Chapter 3839 — Inner Struggle

Even though Yu Jiang had been in frequent contact with Nan Tianyong, just how powerful a peak late-Foundation Establishment expert truly was, and whether a man in such a dying state could still muster the strength to rise up and kill—to Yu Jiang, all of this remained unknown.

Tempting as patricide was, until he had confirmed Nan Tianyong's true condition, Yu Jiang still dared not act rashly.

"Master, how are you feeling? Are your injuries serious?" Yu Jiang asked with feigned concern, all the while hiding the sword qi at his fingertips behind his back.

A long while passed, and Nan Tianyong did not speak—or strictly speaking, he was simply incapable of speech now. He was barely holding on to his last faint breath; were he to force words out, he would likely fail to draw the next breath and drop dead on the spot.

The top-grade true qi bomb Wei Zhao had been holding in for a full hour was no joke, after all. Its power was enough to pose a lethal threat to any peak late-Foundation Establishment expert—and what was more, in the instant Nan Tianyong was struck, his contempt had left him utterly unguarded, and Wei Zhao had even managed to hurl the true qi bomb right into his face!

At such close range, with such a terrifying attack, the fact that Nan Tianyong had survived at all, that he was still clinging to a thread of life, was already a testament to his formidable strength. Any other ordinary peak late-Foundation Establishment expert would long since have been a corpse by now—perhaps not even a whole one!

Seeing that Nan Tianyong could not speak at all, Yu Jiang relaxed a little, and furtively revealed his sword qi. Killing one's master was, after all, a monstrous transgression; even though Yu Jiang had already resolved to do it, when the moment truly came, he could not help but tremble inside.

"Tch, what's there to be afraid of? One stroke of the sword, and riches and honor—worth at least fifty years of bitter cultivation!" Yu Jiang silently cheered himself on, drew a deep breath, and prepared to behead his bargain of a master with a single stroke.

Yet just at that moment, from the direction of the market behind him, there suddenly came the sound of footsteps and a clamor of voices. Yu Jiang started in alarm, then quickly realized—these people must have been drawn over by the tremendous commotion from before!

Sure enough, the sound of discussion drew closer and closer.

"Look ahead—several hilltops have been smashed flat!"

"That's nothing. Look at this crater—my God, what kind of expert could do this? Could it be someone at Foundation Establishment great perfection?"

"Huh? There seems to be someone up ahead?"

"..."

At this, Yu Jiang panicked.

If there had been no one around, then killing this bargain of a master and pinning the blame on Wei Zhao would have been all benefit and no harm. But as things stood, with so many eyes watching, if he dared do such a thing and any one person with ill intent took notice, his fate would be utter and irreversible ruin.

Patricide could only be done in absolute secrecy. Should even the slightest hint leak out, he would inevitably become the target of universal condemnation—the Threefold Pavilion would want him dead, Nan Tianyong's kin and friends would want him dead, and even these onlookers would besiege him under the banner of justice.

From then on, Yu Jiang would be the enemy of all under heaven, with not a single inch of ground left to stand on!

Had his own strength already been unmatched under heaven, that would have been one thing—at worst his reputation would be ruined. But Yu Jiang was only at mid-Foundation Establishment. With such strength, to bear the monstrous crime of patricide would mean, without question, that his whole life from then on was destroyed, with no chance of ever rising again.

And yet such a temptation lay before him: kill Nan Tianyong, and it would be worth fifty years of his own bitter cultivation—and he could even blow the matter up, using the Threefold Pavilion to force that Lin Er out of hiding. If he let this chance slip, he would never have another in this lifetime.

To just give it up—Yu Jiang could not bring himself to accept it!

Seeing the onlookers drawn from afar coming closer and closer, Yu Jiang gritted his teeth hard, made his decision on the spot, hurriedly dug Nan Tianyong out of the earth at his feet and hoisted him onto his back, then without a word turned and ran.

"Someone's running!" a sharp-eyed onlooker in the back shouted, and a hubbub immediately arose.

But they had no idea what was really going on. Even those harboring thoughts of profiting from the chaos dared not rashly give chase.

The commotion just now had been far too exaggerated; at a conservative estimate, it would take at least an expert at Foundation Establishment great perfection to produce such a spectacle. Even if both sides of the clash had fought to mutual ruin, it was not something anyone present could handle.

To contend with an expert at Foundation Establishment great perfection—even one gravely wounded—one would need at least peak late-Foundation Establishment strength to have the nerve to fish in troubled waters. Otherwise, one might well fail to gain any advantage and instead get oneself killed.

But peak late-Foundation Establishment experts were hardly common goods to be found on every street—at least not on the outer streets of this market! For although quite a few onlookers had been drawn by the great commotion, not one of them possessed such strength.

As for the rest, lacking the strength, they naturally lacked the nerve to act rashly. In the world of cultivation, the strong preying on the weak was long taken for granted, and fishing in troubled waters or kicking a man when he was down was nothing to bat an eye at—but the prerequisite was having the strength to do so.

It was precisely thanks to this hesitation that Yu Jiang was able to carry Nan Tianyong away smoothly. Otherwise, with his mid-Foundation Establishment strength and his injuries, slipping away unscathed before so many passersby would have been a very difficult feat.

Carrying the barely breathing Nan Tianyong on his back, Yu Jiang did not run far. Reaching a quiet corner, he promptly stopped.

Drawing a deep breath, the killing intent in Yu Jiang's eyes was now even more resolute than before!

The reason he had carried Nan Tianyong to this deserted, quiet spot was not that Yu Jiang had abandoned the idea of patricide—quite the opposite. His sole purpose in doing so was to shake off those onlookers and keep them from ruining his grand plan.

Because Nan Tianyong and Yu Jiang, master and disciple, had been frequenting the market these past days, even the passersby could easily recognize the two of them. So Yu Jiang had never entertained the notion that he could remain unrecognized.

Once recognized, any move he made would easily leave loose ends. No matter how covertly he killed Nan Tianyong, the risk involved would still be enormous.

So Yu Jiang carrying Nan Tianyong off in front of so many people was not to conceal his identity. The one thing he truly wanted to conceal at this moment was simply this: whether Nan Tianyong lived or died!

Yu Jiang did not want anyone to know that Nan Tianyong was still barely clinging to his last breath!