Chapter 100 - 99: The Noble Families’ Compromise
"Mad, completely mad!"
"That lunatic, what the hell does he want to do!"
"He... he..."
All the patriarchs were roaring hysterically.
The experts from the Noble Families were falling one after another, only the members of the Wu Family remained uninvolved.
The people from the other families all turned their eyes to Wu Yang.
Second Master Wu, standing next to Wu Yang, gripped his sword with hesitation,
At this moment, the only ones barely able to stop Gu Zhan were a few of their Wu Family’s Innate Martial Artists. The other five families’ Innate Experts had already been chopped down by Gu Zhan; there weren’t many masters left among the patriarchs’ entourages. If the Wu Family didn’t step in, no one could halt the rampaging Gu Zhan.
But then, Wu Yang suddenly pressed down Second Master Wu’s hand, and said in a deep voice, "Do you have the confidence to kill Gu Zhan?"
Second Master Wu’s mouth twitched fiercely. Looking at Gu Zhan, who was hacking and slashing through hundreds, even thousands of people on the main street, he couldn’t help but shudder, saying, "If we join forces, we can hold him back for a while, but..."
While speaking, Second Master Wu quietly glanced at Rong Yichu, not far away, standing calmly.
At that moment, Rong Yichu was surrounded by a large group of elite Embroidered Uniform Guards, including members of the Crossbow Team.
Second Master Wu’s attitude was obvious,
they could barely restrain Gu Zhan, but if Rong Yichu and his men acted, their "restraint" would be a pathetic joke.
Wu Yang said gravely, "Since there’s no point in intervening, why should we act? If our Wu Family steps in now, we won’t have any room to maneuver later!"
The other family heads all looked ashen; one of them said, "Lord Wu, are you just going to sit and watch this madman Gu Zhan slaughter on like this?"
"What else can we do?" Wu Yang snapped, "Wasn’t it you people who acted stupidly? What are we doing right now? This is about exterminating entire clans with collective punishment. And yet, at such a critical moment, you still tried to scheme against Gu Zhan. Who are you going to blame for this mess?"
All the family heads exchanged looks in silence.
That night, the stars and moon were brilliant,
in Linjiang City, a God of Slaughter, drenched in blood, dual blades in hand, swung his knives again and again, hacking wildly—everywhere he passed, there were miserable cries across the city,
"Run!"
Countless Martial Artists and experts screamed in terror and fled in panic. Whether they were underworld bosses or renowned Martial World figures, they were all chased down by those two blades, scattering in defeat.
One man, two knives, pursued over a thousand men, hacking from one end of the street to the other—and back again!
He hacked so many that terror took hold of everyone,
The street he left behind was packed with corpses and rivers of fresh blood,
When he once again strode to the Hundred Households Office gate,
in that instant, everyone seemed to see the gates of hell opening. Amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood, a God of Slaughter walked out, radiating endless murderous intent!
Several patriarchs involuntarily stepped back a few paces.
The only one who managed to appear calm was Wu Yang.
But even Wu Yang,
quietly took a deep breath or two,
Today, they had truly witnessed the legendary God of Slaughter for themselves, and finally understood why this killer could suppress the entire Martial World of Linjiang County, making everyone bow their heads.
Everyone watched nervously as Gu Zhan strode forward, and some were already trembling uncontrollably.
The black uniform on Gu Zhan was now stained scarlet,
as he took each step, fresh blood dripped ceaselessly.
"Clang" "Clang"
The two blades, now dulled and curled, were thrown to the ground.
Gu Zhan waved his hand slightly,
two Embroidered Uniform Guards immediately brought over a chair.
Gu Zhan flipped his blood-soaked robe aside, sat down calmly, and lazily accepted a handkerchief from a subordinate, slowly wiping the blood from his face, then took a cup of tea and sipped it, eyes steadily fixing on the group of pale-faced patriarchs.
"The Martial World order in Linjiang City is in utter chaos, which has caused untold misery for the common people. As a servant to the people, I worried deeply for the masses and personally decided to purge these dangers from the Martial World. Gentlemen, what do you think?"
All the family heads exchanged glances, fury burning in their eyes.
Wu Yang shot a glare at those patriarchs to silence them, then bowed to Gu Zhan and said, "Lord Gu, your devotion to the people, even endangering yourself to do so, is a model for all officials under heaven.
The case of Households Commander Wan Yan and Prefect Yang Yuzhi colluding with the White Lotus Sect has been completely resolved under your command, with all culprits apprehended. These merits are immense. We will definitely report your success to Yunzhou Shuntian Prefecture and the Garrison Commandant’s Office."
Gu Zhan slowly sipped his tea, turned his gaze to the Noble Family Heads and said, "Look, see that? That’s why the Wu Family became Linjiang County’s number one Noble Family. Just look at Lord Wu’s generosity and openness. You should all learn from him!"
The patriarchs all looked uncomfortable and ashamed.
Gu Zhan snorted coldly, stood up slowly to leave, then suddenly stopped and turned back, saying, "Oh, by the way, gentlemen, the position of Thousand Households is now vacant. I may not be that talented, but I honestly believe there’s no one more suitable than me in all of Linjiang County. What do you think?"
Wu Yang took a deep breath, bowed to Gu Zhan, and said, "Lord Gu, all our families will support you as the new Households Commander, and the compensation South City needs for this event will all be covered by us."
"Magnificent!"
Gu Zhan chuckled, waved his hand again, and left with his men without hesitation.
The patriarchs left behind all had gloomy faces.
"Madman!" one patriarch couldn’t help cursing.
"Arrogant! Unbearably arrogant!"
"Truly a mud-legged commoner—gets a taste of power and goes wild!"
"..."
Wu Yang waved his hand and said, face darkening, "Enough, everyone. You all know damned well whose fault this is. Everything was going according to plan, but you just had to act smart and go after Gu Zhan. Happy now? Not only did you fail, you’ve lost your assets and your reputation. Satisfied?"
The family heads fell silent, saying nothing.
After a long moment, one patriarch said, "Lord Wu, this mess is indeed our fault. We never imagined Gu Zhan would be this crazy."
"Hmph, never imagined, never imagined—’never imagined’ every damn time," Wu Yang said coldly, "If you can’t imagine anything, why bother scheming at all? You know we’re up to collective punishment of nine clans here. One careless move and there’s no recovering from it."
All the heads looked embarrassed and tense.
Second Master Wu quickly tried to smooth things over, "Big brother, the other lords didn’t do it on purpose. Who could’ve guessed Gu Zhan would be so unrestrained? It’s understandable they tried to get rid of him. Besides, now isn’t the time for blame. After all, Yang Yuzhi’s faction has fallen—that’s a big win for us. Our main goal is already halfway done."
"Hmph," Wu Yang snorted. "We’d already achieved eighty percent of our plan, and you idiots forced Gu Zhan to become a variable. With Gu Zhan’s nature, as long as we let him be, he wouldn’t meddle with us. But now, we’ll have to get rid of him!"
One patriarch said, "Lord Wu, even if we left him alone today, he’d still be a looming threat. Like you said, what we’re doing here brings collective punishment on nine clans. We can’t afford any slip-ups. We thought we could kill him in this chaos, but he turned out to be unreasonably tough. We’ll just have to find another chance!"
Wu Yang shook his head slightly and said, "No. For now, we can’t make a rash move. We have nowhere near a hundred percent certainty of success right now. Not even with such a good opportunity today could we get rid of him. It’ll be hard to find another opening soon—we can only work to hold him steady for now."
Second Master Wu added from the side, "Big brother, if we want to be absolutely certain, we’ll have to wait for someone from Yunzhou’s Imperial Censorate to arrive before we have another chance. To kill Gu Zhan, we must cut off all his escape routes and land a killing blow—if we fail and he retaliates, it’ll be hell to pay!"