A Pawn's Passage

Chapter 332: Confrontation

Qi Xuansu saw that Zhang Yuelu could take care of herself, so he stopped chasing her and quickly turned back the way he came. That was because Liu Hu was still outside, and he was afraid that the assassins from The Inn would come back to capture the girl.

When Qi Xuansu jumped down the waterfall, he suddenly felt a chill behind him. He tried his best to dodge it, but he lost his balance and plunged directly into the small pool below.

Qi Xuansu crawled out of the pool, completely drenched from head to toe.

He looked up and saw Zhang Yuelu standing above the waterfall. However, instead of jumping down, she turned around and left.

Qi Xuansu was stunned. But he was glad that Zhang Yuelu had resolved the Bliss Needle.

He dared not stop and ran out of the forest to the official road where he was attacked by Thunder Mage. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Liu Hu was safe and sound.

While Qi Xuansu was fighting fiercely with Zhang Yuelu, Liu Hu had already retrieved Qi Xuansu’s Seven Phoenix Feathers, four Bliss Needles, Divine Dragon Pistol, and two cutlasses. She handed them back to him.

Qi Xuansu asked in surprise, “Where are the people who were hit by the Seven Phoenix Feathers?”

“Dead,” Liu Hu simply said.

Qi Xuansu glanced at the two cutlasses. One of them was broken in half, so it was useless. The only intact cutlass was soaked with blood, so he immediately understood what happened.

After all, Liu Hu was Wild Bodhisattva’s daughter. Although she was taciturn, she was by no means a squeamish lady who would not dare to kill a chicken.

Qi Xuansu put the intact single cutlass and the Divine Dragon Pistol back to their original holsters on his waist. Then he placed the Seven Phoenix Feathers and Bliss Needle in a place where they could be easily fired. In the end, only the broken sword was left.

At this moment, a figure crept to the edge of the woods, quietly staring at them. It was Zhang Yuelu. She was elusive, so Qi Xuansu did not notice her presence.

In such a short period of time, Zhang Yuelu still could not force out the Bliss Needle from her body. But she could recover part of her cultivation. She was unwilling to let Wei Wugui escape just like that, so she did not wait for a full recovery before tracking down his footsteps.

All this while, Zhang Yuelu and Qi Xuansu had been taking turns chasing each other.

When Qi Xuansu was about to leave, Bu Yue became a little restless. The horse looked into the distance while snorting and digging the ground with its front hooves, as if trying to tell Qi Xuansu something.

Seeing this, Qi Xuansu remained calm and gently stroked Bu Yue’s mane to comfort the horse. After a moment, Qi Xuansu suddenly turned around and leaped toward Zhang Yuelu’s hiding place.

Zhang Yuelu did not expect this, so she had no choice but to confront him. The two of them collided head-on. Qi Xuansu was ready to attack, so Zhang Yuelu immediately drifted back because she was still recovering. Her retreat broke two big trees before she managed to stop herself.

By the time Qi Xuansu caught up to her, Zhang Yuelu hooked an arm around a tree trunk and swung herself behind it. When Qi Xuansu’s fists struck the tree trunk, snapping the tree in half. Wood chips flew into the air, and the leaves fell all around them.

Zhang Yuelu waved her sleeves to conjure a strong wind. The thousands of falling leaves turned into countless weapons as sharp as blades, shooting toward Qi Xuansu.

Thus, Qi Xuansu had to change his offense to defense, using the Mountain Fist to block all the leaf blades.

However, this was just a distraction technique. Zhang Yuelu took the opportunity to slap Qi Xuansu with her palm, bringing it down with an intense force.

Qi Xuansu quickly used his palms to block the strike. When their palms touched, Zhang Yuelu used the Six Void Tribulations to gain the upper hand, injecting six streams of foreign qi into his body to stop him from moving.

When it became hard to bear, Qi Xuansu groaned in pain and shot out another Bliss Needle.

However, this time, Zhang Yuelu was on guard. She turned her Amorphous Paper into a paper umbrella to block the Bliss Needle.

At the same time, Qi Xuansu lunged forward and pounced at Zhang Yuelu, who moved like a blur. As a result, Qi Xuansu was hit in the chest by Zhang Yuelu’s Thunder Palm, momentarily suffocating him.

When Zhang Yuelu landed on the ground, she was panting slightly. She used half of her cultivation to suppress the Bliss Needle in her body. If her innate qi and true essence were excessively depleted, the Bliss Needle would begin to take effect again and cause hallucinations.

At this time, she felt a little dizzy. She turned around and saw that Qi Xuansu had taken out the Divine Dragon Pistol at some point, aiming it at her.

Zhang Yuelu held the paper umbrella in front of her as a shield, completely fearless. Even the Grade-B Series One Dragon Eye Bullet could not do any damage to her Amorphous Paper.

Qi Xuansu originally had 5 rounds of Grade-B Series Two Dragon Eye Bullet and 10 rounds of Grade-B Series Three Dragon Eye Bullet. Since he could not replenish them, he used them very sparingly. He used 1 round of Grade-B Series Two Dragon Eye Bullet to deal with Su Ran and 1 round of Grade-B Series Three Dragon Eye Bullet to deal with The Inn’s assassins.

Previously, he had used a Grade-B Series Three Dragon Eye Bullet to destroy Wan Xiuwu’s corpse and eliminate his traces. So at this moment, he only had 4 rounds of Grade-B Series Two Dragon Eye Bullet and 8 rounds of Grade-B Series Three Dragon Eye Bullet, which was still sufficient.

The two of them were facing each other, about 10 meters apart. One of them was holding an umbrella as a shield, while the other was holding a gun. Their eyes were locked on each other, but their feet were constantly shuffling. Since none of them wanted to make the first move, they ended up walking in circles.

Qi Xuansu was the first to break the silence. “Mage Zhang, since we are in this stalemate, why don’t we just call it a truce?”

“Wei Wugui, as long as you tell me the truth, I will let you go.”

“What do you want me to say? I have been a good, law-abiding citizen. You were the one who attacked me without warning, Mage Zhang. I don’t know what you’re up to, and besides, it’s still not certain which one of us will win.”

“In that case, let’s see who will be the real winner today.”

“Mage Zhang, if we continue to fight, we will both lose. The group of assassins from The Inn want to kill me, but you are also their target. Won’t it be a waste to let them reap the benefits in the end?” Although Qi Xuansu pointed his gun at Zhang Yuelu, he did not want to fight Zhang Yuelu to the death, so he could only try to persuade her to stop fighting him.

Zhang Yuelu did not expect Wei Wugui to be such a tough opponent. She had to admit that what Wei Wugui said made sense, so she fell into a dilemma.

She pondered for a moment before asking, “Why do they want to kill you?”

Qi Xuansu replied, “It’s related to the major Jiangnan case.”

Zhang Yuelu was stunned, and her mind was spinning rapidly.

No one knew about Liu Futong and the Yanqing Merchant’s Association’s connection before the former was caught in a scandal with Yue Lian. It was the subsequent investigation that revealed this inside story.

Since this case was related to Wei Wugui, had he done this intentionally? If this was true, did it mean that there was some connection between Liu Futong’s case and the major Jiangnan case?

Zhang Yuelu could not help but feel astounded when she thought of this.

Qi Xuansu noticed her expression, so he continued, “After the major Jiangnan case, Beichen Hall dispatched two Deputy Hall Masters and a large number of Spirit Guards to arrest Fang Linhou, the former Deputy Jiangnan Daoist Mansion Master. They escorted him back to Jade Capital for interrogation. During the Golden Tower Council meeting, Sage Donghua proposed to use Fang Linhou as a wedge, so as to force a gap between the wood to reveal the mastermind behind this.”

Zhang Yuelu muttered, “But in the end, only Fang Linhou died.”

Qi Xuansu continued, “Because that was a metal block that wouldn’t budge. Even if the wedge was broken, there would be no chance of seeing any cracks. At that time, Beichen Hall and Fengxian Hall jointly tried the case.

“Fang Linhou wanted to survive, so he asked his family to send cash notes worth 100,000 Taiping coins to the Deputy Beichen Hall Master, who was responsible for this case. Fang Linhou did not expect to keep his position or even his title as a Sage. He just wanted to live.

“The Deputy Beichen Hall Master accepted the money and agreed to let Fang Linhou go, but during the trial, he went back on his word and handed over the 100,000 Taiping coins to Fengxian Hall as evidence of bribery.

“This gave Fang Linhou the final blow. His crime was bumped up another level, and he was executed immediately. The Deputy Beichen Hall Master only gave up Fang Linhou’s 100,000 Taiping coins because he was offered much more than that by the mastermind.

“Fang Linhou was just an abandoned pawn thrown out of the game. He had a share in the major Jiangnan case, but he was not the main culprit. So there was nothing Fengxian Hall could find out from him, especially because a man’s weakness was often his family. Fang Linhou also had family members to protect. If he told Fengxian Hall any insider information, his wife and children would surely die. That was why he dared not say a word.

“Since Fang Linhou is now dead, who do you think his shares belong to?”

Zhang Yuelu’s face turned solemn, and her voice deepened. “Who are you? How do you know these secrets of the Daoist Order?”