Morning light pierced the faded carved wooden windows of Wanhua Tower, casting mottled shadows on the blue brick floor. When Ye Fan pushed open the hall doors, the Jiuxiao Huanpei inside his Inner World was still humming softly, as if a fine needle were pricking his nerves.
Su Qingxue was already standing ahead of them by the round sandalwood table. The silver needles at her fingertips gleamed coldly in the candlelight, aimed at the half-piece of dark cloak on the table—the three uninvited guests Elder Chen had mentioned earlier had left the cloak and hastily departed under the excuse of "discussing it another day." The blood-red centipede embroidered on the inside of the cloak was precisely the mark of a branch of the Poison Sect from Southern Xinjiang.
"They're probing us." Ye Fan pinched the edge of the cloak, his fingertips brushing the rough gold threads. Memories of his past life suddenly surged—a century ago during the Poison Sect's internal strife, a collateral branch had been expelled from the mountain, specializing in kidnapping and extortion, and most adept at tracking with Gu Insects.
Chapter 148