924 Eyewitness (2/2)

”Lotus and the King Lord each brought three men and went to a nearby separate courtyard. We were still outside confronting the Waning Moon Hall's men, so we didn't see what happened in there.”

”Surely you heard something about it afterwards, right? Didn't three people go inside?”

”I'm only telling you what I saw with my own eyes. With regards to those rumors, you can buy as many as you want with a lot less money.”

Zeng Jian believed that he had offered enough information, so he fished out a piece of black cloth, wrapped it around the five silver ingots, and put it inside the waist of his clothes while also drooping his arms to make the bump less obtrusive.

”Hu Shining knows my name. The Dragon King may ask him about what kind of man I am.”

”I told you…” before Xu Xiaoyi could finish speaking, the old killer had already turned around and started walking towards the doorway. ”Wait.”

”What else do you want to know? I've already told you everything that I saw.”

”You said that you saw the Master Commander and the Unique King exchange a palm strike.”

”Um. Many people saw it.”

”You put it too simply. What kind of palm strike? Which one of them seemed to have the upper hand? You're a killer. You should have noticed some of the details, which is what I am paying for.”

Zeng Jian hesitated for a while. ”Lotus surprised me,” he said, but there was no surprise in his face. ”Neither she nor the King Lord made any fancy moves. They attacked each other head-on, and they were competing in terms of internal energy. I have to admit that Lotus' internal energy is far more powerful than that of any killer in the castle given that she managed to stay unharmed after exchanging a palm strike with the King Lord. However, it was still very wise of her to agree to a truce. The King Lord has practiced kung fu for decades. No matter how weird her secret arts are, by no means can she surpass him in such a short time.”

”How good do you think Lotus is compared to the Green-faced killers?”

”I don't judge people I've neither seen nor dealt with.”

Zeng Jian pushed the door open and left without even saying goodbye. He was old enough, and though he retained some of his killer habits, he had lost his killer mindset, which was why he wasn't willing to pledge his heart and blood to anybody anymore. He had rushed into the inner chamber to offer help, but after he didn't receive the reward that he deserved, he had chosen to get the reward by himself in another way.

The old killer regarded these five hundred taels of silver as what the stone castle owed him.

Xu Xiaoyi turned his head back, glanced at the inner room, fished another five silver ingots out of a chest beside his feet, and then shouted out, ”Next!”

His surname was Shangguan and his given name was Yinghao. He was in his thirties, the prime of his life. Since he was neither distantly nor closely related to the Unique King, he had been given a position in the White Clothes Yard. From an outsiders' eyes, he was one of the Unique King's henchmen.

A high price had been paid to bribe a man like him. If it were before the battle of Thousand Horsemen Pass, Xu Xiaoyi wouldn't even have tried. Even now, with thousands of troops stationed outside the city, he still had to place five flawless gold ingots on the table.

”The Dragon King said that he wouldn't necessarily kill all the members of the Shangguan family, so as long as you don't make an enemy of the Dragon King, there's no need for you to be afraid of him. And if you're willing to offer the Dragon Army some help, then you can even become our friend.” It was unnecessary for Xu Xiaoyi to deny that he was the Dragon King's subordinate. No merchant, however rich they were, would be able to bribe Shangguan Yinghao.

”I'm not a traitor.” Shangguan Yinghao was sitting opposite Xu Xiaoyi. He was the only one of the three guests who had sat down on this chair, ”I heard that the Dragon King is still the Dragon King, and that he is uninterested in the Unique King's title.”

”Um. The Dragon King is indeed uninterested, but there are a lot of other people who are.” Xu Xiaoyi dropped a faint hint.

But Shangguan Yinghao didn't disclose his ambition. ”I'll be okay with it as long as the title of the Unique King still belongs to a member of the Shangguan Family. The King Lord… is old. His kung fu is improving, but his judgement is getting worse. A pedantic teacher that the King Lord trusts has dedicated himself to chasing illusory fame, convincing the King Lord to breach the commandment that has been followed by the people of the stone castle for over a hundred years: abandon the tradition of assassination, downsize the killer army, and change the stone castle drastically. The White Clothes Yard used to be one of the most important areas of the stone castle, but now it has been sidelined, and we have all became common lackeys. I'm trying to stop the destruction of the castle, so I'm not a traitor. It is the King Lord and Zhang Ji who have betrayed the stone castle.”

Xu Xiaoyi was in frequent contact with the people of Golden Roc Castle. Among all the excuses that people had given when they sold intelligence to him, this was the most righteous one he had ever heard. Admiration spontaneously rose within him, and he took another five gold ingots out of the chest besides his feet. ”You followed the Unique King into the courtyard and saw everything?”

Shangguan Yinghao's eyes were not on those gold ingots. ”Mm. Lotus had another kung fu competition with the King Lord in the courtyard. This time, they exchanged three palm strikes. Then the King Lord said, 'Both of us will suffer if this competition continues, and the Dragon King will be the only one benefiting.' Lotus said, 'That's true. What's the point of causing destruction to both our sides? Waning Moon Hall just wants an acknowledged identity.'”

”And then what?”

”The negotiator was Zhang Ji, not me,” Shangguan Yinghao said in a jealous tone. In most cases, jealousy was more effective than greed in motivating people to take risks.

”If you had to make a judgement, then which one's kung fu do you think is better – the Master Commander's or the Unique King's?”

”One of them is the Unique King whose name is known to everybody in the Western Regions. The other one is a killer who betrayed and fled from the stone castle to become the Master Commander of the Waning Moon Hall which has been decaying for many years. You tell me which one of them is better. But the King Lord was unable to kill Lotus on the spot. Instead, he let an enemy, the first one to intrude into the castle for decades, leave unharmed. Judging from this fact alone, he suffered an overwhelming defeat.”

Shangguan Yinghao had no qualms about taking all ten gold ingots. He believed that he deserved them.

Gu Shenwei walked out of the inner room. There was no need for Xu Xiaoyi to retell the stories, as Gu Shenwei had heard all the conversations. ”It seems that they were both seriously wounded.”

”Really? So Shangguan Yinghao deliberately hid the truth? Then I wasted five hundred taels of gold.”

”What he said was probably true from his viewpoint. It was Lotus and the Unique King who hid the truth.”

Gu Shenwei was now certain that under only one circumstance would two people, both of whom always tried to kill each and every one of their enemies during a battle, stop fighting.

He believed that the wounded Lotus was probably close to finding a compelling reason for cooperating with the Dragon King.