Cao Weining stared at them with wide eyes for a long moment, before he pointed to Zhang Chengling and said, “Ah...you are, that little fellow Zhang Chengling. Why have you painted your face like a theatre actor[29]? Where is your shifu and his company?”

Reliably, Zhang Chengling was about to retell his account of what happened, but Gu Xiang interrupted them hastily, “Don’t waste time talking about the old days now. Hurry and get that maiden Gao out, then we’ll talk.”

She fished out a sheet of paper from the front of her robes. On it, lines and a few talismanic scribbles, missing strokes here and there and understood by no one, were crookedly drawn. Gu Xiang said, “I have sketched out the rooms in this inn. There’s a place circled here, it’s where Gao Xiaolian is locked up--hells, at first, I thought that they were taking turns with her surveillance, but who knew that these women are so wary that they don’t even trust their own people? Only a few close confidantes of that old woman are allowed to go near Gao Xiaolian.”

Cao Weining came close, tapping his chin as he asked, “What should we do?”

Eager to test out his plan, as though he had grown addicted to taking risks, Zhang Chengling volunteered a terrible idea, “Why don’t we go and cause some disturbance, I’ll distract them and lead them away while you two go and rescue her. Then we’ll meet up afterwards.”

Cao Weining said, “Good idea!”

Gu Xiang said coolly, “If one out of the three of us is as skilled as your shifu or my master, we don’t have to think of a plan. We can charge in to fight them and grab her right away--kid, you’ve only spent a few days learning qinggong, and you want to ‘lure someone out’?”

Cao Weining immediately changed his mind and supported the opposition. “Yes, what A-Xiang says is sensible.”

Zhang Chengling looked at him silently, and felt that even if Gu Xiang had said, “Cao Weining is a scoundrel and a bastard”, he would also nod his head, bow, and reply without any consideration for his principles, “What A-Xiang says is sensible.”

Gu Xiang analysed strategically, “Those old women are not ordinary people. That one leading them, people call her ‘Black Poison Hag’. Rumour has it that she came from Nanjiang, and practices gu poison, constructs miasmas and the like…”

Upon hearing the word “Nanjiang”, Zhang Chengling couldn’t help but interject, “How can that be, the Great Shaman is a good person…”

Gu Xiang rolled her eyes at him. “What about the Great Shaman? He rules over the great Shiwan mountains of Nanjiang. Can he care about even the insignificant worms and grasses that live within them? Also, I already said that it was only a rumour…”