Gu Shenwei sneered coldly.
Although he himself embraced and benefited a lot from the Shangguan family’s motto “Do anything to achieve your goals”, Gu Shenwei could not help despising the Ninth Young Master upon hearing his ridiculous offer. He knew Shangguan Ru well. She was obviously not the kind of woman who could be given to someone as a gift.
Shangguan Fei mistook the Dragon King’s sneer for a sign of distrust and continued to explain. “I can figure out a way to let my sister leave with you without being noticed. You just need to find a place to hide her.”
“You’re a son of the Supreme King.” Gu Shenwei reminded Shangguan Fei of his identity.
“I know, but it’s not my choice. I’d rather be a son of an ordinary man. I wish to spend my life in peace instead of fighting my brothers to death for a meaningless title,” said Shangguan Fei.
“I don’t believe you,” Gu Shenwei said bluntly. He had never forgotten how the Ninth Young Master, an expert at pretending to be weak while preparing for a surprise attack, had assassinated Shangguan Yushi.
“Well, I understand. I lied to you inside the underground chamber of Bodhi Garden, but this time it’s different. You’ll have enough time to wait and see how this thing will play itself out. I can offer you more information right now. Once the princess of the Stone Kingdom gets married, the king will give up his throne and become a monk. Have you seen the monks? They’re going to shave his head. This has been decided a long time ago,” said Shangguan Fei.
In Gu Shenwei’s eyes, it was just a foregone conclusion that the king of the Stone Kingdom would abdicate after the princess’s wedding, so he just replied matter-of-factly, “Well, it’s good news for the future husband of the princess.”
“Yes, but it’s me who’ll become the princess’s consort. To be frank, I’m not interested in the princess; I’m just following my father’s command. If I fail to complete this task, my life will be in jeopardy. You’re different. No one will kill you if you fail to marry the princess. I might as well tell you that my father has prepared for this marriage for years. The king of the Stone Kingdom won’t dare to allow anyone else to marry his sister. This thing is set in stone.”
Upon noticing that the Dragon King looked displeased, Shangguan Fei immediately added, “I’m not threatening you. I’m just telling you a fact, and I don’t want to compete with you even when I’m sure to win this competition. Look, giving up this competition now won’t cost you a thing, and you’ll get my sister for free. I promise you that she’s 100 times better than the princess.”
Gu Shenwei would never trust Shangguan Fei no matter how sincere he appeared, but at the same time, he felt that it was not a bad idea to make peace with Master Fei for now. “I might as well tell you a secret. The Golden Roc Fort thinks it has something on the king of the Stone Kingdom, but in fact, it’s not the only one who knows the king’s secret. You may not know that it was me who solved the murder case years ago,” said Gu Shenwei.
Several years ago, when Gu Shenwei had been a killer apprentice of the Golden Roc fort, he had accused Guard Ju of murdering Prince Ju Gaotai to cover up the fact that the real murderer was the prince’s younger brother, namely the current king of the Stone Kingdom.
“The Golden Roc Fort must have been using this thing to blackmail the king of the Stone Kingdom and push him around all this while,” thought Gu Shenwei.
He knew that his guess was correct, since Shangguan Fei revealed a frightened expression when he mentioned the murder case.
“That’s not the whole story,” Shangguan Fei said hastily and seemingly in false bravado. He looked worried. “I know some other secret stuff about the king. The Stone Kingdom has borrowed a huge amount of money from the Meng family. The country can never pay off its debts. In short, the king won’t have enough nerve to let the princess marry anyone else except me.”
“Even a coward can pluck up his courage when he’s cornered; you should know best,” said Gu Shenwei.
Shangguan Fei’s cheeks flushed red and looked as if he was about to lose control of his emotions at any minute. He suddenly threw up his hands and asked, “What do you want? Do you have to kill me? It wasn’t me who killed your father. I don’t even know who he is. Come on, think about it. How old was I when your father got murdered? I was still studying in the school at that time. Be reasonable, Dragon King. I’m even willing to give you my sister. What else do you want? Just tell me.”
“I want a lot of things,” said Gu Shenwei, feeling that it was the time to end this conversation. “Think again, what can you give me that is equal to the princess and her dowry?”
“My sister…” Shangguan Fei stuttered.
Gu Shenwei shook his head and walked toward the door.
Shangguan Fei knew what the Dragon King wanted—a country, which was not something he had to give someone else. Even so, he still held on to a small shred of hope as he said to the Dragon King, “You can come to visit my sister at any time. She’s been thinking about you all these years.” While he was saying this, the Dragon King had already walked out of the tavern. Shangguan Fei slumped down on the ground and buried his head between his arms, while repeatedly murmuring to himself “I have to survive”. After a while, he lifted up his head, revealing a blank expression. He seemed to have made up his mind and announced, “I’ll be alive and well.”
It was pitch dark outside, except for a few lonely lights flickering weakly in the surroundings. When Gu Shenwei was walking toward the inn with Lin Xiaoshan, he saw two monks suddenly come out from behind a mud hut. The monks quickly left after giving the Dragon King a glance, seemingly very wary of his presence.
“You go first,” Gu Shenwei said to Lin Xiaoshan.
Lin Xiaoshan nodded in agreement and went back to the inn by himself. He knew that the Dragon King was a very secretive person and a first-rate kung fu master who did not need his protection.
Gu Shenwei watched the monks walking away and then saw Shangguan Fei come out of the tavern. Failing to find Shangguan Hong waiting for him outside the tavern, Master Fei stomped angrily and then headed for his camp outside the village.
After the Ninth Young Master’s departure, Gu Shenwei went behind the mud hut. There were two people waiting for him.
Maid Lotus stood beside Shangguan Hong with a sword in hand. “The monks interrogated him just now. I heard them mention your name,” Maid Lotus said to the Dragon King.
Shangguan Hong looked as if he was drunk and nauseous. To support his trembling body, he leant against a wall and put his hands on his knees. He raised his head to cast a glance at the Dragon King, while saying, “They want to avenge Lianhua and Lianye’s death.”
“Strange enough, they’ve waited for such a long time before taking revenge on me,” said Gu Shenwei nonchalantly. It seemed that he was not surprised at all to hear that even monks could not let go of their hate.
Shangguan Hong was somewhat irritated by the Dragon King’s indifferent attitude and said, “The monks just want to find evidence first. Besides, they won’t let you off easily.”
“I didn’t kill the monk,” retorted Gu Shenwei.
“Well, but they believe that you caused the death of those two monks. They’re determined to hold you accountable,” said Shangguan Hong.
“Wow, they’re indeed monks from the Four Truths Temple; it’s typically overbearing of them. What about you? Did you tell them everything?” asked Gu Shenwei.
“Tell them what?” Shangguan Hong was still trying to tough it out.
Gu Shenwei approached him and whispered into his ear, “You didn’t work to kill Slave Qing quickly enough. He told me lots of things.”
These words staggered Shangguan Hong. He held the wall and looked as if he was about to throw up at any minute. When he finally straightened his back, he was pale and listless. “So you know everything?”
Gu Shenwei did not reply to Shangguan Hong’s question. He would never tell Shangguan Hong the truth—He had no chance to ask Slave Qing any question when he realized that it was the slave who had poisoned the monks.
“That’s Zhang Ji’s idea,” Shangguan Hong was vexed and began to ramble. “I told him that you knew about our secret, so he asked me to kill you. He suggested that I should achieve that goal with the help of the powerful Four Truths Temple.”
“So you pretended to be me and killed Master Lianhua in North City. Before that, you paid Slave Qing to poison the monks. After the incident, you managed to set Shangguan Fei against Slave Qing and tricked him into killing the slave for you,” said Gu Shenwei.
Shangguan Hong slapped himself hard across the face and said, “I’m such an idiot to believe that Zhang Ji’s plan was perfect. It didn’t work at all.”
“Is it Zhang Ji’s idea to kill Lianye?” asked Gu Shenwei.
“Yes, when you requested to meet me, Zhang Ji said that you must’ve noticed something. To ensure our success, he asked me to appeal to Lady Meng for help. Lady Meng sent three killers to protect me. They killed Lianye.”
Most of the information provided by Shangguan Hong matched Gu Shenwei’s deductions, but none of them were what he really cared about. “I met with Zhang Ji before leaving the city.”
“I knew about that,” Shangguan Hong replied, seemingly not bothered it.
“He asked me to kill you and he told me that you possess an important secret.”
Upon hearing that, Shangguan Hong’s mouth was agape. Suddenly, he chuckled and said, “It’s so funny.”
“What’s so funny?” asked Gu Shenwei.
“Before I left the city, Zhang Ji warned me that you might want to drive a wedge between him and me. I’m surprised that he’s right. This old man is so smart,” said Shangguan Hong.
Gu Shenwei decided to give up this conversation after hearing Shangguan Hong’s words. Evidently, Shangguan Hong would not believe him no matter what he said. He had to admit that Zhang Ji outsmarted him this time. If he wanted to get the secret, he could only kill Shangguan Hong as Zhang Ji had requested.
“Believe it or not, I won’t kill you,” said Gu Shenwei.
“Of course, I’m still useful to you,” Shangguan Hong winked at the Dragon King and said. “You want to marry the princess. I think I can help you, and if everything goes smoothly, I’ll tell you the secret mentioned by Zhang Ji. Given this, you’d better help me out when the monks take actions against me.”
With these words, Shangguan Hong melded into the darkness. After returning to the inn, Gu Shenwei still could not figure out what Zhang Ji was playing at; he could not even be sure if the old teacher really wanted Shangguan Hong dead.
“The monks have great kung fu,” said Maid Lotus, who had been staying beside him all this while. Her words wakened him from his deep thought.
“How many monks can you take on at a time?” asked Gu Shenwei.
“Three,” replied Maid Lotus.
Gu Shenwei had seen a total of 12 monks during the day. If all of them could be deemed as kung fu masters by Maid Lotus, the team of monks would be second only to the Golden Roc Fort’s team in terms of combat capability among all the teams here.
Gu Shenwei felt that it would be prudent to have a discussion with the monks. After all, he did not kill Lianhua and Lianye and should not be considered an enemy by the monks.
Surprisingly, the monks came to him instead.
Two monks carried a heavily wounded man into his room, while the other two guarded the front and back of the group.
“He wants to meet the Dragon King,” said a middle-aged monk gruffly. He looked as if he did not want to come here at all.
“I don’t know this guy,” said Gu Shenwei, after giving the wounded man a glance. The man was dressed in ordinary clothes, but Gu Shenwei was sure that this man was a killer.
“That’s none of our business. We discovered him outside the village, and he insisted on meeting the Dragon King. That’s why we brought him to you,” said the middle-aged monk, while getting increasingly impatient. He gestured for the other monks to put the wounded man down at the Dragon King’s door and turned around, preparing to leave this place. Before his departure, he added, “I’m Lianqing. Lianhua and Lianye are my seniors.”
“Both of them are my friends,” said Gu Shenwei.
“I don’t think so,” Lianqing replied, putting heavy stress on each word and then strode away.
Gu Shenwei lowered his head to look at the wounded man. He was 100-percent sure that he had never met this man before.
The man was unconscious and had several deep wounds on his back, which had been patched up by the monks. At this moment, there was some blood oozing out of the wounds again.
Maid Lotus walked out of the darkness and whispered to Gu Shenwei, “He works for me.”
The New Moon Hall had planted a dozen spies inside the Golden Roc Fort, and this man was one of them.
Upon seeing the Dragon King and Maid Lotus carrying the man into the room, Lin Xiaoshan immediately led the other people out.
Maid Lotus swiftly fished out a green pill from the front of her coat. This was Blood Coagulation Pill, which was used by the New Moon Hall to control its disciples.
Poisonous substances could often be used as an effective antidote under certain conditions. Shortly after Maid Lotus made the man swallow the pill, he came back to his senses. However, his eyes were glassy, and it looked as if he was unable to recognize the woman in front of him.
“Speak,” ordered Maid Lotus. At this moment, she was playing the role of Managing Master of the New Moon Hall instead of the Dragon King’s friend and guard.
Upon hearing Maid Lotus’ order, the man’s eyes brightened. “Don’t go…” While saying this, he seemed to think of something more important and jumped to another intelligence report. “The Supreme King plans to exterminate…”
Before he finished his sentence, blood gushed out of his mouth; not even an elixir of life could not save him now.