Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Golden Roc Castle’s plot in the Royal Court was close to a fiasco but Shangguan Yun looked neither anxious nor annoyed as if it were a trivial matter that had nothing to do with him.
“Living among a thousand of women, is Dragon King looking for the feeling of being emperor?” Shangguan Yun joked in the tone of an old friend, wearing a smile that Gu Shenwei was familiar with.
In fact, Shangguan Yun’s trip to the Norland wasn’t easy this time. Like the Dragon King, he had been looked upon everywhere. Although some of them were acting, fundamentally, that was part of the reality. He had put up with all of the humiliations, or, he didn’t care about them at all.
“Walking in the night, you must be regaining your killer’s feeling.” Gu Shenwei cautiously replied, always remembering that the words of the third young master were more offensive than the saber in his hand.
Alone, Shangguan Yun looked up at the starry sky and did not seem to take the Dragon King’s words as sarcasm, “I’ve never been a good killer, even the feelings I’ve revived are merely afterimage. My kung fu instructor once told Unique King that I was always absent-minded and couldn’t concentrate on what I was doing, which would be a fatal flaw in the future. He was really right. How can I turn a blind eye to the beautiful stars high above and patiently wait for the best moment to unsheathe my saber?”
Gu Shenwei didn’t like mysterious talks. They were like the tricks played by the enemy in combat, the more one paid attention to, the easier one would be misled. “You’re not a good killer, and I’m not a good listener. What’s your purpose here?”
Shangguan Yun still looked up at the starry sky as an extension of the topic, and when he spoke again, there was not a trace of sarcasm, “I’m here to talk about my sister with Dragon King.”
“Hmm.” Gu Shenwei didn’t want to give any hint to the other side about his feelings.
“She was in my hands, once.”
“What about now?”
“She’s in a secret place, which even I don’t know. All I can tell you is that her final destination is the main tent of the Khan.”
Gu Shenwei’s heart sank. This was the result he worried most and was most reluctant to see, “Golden Roc Castle really takes their own women seriously.”
“Nah, everyone knows that sister Ru is Dragon King’s woman. She has been driven out of the castle long ago and even helped you defeat the Golden Roc Army.
Shangguan Yun sighed. He had also joined the seaside slope battle. No matter how to cover it up, it was a fiasco for him. “I like sister Ru very much. She’s the only person I like in the whole family. She’s like me, a rebel of Golden Roc Castle.”
Gu Shenwei couldn’t help snorting lightly. Shangguan Yun changed his statement in time, “She’s like the old me, but she’s an enemy now. Even so, I do not want to hurt her, but I have no choice. Golden Roc Castle has been cornered by Dragon King, we can only act unscrupulously.
“Isn’t that what Golden Roc Castle always does?”
“You see, I told you I wasn’t a good killer, and I have to beat around the bush even when I threaten others.”
“You’ve come to threaten me?”
“Yes, I’m threatening you, with my own sister.” Shangguan Yun finally discarded the last bit of cover-up, and he didn’t seem to be particularly embarrassed. “Our original plan was to let the Khan infect … a strange disease through Shaomin, but he wouldn’t die right away. Ten days later, he would die suddenly beside sister Ru, so sister Ru would become the only murderer, from whom the mastermind would undoubtedly fall on Dragon King’s head.”
‘Then Shangguan Ru would be killed immediately, leaving all the deaths unarguable.’ Gu Shenwei felt irrepressible anger and a strong impulse to draw his saber, “Good plan.”
“Good plan, perfect plan, vicious plan, now all become an unsustainable plan. Dragon King stole Shaomin and disrupted the deployment of Golden Roc Castle.”
“So you and Zhang Ji then made a new plan.”
“The new plan isn’t that perfect. We can only resort to the most traditional methods to send out killers and sneak into the main tent to kill the Khan with King Kuari’s help. When sister Ru wakes up, she will find herself with a bloody narrow saber in her hand. Both Zhang Ji and I don’t like this plan. Because we have to rely on the ability of one or two killers, any mistake will result in a complete failure. Unlike the original plan, the executors were all unaware of the plan and therefore, couldn’t reveal any of it even if they wanted to.”
Shangguan Yun looked very regretful. Golden Roc Castle had begun to change Shangguan Shaomin two years ago but didn’t expect that she would be taken away halfway.
“Go on, I haven’t heard any threats yet.”
“I have another idea, and Zhang Ji and King Kuari also agree with me. Since we are going to carry out the venture plan, we might as well take a little more risks to put the murderer of the Khan on the Central Plains, though this will cause some trouble because the first thing that King Kuari doesn’t want was to go to war with the Central Plains after he inherited the throne.”
Fang Wenshi had speculated that King Kuari had secretly colluded with the Central Plains. Gu Shenwei felt the counselor’s analysis was becoming more and more credible.
“It was me again to make a suggestion.” Shangguan Yun slowly said as if he were telling a story full of twists and turns. “There’s no need to plant it on the Central Plains. Putting it on a certain sect of the Central Plains is enough. Later we can say that they acted in private and the emperor didn’t know it at all. Then we can send a group of experts to sneak into the Central Plains and wipe the sect out, that is, to take revenge.”
“In this scheme, there’s no need for Shangguan Ru to appear.” Gu Shenwei said.
“I said I like my little sister very much and would save her if I could. But it would require Dragon King’s cooperation.”
Gu Shenwei had already guessed what Shangguan Yun’s ‘threat’ was. He hummed and motioned him to go on.
“King Rizhu is a nuisance. King Kuari is very unsatisfied with but also a bit afraid of him. If Dragon King can solve this trouble, King Kuari is willing to make a concession and let go of sister Ru. But if Dragon King chooses to stay loyal, to avoid more trouble, King Kuari would have no choice but to let sister Ru appear at the scene of the assassination, and Dragon King would be the one to blame for.”
“Or I can find a way to thwart the assassination plot and keep the Khan alive while seeing King Kuari’s true colors.”
“Of course you can, but that won’t save sister Ru, and you can’t defeat King Kuari. Even King Rizhu and Second Consort, who can visit the Khan at any time, can’t tell the truth, who will believe you?”
Indeed, in the Royal Court, not only one people had the ominous foreboding that the Khan was going to die unnaturally. Some people even took action to stop the assassination but no one could frighten and stop King Kuari.
As a stranger here, this was the most incomprehensible thing for Gu Shenwei. The Khan seemed so stolid and did not react at all to his arrogant descendants.
“If I accept your threat, what do you guarantee?”
“I am the guarantee.” Shangguan Yun appeared indifferent even when talking about himself as if he himself no longer belonged to him. “I will stay as a hostage. Once it’s done, you can kill me if King Kuari doesn’t let go of sister Ru.”
Gu Shenwei was hesitating. Meanwhile, at the camp of the Land of Fragrance, Old Man Mu was also hesitating.
“I can’t kill you or maim you. Alas, how should I deal with you?” Old Man Mu muttered while rubbing his hands. Although his acupoints were still sealed, he was dancing with joy.
The sharp pain slowly relieved. Feeling embarrassed by his own weakness, Dao Nian murmured, “Kill me, please kill me.”
Shangguan Fei was standing by and watching. With his acupoints also blocked, he was more than happy to drop stones on the miserable old Taoist, “You old cur, he has said it clearly that he can’t kill you, now you want to pretend to be as brave as a hero, how hypocritical you are.”
Very satisfied with his help, Old Man Mu nodded and said, “Right, but it’s normal, the whole Jade Pure Sect is so hypocritical.”
“Jade Pure Sect is an orthodox sect. Old Man Mu, are you going to speak ill of your own sect?”
“Huh,” Old Man Mu seemed to have heard the most ridiculous joke, “I’ll tell you what I have done to my ‘own sect’. I fell in love with my My Master’s wife, killed my Master, and remade all the martial arts manuals. You old fool, don’t you want to know the secret of my martial arts skills? I tell you, it is nothing but being ‘merciless’. The external kung fu of Jade Pure Sect values overcoming firmness by gentleness and following nature. I prefer overcoming hardness with hardness and against nature. And it turns out I’m successful. Even the ordinary moves become formidable and peerless in my hands.”
“So that’s how you master your unique skills.” Shangguan Fei cooperatively praised.
“Of course, you’ve seen my Five Hole Punch. In the fists technique manual, it says ‘Penetrating the mystery and introspecting the five viscera’, which refers to heart, liver, spleen, lung, and kidney. Can old man be so pedantic? I changed it to be ‘Penetrating’ the enemy’s five viscera with one punch. Haha, the power of my fist technique immediately doubled.”
Shangguan Fei admired wholeheartedly, “Old man is really formidable, no wonder no one can beat you.”
Dao Nian recited a few verses in a low voice, and said, “Old Man Mu, you have done too many evil things, what goes around comes around.”
“Old dog, you’ve forgotten you are a disciple of the Three Pure Ones and do not seek eternal life, now you are talking about karma to me like the baldies? Speaking of immortality, look at you, you look younger as you grow older, your kung fu of plucking yin and nourishing yang must be formidable. Tell me, how many women have you plucked?”
“Stop the nonsense, Jade Pure Sect is an esteemed orthodox …”
“The more orthodox you are, the more you like to lie. Plucking yin to nourish yang isn’t something amazing, do you think I haven’t practiced it? Alas, if it had not been the harm done by Waning Moon Hall, I would have been younger than you.”
Dao Nian refused to say anything.
Shangguan Fei, however, became interested, “is it really that magical?”
“Of course, but you can only pluck the yang, a winding path leading to a secluded spot. You can’t nourish yourself though.”
It was rare to see Shangguan Fei blush, “I, I haven’t … done that for a long time.”
“No need to explain. What haven’t I seen before? Don’t think you are special, there are plenty of men like you. The Norland men looked to be forthright but there are quite a bit of that going on behind the scenes.”
Shangguan Fei’s eyes brightened up, wondering why he hadn’t found anyone like him in the Norland.
Old Man Mu looked at Shangguan Fei and Dao Nian several times before saying, “This is really a good idea. Since I can’t kill or hurt you, how about this, Shangguan Fei, I’ll do you a favor, go ‘pluck’ this old Taoist.”
The two cried out ‘no’ in unison. Old Man Mu, however, became happier thinking about it. He ignored Dao Nian and only persuaded Shangguan Fei, “It’s a rare opportunity. The Jade Pure Sect’s kung fu in nourishing themselves is superb. Look at this old Taoist, he looked to be in his forties and his skin is like in its thirties, some parts of his body appear to be younger. Do you think he hasn’t gained anything after taking away so many girls’ virginity?”
Shangguan Fei shook his head, “What’s his real age?”
“Uh, whatever it is. Fairies are all thousands of years old when they marry to the mortals, I’ve never heard of any mortals who would not be willing to accept them.”
Dao Nian wasn’t willing, so he anxiously said, “I’m seventy-six years old now.”
Shangguan Fei was even less interested. Old Man Mu was about to persuade again before the Dragon King lifted the curtain and came in, just in time to save the chastity of the elder of the Jade Pure Sect.
Dao Nian desperately begged, “Dragon King, please let me go, I’ll do whatever is asked of me.”
Gu Shenwei was very surprised, he didn’t expect Old Man Mu was more skillful in interrogating than him which saved him lots of time.
“I want to see the Khan.”
“No problem.” Dao Nian’s answer was resolute and decisive.
Gu Shenwei had to see the Khan. He wanted to know why an obvious assassination had been overlooked by the demigod-like lord of the prairie.
