Chapter 4
Chapter 4
The newcomer was Su Jinchuan, the Chief of Medicine Peak.
He stood by the edge of the well, lantern in hand, looking down at us. “If you two want to live, get up here now,” he said expressionlessly. “Yin Zhixiao has sent men to the Cold Prison to examine the corpse.”
Dong Linyuan raised an eyebrow. “Since when does Medicine Peak meddle in the affairs of Punishment Peak?”
Su Jinchuan sneered. “I just don’t want to be the one collecting your corpses tomorrow morning.”
He had been my brother’s best friend during his lifetime.
Since the Falling Star City bloodbath, Su Jinchuan hadn’t spoken a single kind word to Dong Linyuan. Yet tonight, he had come of his own accord to assist us.
This made my heart sink even further.
If even he was starting to suspect Yin Zhixiao, then this matter likely ran deeper than I had imagined.
We bypassed the Soul-Locking Well and circled back to the rear mountain. Su Jinchuan tossed a medicine chest to me.
“It’s for suppressing the Life-Devouring Seal,” he said. “Don’t ask where it came from. If you must know, your brother left it behind before he died.”
My movements stiffened.
“Why are you only giving it to me now?”
Su Jinchuan fell silent for a moment, his voice turning slightly raspy. “Because back then, you were as mad as a rabid dog, biting anyone you saw. If I’d given it to you then, you would have just used it to save Dong Linyuan and then continued to insist he was the murderer.”
I didn’t argue.
At that time, I truly couldn’t listen to reason.
After Su Jinchuan left, Dong Linyuan leaned against the window, watching me change his bandages by the moonlight.
“Your brother really cared about you,” he said suddenly.
“Don’t mention him.”
“Fine.” Dong Linyuan let me press the medicinal powder into his wound, his brow not even twitching despite the pain. “Then let’s talk about your Master. Do you trust him, or do you trust me?”
My hand suddenly bore down with heavy force.
He finally let out a sharp hiss of pain and looked up at me. “Using a public matter to settle a private grudge?”
“You deserve it.”
Dong Linyuan smiled, then suddenly reached out and gripped my wrist.
His palm was burning hot.
“Yun Xingye, that night five years ago in Falling Star City, your brother told me to pass a message to you before he died.”
My breath hitched.
“He said: Do not trust the one on the high platform who smiles the most gently.”
The night wind outside the window came to an abrupt halt.
I looked up at him, my heart feeling as though it had been struck by a heavy sledgehammer.
My brother would never have described anyone else that way.
Unless that person was Yin Zhixiao.
Before I could press him for more details, the sound of something cutting through the air suddenly erupted from outside the courtyard.
Over a dozen dark figures vaulted over the wall, heading straight for Dong Linyuan.
Every single one of them wore the robes of the sect’s enforcement disciples.