Chapter 217: Interrogation
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Seeing as Bighead Kingpin had once again prepared a huge bundle of gifts for his daughter, Shangguan Nu knew he had to offer some form of gesture to his family as well. Hence, after Meng Mingshi and the rest of the sendoff crowd left, Gu Shenwei stayed behind to take charge of convoying the gifts.
Led by Master Wei, the fifty beauties began their journey. Xu Yanwei, surprisingly, felt teary that she was about to leave her hometown forever. She had hated the place where she grew up and never thought she would have strong feelings for it.
On the road, she sought every opportunity to talk to Gu Shenwei. While her initial joy turned into melancholy and subsequently into tears, she was determined never to turn back.
“Take care of Xiaoyi. I can rest easy knowing he’s with a good person like you.”
This was the first time Gu Shenwei was called a “good person” and thus he felt a little awkward. As a killer, the phrase even sounded like a mockery. But because he was more of a listener than a talker, he simply nodded in response.
“Since you’re no longer my master, I can tell you that you’re the best person I’ve ever met.”
As per habit, Gu Shenwei tried to rationalize these words. It was probably for her younger brother’s sake that Xu Yanwei was licking his boots right now. Therefore, he replied bluntly, “I’ll protect Xu Xiaoyi so long as he continues to find out information for me.”
Straightening her body, Xu Yanwei seemed as though she was going to lose her temper, but instead, she simply muttered, “You don’t know who you are.”
Gu Shenwei laughed inside. He was no more than someone who wanted revenge. He felt that Xu Yanwei would be of some use to him for the moment, but would not force her to serve him, let alone repeatedly seek her allegiance.
When Gu Shenwei saw Xu Yanwei at the sendoff the day after Zhong Heng revealed the secret, he was completely indifferent to her unrestrained wailing. He simply felt she was unlucky that none of the men she chose were trustworthy and her road was coming to an end. For better or worse, she had, at last, fulfilled her biggest wish by leaving Jade City.
Gu Shenwei remained in the big camp for two days to examine the pile of gifts together with a registrar. The second day afternoon, a couple of machetemen he was not too familiar with invited him for a drink, and he ended up getting into a drunken mess and vomiting everywhere, thereby becoming the laughingstock of the entire camp.
That night, he quietly left the camp and went to the arranged location where two steeds were tied. One would be used for riding while the other fetched water, food, and weapons.
Gu Shenwei had left his saber and sword back in the camp. If necessary, someone would impersonate him in black clothes and a mask so that the bandits of Iron Mountain would not suspect he had gone anywhere.
Not long after he set off, a giant red-crowned roc flew towards him, bringing with it a gale which frightened his two horses so much that he nearly fell off the one he was riding. He had no choice but to signal with his hands for the roc to fly slightly higher.
All of a sudden, he conceived a strange idea: would it not be faster to ride on the roc? Thus, he tied the two horses to a small tree and found two pieces of black cloth to cover their eyes with. He subsequently had to run a mile or so ahead before he could call the giant roc to fly down.
Gu Shen tried several methods to get on the roc’s back, including sneaking on, entreating, ordering, and threatening. On his most successful attempt, he was able to grab the feathers on the roc’s back, but was immediately tossed on to the ground once again. It was only then when he came to the realization that the roc would not allow anyone or anything to ride on it.
It certainly liked him, and on his human body was a scent it had known since young, but that was all. It was not a pet like a cat or a dog, nor was it an animal like a bull or a horse which accepted being ridden on and dominated by humans.
Furthermore, it did not have an owner, and would not recognize one.
“Alright, you shall be free. But are you willing to go kill with me?”
In an habitual manner, the giant roc tilted its head to look at the human before it suddenly soared high.
Killing was its favorite activity, and it did not need to be taught how.
Gu Shenwei scooted on horseback for several nights and days. He discovered a camp by the roadside, three days after Wei Lingmiao’s journey had begun.
The latter had chosen a desolate place, where there was no trace of human life within a hundred miles in every direction, to set up camp.
Gu Shenwei immediately hid himself and waited for nighttime before he made a move. At around 9 pm, he snuck up near to the camp and inspected its perimeters, discovering two sentry posts in the process. Without alerting them, he weaved his way between them to close in on the camp so as to observe the situation inside.
Apart from the fifty beauties, Wei Lingmiao’s contingent comprised of forty-two people, of which twenty were guards while the rest were handymen.
There was a bonfire burning in the middle of the camp. More than thirty men were digging a huge pit under the supervision of several guards. Though Gu Shenwei did not actually see them, he could see dozens of shovels flinging soil outwards.
There were about ten women standing by the side and making laughing noises every so often. They were yet to find out who the pit was dug for.
Not long later, the people in the pit leaped out, tossed their iron shovels down, and joked with the women, pretending as if the pit was just a trifle which Master Wei decided to build on a whim.
Soon, the other women were also called over. It was time for the massacre to begin.
The vast majority of the women had no time to scream or even alter their facial expressions before they were beheaded and fell on the ground.
Gu Shenwei watched the entire scene from a far distance. He thought about waiting for the guards to return to their tents, where they would let their vigilance down, before he acted one-versus-forty two without sparing a single one of them. As far as he was concerned, the only way was to assassinate them in silence.
Having observed them carefully before, he knew exactly how to deal with them.
However, his plan would be disrupted by the giant roc. The strong smell of blood was irresistible to it, and so it swooped down from the sky without being called.
As wind began to sweep up the sand, the people on the ground looked in all directions to search for its source. Nobody raised their heads until the first human shrill was heard. Only then did the rest respond by hastily pulling out their sabers to fight back.
Gu Shenwei acted immediately. He returned stealthily to where the two sentry posts were and killed all four guards stationed there. They were completely unaware of the killer’s approach because they were busy observing the disturbance within the camp.
Instead of dashing into the camp and competing with the roc for work, he hid near the manger, knowing that the guards would run here provided they had not lost their wits.
As expected, after the roc killed more than ten people, the survivors finally understood that human strength was no match for a demon bird’s, and so they scattered in all directions, with the majority running towards the horses.
Gu Shenwei drew his saber and began to act, but not before letting three people off.
The crowd was in extreme panic. Nobody reacted at first when the killer suddenly appeared as they mistook him for just another companion. They only realized that the giant roc had an accomplice after he had downed five people, forcing them to turn and run once again. Though some of the guards were decent at kung fu, they could only think of fleeing rather than fighting after fear sank in.
The three people he let off mounted a horse each, but in their hysteria, they actually forgot to unhitch the horses, which had suffered more shock than the humans as a result of the roc’s arrival. Prancing and neighing, the animals flung the men off their backs. Before Gu Shenwei could act, dozens of horses had trampled the three into minced meat.
The second massacre of the night would end half an hour later. The few people who were able to run relatively far away were also caught up by the giant roc and killed.
While this was not the silent assassination Gu Shenwei had hoped for, the time it took was less than he had planned. He did a quick count of the corpses. There were forty of them excluding the women, meaning that two people survived, and one of them was Wei Lingmiao. The governor’s son had not shown up at all.
On the other hand, the giant roc was very contented and happy. It spread its wings and frisked about, looking like a clumsy barbarian performing a comical war dance, or a youth barely out of childhood expending his excess energy.
Gu Shenwei walked up to the main tent and listened through the drape. All of a sudden, he jabbed a knife through the door and took three quick steps backward.
The tip of another knife prodded out from inside the tent. It slid downwards and cut a huge opening in the door, through which the knife holder fell out. This person had also tried to kill Gu Shenwei through the drape but was just a split second too slow.
Gu Shenwei slit the neck of the corpse before he stepped across it and entered the tent. He could see the conditions inside clearly as the bonfire outside was still blazing.
Wei Lingmiao was sitting on a couch and could still smile faintly at the masked killer. “That’s a truly formidable bird. Your Excellency deserves admiration for being able to tame such a fine beast.”
When Gu Shenwei tore off his mask, Wei Lingmiao’s expression changed a little but quickly returned to normal. “Is it Golden Roc Fort or Kun Society?”
“Neither.”
“Then it must be a personal grudge.”
Gu Shenwei nodded.
“Why, Zhong Heng is indeed a crafty old scoundrel to have harmed me.”
“He’s not dead.”
Wei Lingmiao raised his head and laughed loudly as if he was a poet who had come up with a gem of a sentence after many days of deep rumination. “Ay, looks like I truly belittled the commandant. Do you know it was him who strongly recommended you to me by telling me how much of an inborn badass you are, and that you deserve to be roped in? I didn’t expect him to have thrust a sharp knife at me. Alright, tell me, how has the Wei family offended you? I hope it wasn’t because I snatched your woman.”
He was trying to bait the killer into speaking too much. He knew that if there was one thing which could defuse hatred, it was money, and thankfully, that was something he was not lacking in.
“I am surnamed Gu, and called Gu Shenwei.”
Wei Lingmiao’s face turned ghastly pale at once. This time, it did not return to normal. “You… that’s impossible.”
“I have a few questions to ask.”
“No, no, though it was my fault not to save your elder sister back then, I’ve always wanted to avenge her, and so did my father, who wanted to avenge your entire family. Once I return to the Central Plain, I’ll urge the emperor to send out the troops and conquer Golden Roc Fort within a year. I’ve brought a lot of gold and silver to bribe the dynastic officials…”
Gu Shenwei allowed Wei Lingmiao to speak on until his patience wore thin. He had thought that seeing his enemy in such a panicked state would provide him with some vengeful delight, but this was not the case. Instead, his killer instincts told him that this was a waste of time.
“What did you come to do in Jade City three years ago?”
“I… I came to escort my bride.”
Wei Lingmiao was lying. Gu Shenwei vividly remembered that, at that time, the Gu family intended to send their girl all the way to the Central Plain, and never mentioned that their future son-in-law would be coming to escort his bride.
He raised his knife and chopped off one of Wei Lingmiao’s fingers.
Wei Lingmiao only felt a sharp pain after seeing the knife flashing past and his finger falling lightly on to the floor. A real fear was incited in him. “If you kill me, the Central Plain wouldn’t send out any troops. Do you intend to avenge your family on your own?”
Gu Shenwei’s face became malevolent yet miserable without him knowing. “Why did you kill my elder sister? She was your wife-to-be.”
“No, I didn’t. Don’t listen to Zhong Heng’s nonsense…” Wei Lingmiao’s first reaction was to deny the allegation, but his words practically confirmed that Zhong Heng had spoken the truth. “I… I really didn’t know she was your elder sister all this time.”
He began to cry, unable to find another reason to calm down.
“You even allowed other men to rape her. I guess after you yourself did so?”
“No, no, I didn’t… they were killers just like you, and I couldn’t do anything when they didn’t listen to me. Really, believe me, let me avenge your elder sister. I can bring the large army of the Central Plain.”
Gu Shenwei raised his knife. For the first time, he did not want to kill his enemy in a single strike, and instead he wanted to slowly torture the man in front of him.
“Spare me, Shenwei. The Central Plain truly intends to wipe out Golden Roc Fort! First will be Bighead Kingpin, followed by the Supreme King.”
“If that’s the case, sparing you would be even more unnecessary.”
Gu Shenwei slowly stabbed his knife across.
