out of his mind, only what Gu Xiang had said remained in his head--he could not take even one wrong step.
Faster and faster his recitation grew, and like a shadow, he shot along the route, passing underneath the night soil formation that they had set up earlier. Just as the Black Poison Hag had thought that she was about to catch up to them, that little thief sped up out of the blue. How could she be willing to let them go? Instantly, she pursued them madly at full speed.
Abruptly, she felt a thread in the air catch on her sleeve. Something tugged at her; the Black Poison Hag's first thought was that there was a trap mechanism, and without time to think about it too closely, she darted away. Thereafter, a night soil bucket tucked away in a hidden spot poured onto where she had been standing, its contents splashing forth.
Despite everything, the Black Poison Hag was a woman after all, and was a bit of a germaphobe. How could she stand something like this? Dreading that even a drop of it would get on her, she hastily retreated a few steps, only to feel her foot bump into something. Her heart lurched. Pinpointing its position by listening to the sounds, she dodged another calamity, but before she even touched the ground, the third night soil bucket was toppled by the second, and cascaded right onto the Black Poison's Hag head.
The crone was livid. She longed to howl, "Little thief, I'll dice your corpse into a million pieces!", but she could not open her mouth, for fear that a tragedy would strike once she did. That youth who carried Gao Xiaolian on his back was long gone--she wanted to dice his corpse into a million pieces, but she did not even have a target.
Her disciples' luck was no better than hers. Every one of them succumbed to this night soil bucket formation; this brilliant, stupendous group of women in black who would slaughter any god or deity that stood in their way were vanquished thus unspeakably.
Zhang Chengling only set Gao Xiaolian down when he reached their rendezvous point, wheezing for air. Gu Xiang and Cao Weining had been waiting for them; once they saw the two people, they immediately came up to receive them. Zhang Chengling said, "They, they...won't come chasing, will they?"
Gu Xiang patted her own chest and said, "That's impossible, as long as she's a female, she won't dare to run about in the night with her face covered in shit!"
Cao Weining said excitedly, "A-Xiang's formation is extraordinary!"
Gu Xiang seemed to be a little embarrassed by his praise, and quickly flapped her hand as she said, "I'm only immediately applying what I just learnt, this is something that Lord Seventh taught me...oh, yes, Lord Seventh also said that if we run into Zhou Xu, we have to send word to them!"
Gao Xiaolian was immensely grateful and thanked them profusely. Gu Xiang, busy with sending a message to Lord Seventh and the Great Shaman, waved it away. After a hectic night, the four of them changed out of the disguises on them, and returned, under Zhang Chengling's lead, to the inn that Zhou Zishu and the others were staying in to reconvene with those two men.
Gao Xiaolian was very silent on the journey. Although Cao Weining and the rest had their questions, Zhang Chengling would not ask; Cao Weining observed her expression, sensed that she was in a bad mood, and found it rude to pry; Gu Xiang did not care at all. Joyfully, she sprinted towards the inn Zhou Zishu and the rest were staying in, and after Zhang Chengling had pointed the way, she went to Wen Kexing's door and yelled, "Master! Have you missed m…"
Before she could finish her sentence, the door of the room next to her opened. Wen Kexing glared viciously at her, lowering his voice to whisper, "What are you making a ruckus for? A-Xu has just fallen asleep."
Gu Xiang froze with her mouth hanging open. She pointed at Wen Kexing and said, "Master, you, you, you…"
Even if he were dead, Zhou Zishu would still have been woken by this holler of hers. Resigned, he rose from bed, draped a robe over his shoulders, and walked out. He nodded at Gu Xiang and Cao Weining first, glared fiercely at Zhang Chengling next, and spotted Gao Xiaolian, who he did not expect to see. Surprised, he bypassed the rest of them to stand in front of her, and asked, "Miss Gao, why are you here?"
Gao Xiaolian had met Wen Kexing before, and had just heard him say "A-Xu". Immediately realising who this stranger in front of her could be, she asked, "Are you...Zhou…"
"Yes, it is indeed this humble one." Zhou Zishu nodded. Spying her unkempt and disheveled state, he quickly instructed the waiter to prepare food and a room for her.
Gu Xiang was still staring with wide eyes off to the side. "Master, have you finally…r-r-ravaged him?"
Wen Kexing swept an eye over her, and swept his gaze over Cao Weining, who was simpering in ingratiation as though he was meeting his father-in-law, and remarked, "Don't think you can be presumptuous just because you have your husband's family now."
Then he ignored the young couple, and came downstairs to do up the buttons of Zhou Zishu's outer robe with care.
The few of them tidied up before they sat down. Zhou Zishu first listened to Gu Xiang chatter about the whole rescue process, welcomed Gao Xiaolian next, before he finally asked gently, "Miss Gao, why are you here alone, and why were you captured by the Black Poison Hag? Where is Hero Gao?"
Gao Xiaolian was silent for a long moment. Then, abruptly, a wail burst forth from her. Sobbing, she choked out, "My father...my father is dead!"