Chapter 1291: Killed Them All

Eunuch Wang Hai returned to the capital from out of town, travel-worn and weary. He didn't dare delay. The moment he was back in the capital, without even changing his clothes, he went to the Bronze Tower to report his mission to Eunuch Wei Wubing.

Wei Wubing expressed great satisfaction with his errand. In a rare good mood, he gave him a copy of his cultivation insights.

Wang Hai walked out of the Bronze Tower, wiped the cold sweat from his brow. After slaving away for so long, he'd finally gotten something out of it. He opened the cultivation insights to look — not that they were anything extraordinary.

Eunuch Wei had entered the palace as a child, and only there did he get the chance to study. As for how deep his understanding of the classics was — there wasn't much. He'd entered the palace to serve his master; his teachers wouldn't have taught him anything that profound.

If he wanted to learn more, he had to rely on his own comprehension.

Wei Wubing's aptitude was middling-to-above — not enough compared to the best, but more than enough compared to the worst. But he had a good teacher. Whatever he didn't understand, he could ask, and the other party would patiently explain.

Later, Wei Wubing began learning martial arts, and his talent was exceptional. Likewise, whenever he ran into something he couldn't understand, he still went to ask the tutor. With his teacher's guidance, he walked more solidly and more steadily than the others. He wasn't the fastest to advance, but he was the one with the most potential.

Sure enough, he broke through to the Grandmaster realm.

The path he'd walked all this way was inseparable from the tutor's guidance. Relying on his own comprehension alone, in this lifetime he probably wouldn't have even brushed the edge of Grandmaster.

The cultivation insights he wrote himself weren't all that brilliant. For ordinary martial artists, they were a tremendous help. But for a genius like Wang Hai, they didn't hold much reference value. The sort of thing that was a toss-up — neither useful nor useless.

After finishing his duties inside the palace, Wang Hai found time to go see Chen Chen Guanlou.

Still in the dead of night, at Chen Chen Guanlou's home — pity there was no wine or food. Not even a cup of hot tea.

Wang Hai was thoroughly disgusted. "I helped you deal with the slavers, executed human garbage, and I can't even get a cup of hot tea. Brother Chen, you use people when you need them and toss them aside when you don't — you're way too mercenary."

"We're that close, you and me."

Chen Chen Guanlou didn't feel the slightest bit guilty. He pointed at the little stove by the door. "We're brothers from different fathers and different mothers — what's mine is yours, what's yours is mine. My home is your home. If you want hot tea, the fire in the stove hasn't gone out yet. Just open the cover at the bottom, toss in a briquette, and the water will boil in a bit."

Wang Hai laughed despite his anger.

He was a guest in someone else's home, yet he had to do it himself just to get a cup of hot tea. As for hoping for a hot dish — impossible.

Chen Chen Guanlou told him the matter was simple.

He directly woke up Sister Sister Chunxiang next door, gave her one tael of silver, and asked Sister Sister Chunxiang to prepare a table of wine and food — he wanted to entertain a friend.

Woken in the middle of the night, Sister Sister Chunxiang was annoyed. But when she saw the silver, she immediately beamed. She woke up the two little ones at home, and mother and daughters bustled about in the kitchen for a while. A fairly lavish table of wine and food was ready.

Fortunately, the weather wasn't too hot that day, and there was extra meat and vegetables at home, so they could put together a table of wine and food in the dead of night.

If it had been summer, there definitely would've been nothing — only leftover tea to drink.

Sipping hot tea, eating dishes, Eunuch Wang Hai's cold and lonely heart finally warmed up.

"Aren't you going to ask about the gains from this trip out of town?"

Chen Chen Guanlou laughed heartily. "With Brother Wang on the job, success is guaranteed. Killed them all, right?" If even one had slipped through the net, he'd have to demand half the silver back.

"Killed them all!" Wang Hai sipped his tea. "For your sake, this one nearly worked himself to death. The palace duties had to come first, but your matter couldn't be brushed off either. This one wished he could split himself in two."

"Brother Wang, you've worked hard. Here, eat some meat! Get some nourishment!"

Wang Hai snorted. "You trust this one that much? Not worried this one is lying to you?"

"That can't be!" Chen Chen Guanlou said with perfect seriousness. "Anyone in the world could deceive me, but Brother Wang alone would never deceive me."

Wang Hai instantly felt he'd found a soulmate! Chen Chen Guanlou understood him!

Brother Chen trusted him so much — of course he couldn't let that trust down.

For a moment, he was so moved his eyes welled with tears.

Chen Chen Guanlou: …

He'd laid it on too thick. Nearly hooked the man into a gaping mouth!

Sigh, his skill at hoodwinking people grew deeper by the day — truly a sweet burden.

"Brother Chen treats me with sincerity, and I shall repay in kind. I take tea in place of wine — a toast to Brother Chen."

After finishing his tea, Wang Hai started complaining again. "How come your house doesn't even have a bottle of wine? If you're really that broke, I'll snag a few bottles from the palace for you."

"I don't like keeping wine at home. When I'm home, I generally don't drink." Chen Chen Guanlou explained. "If you really want to get me a few bottles, I won't turn them down."

"Palace wine, and you still turn up your nose. How picky can your mouth possibly be?" Wang Hai was most displeased.

Chen Chen Guanlou was tickled pink — yes, he was turning up his nose. He had every right to! These days, wine was low in proof and came in few varieties.

"I heard you killed Grandmaster Qi?" Wang Hai suddenly got gossipy.

Chen Chen Guanlou flatly denied it. "Nonsense! How could I possibly have killed Grandmaster Qi. That's an accusation without proof, Brother Wang — how can you say such a thing?"

Wang Hai smiled, a look that seemed to say: Go on! Make up whatever you like! You can fool others, but you can't fool me!

"I really didn't kill anyone! I'm a model citizen, a great big one." Chen Chen Guanlou emphasized again.

Wang Hai grinned. "Right, right — the great big model citizen who slaughtered an entire slaver family. A real model citizen wouldn't even dare stab someone with a knife, let alone kill. Brother Chen, your standards for a model citizen are a bit low."

"As long as there's no proof, I'm a model citizen." Chen Chen Guanlou argued shamelessly.

Wang Hai didn't bother debating with him. "You've made a mortal enemy of the Jixia Academy. The Jixia Academy is now wary of acting against you, so naturally they won't dare do anything to you. But in the future — heh heh — you'll have your share of suffering."

"You make it sound as if, if Grandmaster Qi hadn't died, I could've turned swords into ploughshares with the Jixia Academy." Chen Chen Guanlou scoffed, completely unconcerned.

"So you're saying you admit you killed Grandmaster Qi?"

"I never said that. Don't twist my words. How was your trip out of town? Made a fortune, right?"

Wang Hai shook his head. "The palace demanded no disturbance to the local authorities — where would this one go to make a fortune? At most, I scraped together a bit of hard-earned cash."

"Brother Wang, you're too modest!"

A eunuch leaving the palace — that was a plum assignment. Not to speak of making a big fortune, making a small one was no problem.

Wang Hai firmly denied it, absolutely refusing to admit he'd gotten rich.

No wonder these two could eat and drink together, barely scraping by as friends. Sure enough, they were cut from the same cloth — both belonged to the die-before-admitting-it category. Without proof, they wouldn't confess no matter how the heavens fell.

"Grandmaster Qi dying is actually a good thing!" Wang Hai said. "I found out that Grandmaster Qi must have failed in closed-door cultivation and gone berserk from qi deviation. If you hadn't killed him, he definitely would have harmed others. Reportedly, when Grandmaster Qi came out of seclusion, he even killed his own chief disciple."

"In that case, the Jixia Academy should be thanking me for helping them dispose of a menace. Otherwise, if they'd let Grandmaster Qi keep killing, the Jixia Academy definitely would've been in deep trouble — might've had to seal their mountain gates for several more years. Tell me, how dare they sue me?" Chen Chen Guanlou said mockingly.

"The show must go on till the final curtain! The Jixia Academy doesn't dare let outsiders know Grandmaster Qi went berserk from qi deviation. Lucky for them they had you. Their suing you is just for appearances. Otherwise, if a living person vanished and they didn't react at all, not just the jianghu — even the palace would start to wonder."