The Death of Guichen

“What an insidious plan!” Zhuang Xun felt a chill in his heart, raising his estimation of Xu Wenli's danger level by several notches.

If this had happened to him, he would never recreate that clone again for as long as he lived!

He had to be on guard. He absolutely could not let his guard down against someone who resorted to such unscrupulous means.

“And then there's Ye Guichen...” Zhuang Xun pondered.

He had no grievances or animosity with this person. When Ye Guichen asked him for help, he hadn't openly refused him either. Logically speaking, even if Ye Guichen wanted revenge, he wouldn't target him. However, he couldn't rule out the possibility of the guy completely blackening and wanting to kill everyone in the martial academy, so he still had to be careful.

“Let's observe the situation first. I'm in the dark while they are in the light. Besides, those two are each other's primary targets of hatred.”

“But I can't be careless either. Yes, I'll use the Debt-Lending Bladesman to keep an eye on both of them.”

“And I need to let Ye Guichen know that the one who set him up was Xu Wenli.”

“Hmph, I'll sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight. Fight, fight...”

Having made his plan, Zhuang Xun immediately began his preparations.

However, on the very next day, an unexpected event occurred.

Ye Guichen was dead.

The one who killed him was Tang Wanrou's father.

Upon learning that his daughter's reputation had been ruined, this furious Seventh Rank martial artist traveled through the night, tracked down the despondent Ye Guichen in the slums outside the Wanxing Market, and tortured him to death on the spot.

No one stopped him. Avenging one's daughter was a righteous deed, and everyone cheered.

Ye Guichen's corpse was left to rot there with no one to bury it, and the surrounding area was even covered in insulting graffiti.

Among the onlookers, Xu Wenli looked at the tear stains and frozen agony on Ye Guichen's face, a morbid smile playing on his lips.

“No matter how much of a genius you are, didn't you still end up falling by my hand...” He licked his lips, engraving this expression deep in his mind before turning to leave.

Rain suddenly began to pour from the sky, dispersing the crowd and diluting the mottled bloodstains on the muddy ground.

On the deserted, filthy street, a man wearing a bamboo hat and a scholar-martial robe walked over from afar, stopping beside Ye Guichen's corpse.

He carried no umbrella. Rainwater dripped from the brim of his bamboo hat, passing by an eye that was calm to the point of being cold-blooded.

Zhuang Xun's heart felt heavy.

He did not know if Ye Guichen's death was a coincidence or the result of Xu Wenli's meticulous calculations.

If it was the latter, then this person was truly terrifying.

“But whether it is the former or the latter, you will not escape the fate of death.” Zhuang Xun took off his bamboo hat and covered Ye Guichen's distorted, agonized face.

Ye Guichen's death was too abrupt.

So abrupt that it made him realize a mistake he had been making recently.

This was a real world. There was no such thing as a protagonist. Even with immense fortune, a single mistake could lead to being killed.

“I am no exception.” This was precisely why Zhuang Xun resolved to kill Xu Wenli.

He was destined to raise his strength to Nine Stones to participate in the promotion assessment. At that time, as the last one to master a great perfection-level martial art, he would be Xu Wenli's greatest obstacle.

Even though Liang Shaohua had told Xu Wenli not to lay a hand on Yan Pingsheng, what if? Xu Wenli was a psychopath after all.

Zhuang Xun would never place his life and safety in the hands of others.

Rather than waiting for the other party to strike and then frantically counterattacking, it was better to strike first.

Having made up his mind, Zhuang Xun picked up Ye Guichen's body, leaped several times to leave the slums, and mounted the black horse tied to a tree on the hillside. After spending an entire afternoon, he found a distant, deserted hill and dug a grave to bury Ye Guichen.

Afterward, he found a stone of suitable shape to serve as a headstone. Using his left hand, which he wasn't accustomed to writing with, he channeled Six Harmonies Force to carve two crooked characters onto it: “Guichen.”

“Burying you is already the absolute limit of my kindness. Don't even think about me clearing your name; it's too much trouble.”

...

Late at night, a dark shadow moved like a ghost between the dormitory buildings.

Zhuang Xun silently slipped into Xu Wenli's dormitory. Looking at Xu Wenli lying on the bed, he slowly approached, stared at the other's peaceful sleeping face, and raised his blade high.

The head was severed from the body, and blood flowed down to pool on the floor.

The calculating schemer died just like that, defenseless in his sleep.

After confirming Xu Wenli's death, Zhuang Xun turned and left.

In the middle of the night, a roommate who woke up groggily after smelling blood saw the blood-soaked floor and the decapitated body. Jolted wide awake in an instant, they collapsed to the ground, screaming in sheer terror.

“Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!”

Inside Yan Pingsheng's dormitory.

Lying on his bed, Zhuang Xun rolled over, covered his ears, and muttered along with his roommates,

“Who is that, screaming like that in the middle of the night?”

Soon, many candles lit up in the Sparse Bamboo Residence.

Before long, the Law Enforcement Hall disciples arrived and swarmed into Xu Wenli's dormitory. However, even after analyzing the scene for a long time, they couldn't figure out who the killer was.

Someone mentioned the Debt-Lending Bladesman, but was quickly dismissed by another, as no woodcutter's cleaver had been left at the scene.

This was Zhuang Xun's little clever trick.

Leaving a woodcutter's cleaver every time he killed someone meant that when he occasionally didn't, others wouldn't suspect the Debt-Lending Bladesman for the crime.

The last time he left the cleaver, it was mainly because Zhong Youqi was connected to Yan Pingsheng, so he had to use the Debt-Lending Bladesman to divert the Law Enforcement Hall's attention.

But this time, it wasn't necessary. Yan Pingsheng had no grievances with Xu Wenli; they didn't even know each other. Besides, it wasn't good to have the Debt-Lending Bladesman show his face too often at the martial academy.

Ultimately, Xu Wenli's death became an unsolved case, a nightmare for countless Outer Court disciples.

Upon learning what Xu Wenli had done before his death, Liang Shaohua and the others grew even more terrified, suspecting that Ye Guichen's ghost had returned for vengeance.

Liang Shaohua was so scared that he didn't dare stay in the martial academy anymore, returning to the Liang Manor in Zechuan City that very morning.

In fact, quite a few others did the same.

After all, two people dying in the Outer Court within just half a year was simply too terrifying.

However, they were all ordered back by the martial academy, warned that if they did not return within a week, they would never be allowed back.

At the same time, the martial academy increased the intensity of night patrols and replanned the academy's patrol routes, a task for which Chief Disciple Bai Yujing was given full responsibility.

“Please rest assured, everyone! With me here, these scoundrels who only dare to kill in the dark shall not run rampant!” (Vow + Serious Face)

After finishing the patrol routes, only fifteen days remained before the promotion assessment.

Feeling light and free of burdens, Zhuang Xun thought to himself that it was time to work hard!