Chapter 166
Chapter 166
"Li Qianqiu, I have Grandmaster Yan Nanfei behind me, as well as the Count of Wu'an's Estate and His Highness the Third Prince. Do you dare kill me?"
"In this desolate countryside, no one would know if someone died."
The owner of the Xuefeng Branch said through gritted teeth, his voice desolate.
"Th-then… we can fight…"
Before he could finish his sentence, his head fell. Following that, the assassins of Autumn Wind Tower swarmed Li Qianqiu like moths to a flame. Fearless and brave. What Shen Lang witnessed next was an utterly bizarre scene. The Sword King stood his ground, not moving a single step, felling one man with each swing of his sword. In a very short time, he had cleanly killed dozens of assassins from Autumn Wind Tower.
His swordsmanship didn't look grand, nor did it seem brilliant. When he raised his hand, someone died. He didn't even thrust. To an ordinary person, it would simply look as if the assassins were leaping at him one by one, only to die. Was this the "wait-by-the-stump-for-a-rabbit" sword style? Shen Lang watched, mesmerized, and couldn't help but ask.
"Senior, is this the Starfall Sword Style?"
"This isn't even a sword style."
He wasn't using the Starfall Sword Style? The Sword King didn't feel the need to use such a technique to deal with them. He didn't even need a sword style to kill this many people. Shen Lang was incredibly envious.
"Senior, I suddenly feel the urge to learn swordsmanship."
The Sword King said flatly, "Don't waste your time."
*Damn, you really have no conversation skills!*
"Senior, will my wife become this formidable in the future?"
"Ordinarily, it would be impossible, but with you by her side, she will become this formidable in the future. No, she might become even more formidable. I have never met anyone with more genius than you in deciphering martial arts manuals."
Shen Lang was secretly overjoyed.
*Senior Sword King, your conversation skills have improved.*
The Sword King then walked forward, felling another person with each swing, and eventually killed all the warriors standing beside Zhu Nanting.
*Damn, just watching is getting a bit boring.*
Shen Lang didn't see the Sword King use any other moves. He seemed too lazy to even raise his hand high, simply lifting it moderately and striking down again and again. It felt like a max-level player in an RPG slaughtering a horde of newbies who had just started the game. By the time Viscount Zhu Nanting came to his senses, there wasn't a living person beside him. That's right. Everyone was dead, and he was the only one left.
*What just happened? Who is this person?*
"Shen Lang, I cannot kill this man."
His wooden sword rested lightly on Zhu Nanting's neck. It was surely a light wooden sword, yet it felt as heavy as a mountain. Zhu Nanting immediately dropped to his knees, unable to move recklessly.
"Why not?"
"My origins are humble, so every time I see a nobleman, I feel a sense of servility. Whenever I resolve to kill a nobleman, I am filled with trepidation, feeling as if I am defying the authority of the state. I cannot bring myself to kill him."
Shen Lang was startled.
*Senior Sword King, are all Grandmasters afraid of this, or is it just you? You may not be able to kill him, but I can. Not just a viscount; I can secretly kill nobles of even higher status.*
Shen Lang crouched down in front of Viscount Zhu Nanting.
"Sh-Shen Lang, what are you trying to do? I am a viscount, a banner of the new order established by the King. You cannot kill me. You cannot kill me…"
Shen Lang took out a porcelain bottle and shook it in front of Zhu Nanting. Zhu Nanting trembled in shock, and the resentment and anger in his heart vanished without a trace. In their place, an endless desire to live surged forth.
"Shen Lang, Young Master Shen. Please don't kill me! I swear, I will never be your enemy again. I will never fight you again. Young Master Shen, I was blind before, no, I was out of my mind to provoke you. I was wrong. I was truly wrong… Lord Shen Lang, it hasn't been easy for me to live to this day, not easy at all. From this day forward, I will be your beast of burden… Please, spare my life."
Seeing Viscount Zhu Nanting sobbing, Shen Lang felt a sense of disgust.
*Tian Heng at least had some backbone. He was cursing even before he died.*
"There, there, don't be scared. Time to take your medicine!"
Shen Lang uncorked the bottle, grabbed Viscount Zhu Nanting's mouth, and poured the sulfuric acid from the bottle into it. A moment later, thick smoke seeped from Zhu Nanting's mouth.
"Aargh… Aargh… Aargh…!"
The viscount let out a horrific scream, the likes of which he had never made in his life. It felt as if his body had been cast into the eighteenth level of hell. After screaming for a quarter of an hour, he finally died!
***
At the same time.
The Count of Xuanwu's Estate finally welcomed a long-awaited guest: Xue Li, the legitimate daughter of the Count of Wu'an's Estate and the fiancée of the fatty, Jin Mucong. Earl Jin Zhuo had never imagined she would visit the estate in person.
And at the same time.
Xu Qianqian had waited in Raging Tide City for a full four days and finally met the rumored pirate fiend, Qiu Yao'er.
***
"Aigoo!"
Looking at Viscount Zhu Nanting's corpse, Shen Lang frowned slightly. The sight alone was enough to make one feel the pain. The man was completely contorted, his tall and sturdy frame shrunken into a tight ball.
"Senior Sword King, it seems the world doesn't always go my way. I was planning to kill this man when I had the time, but he ended up dying here without knowing why."
The Sword King, Li Qianqiu, didn't know how to respond. He had originally thought a great calamity had befallen the Count of Xuanwu's Estate and that they wouldn't be able to escape it, but now, upon reflection, it seemed his worries had been for naught. Shen Lang then moved the bodies on the ground, arranging them to look as if the men from Viscount Nanshan's estate and Autumn Wind Tower had fought and killed each other.
"You won't be able to fool them with that."
"This is a major incident where many people have died for unknown reasons. We have to give people an answer, don't we? A false answer is better than no answer at all. Otherwise, won't the local officials in charge of the case have a hard time?"
This was similar to taking an exam, not knowing a single answer, but scribbling down wrong answers just to fill the page. If you didn't write a single word, it might seem like you were disrespecting the authority of the teacher, so it was better to write down a wrong answer. After staging the scene, Shen Lang got back into the carriage, and the Sword King, Li Qianqiu, once again transformed into the much-tormented driver, continuing their journey north.
"Senior, every generation of Sword Kings has had a daughter. Could it be…"
Shen Lang hesitated, unable to finish his sentence.
"I had a child… but I couldn't protect her."
"I'm sorry."
Shen Lang also showed a pained expression.
"I've grieved for twenty years. It's bearable now."
That topic left them in silence for over an hour. It wasn't until they passed by a lake with a beautiful view that their moods seemed to lighten a little. Shen Lang asked in a cheerful tone.
"Senior Sword King, is the pirate fiend Qiu Yao'er beautiful?"
Li Qianqiu hesitated for a moment before replying, "I don't know how to put it."
Perhaps she wasn't beautiful, or perhaps he had no interest in any woman other than his wife, hence his reply.
"The rumors say she likes women. Is that true?"
Li Qianqiu hesitated again before answering, "Well, I don't know how to answer that either."
The Sword King was not one to gossip about others, but Shen Lang loved to chatter about this and that. The more Shen Lang talked on the way back, the more silent the Sword King became. In the end, the Sword King had no choice but to drive the carriage while meditating.
*Sigh! The reason I took Tang Yan as my disciple was because he didn't like to talk.*
***
The legitimate daughter of the Count of Wu'an's Estate, the beauty Xue—no, Xue Li, walked into the Count of Xuanwu's Estate. The genes of hundred-year-old noble families were continuously optimized, making their women more and more beautiful. As a daughter of a noble family, Xue Li was beautiful. Hers was a beauty of arrogance, of superiority, a beauty that looked down on others. To put it bluntly, she was beautiful to an irritating degree.
Xue Li looked down on the Count of Xuanwu's Estate with an innate sense of superiority. A century could change mountains and rivers; no one could predict the ways of the world. In the past, when the Xue clan was attacked by pirates and faced a crisis that nearly wiped them out, most of their family members had died. If the Earl of Jinzhou hadn't saved them back then, the Xue clan would have truly been annihilated.
At that time, the sole heir of the Xue clan, Xue Fan, took the Earl of Jinzhou as his master and became a Grandmaster at the age of forty. From then on, the Xue clan split into two factions: the Count of Wu'an's Estate and the South Sea Sword Sect. Having experienced the crisis of the past, the Xue clan feared a repeat of such danger and believed that possessing outstanding martial power was the only way to be safe. A hundred years passed, and both the Count of Wu'an's Estate and the South Sea Sword Sect became major powers.
The Xue clan was overflowing with talent, whereas the Count of Xuanwu's Estate was so lacking in it that a lowly live-in son-in-law was causing a stir. How pitiful and miserable! Although the Jin clan was lucky enough to win the Gold Mountain Island dispute, they would face an even more tragic end than if they had lost. How could a mere live-in son-in-law change the Jin clan's destiny of destruction? Of course, he couldn't. So how could Xue Li suppress the sense of superiority welling up inside her?
Our Xue clan is like the sun shining brilliantly in the sky, while your Jin clan is on the brink of ruin. Of course, the Count of Wu'an's Estate and the South Sea Sword Sect were only able to achieve their current glorious peak because of the favor the Earl of Jinzhou had shown them in the past. But did that mean Xue Li felt grateful to the Earl of Jinzhou? Of course she did! But as the old saying goes, a great favor is repaid with enmity. She became angry instead, thinking, *'How am I supposed to repay such an immense favor? There's obviously no way to repay it.'*
*The fact that our Xue clan has kept its distance from your family all this time is already a sign of our noble upbringing. Can't the Jin clan see that and understand its place? This engagement has been dragged on for years, and they still don't understand our intentions. Do they want us to spell it out for them? Wouldn't it be better to save themselves some face? Do they really want to invite such humiliation?*
All four members of Earl Jin Zhuo's family came out to greet Xue Li. Earl Jin Zhuo asked her.
"My dear niece, what brings you here?"
"I have come to break the engagement!"
The color drained from Earl Jin Zhuo's face. Among nobles, there were certain proprieties to be observed, even if they were just formalities. Even if the Xue clan truly wanted to break the engagement, they should have made preparations and announced it properly. For example, they could have said, "Our daughter, Xue Li, is bedridden with a chronic illness and cannot rise. We cannot burden your esteemed son, so we have no choice but to end the engagement." Xue Li would then have to pretend to be bedridden for a year.
Or they could have said, "Our daughter, Xue Li, has become devoted to Buddhism and has decided to become a lay devotee, remaining unmarried for life. Thus, we have no choice but to break the engagement," and she would go to study Buddhist scriptures for a year and a half. Later, when she was to marry someone else, she would add a perfunctory remark like, "I realized I had no affinity with Buddhism and have returned to secular life." Even a ruthless official like Prefect Zhang Chong wouldn't break an engagement without at least killing the fiancé first, yet the Xue clan was directly and harshly demanding a breakup. This was tantamount to declaring a life-or-death struggle or becoming mortal enemies.
"My parents have been agonizing over my marriage every day. They want to break the engagement, but they can't find a reason, so they keep dragging it on year after year. I couldn't just stand by and watch, so I came to break it off myself."