A model idol

While Fang Yunhua spent those few days waiting for news, Chu Liuxiang was elsewhere, running the main quest as though his life depended on it.

First, the letters received by those four corpses before their deaths confirmed the existence of a woman. Following a string of clues, he tracked down an artist who had painted four portraits of her, then learned from the artist that one of her close friends had been Master Suxin, the abbess of the Black Robe Nunnery.

Fortunately, Fang Yunhua had not been bored enough to follow the Fragrant Marshal around through all these plot events. Otherwise, all those twists and turns would probably have made his brain explode.

And that was not the end of it. When Chu Liuxiang headed for the Black Robe Nunnery, Nangong Ling and Wuhua secretly joined forces to make a fool of him, tricking him into going to another temple.

By the time he realized it, he had to start racing across the map again, only to discover that the Black Robe Nunnery he finally found had long since been abandoned.

Master Suxin, from whom he could have learned the truth, had long since become a pile of dry bones.

Using those bones as cover, Wuhua pulled another dirty trick and tried once more to assassinate Chu Liuxiang. Naturally, it did no good. This was a man who had maxed out his dodge rate at 100%, after all; Chu Liuxiang was immune to all manner of poisonings and assassination attempts.

In this martial world created by Gu Long, that practically amounted to an invincibility buff.

Of course, he failed to catch Wuhua either. Wuhua's lightness skill was among the very best in the world. In Chu Liuxiang's estimation, even his old friend Hu Tiehua, known as the Xiaoxiang Chivalrous Thief, fell a notch short of Wuhua in that respect.

And Hu Tiehua's lightness skill was already first-rate by the standards of the age. Wuhua also knew some Japanese-style Ninjutsu, specializing in retreating after a failed strike, then coming back again and again to harass people and get under their skin.

In short, all this running back and forth had put Chu Liuxiang through the wringer.

Still, he found a crucial clue at the Black Robe Nunnery. A deranged nun remained in the ruined temple, and Wuhua had silenced her on his way out when he fled without hesitation after his failed assassination attempt.

Perhaps people regained their clarity just before death. In the end, trembling in Chu Liuxiang's arms, she managed to utter a single word: "Wu."

In the original plot, Chu Liuxiang had actually fucking remarked that perhaps she felt she had "no"-"wu"-words left to say.

That had left the nun so frantic that she truly died with her eyes open.

But things were different now. When Chu Liuxiang instinctively said Wuhua's name, the nun, who had already begun shaking all over, revealed a relieved smile before she died.

That immediately cast a shadow over Chu Liuxiang's expression.

At this point, he could no longer deceive himself: Fang Yunhua's hints, Su Rongrong's deductions, Wuhua's perfectly timed appearances, and the truth this nun had exposed with her dying breath.

If he still pretended to be blind with his eyes wide open, he would hardly deserve the Fragrant Marshal's world-renowned name.

Yet identifying the killer did not mean he could immediately expose Wuhua's plot. He still had not discovered Wuhua's motives or obtained evidence against him, and the trail involving Qiu Lingsu appeared to have nothing to do with him.

That meant Wuhua had an accomplice.

Most importantly, Wuhua was famous throughout the martial world and enjoyed an excellent reputation, with the Putian Shaolin Temple backing him. If Chu Liuxiang staked everything on a confrontation, he might only give Wuhua an opportunity to clear his name.

At that moment, Chu Liuxiang rather wanted to seek out Fang Yunhua. During his earlier probing exchange with Wuhua, he had kept getting the impression that Wuhua was targeting Fang Yunhua. And Fang Yunhua's seemingly hypothetical suggestion that Wuhua was the killer might well have been a move against Wuhua too.

Something fishy was going on between those two! There might even be a greater secret behind it!

So he decided to say goodbye to Leng Qiuhun, who had supplied him with all sorts of clues along the way, then set off that very night to find Little Fang. But just as he went to see Leng Qiuhun, he ran into Black Pearl, another lead connected to the fourth corpse-the Desert King, Zhamuhe!

Brother Leng really was racking up contribution points by camping out for clues.

And compared with traveling all the way to Mount Hua to find someone, following the lead right in front of him was clearly the better choice.

Black Pearl was a young lady disguised as a man, utterly spoiled by the elders in her family. She started whipping people the moment she arrived. Whipping other people would have been one thing, but after driving everyone else away, she promptly set her sights on Chu Liuxiang, a true master.

As everyone knew, nobody could beat up an idol in front of his fan!

And so Chu Liuxiang's number-one fanboy sprang out again. One Red Dot might have looked like a total scrub in his earlier fight with Chu Liuxiang, and Wuhua had even driven him out of his mind with a single tune on the zither, sending him into a frenzy on the spot.

But however badly he had performed, he was still a first-rate martial artist. Faced with a willful young lady like Black Pearl, he opened with a few swish-swish-swish strokes of his sword, cranking her lesson in adversity straight up to maximum intensity.

And as Chu Liuxiang's number-one fanboy, his more important goal was to restore his idol's dignity!

Chu Liuxiang had taken a lash from Black Pearl earlier, giving the girl a mistaken impression of her own fighting ability. One Red Dot set her straight: if Chu Liuxiang had not deliberately taken that blow to shield her from a hidden weapon-

There would probably have been another corpse here by now.

Willful though Black Pearl was, she still had some sense of shame. Feeling guilty, she voluntarily handed Chu Liuxiang the letter the Desert King, Zhamuhe, had received before his death.

Chu Liuxiang grew excited too.

Every time his investigation reached the letters, Wuhua assassinated whoever knew their contents. Now that he had all but confirmed Wuhua was the killer, he also believed there was a very good chance the letters contained decisive evidence.

Once he had the letter, he could essentially declare the case solved through his deductions!

That chain of logic checked out perfectly.

This time, he also kept a very careful watch outside, afraid that bastard Wuhua would fucking throw another dart or smoke bomb at him!

But!

He had accounted for Wuhua! He had not accounted for One Red Dot fucking losing his mind again!

As Black Pearl handed over the letter, One Red Dot flicked his sword and snatched it away.

The reason was simple. Having seen that Chu Liuxiang could fight Black Pearl, he figured Chu Liuxiang could naturally exchange a few more moves with him too. Whether it was a fan's jealousy or simply another severe bout of madness, who could say?

He just wanted to fight Chu Liuxiang!

The ever-good-tempered Chu Liuxiang still wore a smile, but he was probably a little annoyed inside. Even a devoted fan could not bully his own idol like this.

So he promptly began trying to retrieve the letter. One Red Dot blocked him while repeatedly launching lethal strikes, keeping Chu Liuxiang at a disadvantage. But in the end, Fragrant Marshal Chu was still Fragrant Marshal Chu. His title as the king of real combat was no idle boast!

This was his third victory over One Red Dot.

Only the outcome took a slightly dramatic turn. During their clash, the collision of their internal energies-and especially the broken half of One Red Dot's sword ripping through the entire envelope-turned the letter into a flock of paper butterflies fluttering through the air.

Then a gust swept past the window, shredding it even further and blowing every scrap out of sight.

Chu Liuxiang was dumbstruck, while One Red Dot looked like an elementary school student caught eating snacks in class, so at a loss that he began picking at his fingers.

As everyone knew, how could a model idol ever blame his fans? Everything they did was to support their precious big brother, after all.

So Chu Liuxiang could only smile and comfort him, saying that he was probably fated never to see what the letters contained. In the end, he even apologized to One Red Dot for snapping his prized sword with a palm strike during their fight.

This went well beyond winning over a fan in spectacular fashion. One Red Dot was so moved that he could have become a sworn retainer ready to die for him.