Wang Buwu continued to ramble, "Most of the companions who passed the Seventh Rank Azure Cloud Examination with us are doing fine. Only Lu Gaoming and Gu the Second had rotten luck..."
Cold sweat streamed down Li Qingxian's back.
Wang Buwu did not remember, but Li Qingxian did.
Back in Eerie City, in order to catch the guardian, he had asked the Eerie Eunuch Mao Shigao to set a trap. He had made up a fake game: guess the east, west, south, or north of a handkerchief. Guess right, and there was a reward. Guess wrong, and either lose an arm or speak the truth from one's heart.
The main purpose had been to pry words from the guardian, but to make it convincing, he had deliberately asked several people in the group to make up stories and tell the truth.
For example, Gu Xiong had fabricated a story about having an affair with Jin Ling, his mother's dowry maid, and accidentally killing her. Yet after leaving Eerie City, when Wang Buwu last came to Far-Reaching City, he said that Gu Xiong had indeed accidentally killed Jin Ling and had been exiled to the River Guard Army.
At the time, Li Qingxian had only been suspicious. He had not believed the two matters were truly connected. Perhaps Gu Xiong had simply coveted Jin Ling from the start.
But upon hearing this time that Lu Gaoming had lost an arm, he could no longer sit still.
In that game, Lu Gaoming had guessed wrong and been asked a question. Rather than answer it, he had chosen to lose an arm.
At the time, the severed arm had been an illusion created by Li Qingxian and the Eerie Eunuch. Lu Gaoming's arm had not truly been cut off.
Yet who could have