450 A Death Announcemen (1/2)

Shangguan Yun had successfully persuaded many people in the past. He did not care so much about occasional failures.

Gu Shenwei felt he had heard enough and the best way to say no to Shangguan Yun was drawing out his Dragon Head Sword.

Shangguan Yun was worthy enough to be pitted against his swordcraft.

”I've heard that you intend to compete for hegemony in Western Region, so I suggest this alliance between us. Please think twice about it, Dragon King. If we continue to fight against each other, we'll would only let the third party reap the benefits from the wars between us. Besides, we're never each other's biggest enemy,” said Shangguan Yun, sincerely and logically, although he had already noticed how impatient the Dragon King was.

If you had brought this up two months ago, I would've probably taken it into consideration, but now... You've been to the Land of Fragrance, haven't you?” asked the Dragon King.

He was pretty sure that Shangguan Yun, the King of Xiaowan, had not been waiting here to form an alliance with him or been planning to secretly instigate a rebellion against him all this while. He deduced that Shangguan Yun must have taken a trip to visit his little sister in the Land of Fragrance.

”No one is more loyal to you than her,” sighed Shangguan Yun, his eyes contained a hint of melancholy.

This was the first time that he had expressed his disappointment at the failure to persuade someone.

”She's not loyal to me or anyone. She just got tired of everything about the Golden Roc Fort.” Gu Shenwei explained.

It was not because of Shangguan Ru's loyalty that he had decided to leave the Land of Fragrance in her care. Shangguan Ru was the Supreme King's daughter and a very proud person. She was always ready to receive the homage of others but disdained to give her allegiance to anyone. She just kept feeling homeless since being banished from the fort by her father.

She had never sworn an oath of loyalty to the Dragon King and thus could never betray him. She took the Land of Fragrance as a property entrusted to her and was always disposed to return it to its rightful owner.

After hearing the Dragon King's explanation, Shangguan Yun, who wore a smile on his face all the time, suddenly looked solemn and said, ”You know her better than I do. No one in our family is able to understand her change, but on second thought, I think that she has never changed. She just needs more time to figure everything out.”

”Are you suggesting that she's just like you?” asked Gu Shenwei.

Shangguan Yun had once hated his father's guts, but now he was willing to forgive and even assist his father.

”No, Dragon King. You know the Golden Roc Fort is on the brink of collapse, and this is not because of you. Just as it says in the Wayless Book, 'as a person gets increasingly stronger and kills more and more people, one day, he or she will have more enemies than friends. At that time, when even his or her own friends start fearing this person, this person is doomed',” said Shangguan Yun, in a quite harsh but caring tone, as if the Dragon King were also one of his close relatives. ”You believe it or not. I've told my little sister these words as well.

”I never intend to save the dying Golden Roc Fort. I just don't want to see too many people going down with it, such as residents of Jade City and you, the Dragon King. Now, you still have time to save yourself, and I'm more than willing to help you out, as a way of atoning for my family's sins.”

Gu Shenwei discovered in surprise that Shangguan Yun's words had somehow inhibited his impulse to kill. Moreover, he found that Shangguan Yun was able to intrigue him into mulling over those ideas once he relaxed his vigilance, even if he did not believe or accept them.

It was then that he truly understood why this man could persuade his apprentices to betray him. It was just a piece of cake for Shangguan Yun to convert such a bunch of simple-minded teenagers.

Gu Shenwei glanced at the queen in the bed and the two killers on the ground, while thinking, ”Shangguan Yun never intends to treat them kindly. In his eyes, they're nothing but sacrificial lambs in his plan. So are my young apprentices who died during the previous actions. I have to pin the blame for their death on him.” ”Where're the other people locked up by you?” asked Gu Shenwei.

”They're just outside. To show my sincerity to you, Dragon King, I didn't kill anyone of them.” Shangguan Yun said, as he looked back at the passage behind him.

”Shangguan Yun probably have spent most of the past two months traveling back and forth between the Hui Kingdom and the Land of Fragrance. It's not easy to avoid being detected by sentries of the Dragon army along the way while traveling.”

Gu Shenwei thought to himself while secretly channeling his strength and killing intent. All this while, he had been waiting for the best chance to attack, but it kept eluding him. Shangguan Yun talked on and on, seemingly oblivious to the Dragon King's real intention, but he never let his guard down a little bit.

”Are they still my people?” asked Gu Shenwei.

”Yes, most of them are still yours,” Shangguan Yun said smilingly, resuming his relaxed and casual tone. ”You've overestimated my demagogic power, Dragon King. Most of your people are very loyal to you, and only a few of them believed my words. I really admire your ability, Dragon King. I was deeply impressed by two children. There's enmity between you and them, but they turned out to be your most loyal servants. Tut-tut, even the Golden Roc Fort can't do this. We can manage to make our apprentices forget about their hatred toward the fort, but we can never make them serve the fort with a deeply-rooted hatred.”

Those two children mentioned by Shangguan Yun were Chu Nanping and Nie Zeng. The Dragon King had killed the former's elder brother and the latter's uncle and his entire family.

”And Hu Shining. That's incredible. How did you do that, Dragon King? It felt so unreal to see a former training tutor of the Golden Roc Fort unswervingly serve you now, an enemy of the fort. He led such a large group of children to flee all the way from Shu-lik and even tried to assassinate me. Alas, I'm so envious of you having such a subordinate,” said Shangguan Yun.

Upon hearing that, Gu Shenwei realized what had happened on the night when Chu Nanping had gone missing.

He thought,”Hu Shining probably led all the apprentices to leave Shu-lik for the Xiaoyao Lake region upon hearing that I've occupied the entire region, but beyond their expectations, when they entered the Hui Kingdom, they heard that the royal family of the kingdom had just received a distinguished guest from the Golden Roc Fort.

”Hu Shining was not likely to know who this guest was, so he decided to lure this person out to determine whether it was just a rumor.

”As such, he sent Chu Nanping strutting into the city without concealing his good looks. The training tutor must've believed that if the guest was really from the Golden Roc Fort, he or she would immediately notice that this young swordsman was the Dragon King's bodyguard and send someone to assassinate him.

”After that, he and the other apprentices set up a trap in the alley where Chu Nanping lived and lay in wait for the enemy.