Chapter 1332 — We Took the Wrong Path — How Strong the Foe Must Be. Could This Be an Earth Rank Expert's Work? For an Earth Rank Expert to Hide Here, Unnoticed by Him?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Bang! A gunshot — Old Hei really had fired. Had Lord Hao never said "don't you dare shoot," Old Hei might not have been so reckless; but that one word, "dare," set his blood surging. Why the hell shouldn't I dare?
Damn it, my best man died and I don't even know how, I'm already suffocating with it, and you lot stand around making snide remarks, suspecting I staged the whole thing myself? So what if I blow your brains out with one shot? Old Hei had been goaded to the edge of breaking down.
Brother Keng never even had time to cry out before Old Hei shot him dead. Everyone present was dumbstruck, staring at Old Hei in something like terror. James and his men abruptly drew their guns and aimed them at Old Hei — he had no intention of becoming the second Brother Keng.
"Old Hei, what are you doing? How could you shoot a man dead?" Lord Hao reproached him angrily.
Wei Zhao cast Lord Hao a mild glance, unable to tell whether the man was truly a fool or merely playing one, or perhaps leaning on his seniority. He had provoked Old Hei like that — it would have been stranger if Old Hei hadn't fired.
"Lord Hao, you saw it yourself — he asked for death. He said if I didn't shoot, I'd be a son of a bitch, so I had no choice but to shoot." Old Hei gave a cold snort and turned to James. "Don't go stirring up trouble with the rest of them. Either that, or we all go down together!"
At this, Old Hei's men raised their guns as well, aiming at the men of Brother Keng and James.
"Enough! Even if Old Keng spoke out of turn, there was no need to kill him — am I not still here?" Lord Hao said, rather helplessly. "Right now, what matters most is getting out alive, not fighting among ourselves. Old Keng's men — if you're willing to come along with us, then come along; if you'd rather avenge Old Keng, then square off against Old Hei and fight it out, and I won't interfere. Settle your grudge, and then we head back at once."
Of Old Keng's men, all but two loyal followers saw their boss dead and had no mind to sell their lives for him any longer; at that thought, they lowered their guns one after another. But those two diehards suddenly made their move — and were shot dead by Old Hei's men.
As things stood, Old Hei plainly had the greater numbers. Avenging Old Keng was a fool's choice.
"All right, let's head back." Lord Hao said nothing more, only those few flat words.
The group went on hand in hand, slowly retracing the way they had come. This time no one dared move as quickly as before; they crept forward a small step at a time. But they had not gone far before they were forced to stop.
Because before them lay a fork in the path. By now no one remembered which fork they had come from, and there was no trace of lime powder on the ground either — plainly, Mr. Qiu was already dead by then.
"What do we do?" The men at the front halted and turned to ask.
James opened his mouth, meaning to blame Old Hei — it was he who had led the way out in front and gotten them all lost. But then he remembered how Old Hei had just blown Old Keng's brains out with a single shot, and he wisely shut his mouth. Among them all, he was the only foreigner; if it really came to blows, he would likely come off the worse.
"Lady Swallow, have a look — which path should we take?" Lord Hao paused to consider, then turned to Yu Xiaoke. "You are an heir of the Flying Swallow Sect; you ought to know something of mechanisms and hidden passages. Have a look at these two paths — which one leads out?"