80 Chapter 79: A New Prodigy (1/2)
”Oh, boy…”
I had a bad feeling as I hurried down Tang Qi Hong's pavilion and proceeded to the next one. Every inner sect disciple had their own private pavilion or house…well, it was too small to be called a ”house”. Obviously it was not luxurious enough to be a personal villa too. As powerful and rich as the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect was, they couldn't afford to be giving out inner sect disciples their own private villas. Their resources weren't unlimited.
However, their small houses were each furnished with immense comfort and expensive furniture, more so than the sparse necessities of the tiny apartments the outer sect disciples were provided. And the inner sect disciples had far larger workshops, more advanced furnaces and access to more supplies and their own warehouse to store immense quantities of spirit materials, tools and other blacksmithing equipment. Not to mention their own personal weapons, armor, artifacts and armaments. They were pretty much the cream of the crop, and their dwellings reflected that.
Of course, Hao Ying was no exception.
Unfortunately, his more than meager home was of no use to him when he was dead.
And dead was how Pang Yun found him. She was standing at the entrance of his pavilion, waving her hands in panic.
”Senior Hao Ying…he's dead!”
”What happened?” Tang Qi Hong asked when she reached her. Pang Yun whirled around, horror and disbelief etched across her pretty face.
”I…I don't know. I came to borrow Mist Cloud Stones from Senior Hao, but when he didn't respond after I knocked on the door…I pushed it slightly. It turned out to be unlocked, and so I opened it, and then…and then I saw…that!”
She pointed inside the house. I craned my neck and looked inside, only to spot Hao Ying lifelessly slumped against the wall, his head lolling about like that of a broken doll's. His skin had turned completely gray, a tinge of sickly gray spreading across his flesh.
That's…signs of poisoning from a powerful neurotoxin!
Tang Qi Hong and Lian Rou, who were in front of me, pushed past and stared inside, wide-eyed in horror.
”T…those are Venomous Scarabs!”
”What?!”
I immediately barged to the front to shield them from whatever attacks, my frosty qi coming to the fore. The surviving Venomous Scarabs that were still feasting on Hao Ying's corpse scuttled and turned to launch themselves at me, but I froze them before they could move even an inch away from their original positions.
Of course, that meant freezing Hao Ying's body as well, but as far as I was concerned I was doing him a favor by preserving the state of his copse for as long as possible.
”How could this be?!”
”I have no idea,” I admitted despite knowing that Tang Qi Hong's question was rhetorical. ”For what reason would Liang Shao Yang have for killing Hao Ying? No…in the first place, was this also done by him?”
”…who else would have done it?”
”…I don't know.”
I glanced at the two girls, excluding Pang Yun, wishing that Tong Xue was here. With his insights into espionage and intelligence, he might be able to deduce something.
”For now, we'll just contact Elder Zhao.”
”What's going on? What happened to Hao Ying?”
A new voice spoke up from outside. All of us turned around, seeing a young man about thirty walk into the entrance of Hao Ying's pavilion. We immediately made way for him to enter the house and check what was going on.
That's…
”He's Di Xuan,” Tang Qi Hong whispered. ”The current direct disciple of Sect Leader, and is the oldest disciple among the inner sect. he has quite a high status and authority even among the inner sect disciples.”
I nodded. In other words, I couldn't afford to offend this guy.
”First Senior!” Pang Yun greeted him. ”Senior Hao is…!”
”He was attacked by Venomous Scarabs,” I finished for her when she trailed off, almost breaking down into sobs.
”What?!”
Di Xuan dashed into the room and noted the frozen Venomous Scarabs. After he glanced at Hao Ying's body and confirmed that he was really dead, he narrowed his eyes and turned to look at me.
”Did you do this?”
”Yeah, sorry. I didn't have a choice. The Venomous Scarabs were going to attack us, so I froze them before they could reach us. I'm still not very skillful at executing my techniques, so I was unable to control the area of effect and ended up freezing Senior Hao's body as well.”
”No, you did the right thing.” Di Xuan shook his head. ”I would have done the same if I were in your position. If anything, I should thank you for protecting the juniors.”
I was more of a junior than any of the girls, but there was no point telling him that, so I just nodded in acknowledgement.
”Hmm, I heard that an outer sect disciple had been bitten by Venomous Scarabs as well, a few days ago, and barely survived. Now Hao Ying has also been bitten by Venomous Scarabs. Are the two cases related?”
”The outer sect disciple who was bitten by Venomous Scarabs is him.” Tang Qi Hong gestured toward me. ”First Senior, this is Fei Wu, my assistant.”
I bowed respectively. ”Well met, First Senior.”
”First Senior, Elder Zhao has been investigating the origins of these Venomous Scarabs. While there are reports that Liang Shao Yang was the one who used them, it seems that Long He was the one who brought them back from Fei Zhou.”
Lian Rou chipped in this time, launching into an explanation when Di Xuan grunted briefly in response to my greeting. Probably to reduce friction or to quickly focus him on the topic. I wonder if Di Xuan might also be aiming for Tang Qi Hong.
”But Long He was also killed. He was stabbed by someone. I don't know if it's related, but Elder Zhao and Senior Shen Cha found out that Long He and Senior Hao Ying have been in communication recently.”
”In other words, Senior Zhao suspected that Hao Ying was the one who murdered Long He? But why would he do that?”
Di Xuan's voice was filled with disbelief. I didn't blame him. The whole thing felt surreal to me as well.
Lian Rou shook her head helplessly. ”I don't know.”
”Then who killed Hao Ying?”
”I don't know either.”
Di Xuan gritted his teeth, his frustration growing. ”Just what the hell is going on in this sect? An attempted murder and two murders in the space of less than a week? Just who is screwing around with us?”
While he gnashed in impotent fury, a huge number of inner sect disciples had gathered to see what the commotion was all about. When they caught sight of the pitiful condition that Hao Ying was reduced to, they lowered their heads solemnly.
Lian Rou had knelt beside Hao Ying's body to find more clues. Di Xuan hovered over her, vowing to get to the bottom of this.
”Junior Lian, are you able to tell when he was attacked?”
”The bites are still fresh, and the Venomous Scarabs have not been feeding on his flesh for too long. I would say…two hours ago at the most.”
Tang Qi Hong and I exchanged a look. Two hour ago, we were still in the midst of her frantic blacksmithing process. To think that such a vicious murder took place so nearby, just a few blocks away from her forge.
”Two hour ago…” Di Xuan seemed to be considering something. He glanced at me suspiciously. ”Where were you two hours ago?”
”Wu has been with me the entire time,” Tang Qi Hong replied in my stead. ”He's my assistant. I had him help me with blacksmithing and forging artifacts the whole morning. We've only just left my place together when we heard Junior Yun shouting.”
”That's right. We were there too.”
I almost fell over when Zi Xiao Ji spoke up. I had almost completely forgotten about her and her bodyguards. Apparently Zi Xiao Ji, Zhao Shi and Da Ge had taken up a corner in the exterior of Hao Ying's pavilion to look for clues. I glanced at Zhao Shi and she shook her head. Da Ge also looked uncharacteristically solemn, his usually genial face devoid of his usual mirth.
”Whoever the assailant is, he's good. He covered his tracks.” Da Ge turned to look at Di Xuan. ”He's most likely a professional assassin.”
There was one unspoken suspicion that rang unbidden to our minds. A certain son of the sect leader of the Divine Shadow Sect, who was rumored to have participated in assassinations ever since he was ten was the first person we thought of when it came to professional assassins.
”But we have no proof,” Di Xuan growled, refusing to believe it.
”I've already contacted Elder Zhao,” Zhao Shi assured him, showing him her cellphone for emphasis. ”He'll be here soon.”
Her word was as good as gold. Even before five minutes passed, Elder Zhao was already there with a cadre of Blood Blades. He stepped through the crowd of inner sect disciples and their assistants, waving for them to go.
”All of you, leave the scene. This will be under Blood Blades jurisdiction now. We'll have to investigate the scene, so I'll ask you not to get in our way.”
The inner sect disciples all dispersed, obeying the venerable elder's instructions. As the black robed investigators inspected the scene, Elder Zhao nodded at Di Xuan as acknowledgement for handling the matter before he arrived, then whispered a few choice words. Di Xuan bowed respectfully and took his leave.
Tang Qi Hong, Lian Rou, Zi Xiao Ji, Zhao Shi, Da Ge and I were amongst those who were about to leave with the rest of the crowd, but Elder Zhao quickly called out to us.
”You guys, remain behind for a bit.”
We obeyed and gathered around him. Elder Zhao retrieved his cellphone and dialed a number, contacting someone – most likely Shen Cha. I could hear the senior's voice from the speaker.
”Liang Shao Yang hasn't been in his apartment since early this morning.”
”Thank you. Please continue with your investigations.”
”I will. But Liang Shao Yang is pretty skillful. He managed to evade the vigilance of several of my subordinates a few times, using shadow techniques to sneak away.”
”Do what you can.”
With that, Elder Zhao hung up and turned to look at us gravely.
”Right now, there is an extremely high chance that Liang Shao Yang is the one who used the Venomous Scarabs both times. However, we have confirmed that Hao Ying was indeed the one who murdered Long He. We found traces of his qi on the weapon used to kill him.”
”That can't be good,” I muttered, illustrating my penchant for making understatements of the year.
”As you probably already know, Hao Ying was from Divine Shadow Sect before he came to the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. he used to train under a renowned assassin from Divine Shadow Sect, but the Sect Leader saw his potential in blacksmithing, so he sent him to train under a Shadow Spirit Engraver in the Divine Shadow Sect.”
”Shadow Spirit Engraver?” that sounded utterly badass, if you didn't mind me saying. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be appropriate to say that out loud, so I just left it at that, adopting a suitable expression of being impressed.
”That's right. Three years later, Hao Ying then came to the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect to participate in the entrance exam and was accepted into the sect. he does possess a modicum of talent, which was why he rose to the ranks of the inner sect quickly after being recognized by an inner sect elder. But it was also partially because the Divine Shadow Sect Leader gave a good word about him to that elder, so he has remained grateful to the Divine Shadow Sect Leader ever since.”
”Unfortunately, the son of that Divine Shadow Sect Leader doesn't seem to share that same sort of appreciation for him.”
Elder Zhao nodded at my remark. ”That's right. And that very son happens to be Liang Shao Yang.”
Er…we already knew that, right?
Zi Xiao Ji exchanged a dark look with Zhao Shi, while Da Ge leaned back with a troubled expression. Tang Qi Hong and Lian Rou swallowed nervously, and glanced at me. I merely smiled and shrugged.
”As you probably have already heard, Liang Shao Yang has grown up in the Divine Shadow Sect since young. It is rumored that he had already been sent on assassination missions even before he was the age of ten.”
Elder Zhao's expression was complicated and he shook his head with a sigh.
”The Divine Shadow Sect is known for their highly reputed assassins. It is said that the moment an assassin from the Divine Shadow Sect sets his eye on you, you're as good as dead.”
”Well, he failed. So far, anyway.”
Everyone stared at me.
”How can you be so flippant?!” Tang Qi Hong cried. ”This is your life we're talking about, you know?! You're in terrible danger!”
”Oh, I know,” I agreed as I pushed my glasses up my nose. ”But it's not the first time my life has been targeted. I'll continue doing the things I've been doing up till now. That is, surviving. I've survived worse crises and braved more terrifying foes than Liang Shao Yang. If he tries to assassinate me again, I'll have countermeasures in place.”
”Wait, before you resort to those countermeasures…” Lian Rou was panicking because a thought had suddenly crossed her head. She turned to Elder Zhao. ”Elder Zhao, this Liang Shao Yang is the son of the Sect Leader of the Divine Shadow Sect, right? How do you plan on dealing with this matter? We can't move too easily or we'll come into conflict with the Divine Shadow Sect.”
”Of course we'll act according to the rules of our sect!” Elder Zhao turned furious. ”I don't care if he's the son of the Divine Shadow Sect Leader. Even if he's the Divine Shadow Sect Leader himself, the moment he breaks the rules of the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, we'll bring justice upon him! This is not the Divine Shadow Sect, do they really think they can do as they like here, kill their fellow sect members and get away with it? We're on par with the other seven major sects, whether it is the Snow Valley Sect, the Kun Lun Sect, or the Green Dragon Sect, White Tiger Sect, Red Phoenix Sect and Black Tortoise Sect! We've earned their acknowledgement not only because of our ability to forge the continent's finest spirit armaments, but also because we have one of the strongest combat divisions in the continent. The Blood Blades!”
Given how the martial artists of the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect were among the strongest in the continent, and that they were also equipped with the finest and most powerful Spirit Engraved armaments that the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect had to offer – in fact, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to label them as the most well-equipped military force among all the martial arts sects – most sects would think twice…no, think thrice before they dared to invade it.
However…
”I wouldn't be so sure of that if I were you.”