Chapter 600

Nangong Ling seemed to sense something and whispered softly into her ear,

"You'd better behave! If you make any noise, I'll just kill you and be done with it."

"After all, my old mother only took a dislike to your pretty face — she doesn't care whether you live or die."

Qiu Lingsu's heart went cold; she knew Nangong Ling was right.

After Shi Guanyin had abducted her from the Great Yuan, she had merely ruined her face and tossed her to Nangong Ling without a second thought.

And over these past days, Nangong Ling had only treated her as an object for his amusement.

Mother and son alike — both had utterly twisted, perverse minds.

Boom!

Just as they were speaking, a sudden crash came from outside.

Even without looking, Nangong Ling knew it was the fight next door that had smashed through the wall of his little courtyard.

It seemed they wouldn't be able to stay here tonight.

With a sigh, Nangong Ling rose and packed a few things, preparing to slip away with Qiu Lingsu without a sound.

"Huh! There are two people here. Big brother, do we kill them or not?"

Just as Nangong Ling was about to leave, a voice suddenly rang out.

"Kill them! What happened today must not leak out, or it will work against us."

A cold-blooded order was given, and in the next instant, several men in black burst through the window and came at Nangong Ling with killing intent.

Seeing their faces covered, Nangong Ling guessed at once that these were not so-called righteous men of the jianghu.

He sneered inwardly and pushed Qiu Lingsu aside.

After dodging their killing moves, he gave them no time to react and casually drew a short sword.

Striking like lightning in the darkness, he slit the throats of those black-clad men in a single slash.

But they were nothing but third-rate fighters — how dare they come provoke him.

Having dealt with these black-clad men, Nangong Ling circulated his lightness skill and made not the slightest sound.

He simply picked up Qiu Lingsu and prepared to leave.

No sooner had he stepped out of the room than he saw, beneath the moonlight, that his little courtyard had at some unknown moment been surrounded by black-clad men.

"Huh? This one is also a man of the Wu Lin — send a few experts and kill him."

Seeing Nangong Ling and his companion emerge, a command rang out from the darkness.

More than ten black-clad men raised their weapons and charged at Nangong Ling.

Nangong Ling cursed his bad luck inwardly, holding Qiu Lingsu in one arm while wielding his short sword with the other.

Though it was only a short sword, in his hands it unleashed moves drawn from eight different weapons — the acupoint tweezers, the judge's brush, the water-parting spike, and so on.

Every strike was cunning and bizarre, the angles uncanny.

Added to that, his cultivation far surpassed that of these black-clad men.

Within moments of clashing, Nangong Ling had slaughtered every black-clad man who rushed at him.

"Hah! Who are you, sir? How dare you make an enemy of Black Stone?"

From the darkness stepped a swordsman draped in a black cloak, his voice exceedingly low as he questioned Nangong Ling.

This man's features were unremarkable, and his voice gave no clue as to whether he was male or female.

But Nangong Ling could sense that this person's Wu Gong was only just barely beneath his own.

Black Stone?

Isn't that an assassin organization of the Great Ming?

How did they end up in the Great Song killing people?

Could it be that Jiang Asheng's debt wasn't a gambling debt after all?

Nangong Ling was about to say that he had no intention of making an enemy of Black Stone.

But before he could, Jiang Asheng suddenly appeared, dual swords in hand, having cut down several black-clad men, and burst out of the neighboring courtyard with Ceng Jing.

"Brother Lin, so you're a man of the Wu Lin too."

Jiang Asheng's face lit up with delight as he looked at Nangong Ling, and then, in the moonlight, caught sight of Qiu Lingsu's face.

"So your wife is actually this beautiful."

"But why do I feel as though I've seen her somewhere before?"

413 I was planning to hand her over to the Qinglong Society!

Last time, the Heavenly Dao Hundred Flowers Ranking not only revealed Qiu Lingsu's wretched state at the time,

it also mentioned her appearance before Shi Guanyin had ruined her face.

Yet the god-tier Youth-Preserving Pill awarded by the Heavenly Dao Hundred Flowers Ranking could not only repair facial damage,

it could also greatly enhance the beauty of whoever took it.

Qiu Lingsu had already been hailed as the foremost beauty of the Great Yuan; after taking the god-tier Youth-Preserving Pill, her looks became even more ethereal and otherworldly.

So people who weren't familiar with her, upon suddenly seeing her, couldn't quite place her for a time.

Nangong Ling secretly cursed himself — today had taken him by surprise, and he hadn't had time to change Qiu Lingsu's appearance.

So before all those eyes, she had been exposed.

Fortunately, on one side were the Black Stone assassins of the Great Ming,

and on the other, Jiang Asheng and his wife — since they were living under false names and had even drawn Black Stone's pursuit, their identities clearly couldn't see the light of day either.

"Brother Jiang, are these people here to make trouble for you and your wife?"

In just that short while, more and more black-clad assassins had appeared atop the surrounding courtyard walls.

Among them, three in particular stood out the most.

One was an old man wearing a juggling performer's costume, his expression dark and vicious, both hands tucked inside the costume.

One was a young woman, not bad-looking, but her expression was wanton — clearly not a decent sort.

The last was a person in close-fitting clothes, hands folded across their chest.

Each of these three could pose no small threat to Nangong Ling.

"Exactly!"

Jiang Asheng nodded, as if admitting it, then looked toward the black cloak,

"You must be the leader of the Blackstone organization — the Wheel-Turning King!"

"Correct!"

The black cloak was indeed the Wheel-Turning King. He no longer paid Nangong Ling any heed, and instead looked at Ceng Jing,

"You said you were originally outstanding in appearance, and I carefully trained you, teaching you the Forty-One Strokes of Water-Repelling Sword Art."

"So why did you insist on betraying me?"

"Hand over Luo Mo's corpse and I'll let you leave."

Ceng Jing sighed, walked up to Jiang Asheng, and said to the Wheel-Turning King,

"I only want to live an ordinary life now. I don't want to stir up more trouble."

"Besides, I was planning to hand Luo Mo's corpse over to the Qinglong Society!"

"What? The Qinglong Society?"

Everyone present — the Blackstone assassins, Nangong Ling and his companion, and Jiang Asheng alike — wore looks of utter shock.

Their skills, placed in the jianghu of the Great Song or the Great Ming, would still pass for decent.

But placed within the Nine Provinces, they'd be no better than locusts.

And the Qinglong Society stood above every faction in the Nine Provinces!

Ceng Jing actually meant to give the Luo Mo corpse the Wheel-Turning King had been obsessing over to the Qinglong Society?

"Why?"

The Wheel-Turning King, unwilling to accept it, pressed on.

"Because the Qinglong Society's reputation is better than yours."

Ceng Jing made no attempt to hide her contempt for the Wheel-Turning King,

"You once told me that if I killed the Great Ming Prime Minister's whole family and seized Luo Mo's corpse, you would give me my freedom."

"But you broke your word."

"You only wanted Luo Mo's corpse to make up for your own shortcomings, then keep clinging to us, lording it over us."

"But the Qinglong Society is different."