I, the military god of the Tang Dynasty, have risen since I destroyed the Turks

Chapter 786 The Mystery of the Jade Bee
Yang Guo's fingers gripped the hilt of the Gentleman's Sword tightly, his knuckles turning white. The light from the tinderbox flickered in the cramped tomb chamber, casting the shadows of the three men onto the mottled stone walls, like characters entangled in a shadow play. His gaze lingered between the magnolia flower mark on Leng Qingshuang's wrist and the mural, his throat tightening.

"Senior Zhou knows her?" Yang Guo's voice was hoarse, his sword tip drooping slightly by three inches, yet he still maintained a defensive stance.

Zhou Botong's white eyebrows were tinged orange-red in the firelight, revealing a rare air of vicissitude. He sat cross-legged, gently resting Leng Qingshuang's head on his lap, his withered fingers brushing away the sweat-dampened stray hairs from her forehead. "Sixteen years ago, during the great snow at Chongyang Palace," the old rascal's voice suddenly seemed distant, "I was picking snow lotus on the cliff behind the mountain when I heard groans coming from below."

A sliver of moonlight shone through a crack in the tomb's ceiling, falling directly on Leng Qingshuang's deathly pale face. Yang Guo noticed a tiny cinnabar mole on her right eyebrow, its location identical to Xiaolongnu's. This discovery struck him like a blow to the chest, forcing him to lean against the stone wall to steady himself.

“She was about this age back then.” Zhou Botong gestured with his hand to his waist, “covered in blood, wedged in a pine branch, seven golden needles arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper above her head.” He ran his index finger through Leng Qingshuang’s hair, revealing seven faded needle marks, “The needles had golden bells attached to their ends, jingling in the wind.”

Yang Guo suddenly remembered the "Seven Star Soul-Locking Technique" recorded in the Ancient Tomb Sect's classic texts, and a chill ran down his spine. It was an evil technique that had been listed as a forbidden art since Lin Chaoying's time. It required the blood of a virgin to temper golden needles, which were then driven into seven major acupoints, causing memory confusion.

"You saved her?" Yang Guo sheathed his Gentleman's Sword and knelt down to examine Leng Qingshuang's injuries. The "slave" brand on her collarbone had an eerie bluish-purple edge, like a mark left by some kind of poison.

Zhou Botong pulled a dirty cloth bag from his pocket, unfolding it to reveal more than a dozen silver needles of varying lengths. "Although the Old Urchin is playful, he has still learned some medical skills from his senior brother." He skillfully inserted the needles into Leng Qingshuang's Fengchi acupoint at the back of her neck. "This girl doesn't remember anything after waking up, so I named her 'Shuang'er' and taught her some basic self-defense techniques."

The silver needles suddenly trembled violently, and Zhou Botong's expression changed drastically. Yang Guo saw the veins bulging and moving on Leng Qingshuang's temples, as if something alive was writhing beneath her skin. Her lips began to move, uttering indistinct murmurs: "...Jade Bee Needles...Senior Sister."

"What is she saying?" Yang Guo hurriedly grasped Leng Qingshuang's icy wrist, but when he tried to probe her meridians with his inner force, it was like throwing a stone into the sea. What shocked him even more was that the flow of true energy within her body was seven parts similar to the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra.

Zhou Botong suddenly pulled out a blackened silver needle, sniffed it lightly, and exclaimed, "It's Jiu Yu Qianye!" He abruptly tore open Leng Qingshuang's sleeve, revealing a series of pinhole-sized blue spots on the inside of her arm. "Someone is regularly poisoning her to control her."

As if to confirm this statement, Leng Qingshuang suddenly opened her eyes, her pupils shrinking to the size of pinpoints. She sat up straight, her withered fingers grasping Zhou Botong's collar: "Master Zhou?" This call was like a drowning person grabbing onto a piece of driftwood, full of childlike dependence.

Yang Guo's breath hitched. He was all too familiar with that expression—it was the same one Xiaolongnu had looked at him when she was severely injured at the bottom of the Valley of Heartbreak.

"Shuang'er, don't be afraid." Zhou Botong patted her back gently like he was coaxing a child, but secretly gave Yang Guo a wink. Yang Guo understood and quietly moved to a blind spot in Leng Qingshuang's sight, gathering his Nine Yin True Qi in his palm.

Leng Qingshuang suddenly convulsed, her fingernails scraping the stone floor with a harsh sound: "His Majesty will be angry. Yang Guo must be brought." A strange gurgling sound came from her throat, and she abruptly turned her head to stare at the woman holding a jade pendant in the mural, "Sister, the Cold Palace Water Prison..."

"What sister? Where is the Cold Palace?" Yang Guo grabbed her shoulders and asked urgently. The temperature from his palm was unusually cold, as if he were touching a corpse.

"Longlong'er!" Leng Qingshuang's eyes suddenly glazed over, then became frantic. "No, that's not right!" She scratched her face, leaving bloody marks on her pale skin. "I am Long'er. She is Shuang'er!" A shrill scream echoed in the tomb, causing dust to fall from the ceiling. Yang Guo was struck dumb; the words "I am Long'er" pierced his heart like a sharp sword. He instinctively reached for the half of the dragon pendant in his robes, only to see Leng Qingshuang pull a brocade pouch from her waist—inside lay the other half!

Zhou Botong flashed behind her like a ghost, delivering a precise chop to the back of her neck. As Leng Qingshuang collapsed, Yang Guo saw a gold locket slipping from her collar, engraved with "Birthdate: Gengchen Year, Second Month, Second Day"—exactly the same as Xiaolongnu's birth date and time.

"This is impossible." Yang Guo staggered backward, his back hitting the mural. The eyes of the woman in the painting seemed to come alive in the firelight, overlapping with the faces of Leng Qingshuang and Xiaolongnu in his mind. He suddenly remembered the Ancient Tomb Sect's greatest secret that his master had mentioned—"The Twin Jade Maidens."

Zhou Botong's fingertip was stained with a drop of eerie black blood, which gleamed with a ghostly blue metallic sheen under the moonlight. He brought it closer and sniffed it, his white eyebrows immediately furrowing into a knot: "This isn't blood, it's the liquid from smelting Western Region black iron!"

Yang Guo's heart skipped a beat, and his Gentleman's Sword was drawn three inches from its sheath with a clang: "Could it be that something is wrong with her mind?"

“Not bad.” Zhou Botong nodded heavily, taking out a magnet from his robes. Creepy as it was, the drop of “blood” was slowly attracted by the magnet, stretching into a thin thread. “The tip of the Seven Deadly Soul-Locking Needles is embedded in her skull; that’s why it can be controlled remotely.” He pointed to the faint blue line between Leng Qingshuang’s brows, “Judging from its trajectory, it has already invaded her ancestral acupoint.”

The torches on the stone wall suddenly shook violently, distorting the three people's shadows into bizarre shapes. Yang Guo noticed that Leng Qingshuang's eyelashes were trembling incessantly, as if she were trapped in some terrifying dream. Her lips parted slightly, silently repeating two words—"Long'er."

"We must go to the palace immediately." Yang Guo sheathed his Gentleman's Sword and took off his outer robe to cover Leng Qingshuang. When his fingers accidentally touched the skin on the back of her neck, a bone-chilling coldness shot up from his fingertips; the temperature was not like that of a living person.

Zhou Botong pressed down on his shoulder: "Wait a minute. Look at this—" He held up the dried jade bee wing, "The lifespan of an ancient tomb jade bee is at most three months, but this wing has been preserved for at least sixteen years."

Yang Guo took the transparent wing and examined it carefully in the firelight. The edges of the wing showed unnatural golden lines, clearly indicating that it had been soaked in a special potion. Even more strangely, the incantation for the seventh level of the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra was engraved on it in characters almost invisible to the naked eye.

"This is..." Yang Guo's hands began to tremble.

"Your master's doing." Zhou Botong sighed. "Back then, Lin Chaoying created the Jade Bee Communication method, and only the head of the Ancient Tomb Sect knew its secrets."

A sudden gust of cold wind swept in from the depths of the tomb passage, carrying the stench of decaying blood. Yang Guo whirled around, his Gentleman's Sword pointing straight into the darkness: "Who's there?"

(End of this chapter)