With a gentle dip of my hand into the inkstone, I realized the ink had been freshly ground; the people in this room must be nearby.

Yet, this room was only so large, and we couldn't spot a single soul.

After searching around, Da Xiong suddenly exclaimed, "Hey, hey, come look, there’s a small door here."

By the time the two of us walked over, Da Xiong had already opened that small wooden door.

The space beyond this little door was very cramped, about the size of a standard lavatory. It was empty, save for a wooden ladder in the deepest corner, leading to the floor above.

We looked up from the small room and, sure enough, saw a faint candlelight.

Nie Chuan made a shushing gesture and whispered, "Let’s be quiet, lest we disturb whoever is upstairs."

We both nodded in agreement, and I took the lead in climbing up.

Since there was light above, we turned off our flashlights and quietly navigated the dark ascent.

When my head slowly emerged onto the floor of the third level, I saw that the space up there was extremely small—less than twenty square meters—yet it was packed with all sorts of tiny vials.

These vials were all ceramic, about ten centimeters tall, resembling small vases, though distinctly smaller than actual flower vases.

Apart from the floor covered in these bottles, there was only a beautifully crafted wooden table in the very center of the room. There were no chairs next to it, but in the dead center of the table sat an oil lamp.

The oil lamp appeared to be made of bronze, its design exquisitely ancient: a large-headed figurine with a smiling face bore a large bowl on its back; filling the bowl with oil and a wick transformed it into a lamp.

Glancing around, I failed to see any person, which struck me as very strange.

At that moment, Da Xiong, still below, urged me, "X! What do you see? Are you dumbstruck?"

It was then I snapped back to reality, realizing I had seen nothing yet and that they would understand once they came up.

Once the three of us had climbed to the third floor, they too became intensely interested in the bottles scattered on the ground.

However, when we picked up the vials to examine them, we found every single one empty, with only a few containing clear water or soil.

We were all very puzzled, wondering if one of these bottles had transformed into a yaoguai and was lighting lamps here at night.

Before we could ponder this further, we suddenly heard the melodious sound of a flute drifting in from the window that had been opened ahead of us.

We froze for a moment, then simultaneously moved to the window and looked out together.

There, sitting on the rooftop just outside the window, was a figure.

The person wasn't very tall, slender in build, and wore a dark blue hooded sweatshirt, the hood pulled up over their head, obscuring their face.

However, a starkly black long saber placed beside them immediately drew my attention.

I looked at the blade and blurted out, "It’s you... why are you here?"

The person, who had been playing the flute, didn't turn around upon hearing my question but spoke with a slight hint of confusion, "Have we met?"

Without waiting for my reply, he continued, "Oh, right, you have seen me. My memory has been a bit poor lately."

Hearing this, I became flustered. When I met him in the underground ruins of Durban Island, I was still in Nie Chuan’s form, but now I was in X’s body. Was he referring to having met X, or Nie Chuan?

After saying that, he turned his profile toward me and commented, "You look quite good now."

I managed an awkward smile, looking at his side profile, and asked, "What are you doing here? Is Boss Wu nearby as well?"

The man paused for a moment, but instead of answering my question, he said, "The person you were looking for was just here; he has left now. I called for you, but you were too slow."

Before I could speak, he added, "Luckily, Xingjie told me what you were looking for, so I retrieved this thing for you in advance."

With that, he turned his back to us and threw a vial back over his shoulder.

Startled, I quickly reached out and caught it. It was still a porcelain vial, but the wooden stopper was in place, and it seemed to contain something.

Having handed the item over, the man stood up and said, "Alright, I'm leaving now. Be careful, and don't wander around the attic aimlessly. Now that you have what you need, you should go back and rescue the person."

As he stood, I noticed that the outer side of his right leg was injured; his trousers were torn open, and a bloody wound was faintly visible beneath.

"You’re hurt. Are you alright?" I asked with concern.

The man didn't speak, only keeping his back to us and saying, "Give the item back to me."

I was momentarily stunned, thinking perhaps I had said something wrong and he wanted the vial back. But since he had procured it and didn't wish to give it to us, I naturally prepared to return it.

With a sense of confusion, I handed the vial over.

At this point, the man turned around, revealing his clean-cut, handsome profile, and said, "Not the vial. Give me the saber back."

"The saber? What saber?" I asked, completely bewildered.

The man was already walking toward us, and with incredible speed, he snatched Muramasa from Da Xiong’s hand and slung it onto his own back.

"Hey! That's my saber!" Da Xiong shouted urgently, moving to retrieve the blade from the man’s back.

But the man replied, "You? You are not worthy. Keeping that saber for you would only bring harm."

Saying this, he dashed forward and leaped off the edge of the three-sided roof.

Knowing the river was below, I wondered if he wasn't afraid of getting his clothes wet.

Yet, several seconds after the man jumped, none of us heard the sound of him hitting the water.

Da Xiong curiously climbed onto the roof to look down and said with a puzzled expression, "He’s gone."

At that moment, I paid no mind to Da Xiong’s words, as a question burned in my mind: "Could that man have killed a thousand people?"

Since the man had vanished, we couldn't possibly jump down after him. The three of us returned to the room to open the vial and examine its contents.

We discovered that the vial held a black seed, no larger than a soybean.

"Is this the seed of the Half-Withered Grass?" I asked Nie Chuan doubtfully.

Nie Chuan nodded, saying, "It should be. I don't know where that young man snatched it from, but we must thank him, because without him, we surely would have faced a fierce battle to obtain this seed."

"But how do we plant this? If we just scatter it on the ground, what if it doesn't sprout?" I asked a critical question.

Da Xiong shook his head and said, "Plant it? Just eat it directly."

I shook my head, countering, "No, what if the dosage isn't right? Moreover, the medicinal properties of the seed differ from the other parts of the plant. How do you know which part Liang Qian is suitable for?"

Da Xiong’s head spun from the complexity of the argument. He shook his head and said, "Well, your opinion doesn't count; we have our professional botanist here."

Knowing he meant Nie Chuan, I turned my gaze toward him.

Nie Chuan frowned in thought and said, "Eating the seed is definitely out. The drawing Jie Yuting gave me showed the entire plant; the possibility of using the stem or flower in medicine is much higher."

Da Xiong chuckled at this point and quipped, "Stop joking. Flowers? How long will you have to wait for it to bloom? By then, Liang Qian will have gone from Sleeping Beauty to Dead Beauty."

Hearing Da Xiong speak like that, Nie Chuan’s face darkened, and he cursed, "Watch your mouth, fatso. Be careful I don’t beat you skinny."

Knowing their bickering would never end once it started, I quickly interrupted them, saying, "It's not too late to study this when we get back. We need to leave here quickly now."

"You actually believed that guy? We don't even know who he is. I feel he's very suspicious; maybe he's a yaoguai too, and the thing he gave us..." Da Xiong speculated.

I hastily cut him off, "Don't say any more. I’ve met him once before; he saved our lives that time. A yaoguai is impossible. While I can't guarantee he's a hundred percent good, he has no reason to travel a thousand miles to mess with us here."

"Then tell me, what was he fighting just now? And he was injured! Look, there isn't even any trace of a fight here, and not a single bottle on the floor is broken," Da Xiong pressed on.