Chapter 727: Five Fingers
Inside a room at the Taiping Inn branch, Yao Pei shut the windows and doors tightly before she studied a sheet of ciphered text.
At this moment, the usual dullness in Yao Pei’s expression was gone. Her shimmering eyes narrowed slightly, with a sharp glint flickering in her gaze.
The Taishang Emotionless Sutra was part of Heavenly Calculation, and its practitioners normally had photographic memory. Yao Pei had already memorized the entirety of Annotations on the Holy Xuan and could translate the cipher directly in her mind without needing any reference.
Like Qi Xuansu’s cipher sheet, the first line had just three words: Anchor the Monkey.
The second line mentioned the Buddha, with added notes like Five Fingers, Ananda, and Kassapa.
The third line prominently listed the new five-person team: Thumb—classified, Index Finger—Zhou Jiaoxian, Middle Finger—Qi Xuansu, Ring Finger—Zhang Yuelu, Pinky—Yao Pei.
Yao Pei had long known about the plan of reconstructing the five-person team before arriving in the Imperial Capital, so she was not surprised. In both circumstances, she and Zhang Yuelu were always fixed members. That part made little difference.
As for the ranking among the Five Fingers, Yao Pei had no objections, nor did she care. At present, Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu were indeed more critical, as they both linked to other allied forces. So it was reasonable for them to take precedence. What intrigued her more was the Thumb’s identity. It was so secret that even she was not privy to this information.
This level of classified secrecy was less about security and more about taboo—things that should not be spoken of or leave any trace.
Naturally, Yao Pei would not go questioning her master, Sage Donghua. There was definitely a reason why he did not want her to know, so asking would be pointless.
Yao Pei continued reading.