Though suddenly besieged late at night, he was not panicked. As though he was not afraid in the slightest, a pair of wicked palms hurtled in all directions, weaving a tight, all-encompassing formation. To him, they were mere bugs that had overestimated their abilities; before long, they fled, too weak to withstand even one blow. Yet, Sun Ding didn’t give chase, but merely bent down and rucked up the clothes of one corpse. Glimpsing the ghost mask tattooed on the waist, he scoffed coldly.

Approximately less than half a shichen later, a man appeared from behind him and walked over. He frowned, bent to look at the ghost mask on the corpse’s waist, and asked, “What happened?”

Sun Ding kept his hands back in his sleeves, swept a cool gaze over him, and said, “Lao Meng, you’re late.”

--This Lao Meng was none other than the assistant Gu Xiang had gotten to dig that day, when Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing had been deep in the enemy’s lair. As usual, he was wearing common coarse clothes of cotton and linen. When he walked fast, one could tell that the left leg of this man was slightly lame, though it was not obvious and could only be identified upon very close observation. His features were plain; if he did not have a serious expression on, he even looked a little kind. His front was covered by a large apron usually seen on pig slaughterers--just as Wen Kexing had ordered, he had really changed into a butcher’s outfit.

Lao Meng plucked the mask from that corpse’s face, squatted on the ground to turn his thoughts over in his mind for a moment, then sighed and stood. Shaking his head, he said, “It’s Xue Fang’s lackey.”

Raising his head, he saw Sun Ding staring at his large apron in interest, and explained, “I changed into this as per the Valley Master’s command. Does Sun-xiong have any opinion about this?”

Sun Ding scoffed coldly, and said, “The Valley Master? Is that unweaned brat who won’t be siring any descendants worth your scurrying back and forth to ingratiate yourself with him like a lapdog[10]?”

Lao Meng’s expression did not change, and merely said after he listened to him speak, “You can say that in his presence.”

As though he had recalled something, the corner of Sun Ding’s eye twitched, and he humphed coldly. Wisening up, he dropped this topic of conversation, pointing to the corpse on the ground as he said, “Since it is so, Lao Meng, why don’t you report this to the Valley Master? Let him know how brazen that Xue Fang is: apart from breaking the rule by exiting the Valley without permission, he currently even wants to kill me out of humiliated anger.”

Lao Meng frowned, and said, “I have not been able to contact the Valley Master of late…”