Among the disciples of the New Moon Hall, except for Maid Lotus, Gu Shenwei was most familiar with Guan Shang.
In the underground palace of Bodhi Garden in Jade City, the two fought discretely. Gu Shenwei was surprised when Guan Shang revealed that she had become disciple of the New Moon Hall at the last minute.
Since then, the two had worked together several times.
Guan Shang was a very good killer. It was no accident that she had become a black-masked assassin of Shangguan Fei. The New Moon Hall was good at occult sciences and only marginally inferior at practical kung fu. Maid Lotus and Guan Shang were the rare masters among them.
Many years of training as a black-masked assassin had enabled Guan Shang to develop a special set of skills: to hide her strength and be as unobtrusive as possible.
She could display different levels of kung fu according to her needs. She could be a weak woman with no strength to truss up a chicken, a mediocre machete man, or a top-tier black-masked assassin.
Because of this, every time when Guan Shang was nearby, Gu Shenwei always felt a twang of tension in his heart.
Today, this feeling of tension came over him unexpectedly. In the beginning, Gu Shenwei did not understand where it came from. He glanced over Guan Shang’s disguised face twice but failed to find any flaw. On the third time, a faint impression flashed into his mind. Gu Shenwei suddenly found the source of tension and identified Guan Shang.
Guan Shang’s disguise was very clever. She had not made herself look younger or older. She still looked about 30 years old. Her facial features were slightly modified, which made her look more ordinary and quite contrary from her real appearance.
Guan Shang was good at hiding her sharpness. But once Gu Shenwei saw through her disguise, he immediately recalled that this was not the first time Guan Shang appeared in here. In fact, in the past two days, almost every time he met with the fat chief, Guan Shang had always been standing among the group of maids.
Gu Shen was waiting for Guan Shang to make a move. He was already prepared. He was not afraid of the kung fu of the New Moon Hall disciples, nor their occult sciences. Maid Lotus had assuaged his worries.
Before he came to see the fat chief, Gu Shenwei speculated that the ” privileged guest” of the Gulping Wind Gorge was probably traitors to the New Moon Hall. That made Maid Lotus more relieved. Golden Roc Fort was a huge organization. Even after full training, there were still many secrets in the Stone Castle that ordinary killers couldn’t get access to. As to the New Moon Hall, Maid Lotus believed she had already grasped everything about it.
“If a group of traitors are planning a plot, they will never dare use a real sword for assassination. ” Maid Lotus was certain about this, so she and the Dragon King acted separately, rather than staying together to protect each other.
The real disciples of New Moon Hall were most accustomed to using all kinds of occult sciences including various kinds of poisons when assassinating masters.
“They have three kinds of poisons to choose from, all odorless and tasteless. ” Maid Lotus commented,” The first one takes effect fastest, but eating it is harmless. It must be breathed in, so someone will have to risk throwing the powder. We just need to take a little precaution. The second kind also takes effect quickly and needs to be added in food to trick us into eating it. But it takes effect too quickly, by the first swallow, you will know it. If it spits out in time, the harm will not be great, so I don’t think they will use it. The third one has the slowest effect. It takes several doses to kill a person. There is no antidote or trace after the attack. There is no difference between poisoning and sudden death. The name is’Falling Powder’, meaning that its effect resembles an accidental fall.”
These were just a few kinds of the specially-made pills in the New Moon Hall. It was not easy to survive in such a sect. Gu Shenwei was curious about one thing, ” So… it is easy for the New Moon Hall to kill someone, and it can easily get rid of suspicion afterward.”
“It’s very easy, but it’s very troublesome to make the Falling Powder. We won’t casually use it unless it’s an important target. ”
Obviously, the Dragon King and Maid Lotus were both important targets.
“Maybe we have already eaten it several times unconsciously.”
” Well, it’s possible. But it cannot be confirmed before it takes effect. ”
Although it was impossible to confirm, Maid Lotus still had a way to neutralize the poison, Otherwise, she would not be able to survive in the New Moon Hall. She took out a small wooden box containing over ten red pills.
Maid Lotus had given him two such pills for a serious Qigong Deviation before. He had not eaten them and later gave them to someone else, but it had not been a big deal then. Now, he would have to face the choice again: to eat or not to eat. The real decision now was how much he wanted to trust Maid Lotus.
“Before the poison takes effect, this is the only antidote.” Maid Lotus were carrying the small wooden box carefully as if it was a priceless but fragile treasure,” As long as there are disciples of the New Moon Hall nearby. I have to take one pill every seven days. This is a new product I made in the Land of Fragrance. It has not been used yet.”
The Land of Fragrance was abundant in herbs. Maid Lotus had taken the country’s Fragrance-making High Priest and all his disciples to make many specially-made pills.
Gu Shenwei’s vigilance suddenly increased, but he did not show any hesitation on his face. He picked up a pill and threw it into his mouth.
Maid Lotus also took one pill in front of him.
“During the seven days, no disciple of the New Moon Hall can secretly harm you .” She said.
Guan Shang would rather sacrifice a companion in Golden Roc Fort, just because she didn’t want Maid Lotus to find out there were more disciples of the New Moon Hall, so that Maid Lotus and the Dragon King would not take the antidote in advance.
This was a clever idea. However, Gu Shenwei had figured it out and had also recognized her.
It was getting late. Ha Chilie chose the ” ideal wife”. Strictly speaking, this was indeed Maid Lotus’s choice. He got a hint and pointed to a girl around him. Then he left without saying a word.
The two maids who had been following and watching him carefully smiled knowingly and promptly reported the result to the chief.
“Ah, my grandson-in-law is here. We are really a family this time. You have a good taste. You have chosen my favorite granddaughter.” The fat chief warmly congratulated Ha Chilie with open arms.
Ha Chilie’s face was still red. He didn’t know how to call the fat chief. Should he call him “uncle” or “grandfather”?
The matter was settled and they sat to have a small talk. The moment Gu Shenwei stood up to leave, his face flushed as if he had been infected by Ha Chilie. But the flush disappeared quickly. Few people noticed anything strange, even the Dragon King himself did not seem to notice it.
He deliberately did so with his Internal Strength.
Before the Falling Powder took effect, the victim would not feel anything different, but there would be some subtle signs of accumulation. Maid Lotus assumed that they had eaten a little bit of poison at every meal after entering the Gulping Wind Gorge. So she had described the reaction they should have in detail.
One of them was the sudden flush.
Gu Shenwei hoped that Guan Shang would make the move as soon as possible. He had been delayed too long in the Gulping Wind Gorge already. In three days, the news of the Dragon King’s reappearance might have spread over half of Xiaoyao Lake.
He couldn’t strike first. There might be more traitors of the New Moon Hall lurking in the Gulping Wind Gorge. He had to wait until they were all exposed.
Guan Shang was probably the only one who saw the flush of the Dragon King, but she obviously didn’t think this was the best time to attack, so she still chose to bide her time.
Gu Shenwei pretended to be clueless.
Maid Lotus was waiting for him in the room. The moment he came in, she said urgently, ” I’m afraid we’ll have to kill another person tonight. ”
Among the many daughters, granddaughters and maids of the fat chief, Maid Lotus had not found any disciples of the New Moon Hall. This was normal. No one dared to put on an act in front of the Managing Master. It had been an accident that Yan Er got recognized. She never expected that Maid Lotus would come to the Gulping Wind Gorge so soon.
But Maid Lotus had found a master.
She was a maid, and her owner was the fiancee chosen by Ha Chilie.
Maid Lotus naturally had a reason to point out this granddaughter of the fat chief. The maid had thought that she was exposed and her eyes revealed killing intent and panic. This reaction made Maid Lotus more sure that this maid was good at kung fu.
“It was a test. They wanted to know if our target was still the Golden Roc Fort killer, so they sent a target. ”
Gu Shenwei thought her judgment was accurate and agreed with her decision. Then he told her that he had recognized Guan Shang.
Hearing that news, Maid Lotus was silent for a moment. ” I never fully trusted her. ”
Gu Shenwei remembered that Guan Shang was always nervous in front of Maid Lotus, and humbled herself even more than the lowest slaves. Maid Lotus also warned the Dragon King not to let Guan Shang get close when she was suffering from the Qigong Deviation.
” We have to do it as soon as possible, I’m worried that changes have taken place in the Stone Kingdom. ”
“There is only one day. We have taken enough Falling Powder. It should take effect around noon tomorrow. ”
The two bolted the door from the inside and jumped out of the window again. After they had appointed the fiancee for Ha Chilie, they wanted to assassinate the fiancee’s maid.
There was also another possibility that the maid had deliberately exposed her identity in order to lure these two into the trap. It was highly possible if the opponent was a Golden Roc Fort killer. But the tactics of the disciples of the New Moon Hall were different. Maid Lotus believed that poison was their choice.
The seventh young master had just been assassinated, and the guards in the village was obviously much vigilant. After midnight, there were still many people patrolling around with torches. There were also many secret posts arranged in various places.
There was only one way through the Gulping Wind Gorge. There was nowhere to hide. Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus stealthily edged along the cliff, dodging a large number of torches and moving along the shadows towards the target.
Most of the residences here had two or three floors, and women generally lived on the highest floor. Maid Lotus had already found out the residence of the lady and the maid in advance so they had no need to look around.
This was a strange assassination. Both the murderers and the victim had jumped bought into the scam voluntarily.
At the expense of a master, it was only to convince the Dragon King and Maid Lotus that the one behind the plot was the Golden Roc Fort. If Gu Shenwei did not have some knowledge of the New Moon Hall, he would never believe that someone could come up with such a plan.
The New Moon Hall was full of lunatics. Gu Shenwei couldn’t help thinking about what Maid Lotus had been through over these years. Perhaps it was even worse than the pain of ice sting when she was suffering from the Qigong Deviation.
There were ventilating windows on the cliff wall. As usual, Gu Shenwei was responsible for opening the windows and killing people while Maid Lotus stayed behind to guard against the enemy’s sneak attack.
Gu Shenwei pried open the window with a dagger. He gently opened it a crack and took a look. He found that they did not need to get in at all.
There were two bodies lying on the ground without their heads. Gu Shenwei could not see any more details. He could only guess that these two people were the lady and the maid that Maid Lotus had suspected.