Chapter 542: Chapter 284: Soup of the Fly Bird, an Opportunity to Infiltrate the Imperial Palace_2

Lin Xun, who was defiant, attempted to bathe the Ninja Master and was unexpectedly rewarded with a potency buff.

[You immersed in the bath spring with mystical power and received the ’Comfortable Body and Mind’ potency buff.]

[’Comfortable Body and Mind’: A shell with this status will slowly and continuously recover fatigue value. This status will last until the shell is dead or refreshed.]

Seeing this, Lin Xun straightforwardly embodied each one of the shells in the shell column, enabling all the shells to attain this potency buff.

After getting a potency buff for free, he continued to embody Ninja Master and went upstairs to explore the soup house.

The second floor of the soup house provides food and resting places for guests. If you pay an extra fee, female servants offer some unspeakable services.

Of course, there was nothing interesting to explore here. As expected, the highlight of this soup house location should be on the third floor — the General’s private room.

[...]

[There are guards at the staircase leading to the third floor.]

[You maintain your invisible state, bypass the guard, stealthily step on the stairs and reach the third floor of the soup house.]

[The third floor has only one single room with a lock, you, as a ’Ninja Master’, have mastered the essential ninja skills like lock-picking.]

[Without making a sound, you easily broke the lock and entered the room...]

[The room is quite spacious, but the furnishings are extremely simple. Apart from basic bed and desk, there’s nothing else, thus appearing empty.]

[You came to the bed and searched carefully, not even missing the underside of the bed, but found nothing.]

[You came to the desk. In addition to the ordinary pen, ink, and paper, there was a booklet on the desk.]

[You found ’The General’s Haiku Collection’ (document).]

[You browsed the booklet, skimmed through its content...]

Lin Xun raised an eyebrow.

What key clue could be hidden in this poetry collection document?

[...]

[Yoho era, twelfth year, March fifteenth]

[Today’s Haiku: The light of flowing cherry blossoms intermittently flickers, flashing and extinguishing within an inch; loneliness is hard to bear.]

[...]

[Yoho era, twelfth year, April fifteenth]

[Today’s Haiku: Falling asleep on horseback in the fog, the moon fades with the remnants of a dream, light smoke from a cup of tea rises.]

[...]

[Yoho era, twelfth year, May fifteenth]

[Today’s Haiku: Goose, don’t honk. As of today, I, too, am a wandering traveler.]

[...]

[You turn the poetry collection to the very end, continue to check...]

[Yoho era, fifteenth year, August fifteenth]

[Today’s Haiku: The branches and leaves in my yard have sprouted again, as vast as the universe.]

[...]

[The font of these haikus is fierce, like a domineering knife light, and no one but the general could write in such a style.]

[Looking at the dates of the haikus in the collection, the General comes to the soup house for recuperation on the fifteenth of each month, and rest on the third floor to write haikus.]

[The information given before by the female servant that the General has not been to the soup house for a long time is undoubtedly false!]

[You recall that tomorrow is the middle of the month, which is the day the General is coming to the soup house.]

Lin Xun was overjoyed.

Isn’t the arrival of the General at the soup house the best time for him to sneak into the palace?

[Although you know that the General will come to the soup house tomorrow, you still don’t know what time he usually enters, how long he stays, and whether he stays overnight...]

[These pieces of information are all critically important for your infiltration into the palace. Even the slightest carelessness could lead to a failure in infiltration and being discovered by the General.]

[Do you want to spend your spirit to talk to a female servant in the soup house and ask her about the General’s situation?]

Lin Xun decisively pressed ’No’.

It’s not that he’s reluctant to spend money. It was clear that the former female servant had intentionally given false information.

It’s highly possible that the General had intentionally kept it a secret and the soup house staff must have accepted related training and were not supposed to leak the General’s whereabouts.

If he paid the female servant, he would definitely not get true news. Most likely, he would be reported by the female servant...

To gather intelligence, it was not always necessary to follow the options given by the underworld game.

"If that’s the case, then I’ll just have to fall back to the old profession!"

[You put down the poetry book, very carefully returning it to its original place.]

[After another search, confirming nothing was overlooked, you eradicate all traces of your infiltration.]

[You quietly leave the third floor, returning all the way to the entrance of ’Feiniao Soup House’.]

Lin Xun secretly changes back into the body of Star Lord Canis, re-enters the bathhouse.

[The woman servant dressed in a white bathrobe saw you leave and return, she glanced at you, but did not come forward to greet you.]

[You strode up to her, explained about your haste in going out earlier and forgetting to bring your purse, and how now that your money was with you, you were going to spend some here.]

[Hearing you say this, a smile surfaced on the female servant’s face as she gently asked which bath you would like to choose.]

[You shook your head, stating clearly that you weren’t here to enjoy the hot spring, but that you had taken a liking to the beautiful female servant from the moment you first set foot in the door. You had been unable to forget her even after returning home, and now you’ve come back to directly experience the bathhouse’s extra services.]

[You specifically asked for the female servant to accompany you to the second floor, but they usually only do reception work. There were other people responsible for providing the extra services, she was about to refuse, but then stared at your face for a while...]

[The female servant bit her lower lip lightly, quietly leading you to a private room on the second floor.]

"..." Lin Xun scratched his head, seeming to find some advantages in having a body that looks exactly like him?

Using either Ninja Master or Master Fan’s shell would probably mean spending some spirit later to unlock the hidden services.

[The bathhouse female servant led you to the second floor, stepping into an unoccupied room.]

[She closed the sliding door, disrobed, revealing her alluring body.]

[Just as the female servant was about to undress you, a fierce sword light suddenly flashed by. On a closer look, you were forming a sword with your hand, and a sharp ninja knife pierced through her chest, leaving a bloody hole.]

[The female servant collapsed to the ground, falling silent...]

[You have defeated the Fire Worshipping bathhouse female servant, experience points have slightly increased.]

[You look at the dead woman lying in front of you...]

[The ’Fire Worshiping Bathhouse Female Servant’: A young and beautiful bathhouse servant, mainly responsible for receiving guests. She only performs certain unmentionable extra services when the bathhouse is short-staffed. She died from a fatal blow through the chest. Affinity: 117% (+55%)]

[Do you want to possess this body?]

Generally speaking, the memories that come with a shell are more profound.

If the bathhouse female servant knew about the general, it’s highly likely that it would be reflected in her memories.

After all, the general was the supreme ruler of Sakura fall, a being to be looked up to by the female servant.

If the female servant had no memory of the general, then Lin Xun would have to find the next lucky creature.

[You have taken possession of the Fire Worshiping Bathhouse Female Servant’s shell!]

[The shell’s memories begin to gradually recover...]

[...]

[When you first started working in the bathhouse, the host informed you that the wages were much higher than elsewhere. There were no other requirements to do this job, the only, and most important, rule was to be discreet.]

[At first, you didn’t understand what that meant, until one deep night, you received an unforgettable guest—the General.]

[The General’s demeanor was majestic, making you feel nervous, unable to utter a complete sentence.]

[You thought that your blatant mistake would surely incur the General’s displeasure and result in severe punishment.]

[However, contrary to your expectations, just as the rumors said, the General did not punish you, but instead comforted you not to be nervous...]

[You would always remember the General’s expression when he said this... From then on, you vowed to fight anyone who spoke ill of the General.]

[Of course, there were too many people in the Capital who worshipped the General. As the ruler of Sakura fall and incarnation of Yama, chances were you wouldn’t get to fight anyone.] 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

[The General would come to the bathhouse every month on the 15th, in the middle of the night when there were no people around, right when the moon was at its zenith, to use the unique effects of the ’Soup of the Spirits’ to wash away the fatigue from handling many government affairs.]

[Afterwards, he would rest on the third floor of the bathhouse for an hour before leaving.]

[A daringly bold beautiful female servant, took this opportunity to sneakily go to the third floor of the bathhouse, to offer her services to the General... but after that, you never saw that female servant again.]

[You only heard that the janitor spent an entire night cleaning up the mess of blood on the third floor...]

[...]

[The fragmented memory ends abruptly...]

Lin Xun squints his eyes.

Tomorrow at midnight, he will have two hours to infiltrate the palace and find the young emperor.

As long as he could find the young emperor and successfully summon the remaining gods under Yama’s command, he would be able to kill the General in one fell swoop!