The other hall masters sitting on the raised platform all wore looks of schadenfreude. Only the master of the Blood Robe Tower looked troubled, wondering how he should placate Elder Chu afterward.
After all, that brat was someone the old fellow valued highly, seemingly even more than he valued Zhao Dachui. Now that the boy had been killed, the old fellow certainly wouldn't let the matter rest.
Although Fu Lin had gone a little too far, he had acted within the rules, leaving the tower master in no position to say much. He was caught between a rock and a hard place.
"Uncle Fu, isn't it a little early to say that?"
Zhao Dachui, who had kept his eyes on the battlefield the entire time, suddenly breathed a sigh of relief and smiled calmly.
Everyone present was startled by his words, then abruptly turned their eyes toward the training ground.
A huge pile of bricks and stone began to shake. Then it burst apart in all directions, as though something were emerging from within, revealing a figure inside.
Who else could it be but Wang Hao?
"Pah! That was really underhanded!"
Wang Hao spat out a mouthful of blood and looked at the enormous arrow whose head had pierced deep into his armguard. He couldn't resist making a remark. The murderous intent in his eyes grew even colder, while he secretly felt immensely relieved.
Fortunately, he had forged all the red gold into this pair of armguards. The outer sides in particular were an astonishing one chi thick, giving them formidable defensive power.
Even so, the enormous arrow had pierced more than half a chi into the armguard, nearly injuring the arm inside.
If he had forged the red gold into armor as originally planned, its thickness would never have been enough to withstand such tremendous force, and he would still have been injured.
He couldn't withstand a force of nearly a hundred thousand jin.
The red gold armguards had proved reliable enough to absorb most of the force. Otherwise, spitting out a mouthful of blood wouldn't have been the end of it.
"That's impossible!"
When Fu Lin came to his senses, his face was full of disbelief. That was a deadly weapon with a force approaching a hundred thousand jin, and its arrowhead had been forged from thousand-refined fine steel!
A deadly weapon capable of killing even a Grandmaster!
Yet that junior had taken it head-on, and all it had done was make him spit out a mouthful of blood.
How was that possible?
Fu Lin wasn't the only one who found it hard to believe. The other hall masters and the master of the Blood Robe Tower were equally shocked. Even Zhao Fengxue and his son Zhao Dachui were shaken to the core.
The sight was simply too shocking!
But then the crowd seemed to understand something, and their gazes turned in unison to the pair of armguards on Wang Hao's arms.
There was something strange about those armguards!
"It's time to end this fight!"
He swung his sword and cut through the wooden shaft of the enormous arrow, leaving only the short arrowhead lodged in the red gold armguard.
Wang Hao loosened his arms and legs, then looked at the assassins in the training ground, his gaze brimming with murderous intent. Without another word, he charged into their ranks with his greatsword.
He unleashed the Ten Stances of Bloody Battle, his sweeping movements striking with astonishing killing power.
The assassins had already lost all will to fight after the shocking sight. Even though Fu Lin's presence outside the grounds had intimidated them into staying, they had little fighting strength left.
A quarter of an hour later, Wang Hao had single-handedly struck down the two hundred remaining assassins with his sword. They were either dead on the spot or grievously wounded, crippled for the rest of their lives.
Drenched in blood, Wang Hao stood in the center like a god of slaughter, his bloody presence chilling them to the core.
Clang! Clang!
"Hall Master, I gained some insight during this battle, so I'll take my leave first!"
Wang Hao suddenly removed the red gold armguards from his arms and spoke calmly to Zhao Fengxue, who was seated on the raised platform. Then he turned and left, without even taking his greatsword.
"Haha... Dachui, this Gale Sword of mine is yours now!"
Zhao Fengxue suddenly burst into laughter and tossed his last personal sword to his son Zhao Dachui behind him. Then he took the Mysterious Water Sword in hand, his face full of pride.
"You old thief Fu Lin, from today onward, this Mysterious Water Sword belongs to me!"
Zhao Fengxue waved the Mysterious Water Sword in front of Fu Lin as if showing it off, looking thoroughly pleased with himself.
Fu Lin's already gloomy face darkened even further. His heart brimmed with murderous intent, but he was in no position to act on it.
Without the Mysterious Water Sword, his fighting strength had fallen by at least half. He was no match for Zhao Fengxue, and if they actually fought, he would only bring humiliation upon himself.
"Hmph! I'll leave the Mysterious Water Sword in your keeping for now. Sooner or later, I'll take it back!"
With a cold snort, Fu Lin left those parting words and turned away. He truly didn't want to stay there a moment longer.
"Dachui, take some men and bring everything back!"
Zhao Fengxue gave his son the order without betraying anything, secretly signaling him with his eyes.
"Yes, Father!"
Zhao Dachui understood at once. He waved to his men waiting at the edge of the training ground, telling them to hurry over and take away the pair of red gold armguards and Wang Hao's greatsword. He left right behind them.
Wang Hao's condition had looked bad just now. He hadn't even been able to carry his own weapon back, so he was clearly badly hurt. Zhao Dachui had to hurry back and check on him.
Zhao Dachui and Zhao Fengxue had both noticed that something was wrong with Wang Hao earlier, and the other hall masters had naturally noticed it too. As they breathed sighs of relief, they also began making private calculations. Finally, they exchanged glances, and their gazes settled on three of the hall masters.
Besides Fu Lin, those three had also made bets against Zhao Fengxue that day.
Although the brat's performance today had been ferocious beyond measure, he wasn't truly without limits. They had clearly sensed that Wang Hao had been badly hurt, which meant he wasn't unbeatable.
As long as they found the right method, they wouldn't need to worry about failing to kill the brat.
If all else failed, the three of them could simply join forces in tomorrow's formation-breaking battle. In any case, the rules didn't forbid them from working together.
"I don't want to see such methods used again. Otherwise, you can wait for Elder Chu to come looking for you himself! That promise he made back then might not be enough to restrain him!"
The master of the Blood Robe Tower rose and gave the men that warning. Then his figure flashed, and he left.
Wang Hao's performance today had been quite a pleasant surprise for him. It seemed that when it came to judging people, he really was inferior to that old fellow Elder Chu.
Still, that was fine. Whatever else might be said, the brat belonged to the Blood Robe Tower, and the stronger he was, the greater the benefit to them.
As for the Yellow-rank assassins who had died or been crippled today, he didn't care at all. Strictly speaking, Yellow-rank assassins were peripheral members of the Blood Robe Tower's organization. No matter how many died, he wouldn't feel the loss.
Besides, the Blood Robe Tower had no shortage of sources of talent. The arrangements it had made with local authorities through the Eastern Depot's connections alone ensured that they would never lack this kind of cannon fodder.
Every year, they took more than ten thousand prisoners from death row alone, so he really didn't care about the few who had died.
Besides, anyone who chose the path of an assassin had to be prepared to be killed. What was there to regret?
This was the truest face of the Blood Robe Tower!
"Weren't you badly injured?"
Zhao Dachui arrived at the small courtyard carrying the greatsword on his shoulder, only for black lines to appear all over his forehead at the sight before him.
Wang Hao was lying at leisure in a specially made oversized reclining chair, his hands behind his head. Four beautiful Yellow-rank assassins stood beside him, massaging his legs and shoulders. Another beautiful young lady was even holding a large basin of grapes, peeling them one by one and feeding them to him.
That wasn't all. On the other side, another young lady assassin was playing with Little Erha.
The man and dog were living the life of Riley!
There was no sign whatsoever that Wang Hao was badly injured. Even Zhao Fengxue, who had wrapped things up there and hurried over using his qinggong movement skills, scowled at the sight.
Father and son had rushed over in a panic to see him, terrified that something might have happened to the brat. Who would have thought he would be enjoying himself like this?
They felt thoroughly aggrieved!
"I really am injured! Otherwise, why would I need someone else to peel grapes for me? I'd just dig in myself! Oh, right, Hall Master, Brother Chui, please forgive me. I'm badly injured, so I won't get up to greet you."
Wang Hao answered as though it were only natural, but the way he looked really wasn't convincing.
"You brat, you're really underhanded. You actually thought of using this method to put those three old fellows at ease!"
Zhao Dachui immediately understood. Wang Hao had been afraid that his performance today would scare the three hall masters who had bet against him into backing out of their wagers.
That was why he had subtly pretended to be badly injured, to put those three old fellows at ease.
After all, they could back out at any time before the formation-breaking began; at most, they would lose a little face. If they knew for certain that they were bound to lose the wagers, those three old fellows probably wouldn't mind throwing their dignity on the ground and stomping on it a couple of times to save a million taels of silver and three thousand-year-old spirit medicines.
Having understood this, Zhao Dachui and his father sat down on the stone stools in the courtyard and stared straight at Wang Hao.
"Do you know why nobody in the jianghu uses a weapon five chi long?"
Zhao Dachui glanced at the greatsword in his hand and spoke with a peculiar expression.
"Why?"
Wang Hao, who was now peeling grapes and eating them himself, was taken aback and asked curiously.
As an outsider, he really didn't know about such things.
His predecessor had been a taciturn sort who hadn't cared much about affairs in the jianghu, so he hadn't known either.
"Because 'five chi' sounds like 'shameless'! You actually dared to forge a weapon that size. You might as well name this sword the Shameless Greatsword from now on."
Zhao Dachui explained with a peculiar expression.
"Shameless Greatsword? That's a good name. It's decided, then. From now on, I'll call it the Shameless Greatsword!"
Wang Hao studied his greatsword thoughtfully. He felt the name was pretty good, so he decided to use it. He even planned to find a chance later to carve the two large characters for "shameless" into the bronze handguard.
"..."
Zhao Dachui and his father were speechless. It was their first time meeting someone so unbothered.
"You really don't let anything bother you!"
"The weapon's shameless, not me. What's the big deal? And even if I were shameless, so what?"
Wang Hao rolled his eyes. He really couldn't understand why these ancient people cared so much about face!
They couldn't even accept a homophone!
If they had the bizarre names of the younger generation back on Earth, would they even be able to go on living?
As a new-era youth with the four virtues, he really didn't take such a trivial matter to heart.
"..."
His words left Zhao Fengxue and his son speechless once again. Zhao Dachui was a little better off. He had long since witnessed Wang Hao's shameless conduct, so he wasn't very surprised. But this was Zhao Fengxue's first time seeing it, and he was rather taken aback.
"I heard you used more than a hundred thousand taels of gold. Can you tell me what you used it for?"
After a moment's silence, Zhao Fengxue voiced the question that had been on his mind for a long time.
Although he had told Wang Hao that day that he could use the Blood Wind Hall's resources as he pleased, he had still had someone keep watch. It wasn't that he distrusted Wang Hao; he simply wanted to know what was going on.
Over three days, Wang Hao had used more than a hundred thousand taels of gold in total. That was a huge sum, difficult to bear even for the wealthy and powerful Blood Wind Hall, so Zhao Fengxue had asked.