Chapter 29
(Gu Liang, do you find h.o.m.os.e.xuals disgusting?)
“Recently, I have been vomiting blood, and my father was also the same that year. I know, that like him, I am slated to die soon. I found a physician by the name of Doctor Yu, but Doctor Yu was similarly lost on what he could do. Due to the chest pangs I experience every night, my nights are sleepless. But by sheer coincidence, Beauty Yi would feed me knockout drugs every time she has a secret liaison with her lover. By drinking her concoction, I was allowed a good night’s rest so I decided to push the boat along the current and treat the knockout drops as a calming soup to drink. Speaking of which, I owe Beauty Yi a considerable amount. I ought to have a proper conversation with her some day and allow her to marry someone else, rather than hold her up for the rest of her life.
“Oldest Martial Brother, it is my turn to die. And before I pa.s.s on, I will tell you the secret Xiaoyao Sect has hidden for two hundred years, and the secret I have shouldered for my entire life. If you are willing, you can become the next Perennial w.a.n.g. The fake mountain hides a secret path that stores countless of face skins, including Perennial w.a.n.g’s. Under the premise that you are willing, you can succeed me in being the next Perennial w.a.n.g after I die, and enjoy all the wealth, power and glory. This includes the Clan of Disguise Masters, they will be absolutely loyal to you.
“Oldest Martial Brother, I apologise. Regardless of my feelings or reasoning, I should have confided in you the truth of the matter earlier. I wanted to face you with my true ident.i.ty and not with the namesake of your Master. However, even though Master has killed people like flies and had an infamous reputation, he was still the person who brought me up and taught me a lifetime’s worth of martial arts. With the favour he has granted me, I cannot renege or disobey what he had entrusted me with on his deathbed.
“I know, Xiaoyao Sect, Master included, have done too much evil. Hence, I am not certain if I should allow ‘Perennial w.a.n.g’ to continue existing and allow the hold that Xiaoyao Sect has over the martial arts circle to perpetuate… Now that I have told you everything, you may decide what to do next.
“When all is said and done, blame me for being indecisive, for having too many apprehensions. Looking back on this life, I am ashamed to face you, ashamed to face our Master, and also ashamed to face Xiaoyao Sect. The only thing I hope for is that you live out the rest of your life peacefully.”
* * *
This was the letter that Gu Liang obtained from the Master of Disguises NPC.
When the free exploration segment was about to end, Gu Liang had gone back to the secret path alone and heard the Master of Disguises repeating incessantly: “Strange, why did the Sect Leader’s face skin suddenly disappear? The Sect Leader even left special instructions to have one pristinely conditioned Sect Leader face skin prepared at all times two days ago… Thankfully, I came back a quarter of an hour ago to check and made another one as soon as I could.”
Gu Liang immediately asked: “You only arrived here a quarter of an hour ago?”
The Master of Disguises continued to prattle on; no matter what Gu Liang said, he did not reply.
Gu Liang pondered for a short while before he walked to his front and said: “The Sect Leader is already dead.”
This sentence was like a secret pa.s.scode, thus activating an event.
The Master of Disguises raised his head and looked at Gu Liang with extreme shock.
Gu Liang held his gaze and asked: “Do you know who I am?”
“Ah, I know you, Beauty Yi. The most beautiful woman in the martial arts circles. Who wouldn’t recognise you?”
“Did the Sect Leader give you anything?”
“Yes, there is this letter. However, this letter is meant for the Oldest Martial Brother, not you. The Sect Leader had instructed that this letter should only be given to the Oldest Martial Brother after he died.”
Gu Liang, acting as Beauty Yi, naturally accepted the request.
And after he left the secret path, it should come as no surprise that he unsealed the letter to take a look as a player.
It turns out, there was no such thing as a “counterfeit”; every succeeding Perennial w.a.n.g was a legitimate Sect Leader.
It was just that their real names were not Perennial w.a.n.g, and they merely inherited the name and ident.i.ty. For the same reasons, the curse was ineffective against them. The real Perennial w.a.n.g had died as early as two hundred years ago.
* * *
All the players received the original details of the case after they left the centralised discussion room, and it was told from the perspective of the murderer.
When he was seventeen years old, Perennial w.a.n.g accepted Oldest Martial Brother as his disciple, and he stayed in the room as Second Martial Brother. Second Martial Brother had a bright and cheerful disposition but he was burdened with heavy matters in his heart which made it difficult to get a glimpse of the inner workings of his mind. Oldest Martial Brother himself had a reserved and deep personality. Hence, although the two of them stayed in the same room, they did not have a close relations.h.i.+p.
In the past, the entirety of Oldest Martial Brother’s family had been destroyed. Although it had been investigated and proven that it had nothing to do with Perennial w.a.n.g, the unshakeable position that Xiaoyao Sect had in the rivers and lakes had always been that of a Sect who adopted ruthless tactics and killed countless people, which made them no different from the Oldest Martial Brother’s enemies. As a natural consequence, Oldest Martial Brother had never treated Perennial w.a.n.g with the respect one’s Master should have, even though he had paid his respects to him and became his disciple.
And later, Oldest Martial Brother met the Youngest Martial Brother. He was the most genuine youth the Oldest Martial Brother had ever met, and he was the only person the Oldest Martial Brother trusted with his heart and soul, unconditionally. The two of them trained and tempered themselves together and shared a close relations.h.i.+p.
The Oldest Martial Brother had been steeped in an intense and deeply seated hatred ever since his childhood. He had a reserved personality and was taciturn.
All the warmth he had in this lifetime, he gave them all to the Youngest Martial Brother.
But one day, Youngest Martial Brother disappeared.
Their Master Perennial w.a.n.g had brought Youngest Martial Brother out of the Sect for various matters. However, only Perennial w.a.n.g remained when they made their return.
While Perennial w.a.n.g stated that Youngest Martial Brother died outside, he did not elaborate on how he died and where his corpse was.
Some time after, Oldest Martial Brother secretly went to the cities and towns that Perennial w.a.n.g and Youngest Martial Brother visited to investigate.
Unexpectedly, no one saw them pa.s.s by the area.
After conducting numerous investigations, the Oldest Martial Brother could only determine that Perennial w.a.n.g – a fiend to the utmost degree – had borrowed the excuse of travelling out of the Sect to secretly murder Youngest Martial Brother.
Hence, Oldest Martial Brother became a reticent person through and through; he erased all the warmth he possessed and became harsh, swift and fierce.
He made up his mind to avenge Youngest Martial Brother.
Later, Perennial w.a.n.g secluded himself to cultivate for seven years.
The next time he emerged again, he was incredibly different from what he was before, from his temperament to the quality and style of his speech.
The Oldest Martial Disciple and Perennial w.a.n.g would handle affairs together, with him a.s.sisting him in the running of the entire Xiaoyao Sect, and he did not antic.i.p.ate that he would become far gentler.
Whenever Perennial w.a.n.g regarded him with his gaze, he would find it familiar looking. But where the familiarity arose from, he could not say.
Then, there was a certain night where Perennial w.a.n.g invited Oldest Martial Brother to eat and feast with him after they had dealt with a huge matter in Xiaoyao Sect.
They met after dusk, where the lanterns and flowers were akin to daylight.
In front of the flowers and underneath the moon, Perennial w.a.n.g’s eyes were like water, with warmth and admiration dwelling in its depths, and perhaps, even as far as undisguised and unadulterated love.
In these pa.s.sing days, Oldest Martial Brother could feel that Perennial w.a.n.g stuck to him over much.
Oldest Martial Brother only wanted to find his weak point, only desired to know how to kill him, hence he lied and said he had heartfelt admiration for him.
As expected, he obtained Perennial w.a.n.g’s response.
Initially, Oldest Martial Brother had not planned on doing anything.
But maybe because Perennial w.a.n.g’s gaze was too gentle and soft, intoxicated and intoxicating, his intentions were thrown into disorder as he became entranced. His gaze slowly overlapped with a certain person from the dredges of his memory, and Oldest Martial Brother kissed him.
Once the kiss happened, everything could no longer be withdrawn.
A rendezvous between two lovers, lasts for a time. When the cloud and smoke disperses, what is past and dust settles.
Noting that the ninth day of the ninth month was approaching, Oldest Martial Brother finally decided to use the curse that had been secretly pa.s.sed down in Xiaoyao Sect to kill Perennial w.a.n.g.
This day, Oldest Martial Brother borrowed the excuse of going to the toilet and went to the courtyard to execute the curse.
After he was done casting the curse, he went back to his room and heard Second Martial Brother say he was going to the kitchen.
Perennial w.a.n.g was Second Martial Brother’s enemy. This was a matter that Oldest Martial Brother found out recently.
Oldest Martial Brother knew that Second Martial Brother also wanted Perennial w.a.n.g killed.
Perennial w.a.n.g was being fed knockout drugs by Beauty Yi every night, and because Beauty Yi would spend her nights with Master Hui, she was not in the room.
Both Oldest Martial Brother and Second Martial Brother were cognizant of this fact.
Oldest Martial Brother guessed that perhaps the Second Martial Brother wanted to take advantage of Perennial w.a.n.g’s comatose state and kill him without anyone being the wiser.
The curse that was secretly pa.s.sed on had not been used for many years.
Furthermore, Oldest Martial Brother was not certain if the curse worked, so he followed Second Martial Brother secretly.
Oldest Martial Brother watched as Second Martial Brother went into the weaponry storehouse and later enter Perennial w.a.n.g’s room. And despite a long period of time pa.s.sing, he did not come out which probably meant he was adding more hurts to Perennial w.a.n.g.
In the midst of his act, Doctor Yu walked past. He did not know much martial arts and his footfalls were quite heavy.
Upon hearing the sound, Second Martial Brother immediately leapt out of the window and fled.
Doctor Yu walked past Perennial w.a.n.g’s residence and continued towards the fake mountain in the direction of the guest house; Second Martial Brother ran in the direction of the kitchen.
Each and every one of these actions were seen by the shadow-obscured Oldest Martial Brother.
Since he was not certain if Perennial w.a.n.g had been killed by Second Martial Brother, Oldest Martial Brother chose to go into the room to check.
Oldest Martial Brother was surprised to find that Second Martial Brother did not murder Perennial w.a.n.g in full.
Second Martial Brother had carved words into Perennial w.a.n.g’s chest but these wounds were too light, they were not enough to cause instantaneous death.
At that moment, the effects of the knockout drugs subsided and Perennial w.a.n.g’s eyes snapped open. He trembled from the pain and tears even leaked out from his eyes.
He stretched his hands out, reaching for Oldest Martial Brother’s clothes.
Oldest Martial Brother took a step back soundlessly to avoid his touch.
Perennial w.a.n.g opened his mouth, words and phrases spilling from his lips, as if he was begging for help, or perhaps he was trying to say the truth.
But no matter what he said, they sounded incoherent in Oldest Martial Brother’s ears.
Oldest Martial Brother only picked up the knife Second Martial Brother left behind and impaled Perennial w.a.n.g with it mercilessly.
He aimed for the two characters that Second Martial Brother left behind; the first strike entered Perennial w.a.n.g’s lung, the second slash severed his stomach artery, ensuring that he was completely dead for the rest of eternity.
Youngest Martial Brother’s revenge, he finally attained it.
— As he looked at Perennial w.a.n.g’s corpse, a smile emerged on Oldest Martial Brother’s lips.
But inexplicably, there was a burst of grief in his heart.
The location of the centralised discussion room was halfway down the mountain.
As the group of people climbed back up to the peak of the mountain, Doctor Yu was sobbing as she walked.
“How did it end up like this? Oldest Martial Brother only wanted to avenge Youngest Martial Brother. He never thought that he was killing the same Youngest Martial Brother…”
Doctor Yu heaved out a long sigh, “Youngest Martial Brother was such a good person… whereas I pretended to be a doctor and deceived him. I…”
Meanwhile, Second Martial Brother was the most easy-going of the lot; having escaped from the accusations of being the real murderer by the skin of his teeth, he had already put the argument he had with Doctor Yu behind him, and even opened his mouth to give her a few words of consolation. “In this sort of script, all the backstories behind these cases are packed with melodrama. It’s all fake, you don’t have to take them seriously. Besides, since when were there so many h.o.m.os.e.xuals in the world? Coincidence, I think not.”
“What’s wrong with h.o.m.os.e.xuals? As long as their feelings are sincere, do s.e.xual orientations even matter?” Doctor Yu retorted back.
“Either way, I can’t comprehend it. Those feelings are basically immoral.” Second Martial Brother pursed his lips and looked towards Yang Ye and Gu Liang. “What do the two of you think?”
At the side, Gu Liang and Yang Ye were walking shoulder to shoulder.
With the dazed expression Gu Liang wore, he resembled a walking corpse slightly.
Yang Ye a.s.sumed that this was the result of the punishment in the small black room exhausting too much of his energy.
“Are you alright? Will you get a fever from this?” Yang Ye noted that his face was slightly red. He placed the back of his hand on his forehead and said in a grave tone: “It feels a little hot.”
“It’s fine, I just want to sleep for a while.” Gu Liang said.
“Where do you want to sleep?”
“Your place, probably. It’s impossible to sleep in Perennial w.a.n.g’s room, Beauty Yi’s Yafang Ju is too feminine for my tastes and I’m not accustomed to it. The wooden bed in Master Hui’s guest room is good enough.”
“Sure. I’ll send you back to rest first and then I’ll go and make lunch. Once it’s done, I’ll deliver it to you.”
At this moment, Yang Ye seemed to hear Second Martial Brother ask him something. Thus, he turned to glance at him. “What did you say just now?”
Second Martial Brother repeated his question: “I said, what do you think of h.o.m.os.e.xuals?”
Yang Ye looked at Gu Liang subconsciously.
He really wanted to know how Gu Liang would answer.