Success or Failure Hinged on This One Move

"The Beggar Sect leader?"

Huang Shang's heart jolted.

Chen Sheng had quite the pull. He'd actually managed to summon someone of this standing in the martial world?

In the original story, Wang Jiantong, Xuan Ci, and more than a dozen other martial artists had attacked Xiao Yuanshan together, only to be soundly defeated.

That was because the Xiao father and son had martial arts talent far beyond the norm. They were practically god-of-war figures; it wasn't that Xuan Ci and the others were weak.

As the Beggar Sect leader, Wang Jiantong was a master of the Dog Beating Staff Technique and the Dragon Subduing Palm Technique, a first-rate expert.

Wasn't it a bit beneath him to come in person over such a minor matter?

But as Huang Shang thought back, he recalled that Chen Sheng's family had indeed once done business in the martial world. They had later washed their hands of it and settled in the Eastern Capital.

Old hands like that often had plenty of favors owed to them. People in the martial world valued repaying kindness. If Old Master Chen had once helped the Beggar Sect, then with his grandson dead, it was only natural that they would help when he appealed to them.

But Wang Jiantong's personal appearance clearly meant there was some reason of his own.

While Huang Shang's thoughts raced, Wang Jiantong fixed his gaze on him. His eyes shone so brightly they seemed almost tangible, piercing straight to the heart. "Answer me!"

Anyone would be stunned if someone suddenly barged into their home. Huang Shang's reaction was perfectly normal.

Only after Wang Jiantong asked a second time did he answer, each word clear and deliberate. "I did not harm Chen Ziyu!"

Wang Jiantong studied Huang Shang closely. Seeing his calm expression, he suddenly reached out to seize Huang Shang by the wrist.

His hand moved with incredible speed. Huang Shang had no time to react. His body tensed, and he was just about to struggle on instinct when Wang Jiantong let go of his own accord.

The Beggar Sect leader murmured, "He truly doesn't know martial arts. But that disciple was clearly injured by cold yin energy. What's going on?"

Only then did Huang Shang understand.

Wang Jiantong had been lured here by the Reincarnators' covert attack.

Huang Shang had been wondering how the Reincarnators would continue testing him. He hadn't expected them to make their move so soon.

They'd seized the opportunity and turned it to their advantage. Smooth.

I must take this as a warning!

Huang Shang silently chastised himself.

Earlier, he had tracked down the pair of Reincarnators in Kaifeng Prefecture's vast crowds and successfully drawn them out. He had grown somewhat overconfident.

But the truth was, anyone who could survive in a place as ruthlessly competitive as the Main God Temple and rise to the star rank was an outstanding individual.

When both sides tested each other and secretly struck from the shadows, things became all the more perilous.

Huang Shang was thinking about the Reincarnators, while Wang Jiantong quickly reached his own conclusion.

He was an old hand, and he had keenly sensed that Huang Shang truly had nothing to do with Chen Sheng's death. Someone else was hidden behind the scenes, using the Beggar Sect as a weapon. He immediately cupped his fists. "It was my mistake. On behalf of my junior, I apologize to you, young master."

At that, his expression turned dazed. He gulped down a large mouthful of wine. "Some mistakes can be set right, but others can never be undone..."

Huang Shang knew why Wang Jiantong was like this.

It was now 1062. The battle at Yanmen Pass had taken place in 1060.

Less than two years had passed since that massacre. This was still the most painful time for Xuan Ci of Shaolin and Wang Jiantong of the Beggar Sect.

So many of their fellow martial artists and friends had died, only for them to discover they had killed the wrong person. Anyone would be left utterly despairing.

Under normal circumstances, even if Wang Jiantong had come at the Chen family's request, he wouldn't have swaggered right into the place like this.

But he was in such a poor state that he wasn't thinking clearly. Naturally, someone had taken advantage of him.

Still, Huang Shang held no rank and was nobody of consequence, but Wang Jiantong thought a casual apology would let him brush the matter aside. He was taking himself a bit too seriously.

Knowing the Reincarnators were listening, Huang Shang said coldly, "You martial artists think nothing of the law and act with outrageous arrogance. One day, the Great Song court will arrest every last one of you!"

The words were half true, half false.

Arresting every last one of them was unrealistic, but Huang Shang didn't have much fondness for the freewheeling martial world.

Especially the Beggar Sect.

As a child, Huang Shang had loved the flashy Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms. During his awkward teenage years, he'd even shouted out the move names while hitting his classmates.

Naturally, he'd also admired and longed to join the Beggar Sect.

But after growing up and experiencing life's warmth and coldness, he looked back at this supposedly chivalrous, greatest gang under heaven and found it deeply unsettling.

The novels might be fiction, but they still had to follow basic rules.

What kind of people were beggars?

People who had cast aside their self-respect—most of them perfectly capable of earning their own living, yet unwilling to work hard and only hoping to get something for nothing.

Could anyone really expect such a group, from top to bottom, to uphold justice, risk their lives, and defend their country?

Was that realistic?

Perhaps even the old master Jin understood the nature of the Beggar Sect. That was why every time it appeared in his stories, it had a loathsome villain in its ranks, always a powerful elder with real authority.

Without leaders like Xiao Feng, Hong Qigong, and Huang Rong holding the gang together, the Beggar Sect would probably have ended up helping evildoers.

So it wasn't really that the Beggar Sect upheld justice. Rather, its leaders were heroes of the highest caliber, and the rest followed their example. That was how the gang had earned its great reputation.

With Wang Jiantong in such a state, there was no chance the Beggar Sect could be any good.

That beggar's description of Worry-Free Cave earlier in the day—he probably hadn't merely watched from the sidelines. He might have taken part!

After speaking, Huang Shang turned away.

Wang Jiantong suddenly laughed.

He had always scorned scholars' wild talk, but remembering something he'd heard not long ago, he suddenly recited with fervor, "Establish the heart for Heaven and Earth! Establish the life for the people! Carry on the lost learning of the past sages! Open peace for all generations!"

Huang Shang froze and turned back to look at him.

Though Wang Jiantong looked rough and wild, earning the martial-world nickname Sword Beard, he was cultured too.

On Qiao Feng's twenty-fifth birthday, he had given him a fan inscribed with a poem:

"Northland snow whirls over Yanmen Pass, Across the sandy plains, tumbleweed roots are tossed. I scorn to count the captives taken for fame; I'll cut down the Loulan and repay my country's grace."

The poem came from a passage in Zhang Zhongsu's Song of the Frontier. It described frontier soldiers defending the border and earning merit in battle, full of fervor and passion.

It was quite fitting for Wang Jiantong to quote it.

Now he was showing off again. "Those four lines you spoke of are celebrated throughout the Eastern Capital, so bold and stirring! The line about opening peace for all generations especially speaks to my heart. I take it you're a hawk, eager to strike Western Xia and the Liao Kingdom and defend our Han people's realm?"

Huang Shang hadn't expected Wang Jiantong to suddenly bring that up. He felt a sinking dread, but to maintain his persona, he had no choice but to answer. "Of course. We scholars should support the ruler above, bring peace to the common people below, subdue the barbarians beyond our borders, and put down bandits within them, laying the foundations for peace across the ages!"

Wang Jiantong roared with laughter. "What a fine ambition—to subdue the barbarians! I hope you never change your mind, young master, and that your ambition doesn't turn into empty talk. Don't end up like those useless scholars who sit in office but do no work, spending every day begging for peace. Farewell!"

His laughter echoed as Wang Jiantong's figure blurred. In the blink of an eye, he was out the door and gone without a trace.

"This is trouble!"

Huang Shang stood beside the table, his expression grim.

This time, he wasn't putting on an act.

Wang Jiantong had thrown his plans into disarray with just a few words of grandstanding.

He hadn't said those things to encourage Huang Shang.

He'd been saying them to himself.

That was how people were. After making a terrible mistake, they often tried to console themselves.

Wang Jiantong was doing just that. As the Beggar Sect leader, he still had to drive out foreign enemies for the people of the Great Song. He had to pull himself together and stop drowning in pain and guilt.

But now, in the ears of the two Reincarnators waiting outside, Huang Shang had become a hawk who wanted to subdue the barbarians.

That was no small ambition.

Destroying Great Liao, destroying Western Xia, and even destroying the Jin Kingdom, which did not yet exist, were all matters of no small consequence.

If the Reincarnators decided Huang Shang's demands were impossible and backed off, then all the effort he had put in so far would go down the drain!

And even if they didn't give up and continued testing him, the risk of exposing himself would only increase.

"Everyone has different fortunes and different ideas. No matter how well I imitate someone, I can't control what they do."

"I can't let this go on. I have to seize the initiative!"

"I can use one of the plot hooks I planted earlier, though it's a little rushed..."

At that moment, Huang Shang suppressed the anger in his heart and drew a deep breath.

He wasn't going to give that pair of Reincarnators another chance to test him.

Tonight, he would make the Reincarnators reveal themselves and meet with him.

Success or failure hinged on this one move!