Chapter 230: The Clan chaos isn’t enough

While the Song Clan armory and the Bai Clan herbal storehouses were still vomiting pillars of blue and purple fire into the night sky, Gu Chen sat in a dark corner of a nameless tavern.

Unlike others who would visit the brothels to please themselves and drown themselves in sorrow when they had hit rock bottom, this was the place Gu Chen would visit.

He had snuck out of the Gu Clan and his seclusion like a thief.

The underground chamber the elders had locked him in was too quiet. Too clean. Too full of the sound of his own teeth grinding.

Every time he closed his eyes he saw the empty vault, Gu Fan’s mocking smile, and the way the entire expedition had collapsed around him like a house of cards someone had pissed on.

So he put on a grey cloak, pulled the hood low, and came here to drink cheap ale.

He was still nursing the same wooden cup when three people sat at the next table. Two scarred rogue cultivators and a woman who smelled of cheap perfume. They made no effort to lower their voices.

"Why do you not believe me? I am telling you," the woman said, waving a half-eaten skewer, "my cousin in the Blood Iron Guild confirmed it. Hu ba was the one behind Gu Clan’s disaster in the Miasma Woods."

"Hu Ba sold Gu Chen a rigged Blood-Tracking Compass on purpose. The Bai Clan paid him. They wanted the Gu Clan disciples fed straight into that Slaughter Array so the expedition would bleed out and the tribute would fail."

The absolute second those words registered in Gu Chen’s brain, his bloodshot eyes widened with sheer, unadulterated fury, and his heavily battered Dao heart violently shook with boiling rage.

Gu Chen’s fingers tightened around the cup until the cup cracked.

The second man laughed. "No wonder the Golden Boy came back looking like a kicked dog. He walked his own people into a meat grinder and still has the face to walk around town."

The third man leaned in with a suspicious look," Are you sure? Hu Ba wouldn’t dare go against the Gu Clan."

"Why not? Gu Clan has been getting close to the Heavenly treasure pavilion. Hu Ba didn’t like it," The woman casually shrugged, "And Hu Ba has been bragging about it in private. Said the arrogant genius was too easy to fool. He calls him the pretty idiot with a sword. Hahahaha!"

BANG!

The cup exploded in Gu Chen’s hand.

Splinters and cheap ale sprayed across the table. His eyes were bloodshot. His jaw was locked so tight a vein pulsed at his temple.

"Hu Ba..." he whispered, voice shaking with pure murder. "You backstabbing, treacherous dog," Gu Chen hissed viciously under his breath, "Enjoy your last few breaths. I will make your death a spectacle."

Gu Chen slammed a spirit stone onto the table hard enough to leave a dent, stood up, and walked out into the alley without another word. The men and woman watched him go, then exchanged the smallest of smiles.

Meanwhile, on a nearby rooftop, Gu Fan looked at Gu Chen walking away and smiled, "And the bait has been taken."

~~~~~

The Blood Iron Mercenary Guild’s fortress was a squat, ugly block of black stone on the eastern edge of town. The outer patrols were lazy, and he easily bypassed them to get into the guild building.

The night was loud with distant explosions and panicked shouting from the burning clans was the perfect cover.

Gu Fan dropped inside the building behind the three captains who stood against the wall, drunk, loud, and currently competing to see who could piss the farthest.

They never saw him coming.

The first captain was still mid-stream when a hand punched through the back of his leather armor, through muscle, through spine, and out the front of his throat as bllod sprayed all over the wall. Gu Fan yanked the man backward by the ruined neck and let the body drop.

The second captain spun around, eyes wide, hand reaching for his saber, but Gu Fan’s knee met the man’s face and his teeth scattered across the cobblestones while the captain folded like wet paper.

The third one managed half a scream before Gu Fan’s fingers closed around his windpipe and crushed it the way a man crushes a soft fruit. The mercenary’s eyes bulged. His legs kicked twice. Then he went still.

Gu Fan looked down at the three twitching corpses, blood pooling around his boots, and sighed theatrically.

"You boys really should have peed one at a time. Teamwork is important."

He reached into his Void Band, pulled out a strip of pristine white silk embroidered with the exact lotus pattern Gu Chen favoured, and deliberately dragged it through the largest puddle of blood until it was soaked and ruined. He left it half under the first captain’s corpse, as if it had been torn off during a desperate struggle.

Then he vanished.

"Now it is time to bring my dear elder brother in the loop."

"He must be feeling lonely."

~~~~~~~~~~

Three streets away from the Gu Clan, a terrified Gu Clan outer-court maid suddenly found herself slammed against a wall with a hand blocking her way and a heavy pouch of spirit stones pressed into her trembling fingers.

She looked at the tall, masked man in front of her with teary eyes, cursing her luck.

Is this how she was going to lose her innocence? Out in the open? Why did she have to sneak out of the clan at this time?

"Please... Let me go," The maid pleaded as she spoke with her voice cracking.

"I have a boyfriend."

"..."

** ** ** ** **

[A/N: If you are enjoying the story so far. Feel free to vote the story with Power Stones, Send me Golden tickets, leave a comment to let me know if you have any suggestions, or leave a review. Everything of the above will help me and the story.]