Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
After a whole night of pondering, Luo Ningcha put forth three conditions to Lady ng for the exchange of the wooden slab. The conditions were: One, she wanted both Slave Huan and Maid Lotus to return to her; these two were initially her servants when she married the Eighth Young Master, and they should not be serving others. Two, she wanted to move to a big mansion, and never have to visit her mother-in-law in the morning again. Three, brought the Eighth Young Master back as she no longer wanted to live like a widow.
Lady ng found the first two conditions acceptable and can be fulfilled easily but was completely baffled by the third one. Every young master wanted to live independently and increase their strength without any help from the fort. The Eighth Young Master’s returning was entirely up to Shangguan Nu himself.
Gu Shenwei pointed this out to Luo Ningcha, which made her furious. “My father is Bighead Kingpin, and I am his only daughter. His position as the leader of the Iron Mountain will naturally be conferred to my future husband. What is there left for Shangguan Nu to do? Just stay with for a few years, and we can return to the Iron Mountain to claim the throne. This is the most reasonable plan.”
Gu Shenwei had been a ssenger for both sides, while Maid Lotus was searching for the whereabouts of the wooden slab among the maids, but in vain. After returning ho, no one ever saw it again, not even the maid that was always with Luo Ningcha; she must have hidden it very well.
Lady ng had finally t Slave Huan. Setting aside past resentnts, she did not send words by maids, instead, she sincerely chatted with him. Finally, she asked, “You’re always with Ru’er and are her most trusted killer. Now that she is facing a crisis, do you have any solutions?”
Lady ng’s attitude alerted Gu Shenwei. He had never followed her orders to ease the tension between the twins. Instead, he had been adding fuel to the fire. Seemingly, she was good-natured, but she clearly has great resentnts towards him deep down.
“As a killer, I follow my master’s will. Even if the bottomless abyss were in front of , I would still jump in without hesitation.”
“I’m not asking you to jump into the bottomless abyss right now; I want you to co up with so ideas.” Lady ng was very different from Luo Ningcha. A couple of oath was not going to convince her.
However, Lady ng did not show even the slightest hint of her mind. “Madam, forgive for being a little dim. In my opinion, there were no special motives when Eight Young Mistress took the wooden slab from you. How about pretending to agree? Afterall, retrieving the wooden slab and curing the Tenth Young Master’s illness should be our top priority.”
Lady ng sighed and said disappointedly, “Ever since that child Yushi died, Ru’er has never been the sa. I have been relying on you to keep her clearheaded. Who would’ve thought that you’re a fool just like her? Do you think we can compromise in the Stone Castle? My Eight Daughter-in-law is greedy. If I t her demands, would the twins and I have any future in the castle?”
Her intentions were obvious. Gu Shenwei imdiately knelt on one leg. “I am the Tenth Young Master’s killer. It is my duty to protect my master at all costs. If anyone threatens the Tenth Young Master, I’ll launch a preemptive strike against him!”
Lady ng was not very satisfied with his reaction. Thus, she said again with a sigh, “None of these two kids is sensible, especially Fei’er, who can’t do anything without his mother. He asks about everything. I read his letters, they’re almost amusing. He said quite a few about you. He even blad his failure on you. I wrote to tell him that he’s the master; he can’t put the bla on his killers and servants instead of working hard. If Slave Huan was that capable, why would he watch soone else bully his master? How was that going to benefit him? Slave Huan, I don’t care who your previous master is but I think you are very clear on who you should be following.”
Lady ng’s words were almost threatening, but Gu Shenwei was not afraid. Lady ng saw Slave Huan as an opportunist for his pledging to two masters. Little did she know about his real motives.
As long as he got the “Wayless Book” and got rid of his Peripheral Force, Gu Shenwei would be able to exact his revenge with no restrictions at all. Lady ng would have never guessed that this servant’s ambition was to kill every mber of the Shangguan family.
Lady ng wanted Slave Huan to kill Luo Ningcha. However, she could not say these words herself. Gu Shenwei could only spare the trouble for her. “Madam, please give just a few days, I will give Madam and the Tenth Young Master a very satisfying result.”
Gu Shenwei roughly knew what would happen in these few days.
Lady ng claid to be in the process of accepting the terms to appease her daughter-in-law: Slave Huan and Maid Lotus were returned to the Eight Young Mistress nominally, and the grand mansion was being tidied up. The only thing left was the Eighth Young Master’s return, but that was a little tricky.
Luo Ningcha had decided that she had achieved a great victory; she did not consider any of the consequences of her explicit provocations. Additionally, she had two killers taken turns guarding her day and night. She did not need bodyguards in case of assassinations; she only wanted to flaunt her victory.
She more or less knew that she needed to win people’s hearts over: As a statent, she gave the two killers a servant. It was this new servant that has caused Gu Shenwei so headaches.
Gu Shenwei’s new servant could be called an acquaintance of sorts, nad Slave Xin; who was one of the ten teenagers that had entered the family through marriage at that ti and carried corpses in the Firewood Yard for quite a while. Until now, he finally got out of the horrible place.
As soon as Slave Xin saw Slave Huan, he bowed and called “Lord Yang” with a strange smile on his face, as if he was reuniting with an old friend.
The ten teenagers had sworn to be brothers, but tis have changed. “Who would still be honoring such a half-hearted pact from that long ago?” Gu Shenwei was puzzled but did not say anything.
Slave Xin rubbed his hands nervously. He first praised Slave Huan’s achievents over the years and then dwelled on his failures, trying to bring up the past.
Gu Shenwei had to broke in. “Slave Xin, do you have sothing to say to ?”
Slave Xin’s eyes sparkled; as if he was moved to tears. Gu Shenwei rembered that he was not like this. He could not help but feel a bit disgusted, but he imdiately felt relieved. He realized that life in the Stone Castle was not an easy one, Slave Xin’s change was entirely reasonable.
“Lord Yang… I… I shouldn’t have said this…”
“Speak as you like. Although the Miss sent you as my servant, we were friends since a long ti ago. There’s no need for you to hold back.”
Slave Xin said several “yes”, rubbing his hands harder. “You do know that I have previously helped you out, right? I’m not trying to gain any rit here, but I feel like I should tell you this…”
“Oh?” Gu Shenwei replied faintly as he pictured his younger self back at the Firewood Yard, isolated and helpless.
“Do you still rember… that white handkerchief?”
Gu Shenwei stopped cleaning the blade of his sword to get a good look at Slave Xin for the first ti. “So, it was you.”
Written on the handkerchief was Gu Family’s sped-up technique of the Yin and Yang Strength. Gu Shenwei went through a lot of trouble to find it. He even went as far as killing Slave Yao. Afterward, this handkerchief was secretly returned, and Gu Shenwei had always thought the person who returned this was the deceased Slave Qian. He could not believe that it was the very cowardly Slave Xin.
“Hehe, it was . I’ve always kept this secret for you, never saying a word to anyone.”
Slave Xin was illiterate, and the white handkerchief was thrown off the cliff. Not worrying about him blowing the whistle, he continued to clean his blade. “It’s not such a secret thing. It was just a small keepsake left for to rember my family by, and I have no clue where it is.”
Slave Xin was stunned. The only reason why he dared to say this secret out loud was to receive gratitude but he was left disappointed. Not caring for his last bit of self-esteem, Slave Xin plopped down on his hands and knees and said in tears, “Slave Huan, no, Lord Yang, let make a blood oath to you. I will forever be loyal to you.”
Slave Xin’s behavior was utterly unexpected. The blood oath was traditionally among killers, not for servants. Moreover, this was the first day of their reunion; there was hardly any room for loyalty.
Gu Shenwei put his sword down and said, “What is going on? Get up. If you have sothing to say, say it.”
Slave Xin refused to get up, but he decided to speak up. “I, I don’t want to die.”
“Who wants to kill you?” If it was Luo Ningcha, then Gu Shenwei thought he could ask her to spare his life.
“No… no one wants to kill , but it’s… those who have offended you would die: Slave Xiao, Slave Yao, Slave Qian, they all died like this, even Slave San and the others too. In the past, they have all talked about you behind your back. Once you were gone; they either couldn’t stand the mistreatnts and committed suicide or were killed by a big bird. There were a total of ten who followed the Miss, and now I’m the only one left… no, and you, Lord Yang.”
Gu Shenwei had been haunted by “evil” back then and did not think that Slave Xin would still obsess over such a thing in the past. “It’s not like you have offended , so there is nothing to worry about.”
Slave Xin was truly frightened, to the point of banging his head a few tis causing his forehead to turn purple. Gu Shenwei asked him coldly, “Who did you tell about the handkerchief to?”
“You know I wouldn’t say anything, even if I was tortured, but I had no choice! I had to leave the Firewood Yard. You know the Firewood Yard is not humane… so when he asked, I just answered.”
“He? Who’s he?” Gu Shenwei interrupted.
“The Blade Master of the Heart Cleansing Yard, Shen.”
Slave Xin originally wanted to keep the truth to himself, but after witnessing the death of every one of his companions and the reason behind their deaths all seed to be related to Slave Huan, he could not hide it any longer. He was too afraid of the “evil” and trembled with fear at the sight of Slave Huan, even to the point of stuttering.
After the death of the first Young Master Shangguan Chui, Shen Liang launched a thorough investigation into Slave Huan’s and Maid Lotus’ background. Maid Lotus had a simple and clean background, nothing suspicious was found. However, Slave Huan’s background was obscure. Although the information he gave seed normal, it did not hold water. Shen Liang was even more baffled by the white handkerchief Slave Xin ntioned. Unfortunately, Slave Xin was illiterate and could not tell him what was written on it.
Gu Shenwei finally understood why Shen Liang could not keep his eyes off of him. “And then?”
“And then? There’s nothing more. I left Firewood Yard right after and ca to work for the Miss. I didn’t expect her to assign to you.”
“Blademaster Shen didn’t have you collected information for him?”
Slave Xin repeatedly bowed his head. “Blademaster Shen forced and wanted to get so information about you from the Miss, but I have yet to see her, let alone talking to her. You must believe .”
Luo Ningcha knew that Slave Huan got into the Golden Roc Fort to exact revenge for his family. If Shen Liang were to learn of this, it would be the end of Slave Huan.
“Okay, I forgive you,” said Gu Shenwei. He originally wanted to wait for the complete collapse of the Iron Mountain Gang to take care of Luo Ningcha and the “Wayless Book”, but the circumstances had changed. Now, he had to act before Shen Liang discovered his secrets.
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