Published at 23rd of September 2024 12:14 am

Chapter 771: Assassination (2)

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Great Ming.

After finishing his tea, Su Yu walked out of the teahouse. It was a sunny day outside.

Riding on a cloudrush horse, Su Yu moved in an unhurried manner. It was not Cui Lang's style to rush his travel. Instead, he should be taking his time to appreciate the beautiful scenery and women around him.

Past the city gate, he saw that a merchant caravan was not far ahead. When the caravan of earthdragon beasts saw that Su Yu was going in the same direction, one of them said,

"Brother, this is the direction to the Starfall Mountain and Great Xia. Are you heading to Great Xia as well?"

Su Yu looked over and lazily replied, "Yeah. Are you heading there as well?"

"Yes." The burly man laughed and said, "You're traveling alone. A lot of experts have been killed on the Starfall Mountain not long ago, but that is still a dangerous place. Why don't you join us?"

Su Yu yawned and said, "It's fine. Brother, just be honest if you wish to borrow my strength. I, Cui Lang, am a straightforward person. I won't agree to act as a guard for free."

The burly man laughed heartily. That was true. These days, nobody without some ability would dare to travel to the wilderness alone. When he noticed the white robes Su Yu was wearing, he guessed that this was a cultural researcher. And seeing how polite the guards were when Su Yu went past the gate, he guessed that this was an expert. That was why he had offered to travel together.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have dared to invite a random individual to join them, especially when they were going to be traveling through the wilderness.

"You are truly a straightforward person, Brother. That was indeed what I was thinking." The burly man asked doubtfully, "Cui Lang...Brother, are you the Prodigal Swordsman, Cui Lang?"

Several people in the group recognized that name. The women in the group snorted coldly. Cui Lang was quite famous in Great Ming. Naturally, he was also famous in Great Tang. He was a scumbag.

Of course, men would be more understanding of him, but most women disliked him. For them, he was a dirty womanizer!

Su Yu laughed, "You know me? It has been many years since I last left home. I can't believe that people still know me. Sure enough, a genius will be famous no matter where he goes. Since you are smart enough to know me, I'll agree to travel with you. But I won't be rushing the journey. I'll take my time. If you're in a rush, you may travel without me."

"We're in no rush!" The burly man was overjoyed. Cui Lang was already a high-stage Skysoar a few years ago.

He might already be a Cloudbreach.

For this caravan master, Cui Lang could be considered a big shot. After all, the caravan master was only an early Skysoar with only thirty-six acupoints. There was a big gap between him and an elite academy graduate like Cui Lang. With a Skysoar in it, this could be considered a rather respectable merchant group.

Su Yu approached them on his horse and said, "Brother, it has been a few years since I last left. Have any famous beauties appeared as of late? Can you tell me more?"

Once again, the surrounding women snorted. Su Yu curled his lips and said, "Sisters, stop snorting. You won't be able to attract my attention doing that. I have high standards."

"..."

The burly man felt incomparably awkward. He hurriedly said, "What are you doing? Be polite! Lord Cui might be a kind man, but you should still remember your manners. Lord Cui, ignore them. They are ignorant since they came from small towns..."

Cui Lang was either a late-stage Skysoar or a Cloudbreach. For them, he was an absolute big shot. It was rumored that he had a good temper. It was too bad that he was such a womanizer. If it wasn't for his rumored good temper, these women wouldn't have dared to snort in his presence.

Su Yu waved his hand, "It's fine. I'm used to this. In my presence, all women would either grin from ear to ear or sulk like I'm their greatest enemy. And the sulking ones are generally quite ugly. They are angry because I don't usually bother wasting my time on ugly people..."

The burly man felt even more awkward. According to the rumors, Cui Lang had a dirty mouth. It would seem like that was true.

He decided to move on from the topic. He said, "Lord Cui..."

"Stop. Just call me Brother Lang."

The burly man laughed awkwardly and said, "In terms of beauties, I did hear about some of them. But I doubt you will be interested. Most of them are from the major families. They are quite troublesome to deal with."

Su Yu's expression changed as he nodded, "Looks like everyone still remembers my past deeds. Sigh. A single slip may cause everlasting sorrow."

A different person in the group laughed and said, "Lord, your story has been told countless times during the past few years. The storytellers have only stopped recently. But with you out and about again, your new deeds will start spreading before long."

The person who had spoken was only an Infinite Strength cultivator. He was quite respectful when speaking, but he couldn't hide the excitement in his voice. There was no helping it. This was the legendary womanizer once hunted by a ninth-stage Sunmoon.

He really wanted to ask if the granddaughter of that Sunmoon was really so ugly. Otherwise, why would Cui Lang flee so desperately?

Su Yu said with contempt, "They have nothing better to do. Those bastards are the reason why I was forced to stay in Great Ming for so long. Damn those storytellers for spreading my story everywhere! We should cut down half of the storytellers in Great Ming!"

The caravan master laughed and said, "You're right, Brother Lang. But cutting down half of the storytellers is the same as cutting down half the fun in Great Ming. Brother Lang, are you visiting Great Xia to experience the beauties from the divine and devil races?"

Su Yu's heart skipped a beat as he smiled and said, "Impressive. Looks like you're quite well-connected to know about this. Have those students arrived? It is already late May. They should be arriving right about now, right?"

"I have no idea." The burly man shook his head, "It has been two months since our last visit to Great Xia. Since Great Xia has been rather chaotic during the past two months, we haave not been going there. We're only moving some goods over now because we heard that things have calmed down recently."

"What goods are you delivering?"

Su Yu looked at the earthdragon beasts. Each of them was carrying a large amount of goods. There were cars in the Human Realm, but these vehicles were not suitable for travel in the wilderness.

There were rapid transit beasts in Great Ming, but these beasts were expensive with limited carrying capacity. Thus, earthdragon beasts were the more efficient methods of travel for these traveling merchants.

"Only some unimportant items."

The burly man laughed and said, "We are delivering a large variety of items, including casual writings of the cultural researchers in Great Ming. Those items are wanted in Great Xia so we can earn a little bit of profit for our cultivation by making this trip."

Su Yu smiled, "Willpower texts? You actually dare to peddle willpower texts?"

"There is no such restriction in Great Ming. Meanwhile, Great Xia only restricts the outflow of willpower texts, but not the inflow."

The burly man said, "These are casually written texts, and there aren't a lot of them. They aren't worth much. If we're lucky, we can probably earn a few hundred merit points. But there are so many of us so each of us won't receive much. There is no helping this. Unaffiliated cultivators like us don't have access to too many missions. As for the Allheaven Battlefield, it is too dangerous for people who are not part of the military."

Su Yu nodded, "This is miserable. There are dozens of you and you only stand to make a few hundred merit points per trip? You guys really can't compare to me. A cultural weapon I make casually can fetch hundreds or even thousands of merit points..."

"..."

Those were hurtful but true words. The burly man was quite speechless. He knew that Cui Lang was a weaponsmith. He smiled and said, "Brother Lang, do you have any unwanted casual creations on you? Maybe..."

"Don't even think about it. I only gift my cultural weapons to beauties. Are you a beauty?"

"Hahaha! Brother Lang is indeed a romantic person!"

The burly man didn't know what else to say. This damn bastard was still as flippant as ever. Was he not afraid that the Sunmoon from Great Tang would come after him?

They resumed their travel. As Su Yu was moving at a leisurely pace, the caravan was forced to slow down as well. But with a strong expert with them, their safety was assured. Thus, they didn't mind it. Being safe was better than being fast but unsafe.

As they moved, the burly man said, "The Starfall Mountain has become a lot more peaceful nowadays. Back then, we had to take the long way around it each time we traveled. That place used to be filled with bandits and cultists. We really need to thank Su Yu for this. Because of this, our distance traveled has been shortened by a few hundred kilometers per trip."

"With the passing of time, some bandits are starting to gather there again. Fortunately, these new bandits aren't as strong as the old bandits. Most of them are at the Great Strength and Infinite Strength Realms. And they only want some money as the passage toll. Thus, we don't have to worry too much about murders and robberies anymore."

Su Yu doubtfully asked, "In that case, why are you still worried? You're already a Skysoar."

The burly man sighed, "There is no need to fight them unless absolutely necessary. These people are too troublesome. Unless you can kill all of them in one fell swoop, they will keep bothering you like an annoying fly. As merchants, we don't want to get entangled with these people. But we did report this to Great Ming so we're waiting for Great Ming to clear these bandits. After all, Great Ming has recently gained tens of thousands of Skysoar soldiers. Tsk tsk, how incredible. A random 100-man squad is probably enough to clear all these bandits."

Su Yu nodded, "I wonder if there are beauties among the bandits..."

Why was this the first thing on his mind? The burly man resisted the urge to roll his eyes. But he was slowly getting used to this. He smiled and said, "There might not be beauties among the bandits. But there will be plenty of beauties in Great Xia. I can buy you a trip—"

"Tsk. No thanks. The places you frequent are probably low-end venues."

"Hahaha. Brother Lang is right. But I'm too poor so there's no helping it."

"..."

The conversation continued as they traveled. Su Yu also took this chance to ask for the recent updates of Great Xia. Nothing big had happened. Everyone there was still busy scolding Xia Xiao'er for accepting myriad race students. Eventually, the burly man touched upon something Su Yu was interested in.

"Brother Lang, you need to be careful during this trip. I know you won't provoke the ladies from large families, but Great Xia City is really filled with people from large families. I heard that a lot of children from the influential families of the two holy lands have arrived to further their studies."

"There are even descendants of Invincibles among them. And even more of them are the descendants of Sunmoons. Including the myriad race students, Great Xia City is in total mess right now. It only looks calm because Great Zhou is in an even bigger mess recently. This will probably be our final trip to Great Xia for a long time."

Su Yu nodded. Descendants of large families? How many of them had arrived? There were even Invincible descendants? All these people were probably aiming for Hong Tan's disassembly method.

They conversed as they traveled, and before they knew it, they had arrived at the Starfall Mountain.

Half a day later. After killing a fresh Skysoar with one strike, he snorted arrogantly. Under the burly man's gaze of worship, he proudly said, "I can forgive them for not greeting me with beauties, but how dare they try to rob me? No matter what, he's a Skysoar. How dare he do something so dirty? Disgusting!"

Silence descended. Everyone in the group looked at him with admiration. It didn't matter if they were sincere or not. That was the expression they were giving him. He was actually quite incredible.

A Skysoar had been killed with one strike. That was a Skysoar! In their entire merchant group, the burly man was the only Skysoar. In that case, Cui Lang was definitely strong enough to kill their leader with one strike. No wonder their leader had been so polite toward him.

Cui Lang truly deserved his reputation. After spending a few years in Tiandu, Cui Lang seemed to have grown even stronger. Truly worthy of being a genius widely talked about in two prefectures back then.

Su Yu wasn't thinking about any of that. He was busy wondering about the origin of that Skysoar.

Were these bandits from the cult? That might not be the case. Perhaps these bandits were sent here by some other powers. And it was likely that they were here to look for his so-called ruin. Nobody would believe it even if Su Yu announced that such a ruin did not exist.

This place wasn't too far from Nanyuan. Thus, it was very likely that these people had been sent here to look for the ruin. They were merely pretending to be bandits as a cover. But with their strength, they were probably on guard duty instead of being part of the actual search team.

Even if there were actual experts here, these experts wouldn't dare to attack Cui Lang. After all, the search for the ruin was best carried out in secret. And Cui Lang was a celebrity in Great Ming. If he ended up dying here, Great Ming would investigate this place. And that would cause these ruin-seekers a lot of trouble.

Su Yu was right.

Not long after their departure, someone arrived at their previous location. After taking a look at the corpses, he muttered, "Cui Lang, unofficial student of Niu Baidao. If it wasn't for that person, Niu Baidao would have accepted him as an official student long ago. This fellow has left Great Ming."

Someone else appeared beside him. He laughed and said, "Since that person is in seclusion, it is normal for Cui Lang to come out at this time. Forget it. Don't attract trouble. There is no need to waste our effort for someone dead. That guy was too stupid. Why did he stop Cui Lang? After staying in Tiandu for so many years, Cui Lang must be going crazy from boredom."

"True." The other person said, "The ruin is probably not here on the Starfall Mountain. Su Yu wouldn't have exposed this place otherwise. Even that person from Great Ming is ignoring this place. Is it possible that the ruin is in Nanyuan?"

"Yes. But we can't go there. It's too dangerous. There are Sunmoons in the city."

"Sigh."

"Invincible ruin...if we can enter it, even if we can't become Invincibles, we will be able to enter the Sunmoon Realm. What a pity."

"There is nothing to regret. Great Xia will fall into chaos soon. The experts stationed in Nanyuan will probably leave at that time. After all, nothing has been found in Nanyuan even after so long..."

"Even without them around, there is no guarantee that we will be able to find the ruin."

"At the very least, we should try our luck. It isn't like ruins are things you can encounter just because you're strong. Su Yu was only at the Source Opening Realm when he found the ruin."

After a short chat, the two vanished. None of them cared about their dead companions. As for Cui Lang, they ignored him as well. He wasn't their target. They had nothing to gain from killing him. Instead, they would attract more trouble. Even if Great Ming ignored Cui Lang's death for some reason, the Sunmoon from Great Tang might get involved. It was fine for them to bicker with each other, but who could be sure that the Sunmoon wasn't already viewing Cui Lang as his grandson-in-law.

At this moment, Su Yu turned to look behind him and smiled. Two Cloudbreaches. He wondered which family they belonged to. Or perhaps they were cultists. Whatever. There was no need for him to do anything about them.

Cui Lang wasn't the type of person to get involved in matters unrelated to him. Killing the two Cloudbreaches would only expose himself. He was near Nanyuan. He only needed to travel one day after leaving the Starfall Mountain to reach Nanyuan. He had returned yet again.

He gazed into the distance. He still couldn't see anything, but he couldn't help sinking into a melancholic mood. He only hoped that this small city could enjoy its peace forever. Unfortunately, this was his birthplace. Rumors of the Invincible ruin had attracted too many eyes to this place.

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