Chapter 133

In the inn's dining hall, Wu Tie held a cup of strong liquor, sipping it little by little.

He didn't know when he started liking this tipsy feeling… Looking up at Shi Fei gulping down drink beside him, Wu Tie was sure it wasn't his fault; it must be because he'd spent too long hanging out with those heavy-drinking dwarves and giants.

It's a pity he never got to hear the Demon Chapter King's story.

With such a big commotion inside Long Dragon City, the Demon Chapter King feared the troupe's leader and his friends, especially the kids who always followed him, so he took the roasted meat Wu Tie had given him and left the city.

The drifting troupe had already arrived outside Long Dragon City, setting up camp and doing business a little over two li outside the city.

The Demon Chapter King was in the troupe; Wu Tie calculated that in these two days he would go find him and ask what exactly was going on.

Eating a tyrant's meal—once or twice is fine, but not three times; walking the night roads too often will eventually run into trouble, and if one day you really provoke some ruthless person, they might just finish you off by other means.

Besides, the Diamond Subjugation Fist doesn't suit the Demon Chapter King's constitution; Wu Tie has already devised a set of the 'Six Yin Spirit Snake Body' foundation-establishment body-tempering method—this art is extremely yin and soft, so it should suit the Demon Chapter King quite well.

Old Bai crept in furtively, habitually using the shadows of the stone pillars in the dining hall for cover, making no sound at all with his steps.

Without a sound, Old Bai slipped from under the table onto a chair beside Wu Tie, poured himself a large cup of wine, then lowered his voice and spoke the information he had gathered.

Wu Tie, Shi Fei, Yan Hanlu, and Lu Ji listened, dumbfounded; the matter concerning Iron Great Sword was truly… indescribable.

Iron Great Sword was a disciple of the Six Ways Palace, and his talent and aptitude were quite good—among his generation of Six Ways Palace disciples he was considered outstanding. So early on, Iron Great Sword was selected and joined the mercenary corps organized by the Six Ways Palace.

As a mercenary directly under the Six Ways Palace, Iron Great Sword roamed the outside world for nearly three hundred years. They risked life and limb, following various caravans to different great realms, silently gathering information about those realms and probing the intelligence of major powers.

From a clueless youngster, after three hundred years of wind and frost, Iron Great Sword grew old, his cultivation deepened, and his heart grew weary. His footsteps covered dozens of great realms surrounding the Long Dragon Realm, and he knew the situation of those realms like the back of his hand.

After three hundred years of tempering, Iron Great Sword and his fellow disciples were drawn into one conflict after another, enduring battle after battle; in the end, only Iron Great Sword, covered in wounds, returned to Long Dragon City with a vast fortune.

That sum was said to be several million gold Long Dragons, the savings Iron Great Sword and a few fellow disciples had accumulated after three hundred years of risking life and limb, subtracting all cultivation expenses.

Several of Iron Great Sword's fellow disciples fell abroad, but in Long Dragon City they left behind descendants.

Having wandered outside year after year, the descendants left by those fellow disciples were good-for-nothings; among the Six Ways Palace disciples in Long Dragon City they were notorious as wastrels and degenerates.

Therefore Iron Great Sword did not hand over the money left by his fellow disciples directly to those nephews and nieces; instead he kept it himself, merely giving them a monthly sum for purchasing cultivation resources.

Long Dragon City's commerce was prosperous, and Iron Great Sword had experienced that abroad; he entrusted the principal of that sum to a merchant guild in Long Dragon City to manage, and the annual surplus profit alone was enough for Iron Great Sword and those disciples' descendants to live quite well.

Having trekked south and north for three hundred years, the honest and simple Iron Great Sword differed from his fellow disciples in that he never married.

Returning to Long Dragon City, he resolved to settle there, wholeheartedly cultivating to break through, no longer willing to wander; through a fellow disciple's introduction, he, 'a pear tree overwhelming a crabapple,' properly married a wife and settled down.

A Chonglou Realm expert, and following the Six Ways Palace's body-tempering path, Iron Great Sword, though over 350 years old, remained vigorous; within three to five years he had three daughters in total.

Having children late in life, Iron Great Sword naturally doted on these three daughters… but being skilled only in fighting and killing, he didn't know how to discipline them, inevitably spoiling them and raising the three daughters to be extraordinarily pampered.

The greatest contradiction lay in the fact that although Iron Great Sword was helping manage his fellow disciples' money out of goodwill, those disciples' offspring were unwilling; they kept spreading rumors outside that Iron Great Sword had swallowed the inheritance left by his ancestors.

Fortunately, Iron Great Sword's fellow disciples left a complete will, and the contract for that money in the merchant guild was crystal clear; those worthless scions caused a ruckus several times, but the Six Ways Palace elders, knowing Iron Great Sword's character, could not produce any result no matter how they protested.

Thus, Iron Great Sword doted excessively on his three daughters, and some scoundrels began to target his daughters.

With various means of eating, drinking, and playing to show off, plus the influence of some female friends and companions, Iron Great Sword's three daughters, though not yet adults, already had a reputation abroad… many people knew, except Iron Great Sword himself.

Those three young ladies were also good at coaxing; the three sisters joined forces, bewildering Iron Great Sword and his wife, so gradually Iron Great Sword handed over household affairs to his three biological daughters to manage, while he himself, like Wang Wu and others, single-mindedly went to the Six Ways Palace to cultivate.

In just a few short years, the three sisters squandered the several million gold Long Dragons' principal down to nothing.

In just a few short years, Iron Great Sword's wife of tied hair, who still wanted to restrain the three sisters, fell ill for no apparent reason and died.

When Iron Great Sword's cultivation advanced greatly, he faintly sensed the threshold of the Life Pool Realm; as soon as an opportunity arose he could break through Chonglou to condense a Life Pool and smoothly enter the half-step Life Pool Realm. Returning home smiling from the Six Ways Palace's seclusion, he saw exactly this scene.

His wife was gone.

His three daughters and several female friends were in his home, mingling with a few oily-headed, powdered-faced pretty boys.

Upon further questioning, Iron Great Sword discovered that the savings he and a group of fellow disciples had accumulated over three hundred years of risking life and limb had, in just a few short years, been completely squandered by his three daughters…

Furious to the point of vomiting blood on the spot, Iron Great Sword drew his sword and erupted; what followed was the scene that unfolded in the street.

Several pretty boys were split dead inside Iron Great Sword's residence, two close female friends were split dead in his courtyard, and his three daughters, two female friends, and two lovers fled in disarray onto the street… After hesitating a long while, Iron Great Sword still laid a heavy hand on his own daughter.

Actually, it wasn't really a heavy hand…

The two swords merely chopped off two arms; if a half-step Life Pool Realm expert truly wanted to kill, his three daughters could not have escaped his own courtyard.

Only at the end, when Wu Tie and the others went out to watch, did Iron Great Sword finally hold his breath; feeling deeply sorry to his fellow disciples, he then truly unleashed a deadly strike against his three daughters.

As a result, Wang Wu came over with good intentions to dissuade him, but instead provoked such a great trouble.

When Old Bai went to gather information, the Six Ways Palace had already compensated the medical expenses for the many wounded spectators at the scene; those merchants and residents accidentally injured had been placated thoroughly.

The trouble lay ahead.

The scion descendants of Iron Great Sword's fellow disciples are now gathering at the Six Ways Palace garrison, demanding the Discipline Hall uphold justice for them—how did that huge sum left by their fathers just disappear?

Furthermore, the families of the pretty boys and female friends Iron Great Sword split dead—all of them affiliates under the Six Ways Palace—have also banded together, appealing to the Six Ways Palace superiors for justice—even if the children were at fault, is it not excessive for Iron Great Sword to draw his sword and kill them?

Among those families, some members are Six Ways Palace disciples; they have banded together, and their force is not much weaker than that of Iron Great Sword and his allied fellow disciples. Iron Great Sword indeed killed people; this bad debt, he must give an explanation no matter what.

Based on the information Old Bai just gathered, the Six Ways Palace higher-ups seem inclined… Iron Great Sword has already been expelled from the Six Ways Palace by the Discipline Hall; they might as well make him sell himself to pay off his debt.

Killing a half-step Life Pool Realm expert like this is truly a pity, and also an enormous waste of resources.

Wasn't Iron Great Sword a mercenary before?

Whoever can put up a large sum sufficient to compensate everyone and satisfy all, then the Six Ways Palace, as the decision-maker, will let Iron Great Sword serve them forever as a hired hand.

"Half-step Life Pool Realm." Wu Tie raised his cup and drained it in one gulp, then slammed the cup heavily onto the table.

Zhu Zixi is merely a Life Pool Realm expert, yet she can suppress the entire Cangyan Realm; if it weren't for Wu Tie's cleverness, Zhu Zixi would have already controlled the whole Cangyan Realm.

Iron Great Sword is a half-step Life Pool Realm expert; he only needs an opportunity to break through.

The Six Ways Palace and the Changsheng Sect are mortal enemies; that is, the Six Ways Palace's Life Pool Realm experts are certainly not inferior to the Changsheng Sect's Life Pool Realm experts. Iron Great Sword certainly has a chance to grow into an expert like Zhu Zixi.

"We still have plenty of money." Wu Tie glanced at his left hand; he had killed Zhu Zixi and obtained her lifetime savings. Aside from various other resources, just the gold coins alone constitute an astronomical figure; Wu Tie hasn't counted them precisely, but there are at least tens of millions.

"Iron Great Sword is strong, but that aside, we don't need to fight people for now. However, he is familiar with the dozens of great realms surrounding the Long Dragon Realm… having wandered those realms for three hundred years, not to mention the secret paths, those main thoroughfares, he surely knows them." Wu Tie's eyes glimmered slightly.

He intends to go to Wa Valley; originally he planned to find a caravan heading there, but if he has Iron Great Sword, does he still need to follow a caravan?

"Old Bai, trouble you to make another trip, ask the Six Ways Palace higher-ups how much gold it would roughly take to buy out Iron Great Sword." Wu Tie pulled a gold coin from his bracelet, frowned, and looked at the obverse side bearing the two characters 'Changsheng'.

These Changsheng Sect gold coins, I don't know whether they're usable or not on the Six Ways Palace's turf…

A wisp of flame shot from his fingertip; the gold coin quickly turned red and softened, and Wu Tie pinched it with his fingers, shaping it into a small gold cake.

"Hmm, that's good." Wu Tie prepared to return to his room, processing all these gold coins into large ingots.

After a quarter hour, Old White ran back again, poured two gulps of wine into his mouth, and Old White, panting, said: "Compensating the scoundrels left by the brothers of Iron Great Sword will require about 4,500,000 Gold Dragon gold coins… The trouble is, the clansmen of the few men and women killed by Iron Great Sword are relentless."

Old White spread his hands, looking at Wu Tie with a bitter smile: "They opened their lion mouths wide, demanding 10,000,000 gold coins to let it rest… but, but, the people of Long Dragon City all say that those few men and women killed by Iron Great Sword are universally recognized scum; their lives aren't even worth 100 Gold Dragon coins."

Wu Tie nodded thoughtfully.

For the lives of a few scoundrel clansmen, they are relentless toward Iron Great Sword.

King Five and those several sturdy men responsible for guarding Long Dragon City have such a good relationship with Iron Great Sword; it seems the Six Dao Palace interior isn't a monolith. Even if the precepts are extremely strict, there are still factions, still disputes.

"In that case, I won't give those 4,500,000 Gold Dragon coins either." Wu Tie raised his head, glanced at the hotel's dome, and said in a low voice: "Old White, go fetch King Five…… tell him I have a deal to discuss…… I want Iron Great Sword to come with me safely, and I want the Six Dao Palace to give me a batch of primordial grass and primordial fruit."

"Heh, not giving them a single coin." Wu Tie looked at Old White and said: "Tell King Five that I came to the Six Dao Palace for this deal, saying that in a secret realm relic I obtained the Eighteen Arhat Subduing Demon Blade."

After another quarter hour, in Wu Tie's room, King Five, his father, the skinny Six Dao Palace Discipline Hall chief stationed in Long Dragon City, Wang Si, and the chiefs of the Three Halls of the Six Dao Palace in Long Dragon City—Arhat Hall, Vajra Hall, and Heavenly King Hall—stood side by side before Wu Tie.

"Eighteen Arhat Subduing Demon Blade……" the chief of the Arhat Hall of the Six Dao Palace stationed in Long Dragon City, Wu Gang, stared fixedly at Wu Tie: "Come, come, come, demonstrate a few moves; if you can truly complete our Six Dao Palace's Arhat Subduing Demon Blade, anything can be negotiated."

The Vajra Hall chief, Sha Li, let out a cold snort: "Little brat, our Six Dao Palace is not to be trifled with; if you dare to deceive us……"

Sha Li, about three meters tall, clenched his fist fiercely, and a muffled explosion sounded in the air.

The Heavenly King Hall chief, an old man with kind eyes and brows but whose skin was a pale gold all over, smiled slightly and said gently: "Enough, enough, you don't need to frighten the guest. This young brother, if you can truly complete the Eighteen Arhat Subduing Demon Blade, you will be an honored guest of our Six Dao Palace."

Wu Tie looked at the Heavenly King Hall chief and sighed in his heart.

The risk is a bit high.

I can only hope my observation is correct; the Six Dao Palace should be a law-abiding force.

Otherwise, the Heavenly King Hall chief is clearly a master of the Life Pond Realm; if the Six Dao Palace really turns hostile, Wu Tie would truly be lifting a rock only to drop it on his own foot, truly asking for suffering.

"I want Iron Great Sword, and moreover, this blade technique is something I painstakingly obtained from that relic; I want a batch of primordial grass as compensation."

Wu Tie said firmly: "I came to the Six Dao Palace for this deal; you all certainly shouldn't let me suffer a loss."

The Heavenly King Hall chief smiled, nodded slightly: "Good!"