Death Scripture

Everyone in the room was talking in whispers, lamenting Meng Mingshu’s death.

The last patriarch of the Meng family had committed suicide by drinking poisoned wine after killing several people. Even the residents of Jade City, who had long ago gotten used to murder, were shocked by that scene.

“There were bodies both upstairs and downstairs. He stabbed each of the seven or eight victims several times. He himself was the only one whose body had no wounds.”

“Was Meng Mingshu really that good? He was able to kill seven or eight people all by himself?”

“Actually, most of the victims had already died after drinking poisoned wine. He just wanted to make sure that none of them would survive.”

“Tsk, tsk. I really didn’t expect that Meng Mingshu… He had numerous gold ingots. He really left them behind just like that? Without even designating an heir?”

“Heh. Numerous gold ingots? Don’t mention them again. Meng Mingshu was either driven into a corner or hated Xiao Fengchai’s guts to the extreme. Otherwise, he would have never done this.”

“Xiao Fengchai… It’s such a shame. I visited her three years ago. She was a pretty nice woman. It was just that she was too greedy. Her hunger for silver ingots could never be satiated. Fortunately I quit in time, or else… ”

The topic of people’s discussion diverged. Some of them continued pretending to mourn Meng Mingshu’s death. Others started sharing their memories of the most famous prostitute of Retention Alley. It turned out that most of them had at one point spent a lot of money on her services. Immediately, they felt some kind of closeness to each other, as if they used to be classmates or from the same hometown.

A receptionist monk standing at the doorway was silently reciting scriptures with his eyes closed, but occasionally, he would hear one or two sentences. “Her skin was even more delicate than that of a teenage girl. I heard that she bathed in women’s breast milk every day… ” “I liked it the most when she whispered in my ear. Each one of her words was so considerate and tender that it made me as drunk as the best wine… ”

The receptionist monk, who was in his twenties, had been sent to a temple when he was still a young boy. Though he couldn’t quite understand the meaning of these remarks, he was still affected. His heart started fluttering, and he felt a surge of heat rise from the bottom of his feet and settle between his chest and his abdomen.

“I think that Meng Mingshu did a good deed before he died. That bitch got her just deserts,” a woman in her early forties said loudly, staring at the crowd with a confrontational look on her face. As one of the few women in the room, she expressed her thoughts as the representative of more than half of all the prostitutes in southern Jade City.

The men just smiled, but none of them argued with her. This woman owned dozens of brothels of different sizes in southern Jade City, and was in charge of nearly half of the human trafficking. She had never had a good opinion of Xiao Fengchai.

The receptionist monk quickly raised his head and shot a brief glance at that woman, and with that, waves of anger welled up inside of him. However, soon, his anger was replaced by self-repentance. When the head monk finally arrived with the honored guests, he hurriedly took his leave and started rushing into the temple. For the first time, he felt like these dignified buildings were restrictive.

The head monk, Fa Feng, was a little surprised by the receptionist monk’s gaffe, but he didn’t have time to find out the reason behind it. With a mild smile like a merchant’s on his face, he said, “Please take your seats, benefactors. Governor Pang is going to explain matters concerning this kung fu competition through which the Lord of Jade City will be selected.”

With a childlike smile, Pang Jing strode to the host’s seat in the innermost position of the room and stood there, facing the crowd. There was no grief on his face at all, as if he hadn’t even heard of Meng Mingshu’s death.

Everybody had heard that the other half of the Meng family’s money had been taken by Pang Jing. So, the rumors said that Meng Mingshu’s act of killing people was actually the Central Plains people’s conspiracy, but nobody could offer any specific details. Only a few smart ones had suspected that the gold ingots in the old mansion of the Meng family were actually counterfeits, and that Pang Jing had to take them all to cover up the truth.

The public image of the official assigned here by the Central Plains was no longer a rash man who was too hasty. The leaders of the various organizations and protectors in Jade City became more respectful and also more vigilant of him.

Pang Jing ignored this minor change in the people’s attitude and said in an excited tone, “The kung fu competition will be held in fifteen days. For the first time in almost a hundred years, Jade City will have a sole Lord.”

Polite voices of approval were heard. These people would rather not have a Lord, but all of them were rational people who knew that the best choice was to welcome the new Lord with hospitality.

“This is going to be a special kung fu competition,” Pang Jing continued. Watching the crowd, he felt faintly regretful as the Dragon King, the Unique King, and some other most important people were absent. They had each sent a henchman here to attend this meeting on their behalf. “Its purpose is to select the Lord of Jade City, and not to entertain residents. Thus, this kung fu competition is not going to be open to the public.”

The announcement sent a ripple of disappointment through the crowd. If they couldn’t see the kung fu competition with their own eyes, then how were they supposed to know the outcome before others did?

Aware of what these people were thinking about, Pang Jing immediately explained, “But all of the people present, including me, will, on behalf of all circles in Jade City, will be the eighty-seven witnesses of this kung fu competition.”

Cheers rippled through the crowd. In the blink of an eye, everybody in the room forgot about the tragedy of the Meng family. They liked this rule. They would be able to not only get first-hand information, but also display their status, which would provide them with a guarantee of their future gossip.

“The venue for the kung fu competition will be the Governor’s mansion. There will be only one fight a day. After the competition ends, that place will become the Mansion of the Lord of Jade City. The Norlander is willing to end his term ahead of schedule and give that mansion up to the new Lord.”

Many people pricked their ears up, trying to find some clues in his tone, but they were disappointed. The Central Plains man’s tone remained unchanged, as if he didn’t care about the occupation of his mansion at all.

“Today, the most important procedure before the kung fu competition will be carried out, which is the registration. Not everybody is qualified to enter the competition. Apart from having superb kung fu skills, the Lord of Jade City must also have wisdom. I think that nobody wants an uneducated person to be in charge of Jade City. Therefore, you are the only ones who are qualified to enter this competition. Of course, you don’t have to fight in the ring yourselves. It’s totally fine for you to find someone else to fight on your behalf.”

Everybody had heard of this rule before, but hardly anyone of them wanted to participate. They didn’t care whether they would be defeated or not. The key was they didn’t want to offend the new Lord of Jade City, as the entire Jade City believed that the new Lord of Jade City would be either the Unique King or the Dragon King.

The room was quiet for quite a while, and the atmosphere was somewhat awkward. Pang Jing let out a laugh. “It seems that whoever becomes the Lord will keep a low profile. Then I’ll state my stance first: the Central Plains will not participate in this kung fu competition. The Lord of Jade City must be a native of the Western Regions.”

This was also a message that everybody had known in advance, but there were still a lot of people who felt a wave of relief wash over them after they heard it from the Governor of the Western Regions himself.

“The Waning Moon Hall will participate,” said a voice from the corner. It was a young female who spoke. As if she had no idea how to appropriately communicate with people, she kept looking back at people directly with a cold and abrupt look, never avoiding anybody’s eyes. She had been in this room for a long time but this was the first time that she had spoken.

Pang Jing signaled the clerk beside him to start writing down names, and then smiled. “Great. Finally, we have our first participant. But, you have to give the name of the person who wants to be the Lord, and the one who will fight in the ring.”

“Lord of Jade City – the Master Commander of the Waning Moon Hall, Lotus. Fighter – the Master Commander of the Waning Moon Hall, Lotus.” The female said the names in a cold voice. Her answer was simple and direct. It sounded rather impolite, but she was setting an example which would be followed by all those who entered their names after her.

“Lord of Jade City – the Unique King of Golden Roc Castle, Shangguan Fa. Fighter – the same person.” A counselor in white entered the Unique King’s name on behalf of Golden Roc Castle. Everybody was quiet, paying due respect to this participant.

“Lord of Jade City – the King of the An Kingdom in Xiaoyao Lake, Tang Pingsen… ” faint laughs were heard in the room. All of them were familiar with King An and nobody believed that he could be the Lord of Jade City. “Fighter – swordsman Luo Qikang.” All the laughs stopped instantly. This Central Plains swordsman had long established his reputation as a top-notch, ruthless swordsman in Jade City. Nobody dared to sneer at him.

Meanwhile, everybody came to understood that the Central Plains wanted to interfere in this kung fu competition after all.

“Lord of Jade City, the Sect Leader of the Heavenly Mountain Sect. Fighter, sabersman Fang Shuyi.”

Some people were surprised that the Heavenly Mountain Sect wanted to compete with their own master, the Unique King, for the position of the Lord of Jade City. However, those beside them soon explained it to them. “This is the Unique King’s vanguard. You don’t think that the Unique King will fight against some nobody, do you?”

Fang Shuyi was a strange name that nobody had heard of before, which was very normal. Everyone expected him to be a former killer of Golden Roc Castle, who probably had done numerous great things and killed numerous people; as a killer, he had just probably never made his name known to anybody.

Naturally, the clerk had also never heard of this name before. He had to ask how the name was spelled before recording it down.

“Lord of Jade City – Shangguan Ru from the Kun Society. Fighter – Shangguan Ru from the Kun Society.”

This remark immediately caused animated discussion to spark. Shangguan Ru was the Unique King’s daughter, but she spent a lot of time with the Dragon King, and she had even become the “Queen” of the Land of Fragrance. After returning to Jade City, she had taken in the killer disciples of Golden Roc Castle under the name of the Kun Society. From the outsiders’ eyes, all the twists and turns of her life were incredible, and the people also felt that her stance was unpredictable.

Upon seeing that the people had started discussing, Pang Jing smiled. This was what he had expected to see. It would be very boring if the kung fu competition was merely between the Unique King and the Dragon King.

“Heh. If there’s going to be a fight between the Kun Society and the Waning Moon Hall, then it will be very interesting.” Someone suddenly thought of this, but he regretted saying it openly the moment he finished his last word. The female disciple of the Waning Moon Hall shot a cold glance at him. The faces of the representatives of the Kun Society, Golden Roc Castle, and the Heavenly Mountain Sect also darkened. The speaker hurriedly drew back and hid himself behind the crowd, no longer daring to say anything.

“Lord of Jade City – Chu Nanping from the Essence Pavilion. Fighter – Chu Nanping from the Essence Pavilion.”

The sixth participant’s voice sent a ripple of amazement through the crowd. “The Essence Pavilion? Haven’t all of their houses been burnt down and all their people killed? Who’s Chu Nanping? Oh, that’s him… ”

Chu Nanping had attended the meeting and entered his name on behalf of himself. In Jade City, he was more famous for his looks than his swordsmanship. Several men and women had been secretly peeping at him this whole time. At this moment, they all fixed their eyes on him. Someone even cheered him.

“Lord of Jade City, Shangguan Hong from the Barren Sect. Fighter, Shangguan Hong from the Barren Sect.”

Everyone who had been invited to this meeting in the Four Noble Truths Temple were powerful and well-informed, but most of them didn’t remember the Barren Sect that had launched a sneak attack on Golden Roc Castle several years ago, and none of them had ever heard of Shangguan Hong’s name before. They just instinctively felt that this man was no common person since he bore the surname of “Shangguan.”

“The Unique King’s bastard son.” News soon spread out and nobody dared to ask any further questions.

“Lord of Jade City – Governor Mo Chu. Fighter – sabersman Mo Lin.”

Someone immediately pointed out that this went against the rules. “Neither of them are from the Western Regions.”

Unexpectedly, Pang Jing behaved very tolerantly. “Mo Chu has been the Governor of Jade City for three years, so he counts as a native of the Western Regions and is qualified to compete for the position of the Lord of Jade City.”

Since the Central Plains didn’t oppose it, nobody intended to be a busybody.

So far, there had been eight participants. Others just wanted to look on, so they were very confused. ‘Why hasn’t the Dragon King entered his name?”

Zhong Heng, the Dragon King’s representative, had been listening passively the whole time, ignoring the curious gaze people were giving him.

“Does anybody else wanted to participate? Anybody else?” Pang Jing asked loudly. At first, his eyes swept through the crowd back and forth, but eventually, like everybody else, he fixed his eyes on Zhong Heng.

As if having just realized what was going on, Zhong Heng stood up and said, “The Lord of Jade City – Long Fanyun from the Big Snow Mountain. Fighter – the Dragon King of the Big Snow Mountain, Gu Shenwei.”

The whole room quieted down. Pang Jing suddenly smacked his fist onto the table, knocking the inkstone over.