Gravekeeper Token, Third Mister

The courtyard was silent and still, raindrops sliding from the eaves beside the house,

like a string of crystal-clear pearls, smashing against the window frame and bursting into pieces, scattering in every direction.

A calm-faced Green-Robed Youth and a red-haired monster with scarlet eyes faced each other across a broken window.

The Red-Haired Monster held a bronze dagger in its hand. On the table behind the Green-Robed Youth sat a locked box.

"You want to make a deal with me?"

Gu Baishui suddenly lifted his eyes and let out a laugh, his gaze inscrutable.

"Mm."

The Red-Haired Monster nodded coldly outside the window. "I don't need to spell out the situation for you. You should understand it well enough. The ghosts and gods in the Old Ye Residence have all left, and the old Saints in Luoyang City have surrounded us, trapping us here. As soon as dawn breaks, they'll turn this residence upside down. There's no secret they can't uncover."

"So?" Gu Baishui asked.

"Only you and I know what happened tonight."

The Red-Haired Monster bared its fangs and continued, "Li Shiyi died at the hands of those ghosts and gods. The thing in your box and my dagger are the only two things he left behind."

"Those old Saints will stop at nothing to extend their lives and break through to the next realm. They'll never let go of the clues on you and me. So we're both grasshoppers on the same rope. Only by coming up with a reasonable explanation for the old Saints together can we avoid being tied up and having our souls searched."

At that, Gu Baishui raised his brows slightly.

He understood what the Red-Haired Monster-Lu Ziyou-was thinking.

In Lu Ziyou's eyes, Li Shiyi was a fallen Human Race Great Emperor, and this was the place where his legacy had been passed down.

He had been slapped to death, so Gu Baishui alone had luckily inherited the Great Emperor's teachings in the Mansion.

The two items left behind in the residence tonight were Li Shiyi's legacy.

The seemingly ordinary bronze dagger was very likely the Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon Li Shiyi had possessed when he became a Great Emperor.

The thing locked in the box was also very likely that Great Emperor's cultivation method, legacy, resources, and hidden secrets.

Lu Ziyou thought this was a fair arrangement. He had sacrificed Mingque and obtained the Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon.

Gu Baishui had passed the test of the legacy and obtained what remained in the box.

So now the two of them ought to set aside their misgivings and resentment, and figure out a way to deceive the Saints of Luoyang City together. Neither would owe the other anything, and they would both keep the Mansion's secrets from tonight.

But what he didn't know was that there was nothing in the box behind Gu Baishui. Only a letter and a story unknown to outsiders.

"I think there's a better way."

Gu Baishui fell silent for a moment, then looked at the Red-Haired Monster by the window. "I could kill you and take back the dagger. Then, no matter what I say, there'll be no one to contradict me, and those old Saints outside will have no choice but to believe my account."

The Red-Haired Monster froze for a moment, then gave a sneering, scornful laugh. "You really think it's that simple?"

"Outside the courtyard is a pack of old wolves on the verge of starving to death. In their eyes, you're nothing but a fat piece of meat with no power to fight back. What makes you think that once you leave the residence, those old things will listen to you and believe what you say?"

The Red-Haired Monster raised its brows in cold mockery. "I'm a Holy Son of the Yin-Yang Holy Land, and in the eyes of those old Saints, I'm worth less than shit. Who are you? A grandson of the Ji Clan's emperor? Or an Imperial Son of Xuanyuan?"

"Even if you were, those old Saints have their own forces and sects behind them. Surely you can't bring out a Great Emperor?"

As the Red-Haired Monster spoke in a mocking, contemptuous tone, the Green-Robed Youth in the room fell silent for a moment. Then, from the deepest part of his sleeve, he took out a blue-and-white token.

The token was ancient and weathered, with no elaborate patterns engraved on it.

Only the back bore the image of an old, gnarled tree. On its front was a single, square, neat character: "Three."

"What is that?"

The Red-Haired Monster didn't understand at first. It stared blankly at the token swaying gently in the candlelight.

It seemed unfamiliar, yet somehow familiar, as though it had seen a similar token somewhere before. But it had only a vague impression of it.

"You're right. I'm no imperial prince."

Gu Baishui's eyelids stirred. Then he silently raised his head, his pupils calm and deep.

"But I think that with so many Saints outside witnessing this together, they wouldn't dare kill a disciple of Great Emperor Changsheng in full view of everyone, would they?"

The Red-Haired Monster's body stiffened abruptly. Its pupils shrank to pinpoints, its gaze fixed on the token and its owner.

Raindrops fell into its tangled red hair. After a long silence, it parted its lips, its voice dry. "The Gravekeeper Token from the Great Emperor's Forbidden Zone. Are you that Third Mister who has never shown himself?"

Gu Baishui's gaze passed over the monster by the window, through the rain beneath the rising sun, and toward the old city beyond the residence, still sunk in silence and deathly stillness.

Sometimes, things were just that subtle and unpredictable.

If Gu Baishui had encountered one or two old Saints in Luoyang City, he wouldn't have dared reveal his identity.

Great Emperor Changsheng was dead. Those elderly, twilight-year people could quietly erase a Great Emperor's disciple without anyone knowing.

No one would know, and no one would notice.

But the reverse was true: the more Saints there were in Luoyang City, the safer Gu Baishui would be.

Because no one would dare attack a disciple who guarded the tomb of Great Emperor Changsheng in full view of everyone.

The last Great Emperor of the human race had guarded the tombs of other Great Emperors for countless years. In his twilight years, he had grown old, and his blood had dyed the sky.

Even so, before he died, he had still slain more than ten Quasi-Emperors of other races and strangled three Emperor-Realm Ancestors. He had cleared the path for the human race's future, exhausting the last trace of his strength.

No madman would dare attack a disciple left behind by Great Emperor Changsheng at a time like this.

He would face the fury and condemnation of the entire human race.

And above Third Mister stood First Mister and Second Mister. They were two exceptionally young Saints, and freaks who were not to be trifled with.

"They wouldn't dare kill me. At least, as long as I can confirm that I don't have anything of Li Shiyi's on me, they wouldn't dare kill me openly."

Under the Red-Haired Monster's watch, Gu Baishui unlocked the box behind him. Then he picked up a burning candle and set the letter inside the box alight.

The ink-black characters faded into ash in the flames. The firelight in Gu Baishui's eyes flickered silently.

He had burned the last story of Luoyang City. He didn't want those old things in their twilight years outside to get the letter and then dictate terms from on high.

The story of Luoyang City was over. That Little Beggar would never come back.

So everything should end tonight, with no outsiders involved.

"Now the only thing left in the Mansion is the bronze dagger in your hand. Tell me, will those old Saints outside the courtyard devour you alive, or will they pull out your soul and refine your tendons?"

Gu Baishui twirled his token around his fingers. Looking at the Red-Haired Monster by the window, its face dark with anger, he smiled softly.

"A Transmigrator hiding in the crowd."