Editor: Nyxnox
Chapter 212 Trust
More and more problems that needed to be addressed right away were coming up, but Gu Shenwei could only solve them one by one.
Gu Shenwei sped up to return to Jade City. Instead of going to meet Wei Lingmiao, he went to see Shangguan Ru first and talked about what had happened in the past few days. Then he motioned for Lotus to come out to have a private talk.
Lotus was in as much shock as Servant Huan about the fact that the Death Sutra had a flaw, but she was more optimistic. "Daoless Scroll, Daoless Scroll, the solution lies in it. It may even … remove the Desolate Finger Energy!"
Like Gu Shenwei, Lotus had been instilled with the finger energy by Xue Niang, and also faced the three-year deadline.
Gu Shenwei didn"t think of this, but the next moment he understood why Lotus had become so excited. "Right!" He too uttered a cry.
The internal energy training method in the Daoless Scroll was the foundation. It was not only useful for practising the Death Sutra, but might also be very important for many other martial arts.
It was the source of the internal energy of Golden Roc Castle, and the internal energy of Great Desolate Sect was also based on this. Gu Shenwei understood now that those two factions were originally one, it was just that the latter didn"t get the full version of the Daoless Scroll, so they had tried to steal and s.n.a.t.c.h the complete secret manual of the castle through painstaking efforts.
The Master Commander Kang Wenhui of Great Desolate Sect had once said that there were only two ways to get rid of the Desolate Finger Energy. The first method was to ask the instiller to remove it, and the second was to learn the internal energy of the sect and once the pract.i.tioner was more powerful than the instiller, the finger energy would naturally be removed.
Although the relationship between Great Desolate Sect and the Daoless Scroll was just a conjecture, it still made the two killers pleasantly surprised. The Desolate Finger Energy in their body was like a boulder occupying their heart, heavy and stagnant. When all of a sudden the two found out that there was a glimmer of possibility of destroying it, they couldn"t help but relax.
The problem now was that they had to return to the castle. The Daoless Scroll was not a physical book or written on the paper, but remembered in a person"s heart. It was that guardian at the Liu Sha Temple. Gu Shenwei had seen him before. To "take" the secret manual, he must pry open this person"s mouth.
Without the lord"s summon, the killers couldn"t go back to the castle casually. But the two couldn"t wait for Tenth Gongzi to return to the castle after completing a year of training. If that happened, they had to wait until winter, which would be past the three-year deadline.
Gu Shenwei and Lotus forced themselves to calm down. The time left was enough for them to find out a way. Gu Shenwei had to solve several more pressing problems, and Lotus would stay close to Shangguan Ru to see if there was any way of instigating her to return to the castle early.
Gu Shenwei hadn"t been this happy ever since he had lost his family. Originally, he had little hope of revenge and the best result was to kill a few scions of the Shangguan family, but now there was a greater possibility. He started pondering his original plan again; the enmity of extermination must be returned with another extermination.
His pampered imaginations were interrupted by Xu Xiaoyi.
Xu Xiaoyi had been waiting outside for a long time. Seeing Brother Huan coming out, he immediately pulled him to a quiet corner of an alley. "Brother Huan, you must do something. I"m so worried."
"What"s the matter?"
"It"s my sister. She hasn"t contacted me ever since she went to the Bodhi Garden."
"Maybe she"s too busy. Don"t worry." Gu Shenwei had also only seen Xu Yanwei once, on the first night of Wei Gongzi"s arrival.
"No, no. Something isn"t right. Brother Huan wants Wei Gongzi"s information, so my sister and I agreed that every three days she would go to the checkpoint and personally give me a letter and tell me everything. But it"s been ten days now, and she hasn"t shown up once, nor has she sent anyone else to deliver a message."
Gu Shenwei wasn"t aware of Xu Yanwei"s current situation, but he often heard the noises of the n.o.ble gongzis and prost.i.tutes indulging in revelry, so he wasn"t particularly worried. "I"ll go to Bodhi Garden to look for her."
But Xu Xiaoyi still appeared to be extremely frightened as if a disaster was imminent. Gu Shenwei couldn"t help but be alarmed. The sister and brother were full of tricks, they"d better not plot anything behind his back. "Xiaoyi, what are you worrying about?"
Xu Xiaoyi wrung his hands, "Ai, it"s all my fault for not being able to persuade her. Brother Huan, you know, my sister used to be good at … that."
The role Xu Yanwei used to play was a m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t. Actually she couldn"t be called "good at" it, but was forced by her father Big Belly Buddha, which was one of the main reasons why the siblings killed their father.
Gu Shenwei vaguely understood Xu Xiaoyi"s worry.
"My sister wants to go to the Central Plains with Wei Gongzi too much, and she said she would do whatever it takes. But I"m afraid she will … go too far, or some gongzis will get drunk and lay their hands too hard on her. It has happened before, as very few prost.i.tutes under Big Belly Buddha died peacefully. You know, there are all kinds of people in Jade City, and the gongzis of Northern Jade City like to play tricks …"
Xu Xiaoyi didn"t need to speak anymore. Gu Shenwei solemnly promised that he would take his elder sister out intact. What he didn"t tell Xu Xiaoyi was that he had indeed heard women"s screams at Bodhi Garden, but he hadn"t heard of anyone dying yet.
Gu Shenwei arrived at Bodhi Garden, but he couldn"t go find Xu Yanwei right away. He had to go meet Wei Lingmiao first.
Wei Gongzi was talking volubly with a group of friends. Lying on the soft couch, those seven or eight people rested their heads on the laps of beauties. And beside each gongzi, there was another beauty offering wine and feeding them, one would sit up whenever it was their turn to speak, while the others listened and enjoyed the wine comfortably.
Xu Yanwei wasn"t among those attendants, and the host Meng Mingshi was also not there. These people were talking about the world"s general situation and the maneuvers among various forces in the West Regions. Meng Fifth Gongzi probably didn"t understand or care.
Seeing the killer come in, Wei Lingmiao smiled but didn"t get up until it was his turn. "The countries of the Western Regions have no chance of uniting each other. The small countries can only attach to the big countries, and the Northern Tribe is in internal disorder now. The one will rule the Western Regions must be the Central Plains …"
This group of n.o.ble gongzis were not all outwardly attractive but worthless people. Gu Shenwei had once heard some a.n.a.lysis of the general trend of the world from a poor counselor, some of which were quite consistent with the gongzis" points.
The talk was finally over at dusk. Wei Lingmiao stretched himself out with a yawn and when the other people retreated, said, "I hope you"re not tired of hearing. Those people are exiled n.o.bles of the royal families of the Western Regions. They are thinking about retrieving their home country every day. I have no choice but to wave my hands and make some promises."
Gu Shenwei bowed slightly but didn"t say anything. As a killer, the less he knew, the better.
"How was your talk with the monk?"
"Not bad."
"Why did I call you here? Oh, right, to kill someone."
"Please let me know, gongzi. I can do it at any time."
"Hmm, but I don"t want anyone to know that this man was murdered."
"No problem, I will make it an accident."
"That"s good."
Wei Ling Miao curled up his right leg, his arm on his lap. He held a bottle of wine, gently dangled it and smiled at the killer without speaking for a long time. .
Gu Shenwei lowered his head and waited. He had patience.
"Do one more thing for me before you carry out the kill."
"I am at your service."
"Go to Commandant Zhong and have a good talk with him. You can believe what he says, as that"s not only his meaning, but also my meaning, even my father"s meaning."
Gu Shenwei smelled a conspiracy, but he simply said "Ok".
"Then you can create an "accident" for him." Wei Lingmiao said with his expression unchanged, as if he had just made a joke without thinking.
"Ok." Regardless of what Gu Shenwei thought at heart, he didn"t reveal anything on the surface. He was a killer now, so he should behave like a killer.
"The killer never asks why?" Wei Lingmiao lost his cool first.
"No."
"Do you think it"s worth it to postpone the "peace talisman" a month in exchange for a life?"
"And for gongzi"s trust, it"s worth it."
Laughing out loudly, Wei Lingmiao got off the couch and shuffled to the killer, patting him on the shoulder. "Someday, you"ll gain more and a bigger trust, not from me, but from someone more powerful than me."
This was clearly winning over and buying off. Gu Shenwei didn"t know why, but Wei Lingmiao was obviously not only trying to approach Shangguan Ru, as he had much bigger expectations.
Patrol Commandant Zhong Heng might be able to give the answer. This old and slippery officer had somehow provoked Wei Lingmiao. He had to pa.s.s words along for his lord but would also die because of his lord.
As Wei Lingmiao finished, Gu Shenwei asked to meet with Xu Yanwei. Wei Gongzi frowned and thought for a while before he recalled the name. When he learned that the prost.i.tute belonged to the killer, he laughed loudly again and shook his head. As he went out the door, he kept saying "perfect match".
Not long after, Xu Yanwei came, intact, but a bit unhappy. She didn"t seem to have been injured. "Why did you call me here? Wei Gongzi knows about our relationship now, and my chances of going to the Central Plains are now smaller. The compet.i.tion is really fierce now; do not drag my feet down."
"I didn"t say I had let you go."
Xu Yanwei always forgot that the teenager in front of her was a killer who could even kill his own Master. Once she came to herself, she immediately changed her att.i.tude, leaned over to him and said in a soft voice. "Lord Huan, please let me go. What are you keeping me for? As for asking for information, Xiaoyi alone can handle that. I"ve ama.s.sed more than ten thousand taels of silver, and I"ll leave it all to you. I won"t take a coin with me."
"I don"t want money, I want information."
"Well, you have to make it specific. There are tons of things about Wei Gongzi. He eats, excretes, urinates and sleeps, do you want to hear about it all?"
"It was about three years ago. Golden Roc Castle killed a family surnamed Gu. The daughter of the Gu family was Wei Gongzi"s fiancée. Wei Gongzi happened to be at Jade City at that time, I want to know why he came here."
Xu Yanwei nodded and repeated the killer"s question. "Rest a.s.sured, I can find it out for sure."
"Don"t give away the show."
"Pah, give away the show? Am I still Xu Yanwei?"
"Your brother is really worried about you."
"Aiya, what an impatient kid, tell him to come to the checkpoint tomorrow at noon and see the living me."
Gu Shenwei went out and bade Wei Gongzi farewell. He didn"t visit the Patrol Commandant that night, but instead returned to Southern Jade City to make some arrangements. It was almost impossible to create an accident that no one doubted. But this was Jade City and people were already used to searching for evidence of a conspiracy from the corpses. So, gossips never died, it was enough as long as there were no flaws on the surface.
As the patrol commandant, Zhong Heng"s "connection" would be considered as "being cut" if the Governor didn"t inquire about it. Gu Shenwei thought that it would be a simple and safe a.s.sa.s.sination, and the only difficulty was not using a sabre or sword.
Zhong Heng had taught the killer a lot of useful knowledge, so Gu Shenwei felt a bit sorry for him, but he was more concerned about the father and son of the Wei family now. The more he thought about it, the more he believed that the extermination of the Gu family was related to their "relatives" by marriage.