White Robe - Chapter 42
"But..." I hesitated, then slowly said, "Being with me has brought so much trouble for no reason... all these life-and-death situations..."
Shang Shaochang laughed and said, "Little girl, how could there be any trouble with you? Isn't there a saying? 'To die under the peony is to die a romantic death!' He leaned down and whispered in my ear, 'A man will do anything for the woman he loves!'"
"You—" I suddenly felt my cheeks burning, and I couldn't help but clench my fist and punch Shang Shaozhang's chest. I raised my hand high, but when it fell, it landed lightly on him.
Although this journey is fraught with danger, and we never know when an assassin will come knocking, hearing him joking with me now fills me with a deep sense of sweetness and warmth.
If it weren't for those horrible killers, how wonderful this scene would be.
Shang Shaozhang grasped my right hand as I pounded down and laughed, "Come on, let's play a riddle." He casually picked up a pebble from the ground, held it in his hand, crossed his hands behind his back a few times, and then held it tightly in both hands when he stretched it out. He laughed, "You guess, which hand has this stone in?" Seeing that I frowned slightly and bit my lip, he teased, "If you guess wrong, you'll be punished a little."
When I heard Young Master Shang say "a little punishment for you," my face flushed again. I secretly thought that this kid's punishment was probably tinged with eroticism. I stared intently at his hands, thought for a moment, and then pointed to his left hand, saying, "Here!"
Shang Shaozhang laughed and said, "Come and see." He opened his left hand, but it was empty.
I murmured, "Could it be in the right hand?" Young Master Shang opened his right hand, only to find it empty!
I exclaimed "Ah!" and immediately understood what had happened! It turned out that when he put his hands behind his back, he had already placed the pebbles there; his hands were actually empty, a little trick he'd given me. Thinking of this, I scolded, "You cheated! How can this count!"
Shang Shaochang smiled ambiguously and said with a sly grin, "How can it not count! Come on, let Brother Shang give you a kiss!" With his left hand, he pulled me back into his arms as I was about to stand up, saying, "I'm determined to kiss you!"
This time, Young Master Shang pulled me into his arms with such speed and swiftness that I was unable to break free and let him hold me. Just as I was about to resist, I suddenly heard Young Master Shang whisper in my ear, "Don't move!"
I was startled and immediately froze. Young Master Shang's left hand gripped my waist tightly, and all I could hear was a faint metallic scraping sound—the sound of a knife leaving its sheath.
I looked at his right hand, and saw that Shang Shaochang's strong right hand was gripping the hilt of his sword, and his world-famous Autumn Water Blade was slowly being drawn from its sheath.
As the Autumn Water Blade slowly came out of its sheath, Shang Shaozhang, who had just been joking with me, suddenly seemed like a completely different person!
Calm, stern, composed, and ruthless!
The current young master Shang exudes an unusually oppressive aura!
The aura of an assassin!
This is the true face of the world's number one assassin, though there is no distinction between senior and junior.
"Come on, let's play a riddle?"
"If you guess wrong, you'll be punished a little."
"Here!"
"Come and see."
"You're cheating! How can this be considered a valid argument!"
"Why doesn't that count! Come here, let Brother Shang give you a kiss!"
In the empty air, a voice suddenly came from nowhere, sounding neither male nor female, yet neither. It sounded incredibly eerie in the dark night, sending a chill down my spine and making me shudder. Especially since it was the same conversation I had just had with Shang Shaozhang, it was even more frightening.
Shang Shaozhang said slowly, "It's better that you came out. Assassins hiding behind the woods pretending to be ghosts to scare people usually don't kill anyone."
As soon as Shang Shaochang finished speaking, a person dressed in black suddenly emerged from the dark woods in front of the Earth God Temple.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that "he" was pulled out. It was as if "he" was being pulled out by a thread, and he was pulled out smoothly until he stopped about twenty meters away from us. In the flickering firelight, he swayed and disappeared, like a ghost that had come from hell.
The face of this "ghost" was actually that of a puppet! And it was actually sculpted to look like me! A hemp rope was wrapped around its neck, and blood was constantly dripping from its eyes and mouth.
"Looking at your own appearance after death, I wonder what the White-Robed Minister will think?" The puppet, as big as a real person, moved its mouth and actually spoke. Its extremely strange voice rang out again in the night, like the chattering of a night owl.
If I was somewhat afraid at first, now I am filled with complete disgust and contempt.
I slowly straightened up from Shang Shaochang's embrace and said coldly, "I only have one thought—" I smiled, but a cold glint flashed in my eyes as I said, word by word, "It's that although I used to think I wasn't good-looking, I wasn't as ugly as you are now. If you want to impersonate me and go around scaring people, please at least try to look convincing!"
"You—" the thing, whether real or a puppet, let out a strange cry, and a steel knife suddenly appeared in its wooden hand, lunging straight at us from the air—
I only heard Young Master Shang give a cold laugh and slowly say:
"Overestimating your abilities!"
As soon as he said "no," Qiu Shui Dao flew like a dragon in the sky, bringing with it a trail of water-like blade light, heading straight for the puppet!
When he uttered the last word "force," the puppet had already shattered into at least seventy or eighty pieces.
Scattered wooden blocks lay scattered on the ground, with a few thin steel wires strung across them. The puppet could move in the air, all thanks to these wires! But how did it "speak"? Looking at these lifeless wooden blocks on the ground, my unease only grew stronger!
"Excellent swordsmanship!"—Suddenly, that shrill, half-male, half-female laughter rang out again from all directions, its sound even louder and more piercing. Suddenly, with a few swift movements, more than a dozen figures sprang from the woods, all clad in black, swaying and bobbing in mid-air, their faces all shaped like wooden puppets. A voice, sinister and menacing, seemed to come from one of the puppets: "However, it seems that tonight, it is you who has overestimated yourself."
Shang Shao's pupils slowly constricted, his fingers gripping the knife clenched and unclenched, the veins on the back of his hand bulging, and he said, "Is it Li Kuilei, one of the four gentle assassins?"
The eerie voice spoke again: "Very well, very well. In front of the world's number one assassin, what place do we have? It's a pleasure to have my humble name mentioned."
Shang Shaochang smiled lightly and said, "I wouldn't dare. It's just that I've heard that Li Kuilei is the most cowardly assassin in the world, hiding in a piece of wood every day and never seeing the light of day. This reputation is known to everyone in the world."
This remark was both insulting and derogatory; Li Kuilei's face was probably flushed red enough to show through his wooden frame.
Perhaps still reeling from those words, the eerie voice spoke in a chilling tone after a moment: "Those with guts have all died at the hands of this coward. You two with guts will not be any different today." The eerie voice suddenly turned shrill, shouting, "Because my soul, my spirit, everything I am, is attached to this wood. These puppets are all my substitutes. You can kill one, but you cannot kill many!"
A slow smile appeared on Shang Shaozhang's lips as he said, "Is that so?"
As he uttered the last word, the Autumn Water Blade in his hand moved—
Instead of striking the puppets that were pretending to be gods and ghosts, he slashed at the fire in front of him.
With a single slash, sparks flew everywhere.
Sparks flew straight towards the puppets, like countless glittering stars.