Chapter 941: A Protest

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.

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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.

Sun Chengqi never expected that Luo Qikang would become a threat to him.

The Hedong Luo Village was far-famed in the Central Plains. Some of its members were dignitaries in the Imperial Court, and some of its other members were famous swordsmen in the martial arts world. Naturally, Sun Chengqi had heard of then, but he was a typical civil official who was only sensitive to people’s official positions. Thus, he naturally differentiated between reputation in Jianghu and status in the Imperial Court.

If Luo Qikang had had an official position, no matter how low it was, then with the Luo family’s influence, he would have gained the deputy envoy’s respect. But he was only a common swordsman dressed as a common soldier among a group of guards.

After that fight in Golden Roc Castle, Luo Qikang had shot to fame in Jade City. Sun Chengqi had finally realized that he was not an ordinary person. Regarding himself as a superior, he had tried to co-opt Luo Qikang with an appreciative attitude, unaware of the fact that he had merely greatly offended this swordsman.

As a result, when Sun Chengqi was sitting in the tent, he was very surprised to see Luo Qikang walk inside uninvited when he raised his head. With a displeased look, he said, “Guard Luo, you arrived just in time. I wanted to talk to you about something. Many firms in Jade City have sent petitions here, saying that you killed a lot of innocent people in the city. Is it true?”

“I killed a couple of people, but they were not innocent,” Luo Qikang said apathetically. He didn’t even bow to pay his respects, not to mention call him “Lord.”

Sun Chengqi was very sensitive to this kind of issue. He immediately stood up and said angrily, “Luo Qikang, how dare you! Guards!”

Sun Chengqi called for the guards outside the tent, but nobody came in. Those guards had been devotedly fulfilling their duties all along, but at this moment, they were not where they were supposed to be. “Get out. I’m busy today. We’ll talk about your issue tomorrow.”

Luo Qikang fished out an official document from his chest and handed it to Sun Chengqi. “Take a look.”

Noticing that this guard’s tone was becoming more and more impolite, Sun Chengqi became vigilant. There were rigid procedures in the delivery of official documents. This document wasn’t supposed to be delivered to a guard first. He took it and pulled out the letter in the envelope. His face changed drastically after he read just two lines, and then he skipped past the contents and directly looked at the seal at the bottom of the letter.

“Thi–This… This is vicious libel and vilification! Who sent this letter here? I’ll go back to the Central Plains tomorrow and explain to His Majesty… ”

Luo Qikang whipped out his sword and squinted slightly. As if the target was a kung fu expert whose kung fu was as good as his own, he carefully stabbed the blade into the chest of the deputy envoy but didn’t kill him right away.

In surprise, Sun Chengqi looked at the bleeding wound in his chest and then moved his eyes back to the guard whose face was slightly dark, having no idea at all why he would be stabbed. He took two steps forward and then fell to the ground with a thud, knocking down the table beside him as he did so.

Luo Qikang walked to the doorway of the tent but then turned around and walked back. He lowered his head and looked at the body lying prone on the ground. Suddenly, he whipped out his sword again and cut off the head.

He had become somewhat fond of the rules of Jade City.

Gu Shenwei was consulting with Zhong Heng on some affairs when a guard suddenly came inside and reported that a small team of cavalrymen had run out of the camp of the Central Plains and were approaching the front gate of the Dragon Army’s camp.

After a quarter of an hour, Zhang You desperately ran into the tent, stumbled, and then knelt down to the ground yelling “Help! Dragon King!” repeatedly.

Zhong Heng walked forward and tried to console him. After quite a while, Zhang You calmed down and said, “The guards have revolted. They killed Lord Sun, the deputy envoy. Fortunately General Dugu had quick reflexes. He had some men escort me to the Dragon King’s camp.”

Gu Shenwei was amazed. No matter how audacious Luo Qikang was, he shouldn’t have dared to kill an official of the Central Plains in public. He was no common Jianghu swordsman. His recklessness might even get his whole family into trouble. “What about General Dugu? Why didn’t he come here with you?”

“I don–don’t know.” The only thing on Zhang You’s mind was a way to flee. He had never considered the safety of Dugu Xian.

The information that Zhang You offered was extremely limited, but soon, more accurate news came. The guards hadn’t revolted. Luo Qikang had received the Emperor’s order to kill Sun Chengqi.

Sun Chengqi had been convicted of colludomg with enemies as well as negligence that resulted in damage to the Imperial Court’s reputation.

Zhang You’s face was ashen-faced. Sun Chengqi had been following his instructions all along. If Sun Chengqi was guilty, then there was no doubt that he would also be held responsible. “All of that was Assistant Minister Yan’s orders!”

Soon, Dugu Xian had someone deliver another secret letter, saying that he could only be the Commander-in-chief for three more days because in three days, another Governor of the Western Regions and Commander-in-chief appointed by the Imperial Court would arrive.

Gu Shenwei was startled yet again. It had been less than a month since Wei Song’s death. The message shouldn’t have even reached the Central Plains yet. Why would a new official arrive so soon? And this person had also managed to convict Sun Chengqi of a series of crimes before his arrival.

After Zhang You regained his composure, Gu Shenwei and Zhong Heng immediately started consulting with each other for a way to deal with this issue. The name of the successor wasn’t mentioned in the letter. Zhong Heng speculated, “Clearly, this appointment was issued a long time ago and Wei Song didn’t know that his position had already been taken away by someone else before he died. So, this person is probably not on the Empress Dowager’s side but rather on her opponent’s side.”

The biggest opponent of the Empress Dowager was Prince Xiao. Gu Shenwei had no idea why Prince Xiao would make this move. He was pondering whether he should seize this last chance to take Jade City by force.