Legend Management Bureau Chapter 220

[ … words ]

“He doesn’t have a weapon! Don’t be afraid!”

The officer shouted, and two men immediately pulled out iron chains.

Gripping both ends of the chains, they slowly approached Fan Wujiu.

Fan Wujiu weakly opened his eyes and looked at the two men. ‘If I get tangled up in these chains, I’ll be nothing but a lamb to the slaughter,’ he thought.

The officers on either side jolted their arms, and the iron chain swung horizontally toward Fan Wujiu.

Gritting his teeth, Fan Wujiu reached out, using every ounce of his remaining strength to catch the chain. With a violent yank, the chain slipped from the two officers’ grasp and fell into his hands.

“Fan Wujiu! Don’t be so stubborn! If you give up resisting, we’ll give you a quick and painless death!”

Fan Wujiu sneered, slowly straightening his back. He seemed to have grown accustomed to the overwhelming weakness coursing through him. Perhaps he could risk his life against them one last time.

“Give up resisting? Why should I do that?”

How could he still be standing after drinking the poisoned wine?

“Fan Wujiu, you are unarmed. How do you plan to fight all of us? With just that single iron chain in your hands?”

“An iron chain? Hah!”

Holding one end of the chain, Fan Wujiu whipped it outward with all his might. The metal links flew through the air, hooking directly onto a sickle lying in the adjacent rice paddy. With a sharp tug, the chain yanked the sickle right back into his grasp.

“In your hands, this might be an ordinary iron chain. But in my hands, it becomes the lethal ‘Soul-Reaping Hook’!”

Du Yu nodded silently. ‘The Eighth Lord truly is a martial arts prodigy,’ he thought. He knew that even a weakened person could unleash immense power by swinging a chain. Right now, this makeshift weapon was his only lifeline.

But why did the name ‘Soul-Reaping Hook’ sound so familiar?

“Ah!” Du Yu cried out. “Could this chain be the legendary ‘Soul-Reaping Hook’, the signature artifact of Black Wuchang?”

…

“Xie Bi’an, you have truly made me see you in a new light.”

Lord Lang stared coldly at Xie Bi’an, who stood before him dressed in white. His robes were heavily soaked in blood, and the saber at his waist had long since snapped in half.

At this moment, he was gripping a wooden stick he had picked up from the ground, struggling to prop up his battered body.

Scattered all around him was a massive pile of mangled corpses. Their blood was being washed away by the heavy rain in a truly horrifying scene.

The remaining officers continued to encircle him. It seemed that killing him was only a matter of time.

“I never expected that even a sudden ambush from so many people wouldn’t be enough to take your life. Just what is your body made of?” Lord Lang asked.

“Heh, what a joke…” Xie Bi’an said through gritted teeth. “I sensed something was wrong ages ago. How could a mere few dozen men possibly defeat me?”

“Very well. Do you plan to beat everyone here to death with that piece of wood?”

“Of course.” Xie Bi’an chuckled, forcing himself to stand entirely upright. He took off his official hat, which bore the characters ‘Fortune Upon Sight’, revealing his hideous visage. “I am in peak condition right now. I could fight you all for another three days and three nights.”

“Hahahahaha!” Lord Lang tipped his head back and roared with laughter. “Right, you are in peak condition. But I wonder, how is that brother of yours faring?”

Xie Bi’an froze. “You attacked Old Eighth as well?!”

“Yes. Let me tell you another piece of news. The manpower sent to deal with Fan Wujiu was three times the amount we brought for you. He is certainly dead by now. What will you do then?”

Xie Bi’an glared coldly at Lord Lang, then burst out laughing as well. “You ask what I will do? Fan Wujiu is my sworn brother! We did not ask to be born on the same year, month, and day, but we swore to die on the same year, month, and day! If he perishes, I absolutely will not live on alone! Today, I will drag all of you down to the grave with us!”

Lord Lang looked at Xie Bi’an with a treacherous expression. He pondered for a moment, then suddenly broke into a smile and declared, “My mission is complete. Farewell.”

Before Xie Bi’an could even process what was happening, everyone in front of him scattered and fled, vanishing into the distance.

He stared at the scene with wide eyes, completely bewildered. These people had been moments away from claiming his life, so why did they suddenly leave?!

There was no time to overthink it. The most important thing right now was to check on Old Eighth. Using the wooden stick as a crutch, he supported his feeble body and limped toward the river, one agonizing step at a time.

Meanwhile, on Fan Wujiu’s side, although he had borrowed the power of the chain to drastically boost his combat prowess, the poisoned wine was slowly taking effect. The more he exerted his martial arts, the faster the poison spread. By now, his vision had blurred, and he could barely make out the silhouettes of the four or five men still standing before him.

The hands of those four or five men trembled violently as they gripped their sabers. They were utterly terrified.

The man in front of them was already bathed in blood, but his fighting style was simply far too bizarre.

Unable to see his enemies’ movements clearly, he would allow them to slash him with their blades before launching his counterattacks.

“What is wrong with this guy? Can he not feel pain?”

The group looked at Fan Wujiu’s entire body. His flesh was torn open and constantly battered by the pouring rain. Anyone would feel phantom agony just looking at it, yet he himself seemed completely oblivious.

“Come on!” Fan Wujiu stared blankly ahead, blindly swinging the iron chain in his hand. “Didn’t you want to take my life? I’m standing right here, and I absolutely won’t dodge! Come on!”

The few men exchanged tacit glances and formulated a makeshift tactic—

They only needed to keep surrounding him. Fan Wujiu would quickly bleed to death on his own.

Fan Wujiu seemed to realize that things were looking grim and began to stumble forward. His eyes were now completely pitch-black, and his hearing was rapidly fading.

With every step he advanced, the officers retreated a step. They encircled him without attacking, constantly maintaining a safe distance.

Blood continuously spurted from Fan Wujiu’s wounds. Standing by the river under the torrential downpour, the ground beneath his feet resembled a blooming crimson flower, its red petals spreading outward.

“No one is allowed to run!” Fan Wujiu bellowed. “Come fight me again!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he coughed up a massive mouthful of blood. His strength completely abandoned him, and he plummeted to his knees.

Seeing an opening, an officer behind him took three quick steps forward and drove his saber deep into Fan Wujiu’s lower back.

Gritting his teeth, Fan Wujiu instantly looped the iron chain around the officer’s neck, yanking him forcefully to the ground.

“I’ve caught you…”

Fan Wujiu smiled, relentlessly tightening the chain. He had no spare strength left; this was the only way he could slowly suffocate the officer to death.

“This man is terrifying! Lord Lang never said he would be this hard to deal with!”

Fan Wujiu suddenly froze. He slowly lifted his head and stared ahead. Even though he had lost the vast majority of his hearing, he still managed to catch that sentence with absolute clarity.

“What… did you just say? Lord Lang sent you to deal with me?”

The remaining officers yelled back, “You’re pitifully naive! You’re at death’s door, and you still don’t even know who wants your life?”

“Impossible!”

Fan Wujiu roared, fishing the envelope out from his chest.

He could no longer see what the envelope looked like. He could only fumble with trembling hands, tearing it open and pulling out the letter inside.

With a hard tug on the chain, he dragged the officer with the bound neck right up to his face.

Fan Wujiu shoved the letter against the man’s face and demanded, “What is written on this letter?! Read it to me!”

The officer stammered, too afraid to speak. His life was currently in Fan Wujiu’s hands; one wrong word and he would be dead.

“Read it!” Fan Wujiu squeezed harder, tightening the chain even further.

“Lord Fan, Lord Fan! Please stop choking me! It’s not that I don’t want to read it, but there’s absolutely nothing written on it! It’s just a blank piece of paper…” the asphyxiated officer gasped, using every ounce of his strength to squeeze out the sentence.

“A blank… piece of paper…”

Fan Wujiu lost all his strength. His hand released its grip on the iron chain.

He didn’t understand. Why was it like this?

Wasn’t Lord Lang fighting for the people’s pleas? Didn’t he even send his advisor all over the county to find out who had submitted those petitions?

Didn’t Lord Lang personally recruit him and Xie Bi’an?

Lord Lang had even provided them with food, drink, and a place to live.

Lord Lang wasn’t some blatant crook!

He was a good official!

Realizing that Fan Wujiu seemed to have lost his mind, the officers bolstered their courage. Raising their weapons, they lunged forward and stabbed at him from all directions.

All the blades plunged deep into Fan Wujiu’s body, yet his expression remained completely blank.

Unsure if Fan Wujiu was actually dead or not, the men twisted the blades buried in his flesh. This would shred his internal organs, guaranteeing his death without a shadow of a doubt.

Fan Wujiu offered a bitter smile, then suddenly surged to his feet, throwing his arms around the officers nearest to him.

His strength was downright astonishing. Not a single officer could break free as his forearms clamped around them in an iron-grip embrace.

With all the officers locked in his grasp, he violently spun his body. The sheer momentum caused the sabers embedded in his own flesh to slice right into the officers, sending them all crashing to the ground.

“Old Eighth!!!!”

Xie Bi’an let out a heart-wrenching scream, stumbling wildly as he ran over.

Fan Wujiu seemed to hear Xie Bi’an’s cries, but his mind had already gone completely blank.

Xie Bi’an reached out to catch Fan Wujiu, only to find his brother’s body riddled with blades.

The amount of blood pooling on the nearby ground was staggering; even the torrential downpour couldn’t wash it all away.

Knowing that Fan Wujiu absolutely could not survive this, a wave of profound heartbreak crashed over Xie Bi’an, and he burst into loud, agonizing sobs.

For twenty years, Fan Wujiu had been his beloved, his sole family member, the only person he had relied on to survive.

Even if they only had half a flatbread between them, they would break it in two so they could share it.

Even when they had starved for days on end, they could still laugh out loud with genuine joy.

If they found a ragged piece of cloth in the dead of winter, they would huddle close, draping it over themselves for mutual warmth.

But what went wrong?

They had only just gotten to eat their fill and wear warm clothes. Were they really being forced to endure the agony of a permanent parting?

“Old Eighth! Your Seventh Brother failed you!” Xie Bi’an pounded the ground in anguish. “I saw the signs ages ago, yet I still followed that advisor! It’s all my fault! It’s all my fault!”

“Seventh Brother, I’m a little cold,” Fan Wujiu whispered. “Light a fire. It’s too cold.”

“Okay! Okay! Seventh Brother will light a fire for you!”

Xie Bi’an pulled a flint out of his robes and struck it repeatedly.

“Don’t be afraid, Old Eighth. It’ll be warm in just a second.”

With every strike of the flint, a muffled rumble of thunder echoed in the sky.

The heavy rain streamed down Xie Bi’an’s face, blending seamlessly with his tears.

But the two thoroughly soaked pieces of flint couldn’t produce even the tiniest spark.

“Seventh Brother will have it lit right away! It’ll be lit right away!”

Amidst the rhythmic, desperate clacking of the flint, Fan Wujiu curved his lips into a peaceful smile and slowly closed his eyes.