Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Shangguan Yun walked out of the temporary residence, expecting a deadly sword from the Dragon King.
When Shangguan Fei’s face appeared in the night, he took it as the Dragon King in disguise. A thought flashed through his mind: “This was, indeed, a brilliant idea.”
Shangguan Fei always wanted to return to Golden Roc Fort and had been in contact with his Third Brother. His appearance at this time could be very deceptive.
Shangguan Yun and two black-masked assassins attacked at the same time.
The disguising tactics of the Golden Roc Fort were unrivalled. The Dragon King was good at it, and so was Shangguan Yun as the Third Young Master of the Golden Roc Fort. This substitute of Shangguan Yun was not a random person, but a carefully selected one in Jade City who had a very similar appearance and temperament. No one could see the flaw if he got disguised after training a little.
The fake Shangguan Yun had even appeared in front of his uncle, Shangguan Jianyi. They had some small talk, and his uncle never doubted a thing.
The assassin did not suspect anything unusual, and pounced on the fake Shangguan Yun, falling right in between the two black-masked assassins.
As for the other kung fu masters, they were hidden further away. Their task was to encircle the Dragon King when he fled. Dozens more killers were scattered and hidden, trying to wipe out all the companions of the Dragon King.
The two black-masked assassins were Shangguan Yun’s ace in the hole.
For a long time, the Supreme King had been reluctant to send out black-masked assassins for the assassination of the Dragon King. In his view, it was totally unnecessary to pay such a high price for dealing with a traitor of the Golden Roc Fort.
Previously, there was a female black-masked assassin named Guan Shang who was secretly used by Lady Meng and Shangguan Fei. Strictly speaking, she was only entry level.
Shangguan Fei was timid and rarely set foot in dangerous places, so it was really unnecessary to protect him with the strongest Shadow Guards.
But this time, Shangguan Yun paid extra attention to the Dragon King from the verry beginning and regarded him as a close opponent, so he insisted on getting two real black-masked assassins.
The Dragon King thought himself as a kung fu master because he had defeated and killed many Golden Roc killers. It was time for him to understand the top strength of the Golden Roc Fort.
Shangguan Yun was well prepared and spent a lot of time designing the trap. However, his excitement was fleeting. He immediately discovered something unusual with the assassin.
It was impossible for the Dragon King to reveal such a panicked expression, even when he was pretending. It looked like he was being forced to perform the task instead of doing it voluntarily.
Shangguan Yun blew a short whistle, and the two black-masked assassins immediately disappeared. Even the people with the sharpest eyes couldn’t notice them, since they only showed up for a short moment in the night.
Shangguan Yun took a few steps back. Even if the opponent was Shangguan Fei, he had to keep his guard up.
But the fake Shangguan Yun wasn’t so calm. After a scream, he turned around and ran back to the residence.
The eldest brother and the second brother of the Xia family from the Qingcheng Sect acted much faster than all the others. But they were new at cooperating with Shangguan Yun and failed to see his hint, still pouncing on the assassin.
They didn’t know Shangguan Fei. Besides Shangguan Yun had warned in advance that the Dragon King might pretend to be anyone.
” I …” Shangguan Fei only had time to say this one word before the enemies approached and pointed at him with their fingers.
At this critical moment, Shangguan Fei had only one choice — to fight back with a punch.
The two Xia brothers didn’t even think about why the Dragon King, who was best at using sabers, would fight with his bare hands.
The eldest brother, Xia Yingxiong, decided to fight the enemy with fists. He did not believe that the Qingcheng Sect’s kung fu was worse than that of a Western Region kung fu master.
Apparently, Xia Yingxiong had the upper hand in this fight. Shangguan Fei’s moves were fast, but lacked variety, indicating that he was too panicked to remember his moves. Xia Yingxiong attacked last, but ended the fight first. While he punched back against Shangguan Fei’s fist, his left hand was prepared to hit the acupoint of his opponent in the second move.
Everything happened so fast. Shangguan Yun figured that something had gone wrong and asked the black-masked assassins to step down. Before the fake Shangguan Yun could run away, the two Xia brothers arrived and took down the assassin with one move. Behind them, more masters were on guard and preparing to intercept the assassin if he escaped.
However, the kung fu level of the assassin surprised everyone. After only one move, the assassin’s acupoint was hit by Xia Wenxiong, who attacked from behind. He couldn’t fight back and fell down, seeming to be either dead or seriously injured.
Everyone was stunned, especially Xia Yingxiong, who was in front of the assassin. It seemed like he was unable to grasp what had happened. He thought for a moment and fell down, too.
Xia Wenxiong was smug, but then found that his eldest brother was behaving strangely. He jumped over the assassin to check on his brother. But Xia Yingxiong stood up and impatiently pushed his younger brother away. “It’s okay, ” he said, but he also wondered why he fell down with the weak strength of his opponent.
Xia Wenxiong had just lost his younger brother and didn’t want to lose his eldest brother, too. He said with concern, “Brother, your mouth is bleeding. ”
Xia Yingxiong wiped his mouth and saw the blood. He glared at his younger brother, blaming him for meddling and shaming him in public. But capturing the assassin alive was, indeed, very praiseworthy. “Cloud King…” he began to say.
The Cloud King was not as happy as he was, though.
Shangguan Yun waved his hand and a guard went over to lift up the fallen assassin.
Shangguan Fei had been severely hurt from falling, with his nose and forehead bleeding. He drew a long face and said, “Third Brother, I was forced and betrayed. ”
Maid Lotus promised to carry out the assassination mission with him. She also said that if Shangguan Yun didn’t kill her the first time, he wouldn’t kill her the second time. However, her only contribution was to shove him into the trap and leave him there, alone.
Shangguan Yun snorted with a smile. This move of the Dragon King was too strange. He asked Xia Wenxiong to release Shangguan Fei’s acupoint and issued an order to the others, “There are more assassins hidden here. Find them out.”
After entering the mineshaft and lighting the oil lamp, Shangguan Fei got more comfortable. The attitude of the Third Brother was as kind as before, and he sent away his substitute to see Shangguan Fei alone, as an act of trust.
Before Shangguan Yun could ask, Shangguan Fei confessed everything and especially emphasized that all his actions were forced.
After hearing this, Shangguan Yun finally realized that the assassination attempt had nothing to do with the Dragon King. He was not the only one who couldn’t find the Dragon King — neither could Maid Lotus.
Shangguan Yun’s question thus became,”What is the intention of Maid Lotus?”
“That bitch,” Shangguan Fei finally let it out after feeling oppressed for so long, and then felt much better. “She betrayed me, betrayed everyone. She said she would break the trap for the Dragon King. But she ran away, leaving everyone else behind. ”
The guards kept reporting news from outside, and Shangguan Fei listened carefully to each one of them. The guards reported that another assassin had been caught, but didn’t described the appearance of the captive. Finally, Shangguan Fei mustered up some courage, gnashed his teeth and then said, “There is a swordsman from the Great Snowmountain named Long Fanyun. If you catch him, please hand him over to me. He took me as a hostage and forced me to go across the sea and enter the mountain. By the way, Third Brother, you have to be careful. Meng Mingshu has some connection with the Dragon King…”
Shangguan Fei had confessed his mission of sending a message to Meng Mingshu and was about to telll him more just as the temporary wooden door of the mineshaft was knocked open, and Xia Wenxiong broke in. His face was red as blood and furious. He pounced on the transfixed Shangguan Fei and shouted, “I’m gonna kill you! ”
Shangguan Fei had just started feeling safe and was totally defenseless. There was no way he could dodge Xia Wenxiong.
Shangguan Yun stepped to Xia Wenxiong’s side fast and put his left hand on his shoulder to stop him from advancing. He said, “This is my brother, Shangguan Fei. Take it easy.”
Xia Wenxiong was outraged and forgot that the Cloud King was his master. He pointed to Shangguan Fei, gnashed his teeth, and growled, “This bastard killed my eldest brother!”
Shangguan Yun was a little surprised. Xia Yingxiong just fell down and bled a little, and he had been speaking loudly moments ago. “Your brother died?” asked Shangguan Yun.
Xia Wenxiong nodded indignantly, saying, “He kept vomiting blood until he died — nobody could stop it. Someone said his guts were all broken into pieces. This bastard is ruthless, I … I …”
Xia Wenxiong’s hands were covered with blood, and he was eager to take revenge. He didn’t care if it was the Cloud King’s brother. But the hand on his left shoulder seemed to be the weight of a thousand stones. He tried several times but couldn’t move under it. He looked back and found that the Cloud King’s face was stern. That made him sacred, and he restrained himself immediately.
Shangguan Fei kept stepping back and ended up with his back against the wet and cold wall. He kept shaking his head and said,”That’s impossible, impossible… you all want to frame me. Third Brother saw it — I was beaten.”
“It’s you. You pretended your kung fu skills were low, but secretly, you used the evil tactics,” Xia Wenxiong said, not backing down.
Shangguan Yun suddenly remembered something and asked, “I received information that someone killed a killer with one punch on the north shore. Was that you? ”
Shangguan Fei instinctively denied it, “It was not me. It was Long Fanyun. He …”
Third Brother’s eyes were not so kind anymore. Shangguan Fei was too scared to keep lying and confessed,”It might have been me, but I only punched him once and didn’t use full strength at all. He fell down because of a sudden illness, which had nothing to do with me. ”
Shangguan Fei became less confident. He had doubted before that he had killed the killer himself. How could he have that skill? Now another piece of evidence was in front of him. Xia Yingxiong had better Internal Strength, so he had stayed alive longer.
Shangguan Fei opened his mouth and slowly understood the whole story.
Shangguan Yun didn’t know what his ninth brother was thinking, but he knew that it was right to spare Shangguan Fei’s life.
Suddenly there were very loud noises outside, as if thousands of troops and horses were coming to kill him.
A panic guard rushed in and said, “Soldiers have mutinied, saying they want to kill the Cloud King to avenge Ha Chilie.”
Ha Chilie died at the hands of Maid Lotus. Shangguan Yun revealed his death to the outside, but blamed a Golden Roc killer for his death. Ha Chilie was a useful traitor. Even though he had died, he had to retain the image of a loyal minister of the Dragon King for the time being.
This arrangement also posed a problem. Many tribe soldiers still considered themselves members of the Dragon Army.
“No need to panic. Block all the entrances. Kill all the soldiers who have already run out.”
Shangguan Yun did not worry about the mutiny of soldiers. There were many spies in the army, and they were able to control the situation. The soldiers were stirred up, but without any unification. They were just a mob.
What he couldn’t understand was Maid Lotus.
The mutiny outside was apparently provoked by her, but in this way, the Dragon Army would suffer heavy losses, regardless of the outcome. The army would definitely be exposed and the so-called “surprise soldiers” would never exist. The decisive battle would happen the day after tomorrow. The main force of the Dragon Army, which was at a disadvantage, would never win.
This move of Maid Lotus’s almost destroyed all of the hopes of the Dragon Army, and the only use of it was to remind the Dragon King of the trap.
Shangguan Yun finally realized that he had made a big mistake. Maid Lotus was a woman, and a woman from the New Moon Hall. She was already insane enough to sacrifice tens of thousands of people to save the life of the Dragon King.
Did she know that the Dragon King would hate her to the core for this?
Shangguan Yun never thought that his plan would be destroyed at the hands of a crazy woman. Maid Lotus had said he would regret not killing her, and at this moment he did.
However, he was still the winner, and the whole Western Region would know afterwards that he destroyed the ambush, and that was why the Golden Roc Army would win in the final battle.
The Dragon King, hiding in the dark, was probably helpless.
