Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Han Wuxian was late. As usual, there was a tender smile on her face that didn’t seem apologetic at all. The only aspect of her that was different from her usual manner was the fact that her hair was coiled on top of her head, which made her look even taller.
“Your charisma has improved, Dragon King.” After looking around the huge tent, Han Wuxian seemed to be most interested in the furniture. “I guess that all those servants out there are yours as well? Tsk, tsk. Like what I told you before, your former dwelling was too shabby.”
This tent was a gift from Prime Minister Zhong Heng, and those dozens of servants had been sent over by Queen Ju. Gu Shenwei had accepted them all, but felt uneasy about it. “I heard that you recruited a lot of kung fu experts in Jade City. You must have quite a charisma about yourself, don’t you?”
“Ha-ha.” Han Wuxian let out her typical laugh and it like the tent wouldn’t be able to contain this big laugh even if it were twice as large. “From your perspective, my men are nothing compared to yours, Dragon King. It’s better to have them than having none, though. They’re merely an improvised team and they are not doing a very good job either. Though, they did get some jobs done. I’ve already found some of those traitors’ strongholds, and it won’t be long before I find Lotus’ hideout. I know that you’re very busy, so I made a decision to start besieging those strongholds three days later, and hopefully, Lotus will be forced to show up. Apparently, these kung fu ‘experts’ of mine are not ‘expert’ enough. So, I will need your help.”
“Abort the operation.”
“My ears have never failed me before, but would you please say that again?” the smile on Han Wuxian’s face grew even more tender.
“Give up on the siege,” Gu Shenwei repeated blandly. Han Wuxian was not easy to control, so he had to fully concentrate when facing her.
“Surely you have a reason for that?”
“I do, and it’s a pretty good one. I can’t tell you much about it for the moment, but I can tell you this much – I might need Lotus’ help for some time to come.
Han Wuxian paced up and down about ten steps away from the Dragon King. Every time she turned around she would raise her head and glance at him, the smile on her face growing more seductive each and every time. “My heart has just broken into pieces at your words, Dragon King. This is the first time that I have allied with an outsider, and yet this is what I get. Alas, everybody says that the people from Waning Moon Hall are good at using poison, but no poison could be more harmful than the words you just said, Dragon King.”
The angrier Han Wuxian was, the tenderer her voice became. At this point, her tone was so saccharine that she almost seemed puerile.
“This is not the end.” Gu Shenwei’s voice was still bland as ever, and there was no fluctuation in it, as if it were a steady rock in a fast-flowing river. “This is just a means. Eventually, there will still be a life-or-death fight between me and Lotus, and you will also get your revenge on Waning Moon Hall.”
Han Wuxian abruptly sat down, cross-legged, on a chair beside her, revealing part of her smooth calves and exquisitely embroidered shoes. This scene was so entrancing that any onlookers almost forgot that it was already winter.
“Should I keep my faith in you, Dragon King?” she said as she stared fixedly at the Dragon King’s face. With a look of confusion on her face, she seemed to be mumbling aimlessly. “Han Wuxian, you’ve been betrayed before. Dragon King and Lotus seem to have been cut from the same cloth. Will he cheat you once again? Alas, it is easier to make a man change his mind than it is to break a stem of grass. Exactly what makes Lotus better than Han Wuxian?”
The tender smile reappeared on her face. Han Wuxian seemed like an old Buddhist monk who had just finished a deep meditation session and noticed that there was someone else beside her. “So, the rumor is true?”
“Which rumor?” asked Gu Shenwei, who had been listening quietly while she was speaking to herself.
“The one that Dragon King and Lotus uncovered the secret to saber-sword cooperation, that it doubles your strength, and that you’re going to join hands to challenge the Unique King.”
“There are always rumors that are the truth as well as others that are wrong. You should just ignore them all, Hall Leader Han.”
“Lotus’ kung fu is better than mine,” Han Wuxian begrudgingly said with a slightly bitter tone. “No wonder you want to cooperate with her. But then what? After you two eliminate the Unique King, opponents stronger than him will show up. Will you continue to cooperate with Lotus?”
“I won’t speculate about your further plans after you get Waning Moon Hall back, Hall Leader Han.”
“Ha-ha, so I shouldn’t speculate on your further attempts either, huh, Dragon King. Alright then. I’ll trust you this time. Take this as a reward for your saving me from my previous misery. Do you still want me to search for Lotus? I’ve found plenty of clues already.”
“Sure. Even though I want to cooperate with her, I still hope to know more about her.”
Han Wuxian instantly stood up as if something urgent had just occurred to her. “Okay, then. It seems that you’re always the one calling the shots no matter who you’re cooperating with. I like people of your type.”
Without saying any polite farewells, Han Wuxian abruptly walked out of the tent.
The next person that Gu Shenwei had a one-on-one meeting with was Hu Shining, a training retired Golden Roc Castle tutor who had worked for the Dragon King for the past two years.
Hu Shining didn’t carry any weapons. He bowed and paid his respect to the Dragon King in a neither casual nor obsequious manner. “Your subordinate Hu Shining pays his respects to you, Dragon King.”
Gu Shenwei was sitting on a couch: upper body straight, right hand on the knee, left hand holding the saber hilt, and a dignified look on his face – his manner was flawless in the eyes of this old teacher. “Report what you have.”
“Yes. Before that, I hope to report something else to you, Dragon King.”
“Go ahead.”
“Golden Roc Castle sent someone to me and wanted me to join the Heavenly Mountain Sect. I declined.”
“Good.” Gu Shenwei already knew about this, but he felt more relieved after hearing it from Hu Shining himself.
Hu Shining was a standard killer, so his words were accurate and succinct, “The number of Heavenly Mountain Sect’s members has grown with every passing day. The total number was 516 as of last night, and 357 of them are former killers. The other 159 people were hired at a high price. They’re from various places – the Central Plains, Norland, and the Western Regions, to name a few.”
This number was smaller than the one that Gu Shenwei had heard earlier. “Does the Heavenly Mountain Sect have strict entrance requirements?”
“Mm. Many people claim that they’re members of the Heavenly Mountain Sect, but I did some research and I found that most of them are not.”
“What do you know about this tide of assassinations?”
“The whole situation is a mess. During the past month, there have been about 120 to 150 casualties in Jade City, and I think that less than half of them directly died of assassination. The rest were killed by people who took advantage of this chaotic situation.”
Gu Shenwei believed that Hu Shining was right. Jade City was full of hatred. Whenever someone started killing, a lot of people would follow suit.
“From your personal experience, who do you think the mastermind behind this is?”
Hu Shining contemplated for a while before answering, “I would say that there isn’t just one.”
“Oh? Old Man Mu said that some kung fu expert was trying to improve their kung fu skills by killing people.”
“Old Man Mu has a point. But it is what this kung fu expert wants to do after they finish improving their skills that concerns me. I believe that it will prove very helpful if we find this kung fu expert first.”
“I’ll leave this to you then.”
“Yes.”
Xu Xiaoyi was the next one to be summoned to the tent. The atmosphere in the tent finally relaxed, and Gu Shenwei could walk around casually. Xu Xiaoyi followed the Dragon King around. One moment he was thinking and the next he was smirking, which made his moustache seemed less grave.
“Your guess is very accurate, Dragon King.” Xu Xiaoyi’s reverence for the Dragon King was so deep that it almost seemed like obeisance. If it wasn’t for his prior knowledge that the Dragon King’s personality was a little conservative and rigid, he would have expressed it in a bolder manner. “Both Little Chu and Dog Butcher are honest men. Shangguan Fei seizes every possible chance he can to visit Madam Meng and does whatever she tells him to do. He hasn’t taken any particular action. As for Old Man Mu and Han Wuxian, heh-heh, just as you have predicted, Dragon King, this old pair of fools have their own malicious plans, and so the mole should be one of them.”
Gu Shenwei had never forgotten about the occasion where his whereabouts had been disclosed, so he had ordered Xu Xiaoyi to investigate it, and Old Man Mu and Han Wuxian were the main suspects.
It was not viable for Xu Xiaoyi to actually track these two kung fu experts, since he knew nothing about kung fu, and he had no kung fu experts at his command. So, he had to find another way to collect intelligence.
Both Old Man Mu and Han Wuxian had their own unique, striking features, and everybody had a lasting impression of them once they saw them. It was very difficult to track them when they were trying to cover their tracks, but if they showed themselves publicly, they were easy to spot.
Xu Xiaoyi had a close-knit intelligence group: from thieves on the streets, waiters in taverns, to servants in rich families, he had spies spread everywhere throughout the underclass of Jade City.
These people were nobodies who everybody tended to ignore, but Xu Xiaoyi found that they made excellent subordinates.
He produced a stack of sketched maps of Jade City, each of which had a black or red line as well as some differently sized circles on it. “The black lines represent Old Man Mu, and the red ones Han Wuxian. These are the places that they’ve visited recently. The circles represent my speculations.”
Gu Shenwei looked through these maps one by one, nodding occasionally. Encouraged by his actions, Xu Xiaoyi became very excited. “Look. Han Wuxian is moving closer to Golden Roc Castle. I haven’t gotten any solid information from inside Golden Roc Castle yet, but judging from these maps, she disappeared in northern Jade City and reappeared there later. Where could she have gone if not Golden Roc Castle?”
“Let’s take a look at Old Man Mu. His routes were a little bit more complicated. It seems as if he was wandering around the whole city with no particular destination, but I’ve received reliable news that Old Man Mu has been to the Heavenly Mountain Sect and met with Sect Leader Du Jian. I’m sure that he never mentioned this to Dragon King, right?”
Gu Shenwei didn’t answer.
“This old couple – Old Man Mu and Han Wuxian – are conspiring with each other against the Dragon King,” Xu Xiaoyi concluded.
“No. They are working separately.” Gu Shenwei corrected Xu Xiaoyi’s wrong opinions. “Look. Their routes on two consecutive days overlapped frequently.”
“Doesn’t it prove that they’re colluding?” Xu Xiaoyi asked out of confusion.
“Nominally, both of them are still my subordinates, and there’s no need for them to secretly collude,” explained Gu Shenwei. “Judging from their strengths and personalities, they will only end up doing things in their own respective ways if they collude.”
Xu Xiaoyi approvingly nodded to show his admiration. “Then one of them is the mole. Which one do you think it is, Dragon King?”
Gu Shenwei still didn’t answer. He just ordered Xu Xiaoyi to continue his investigation. If it were only to identify the mole, then it would be unnecessary to go through so much trouble. However, Gu Shenwei’s intention was to use this mole to do something for him.
At the end of their meeting, Xu Xiaoyi mentioned a message that he hadn’t deemed to be very important. “I found Miss Ru’s niece, Shangguan Shaomin. It hasn’t been easy for me. You would have never guessed where Lotus was hiding her, Dragon King.”
“What about Han Xuan?”
“Han Xuan lives with Shangguan Shaomin.” Han Xuan was even less important in Xu Xiaoyi’s opinion, so he was very confused about why it was not the location but rather this insignificant woman who the Dragon King was most concerned about.
Han Xuan was also a Female Gu, but she was a different type than Shangguan Shaomin. Han Wuxian had raised Han Xuan up as a tool to improve her own kung fu, but Lotus had snatched Han Xuan from Han Wuxian before Han Wuxian could use her.
Gu Shenwei believed that he was onto something, and he finally switched his focus from the grasslands to Jade City.
