Editor: Nyxnox
Chapter 190 Drawing the Snake out of its Hole
A white-robed old man with a long beard was the first to react. He took out his rope and shouted agitatedly, "You killed the immortal!"
Most of the reasons Gu Shenwei had used to persuade himself to stay at the Essence Pavilion were real. He had actually gained something in this deal, as both the circulation of his internal Qi and lightness skills had improved a lot, which made him even more confident with the Death Sutra swordsmanship.
Confidence was the most important prerequisite for killing in a single shot.
"He"s a fake immortal." Gu Shenwei walked to the screen, looked at the characters on it and said, "Sixty-four training methods aren"t a match for a real unique technique."
The teenager pushed down the screen with force, breaking it into a heap of stones.
His action infuriated everyone around. Various weapons were taken out. Although Immortal Peng was dead, they hadn"t yet been completely freed from the illusion.
Unafraid and upright, Gu Shenwei held his sword and faced the crowd. He had thought of how to kill Immortal Peng but hadn"t thought of a mature plan to deal with those disciples whose kung fu was not weak.
He just wanted to slaughter everyone he saw. More than one hundred days" of being deceived had stirred up his murderous heart.
"He"s right." Someone in the crowd actually supported the teenager.
Tuo Nengya walked out, his face still wearing a disguise. "The immortal was deceiving everyone. We are also able to practise martial arts without him."
"You two know nothing." It was still that white-robed old man with a long beard who spoke up. He appeared to be more excited when he said his own thoughts, "The immortal was lying, but so what? It was just the immortal"s way of helping everybody concentrate on practising. Without the immortal"s help, who can learn these profound martial arts?"
Everyone had their own reasons in accepting Immortal Peng"s hypnosis, and they could not be easily persuaded by others.
Tuo Nengya drew his single sabre. He had replaced his iconic twin curved sabres ever since he started hiding in the Essence Pavilion. "Go, young man. What are you still doing here?"
Gu Shenwei walked towards the window. Although he didn"t understand why Tuo Nengya was helping him, this was a good chance for him to get away. Immortal Peng"s disciples were still shocked and bewildered, and he was afraid that a short while later they would rush at him headlong to avenge the immortal.
The white-robed old man threw out his long rope. It was this same rope that had seized the sword from Gu Shenwei"s hand months ago, but the teenager was not the same killer from months ago. His swordsmanship might not have improved much, but his reaction and agility had improved far beyond what it used to be, not to mention that his approaching the window was just a trick.
He couldn"t just leave like this; he had to destroy the Death Sutra he had written out for Immortal Peng.
Gu Shenwei didn"t jump out of the window. Instead, he leapt backwards and landed on a soft bed. He seized the corpse of the dwarf from Chu Nanping"s hands and held it high, exclaiming, "n.o.body move!"
Although Immortal Peng was dead, his sanct.i.ty in the minds of his disciples had yet to disappear. The roomful of people all exclaimed in unison, not understanding the teenager"s intentions. They took one step forward then retreated two steps back.
Gu Shenwei moved to the window again and took a glance at Tuo Nengya, beckoning for him to go with him.
Tuo Nengya also moved his feet.
"Leave the immortal!" Someone cried out sadly.
Gu Shenwei held the corpse with one hand, and used another hand to search in Immortal Peng"s body. There was indeed a stack of paper. The Death Sutra was so important that Immortal Peng would naturally take it with him.
"Here you go."
Gu Shenwei threw out the corpse as he said those words and jumped out of the window with Tuo Nengya, landing on the high wall. They then leapt into the peach grove and kept running for miles before stopping.
Surrounded by the wilderness, the two had to go in a large circle to return to Jade City.
The people of the Essence Pavilion seemed to be busy mourning the pa.s.sing away of the immortal, and only one person followed behind, not letting go of the killer.
Gu Shenwei was a bit surprised, "You"re an "emotionless person". You don"t have to avenge anyone."
Chu Nanping was as expressionless as usual, "I didn"t come for revenge."
"What do you want?"
"We haven"t mastered the swordsmanship yet."
Gu Shenwei drew out his sword and coldly looked at the short boy. Without Immortal Peng"s control, Chu Nanping was just a kid without any ability to reprimand him any more. "I have my own swordsmanship, a swordsmanship for killing. I don"t want to learn or practise the so-called emotionless or pa.s.sionate swordsmanship any more. You should go find a place to train by yourself. Several years later, if you haven"t woken up, come avenge Immortal Peng, if you have, come avenge your elder brother. I"ll be available at any time."
Chu Nanping was like a child who didn"t understand grow-ups" words, only able to grip the sword that seemed too long and big in his hand. Without a word or a change of eyes, he still insisted on his idea when he finally opened his mouth, "We"ll soon reach the fifth level. Within three days, I"ll kill "the person I don"t want to kill" for sure."
"Go, kill him first."
Chu Nanping solemnly nodded and went back to the peach grove.
Gu Shenwei only wanted to get rid of this kid as soon as possible and didn"t care who he wanted to kill.
"You saved my life, but I have nothing to repay you with." Gu Shenwei was outspoken to the old sabreman Tuo Nengya. He was a killer and didn"t have any ideas of grat.i.tude.
"Heh." Tuo Nengya naturally understood the killer"s idea, "You could run away even if I didn"t stand out. Those guys will come to their senses after a while, I have other reasons to come out with you."
"You still can"t forget about the murder of the big young lord."
"It"s my duty. I was almost done paying off my debt of grat.i.tude towards him, but he was killed. I have no other choice except to avenge him."
"You know, I joined in stabbing the big young lord."
"I won"t pick a "soft persimmon" to pinch. You"re a killer, you"re merely a sabre of Golden Roc Castle, and why would I take revenge on a sabre?"
"Ninth young lord isn"t a "hard persimmon"."
"It"s my own business to find out who I want to get revenge on. Go back and tell Tenth Gongzi that I mean no harm to her. I can help if she wants to revive the Kun Society. The sabremen Boss Tuo knows are much more than those twenty or so."
"Do not meddle in the matters of Tenth Gongzi and ninth young lord." Gu Shenwei gripped his sword hilt and retreated step by step. He had every reason not to want to see the twins infighting for the time being.
"You can"t command me." The old sabreman also held his sabre hilt. "You"d better do it now if you want to stop me."
Gu Shenwei stepped back further and further and right before he went back to Jade City, he dropped the words, "Next time. You better take a few people around with you."
As he walked to a place where there was no one around, Gu Shenwei took out the stack of paper he got from Immortal Peng. Yes, it was the Death Sutra he had written. He was just about to tear it up before he suddenly saw some small characters written on the white s.p.a.ce left on the paper.
Immortal Peng had added his own notes in some parts.
As it was getting dark, he could only put away the paper first.
Walking in the dirty streets of Southern Jade City, Gu Shenwei felt as if he had been cut off from the outside world for ages. He had wasted a few months and killed a fake immortal for no reason, and was getting farther and farther from his enemy. He had once thought that his will was very strong and had never expected that he would have to rely on those two strands of Desolate Finger Energy in his body to wake himself up.
With the three-year deadline approaching, the dream of slaughtering Golden Roc Castle had been largely unfulfilled. He had to kill several lords of the Shangguan family before he died of Qi deviation, especially that eighth young lord, who was busy wiping out Waning Moon Hall on the edge of the desert.
Lotus was not in the backyard of the southwall tavern. Today was not the day they had agreed to meet, so she must have stayed at Shangguan Ru"s side.
Tavernkeeper Lü was very surprised to see the killer Yang Huan. He hid his palm with a broken finger behind his back and embarra.s.sedly welcomed this malicious star.
It was from Tavernkeeper Lü that Gu Shenwei learned about the changes in Southern Jade City in the recent months.
Shangguan Ru had taken back the Kun Society.
Not long after Servant Huan went to City View Alley, Shangguan Ru took six killers with her and visited her elder brother. Shangguan Fei was well prepared, and he not only called all his killers out, but also summoned fifty cutters from Southern Jade City. Although no one was allowed to bring weapons, the ninth young lord"s momentum was greater.
Everyone thought that there would be a fight. To prevent it, the Patrol Commandant led over a hundred soldiers in person, together with guardsmen from the castle, to stand guard outside the ninth young lord"s house.
To everyone"s surprise, Shangguan Ru didn"t lose her temper. She treated her brother as a real power and courteously offered to exchange all the territory she currently held for the Kun Society.
Although those territories were given to her by other elder brothers, they were actually not under her control. But the amount of money handed in each month from those territories was a lot, several times more than the protection fees the Kun Society had gained from those merchants it protected.
So Shangguan Fei agreed.
Shangguan Ru entered Southern Jade City the same day. She personally visited all the merchants that had joined the Kun Society in the next few days, including the southwall tavern.
"Tenth Gongzi was really a very considerate person. She was very kind to me and offered to reduce the monthly fee, as long as I could provide some business. Of course I agreed. Tenth Gongzi is a visionary, and the territory of the Kun Society will grow bigger and bigger."
This was only a wish of Tavernkeeper Lü. In fact, the territory of the Kun Society was shrinking day by day. Although the ninth young lord never entered Southern Jade City, he grasped all the profits he could earn through the Qiu Society and gradually encroached on his younger sister"s share.
"The Qiu Society is in a dominant position now. As businessmen, no one wants to hide away from the big tree, right? To tell you the truth, even for my tavern, many people have been trying to persuade me to change my backer …"
After listening to Tavernkeeper Lü"s complaints, Gu Shenwei immediately rushed back to the Kun Society that night.
Shangguan Ru was dictating something to two clerical staff. Seeing Servant Huan, she smiled as if he had been at the Kun Society this whole time and was just coming to report on today"s routine task.
The little girl had changed in a way that Gu Shenwei hadn"t noticed the last time they met. There was much less childishness in her face, her dark eyes were no longer naive and inquisitive, but more examining.
She seemed to be getting suspicious too.
As she sent away the two clerical staff, Shangguan Ru said, "Has your illness been cured?"
"Pretty much." Gu Shenwei still had the two strands of Desolate Finger Energy in his body and wasn"t sure what state they were in.
"Can you work again?"
"Hmm."
"Do you know what the Kun Society is like now?"
"I do."
"What do you think about the future?"
"Draw the snake out of its hole."
Shangguan Ru"s eyes lightened. She smiled again and said, "I knew it was right to wait for you to come back."
Of course Gu Shenwei knew what was on Shangguan Ru"s mind. The little girl still hadn"t forgotten Yu Gongzi"s death. She had been feigning weakness in order to lure Shangguan Fei into Southern Jade City.
The war between the twins was far from over. Gu Shenwei had already thought it over on his way back that instead of letting Shangguan Fei hold his secrets, it was better to find a way to remove the hidden danger forever. "Have you made up your mind?"
Shangguan Ru nodded. Gu Shenwei saw a killer"s killing intent in her eyes for the first time.