Chapter 39 : Chapter 39
Chapter 39: Solving the Mark on Luo Li’s Body
“This is not to say that, once you realized your opponent was some untouchable powerholder, you could just wash your hands of it and walk away.”
On the contrary, if they failed to protect Luo Li’s safety, then once the great figure backing Luo Li learned of it, not only would he pursue them for dereliction of duty, he would likely not spare their families either!
Those officials were black-hearted and ruthless, treating human lives like grass. For the sake of preserving their dignity and interests, wiping out your entire household was something they could order with nothing more than a few casual words.
Escort Masters might hold an honored position, but in the eyes of such great figures, the life of an escort was worth less even than a dog kept in their estates.
And if they continued escorting her...
Then clearly, the force daring enough to assassinate Luo Li was no small one either. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for them to commit such vast resources, laying their plans as early as fifteen years ago.
For men like them, this was a dead end.
A mire they would never be able to pull themselves back out of once they stepped in.
Casting aside those thoughts that became more terrifying the more one dwelled on them, Luo Tong suddenly asked in curiosity,
“Escort Master Chen, how did you see through their identities?”
Chen Guan glanced at Liu Shuo and Zhao Ren, who were awkwardly trying to keep up a conversation in the distance.
These people were no longer fit to remain by his side. They would only drag him down, and he needed to get rid of them as quickly as possible.
After thinking for a moment, he finally explained,
“It started from the moment Li Fei killed that demon ape.”
“What?!” Luo Tong was startled. “That early? But the way he handled it that night followed escort-trade rules exactly!”
“And that,” Chen Guan said flatly, “was precisely the problem. He did it too perfectly, too smoothly. Old Master Luo, let me ask you this—when you encounter a fiend on the official road, what is the safest way to kill it?”
Luo Tong answered without hesitation, “Naturally, you behead it or pierce its fatal point, while using true qi to suppress its explosion, so that foul blood does not splash onto the employer or the goods and leave behind a scent...”
Halfway through the sentence, Luo Tong’s voice abruptly stopped, and his brows knitted together.
That... that really was a problem.
Chen Guan looked at his reaction and nodded coldly.
“You understand now?”
“Li Fei, as an old hand ranked among the top thirty, did kill that demon ape in a single thrust, yes. But not only did he fail to suppress the fiend’s self-destruction—”
“he actually used the direction of the wind and the force of his spear to send that filth-covered blood flying straight onto Luo Li.”
Luo Tong’s pupils shrank.
“He used the excuse of ‘rapid interception’ to deceive every one of you.”
Chen Guan continued, “And when I saw through that demon ape’s identity and shouted for him to stop, he took advantage of your pride and stubbornness, stirring up your resentment toward me and concealing the fact that he had already struck with murderous intent.”
“Every time I proposed a detour, someone would argue with me, and that was clearly an attempt to buy time.”
“This...”
A chill spread down Luo Tong’s back.
So from that point onward, this young man had already stepped outside the board entirely and seen through the traitors hidden among them!
The terror of deathsworn did not lie in their martial strength, but in the fact that they understood how to use every rule to kill people.
Li Fei and the others had used the trust and experience of Escort Masters to turn all of them into accomplices.
Chen Guan’s voice remained calm, but his eyes turned colder.
“However, the thing that truly made me certain this convoy had a serious problem was those two wagonloads of pelts.”
“The pelts?” Luo Tong was taken aback.
“Mixed pelts,” Chen Guan said, spitting out the two words.
“When all kinds of demon and fiend pelts are piled together, any experienced Escort Master knows that, out in the wild, that thing is a walking beacon for hatred.”
Luo Tong nodded. “That much is true.”
Chen Guan was not surprised by his reaction and continued,
“When Luo Li said one of the sacks had loosened and told Li Fei to go tie it, he saw it—but he showed no alarm at all, nor did he ask a single question. What does that tell you?”
“He... deliberately avoided the issue?” Luo Tong asked tentatively.
“Exactly.” Chen Guan nodded. “Either he was a fool, or there was something wrong with him. And an old hand who had survived in the escort trade for over a decade could not possibly be a fool.”
Luo Tong nodded.
That truly was suspicious.
Those two wagons of pelts had been escorted personally by Li Fei’s group the entire way. Even if he had been careless for a moment, there was no way he could have failed to inspect them all along the road.
“So that was when you decided Li Fei had a problem?”
“Yes.” Chen Guan nodded. “And then, through Li Fei, I screened out everyone else in that convoy who was also suspicious.”
“And the clue was still those two wagonloads of pelts.”
“A real Escort Master, on hearing any arrangement, should have reacted the way Liu Shuo did—at the very least, he would instinctively question it and weigh the pros and cons.”
“But among that group, aside from men like Zhao Ren who were naturally taciturn and straightforward, none of the others who were escorting those two wagons of pelts asked a single question about them. What does that mean?”
“They were afraid of saying too much and exposing themselves?” Luo Tong asked.
Chen Guan nodded. “To avoid revealing who they really were, they had no choice but to steer around the suspicious issue of those pelts.”
“That’s true.” Luo Tong nodded. “The few of us entering the Ten Directions Marsh together had no reason to inspect those sacks, but for those men not to inspect them at all was indeed strange.”
Luo Tong pondered it for a while, then suddenly thought of something and an angry look crossed his face.
“So that’s it!”
At last, he understood why Chen Guan had wanted to split the convoy into two teams.
It had been to follow their intentions.
And those intentions were what separated the traitors from the innocent.
Because if their group entered the Ten Directions Marsh, they would be pursued from behind by the Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes.
And once Li Fei and the others left the convoy, they would be able to follow in secret and carry out their assassination attempt.
That meant that once Chen Guan’s team entered the Ten Directions Marsh, they would face assassins ahead and Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes behind.
It would have become a perfect dead end.
Luo Tong looked at Chen Guan and suddenly understood.
He had very likely tampered with those pelts on purpose, causing them to draw the Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes away.
That was why the Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes had not caught up to them, instead remaining outside the Ten Directions Marsh.
Otherwise, there would certainly have been more deathsworn than just these few, and the Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes would already have come charging after them.
He knew the matter was not honorable, which was why Chen Guan had said nothing of it.
But no matter how one looked at it, they still owed Chen Guan gratitude.
“But Liu Shuo...” Luo Tong’s face turned awkward again at the thought of him.
Just moments ago, he had nearly cut the man down as a traitor.
“As for Liu Shuo...” Chen Guan curled his lip. “He’s nothing more than a hotheaded fool I forcibly dragged into this.”
“And then there’s Zhao Ren and Cheng Hui. Their hearts held no guilt, so naturally they stepped forward of their own accord for the sake of the convoy.”
Luo Tong nodded.
After a moment of silence, his thoughts returned to the brothers who had died, and all manner of conflicting emotions surged through him.
Then he suddenly realized something and looked up at Chen Guan.
“Then you now...”
“The mark hasn’t been removed.” Chen Guan cut him off directly. “I only used a method to temporarily suppress the smell. At most, it will last half a day more.”
“Once it wears off, the tracking mark on her body—like a beacon in the night—will inevitably draw down the Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes’ final killing strike.”
“At that point, we’ll have Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes in front and deathsworn cutting us off from behind.”
Luo Tong’s heart tightened, and he looked at Chen Guan.
“That’s why, from here on, we still split into two routes.” Chen Guan looked at him and continued his arrangements. “I’ll take Luo Li and find a way to remove the mark. Once you leave, go directly to Wangbei City and wait three days.”
Luo Tong opened his mouth, clearly wanting to say something.
Chen Guan did not give him the chance.
“I’ve already thought of a way to permanently solve the mark on Luo Li’s body, but it isn’t something I can do while dragging all of you along with me.”
“And besides, you’ve already seen how dangerous the Ten Directions Marsh is. Once we run into truly top-tier demonic beings, forget fighting them—you likely won’t even be able to preserve your own lives.”
Luo Tong understood the hidden meaning in those words.
To put it plainly, they had now become burdens that would only drag him down.
But what Chen Guan said was also the truth.
After all, the gap in strength between them was right there for all to see. Most of all, Chen Guan’s unfathomable saber art had sliced apart even a peak-Profound Passage great demon like chopping melons and vegetables.
That meant that even if they encountered one of the truly terrifying Purple Mansion great demons of legend, Chen Guan, even if unable to defeat it, would at least still have the power to respond.
As for them, if they encountered a Purple Mansion great demon, they would have virtually no power to resist at all.
After a brief struggle of indecision, Luo Tong finally sighed and said with difficulty,
“But... but we took the money. We should be escorting this shipment all the way to its destination...”
“I never said I wouldn’t let you finish the escort.” Chen Guan cut him off directly. “I only need some time to solve the mark on Luo Li’s body.”