Chapter 282: Frame-up
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Gu Shenwei kicked a piece of wood with the tip of his foot toward the pillars that were a few steps away.
Lianye rushed toward the sound. Gu Shenwei waited for him to pass and immediately stabbed him with his blade. He then raised his left hand and mercilessly chopped down on the thick neck of the monk.
He only learned the basics of acupoint kung fu, so he did not dare to use it on those Internal Strength experts, such as Lianye. All he could do was to stab him first and knock him out.
In the house, Lianhua's body was lying on the bed. Half of his face was stained with blood, which made this monk appear less gracious and more ferocious.
A small incense burner was lying in a pool of dark blood at the door. This was the crime scene as well as the murder weapon.
Master Lianhua just died a few moments ago, and the Black Blood Flag mounted on the wall of the courtyard unmistakably indicated that the murderer wanted to frame the Dragon King.
Gu Shenwei found two ropes in the utility room next to the main hall. He tied up the two fainted monks respectively. He then brought the abbot to the bedroom and took Lianye to Lianxin's bedside.
Lianye faintly woke up and deathly stared at the Dragon King, muttering, "Why? Why have you killed my senior brother?"
"Will your eyes get better?" Gu Shenwei aimed the saber at the monk to prevent him from suddenly breaking the rope.
"My eyes?" Lianye seemed to have forgotten that he had been blind for some time. He then thought for while and said, "My eyes are fine, why did you come back? Do you want to kill me? Do it then."
"There is a Black Blood Flag on the wall. Do I still need to kill?"
"You, you..." Lianye's mind was a little confused. "Then why did you come back?"
"I just arrived. Master Lianhua was not killed by me."
"It was you!" Lianye roared. He struggled and the rope tied around him made crisp sounds of tearing, but it also touched the wound on his waist which made him scream in pain.
"I don't want to kill you, but you better stop moving." Gu Shenwei pointed the saber closely at the chest of the monk, "Now tell me, what exactly was going on."
"What do you mean? You came to see our senior apprentice. He was so happy he invited you into the house for a chat and told me to guard outside. But ... but ... you started an argument and then you pounded senior brother to death..." Lianye sorrowfully said. He then fearlessly sat up, ignoring the blade which was pressing against his body.
Gu Shenwei slightly withdrew his saber. "Did you see me at that time?"
"I did."
"But you were blind back then!"
"It was you killing the senior apprentice that blinded me! When you first came, I was perfectly fine. I saw you pretty clearly that time, and it was exactly who you are now. Dragon King, Yang Huan, I will never let you off, and neither will the Four Truths Temple. There are so many masters in the world. Don't think that just because you had once stayed in the Golden Roc Fort that it makes you powerful."
The more the monk said, the more excited he was. Thus Gu Shenwei hit his mouth with the side of the blade. "You heard me talking at that time?"
The monk was stupefied, "What tricks are you playing at? How would I dare to listen to your talk with the senior apprentice?"
"Didn't you see 'me'? Did 'I' talk to you?"
Lianye became more and more confused, and his voice gradually weakened. "No, you nodded at me. I recognized you, so I called senior apprentice to come out."
Gu Shenwei took a step back. "Let's talk about something else. What's with Linghua giving those lectures? Are you willing to help a liar?"
"Senior apprentice is not a liar!" Lianye roared angrily again. With a kaboom, he broke free from the tightropes. Barely moving his body, he had already rushed in front of the killer.
But the killer moved faster than him. Before the monk even said a word, Gu Shenwei had already shot out of the room and jumped over the wall.
This was an elaborate frame-up.
Gu Shenwei was deeply disturbed. He was not afraid of being framed, but the culprit was obviously familiar with his appearance and was knowledgeable about all of his whereabouts. This man even knew what he was thinking, thus he was able to stay a step ahead of him to kill Lianxin.
This must have been done by a former acquaintance.
Gu Shenwei had several candidates in mind, but everyone had no motive to kill Lianye: The enemies of Maid Lotus were Golden Roc Fort and the Dragon King, who have nothing to do with the monk; The enemy of the Golden Roc Fort was the Great Snowmountain. If those killers were able to guess the whereabouts of the Dragon King, then they would definitely make a direct attack. There was no need to play such complicated games.
Gu Shenwei felt uneasy when he thought that there might be a spy who knew him well and could completely conceal their presence.
He made several circles on the lonely and unoccupied streets of the North City, like a ghost who only appeared on a moonlit night and was searching for his long-lost body.
On several occasions, he suddenly turned back on the same route but he still didn't find anything. If there was a spy, then the spy seemed to be invisible.
Dawn had not yet come, but the news of Saint Lianhua's death had spread throughout Jade City. The Dragon King immediately became the target of public criticism. The sorrow and anger had overwhelmed the fear. Although Great Snowmountain still wanted to negotiate for peace, the machetemen and the vast majority of residents of the city would not support it.
The favorable atmosphere created by Gu Shenwei's painstaking efforts had turned into the most unfavorable testimony overnight. Even if there were no survivor or Black Blood Flag at the scene, after these days of killing, everyone assumed that the murderer must be the Dragon King. Except for him, who else would dare to kill anyone in the North City? Not to mention that the victim was a saint monk.
Gu Shenwei was looking for the real murderer that killed Lianhua. If Lianye was unwilling to cooperate, then he had to proceed from another way.
He didn't like being spied on or being impersonated. Darkness was his friend and he didn't want to share it with the others.
Boss Mo, who cooperated with the monk to swindle the wealth of machetemen, should know something.
Fortune Tavern was a small shop where there were only three tables. Most of the guests could only stand while they drank and picked some salty peanuts as wine dishes. Boss Mo once mentioned that this was his stronghold.
Gu Shenwei changed his appearance again. He invited a macheteman for a drink. After drinking two bowls of wine, he managed to acquire information about Boss Mo's residence from him.
Boss Mo's home was very old and shabby, which didn't match the money he earned from those lectures. Gu Shenwei knocked on the door but had no response. The neighbor said that Boss Mo went out early. "Everyone, as long as they have sabers, had gone to catch the Dragon King."
Gu Shenwei returned to Fortune Tavern, where a group of machetemen was enthusiastically discussing the reasons why the Dragon King killed the Saint.
"The Dragon King became infuriated, then he killed everyone in his sight."
"The Dragon King doesn't like machetemen. He must be challenging all the machetemen in Jade City. Um, and the Four Truths Temple as well. The Dragon King certainly doesn't like monks either."
"Could it be that the people of Stop Kills Society offended the Dragon King, so the Dragon King took out his frustrations on the saint monk?"
"Then he should go to the Joy Pavilion first. The saint monk was the guardian of the Stop Kills Society. The Joy Pavilion has the real power."
While everyone was gossiping enthusiastically, a horrifying cry suddenly came from outside. "The Dragon King is killing someone, he is killing someone!"
More than a dozen machetemen pulled out their sabers and rushed out of the tavern. Gu Shenwei was mixed in with them.
There was a corpse lying on the street, and the pedestrians stayed far away from it. The screams were coming from two young scraggy machetemen who depressingly stood beside the corpse.
"Where is the Dragon King?" a middle-aged macheteman asked.
"I...I don't know," a thin macheteman trembled as he replied. "He ran away after he killed this man."
"Did you see the Dragon King?"
"No... no, he attacked in the dark."
The middle-aged macheteman frowned, put away his saber and flipped the corpse over.
It was Boss Mo. His mouth was full of white foam, and his face was ghastly pale.
"It was not the Dragon King. He was killed by poison."
"Then it must be the Dragon King. He must have poisoned Boss Mo." The thin macheteman adhered to his opinion and said it with absolute certainty.
The middle-aged swordsman did not refute it. He did not know who was the real murderer. After all, this matter had nothing to do with him and Boss Mo was not his friend.
Then another macheteman screamed in a panic, "Look, it's the Dragon King's banner!"
Everyone turned back and didn't know when a black flag was erected on the roof of Fortune Tavern. The bloodstain on it could be seen clearly.
The manager of the tavern collapsed on the street. "Why me? I didn't offend the Dragon King! I've never said anything bad!"
The people on the street stared at the ominous flag, and no one had noticed that an ordinary macheteman suddenly turned around and ran into the nearby alley at an incredible speed.
Gu Shenwei saw that the person who raised the flag was a masked man. But when he chased him into the alley, he lost sight of that man. Several pedestrians were looking at the black blood flag above the tavern in horror. It seemed that they did not notice any masked man running past them.
In order to find Boss Mo at the tavern, Gu Shenwei had traveled around the surrounding area once, so he was familiar with the nearby streets and alleyways. He considered it for a while, and then immediately turned around and ran toward the streets ahead at the fastest speed. He hurdled over a number of walls. He must capture the person who raised the flag.
He soon came to a narrow alley, and could not see even anyone in this empty space. It was the quietest place in this district. His intuition told him that the person who raised that flag would escape from here.
He recalled those masked women who had saved people yesterday. They had fled to a few streets away by the tunnel and had succeeded in escaping from Golden Roc Fort's encirclement. This man was likely to repeat the same tactic.
Gu Shenwei stood on a high wall over the alley, where he could see the front and the back.
A man walked out of a nearby yard. He was dressed like an ordinary macheteman, but he looked around as soon as he came out. Clearly, he did not want to attract any attention.
The man walked toward Gu Shenwei's direction. Gu Shenwei suddenly jumped off the high wall and placed his saber on this man's neck.
The man was thoroughly shocked. His hand had already held the handle of his saber, but he slowly released his grip. "You have confused me for someone else, your lordship."
"No, it's definitely you." Gu Shenwei used his saber to force the man to lean against the wall. "Who made you raise the Black Blood Flag?"
"What Black Blood Flag..." The man pretended to be confused, but his performance was overdone. The Black Blood Flag was well known in Jade City. Upon realizing this, he immediately changed his words, "Oh, you mean the Dragon King Flag. You must be mistaken. When I came out... "
Gu Shenwei exerted a little more pressure on the blade.
There was more and more fear in the eyes of this man. "You, you..." He said a number of "you" and suddenly his eyes violently opened, his limbs twitched, and his mouth began to foam.
Gu Shenwei removed his saber and the man slowly fell to the ground as he died.
Another one.
The Dragon King's first stalker also poisoned himself just like this. These two people were obviously timid, but they were not afraid to end their lives. Gu Shenwei once again thought that the forces behind them must be very formidable.
He felt more and more anxious. There was a net in the darkness, and he was getting closer and closer. However, he had no lead. He had too many enemies to identify which was the real target.
It must be the New Moon Hal l, he thought. This gang of women was the best at evil secrets. But what would they gain from posing as the Dragon King? The Dragon King was already the enemy of the Golden Roc Fort, so there was no need to sow discord between these two sides.
Gu Shenwei walked out of the alley with his saber. He wanted to kill the first person he bumps into so that he could lighten his mood.
The first one he met was a child. He was only five or six years old, with a baked roll in his right hand and snot on his lips. Though he saw the killer holding the saber, he was not afraid. He then raised his left hand toward the sky and turned around several times, excitedly cried, "Flags, flags are everywhere."
Gu Shenwei jumped several times and came to the top of a nearby rooftop. Many people, like him, stood on high places and were horrified at the sight.
Looking around, the entire South City was filled with Black Blood Flags, with a total number of not less than one hundred. They were like the giant ravens which rested on a corpse that was going to rot.