Wu Du, night.
Just outside the imperial city, Yuan Xi and Yuan Hao’s bodies had already been taken down, placed together with Hao Tian Shangxian’s corpse, all covered with straw mats.
The full moon hung high this night.
Under the moonlight, the bloodstains shined a strange radiance.
Not too far away, a good number of Wu Du’s citizens still had yet to disperse, nervously looking in the direction of the city gate.
At this moment, a fair hand suddenly reached out and lifted up the straw mat, revealing the Hao Tian Shangxian inside. His head had been put back on, but the features were already indistinguishable.
“Tsk, tsk. Wu Yu was actually so heartless. This doesn’t even look like a person anymore.”
One would be able to see that the speaker was wearing a fox fur overcoat as shiny as silver, his entire body emitting a captivating heretical aura. His carved facial features and translucent jade-like skin appeared even more outstanding when moonlit, as if those of a descended immortal.
It was Jiang Junlin.
Behind him followed a sunken looking Yuan Chen, his eyes noticeably bloodshot and his hands clenched into fists. His originally elegant face now seemed fierce.
“Jiang shixiong, you have to help me!”
Yuan Chen didn't bawl, but his voice was hoarse.
Jiang Junlin turned his head and laughed, saying, “There's no problem with that. Rest assured, I benefited from Hao Tian and received this Rebirth fruit. Naturally, I'll get justice for him.”
“Thank you, shixiong.”
Jiang Junlin walked a few steps back and placed his hand on Yuan Chen’s shoulder. With his eyebrows raised and a cheery smile, he said, “Yuan Chen, truthfully speaking, Hao Tian and that mortal sent you over to the Zhongyuan Daoist sect ever since you were young, and you haven't met them many times since. There isn't much affection there and now that they’re gone, you won't have this baggage anymore. You just need to unwaveringly stay by my side in the future, got it?”
Yuan Chen didn't hesitate as he said, “Thank you, shixiong. From now on, Yuan Chen only belongs to shixiong. But in any case, I have blood relations with them so I must get rid of Wu Yu.”
“Don’t worry.”
Jiang Junlin didn't really consider Wu Yu a threat. He smiled.“That Wu Yu is pretty impressive. Who knows what kind of luck he ran into to have such a big improvement. I just received the Celestial Kingdom Supervisors’ name list and there he goes, successfully taking revenge in Wu Du. He sure grasped the opportunity well.”
The Rebirth fruit had matured a day early. The two had just finished collecting the Rebirth fruit and received the name list when they got news of Hao Tian’s decapitation on their way back.
“Yuan Chen, do you blame me for not coming back with your father because of the Rebirth fruit?” Jiang Junlin lowered his head as he stared at Yuan Chen, his gaze flickering as he asked.
Yuan Chen quivered slightly, responding in haste: “Of course not. I know how important the Rebirth fruit is to you, and you didn’t know Wu Yu was that capable. Furthermore, the Rebirth fruit’s stolon is a highly toxic item that you had wanted to collect for the sect master to refine into a poison pill. You didn’t even get to retrieve the stolon and just came straight here to help my father. Yuan Chen is immensely touched.”
“Hehe. As long as you know in your heart how good shixiong treats you.” Although there were corpses right by the side, Jiang Junlin merely focused on laughing.
Yuan Chen continued as he said, “It was Jiang shixiong who gave me everything. Jiang shixiong is much more important in my heart than my parents are.”
As for that twin brother Yuan Hao, he was just an unremarkable little ant in Yuan Chen’s world. He didn’t bother paying attention to him.
“Very good.” Jiang Junlin patted his shoulder, in a great mood.
He laughed for a while before speaking again. “Wu Yu committed murder and would’ve run far away afterwards. It won’t be easy for me to catch him. How about I tie up these tens of thousands of people here in Wu Du and string them up to force Wu Yu to show up? For each day that he doesn’t show up, I’ll hang ten thousand people to death. What do you think?”
Yuan Chen trembled in fear, saying, “You must not do that, shixiong. Injuring or killing mortals lowers your virtuous achievements — it doesn’t bode well for your immortal ascension in the future.”
“Those are just stupid rumors. Only idiots would believe them. For mortals, I’m a celestial. And as a celestial, if I don’t kill millions of people, then that’s just a waste of my abilities.” Jiang Junlin smiled.
“Shixiong! Don’t joke around with things like this! The sect master won’t forgive you if he finds out!” Yuan Chen was extremely anxious.
“I was just joking with you.” Jiang Junlin was teasing him. He thought it was even funnier seeing Yuan Chen so tense.
Right at this moment, an army troop approached them. Jiang Junlin had been riding a Crane Horse when they were returning just earlier. Many people saw Yuan Chen treating him very respectfully, so they knew this was likely another celestial.
Jiang Junlin and Yuan Chen gazed unpleasantly over.
“Who?”
A tall high-ranking military official advanced and kneeled, nervously speaking. “Prince Yuan Chen and this Shangxian, I am Eastern Wu’s Supreme Commander Wu, the leader of the army. We have found Princess Wu You and surmised that she would be of use to you, so we brought her over here.”
This Supreme Commander Wu had always been Yuan Xi’s confidante. Over the recent period of time, he had vaguely discerned from Yuan Xi’s words that Prince Yuan Chen had brought back an even more fearsome celestial than Hao Tian.
Thus, he made a gamble at this time.
“Princess Wu You!”
Jiang Junlin and Yuan Chen exchanged a look, their eyes brightening. Jiang Junlin merely extended his hand and a horse-drawn carriage within the troops broke apart into pieces, from which a devastatingly beautiful woman appeared. It was precisely Princess Wu You.
Whoosh!
A tremendous force acted on Princess Wu You’s body, dragging her in front of Jiang Junlin, her long hair dancing in the breeze momentarily.
“It really is her, Wu Yu’s older sister who he has a good relationship with.” Yuan Chen laughed gloomily. He had just been worrying over how to get Wu Yu to deliver himself to their doorstep when Princess Wu You showed up.
“I just had someone check. She wasn’t in Wu You Palace. Where did you find her?” Yuan Chen asked.
“Reporting to Prince Yuan Chen, it was at an inn in the town of Shanquan. It was a member of your Yuan clan named Yuan Feng who brought her here,” Supreme Commander Wu said as he kneeled.
“Alright. Get lost.”
With a wave of his hand, Yuan Chen made Supreme Commander Wu’s group roll a few rounds, removing them from their view. Yuan Chen then sombrely glared at Wu You and was about to step forward.
“What?” Jiang Junlin placed Wu You on the ground and then held back the impulsive Yuan Chen.
“Torment her half to death first to vent.” Yuan Chen gnashed his teeth as he spoke.
Jiang Junlin shook his head. “I told you already. You merely lost two useless parents. Don’t let hatred cloud you. Loosen up, this is just a small issue. You simply need to settle it. I don’t like this fierce, angry look of yours.”
“Yes, shixiong.”
Yuan Chen took a few deep breaths.
He knew well in his heart that Jiang Junlin didn’t place any importance on Hao Tian Shangxian. Not only did he not regard this as a matter, he also demanded for Yuan Chen to act the same way.
But there was no way around it. Jiang Junlin was powerful enough in the Zhongyuan Daoist sect to figuratively cover the sky with one hand. Without him, what would Yuan Chen be?
Jiang Junlin was looking at Wu You with great interest, laughing as he spoke. “You mere mortal, why aren’t you pissing yourself in fear when you see me?”
Wu You glanced at the three corpses on the ground as she stood there. Those were Wu Yu’s greatest enemies. She understood very well that Wu Yu had accomplished his long-cherished wish of two years and was happy for him.
Wu You glanced at Jiang Junlin inspidly, saying, “Aren’t you also a mere mortal? You’re just a bit stronger — what’s there to be scared of? You’re simply going to kill me, but I’m not scared to die, so why do I need to be scared of you?”
Actually, she knew these two would definitely use her as bait to force Wu Yu to come back.
Wu Yu had taken revenge. His future was full of brilliant prospects. As his older sister, if Wu Yu returned here because of her and lost his life, she would be unable to accept it.
Right now, she only hoped Jiang Junlin and Yuan Chen would quickly kill her. That way, Wu Yu wouldn’t have to throw away his life.
Wu You thought that even if she was scared to die, at least there were still three people to accompany her in death. It was still a profitable outcome.
If it weren’t for Wu Yu’s return, she would have been suffering all kinds of torment in the East Divine Kingdom.
Jiang Junlin laughed upon hearing Wu You’s words. “It looks like you’re pretty commendable. Seems you want to enrage me so that I can kill you? That way, Wu Yu won’t come here to court death, right? But, I just can’t fulfil your wish.”
He hauled Wu You up easily and jumped onto the city gate. The hemp ropes hadn’t been untied from the beam yet. Jiang Junlin conveniently coiled the rope that had once been around Yuan Xi’s neck around Wu You’s neck, placing her on a protrusion on the wall.
He was copying Wu Yu. As long as Wu You was the slightest bit uncareful, she would slip from there and hang to death.
“Princess Wu You…”
Seeing a third person being hung up there today, Wu Du’s citizens became nervous. At least 90% of the people in the capital were worried about Princess Wu You. None of them wished for her to lose her life like this.
They never thought that another celestial would show up after Hao Tian Shangxian’s death. The crisis had unexpectedly not ended.
“Although mortals have frail lives, each one of them treasures their life. I don’t believe you would dare to suicide. If you have the guts, why don’t you jump down?” Jiang Junlin leaned against the city wall to steady himself, looking at Wu You with a smile that was not quite a smile.
Wu You glanced at the horizon. She knew Wu Yu had to be insanely rushing over at the moment.
I’m sorry. I wasn’t careful enough and exposed my whereabouts.
She bitterly laughed.
But regardless of it all, if she had to choose between herself and her brother, she would naturally want Wu Yu to live on.
Thus, she didn’t hesitate to jump off!
As long as she died, Wu Yu would no doubt be angry and come back for revenge, but he wouldn’t be in a rush to charge back. He could bear patiently. Wu You believed he wouldn’t be impetuous enough to lose his reason, or else he wouldn’t have donned the demon monkey mask when he came to Wu Du.
The hemp rope gradually pulled straight.
“What a remarkable woman.”
Jiang Junlin was dumbstruck as he watched. All the mortals he had seen before had cravenly clung to life and feared death. This was the first time he had seen someone like Wu You, someone who would jump down without another word.
However, he wouldn’t let Wu You die. He grabbed with one hand and Wu You was drawn up, returned back to standing on the potrustion. He chanted a few verses and a good number of vines suddenly started growing out of the dried up city wall, thoroughly fixing Wu You in place. As to guard against her biting her tongue to death, her mouth was also gagged.
“You just need to watch. I’ll slaughter your little brother.”
“Truthfully speaking, I’m too lazy to make a move but I have no way around it since I owe this little favor. Haha…”
Jiang Junlin finished speaking besides Wu You’s ear and laughed as he landed on the ground.
“Put the word out to Wu Yu: I’ll give him five day’s time. If he’s not here within five days, I’ll hang his sister to death right here.”
Jiang Junlin’s voice swept across the entire city.
In actuality, the moment Wu Yu knew Wu You was tied up on the city wall, there was no need to mention five days — he couldn’t hold on for even one day.
Jiang Junlin was rather courteous. No matter how far Wu Yu would had run by this time, five days was enoughto rush back.