Chapter 1242: Untitled

No matter what Niu Youdao said, Zhao Xiongge clearly intended to deny it to the bitter end. He answered unhurriedly, "I only heard about that method. Whether it can truly break the flaw, I can't be certain."

Niu Youdao laughed. His sleeve flipped, and something appeared on his upturned palm. "Take a look."

It was a round stone. Nothing about it appeared unusual.

Zhao Xiongge looked suspicious. "What's that?"

Crack!

Niu Youdao simply crushed it himself.

Fragments of the round stone fell away from his palm, revealing a heart-shaped object pulsing with living red light. The radiance flooded the rock hollow where they stood, and a refreshing fragrance drifted from it.

Zhao Xiongge stared. "What is that?"

He still did not recognize it.

"You really are ignorant." Niu Youdao casually tossed it over. "I brought it out of the Sacred Realm. Look carefully."

Zhao Xiongge caught it and turned it over repeatedly, sniffing it again and again. When his gaze fell on the fruit stem, his eyes suddenly widened.

"This... don't tell me this is from Wuliang Garden..."

Niu Youdao gave him a mocking look. "And I have your method for breaking the Crow Generals to thank for it. Without that, there really would have been no way to get my hands on this."

Zhao Xiongge was speechless.

He had heard nothing about Wuliang Garden being robbed. Combined with Niu Youdao's staged death and escape, he had assumed Niu Youdao had never successfully used the method for breaking the Crow Generals, which was why he had felt safe denying everything.

He had not expected Niu Youdao to have succeeded already.

The denials he had just stubbornly maintained were becoming difficult to sustain.

But none of that mattered anymore.

Faced with such an object, even Zhao Xiongge found it difficult to remain completely calm. "When Yuan Gang contacted me, I guessed you were aiming for the Wuliang Fruit. You actually stole one. But if Wuliang Garden had truly been robbed, how could everything still be this quiet?"

Niu Youdao said, "Could I let the Nine Saints discover it? If they had, the Sacred Realm would have been sealed immediately. Would I still have gotten out?"

"I swapped out everything on the tree. As long as they didn't notice at once, I estimate the substitution won't be easily exposed for a very long time."

Zhao Xiongge looked down at the object in his hand, still unable to believe it. "Swapped them? Things that conspicuous, hanging openly on a tree, and you managed to substitute them?"

Niu Youdao waved it away. "A petty trick. Not worth mentioning. Now then, the Demon Canon is in your hands. You can't keep denying it, can you?"

Zhao Xiongge immediately grew wary again. "It isn't!"

Niu Youdao gave an exasperated sound. "Uncle Zhao, that's a little shameless of you. What's the point of denying it to the death?"

Zhao Xiongge weighed the object in his palm. "If this thing were truly that easy to steal, would it have waited for you? And you actually managed to escape from inside the Sacred Realm. If you told me no one inside cooperated with you, would even you believe it?"

"Taken together, the signs hardly prove that you aren't someone Wu Chang sent."

"Me?" Niu Youdao pointed at his own nose. "You really can imagine anything. You actually suspect I'm one of Wu Chang's people?"

"Then why are you so concerned about the Demon Canon?"

"I..." Niu Youdao did not know whether to laugh or curse.

Then again, after everything Zhao Xiongge had just described about Wu Chang exhausting every possible scheme against him, Niu Youdao had to admit he really did look suspicious from that angle.

He waved a hand. "Fine. I don't want your Demon Canon. I'm only asking whether it's in your hands."

Zhao Xiongge's answer did not change. "It isn't!"

"Bullshit!" Niu Youdao snapped. "I don't know a damned thing about what's written in the Demon Canon, and I don't believe it can change the world either. If it could, after keeping it for all these years, you wouldn't still be unable to restrain Wu Chang. So I have no interest in the thing itself."

"The reason I'm asking whether it's in your hands is simple. If it is, there's no chance you haven't read it."

"I only want to ask you how to remove the Ghost Face from Shang Shuqing."

Zhao Xiongge looked puzzled. "Is that important to you?"

"Important?" Niu Youdao almost laughed.

To tell the truth, he could hardly call it important.

If he searched his own heart, with Shang Shuqing looking like that, he genuinely was not attracted to her. Even if she were beautiful, so what? With his present status and position, could he not find beautiful women if he wanted them?

More importantly, he did not feel the slightest romantic affection toward Shang Shuqing.

Yet strangely, he always felt he owed her something.

Perhaps it was because she had attended to him for so many years. To stand aside and do nothing did not sit well with the kind of man he considered himself to be.

And because of him, Shang Shuqing had now decided never to marry.

These days, whenever she had nothing else to do, she would sit for ages before his cenotaph. The whole thing left him restless and irritated.

The reason the conversation had become entangled with the Demon Canon was simply that Zhao Xiongge had happened to mention it.

Niu Youdao thought he might as well solve Shang Shuqing's problem once and for all. Let her marry sooner, live freely, and stop giving him something to worry about. Otherwise, as long as Shang Shuqing remained suspended there, he felt as though he were hanging there with her, equally unable to settle.

Even he could not properly explain the feeling.

He waved impatiently. "Whether it's important is none of your concern. I only want a method for breaking the Ghost Face. Here, I'll trade you this for it. You won't be losing out." He pointed at the Wuliang Fruit in Zhao Xiongge's hand.

Zhao Xiongge looked down at the fruit.

Then, without the slightest hesitation, he tossed it back.

Niu Youdao caught it and stared.

He would not even take this?

Since when had Wuliang Fruits become worthless?

"What do you mean? Zhao Xiongge, I call you Uncle Zhao to give you face. Don't refuse the face you're given. I don't care whether the Demon Canon is in your hands. I'm not asking you to hand it over. I've already said I have no interest in it."

"I only want a method for removing the Ghost Face. You won't even give me that?"

Zhao Xiongge shook his head slightly, his eyes resting on the Wuliang Fruit. "If I break through to the Nascent Soul Realm, will that make me a match for the Nine Saints?"

"It isn't that I don't want the fruit. Wu Chang watches me too closely. I cannot use something like this yet."

"If Wu Chang discovered that I had suddenly broken through to the Nascent Soul Realm, many people would be implicated, and Shangqing Sect in particular would have no escape from disaster."

"If he could send Chuan Ying to approach you, that proves he understands the relationship between you and me very clearly. If I suddenly broke through, I fear you would not remain hidden for long either."

Niu Youdao froze.

Then, unexpectedly, he felt a measure of admiration for this drunk.

Ever since he had begun handing out Wuliang Fruits, neither Gong Lince nor Zhong Guzi had been able to resist the temptation. Both had felt that even enormous risks were worth taking for such an opportunity.

Only Zhao Xiongge had rejected it without hesitation.

Niu Youdao suddenly seemed to understand a little better how this man had managed to withstand Wu Chang's attempts to force the Demon Canon from him for so many years.

"You should keep that for yourself," Zhao Xiongge said, pointing at the Wuliang Fruit in Niu Youdao's hand. "You need it more than I do."

Niu Youdao sighed. "There were twelve fruits on the tree. I picked every one of them. I can spare this one."

He tossed it back again.

Zhao Xiongge caught it, stunned. "You substituted all twelve?"

He truly could not imagine how such a thing had been accomplished.

Niu Youdao nodded. "Without your method, I couldn't have obtained them. You contributed, so one of them is yours."

"What you do with it is your business. My advice is to hide it well. When you think the time is right to use it, use it then."

Zhao Xiongge smiled as well.

More precisely, what he felt was genuine appreciation for Niu Youdao.

This was a Wuliang Fruit, not some ordinary object.

Yet Niu Youdao could give one away so casually.

After smiling, Zhao Xiongge fell silent for a moment. Then he drew a filthy piece of black cloth from the dirty shoulder bag at his waist, wrapped the Wuliang Fruit securely, and stuffed it into the bag.

Only then did he say, "I cannot remove the Ghost Face. Apart from Shang Shuqing herself, I fear no one can help her break it."

The conversation had returned to its original subject.

Niu Youdao immediately asked, "What do you mean?"

"The Ghost Face is actually a talisman. A yin talisman."

"A yin talisman? I don't understand."

"Ghost Face is only the name I used when explaining it to you. In the Demon Canon, its recorded name is: 'The Grand General Is Here!'"

Niu Youdao frowned. "I still don't understand."

"To put it plainly, the Ghost Face is actually a military tally."

Niu Youdao's expression immediately changed. "A yin talisman? A military tally? You mean a tally for commanding ghost soldiers?"

Zhao Xiongge nodded. "That should be what it is."

Niu Youdao stared at him. "Zhao Xiongge, explain yourself properly. What do you mean, 'should be'? This isn't something you can casually talk nonsense about. Do you know whether it is or not?"

Zhao Xiongge said, "Saying it can command every wandering soul beneath Heaven would be an exaggeration. But commanding the yin spirits one personally refined should be no problem."

"Back then, because I trusted your master Dong Guo Haoran, I once let something slip while drinking and feeling sentimental. Your master then begged me relentlessly until I gave in and told him the method for refining Crow Generals."

"The Ghost Face is the tally. More precisely, it is the military tally used to command the Crow Generals!"

Niu Youdao was startled. "Dong Guo Haoran knew how to refine Crow Generals?"

Zhao Xiongge nodded silently.

"The few Crow Generals Wu Chang refined, the handful he can control, do not even qualify as holding a military tally."

"More importantly, the refining method Wu Chang knows was never complete."

"Several generations ago, because the circumstances at the time demanded it, a Saintess of the Demonic Sect modified the refining method and created a number of Crow Generals to serve as guards."

"That modified method is what Wu Chang possesses. It is not the complete, true method for refining Crow Generals."

"What is a military tally?"

"Only something capable of mobilizing thousands upon thousands of troops can truly be called a military tally."

"Wu Chang's little tricks fall far short."

"The holder of the tally: 'The Grand General Is Here!' It is as though the Grand General himself has arrived."

"At the command, thousands upon thousands march through fire and water, willing to die ten thousand deaths without refusal. Only that is a true and effective military tally!"

The muscles in Niu Youdao's face twitched. "So you're saying Shang Shuqing is holding a military tally capable of commanding thousands upon thousands of ghost soldiers?"

"More or less."

"Are you drunk? This isn't something you can casually say. And now you're telling me 'more or less'?"

Niu Youdao frowned hard. "Even if what you're saying is true, there's something I don't understand. As far as I know, Prince Ning, Shang Jianbo, had three sons back then, all older than Shang Shuqing. Why would he give something like this to a daughter who was still an infant at the time?"

Zhao Xiongge said, "It sounds unreasonable, but in fact it makes perfect sense."

"Not the slightest hint of something like this could be allowed to leak."

"Shang Jianbo's sons were already older. If one of them had suddenly developed a Ghost Face, would that not have drawn suspicion?"

"You do not know the secret behind refining the military tally, so naturally you cannot understand. I do know."

"Someone who regularly enters battle and faces life and death is also unsuitable for holding such a tally."

"There could hardly have been anyone more suitable than a newborn infant who was also a secluded daughter of the inner chambers."

"You must understand that Li Ge, who left behind the Demon Canon, was herself a woman."

"A man's yang qi is too heavy. Essence-blood saturated with excessive yang qi is unsuitable for refining yin spirits. A woman's essence-blood is more suitable."

"When I heard that Shang Shuqing had developed the Ghost Face after Dong Guo Haoran treated her illness, I knew they had already begun refining the military tally known as 'The Grand General Is Here!'"

[End of Chapter 1242]