Chapter 13 Lay Low

Coral saw him out of the Watercloud Pavilion, and when she returned, she noticed her master sitting there, spinning a teacup in her hand, lost deep in thought. "Master, Junior Brother Booth has already left. If there's nothing else, I'll take Zara back to our rooms," Coral said softly, her voice snapping Elder Crane out of her thoughts. Elder Crane set the teacup down and looked at Zara. "Zara, tell me everything about your encounter with Felix again—don't leave out a single detail," she instructed. Zara frowned slightly. She really didn't want to think about that scoundrel any more than she had to. But seeing how serious her master looked, she repeated the story, keeping it brief. It was almost identical to what she had told Booth, except she left out the part about Felix spying on her bath. When Zara finished, Elder Crane slowly asked, "Coral, what do you make of all this?" Coral thought for a moment before replying, "It seems like someone targeted Felix to cover up the theft of the spiritual herbs and mushrooms he was guarding. This feels like a murder to silence him." Elder Crane shook her head slightly. "Killing Dragon's disciple over a few spiritual herbs and mushrooms? That doesn't make sense. Dragon may have been unreliable and careless, but his status in Void Sect was no small thing. He served as the head elder in the Discipline Hall, Training Hall, and Salaries Hall for nearly eighty years. Felix is Dragon's only disciple—no one would risk killing him just for some spiritual herbs and mushrooms. And the fact that Felix, as Dragon's sole disciple, was assigned to guard the herb garden in the first place... that's already suspicious." Coral nodded silently. Zara, however, remained expressionless, standing coldly in place as if the entire matter didn't concern her. Elder Crane suddenly asked, "Zara, how exactly did Felix behave inappropriately toward you?" "It was just… some inappropriate remarks…" "Tell the truth." Elder Crane's brow furrowed, her tone turning heavier. Zara lowered her head quietly, clearly conflicted about whether or not to reveal what had really happened that night. Seeing her hesitation, Elder Crane said, "Coral, close the door." Though confused, Coral obeyed and shut the door. As soon as it closed, the soundproofing barrier around the bamboo cabin activated, ensuring that no one outside could hear their conversation. "Zara, tell me what really happened that night." Realizing she couldn't hide the truth anymore, Zara reluctantly explained how she had gone to the cold spring in the back mountain to bathe. That was when she unexpectedly ran into Felix—shirtless, wearing only a pair of shorts—being chased by a tiger. She told them everything that followed. "What? You're saying that scoundrel spied on you while you were bathing?" Coral exploded with rage. "Yes, Senior Sister," Zara said bitterly. "At the time, I believed him when he said the tiger was chasing him, which was why he ended up at the spring. After dawn, he asked me to help him retrieve his clothes from the water, and that's when I realized I'd been tricked. He'd arrived at the spring before me and had been hiding the entire time…" "That little creep! I'll gouge his eyes out myself!" Coral rolled up her sleeves, furious and ready to storm off to settle the score with Felix. "Coral," Elder Crane said calmly. "You can't handle it like that. You also can't confront Felix directly." Coral froze mid-step. "Master, how can we let that little scoundrel off after what he did to Zara?" "I never said we'd let him off," Elder Crane replied evenly. "But you can't be the one to deal with this. I need to go to the Discipline Hall and speak with Tiger myself." "What?" Coral asked, shocked. "Master, if you intervene, this whole matter will blow up! What about Zara's reputation?" Elder Crane glanced at Zara, whose expression had grown darker. "We'll handle this differently. We can't say that Felix spied on Zara while she bathed. We'll say he made inappropriate remarks and behaved disrespectfully toward her. This can't become a big scandal, but we also can't let it slide." Zara didn't quite understand her master's intentions, but Coral seemed to catch on. "Master, are you saying…?" Coral began, but Elder Crane raised her hand to cut her off. "All I want," Elder Crane said, "is to make sure Zara gets justice. Felix needs to stay in the Discipline Hall's stone cell for a while longer and suffer a bit—nothing more." Coral's expression suddenly turned a little awkward. As Elder Crane's eldest disciple, she understood her master's true intent perfectly. What she couldn't figure out was why her master was choosing to handle things this way. ****** The Discipline Hall's Stone Cell This place was shrouded in a mysterious barrier. The cell, rarely opened, felt like a suffocating, enclosed space. The stagnant air made it hard to breathe, and the entire room was filled with a lingering, foul stench—like the smell of corpses that had been rotting for years. Though the odor had faded a bit, it still clung stubbornly to the confined area, impossible to escape. The stone cell wasn't very big—just over four meters long and wide, with a height of around three meters. It felt more like a stone chamber crudely carved out of solid rock from a mountain. There was only one way in or out: the iron door, which was locked tight. Even if someone like Andy from The Shawshank Redemption showed up, he wouldn't be able to tunnel out with a spoon. Of course, Felix had no plans to escape. Without figuring out how the original Felix had died, where else could be safer than the Discipline Hall's stone cell? Probably nowhere. However, there was one thing that kept him on edge—an old madman also lived in the cell. And who knew what that crazy old man might do if he suddenly went berserk? The only relief Felix had was that the madman seemed to know him. When Felix first arrived, the old man had communicated with him briefly using a secret sound transmission technique. But after that initial exchange, the old man had gone completely silent for hours. Felix even tried yelling through the iron door, hoping to figure out which cell the madman was locked in, but he got no response. It almost felt like the earlier conversation had been a hallucination, as if the old man—who also seemed to have lost his memory—had never been real in the first place. With nothing else to do, Felix sat bored in the corner of his cell, analyzing his current situation and trying to come up with a plan for his future. But no matter how much he planned, one inescapable fact loomed over him: Who killed the original Felix? This question was like a ticking time bomb, hidden right beside him. If he didn't figure it out, even escaping the cell wouldn't guarantee his safety—he could still end up dead at any moment, just as mysteriously as before. Right now, Felix had no clue who the killer was. So, he figured the best thing to do was come up with a survival strategy. In one word: lay low. If he had to spell it out, it went something like this: Survive first, figure out the rest later. Keep a low profile, stay alive above all. Felix now understood that, in the Void Sect, the original Felix held a high status, but his reputation was awful. The original Felix had made a lot of enemies by doing bad things. If he managed to make it out of here, he'd have to keep his head down and behave from now on. Even if he eventually recovered the original Felix's memories or found out who killed him, Felix knew he couldn't confront the culprit without solid evidence. He had to keep pretending that he didn't remember anything. Playing the amnesia card might be the only way to keep himself alive. Thinking about all this, Felix eventually dozed off without realizing it. He had no idea how long he slept before a series of heavy footsteps jolted him awake. In the stillness of the stone corridor, the sound of the footsteps echoed like the tolling of a bell, drawing closer and closer. Felix scrambled to his feet, his heart pounding as he grew alert. The footsteps stopped right outside his cell.