Chapter 359: Separate Paths

After six days of exposure, Old Man Mu had already lost most of his force and skill. He no longer posed a threat to them. Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus began to focus their defences towards combatting Wildhorse. Since the journey was about to end, Wildhorse was likely to carry out his plan at any time.

At this moment, Old Man Mu, who had barely enough energy to last a day, escaped.

It was not until early the next morning as they were about to set off that they found Old Man Mu had disappeared, leaving the empty leather ropes. Nobody had realized that Old Man Mu had run away.

For the past ten days, everyone had been focusing on keeping up, and with only a little rest each day. Their vigor and physical strength had slackened, and so had their vigilance. Even Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus had almost run out of patience. All of this had created conditions that facilitated Old Man Mu’s escape.

But it was still a mystery how he managed to get out of the ropes.

Old Man Mu had suffered great insult, he would surely come back for revenge sooner or later. Shangguan Fei kept insinuating that Maid Lotus made the wrong decision, she should have listened to him and killed the old devil, but Shangguan Hong was more afraid. He was so worried that he paced up and down, muttering “What should we do… What should we do?”

“Old Man Mu’s force and skill has not recovered. It is not too late to go and find him now. But let’s not make the same mistake and be compassionate this time.” Shangguan Fei said commandingly.

“Yes, yes, the Ninth Young Master is right. How long will it take for him to recover?”

Maid Lotus was searching for clues with Dragon King. She had not spoken much but piped up to answer, “About 30 days or so.”

“Well, we still have enough time.” Shangguan Hong breathed a small sigh of relief.

“Although he will take more than 30 days to fully recover, Old Man Mu only needs about 50 to 60 percent of his force and skill to kill us all. That will only take several days. Alas, one wrong step will lead to the wrong track.” Shangguan Fei complained, not heeding the others’ expressions. In reality, he was exaggerating. Old Man Mu’s kung fu was more powerful than Dragon King’s or Maid Lotus’s, but the gap was not that large. Besides, he had just suffered torture, and would never dare to take action rashly before he recovered fully.

Gu Shenwei , who was carefully scrutinising the rope, suddenly got up and said, “Someone has helped Old Man Mu.”

“You mean one of us helped him?” Shangguan Hong asked in amazement.

The Shangguan brothers looked at each other. Among the four people, Dragon King and Maid Lotus had no reason to let go of Old Man Mu. Naturally, the two of them were the only suspects.

At the same time, they pointed at each other accusingly, “It’s you!”

Erupting into a heated argument, they each listed the reasons for the other’s betrayal. Finally, Shangguan Fei stopped the futile debate and asked Dragon King, “How do you know that he got help from someone?”

Gu Shenwei held up the rope and carefully picked up two lengths of leather rope from the base. Obviously, these two pieces were originally from the same piece of rope that had been cut by someone with sharp tools. That was how Old Man Mu escaped.

“It wasn’t me.” Shangguan Fei took the initiative to defend himself, “I slept all night long last night and did not get up. It must be Shangguan Hong. I saw him get up at night and move around for quite a while after coming back. Who knows what he was doing?”

Shangguan Hong blushed, “Nonsense, it wasn’t me, why would I set him free?”

“Old Man Mu said that anyone who set him free would be taught the unrivaled kung fu skills he has. You are the worst in kung fu among us, of course you would be tempted by his offer.”

Shangguan Hong blushed deeply, “Shouldn’t I have run away with him if I let him go?”

“You are bad at kung fu and hence you were afraid of attracting the attention of others. Therefore, you would likely find an excuse to leave in several days instead, and then go to the appointed place to acknowledge Old Man Mu as your teacher. It must be like this.”

Although they were both cowards, Shangguan Fei was smarter. His description of Shangguan Hong’s betrayal was convincing.

When it came to Shangguan Hong, he could not say anything to defend for himself but “It wasn’t me” repeatedly. Maid Lotus, who had been scoping the suroundings, returned and reported, “He was heading south.”

Both the two brothers closed their mouths and looked at the south, as if they could see Old Man Mu’s figure in the distance. Shangguan Fei looked gloomy. Shangguan Hong thought for a moment, suddenly enlightened, “It was Shangguan Ru!”

Yesterday afternoon, Shangguan Ru had headed for the south after parting with them. The other three had already thought of this but just had not put the idea forward.

Shangguan Hong thought he had solved the mystery and exclaimed excitedly, “It must be her. I remember that she had been alone with Old Man Mu several times and they seemed to have a lot to discuss. When someone else approached, they stopped talking. They might have reached an agreement then. Then… she cut off the rope, and excused herself to leave first last night. Old Man Mu escaped after midnight and they met at the appointed place. It was flawless, who would have expected that the Tenth Young Master was so crafty?”

Shangguan Hong had not forgotten Shangguan Fei, and gave him the side-eye, “Maybe they left a spy here to smear others.”

The two brothers began to quarrel again until Gu Shenwei commanded in a low voice, “Shut up.”

Dragon King looked ferocious, and the two brothers’ hearts were gripped with fear. Neither dared to say a word.

It was hard for Gu Shenwei to believe that Shangguan Ru should have done such kind of thing. But really, who in this world was trustworthy?

He had hurt her, and deliberately ignored her these past few days. The disheartened look on her face when they separated the day before was still etched in his mind.

Shangguan Ru was not a weak woman, she might have lost the killing desire, but she would never admit defeat so easily.

Gu Shenwei did not want to think about this anymore. He glanced over the two brothers of the Shangguan family, hoping to find a more reasonable traitor.

Shangguan Fei and Shangguan Hong cowered like rabbits under a tiger’s gaze. They were so stupefied that they stood still and did not even defend themselves.

“We have to find Old Man Mu.” Gu Shenwei said. He knew that finding the traitor was not the most urgent task at this moment.

Shangguan Hong inserted, “It’s dawn now, Old Man Mu can’t be far. He must be hiding nearby.”

“But why hasn’t Wildhorse left?”

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Shangguan Fei pointed to a small black spot in the southeast. It was Wildhorse, who did not know that Old Man Mu had escaped, or perhaps he did not care, still following them stubbornly.

Old Man Mu was not likely to be far. Gu Shenwei could not waste time on this. He had to get to the Great Snowmountain’s camp as soon as possible.

Maid Lotus understood Dragon King as soon as she caught his eyes, “I will go to find Old Man Mu. Since it was me who wanted to keep him alive, let me solve this problem.”

Therefore, Maid Lotus was the second to leave the team after Shangguan Ru.

It would take about 30 days for Old Man Mu to fully recover his force and skill, hence the first few days were the golden time to kill him. Therefore, Maid Lotus and Dragon King agreed to regroup in one month, no matter the outcome.

Gu Shenwei continued his journey with Shangguan Fei and Shangguan Hong.

Wildhorse did not care about the left of Shangguan Ru and Maid Lotus, and did not give up following them even after finding remains of the rope on the ground.

Gu Shenwei wanted to shake off this tail, but did not have time to set complicated traps. While he hastened on the journey all day long, he thought about what to do. Finally, he came up with an idea and felt that it was worth a try that night.

This idea required Shangguan Fei’s cooperation.

After speeding up suddenly at dusk and losing Wildhorse for a while, the three of them stopped for a short rest. Gu Shenwei laid out his plan, “If there are no accidents, there will most certainly be an ambush up ahead.”

“Why?” the Shangguan brothers asked simultaneous. They had imagined that there would be no more danger for a while.

“Wildhorse has been following us, but he never took any action. He must be waiting for opportunity. My guess is that he has already deployed an ambush at the end of the road.”

“That’s possible.” Shangguan Fei thought briefly and agreed with Dragon King.

“What should we do? Change the route?”

There was no second route, since the guide had been killed. Running around in the wild would only waste more time. So Gu Shenwei rejected Shangguan Hong’s suggestion, “No, we have to get rid of Wildhorse, in case we are attacked from the front and behind.”

Shangguan Fei and Shangguan Hong made a eye contact again. This time they had the same thought. One of them said, “Dragon King has a wonderful plan. ” And the other said, “I will be waiting for good news.”

As soon as Gu Shenwei spoke out his plan, Shangguan Fei shook his head, “No, I can’t do this. If I am exposed, that would ruin Dragon King’s plan. And this trick was played a few days ago, it won’t deceive Wildhorse again.”

Gu Shenwei knew what could make Shangguan Fei willing to take the risk, “If you don’t cooperate, I won’t be able to get rid of Wildhorse. Let’s continue our journey, and when we meet the ambush, let’s run away separately. Their goal is probably to just eliminate some of us, and the irrelevant one isn’t likely to be pursued.”

Shangguan Fei gritted his teeth, “Okay, I will do it.”

In Shangguan Fei’s view, he was more important than Dragon King. Since Wildhorse worked for Supreme King, it was likely that he was the target of Wildhorse rather than Dragon King.

Shangguan Hong, who was not involved in the plan, was greatly relieved and encouraged his half-brother, “It will do, you are a twin, as long as you…”

Shangguan Fei gave him a hostile glare, and Shangguan Hong quickly shut up.

At midnight, the three men stopped again, lit their fire, and rested on the spot, looking into the distance. Two of them fell asleep while one was guarded nearby.

About a mile away, Wildhorse got down from his horse and rested. He did not light a fire or sleep, but laid a small carpet on the ground, knelt on it, held the handle of his knife, and stayed alert of the noises around him.

In the dim light of night, a man riding a horse came slowly from the south. The horse rode the soil that had just begun to thaw, and though it did not make a loud sound, it was enough to make Wildhorse rise and pull out his saber.

To his surprise, it was Shangguan Ru. Although her appearance was distant and fuzzy, he had once been a killer her Shangguan Ru and was confident that he was not seeing the wrong people.

The saber in Wildhorse’s hand lowered several inches, but he remained vigilant.

Shangguan Ru stopped at 20 steps away, then urged the horse forward a few steps forward gestured that she wanted to talk with Wildhorse.

Wildhorse nodded and took a few steps forward. They were less than ten steps apart.

Wildhorse made the first move. He was not gullible, and at this point, he would never be cheated by a fake Shangguan Ru.

He guessed that it was Shangguan Fei in disguise, with Dragon King was hiding nearby. So he decided to kill Shangguan Fei by surprise, and then run away on the horse, giving Dragon King no chance to take action.

However, to his complete surprise, Shangguan Ru blocked his first stab.

Moreover, Shuangguan Ru even snapped off the weapon in his hand.

Killers would never get into a dogfight with anyone. Although Wildhorse was shocked, he quickly retreated, holding half of the saber, and jumped onto his horse.

At this moment, the fatal stab was made.

Shangguanfei, who was in women’s clothing, looked pale, and his heart was racing.

A few years ago, after Shangguan Ru and her accomplices had stolen the Wayless Book, Lady Meng, who naturally would not forget her son, transcribed one for him. Shangguan Fei secretly practiced it, improving Internal Strength greatly, even though, his timidity did not diminish a bit. Only under the pressure of death did he even dare to try.

Even so, he required more assurance and borrowed the Five Peaks Saber from Dragon King.

What a nice saber! He thought, as he watched one of Wildhorse’s are separate from his body and blood gush, a good ten steps away.