Dual Cultivation God Returns-Chapter 995: It’s quite unhealthy… and...
Wu Long looked at his guide with amusement.
He noticed that her mood became better around the time he stated his goal was witnessing the visit of the bigshot. At first he simply noted a sudden mood improvement, but with time he started realizing that rather than simply being in a good mood, she was, for some reason, entertained.
"Have you been told who is the important guest?", he asked.
"Eh? N-no, we weren’t told anything at all. Only to be ready in case any of us were needed with preparations..."
"I guess as a newbie that won’t be your trouble"
"Ahaha... Dear Guest is very perceptive..."
"Wu Long"
"Khu-khum~... yes... khu-khu... sorry... khe-khe, D-Daoist Wu is likely right. Khm, I am far too inexperienced to participate", when something caught in her throat, Xiu coughed while politely turning away from him, placing her delicate fist in front of her mouth, "Are you interested in the spectacle of someone important arriving or...?"
"Hmm, hard to say, a wait-and-see approach is more accurate. The plan was to observe how it goes first, and if there is an opportunity, perhaps find a way to profit as well", he said while still looking around, as if he was on a stroll.
She found his answer interesting, but it didn’t seem like he was going to go further into the details.
But at this time, the somewhat distant and up-to-now seeming unrelated voice from behind them grew closer and thus more noticeably directed toward them.
"...-ey! Hey! Hey bigshot! You hear me? I’m talking to you, cheap wooden mask!", the voice, clearly hostile and carrying frustration became even closer as Wu Long and Xiu stopped, the former with an unreadable behind mask expression, the latter with a confused look, her eyebrows raised.
The man who approached through the crowd that, smelling trouble in the air, was none other than Ko Gunwen who was, evidently, finally allowed inside, but judging by the elapsed time, came almost straight for Wu Long.
"Let me see that token of yours for a second", he demanded while approaching with a slightly stretched out hand.
"Excuse me?", Wu Long raised his eyebrows under the mask, truly caught off-guard.
He knew this man was unstable, he knew what happened outside likely would make him hostile, as irrational as it was to target Wu Long. Perhaps he could expect some trouble later on outside the Crow King’s Nest. In fact, that was exactly what he calculated to happen.
But this simply wasn’t a place or time to act irrationally - even someone as unbalanced, belligerent, and foolish as this man should have understood that. At least that was Wu Long’s expectation. If outside in the outer territory of the Crow King’s Nest causing trouble without prior agreements was already inadvisable, then here inside the Inner Palace, especially at this sensitive time, it was simply foolish beyond any kind of measure, and any kinds of prior agreements were hardly possible.
And then, the same thing Xiu did with focusing to rapidly think, happened again from Wu Long’s side.
But there was a difference.
From this point on, the world stopped completely while Wu Long’s mind continued moving, with calm and deliberate thoughts. Nothing moved in this stillness, as if no time passed at all. And yet his thoughts were flowing freely, at a moderate, comfortable rate proving time indeed did not really stop, but stretched out indefinitely.
’Hmm, did something major happen at the City Lord’s Manor? That night is the best guess but there’s been no particular news. I need to check with Old Man Zhao as soon as I return...’, Wu Long pondered, pinpointing a narrow possibility why this miscalculation could be happening.
But there was a problem. It wasn’t like Zhao Xieren to miss something so major that could cause such a dramatic escalation in how neurotic the bumbling idiot in front of Wu Long was. The difference was too big to be caused by something minor. And if it wasn’t Zhao Xieren, then there was another possible point of failure - Ko Fuan.
’Old Man Zhao did say there was something off about him that night’, Wu Long’s mind then instantly began connecting the dots.
The night they ambushed City Lord Ko in the wine tower with Wei Yuanjie, as Wu Long left the room where he was talking with the prince, he was approached by Zhao Xieren who expressed a mild concern that something ticked him off about a meeting he just had with Ko Fuan who returned from the City Lord’s manor to his own residence.
Old Man Zhao himself largely dismissed this as ’just a weird hunch’ which he decided to notify Wu Long of just in case. Wu Long, trusting his judgement, told him to still look into it, but left it largely at his discretion.
Now, however, adding this episode, there were already two irregularities connected to the City Lord Manor, which changed the calculation completely. It was no longer ’just a hunch’ of Zhao Xieren but a serious development.
’Is he having second thoughts?’, Wu Long recalled the last he saw of Ko Fuan, which was at the restaurant that night.
There was always a possibility that Ko Fuan could in theory change his mind and side with his father. But that possibility remained minimal, and at a reasonably low possibility to proceed with developing the angle of using him as a weapon against City Lord Ko.
Now Wu Long saw a very real chance that this reality has changed.
And then a thought came to his mind, ’Did we push a bit too hard?’
If City Lord Ko showed even a moment of weakness to his son, that could change the dynamic between them. He knew this from the very start. But he didn’t see a real chance to break City Lord Ko’s mentality to that degree.
’Forcing him to say "Eternal Glory to the Wei Dynasty" and bow to the prince was that destructive of a blow?’, Wu Long would have frowned if his body could move as fast as his mind moved at this moment.
’But that is beyond ambition... If just bowing to Imperial power is a shock as crushing as to cause a complete mental breakdown and weakness, that’s not just ambition or pride...’, he urgently began re-evaluating the character and psychological profile of Ko Zhumen for a hypothetical scenario.
And then suddenly, the picture of the situation on the continent as a whole within the hypothesis became slightly different - but entirely consistent with what Wu Long was seeing right now.
’If I really misread his goals and ambition...’, Wu Long reached the conclusion of his analysis, and then his mind focused on the man before him, as a new plan of action began forming, ’Hmm, let’s test it then’
As soon as he was done thinking he already knew where he wanted to push this situation with Ko Gunwen in order to probe the possibilities he calculated, and then as if none of this happened the time around him resumed at normal pace.
"You heard me!", Ko Gunwen narrowed his eyes, "I want to see what’s so important that is written on that token of yours"
"I advise you to back off", Wu Long spoke in a calm voice.
This fired of a spark in the eyes of the Silver Wing City’s eldest young master.
"Dear Guests-...", seeing that the situation began devolving, Xiu tried to intervene, but it was already late - the spark lit a flame that instantly turned into a raging wildfire.
"Silence wench!", Ko Gunwen’s hand shot toward her face, but a grip of another one stopped it dead in its tracks.
And then a loud slap resounded throughout the hall, so loud it echoed out under the high ceilings as the Silver Wing City’s young master flew back, past the rapidly parting crowd of cultivators until he was eventually caught by several pairs of hands.
"""Young Master!!!""", those hands belonged to his secret protectors hiding amid the crowd, as four of them supported their young master, while four took defensive positions around him. Of course, Wu Long knew that four more were still hidden among the crowd.
Ko Gunwen rose to his feet with the support from his bodyguards with a completely disoriented look - a bright red mark of an open palm, a very clear and vivid imprint, indented into his cheek and side of his head - and then immediately...
"Blee~rgh~", vomited a couple mouthfuls of blood along with a plethora of both crushed and whole teeth.
"Oh my, vomiting blood is not normal. Something might be wrong with your health. You might want to get that looked at by a doctor or something", Wu Long spoke with concern.
Ko Gunwen’s completely bloodshot eyes widened with fury to his words, and then he became paler again, "Blerghhh~ khu~khu~"
More mouthfuls of blood followed, as well as bloody coughs.
"See? That’s not good at all. It seems quite severe... would someone help this severely ill man?! Anyone?! No?! He’s vomiting blood all over the floor! It’s quite unhealthy... and unsanitary...", Wu Long sighed, shaking his head, and then raised his voice to address the crowd.
"Pffft~... khm", Xiu who held back a laugh the first time Wu Long became concerned for this ’severely ill man’, couldn’t help but chuckle this time, quickly clearing her throat and resuming a serene facial expression.
Meanwhile, Silver Wing City’s young master, after becoming even more enraged, once again paled and yet more blood poured down to the floor.
"You! What you did to the Young Master?!", at this point one of the bodyguards who held a defensive position around Ko Gunwen, specifically to his front, asked Wu Long. It was plain to see that the more enraged the young master became, or if he tried to agitate his Spiritual Qi, the more he sustained internal injuries.
"Me?", Wu Long widened his eyes, pointing a finger to himself, and then with a sudden look of realization continued, "Ah~, I see what happened here. You all might think his condition worsened when he bumped into my hand while trying to assault this attendant here"
"Bleergh~ wha~... you piece of-... blueeergh~!!!", as more and more blood spilled, the bodyguards clearly began panicking.
But just as they were preparing to begin moving offensively to try and apprehend Wu Long, subsequently to force him to give up a method of how to stop this, a loud, somehow tired and annoyed, voice rang out from the side as Crow King’s Nest guards appeared on all levels of the hall around them, "What in the world is happening here?"
"Oh, Dead Fish!", Wu Long waved with a tilted head as if seeing an old acquaintance.
"Ah shit", the latter, however, was not happy to see him at all as his vacant eyes with even heavier eyebags under them than the last time Wu Long saw him quickly assessed the situation.
"Apologies, but we must apprehend this man. Your cooperation would be appreciated, but if not that, we at least ask for non-involvement. This is an emergency, our Young Master is-...", one of the bodyguards took out a special token, showing it to Dead Fish, but before he could continue, the latter raised his hand to stop him.
"Sorry but that’s not possible. I know who you are now, but you really did pick the wrong time. And, unfortunately for you, the wrong opponent", Dead Fish sighed, pointing his hand at Wu Long, "Even if we let you be, you’ll all be dead. That man buried 9 Essence Gathering Realm experts in the Death Arena not long ago, he’ll bury you all as well. That is, the only Death God Token holder of the Crow King’s Nest Death Arena, the infamous Grim Reaper"
As his words rang out, the whole hall’s atmosphere changed as all eyes turned to Wu Long with shock, and one of those were of Xiu.
