Chapter 37 : Chapter 37
Chapter 37: The Traitor, Liu Shuo
“What?!”
The instant those words fell, everyone’s hearts jolted violently!
Luo Li also snapped her head up and looked at Chen Guan in disbelief. Almost by reflex, she blurted out, “How did he die?”
The main reason was that only the day before yesterday, Li Fei had still been standing beside her, full of vigor, swearing that he would protect her safety. How could he be dead after only a single day?
Luo Tong was also staring at Chen Guan in complete disbelief.
This fellow... could he foresee the future?
Wait!
Luo Tong suddenly thought of something.
But before he could speak, Liu Shuo abruptly stepped forward and moved to within a meter of Luo Li. Lowering his head, he sniffed lightly.
At once, the faint rotten-peach scent on Luo Li’s body entered his nose.
Immediately, Liu Shuo’s face filled with fury. Raising the longsword in his hand, he pointed it straight at Chen Guan!
“Luo Li still reeks of that rotten peach smell. You never removed the mark from her at all! Speak! Did you send them away just to lure the tiger from the mountain?!”
“Yes.” Chen Guan curled his lips and let his gaze rest on Liu Shuo, admitting it with perfect calm.
“If they are Escort Masters, then they should always be prepared to die.”
His voice did not ripple in the slightest. “If no one drew away the main force of the Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes, none of you would have made it here alive. Shouldn’t you be thanking me?”
Liu Shuo’s expression darkened instantly, and a killing intent so strong it was almost tangible burst from his eyes!
Luo Tong and the others were also frozen in shock and chill.
They had never imagined that Chen Guan’s mind could be so meticulous, nor that his methods could be so ruthless!
He had actually used the lives of his own companions to draw away the Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes, all so that the rest of them could survive by clinging to life!
Those had all been their brothers!
Luo Li’s eyes reddened at once as well. She could not accept that the man who had saved her several times over could also be so cold-blooded and cruel!
But Chen Guan paid no attention at all to their expressions. His gaze swept slowly across their faces, then once more settled on Liu Shuo with a hint of amusement.
Only after a pause did he speak again.
“However, Li Fei did not die at the hands of the Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes.”
“What do you mean?” Liu Shuo froze.
Chen Guan turned his head and glanced toward Luo Li with a half-smile. “He just died right in front of you.”
“What?!” Luo Li was stunned.
Then, like lightning striking across her mind, a dreadful thought flashed through her head, and she suddenly understood. She cried out in alarm,
“Y-you mean... that black-clad man just now... was Li Fei?!”
The murderous intent surging in Liu Shuo’s eyes instantly froze solid.
And Luo Tong felt as though he had just been struck by lightning.
“Li Fei came to assassinate Luo Li?!”
“That’s impossible!”
Then, in the next instant, an even deeper implication struck him, one he could not deny.
Their group of seven had entered the Ten Directions Marsh like a handful of stones thrown into the sea. Even if Li Fei had not been one of those deathsworn assassins, then how had the deathsworn managed to track them all the way here?
He swept his gaze over the group before him—Liu Shuo, Zhang Yuan, Zhao Ren, and the others.
Unless someone within their own team had been leaving markers along the way, there was no way those deathsworn could have followed them here so precisely.
“You... are the traitor?!”
Luo Tong did not bother pursuing whether Li Fei had truly been one of the deathsworn. He spun around at once, his saber leaving its sheath with a sharp metallic cry as he glared at Liu Shuo with bloodshot eyes!
So long as he caught the traitor, he would naturally learn whether Li Fei had truly been one of the deathsworn or not.
Liu Shuo’s face went pale. But the next moment, he forced it into an expression of shocked grievance.
“What traitor? Brother Luo, wh-what do you mean by that?”
At the side, Zhang Yuan and the others were equally lost at the sudden turn of events.
Chen Guan, on the other hand, merely stood off to one side with his arms folded, wearing the expression of a man watching a good show unfold, with no intention whatsoever of interfering.
Luo Tong’s eyes were blood-red, and his voice came out hoarse as he said, “This is the Ten Directions Marsh. Even ordinary people get lost once they enter, let alone finding someone in here?”
“It’s no different from looking for a needle in the sea!”
“Unless... someone left markers all along the way for those deathsworn, there is no way they could have caught up so quickly and so accurately!”
The moment those words were spoken, Zhang Yuan and the others instantly understood, and the way they looked at Liu Shuo changed at once.
Luo Li also understood, and a complicated, icy gaze settled upon Liu Shuo.
A trace of undisguised panic flashed through Liu Shuo’s eyes, but in the next moment it was replaced by towering anger.
“Brother Luo! Aren’t you being far too arbitrary?!”
“There were seven of us in this group. On what grounds are you deciding that I’m the traitor who left markers for the deathsworn?”
“Hmph!”
Luo Tong let out a cold snort, and a fierce killing intent burst from him.
“From the moment we set out, it was you and Li Fei who kept targeting Escort Master Chen, openly and secretly alike!”
“The disaster with the Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes was also caused by Li Fei! If not for him, so many of our brothers would never have died!”
“And you!” Luo Tong pointed a finger straight at Liu Shuo. “All along this road, you were the one who talked the most!”
“Asking about another man’s life-saving secret art is a great taboo in the jianghu. Any cultivator knows that, yet you blurted it out without hesitation!”
“If you are not the traitor, then why were you so eager to learn that secret art?”
“And more than that... every time Escort Master Chen said we should keep moving deeper ahead, your expression turned visibly ugly!”
“You might fool other people’s eyes, but how could you possibly fool this old man’s eyes!”
Liu Shuo’s face had gone deathly pale, but he still forced himself to explain.
“I... I simply didn’t think too deeply about it. I was only curious.”
“And as we went deeper, the dangers only increased. Isn’t it normal for me to be worried?!”
“And you still dare argue?!” Luo Tong directly raised the saber in his hand. Thinking of the seven brothers who had died beneath the claws of the Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes, grief and rage overwhelmed his heart.
Those seven men had all happened to be the trusted companions closest to him.
And in the end... every one of them had been betrayed by a traitor within the escort trade, dying beneath the demon apes’ claws, with not even their bones left behind!
Sensing the killing intent rolling off Luo Tong like a wave, Liu Shuo was so frightened his soul nearly left his body. He waved his hands frantically.
“Brother Luo, listen to me!”
“I... I really am not the traitor! Th-that’s just a habit of mine—it’s caution, caution!”
“Hmph! Still arguing even with death upon you!” Luo Tong had no intention of listening. His saber turned in his grip, and murder radiated from him. “Go down to the Netherworld and explain yourself properly to Li Fei!”
As he spoke, the saber in his hands rose sharply and came chopping down toward Liu Shuo’s head!
Shhk!
But before his saber could fall, a swift blade flash came from behind him and struck first!
The round head of Zhang Yuan flew high into the air, his face still frozen in that delighted, watching-the-show smile.
It hit the ground with a heavy thud and rolled far away.
When everyone saw that, they all froze in place, as though they had been struck by lightning.
Only after several breaths did their eyes slowly, stiffly, shift toward the horse-cleaving saber that still shone with a cold, ghostly gleam.
And the owner of that saber was none other than Chen Guan.
He flicked his wrist, scattering the beads of blood from the blade, and then, with a crisp shing, returned the horse-cleaving saber cleanly to its sheath.
“Br-Brother Chen, y-you... you killed the wrong person!”
Luo Li stood there with her mouth hanging open, staring at Chen Guan in utter shock as she stammered out the words.
“I didn’t kill the wrong person.” Chen Guan answered flatly. “Liu Shuo is not the traitor.”
Then he used his saber-tip to lift Zhang Yuan’s corpse slightly, and a short dagger glowing with black light slid out from the man’s sleeve.
One glance was enough to show that the dagger had been smeared with deadly poison.
Right after that, Chen Guan pulled open the man’s robes, revealing something like a patch of dogskin plaster stuck to his belly.
One jab of the saber hilt—
Rip!
A plume of white smoke suddenly rose from Zhang Yuan’s corpse. Then it began to bubble and hiss. Within a few breaths, it had melted into a puddle of pus.
“Th-this... this really is a deathsworn assassin!”
Shock slammed into everyone’s hearts.
Only Liu Shuo, his face white as paper, wiped at the cold sweat covering his forehead, the sweat of a man who had just escaped death.
His legs gave out, and with a thump, he dropped to his knees, hugging Chen Guan’s leg and bursting into tears and snot at once.
“Chen Guan! Thank you for clearing my name! I... I...”