Chapter 433: The Person Behind
"We’ll kneel, we’ll kneel! We’re doing it right now!"
These tomb raiders were completely terrified by Su Qing’s methods. They scrambled up from the ground and hurriedly knelt, their bodies ramrod straight, terrified she would beat them again for not kneeling properly.
In their eyes, Su Qing was no different from a demon.
Su Qing waved her hand, and the surrounding vines and leaves instantly flew up, intertwining to form a comfortable chair. Su Qing leisurely leaned back into it, watching the tomb raiders, who were once again dumbfounded by her actions.
"What are you doing here in these mountains?" Su Qing asked calmly. "Let me be clear, no lying. If anyone lies, I will know. You’d best consider whether you can endure another whipping."
Su Qing’s words made the tomb raiders even more certain. The girl before them was definitely not human. Could a normal person control plants? Could they tell if someone was lying at a glance?
"I... I’ll talk," one of the tomb raiders said hastily. "We came into these mountains to find a tomb."
"Mm." Su Qing looked unsurprised. "Whose tomb?"
"It’s... it’s the tomb of the legendary Divine Doctor Qibo’s disciple," the tomb raider said hurriedly. "It’s said that the disciple was buried here in Xiqing Mountain."
Su Qing raised an eyebrow. "This is the heart of Xiqing Mountain. How are you so sure the disciple’s tomb is buried here?"
"It’s all... all legends," the tomb raider quickly replied. "As for where... where exactly, we don’t know either. We can only wander around these mountains and hope... hope we get lucky and find it."
"How long have you been wandering these mountains?" Su Qing asked.
The tomb raider grumbled inwardly: ’You’re a spirit in these mountains. How could you not know how long we’ve been wandering?’
But on the surface, the tomb raider didn’t dare show it, and he quickly replied with respect, "Almost three years."
"Almost three years, huh." Su Qing chuckled. "You’re certainly persistent. Staying in these mountains for three years for a tomb, roughing it in the wild... Life must have been hard."
Her words made the tomb raiders’ hearts ache with bitterness. It was true. Life in these mountains was no life for a person. Even though they made a living as tomb raiders, they had never spent so much time in the mountains before. They felt like they were turning into wildmen.
"Speak. Who sent you to find the tomb of the Divine Doctor’s disciple?" Su Qing’s tone shifted as she asked.
"Ah!" The tomb raider who had been answering was stunned by Su Qing’s question. He was the one who had gone with Hu Zi to hunt sika deer; he didn’t know the secret reason behind their search for the tomb. He had no answer for her.
Hearing Su Qing’s words, the man with the scar felt his heart lurch. Only he knew that he’d taken money to enter the mountains and find the tomb of the Divine Doctor’s disciple. At most, he might have let a word slip to the subordinate who waited on him when he was in a good mood, but the others were completely in the dark. When Su Qing asked this question, his first reaction was that one of his own men had spilled the beans. He immediately turned to look at the subordinate who served him.
"Boss, I... I didn’t say anything," the subordinate said, quickly shaking his head to clear his name.
Scarface couldn’t help but frown.
"Alright, stop with the suspicions." Su Qing knew her display today must have instilled some awe in these men. She sneered, "You think I need to snoop around in private to find things out?"
Scarface stared at Su Qing, his expression blank, but inwardly he was roaring. He wanted so badly to retort, ’Goddammit! If you already knew, why are you asking the obvious?’
As if she knew what Scarface was thinking, Su Qing leaned back comfortably in her chair. "I just wanted to see if you’d be honest."
Hearing Su Qing’s words, Scarface gritted his teeth and admitted bluntly, "That’s right. I was indeed commissioned by someone to come to Xiqing Mountain to find the tomb."
"Commissioned by whom?" Su Qing asked. "How much money did you get that it was worth bringing your men to stay in these mountains for nearly three years? And what were the client’s requirements?"
Scarface didn’t dare lie. "Fifty thousand. The person said that if we really found the Divine Doctor’s tomb, everything inside except for a manuscript would be ours."
"Weren’t you afraid you wouldn’t find the tomb and not get paid?"
"Even if we can’t find it, the reward is still twenty thousand," Scarface added.
Su Qing sneered. "Truly, ’men die for wealth as birds die for food.’ That person is quite generous. Go on, tell me their identity."
"Huh?" Scarface froze, looking at Su Qing.
Su Qing raised an eyebrow. "What? Unwilling to say, or afraid to say?"
As she spoke, Su Qing lightly raised her right hand. Her fingers twitched, and a vine on the ground instantly lifted up, forming a whip in her hand.
The tomb raiders thought, ’...What kind of decent girl materializes a whip at the drop of a hat?’
Scarface was about to cry when he saw the whip. Of everyone there, he was the most qualified to speak on that whip. How could he dare hide anything now? He blurted out, "I’ll talk, I’ll talk! The person isn’t... isn’t from our country. They’re... Japanese. Their family has always coveted our Hua Country’s traditional medicine culture, and they’ve been secretly paying people large sums to find these kinds of ancient medical texts."
"So you’re not the only group, then?" Su Qing asked.
"No," Scarface quickly shook his head. "As far as I know, there are several other groups like us. Besides them, there are also people searching for precious medicinal herbs. Those clients aren’t stingy with their money, so..."
"So, you became their lackeys," Su Qing snorted coldly. "Willingly becoming traitors, is that it?"
"Who... who would say no to money?" Scarface couldn’t help but mutter. In his eyes, nothing was more important than money. As the saying goes, whoever pays you is your master.
Su Qing couldn’t resist and swung the whip in her hand, lashing it fiercely across Scarface’s body. The pain made his face scrunch up. "My lady, I was wrong! I won’t say it again, I won’t say it again!"
If Scarface hadn’t been tied up so tightly, he would have slapped himself across the face. ’Why did I have to say what I was thinking out loud? Now I’ve gotten myself whipped again.’
Su Qing huffed and asked, "What’s that person’s name? And what family from Japan are they from?"
"I just remember that his surname is Qiutian." Scarface had learned his lesson and answered whatever was asked. "I don’t know the rest, but I vaguely remember him saying that his family is also a prestigious medical family or something. He said they were very interested in our Hua Country’s traditional medicine and hoped for a mutual exchange."
"Heh, and you believe that?" Su Qing asked with a cold smile.
"I don’t." Scarface wasn’t an idiot. He knew that if they truly wanted a mutual exchange, they would have come to Hua Country openly for a dialogue. They wouldn’t have hired tomb raiders like them.