Chapter 73: Assassination on Flower Street
This night in Inlaid Dragon City was destined to be exceptionally lively.
"Someone is following me."
As Qin Mu left the City Lord's Mansion, he immediately sensed someone tailing him. The cultivators from the mansion made no effort to conceal themselves, likely seeing no need to hide their tracks from a minor martial artist like Qin Mu. They simply followed him openly.
At this moment, flower-decorated floats were parading through Inlaid Dragon City. The city's merchants had constructed these floats, towering several zhang high, shaped like enormous mythical beasts and various gods and demons. Dancers performed gracefully atop the floats. The dancers were dressed in flamboyant attire, their costumes mimicking the stone statues from various villages. Walking along Flower Street, Qin Mu felt as though he had entered a world of chaotic gods and demons.
Flower Street was a cacophony of noise, earsplitting and overwhelming. People packed the streets, shoulder to shoulder, pressing against one another. Along both sides of the road, besides hanging lanterns, stood tall stone pillars topped with stone basins filled with blazing oil.
There were also performers on stilts, the stilts over ten zhang high, each step covering six or seven zhang. These stilt-walkers, all martial artists, held torches in one hand and gourds of oil in the other. They would take a mouthful of oil and spray it at the torch, producing fire serpents several zhang long.
The scene was lively and bustling, yet it carried the wild, untamed savagery of the Great Ruins.
As Qin Mu walked through the crowd, the sky suddenly blazed with light. Unnoticed, the air had become filled with countless fine threads, crisscrossing and interweaving. These threads suddenly expanded, transforming into enormous silver dragons that swam back and forth above Flower Street at incredible speed.
As the silver dragons moved, they revealed themselves to be composed of countless characters. Their movements produced a thunderous, demonic chant—obscure, profound, and incomprehensible.
Boom, boom.
Intense shockwaves erupted, accompanied by pillars of light shooting into the darkness above Inlaid Dragon City. The darkness absorbed the light without a ripple. Even the terrifying shockwaves vanished into the darkness like clay oxen sinking into the sea, leaving no trace.
The crowd below grew even more excited, cheering wildly, completely unaware that what they saw above was not fireworks but a fierce battle between terrifying experts. Fortunately, the shockwaves were directed upward into the darkness; otherwise, countless civilians below would have been killed or injured.
The silver dragons darted back and forth, and amid the flashes of light, several fearsome figures appeared like gods and demons. They were Inlaid Dragon City Lord Fu Yundi, Black Venerable, the sallow-faced woman, and others, clashing in midair.
Qin Mu moved quickly through the crowd. This was no safe place. Although the shockwaves from these experts' battle were directed skyward, what if one struck downward?
That would result in rivers of blood and countless corpses!
Thunderous roars echoed continuously above Inlaid Dragon City, rolling rapidly from east to west, swift as lightning.
Behind him, the cultivators from the City Lord's Mansion pursued. Even as Qin Mu wove through the crowd, he couldn't shake them off.
"What a strange night this has been. But I've caused trouble—I couldn't restrain my killing intent and slew the City Lord's son. I need to inform Granny and Blind Grandpa quickly and leave this place!"
Just as Qin Mu was about to quicken his pace, a dragon's roar sounded behind him. A cultivator, surrounded by a green dragon, lunged at him. Even from six or seven zhang away, the green dragon shot through the crowd, about to strike him!
Qin Mu prepared to dodge, but at that moment, a white silk ribbon descended from a building beside the street, wrapping around the cultivator's neck and lifting him from the crowd into a room upstairs.
Several young women rushed forward, concealing knives in their sleeves, and stabbed them into the cultivator's chest.
Qin Mu looked up and recognized them as the young ladies who had invited him to come play when he first entered the city.
He continued forward. Passing an alley, a cultivator in a bamboo hat stood there. As Qin Mu passed, the man shook his body, and a towering wave surged from the alley, coiling like a giant serpent, opening its mouth to bite Qin Mu. Silver fish hidden within the wave were likely spirit weapons.
At that moment, a blacksmith's shop stood next to the alley. The blacksmith, a giant over one zhang and six or seven chi tall, was forging a long iron blade. The handle was one zhang five chi long, and the blade one zhang six chi. The giant grabbed the sword and thrust it through the wall into the alley, piercing the bamboo-hat cultivator's chest and pinning him to the wall.
Then the giant blacksmith withdrew the blade, wiped off the blood, and continued forging as the furnace blazed.
Qin Mu stood stunned, then moved on. On Flower Street, drums and gongs thundered. Figures leaped and bounded across the rooftops of nearby buildings—cultivators from the City Lord's Mansion, rapidly closing in on Qin Mu.
One cultivator jumped down, but before he landed, a snake from a snake charmer's cage suddenly raised its head. The snake's head grew enormous, opening its mouth to swallow the falling cultivator, then shrank back into its cage.
Several other cultivators landed and pushed through the crowd. One passed a tavern, where a waiter, happily watching the flower floats, suddenly grabbed a large wine jar and, without explanation, slammed it over the cultivator's head. The cultivator fell into the jar, his flesh and bones dissolving into a pool of wine. The waiter set the jar aside and sealed it.
Other cultivators from the mansion met various fates: one encountered a drunkard in the crowd and was incinerated by a blast of fire; another was assassinated, his throat slit in the crowd; yet another was pulled into a flower float by a woman and vanished without a trace.
As Qin Mu walked, he witnessed all this, his heart filled with doubt and unease. The City Lord's Mansion had sent many cultivators to hunt him, but they all died silently in the crowd.
"Who is helping me? Could it be the Demon Sect? Do they have such a strong presence in the city?"
He arrived at the inn and was about to enter when he spotted Blind.
Next to the inn was a gambling den. Two men in black were dragging Blind out and throwing him to the ground. One of them kicked Blind hard in the backside and spat, "Blind as a bat, and you still dare to cheat right in front of us? You think we're blind too?"
Qin Mu hurried over. Blind had already picked himself up, dusted off his pants, and called toward the gambling den, "My bamboo staff!"
The door creaked open, and a bamboo staff was thrown out, hitting Blind on the forehead.
Blind picked up his staff and chuckled, "Bad luck this time. Next time, I'll make sure you can't tell I'm cheating, and I'll win back everything with interest! Mu'er, is that you? Speaking of which, I saw something interesting tonight. A big mother bird dressed up all fancy and went out for a stroll, with a little male bird tagging along."
Qin Mu was puzzled. "Just two birds—what's so strange about that? Blind Grandpa, let's go back to the inn."
They returned to the inn's guest room. Granny Si's startled cry came from inside. Qin Mu hurried in to find Granny Si holding a money pouch, looking astonished.
Qin Mu was dumbfounded. He quickly pushed open the window and looked outside. The silver dragons formed from the Great Cultivation Demon Scripture were still battling the terrifying experts above Inlaid Dragon City. He turned back to see Granny Si in the room, leaving him utterly confused.
"Could the sect leader's wife I met in the City Lord's Mansion not be Granny Si?"
Qin Mu's heart grew even more uneasy, but he smiled and said, "Granny, did you just return? I brought some food for you and Blind Grandpa." He took out an oil-paper package, placed it on the table, and gently unfolded it.
Granny Si's dim, aged eyes showed a hint of emotion. She sat down shakily and smiled, "Mu'er is quite filial. What's with this bag of dragon coins?"
Qin Mu glanced at her eyes, puzzled. Granny Si's gaze was indeed very similar to that of the Demon Sect leader's wife, and the scent of rouge on her was identical.
But then why were the silver dragons from the Great Cultivation Demon Scripture still outside?
He steadied himself and recounted his experience in the alley.
Granny Si's expression turned strange. She stammered, "You turned one dragon coin into over three thousand? If I'd known you had so much money, I would have gone out carousing long ago instead of scrounging for food and drink."
Qin Mu then told her about meeting the beautiful woman in the City Lord's Mansion and what had happened there. "Granny, I killed the City Lord's son. This place isn't safe—we need to leave as soon as possible!"
Granny Si pulled a jade hairpin from her hair and waved her hand. A fine thread flew in from the window, automatically winding around the hairpin. In a single breath, it formed a spool, which she tossed into her basket. She laughed, "I turned the Inlaid Dragon City Lord's wife into a cow, and you killed his son. That City Lord Fu is truly unlucky. But even worse things await him. He's done too much evil—this is his due retribution. Keep those dragon coins for yourself; they might come in handy someday."
Outside, earth-shaking roars erupted. One voice, belonging to Black Venerable, shouted fiercely, "The sect leader's wife has escaped!"
"Search everywhere! We must find her!"
"The darkness outside is impenetrable—that demoness can't leave the city!"
...
Blind listened to the commotion outside, then suddenly said, "That young General Qin is still staying here. He has the Yong River geographical map, so he must be waiting for the Yan Kingdom National Teacher. The National Teacher is about to launch a campaign into the Great Ruins. This city of Inlaid Dragon will be the first to bear the brunt. Young General Qin is staying in the City Lord's Mansion, which means Fu Yundi has already reached an agreement with him. When the time comes, Inlaid Dragon City will be the first stronghold for invading the Great Ruins. This city is large enough to hold hundreds of thousands of troops."
Granny Si smiled slyly. "So Fu Yundi is going to die."
Blind nodded. "He must die. Mu'er killed his son. If Mu'er leaves the city, Fu Yundi will surely pursue him. That will be his moment of death. The Great Ruins are not a place for the Yan Kingdom National Teacher to set foot. He'd best go back where he came from."
Qin Mu looked at Blind, then at Granny Si, unsure what scheme they were cooking up.
But strangely enough, Granny Si had never brought Blind into the city before, yet this time she insisted on taking him. Qin Mu hadn't thought much of it earlier, but now it seemed suspicious.
Blind had been in the gambling den the whole time without going out—how could he know what happened in the City Lord's Mansion?
Unless Blind had been there too?
"Mu'er, get some sleep early. Tomorrow, your granny might just become the City Lord of Inlaid Dragon!"
Qin Mu slept in the outer room, while Granny Si slept in the inner chamber. Just as Qin Mu was drifting off to sleep, he heard Granny Si tossing and turning inside, muttering to herself, "Too excited to sleep! Tomorrow, not only will I move the dragon pillars of Inlaid Dragon City back home, but this whole city will be mine! No, I can't sleep. Hehehehe..."