Enigmatic Shadow
“Sh-Shifu, I am your disciple,” Chou Jinghuan begged on his knees, sticking with the humble and loyal disciple gimmick to the end.
“Disciple? You had your chance.” Tian Jiancheng clamped his fingers on Chou Jinghuan’s skull. “But my master wants you to die, so you cannot escape his will.”
“Please spare me! Shifu, I exchanged my soul points for the right to become your disciple. Killing me would mean dishonouring the promise. The system will crumble if you do not honour it.”
“To be candid, you may be scum, but you would be useful to me.”
“I am whatever you say I am. I swear on my life I will always be loyal to you and wait on you. I will be your loyal lapdog. Just please, please spare me.”
“I know you are capable of that much.”
“Shifu, I promise t-”
“Unfortunately, he wishes for you to die.”
Tian Jiancheng gave Chou Jinghuan’s skull a squeeze, letting all of the insides leak out. Tian Jiancheng ripped Chou Jinguan’s head off his shoulders, then fragmented it – an ending nobody saw coming. Tian Jiancheng then reported to Mu Yu in a folded posture, “Do I need to silence everyone present? They are witnesses to a secret.”
“W-we will never mention a word of what happened. Please spare us,” a man leapt to his feet to plead.
“He is right. You were merely taking out the trash; we could not have asked for more. You only killed him in self-defence. This is a secret between us,” swore Wei Ziqian.
Mu Yu tapped the floor with his foot, casting Divine Soul Formation on everyone to erase their memories.
“Are you sure you want to spare them, Sir?” inquired Tian Jiancheng.
“Should I kill them?”
“Please forgive me for being presumptuous.”
“I need you to take me to Celestial Star Sect. You can enter the secret areas, can’t you?”
“Yes, I have access to all locations on the sect grounds.”
“Let’s get moving, then.” Mu Yu evaporated Chou Jinghuan’s corpse. “Depart under the guise of taking Chou Jinghuan back to Celestial Star Sect. The guests will be your witnesses, so there’s no need to worry.”
“Understood. I, however, need to report back to Tian Houyang prior to that, or it might ruin your plans.”
Listening to Tian Jiancheng, it dawned on Mu Yu that Tian Jiancheng was incredibly methodical and logical, making him an ideal assistant unlike the other wild cultivators under Xiang Nan’s control.
“Go on. I’ll be waiting outside the city in an hour from now,” instructed Mu Yu, leaving the restaurant.
Once Tian Jiancheng ensured Mu Yu was gone and the guests were not cognisant of his actions before departing, arriving at a remote farmhouse unlike what he told Mu Yu. He exercised vigilance as he did in the restaurant prior to opening the timber door. A dark swirl appeared at the door, and he vanished.
Tian Jiancheng approached a black shadow roughly sixty-six centimetres wide at the centre of the spacious house that devoured all of the light in the surroundings, then performed a series of hand seals, transferring blue energy from his sleeve into the darkness. As the black shadow spun, the blue energy assumed the silhouette of a human.
Tian Jiancheng prostrated himself. “Your subject found him, Master.”
“What does he intend to do?” the silhouette emotionlessly questioned.
“Your subject is unsure. If your subject was to boldly infer, he should be planning to eradicate Celestial Star Sect.”
“Eradicate Celestial Star Sect, you say? … Has he noticed anything?”
“Not yet, presumably.”
“You know what to do.”
“Yes, Master.”
As Tian Jiancheng stood up, the shadow swallowed the blue energy.
***
Xuan flower trees were a popular tree in this world for their fragrance had the benefit of energising one’s mind. Unfortunately, the one outside the pavilion Mu Yu waited had not bloomed yet owing to the season of the year.
“Hey, Mu Yu, I want to eat a petal,” requested Xiaoshuai, bouncing up and down. “They’re supposed to taste like fried sugar crisps.”
Mu Yu unlocked his brows and gently ran his hand along the petals to have the tree bloom out of season.
Xiaoshuai snapped off a branch and tried a white petal. “What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing. Just something befuddling me.”
Tian Jiancheng appeared in the pavilion not long after Mu Yu sat back down. “Master Mu Yu.”
“Ready?”
“Yes, Master.”
“Let’s head to Celestial Star Sect now, then.” Mu Yu could not help himself from stealing a glance at Tian Jiancheng.
Previous Chapter l Next Chapter
