Chapter 309: The Core of the Setups
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Normally, Jiang Hengchuan looked like a young farmer with dark skin, thick eyebrows and wide eyes, and with mediocre senses. Even if he stayed in the state of Oneness of Heaven and Men, free and happy, he still seemed to be a hermit farmer, who was living leisurely and was self-sufficient, and appreciated beautiful sceneries.
But now, he was talking with a smile on his lips, sending forth unstoppable confidence and calm. He was so spirited that he looked a completely different person. Confident and intelligent, he did not look like a peasant anymore.
It was the temperament instead of the look that reflected a person’s career, and Jiang Hengchuan was a living example.
“Good point,” Meng Qi suddenly said with his left hand tapping the back of his right hand while holding a knife, like he was clapping, but no smile emerged on his face.
Jiang Hengchuan thanked him with a smile, and then turned to Qiu Fei. “Brother Qiu, please don’t be scared ’cause we still need to collaborate with you to kill the Devil. Even if the Devil gives up on killing people and chooses to cooperate with us to open the Inner House, we won’t let him hurt you and leave all the victorious fruits to himself.”
“If we’re lucky enough to kill him, you’ll still remain safe because Brother Su will protect you. Three people watching each other’s back is the best for us. If you die, he must become discrete. Powerful as the Soul-pledging Oath is, it is not perfect, and its flaws will be exposed sooner or later. Now, we honor our promise, solely because we have the same objective.”
He spoke his mind about his temporary cooperation with Meng Qi as a way of talking Qiu Fei into working with them together.
Qiu Fei felt a little moved by his words, and then his eyes landed on Meng Qi.
“I was just exaggerating in an attempt to persuade him to work with us.” Jiang Hengchuan said to Meng Qi through the Secret Voice-sending.
At this moment, Meng Qi straightforwardly said with a big smile on his face,
“I can’t agree more with you, Civil Star.”
“Civil Star?” Qiu Fei inhaled a mouthful of cold air. In his eyes, Jiang Hengchuan was quite skeptical, but it never occurred to him that he was Civil Star, who had caused a stir in the entire Maoling.
Jiang Hengchuan’s smile remained unchanged, making him still look composed and confident.
“When did you find out I’m Civil Star, besides knowing I’m suspicious?”
Instead of denying, he admitted it frankly. With his hands naturally dropping and the momentum pulling back, he was seemingly just chitchatting with them. However, both Qiu Fei and Meng Qi knew that he would attack at any time.
“To be honest, this idea never crossed my mind before. You invited the ‘Chess Master’ Wang to have a competition about the Setups, but as a result, you turned yourself into an invisible chess piece and plunged into the chessboard. It surprised me very much that you were the one behind this.” Meng Qi replied with a smile while holding the heavy Heaven Inflicted Pain, and with his black clothes wetted by the fine rain. Neither anxious nor startled, he acted like he was talking to a friend.
“Besides, Master Wang told me that whatever I responded to him, I’d always end up falling into traps. It troubled me very much. And then I came to realize why the top 10 talent was so compulsive and reckless, even leaving me no opportunity to say something.”
Jiang Hengchuan nodded with a smile. “A victim and framer stand as the most important two items in a trap. If the framer sets up a trap with some modifications, whatever the victim does, he’ll end up in the trap. And then, the framer can avail himself of this chance to kill the victim. By then, the victim can blame himself for being too impetuous.”
“If I had not gone to the Wind-listening Villa and returned to my yard, I would’ve likely found one more body in the coffin. And then, I would’ve been confronted with the victim.” Meng Qi sighed. “If you couldn’t kill me immediately, you’d utilize your identity of a victim to persuade me into collaborating with you, involving me in your delicate setups. ”
Qiu Fei focused on listening to their conversation with a purpose of studying the setups and conspiracies in case that he would treat a rival as a friend.
Jiang Hengchuan nodded with a smile on his face again. “Yes.”
Insanely candid and confident, he did not feel stressed out in front of them.
“I was 100% sure that you were behind this when Xiang host of Dajiang Gang Chu Guan killed himself. But I’ve never regarded you as Civil Star.” Meng Qi slowly uttered the changes in his idea. “Haven’t you thought that I could really dig out something and find Chu Guan?”
Jiang Hengchuan controlled his smile a little bit. “Yes. I’ve never thought you could make the artisan recall Chuan Guan, otherwise, I’d have killed him earlier. But I’ve also drawn a lesson from it that only the dead can keep a secret. But by that time, I had to kill Chuan Guan to misguide you guys.”
“So when we looked for Green-ribbon Dai, you used the Secret Voice-sending to order your subordinates?”
“You’re right again.” Jiang Hengchuan still said relaxedly, “I had planned to inform Chuan Guan to run away, but as soon as I walked out the door, I changed my plans to misguide you and spur Master Wang.”
“When you recovered from the shock, you’ll instantly realize that the hearsay of ‘Civil Star helps to avenge’ is false. You wouldn’t pay more attention to Civil Star anymore. But as far as Master Wang was concerned, he would see through my trick right away, and know it was a challenge given by me. Thus, he would become more interested in competing with me and neglect other things.”
Meng Qi sighed. “Luckily, I suddenly became composed and sober-minded, figuring out it was a trap. The next day when you warned me, I was positive that you were suspicious. In a bid to find out your purpose, I played the game with you, because I didn’t believe your competition with Master Wang was your real objective.”
“You found me suspicious as early as then. In my belief, we better be friends with more tacit after experiencing so many things. You almost got me, you sophisticated buddy.” Jiang Hengchuan seemed to praise him.
“Of course, life’s a drama where we all live by acting skills …” Meng Qi complained in his heart. “I discovered that you targeted the Dongyang Villa after the incidents of Brother Qiu and Eight-armed Flying Dragon. But what could you depend on to achieve your goal? You brought this simple matter into a complex one, even involving Master Wang Qing Yu and the others. What for? ”
“Yeah, What for?” Jiang Hengchuan jokingly asked back, showing his good mood.
Meng Qi pursed his lips, and said slowly, “I haven’t understood that until Tower Lord Ren sighed before me. He blamed himself for doing nothing to prevent his friends from dying. And I then looked at the big picture, and found out Eight-armed Flying Dragon and Three Eagles of Cloud Ridge might be his friends. In this aspect, if you killed them in broad daylight, you would be hunted down by the mysterious Tower Lord Ren. Therefore, in order to hold him back, you spent some time inviting the nearby listed masters, especially Master Wang.”
“You guys took this time to do other meaningless things. Take the example of Master Wang. You claimed to compete with him about Setups, but you actually distracted him to conceal your real purpose of killing Brother Qiu and Eight-armed Flying Dragon to steal the two debris of Dongyang Seal, and finally snatching the treasures in the Inner House.”
Jiang Hengchuan gradually stopped smiling.
“Pitifully, your realization comes too late.”
“A successful conspiracy lies in its well-hidden real target, letting the rest of setups be.”
This was Civil Star’s understanding of setups and conspiracies.
Meng Qi attached little importance to his pity. “Plus, you wanted to kill or use me. At the beginning of your plan, you also wanted to disclose yourself to Master Wang for winning his attention. And then you misguided him that Tower Lord Ren was the real Civil Star and your boss as well.”
“‘Aurora Electric Sword’ Xiao Zhenhai was of great help for me to understand the whole plan. Since you could easily send your men to kill three common people, why did you lure him, one undercover spy, into your trap?”
“You indeed deserve to be called Civil Star. You set up a trap with its several objectives covering each other.”
“You led me to suspect Tower Lord Ren, because you wanted to distract me and put Master Wang into a thinking trap. Since you were certainly a suspect, leading us to, at the first sight, consider him innocent. But deep down, it’s also a method of using a subordinate to clear his name, which instead made him more suspicious, isn’t it?”
It’s quite fortunate that “Bizzare Man” Ren Pingsheng knew that Meng Qi was once drawn in, and deliberately exposed that he knew Qu Jiuniang. Otherwise, Meng Qi would regard him an accomplice with Xiao Zhenhai and Jiang Hengchuan. If the above incident had happened, Meng Qi would not have affirmed their real target and would keep an eye on Xiao Zhenhai.
On one hand, Qiu Fei felt formidable at those analyses. On the other hand, he also felt lucky that he had not met Ledgerkeeper of Lives and Civil Star on his journey in Jianghu. Otherwise, he would up dead without knowing who the foe was.
Jiang Hengchuan exhaled. “You’re much smarter than I think.”
“Now, only one mystery remains to be resolved. After so many days, I believe you’re not relentless, but why did you kill Jiang Tabo?” Meng Qi sighed.
When Jiang Tabo was dying, he looked more abominable than scary. In Meng Qi’s eyes, he did not get it why his cousin killed him.
Jiang Hengchuan finally changed his expression, and wore a mixed look of pity, resentment, and sadness. “Because of a big loss in gambling, he betrayed me by selling what he knew to Ren Pingsheng. In the original plan, I should stay tight in my tranquil cottage in Daxing and appreciate Master Wang contending with the air. Besides, I’d meditate on the situation of Maoling every day so as to put Maoling into the biggest chaos. Therefore, we could shelter the truth that we killed Eight-armed Flying Dragon and Brother Qiu.
“Since I, who possessed another Chance, was in Daxing, no one would know Dongyang Villa was the real target.”
“But Fire Lord found out his betrayal, and wrote me to ask me to rush back to Maoling. Since I was exposed, I had to join in the chaos personally. I used myself to attract the others’ attention, and relied on you to nose for Brother Qiu’s allies to locate Eight-armed Flying Dragon.”
Meng Qi sighed and said, “This is it.”
His face became grim. “A suddenly emerging idea led me to extrapolate that you’re Civil Star. And then I got inspired by thinking of using yourself to distract people. This is your epitome, isn’t it?” “However, your plan wasn’t perfect enough to only put one on the surface. You had to have an accomplice beyond each one’s imagination. If not, how could you possibly protect your purpose?”
“As long as you got one more Chance, Master Wang would definitely raise doubts about you. Nevertheless, when the three Chances were stored in different places, you could silently open the Inner House, and take the treasure away.”
Meng Qi gave him a smile. “Furthermore, now the calm, confident and patient you verified my guess.”
Qiu Fei abruptly came to an enlightenment, and looked at Meng Qi in shock. “You’re saying …”
“Right. The evil Old Zhong is his ally.” Meng Qi looked into Jiang Hengchuan’s eyes.
Jiang Hengchuan clapped, and said with a smile, “You’re good, really good, yet just wrong about our relationship. We’re partners, not allies.”