Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Old Man Mu stealthily entered the tent. Standing in front of the Dragon King with a grave face, he seriously said, “You can believe me, Dragon King.”
“Of course I believe you.” Gu Shenwei was sitting cross-legged on the couch, his hands in his sleeves. His upper body was straightened upright, as if someone was drawing a portrait of him.
Old Man Mu snickered twice. “I know what your plan is, Dragon King.”
“Because I’ve already told all of you.”
“I was referring to your secret plan.”
“Oh? You think I have another plan?”
Old Man Mu crossed his hands behind, causing the tip of the sword fastened to his belt to be only one or two inches from the ground. “I don’t ‘think’ you have another plan – I ‘know’ you do, and I can offer additional help.”
Gu Shenwei remained silent. Old Man Mu was smart, but he was also unreliable.
“The good girl trusts me.” Old Man Mu sighed sadly as he said, “When I was in the Land of Fragrance, the good girl was ‘the queen,’ and I was a wise old man as well as a prisoner. She would tell me anything. I gave her a lot of advice, and I also helped her train female soldiers without making any mistakes. Alas, those days are gone for good. I miss her. What about you, Dragon King?”
Gu Shenwei still did not answer.
Old Man Mu withdrew his smile. His wrinkled face looked like a rough mask, which made Gu Shenwei very uneasy.
“You said that you want to attack King An’s mansion, but you actually want to find the mole, right? That’s right. I still remember what you said before. You said that someone leaked your whereabouts. I know that you wouldn’t quickly forget about this. Actually I’ve also been thinking about this for you, Dragon King.”
Gu Shenwei narrowed his eyes slightly. “It seems that I can’t hide it anymore.”
“Heh-heh. Actually, there’s no need for you to keep it a secret from me, Dragon King, because I’m the last person who would betray you.” Old Man Mu raised his hands before his chest. He seemed to be emphasizing that his words were reliable, but he also seemed to be beseeching the Dragon King. “I’m not sure whether I’ve become a good man or not. To be honest, as long as I’m on your side, I’ll never be a good man. But my resolve is still firm. With my current situation, I’ll surely be dead if I leave you.”
“I’m not the only one who can provide you with shelter.”
“But you’re the only one who’s willing to take me in. I don’t have many delusions about the people in this world. How many people would recruit an Old Man Mu who has only fifty or sixty percent of his strength left? I have a lot of enemies. Over the past two months, people have been asking about my whereabouts the entire time. I’m scared, and I definitely wouldn’t dare risk leaving you, Dragon King. Ha-ha. There’s also another reason. Although I’m just as good at flattery as when I was young, I’ve already gotten used to currying favor with the Dragon King, and I don’t want to serve another master.”
“Did you find any clues to the identity of the mole?” Gu Shenwei wouldn’t believe Old Man Mu just because of his words. Betrayal might stem from various reasons, and it was very normal for things to be a little unusual, but there was indeed no need for him to keep it a secret from Old Man Mu.
The smile reappeared on Old Man Mu’s face. “Can I take this as a sign that you trust me, Dragon King?”
“I’ll never say that I ‘trust’ anybody, but I’m willing to let you be part of my ‘secret plan.’”
Old Man Mu giggled even more happily and his body was quivering in anticipation. As expected, the sheath of his sword touched the blanket, but he didn’t care at all. “Dragon King, for the past two months, I’ve been doing another thing apart from performing normal tasks – stalking Han Wuxian.”
“You think that she’s the mole?”
“You also think that it’s possible, don’t you?”
“Um. She’s one of the suspects.”
Old Man Mu didn’t ask whom the other suspects were. “Alas. Actually I don’t want to talk about this, since I still have feelings for my darling. She has forgotten our past, and though I still remember everything vividly, she’s become so ruthless and ungrateful now. There’s no need for me to protect her anymore. The Dragon King can understand this, right?”
“I’m waiting for you to talk about something more practical.”
“Ha-ha. I started nagging again. You know me… Han Wuxian had a secret meeting with the Unique King.”
“You saw it yourself?”
“I would have if I had my former strength. But now, how could I dare get close to the Unique King? Let me start from the beginning. I don’t know why, but the Unique King has assigned all of his killers to the Heavenly Mountain Sect, and he’s also been hiring kung fu experts from everywhere. My kung fu is just average, but his men also contacted me.”
“The Unique King wanted to bribe you?”
“Alas, how could the Unique King recruit this current me? It was the Sect Leader of Heavenly Mountain Sect, Du Jian. He found me with the help of a couple of intermediaries and had a long conversation with me. His general meaning was that the Dragon King’s advantage was just temporary, and that you would suffer a crushing defeat in the end. But I didn’t buy it. I just pretended to be interested and gave some perfunctory responses. As a result, I became a secret member of the Heavenly Mountain Sect. For the record, Du Jian has never assigned me any tasks, and I haven’t done anything against the Dragon Army’s interests.”
“But you’ve been hiding it from me.”
“Ha-ha. Please forgive me for making a decision on my own, Dragon King. But you were not in Jade City back then, and there was nobody around that I could trust.”
“I’ve been in Jade City for five days.”
“Yes. But I was thinking that I should get some useful information first before telling you this. Otherwise, you would think that I’m a fence-sitter.”
Old Man Mu said the words that Gu Shenwei had meant to say, so he could only ask, “So you have evidence of Han Wuxian’s betrayal?”
“More than that. I also confirmed another issue – Han Wuxian has been rebuilding the Barren Sect.”
The Barren Sect was originally an external wing of Waning Moon Hall, and most of its disciples bore the surname “Kang.” Back then when they had been trying to steal the Daoless Divine Power manual, all its disciples were wiped out. The sect was just a victim of Han Wuxian’s overall plan.
“Rebuilding the Barren Sect?” Gu Shenwei was surprised by this news. “Hasn’t she been trying to regain control of the Waning Moon Hall?”
“I don’t know much specific information about the details. I only know one thing – the Unique King told her to do this.”
Gu Shenwei pondered his words over for a while. “You still didn’t tell me how you overheard all these messages.”
“Oh, right. They believe that I’ve joined the Heavenly Mountain Sect, and so I get to wander around freely in northern Jade City. And I snatched every chance I could to stalk Han Wuxian, but I didn’t get much intelligence until you showed up… Ha-ha, you’re capable of so many things, Dragon King. After meeting you that day, Han Wuxian was furious, and she was not as prudent as usual. That night, she went straight to northern Jade City to meet with Golden Roc Castle’s liaison. I eavesdropped on them and heard a few words.”
Old Man Mu gave out a couple of coughs and then mimicked Han Wuxian’s high voice. “Tell the Unique King that I don’t want to wait any longer. I’ve started rebuilding Barren Sect. It’s time to take action, and I want another meeting with him.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all,” Old Man Mu’s voice returned to normal. “It was very risky after all. I’m no match for Han Wuxian. Besides, there were also plenty of killers skulking around.”
“Hmm. Well done.”
“What do you plan to do next, Dragon King?” Old Man Mu said in a tone of a highly trusted subordinate.
“Carrying out the operation tonight.”
“You still need more proof?”
“No. I believe that Han Wuxian is the mole, and that she will surely leak this operation… ”
“Oh. So you planning to counterplot and stab Golden Roc Castle in the back. However… northern Jade City is Golden Roc Castle’s territory, and the Dragon King’s armies are outside ofthe city. It doesn’t seem like we have any men available.”
“I have my own plan.”
“Then I’ll stop poking around,” Old Man Mu obsequiously bowed and took his leave. As he walked away, the end his the sheath rubbed against the blanket, making the sheath seem more redundant.
Gu Shenwei immediately had someone call Xu Xiaoyi in. “Stop stalking Old Man Mu from now on.”
“Yes,” Xu Xiaoyi answered, feeling confused. “But… Have you found proof or did you just decide to trust him?”
“Neither. Old Man Mu has spotted your men.”
“Ah,” Xu Xiaoyi was startled. “How come-”
“Forget about Old Man Mu. I’ll find another way.”
“Yes.” Xu Xiaoyi took the order and left, wondering how Old Man Mu had spotted his men.
Gu Shenwei believed that there must have been a reason for why Old Man Mu had chosen to confess on this occasion, and the simplest answer was that Old Man Mu had found that the Dragon King was suspecting him, so he had taken the initiative and to make a move to dissolve the Dragon King’s suspicion.
Gu Shenwei had no doubt that Han Wuxian was a mole. She had a lot of reasons to betray the Dragon King and the most important one was Lotus. Han Wuxian seemed to have anticipated that the Dragon King would try to cooperate with Lotus again, and in all of the whole Western Regions, Golden Roc Castle was the only natural ally that she could find.
Things were more complicated about Old Man Mu. He could switch sides faster than anybody else, but his strength was far less powerful than before, so he indeed was unable to “switch sides” even if he wanted to.
Gu Shenwei still couldn’t figure him out.
At around eleven o’clock at night, as usual, northern Jade City became much earlier than southern Jade City. The Dragon King’s killers were all gathered in a stronghold prepared by Xu Xiaoyi in advance. Besides Han Wuxian, all of them were wearing a mask and black clothes, looking exactly the same as Golden Roc killers. In a dark room, their identities were even more indistinguishable.
“Hold your own ground, and leave as soon as the mission is accomplished. Don’t get into any tangled fight,” Hu Shining said.
“Why are you in command? Where’s the Dragon King?” Shangguan Fei was startled and suspicious. Not having seen the Dragon King, he was very uneasy.
“It’s time.” Hu Shining didn’t answer the questions of his former young master. He was a traditional Golden Roc killer. No matter what his usual demeanor was, he would never say anything redundant when performing tasks. “Team One, move out.”
Dog Butcher was on team one. He replied in a deep voice, took five killers with him, and left the house. His voice sounded very calm, but the way he walked was a little awkward, as if the night suit fit him badly. Under his influence, the five killers behind him also seemed a little weird.
Old Man Mu said aloud, “Be careful, Old Dog. Remember to come back.”
Nobody answered. Feeling that he was in an unfavorable atmosphere, Old Man Mu defiantly said, “What? Am I not allowed to speak?”
After waiting in silence for a while, Hu Shining gave another order. If he had a choice, he would have rather taken a group of average killers than kung fu experts like Old Man Mu and Dog Butcher. “Team Two, move out.”
Old Man Mu’s voice drifted in through the doorway. “Come on. Follow me. I may be a little short, but not too short to be overlooked, okay?”
The leader of Team Three was Shangguan Fei. Before leaving, he again asked in a muted voice, “The Dragon King’s here, right?”
Hu Shining still didn’t answer.
Chu Nanping was the leader of Team Four. He didn’t count as an excellent killer, but Hu Shining had trained him for a year, so they made a great team. Walking out of the house with five killers, he didn’t say anything redundant.
“Hall Leader Han, please depart,” Hu Shining said politely, not regarding her as a regular killer at all.
Han Wuxian giggled. “The bait is about to be set. Where’s the fisherman?”
“Um,” a voice came from the corner. Han Wuxian nodded and signaled her two subordinates to come with her to King An’s mansion.
It was completely quiet in the mansion. Scared, King An was the only one who was tossing and turning in bed. He had been suffering from insomnia since a long time ago.
