CHAPTER 65: 59. ENEMY AND FRIEND

"Assassinate Si Cao?" Wu Hongbiao was shocked, "The two of us?"

"Right, the two of us."

The small room in the cloth shop was empty. Wu Hongbiao was sitting cross-legged on the ground while Chen Ji leaned against the door frame at the entrance, the two men silently facing each other.

At that moment, Wu Hongbiao looked towards the door. Chen Ji was standing in a place backed by moonlight, his expression indiscernible.

He patiently tried to dissuade Chen Ji, "You’ve been with the Military Intelligence Department for a short time and haven’t really dealt with this Si Cao. Don’t entertain such dangerous thoughts."

Chen Ji discovered that even Wu Hongbiao, one of the most elite spies, was having second thoughts about "killing Si Cao."

He couldn’t help but ask, "How formidable is Si Cao?"

Wu Hongbiao gravely said, "You’re not an Executive Officer, so you don’t know how formidable they are. I’m merely a ’Postnatal Realm’ martial artist, but that Si Cao has been in the military for a long time, at least in the Perfect Innate Realm. He must be just a step away from the Seeking Dao Realm..."

Chen Ji showed confusion.

Wu Hongbiao helplessly, while nibbling on a coarse grain cake, explained, "Well, you won’t understand if I talk about realms, but let me put it simply: once in Jinling, Si Cao’s whereabouts were exposed. Over a hundred men from the Spy Department couldn’t capture him; he killed dozens and finally escaped into the Qinhuai River."

Chen Ji pressed on, "If the Innate Realm is already so powerful, how formidable must the Seeking Dao Realm be? Is it difficult to attain the Seeking Dao Realm?"

"Of course, it’s difficult," Wu Hongbiao sighed, "Look at me now, even trying to break through from the ’Postnatal’ to the ’Innate’ without finding the right method is hard, let alone going from ’Innate’ to ’Seeking Dao.’ Casting an eye across the whole Luocheng, probably only two masters are at the Seeking Dao Realm. One is Liang Gou’er, and the other is likely hiding in Yanshi, controlled by the Liu Family."

Wu Hongbiao seriously said, "Once reaching the Seeking Dao Realm, without an army formation of over five hundred soldiers charging, it’s absolutely impossible to capture such a master. At twenty-four, Liang Gou’er stepped into the Seeking Dao Realm. That year, he went to the Ning Dynasty’s border army and killed eight of our Jing Dynasty’s generals in a stand-off, instantly becoming famous. Unfortunately, Liang Gou’er’s path in cultivation was severed by someone. Otherwise, he was the person within the Ning Dynasty most likely to advance further."

"Severed by someone?"

Wu Hongbiao pondered for a moment, "I’ve always felt it could have been our Jing Dynasty’s doing, even possibly your uncle’s doing."

Chen Ji was taken aback, "Why do you say that?"

Wu Hongbiao explained, "After Liang Gou’er’s cultivation path was severed, a female swordsman appeared in the ranks of our Jing Dynasty border army. She assassinated a highly talented General of the Ning Dynasty border army, and was recognized for using the Liang Family’s Saber Technique. She must have been specifically trained by someone from our Jing Dynasty to be sent to the Ning Dynasty to marry Liang Gou’er, just to ruin his mindset and cut off his path in cultivation."

That female swordsman not only severed Liang Gou’er’s path in cultivation but also decieved the Liang family of their ancestral saber technique, killing two birds with one stone.

Truly a struggle full of cunning plots.

Chen Ji was confused, "But why do you think my uncle was behind it?"

Wu Hongbiao uncorked the bamboo tube and took a drink, "Three years ago, when your uncle was assassinated, a female swordsman also appeared beside him."

Chen Ji was speechless.

His own uncle was quite a complex character.

To this day, he still hadn’t come to a clear understanding of his uncle, always feeling that the man was shrouded in mystery, neither entirely righteous nor wholly sinister, unscrupulous in achieving his goals.

Chen Ji murmured, "Postnatal, Innate, Seeking Dao... What’s above the Seeking Dao Realm?"

"Divine Realm," Wu Hongbiao said, "According to your uncle, there are so few in this realm that one could count them on one hand across the whole world. The Mountain Master, ’Lu Yang,’ of our Jing Dynasty Martial Temple, is one of them. The Master of the ’Apostles’ in Huangshan Mountain of the Ning Dynasty is also one. Even the Luocheng City Dao Court and Ning Dynasty’s sect ’Luotian’ lack such figures."

"Someone like Mountain Master Lu Yang, is already a grandmaster who has touched the threshold of the Heavenly Person. Also, the common folk of the Jing Dynasty have long been enthralled by the legend of his ’Jiazi Demon Cleansing,’ have you heard of it?"

"I haven’t. Jiazi Demon Cleansing? Are there really demons in this world?"

"They are the Demon Sect, scattered throughout the territory of the Jing Dynasty, who use human sacrifices as their Cultivation Path. They often abduct children, women, and even massacre villages—extremely vile. Mountain Master Lu Yang eradicated demons from the Temple of Martial Arts; he wiped them out completely, leaving none behind."

"Because it happened in the Jiazi year, is that why it’s called Jiazi Demon Cleansing?"

Wu Hongbiao shook his head, "No, he cleansed the demons for a full Jiazi cycle."

Chen Ji choked. A Jiazi cycle was sixty years—who could withstand a Divine Realm grandmaster from their sect fighting them for sixty years?

Temple of Martial Arts.

Liang Gou’er had mentioned this place.

He had suggested that Chen Ji should not pursue saber techniques but should go to the Jing Dynasty’s Temple of Martial Arts to study the ’sword seed.’

It was only today that Chen Ji began to have a vague concept of the world’s Executive Officers, although he himself... was likely not even up to a Postnatal martial artist.

Faced with someone like Si Cao, he was even worried whether he could kill him with gunpowder, or how to make him stay put long enough to be blown up.

Wu Hongbiao said, "Do you still want to kill Si Cao? Give it up."

Chen Ji was silent for a long time, "But if I don’t kill him, he will kill me."

Wu Hongbiao fell silent too.

His expression showed struggle and hesitation. Unlike Chen Ji, he knew precisely how formidable Si Cao was, which is why he knew that it would be impossible just with the two of them.

But in the end, Wu Hongbiao said, "Then let’s kill him... But how?"

"I’ll think of a way... There must be a way."

Chen Ji pondered for a moment and then suddenly asked, "Why do you think my uncle doesn’t want me to go back to the Jing Dynasty?"