The precious herbs map was unfurled. Densely packed tiny dots immediately appeared before Lu Sheng’s eyes.
Before long, he fixed his gaze on the location of a particular herb.
‘Umbrella girl can help maintain my cover for the time being. But sooner or later, I’ll be exposed…’ Lu Sheng’s fingers rubbed against the map gently.
‘Ye Moling… Scarlet District Mistress… what a thorny problem…’ His brows were locked in a tight furrow. Scarlet District Mistress’ strength had surpassed his expectation. Given his present strength, three of himself combined was not enough to be a match for her.
From umbrella girl’s description of Scarlet District Mistress, even Ye Moling could not hold his own before her. That went to show how ridiculously strong she was.
"Are you thinking that the problem’s a thorny one?" Without warning, a sharp male voice rang out in the study.
"Who’s that!!"
Lu Sheng’s eyes turned cold. All around him, blood web burst forth in all directions, sweeping through every nook and cranny of the entire study.
"We mean no harm," that sharp voice continued, entirely unaffected by the blood web. "Like you, we’re enemies of Scarlet District Mistress."
Lu Sheng did a check and, to his astonishment, could not discover how the other party was speaking to him. His heart lurched as he continued slowly,
"Who are you then?"
"We… we’re called Wandering Heart Society. You may have never heard of our name. But all you need to know is that we’ve come for the purpose of killing Scarlet District Mistress. That’s all," the voice grew sharper and sharper.
"Kill Scarlet District Mistress?" Lu Sheng continued displaying his poker face. Naturally, he was not about to believe in this man’s words easily.
"You don’t need to know why. You just need to know that we’ve got a death feud with her," the voice explained briefly. "The reason why I came to you was in the hopes of gaining your cooperation to kill her together."
Lu Sheng’s heart skipped a beat. Clearly, the other party knew that umbrella girl was now under his control. Otherwise, he would not have had come to him.
His methods were so mysterious, to the point that Lu Sheng could not even detect where he was hiding.
Rapidly, Lu Sheng retracted all his blood web back into himself.
"Why should I trust you?" Lu Sheng asked in a deep voice.
"Whether you trust us or not, we will make a move," the voice paused. "Let me put it simply. That woman has killed two of our Guardian Kings and ten of our Sky Soarers! In the end, Deputy Society Leader intercepted her personally, but she managed to get away in the end."
"Didn’t she go seize the Scarlet Dragon Tribulation?" Lu Sheng suddenly cut in.
"Scarlet Dragon Tribulation!! Yes!! That’s her! We had already succeeded!" The sharp voice turned into an enraged bellow. "But at the critical moment, that woman robbed us of the main part of the Divine Weapon!"
This man didn’t seem to be in his right mind. It seemed to Lu Sheng that he was from a competing faction that fought with Scarlet District Mistress over Scarlet Dragon Tribulation.
Lu Sheng’s heart jumped, but his face remained impassive.
"Since you want to work with me, you’ve got to show me some sincerity."
"Mm… you may have gained control over that bitc*’s confidante, but that’s not enough. Far from enough!" the sharp voice said.
"You’ve no idea how powerful she is. Ever since acquiring the Scarlet Dragon Tribulation shard, she’s still growing stronger. In order to kill that little bitc* for sure, we need to make some preparations beforehand. Some slight preparations!"
"What preparations? You haven’t showed me your sincerity. Our Shangyang Family hasn’t got any death feud with Scarlet District Mistress. It’s entirely possible for us to resolve our rift with her by compensating her," Lu Sheng said calmly.
"Sincerity… don’t you like martial arts? This is for you." The voice paused.
"Swish!"
An intricate gray box shot towards him through his window abruptly.
"Rip!" The box tore through the paper window and landed right in front of Lu Sheng, stopping after a few spins on his desk.
"Cloud Snake Rolling Heart Pill—the unparalleled tonic in the eyes of mortal martial arts practitioners. Take it as a welcome gift." The voice chuckled. "As for the truly big gift, how about the blood of a complete Cloud Snake? The lethal poison within it is entirely adequate for you to temper your black membrane. Stepping into Four-Vein Level is just a matter of time!"
Lu Sheng picked up the box and opened it carefully. A pearly white pill rested silently in it.
The other party made a gift of such a precious pill just like that. But would he dare to eat a pill from an entirely unknown and unfamiliar force?
"Are you worrying that something might be wrong with the pill?" The voice chuckled. "Just test it on someone, as simple as that! That’s all for now. Hopefully, the next time we come to you, you’d have made up your mind."
The voice gradually faded at last.
Till the very end, Lu Sheng could not figure out how the other party had spoken to him.
He gazed at the pill on the desk silently. The appearance of this Wandering Heart Society messed up his plans.
After sitting in his study for a moment in quiet, he suddenly called out, "Men!"
"Here!"
A guard quickly entered through the door and knelt on one knee.
"Prepare the carriage. I’m going to the dungeon."
"Yes, sir!"
Crimson Whale Sect’s dungeon was, strictly speaking, a water prison.
All prisoners were divided into four stories. The topmost level was the first story—it was meant for ordinary prisoners such as non-homicidal cases.
The second level was for pugilists who were stronger and for murderers. Pirates and bandits belonged there as well.
The third story was for severe offenders, powerful martial arts practitioners or figures who wielded great influence.
Finally, the fourth story was the darkest, most cruel place in Crimson Whale Sect. All who were kept here were heinous criminals and top-notch experts who boasted great power.
"Clang."
The iron doors to the water dungeon were pulled open, only to reveal another heavy iron door within.
Lu Sheng walked in with his hands behind his back. On both sides were dungeon soldiers on sentry. A warden led him down to the fourth story of the water dungeon.
The space was dark and stifled, with the foul stench of rot and mould in the air.
The bearing of the soldiers on sentry looked distorted as well. It seems like they, too, have been affected by staying in this kind of environment for prolonged periods of time.
"Sect Master, this fourth story keeps the pinnacle experts that even former Sect Master was unable to handle. Back then, they were caught and thrown in here only with the help of those upstairs.
As for the innermost section here, I don’t dare to even enter…" the old warden stood in front of the iron door. This was the last door. They had gone through thirteen iron doors consecutively. This, the fourteenth and the most dangerous door, was the last thing that stood between them and the darkest and scariest maximum security water dungeon.
"It’s alright, I’ll go in alone," Lu Sheng said calmly.
"In that case, should Sect Master want to come out, you just need to call out for me by the door," the old man swallowed hard and whispered.
"Mm. Open it." Lu Sheng nodded.
The old man looked helpless as he finally unlocked the final iron door, his fingers fumbling and trembling throughout.
"Creak…"
The heavy square iron door slowly opened, issuing a shrill creak.
On both his sides, the dungeon guards gripped their sabers tightly as they stared intently at what was behind the door, as if they were about to face a deadly opponent.
Lu Sheng peered in but saw only pitch black darkness. Without further ado, he strode in.
After adjusting to the dimness of the place, he saw a pitch-black narrow corridor. The ground of the corridor was formed by rows of cubic cells. The sound of water rippled from the cells.
The entire fourth story was deadly silent, like a cemetery. It made one wonder if the prisoners in it were already dead.
Lu Sheng’s eyes narrowed. Slowly, he walked along the corridor. Immediately, the door was shut and locked behind him.
Without even a glance behind him, he walked on down the corridor, his gaze fixed downwards.
One by one, he passed the cells. To his disappointment, however, they were all empty. Not a single prisoner was in them. Up to a third of the height of the cells was soaked in filthy, murky water. Even if the people inside had been alive, they would have rotted away from soaking in the water after so long.
Lu Sheng frowned. The stench was too foul and the place had no ventilation. It was hard to imagine that anyone could survive in such conditions.
Thankfully, the fourth story was huge; there were several dozen cells.
Step by step, he walked slowly, scrutinizing every cell.
Time trickled by. After an unknown length of time, Lu Sheng finally found someone in one of the cells.
He paused and peered more closely. But before long, he shook his head in disappointment and moved on to the next cell.
The person in that cell was floating face down on the surface of the water like a balloon, his body swollen. His body was already purplish white. Lu Sheng could smell the ungodly stench emanating off his corpse even from his height.
"Young man. What have you come looking for?"
Suddenly, an old voice made his pause in his steps.
Lu Sheng cast his gaze in the direction of his voice and saw a man two cells ahead. It was an old man clutching the cell door, suspending himself high above the murky waters.
"Who are you?" Lu Sheng asked with a frown.
"I… you tell me first. What are you doing here?" the old man smiled slyly and countered with a question of his own.
"I’ve come in search for a test subject for a pill." Lu Sheng did not hide the truth.
"A pill-tester?" The old man was surprised. "How about this old man then?"
"You?" Lu Sheng sensed the inner Qi was strong in this old man.
Not even Zhang Wuya could match the inner Qi volume of this old man. Lu Sheng had not felt this sense of danger that he presently did on this man from anyone else; his body was like a tightly compressed spring, the power within him ready to explode and burst forth in any second.
He glanced at the iron door of the cell, then took out the key, squatted down and inserted the key into the lock.
"Ka-cha."
The iron door swung downwards. Immediately, the old man's eyes widened and lit up like the eyes of a cat in the night.
"SWISH!"