Sun Fatty paused at this point, then turned to Huang Ran and said, "Old Huang, just take a look and be done with it. No offense, but what do you think you are? Trying to memorize it in one go?"
Huang Ran ignored him. It wasn't until two or three minutes later that he finally looked up and said, "It's authentic. No doubt about it. If you don't want it, I'd be happy to take it off your hands."
Sun Fatty grinned, about to say something, but before he could open his mouth, a cold voice suddenly rang out from the loft: "No wonder I searched this place top to bottom and couldn't find the Heavenly Principle Diagram. Turns out it was hidden in the belly of that stone statue. Li Jianghai really went all out—joined a foreign faith just to guard this scroll."
The voice came from behind us. We had all been focused on the Heavenly Principle Diagram and hadn't noticed when someone else had appeared in the attic. Startled, we all turned around almost in unison and saw a mist-shrouded figure standing five or six meters away.
The moment we laid eyes on him, Huang Ran moved his hands behind his back. The figure let out a cold laugh and said, "What are you, a child? Think I can't see the Heavenly Principle Diagram just because you're hiding it behind your back?" Huang Ran stared back at him with a frosty look, saying nothing and keeping his hands where they were.
I couldn't tell whether Huang Ran knew this man, but Sun Fatty and I had already had a deadly encounter with him not long ago. Back then, the one he targeted was Yang Xiao—he ambushed him during the reincarnation ritual of Yang Xiao's wife, and very nearly took his life.
This shadowy figure had clearly recognized both me and Sun Fatty, but paid us no mind. His eyes were now fixed solely on Huang Ran. Sensing the opportunity, Sun Fatty shot me a glance. We both reached behind our waists—I had already grasped the hilt of my short sword. The moment I saw an opening, I'd strike.
The figure raised his right hand and slowly approached Huang Ran, saying, "Give me the Heavenly Principle Diagram, and I'll make your death quick and painless.""The Heavenly Principle Diagram? You should ask him for it." Huang Ran gave the man a smile, then suddenly spun and shoved the scroll into Sun Fatty's hands.
Sun Fatty hadn't seen that coming. He stood there frozen with the Heavenly Principle Diagram in his hands, and by the time he thought to hand it back to Huang Ran, it was already too late—the figure had turned his gaze toward him. Without a word, the man slowly extended his hand.
Sun Fatty took two steps back and said as he retreated, "Come on now, we're all old acquaintances. No need for this kind of drama, right? We're not even that close to Yang Xiao. He just came to us for help once—we worked in the same unit, that kind of thing... see each other now and then…"
While Sun Fatty was stalling with nonsense, the shadowy man took two steps forward, putting Huang Ran and me behind him. I had already drawn my short sword and was hiding it behind me. Huang Ran quietly crouched down and rummaged through the red silk wrappings on the ground, pulling out a bronze sword. He held it tightly and kept signaling me with his eyes.
As the figure's full attention remained on Sun Fatty, I seized the chance. Treating the short sword like a blade, I lunged forward in a flash and slashed at him diagonally from shoulder to back.
I didn't expect to kill him in one blow—just wanted him to reflexively raise an arm in defense. But as luck would have it, my fortune was nothing compared to Sun Fatty's. Just as my blade was about to hit him, the figure suddenly turned his head and stared straight at me.
In that moment, it felt like I was standing naked in an ice cave. A chilling cold shot straight through my chest and into my lungs. My body was frozen solid—I couldn't move an inch.
Just when I thought he could kill me with the slightest motion, a sharp pain shot through the back of my neck. Then came a rush of heat that flowed down from the wound, and my body abruptly returned to normal. I reached back to touch my neck and pulled away a hand covered in fresh blood.
But the moment had already passed. The memory of what happened with Yang Xiao was still fresh—I was in no shape to go head-to-head with this guy. All I could do now was hope to pull Huang Ran into the fray and, together with Sun Fatty, find some way to escape. That would be blessing enough.
Fortunately, the shadowy man didn't take us seriously at all. He had that cat-playing-with-a-mouse attitude. His gaze swept past me and landed directly on Huang Ran. With a smirk, he said, "I underestimated you. You knew that bleeding would break my spell. Looks like the Religious Affairs Commission still has a few tricks up its sleeve."
I took a step back in that moment and saw the tip of Huang Ran's bronze sword stained with blood—he was the one who'd saved me just now. I heard him chuckle lightly, then step forward and, almost casually, placed himself between Sun Fatty and the misty figure. He looked at the man and said, "The Heavenly Principle Diagram is something both the Commission and the Bureau must acquire. If you try to take it by force, you'll be offending both factions at once. Let's not even talk about the Commission or Wu Rendi—just Yang Xiao and Yang Jun from the Bureau are far beyond what you can handle."
As Huang Ran spoke, the figure kept sneering. Just as the last word left Huang Ran's lips, he tilted his head to the side, revealing the small crossbow in Sun Fatty's hands aimed right at the target. With a sharp whoosh, a bolt flew past Huang Ran's face like a flash of lightning, shooting straight at the figure.
But just as it seemed the bolt was about to strike him, my vision blurred for a split second—and though the figure hadn't moved, the bolt was now in his hand.
The figure tossed the crossbow bolt to the ground at Sun Fatty's feet and said coolly, "Whatever trump cards you've got left, bring them all out. With skills like that, don't expect me to take this seriously."
"If that's how you wanna play, I won't be polite either." Sun Fatty grinned as he stashed the bolt, then suddenly shouted into the air, "Yang Xiao! If you don't come out now, someone's gonna die down here!"
The figure let out a snort of disdain at the name and said, "Why not just yell for Wu Ren—" He hadn't finished his sentence when there was a loud bang!—two hands shot up from the wooden floor beneath him and clamped down hard on his ankles.
Before he could react, the hands yanked him straight down through the floorboards with a crash, leaving behind a gaping hole in the attic floor.
I glanced at Li Qimu, who still hadn't recovered from the shock and was standing there frozen. I yelled at him, "Stay right here and don't move!" Then, without waiting for Sun Fatty or Huang Ran, I darted over to the hole and peered down. I could see the floor below, but not much else—couldn't even tell if Yang Xiao had actually arrived.
As I hesitated, Huang Ran came over and suddenly raised the bronze sword in his hand, slashing down at the hole. Though the blade was covered in green patina, it sliced through the wood like tofu. After seven or eight powerful swings, the hole was twice its original size. Once it seemed wide enough for him to fit through, Huang Ran didn't say a word—he jumped straight down.
No further sound came from below. I looked up at Sun Fatty with uncertainty. He had just tucked away the Heavenly Principle Diagram and walked over to the hole, saying, "Lazi, that scroll's important. Let's wait until we're sure it's safe down there before going." But before he could finish speaking, Huang Ran's voice came from below: "Sun Desheng, you planning to stay up there forever?"
From the sound of it, things weren't dangerous anymore. But with only Huang Ran speaking, Sun Fatty didn't dare take the risk. He told me to head down the stairs quietly to check the situation. If anything seemed off, I was to come right back.
I went down the stairs cautiously, and as I reached the first floor, I saw someone standing in the doorway, backlit by sunlight—I couldn't make out his face. Right in front of him was the figure who had just been dragged down. It looked like the man at the door had blocked the exit, forcing the shadowy figure to face off against him. He clearly wanted to flee, but Huang Ran's presence behind him applied enough pressure to keep him cornered.
I didn't want to provoke any of them, so I quietly moved to the area below the hole and signaled Sun Fatty and Li Qimu to jump down. Just then, my phone rang—it was Sun Fatty. "Lazi, you good? Not that I don't trust you, but what's the situation down there? Is it really Yang Xiao? Say something, will you?"
"Come see for yourself," I said softly, afraid to alert the others nearby, and hung up right after.
Not long after I hung up, someone jumped down—but it wasn't Sun Fatty. He'd pushed Li Qimu to go first as a test. Once he was sure there were no traps, he followed. But unlike Huang Ran's light-footed landing, Sun Fatty's 260-plus-pound frame crashed down like a mountain. The entire church trembled with a thunderous boom, as if hit by an earthquake.
Huang Ran turned back and gave him a blank look, but neither the man at the door nor the figure showed any reaction—they acted as if Sun Fatty didn't even exist.
Sun Fatty stepped beside me and, keeping his eyes on the two men at the door, whispered, "Lazi, they've been just standing there this whole time? Neither of them's moved?"
"Yeah." I nodded and leaned close to his ear. "Dasheng, is that really Yang Xiao? Something feels… off."
Sun Fatty grinned but didn't answer directly. Instead, he called out, "Yang Xiao! Come on, don't play coy. You haven't forgotten what happened with your wife's reincarnation, have you?"
The man blocking the door gave a slow smile and took a step forward, staring at the shadowy figure in front of him. "Forgotten? How could I? Aside from my uncle, no one else has ever backed me into a corner like that. You ambushed me last time—I've been looking for you ever since. Didn't expect you to walk right into my hands."
As he spoke, he shifted slightly, moving out of the sunlight, and I finally saw his face clearly. That wasn't Yang Xiao at all—it was Xiao Jintong, the Foreign Ministry official sent to receive us!
Xiao Jintong took just one step forward and stopped. Then the muscles on his face began to ripple and shift. I'd seen this happen once before—back when Yang Xiao disguised himself as Sun Fatty in the riverbed under Qinghe. Considering he'd managed to mimic someone as massive as Sun Fatty, it wasn't hard to believe he could disguise himself as a man we'd never even met before.
Within seconds, Xiao Jintong was gone—Yang Xiao now stood before the shadowy figure, head tilted as he looked at him. "I gave you a chance," he said. "Why didn't you take it?"
"A chance?" the figure sneered. "You call your 'Severed Yang Array' at the door a chance? I know a bit about your Ghost Path Sect's sacred formation. Step wrong once and you're obliterated—no reincarnation, no nothing. The formation shifts its focal points constantly. I'm not that fat bastard surnamed Sun, who gets lucky and stumbles into the right path."
"You do know quite a bit," Yang Xiao remarked, casting a glance at Sun Fatty. Then he turned back to the figure. "Last time you used a corpse as your stand-in. But it's broad daylight now, and you're far from home. A fresh corpse can't endure the Three Lights. You haven't had fifty days to refine it either, have you?"
He paused again, studying the figure from head to toe. "This must be your real body this time. Show your face. Gao Liang personally named you. I won't kill you today, but once we get you back to the Bureau, we'll settle our score."