Chapter 131

Chapter 131: A Brocade Pouch

Elsewhere.

When Rong Shu went out, dawn was only a gray smear.

She did not hurry to find Cheng Bu Fan but looped around nearby as if searching for something.

She murmured: Where could it be…

After walking a ways, she spotted a dark shape at the base of a wall; her eyes brightened and she approached.

She coaxed: Here, kitty…

Rong Shu took a small piece of jerky from her Storage Pouch, crouched down, and tempted the little black cat in the corner.

The black cat caught the scent and came over.

It was an ordinary stray.

Coming and going early and late, Rong Shu saw it from time to time.

For it to appear inside Dragon Ridge Palace, it was likely a menial’s pet or a creature that had slipped in by accident.

Cultivators generally did not raise such short-lived animals; a single retreat of ten years, and it would be dead by the time they emerged.

When she saw it she sometimes scattered a few crumbs of jerky, but because of the lifespan issue she had no mind to keep one herself.

Besides, she already had a Little Hamster; cats and mice had never gotten along, and keeping a cat as well would likely end in fights.

Perhaps because she had been feeding it, the little black cat did not resist her but came up to eat obediently.

Rong Shu stroked its head and said: Kitty, help me with something.

It mewed: Meow?

Though ordinary, long life in Dragon Ridge Palace and the nourishment of spiritual qi had made it rather clever.

Holding a Brocade Pouch, Rong Shu explained carefully, asking it to drop the Brocade Pouch at the door of Cheng Bu Fan’s quarters.

She said: Remember the place where I fed you before? Put the Brocade Pouch there…

Earlier, Rong Shu had intentionally lured the cat to that spot with jerky several times.

At her reminder, the cat understood at once.

After finishing, it clamped the Brocade Pouch in its teeth and set off as told, with Rong Shu following behind.

It dropped the Brocade Pouch at Cheng Bu Fan’s door, meowed once, and left.

Rong Shu waited a moment, then stepped up to knock.

After a while Cheng Bu Fan opened up, yawning.

Half-lidded, obviously just awake, he said: Morning, Rong Shu…

Rong Shu pointed to the ground and said: Cheng Bu Fan, why is there a Brocade Pouch dropped at your door?

She bent to pick it up and asked offhandedly: Is this something you accidentally dropped outside? As she spoke, she handed it to him.

Cheng Bu Fan took it, utterly at a loss, and said: Let me see. This doesn’t seem to be mine…

Puzzlement churned in him; he had never owned such a thing. Besides, when he returned last night he was fairly sure he had not seen a Brocade Pouch at his door.

Thinking so, he opened the Brocade Pouch curiously.

He said: By the way, where were you last night? I was going to find you for cards.

Rong Shu explained unhurriedly: I was out then, reading at the alchemists’ branch hall.

Cheng Bu Fan lifted his brows and said: You want to become an alchemist?

Rong Shu nodded and said: Mm, I have a fire-aligned spiritual root and want to try. Even becoming a trainee alchemist would be pretty good.

That’s good… Cultivators generally like to cultivate a secondary craft; it’s common in the cultivation world, so Cheng Bu Fan found nothing odd.

When he opened the Brocade Pouch and saw that it contained only a slip of paper, his curiosity grew. He pulled it out to read.

The moment he saw the words, his expression changed.

Feigning puzzlement, Rong Shu asked: What’s wrong?

Nothing… nothing at all. Remembering his father’s prior instructions, he did not tell her outright and only said evasively: I suddenly recalled I have something to see my father about.

She said: All right. You don’t have a match today, do you?

He said: No.

That answer did not surprise her. She already knew he had no match today and would likely sleep in, which made it convenient for her to place the Brocade Pouch at his door.

She said: All right, then I will head to the arena to watch the bouts, and, as if missing his hesitation, took her leave first.

Mm, okay. As she was about to go, Cheng Bu Fan could not help asking: When you first arrived, did you see anyone nearby?

Rong Shu blinked and said: No. Is something the matter?

He waved repeatedly and said: Oh, nothing, nothing.

At that, she turned and left as usual.

Only after walking a good distance did a slight smile tug at her lips.

That should do it. It had not been in vain to take such a long detour to coax a black kitten into delivering the Brocade Pouch, then to come to Cheng Bu Fan’s door as if by chance and discover it. In the end, the Brocade Pouch had fallen into his hands. Even if someone investigated, it would never trace back to her, because the little black cat had lived here a long time and been in contact with many people.

After thus “notifying” Cheng Bu Fan, she went to the arena to keep watching the matches.

Rong Shu hardly watched the Qi Refining Stage bouts anymore; they were of little help to her. She could defeat a Qi Refining Stage opponent in a single stroke. So she watched the Foundation Establishment Stage and Golden Core Stage matches instead.

When night fell, Rong Shu intended to pass the message to more sects, so she sought out sect disciples who had been attacked by Demonic Cultivators. When the attacker was only at the Qi Refining Stage, she intervened to help. Over the course of the night she saved several people.

She was relieved that the ones making moves were only Qi Refining Stage Demonic Cultivators. Those at the Foundation Establishment Stage and Golden Core Stage seemed to have vanished into thin air; she did not see them strike at all.

Perhaps their targets were no longer these junior disciples. Killing a handful of juniors would be mere venting and brought no benefit.

Each time she rescued someone, she used the same words as before to inform them that the Demonic Cultivators’ main force had already infiltrated the city; then those rescued disciples would pass the message up the chain to their sect leadership.

Rong Shu had considered what would happen if the message were intercepted by a Demonic Cultivator mole within some sect. With so many people, who could tell which one was the infiltrator?

But from another angle, by casting such a wide net it was impossible for her luck to be so poor that every single sect elder she ended up reaching was a Demonic Cultivator spy. So long as a sect’s top authority was not compromised, the message would reach where it needed to go.