Chapter 1295: Zhao Xiongge's Son

Behind the Demon Palace on Demon Ridge, a terrace jutted from the mountainside outside a cave halfway up the slope. Zhao Xiongge sat on the cliff's edge with his legs dangling over empty space, letting the mountain wind blow across him as he slowly drank from a wine gourd and watched the occasional eerie shafts of light piercing through the unbroken bank of dark clouds.

A figure descended from the sky and landed at the cave entrance, long hair streaming in the wind.

It was Wu Chang.

Without turning around, Zhao Xiongge took another drink and said, "You came."

"Weren't you the one who wanted to see me?" Wu Chang replied.

"One of the Nine Saints, supreme beneath Heaven, and yet so obedient. I tell you to come, and you actually come."

Wu Chang glanced at the pitch-black cave, then at the slovenly man sitting on the cliff.

"You were still the man the Saintess chose. The Demonic Sect would hardly mistreat you. Is there truly no place for you inside the Demon Palace? Why reduce yourself to this shabby state?"

Zhao Xiongge sighed. "What choice do I have? Who knows how many spies of yours are inside the Demon Palace? Living alone is more comfortable."

He took another swallow, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, belched, and said, "The thing is in my hands."

Wu Chang's gaze sharpened.

He stared at Zhao Xiongge's back and slowly said, "I knew long ago that it was in your hands. What? You finally thought it through? You're willing to hand it over?"

Zhao Xiongge patted the ground beside him.

"Come. Sit."

Wu Chang did not move. He looked down at him from above, uncertain what game the man was playing.

Zhao Xiongge turned his head and grinned.

"How many times have you tried using your Sacred Venerable's intimidation on me over the years? I'm not afraid of you. What's the point of putting on airs in front of me?"

"There's no one else here. Come have a drink with me."

Coldness entered Wu Chang's eyes.

In the end, however, he stepped over, lowered himself beside Zhao Xiongge at the cliff's edge, and let his own legs hang over the side.

Looking toward the strange light in the distance, he said, "You do know how to pick a place. I never realized the scenery here was this good."

"You've lived here for so many years," Zhao Xiongge said. "It's not that you've never seen scenery like this. You've simply never sat down and looked at it this way."

"If you cannot see what is beautiful, cannot distinguish right from wrong, and can even cast aside feeling and loyalty, caring only about pushing forward—what meaning is there in being alive?"

Wu Chang replied, "When others hold the knife and I am the fish on the chopping board, is that what you call beauty?"

"If I had not risen up, the Demonic Sect of those years would have been swept away long ago. Would it have survived until today?"

"What is right? What is wrong?"

"Now, no matter what scenery lies before me, I look if I wish to look and ignore it if I do not. Do you think my life has meaning?"

"You grew up under the moral rules of this world too," Zhao Xiongge said. "You didn't spring out of a crack in a rock."

"You drove the Saintess to her death. You plotted against your own adoptive father. You slaughtered your fellow disciples."

"Do you truly feel no guilt at all?"

Something deep passed through Wu Chang's eyes.

"I did not come here to discuss the principles of life with you."

"Hand over the Demon Canon. I will allow you to live free and unrestrained."

"If you fear I will break my word, name whatever guarantee you want."

Zhao Xiongge held out the wine gourd.

"Try some. It tastes good."

Wu Chang casually blocked it away.

"Drink it yourself."

Zhao Xiongge mocked him. "What? Afraid I poisoned it?"

Now that he had finally made his decision, he actually felt relaxed. He even had the mood to take a little pleasure in provoking Wu Chang.

Wu Chang turned one palm.

Crack!

The wine gourd in Zhao Xiongge's hand exploded out of nowhere.

Wine scattered down the cliffside, filling the air with its fragrance.

Wu Chang pointed at the fragments falling into the abyss.

"If you called me here merely to amuse yourself, the price will be very painful."

Zhao Xiongge suddenly turned his head.

"Are you really capable of anything?"

"What exactly are you trying to do?"

Zhao Xiongge let out a melancholy sigh.

"Help me save someone."

"Save someone?"

Wu Chang was actually surprised.

"Who?"

"My son."

"..."

Wu Chang visibly froze.

For a moment, he genuinely thought he had heard wrong.

He asked again, "Who?"

Zhao Xiongge cast him a sidelong glance.

"My son."

Inwardly, he added: Niu Youdao, you bastard.

Wu Chang's expression became indescribable.

Even one of the Nine Saints, a man who had seen every sort of extraordinary situation, could not suppress the roaring blaze of curiosity inside him.

"Who is your son?"

"Yuan Gang."

"..."

Wu Chang's expression immediately became fascinating.

That man was Zhao Xiongge's son?

Was this true?

He had already suspected Yuan Gang might have some connection to Zhao Xiongge.

Could it actually be this?

He repeatedly looked Zhao Xiongge up and down, as though trying to see straight through him.

When Wu Chang remained speechless for so long, Zhao Xiongge asked, "I'm asking you one thing. Can you do it or not?"

This was hardly a simple question of whether it could be done.

Wu Chang looked deeply suspicious.

"Zhao Xiongge, what kind of joke are you making? How could he possibly be your son?"

"Why couldn't he be?"

"Was I supposed to report a matter like that to you in advance?"

Wu Chang stared at him.

"The ages don't match! How many years has the Saintess been dead?"

"He isn't the Saintess's son."

Zhao Xiongge glanced at the traces of wine left on his hand after the gourd shattered.

"Drinking... sometimes it really does cause mistakes."

Wu Chang remained cautious.

"You left your son to grow up in a small mountain village?"

"Wasn't that because you forced me to?"

"Would I have dared bring him out and let you know?"

"Later, after watching him slowly grow up, I finally made up my mind to place him in Shangqing Sect."

"At the time, I entrusted the matter to Dong Guo Haoran."

"Who could have known Dong Guo Haoran would fail to escape safely?"

"The severe injuries he suffered were caused by people you sent, weren't they?"

Wu Chang neither admitted nor denied it.

He simply stared.

Zhao Xiongge cast him a sidelong glance and continued.

"Why do you think Dong Guo Haoran suddenly ran to Small Temple Village and accepted Niu Youdao as a disciple?"

"He went to Small Temple Village because he was looking for Yuan Gang."

"But just before he arrived, the village had been looted and plundered by officials and bandits."

"The surviving villagers had scattered into hiding."

"Dong Guo Haoran himself was severely wounded and had no strength left to search."

"He happened to encounter Niu Youdao instead."

"That was why Niu Youdao ended up going to Shangqing Sect."

"I had originally intended to entrust Yuan Gang to Tang Mu afterward."

"Then Tang Mu also met with disaster."

"There were some matters that, apart from Dong Guo Haoran and Tang Mu, could not conveniently be revealed to the other people of Shangqing Sect."

"So the matter was temporarily set aside."

"Why do you think Niu Youdao later brought Yuan Gang with him when he left?"

"Why did he bring Yuan Gang instead of anyone else?"

"Why did he treat Yuan Gang like a brother?"

"Because I instructed Niu Youdao to do so."

"And why did I later step forward to help Maolu Villa?"

"Because of this as well."

Everything fit together logically.

Wu Chang said nothing, but several doubts inside him suddenly seemed to have found answers.

Not all of them, however.

He asked, "Does Yuan Gang's strange hardening art come from the Demon Canon?"

Zhao Xiongge shook his head.

"The Demon Canon contains nothing but crooked, heterodox methods. How could I teach those things to my own son?"

"More importantly, Yuan Gang was born unsuited to cultivation. There are things he simply cannot practice."

"The hardening art he uses came from a mortal body-tempering method I once saw from the Saintess."

"Shangqing Sect suddenly suffered calamity. Both senior brothers died. It was no longer convenient to entrust him to the sect."

"So I concealed my identity and found him."

"Posing as a passerby, I taught him that hardening method."

"My only hope was that he would strengthen his body and gain some ability to protect himself."

"I never imagined he would later manage to produce such unexpected results from it."

After listening, Wu Chang's gaze slowly tightened.

Since he had previously laid traps targeting Niu Youdao, naturally he knew certain details about Niu Youdao and Yuan Gang.

According to the information he possessed, Dong Guo Haoran had indeed gone down to Small Temple Village while severely wounded and accepted Niu Youdao as a disciple because he had no other choice.

That village youth had then gone alone to Shangqing Sect carrying a corpse.

That alone showed how desperate Dong Guo Haoran's situation had been.

And Small Temple Village truly had been looted by officials and bandits shortly before Dong Guo Haoran arrived.

Then there was Yuan Gang.

It was indeed only after Niu Youdao went to Shangqing Sect that Yuan Gang seemed to become a different person, suddenly awakening and beginning to practice methods for strengthening the body.

So Zhao Xiongge had been behind it?

No wonder Zhao Xiongge had been willing to expose his connection with Niu Youdao in order to help Maolu Villa through that crisis.

In the end, it had all been for his own son.

What Wu Chang did not know was that Niu Youdao had meticulously woven every piece of this story for Zhao Xiongge in advance.

What sort of man was Niu Youdao?

Someone capable of rising so suddenly was no fool.

Anything he had carefully woven together would naturally avoid obvious holes.

If he brought out a story, it would be one that could withstand scrutiny.

Zhao Xiongge's voice was filled with helplessness.

Inside, he was genuinely helpless.

He had cursed Niu Youdao countless times already.

How had a son suddenly appeared out of nowhere in his life like this?

Wu Chang felt enlightened inside, but his mouth remained guarded.

"The Saintess is dead. Niu Youdao is dead as well."

"You produce two dead men who cannot contradict you. How am I supposed to believe this?"

"Do you still need proof?"

Zhao Xiongge turned toward him.

"I've already said this much. Don't you understand what I'm trying to do?"

Wu Chang tested him.

"You want to use the Demon Canon in exchange?"

Zhao Xiongge looked directly at him, his gaze firm.

Word by word, he said, "Save my son, and I will give you the Demon Canon."

"Yes or no?"

Wu Chang fell silent for a moment and looked toward the distance.

Under ordinary circumstances, naturally there would have been no problem.

But now?

It was difficult for him to agree immediately.

If Zhao Xiongge had spoken even a little earlier, matters would have been easier.

But Yuan Gang had already killed Lü Wushuang's disciple.

The Nine Saints had reached an agreement concerning him.

How was Wu Chang supposed to save him now?

Of course, he also knew that under ordinary circumstances, if Yuan Gang had never encountered this disaster, Zhao Xiongge would never have come asking him for help.

Nor would Wu Chang have learned this secret.

After considering the matter repeatedly, he turned back.

"I need to verify whether the Demon Canon is genuine first."

Zhao Xiongge shook his head.

"Wu Chang, we've known each other for this many years."

"Are you some good and trustworthy man?"

"Do you think I'll believe that nonsense?"

"Relax."

"Unless the Saintess gave me a fake, what I hand you will be what she gave me."

"So long as you save him, you will receive the Saintess's Demon Canon."

"With your strength and power, if you can save a man, you can kill a man too."

"Once the thing is in your hands, will you truly be unable to determine whether it's genuine?"

"I have no need to play tricks with you."

Wu Chang decided to speak plainly as well.

"This is not easy."

"Your son killed Lü Wushuang's disciple."

"He is now under joint custody..."

At that point, Wu Chang could not help looking Zhao Xiongge up and down again.

Come to think of it, the father and son did not look much alike, but their temperaments truly were similar.

Zhao Xiongge had suffered endless torture in the past and still refused to explain anything.

Now Yuan Gang was exactly the same.

Faced with threats, suffering, and pressure of this magnitude, both remained so hard-boned that it hardly seemed like coincidence.

Like father, like son indeed.

By now, Wu Chang had truly come to believe Yuan Gang was Zhao Xiongge's son.

Niu Youdao's fabricated history fitting the known facts was one thing.

Zhao Xiongge's willingness to offer the Demon Canon in exchange was even more decisive evidence.

Unless this were truly about saving his own flesh-and-blood son, Wu Chang did not believe Zhao Xiongge would ever produce the Demon Canon.

"That's exactly why I came to you," Zhao Xiongge said.

"I heard what happened. I know he's already trapped in a dead end."

"Otherwise, why would I seek you out?"

"So answer me."

"Will you agree or not?"

"If you refuse, then even if I die, don't ever dream of obtaining the Demon Canon!"

[End of Chapter 1295]