Even if the city had oil shops, wineries, and charcoal stores, and all its buildings were made of wood, burning down an entire city with just a few people was still a massive undertaking. They had to find the best kindling materials they could.

Once everyone else had left, Hee Lingchuan doubled back, returning to the Zhong Residence and lightly leaping into an empty room.

The room wasn’t small. It contained two beds, one large and one small, along with two stools and a dressing table.

Just a moment ago, after National Preceptor Sun had released the Command Arrow, Hee Lingchuan had taken advantage of the time he spent gathering his companions to circle through this Official Residence and look around.

Hee Lingchuan hadn’t found any useful clues at the time, but after the group’s recent discussion, he suddenly felt the urge to come back for another look.

Each Official Residence was modest in size and simple in function—just a place to eat, live, and sleep. This room, then, must have been the bedroom of Zhong Shengguang and his wife.

On the large bed, the bedding was clean and the quilt was folded neatly. On the wall above the headboard hung a Treasure Saber with a hilt shaped like a Flood Dragon’s Mouth Swallowing Ring.

Hanging a Fierce Weapon above the bed he shared with his wife was something only a hardened military man would do. And the small bed next to it—

—must have belonged to their daughter, Zhong Wuhuan.

The small bed was only three feet long, too short for even a curled-up adult. At its head were a small wooden horse and a little wooden soldier brandishing a wooden sword. Across from them sat a rather ferocious-looking cloth tiger.

’No, it’s a cloth leopard,’ he thought. It was made in the image of a Sand Leopard, complete with its round spots.

The three of them placed there together told a story.

He picked it up and saw a few small words embroidered on the leopard’s belly:

My child, Wuhuan.

Tucked away at the foot of the bed was a small cloth doll.

Hee Lingchuan walked over to the large bed. On the neatly arranged dressing table sat a set of cosmetics and a Copper Mirror.

He picked them up one by one to inspect them and discovered a comb tucked into the back of the Copper Mirror. It was actually a set.

’What’s this?’ His eyes lit up. He picked up the comb, held it to the light, and muttered, "So this is where it was."

It was a simple wooden comb, plain in form and function, with only a small, light-blue flower painted on its head.

The pigment came from the fine powder of a ground-up seashell, capable of producing a sky-like blue.

Based on this floral decoration alone, Hee Lingchuan could confirm that this was the very memento the Sand Leopard had snatched from its master when Panlong City fell all those years ago!

This was the very thing that had started the feud between the Hee Family and the Grand Commandant Mansion.

Except, right now, the comb hadn’t yet been half-burnt.

"Zhong Shengguang’s wife passed away shortly after giving birth to their daughter. He must have kept this comb as a memento." Hee Lingchuan glanced at the small bed and muttered to himself, "’Wait, no. At this point in time, Zhong Wuhuan hasn’t been born yet. Zhong Shengguang didn’t know if his wife would have a boy or a girl, but he had already prepared a crib.’"

Otherwise, Commander Zhong wouldn’t have placed boys’ toys by the child’s bed—and they even looked like he had carved them himself.

’This must have been the happiest time of his life.’ His career was promising, and his beloved wife was about to give birth.

He casually pulled open a hidden compartment in the dressing table. Inside were a few pieces of jewelry, all of very ordinary quality, but Hee Lingchuan’s gaze froze as it swept over one particular item. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

It was a necklace with a crescent-shaped pendant.

It looked incredibly familiar. Hee Lingchuan subconsciously pulled out the necklace from around his own neck.

’They’re the same thing!’ he realized. It was just that one was in the Illusion Realm and the other was in reality, so even its appearance had changed.

In other words, before his daughter was born, Zhong Shengguang was the owner of this Divine Bone Necklace.

As if having come to a realization, Hee Lingchuan carefully returned the comb to its original place and left the room.

He had just stepped out of the Official Residence when he saw someone standing outside.

Fuzzy Peach.

Hee Lingchuan jumped, unable to stop himself from cursing, "You didn’t even make a sound! Are you trying to scare a ghost?"

"Eldest Young Master, let me come with you. I’ll do all the work," Fuzzy Peach said with a placating smile. "It feels like someone is always watching me in secret, waiting for me to be alone to make a move."

"Even if there is, it’s not a person," Hee Lingchuan said, not refusing him. He had also felt that prickling sensation on his back, and it was indeed safer for the two of them to travel together. Fuzzy Peach pointed and said, "I remember there’s a big restaurant over there."

Hee Lingchuan glanced back at the Zhong Residence. "This is too close. We’ll leave it for the armaments on the city walls. Let’s go further away."

Both of them knew some martial arts, so they drew upon their energy and broke into a run.

Half an hour later, the road narrowed, and the buildings along it grew sparser. Larger-footprint establishments like commercial warehouses, post stations, and even grain-sunning grounds began to appear.

This area was far from any city gate. Even if the armaments on the city walls could reach this far, a single shot wouldn’t be able to start a widespread fire.

This part would require manpower.

The two climbed into a workshop, found a flatbed cart for unloading goods, and loaded it with a dozen or so barrels of tung oil. They also broke off two suitable pieces of wood to use as torches before pulling the cart of oil out the door.

They burned their way along, splashing oil on wood, quilts, thatched roofs, and anything else that was flammable.

After doing this for several miles, they looked back to see flames soaring into the sky.

Fuzzy Peach pointed west. "There’s black smoke rising over there. Looks like the National Preceptor is working hard too."

Hee Lingchuan glanced over once before getting back to work. "Looks like that’s not the key area either."

Fuzzy Peach asked in surprise, "Key area? What key area?"

"We decided to burn the whole city only because we couldn’t find the key to breaking the illusion, so we have to rely on this brute-force method. Otherwise, a single Fire Crossbow bolt would have been enough." Hee Lingchuan’s mind was very clear. "To put it another way, burning other places is useless. Only by burning the key area can this Illusion Realm be broken."

Fuzzy Peach shook out his hands and sighed. "How much longer will this take?" He was tired, because Hee Lingchuan had made him act as the donkey pulling the cart.

Even a real donkey would be exhausted to death after pulling a cart full of oil barrels for ten li.

The thought of burning down an entire city made him numb all over.

"You should be happy," Hee Lingchuan said grimly. "The key point for breaking the illusion isn’t in our assigned area. That’s a blessing you earned in your past life. Think about what happened to Tao Bo. Can you bear the consequences of the Illusion Realm shattering?"

Tao Bo’s final fate wasn’t much better than his teammates’—not even his bones remained. Fuzzy Peach shivered. "Then we should rendezvous with the National Preceptor as soon as possible."

Hee Lingchuan gave a dry laugh. "Thanks to you, it won’t be finished that quickly."

Because Fuzzy Peach had snuck off to find him, the entire northern part of Panlong City hadn’t been burned yet. "Now you can tell me. What did you really come to find me for?"

Fuzzy Peach froze. "I... I was just scared."

Hee Lingchuan couldn’t be bothered to argue with him. "Get back to the north."

"Don’t! I’ll talk! I just hadn’t made up my mind." Fuzzy Peach wiped the sweat from his brow with a towel. "Earlier, when the National Preceptor was looking at Tao Bo’s Handwriting, he didn’t know that... well, before I followed Boss Situ, I lived in Copper City in the Baling Kingdom for twelve years. I even went to school, until my stepfather was killed over his business..."

"Stop. Get to the point!"

"...The Baling Language. I can understand a little of it."

Hee Lingchuan stopped in his tracks. "What did the National Preceptor hide?"

’I knew it,’ he thought. ’That old man was holding something back!’