Half a quarter of an hour later, on Green Snail Island.
Silver moonlight spilled across the lake. Several fish foraging in the water were suddenly startled by a current and darted away in every direction. Weeds on the lakebed swayed aside as though something had swum past, yet beneath the moonlight, nothing could be seen.
The Gold-Chasing Gentleman was submerged at the bottom of the lake. Even the hazy shadow that normally appeared when he moved was concealed by the water, leaving nothing visible to the naked eye.
With the Water-Repelling Pearl on him, he had no need to surface for air. In only a short while, he reached the vicinity of Green Snail Island.
Still half a li away, the Gold-Chasing Gentleman first swam a circuit around the island to scout it out.
He found two boats moored on the western side, with no one aboard.
The Gold-Chasing Gentleman searched carefully from the water. Before long, he spotted five figures in the mountain woods, combing through the western side inch by inch. They were hard to make out without looking closely, and it seemed they had yet to find their quarry.
Having dealt with them for months, the Gold-Chasing Gentleman could even tell from their backs that Heart Moon Fox was on the left and Room Sun Rabbit on the right.
They really are here...
Wary of a trap, the Gold-Chasing Gentleman did not go ashore, instead keeping watch along the shoreline.
After circling the island several times, he suddenly saw half a head peeking out from behind a boulder on the northern side.
The figure glanced around and quickly ducked back. After about half the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the figure peeked out again, clearly on guard against pursuers.
The Gold-Chasing Gentleman was no fool. He suspected that the Return to Origin Cult had very likely turned the situation to its advantage, using Tail Fire Tiger's death to set a trap for him.
But to catch a fish, you needed bait, didn't you?
He was a master thief who had roamed the jianghu for twenty years and the owner of a divine weapon besides. Could he really fail to tell a real Filth-Severing Whip from a fake?
After a moment's thought, the Gold-Chasing Gentleman decided to test the waters first. He swam silently to the rocks by the lakeshore. There was a slight disturbance when he emerged, but once he stepped ashore, his figure vanished.
A treasure with Shadow Vanishes with the Form could not make its wearer completely invisible. Movement produced a hazy outline, but the higher its quality, the harder those traces were to detect.
The Gold-Chasing Gentleman had poured countless efforts into nurturing his Dust-Returning Robe to perfection, and his lightness skill had reached its pinnacle. With night upon them as well, he was nearly impossible to see even when moving.
The Gold-Chasing Gentleman walked quietly through the mountain woods, scouting his surroundings as he went. But before he could circle around to the figure's side, a sound rang in his head:
Jingle~
It sounded like copper coins dropping into a pouch.
And its source was naturally the famous weapon with which the Gold-Chasing Gentleman had made his start: the Gold-Chasing Bell.
Not only was its chime pleasant to the ear, but the number of times it rang could also reveal the value of heavenly and earthly treasures.
Hearing the jingle, the Gold-Chasing Gentleman immediately perked up and listened to determine what grade of treasure the young man behind the boulder carried.
The Gold-Chasing Bell would only indicate the single most valuable treasure within its range.
For famous weapons, heavenly and earthly treasures, and the like, the Gold-Chasing Bell would ring at most five times.
Divine weapons were a special case. Normally, it rang six times for one.
But because divine weapons had no hierarchy, it rang once more for each additional one.
If all Twelve Divine Weapons were present, it would ring seventeen times.
The Gold-Chasing Gentleman counted carefully, and soon heard:
The golden bell rang eighteen times!
This thing was worth more than all Twelve Divine Weapons put together...
"..."
As an old-school master thief, the Gold-Chasing Gentleman naturally knew what the hell this thing was. His expression looked as though he had licked shit.
But since the other party had the Heaven-Obscuring famous weapon, he was quite possibly Ye Xingge.
The Gold-Chasing Gentleman thought it over briefly, then continued forward. Soon, he saw the whole figure behind the boulder:
A young man not yet twenty was crouched behind it, dressed in gray martial robes and holding a Black Banner Saber in his right hand. A bracer was faintly visible on his raised left arm. It was indeed the genuine Heaven-Obscuring Arm.
He looked more closely and soon spotted a coiled whip hidden beneath the young man's outer robe. He could see its outline, but not the details.
"..."
At this sight, the Gold-Chasing Gentleman strongly suspected that the Return to Origin Cult had laid a trap, deliberately using false information to lure him in!
But if the Return to Origin Cult wanted to bait him, there was no need to kill Tiger first!
Tiger was in charge of the Dark Goods Wharf's money house, and he was also the Seven Mansions of the Azure Dragon's channel for fencing stolen goods. To open with a "sacrifice a head" scheme to lure him in, and even send the whole of Black Dragon Island out in force-weren't they getting desperate...?
Besides, Heart Moon Fox and the others were on the western slope, not even within sight. It didn't look like an encirclement, either.
As for this young man...
The Gold-Chasing Gentleman did not know Ye Xingge, but the Black Banner Saber was indeed official equipment. The young man also had a communication tube, a Heavenly Maiden Scatters Flowers, and other items at the back of his waist. Together with the Heaven-Obscuring Arm and his age, they did match the rumors from Yongzhou.
And this youngster really might have gotten his hands on the Filth-Severing Whip.
On this trip, the Gold-Chasing Gentleman could even bear the pain of not stealing the whip, but he had to know whether the youngster had it!
If he did, then a "newcomer" had appeared among the owners of the divine weapons, ranked dead last. For the second half of the year, all he needed to do was make sure this youngster didn't overtake him, and he could keep the Fate-Robbing Saber!
But if the youngster didn't have it, then all the remaining divine weapons were in the hands of First Rank old devils.
As things stood, his chances of overtaking Wu Chenglie by sustaining himself through battle for half a year were infinitely close to zero.
But if he wielded two divine weapons, sustaining himself through battle by day and nourishing his body through battle by night, he would have a second life...
So this youngster had better really have it!
The Gold-Chasing Gentleman was practically staring his eyes out, trying to see through the thin outer robe and determine whether it was the Filth-Severing Whip.
But the Heaven-Obscuring Arm, which had once been somewhat of a useless trifle, was now comparable to a supreme Dao charm that obscured heaven and earth!
Whether one was a true immortal or a treasure, the lingering effects of its law reduced all to an ordinary form. To find out, there was only the old-fashioned method:
Go over and search him yourself!
With so much evidence supporting it, the Gold-Chasing Gentleman simply could not conclude that the youngster didn't have it.
But without seeing it, he didn't dare be certain that he did.
If he really had it, the youngster surely couldn't be setting a trap for him.
After getting the Filth-Severing Whip, instead of staying home and enjoying wine and women night after night, he had come here to use a divine weapon as bait and risk his life stealing the Fate-Robbing Saber? That was even more absurd than the Return to Origin Cult's "sacrifice a head" scheme.
And even if he really killed him, cutting ten years of time to grow down to half a year, with not a single divine weapon left if he failed, wasn't worth it either...
The Gold-Chasing Gentleman would rather believe he was suffering from delusions of persecution than believe this newly minted owner of a divine weapon could be godly enough to go that far.
Thus, after agonizing over it for a long time, the Gold-Chasing Gentleman gritted his teeth in secret and stepped, one foot after another, toward a land of eternal damnation...
Meanwhile, on the mountain.
Hongyu lay among the bushes, keeping her telescope trained on Ye Xingge. Her peach-blossom eyes were so intent that she went minutes without blinking, like a hunter patiently waiting for her prey.
Though she did not know whether the Gold-Chasing Gentleman would come or when, as long as she treated it as though he would arrive the very next instant, she could not be caught off guard.
As a formidable figure among the top ten of the Second Rank, Hongyu had lost all her internal force, but her eyesight and experience remained.
As something invisible and intangible quietly appeared below the island, her pupils narrowed slightly. She moved the Divine Arm Crossbow without a sound, watching blades of grass shift unnaturally in the moonlight.
"He's here. West, a little over thirty paces. Don't give yourself away..."
Ye Xingge had merely been putting on a show of nervousness, but the sudden warning sent a jolt through his heart!
To keep the target from noticing any change in his expression, Ye Xingge simply rose to look out over the lake, then quickly crouched again, using the large movements to conceal the small details.
He also turned his body so his left side faced the enemy, crouching behind the boulder with a thoughtful look.
The movement did make the other party pause for an instant.
Hongyu concentrated fully on the spot where the blurry outline had vanished. As the other party moved again, causing a slight distortion of the light, she studied the details of the outline.
"About five chi and three cun tall, saber at his left hip, right hand on the hilt. Advancing with sneaking steps. Twenty-eight... twenty-seven..."
Sneaking steps meant bending the knees and sinking the hips, lowering the body slightly, and slowly setting each foot down toe first. It was a common footwork technique in the jianghu for sneaking up behind someone.
Using himself as bait, Ye Xingge heard not the slightest sound and saw no one, yet the other party was closing in at a steady pace. He could hardly avoid feeling pressure as heavy as a mountain.
But his hiding place had been carefully chosen. Bushes and weeds grew on both sides, so the only way to approach silently was over the few patches of exposed rock and hard earth.
And a "pace" did not mean lifting one foot once, but the distance an ordinary person covered with one step of each foot, usually one and a half meters.
With information on his direction, distance, movements, and so on, Ye Xingge could naturally judge the other party's approximate position.
As the distance narrowed, Ye Xingge gradually felt as though a blade were at his back, and his hair stood on end!
Fortunately, he was already surrounded by three thousand swordsmen and axemen from Black Dragon Island, so he had no need to hide his nervousness.
"Ten, nine, eight..."
The count continued, and soon the distance had fallen to within ten meters.
To kill with a single strike without drawing the Return to Origin Cult members on the other side, the Gold-Chasing Gentleman certainly would not launch a sudden attack from a distance.
Seeing Ye Xingge turn to look into the distance, with his saber still on the opposite side and much of his flank exposed, leaving him no chance to draw, the Gold-Chasing Gentleman suppressed every sound and continued to approach, intending to kill him silently.
The Gold-Chasing Gentleman had survived twenty years in the jianghu thanks to his solid control of risk. He was full of greed, but he knew when to reach out boldly and when to pull back at once.
A person who didn't know when to stop was a greedy bastard, but would never live long.
And a person who didn't dare reach out wasn't worthy of being called a greedy bastard and could never obtain the Greed Weapon.
In the past, the Gold-Chasing Gentleman had considered himself unmatched in the "Dao of greed." That was why the Fate-Robbing Saber had fallen into his hands.
But today, upon seeing the Lower Corpse weapon corresponding to the Greed Weapon, he finally understood the true limits of being a "greedy bastard"!