**Chapter 73: Assassination on Flower Street**
This night in Xianglong City was destined to be a boisterous one.
"Someone is following me."
Qin Mu stepped out of the City Lord's Manor and immediately sensed pursuit. The divine masters from the manor made no effort to conceal themselves—they evidently saw no need to hide from a minor martial artist like Qin Mu, and simply tracked him in broad daylight.
The Flower Street parade was in full swing. The city's merchants had constructed towering floats that rose several zhang high, shaped into enormous exotic beasts and various divine and demonic forms. Dancers in elaborate costumes twirled atop the floats, dressed in the stone-idol attire of different villages. Walking along Flower Street, Qin Mu felt as though he had entered a world where gods and demons danced in a wild frenzy.
The street was deafeningly loud, packed wall to wall with people. Along both sides, lanterns hung from buildings, and tall stone pillars supported basins filled with blazing oil. On stilts ten-odd zhang high—capable of covering six or seven zhang in a single stride—warriors held torches in one hand and oil gourds in the other. A mouthful of oil sprayed across the torches produced fire-snakes several zhang long.
It was a place of bustling vitality, yet it carried the untamed savagery of the Great Ruins.
Qin Mu moved through the crowd when suddenly the sky blazed brilliant light. Without anyone noticing, countless fine threads had been woven across the sky, criss-crossing one another. Each thread suddenly expanded, transforming into enormous silver dragons that swooped across Flower Street at blinding speed.
As the silver dragons surged to and fro, one could see they were composed of countless characters, emitting a thunderous demonic voice as they moved—obscure, profound, impossible to comprehend.
*Boom. Boom.*
Tremendous shockwaves erupted, accompanied by towering beams of light that surged toward the darkness above Xianglong City—only to be swallowed by that darkness without the faintest ripple. Even the terrifying shockwaves that reached into the darkness vanished without a trace, as a stone cast into the sea.
The crowd below grew even more excited, cheering wildly. They had no idea that what soared overhead was not fireworks but powerful experts locked in fierce combat. Fortunately, the shockwaves were directed upward; otherwise, the casualties among the populace would have been catastrophic.
The silver dragons wove through the sky, and within flashes of radiance, several fearsome silhouettes appeared—like gods or demons. It was the Xianglong City Lord Fu Yundi, Black Venerable, the sallow-faced woman, and others, clashing in mid-air.
Qin Mu slipped quickly through the crowd. This was no safe place—even if the shockwaves from these powerful beings were directed skyward, what if one veered downward?
That would mean rivers of blood and countless corpses.
Thunderous booms echoed across the sky above Xianglong City, rolling and crashing as the combatants darted between east and west at lightning speed.
Behind him, the manor's divine masters were closing in. Even as Qin Mu weaved and dodged through the throng, he could not shake them.
"This evening's events have been truly bizarre. But I've gone and caused trouble—I couldn't suppress my killing intent and slew the City Lord's son. I need to inform Grandma Si and Blind Grandpa immediately, and leave here as soon as possible!"
Qin Mu was about to quicken his pace when a dragon's roar thundered from behind. A divine master wreathed in azure dragons lunged toward him from six or seven zhang away, the phantom dragon threading through the crowd, about to seize him.
Qin Mu was about to dodge when a white silk ribbon descended from a building above, coiled around the divine master's neck, plucked him from the crowd, and pulled him into a room on the upper floor.
Several young women rushed forward, blades hidden in their sleeves, and drove them into the divine master's chest.
Qin Mu looked up—the same young women who had invited him upstairs when he first entered the city.
He continued onward, passing an alley where a divine master in a conical hat stood. Upon seeing Qin Mu, the man shook his body, and a colossal wave erupted from the alley as though conjured from thin air. The wave surged like a great serpent, jaws wide, about to swallow Qin Mu. Silver fish—spirit weapons—were hidden within the torrent.
At that same moment, a blacksmith shop stood adjacent to the alley. The blacksmith inside was a giant nearly seventeen feet tall, forging a long billets-steel blade with a handle fifteen feet long and a blade sixteen feet long. The giant seized the blade and thrust it through the wall into the alley, piercing through the conical-hatted divine master's chest and pinning him to the far wall.
Then the giant blacksmith withdrew the blade, wiped away the blood, and returned to his forging. The furnace fire blazed on.
Qin Mu stood stunned for a moment, then pressed forward. Drums and gongs thundered along Flower Street. Figures leaped across rooftops like flying squirrels—the manor's divine masters, closing in rapidly.
One of them vaulted down. Before he landed, a snake from a snake-charmer's cage in the crowd suddenly raised its head, swelling to enormous size, and swallowed the falling divine master whole. It then shrank back to normal and retreated into its cage.
Other divine masters landed and pushed through the crowd. One passed a wine shop; the shopkeeper, who had been cheerfully watching the parade, suddenly seized a large wine jar and clamped it over the divine master's head without a word. The man fell into the jar, and his flesh dissolved instantly, becoming a jar of wine.
The shopkeeper set the jar down and sealed its mouth.
The remaining manor divine masters met similar fates—one encountered a drunkard in the crowd who spat a blast of fire in his face, incinerating him; another was silentlythroat-cut by an assassin hidden among the people; yet another was embraced by a woman from a float and vanished without a sound.
Qin Mu witnessed all of this as he walked, his heart churning with unease. The City Lord's Manor had dispatched a considerable force to pursue him, yet every last one had died silently within the crowd.
"Who on earth is helping me? Could it be the Heavenly Demon Cult? Does the Cult really wield such power in this city?"
He arrived at the inn, about to step inside, when he spotted the Blind One.
Adjacent to the inn was a gambling den. The Blind One was being carried out by two men in black, then dumped onto the ground. One of them kicked him hard on the rear and spat, "Blind as you are, you dare cheat right in front of us? You think we're blind too?"
Qin Mu hurried over. The Blind One had already picked himself up and was brushing off his backside, calling toward the gambling den: "My bamboo cane!"
The den's door creaked open and a bamboo cane came flying out, bonking the Blind One squarely on the forehead.
The Blind One picked up his cane and grinned. "Bad luck this time. Next round I guarantee you won't catch me cheating—I'll win back every last coin with interest! Mu'er, is that you? By the way, I witnessed something amusing tonight. I saw a big hen-bird all dressed up strutting about, with a little cock-bird tagging along for the fun."
Qin Mu frowned. "Just two birds. What's so strange about that? Blind Grandpa, let's go back to the inn."
The two returned to their room. Grandma Si's surprised cry rang out from inside. Qin Mu rushed in and found her clutching a money pouch in astonishment.
He stared, then hurried to the window and peered outside. The silver dragon formed by the Great Nurturing Heavenly Demon Sutra was still battling fearsome experts above Xianglong City. He looked back—Grandma Si was right there in the room. His confusion deepened.
"Could it be that the Cult Master's Wife I met at the manor wasn't Grandma Si?"
The thought grew more bewildering. Qin Mu smiled. "Grandma, did you just get back? I brought some food for you and Blind Grandpa." He set an oil-paper parcel on the table and gently unfolded it.
Grandma Si's clouded old eyes glistened with emotion. She sat down slowly, smiling. "What a good grandson. What's with this bag of dragon coins?"
Qin Mu studied her eyes, troubled. Grandma Si's gaze was indeed remarkably similar to that of the Cult Master's Wife—the same perfume, too.
But then, why was the silver dragon of the Great Nurturing Heavenly Demon Sutra still fighting outside?
He steadied himself and recounted his encounter in the alley.
Grandma Si's expression turned peculiar. She stammered, "You turned one dragon coin into over three thousand? If I'd known you had that much, I'd have gone out to enjoy myself long ago and wouldn't have needed to swindle free meals."
Qin Mu then told her about the beautiful woman in the manor. "Grandma, I killed the City Lord's son. We can't stay here—we need to leave immediately!"
Grandma Si pulled a jade hairpin from her head, beckoned, and a thin thread flew in through the window. It wound itself around the hairpin, coiling into a ball within a single breath, and she tossed it into her basket. "I turned the City Lord's wife into a cow, and you killed his son. That City Lord has had terrible luck. But worse things await him—he's committed too many evils and deserves what's coming. Those dragon coins are yours; keep them. They may prove useful someday."
From outside came earth-shaking roars. One voice belonged to Black Venerable, shouting furiously: "The Cult Master's Wife has escaped!"
"Search the city immediately! She must be found!"
"It's pitch-dark outside—this demoness cannot leave the city!"
The Blind One cocked his ear toward the commotion outside and suddenly spoke: "That young general surnamed Qin is staying here because he carries a geographical map of the Yong River. He is clearly waiting for the State Preceptor of Yankang. The State Preceptor intends to launch a military campaign against the Great Ruins. Xianglong City will be the first target. The fact that General Qin is staying in the manor means Fu Yundi has already reached an agreement with him. When that happens, Xianglong City becomes the first stronghold for the invasion of the Great Ruins. This city is vast—it can accommodate hundreds of thousands of troops."
Grandma Si smiled serenely. "Which is precisely why Fu Yundi must die."
The Blind One nodded. "He must. If Mu'er leaves the city after killing his son, Fu Yundi will certainly give chase—and that will be the end of him. The Great Ruins is not a place the State Preceptor of Yankang may trespass. He would be best served returning to wherever he came from."
Qin Mu glanced between the Blind One and Grandma Si, wondering what they were scheming.
Still, something was odd. In the past, Grandma Si had never brought the Blind One when entering the city—yet this time she had. Qin Mu hadn't thought much of it before, but now it seemed highly suspicious.
The Blind One had been in the gambling den the entire time and never left. How could he know what happened in the City Lord's Manor?
Or had the Blind One been there too?
"Mu'er, get some sleep. By tomorrow, Grandma may just become the new City Lord of Xianglong City!"
Qin Mu slept in the outer room, Grandma Si in the inner chamber. As drowsiness began to overtake him, he heard Grandma Si tossing and turning inside, murmuring in a low voice: "Too excited to sleep! Tomorrow this old lady won't just carry off the dragon pillars—she'll claim the entire city! No, I simply can't sleep... hee hee hee..."