Green Mountain
Chapter 306 - 246, The Real Secret Passage

Chapter 306: 246, The Real Secret Passage

Dong dong dong, the knocking on the door sounded.

Chen Ji, who was sitting by the square table, looked towards the tightly closed door, while Wu Yun also stood up from the windowsill.

He slowly stood up, clutched the Whale Blade beside him, and calmly asked, "Who is it?"

Outside, the brothel owner said with a laugh, "Young Master, I’ve brought some silver, and wanted to buy some more information from you."

Xiao Man spoke, "Young Master, let me open the door."

But this time, Chen Ji grabbed her wrist, with certain conviction he said, "I’ll go."

After speaking, he carried the Whale Blade and walked slowly to the door. Using the whale-shaped hilt wrapped in grey cloth, he cautiously lifted the latch.

The next moment, as the sound of the latch being lifted echoed, the brothel owner outside had already made her move through the door.

There was a bang bang bang six times as the brothel owner, who had six Bone-piercing Nails concealed between her fingers, released them. The door splintered, and the six Bone-piercing Nails penetrated from the outside.

Clang clang clang six times.

Chen Ji, inside the room, intercepted them with his Whale Blade in front of him; the six Bone-piercing Nails lined up neatly, all blocked on the scabbard of the Whale Blade.

With a forceful shake of his right hand, the grey cloth wrapped around the Whale Blade suddenly shattered into pieces, revealing the true form of the blade and causing the Bone-piercing Nails to fall to the ground as well.

The brothel owner’s heart chilled; she had not expected that the person inside would block all six Bone-piercing Nails.

With crossed hands, she drew out three more Bone-piercing Nails from the sleeves of both her arms, her limbs swept out illusory afterimages like the thousand-hand Guanyin, launching the Bone-piercing Nails that pierced, broke, and annihilated the wooden door!

The originally intact wooden door was now shattered with a hole in an instant. But when the brothel owner looked intently through it, where was anyone behind the door?

The six Bone-piercing Nails that had just been thrown were now nailed into the wooden wall on the opposite side, but Chen Ji, who was supposed to be behind the door, had vanished without a trace.

The brothel owner, not rushing in recklessly, stood in front of the door cautiously and whispered, "I know the people around you are ordinary people; if you don’t want to involve them, come out yourself."

Inside the room was deathly quiet, with no response.

Chen Ji silently retreated to the window, holding the Whale Blade and gradually drew it out.

The next moment, Wu Yun meowed, and without looking back, Chen Ji reflexively stabbed the Whale Blade towards the rear window.

The blade, piercing through the rice paper window, impaled the assassin lurking outside. As Chen Ji withdrew the blade, the dying assassin fell from the third floor of the inn, making a heavy impact in the backyard.

When the Whale Blade was retracted, it carried a streak of blood, staining the window paper red.

Xiao Man was stunned by the scene and said, "Young Master, you..."

Before she could finish, Wu Yun meowed again, "There are four more on the roof."

Chen Ji’s heart grew tense.

He stepped onto the square table and leapt up, slashing a tremendous blow towards the roof; the blade shattered tiles while beams and rafters cracked.

With a booming sound, a large section of the roof collapsed. One assassin was slammed into the room, and another had his lower leg severed by the blow.

A muffled groan came from the roof, and blood washed down the tiles, spilling over the eaves in a deluge, raining onto the inn’s backyard.

The brothel owner, hearing the commotion, immediately kicked the door in, wanting to rush into the room.

As she shattered the door, a bright flash of blade light appeared amidst the flying wood chips in the dim room. The brothel owner forcibly leaped backward, barely dodging the Whale Blade.

Just as she prepared to unleash all of her Bone-piercing Nails in a fierce salvo, she suddenly caught a glimpse of a black shadow lurking behind the blade light, seeming like a bamboo leaf, or perhaps a sword, drifting faintly from behind the blade light.

The brothel owner contorted her body in a strange twist, as if broken, suddenly changing posture and evading a lethal strike from the sword seed.

She climbed the corridor walls with arms and legs moving like a spider, ascended the beam, and coldly surveyed her surroundings, searching for the trace of that black short sword.

The brothel owner’s heart was filled with confusion and doubt; that black short sword from before seemed to be that which the Martial Temple Mountain Master was rumored to have practiced...

Before she could ponder further, the sword seed struck like a viper’s strike from behind her, grazing lightly across her neck, and then vanished into the dark corridor.

The brothel owner, clutching her throat, fell from the beam.

Her eyes fixedly stared at Chen Ji: "Sword..."

Shick, the Whale Blade pierced into her heart, cutting off her last words to be spoken.

...

...

On the other side, the Shopkeeper lunged out from behind the counter, stepping on the railing of the staircase, ascending swiftly as if he was flying.

Xiao Wu shouted from beside the counter, "Shopkeeper, where are you going?"

The Shopkeeper was frantic with only one thought in mind, "To save someone! I’m going to the third floor. Xiao Wu, Xiao Liu, grab something and get to the roof. Kill all those people from Red Sleeves!"

Xiao Wu was confused; hadn’t you just said we were running a black shop, and now you want to save someone just like that?

At this moment, the Shopkeeper, stepping on the stair railing, leaped directly to the third floor. Just as he was about to burst into the Superior A Room, he saw Chen Ji standing with a five-foot-long knife in hand, poised in front of the brothel owner’s corpse.

A shock went through the Shopkeeper’s heart — the brothel owner was dead?

Just like that?

He looked up and saw Chen Ji turning his head coldly to look at him, the blade slowly shifting: "Shopkeeper, why have you come?"

The shopkeeper had his own difficulties to express; he could not reveal the true reason and had to fabricate a lie: "The... Guest, I heard noise from upstairs and immediately came to assist."

Chen Ji was doubtful: "Is that so?"

The shopkeeper earnestly said: "Absolutely true! Our Dragon Gate Inn has rules that nobody can kill within the inn. I thought that the brothel owner from Red Sleeves might intend something indecent against you, Guest, so I came to kill her. I didn’t expect the Guest to be so skilled, and I didn’t need to make a move at all."

During this conversation, there was the sound of Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu shouting and fighting on the rooftop, stepping on tiles, and fighting from south to north, from east to west.

In less than thirty minutes, the two of them jumped down from a hole in the room, one hand holding a kitchen knife, the other hand carrying a corpse.

Xiao Wu, limping, came to the corridor and threw the corpse at the shopkeeper’s feet: "Shopkeeper, a few small officials in the Postnatal Realm; killed two, one ran away."

Chen Ji squatted down to check the breaths and confirmed that the two assassins were dead.

But the shopkeeper was unsatisfied, looking at Xiao Wu angrily: "What use are you if you let one escape?"

Xiao Wu scratched his head: "You gave the order too late; if it wasn’t for you..."

The shopkeeper’s face changed and he quickly said: "I’ve told you before not to let unrelated people upstairs. Why did you let that brothel owner up here?"

Xiao Wu: "Huh?"

The shopkeeper continued: "Go, kill everyone from Red Sleeves."

Xiao Wu was shocked and perplexed: "Now?"

The shopkeeper became furious: "Go now, you must give the Guest an explanation tonight!"

Chen Ji was puzzled; could Dragon Gate Inn really be so rule-abiding? The brothel owner from Red Sleeves came to assassinate him; the shopkeeper had immediately come to rescue, and he even wanted to avenge him by killing everyone from Red Sleeves?

Is this how other guests are treated as well?

At that moment, Xiao Wu pointed at the hole in the rooftop of the Superior A Room: "Shopkeeper, the roof is broken, the repairs will cost a lot of money, how much should we ask the Guest to compensate?"

"What compensation!" The shopkeeper twisted Xiao Wu’s ear: "Go get that broom to help clean the room for the Guest, quickly clear Tianzi Room C for the Guest to rest."

Xiao Wu cried out in pain, but inwardly he wondered: Normally if a guest broke a cup, the shopkeeper would almost make the guest bankrupt before leaving; today, such a big hole was punched through the roof and yet there was no talk of compensation?

He muttered to himself about his bad luck and went to fetch the broom with Xiao Liu.

The shopkeeper, smiling, looked at Chen Ji: "Guest, just wait a bit and you’ll be accommodated in Tianzi Room C. Although it’s not as large as Room A, it is fully equipped."

Chen Ji thanked him.

The shopkeeper changed the subject: "I hear you are the third son of the Chen family; is that true?"

Chen Ji pondered; this fact probably couldn’t be concealed and nodded admitting it.

The shopkeeper’s smile softened somewhat: "Guest, you must have also heard the long-ringing bell from Guyuan this evening; the Jing Dynasty is besieging the city, there’s bound to be a fierce battle. Why don’t you leave through my inn’s secret passage and head to the Jing Dynasty’s Western Capital Road, Fengsheng State, to lay low? We also have our people there to ensure your safety."

Chen Ji became vigilant, thinking that the shopkeeper might still be coveting his wealth: "There’s no need, I plan to stay a while longer."

Seeing his expression, the shopkeeper thought it was not good: "You should go quickly, I absolutely can’t let anything happen to you in my inn!"

Chen Ji raised his eyebrows: "Oh?"

Realizing his slip-up, the shopkeeper swiftly walked away: "Guest, rest early, I assure you, no one will again attempt violence in my inn."

He walked down the stairs and took a long breath.

Coincidentally, the curtain was lifted and Third Elder appeared from nowhere.

Third Elder glanced at the shopkeeper and silently walked towards the stairs. But the shopkeeper quickly took a few steps to grab Third Elder’s arm, angrily saying, "If you all don’t trust me, just say it. I can quit being the shopkeeper, and I can stop caring about the secret passage. I can give up everything!"

Third Elder frowned: "What are you raving about?"

The shopkeeper took a deep breath: "I’ve said before, when I surrendered to the Jing Dynasty, it was General Wen Tao’s idea. I had to kill some of our own people, but I had no choice. If I didn’t kill them, the Jing people wouldn’t believe me!"

Third Elder stared at the shopkeeper: "The General has never mentioned to us that he ordered you to infiltrate the Jing Dynasty."

The shopkeeper helplessly said: "The General didn’t tell you, not because he didn’t trust me, but because he didn’t trust you all. He was afraid the news would slip out! Now, you knew that ’Chen Ji’ had come to Guyuan City, why didn’t you tell me?"

Third Elder sneered: "During the battle at Quwu Mountain, someone saw that you were only a dozen steps away from Yuan Zhen’s war banner, why didn’t you kill him?"

The shopkeeper angrily said: "He is the Great Commander of the Heavenly Strategy Army; his side must have masters of the Seeking Dao Realm, how could I kill him? The General ordered me to reconnoiter military intelligence, not to seek death!"

Third Elder calmly said: "Loyalty and righteousness are not declared by words, they are paid for with your life."

The shopkeeper opened his mouth, but ultimately waved his hand in despair: "Alright, alright, you all are the heroes of the Ning Dynasty, while I’m a surrendered general of Jing, suffice it to say?"

Saying that, he turned and walked away towards the backyard alone.

Third Elder called out from behind him: "Regarding ’Chen Ji’ upstairs, only a few of us know the real situation. Don’t let me hear that you’ve leaked anything, nor should you recognize him."

"No need for the reminder."