Chapter 926: Vanguard

Shangguan Fei screamed upon seeing the sight of the person covered in dark red blood, but soon deeply regretted doing that. “Wha–What happened to you?”

Shangguan Hong suddenly gathered his strength and sat up with a jump, thinking that even if he was to die, his foe must die with him. However, before he could speak, Old Man Mu casually pressed him down onto the bed.

“You still dare to return? Did you come here to admit your guilt? Or did you come here to plead for mercy? For your information, the Dragon King is no pushover. If you want to talk to him, then you’ll have to go through me first.”

Shangguan Hong’s lips were clamped tightly together. He recalled that he had an uncompleted task.

Old Man Mu was still nagging him. Meanwhile, Shangguan Fei’s face was ghastly pale and he felt terribly nauseous.

Doctor Sun hurried inside, glanced at the injured, and thundered, “Why didn’t you inform me first?! What good can these two guys possibly do?” After saying this, he tore Shangguan Hong’s clothes open, wiped the blood off his body, and started applying coagulating drugs to the wounds.

“What good can we do?!” Old Man Mu jumped up. “I can do a lot of good. If I want him to live, then he’ll live, and if I want him to die, then he’ll die-”

“Get out.” Doctor Sun was always in a bad mood and unafraid of anybody when he was treating patients.

Old Man Mu was just about to start a verbal battle with him when the Dragon King came in. The guards nodded respectfully at him. Old Man Mu immediately forgot about Doctor Sun, and he bowed lower than anybody else. Shangguan Fei was probably the only one who could compare with him in this aspect.

“Today, Shangguan Fei and I are going to inspect of the camp.” Smugly watching Doctor Sun who was busy saving people, Old Man Mu made a remark to indicate that he was useful, but Doctor Sun didn’t even glimpse at him. “The soldiers on patrol outside of the camp found him and brought him to me. I decisively took him to this tent and then sent someone to inform the Dragon King and… this guy. I think that Shangguan Hong is at the end of his ropes. I mean, look at him. Lotus probably used him for some kind of evil kung fu test of the Waning Moon Hall.”

Shangguan Hong abruptly sat up, which startled Doctor Sun, who was treating him. “Dragon King, hur- hurry… I- have something to tell you.”

Gu Shenwei signaled for the others to leave. Before taking his leave, Old Man Mu warned the Dragon King in a low voice against the Waning Moon Hall’s plots. Doctor Sun was very displeased. “The treatment is only half-finished, so don’t blame me if he dies.”

Nobody would blame him. At the very least, Shangguan Hong didn’t request him to continue treating him. Instead, he desperately wanted to talk to the Dragon King alone. “The Master Commander… is requesting an audience with the Dragon King.”

“Oh?” Watching Shangguan Hong, who was still covered in blood, Gu Shenwei responded in a bland voice.

“The–The thing is, the Master Commander imparted the Waning Moon Swordsmanship to the disciples of her sect, and now that most of them have made some progress, she hopes that the Dragon King can offer some advice to them.”

“What about you? Who offered you advice and wounded you so badly?”

“I’m all right,” Shangguan Hong said as he tried to straighten himself. “I also learned the Waning Moon Swordsmanship, so I had a kung fu competition with the others. I defeated several of my opponents but was also hurt. I’m not afraid of bleeding, which I’ve already told the Dragon King. As long as… I don’t lose too much blood.”

“Um. You should stop the bleeding first.”

“No, no. Please come with me to the Master Commander’s place. Let’s depart right now.” Shangguan Hong urgently tried to get out of bed, but the look on his face suggested that he was in agony. Clearly, his injury was not “all right.” No matter how much blood he had in his body, he would surely bleed out if he didn’t treat his wounds.

“Treat your wounds first. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

Gu Shenwei turned around and left the tent. Doctor Sun, who had been waiting impatiently, immediately rushed inside. Before Shangguan Hong could even raise an objection, he stuffed a handful of pills into his mouth.

Upon entering the Dragon King’s tent, Old Man Mu said, “This is clearly a trap. They want to lure the Dragon King into it. Shangguan Hong is disloyal to the Dragon King.”

Following along, Shangguan Fei nodded in absolute approval. The two had impolitely eavesdropped on the conversation between Shangguan Hong and the Dragon King.

Gu Shenwei thought for a while. “Several things are very strange. Lotus and the Waning Moon Hall launched an attack on Golden Roc Castle, but the battle ended inexplicably. Wild Horse turned the Essence Pavilion into a killer organization and then publicly tried to solicit customers in southern Jade City. All these things don’t seem like things they would do under normal circumstances.”

“Wild Horse’s dream is to be a killer. I can tell what he’s thinking without even asking him,” said Old Man Mu.

Gu Shenwei knew what Wild Horse’s dream was, but he knew even better what kind of man Wild Horse was. He was a strong-willed, proud killer who would dedicatedly perform his duties if his master was powerful. But once his master became weak, he would regard his master as an obstacle.

“Do you want to learn the Death Sutra?” asked Gu Shenwei.

Old Man Mu’s eyes lit up. “Of course, but I haven’t made any big contributions, so I’m afraid that I don’t deserve it, but-”

“You’re right.”

“Pardon?”

“Currently, you don’t deserve it.”

Old Man Mu became depressed. “Alas, it seems that I was daydreaming, but as long as the Dragon King is happy, I’m okay with it. Seriously.”

Shangguan Fei secretly admired Old Man Mu, thinking that there were still many things that he could learn from this shameless old guy.

“But there’s an opportunity in front of you. You might be able to learn a part of the Death Sutra if you manage to grab it.”

Old Man Mu’s eyes lit up again, but along with the happy grin was a vigilant look. “I get it. The Dragon King wants me to meet Lotus and learn the Waning Moon Swordsmanship from her. But Lotus is no pushover. Um… should I pretend that I want to defect to the Waning Moon Hall’s side? Everybody knows that I’m loyal to the Dragon King, so nobody would believe me no matter how hard I tried to pretend otherwise.”

“There’s a much simpler way. Lotus has imparted the swordsmanship to many disciples, and they’re now looking for ‘sparring’ partners. With your talent, you should be able to learn a lot from their moves.”

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“The Dragon King thinks very highly of me.” Old Man Mu smiled unnaturally. The wounds on Shangguan Hong’s body indicated that the so-called “sparring” was actually fellow disciples trying to kill each other. He would be risking life and limb if he went there to spectate these battles. “Okay. I’ll go. Leaving all other reasons aside, I’ll do this because the Dragon King asked me to. Shangguan Fei, come with me.”

Shangguan Fei had been thinking that his job was to keep nodding and express his heartfelt compliment, so he failed to stop in time. It was not until he nodded twice that he suddenly realized what he had just agreed to. “Ah, me? Why would I go there?”

“I’ll learn their kung fu, and you’ll watch. You’ll get to know how the Waning Moon Hall fights people.”

Shangguan Fei shook his head repeatedly. “I’m not going. I have to stay here and inspect the camp. The Dragon King is already badly short on hands.”

“It’s okay. You two go together. This is a pretty good chance.” Gu Shenwei left Shangguan Fei no choice.

Shangguan Fei didn’t dare raise an objection in front of the Dragon King. After they left the tent, he couldn’t help start blaming Old Man Mu. “Why did you drag me into this? I’m not interested in the swordsmanship at all.”

“Idiot.” Old Man Mu scornfully curled his lips. “I only brought you with me because you’ve been acting like a dutiful kid. Stop being ungrateful.”

“Are you saying that you’re doing this for my benefit?” Shangguan Fei was slow when he was afraid. After Old Man Mu reminded him, he began to ponder the situation over. “Oh! The point that you’ve been trying to make is that the Dragon King wants us to be the vanguard, and that he himself will stealthily follow us. Thus, we’ll make a great contribution?”

“My goodness. It took you so long to understand the point.”

“Heh-heh. Not everybody is as smart as you, old man. But I’m still a little confused. Why didn’t the Dragon King tell us about the plan directly? Is it because he doesn’t trust us?”

“It’s not us. The Dragon King doesn’t want the others to think that Lotus is bossing him around. I promise you that the Dragon King is still hesitating right now, but as soon as we depart, he’ll immediately follow us. This is how people think about things. Apart from an experienced old man like me, how many others do you think could predict this?”

“This is not what the Dragon King would do.” Shangguan Fei indeed didn’t quite understand. In his opinion, the Dragon King had always been a decisive man who never hesitated about anything.

Old Man Mu raised his eyes and glanced at him. “I forgot that you like men, and that you’re an idiot who knows nothing about women.”

The two went into Shangguan Hong’s tent together. Doctor Sun had already left. Shangguan Hong was heavily bandaged up, and only his eyes and nostrils could be seen.

Shangguan Fei couldn’t help himself from letting out a laugh. “This outfit fits you quite well.”

Shangguan Hong glared at him. Old Man Mu walked forward and asked, “Where’s Lotus? The Dragon King wants us to go there to help.”

“The Master Commander doesn’t need any help. And even if she does, there’s nothing… that you can do.”

Shangguan Fei was not keen on making a contribution, so he was immediately relieved. “He doesn’t think that we can be helpful, Old Man Mu. Let’s stop flattering ourselves… ”

He said this in such an unduly relaxed manner that his words had the opposite effect. Watching them, Shangguan Hong instantly changed his mind. “I’ll take you there.”

“You can’t even walk.” Shangguan Fei made an unnatural smile. Judging from the baleful look in Shangguan Hong’s eyes, this trip had to be extremely dangerous. “But if you insist on taking us there yourself, then you should at least wait until you’re in a better condition.” Shangguan Fei decided to make up an excuse so that he could go to his mother’s and stay there for a few days.

Shangguan Hong jumped off of the bed and tore the gauze off. “I’m fine. That blood was not mine. Let’s move right away. Grab your weapons. Are you the only ones? The Dragon King… didn’t assign more men?”

“I can handle a hundred enemies at a time, and Little Feifei can also handle a dozen or so. Do you still think that we’re not powerful enough? Didn’t Lotus become invincible after she mastered the Daoless Divine Power? So how was she trapped by her own men?”

Shangguan Hong’s face changed drastically. “Who told you that the Master Commander is trapped?”

“Easy. You’re pretty good at keeping secrets, but even a fool can tell what’s going on. If Lotus was doing fine, why would she have you come here to meet the Dragon King with blood all over you? Wouldn’t that be a humiliation for her?”

Shangguan Hong was stunned. It turned out that the truth had been that obvious. There had no need for him to try to conceal it from the very beginning. “So the Dragon King already clearly knew that the Master Commander is trapped, but he has no intention of…”

Old Man Mu jumped up and slapped Shangguan Hong on top of his head. “Do you think that I’m a slave of the Shangguan family? Stop asking questions. Start moving if you can and tell us the address if you can’t. What’s the point of talking so much nonsense? My time is precious, and you can’t afford to waste it, understand?”

Old Man Mu kept nagging and Shangguan Hong was unable to stop him, so he hurriedly got dressed. When they left the tent, it was already dawn.

The three rode out of the camp and galloped towards Jade City. Shangguan Fei turned his head back repeatedly, but he couldn’t see any signs of the Dragon King following them. Eventually, he gave up trying, thinking that he wouldn’t be able to find the Dragon King even if he had actually followed them.

Old Man Mu was more interested in Shangguan Hong. “I didn’t expect that the old guy surnamed “Sun” would be this good. He actually managed to help you cheat death. Look at you. You’re alive and kicking, almost as good as new.”

“Um,” Shangguan Hong replied perfunctorily. He himself was the only one who knew what kind of condition he was really in. He had to save the Master Commander and get the antidote as soon as possible. Otherwise, his body would explode from the uncontrollably rising blood pressure.

Shangguan Hong led the two to the eastern city gate. Shangguan Fei asked in surprise, “Lotus is in northern Jade City? It’s still daytime. Are we directly going in just like this?”

“Seriously? You still care about whether we’re doing this during the day or during the night under these circumstances?” asked Shangguan Hong. He didn’t want to waste any time.

All three of them had security passes, so they all went through the checkpoint without any trouble. Shangguan Fei had kept his head down the wjp;e time, regretting the fact that he hadn’t disguised himself.

After they progressed a short distance through northern Jade City, Shangguan Fei suddenly realized where they were heading. “The Bodhi Garden. Lotus is hiding in the Bodhi Garden?”

Shangguan Hong shot a displeased glance at him, as if blaming him for his loud voice.

After returning to Jade City, this was the first time that Shangguan Fei had walked into northern Jade City during the daytime. Additionally, he wasn’t disguised and there was nobody coming to his aid, which made him feel extremely nervous. He felt as if everybody on the street would recognize him and then go to Golden Roc Castle to tell on him.

He started frequently turning his head around again, hoping to spot the Dragon King’s figure.