Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
From outside the tent, the noisy sound of horses’ hooves could be heard.
“The chaos is coming,” Lotus said in a soft voice. “We should go somewhere else.” Then she looked at Shangguan Nu, waiting for the Dragon King’s reaction.
Gu Shenwei didn’t move, and Lotus also didn’t urge him. It was Han Fen who was busy arranging everything.
Han Fen first forced the wing guard Green Falcon to take a few pills, and then untied him after he fainted. Soon this man would wake up feeling inexplicably restless and believe that everyone around him was a threat. He would slaughter everything around him in a hallucination.
Next, Han Fen woke up the slave girl who had breathed in the knockout powder and helped her sit on the bed. Six women, all hugging each other’s shoulders, were murmuring quietly with their heads lowered as if they were engaged in a mysterious psychic ritual.
When it was over, everyone was smiling. Four of the slave girls still had blood on their faces but they were beaming with satisfaction from the bottom of their heart.
“They know they are going to die.” There was an unusual awe in Lotus’s voice as if these five slave girls were heading down a path of sacred sacrifice. “Only suffering can make a person calmly face death. It is more effective than all the training methods of the Waning Moon Hall and Golden Roc Castle.”
The five slave girls were responsible for serving the Khan on a full-time basis and therefore, could not escape death no matter if they were suspects or not.
Han Fen walked over to the Master Commander with a smile that was not the same as usual, one with less simplicity and more pride.
Both of them looked at the Dragon King.
Gu Shenwei walked to Shangguan Nu and untied his hands. A few years ago, he would have long since killed the other side, but now he had to recall the blood feud of his family’s extermination to arouse his killing desire.
He was very adept at it. The hatred was just sealed away at the bottom of his heart and it could be summoned at any time and was still as strong as when he was fourteen years old.
Shangguan Nu took out the cloth in his mouth himself. He was a bit confused and didn’t understand the relationship between Lotus and the Dragon King, but he was more worried about his own fate. After a full circle, he had fallen into the hands of Servant Huan again.
If he had to die, he hoped that the one to kill him would not be his former servant.
“King Rizhu…”
“He’s hardly able to protect himself.”
“Lord Wei Song …”
“He’ll follow your footsteps.
“I know which king has been bribed by the Central Plains.”
“King Kuari, I already know.”
Shangguan Nu’s face turned pale. He finally realized that the Dragon King had no intention to kill during their few meetings before and that the tension and pressure had been entirely self-imagined. But now he felt that the whole world had turned upside down, the ground seemed to turn into the sky, and he was about to flip head down.
Was this the effect of the knockout drugs of the Waning Moon Hall or his own fear? Shangguan Nu could not tell. He only knew that his legs could no longer bear the weight of his body as he pleaded, “Please… I can find the mastermind behind this…”
Back at the Heaven’s Pass, Shangguan Nu had claimed that he would not tell the truth even after meeting the King of Hell. Gu Shenwei already knew at that time that the eighth young master actually knew very little about who had ordered his family’s slaughter.
Gu Shenwei produced a dagger. Revenge was revenge. He had nothing to ask, so naturally, there was no need to torture the other side. Even those words seemed superfluous.
“There was a guest who recognized that the head was wrong…” Shangguan Nu suddenly realized that even a lowly life was good enough for him to fear death. So he racked his brain for anything related to the topic that could postpone his death. “He’s from the Central Plains. I’m sure about it. I can…”
As the dagger pierced into his heart, Shangguan Nu let out his last breath along with a few blood bubbles which burst and dissipated as soon as they came into contact with the outside air, leaving almost no trace that he had died.
Gu Shenwei searched his heart for the joy of vengeance but found nothing. There was no satisfaction, only pure hatred there. The barely restrained excitement that had appeared when he killed his enemies like Han Shiqi and Wei Lingmiao was hard to find now. Perhaps only the death of the Unique King and the mastermind behind the scenes deserved that exuberant fire of vengeance.
At the moment when Shangguan Nu fell, Lotus’s eyes were almost full of tenderness and love. Killing was the common ground for her and the Dragon King and also the line that connected the two. That moment of death was like a blossoming flower she had sent to her lover.
The flower bloomed and faded, and the Dragon King turned around. The common ground was gone and the connecting line had also disappeared. Lotus’s manner restored itself to its natural impassive state and she took the lead to leave.
Shangguan Nu’s corpse was left in the tent as evidence of assassinating the Khan. This was not a framing operation, just an arrangement.
Like the Khan, Lotus also had the power to decide the fate of others now.
The torches in the tent were all extinguished at the same time.
The melee of the kings was bigger and fiercer than everyone thought it could be. The palace guards began to feel threatened and a great number of cavalry moved south in response. Although everyone hoped that the Khan would come out and settle the chaotic situation, no one grew suspicious of his absence.
It had become a norm for the Khan to hide and manipulate everything behind the scenes, and his not showing up meant that the chaos was not yet beyond control.
The three of them went to a simple temple where the original monks had moved away, and it was now one of the Waning Moon Hall’s strongholds.
The temple was built on the highest earth mound in the camp of the royal palace. Just by standing in the doorway, one was just able to see the growing fire in the Royal Court.
“How is it compared to that fire?” Asked Lotus.
Gu Shenwei knew what she meant. Several years ago, when the two of them were still disciple killers, the ambitious Shangguan Ru had led the members of the Kun Society to fight for territory in Jade City and while doing so, burnt down the base camp of the Horned Dragon Society.
At that time, Gu Shenwei and Shangguan Ru had watched the fire from a pavilion in the Northern Jade City. Today, the person next to him was different. “It’s much bigger,” he said in a matter-of-factly tone.
After watching for some time, Lotus took out a mask and covered her face. Gu Shenwei and Han Fen followed. They always had one on them.
A large crowd of people had already gathered in the courtyard of the temple. There were thirty or so rows, and each row had a different number of people ranging from four or five to more than twenty, which seemed scattered but was strictly graded.
Everyone in the crowd lowered their heads simultaneously when Lotus showed up.
“This is the fruit of the Waning Moon Hall from cultivating at the Royal Court. Not too many people are here but they are all very loyal. Some people are still on duty and are not here.” Lotus casually introduced the group. She seemed intent on showing the secrets of the Waning Moon Hall.
Without stopping, she went straight to the largest tent, where several disciples took turns to report the current situation. Han Fen was left outside with several of the most senior disciples to assign tasks to the rest of the people.
Gu Shenwei wasn’t invited so he stood where he was and glanced at the crowd. Although most of these new disciples were covered with masks, he could still discern that almost a third of them were men.
The Waning Moon Hall still had to rely on men’s power to control the Norland for the time being.
His eyes rested on two masked disciples for a moment.
Han Fen waved to him, indicating that he could enter the tent now.
With the help of the warm candlelight, he could see a monk’s utensils all piled up in a corner and a long table was placed in the center. With one of her hand pressing on the table, Lotus was looking down at something. She had already taken off her mask.
Gu Shenwei also took off his mask. In a light trance, he found her posture so familiar, then he suddenly realized that this was actually his normal appearance.
Lotus did not feel anything. When she turned her head and looked up, she actually revealed a stern expression that was the same as the Dragon King’s. “The kings intend on stopping the fight. It seems that they are not that stupid.”
“They want the throne of the Khan, not piles of corpses. No one wants their final power to be weakened.”
“I can only move the assassinations forward.” Lotus seemed to mimic the Dragon King’s every mannerism, even his serious look when making a decision. “General Zhesu seems to be a loyal man of King Rizhu’s. If his lord dies, he will take revenge with all his might.”
“Good idea, but you have to find an assassin who’s familiar with the style of Golden Roc Castle so that King Rizhu’s subordinate will immediately suspect King Kuari.”
“Who else knows this better than a golden roc killer?”
Gu Shenwei now understood where Shangguan Yun’s fear of Lotus had come from. He must have found his own killers suspicious but couldn’t find any detailed evidence, so he would rather hide in the camp of the Land of Fragrance.
Gu Shenwei had nothing more to say. He hadn’t come to the Royal Court to maintain the stability of the prairie, nor did he come to assist a king in seizing the throne.
He was waiting for the best time to make a move.
Lotus also had nothing to say. The atmosphere gradually changed. She used to be the Dragon King’s partner. Nominally, they had equal statuses, but she had actually been in a subordinate position. Now she wanted it to change and she was ready, but the Dragon King had no intention of accepting this change.
She clapped her hands, and Han Fen came in with two disciples.
Gu Shenwei recognized them instantly even through the black mask.
The two disciples showed their true faces at the same time; one was Chu Nanping and the other was Tie Linglong.
Chu Nanping had finally found Tie Linglong but wasn’t able to take her away.
“They’re your people,” Lotus said flatly as if they were two lost children who were about to return to their own parents.
Chu Nanping didn’t utter a sound but Tie Linglong appeared to be quite surprised. Her training was too short and she couldn’t control her emotions. “I’m not…”
Han Fen raised her right index finger to signal Tie Linglong to not speak.
No one was allowed to speak unless they were permitted by the Master Commander in this tent.
“I almost believed her.” Lotus meant Tie Linglong but looked at the Dragon King. “You two put on a good show and stole Han Wuxian from me. I don’t understand. Why did you still let her stay at the Waning Moon Hall?”
Tie Linglong almost wanted to argue back again but controlled herself at the last moment.
“I also don’t understand why you kept her. She’s obviously not fit to be a killer, let alone a disciple of the Waning Moon Hall,” Gu Shenwei said as he looked at Tie Linglong who had red cheeks.
Lotus turned to the little girl who felt grievously wronged. “Perhaps I’d like to see what it would be like if I didn’t join Golden Roc Castle or Waning Moon Hall.”
Even if she hadn’t received any training as a killer, the teenage Lotus was completely different from Tie Linglong. They had nothing in common in terms of their characters.
The two had only one thing in common; both of them had a strong jealousy towards the women around the Dragon King, although their reasons were different. One’s was similar to love while the other’s was more like the exclusive possessive desire for a father. But the jealousy was the same.
Gu Shenwei softly sighed, “She’s not the one who revealed the whereabouts of Han Wuxian. Someone else did.”
Lotus believed she could recognize the Dragon King’s lies, but this time she failed. But she still had a way to force the truth out. “Kill him to prove your loyalty.”
Tie Linglong looked at the teenager besides her in surprise, and her hands unconsciously retracted into her sleeves.
