Chapter 504: Seeking Death |
Official Gui left.
Drifting in the Ning Dynasty for twenty years, he had come wretched yet resolute, but left with his heart full of doubts.
Shisan looked at the smokescreen before him: "Boss, just now listening to what you guys meant... are you old acquaintances?"
Madam Lu stood before the smokescreen: "You could say that."
Shisan was stunned: "If it is, it is; if it isn't, it isn't. What does 'You could say that' mean?"
Madam Lu turned and walked into Anfu Ward: "Shisan, there are some people you knew from very early on, but when you see them again many years later, they have changed beyond recognition. This kind cannot be considered an old acquaintance, because the person you knew had long died on a certain day many years ago. But the person just now hasn't changed at all in twenty years. Twenty years ago he was like this, and twenty years later he still is."
Seeing that Madam Lu still intended to walk toward the sounds of slaughter, Shisan said worriedly: "Boss, is your wound alright? Our wound medicine can only stop the bleeding. Let's just leave once the smokescreen disperses. Don't go wading into muddy waters."
Madam Lu looked down at the wound on her abdomen: "It's no hindrance. It avoided the vitals."
Shisan muttered softly: "If Third Master came back from the Jing Dynasty and knew you were injured, he would definitely find someone to vent his frustration on. Boss, you never used to wade into these kinds of muddy waters in the past. What's been going on with you recently..."
"Ah?" Shisan didn't understand the reason.
Madam Lu sighed softly with emotion: "Shisan, I have never owed anyone in my entire life. If someone gives me a fraction of a favor, I will repay three fractions. If someone lends me one tael of silver, I will repay three taels. Only by not owing anyone can my heart be completely clear. Otherwise, I wouldn't even be able to sleep soundly. But right now, I owe one person too much. So much that I don't know what I should use to repay them."
Shisan paused: "Who do you owe?"
Madam Lu remained silent.
She had once believed that as long as she left, she could allow Chen Ji to transcend rights and wrongs for his entire life. He wouldn't need great wealth and honor, nor would he need Success and Fame Achieved. As long as he didn't live a life of licking blood from the tip of a blade like her, it would be fine.
Therefore, she left the Chen Family and never looked back again.
But she discovered she was wrong.
At this time, Shisan probed: "Do you still lack silver, Shopkeeper? I still have some private stash money here. I can lend it to you. You don't need to repay me three times, just repay me two times..."
Madam Lu shot him a sidelong glance, and Shisan immediately shut his mouth.
Shisan hurriedly changed his tune: "Whose debt do you owe? Lantern Fire will help you repay it together. It will be repaid very quickly."
Madam Lu shook her head: "It has nothing to do with you guys. Wait for me here. Once the smokescreen disperses, we will leave."
Shisan was frantic: "How can that do!"
Without turning her head, Madam Lu said coldly: "If you dare to follow, you will no longer be someone of Lantern Fire from here on out. Roll back to your Hu Family and be a Spoiled Heir."
Standing in place, Shisan frantically scratched his head. He had just raised his hand when it tugged at his wound again, making him bare his teeth in pain.
...
The cries of slaughter in the wine shop shook the heavens. The battlefield was divided into three: Chen Ji in one place, Li Xuan in one place, and Qi Zhenzhuo leading the remaining Feather Forest Army in one place.
Chen Ji was all alone on the second floor of the wine shop. The instant the eight dead soldiers turned their arrowheads, with over ten paces of distance remaining, he was seen holding his blade with both hands, splashing out a sheet of Sword Light with the Whale Blade.
Amidst the clattering sounds, sparks flew as the blade body collided with the arrows; the arrows entirely shattered.
The dead soldiers were about to nock a second arrow, but Chen Ji had already hurled the Whale Blade with all his might, nailing a dead soldier to a pillar.
By the time the remaining seven dead soldiers had nocked their arrows, Chen Ji had already slaughtered his way before them. Conveniently pulling out the Whale Blade from the pillar, he delivered a horizontal slash, and two dead soldiers splattered blood on the spot.
When the Whale Blade was pulled out, the dead soldier nailed to the pillar slowly slumped over sideways. Chen Ji lifted the corpse by the scruff of its neck and blocked in front of his body, allowing arrow after arrow to nail into the corpse's back.
The five dead soldiers abandoned their bows. Drawing their waist waist-swords, they retreated backward step by step.
As the dead soldiers retreated, Chen Ji carried the corpse and pressed forward.
Just as he forced the five dead soldiers into a corner, the roof tiles abruptly shattered. Someone slaughtered over with a sword from above, the sword body humming loudly and disturbing a person's state of mind.
In the nick of time, Chen Ji discarded the corpse and flew backward in retreat. By borrowing the snowy-bright blade body of the Whale Blade, he saw the person who had launched the ambush. The other party had a black headband wrapped around his head, embroidered with a white 'Chen' character.
It was impressively that Path-Seeking Stage Practitioner who had previously invited him to the Reed Marshes to see Chen Lizhi, Chen Guang.
Chen Guang threw himself over from the roof. Chen Ji twisted his blade body to forcefully sweep upwards. Blade and sword collided, shocking his palm into numbness.
He turned and ran toward the window. A Path-Seeking Stage Practitioner had to be handled by a Path-Seeking Stage Practitioner; none other than Li Xuan would do.
Chen Ji ran to the edge of the window and vaulted out from the second floor.
Without Hesitation, Chen Guang followed behind him and jumped out the window. Right at this time, a figure hanging upside down on the Eaves suddenly dropped down, pressing a palm onto Chen Guang's chest.
This palm rolled with the sound of thunder, its momentum terrifying. The clothes on Chen Guang's back violently shattered and fluttered away. Mouthfuls of fresh blood sprayed out as he flew backward into the wine shop.
After landing, Chen Ji rolled to a stop, kneeling on one knee on the ground to look back. He just happened to see 'Princess Liyang' stealthily attacking Chen Guang and pursuing him into the wine shop to kill him.
He paused slightly. Turning his head to look at the carriage, he only saw the carriage shattered; it seemed there had been a slaughter.
Lifting his blade once more, he slaughtered his way back into the wine shop and went upstairs, only to find that Chen Guang had already slumped into the corner, and the dead soldiers had all been executed.
Chen Ji was shocked in his heart. He had previously witnessed Aunt Ping's methods when she fought and killed Liao Zhong, but he hadn't expected Aunt Ping to be so fierce and tough that even a Path-Seeking Stage dead soldier raised by the Chen Family wasn't her match.
He saw blood seeping out from Aunt Ping's abdomen: "Is Aunt Ping injured?"
Madam Lu turned to look at him: "It's no hindrance. This person has lost five of his seven Po; he only has the strength to speak left. How will you deal with him?"
Chen Ji walked before Chen Guang: "Where is Chen Wende?"
Chen Guang looked up and smiled miserably: "Don't worry... you will know."
Chen Ji's heart turned cold. What kind of answer was this?
According to Chen Guang's words, Chen Wende had no intention of hiding his tracks; he would appear sooner or later... But what did Chen Wende want to do?
Chen Ji no longer hesitated or tangled with him. Gripping the blade hilt with one hand and pressing the end of the blade hilt with the other, he stabbed the Whale Blade into Chen Guang's chest.
Madam Lu watched him quietly, watching as this youth ended Chen Guang's life without even blinking an eye.
It wasn't until Chen Guang lost his signs of life that Madam Lu opened her mouth to ask: "When was the first time you killed someone?"
Chen Ji's first time killing someone was back on Earth, so he could only answer vaguely: "When I had no choice."
Madam Lu remained silent once more.
Chen Ji pulled out the Whale Blade. Shaking his arm to flick off the bloodstains, not a single drop of blood actually remained on the blade body of the Whale Blade.
Madam Lu sighed with emotion: "A good blade."
Chen Ji looked up at her: "Aunt Ping, did you chance to see any Military Intelligence Division spies?"
Madam Lu nodded: "Allowed him to escape. But there is no need to worry; for a short while he will be too busy looking after himself to bother with you. I am leaving... If there is anything, you can come to Bianyi Workshop to find me. I will be there these recent days."
Chen Ji said impassively: "Just like this, Aunt Ping tells me your tracks. Are you not afraid I will report to the officials to arrest you?"
Madam Lu said meaningfully: "Right now, that is the matter I fear the least. We Will Meet Again Someday."
With that, Madam Lu vaulted out of the window, disappearing from sight in the blink of an eye.
Chen Ji stood on the second floor of the wine shop, deep in thought. He didn't know what kind of role this Aunt Ping played in Lantern Fire either. If you said her status was high, yet she wasn't seen mobilizing other Lantern guests; if you said her status was low, yet she could preside over the capital environs.
Squatting down, his fingers stroked that sword of Chen Guang's.
When his fingers stuck to the blade body, the three Sword Seeds within his Striped Marks System stirred restlessly. But now was not yet the time for Nourishing Sword. If the resonating sound of Heaven and Earth were to ring out at this time, he feared someone would immediately guess that he was the Practitioner of the Sword Seed Path.
Chen Ji suppressed his thoughts. Using cloth to wrap up the longsword and carry it in his hands, he turned and went downstairs.
...
On the other side, when Qi Zhenzhuo charged first onto the second floor of a wine shop, the Chen Family dead soldiers immediately turned their arrowheads to focus fire on him, forcing him to shrink back beneath the stairs again.
Duo Bao looked at Qi Zhenzhuo beside him: "What do we do? We can't charge up."
Pondering for two breaths, Qi Zhenzhuo returned to the first floor, hoisted an Eight Immortals table onto his shoulder, and charged back up to the second floor again: "Make way!"
Arriving upstairs, Duo Bao and Li Cen raised the Eight Immortals table together. Facing the arrows, they charged toward the Chen Family dead soldiers. The remaining Feather Forest Army soldiers tagged behind the two, launching a surprise attack as they arrived.
The arrows were heavy with force; just a few in succession pierced through the tabletop. In just the time of these few breaths, Duo Bao and Li Cen had already charged before the dead soldiers.
A dead soldier tossed down his longbow, drawing his waist-sword to cleave at the table.
The instant the Long-Handled Broadsword cleaved the Eight Immortals table into pieces, the dead soldier instead saw an even brighter Sword Light splashing over amidst the shattered wood chips.
With a single sword strike, Qi Zhenzhuo cleaved downward from the dead soldier's right shoulder and sliced out from his left ribs, splashing blood on the spot.
"Break the formation!"
Filing Out One By One, the Feather Forest Army soldiers behind Qi Zhenzhuo charged and scattered the dead soldiers. The Chen Family dead soldiers originally still wanted to fight for their lives, but the moment they engaged in battle, they discovered that practically every one of the Feather Forest Army soldiers was a Connate Realm Practitioner.
For the Connate Realm Practitioners piled up with silver by those ministers arrayed in red Official Robe, only the Three Imperial Camps would be willing to scrape together an elite force where on average, every person was a Connate Realm Practitioner.
Within Anfu Ward, the cries of slaughter gradually died down. Only a few heavily injured dead soldiers remained in the wine shop, collapsed on the ground to linger on their last breaths.
Qi Zhenzhuo said softly: "Keep them alive."
As he spoke, Chen Ji carrying the Whale Blade walked up from the stairs.
Qi Zhenzhuo hurriedly laid claim to credit: "Master, we handled all of these ourselves."
Chen Ji gave a grunt of acknowledgment: "Impressive."
Squatting down, he pinched open a dead soldier's mouth, but didn't see a poison sac.
Chen Ji sank into deep thought. Previously at the Fragrant Hills, every single dead soldier of the Chen Family's second branch had a poison sac sealed with white wax hidden in their back molars. Even on the verge of death, they would bite it to break the poison sac, so as to avoid luckily surviving only to be interrogated by Meng Ji.
But this time, the dead soldiers had all had their back molars extracted, meaning the other party had made preparations for carrying poison early on, yet they didn't bring poison...
Why?
What was Chen Wende trying to do?
At this very moment, black smoke billowed on the long street of Anfu Ward. Garrison troops from Weimo Ward had come to provide reinforcement, but were blocked outside the smokescreen. Foot soldiers who attempted to approach the wall of smoke were actually pulled in by the black hands within the smokescreen and torn to shreds.
The garrison Centurion's expression changed vastly, retreating backward in terror: "Do not approach! There is an evil spirit causing mischief!"
But the next moment, the smokescreen actually dispersed on its own, leaving only a puddle of blood stains on the ground.
The garrison soldiers hesitated to advance, but a scholar pushed his way through the crowd, walking all alone into the long street and proclaiming loudly: "Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites Chen Wende, of the Right Prefecture Street Chen Family, privately hoarded Crossbows, harbored dead soldiers, and plotted to assassinate the Jing Dynasty envoy. Today, I am here to plead guilty, submit to the law, and allow myself to be bound without resistance."
Chen Ji flashed over to the edge of the window. Silently watching that thin profile on the long street, it was undoubtedly Chen Wende.
Beside him, Qi Zhenzhuo was surprised and bewildered: "Why did he run out on his own accord to admit to a crime punishable by exterminating his nine generations? What kind of medicine is this Chen Wende selling in his gourd?"
Chen Ji's eyes were calm: "Seeking Death."
(End of this chapter)