1843 Making Sacrifices
Wu Shuai became rank eight, he broke the encirclement and swept the pressure away. Not only that, he even found the only chance to defeat Heavenly Court, that was to borrow Red Lotus’ power.
Red Lotus had yet to become a venerable, but he was already predestined to become a future venerable. Even though this was just a guess, the entire Gu Immortal world was inclined to believe it. If not for this, why would Duke Long and Heavenly Court try all ways to convince him? Back then, Duke Long descended and took him in as a disciple, it was an obvious sign.
After talking to Gu Liang, Wu Shuai changed his strategy, he started to keep a low profile, he no longer acted like before.
Originally, after becoming rank eight, the dragonman race was very excited, there was finally a rank eight great expert that could back them up.
However, Wu Shuai started to get close to Heavenly Court and Central Continent’s ten great ancient sects, many dragonmen could not understand him.
Wu Shuai put in a lot of effort to show a repentant att.i.tude, he gradually won the trust and favor of the ten great ancient sects. He purposely got close to Heavenly Court and tried all ways to get information about them.
In fact, he even put in funds to make an Immortal Gu House for Heavenly Court.
As for the conflict between dragonmen and humans, he also changed his stance, he suppressed dragonmen to protect the benefits of the humans.
After a hundred years, even though Wu Shuai gained some success, he could not gain Heavenly Court’s trust.
“What should I do?” Wu Shuai was anxious, he discussed with Gu Liang.
Gu Liang said: “You are a dragonman, Heavenly Court has always been extremely wary of variant humans, they look down on variant humans from the depths of their hearts. Our only hope is Duke Long, we need to target him.”
“How do I gain Duke Long’s trust? His impression of me is…” Wu Shuai smiled bitterly as he shook his head.
Gu Liang looked at Wu Shuai solemnly: “It will depend on whether you can make sacrifices.”
Wu Shuai did not hesitate, he immediately answered: “I’ve been planning for the dragonman race all along, so what if I have to make sacrifices?”
“Good.” Gu Liang clapped: “Only a person like you can accomplish great things.”
Gu Liang gave his plan but Wu Shuai hesitated. Because Gu Liang was asking Wu Shuai to sacrifice Huang Wei on purpose!
Huang Wei was a rank seven dragonman Gu Immortal now, he had followed Wu Shuai since his youth, he had always been working hard in developing South Flower Island with Wu Shuai, he was loyal and had made many accomplishments, there was no chance he would ever betray Wu Shuai.
Gu Liang urged him: “Everyone in the world knows about your relations.h.i.+p with Huang Wei. We can create a situation where you need to make a choice. If you defend the interests of the humans and sacrifice Huang Wei, Duke Long will definitely change his opinion towards you!”
“But… you want me to kill my greatest general, and he is the person who trusts and idolizes me the most…” Wu Shuai gritted his teeth, he was hesitant and unwilling to do so.
“I believe that if Huang Wei knows the purpose of his sacrifice, he will definitely do it. Am I right?” Gu Liang’s words lifted a lot of Wu Shuai’s hesitation.
Wu Shuai sighed deeply as his eyes turned red: “I know Huang Wei like I know myself, if he knows that is my plan, he will definitely sacrifice himself.”
“No!” Gu Liang quickly interjected: “This plan is too important, the fewer people who know, the safer it is, only the two of us should know of it. Friend, you need to know that even the dead can be investigated upon to look for evidence, we cannot let Huang Wei know of our plan.”
“This…” Wu Shuai shut his eyes as he shook his head: “Let me think about it, let me think about it…”
He hesitated for half a year before he finally made up his mind.
Compared to the individual Huang Wei, the entire dragonman race was more important.
Wu Shuai and Gu Liang plotted secretly, creating conflict and killing human Gu Immortals before gathering evidence to accuse Huang Wei.
After this matter happened, it attracted a lot of attention in Central Continent.
Huang Wei screamed out in innocence: “This was not done by me, brother, you know me, I will definitely not do that!”
Wu Shuai defended Huang Wei at first, but as more evidence got exposed, he had no choice but to ‘uphold justice’ and kill Huang Wei.
This matter caused a great commotion, the dragonmen became very upset with Wu Shuai, many dragonmen started to move out of South Flower Island.
The ten great ancient sects praised Wu Shuai greatly, even Duke Long heard about this matter and nodded in praise of Wu Shuai: “He has grown up a lot over these years, I am very pleased.”
Wu Shuai successfully gained Duke Long’s trust after this.
But he felt emptiness in his heart.
Before his execution, Huang Wei’s last words were deeply etched into his heart, he could never forget it in this lifetime —
“Brother, I have never regretted following you! If you want to execute me, regardless of the reason, I will accept it! But brother, I have not done anything like this. You need to be careful, be very careful, those human Gu Immortals are trying to deceive you. These years, they have not done anything against you, they have actually changed their tactics, they are accusing me now to get rid of me, they want to gradually clip your wings.”
“Brother, you told me about the future of the dragonman race, I have never reached it. So be it if I die, I hope you will carry on this dream. The future of the dragonman race cannot be achieved without you!”
Huang Wei knelt on the ground, crying as he said that, Wu Shuai felt his heart bleeding with every sentence.
Wu Shuai almost lost control and wanted to tell Huang Wei the truth behind everything. The one who framed him was this beloved brother right here!
In fact, there was a moment where Wu Shuai had the intense urge to kneel down and beg for Huang Wei’s forgiveness, but in the end, he controlled himself.
He snorted coldly: “Huang Wei, you have committed a great crime and killed people, you still refuse to admit your sins even now. Sigh, I have trusted you in vain, you are too disappointing, I am deeply hurt.”
Halfway through, Wu Shuai started to cry, his voice became shaky.
He did not dare to look at Huang Wei, he quickly turned around and left.
“Brother!” Huang Wei knelt on the cold floor of the prison cell, looking at Wu Shuai who was leaving, he shouted: “Brother, let me call you that for the final time before I die!! Don’t forget the grand aspiration of the dragonman race.”
Wu Shuai walked even more quickly now, he seemed to be escaping.
Many Gu Immortals came to watch Huang Wei’s execution, but Wu Shuai did not go.
That night, he had a dream.
In the dream, he saw Huang Wei who was pointing at him and scolding loudly.
Wu Shuai told him the truth.
After hearing it, Huang Wei started to cry as he knelt down on the ground, saying: “Brother, you have worked too hard, I was too ignorant, I blamed you wrongly. For the sake of the dragonman race, you took on all these accusations and made such sacrifices, I am willing to sacrifice myself too.”
Wu Shuai quickly held Huang Wei as he stood up, he patted his shoulder: “Brother, I’m glad you understand me!”
After waking up, Wu Shuai still carried a smile.
He did not get out of bed, he opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling.
The smile did not fade from his face, but tears flowed down from his eyes.
Huang Wei’s death caused a lot of commotion. South Flower Island was in turmoil, morale fell to rock bottom, the dragonmen were all very disappointed in Wu Shuai.
But Wu Shuai started to go in and out of Heavenly Court regularly.
This was a major breakthrough.
Once, Heavenly Court decided to build Central Heaven Gate.
Wu Shuai grabbed onto this great opportunity and reported to Duke Long that he was willing to contribute his Dragon Palace.
All these years, Dragon Palace had remained as a rank seven Immortal Gu House.
Wu Shuai had done this after much consideration, losing Dragon Palace was not a big deal, he could rebuild it in the future. The most important thing was fate Gu!
Duke Long’s reaction was not out of Wu Shuai’s expectations. Duke Long said: “Wu Shuai, I am very happy that you are willing to do this. But Central Heaven Gate is an information path Immortal Gu House, while your Dragon Palace is enslavement path, it is not appropriate. Furthermore, with Heavenly Court’s foundation, we do not need you to spend your own wealth.”
Wu Shuai sighed: “Grandfather, I was too arrogant when I was young, I did many atrocious things. Now that I regret it, I’ve been thinking about ways to make up for my mistakes. Please give me a chance grandfather, I will not disappoint you!”
Duke Long laughed loudly: “Alright, you and your father will be in charge of building Central Heaven Gate.”
Wu Shuai was overjoyed: “Thank you, grandfather.”
To build Central Heaven Gate, many resources were needed, Gu Liang came to offer some help.
He said to Wu Shuai: “Heavenly Court has devious ambitions indeed, they actually want to create Central Heaven Gate, it can connect to grotto-heavens. But this is truly a great opportunity! We can target this Central Heaven Gate and leave a backdoor while probing for more secrets and information of Heavenly Court.”
Wu Shuai started to work harder, he went around in preparation of creating Central Heaven Gate.
The dragonman race were very unhappy with him, many dragonmen started to scold Wu Shuai, they called him the traitor of the dragonman race.
These dragonmen held deep expectations for Wu Shuai in the past, it was all converted into intense disappointment and hatred now.
Even Wu Shuai’s own father was very cold to him.
Wu Shuai endured these misunderstandings as he put in all his effort to complete Central Heaven Gate.
Creating a backdoor in Central Heaven Gate was not easy, especially under the supervision of Heavenly Court.
While he was working hard and was about to gain some results, an accident occurred.
His father returned from Heavenly Court, he was gravely injured, before dying, he called Wu Shuai over.
“I got into contact with fate Gu, my son! I received the revelation of fate Gu, we dragonmen will reign supreme, dragonmen will reign supreme!!” Wu Shuai’s father was very excited, he grabbed onto Wu Shuai’s hand tightly.
“What?!” Wu Shuai was deeply shocked, he was tongue-tied: “What is going on? Father!”
His father explained the situation: “I had found out by coincidence, but even though I got discovered, I was smart enough to purposely fail in constructing Central Heaven Gate, I suffered intense backlash and used this excuse to escape from Heavenly Court, to return to you.”
“Dragonmen reign supreme! My son, our dragonman race is meant to hold the heavenly fate, we are meant to replace humanity! This is the revelation given by fate Gu, it is definitely true!!” Wu Shuai’s father had s.h.i.+ning eyes: “Do you know what this means? Quickly heal me, spread news of this to the world. The dragonman Gu Immortals will be extremely excited!”
“Father, you should recuperate in peace now, I will handle this.” Wu Shuai was also very excited, after settling down his father, he left the room.
Not long after, he met with Gu Liang.
Gu Liang learned that Wu Shuai’s father had returned with heavy injuries, he came to console him but seeing that Wu Shuai had a struggling expression, he asked for the reason.
Wu Shuai and Gu Liang had worked closely together, he had learned of Gu Liang’s true ident.i.ty, he was not a human but a variant human Gu Immortal!
After a moment of silence, Wu Shuai told him the truth.
Gu Liang was also shocked but after reacting to it, he understood why Wu Shuai hesitated.
“Wu Shuai, you did not rally the dragonmen and announce this news, it was the right thing to do. If Heavenly Court learns of this secret, they will definitely wipe out the dragonmen in this world!”
“But we need to continue deceiving Heavenly Court and make them think that this secret is still safe, we are currently not safe enough.”
“Your father’s actions were too abnormal, there is a chance that they will find out he contacted fate Gu. Next, Heavenly Court’s investigators will definitely come to seek information.”
“Gu Liang, you know me well, that is my current dilemma!” Wu Shuai sighed: “What do we do?”
Gu Liang hesitated but he still spoke: “You have already thought of the method, haven’t you? In this situation, only by sacrificing your father and pretending that he had died from his injuries after coming back can we escape this terrible crisis of extinction!”
Wu Shuai had a pale face, he stumbled backwards as he shook his head continuously: “You want me to kill my father?! No, I will definitely not do that!”
“You will not do that? If Heavenly Court learns of this, your dragonman race will be wiped from existence.” Gu Liang sighed: “I finally understand why your ancestor Duke Long treats the dragonman race like this. Heavenly Court must have known of fate Gu’s revelation that dragonmen will reign supreme all along.”