Heirs of the Seven Swords of the Qin Dynasty

Although he was arrested, Tianming did not feel desperate at this time.

As an orphan, he has been struggling on the line between life and death since he could remember, and he had few opportunities to breathe in peace. Even after he met Gai Nie and had elders, he was still hunted by the empire and had few days of peace.

As a young man with a fickle mind, he often felt decadent and discouraged occasionally, but he had never completely given up hope or despaired.

He's just being emo at the moment.

Sometimes he blamed himself for being careless and leading everyone into the trap of the Yin-Yang School and Luo Wang. Sometimes he worried about whether Chen He was safe. Sometimes he was thinking about how he should escape. Sometimes he was worried that Master Ban and the others would take overly radical and risky actions to save him.

All in all, it's a mess with no beginning or end.

Then the more I thought about it, the more upset I became.

After being emo for a while, he managed to muster up some strength, stood up and studied his current situation.

As a prisoner, the Yin-Yang family treated him very well. They did not put him in a cage, but placed him in a fairly spacious room with all kinds of living furniture.

The only part that could tell that this place was used to imprison people was the door - it was a barred door with two separate windows of different sizes above and below, which was locked at the moment.

Tianming went to the fence gate and tested it with Shengxie. Even this famous sword could hardly leave a mark on the door.

It seems that although this door feels like iron, it is actually some kind of alloy and is very strong.

Tianming then kicked the door several times with all his strength, but the door didn't move at all. Instead, his legs felt numb from the shock.

After confirming that he had no chance of dealing with the door, Tianming decisively shifted his attention to the walls on both sides.

Just because you can’t break through the door doesn’t mean you can’t break through the wall either.

Most of the structures on the mirage are made of wood, especially the various rooms, which are basically made of wood.

The walls of this house also appear to be made of wood.

Tianming did it as soon as he thought of it. He raised his leg and kicked the wall.

Click!

"hiss!"

First there was a slight cracking sound, and the wooden wall broke. Then Tianming felt a huge recoil force and a piercing pain on his leg.

Tianming half squatted down, holding his legs and grimacing, and it took him a long time to recover.

"This... there's a stone wall outside!"

Tianming moved closer to the wooden wall that he had kicked into pieces, and after scraping away the debris, he could see clearly what was behind the wall - there was another wall behind the wooden wall, made of stone.

Moreover, the structure of this stone wall itself is probably also special.

With Tianming's current strength, even an ordinary stone brick wall would be kicked out with one kick, leaving a hole, or at least a dent. It was impossible for him to be unscathed, and his legs were almost broken.

Tianming picked up Shengxie and slashed at the wall several times, leaving several marks about an inch deep.

After confirming that he could cause damage, Tianming chopped several more times in a row. The sword marks became much deeper, and the deepest one was almost as thick as a brick.

Tianming put away Shengxie and kicked again at the area where the sword mark was the deepest, but it still did not move at all.

He rolled his eyes, put away Shengxie, and lay back down obediently.

Even after the scratches appeared, it was still impossible to kick the stone wall, which meant that the thickness of the stone wall was much greater than that of a normal wall.

If he persisted in scraping Shengxie, he might be able to force out a small hole like a slit, but such a small hole would be useless.

If you want to dig a hole for him to pass through, it will not be done in a day or two.

He didn't have any posters of sexy girls, so he would definitely be discovered by the Yin-Yang family before the hole was dug, so it would be a waste of time.

It's better to just take a break and then look for other loopholes later.

Tianming had just laid down and was trying to figure out what to do next when his thoughts suddenly fell into a familiar trance.

When I came to my senses again, it was a familiar place and familiar people.

Although he was imprisoned, Tianming was still very happy to see Qianlong. He smiled and greeted him, "Hello again, Qianlong."

Qian Long only managed to force a smile when he saw Tian Ming, and then said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Tian Ming, it's all my fault."

"Ah?" Tianming was stunned when he heard this, "How...how did you harm me?"

"If I hadn't given you the information, you wouldn't have made a misjudgment and been ambushed by the Yin-Yang Family." Qian Long explained the origin of her apology.

Tianming smiled bitterly and waved his hands, "The information you gave me is not wrong. It's just that I misjudged it and was careless."

"It's all my own recklessness. My obsession with revenge has hurt others and myself."

Today's Yin-Yang School is actually no longer a suitable target for anti-Qin forces - they will soon set sail, and whether they are dead or alive will not have any impact on the people on the shore for a short time.

Killing a Tianzi killer would actually weaken the empire's strength, but killing a Yin-Yang elder would only weaken it in theory without any real impact.

It’s just that Tianming was eager for revenge, and the Mohist School and the Yin-Yang School had a blood feud for generations, so Master Ban didn’t object.

Tianming saw that Qianlong was still in a low mood, so he quickly changed the subject and asked, "Qianlong, earlier a golden dragon suddenly appeared to help me, was it you who released it?"

Qian Long nodded, "It's me... I wanted to save you after I found you in danger, but unfortunately I couldn't help you."

“Hehe.” Tianming scratched his head and replied with a smile, “Thank you very much. As for the result… there is nothing anyone can do. It’s all because the Yin-Yang family is too insidious and shameless!”

"The total age of these people is probably over 200 years. They teamed up to target a teenager like me. It's incredible."

"I don't know what they want from me...Is that old bastard Yun Zhongjun going to use me to test his medicine?" Tianming guessed worriedly.

Qian Long covered his mouth and chuckled, then shook his head and said, "No, they will definitely not hurt you in the short term... But I don't know what will happen after the Mirage sets sail again."

"That's good..." Tianming was very optimistic and grinned, "At least I don't have to worry about my life for a while."

"By the way, Qianlong, I need your help with something." Tianming changed the subject and asked Qianlong, "Shaoyu may be on board to save me. Find a way to contact him and tell him my location."

Qian Long smiled bitterly upon hearing this, and actually shook his head, "Tian Ming, I can't help you with this."

"I don't know your location either, so I can't tell him."

"Ah!?" Tianming was confused. "You don't know? How could you not know?"

"Didn't you find me?"

Qian Long shook his head again, "I contacted you, but I didn't find you." "I have been looking for your location since you were imprisoned by the Yin-Yang Family, but I couldn't find you after searching all the areas I could. I can only see you now because I am forcing the Illusion Sound Box to resonate with you."

"Uh..." Tianming was dumbfounded. After a moment of silence, he asked, "Can't you rely on this resonance to confirm my location?"

Qian Long looked at Tian Ming with an apologetic look and replied, "I'm sorry, there's really nothing I can do... I'll try my best later, but I'm afraid there's little hope."

"Tsk..." Tianming smacked his lips, helpless about it. "It seems that no one else can help me get out of this situation... Then please tell Shaoyu about my situation when you find him on the boat, so that he won't know anything and act recklessly in a hurry."

"The Yin-Yang family really arranged everything for me... By the way, do they know of your existence? Otherwise, how could they have locked me up in a place where you can't find me?"

"Probably not." Qian Long replied after a pause, "It's probably just a coincidence."

"You are now a leader of the Mohist School. If you are captured, the entire Mohist School will mobilize to find a way to rescue you. The Yin-Yang School hid you deeper probably to guard against them."

"I basically can't set foot in any place on the mirage that is heavily guarded and hard to find. The chance of running into it by chance is very high."

"Well... I'm glad you're not exposed." Tianming didn't care much about these. He scratched his head and smiled and replied, "Don't let me get caught and cause you to be exposed too."

"You, you should think more about yourself now." Qian Long rolled his eyes at him helplessly.

It doesn't matter if she is exposed, nothing will happen anyway. Tianming himself is the one who is in danger now.

Tianming smiled nonchalantly and started chatting with Qianlong.

He is in prison now, and he will just be in a daze if he goes out, so it is better for him to stay with Qianlong for a while.

………………

The next day at noon, at the Mohist stronghold.

As soon as Shao Yu woke up, he ran to find Master Ban and told him the story of Qian Long alone.

"So Gu Xun's daughter has been on the mirage all along!?"

Master Ban was shocked by the news and couldn't wait to ask, "Why is she staying on the Mirage? Is there anyone else with her?"

"This... you'll probably have to wait until Tianming comes back and ask him in person." Shao Yu spread his hands, indicating that he could do nothing to help.

It’s not that he couldn’t completely answer Master Ban’s question, but since it concerned Qianlong’s privacy, it’s better to let Tianming make the decision.

Anyway, all he needed was to use Qianlong to convince Master Ban to agree to let him go to the Mirage. It didn't matter whether he told Master Ban or not about the rest.

Master Ban glanced at him, not caring whether he really didn't know or was pretending not to know, and said in a deep voice, "In that case, you really need to go to the Mirage in person, but don't be in a hurry. The defenses on the ship will probably be the strictest in the next two days."

"You should wait a little longer until Dao Zhi comes back to help you clear the way."

"I asked about the Mirage Project. It's a big job and will take at least a month to complete. There's no need to rush."

"……All right."

Master Ban had said this, Shao Yu had no choice but to be sensible. He nodded to accept his arrangement, turned around and left.

Just after leaving Master Ban, Shao Yu ran into Shi Lan who came to look for him.

"Shao Yu, I plan to go to the city to gather some information."

"Okay, I'll go with you." Shao Yu raised his leg and was about to go with Shi Lan.

Shi Lan did not move, but asked first, "Are you going to the Mirage today?"

Shao Yu shook his head. "Not for now. Master Ban told me to stay out of the spotlight and wait two days before going."

"Well... okay, then I'll go to the city by myself." Upon hearing this, Shi Lan refused Shao Yu's offer to go with her.

Shao Yu asked in confusion, "Why? It's safer for two people to be together!"

Shi Lan explained, "I went into the city to try to gather intelligence through some of the channels I had previously established. I won't do anything dangerous, so it's useless for you to follow me."

"Then... I'll keep an eye on the port, you just do your thing." Shao Yu did not delve into Shi Lan's intelligence channels and flexibly changed his target.

Shi Lan shook her head and rejected the idea. "The probability that the Yin-Yang family would take Tianming off the ship and hide him is almost zero. They probably won't get off the ship either. It's meaningless for you to watch over the port. You might as well stay here."

"Don't you still need to take care of your family's affairs?"

"Uncle Liang and Master Fan are watching over the family affairs. They can't do without me." Shao Yu shrugged and replied, "Now that Tianming is in trouble, I must take care of him first."

"So I'd better go with you. It's a good opportunity to use the channels of our Xiang family to see if we can get some valuable information."

In terms of intelligence channels, the Xiang family definitely has many more than the Shi Lan family, and they have vested interests with many local officials.

It was basically the norm for local forces - including civilian forces and government forces - to collude with rebels in areas outside Guanzhong. Far away from the central court, the effectiveness of imperial laws was bound to weaken, and it was normal for them to cross the line and break the law.

Maybe it was to gain more benefits, or they were forced to do so in order to survive, or for some other reason... In short, there were thousands of reasons, but there were not many reasons for them to swear allegiance to the emperor until death.

Because of the assassination of Ying Zheng and other events, Sanghai's officials had actually been replaced more than once, but among the newly appointed officials, those of local origin basically had long-standing connections with the anti-Qin forces, and those transferred from other places also quickly became corrupt - that's what they had done before.

The world is so big that it is impossible for Ying Zheng to move all the reliable officials of the central court to the local areas. There is no point if there are not enough of them.

Therefore, the Xiang family always has enough insiders in the city. It is unrealistic to expect them to do something practical, but there is still hope of getting some intelligence.

"Then... that's fine." Shi Lan no longer refused after hearing this and nodded in agreement.

………………

After Shao Yu and Shi Lan sneaked into the city with ease, they temporarily parted ways and went their separate ways.

Shi Lan walked around the city several times, and after making sure that no one was following her, she quietly moved towards the general's mansion.

Currently, only one important person, Gu Xun, lives in the general's mansion, and the defense is almost non-existent - given Gu Xun's status, the defense should be strengthened, but he happens to be the type of person who doesn't need it.

Shi Lan easily sneaked into the general's mansion which had little defense, but she didn't know the exact location of her target, Gu Xun, so she could only grope her way forward bit by bit.

After walking around for a long time, I still didn't find anyone, but suddenly a voice sounded in my ears.

"Go forward two hundred steps, turn left and it's the third door on the right."

The sudden voice made Shi Lan's heart beat faster for a moment, but after realizing who the voice was, she calmed down in an instant.

She obediently followed the instructions of the voice and found the independent courtyard where Gu Xun lived.

After thinking for a while, she didn't go through the main door, but instead did a swift somersault and jumped over the wall.

In the courtyard, Gu Xun was brewing tea in front of a tray of tea sets. (End of this chapter)