Blind Spot
Chapter 448 - 409 resolute three

Chapter 448: 409 resolute three

Xinmeng Town, Town General’s Mansion.

Song Judao felt restless, listening to the huge sound that had quieted down outside.

As a Blood Body Powerhouse, the potent Blood Essence Power coursing through him would sometimes spontaneously present inexplicable premonitions.

It was a keen warning brought about by the subconscious mind of his body, and at this moment, this warning had emerged once again.

’There can’t possibly be a problem. As long as I don’t show any flaws, I will still be the Town General, a formal official and military officer of Shaoyin Country. No one would take the risk of offending the Shaoyin imperial court to target me without reason.’

He contemplated the possible outcomes that might occur outside. If Dong Fangling and his people won, he naturally wouldn’t have any problems.

If the other mysterious group won, his... fate would depend on the decisions of the others, on which camp they belonged to.

Standing up, Song Judao paced back and forth, feeling a desire to check on the situation, yet worried about attracting disaster.

He stepped out of the hall and entered the courtyard. In the vast Town General’s Mansion, there were only about a dozen people, mostly stationed on the periphery, not permitted to enter the inner mansion at will.

This was to prevent any secrets from being leaked.

But at this moment, Song Judao felt an inexplicable panic.

Crack.

Suddenly, a faint sound came from the left side of the courtyard.

"Who’s there!" Song Judao’s eyes tensed and his gaze fixated on that direction.

There was no answer, no response. He slowly moved closer to it, feeling through the wall that his own guards from the Mansion were still outside.

Only the status of those guards seemed a bit off.

Song Judao’s breath grew tense, a stream of red light from the Blood Essence flowing slowly in the palm of his hand, readying himself.

He stealthily approached, step by step, making no sound.

"You’re afraid."

Suddenly a voice came from outside.

Song Judao froze, and in an instant, he was set to strike with his palm. But bizarrely, he suddenly dispersed the Blood Essence around his body, his legs fiercely stabbing into the ground, creating two deep pits to anchor himself in place.

Bam!

Before he could even react internally, his body responded honestly.

In that instant, a humanoid shape rapidly flickered and took form in the shadow behind him.

One sword.

Shhh!

A terrifying force bore down from behind, slashing diagonally across his back.

The huge gash nearly split Song Judao in two.

But his powerful Blood Essence and the strength of his body withstood the sneaky attack.

A sense of crisis erupted within him, and he swiftly turned around, trying to counterattack.

But bizarrely, at this moment, he inexplicably felt a sense of beauty in the old wall in front of him.

The philosophical patterns, the rationally distributed hues, the invitingly fresh textures... all deeply captivated him... wanting to...

Shhh!

Another sword strike slashed across the wound on his back.

Song Judao cried out in pain and tried to turn around to counterattack, but the wall captured his attention again...

It held him for so long he couldn’t forget; it seemed if he turned his head away to do anything else, he would lose the wall forever.

The intoxicating wall...

Shhh!

The third sword.

Song Judao’s entire body was finally severed completely.

In a state of extreme speed, he twice tried to turn around but was captivated by a bizarre force, unable to break free.

In a mere half-second, Song Judao didn’t even manage to unleash his Blood Body power before he collapsed...

He fell powerlessly to the ground, his eyes finally breaking free from the damned wall, struggling to turn and see what was behind him.

And what he saw was Wang Yichen, leisurely flicking off the poison blood from the Golden Sword in his hand.

’How could it be... him...!?’ Song Judao’s pupils contracted, unable to comprehend why it would be him??

But...

Crack.

Everything plunged into darkness, his consciousness completely vanished, and his thoughts froze in that final moment.

Li Chengyi stood in the courtyard, looking at the Town General’s corpse that was still bleeding poison.

’Weaker than the previous one, but to continuously wield the Flower Language Technique, even for just half a second, is too draining.’

He rubbed his temples, feeling as if his head was about to explode. The pain flooded in endlessly, boring into his skull.

’Can’t do this next time, I’d be better off using it only once, focusing fully on a decisive strike at a critical moment, which would actually be much easier. Even the Balance Angel could be controlled for a few seconds, but here...’

In Earth-Moon, it was the inherent frailty of the Feiyi Masters and the Reinforced Humans, relying solely on augmentation and external items for strength, that allowed the Flower Language Technique to control them so effectively.

But here, these people were strong in every aspect, without a blind spot. Both in consciousness and physique.

So the control of the Flower Language Technique became exceptionally difficult.

This made Li Chengyi increasingly aware that the Evil Flower was perhaps originally designed and created for a supportive function.

Suppressing his nausea, he stepped forward and rifled through the Town General’s body. Except for an identity token, he found nothing else.

He then took out his last firework, snapped it, and tossed it into the sky.

Bang.

The firework burst open, like a blood-red flower.

Li Chengyi quickly slapped his own left shoulder, bit the tip of his tongue, and smeared a trickle of fresh blood over his mouth and jaw.

Then he found a place to collapse onto the ground.

Before long, the Town Guard arrived hastily with their people, and the guards of the Town General’s Mansion also entered the courtyard one after another.

What followed was the official wrangling to come.

Li Chengyi, experienced in such matters, quickly subdued the situation with martial might, declaring himself severely injured and insisting that the situation here required a powerful figure to take control, thus sending someone to Cangshi County for help.

The authorities from the God Martial Bureau and Blood Guard Bureau quickly sent someone. After Li Chengyi unhesitatingly used the money and resources of the Town General’s Mansion for bribery, the newly appointed county magistrate—who happened to be the former head of the God Martial Bureau, Fu Ran—quickly cooperated with him to settle the characterization of the case.

Then the crowd began to search and divide.

Unexpectedly, they actually found some evidence in the Town General’s Mansion that Song Judao wanted to defect to the enemy.

In just two days, everyone who was mobilized to act benefitted from the shared rewards, without any danger.

As a result, both the Divine Martial Bureau and the County Guard held Li Chengyi in higher esteem.

On the side of the Blood Guard Bureau...

"Absurd!"

Tang Yukun, the County Master of the Blood Guard Bureau who came to investigate, stood up displeased from beside the body of Song Judao.

"What mutual destruction, defeating the enemy with great difficulty while heavily injured? Such ludicrous statements actually made it onto the book of merits with pompous righteousness? He’s just a mere True Qi Martial Practitioner, so how could he ambush and overpower a Blood Body Powerhouse, even one who is seriously injured? Do you really think Blood Body Powerhouses are as common as cabbages? Even if they are gravely injured, they aren’t something he can deal with!"

"My lord, the merits have already been recorded... What do you mean...?" Deputy County Master Ding Han of the Blood Guard Bureau watched and squinted towards them.

"He’s just a newly promoted Deputy County Master from the Divine Martial Bureau, and a commoner who rose up using inglorious means, what qualifications does he have to take such a great achievement?" Tang Yukun coldly said, "If it wasn’t for us suppressing the spectral forces around, would he have had the chance to prevail against an injured enemy? He would probably have been killed before he could even get close."

"What the lord says makes sense. Such a great achievement should be credited to our joint efforts at the Blood Guard Bureau. It’s simply impossible for a mere True Qi Martial Practitioner to single-handedly orchestrate such a situation," Deputy County Master Ding Han agreed with a nod.

With the Tang and Ding families operating in Cangshi County for many years, faced with such a rare great achievement, how could they let a newly risen Deputy County Master from the Divine Martial Bureau take the lion’s share?

Any number of benefits distributed, how could that compare to the benefits of rising in rank oneself?

So the two of them quickly came to a consensus through a bout of back-and-forth.

At this moment, the members of the Divine Martial Bureau were outside, coordinating the inspection of surrounding traces, trying to collect more evidence.

After Tang Yukun and his companion briefly discussed and made a decision, they prepared to leave.

Click.

The door opened.

Both of them abruptly paused and focused their gaze outside the door.

Outside the dark red threshold, by the left side where the stone lion lay, stood a man clad in a white robe with a cyan inner suit, a sword strapped to his side.

Wang Yichen!

He was actually waiting right outside the door.

Appearing to have noticed that the two were leaving, Wang Yichen slightly turned, his eyes unobstructed as they fell upon County Master Tang Yukun’s face.

It was rare for a subordinate to look at a superior in such an impolite way.

But in that very moment, Wang Yichen did just that.

Without reason, and quite abruptly.

"Two esteemed lords. There might still be remnants of Blood Bodies nearby; please be extremely careful on your way back," Li Chengyi advised softly.

Tang Yukun frowned at him, sensing there was more to his words.

Just as he was about to respond, he suddenly recalled the wound traces he had inspected earlier.

The fatal injury to Song Judao was from three sword strikes to the back, and the Blood Body Powerhouse outside the town had died from... sword strikes to the back as well.

Ambush? Internal strife?

No... a possibility flashed through his mind instantly, one that sent a chill across his body.

"This case..." Tang Yukun hesitated for a moment, "our Blood Guard Bureau... will cooperate with the County Guard to handle it."

Ding Han at his side was confused, as this was different from what they had previously agreed upon.

However, out of trust for Tang Yukun, he remained silent, simply waiting beside him.

"Your wisdom is admirable," Li Chengyi looked at him deeply, a smile breaking through as he turned to leave.

There’s no such thing as taking the money and not doing the job.

Just a moment ago, he had considered replacing his superior; after all, he was experienced now. To deal with these kinds of Blood Body Martial Practitioners, if he ambushed them before they could bring their Blood Bodies into play, he could save a lot of effort.

It’s just that these martial practitioners’ Blood Essence and bodies were somewhat tough. With his strength, a sudden attack and an explosive killing blow still required two to three attempts to completely eliminate one person.

After Li Chengyi left, Ding Han glanced at Tang Yukun with a puzzled look.

"This man, behind him, there may still be a master..." Tang Yukun said with a grave tone.

"Are you suggesting..."

"..." Tang Yukun struggled, the merit was so great... once given up, one might have to wait many years for another such opportunity.

"It’s also strange to say, such a major incident, as well as the previous den being discovered, all happened upon by this newly-appointed deputy county master. He seems to have quite the good fortune," Ding Han muttered.

Luck?

Tang Yukun immediately realized.

Yes? Why, once this Wang Yichen came up, did all these things start happening?

Were these incidents not there before? Why did they all follow him?

A cold sweat broke out on Tang Yukun’s brow when he pieced together the causes of death of the two Blood Bodies, suppressing his greed.

"Let’s go! Drop this matter, and let’s cooperate fully with them to close the case," he said.

"...!?" Ding Han looked at him incredulously.

"There’s no such thing as so much luck in this world..." Tang Yukun left behind these words and departed.

Ding Han remained behind, his brow furrowed deeply.

Having survived in the Imperial Court for so many years without triggering the side effects of the Blood Body, both of them naturally had their ways of self-control. Once his superior made things clear, Ding Han also began to understand the implications.

The merit was too great for that to blind him; but having had his awareness raised, he finally felt a hint of something amiss.

’Just because of a hint of something amiss... to give up such a grand opportunity...’ Ding Han struggled with the thought.

Yet after hesitating on the spot for a while, the trust he had in Tang Yukun all this time prevailed.

He ended up abandoning the idea of claiming the glory for himself.

After all, the merit came a little too peculiarly...

The Town General turned traitor, internal conflict with foreign enemies led to being severely injured on the brink of death, which resulted in the Deputy County Master of the Divine Martial Bureau ambushing and killing the two injured parties. Then they reported to the authorities, mobilized both the Divine Martial Bureau and Blood Guard elite warriors, ensnaring the rest in one fell swoop to the advantage of the bystander.

Since the case could tarnish the Imperial Court’s image, it was not publicized.

But the merit was solidly reported upwards, no matter how astutely and adaptively Wang Yichen managed to improvise in his harrowing slaying of a multitude of injured Blood-kind warriors and infectees.

In the end, he achieved it, secured great merit. Everyone received their share of the rewards.

Thus the case was settled with lightning speed within two days.