Chapter 57: The Lost Loner
A furious, unwilling shriek rang out through the shattered wind and sand!
The wind settled, the sand fell, and the mountain path became clear once more.
That powerful demon clan expert from the Carefree List had vanished, leaving only a small pool of blood on the ground.
The man in blue still stood there, in the same posture—head bowed, shoulders slumped—only his right hand, exposed outside his sleeve, trembled slightly.
There was no sword in his hand. That brilliant, eerie sword light from moments ago seemed to exist only in imagination.
In fact, aside from special circumstances like Xunyang City, very few living people had ever seen his sword.
The scene was dead silent. People stared at the man in blue above the mountain path, utterly shocked, wondering who on earth he was. A hidden expert sent by the National Church to protect Chen Changsheng?
The demon expert who had been defeated in one move didn't recognize this man in blue.
No one recognized him—not even the most well-traveled among them.
Su Li had once dismissively commented on this man in blue, saying that any assassin with a name was a bad assassin.
But in truth, aside from figures like Su Li and Zhu Luo, who truly knew who the man in blue was?
Chen Changsheng knew who he was.
On the long journey south from the demon snow plains, this man in blue had been watching them in secret the entire time. At first, Chen Changsheng thought he was waiting for an opportunity to strike, but later he realized the man had been protecting them all along. Then, during the storm in Xunyang City, the man in blue finally drew his sword—one strike that completely reversed the situation.
Just like now.
He walked behind the man in blue and said, "Thank you."
The man in blue turned around, his face expressionless. "Even without me, he wouldn't have dared to kill you."
Looking at that ordinary face, Chen Changsheng suddenly noticed how truly forgettable it was. He had already forgotten whether the man had looked the same back in Xunyang City.
"Even if he wouldn't dare kill me, humiliating me isn't something I'd accept either."
"If it were before, I'd definitely have watched to see what tricks you had up your sleeve."
The man in blue looked at the sword in Chen Changsheng's left hand, clearly certain that Chen Changsheng had some hidden methods.
"Then why did you step in to help me so early today?"
"I can't let anything happen to you."
"Why?"
The man in blue looked into his eyes and said very seriously, "Because you are Big Brother's disciple."
Chen Changsheng paused for a moment before realizing who he meant by "Big Brother." He shook his head and said, "No, I'm not."
"You are Big Brother's disciple." The man in blue ignored his denial entirely. "So you are Big Brother's disciple."
Chen Changsheng felt helpless. "Even if Senior Su Li taught me swordsmanship, given your personality, you shouldn't care whether I live or die."
"The father's debts are repaid by the son; the master's debts are repaid by the disciple."
The man in blue looked at him with great seriousness. "He ran away, so you have to repay his debts for him. Of course I can't let you die."
Chen Changsheng didn't understand. "What debts?"
The man in blue said, "Back then, he brought us into this line of work, but then he ran off himself. Now he's run even farther away. That means you have to come back and keep leading us."
Chen Changsheng was stunned for a long moment before saying, "I recall you still have a number two?"
The man in blue said, "He went to chase after Big Brother."
Just then, a voice suddenly sounded from behind the two of them.
"That's a woman, isn't it?"
The speaker was Tang Thirty-Six.
The man in blue's expression froze slightly. He hadn't expected that the secret of the world's number two—the de facto chief assassin being a woman—would be guessed in one sentence.
Tang Thirty-Six said smugly, "You don't need to look at me like that, and you don't need to admire me. Who am I, after all?"
The man in blue suddenly looked at Chen Changsheng and said, "He reminds me of someone."
Chen Changsheng had heard that many times before and nodded with a knowing expression.
The man in blue turned to Tang Thirty-Six and said, "I don't like that person, so stay far away from me. Otherwise, I'm afraid I might not be able to stop myself from killing you."
Tang Thirty-Six was startled, thinking this guy was crazy. But remembering the man's earlier feat of injuring Xiao De with a single sword strike, his curiosity got the better of him. He nudged Chen Changsheng with his shoulder and said, "Stop with the nonsense and introduce us already."
"Tang Tang, from Wenshui," Chen Changsheng said. "This is Liu Qing."
The man in blue was naturally Liu Qing, the world's third-ranked assassin.
Hearing this very ordinary name, Tang Thirty-Six paused, feeling it sounded familiar.
Suddenly, it clicked. He stared at Liu Qing and let out a surprised shout, reaching out both hands to shake them. "Idol! Leave me your contact info!"
The thing assassins feared most was having their hands grabbed. Liu Qing was no exception, and since he already disliked Tang Thirty-Six, he naturally wouldn't let him.
Chen Changsheng suddenly asked, "Why do you like slumping your shoulders now?"
Back in Xunyang City, Liu Qing had been utterly ordinary—his demeanor and build were completely unremarkable, but he hadn't deliberately slumped his shoulders.
After all, deliberate or easily remembered traits were exactly what assassins needed to avoid.
Liu Qing said, "I learned it from Wang Po. I found it makes my sword faster."
Chen Changsheng recalled the flash of sword light in the wind and sand and realized Liu Qing's sword was indeed a third faster than it had been in Xunyang City.
An assassin at the Star-Gathering Upper Realm was already the most terrifying existence in the world. If his sword was a third faster, how terrifying would that be?
No wonder Xiao De, a demon expert ranked in the top five of the Carefree List, couldn't match Liu Qing even without being ambushed.
The storm in Xunyang City had changed him, Wang Po, Liu Qing, and even Su Li—for the better, of course.
"Remember what I told you. He ran away, but don't think you can." Liu Qing looked at Chen Changsheng very seriously.
Tang Thirty-Six had been listening for a while and finally couldn't hold back. "Making a future Pope the head of an assassin organization… are you even sober?"
Liu Qing was stunned. He had truly never considered this question before. It wasn't until Tang Thirty-Six asked if he was sober that he snapped out of it.
Yes, who would give up being the ancestor of Lishan Sword Sect to become some assassin leader?
And who would give up being Pope to become a killer boss?
What an absurd idea.
So all these years, he had been this absurd.
The expression on Liu Qing's face dimmed. Then he lowered his head, turned, and walked up the mountain path.
He didn't say another word to Chen Changsheng.
For some reason, his retreating figure on the path seemed so desolate, stirring a sense of sorrow in those who watched.
"What's with him?"
Tang Thirty-Six watched Liu Qing's fading form and called out, "Hey… you haven't left me your contact info yet, idol!"
Chen Changsheng asked, "Why do you think he showed up at Cold Mountain?"
Tang Thirty-Six reluctantly pulled his gaze away and looked at him. "Are you an idiot? Coming to Cold Mountain at this time means he's here for the Stone Boiling Assembly."
In this world, probably only he and Little Black Dragon would call Chen Changsheng an idiot.
"You're the idiot." Zhe Xiu's voice rang out from the side. "An assassin coming to the Stone Boiling Assembly is asking for death."
…
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(There will be another chapter at nine in the evening.)