Bat

As soon as they entered the city, Feng Long immediately retrieved his horse, as if where they were going was far away.

“Shaoqing, you don’t ride very fast, it’s better if you ride with me.”

Feng Long evidently wanted to take Bai Shaoqing to that mysterious place.

So the two of them galloped off at high speed on the same horse, facing the incoming winds.

Feng Long suddenly reigned in the horse and then pointed towards a tall mountain in the distance and said: “That’s it there, at the foot of that mountain.

Once they entered the forest at the foot of the mountain, a loud voice could be heard: “Who dares to enter this place?” 

Ten guards revealed themselves successively from the depths of the forest, and surrounded the two of them, all bright eyed, it was obvious that they were all martial arts masters. It was not known which sect’s forbidden place it was to have such heavy security.

Feng Long leisurely replied: “It’s me.”

“Oh it’s the Alliance Leader.” Everyone bowed, seeing the handsome man beside Feng Long, they couldn’t help to look a few more times over.

“Is everything well here?”

“In response to the Alliance Leader, outside there are seventy-two iron guards, and inside there are three elders, everything is in order.” 

Feng Long nodded gently, and then praised: “You’ve all been working hard, this is the forbidden place of Wulin, you mustn’t be careless. This is my sworn brother, Shaoqing, he is the san-gongzi of the Bai family, he is chivalrous and knowledgeable, as well as honest and considerate.”

Hearing Feng Long praise him so highly, Bai Shaoqing pursed his lips into a smile.

“We are not going into the forbidden land, we’re just headed to Butterfly Spring to take a look around.” As the Alliance Leader of Wulin, naturally no one would stop Feng Long, they all made way for the horse.

Feng Long turned around and smiled and then advanced forward with Bai Shaoqing.

The mountain forest was vast, twisting and turning for a long while, when suddenly a small narrow and winding road appeared in front of them. Feng Long led Shaoqing slowly up the steps, after about thirty steps, there was another fork in the road. Heading up this fork in the road for a long while, they seemed to have arrived at another smaller forest.

Feng Long turned around: “Are you tired? We are nearly there.” He paused and then suddenly smiled: “Or…… da-ge could carry you.”

Bai Shaoqing couldn’t help laughing: “I’m not tired.” But his body had unconsciously leaned over to him.

His body suddenly felt light, he’d already been picked up by Feng Long.

After walking a few more steps, Feng Long stopped.

“We’re here.” 

So it was really close.

Bai Shaoqing was placed back on the ground and he looked up. So it turned out that in the middle of the little forest there was an empty space of no more than three zhang1, where upon the grass there were purple, white, yellow and red flowers.

“Da-ge did all that so that I could see these little flowers?”

“Have you seen in the grass there is the mouth of the Spring?”

Bai Shaoqing took another look. In the middle of the grassland there was indeed the mouth of the Spring. It was very small and not much water, but water was babbling out and irrigating the grass around it.

“Since it’s called Butterfly Spring, there must be some connection with butterflies right?”

Feng Long nodded: “In the evening, this place becomes a butterfly kingdom.” At that time, it was still daylight, but as he spoke, there was movement upon the sky.

An indistinct fluttering noise was heard from within the forest.

Bai Shaoqing’s eyebrows twitched: “It must be the butterflies coming.”

Not long after, the sudden sound of the wind could be heard.

An ordinary mottled butterfly seemed to come out from nowhere and fly over, hovering around the mouth of the Spring. After a while, there was another white butterfly that arrived.

Bai Shaoqing suddenly exclaimed with shock: “Indian Violet!” He stretched out his finger, pointing towards a butterfly that had just flown out of the forest.

The butterfly was as big as the palm of his hand, from afar it resembled a violet in full bloom, it was a very rare species of butterfly.

Amidst his joyful surprise, the sound of the wind got louder, a rumbling and fluttering came before their eyes. Their eyes became blurry, when tens of thousands of butterflies suddenly flew out from the forest at the same time, all heading towards the mouth of the Spring.

What extreme magnifence, the most awe-inspiring sight.

Bai Shaoqing’s eyes were bright and full of expression, watching the sky fill up with dancing butterflies. Feng Long stood by his side silently and smiled slightly.

After a while, it was as if they had decided in advance, all the butterflies suddenly dispersed just like that, and flew off into all different directions. In a cup of tea’s time2, all had left, with not one remaining.

“So beautiful…….” After a long while, Bai Shaoqing finally uttered out. He turned to look at Feng Long and then lightly spit out two words: “Thank you.”

Feng Long nervously grabbed his hand and then very quickly let go.

“It was just watching butterflies, why do you need to thank me?”

“It seems that this is a forbidden place in Wulin, da-ge must have braved some risk to bring me here to see the butterflies.”

“What trouble could there be, I am the Wulin Alliance Leader and I’m just bringing my xiongdi in here.” Feng Long laughed and said: “Shaoqing, you don’t need to overthink things.”

“Causing idle gossip wouldn’t be good.”

The two of them walked closer to the mouth of the spring to take a closer look. Bai Shaoqing sighed and said: “Such a miraculous place, but I only found out now.”

“This place has been forbidden in Wulin for the last hundred years, aside from the necessary people, how could anyone know about this place? Feng Long said quietly: “But this place is not forbidden because of Butterfly Spring.”

Bai Shaoqing nodded gently, but didn’t ask any questions.

Feng Long said: “In this mountain, there are some hidden treasures of Wulin hidden here. Apparently, aside from precious treasures, there are also two pills that are able to increase one’s martial arts abilities to the next level. The people of Wulin haven’t stopped searching for these things. Eighty years ago, the entrance of the treasure was discovered.”

“Where is it?”

“It’s in the middle of this mountain.”

Bai Shaoqing selected a clean space on the grass to sit: “Isn’t that a good thing?”

Feng Long forced a smile and then shook his head: “The entrance was discovered, inciting a bloody battle. For the safety of Wulin, the Alliance Leader at that time employed three martial arts grandmasters to guard this place. And from then on, this place became forbidden.”

“There are so many things that have happened in Wulin.”

“But no one could enter to get the treasure.”

“Why?”

Feng Long said: “Because the design of this hidden treasure is too ingenious.”

“So ingenious that one can know the entrance but is unable to go inside?”

“It’s very easy to get inside, you just have to move a brass ring and open the door.”

Bai Shaoqing blinked and then suddenly smiled slightly: “The thing making da-ge sigh is perhaps the brass ring which appears to be too simple right?”

“That’s right.” Feng Long nodded: “In fact there is only one contraption at the entrance, but there are thirty brass rings that are exactly the same. The person who designed the contraption was a heartless great master of Wulin who was very well known at that time. With his contraptions, if you choose the wrong one, the underground palace will sink, never to be entered by anyone.”

“That’s really heartless. So that’s why the people of Wulin have known that there is a great treasure in front of them hidden in plain sight but have been unable to retrieve it.” Bai Shaoqing smiled slightly, and became even more endearing in this moment: “Is it really impossible to try one’s luck?”

“There is no luck to be had, each brass ring has a different marking upon it, so each one of them could be the right one.” Feng Long forced out a smile: “In order to avoid reckless people randomly missing with the contraptions, we’ve had to heavily guard the entrance.”

The sky had already gradually become darker, Bai Shaoqing looked as if he was cold and began to lean closer towards Feng Long.

“Cold?” Feng Long put a hand on Bai Shaoqing’s shoulder, secretly transferring some energy, to help his body expel the cold, as he continued to speak: “Actually, it’s not completely hopeless, before this heartless master died, he left behind a blueprint, and in it detailed the method on how to deactivate the contraption, as long as there is this manual, opening up the treasure is as easy as a hand’s turn.

“I guess many people are trying to find the whereabouts of this book.”

“A lot of evil deeds have been done, just to gain this book.” Feng Long sighed.

“In the end, did someone manage to get it then?”

Cang Ping of the West Mountains Sect, but by the time we found him, his corpse was already rotting.”

“What about the manual?”

Feng Long shook his head and said: “Even if someone got ahold of the manual it would be useless. It is heavily guarded, who could get in here without making a sound and open the treasure?”

Bai Shaoqing agreed with him on this.

Especially, regarding the three white bearded old men who were placed at the entrance of the treasure, their martial arts were unparalleled, if Bai Shaoqing had got close to them, his whereabouts would have immediately been revealed.

Fortunately on that day he had made the prompt decision to make his exit.

Just now when Feng Long had taken him on the horse into the forest just before, he thought that he had been exposed, and was dragged here to be identified by the three old masters.

Bai Shaoqing suddenly sighed.

“Da-ge, are you really giving me the Bilu Sword?”

“Of course.”

Under his bright gaze, Bai Shaoqing immediately felt his heart beat faster. Bai Shaoqing lightly glanced over at him as if he had decided on something, he nodded and muttered quietly: “Ok…….”

“Feeling better?”

“En?”

“Aren’t you cold?”

It was the middle of summer, so how could he be cold? Bai Shaoqing could surreptitiously detect the warmth that Feng Long was transferring over to him, which was at length and undulating, magnanimously thoughtful without even a hint of concealment.

Thinking about deceiving Feng Long in every respect, he was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable,

The two of them left the forest in the middle of the night and looked for a nearby bank by the lake to spend the night.

When the morning arrived, there was only Feng Long left, Bai Shaoqing’s cloth bag and the Bili Sword, along with Bai Shaoqing were no longer there.

Feng Long wasn’t surprised either. His gaze glanced around and landed on a letter on the grass beside him.

He opened it to see Bai Shaoqing’s neat handwriting. I have inconvenienced da-ge for a long time and it is time for me to go on my way to study alone. The contraption manual that you mentioned yesterday, Shaoqing once had a chance to catch a glimpse of it. I am not a member of Wulin and never knew what it was. Hearing da-ge mentioning it, I realised it’s importance. I have drawn from memory what I have seen of it, I don’t know if it is of any use so please forgive me da-ge.

At the bottom densely packed, he had actually written out the set up of the contraption, he’d also drawn out the order of the thirty brass rings, as well as what would happen once each brass ring had been turned.

Feng Long looked at it with much focus for a long time, committing it to memory, and then suddenly laughed lightly. He always had an imposing manner about him, but as he laughed, it revealed a very cold-hearted side of his soul.

Originally he wanted to waste a bit more time, but he surrendered so easily. 　　

“This little bat………” he said very quietly, his tone had a very slight unconscious intimacy about it.

After Bai Shaoqing left the note and left, he was feeling very confused on the road.

To write out the contraption manual from memory was not particularly rational, if Feng Long decided to investigate in detail the chain of events in the future, he would have to waste some effort in finding a way out. The one month deadline was already here, he had to deliver the Bilu Sword to Zhengyi Sect, just thinking about this made him feel incredibly guilty.

He had betrayed many people in his life but he had never betrayed his mother. He would have never thought that today there would be another person that he couldn’t bear to betray – Feng Long.

At that time, he was elated when he finally got hold of the contraption manual, especially when thinking about those pills that could increase his martial arts, he couldn’t even wait another night and pounced over to the hidden treasure.

Although he had the contraption manual in hand, he could not get past the old grand masters, and almost lost his life in the forest, at that time, he had truly despised the Wulin Alliance Leader’s orders.

Since the manual was essentially useless in his hands, why not have Feng Long owe him a favour, it could also be compensation for the Bilu Sword.

These thoughts circled around in his mind as Bai Shaoqing shook his head violently trying to forget the sight of the Milky Way under the moonlight and the unparalleled sight of the dancing butterflies before the Spring.

It was exchanging one thing for another, that was it. The Bilu Sword for the hidden treasure.