Chapter 3964 — The Birthday Invitation

Heavens! Ma Jian nearly wet himself with fright. A single round of Soul-Search Art was enough to leave a man simple-minded or crippled for life; a hundred or a thousand times over, and never mind his consciousness—even his brains would be squeezed dry!

"Soul-Search Art? You actually meant to use the Soul-Search Art on our young junior brother?" Shangguan Lan'er was briefly stunned, and then the way she looked at Ma Jian turned utterly unkind. Given her family lineage, even if she had never cared much for cultivation, she had still heard of the Soul-Search Art, and she knew perfectly well what side effects attended that wondrous technique.

Having said her piece, Shangguan Lan'er turned without another word and stormed out of the interrogation room, leaving everyone inside to stare at one another.

Time crawled by, drop by drop. Wei Zhao and Xiao Che sat off to one side in perfect ease—now that this young miss of the Shangguan family had stepped in, there was no need to worry about any further tricks from the other side. Ma Jian and Niu Qiang, by contrast, could not sit still for the life of them, and Ma Jian, the chief plotter, was sweating buckets, sick with dread.

After the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, Shangguan Lan'er returned, and even as she pushed the door open she was grumbling to herself in dissatisfaction: "That cold-faced ghoul really has no feeling for others at all—he would not even come out to see a young lady like me. Simply outrageous!"

At those words Ma Jian let out a breath of relief. Thank goodness the Hall Master, Gongyang Jun, had always been a cold sort who paid no one any mind; otherwise, if this young miss had actually gone before him to lodge a complaint, then even if he escaped death this time, he would never escape a living punishment.

Yet before he could properly count his blessings, he caught sight of the two experts in black-veiled masks who followed Shangguan Lan'er in, and at once his scalp prickled, the world spun about him, and he nearly fainted dead away on the spot.

Their attire alone made it clear that these two were not like ordinary Enforcement Envoys. They were called Black-Veiled Envoys, beings who existed solely to police the inner workings of the Law Enforcement Hall. Should any member of the Hall show even the slightest slip, once they fell into these men's hands, their fate was certain to be a life worse than death.

"Ma Jian, you stand accused of abusing your authority and using your office to settle personal scores. Come along with us," one of the Black-Veiled Envoys said in a low voice.

Then, giving Ma Jian no chance to speak at all, he stepped forward, and the fine steel chains in his hand came whistling out. Before Ma Jian could react, he was already bound fast about the body by those chains, the specially crafted barbs upon them biting into every joint, each one sunk deep enough to show the bone.

Ma Jian had not the slightest room to struggle. With a miserable howl he collapsed to the ground on the spot, and the least movement brought him agony beyond bearing. So he could only howl his way along as the Black-Veiled Envoy dragged him off before everyone's eyes, like a dead dog.

Wei Zhao and Xiao Che could not help but twitch their eyelids. The Law Enforcement Hall was indeed notorious as a den of fiends, its methods so cruel they made one's hair stand on end. If one could avoid coming to such a place in future, best to avoid it.

Just as he was being dragged to the doorway, Ma Jian gritted his teeth and made a desperate struggle, forcing his head around toward Shangguan Lan'er and Wei Zhao, his face full of grievance: "You... you clearly didn't see the Hall Master... how did this happen..."

Shangguan Lan'er stuck out her tongue and shrugged in imitation of Wei Zhao's usual manner: "I didn't see that cold-faced ghoul, it's true. But these two here said they had received orders from the cold-faced ghoul to settle this matter for me, so I brought them along."

At that, Ma Jian's eyes rolled white and he passed out cold on the spot, and thereafter he was truly like a dead dog, not even able to howl, as the Black-Veiled Envoys dragged him away.

As for what fate awaited him in the end, no one could say; but fall into the hands of the Black-Veiled Envoys, and misery was certain to be part of it.

Watching this unfold, Wei Zhao felt a secret chill. Gongyang Jun was worthy of his world-shaking reputation—nothing that happened in this little patch of ground that was the Law Enforcement Hall could hope to escape his eyes and ears. The only difference lay in whether he chose to involve himself.

He had to count himself lucky that his reaction had been quick enough; in the heat of the moment he had thought to have Shangguan Lan'er step in and help. Otherwise, had the Soul-Search Art truly been used, all his secrets laid bare before Gongyang Jun's eyes, he would never have taken a single step out of the Law Enforcement Hall again.

"All right, the score's been settled, and this place is so gloomy and so foul-smelling—let's hurry up and get out of here." Shangguan Lan'er pinched her nose with a frown. If not for saving Wei Zhao, she would never have set foot in the Law Enforcement Hall.

The three left the Law Enforcement Hall at once. Shangguan Lan'er had some matter at home to see to, so she parted ways with Wei Zhao and Xiao Che right there—but before she went, she left them a parting word: "My birthday is in a few days. You must remember to come, young junior brother!"

With that, giving Wei Zhao no chance to reply, she waved her hand and went off skipping away.

"Birthday?" Wei Zhao shook his head with a bitter smile. He had heard word of this long ago; it was back then that Meng Jueming had used the pretext of preparing a birthday gift for someone to set the precedent of trading scrap jade with him for fine jade. He had never imagined that gift was meant for this young miss, his own senior sister.

Given the friendship between Wei Zhao and Shangguan Lan'er, such an important day could not be slighted in either courtesy or principle—especially since she had just done him a great favor today, which made it all the more fitting to seize the occasion to thank her properly.

Only, with Shangguan Lan'er's standing as the foremost young miss of the Chongtian Pavilion, whether she wished it or not, there would inevitably be a grand birthday banquet—and when the time came, whether Wei Zhao, a mere newcomer of the Qingyun Pavilion, could even gain admittance was a serious question indeed.

After all, this was essentially a banquet of the Sanjie Pavilion's upper echelons; ordinary nobodies could never enter such a circle. As for his own attendance as a new arrival from the Qingyun Pavilion, Shangguan Lan'er herself would of course be delighted—but others might not see it that way.

"Never mind. If it really comes to it, I'll just have to grit my teeth and go. No need to linger overlong in any case—so long as my good wishes are delivered, that's enough." That was the decision Wei Zhao reached, and fortunately he had never set much store by face; even if people pointed and whispered then, he would not take it to heart.

With Wei Zhao and Xiao Che's return to the Welcome Pavilion, the mine-collapse affair at last drew to a close, and the many Qingyun Pavilion newcomers who had been watching and waiting, or nursing their fond hopes, now had to adjust their thinking and prepare for the arrival of a new era. The age of Meng Jueming had ended.

However one looked at it, Meng Jueming's sudden death had left the Welcome Pavilion with a great vacuum of power, and the contest among the various factions had only just begun.

Meanwhile, word that Wei Zhao had walked out of the Law Enforcement Hall unscathed soon reached Xu Lingchong's ears, and what truly shocked this young master Xu was not that Ma Jian had capsized in a ditch, but the role Shangguan Lan'er had played in it all! R1152