Chapter 4951 — The Life-Debt Ghost
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
"Young Master Bao, didn't you nod your head in agreement when I first proposed this plan?" Su Kesheng shook his head in grievance, then smiled bitterly. "If not for that, how could we have gotten a chance to see this town lord so quickly? I reckon that even if the two of us stood outside shouting that his wife and son had been murdered, it would have been useless. Even if we did manage to stir up a commotion, the steward would have smothered it before it ever reached him. By the time we got to see him, the daylilies would have gone cold. And who's to say that fellow surnamed Lin wouldn't slip away in the dead of night?"
"That..." Bao Zuoliang was struck dumb. He was a city lord's son himself, and he knew every rule of these city lord's mansions and town lord's mansions down to the marrow. When you strike a dog, you watch its master—and if you never land a blow on the most important dog of all, the two of them would not be seeing the Life-Debt Ghost anytime soon.
Before the two of them had even finished their whispered exchange, a fierce wind suddenly came sweeping in through the main gate. Its force was so violent that the two of them—able hands at the early Mystic Ascension stage—could scarcely keep their footing. Yet strangely enough, the tables and chairs around them did not stir in the slightest, as though an invisible wall had split the guest hall into two separate worlds.
Bao Zuoliang and Su Kesheng were both startled out of their wits. Before either could make the slightest defensive move, two hands clamped down on their throats at the same instant, and a burly figure emerged from the gale—a middle-aged man with a hideous face and a manner of utmost savagery.
"Whose wife and son did you say had been murdered?" The middle-aged man regarded the two of them coldly.
The pair were frightened out of their senses. With their throats in the man's grip they could not utter a sound, and could only struggle wildly to no avail. Those two hands never budged an inch.
The middle-aged man was unmoved, and only when their faces had gone deathly pale and they were on the verge of expiring did he finally fling them to the ground. Then he stood over them, gazing down like a beast sizing up its prey, and terrorized Bao Zuoliang and Su Kesheng until their hearts quaked.
"You... you're the Life-Debt Ghost?" Bao Zuoliang stared at the middle-aged man in shock and dread—and then, with a loud bang, his whole body was sent flying backward, and whether he lived or died was anyone's guess.
"Speak. And if you also fail to know your place, you'll fare worse than he did." The middle-aged man fixed his cold gaze on Su Kesheng, the one left standing.
"Yes, yes. Town Lord Chang." Su Kesheng forced down the terror in his heart and drew a deep breath. "The two of us are disciples of the Morning Star Academy. He is Bao Zuoliang, and I am Su Kesheng. We both came over from Thunder Plains Isle just now."
"You took part in the Road of Giants?" Chang Minghui glanced at him. His own son, Chang Laiting, had entered that trial—otherwise, at any other time, he might not have cared about such trifling matters at all.
"That's right. Both of us have just come out of the Road of Giants, because something momentous happened. That's why we hurried here as fast as we could to bring you word." Su Kesheng spoke with great caution.
"Momentous?" Chang Minghui laughed at the word, a great booming laugh. "Don't tell me you're about to say my wife and son have been murdered? No such person exists in the Yellow-Rank sea region—especially not on the Alliance's own territory. Boy, you should know what happens to someone who spouts such crap in front of me."