Following his memories, Fang Yuan led Jia Jin Sheng back to that crack in the mountain wall.
The two entered the crevice. The path grew narrower and narrower, and all was darkness before them. The farther Jia Jin Sheng walked, the more uneasy and suspicious he became. After all, this was an unfamiliar place.
At last, he could not hold it in any longer. "I have a question. Jia Fu has always presented himself as honest, kind, approachable, and trustworthy. I, on the other hand, cheat and swindle, force purchases and sales. Why did you choose me for this deal instead of him?"
Fang Yuan's answer came from within the crevice. "Because his cultivation is too high. If he saw the image wall, he could choose to trade with me, or he could abandon the deal and hand the image wall over to the Gu Yue Clan Leader. I don't like placing the initiative in someone else's hands. Besides, I never believed in honesty. So-called reputation is all bullshit—it merely means the profit is too small to stir one's heart."
The more important reason was that Jia Jin Sheng held a special position and had weak cultivation, making him easier to manipulate and arrange as he pleased. Naturally, Fang Yuan would not say that aloud.
"Heh heh." Jia Jin Sheng gave two dry laughs, and most of his doubts immediately faded. "That last sentence really spoke to my heart."
The two finally squeezed into the hidden cave within the mountain body.
The instant Jia Jin Sheng saw the image wall, he burst into delighted laughter. "Hahaha, I bet right! You didn't lie to me!"
Standing behind him, Fang Yuan chuckled softly without speaking.
Jia Jin Sheng watched the image wall. The scenes upon the mountain wall shifted continuously, replaying the kindness and resentment between Flower Wine Wanderer and the Fourth Generation Clan Leader from back then.
After watching it once, he withdrew his gaze, turned sideways toward Fang Yuan, and teased, "It seems your Fourth Generation ancestor wasn't all that impressive either."
Fang Yuan said, "That is nothing. The Gu Yue Clan needs a hero, so the Fourth Generation became a hero. Soon enough, Bai Family Village will need a vile villain, and the Fourth Generation will become a vile villain. Heroes and villains are merely other people's judgments."
"Wonderfully said." Jia Jin Sheng clapped and laughed as he surveyed the hidden cave.
His gaze paused for a bit on Flower Wine Wanderer's withered skeleton. "What a pity for a rank 5 powerhouse. Little brother, you must have reaped quite a few benefits from him, right?"
The inheritance of a rank 5 Gu Master was naturally no trivial matter. At the thought, Jia Jin Sheng's heart stirred, and he could not resist probing Fang Yuan for information.
Fang Yuan shook his head. "It has been too long. Many Gu have died, and I only obtained a Wine Worm Gu."
But Jia Jin Sheng did not believe him. "Little brother, don't lie to me. As long as this deal goes through, we'll be accomplices. I won't leak it. Tell me honestly—just how many benefits did you get?"
Fang Yuan sneered. Too lazy to answer, he offered no further explanation.
Fang Yuan had long anticipated Jia Jin Sheng's reaction. This was also why he had chosen Jia Jin Sheng rather than Jia Fu.
Jia Jin Sheng continued on his own. "Leaving aside everything else, I know that Flower Wine Wanderer possessed a famous Thousand Mile Earth Wolf Spider. This was a rank 5 mount Gu, enormous in size and exceptionally skilled at drilling through earth and escaping underground. Flower Wine Wanderer was a demonic path cultivator, able to roam freely and unrestrained because he relied on this Thousand Mile Earth Wolf Spider to repeatedly burrow away from the encirclements of righteous path figures."
"Oh, was there such a thing?" Fang Yuan frowned slightly. He truly had not heard much information about Flower Wine Wanderer.
Jia Jin Sheng was full of self-satisfaction. "when I came to your village last year and heard this legend, I found it interesting and specifically went home to ask around. The Thousand Mile Earth Wolf Spider was almost inseparable from Flower Wine Wanderer. In my view, this hidden cave in the mountain was carved out by the Thousand Mile Earth Wolf Spider. Otherwise, Qing Mao Mountain is all dense, sticky green soil. How could such a hidden cave have formed naturally? Little brother, stop hiding it. Since Flower Wine Wanderer died here, his Thousand Mile Earth Wolf Spider must be here too!"
Fang Yuan's frown deepened. He faintly sensed something was wrong and said in a low voice, "True. There is no other exit here. The Thousand Mile Earth Wolf Spider is huge; if it used the stone crevice we entered through, it could never squeeze out. But it is also possible that the Fourth Generation had plotted against it beforehand and trapped it to death. Look at the image wall—during Flower Wine Wanderer's fierce battle, he never summoned the Thousand Mile Earth Wolf Spider."
"That makes this even stranger. This hidden cave could not have formed naturally; Flower Wine Wanderer must have opened it temporarily. Without the Thousand Mile Earth Wolf Spider, could he have had some other method?" Jia Jin Sheng looked at Fang Yuan with deep suspicion.
Fang Yuan's brows nearly twisted into a knot. He felt increasingly uneasy. The new information he had just obtained from Jia Jin Sheng made him vaguely realize that there seemed to be some crucial link he had overlooked.
He could not help sinking into thought.
Jia Jin Sheng was thinking as well. The image wall could no longer satisfy his appetite. Once he was certain this matter was real, he desperately wanted to dig Flower Wine Wanderer's inheritance out of Fang Yuan.
Neither of them had expected that, at this moment, a sudden change would occur!
The image wall, which had been looping over and over, suddenly flashed.
A bald Gu Master, gravely wounded and deathly pale, replaced the previous image and appeared on the image wall.
He lay limply on the ground with his back against the mountain wall. Deep wounds covered his chest and limbs, yet strangely, the flesh around them had split open without bleeding. It was as though all the blood in his body had already been drained away.
"I am Flower Wine Wanderer." The bald Gu Master gave a sinister chuckle, his face savage and terrifying. "Later arrival, whoever you are, the fact that you made this image wall replay continuously for nearly a hundred days proves that you bear no goodwill toward the Gu Yue Clan. Very good. You are my inheritor!! I leave all my inheritance to you, but there is one condition—you must destroy the Gu Yue Clan for me, slaughter the village, and leave not even chickens or dogs alive!"
Jia Jin Sheng stood frozen in place, his full face filled with shock.
"Flower Wine Wanderer's inheritance as a rank 5 powerhouse!"
He was stunned. For a moment, his head buzzed and his thoughts churned wildly.
Heavens! A rank 3 powerhouse—what kind of concept is that? A rank 3 is an elder, a Rank 4 can become the lord of a village. A rank 5 Gu Master is a mountain lord, capable of dominating a mountain and throwing his weight around! Who would have thought that such a tiny place would contain the power inheritance of a rank 5 Gu Master?
Wait a moment. Flower Wine Wanderer was from the demonic path. Would inheriting his power be inappropriate? No, power has nothing to do with good or evil, righteousness or wickedness. Flower Wine Wanderer wants his inheritor to slaughter the Gu Yue Clan—but must I obey him? He is already dead. As long as I inherit his legacy, I can simply ignore all that.
This is a heaven-sent opportunity! Although I possess only D-grade Aptitude, if I inherit Flower Wine Wanderer's legacy, perhaps I can change my aptitude. Maybe this inheritance contains those rare Gu worms that improve aptitude. If I inherit this wealth and become a Rank 4 or rank 5 Gu Master, I'll be able to contend with Jia Fu!
Wait a moment! I nearly forgot—there's still an outsider here. What should I do?
Do I have to split this inheritance with him? No, kill him! Only by killing him can I keep this secret. Right—first, steady him. I'll say we'll split the inheritance and trick him into lowering his guard, then I'll launch a surprise attack and use my killing move to kill him here. This place is hidden—what a perfect place. Even if I kill him, Ghost Knows Not.
Though he had thought so much, only a brief instant had passed.
Having made up his mind, Jia Jin Sheng narrowed his eyes, and a false smile appeared on his face.
He slowly turned around to face Fang Yuan. Just as he was about to speak, he saw two dark-blue moon blades shooting straight toward him!
His pupils abruptly shrank to the size of needlepoints. The distance was too short—he had no time to react!
"You..." His voice cut off abruptly.
The moon blades struck his neck with perfect accuracy. In an instant, his head flew skyward, while blood gushed forth like a fountain.
Only after a second or two did his body fall to the ground with a thud.
Scalding blood sprayed across the mountain wall, dyeing the withered, dead vines a swath of red.
"If you're killing someone, then kill them. Why think so much?" Fang Yuan cast an indifferent glance at the corpse on the ground, then turned his gaze to the image wall.
"Who would have thought there would be such a twist? How interesting." He muttered, a faint, eerie light flickering in his eyes.
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