Accompanied by a chorus of raucous barking laughter, Sun and Huang swaggered onto the stage.
The moment Shen Youran saw it was the two of them, the expression on his face grew slightly subtle, but he said nothing.
Seeing that Shen Youran remained silent, the Venerable Master beside him assumed their appearance was part of the plan as well, so he chose to wait and see.
"Hahaha! Brother Shen, congratulations, congratulations!" Once Sun Yixie reached Shen Youran, he puffed out his chest, clasped his fists in salute, and beamed with a smile so exaggerated his eyes were squeezed into slits.
"Brother Shen truly is an outstanding hero among men, a peerless champion! Donglai is full of boundless admiration for your methods!" Huang Donglai added, his face dripping with servile flattery as he declared his praise in a clear, ringing voice.
The instant the two opened their mouths, they unleashed such shameless, soaring flattery that the martial heroes below the stage cursed them bitterly under their breath.
"Those two dogs..."
"Those bastards were in cahoots with Shen Youran all along..."
"Humph! To think the Huang Clan would produce scum like him."
"Pah! That I actually lost to someone named Sun—what a humiliating disgrace..."
Of course, given the present situation, they dared only curse in their hearts or mutter so softly that no one nearby could hear.
These jianghu folk were exceptionally shrewd—if they cursed too loudly and someone caught wind of it, someone might report them when everyone went to confess their secrets later, and that would end badly.
Watching Sun and Huang's performance, Shen Youran finally broke into a smile.
"Heh..." A faint trace of contempt lingered in his smile, imperceptible to most, yet his words were thoroughly pleasant to hear. "My two worthy brothers, I, Shen, truly did not misjudge you. As the saying goes, those who recognize the circumstances are heroes. Even without having contracted 'that thing,' you still stepped forward to defend your elder brother. That alone speaks volumes of your loyalty."
Although Shen Youran still did not trust them completely, he believed them about ninety percent...
First, everyone knew Lei Buji was on good terms with Sun and Huang, and Sun Yixie had even gone out of his way earlier to recommend Lei Buji to Shen Youran. Yet when Lei Buji attempted to ambush Shen Youran just moments ago, the two had jumped out without hesitation and ganked him, proving that for Shen Youran's sake, they were ready to betray a friend without a second thought.
Second, long before anyone was poisoned by the gu, the two had already volunteered their secrets and their families' ancestral divine arts to share with Shen Youran. Looking back now... perhaps they truly had come with sincere intentions of defecting to him.
Third, taking another step back, if they only wished to protect themselves, they could easily have blended into the crowd and played dumb. After all, they had never contracted Bliss Gu in the first place and had already handed over their ancestral martial arts, so they had nothing to fear; they could have slipped away whenever the chance presented itself afterward. Yet here they were, unhesitatingly leaping out to call Shen Youran brother in broad daylight, drawing the fiery hatred of the entire martial assembly. That proved beyond doubt they were dead set on boarding Shen Youran's pirate ship.
And finally, there was a fourth point. While it lacked any logical basis, it had to be said—the shameless expressions and despicable antics of these two after turning traitor were simply too natural. No matter how one looked at it, it was true to their nature, not an act.
"Ha! Brother Shen, you're treating us like strangers with words like that! We're all brothers; it has nothing to do with recognizing circumstances," Sun Yixie replied two seconds later with an air of magnanimity. "Even if the tables were turned today, we would naturally still stand by your side, Brother Shen."
"Exact~ly," Huang Donglai chimed in. "Though my abilities are modest, for Brother Shen's sake, I am willing to take blades in the ribs and walk through boiling water and fire!"
Shen Youran felt a tingling numbness in his scalp from their preposterous display of hypocrisy, to the point of feeling slightly embarrassed himself. He chuckled dryly to ease the awkwardness and continued, "Er... I am well aware of my worthy brothers' kind sentiments." He paused and turned toward the Venerable Master. "Venerable Master, allow Youran to introduce them. These two are..."
"No need," the Venerable Master said, waving a hand. "I know them both. Since they have your approval, Youran, they are our own people."
These words were half true and half false.
Did he know the comic duo? Most certainly. As early as the night Sun and Huang had tackled Zhixian Pavilion, You Jing had already reported their situation to the Venerable Master.
Bugui Tower itself was an establishment where the Venerable Master gathered intelligence and befriended extraordinary talents across the martial world. Setting so many eccentric rules for Zhixian Pavilion, sparing no expense to collect rare treasures and precious ingredients, and hiring figures like 'Little Dezu' and the 'Southern Chef King' to oversee it—all of it was designed to attract remarkable individuals and expand his network of connections and intelligence.
However, figures like Xue Tui and Yuan Fangzhi did not know their master's true identity; rather, You Jing, who appeared to be merely a kitchen helper, was the Venerable Master's true right-hand man.
On that night at Zhixian Pavilion, although You Jing had not witnessed Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai's performance from beginning to end in person, with his martial arts, eavesdropping had been effortless. Thus, the Venerable Master indeed knew of them well in advance.
And the next day, their exploits had spread through every street and alley because You Jing, on the Venerable Master's orders, had passed the intelligence to Shen Youran, who then used the Justice Sect's network to circulate it. Otherwise, word could never have traveled so quickly.
What, then, was the false part of the Venerable Master's words?
Naturally, it was calling them "our own people."
With the Venerable Master's deep cunning and shrewdness, how could he possibly trust these two so easily? In this world, aside from himself, he trusted only Shen Youran; he even harbored reservations about You Jing.
Therefore, at this moment, while the Venerable Master ostensibly accepted Sun and Huang, in truth, the moment he heard Shen Youran mention that they had not contracted 'that thing,' he had secretly resolved to find an opportunity to plant Bliss Gu in both of them as well to ensure total security.
"Yixie pays respects to the Venerable Master."
"Donglai pays respects to the Venerable Master."
Beside them, Sun and Huang bowed deferentially to the Venerable Master on the spot.
The Venerable Master gave them a slight nod, then took a step forward to face the assembled heroes once more. "All right, let us get back to business."
As he said this, Shen Youran, standing slightly behind him, waved a hand and shot a glance at several subordinates below the platform. Understanding immediately, they swiftly carried the drugged, unconscious Lei Buji out through a side door.
Meanwhile, the Venerable Master continued, "You do not need to know who I am. You only need to know that my martial arts are high—higher than anyone present here. That is enough." He paused for half a second. "Young Hero Lei's actions just now, I can pretend never happened. However, if anyone attempts to resist or escape next time..."
At this point, Shen Youran cooperatively stepped forward half a pace and slowly raised the gu bell in his hand.
That single gesture alone strung everyone's nerves taut in terror.
Clearly, the brief flare-up lasting barely a minute had etched itself into their bones, unforgettable for the rest of their lives. At the mere thought that such agony might return, many were already trembling from head to toe.
"All of you are chivalrous heroes. Having everyone suffer alongside you because of one person's actions is surely something you would not wish to see." The Venerable Master was well pleased by their reaction and continued, "If you understand, then please proceed..."
As his voice fell, the row of doors at the southern entrance of the banquet hall swung open once more. A crowd of Tianqi Gang members had long been waiting at the threshold with iron chains and shackles.
The effective range of the gu bell for Bliss Gu covered a radius of over five hundred meters and was completely independent of the victim's hearing. If anyone tried to employ lightness skill to break out and flee right now, a single ring from Shen Youran would drop them on the spot. Thus, they had no worry about anyone trying tricks.
The jianghu figures in the banquet hall also knew escape was futile—even if you escaped for a moment, you could not escape for six months. Thus, one by one, like travelers passing through airport security, they walked to the doors and obediently let iron shackles be fastened around their hands and feet, before being led by Tianqi Gang members into a courtyard and herded into separate small rooms.
Inside those rooms, the Four Treasures of the Study had long been prepared, waiting for their use...
Although the Tianqi Gang had plenty of manpower, shackling nearly two hundred people and confining them separately still took time—roughly just under half an hour from start to finish.
By the time all was settled, the hour of Xu was more than half past.
The rest was simple. Over the next few days, all they had to do was wait for those people to gradually confess their intelligence. Those who were uncooperative or dishonest would be gathered in one place and given the Bliss Gu treatment.
Nor were they afraid that anyone would submit fraudulent techniques, because all the intelligence would ultimately be submitted to the Venerable Master for inspection. His martial arts attainment had long reached the realm of perfection. Even if he did not know what the authentic version looked like, if the submitted manual contained obvious fabrications, he could almost certainly tell. And once he caught someone providing a fake... there was nothing else for it: the Bliss Gu treatment.
Of course, even if he truly could not tell, it did not matter.
Because from the very beginning, whether that intelligence was real or fake was not the most important thing.
Even under ordinary torture, most people would break, to say nothing of being coerced by Bliss Gu. Those who could endure and pull tricks were ultimately a rare few; ninety percent would end up telling the truth in the end.
And so long as even a handful among these two hundred people spoke the truth, it meant the trust between all of them and their respective sects had completely collapsed.
Every sect, every person, more or less had disgraceful pasts or secrets they never wanted brought to light. People who lived their entire lives with a clear conscience and unstained hands did exist, but they were exceptionally few, and in a place like the jianghu, fewer still.
Take Lin Yuancheng, for example. Could you call him a bad person? Probably not. Yet he, too, had parts of his past he never wanted known.
If that was true for a young man, how many rotten, scandalous messes were hidden among those martial world seniors and their sects? Who could possibly tell?
If you wrote lies here and returned claiming, "I confessed nothing," even if you truly confessed nothing, your fellow disciples and sect leader might not believe you. Instead of standing up for you to secure an antidote, they might just seize you first and interrogate you themselves.
Such was human nature. Such was the jianghu.
If everyone were like Bai Ruhong, refusing to compromise with evil even when tortured to a fate worse than death, the jianghu would never have had so many grievances and entanglements.
Take Shen Youran's life, for instance.
He was born the son of the Demonic Cult's leader, Yi Shixiong. Was that his fault?
His mother, Lady Shen, had been forced into marriage by Yi Shixiong. Was that his mother's fault?
Had his mother not compromised, he would never have come into this world at all; and had he not compromised, he would probably have died long ago.
When Shen Youran was eleven, his mother passed away from illness, leaving him with no reason to remain in the Five Spirits Cult. So he fled, changing his name and surname.
With martial arts from the Five Spirits Cult, survival was not an issue, but whenever he encountered those so-called "righteous figures," every single one wanted to take his head without a word of explanation just to bolster their own fame. None showed mercy because he was a child, nor did they care whether he wanted nothing to do with the Five Spirits Cult.
Until one day, he met Gu Qizong.
Gu Qizong was the first "righteous" member of the martial world who did not try to kill Shen Youran on sight. Not only did he spare him, but he took Shen Youran in, secretly sheltered him, taught him martial arts, and instructed him on how to conceal his Five Spirits Cult internal energy foundation.
Most importantly, from start to finish, Gu Qizong never questioned Shen Youran about his origins, nor did he ever learn that he was Yi Shixiong's son.
Simply because Shen Youran said, "I hate the Five Spirits Cult, and I never want anything to do with them," Gu Qizong did all of that for him.
That was Gu Qizong. As long as he believed someone was not lying and was a good person, he would do everything in his power to help and save them.
That was also why, seven years later, when Gu Qizong recommended Shen Youran to attend the Youth Heroes Assembly, not a single soul questioned Gu Qizong.
Regrettably, such a man did not meet a good end.
Originally, Shen Youran had never thought of seeking "revenge" for Gu Qizong, because he believed Gu Qizong had perished alongside Yi Shixiong in a heroic death in battle.
But one day, someone sought him out—an eccentric man who bore some resemblance to Gu Qizong, yet looked like a living corpse.
His name was Gu Qiying.
To quote a few lines from *The Grandmaster* here:
In a sect, there must be a face, and there must be a lining.
Gu Qizong was the face of the Tianqi Gang, while Gu Qiying—Gu Qizong's younger brother—was its lining.
Gu Qizong was a peerless hero, a gallant champion revered throughout the realm; Gu Qiying was a nameless phantom whose very existence was unknown to the jianghu.
The face cannot gather dust; when blood is spilled, the lining must soak it up.
When the face treats someone to wine, the lining might have to go kill a man.
In truth, Gu Qiying's intellect and martial prowess had never been inferior to Gu Qizong's. Not only was he gifted in martial arts, but he also had great talent in astronomy, geography, mathematics, and chemistry. Yet he knew... someone like him could never be the face.
Because he was too clever and understood human nature too well... he could not be a chivalrous hero. He could only be a man—a wicked man.
He willingly hid in Gu Qizong's shadow, serving as his brother's lining.
For all the benevolent, righteous deeds Gu Qizong performed in the jianghu over the years, Gu Qiying cleaned up just as many dirty, unrighteous matters in the dark.
On the day the thirteen sects stormed the Five Spirits Cult's main altar, Gu Qiying had naturally disguised himself as a righteous sect underling and blended into the crowd to go along.
So he knew very well that the fire that day had not been set by Yi Shixiong...
The claim that Yi Shixiong set the fire to perish together with his foes was merely a synchronized cover story concocted by the sect leaders who fled.
In the chaos of that day's battle, it was members of the prestigious righteous sects who set fires first, and more than one sect did so. Yet as the flames grew larger, leaders of many sects quickly saw things going south and fled.
They took it for granted that dueling Yi Shixiong was Gu Qizong's duty, and they all harbored selfish desires to preserve their own sects' strength...
Only Gu Qizong led the Tianqi Gang members at the very forefront, fighting to the bitter end.
Had the other sects not retreated so quickly, leaving Gu Qizong surrounded without an escape route, he would never have died there.
After that great battle, Gu Qiying was trapped in the collapsing cave as well. He watched with his own eyes as his brother and Yi Shixiong were burned to ash together, utterly powerless to help... Days later, relying on the Tortoise Breathing Art and Bone Shrinking Technique, he finally escaped with his life.
The surviving Gu Qiying had suffered severe burns to his lungs from inhaling vast amounts of dense smoke; his injuries never healed, leaving him in constant, agonizing pain day in and day out. Wandering Miaojiang for months searching far and wide, he finally found a way to heal himself, but the price was... he had to turn his own body into a vessel for cultivating gu, coexisting with gu for the rest of his life.
Later, he returned to the Central Plains, still watching over the Tianqi Gang from the shadows, only to look on helplessly as the remaining members dwindled day by day. Far from lending a helping hand, the other martial sects seized every opportunity to contest and carve up the Tianqi Gang's territory.
As the saying goes, when a wall totters, everyone pushes; when a tree falls, the monkeys scatter.
Seeing that the Tianqi Gang had finally ceased to exist, and that the last trace left by his brother was gone, Gu Qiying turned his thoughts to vengeance—vengeance against the entire martial world.
And he knew there should still be one person in this world who could help him—someone who truly regarded Gu Qizong as a benefactor.
Shen Youran and Gu Qiying hit it off immediately. Upon learning the truth of that past affair, the flames of revenge were instantly ignited within him as well.
In truth, Shen Youran had originally been a man of little ambition. He had joined the Justice Sect rather than the Tianqi Gang precisely to avoid suspicion, lest others think Gu Qizong had some illicit interest in him. But from that day forth, he seemed to become a different person, clawing his way upward step by step toward the sect leader's seat...
As for Gu Qiying, he established a secret organization named "Youying," styled himself the Venerable Master, and began operating in the dark corners of the jianghu.
Until today, the first step of their grand scheme of vengeance had finally been taken.
They originally thought the upcoming trials would be maneuvering among the major sects, and they had prepared themselves to stir up winds and waves in the jianghu over the next decade.
Little did they expect that a certain... oh no, "two" presences capable of posing a fatal threat to them in the very near future had already infiltrated their side.
There was no need for them to contemplate ten or eight years; tonight itself would witness that very drama—Sun Yixie burning the Tianqi Gang, Huang Donglai storming Bugui Tower once more.
Chapter 56