The Hall Master.
Whose Hall Master was she, and who was she?
The woman in black, addressed as Hall Master, did not turn around after hearing her subordinate's report. She didn't even speak, as if she hadn't heard it at all, maintaining her posture of standing with her hands behind her back, looking up at the distance.
The young woman dared not say anything more.
She remained in her bowed posture, unmoving.
Whoosh—
A breeze blew in from the direction of the sea.
Rustle—
The wild grass all around immediately made a sound, adding a touch of desolate "one only knows that all things are empty after death" to this already barren place!
A full five minutes later.
The Hall Master finally spoke, "Jingang. How long will it take those people to get here at their fastest?"
Jingang?
Who was Jingang?
It was the young woman—
Jingang replied clearly, "Because of the frequent large vehicles coming and going during construction, the road has been damaged and is very difficult to travel. Our people in the city estimate they will reach the foot of the mountain in forty minutes. Add another ten minutes of walking uphill, and the estimated time is fifty minutes."
"Mmm."
The Hall Master gave a faint hum and instructed Jingang, "You first take your people away from the resort. Su Ziyu is definitely accompanied by experts. If you are near the resort and reveal your presence, you will arouse their suspicion."
"Yes."
Jingang agreed, bowed, and retreated three meters before daring to turn and leave quickly.
"Today is the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Alas, another full moon night. When the full moon is in the sky, my face will change. Alas."
After two quiet sighs, the Hall Master slowly walked towards the back of the resort.
A half-finished building, wasn't it?
The front might still have had a bit of human activity due to the construction workers.
But the back of the half-finished building was even more desolate!
Especially the place where construction waste was temporarily stored. Apart from small animals like rats, no one would come here.
This Hall Master, dressed in black, with her face also covered by a black cloth, revealing only her eyes, stepped over the wild grass and came to the garbage dump.
Just looking at her back—
Her waist swayed lightly, her hips swung slowly, and every step she took was graceful.
If the scumbag Li Nanfang of the Heaven-grade were to estimate the Hall Master's age based on her back, he would only conclude, "She is no more than thirty-five years old this year."
In fact, it was not so!
The Hall Master's actual age was much older than the age signal her back conveyed.
The Hall Master stood before the garbage dump.
She looked at the pile of dilapidated construction waste and chuckled, "Who would have thought that such a desolate and barren place would be the burial ground of the last Gu King of Eastern Miao?"
Buried in this pile of garbage was a corpse that had died just yesterday.
The deceased was 64 years old.
The corpse's name was Lan Fenghuang!
A woman who could become a Gu King, even if she didn't have the terrifying skills of Yang Xiao; perhaps she wasn't even as good as Su Ziyu, a "black belt expert," but with her strange and sinister Gu techniques, she could kill people invisibly.
Unfortunately—
The person who suddenly appeared before the Gu King yesterday and shattered her heart with a single punch was the Hall Master of the War Demon Hall, Zhuang Wujian!
Zhuang Wujian was also one of the only two people in the East (she and Lan Fenghuang) who could raise Gu.
Lan Fenghuang's Gu techniques had almost zero effect on Zhuang Wujian.
Zhuang Wujian sighed softly—
"Alas."
"If Su Ziyu hadn't come looking for you, I wouldn't have thought that the dignified Gu King would be willing to live in seclusion here, even if you broke my head."
"With your abilities, how could you be willing to wait to die in poverty in this broken place?"
"If you had accepted my invitation to go to the War Demon Hall earlier, even if my financial resources were limited, you could have lived a happy life."
"But you refused my kind invitation!"
Zhuang Wujian shook her head incessantly.
She clasped her hands behind her back and paced back and forth in front of the garbage pile, "Before coming to Hancheng, I could never understand. You could predict that after you refused my invitation, I would definitely not let you go. Why would you choose to come to this broken place instead of the interior of Eastern lands?"
The garbage pile remained silent.
The corpse buried within, of course, could not speak.
"Only when I came to Hancheng, and you deliberately provoked me, allowing me to kill you with a single punch, did I begin to vaguely guess something."
The garbage pile was still silent.
The corpse buried within, of course, did not suddenly speak.
"After twelve hours of deep thought, it was only when I unintentionally saw this painting you left in the makeshift room that I suddenly understood everything!"
As Zhuang Wujian spoke, she took a painting out of her pocket.
It was a painting that had been around for a very long time, its paper starting to turn yellow.
The content of the painting—
Normal people could not understand it!
In fact.
Zhuang Wujian had looked at it for a long time before, in a moment of inspiration, she suddenly understood.
She lowered her head, looked at the painting, and slowly knelt down in front of the garbage pile.
She took out a lighter and ignited the painting.
The flames blazed—
A strange, subtle sound came from the flames.
Zhuang Wujian knew that these were the dying cries of some Gu insects that had been planted on the paper.
"Since I have understood everything, it is useless to me, so I will burn it for you."
After watching the painting burn to ashes, Zhuang Wujian slowly stood up, "From now on, I will be the only person in the world who knows all your secrets."
She stood with her hands behind her back again, looked at the garbage pile, and said faintly, "Let me tell you about the things I've realized. You can listen from the afterlife and tell me if my analysis is correct. If I'm wrong, you can send me a dream."
The garbage pile remained silent.
Only the rustling sound of the wind blowing through the wild grass sounded particularly harsh.
Zhuang Wujian spoke slowly—
"Actually, I heard about you having a child 22 years ago."
"But I didn't believe it. After all, you had high standards, and you were the Gu King. If you wanted a child, you wouldn't have waited until you were 42."
"But after reading the painting you left, hehe."
At this point, Zhuang Wujian couldn't help but shake her head and sneer.
"Who would have thought that the dignified last Gu King of Miao would have another child at the old age of 42?"
"And who would have thought that the child, as soon as she was born, was given away by you to someone else?"
"The child, after birth, was supposed to inherit the genes of our ancestor Zhuang Lie, like Hua Yin, born with a tail."
"But you used Gu insects to modify the genes of your own descendants to have tails."
"From this point of view, you are worthy of the title of the last Gu King!"
"Oh, right."
"If we go by the辈分 (generations) of our ancestor Zhuang Lie's descendants, I should call you 'cousin'."
"Cousin, oh cousin."
"Your branch of the family has been hidden in Miao for generations, refusing to fulfill the ancestor's dying wish of returning to Misty Village at all costs and by any means necessary. Relying on the Gu techniques originating from Misty Village, you have degenerated into a mere local Gu King, which is understandable."
"But what you shouldn't have done, what you absolutely shouldn't have done, is to make your child completely reborn, so that she would never know the ancestor's unfulfilled dying wish!"
At this point, Zhuang Wujian's gaze at the garbage pile became noticeably more ferocious!
The garbage pile remained silent.
The corpse hidden within did not crawl out of the garbage pile.
Only the wild grass, blown by the wind, made a rustling sound.
A few minutes later.
Zhuang Wujian's gaze returned to normal.
She continued, "Cousin, if I'm not mistaken, the child you gave birth to 22 years ago was a girl, wasn't she?"
Cousin remained silent—
Zhuang Wujian continued, "After giving birth to that child, you also made a deal with Shen Yue, that scoundrel who, with those bitches, occupied our Misty Village, didn't you?"
A bird cawed and flew over her head.
"The child you gave birth to—"
Zhuang Wujian looked up at the bird before saying softly, "is Du Junlin, the youngest daughter of Su Nan Yin, isn't it?"