Chapter 19: Chapter 18: The Dagger is Revealed
As a Direct Lineage Disciple of the Murong Family, Murong Qing had a deeply flawed personality, but his strength was extraordinary.
How could someone who had stepped into the Sea of Reincarnation Realm in his early thirties be a simple man?
He didn’t even use a weapon. With a single movement, his gold, dragon-patterned brocade robes billowed. He struck with his palm, and a fiery, golden True Qi erupted. The True Qi coalesced into what looked like a golden, swimming dragon, blasting a massive hole through the chest of the foremost Death Warrior.
The Murong Family’s secret art, the Dragon Shocking Palm!
Two Death Warriors charged from behind with sabers drawn. Murong Qing’s figure flashed, and he appeared instantly before them. He extended a finger from each hand, tapping them on the heads of the two Death Warriors.
A golden light erupted in an instant. The immense Finger Strength directly shattered their skulls!
Profound Dragon Finger!
The Death Warriors Jiang Kaitai had trained were only at the ordinary Body Tempering Realm. In Murong Qing’s hands, they couldn’t even withstand a single move.
In less than twenty breaths, only one of the ten Death Warriors remained.
Murong Qing broke all four of the last man’s limbs and ripped off his mask, revealing a plain, unremarkable young face.
"Speak! Who..."
Before he could finish, a torrent of black blood gushed from the corner of the Death Warrior’s mouth. He had taken poison to kill himself.
Tossing the corpse aside, Murong Qing’s expression turned extremely grim.
Chen Yuan, however, already knew the outcome. It was just like in the original story.
The Death Warriors Jiang Kaitai had spent twenty hard years training had been thoroughly brainwashed. They didn’t value their own lives and were absolutely loyal.
Murong Qing had said earlier that with the Murong Family’s backing, the Celestial Wolf Gang was pathetic for not having swallowed up the Black Water Gang yet. There was actually some truth to that.
The Murong Family was stronger than the Sun-piercing Alliance to begin with. Logically, the Celestial Wolf Gang should have been the one encroaching on the Black Water Gang, but now the opposite was happening.
The root cause was that Jiang Kaitai had been siphoning off more than half of the Celestial Wolf Gang’s income to secretly train these Death Warriors. How could there be any resources left to develop the gang?
Just then, Murong Qing’s expression changed drastically. "To the southeast!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Murong Qing shot toward the southeast.
When he arrived, he saw that the Zhang Family, located in the southeast, had indeed been blood-sacrificed.
"Luring the tiger from the mountain!"
Murong Qing’s face was livid. He felt like he’d been played.
The enemy had clearly sacrificed a team of Death Warriors just to draw him away. As long as they could blood-sacrifice one family, it was a success.
’To be able to train such Death Warriors, they must have been plotting for a long time. But the Death Warriors themselves aren’t that strong, which proves their master’s own strength and status aren’t that high either. Interesting, very interesting indeed.’
A cold glint appeared in Murong Qing’s eyes.
He had originally thought this mission would be simple, just a formality, but it was turning out to be quite tricky.
After returning to the Celestial Wolf Gang, Murong Qing immediately began to re-deduce the array.
However, since he didn’t have the complete array, he could only deduce a general location, an area covering a quarter of Lianshan City.
He then had Jiang Kaitai mobilize the entire Celestial Wolf Gang to stand guard there, but they could only kill a few Death Warriors and were unable to stop the blood sacrifices.
Initially, Jiang Kaitai had targeted large, populous households just to make things easier.
Now that Murong Qing had seen through this, sacrificing several smaller families would achieve the same result.
Furthermore, as the mastermind behind it all, Jiang Kaitai deliberately positioned his gang members far from the sacrifice targets, so Murong Qing couldn’t notice anything amiss.
After all, with such a large area, how could the Celestial Wolf Gang possibly watch over everything?
It was normal to be unlucky and just happen to be far from the target each time.
Seeing that the Celestial Wolf Gang was short on manpower, Murong Qing went to Yuan Dongtian of the Black Water Gang and had them join the effort as well.
The Black Water Gang was backed by the Sun-piercing Alliance. Although they didn’t want to listen to Murong Qing, they didn’t dare defy him and could only comply.
However, Yuan Dongtian still sent a messenger to the Sun-piercing Alliance to explain the situation in Lianshan City, claiming he was being forced to obey the Murong Family’s orders and so on.
Seven days later, although Murong Qing had failed to stop Jiang Kaitai’s Death Warriors from carrying out more blood sacrifices, he had managed to kill over fifty of them.
Chen Yuan estimated their numbers; Jiang Kaitai’s Death Warriors were almost all dead.
’This time, he should be opening the secret realm and merging with the Divine Artifact ahead of schedule.’
And even if Jiang Kaitai didn’t want to, Chen Yuan would add fuel to the fire and force him to act early.
The Black Water Gang had already sent a message to the Sun-piercing Alliance. The round trip would take about ten days.
The Sun-piercing Alliance was currently busy suppressing the Divine Weapon Sun-piercing Sword, but if they turned a blind eye to a subordinate’s plea for help, it would look suspicious. So, they would definitely send someone to take a look.
Chen Yuan didn’t want his plans to change again, so he had to seize the Divine Artifact completely within ten days!
Night had just fallen. As Qin Yuancheng and Chen Yuan were about to head out to lie in wait for Death Warriors, Jiang Kaitai suddenly summoned them.
Qin Yuancheng was a little confused, but Chen Yuan thought to himself, ’It’s finally happening.’
Jiang Kaitai led the two into his room, closing both the inner and outer doors behind them. He stared at them. "First Brother, Third Brother, how have I, your foster father, treated you over the years?"
Qin Yuancheng quickly replied, "Extremely well, of course."
That’s what he said, but inwardly, Qin Yuancheng couldn’t help but roll his eyes.
As Jiang Kaitai’s first adopted son, he could naturally sense Jiang Kaitai’s true attitude toward them.
He wanted them to work for him, but he was also wary of them and didn’t trust them in the slightest.
Chen Yuan said with a solemn expression, "Your kindness is a debt as heavy as a mountain! Without you, Foster Father, we would just be ordinary gang members. Who knows when we might have died in a gang fight? How could we ever have achieved our current status?"
Jiang Kaitai didn’t quite believe Qin Yuancheng, but he believed ninety percent of what Chen Yuan said.
Jiang Kaitai nodded in satisfaction, his expression turning grave. "There are some things I originally planned to tell you only after they were done. But the situation is critical now, so I have no choice but to tell you."
With a sigh, Jiang Kaitai said, word by word, "I am the one conducting the blood sacrifices in Lianshan City! Those Death Warriors are also my men!"
Qin Yuancheng was so shocked he was speechless, his face a mask of disbelief.
Chen Yuan played along, putting on the same expression.
Staring at their faces, Jiang Kaitai said in a low voice, "Don’t panic. I’m doing this because a great opportunity is buried beneath our Lianshan City!
"As long as we can obtain it, forget about the Celestial Wolf Gang just taking over Lianshan City—we won’t even have to fear the Murong Family of Longcheng!
"You’ve all heard of Divine Artifact Demon Soldiers, haven’t you?"
Qin Yuancheng nodded dazedly.
Although he’d never seen one, he had certainly heard of them.
"You should know that I was once a bandit for a time.
"While wiping out an Escort Agency, I obtained a treasure map. The location marked on it was right here, beneath Lianshan City.
"At first, I thought the map led to some ordinary treasure.
"But I never expected that after breaking through the first layer of the array according to the map, I would discover that what lay hidden within was a Divine Artifact called the Seven Kills Stele!
"According to the murals in that secret place, the Seven Kills Stele contains the Killing Intent Origin. Even in the Ancient Era, a time when Divine Demons and powerful experts coexisted, it was considered a top-tier Divine Artifact Demon Soldier!
"As long as I can merge with the Seven Kills Stele, what’s a tiny place like Lianshan City? Your foster father can lead you to dominate the entire You Province and make a name for ourselves in the Jianghu!"
Jiang Kaitai stared at them with burning eyes. "Our Celestial Wolf Gang may seem impressive ruling over a small place like Lianshan City, but in the eyes of Noble Families like the Murong Family of Longcheng, we’re nothing but dogs!
"You’ve all seen how that Murong Qing treats me. He constantly humiliates and berates me, treating me worse than a dog.
"Even if the two of you take over the Celestial Wolf Gang in the future, you’ll be no different from this old dog—you’ll still be the Murong Family’s dogs!
"Only by mastering a Divine Artifact Demon Soldier can we transcend the Nine Realms of Martial Dao and become truly powerful experts!
"Right now, Murong Qing is pressing us hard, and I don’t have many Death Warriors left.
"I had originally planned to blood-sacrifice more people before merging with the Seven Kills Stele, but now I’m forced to do it ahead of schedule.
"First Brother, Third Brother, I have no children of my own, only you two adopted sons. Right now, you are the only ones I can count on.
"Lend me a hand, and in the future, the entire foundation I build will be yours!"
Qin Yuancheng’s face flushed red, stirred by Jiang Kaitai’s words.
He was panicked, excited, and thrilled all at once.
His ambitions were only so big; he was already drooling over the Celestial Wolf Gang, to say nothing of the even greater power in the Jianghu that Jiang Kaitai was painting for him.
But in reality, even if Jiang Kaitai truly merged with the Seven Kills Stele, what would that have to do with Qin Yuancheng?
Previously, when Jiang Kaitai was the Gang Leader of the Celestial Wolf Gang, Qin Yuancheng was considered talented for a small city like Lianshan, which was why he was adopted.
If Jiang Kaitai’s power were to grow in the future, countless talented heroes from the Jianghu would be clamoring to be his adopted son. What would Qin Yuancheng be worth then?
With Jiang Kaitai’s suspicious, cruel, and ungrateful nature, he would never remember that Qin Yuancheng had risked his life for him at a critical moment.
"Don’t worry, Foster Father! Who cares about the Murong Family? I’m absolutely on your side!"
Qin Yuancheng thumped his chest and promised.
Chen Yuan also said in a deep voice, "I will never forget your great kindness, Foster Father. I am willing to go through hell and high water for you!"
"Good, good. You are both good sons."
Jiang Kaitai smiled with relief, then said grimly, "Today, I will go to merge with the Seven Kills Stele ahead of schedule. You have one last chance to perform a blood sacrifice.
"At midnight, the two of you will go, one to the east of the city, one to the west. Start killing for the blood sacrifice. Kill as many as you can.
"You must stop by half past midnight and hurry to the south and north of the city.
"In South City Eight Li Lane, the seventh courtyard, and in North City Cyan Dragon Lane, the second courtyard, there are arrays I’ve set up in advance.
"Enter the main house of each courtyard. Inside, you will find a blood-red porcelain vial. You just need to break it, and the final blood sacrifice array will be complete."
After speaking, Jiang Kaitai glanced at Chen Yuan, looking as if he wanted to say something more, but in the end, he said nothing.
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