Who was it?!
Who the h.e.l.l was the one who had done it?!
Taoist Taotie howled with rage under the face mask, the whistling sound directly turning into a shock wave that blasted Old Antique. The latter raised his hand and dispelled the shock wave easily.
"Senior brother... you did this, right?"
It was as if the roots of Taoist Taotie"s teeth were trembling as he spoke.
Old Antique: "???"
The culprit, w.a.n.g Ling, was secretly observing them nearby. "..."
For some reason, w.a.n.g Ling felt that things had become more troublesome.
Since the beginning, except from that initial collision of auras, these two people had yet to demonstrate any clear intention to fight... This made w.a.n.g Ling feel pretty awkward as he watched them from the side, because it was only when the real fight began that he could be useful.
So he felt very helpless as they wavered between fighting and not fighting.
Besides, there was another problem, and that was if they started fighting for real... how on earth was he going to help mediate this fight and resolve the conflict between these two fellow sect brothers without revealing his own ident.i.ty?
w.a.n.g Ling had gone through Mother w.a.n.g"s novel outline from beginning to end, and in the array of skills that she had drafted out, there weren"t any for carrying out large-scale ma.s.s attacks; most of them were once-off a.s.sa.s.sination attacks, all of which were tailor-made for killers.
Thus, w.a.n.g Ling figured that if these two really did fight, it was likely that it would be a close-range battle which involved the use of secret weapons. And the most famous of all the close-range battle skills that Mother w.a.n.g had written down in her novel was the "One Thousand Years of Death"...
Hence, w.a.n.g Ling felt that if these two people really started fighting, it would definitely make for a spectacular picture.
Facing each other, the two fell silent for several minutes before Old Antique slowly said, "In fact, you never planned to sacrifice those children downstairs for the sake of ama.s.sing spirit power in order to restore your appearance, did you? The reason why you created such a huge commotion was simply for the sake of drawing me out. If this magic array for ama.s.sing spirit power is truly that important, you definitely wouldn"t be reacting like this."
Taoist Taotie"s face darkened under the face mask. "What do you know, senior brother?"
Old Antique: "When we picked up that original techniques manual, you and I automatically entered Ghost Ax Sect. You"ve revered s.h.i.+zun since you were young, and even if we"ve never seen her in person, you would never violate the sect rules that s.h.i.+zun wrote on the t.i.tle page of the techniques manual. Our Ghost Ax Sect might teach people to be a.s.sa.s.sins, but we only kill the nefarious in the cultivation world."
Speaking up to this point, Old Antique sighed. "s.h.i.+zun did say that for every notorious person we killed, we would gain a hundred killer merit points. When we reached a million points, we would be able to meet s.h.i.+zun. But if we harmed the innocent, our merit points would be reduced by half a million. Since the day we found that original techniques book, you and I have been dreaming of meeting s.h.i.+zun. This is the one thing about you that will never change."
w.a.n.g Ling was astonished by this remark... because Mother w.a.n.g had indeed written about the killer merit points in her novel outline – the problem was that this was just a plot setting in the outline!
w.a.n.g Ling dropped his forehead in his hand as he suddenly felt a deep ache in his b.a.l.l.s; who would have thought that these two people would actually interpret it to this extent...
...
"So, when I found out that you were behind this, I wasn"t worried at all. I grew up with you; when you were a kid, you were reluctant to even kill an ant – how can you murder this group of innocent children?"
Speaking up to this point, Old Antique simply sat down crossed-legged with a very solemn expression on his face.
Feeling around in his pocket, he took out a bag of latiao. Sticking one in his mouth, he held up the bag and asked the man in front of him, "Do you want any? It"s delicious!"
"..."
For a long time, Taoist Taotie was speechless. Then he took a deep breath. "Aren"t you going to explain the incident with Black Gauze?"
Old Antique was silent for a moment before he said sorrowfully, "It was indeed my fault, which is why I"ve been atoning for it all these years..."
"But he was just a six-year-old child..." Taoist Taotie lowered his head, and two tears actually fell from under the face mask to drop onto the ground; although w.a.n.g Ling was far away, he could see this scene very clearly.
"I know."
Old Antique"s expression was as heavy as the atmosphere around them. "Since then, you always refused to listen to my explanation. Of course, I know that any type of explanation would be worthless to you. Back then, I had just returned from running a mission, and I hadn"t seen you for a while, so I didn"t know about Black Gauze"s existence at all, or that the two of you were actually so close."
Taoist Taotie clenched his fists. "After I turned ugly, Black Gauze was the only one who would acknowledge my existence. Even you, senior brother, became like everyone else, and wouldn"t look me in the eye."
"You"re wrong."
Old Antique suddenly looked up. "I have never once discriminated against you. After you destroyed your appearance through cultivating the wrong art, I also tried cultivating it in order to find a solution... But unfortunately, I failed."
Taoist Taotie was stunned. "What do you mean, senior brother?"
Old Antique sighed. "Because I too cultivated this wrong art, I became obese. I didn"t mean to hide from you; I just didn"t want you to see what had become of my appearance..."
Speaking up to this point, he took out a gla.s.s bottle he had been holding; this was the delivery he "d received in the toilets earlier. "In this bottle are extremely strong appearance-molding pills which I found online. They"re just enough to restore me to my previous appearance; unfortunately, it doesn"t last as long anymore. When I had first turned fat from cultivating the wrong art, the effects of one of these pills could last for two to three days, but now, it"s very difficult to last even two or three minutes."
w.a.n.g Ling was astonished; who would have thought it would turn out to be this kind of story.
As he listened to everything, Taoist Taotie gritted his teeth. The mood was now so laden with grief that w.a.n.g Ling himself felt a little sorrowful and didn"t know what to say.
"I harmed Black Gauze, and became fat from cultivating the wrong art. More importantly, I didn"t want you to see my current appearance. So after that, I straightaway quit the a.s.sa.s.sins" circle. Now I"m serving as a teacher, which can be considered a kind of atonement..."
Old Antique said all this with a bitter smile. He stood up from the ground and walked toward Taoist Taotie step by step.
He opened his mouth, but was unable to say anything. He already couldn"t help the way his eyes were br.i.m.m.i.n.g with tears.
After a good long while, he finally plucked up his courage to ask, "Well, junior brother, can you... forgive me?"
For a very, very long time, Taoist Taotie didn"t respond as he already couldn"t help sobbing under the face mask.
These two fellow sect brothers, who had already been locked in a feud for a long time, had actually turned into crybabies after seeing each other again.
The corners of w.a.n.g Ling"s mouth twitched at this scene.
He had spent half a day setting up this boundary, but in the end, these two people didn"t even try to fight for a second... this really wasn"t giving him face!
As w.a.n.g Ling sighed ruefully in his heart, Taoist Taotie took out a photo and stared at Old Antique as he said in a voice choked with emotion, "You... a–apologize to Black Gauze! Then I"ll forgive you!"
At the same time, from his secret hiding spot, w.a.n.g Ling stared at this photo and was already stupefied!
Mm... if he was seeing it correctly...
Black Gauze in the photo...
...
Was a black tortoise...