Chapter 40: The Truth Comes to Light

By the time the story reached this point, He Zhiyu — who had appeared indifferent to everything — finally grew agitated; she seemed to lack sufficient qi and blood, her face was extremely pale, her body swayed and she looked about to faint, but Niu Dajie stepped forward and caught her in one grasp.

"Little sister, you must hold on; avenging a great grudge should be a joy."

"Second sister, I'm fine, just a bit overwhelmed."

Wu Chengyu widened his eyes again; so Niu Dajie and the others were in league with He Zhiyu all along — everything that had just happened was a setup.

Moments ago Niu Dajie was righteously cursing He Zhiyu for eloping with a pretty boy and saying she should be drowned in a pig cage; it turned out the whole uproar was an act — who would have thought the seemingly pure, rough, blunt Niu Dajie had been acting all along, and Wu Chengyu, priding himself on his cleverness, had been led around by the nose without noticing anything amiss.

"I bought a watch last year; if anyone says the ancients were ignorant and foolish again, I'll spray them to death with a mouthful of salt soda." Wu Mianfeng felt a bit broken at this moment.

He Zhiyu caught her breath and spoke again: "I knew then that I was already in your net, my life and death in your hands; I could only force a smile. I can't act, and my resistance made you wary, so from then on you were on guard against me — none of my letters could leave Wushang."

Until last month, that fake monk suddenly appeared in Wushang; somehow he also set his sights on me. At the time you had business troubles at home and couldn't spare the attention, while the fake monk took advantage of my visit to Shuanglin Temple to offer incense, luring me in every way, wanting to elope with me."

I turned his scheme against him; taking advantage of your absence from home, I let him spirit me away overnight from Wushang, and on the road I found a chance to send word out, asking my sworn elder brother and sister to come to my aid."

You only know my He Family has a map to the Wubei Treasure, yet you don't know this map is divided into four parts, held respectively by my He Family, the Lu Family, the Niu Family, and the Yu Family — even if you got the piece in my hands, what could you do?"

The only thing I never knew was: my He Family holds a clue to the treasure; the people who knew about it back then are now down to a precious few — so how did you, Cao Mao, come by this knowledge?"

Cough, cough — Cao Mao seemed stimulated by these revelations into finding another surge of strength; he coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood and forced out: "Vile servant. Isn't the Wubei Treasure simply the spoils captured during the Northern Expedition that you Yue Family Army remnants hid after Yue Fei's death, hoping one day to resist the Jin Kingdom and restore the Han Chinese realm?"

I, Cao Mao, am also a Yue Family Army descendant; by chance my ancestors learned of this treasure and searched for you for many years, finally finding the He Family heirs. These spoils from back then rightfully include a share for my Cao Family — on what grounds can I not take it?"

Niu Dajie and He Zhiyu exchanged a glance, clearly unable to fathom where this Yue Family Army descendant Cao Mao had come from.

Lu Dage at the side shook his head and sighed: "His spear technique just now looked somewhat familiar — the Pure Iron Dianqiang, and that golden spear tip, plus the surname Cao. By that reckoning, he should be a descendant of Golden Spear General Cao Ning, who served under Yue Grandpa back then."

Cao Mao at this moment seemed to be rallying before death; he struggled to raise his head and said: "I should have realized long ago — the one wielding the four-edged Tong Qian is surnamed Niu, certainly a descendant of Niu Gao; the double-headed spear is of course Double Spear General Lu Wenlong; and that one using Flying Knives and Jili — whose descendant are you, kid?"

Yu Xiaowu spoke up: "Golden Dart General Yu Hualong, under Yue Grandpa's command."

Cao Mao turned his gaze toward his former wife He Zhiyu, eyes full of venomous resentment: "And you — Four Fierce Eight Great Hammers, descendant of Iron Hammer General He Yuanqing. I thought you were just an ignorant, confused woman, yet I've fallen into your hands."

Niu Dajie glared with round eyes: "Since you're also a Yue Family Army descendant, you actually dare covet the Wubei Treasure — you truly deserve death."

Cao Mao laughed miserably: "Back then Ancestor Cao Ning was invincible on horseback, beating the Yue Family Army generals until they abandoned helmets and armor; later he defected to Yue Fei, but Yue Fei harshly denounced my ancestor as violating human ethics, and in a rage my ancestor drew his sword and committed suicide, leaving only us descendants to linger on for years."

"Do you think Cao Family descendants would feel gratitude toward the Yue Family Army? Bullshit — you owe us."

When He Zhiyu uttered the words "treasure," Wu Chengyu's heart turned cold; some things, once they enter your ears, make it hard to stay uninvolved. He figured Niu Dajie and the others wouldn't want an outsider to know the secret of the Wubei Treasure either, and aside from those about to die, the only outsiders here were him and A Ku.

But upon hearing the phrase "Yue Family Army descendants," Wu Chengyu's spirit lifted; if they were Yue Family Army descendants, going by Yue Grandpa's consistent peerless loyalty and righteousness, these descendants probably weren't bad people — if he could win their trust, he might not be killed to silence him.

Yet when he heard the names Cao Ning, Lu Wenlong, He Yuanqing, and Yu Hualong, Wu Chengyu's expression became indescribably vivid.

Apart from Niu Gao, who is a genuine historical figure — leader of the Henan righteous army, later a major general under Yue Fei —

the rest, Golden Spear General, Double Spear General, Iron Hammer General, and Golden Dart General, appear to be characters from Shuo Yue Quan Zhuan, all fictional.

So this world is actually a fusion of Shuo Yue Quan Zhuan and The Legend of the Condor Heroes? This combination strikes Wu Chengyu as extremely novel; at least he's never seen it in fan fiction before.

Everything has been said, the truth is laid bare; Cao Mao seems to have no strength left to speak, closing his eyes and awaiting death.

Only Lu Dage looked at the heavily wounded Tian Shi and Qian Yang lying on the ground, deeply puzzled.

"What's the deal with this Qian Yang? I thought he was just a lecherous monk, and He Family's Shi Shi used his hand to escape Cao Mao's pursuit and meet up with us, but just now Tian Shi suddenly intervened to forcibly detain Shi Shi — this matter reeks of strangeness."

Everyone's eyes turned to Tian Shi; Tian Shi kept his mouth shut. As for Qian Yang, Niu Dajie's Tong Qian had pierced his left ribs earlier, directly injuring his lungs; he lay on the ground in a pool of blood, now clinging to his last breath, no longer able to speak.

Wu Chengyu, who had been keeping a low profile all along, decided to gamble once more on human nature — betting that these Yue Family Army descendants weren't the sort to slaughter innocents indiscriminately — and interjected.

"Just now Qian Yang whispered in Tian Shi's ear that there's a Master Kuchen at Shaolin Temple who spent his life obsessed with finding the He Family descendants to locate the treasure; Qian Yang learned of this, and somehow also discovered He Family Sister's identity, scheming to lure her out. His aim is the same as Cao Rong's — the treasure."

All eyes locked onto Wu Chengyu, as if silently questioning how he knew this.

Wu Chengyu pointed at his own ears: "My hearing is pretty good; just now while you all were fixed on Cao Mao, I happened to be close by and heard every word clearly."

"He Family Sister, Niu Dajie, Lu Dage, and all you brothers — I truly have nothing to do with tonight's events; it was pure coincidence. I've always revered Yue Grandpa; I, Wu Mianfeng, swear to heaven: I will absolutely not leak any news concerning the treasure to anyone. If I break this oath, may I suffer death by a thousand cuts and come to no good end."

At this point Wu Chengyu could do little besides swear, but the oath was genuinely heartfelt — he had zero interest in the treasure, and as for Yue Fei, which child of Hua Xia doesn't feel reverence?

Yesterday I had a slight cold, no big deal, at least no fever, so I can write, but I've got writer's block; since this novel has received everyone's generous support, the author feels the story must be written better, and once that thought arose the previous plans were scrapped, then some new ideas felt too flat, extremely conflicted — fortunately the stockpile can last a few more days, let me struggle a bit longer.

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(Chapter End)