Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Secret Blueprint

The temple was filled with cries of pain and moans. At the break of dawn, Chu Bing and Li Haoran walked side by side through the corridors, the ground littered with severed limbs and corpses. Monks helped each other tend to their wounds or sat on the floor, chanting sutras for their fallen brothers.

The battle had taken a heavy toll; several monks had perished, though the shadow guards had fared better, with everyone wounded to some degree. The most gravely injured among them now lay motionless in bed.

A sour ache welled in Chu Bing’s heart. Though her time here had been brief, seeing the numbness and agony etched on these familiar faces left her anxious and unsettled.

“Miss Chu.” Long San greeted Chu Bing with a cupped fist, his arm bandaged as a monk applied medicine to his wound.

Chu Bing crouched beside him. “How’s the wound?”

“Bah, it’s nothing. We’ve made our living on the edge of a blade—so long as we’re still breathing, what’s a little pain?” Long San scratched his head with a carefree grin. “Miss Chu, what’s with you today? There was all this excitement, and you didn’t join in.”

He was referring to Chu Bing hiding in her room throughout the ordeal.

Nearby shadow guards glanced at Chu Bing, many suspecting that she’d been too frightened to face the danger.

Chu Bing managed a bitter smile. “I was fast asleep when a fiend suddenly appeared in my room, pressing a blade to my throat. I wanted to help, but I hardly had the chance.”

“What?” Long San’s face darkened with fury. “Who could sneak past us all the way to your chamber right under our noses? If I ever catch that scoundrel, I’ll make him wish he’d never been born!”

“It’s done. He’s already escaped.” Li Haoran cut him off, his face gloomy. Turning to Chu Bing, he added, “Miss Chu, it’s thanks to your traps that most of the intruders were caught. Unfortunately, they were all tough as nails—not a single one would speak, and they all took poison to end their own lives.”

“Took poison?” Chu Bing frowned. Clearly, these people were specially trained.

“Yes, but… there is one survivor.” A cold light flashed in Li Haoran’s eyes. “But she’s stubborn as a mule. No matter how we threaten or coax, she won’t say a word.”

Chu Bing’s eyes sparkled. “Let me try talking to her.”

Li Haoran never refused her anything.

They circled the temple until they reached a small room tucked in a corner, used by the masters to discipline errant disciples.

On the way, everyone who saw Chu Bing looked at her with burning admiration, as if she were someone extraordinary.

Chu Bing found this attention difficult to bear, but Li Haoran smiled reassuringly. “Everyone is deeply grateful. Without you, we would have suffered much greater losses.”

Chu Bing shook her head. “I did very little. It was everyone’s own courage in the face of death.”

In truth, she’d hidden in her room because of Li Mohan, and had contributed little.

Li Haoran wanted to comfort her further, but they’d arrived at the prisoner’s room, and he let the subject drop.

Inside, the room was pitch dark, broken only by the sound of a woman’s ragged breathing. Chu Bing struck a flint, and the dim flame revealed the scene within.

A woman dressed in black nightclothes was bound to a chair, her hair disheveled, blood smeared across her face and body. Her skin was pale, but her eyes shone with defiant brightness.

“I won’t tell you anything,” she declared before Chu Bing could even ask a question.

Chu Bing couldn’t help but laugh. She strolled over unhurriedly. “Do you know what I do?”

The woman hesitated, and Chu Bing answered herself in a chilling, sinister tone. “I love nothing more than making people tell the truth.”

She dragged a chair opposite the prisoner and lowered her voice. “Who sent you?”

The faint candlelight cast deep shadows across her features, making her look especially menacing.

But the woman still refused to yield.

Unperturbed, Chu Bing drew the long sword from Li Haoran’s side and pressed it against the woman’s cheek. “Such a beautiful face—what a pity it would be if it were cut.”

The sharp blade grazed the fair skin. The woman’s pupils contracted, but she remained stubbornly silent.

Chu Bing frowned. A woman who cared nothing for her own beauty must possess extraordinary resolve—the hardest kind of person to break.

But Chu Bing, coming from the modern world, knew more than a few ways to interrogate a prisoner.

Her eyes flickered as a plan formed. Leaning in close, she whispered, “I know a certain torture that will make you speak.”

The woman snorted and shut her eyes.

Chu Bing shrugged. “If you’re that uncooperative, I’ll just have to do it.”

She slid the sword from the woman’s cheek down to her wrist. “I’ll start by severing the tendons in your hands and feet.”

The woman’s eyes flew open in panic.

To a martial artist, severed tendons meant the end of everything—a lifetime’s path cut off, their future as good as destroyed.

But Chu Bing wasn’t finished. Smiling sweetly, she went on, “Then I’ll slice the flesh from your body, piece by piece. Of course, I won’t let you die. Each time you’re on the brink, I’ll have a physician patch you up, so we can start all over again…”

“You lunatic!” the woman finally burst out, unable to contain herself, her eyes brimming with fear and fury.

This wasn’t a normal person at all!

Chu Bing spread her hands, her lips curling into a ghastly smile. “Now that you know I’m a madwoman, I suggest you tell me everything you know if you want to survive.”

Meeting Chu Bing’s cold gaze, the woman bit her lip, then spoke: “There’s a secret blueprint hidden in this temple!”

“What kind of blueprint?” Chu Bing’s eyes sparkled. Could it be a treasure map?

“I don’t know. Our people haven’t found it either,” the woman shook her head.

Chu Bing believed her; she didn’t seem to be lying. That meant the blueprint was likely still somewhere in the temple!

This place was growing stranger by the minute. First, the incident with the Imperial Consort, and now a secret treasure map—one after another, as if someone were orchestrating it all behind the scenes.

Seeing there was nothing more to learn from the woman, Chu Bing left the room with Li Haoran.

Both wore expressions of excitement and gravity.

“Both groups today must have come for this blueprint,” Li Haoran said quietly as they walked.

Chu Bing nodded. “Perhaps we should ask the abbot about it.”

“The abbot may not tell us the truth,” Li Haoran replied, shaking his head. “If I were in possession of such a blueprint, I wouldn’t tell anyone either.”

Suddenly, a thought struck Chu Bing. Her eyes brightened. “Come on—there’s someone who just might know exactly what this blueprint is!”