Chapter 369
Chapter 369
“Li Qianqiu, your wife will die on my command. You have a choice: your wife, or Shen Lang. You can only save one. Will you let your wife die, or will you kill Shen Lang? I’ll count down from five. If you haven’t killed Shen Lang by the time I’m done, I’ll have your wife shot dead. Hahahaha! Five! Four! Three! Two!”
The Sword King, Li Qianqiu, trembled uncontrollably, as if writhing in excruciating agony. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his jaw, his entire body drawn taut.
“One!”
Su Lin’s countdown ended. Now, either Shen Lang or his wife had to die.
“Die!”
The Sword King thrust his sword into Shen Lang’s back with all his might.
*Thrust!*
The tip of the blade emerged from Shen Lang’s chest, dripping with crimson blood.
Shen Lang seemed completely stunned by the sudden turn of events. He lowered his head, staring blankly at the sword tip protruding from his chest and the blood that dripped from it.
“Ugh…!”
A strange sound gurgled up from his throat, and a torrent of red blood spilled from his lips.
“W-why?”
The Sword King spoke.
“Because I love my wife more. I would give everything I have for her.”
“Excellent, well said!”
Su Lin applauded loudly, then raised a hand to feign wiping away a tear that wasn't there, his voice mournful.
“How truly moving. I never knew you loved your wife so deeply, Senior Sword King. I must learn from your example and cherish my own wife.”
Then, he clapped his hands, and a woman from the Western Regions, who appeared to be in her thirties, entered. The woman, who must have once been quite beautiful, now had a formidable build, with a waistline that rivaled a barrel and a frame that carried a good two hundred and fifty pounds. Su Lin approached her and gently rested his head against his wife’s bosom.
“My love, from now on, I will love only you, just like the Senior Sword King.”
Su Lin’s wife was from a branch of the Jun royal family, so she could be considered a princess. Many members of the Su Clan, not just Su Lin, had married into the various nations of the Western Regions. This was necessary so that after their rebellion and declaration of independence, they could secure a foothold in the southwest and gain the strength to break away from the State of Yue.
Su Lin’s wife looked at Shen Lang and asked.
“Is that the man who killed our Jun merchants and my cousin?”
Su Lin replied.
“Yes, my love. He is the one.”
Su Lin’s wife said.
“Slit his throat and collect the blood. I want to drink it. Peel his skin and use it to cover a stool. Carve his flesh and boil it with his bones to make a stew.”
“As my beloved wife commands.”
Su Lin shouted loudly.
“Everyone, I will treat you all to a meal today. But I haven’t prepared any dishes. Soon, we will boil this scoundrel, Shen Lang, in a pot and serve each of you a bowl of meat stew!”
“Yes!”
Everyone cheered loudly. Su Lin added with a note of regret.
“What a pity. This scoundrel Shen Lang is so thin, he can’t weigh more than a hundred and thirty or forty pounds. There will only be enough for a single cup of stew for each person here.”
Just then, the Sword King Li Qianqiu spoke.
“Su Lin, let my wife go.”
Su Lin smiled at Li Qianqiu.
“Don’t you worry. I’ll certainly let her go. Not only that, but we’ll use our connections to ask Mount Budao for the antidote. Why don’t you join our side, Senior Sword King? The Su Clan greatly values supreme masters like yourself.”
The dozen or so warriors did not lower their bows; instead, they moved closer, taking aim at the woman in the iron cage.
“Aaargh!”
The toad-like woman let out a desperate, piercing shriek. Su Lin drew a dagger, looked at Shen Lang, and said calmly.
“Ten days ago, when Sword King Li Qianqiu ambushed my uncle, our family was quite surprised. There’s no one on Sword Island but an old, blind servant, so it was a simple matter for us to retrieve the Senior Sword King’s wife. It was child’s play. But I do apologize if the lady was frightened; the carriage ride was rather bumpy, as we were in a hurry.”
Su Lin walked over to Shen Lang and noticed Big Dummy, his face crimson, eyes shut, and his whole body trembling.
‘What a shame. A true genius of the martial arts. But my uncle ordered me to cut him into pieces. It can’t be helped.’
Su Lin smiled, waving the dagger in his hand in front of Shen Lang.
“Are you in great pain? I can feel your agony just by looking at you. Shen Lang, what gave you the courage to marry Jin Mulan? Does a man of your lowly status even deserve her?”
Shen Lang breathed with difficulty, bloody foam bubbling from his lips. Su Lin took out a gold coin from his robes and sighed.
“Did you really think leading ten thousand commoners of Zhenyuan City to plunder the shops of the Western merchants would accomplish anything? My men are already going door-to-door, confiscating their assets. We’ll have all the gold and jewels back in no time. Would you believe me if I said we’ll have even more than before? The Su Clan is about to make its move, and we will crush any and all disturbances.”
Su Lin reached out and patted Shen Lang’s face with a smile.
“I don’t know what gave you the courage to come to Zhenyuan City, but this is my territory. We’re only a few dozen miles from the Marquis of Zhenyuan's estate. Do you have any idea how many soldiers we have at our command? Over twenty thousand! And that’s not all. There are countless barbarian soldiers on the Qiang nation’s side as well. Tell me, did you grow tired of living and come to Zhenyuan City to seek your own death?”
“Haha…”
Shen Lang let out a hollow, futile laugh. Su Lin sighed and continued.
“The day of the final battle will soon be upon us. Our army will sweep through the Heavenly West Province and unite with the Qiang. Our moment of greatness is at hand. The Su Clan will soon become a soaring phoenix. The Jin Clan, on the other hand, will be utterly destroyed before long. Very soon, in fact! What a shame, Shen Lang, that you won’t be here to see it. My uncle asked me to personally cut off your head and make a wine cup from your skull. Well then, let’s get on with it!”
Smiling, Su Lin reached out to slice Shen Lang’s throat. But just then, Shen Lang suddenly opened his mouth and laughed.
“Brother, you’re making my head spin.”
Shen Lang’s voice was full of vigor, not at all like that of an injured man. Su Lin was so startled that the hair on his head stood on end, a chill running down his spine. He quickly tried to turn and flee. His movements were swift, but the Sword King was far swifter. Li Qianqiu reached out, seized Su Lin by the scruff of his neck, and lifted him into the air. Su Lin’s legs kicked as if trying to run, but he didn’t move an inch forward.
Shen Lang sat up, clicking his tongue.
“Ah, ah, ah! What is this? Quite a unique performance. An aerial dance? I wonder if this is what the giant Kua Fu looked like when he chased the sun.”
Everyone present was frozen in shock.
‘What just happened? Wasn’t Shen Lang just run through with a sword? Didn’t the Sword King mercilessly pierce his chest?’
Shen Lang pulled the sword from his back and declared triumphantly.
“Friends of Zhenyuan City, it is time for you to witness a miracle. I will now perform the act of swallowing a sword!”
As he finished speaking, Shen Lang took the sword he had pulled from his back and promptly swallowed it. It was a specially made retractable sword. The blade could be compressed, layer by layer, into the hilt, leaving only about three inches of the tip exposed.
“And now, I will show you the act of taking my own life.”
Shen Lang extended the retractable sword back to its full length and thrust it hard into his own chest. The blade once again folded inward, shortening to about a foot, making it look as though the sword had pierced his body. Then, Shen Lang took off his clothes to reveal a device strapped to his chest. A highly flexible soft sword was attached to it, normally compressed. When needed, pressing a trigger would cause the sword tip to shoot out with a *swish*, piercing a hidden pouch of blood. These two items were the key props that had allowed Shen Lang to feign being stabbed through the chest by Li Qianqiu’s sword.
Shen Lang said.
“Isn’t it amazing? Isn’t it unexpected? Isn’t it absolutely brilliant?”
How could it not be? Shen Lang and the Sword King had rehearsed this performance hundreds of times the night before. Naturally, it was flawless.
“Hahahahaha!”
Big Dummy could no longer hold it in. He opened his eyes and burst into loud laughter. He had truly suffered the most. Big Dummy was such a terrible actor that, fearing he would give the game away, he had kept his eyes shut and feigned a trance from the moment he entered. Yet he kept wanting to laugh, and in his desperate struggle to suppress it, his face had turned red and his body had trembled nonstop. Coincidentally, this had made him look as if he were overcome with grief and fury. Realizing the truth, Su Lin felt like he was going to lose his mind.
“Li Qianqiu, are you abandoning your wife? Do you not care if she lives or dies?”
Shen Lang replied with a tone of regret.
“Brother, did you really think I would bring the Senior Sword King here and leave his wife on the island for you to capture? It was entirely predictable that a family as despicable and amoral as the Su Clan would stoop to anything. That’s why the Sword King’s wife was moved to a very safe location long ago.”
Su Lin looked at the woman in the iron cage in disbelief and shouted.
“She is the Sword King’s wife! All her hair has fallen out, her body is hunched over, and her skin is like a toad’s. She is definitely the Sword King’s wife!”
Shen Lang sneered.
“What you didn’t know is that in my efforts to save the Sword King’s wife, I have been studying the potent poison in her system. I’ve extracted over a dozen samples so far, and while I haven’t yet found a cure, creating a poison with the exact same symptoms was, on the contrary, quite simple.
“And one more thing. You must have found this woman in a deep cave in the mountains. She would have been constantly screaming, ‘Li Qianqiu, you scoundrel! Save me, quickly!’ Overjoyed, you would have been certain she was the Sword King’s wife. But in reality, her mind is broken, and those are the only words she can ever scream.”
Su Lin shrieked, demanding.
“Then who is that woman?”
“She is a woman who deserved to die. Using her to save someone is likely the only contribution she has ever made to others in her entire life.”
The woman in the iron cage began to scream madly again.
“Blow out the candle! Li Qianqiu, you scoundrel! Save me, quickly! Save me!”
Su Lin asked in a chilling voice.
“You knew this would happen from the start? You prepared for all of this?”
“But of course. Do you know what I spend most of my time doing? I use substitution, thinking about problems from my enemy's perspective. Every day, I think, ‘If I were Su Nan, how would I kill that scoundrel Shen Lang?’ The methods you came up with, I’ve already thought of them. In fact, I’ve even thought of moves you haven’t.”
And it was true. When Shen Lang had asked the Sword King to come, he had first secretly moved the Sword King’s wife to the Ends of the Earth Sea Pavilion. Then, in the cave on Sword Island, he had placed a woman with identical symptoms, a woman who deserved to die. Moreover, what Shen Lang had said about having an idea to save the Sword King’s wife was also true.