Wu Ping wrestled his way out of Zero’s vice-like grip when the news loosened her hold and began coughing on the ground.
“Kuanggu Sheng… is dead?”
The henchman lowered his head and replied, “It happened not long ago by the path farthest west. He hurried to the location of the noise we heard while on patrol. When we arrived, he was already dead, and the surroundings were in a mess. He was beheaded, and Sir Tiangou was badly hurt by the legendary rainneedles weapon.”
Unsurprisingly, everyone was shocked to hear someone stronger than many of them had been killed. They couldn’t call it a fib as the intruder supposedly broke out a prisoner in the dungeon, killed Yan Jibei, as well as injured Yan Jiangnan and Wu Ping. What truly shocked them was that the intruder could even hurt Tiangou badly in the process and get away without leaving a trace, then they were extremely dangerous, not to mention the appearance of a legendary weapon. If somebody that dangerous was spying on them from the shadows… and they were definitely still around because all the escape routes had been sealed.
Zero suppressed the urge to address her emotions so that she could monitor the reactions of those present because the best moment to collect the most data was before her. It was understandable for those below Kuanggu Sheng’s level to be nervous. Ouyang Xiucai and Yan Jiangnan were shocked. Yan Jiangnan’s open-mouth look wasn’t an act. Zero knew very well that Yan Jiangnan wasn’t a good actor. Wu Ping looked indifferent if it wasn’t for his glare screaming, “I told you so!”
“I told you there’s an intruder, but, no, you and Elder Lianhua refused to believe me,” grouched Wu Ping.
“You were late. How should I know if…” Zero stopped herself when she realised that, even if Wu Ping was fast enough to travel from the western side of the compound to the dungeon in time, it was far from likely that he could kill Kuanggu Sheng and hurt Tiangou in that timeframe.
“Your mom knows! You said you were going to kill me! Do it! If you don’t, you’re my son from now!”
Seeing Wu Ping get up and roll up his sleeves, Wu Ping and Ouyang Xiucai quickly dragged him aside.
Nobody uttered a word while Zero stopped to think, but that didn’t mean they understood what her silence meant – there was an intruder! Nobody could disprove the idea at this point.
Zero cast her gaze back to the empty prison. Her mind went black. The worst situation had been realised. Ming Feizhen had been rescued, and regardless of who it was, if Ming Feizhen could recover, nobody at the base was safe. The worst part, though, was if the intruder was Xue Yanjun… It dawned on Zero. The base wasn’t preventing Ming Feizhen and Xue Yanjun from escaping. The base was trapping her in with them. The hunter had become the hunted.
“Take me to Tiangou, now!”
***
The first thing Tiangou never thought was possible was that he’d open his eyes again, not after suffering damage from rainneedles. The second was that he’d seen the person before him. “Since when… did Demon Sect take care of the wounded?”
Zero’s usual condescending attitude that seemed fake was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she looked serious. “There’s no product under the sky that can treat your wounds. My ‘Skywind Nine Forms’ can cover your open wounds, but it’s up to you to recover before you bleed to death.”
To cover Tiangou’s open wounds, Zero spread her internal energy refined through “Skywind Nine Forms” without releasing all the collected energy and had to ensure it lasted for several hours. The fact that it was within her means indicated that she had mastered up to the ninth form of Skywind Nine Forms.
Aware that he was significantly physically tougher than the average man, Tiangou knew he was going to make it. “Hehe, the purpose of your visit is to question me, isn’t it?”
Zero bobbed her head. After treating Tiangou, she examined the scene and Kuanggu Sheng’s corpse several times. She was confident in her conjecture that Kuanggu Sheng died in the midst of his battle against Tiangou and was the user of the rainneedles. From that, she concluded that either the assailant had a cheap shot or Tiangou was actually responsible. The latter theory was unlikely based on their positions, which she deduced from the blood trails, and Tiangou’s condition.
Zero was fully aware that not every member of Fiends’ Genesis was on friendly terms with each other, and they wouldn’t air their conflicts out. Thus, she wasn’t expecting Tiangou to explain the reason for his fight with Kuanggu Sheng. There was only one thing she needed to know.
“Is there truly an intruder?”
Tiangou’s eyes stopped moving as though his train of thought stopped at a certain moment in time. Following their next movement, he answered, “Yes, and they are one of the most elite assassins in the land. I’ve never seen any assassination technique as brilliant as that… I barely even caught a glimpse of his silhouette. He picked his timing so precisely that I’d describe it as… as though he had blended into the environment and sneaked up… I don’t know when he appeared, but Kuanggu Sheng’s head was on the ground before that moment was over. I still have no clue what weapon he used. Thinking back on it… it was like an artistic performance.”
That was the first time Zero heard Tiangou speak so much. Despite him seeming as mad as one could be on the surface, she noticed he actually had a side to him that was attentive to details. While part of his wild nature was arguably due to his odd training, part of it was a gimmick to intimidate people. He was far from being some brainless muscle-bound fool.
Zero listened to everything Tiangou had to say before asking her next question, to which he answered, “Why am I still alive? Good question… He killed Kuanggu Sheng, yet he spared me. Perhaps he thought I would succumb to my injuries, or maybe he was aware guards were coming, so he ran. Either way, I don’t have a good guess. I’ll let you guess.”
A short while later, Tiangou fell asleep, and Zero quietly left his room.
Tiangou’s testimony was ironclad proof that there was an intruder, and the intruder couldn’t possibly be Wu Ping. Assuming the assassin caught Kuanggu Sheng off guard, which would make it possible for Wu Ping to be the assassin, how could Wu Ping have been the assassin when he was drinking all last night? How would he coincidentally show up on the far west of the base, coincidentally chance upon them fighting and then coincidentally find a perfect moment to dash in and then out? Moreover, Wu Ping didn’t have a weapon on him.
If Wu Ping was innocent, then they were in a pickle for the intruder was amongst them.
