Chapter 666: The Power of the Gods

Seeing how completely confident he looked, Hui Qingping unexpectedly felt a little uncertain inside. Even so, she put on a disdainful expression. “Who wants your dog head?”

Wu Gongling teased her. “What? Afraid to wager?”

Anyone could hear the provocation. Hui Qingping was no exception. Yet after being humiliated by this man, how could she publicly show fear when he challenged her with the word “afraid”?

Besides, she did not believe for an instant that this dog whose mouth was full of nonsense knew any Great Dharma of Heaven and Earth.

She decided immediately. “Fine. I’ll wager. I only fear that when you lose, you’ll go back on your word and refuse to cut your own throat!”

Wu Gongling said, “Then let us state the stakes once more. If I lose, I willingly take my own head and present it to Hui Qingping. What about you?”

Every gaze turned toward Hui Qingping. One of her disciples even quietly tugged at her sleeve, signaling that her master should not make this wager.

Had the disciple not tugged, Hui Qingping might have hesitated. Once her sleeve was pulled, how could she show weakness?

She gritted her teeth. “If you truly can use some Great Dharma of Heaven and Earth to stop the pursuing army, then so what if I marry you?”

The senior cultivators of all six sects exchanged glances, each of them secretly nervous for Hui Qingping.

The feeling was inexplicable.

Everyone believed Wu Gongling could not possibly perform any Great Dharma of Heaven and Earth. Everyone believed he could not win. Yet somehow they were still worried Hui Qingping would lose.

It was simply because, throughout their flight from the Yan court’s encirclement and interception, Wu Gongling truly had shown considerable ability. Crude and unbearable as he appeared, the man did possess real skill.

Wu Gongling said, “You worry I’ll go back on my word, and I worry you’ll do the same. Why not ask everyone present to witness our wager? Gentlemen, are you willing to serve as witnesses for the two of us?”

Again everyone exchanged glances.

Quan Taifeng gave a dry laugh. “Is it really appropriate for us to witness this sort of thing?”

The other Elders wore similarly sly smiles. Those watching a spectacle never feared the spectacle becoming larger.

Seeing their hesitation, Wu Gongling said, “Since everyone finds it inconvenient, I won’t force you. But words alone leave no proof. We may as well write it down.”

Without waiting for anyone’s opinion, he swept aside part of his armor, pulled up the robe beneath it, and cut off a strip of cloth with his sword.

Then, without hesitation, he sliced open a fingertip and wrote a blood letter on the spot.

Such a small injury was nothing to a man who had walked through mountains of corpses and seas of blood. He did not even blink.

When the blood letter was finished, Wu Gongling crumpled it casually and tossed it out.

Everyone’s gaze followed the ball of cloth through the air as it landed in Hui Qingping’s hand.

She opened it.

Wu Gongling’s stake was written clearly upon it, word after word serving as proof. There was no mistaking it.

Under everyone’s eyes, Hui Qingping found herself unable to advance or retreat, as though Wu Gongling had forced her onto a dead-end road.

She could simply throw away the cloth and refuse the wager.

But Hui Qingping, normally so calm, truly could not swallow this humiliation today.

She turned and shouted, “Bring paper!”

She certainly was not going to tear apart her own clothes in public and then hand a piece of them to that human scum.

“Master...” one disciple reminded her cautiously.

“Bring it!” Hui Qingping shouted in fury.

The disciple had no choice but to produce a sheet of paper.

Hui Qingping snatched it. She had no need to go through Wu Gongling’s trouble. With a slight exercise of spiritual power, blood immediately welled from one fingertip.

She too wrote out the terms of the wager in blood on the spot.

Then she flicked the sheet away.

Whoosh!

The paper sliced toward Wu Gongling like a blade, carrying the distinct feeling that she was trying to take the opportunity to silence him permanently.

Shan Dongxing, who stood guarding Wu Gongling, immediately reached out and blocked it, catching the sheet in his hand.

He could not resist glancing at what was written first.

The words made the corner of his mouth twist.

Then he passed the paper to Wu Gongling, though the look in his eyes had become somewhat strange.

The moment Wu Gongling read it, he threw back his head and burst into loud laughter.

Hui Qingping’s face turned green.

Everyone else looked curious. They all wanted to know what Hui Qingping had written.

Quan Taifeng shamelessly asked, “Didn’t the Grand General just ask us to serve as witnesses? Could you let us have a look?”

Hui Qingping glared at him furiously.

Wu Gongling, however, was exceptionally generous. He handed the agreement over openly and let everyone pass it around.

After reading it one after another, they all wore indescribably strange expressions.

Hui Qingping truly had written down her promise: if she lost, she would marry Wu Gongling.

The looks they directed toward her became equally strange.

She was normally such a composed woman. What was wrong with her today? How could she possibly agree to a wager like this?

Wu Gongling was both a lunatic and a rogue. If he lost and refused to honor the result, what could she do? None of them would actually allow her to kill him.

Everyone understood one thing perfectly well.

Regardless of who ultimately won, the moment Hui Qingping signed an agreement making this sort of wager with Wu Gongling, she had already lost in reputation. Once word spread, it would become a colossal joke.

Unable to endure the shame and fury in everyone’s gaze, Hui Qingping shouted, “Where is your Great Dharma of Heaven and Earth? Why haven’t you cast it to stop the pursuing army?”

Wu Gongling remained completely unhurried.

Once his written agreement had been returned, he carefully folded it away and tucked it securely inside his clothes.

Then he raised his sword and pointed it straight toward the vault of Heaven.

Under the sunlight, the blade glittered brilliantly.

Combined with the sudden piety and solemnity on Wu Gongling’s face, the pose actually startled everyone.

Some even muttered inwardly: could this brute truly know some Great Dharma of Heaven and Earth?

Everyone waited for a while.

They looked around, looked at the sky, then looked at the earth.

Nothing happened.

Only a few wild birds flew back and forth overhead.

People looked at one another, and some smiled bitterly, as though saying they really must have lost their minds. For a moment, they had almost believed his nonsense.

Hui Qingping sneered with an icy face. “Where is your Great Dharma of Heaven and Earth?”

Wu Gongling did not answer.

He glanced back at her, then looked at the sword blade, then raised his eyes toward Heaven.

Suddenly he called out in a loud, measured voice, “High Heaven above, Wu Gongling bows in supplication! I beg Heaven to lend me divine power and stop the pursuing army on my behalf!”

His cadence rose and fell as though he were performing some genuinely solemn rite.

Everyone raised their heads again and looked around in all directions.

They waited.

Still nothing happened.

Only the horses beneath them occasionally snorted.

Before long, Hui Qingping sneered again. “Grand General Wu, where is your Great Dharma of Heaven and Earth?”

Wu Gongling lowered his sword and slowly returned it to its sheath before answering blandly, “Why the hurry? Heaven and Earth are vast. Naturally it takes time for my words to reach the gods. Once the gods hear me, they will use the Great Dharma of Heaven and Earth to stop the pursuing army.”

Several people could no longer suppress their smiles.

This man truly dared say absolutely anything. His mouth was filled with nonsense.

Hui Qingping, however, could not laugh. She asked coldly, “And if there is never any response, will you simply say the gods never heard you?”

“Relax,” Wu Gongling said. “I have spent years on battlefields and accumulated plenty of the blood-baleful aura of soldiers. My aura reaches all the way to the highest heavens. If I pray sincerely, High Heaven will certainly hear me.”

“When will it hear you?”

Wu Gongling looked at the sky. “A message between Heaven and Earth takes a little time to travel. Before sunset, there will certainly be a response. If there is none before sunset, I will draw my sword and cut my own throat. That is all.”

He said it with complete ease.

Put that way, even Hui Qingping, who knew perfectly well he was speaking nonsense, found herself with nothing to say.

Yet sunset never arrived.

Not even half an hour had passed before Heaven and Earth truly changed.

A deep rumbling came from far off to their right.

Everyone turned toward the sound.

The rumble grew louder and louder, drawing steadily closer. Even the ground seemed to begin trembling.

Expressions changed.

Wu Gongling alone remained completely composed.

He clasped his hands and bowed toward Heaven. “My thanks to the gods for taking pity on Wu Gongling’s sincere heart!”

Everyone stared at him in bewilderment.

Could this bastard truly have borrowed the power of the gods?

The rumbling drew closer.

The strange disturbance between Heaven and Earth sent birds and beasts fleeing wildly from the surrounding forests.

Soon, far away to their left, something white and frothing came rolling into view.

Waves.

A flood surged toward them with the force of crushing rotten wood. Grass and trees snapped and flew before it.

In the blink of an eye, the rolling torrent arrived and thundered past beneath the ridge where everyone sat.

Waves smashed against the banks. Mist filled the air.

Their frightened mounts struggled wildly and had to be forcibly reined in.

The roar gradually receded.

What remained before them was a vast spread of muddy water filled with floating debris, surging and washing across the land as though a great lake had suddenly appeared.

When the thunder finally passed, one person after another slowly turned toward Wu Gongling.

He still sat there without changing expression.

Every face was filled with shock.

There was no great river within dozens of li. Where had this sudden flood come from?

Could this bastard truly communicate with High Heaven?

Hui Qingping stared in disbelief.

Only when Wu Gongling spoke did she recover.

Pointing at the transformed landscape before them, he asked the others loudly, “Gentlemen, I asked High Heaven to lend me this land of waters. Does this count as the Great Dharma of Heaven and Earth? Can this Great Dharma of mine stop the pursuing army?”

“...”

No one could answer.

They continued staring at him as though he were some kind of monster.

Wu Gongling turned toward the stunned Hui Qingping and shouted, “Hui Qingping, remember this! Heaven and Earth bear witness. From today onward, you are my woman!”

Then he threw back his head and roared with laughter, utterly unrestrained and arrogant.

Afterward, he wheeled his horse and galloped away.

The others remained frozen, watching him leave.

Only Shan Dongxing, who followed after him, sighed inwardly.

He was truly convinced by Wu Gongling now.

That performance had been far too convincing.

Shan Dongxing had seen shameless men before, but never anyone this shameless.

What the others did not know, Shan Dongxing knew perfectly well.

To shake off the pursuing army, Wu Gongling had spent a long time studying the map. A day earlier, he had secretly sent out a small detachment toward a great river in another area and ordered them to breach the embankment at a specified point.

The operation had been kept secret because any leak would have endangered the detachment. If the imperial court learned of it, there was no chance it would spare those men.

And the reason Shan Dongxing knew the truth was simple: that detachment consisted of Tongxian Pavilion disciples. How could he not know?

After reaching the designated location, the detachment had waited for orders.

Only after Wu Gongling’s main force had crossed the terrain he needed did he send the signal telling the men at the river to breach the embankment.

That was what had produced the rolling flood.

Yet even in his dreams, Shan Dongxing had never imagined Wu Gongling would be shameless enough to use this secret military operation as the stake in a wager, pretend to summon gods and spirits, and trick Hui Qingping into signing an agreement to marry him.

Had Shan Dongxing not known the truth beforehand, even he suspected Wu Gongling’s solemn performance just now would have deceived him.

The bastard was truly vile.

One by one, the people left on the ridge glanced back at Hui Qingping.

Every expression was extraordinarily rich.

Then they spurred their horses down the slope and chased after Wu Gongling, wanting to find out what had really happened.

A group of Tiannü Sect disciples looked weakly toward Hui Qingping.

She alone remained standing there in the wind, utterly dumbfounded.

On the road, Wu Gongling glanced back at those chasing after him, then suddenly said to Shan Dongxing, “Brother Shan, the matter of sending men to breach the embankment absolutely cannot be admitted even if they beat you to death. Otherwise you’ll ruin my lifelong marriage prospects. The wager involves my head!”

Shan Dongxing did not know whether to laugh or cry. “I know. I know!”

[End of Chapter 666]