Jiang Wang returned to the courtyard. The room he had slashed was crumbling, with debris and dust falling in a continuous stream. But he still hadn't hit anything solid.
"Surname Jiang!" Hu Shaomeng had finally appeared directly in front of Jiang Wang, already pushed beyond rage and anger: "What exactly do you want?"
"I want to kill you." This time Jiang Wang said it directly.
"You can't kill me, you can't even find me. So Xi Zichu has been driven away by you? Do you know how many Tenglong realm experts the Xi family has? When they all mobilize, hunting you down, even forming formations, do you think you can escape? Or do you believe the reputation of the Chongxuan family can protect you? Quickly returning the Azure Cloud Goat to the Chongxuan family, or fleeing with it yourself, is what matters, isn't it?"
"What if I compensate you with a thousand Dao Yuan Stones? Would that suffice?"
What answered him was Jiang Wang's sword energy surging wildly once more. Another room was pulverized, and Hu Shaomeng still hadn't shown his true form. Rooms collapsed one after another, rumbling like a house being demolished. The old, fat Hu You remained slumped on the steps, his expression gradually showing signs of change.
"Why don't you leave? I'll slash through inch by inch, and you'll eventually have to appear." This time it was Jiang Wang who asked. He could have shredded the entire courtyard in one go, but he had to consider the circulation of his Dao Yuan and the coordination of his breath. Whether attacking or retracting his sword, he maintained high vigilance, always keeping enough strength for multiple bursts. Hu Shaomeng was no weakling, and he wouldn't be careless.
"Don't think that just because this old thing Hu You is here, you can threaten me. If you want to kill him, go ahead. I don't care!" Hu Shaomeng's illusory form stood facing Jiang Wang, gnashing his teeth. "Perhaps you don't know, just before you arrived, I killed his mistress!"
That proves you do care... Jiang Wang sighed inwardly. But he couldn't bring himself to hold a sword to an old man's neck to force his son to appear. He had his "foolish" method. He had his "foolish" choice.
The violent sword energy swept out and withdrew again. Jiang Wang was not discouraged. Those people outside the courtyard had long since been thoroughly soaked. Several carriages only contained luggage and belongings. One of them, it seemed the horse pulling it had been frightened and was dragging the carriage away toward the street on its own.
At that moment, Hu You, who had been slumped on the steps, suddenly reached out, his finger trembling as he pointed at the carriage outside the courtyard: "There's a small mirror in that carriage, his true body is hiding inside the mirror!" He shouted in a hoarse voice: "Go kill him! Kill him! That bastard! Pretend I never gave birth to him!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the carriage suddenly accelerated! The horse pulling it went mad, turning and sprinting, on the verge of escaping. Sword light burst forth. The sun and moon traversed the heavens, the starry river spanned the sky. Jiang Wang held nothing back, unleashing the Sword of Sun, Moon, and Stars. Like sunlight, moonlight, and starlight, it flowed everywhere, reached everywhere. Once you saw it, you were already bathed in it!
At the moment Jiang Wang attacked, the carriage exploded on its own. On the seat inside the carriage sat a small bronze mirror. Oval-shaped, delicate, it looked like an ordinary vanity mirror of the kind a young lady might carry when going out. But from within the bronze mirror, a pair of hands burst out, one intact, the other with all five fingers severed at the tips, crudely bandaged. Hu Shaomeng's hands! Hu Shaomeng leapt directly out of that mirror. To save himself, he had no choice but to come out and fight.
He stepped upon surging waves and tides. Great waves surged before him, and dense swarms of sea serpents swam through the waves. One of the Fishing Sea Tower's signature techniques, the Surge of Serpents. It possessed both a majestic presence and agile variation. Starlight, moonlight, and sunlight fell in an instant. The sea serpents shattered, the waves parted.
Everlasting Longing pierced through Hu Shaomeng's body, dragging him back into the carriage, then crushing the entire carriage flat against the ground. The frightened horse bolted, dragging the reins and a few wooden planks, screaming as it ran off into the distance.
Jiang Wang stood with one hand gripping the hilt of Everlasting Longing, half-crouched beside Hu Shaomeng, about to deliver the killing blow. "Wait!" Hu Shaomeng coughed blood as he shouted. Moments ago he had desperately twisted and shifted, narrowly avoiding the vital points, narrowly avoiding dying on the spot. But now his life was in another's hands. With one surge of Jiang Wang's Dao Yuan, he would be finished.
Jiang Wang made a decision, striking directly with his sword energy to shatter Hu Shaomeng's Heaven-Piercing Palace, completely destroying his cultivation. He said nothing, but the meaning was clear: I may hear what you have to say, but I will not give you the slightest chance.
With his cultivation destroyed, Hu Shaomeng coughed up another large mouthful of blood. But he seemed to have prepared for this, breathing heavily as he forced out the words: "Before I die, I have one thing to ask of you."
"I won't agree."
"I'll exchange with you! I can't leak the secret techniques of my sect, but other secret methods I obtained on my own are not covered by the blood oath. The Precious Light Art, what do you think? I obtained it from an expedition in my early years. It was with this that I discovered the Azure Cloud Goat."
"What thing?" Jiang Wang added: "I've already promised someone your head. I can't spare your life."
"Zhu Biqiong? That foolish woman, just like her sister..." Hu Shaomeng cursed halfway through, unwilling to waste breath on them, and turned: "I don't ask to live. With my cultivation gone, what's the point of living?"
He looked at Jiang Wang, a strange smile suddenly appearing on his face: "I have a gift, to give to my father... Can you not kill him?"
"I don't intend to kill him." People often say one must eliminate the roots of trouble, and also say disaster should not extend to one's family. In the end, these are just reasons and justifications each person finds for their own actions. There is no absolute right or wrong. For Jiang Wang, he truly had no intention of killing Hu You. He harbored no hatred deep enough for that, nor did he care about possible retaliation. A man half-buried in the earth, with neither talent nor time. Killing him would not bring an ounce more peace of mind, and leaving him alive would not add a trace of tension. He acted only according to his own heart.
"That's even better." Hu Shaomeng gasped as he continued: "In my pocket, there's a Memory Stone. After I die, show it to him... show it to him. This one thing, is it worth exchanging?"
This was a small matter. The Precious Light Art—Jiang Wang didn't yet know its true value, but judging from the Azure Cloud Goat, it couldn't be too bad.
"I agree."
"You are a... a man who keeps his word. What you say, I believe." Hu Shaomeng finished reciting the Precious Light Art with difficulty, then looked at Jiang Wang and smiled that strange smile again: "Kill me now. Then, show it to him."
His gaze finally turned back to the sky. He seemed to see many familiar and unfamiliar faces. There was Zhu Suyao, whom he had abandoned after taking her innocence; the fellow disciples he had ambushed to seize their treasures; those innocents he had silenced to cover his tracks. Some had loved him deeply, some had harbored dark designs against him. He too had been truly loved, truly hated... And lastly, in a sky full of falling snow, two figures standing hand in hand in a doorway. A man and a woman. One was his father, the other his mother.
"You all... seem to hate me so much..." He murmured, smiling. He felt a piercing thread of sword energy pierce through his heart.