Death Sutra Chapter 217

Chapter 217 Eavesdropping

Wei Lingmiao proved how strong a man’s endurance could be. Gu Shenwei had spent the same amount time killing forty people as he did torturing him and forcing out everything he knew.

Three years ago, Wei Lingmiao actually came to break off the marital engagement.

The marriage of the Wei family and the Gu family was not fairly well matched in social status, which became even worse after Gu Lun retreated to the Western Regions. Both the father and the son of the Wei family wanted to break off the marriage.

At first, Wei Lingmiao indeed didn’t know that the target of the a.s.sa.s.sination he had gotten involved with was his father-in-law’s family, but he soon found out. Instead of stopping it, he made one request that since Gu Tsuilan was his girl, she had to be enjoyed by him before she died.

Gu Shenwei cut open Wei Lingmiao’s stomach, slashed off the flesh piece by piece, and finally confirmed that the hirer of the killers of Golden Roc Castle was not him.

“No one knows, not even Shangguan Nu. Only the Unique King knows everything, or perhaps my father does too. Kill me, please.” Wei Lingmiao was so intent on dying that he even betrayed his father.

Gu Shenwei turned to summon the roc. After days of contact with the roc, he found out that it could understand his whistle, so he used this way to communicate with the bird.

The red-crowned roc jumped in mid-air and tore open the tent with its claws before it landed in front of Wei Lingmiao and greedily stared at his eyes.

Wei Lingmiao wanted to die, but he still couldn’t help but feel fear. With the last bit of strength he had, he lifted his right hand to block in front of his body. This hand, which had caressed countless women’s bodies, had only bones and broken flesh left now.

Wei Lingmiao died before the roc pecked with its sharp beak.

Dozens of carriages were lined up in a row. Without even lifting the planks to check, Gu Shenwei already confirmed the uniqueness of the wagons by their weight. Then, with the roc’s help, he pushed them into the deep pit one by one.

When he got to the thirtieth or so carriage, a person surprisingly showed up from underneath. Gu Shenwei immediately drew his sabre, simultaneously regretting his carelessness. He had counted the total number of the men before they left and thought that those forty-two men would still be forty-two. What if someone ahead had come to greet Wei Gongzi?

But this person was not a man.

Xu Yanwei didn’t recognize that the demon in the camp was her acquaintance. She

was so frightened by the roc that she huddled her head and could only shout, “Don’t kill me”.

Gu Shenwei recognized her voice. “How come you’re not dead?”

Xu Yanwei raised her head, stunned for a while, and suddenly burst into tears. Unable to say a word, she bounced up, clung to Lord Huan, and cried even more loudly, her nose and tears all rubbing off on him.

Gu Shenwei could only push her away and asked why she wasn’t dead again.

“I, I slept with a guard, and he said that tonight, tonight will be the last, the last night.”

Xu Yanwei sobbed and replied. Her many years of experience at Southern Jade City had given her an instinctive foreboding of danger. The guard’s words had aroused her suspicion. While the people were digging the pit, she had hidden herself under the wagon and witnessed her fellow sisters being slaughtered unprepared.

“I should have listened to you. You are here to save me, aren’t you?”

Gu Shenwei didn’t answer, as he still had lots of work to do.

Xu Yanwei wished she could ‘grow on’ Lord Huan from now on, but she was afraid of the giant bird, and was almost frightened to death. She could only stand at a distance and constantly mutter about how good Lord Huan was and how silly she was.

All the carriages were pushed into the pit and smashed into pieces, then they were covered with nearly a hundred corpses. The job was a lot easier with the roc’s help. It saw everything as a game and pecked at each corpse before throwing them into the pit. Xu Yanwei took a few more steps back because of this. She was still scolding herself but her voice was indistinct now.

It was already dawn when Gu Shenwei finished filling the pit. He released the large group of horses and camels. If anyone came here looking for clues, they would follow the hoof prints out a long way.

Then he smashed the wine jars and set a fire.

He had to leave right away, and the last problem to resolve was Xu Yanwei.

He hadn’t thought to save her. Xu Yanwei’s survival was a complete accident. If the roc appeared a bit later, the guard would have realized that the number of the women’s corpses wasn’t right and they would have found and killed her.

She had seen everything, and the only thing she didn’t know was that there was gold hidden in those wagons.

Gu Shenwei walked over with the sabre in his hand. Xu Yanwei’s sensitivity to danger had worn away, and she rushed over and made a series of vows, claiming that she would never make

make decisions on her own again. “I’ll listen to you, and do whatever you want.”

What saved Xu Yanwei’s life wasn’t her tears or vows. Instead, it was Gu Shenwei suddenly thinking of a plan, one in which Xu Yanwei might be useful.

The two got on some horses and traveled back day and night along the same road. Gu Shenwei was used to this kind of hards.h.i.+p and tiredness, but Xu Yanwei had never suffered such a jolt before. What surprised Gu Shenwei was that, instead of complaining, she gritted her teeth, insisted she was fine, and didn’t even ask for a rest.

When it was less than half-day’s journey to the Iron Mountain camp, Gu Shenwei turned into the wilderness, bid the roc farewell, and asked it to fly far away.

The red-crowned roc also didn’t want to follow the slow man anymore. Before Gu Shenwei said anything, it had already rocketed into the clouds and disappeared in the blink of an eye at the sight of his gesture.  

Gu Shenwei felt that the big bird was a bit heartless, but Xu Yanwei admired him very much. “So you raised it. Tut tut, you’re really … like an immortal descended to the earth.”

Xu Yanwei’s eyes changed a little. Overbearing men always had an indescribable attraction to her. Gu Shenwei then burst her bubble, saying, “You stay here. There’s enough food and water for two days. Do not go anywhere, and also do not make a fire to attract attention.”

No village, no shop. The place was surrounded by bushes and weeds and there might be wild animals nearby. If it were in the past, Xu Yanwei would definitely ask ‘why she must stay here? Who was going to keep her safe? When would he come to pick her up?’. But now she only nodded heavily, showing that she would never disobey his order.

That evening, Gu Shenwei sneaked back into camp. Instead of returning to his tent, he cautiously went to Shangguan Nu’s tent. He couldn’t waste such a good opportunity to kill one of his main enemies and frame the Big Head G.o.d or Waning Moon Hall.

This was the plan he had thought of long ago. The killing of the fourth young lord Shangguan Ruo and the green-faced a.s.sa.s.sin had greatly boosted his confidence and made him believe that he could take revenge on his enemy now.

It wasn’t an easy task to avoid the attention of a killer leader and a green-faced a.s.sa.s.sin. Gu Shenwei hadn’t slept for days, but his desire for revenge sustained him enough to stay awake. He inched his way closer to the tent in a circle, looking for the hidden spot of the green-faced

the green-faced a.s.sa.s.sin.

The spot where the green-faced a.s.sa.s.sin hid was somehow out of Gu Shenwei’s expectations. Instead of guarding on the top of the eighth young lord’s tent, he was lying on a larger tent nearby, wrapped in a cloak exactly the same colour as the tent.

The reason Gu Shenwei was able to find this green-faced a.s.sa.s.sin was because whenever a gust of wind blew through the tents, the top of the tent flapped regularly. Only that place was not consistent with the rest of the tent.

Why would the green-faced hide on the top of Big Head G.o.d’s tent? Could it be possible that Shangguan Nu wanted to go against his father-in-law? Gu Shenwei understood right away that he had it wrong. The reason why the green-faced a.s.sa.s.sin didn’t stay with his lord was that Shangguan Nu was talking about something secret and didn’t want anyone to hear.

Anyone could be a traitor, even those green-faced a.s.sa.s.sins who died if they left their lord.

Gu Shenwei originally planned to a.s.sa.s.sinate the green-faced a.s.sa.s.sin first, but now he changed his mind and went round to the black corner of the green-faced a.s.sa.s.sin’s vision. Carefully, he went to Shangguan Nu’s tent and lay down on the ground. After lightly stabbing the tent with his dagger, he p.r.i.c.ked his ear against it and listened intently.

There were two men in the tent, Shangguan Nu and Zhong Heng, who were speaking in a very low voice. Gu Shenwei could only intermittently hear a few words before he went back to his own tent. There was a cutter waiting inside, who nodded at him and left immediately without saying a word.

Gu Shenwei fell asleep as soon as he closed his eyes. He had to seize the time to clear away the fatigue of the past few days.

He changed his mind and didn’t kill Shangguan Nu. The words he had heard made him come up with a grand plan that might kill even more people of the Shangguan family.

The next morning, the killer Yang Huan, who had been ‘drunk’ for several days due to the sabremen, finally woke up. The gifts to the castle were ready and the escorting team was ready as well.

Shangguan Nu didn’t show up, but Zhong Heng came once. Gu Shenwei told him that the gold had been hidden and spoils could be divided after the dust settled. Lord Zhong didn’t object.  

Wei Gongzi and his companions had died in the wilderness, so it would take some time for the news to reach the Iron Mountain camp. Gu Shenwei was finally ahead of the rumours.

The gift that Big Head G.o.d had prepared for his daughter included not only rare treasures, but rare treasures, but also twenty female slaves, who were specially bought at his daughter’s request. It was said that Luo Ningcha felt too lonely in the stone castle and hoped that there would be a few more people around.

On the evening before the gift escorting team left, Gu Shenwei went to see those twenty female slaves and appointed one of them to go with him. The Registrar and guardsmen tacitly consented to it and immediately let them go. The female slave was also very cooperative. As soon as they got out of the tent, she clung to the killer and kept asking questions in her awkward language of the Central Plains.

Gu Shenwei fetched two horses for each of them and left the camp right away. It was a bit weird to go out at the time, but no one asked twice. Neither of the two belonged to the Iron Mountain, so no one wanted to meddle in it.

Xu Yanwei had suffered a lot. She had hidden in the wilderness for two days and only had a few mouthfuls of dry food. Frightened, she didn’t dare to sleep much. So when she heard the sound of horses’ hooves, she immediately dived into the gra.s.s, and didn’t crawl out until she realized that it was Lord Huan’s voice.

“Who’s this?” Xu Yanwei asked in surprise.

That female slave was also very surprised. “Go back, back to the camp.”

Gu Shenwei unsheathed his sabre and made a clean thrust. The slave girl plopped to the ground, hardly bleeding.

Xu Yanwei’s eyes widened. Not daring to scream, she almost put her whole fist into her mouth.  

“Change your clothes.”

Gu Shenwei turned around. Xu Yanwei felt things were getting strange, but she decided to ask nothing and do whatever Lord Huan told her to.  

The killer Yang Huan brought the ‘female slave’ back on second half of the night, kept her in his tent, and ‘returned’ her only on the next morning when the gift escorting team set out.  

The female slaves traveled with her felt that she was a bit different, but they had all been bought from all over the place so no one would make a fuss about such a trivial matter.

Gu Shenwei planned to send Xu Yanwei to Golden Roc Castle, not only to hide her, but also to ask her to do one thing.

Gu Shenwei felt the matter would be easy because he had overheard two important messages from Shangguan Nu.

It was true that the Central Plains was about to strike Big Head G.o.d, and it would occur in a few months.

The eighth young lord had betrayed his father and Golden Roc Castle.