Chapter 130: Investigation
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Mr. Hong estimated that there were more than a thousand of these pitons in existence, since several blacksmiths in this village were hired to produce these pitons.
Gu Shenwei was surprised by Mr. Hong's conclusion and thought, "More than a thousand rock-climbing pitons. Is New Moon Hall planning to climb all the way up to Golden Roc Fort with these things? That's unbelievable. The hill is more than 3,000 meters high and is surrounded by a river which is very deep. Are they really capable of doing that?"
After they left Blacksmith Village, Maid Lotus told Slave Huan the reason that she had Mr. Hong make a pair of swords for them.
"This is the only way we can carry swords with us without arousing any suspicion. After all, everybody thinks that we're a couple. Isn't it the perfect excuse for us to carry this pair of swords with us? I've a feeling that we are going to need them very soon."
Maid Lotus said this without any embarrassment at all. She was a natural born killer. She was cold, rational, and did not care much about the fact that she is a girl.
Gu Shenwei was relieved to hear that and approved of her idea. In East Castle, when two apprentices get romantically involved with each other, they would show their affection to each other by sharing a pair of items. Most of the time, they would choose to share a pair of swords or sabers.
Gu Shenwei was happy that he would soon be able to carry a sword around with him everywhere, but at the same time, he was a little worried that he would irritate Maid Lotus' admirers by doing so.
They made little progress with their investigation after they left Blacksmith Village. They might be able to find some clues if they went down to the foot of the hill and check. However, they did not have enough time to do that. In the end, they gave up tracking down the pitons and returned to the yard where they lived now.
As soon as they arrived at the yard, Liuhua came to tell them that Mister Guo wanted to meet all the brown-belt assassins.
Liuhua, Wildhorse, Slave Huan and Maid Lotus went to a private house in South City to meet Mister Guo. Last winter, when they had left Golden Roc Fort to eliminate the Ten-Dragon Gang, they had lived in this place, which also happened to be Mister Guo's base camp currently. The moment they arrived at the house, the street in front of it was packed with people, but its front yard was empty. They waited in the yard for Mister Guo's order.
A moment later, they were allowed to enter the house. Upon entering the hall, they found out that beside Mister Guo and his killers, there were several dozen teenagers present. They were Shangguan Yushi and her brown-belt assassins from the Little Flag Battalion.
Mister Guo looked grumpy. In his eyes, it's outrageous that Golden Roc Fort would permit such a group of teenagers to join the action against New Moon Hall and the Barren Sect. However, he had no choice but to accept this ridiculous decision, since the fort told him that it was the Supreme King's order.
"Little Flag Battalion is in charge of the southeastern area of South City. Shangguan Yushi, you're the killer leader of the brown-belt assassins and you have to send someone to report to me every morning. If you encounter any difficulties, you can contact us at anytime."
"Yes, Commander," Shangguan Yushi replied indifferently, without even the slightest nod towards Mister Guo at all. She still held a grudge against him, because he had treated her like a servant when he had caught the Black Jade Palm thieves.
Just like "killer leader", "Commander" was also a temporary title granted to a team leader during a mission. Once the mission was complete, these titles would be revoked.
Mister Guo waved the teenagers away impatiently. He always had a welcoming smile on his face in Golden Roc Fort, but now his face was cold as stone.
When the teenagers were about to leave, Mister Guo singled out two of them and asked, "Why did you go to Blacksmith Village today? Who sent you there?"
Upon hearing that question, Gu Shenwei quickly realized that Mister Guo was Du Qi's protector.
"I was..."
Before he finished his sentence, Shangguan Yushi suddenly interrupted. "They were conducting an investigation. It's the Tenth Young Master's order."
Gu Shenwei was shocked to hear that Shangguan Yushi, who hated him so much, make an excuse for him. He had planned to tell Mister Guo that he had been ordered to track down some enemies, but now Shangguan Yushi gave him a much more reasonable explanation.
"You can leave now," Mister Guo commanded. "Let's wait and see what a bunch of children can do," Mister Guo thought to himself.
Shangguan Yushi and the brown-belt assassins went to a private house in the southeastern area of South City. She sent most of the teenage assassins out to perform different tasks, and selected the best assassins to work with her. Slave Huan was one of these assassins, but he was pretty sure that Shangguan Yushi would never give him an important and rewarding task.
"The Tenth Young Master said that her followers can be killed but can never be humiliated." Shangguan Yushi said this to remind Slave Huan that she had just fulfilled her duty by answering Mister Guo's question for him. She continued to say, "Let's kill as many enemies as we can to attain glory for Master Ru. Maid Lotus, what did you discover today in Blacksmith Village?"
Maid Lotus told Shangguan Yushi about the pitons. "Do you really believe that those women from New Moon Hall and Barren Sect can climb up to Golden Roc Fort with those pitons?" Shangguan Yushi sneered and asked Slave Huan.
"There's a possibility that it could happen," Gu Shenwei replied.
"It's impossible. Firstly, you don't know who bought these pitons. Secondly, why would those women waste their energy trying to climb up the Stone Castle? Do you think that there are no killers inside Golden Roc Fort now? Even if all the killers have left the fort, the Supreme King can still kill all the crazy women by himself."
Although what Shangguan Yushi said was a little exaggerated, Gu Shenwei still had to admit that she had a point. Stone Castle was guarded by many kung fu masters. He believed that a few black-masked assassins would be enough to kill some crazy women trying to climb up to the hill.
"I think it may be a macheteman named Nie Qing who bought these pitons. His sister is probably a disciple of New Moon Hall or the Barren Sect. As for the pitons, I think they're some kind of tools."
"Where is this Nie Qing?"
"I killed him."
"Huh, Slave Huan. You still like making stories up to cause a stir. Well, from now on, you don't have to take part in the assassination task. Go chase the lead on the pitons. We expect great things from you."
Gu Shenwei ignored Master Yu's sarcastic remarks. He bowed to her and accepted this arrangement.
"Mater Yu, allow me to work with Slave Huan," Maid Lotus said. This was the first time a brown-belt assassin had chosen to openly support Slave Huan in front of Shangguan Yushi.
Everyone, including Gu Shenwei himself, was surprised.
Shangguan Yushi was speechless for a moment. She had heard about the relationship between Maid Lotus and Slave Huan, but she was still very determined to draw Maid Lotus into her inner circle. Maid Lotus' attitude displeased her very much, so she blurted out, "No, you have to stay here. I'll give you another task."
After a moment, she changed her mind. "I'd better not force her to stay with me. I should let her realize her mistake and come back begging for my help." With this thought in mind, she said to Maid Lotus, "Well, if that's what you want. You can work with Slave Huan. You have to come back and report to me around 5 to 7pm every day."
Shangguan Yushi firmly believed that after this mission, Slave Huan would be removed from the Master Ru's circle forever.
After Slave Huan and Maid Lotus left the house, he asked her why she wanted to work with him. "Did you forget? My desire to kill has somehow abated just like yours. I can't move as fast as before. It's too risky for me to take part in the assassination task," Maid Lotus shrugged and said.
Hearing that, Gu Shenwei was very relieved. He liked Maid Lotus as a friend and trusted her more than anyone. After all, they had gone through thick and thin together and had even studied Death Scripture together. However, he still felt that there was a void between them. He still remembered how harshly the girl had treated him when they first met.
The next day, a brown-belt assassin, who was a former Tattooed Arm Gang member, told Slave Huan privately that Shangguan Yushi had probably excluded him from the assassination task on purpose. According to that brown-belt assassin, 20 brown-belt assassins, who outshone their peers in the assassination task and contributed the most, would get their red belts on the twins' birthday and become core members of the twins' killer teams. The twins were going to turn 13 in about two weeks. At that time, Shangguan Fei would officially become the Ninth Young Master of Golden Roc Fort and have his own killer team. Shangguan Ru, who had to appear in public as a Miss for now and not as a young master, would also select her own team of killers.
The brown-belt assassins of Little Flag Battalion performed very well at their jobs, and some of them were even perceived to be more competent than ordinary red-belt killers. Nevertheless, Golden Roc Fort had not yet given anyone of them a red belt. The fort wanted to keep them for the twins, although most of them had already taken blood oaths to their young masters.
.
In keeping with the fort's traditions, all the other young masters had already agreed to send some of their brown-belt assassins to their little brother and little sister to help them build their teams.
Shangguan Yushi had known of the fort's plan beforehand and had deliberately asked Slave Huan to continue his investigation into the pitons. Golden Roc Fort usually judged a killer's success by how many enemies he or she could eliminate during a mission. Given that, Shangguan Yushi believed that she could deprive Slave Huan of his chance to become a killer on the twins' birthday by preventing him from joining the assassination task.
Gu Shenwei was frustrated. He had been longing to become a red-belt killer for a long time. This would be the only way for him to get closer to the masters of the fort to exact revenge on them. He began considering a plan to assassinate Shangguan Yushi, who stood in the way of his revenge. However, after some thought, he decided to give up on this plan.
"Shangguan Ru isn't stupid. She clearly knows that both Shangguan Yushi and I are competing for her favor. She knows that we want to get rid of each other. Once Shangguan Yushi is assassinated, she'll suspect that her murderer is me and vice versa."
Now, Gu Shenwei had no choice but to solve the mystery as to what New Moon Hall was planning to do with those pitons. If he could figure it out and ruined those women's plan, Golden Roc Fort would also recognize his contribution and make him a red-belt killer.
However, it was not an easy thing to do, as he had absolutely no clue as to what he should do at this moment.
Maid Lotus had other ideas and suggested that they should find a way to eliminate the false Death Scripture's influence on them as soon as possible. She considered this thing their top priority right now since killers without strong killing desires could never survive.
Gu Shenwei agreed to accompany her to Leftslope Vihara, where Master Tiger Monk used to reside to look for answers. This is the least he could do to return the favor. If Maid Lotus had not chosen to openly support him in front of Shangguan Yushi, she would have been able to partake in the assassination task.
He had felt kind of sorry for Master Tiger Monk's death. However, after he discovered that his killing desire was abated by the monk's fake scripture, he did not feel sad for the monk anymore.
On the same day, the other brown-belt assassins that were led by Shangguan Yushi successfully killed two disciples of the Barren Sect, who were armed with steel needles which were typical weapons of the sect.
In the evening, Slave Huan and Maid Lotus went back to report to Shangguan Yushi. Hearing that they had not yet made any progress in their investigation, Shangguan Yushi poked fun at Slave Huan again. That night, Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus sneaked out and rode to the Four Truths Temple. They had to look back several times to ensure that they were not followed.
When they reached the hill beside the Four Truths Temple, they hid their horses at the foot of the hill and walked up the hill along a small path. They finally arrived at Leftslope Vihara at midnight.
As the autumn season approached, the trees had lost most of their leaves. They could clearly see that there was a light in one of the rooms in Leftslope Vihara.
Both of them began to wonder. "Didn't Master Tiger Monk lived in this vihara alone, and Four Truth temple only sent a young monk to bring him meals every day. Now that the master is dead, who would stay in that room at such a late hour?"
Gu Shenwei unsheathed his saber and sneaked to the vihara. Maid Lotus stayed behind to cover him. When he came to the door of the vihara, he discovered that the door was barely opened. He peeped through the crack and saw a monk sitting inside the room. That monk was as pale as a ghost and was smiling towards the door. He looked exactly like Master Tiger Monk.