Chapter 403. People of the Jianghu Are Not Normal.
Once even Ilmajo’s forces had disappeared, Eldest Brother spoke.
“……At this point, I cannot tell whether this is good or not.”
“In what way?”
Eldest Brother thought for a moment, then replied.
“Exactly as I said. Since the other side is showing courtesy as well, it makes it difficult to face the Cult Leader with a joint attack.”
“Wasn’t the Cult Leader an unpredictable man to begin with?”
“He was.”
“Then let’s not try to predict him, like Ilmajo did. There’s no point.”
As if agreeing with me, the Lust Demon nodded, then touched the crown of his head and checked his hand. It was covered in blood.
Murong Bai approached like a monkey, looked the Lust Demon over this way and that, then said,
“Please hold still.”
When Murong Bai sprinkled the Golden Wound Medicine powder from the bamboo tube onto his head, the Lust Demon jumped in surprise.
“It stings!”
Seeing a bastard who had been taking blades with his skull make such a fuss left even me bewildered.
Fortunately, Murong Bai also scolded the Lust Demon while holding the bamboo tube.
“Of course it stings. Did you expect it not to? Hold still.”
Murong Bai examined the wound and sprinkled the Golden Wound Medicine evenly over it.
Being a man who meddled in everything, I tried worrying about the Lust Demon.
“You’re not going to go bald after applying Golden Wound Medicine, are you? Be careful. The whole world could never tolerate a bald Lust Demon. You should only be one or the other.”
The Lust Demon glared at me as if he wanted to kill me, and since it still seemed to sting, he glared at Murong Bai as well, but he could not glare at Eldest Brother.
In any case, Eldest Brother was laughing too.
I asked Murong Bai,
“There aren’t any side effects that make you go bald?”
“Do you hope there are? Next time, it might be your head that gets split open, Sect Leader.”
In the time I hadn’t seen him, it seemed the Poison Demon had popped out and was glaring at me. Since I held the opinion that one could not live only as a kind person, I praised Murong Bai.
“Good. Your curses have improved. I like it better this way. A man should know how to curse too. But how did you find your way here? I’m sure we said we would only fight at Mount Hua.”
In truth, even if we fought at Mount Hua, if people of the jianghu set their minds on finding us, they could do so in no time. I only asked because I did not know how skilled Murong Bai’s lightness skill had become.
Murong Bai replied,
“Before climbing the mountain, I was eating at an inn, and rumors had already spread through the area.”
“Saying what?”
“That no one should go near Plum Blossom Manor. They said something ominous was happening.”
“As expected, there are many extraordinary people in inns. So that was it.”
Murong Bai looked at me.
“In any case, Sect Leader.”
“What?”
“No matter how I look at it, it seems you will soon be crossing hands with the Cult Leader, so why are you so cheerful? Does it make you laugh?”
“Then should I be crying? They’re my feelings. It’s my heart.”
Suddenly, the Lust Demon touched the crown of his head a few times and checked his hand.
“The bleeding stopped. But it still stings.”
I nodded.
“I see. My ears are stinging too.”
Only then did Murong Bai burst into giggles like a madman at this conversation that had lost far too much direction.
We silently watched Murong Bai laugh.
After laughing by himself, Murong Bai stopped laughing by himself, cleared his throat, and joined the silence.
Eldest Brother said to the Lust Demon,
“Still, you bled, so go inside, wash, and rest.”
“Understood.”
As the Lust Demon stood, Eldest Brother added a word to his disciple.
“Ilmajo is not a weak man. He must have come prepared for death, so sparing him was no easy thing either.”
The Lust Demon nodded.
“Yes, Master.”
The Plum Blossom Manor Lord rose and said,
“I will have the maids prepare warm water as well. I will also provide a change of clothes.”
This time, Eldest Brother comforted the Plum Blossom Manor Lord.
“Manor Lord.”
“Yes.”
“I am sorry about your manor.”
The Plum Blossom Manor Lord replied in a slightly trembling voice.
“It is all right. Where else would I ever witness such duels? It is an experience that cannot be measured in money.”
Eldest Brother nodded.
“That is true.”
I agreed too.
“That is true. Isn’t it?”
Only then did Murong Bai say something to the Plum Blossom Manor Lord that contained his identity.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No. They were trees and flowers I cherished, so my heart aches.”
“There is nothing I can do about the heart. Please bear in mind that this sort of thing often happens when you associate with the Sect Leader.”
“Yes.”
In any case, that left the Sword Demon, the Crazy Demon, and the Poison Demon. Only then did I ask Murong Bai what I had wanted to ask.
“Why did you come all the way here?”
Murong Bai gave an answer I had not expected.
“After watching you all this time, Sect Leader, I saw that you live however you wish.”
“More or less.”
“That is why I came too. Following my heart.”
I had nothing to say to a man who declared he would live as he pleased. Sitting around a table prepared at someone else’s manor after such a long time, talking about this and that, I could no longer tell whether we had come to fight or to travel.
Eldest Brother said to Murong Bai,
“It seems you trained quite a bit as well.”
“I trained, dug up mountain ginseng to eat, and tried everything I could.”
I looked at the man who had suddenly appeared beyond Murong Bai’s shoulder. It was Left Envoy Wei. He was standing near the collapsed wall, staring blankly at us.
It did not seem as though he had come alone, and soon his subordinates appeared one by one to his left and right.
I watched Left Envoy Wei’s expression, then said to Murong Bai,
“……Go inside and treat the bald Lust Demon.”
Murong Bai turned his head and looked at Left Envoy Wei’s party. Before Murong Bai could get stubborn, I spoke first.
“Go in. I don’t trust rich bastards. That man is the richest bastard in the Cult.”
Murong Bai stood.
“Understood.”
While Murong Bai entered the manor, Left Envoy Wei and his subordinates came inside. As they reached about the halfway point, the subordinates stopped, and only two men walked side by side to the table and sat without permission.
Left Envoy Wei was an eye-catching man, but the first impression of the man I had never seen before was no less formidable.
Left Envoy Wei and I glared at each other in silence for a while, as if we were enemies meeting face-to-face. Since he was someone I had cursed out before, that was only natural.
Left Envoy Wi spoke to me without bothering with greetings.
“Sect Leader.”
“Speak, Left Envoy Wi.”
“At the time, the Cult Leader was present, so I could not even offer a proper excuse. May I say one thing?”
“Go ahead.”
“You said my skill at flattery was the best under heaven, but in truth, I have never flattered anyone.”
“Is that so?”
“How could I say otherwise with my own mouth?”
I nodded.
“I apologize. I spoke without knowing.”
Left Envoy Wi continued.
“I have long heard the rumors that your mouth is foul. However, in the presence of the Cult Leader, you said something I could not possibly overlook.”
“What did I say?”
Since I tended to spout whatever came to mind at any given moment, I could not remember every single thing I had said.
Left Envoy Wi said,
“You said I used the lives of the cultists to increase my family’s wealth. Who on earth told you such a thing? Astonishingly, the words you babbled spread even within the Cult. I am, in name and reality, one of the Left and Right Envoys who assist the Cult Leader from the closest position, yet you utterly dragged my standing through the mud.”
I could not apologize twice either.
“So what. Is that not true too?”
“There is no way you could know the internal affairs of the Cult. Then are your words not simply your own thoughts?”
Left Envoy Wi looked at Eldest Brother.
Eldest Brother nodded.
“They are my thoughts. Of course, the late War Demon thought the same. The Blade Demon thought the same as well. That means the subordinates beneath them originally held similar thoughts too, so it is not that the Sect Leader’s words spread, but rather that what was already known was confirmed once again through his words. Left Envoy Wi, do you deny that your family accumulated wealth in that manner?”
Left Envoy Wi forced a smile onto his face.
“Sword Demon. Then where do you think that wealth was spent? While you were Left Envoy, the food you ate, the clothes you wore, the place you slept, the serving girls you ordered around. What if every benefit came from my pocket? Who in the Cult was able to accumulate wealth? Are you saying you were not among those who spent the money I earned and offered up, without the slightest gratitude?”
Eldest Brother smiled.
“I was among them. That is why I left the Cult for various reasons, is it not?”
I looked at the man beside Left Envoy Wi and said,
“By the way, why are you all coming separately? Was that an order?”
In truth, I had the feeling that the reason Left Envoy Wi was so angry right now was not solely because of me or Eldest Brother. Rather, it seemed like anger born from the fact that even if the cold-hearted Cult Leader ordered him to go to Plum Blossom Manor as though employing the stratagem of killing with a borrowed knife, he could not refuse. I did not bother keeping this thought to myself.
“Left Envoy Wi.”
“……”
“Somehow, it seems you are not angry at me, but at the Cult Leader. Am I wrong? Did you expect that once you became Left Envoy, you would be able to wield full authority from a position second only to one and make even more money, but that expectation proved wrong? I think Ilmajo, who is good at making predictions, would suit the position of Left Envoy better. What do you think?”
The man beside Left Envoy Wi opened his mouth for the first time.
“I will raise it to three thousand per head.”
Only then did Eldest Brother and I look at the hired assassin. He was not a man who looked like someone from the Central Plains. He seemed to be of mixed blood or from a foreign land. In any case, since we were seated around a table, I exchanged words with the assassin as well.
“Eldest Brother’s head and mine are only worth six thousand taels? You must be out of your mind. What kind of business is that? You were deceived by Left Envoy Wi too.”
The assassin asked me,
“Then what would be appropriate? For reference, the three thousand are standard silver pieces.”
“Then I take it back.”
Three thousand silver pieces was no ordinary sum.
The assassin took something like Forget-Worry Grass from his bosom and said,
“……I am from Hainan. I was bored because I had no worthy opponents. After crossing over to Guangxi, it took me four years just to defeat the experts there one after another.”
The assassin lit the Forget-Worry Grass and continued.
“I killed quite a few, but it did not make money. I realized belatedly that one ought to be paid for doing what one is good at. Hao Sect Leader, I had long heard your reputation.”
The smoke from the Forget-Worry Grass that the assassin exhaled billowed thickly toward my face. I lightly waved my hand and scattered the smoke.
While he was exhaling the Forget-Worry Grass, those who had been waiting behind him had also approached the table. For the moment, I could not tell whether they were Left Envoy Wi’s subordinates or the assassin leader’s subordinates.
A sigh escaped me on its own.
“If you blow smoke at me one more time, I will take it to mean you all intend to die here.”
It was not that I disliked the smoke of the Forget-Worry Grass, but that I could not determine whether it was a poison mist or not.
The assassin drew deeply on the Forget-Worry Grass, then exhaled toward my face again.
I stood up alone and put some distance between us.
The assassin looked at me with a smile.
“……What I meant was that I knew someday a commission would come in to kill you.”
Eldest Brother had not risen from his seat.
Either he did not fear poison, or he was an adult and therefore did not fear smoke. As for me, however, I was wary of poison, and since I was a brat, I had no desire whatsoever to inhale smoke.
Eldest Brother spoke to Left Envoy Wi as though making a proposal.
“Ilmajo returned alive. I will make you an offer. If the two of you face the two of us in the form of a martial duel, we will let you keep your lives. If the assassins behind you intend to join in as well, then all of you die here. What will you do?”
In any case, it seemed the authority to decide lay with Left Envoy Wi, because even the assassin leader looked at him.
During an ambiguous stretch of time that was neither short nor long, Left Envoy Wi stared at me. He seemed to be gauging my bearing, and the area beneath his eyes was trembling faintly.
At that moment, words I truly could never have expected flowed from Left Envoy Wi’s mouth.
“Hainan Killing Star.”
The assassin with the Forget-Worry Grass in his mouth answered.
“What is it?”
“I will count it as four thousand per head.”
Hainan Killing Star looked at Left Envoy Wi in astonishment. In truth, I was astonished too, and Eldest Brother, perhaps displeased, narrowed his brow and glared at Left Envoy Wi.
When something is too absurd, words fail to come out.
Even Hainan Killing Star let out several snorts as though dumbfounded.
How could he try to settle things with money even after it had come to this?
But Hainan Killing Star looked at me and answered like this.
“……Not a bad offer.”
“……”
I lost, you damned bastards. Of course, I do not mean I lost in a fight. Men with desires as strong as the Lust Demon’s were glaring at me with their lives on the line.
This is why people of the jianghu are not normal.