Martial Dao: Peace by Force

Chapter 130: Chapter 106: Burst Skill! Jianghu One-Stroke Slash

Wan Ze: "???"

Miss Ling: "???"

They both turned at the same time and saw Xiaoyu standing behind them, though they didn’t know when she’d arrived.

"Is this... your sister?" Miss Ling asked, snapping out of her daze. She was a little surprised.

She’d been staying at the guest house for days but had no idea Wan Ze’s sister was also living here.

Wan Ze nodded, then took a deep breath. "Dad, Mom, this is Miss Ling. She’s a friend of mine."

’Dad? Mom?’

Miss Ling instantly froze solid. She stared stiffly at the middle-aged couple behind Xiaoyu, her mind a complete blank as she subconsciously blurted out, "Dad? Mom?"

"Yes?" Father Wan answered reflexively.

Then he glanced at his son, then at Miss Ling, and his expression grew strange.

’You little rascal!’

Wan Ze’s face darkened. ’Don’t just answer like that, old man,’ he thought.

He turned to Miss Ling, his tone returning to normal. "Let’s go take care of business."

He then turned back to his parents and added, "You two go ahead and eat. I have to go out again in a bit."

Father Wan cleared his throat and swallowed the words he was about to say.

"So, you’re his friend? You should come over sometime. We’re in room 308," Mrs. Wan said, her gaze sweeping past her son to give Miss Ling a gentle smile.

Miss Ling nodded demurely, unaware that the blush that started at her ears had already spread across her cheeks.

She followed Wan Ze out of the dining hall, feeling as if she were floating.

It wasn’t until they were inside her room with the door closed that she finally steadied herself against the dining table and couldn’t help but ask in a low voice, "Your parents... why are they staying here too?"

"Our new place is being renovated," Wan Ze replied offhandedly.

Miss Ling just said, "Oh," but inwardly, she was relieved. ’Good thing I put on a little light makeup this morning.’

"Where’s the painting?"

"Right here. I’ll get it for you."

Miss Ling walked to the wardrobe and carefully retrieved the scroll from a hidden compartment.

She had deliberately placed some gold jewelry in a conspicuous spot. If anyone broke in, they would most likely go straight for the jewelry and never suspect the painting was hidden there as well.

Wan Ze took the scroll and slowly unrolled it on the table.

He began to carefully examine it by touch, his fingertips tracing the texture of the paper inch by inch.

At first, Miss Ling didn’t understand what he was doing. Then, her eyes lit up. "You think... there’s a hidden layer inside the painting?"

"Yes."

Wan Ze’s tone was calm, but all ten of his fingers were focused with intense concentration.

His attribute values had risen significantly from his recent arduous training, which had also caused his Perception Power to skyrocket.

Even a single thin sheet of paper sandwiched within would not escape his current probing touch.

Suddenly, he stopped.

"Did you find it?" Miss Ling held her breath.

"Mhm." Wan Ze held his hands steady over the spot, his fingertips gently tracing an unusual outline. "It’s about the size of my palm... Should we cut it open?"

Miss Ling nodded. "Let me do it. I’ve studied antique restoration. I’ll do my best not to damage the painting."

Wan Ze stepped aside to give her room, watching as she rummaged through her belongings and finally produced a tool kit.

Miss Ling took a deep breath, centered herself, and focused all her attention on her fingertips.

She quickly selected a slender, willow-leaf-shaped scalpel from the kit. Her movements were slow and steady as she carefully inserted the tip along the edge of the painting’s backing. The blade made a soft RASPING sound as it scraped against the paper.

Wan Ze stood silently to the side, careful not to disturb her.

Suddenly, Miss Ling paused. She felt an extremely subtle, unusual texture with her fingertips.

Her eyes lit up. Switching to a pair of tweezers, she gently probed the gap and slowly pulled something out.

It was a sheet of paper as thin as a cicada’s wing.

It was no bigger than her palm and nearly transparent, yet it was surprisingly tough. Held up to the light, one could see fine fibrous textures, not quite silk and not quite paper.

"Wan Ze, you’re incredible! There really was something inside!" Miss Ling couldn’t help but exclaim, her voice filled with unrestrained surprise and admiration.

She was too embarrassed to admit that she had suspected a hidden layer herself. She’d even felt for one by hand and shone a flashlight on the scroll, but had come up empty-handed.

’Who would have thought Wan Ze would actually find it...’

’His Perception Power is just too astonishing.’

"Let’s see what it says," Wan Ze said calmly, his gaze already fixed on the thin sheet of paper.

Miss Ling gently spread it out on the table.

Several lines of extremely faint ink appeared on the paper’s surface. It looked as if they had been written with a fine-tipped brush dipped in a special, bluish-gray ink:

[30°45′ N, 111°15′ E]

Beneath it was a line of small text:

[What the eye sees is not the truth; what the mind perceives is not reality. Beyond the mountains of cloud, another world awaits.]

Miss Ling froze, looking up at Wan Ze with eyes full of confusion. "This looks like a set of coordinates... but what does the phrase mean? Is it a warning? It seems a bit too cryptic, don’t you think?"

Wan Ze didn’t answer immediately.

He stared at the line of text, suddenly recalling his first mission with Lei Ming. He remembered following Professor Song into that mysterious tomb and the poem carved into the corridor walls:

[The ancient pine is ageless, the crane’s shadow deep; Today’s guest seeks leisure in a heaven beyond the clouds.]

"This world..."

Wan Ze paused for a moment.

’He suddenly felt as if this world was hiding something—a secret unknown to anyone. And right now, he felt like he had just lifted a corner of the veil.’

"It looks like latitude and longitude coordinates..." Miss Ling said hesitantly.

"They’re coordinates, all right," Wan Ze said, snapping out of his thoughts. His gaze returned to the numbers. "And if I’m not mistaken, the general location is somewhere in Gui Province. But we’ll need a detailed map to pinpoint the exact spot. Do you have one here?"

Wan Ze had locked onto a general area almost instantly. This was thanks to him having crammed for his geography exams, raising his knowledge of the subject to a very high level. That’s why he could immediately place the coordinates.

Miss Ling shook her head, but then her eyes lit up as she suggested, "If not... what about the library?"

"Okay," Wan Ze agreed.

After all that, they were heading back to where it all started.

Now that they had this slip of paper, the Mountain Ghost Patrol Hunting Painting itself was no longer the priority.

Since it was still early, Miss Ling mixed a fresh batch of paste and carefully glued the incision on the back of the painting, restoring it.

Afterward, she grabbed her car keys and gestured to Wan Ze with her chin. "Let’s go. I’ll drive."

The car pulled out of the guest house parking lot.

As Miss Ling drove, she glanced over and saw Wan Ze gazing out the window at the rapidly receding streetscape. His profile was calm, and she wondered what he was thinking about now.

She suddenly spoke, her voice soft. "Wan Ze, do you think... the place these coordinates point to... could it be hiding something even more incredible than the painting?"

Wan Ze turned and met her gaze.

The answer, perhaps, was hidden within the phrase, "Beyond the mountains of cloud, another world awaits."

...

The lights were on in the library’s aisles. More than twenty rows of metal bookshelves stood there, looking somewhat cold and desolate on this bleak autumn morning.

The two of them followed the index signs, searching row by row.

Contemporary Fiction, History, Modern History... It wasn’t until the seventeenth row that they finally saw the "Geography" sign.

The shelves were extremely high, nearly touching the ceiling, and were crammed with all sorts of atlases, topographical studies, and local gazetteers.

The unique smell of old paper hung in the air.

Wan Ze stopped and quickly scanned the classification labels on the spines of the books.

He pulled out a heavy volume titled *Detailed Study of the Federal Geographic Coordinates*. The pages rustled as he opened it.

Miss Ling stood to the side, holding her breath.

...

30°45′ North... 111°15′ East...

The numbers were swiftly converted, overlaid, and pinpointed in his mind.

It was as if Wan Ze was viewing the topography of the Gui Province region from above... The direction of mountain ranges, the network of rivers, the distribution of towns... An invisible, three-dimensional map floated and spun in his consciousness, finally locking onto a single, clear point.

"It’s in Hua City," he said calmly, closing the book.

Miss Ling’s eyes went wide, and she almost cried out in astonishment.

’Amazing!’

She praised him from the bottom of her heart.

To her, a self-proclaimed geography idiot to whom latitude and longitude were like a foreign language, Wan Ze’s fluid and effortless deductions seemed like some kind of secret art.

’She suddenly regretted not paying more attention in geography class. If she had, maybe she wouldn’t be stuck just standing here like a useless spectator.’

"So... are we going?" she asked quietly, her voice laced with apprehension.

At the end of the day, she was just an ordinary person.

"No rush," Wan Ze said, decisively sliding the book back into its place on the shelf.

He wasn’t fully prepared either.

’Who knew what was hidden in that place?’

In their current state, if he and Miss Ling really ran into a being on the level of a Refining Grandmaster, they would be lucky to escape with their lives.

"Has she contacted you yet?" he asked.

Miss Ling knew who "she" was. She lowered her gaze and shook her head with a wry smile.

Wan Ze took a deep breath.

’This woman... Is her pride really that important?’

He mulled it over for a moment, then lowered his voice. "I can’t handle this alone. I know even less about this than she does... Give her a message for me. Ask her if she’s willing to cooperate with Dragon Eagle. A lot of people have their eyes on her and that painting right now. It’ll be hard for her to get far on her own."

Miss Ling looked up, understanding what he meant.

"Leave it to me!"

Her reply was crisp and decisive.

’Now that’s a teammate!’

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