942 A Protes (1/2)
Ten days went by without a sign of the frosty Qi reactivating again, so Gu Shenwei gradually relaxed. For the first time in many years, he felt that he finally no longer had to worry about Qi deviation. Standing at the doorway of the tent, he leisurely looked out and saw that Dog Butcher was wandering outside, so he asked him to come in. ”Have you recovered from your injury?”
Doctor Sun slapped himself twice on the chest and said, ”Thank you for your concern, Dragon King. I have fully recovered. Doctor Sun is so good. If he were in the Central Plains, then he would surely have been hired by the imperial court.”
”Um. You want to talk to me about something, right?”
Dog Butcher smiled in embarrassment. He was a tall, white-haired old man, but he was as timid as a teenager. ”Actually… I don't know… Senior Sister said that… ”
”Luo Qikang came to you?”
Dog Butcher looked at the Dragon King in surprise and then sighed. ”So the Dragon King already knew. Then there's no need for me to keep this a secret. Luo Qikang didn't come to me directly, but he's spreading the word that he'll avenge his younger brother's murder. I heard that he's already killed a couple people. Senior Sister said that she got this, so I think the Luo Village might have been pressuring the Kongtong Sect.”
Gu Shenwei pointed at the large pile of paperwork on the desk, ”Seventeen major shields of Jade City have been petitioning me every day. They want me to intervene and stop Luo Qikang. Since yesterday, he has already killed a prostitute, eleven sabersmen, the owner of an inn, and five waiters.
”Did Luo Qibai's death have anything to do with all these people?” Dog Butcher asked in amazement.
”The prostitute claimed that she'd once served Luo Qibai, which ruined the reputation of the Luo family. Those sabersmen were members of the Heavenly Mountain Sect. They participated in the fight with Central Plainsmen. That inn is the one where you and Old Man Mu held that kung fu competition.”
Dog Butcher vividly remembered that back then, he and Old Man Mu had orders to find some kung fu practitioners from the Central Plains. So, they had rented a random inn to hold a kung fu competition in, but the Heavenly Mountain Sect and Luo Qibai had been drawn there instead. One thing had led to another, and Luo Qibai had eventually been killed after the Dragon King and Lotus joined hands.
”This is… weren't the owner and those waiters innocent?” Dog Butcher had been in rehabilitation, so he didn't know much about it. After the Dragon King told him what had happened, he could barely believe what he heard. But soon, he suddenly understood. No wonder his Senior Sister was so nervous. The situation was actually a lot more dire than he had imagined. ”Luo Qikang wants to kill everybody even remotely related to his younger brother's death?”
”I think that taking revenge is merely an excuse. He just became addicted to killing.”
”That can't be true. Luo Qikang has always been a hero in the Central Plains. He should… ” Dog Butcher couldn't continue speaking. The Luo Village had a very high status in the martial arts world of the Central Plains. All members of the Luo family were regarded as heroes as long as they didn't do bad things. ”Alas. It's actually a normal thing. I've been in the Western Regions for only a couple of months, but the number of people that I've killed here is more than the number that I've killed in the past few decades before I came here. This is a place full of killing. It seems as if people can do anything here without being punished.”
”Actually, it's that as long as you're strong, you won't be punished,” Gu Shenwei corrected Dog Butcher, since those who got killed were ”punished.”
”Luo Qikang is among the strong,” said Dog Butcher. Surprisingly, he calmed down. ”He started off by killing those insignificant ones to display his strength to the others. Ha-ha. I may be senile, but I'm not afraid of swordsmen of the Luo Village.”
”You should go back to the Central Plains. There's nothing that you can do here. No matter who obtains the position of Lord of Jade City, the current rules will change, and this city will no longer be full of killing.”
”Senior Sister gave me the same advice. I know that Luo Qikang has to follow the rules of the Central Plains once he goes back there, but… Dragon King, just like what you always say, anyone who kills someone has to prepare to be killed, which is the current rule in Jade City. I can't be a fence-sitter who kills people in the Western Regions and then go back to the Central Plains to seek shelter.” Dog Butcher took a deep breath, looking somewhat excited as he displayed his conviction., ”I'm staying. If Luo Qikang wants to kill me, then let him try it.”
”You have nothing to do with Luo Qibai's death.”
”Even the waiters of that inn were killed. Who else dares to say that I have nothing to do with it? I saw Luo Qibai be killed with my own eyes. I didn't help him and I didn't even say a word to stop him. If Luo Qikang knows this, then he will definitely deem this punishable by death.”
Gu Shenwei pondered over it for a while and then finally said, ”From now on, you and Old Man Mu will be my personal bodyguards.”
”Yes,” Dog Butcher answered. He knew that the Dragon King wanted to protect them. ”In the Western Regions, I'm Dragon King's subordinate, and the Dragon King is the only one I support. Now that Luo Qikang has made public provocations, shouldn't we strike first?”
”Not now.” Gu Shenwei had noticed the hostility in Luo Qikang's eyes a long time ago, but he was in no hurry. Maybe this Central Plainsman's killing had an upside. When he started to make new rules after winning the position of Lord of Jade City, there would be less objections.
Gu Shenwei had been receiving petitions for different issues almost every day. The forces in Jade City were becoming more and more inclined to regard him as the future ruler of the city, but the intelligence that he received indicated that the Central Plainsmen and Golden Roc Castle also received a lot of petitions, the numbers of which were still relevant. In the end, it seemed that he was merely one of the candidates.
In Jade City's different forces' shrewd leaders' eyes City, so far, nobody had gained an absolute advantage in the competition for the position of Lord of Jade City.
Gu Shenwei chose to temporarily stand by, but Luo Qikang was insatiable. This time, he chose the moles among the Central Plainsmen as his targets.
Sun Chengqi, the deputy envoy of the Central Plains, had always been worried about his position. Before he came to the Western Regions, he hadn't expected that the envoy and the Governor of the Western Regions would die respectively, which was a huge chance for a promotion. On one hand, he felt that this was a golden opportunity. On the other, he felt that the responsibility was too heavy, and that a single wrong move might result in his death.
So, he had chosen to govern by doing nothing that went against nature. He had let eunuch Zhang You make the decision in almost everything. Meanwhile, he had kept a lot of written proofs so that he would be able to shift the responsibility onto Zhang You if anything happened.
Zhang You had the Middle Assistant Minister Yan Qin as his backer, which meant that he was more able to protect himself.