Chapter 127: Teacher and Disciple Plot Again (II)
“I’m, I’m just thinking about it...” Li Hao said sheepishly. N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l-B1n.
“That’s normal, you’re the only heir left of the eight families, after all. Technically speaking, all of their ruins belong to you. What’s yours is mine, so this means that Qiao Feilong is occupying our stuff, isn’t he!”
Li Hao quickly bobbed his head.
“Also, the ruins of the eight families might require your weapons or bloodlines to open,” Yuan Shuo continued. “Even if he’s accessed it, he’s just cracked it open at most. There’s no way he’s thrown the doors wide open! Therefore, he certainly has designs on you. Does this mean we have a new enemy?”
Li Hao nodded again. Everything his teacher said was right.
“He who strikes first, prevails. He who strikes late, fails!” Yuan Shuo arched a brow. “We either don’t take any action, or we hit them where it hurts and go for the kill!”
“But they’re a Yama pawn...”
Yuan Shuo brusquely interrupted his student before the young man finished. “Not to worry, he must be keeping this from Yama! I know people like Qiao Feilong all too well! Whatever he’s found will be completely taken away if he tells Yama, so he’ll never tell them!
“All we need to do is tear out the weeds by the roots—kill Qiao Feilong, kill all of his men, kill his son, and kill everyone who excavated the ruins for him. That way, Yama won’t know that they really found any ruins, even if they have an inkling of the truth.”
Li Hao opened and shut his mouth. He only held his suspicions, but his teacher spoke with surety, as if he was very familiar with Qiao Feilong!
“Stop gaping, this is normal and expected!” Yuan Shuo suddenly grinned. “I’m like this as well, I’ve just been compelled otherwise by circumstances. Do you think I’m a minion for the Night Watchers by choice? Their tool to explore ruins with? I have no choice! I’d take it all for myself if I could!”
He truly wasn’t a kind soul, only Li Hao found him a good person. This was what Yuan Shuo would do if he was Qiao Feilong. Such was the personality of the old guard of martial masters. Arrogant, unyielding, selfish, and greedy.
The professor possessed all of these traits; he’d just cultivated his moral character and behaved ethically over the years. Death stared at him in the face then and the way forward was severed. It was when he lost all hope that he accepted Li Hao and crafted the image of a benevolent teacher.
The truth of the matter was, Yuan Shuo was Old Demon Yuan. As someone from the same line of thinking, how would he not understand Qiao Feilong? Thus, he called for complete extermination of anyone related to Qiao Senior as soon as he formed the idea!
Not only that, but Yuan Shuo further narrowed his eyes. “We need to massacre them and we need to do so without fanfare. We can’t let too many people know that Qiao Feilong is a powerhouse! He can be a Darkmoon, but he can’t be a Sunflare or Solar! That will make people wonder why he stayed in Silver City for so many years.
“It’s fine if he’s a Darkmoon. A rich Yama tool for fleecing sheep—what’s noteworthy of him being a Darkmoon? The only thing he can’t be is a Sunflare or Solar, understood?”
“Teacher, do you mean...” Li Hao couldn’t quite keep up with his teacher’s pace. “That you’re going to go after him right now?”
“Then he wants your blood!” Yuan Shuo concluded dismissively. “Do you think he only wants the sword? His goal isn’t necessarily the same as Red Moon’s. What they want might have to do with the trigram in the sky, but Qiao Feilong cares more about the here and now. Thus, he’ll want to open the ruins with your blood more.”
Li Hao nodded, this was very true. Qiao Feilong might not care about the eight trigrams, and he still might not after learning about them. With Red Moon attention in the area, he probably wanted to wring all he could out of this opportunity once and for all.
“So this means that he isn’t willing to wait even if I am?” Li Hao sighed with resignation. “I met him today—he was quite enthusiastic and polite. Or was that because he thinks I’m a dead man walking?”
“Pretty much.” Yuan Shuo smiled. “Not bad, you. Did you let anything slip when you met him? Did you pee your pants when you read his strength?”
“How could I!” Li Hao grinned as well. “Could I lose face for my teacher like that? Who the hell is Qiao Feilong? My teacher’s killed Solars! Teacher will kill him all the same if he’s one!”
He hadn’t peed his pants, but it’d been a close call.
“Enough of that empty talk, there’s no point to it.” Yuan Shuo frowned. “We should think about how to handle this trouble. It’s going to be quite difficult to eliminate them all with minimum fuss.”
“The Night Watchers?” Li Hao asked lowly.
“Don’t even think about it!” Yuan Shuo shook his head. “Not unless their Solars come! It would take either Hao Lianchuan or Hou Xiaochen... or both of them to ensure the operation is carried out with none the wiser. Hou Xiaochen doesn’t leave White Moon and Hao Lianchuan...”
The professor frowned when he reached this point. “Don’t trust them too much, who knows if they have other plans in mind? I’m not too familiar with Hao Lianchuan. We know of each other, but differences in opinion easily crop up when secrets are at stake. He has a strong backer behind him—the Night Watchers!”
Those with a substantial backer did not make for easy partners. There was nothing Yuan Shuo and his student could do against the agency if Hao Lianchuan decided to renege on their agreement or break off partnership ties.
“Ai!”
“Ai!” Teacher and disciple sighed in unison. Yuan Shuo looked at Li Hao, Li Hao looked at Yuan Shuo. Both wore gloomy expressions. They were in a pickle!
“Teacher, don’t you have a few good friends after your years in the martial world?” Li Hao asked with such an expression of exasperated disappointment that Yuan Shuo’s eyebrows quivered. “The Sunderers of your era would be Sunflares if they made the crossover at the beginning. After so many years, they might even be Solars. Are all of your old friends dead?”
“Nope, Ying Hongyue’s still alive.” Yuan Shuo’s simple response stoppered the rest of the young man’s words.
Let’s just pretend I didn’t say anything!
Ying Hongyue might be stronger than Solar—more than likely. He was one of the leaders of the three great organizations. His teacher really knew how to choose his friends.
“Of course I still have a few old friends...” Yuan Shuo chuckled, then quickly shook his head. “But it’s because we’re old friends that I don’t want to use profit and gain to test our relationship. It’s normal for brothers to turn on each other if division of spoils is uneven, not to mention friends. To put it bluntly, old friends can endure life and death together, but rarely can they share wealth!”
He had friends, and some rather strong ones. But he didn’t want to use this to test their bonds. It would be fine if it was just an ordinary ruin, but this one involved the eight great families and Li Hao. His student was at the heart of the excavation, and slaughtering him might be required to access the ruin. Then... his friends were not the ones to call upon.