Chapter 542: 496 Mutual Slaughter

Late at night, Xing Wu left Yulang City and hurried toward Wangliang Mountain.

As a Sword Guest, he traveled the night road as fast as a flying horse, completely unaffected by the darkness.

Or rather, they, the Sword Guests of Wangliang Mountain, were more accustomed to the night. Walking in the darkness was, on the contrary, more habitual. He even felt too exposed and shrank away during the day, whereas the shroud of darkness at night filled him with a sense of security.

Although he looked calm at this moment, his tightly furrowed brows showed he was burdened with heavy thoughts, clearly still remembering everything that had happened during the day. Two faces flashed alternately in his mind—the Master, and the Grand Steward.

These two people were both powerhouses who could dictate his fate, existences he could not defy.

If he could not defy them, then he would simply submit.

Xing Wu was a man who followed his heart. He had lived his thirty years of life this way, and for someone like him to have lived safely in a place like Wangliang Mountain until now, it was clear his choices had some merit.

But today he had realized that this blind submission could no longer solve the problem before him; his two masters, the Master and the Grand Steward, were showing signs of a split, and a conflict was imminent. He was afraid he would only be able to submit to one side.

Which side should he submit to?

This might be a choice concerning his fate. It was too difficult for Xing Wu, who was not particularly clever or adaptable, to make a decision quickly, yet he knew that the moment he climbed the mountain and met the other Sword Guests, the moment he opened his mouth to speak, he would have to make a choice. This could not be delayed; even making the wrong decision was better than wavering.

Then who should he choose?

With Xing Wu's nature of drifting with the tide, he instinctively wanted to choose the stronger side. After all, since he was dependent on others anyway, it was certainly better to depend on the strong.

But he could not tell who would win. In his brief meeting with the New Master that afternoon, he had felt an unprecedented power and warmth from that person, making him want to draw close and revere him involuntarily, and he felt an unprecedented strength from the bottom of his heart, as if... he were facing the sun.

Even people who live in the Shadow cannot help but yearn for the sun.

However, the Grand Steward's prestige built up over so many years had long since cowed him. Especially "that matter" from before, which had left him with a massive psychological Shadow, making him tremble in his heart whenever he thought of the Grand Steward.

Both of them were so powerful, beyond his imagination; it was truly hard for Xing Wu to bet on who would win.

Then, if he set aside strength and weakness and simply asked himself who he wanted to follow?

Both of these people, regardless of whether it was true or false, had once made him promises. One promised he could embrace his original world to his heart's content, and the other promised to take him to a new world.

Xing Wu asked himself: If he could truly choose freely, did he really want to stay in the original world, or go to the new world?

"I really am a cowardly person after all," Xing Wu laughed at himself. "The new world is too far away; I don't dare to go. I might as well stay in the original world..."

Suddenly, a warning sign flared in Xing Wu's heart. In an instant, his whole body went limp, his form suddenly turning soft like water, sliding away like a rolling Bead to dodge a sneak attack of Sword Light.

That was a completely unprovoked, nearly fatal sneak attack!

That Sword Light initially missed, but then, as if it had elasticity, it whipped straight back, lashing out in front of Xing Wu like a flexible paper scroll before stabbing straight again. But Xing Wu's body was also eerily formidable; he spun around on the bare, rocky Gobi desert, instantly slipping out through the gap between two large boulders.

Sss—Boom!

That curving Sword Light finally pierced into the boulder, and the boulder, which was like a small hill, collapsed with a roar.

Xing Wu had already stood up on the mountain rocks, having escaped the assassination range, and drew his sword with composure.

"Roll Pierce! Sword Art!"

Xing Wu had just recognized it; this was the unique Sword Art of Wangliang Mountain!

The one assassinating him was someone from Wangliang Mountain!

Xing Wu sneered. Although he was weak toward the masters who dictated his fate, he was still a true Sword Guest of Wangliang Mountain, a half-human, half-ghost who had crawled out of the darkness; how could he fear fighting and killing?

As for the reason for the night ambush, there was no need to ask at all. Did people from Wangliang Mountain need a reason to kill each other? Perhaps it was just a bandit waiting in front of the mountain to waylay and kill people?

As he steadied his mind, a Bead rolled down the edge of Xing Wu's sword, as if it were a drop of blood naturally falling after a slaughter.

Sword Image—Descend.

He looked toward the place where the boulder had collapsed; his enemy should be walking out from there.

As the dust settled, a person slowly walked out holding a sword in the night.

Xing Wu had originally been calm, but upon seeing that person's appearance, his expression suddenly changed, and he blurted out, "You... you are..."

The person in the dust was young and had a familiar face. Xing Wu could not call out his name, but he knew who he was—

He was the Sword Guest brought by the New Master, surnamed Fang or something like that. He had previously invited him to drink and chat; although the two had not shared their hearts, they had at least been polite and exchanged cups on the surface. He had not expected that in the blink of an eye, he would come to kill him?

Was he sent by the Master?

Although it seemed the Master did not need to send an assassin to kill him, the facts were all there; what was the point of finding logical loopholes to deny what he had seen with his own eyes?

Were the Master's previous promises all false? Did he only want his life?

For a moment, Xing Wu wanted to give up on himself.

But it was only for a moment. Having lived to this age on Wangliang Mountain, his will to survive could not be underestimated! His Sword Image slid on the blade like water droplets, shining with the luster of a Pearl.

The opponent held his sword, and the Sword Light split, rolling over from several directions. The trajectory of each Sword Light was like a paper scroll; it did not move in a straight line, possessing a special arc and resilience, along with that eerie acceleration of a paper scroll being "whipped" out.

"Roll Pierce again?" Xing Wu struck back with his sword, and the Sword Image scattered to meet the light, turning into countless mists of water that dispersed in the air—

In the darkness, the slight mist was truly thin and almost invisible, far less bright than the Sword Light, but in the darkness, only the sound of sss-sss-sss could be heard. The Sword Light was like moth-eaten rags, instantly riddled with thousands of holes, and then it completely vanished.

At the same time, Xing Wu's body softened again, turning into water and almost dissipating into the air as well.

His body had not actually disappeared; it was just invisible within the mist. Once the Sword Image scattered, the countless water vapors became his protective camouflage. He wore this illusory disguise and rushed toward the opponent at an extremely fast speed; the "sss-sss-sss" sound even covered his own noise.

As he neared the person, Xing Wu reached out, and countless water droplets turned into cones and shot over—

Sss-sss-sss!

Another series of light sounds, which were the sounds of the Sword Light hitting. However, to Xing Wu's ears, it was an extremely ominous sound!

No, the sound was wrong!

That was not the sound of piercing into a human body!

Xing Wu reacted extremely quickly, his body becoming transparent again, thinning even further within the mist, almost truly merging into the water vapor.

However, it was already too late!

He saw a flash of white before his eyes, and countless Sword Lights rose from the ground!

No, it was paper!

Pure white paper emerged from the cracks in the stones; wherever there was a crack, paper could emerge, and then the sharp edges of the paper poked toward Xing Wu's body.

Would it poke him?

Xing Wu was quite calm, his body continuing to turn illusory, spreading out like a pool of water.

In this state, he can be immune to cutting damage and even almost all physical damage; it works every single time.

However, those sheets of white paper did not cut toward him at all, but instead turned abruptly at his side, transforming into countless binding strips that wound into a large ball, firmly wrapping Xing Wu and every single drop of water around him inside the paper ball.

Plop—

A tightly sealed paper ball fell to the ground. Not a single drop of water leaked out.

"Caught you."

Someone was heard saying.

Xing Wu was trapped inside the paper ball, and the voice sounded muffled, but he did not need to hear it clearly to recognize it, only saying: "Twelve, is it you?"

It was quiet outside for a moment, then finally: "Ha, you recognized me."

Xing Wu sighed and said: "I should have recognized it sooner."

He had long known that Xing Twelve's Sword Image was paper.

Knowing was one thing, but he hadn't recognized it immediately. For one, he and Xing Twelve were not that familiar; at the very least, they had never crossed swords. At Changfa Manor, Sword Guests would not kill each other for no reason. Furthermore, Xing Twelve had played a trick, first using the Roll Pierce of the sword-controlling art unique to Wangliang Mountain to launch a sneak attack, then using the Sword Image "paper roll" to mimic the Roll Pierce sword-controlling art, using the similarity between the two to pass off the fake as the real, and finally revealing the true form of the paper Sword Image, catching him off guard.

Of course, the most important thing was that he had walked out appearing as Fang Weiran, causing Xing Wu to lose his composure for a moment and fail to notice the subtle difference. This was his weakness, and he had nothing to say about losing.

"It was the Grand Steward who sent you, right? The sword art you used to impersonate the Sword Guest by the Master's side must be the sword art of Xing Si's Reverse Scale Sword, which makes people see exactly what they least want to see, making them see the things they resist in their hearts. After the Grand Steward killed Xing Si, the Art Tool naturally ended up in the Grand Steward's hands."

Xing Twelve was doing something outside the paper ball, making faint sounds, and said coldly: "Should he not have killed you? Facing the sword art, the thing you least wanted to see was actually the Young Master wanting to kill you—why not the Grand Steward? It seems your heart has already pledged allegiance to the Young Master? It's only been a day, and you've already changed your loyalties; you're not even as loyal as a prostitute. Why shouldn't a traitor like you be killed?"

Xing Wu sighed and said: "If what I had just seen was the Grand Steward's men, would you not have killed me?"

Xing Twelve paused, silent for a moment.

Xing Wu sighed: "It's not that I wanted to see the Grand Steward kill me. I just feel that it wouldn't be strange for the Grand Steward to want to kill anyone. Killing me is also acceptable. I just didn't expect that you, alone, would dare to come and kill me. I... actually really fell into your hands."

Xing Twelve laughed: "That is because the Grand Steward gave me pointers. He said that you are a coward who is afraid of getting hurt on the battlefield. As soon as you encounter a little difficulty, you want to muddle through by relying on your survival ability, trapping yourself in a passive position. It is not easy to hurt you directly like this, but it is too easy to trap you; you will cooperate yourself. Furthermore, he told me how to counter you."

He suddenly laughed and said: "You are talking so much to me, are you trying to stall for time? Are you pondering that you are water and I am paper, and that you can get out once it gets a little wet? I see it; a large patch of the paper ball is wet. Perhaps quite a bit of water has already accumulated inside the ball, right? But this is also what I wanted; I am talking to you while waiting for you to release the water. Don't you feel... it getting hotter and hotter?"