Chapter 103
Chapter 103
Zhu Yin deliberately waited half a month before going to Nandu.
The two youngsters hadn’t left.
Insisting that nothing could possibly have happened to their master, they remained in Nandu and refused to go.
The city lord’s household had been investigating all along. Now Dingtian Sword Sect and the Dao Sect had joined the investigation.
Neither sect dared leave the youngsters there alone. After all, nobody had yet discovered why their master had met with disaster. What if… the killer’s real targets weren’t their master, but the two extraordinarily gifted disciples?
They absolutely could not take that risk.
Zhu Yin, upon returning to Nandu: …
Oh dear. She had covered their tracks too well. The investigation should have produced results quickly, yet all this time had passed without the slightest news.
Holding the green-eyed black cat, she frowned in dismay.
In that case, she would bring in a couple of useful pawns.
A secret message quietly found its way into a gloomy hall.
“Oh? Those two brats are in Nandu now?”
“Yes, Your Excellency. But they have cultivators from the Dao Sect and Dingtian Sword Sect with them.”
“…”
Something shattered against the floor in the darkness.
An enraged voice rang out. “I told you to kill them before they grew into a threat, but you useless fools couldn’t do a thing right!”
The subordinate knelt with his head bowed, enduring the fury in apparent terror, though inwardly he grumbled: You had your chance sixteen years ago too. You saw them with your own eyes and still didn’t kill them. Doesn’t that make you even more useless?
Once the man above had vented his anger, he asked ominously, “How many people?”
“Neither sect sent many,” the subordinate said. “But the Dao Sect sent Lu Wuwei, and the one accompanying them from the sword sect is… Long Yan.”
“Hmph! A couple of mere Foundation Establishment brats, and the cultivation sects already prize them so highly. That old prophecy was true after all!”
The man above said coldly, “We must take their lives before they become a threat!”
The subordinate looked troubled. “Your Excellency…”
“It’s only Lu Wuwei and Long Yan. Don’t worry. I’ll arrange for someone to deal with them.”
Still troubled, the subordinate said, “Your Excellency, they’re in Nandu. The city lord from the Gongyi family is there too.”
The demonic cultivators who had gone to assassinate Zhu Yin last year were his men.
To this day, the subordinate remained bewildered. How had the useless fools under him managed to slip into Nandu undetected, kill their target, then actually come back in one piece?
He had sent them out as expendable agents. He had never expected them to return alive.
After thinking it over for a year, he could only conclude that City Lord Gongyi must have happened to be away for those few days, while something else had kept Nandu’s guards occupied. Those idiots must have stumbled into an outrageous stroke of luck.
Later, the men had been sent on other missions and died. He hadn’t thought much of that either.
Dead was dead. The Demonic Realm had no shortage of cultivators like them. If one batch died, he could replace it with another.
His words provoked another fit of rage from his lord, who finally said, “I’ll have the Left Protector accompany you.”
Startled, the subordinate hurriedly replied, “With the esteemed Left Protector present, we’ll certainly take those two little wretches’ lives this time!”
.
Having delivered the message, taken a stroll through the Demonic Realm while she was there, and happened to eavesdrop on the conversation too, Zhu Yin left in satisfaction.
Excellent. Her friends in the Demonic Realm were as dependable as ever.
Once they acted, wouldn’t the clues appear of their own accord?
Late at night in Nandu.
A black figure slipped into the city lord’s residence. The moment he entered, an invisible force immobilized him.
His hood fell back, revealing a pallid, bluish face.
The young swordsman studied him in surprise. “You’re her ghost servant? You’ve advanced?”
As he spoke, more sounds of movement followed.
Yun Lie and Yun Xi came practically sprinting over. Their eyes widened with delighted surprise at the visitor. “Uncle Heiwu!”
Heiwu moved the corners of his mouth, seemingly trying to smile. But his body was stiff by nature, so he could only greet them quietly. “Young Master. Young Mistress.”
“Uncle Heiwu!” For the first time in days, Yun Xi’s voice held excitement. “You’re still alive! Then what about Master? Where is she?”
In her mind, Uncle Heiwu was her master’s ghost servant.
If he was still alive, her master must be fine too.
Heiwu summoned the acting skills of a lifetime. Of course, his face was as stiff as his body, so nobody could really tell whether his acting was good or bad.
He merely lowered his head, inch by inch, and said, “Master is dead.”
The smile froze on Yun Xi’s lips. Yun Lie shuddered all over.
“How is that possible?” Yun Lie gathered himself. “You’re a ghost servant! If your master dies, how can you still be alive?”
By the last sentence, his voice had turned positively shrill.
Heiwu didn’t answer. He simply reached into his own heart and dug something out.
It was a crystal shrouded in black mist.
“Master returned our soul cores to Heipao and me long ago.”
Yun Lie swayed. The taste of blood rose in his throat.
Yun Xi was hardly any better. Her face was deathly pale, scarcely less so than the ghost servant Heiwu’s.
The young city lord was much calmer. He asked gravely, “What exactly happened that day? What do you know? Why have you come here tonight?”
As he spoke, the oppressive aura of a high-level cultivator bore down on Heiwu.
But ghost servants weren’t living beings to begin with. In all the world, only their master could frighten them.
Heiwu answered expressionlessly, “Master happened to have sent me elsewhere on an errand. I’m not entirely sure what happened to her. She sent me a few words through her divine sense.”
“Hide! Don’t come back!”
“Their targets are Ah Lie and Xixi!”
Heiwu turned his hollow eyes toward the city lord. “I heard my young master and mistress had returned with powerful cultivators from the sects. I wanted to come and tell you this.”
With that, he quietly withdrew into a corner and said no more.
It was a scene Yun Lie and Yun Xi knew all too well. Whenever the two ghost servants at home had nothing to do, they always hid in the darkness of a corner. Without looking carefully, one might never notice them at all.
Seeing it again now broke their hearts.
Yun Xi murmured, “What does that mean? What do you mean, their targets are my senior brother and me?”
She stared fixedly at Heiwu. “Uncle Heiwu, who were those people? Is Master really… really…”
No matter how she tried, she couldn’t say the word.
Heiwu watched her quietly. Intellectually, he knew his young mistress must be suffering terribly, but he had already lost the ability to feel emotions.
Master had instructed him repeatedly: he must make them believe the news of her “death.”
He nodded. “Master is indeed gone.”
Two astonishing surges of violent spiritual power rose above the city lord’s residence, only to be swiftly suppressed.
“Their spiritual power is running wild!” Elder Long said gravely.
He knew how much the two children respected and loved their master. They had even refused the favor of mighty cultivators because of her.
Yet he had still underestimated the bond between master and disciples.
The moment her death was confirmed, the two children had become so distraught that they couldn’t even control their spiritual power.