Chapter 1139: Vexing Character Riddles
Chen Tianlong knew this was Lin Wushuang’s little surprise for him. He looked up with a faint smile and started helping Lin Wushuang study the coded message.
"Three people under a cross, fifteen days, a man is nothing without trust. Why does this feel like those character riddles I used to solve as a kid?" Chen Tianlong seemed to have noticed something, frowned, and spoke.
"Oh? A character riddle?"
Hearing Chen Tianlong say that, Lin Wushuang felt it did seem a bit like one, so she said, "Chen Tianlong, you’re really smart, it might actually be a riddle."
"Heh heh, of course I’m smart."
Chen Tianlong said smugly, though his eyes never left the slip of paper in Lin Wushuang’s hand. "Wushuang, I think the first line stands for a character. Think about it: a cross with three ’person’ radicals underneath, what character could that be?"
"Ben? No. Mu? No..."
Lin Wushuang kept searching her mind for a matching character.
"Haha, I got it, the character ’lai’ (to come)."
As he spoke, Chen Tianlong traced on the paper with his finger. The ancient form of "来" really did look pretty much like three ’person’ characters standing under a cross.
"Wow, it really does kinda look like it!"
Lin Wushuang beamed as she looked at it, because it really was just like what Chen Tianlong said, so the two of them locked this line in as the character "来" (come).
With that experience just now, they naturally approached the next line the same way.
This time Lin Wushuang spoke first. "The character ’pang’ (fat). Fifteen days, fifteen days, that’s half a month. ’Ban’ (half) and ’yue’ (month) together, when you think about it, the only real character it makes is ’pang’ (fat). Chen Tianlong, what do you think?"
"Hehe, seems right. Wushuang, you’re really smart."
Chen Tianlong couldn’t help praising her.
"No way, you’re the smart one. If you hadn’t guessed it was a character riddle first, I’d have had no idea where to start." Lin Wushuang said a bit modestly.
To be fair, that was true. Chen Tianlong had opened with a good lead, and the rest became much easier to tackle.
"Mm, alright, let’s look at the next line, finish it quickly, then see what it means." Chen Tianlong said.
"A man is nothing without trust."
Lin Wushuang read it once, then propped her chin on her right hand and began to think.
"The character ’yan’ (speech)."
Without thinking too much, Chen Tianlong just blurted it out.
"Huh? Chen Tianlong, why are you so sure?"
Lin Wushuang was shocked by how fast his brain worked. He saw through it that quickly?
"Heh, look, if you take ’xin’ (trust) and remove the ’person’ radical, what’s left is ’yan’ (speech). That ’nothing’ and ’cannot stand’ at the end is probably just there to throw you off. This line clearly comes from the old saying ’A man without trust cannot stand in the world.’ The whole point is to make you think it’s just a proverb and lead your thoughts elsewhere."
Chen Tianlong explained according to his own understanding.
He really had guessed right, and the meaning of the whole sentence suddenly became much clearer. They’d already solved all three characters; now the next task was to put them together and see.
"Lai pang yan?"
Chen Tianlong read the three characters out loud once they were combined.
"Yeah, but what does ’lai pang yan’ even mean?" Lin Wushuang was confused too. Could it be some kind of password? Those two envoys even layered a hidden code on top of a hidden code? That was way too much.
Looking at the first and last characters, Chen Tianlong didn’t feel anything, but when his gaze landed on the middle character "pang" again, a certain figure suddenly appeared in his mind.
Right, that’s it!
That person was the Fat Envoy. The image that popped into Chen Tianlong’s head was exactly his. They’d been together these past few days, so Fatty had left a deep impression on him.
"Wushuang, do you think the character ’pang’ might be referring to the Fat Envoy?" Chen Tianlong wasn’t too sure, so he wanted to hear Lin Wushuang’s opinion.
"Oh? The Fat Envoy?"
At that moment Lin Wushuang seemed to think of something too. "If it’s like you said, Chen Tianlong, then this sentence is easy to understand: come find Fatty and talk!"
"’Lai pang yan’ would mean come find the Fatty and ask him. That kinda makes sense, but they’re already gone. If they’re never around, where are we supposed to find them?"
Now Chen Tianlong was a bit depressed. Those two damn envoys, gone right when it mattered most.
"Chen Tianlong, don’t worry too much. When the boat gets to the bridge, it’ll straighten itself out. There’ll be a way." Seeing that he was a little down, Lin Wushuang comforted him.
"Fine, then let’s just wait for now. When we see the envoys we’ll ask them if this is the right answer." Chen Tianlong said helplessly.
"Mm-hmm."
Lin Wushuang nodded.
It was already noon, but no one had come back yet. It looked like everyone was out searching for the gate of the Celestial Pill Sect based on the clues in the brocade sachet. After all, this was the final trial—if they found it, they could directly enter the Celestial Pill Sect. That was something to get really excited about.
So only the two of them were left, and their stomachs were growling by now.
"Waiter, stir-fry a few small dishes for me, get a bottle of beer, and bring a bowl of rice so I can fill my stomach first." Chen Tianlong said cheerfully.
"Alright, I’ll get that ready right away."
The waiter replied respectfully.
They’d been staying here for a few days now, and the owner knew them, so everything felt quite familiar and comfortable. Chen Tianlong and Lin Wushuang poured themselves some tea and drank while they waited for the food.
Before long, the entrance suddenly became noisy. Chen Tianlong instinctively turned his head to look and got a fright, because three familiar figures were standing at the front door: Xu Fei, Hao Kan, and Xue Kong.
"Elder Xue, that brat Chen Tianlong is the one who ruined our plan."
Hao Kan pointed at Chen Tianlong, who was not far away, sipping his tea.
At this point Lin Wushuang also turned around. Seeing that Hao Kan had brought a bunch of people with him, she immediately knew things were not looking good.
"Chen Tianlong, isn’t that Xu Fei and the others? What are they trying to do?"
Lin Wushuang asked softly.
"Yeah, it won’t be so simple this time. Xu Fei and Hao Kan aren’t what they used to be."
From Xu Fei’s fight on the mountaintop last night, Chen Tianlong had more or less figured out that these two were no longer at their old level. Otherwise they wouldn’t dare blatantly provoke him—unless they were tired of living.
Watching Chen Tianlong leisurely drinking his tea, a sinister thought flashed across Xu Fei’s face. "Chen Tianlong, oh Chen Tianlong, this Celestial Pill Sect trial is your burial ground."
After resting the whole night last night, a surge of Powerful Qi in Xu Fei’s body began to churn again; he was clearly on the verge of a breakthrough. Wu Ji’s Demon Skill was really vicious—it could actually use all kinds of Poisonous Qi, Evil Qi, and so on in the Mortal Realm to level up. It was insane.
Although his body felt extremely uncomfortable, there’s gain with loss—Xu Fei thought that was normal. His Heart-Burning Divine Skill had already been cultivated to the third layer, and his body had undergone a massive transformation. Even though it was Demonization, it was still becoming stronger, and that was something Xu Fei was quite happy about.
At this moment Xu Fei’s confidence was overflowing, and he was itching to find someone to test himself on.
"Chen Tianlong, we really are bound enemies, huh? If you hadn’t ambushed me last night, I would’ve taken you out already. Now heaven’s got eyes and let me run into you again. This time you’re dead for sure." Xu Fei said arrogantly.
"Oh? You’re that confident?"
Chen Tianlong didn’t panic; instead, he kept a wary eye on Hao Kan and Xue Kong’s movements around them.