As soon as the Duke of Wei's illegitimate son arrived, he took the initiative to state that he wished to speak with Xiao Wu alone.
The two left behind not only Liu Jingming, but also the Guard Captain's entourage.
Both stood inside the greenhouse, neither saying a word.
Ultimately, it was the Duke of Wei's illegitimate son who broke the silence. "You saw them—those shadows dogging my heels. You're far freer than I am!"
Playing the emotional card? Wu Youren wasn't buying it. "Come by a couple more times, and I won't be free either."
"Heh." The Guard Captain gave a light chuckle. He hadn't come over the past two days precisely because he had been pouring all his efforts into figuring out an approach.
The youth's reaction did not catch him off guard. "I visited the others as well. Isn't that perfectly normal?"
"Normal? Heh." Wu Youren chuckled dismissively. *Still so fond of hearing yourself talk?*
After a dozen seconds of silence, he felt he needed to show some thorns; otherwise, endless trouble would be waiting for him.
"My lord, I believe I already told you what I want."
*Please, just vanish from before my eyes as quickly as possible. It's better for everyone!*
"Even you can't abandon Liu Jingming," the Guard Captain remarked leisurely. "So, would you like to see Jin and Liang clash on the battlefield once more?"
"Does that have anything to do with me?" Wu Youren asked calmly in return. "Don't try to guilt-trip me. I only want to live."
*The little guy really does care after all!* The Guard Captain sighed. "Talking with you is truly exhausting!"
"My life is actually quite simple, and my demands aren't high... Stop coming to look for me, all right?"
The youth uttered the last two words almost through gritted teeth.
"I know you harbor grievances against the hostage mission." The Duke of Wei's illegitimate son realized he could no longer fish for information with pleasantries.
So he stated his stance directly. "Setting aside the group, speaking strictly as individuals... I personally want to invest in you.
"Aside from being the Guard Captain, I'm also a hostage—just slightly older!
"Let's establish one thing first. In Hostage Manor, I never crossed you. The worst thing I did was simply turn a blind eye to your suffering!"
"My lord, please don't be like this." Wu Youren shot him a wary look. "You're a grand knight. Such high regard... I am unworthy of it!
"Just treat me as invisible, exactly as it was back in Hostage Manor."
"I want to live too!" The Guard Captain looked at him steadily. "What if I said you're my only hope?"
Wu Youren fell silent. In the other man's words, he detected a hint of grim determination.
A dignified Guard Captain who didn't even mention the Seventeenth Prince—this was damned difficult to handle.
He could even sense a faint thread of murderous intent. If he were to extinguish someone's sole hope of surviving, that really would...
Still, it didn't matter. As long as he had no bottom line, others could do nothing against him.
He offered a thin smile. "Then let's talk about this investment. But let me state upfront: I only do what I am willing to do."
"Agreed," the Guard Captain assented without hesitation. "You speak first. What do you want?"
Other hostages might be strapped for resources, but he certainly wasn't; he had plenty in hand.
Wu Youren stayed silent for a dozen seconds before speaking slowly. "Ten marching stones."
It wasn't an exorbitant demand born of greed; rather, he couldn't ask for other things, as doing so would reveal his true needs.
"I... holy shit." The Guard Captain nearly cursed aloud. *Do you have any fucking clue what you're saying?*
*Ten? Ten marching stones?!*
*Control your temper, control your temper, control your temper!*
The Duke of Wei's illegitimate son took a deep breath. He did not want white smoke billowing from his head again. "So you really did take the path of an ability master?"
If he weren't connected to the ability master system, there was no way he would even know the words "marching stone"!
Wu Youren replied placidly, "Commander Jeff of the New Army owes Instructor Hong Yan three marching stones... That must mean it's something good, right?"
"The Eight Tigers of the New Army," the Guard Captain muttered under his breath. "That's the first time I've heard this news. Name another condition. I don't have them!"
The youth looked at him with clear eyes, and only after a long pause slowly shook his head. "Nothing else!"
*That look of yours is truly infuriating!* The Duke of Wei's illegitimate son felt irritation flare instantly within him.
Fortunately, he reined it in and directly laid out his humblest trump card. "How about I make a detailed list of everything I have for you?"
"I wouldn't dare accept," the youth said, shaking his head firmly. "Guard Captain, how about both of us maintain a little self-respect?"
"You're... telling me to maintain self-respect?" The Guard Captain desperately wanted to control his temper, but he truly couldn't take it!
The crux was that he knew all too well how utterly subservient his own actions were!
He laughed in sheer exasperation. "Convinced I won't dare lash out? Little guy, you are strangling my only lifeline!"
"That has nothing to do with me," Wu Youren shook his head decisively. "I find my own path to survival, rather than relying on others."
A flicker of curiosity suddenly stirred in the Guard Captain. "Are you really not afraid of me making a move?"
"Afraid," the youth nodded, his eyes clear. "I'm terrified."
That look again! At the crucial moment, the Guard Captain caught on. "You really aren't afraid."
He truly hadn't been idling these past two days; he had essentially grasped the youth's general style of speaking and acting.
Though he found it hard to accept—what right did this boy have not to fear him, a grand knight?
Yet he understood even better: when matching wits against a monster like this, one could never let personal emotions interfere.
"How about this: I have a modest intelligence network in Tianjing, and I can provide material support as well."
He even indicated that, aside from highly sensitive military supplies like marching stones, other rare Guizu relics were not off the table for discussion.
Wu Youren shook his head. "If you don't even have a marching stone, what's there to talk about?"
"Are you ever going to drop this?" The Guard Captain truly wanted to suppress his rage, but he had no choice—he was human too, with desires and passions of his own!
At times, he really felt like throwing caution to the wind and settling everything once and for all.
The youth looked at him with sympathetic eyes. "My lord, allow me to remind you: this is Red Pine!"
"So what if it is?" Blood rushed straight to the Guard Captain's head in fury, his temples throbbing erratically, and he wanted nothing more than to yell at the top of his lungs. "Do you think I'd be afraid, or that anyone could stop me from killing you?"
"Uh," Wu Youren could only offer another friendly reminder. "Some people get bored and like to probe around with their senses."
Hong Da had done that, and more than once.
"You're overthinking it," the Guard Captain calmed down slightly. "Their Divine Might isn't around. Among grand knights... who could eavesdrop on me?"
*Red Pine has a Divine Might too?* Wu Youren noted this mentally. He could look into this gradually; there was no rush.
His eyes clear, he spoke up, "Red Pine has an even stronger presence. Mm, that should be the case."
"Isn't it just a legacy weapon?" the Guard Captain remarked dismissively. He truly detested that look. "As if Jin doesn't have one."
*Good thing I lowered my eyelids quickly!* Wu Youren cast his gaze downward, speechless for a long while.
He had entertained similar guesses before.
Yet he had never dared to be certain that the entity giving him such an immense sense of threat wasn't a powerhouse among cultivators! It wasn't even a living being!
He had witnessed such a thing unleash its might—at least at Mount Xuanling, a legacy weapon had seemingly displayed its power.
Hong Da had forbidden everyone from discussing it, and Chen Quanxu dared not even mention the presence at Red Pine.
His reaction was somewhat abnormal, but the Guard Captain hadn't noticed.
Talking with this little fellow required him to constantly rein himself in so white smoke wouldn't vent from his head!
After a dozen seconds, the youth asked with lowered eyelids, "My lord, you... aren't even afraid of that?"
"Others might fear it, but I don't!" the Guard Captain replied without hesitation. "I already told you, Jin has one too."
The next moment, he seemed to realize something. "Huh?"
Fortunately, the youth was just as quick to react. He sighed softly. "So... I'm not considered a true person of Jin?"
Wu Youren's words leaned toward sophistry and smacked of moral posturing; he rarely resorted to such tactics, but it was an urgent cover-up.
Luckily, the Guard Captain didn't want his mental gears spinning any faster either.
He answered frankly, "The protection of a legacy weapon requires a complicated recognition process. If I hadn't come representing Jin..."
He didn't finish, but there was no need to.
Even an ordinary illegitimate son of a duke's house wouldn't enjoy such protection; one could easily imagine how narrow the scope of recognition was.
Thus, Chen Quanxu and Wu Youren only had the qualification to feel the tangible threat.
The youth shook his head. "You don't need to say more. I know I'm unworthy."
At this moment, his mood was foul in the extreme, and he didn't even bother disguising it.
For he had deduced a prospect sufficient to plunge him into deep despair: was what trapped the hostages something more than just the border?
Yet to overcome a legacy weapon, a Divine Might Knight... or the foundation establishment stage probably wouldn't suffice!
He wasn't sure whether these two realms should even be mentioned in the same breath.
His self-defined criterion of judgment was: could one fly with one's physical body?
Without special methods, a grand knight could not fly; the same went for the qi refining stage, unless one possessed a special technique.
A Divine Might Knight truly could fly, and the same was true of foundation establishment—at least, in the cultivation world whose heritage he had accessed, that was the case.
As for how in some cultivation worlds one could fly at high-tier qi refining, or only upon reaching the golden core... which world didn't have its own peculiarities?
These cross-system comparisons of realms were all his own conjectures.
What was beyond doubt, however, was that his current strength in the Daoist system could basically crush a knight.
Wrestling with a grand knight was by no means out of the question!
Naturally, this might be arrogance on his part, but without a bit of backing confidence, would he have dared speak to the Guard Captain like that?
Yet at the same time, he had felt the threat firsthand; instinct told him that even if he established his foundation, it would be impossible to defeat a legacy weapon.
How could this not plunge him into deep despair?
He was in despair, but the Guard Captain was delighted. He finally realized what pressing need the youth before him had.
Keeping his voice measured, he remarked, "I possess plenty of information on matters of that level as well... mm."
*Come beg me, hurry up and beg me!*
*So what if you're a monster? The gap in social class and perspective isn't something that can be bridged through mere effort!*
Yet the youth merely glanced at him. "I truly lack such information, and you surely have plenty... When are you returning to Jin?"
*Cut the fucking bullshit.* He truly couldn't be bothered to bicker with the man.
The word "hostage" pinned down one's identity; no matter how high one's social class was, what good did it do?
In truth, he believed that if he reached the golden core... became a realm-stabilizing knight, or a grand ability master, the difficulty of returning home would drop.
One didn't necessarily have to overpower a legacy weapon; as long as one could escape it, one could return home—didn't Jin have one as well?
Unfortunately, however, the Guard Captain refused to be provoked by him.
Chapter 196