clergé

Chapitre 12

Pang Wan watched his every move and suddenly said, "There's still some left to clean!" As she spoke, she snatched the handkerchief from his hand.

She wiped very carefully and vigorously, leaving no small spot untouched, until Wang Gang's skin slowly turned red and was about to peel off if she kept wiping.

Wang Gang endured the pain without uttering a sound from beginning to end.

"Forget it! No matter how you wipe it, it won't come off. Go ahead and wash it with something!" Pang Wan angrily threw down the handkerchief.

Wang Gang nodded, grabbed a bar of soap, and thoroughly washed his face in front of Pang Wan.

Pang Wan looked at him, as if she couldn't understand something, and her brows gradually furrowed.

Wang Gang had just finished washing his face and was drying it with a handkerchief when he suddenly heard Pang Wan's soft voice asking a question.

"Tell me, if you had a very precious treasure that the whole world coveted, where would you put it?"

Wang Gang was taken aback, then laughed and said, "If we can't take it with us, we'll build a maze and have the fiercest rare birds and the most elite subordinates guard it. If we can take this treasure with us..." He paused and said, "Of course, we'll keep it with us at all times."

Pang Wan nodded, seemingly finding his words quite reasonable.

Wang Gang asked curiously, "Is the young master looking for some kind of treasure?"

Pang Wan opened his mouth as if to answer, but then bit his lower lip in frustration, repeating this action over and over again, as if a battle was raging within him.

Wang Gang didn't say anything more, just chuckled, as if he didn't care about anything and hadn't noticed anything.

The two men and two horses left the inn that afternoon and headed towards the valley outside the town.

"Alright, let's part ways here!" Pang Wan bowed to Wang Gang.

"Young master doesn't want me anymore?" Wang Gang was shocked.

“I’m not your real master.” Pang Wan smiled. “In the future, I will inevitably cause trouble as I wander the world. You, a storyteller, are powerless and should not get involved.”

"Wang Gang is willing to take care of everything for the young master! He would die for him!" Unexpectedly, Wang Gang became relentless.

Pang Wan sighed, looked at his stubborn face, took out a silver ingot from her pocket and tossed it to him: "Here, severance pay."

Wang Gang reached out and took the silver, but then threw it back, shouting, "Money cannot buy my heart!"

Pang Wan smiled, tilted her head, and carefully examined the person in front of her.

Wang Gang felt a prickling sensation as he was stared at by such intense gazes. To ease his tension, he swallowed hard.

“You are not Wang Gang,” Pang Wan suddenly said slowly.

A glint flashed in Wang Gang's eyes, but his expression remained steadfast.

"Although I don't know where you learned your disguise skills, they are flawless, but I know you are not Wang Gang."

Pang Wan stared intently at him, her smile widening inch by inch.

"The real Wang Gang couldn't catch silver with one hand on horseback, nor is he someone who can't be bought with money. You've overestimated him."

Wang Gang didn't speak, but straightened his back, and a beam of cold light silently shone down from his sleeve.

"Why go to such lengths to get close to me?" Pang Wan seemed unaware of the impending threat, only curious about the man's intentions.

I'm interested in you.

"Wang Gang" finally spoke, his voice now clear and resonant, a magnetic male voice. As the voice rang out, the man on horseback instantly grew taller and more imposing, no longer the short and thin figure he had been before.

"...I'm also quite interested in your disguise skills." Pang Wan stared at everything in disbelief, muttering incoherently.

"It's quite an achievement that you, a young lady, could see through my disguise at such a young age."

Wang Gang gave her an approving smile and loosened the reins with his right hand.

In that instant of lightning and thunder, a silver light flew out from his sleeve and stabbed straight toward Pang Wan's chest—it was an incomparably sharp eagle claw.

Pang Wan, who had been looking dazed just moments before, suddenly leaped off his horse as the silver light flashed, flicking a white ribbon from his sleeve to immobilize himself in mid-air, thus avoiding the attack unharmed.

"If I can't catch you, I'll make you furious!" She made an ugly face at "Wang Gang" in the air, extremely smug.

Wang Gang pursed his lips and pulled out ten plum blossom nails from somewhere on his waist, then swiftly threw them all at Pang Wan's vital acupoints.

"What kind of hero uses hidden weapons!" Pang Wan shouted, swinging his white ribbon among the tree branches, deftly dodging all ten plum blossom nails.

Wang Gang missed again, but he didn't rush to attack. Instead, he rubbed his chin on horseback, looking thoughtful.

Pang Wan noticed that this person didn't seem to be in a hurry to kill her. Instead, he seemed to be focusing on probing her martial arts skills with each move. So, she blinked her eyelashes, rolled up her white ribbon, and curled up on the tree like a kitten.

"Hey! Do you want to know who I really am?"

She called out to "Wang Gang" not far away, her soft, childlike voice echoing through the mountains.

Wang Gang paused for a moment before replying somewhat reservedly, "Would the young lady be willing to tell me the truth?"

Pang Wan looked at his upright posture and arrogant demeanor with disdain: "You have to tell me first, why do you want to know my identity?"

After considering for a moment, Wang Gang said, "The weapon that the young lady uses is not something an ordinary person can obtain."

Pang Wan glanced at the golden whip at his waist, then touched the flaming needle in his sleeve, unsure which one he was referring to. He could only scratch his nose and ask, "Which weapon is so extraordinary?"

Wang Gang's gaze drifted to her sleeve: "Naturally, it's that..."

Before he could finish speaking, a divine whip suddenly descended from the sky and landed on his face with a crisp "smack".

Wang Gang was genuinely stunned. He had used his internal energy to protect all his vital organs, but he never expected that this person would directly attack his face.