Chapter 423 (1/2)

“Hao-san, that man?” The leader of the Akizuki clan, Akizuki Tanenaga, shook Hao Xu’s hand, and looked at Chu Yunsheng, who had walked past him, in confusion. Surprisingly, he spoke fluent Chinese.

“A friend who just came here to do some personal business.” Hao Xu replied vaguely.

“Oh… and Hao-san, you are here for?” The man thought for a second and asked.

“He doesn’t know that it’s mainly foreigners that occupy this area. So if he needs anything, I hope you could help him.” Hao Xu looked at the Hos.h.i.+no clan’s territory and said. He tried to hint at something.

“Okay, Hao-san, I’ll arrange it.” Akizuki Tanenaga frowned while looking at the Hos.h.i.+no clan’s direction.

He then looked at Hao Xu seriously and said, “Hao-san, I’ve just convinced two more leaders to join me two days ago. What happened today will make them rethink their decisions. So I hope that this won’t happen again in the future. You know why I would agree to join you. We want peace, not blood. Please!”

Hao Xu frowned. He thought for a second and sighed, “Likewise, I also don’t want blood. I’ll try my best to convince my two elder brothers.”

“Please!” Akizuki Tanenaga gave him a respectful bow.

Looking at Akizuki Tanenaga bowing at him, Hao Xu sighed once more. Despite what had happened to the j.a.panese people, they still didn’t forget their manners. However, his own people…

…

Chu Yunsheng didn’t reject Hao Xu’s kindness this time. Of course, he knew why Hao Xu wanted to do this. However, he still needed to ask some questions to those foreigners. One of the questions was ‘How did they sail across the sea to China?’ Especially, when there were so many powerful sea monsters in the oceans. Not to mention the one that he encountered back in Hong Kong.

But before that, there was something else he needed to do. He needed to visit his parents’ graves. It had been so many years since he left Shen Cheng City. He thought that he would never be able to come back to this place and see his parents again.

He had so many things to say to his parents. He had thought a lot about what he wanted to say along the way. However, when he finally got to the cemetery and found the broken tombstone, he just stared at his parent’s photo; he didn’t utter a single word.

Chu Yunsheng thought that he would cry. He would cry loudly in front of his parents— telling them about all the miserable things that had happened to him, telling them about all the pain in his heart, and so on… He wanted his parents to comfort him like when he was a child.

However, he didn’t know how to cry anymore.

He knelt down and used his hands to gently wipe the snow off the tombstone.

Looking at his parents’ photo he whispered quietly, “Mom, Dad, I am useless…”

The cold wind brought up the snow on the ground and blew it onto Chu Yunsheng’s clothes— his disheveled hair— and his messy beard.

The wind muttered his father’s last words into his ears.

“Yunsheng, you are a grown man now. You should learn to…”

He had thought about what his father wanted to say to him at that time. However, even until now, he still couldn’t figure it out. Maybe his father wanted him to learn how to take care of himself, maybe he wanted him to learn to be strong, or maybe it was something else.

“Mom, Dad, I’m going to America now. I’m going to bring them back…”

In the snowy world, in a ruined cemetery, a man slowly stood up and silently left alone.

******

The next day, in Eastern Shen Cheng City, Mingdu Garden Housing estate.

Chu Yunsheng sat on the roof of Building No. 8 with his newly made Qian Bi sword. Behind him stood a gleaming armor. The cold wind was strong on the roof. It mixed with the snow and scattered numerous cigarette b.u.t.ts on the roof’s floor.

Suddenly, Chu Yunsheng raised his head and gulped down the bottle of alcohol that the Akizuki clan had given to him.

He threw away the empty bottle and began to swing his sword.

With the first sword swing, he saw the first red-sh.e.l.led insect that he had encountered below Building No. 8.

With the second sword swing, he saw the scene where he almost died at the hands of the tentacle monster that was hiding in the hospital.