Chapter 374: The Death of Two People

In the ancient martial arts world, where there used to be only two guards outside the Elders’ Pavilion, there was now an entire team of elites who stood guard ever since Gu Xiqiao and Jiang Shuxuan had left.

Gu Xiqiao and Jiang Shuxuan had been gone for more than a month, and within this month, the strength of the ancient martial arts world had greatly improved. Even the peak era of the ancient martial arts world was not as great as the current strength that they had.

Especially Peace Manor, though they had not gone to the Trial Tower for a month, the last person on the ranking tablet had already reached the 52nd floor. Peace Manor was already the largest powerhouse in the ancient martial arts world, and even the elders of the ancient martial arts world would be far behind them in terms of strength.

Currently, Peace Manor was not bothered about anything, except training with all their might. They left everything else to Luo Wenlang to manage.

When the great elder finished his training for the day, he walked past Peace Manor, and raised his head to look at it for a while. Then he turned to leave, but he didn’t head home, instead going towards the Elders Pavilion.

“Great Elder.” The team of people standing guard outside bowed respectfully when he arrived.

After receiving guidance from Gu Xiqiao, the great elder and the others improved their strength very quickly. Generally, for people their age, it was difficult for them to go any further in their martial arts, and this was a well-known law of nature. But all these were broken by Gu Xiqiao’s hands.

It had only been a month, and the strength of the elders of the ancient martial arts world had already risen by one or two levels!

There were only a few people who knew the strength of the elders, and the youngsters of the ancient martial arts world had no way of estimating it at all. As they saluted the great elder respectfully, they also sighed inwardly about how terrifying Gu Xiqiao was.

“Nothing unusual has happened here, right?” The great elder asked right before he went through the door.

“No, Great Elder.” The head of the team answered him.

The great elder nodded his head. “That’s good. I’m going in to take a look, don’t come in.”

“Understood.”

After the great elder walked in, the people standing guard outside looked at each other in confusion. “The Great Elder would always come to the Elders’ Pavilion to have a look after training every day. What in the world is he looking at?”

“Don’t talk so much.” The head of the team said coldly, and everyone fell silent.

On the highest floor of the Elders’ Pavilion, there was an isolated room. The room was incredibly empty, and there was only a table, which held an intricate, vermillion red box on top of it. Inside the box were two pieces of snowy jade, the same two jades that Jiang Shuxuan and Gu Xiqiao had given them when they had left.

Their lifeforce had been infused in the jade, and as long as the jade was in one piece, it meant that they were still alive and well.

Jiang Shuxuan used to have such a piece of jade before, and it had been returned to the Jiang family when it had shattered.

The great elder and the others were well aware of Gu Xiqiao and Jiang Shuxuan’s strength, and they guessed that they wouldn’t have many problems. However, that didn’t stop the great elder from stopping by here every day, just to assure himself that the two really were still fine.

Today was no exception, and he had dropped by to check on the conditions of the jades.

When he came into the room, his footsteps were light and relaxed. He had managed to break through again today, and there was a smile on his face. He thought about how he needed to let Gu Xiqiao know once she returned.

As he thought about it, he walked to the table and looked into the box.

The smile vanished from his face the moment he did, a stiff expression crossing his face. His limbs felt cold, spreading through his body as he stared blankly into the box. Both hands were pressed on the table as he tried to support himself so that he wouldn’t fall to the ground.

As long as the jade was there, that meant they were fine. If the jade shattered, it meant they were dead!

“Go and call all the elders to gather.” The great elder seemed to have aged ten more years when he said this, holding the box to his chest as he instructed the people out the door.

His voice was hoarse, completely unlike the person that had first gone into the Elders’ Pavilion just a while ago. The guards outside were shocked to see him in this state, and it took a few seconds before they gathered themselves and went to do as the great elder had instructed.

From the second elder to the seventh elder, Peace Manor, everyone from the Jiang family, the Tang family, the Baili family, the Murong family, Wanqi Jue… basically all the important people in the power world had gathered here. They had been staying in the ancient martial arts world these days, and they were aware that the jade pieces that Gu Xiqao and Jiang Shuxuan had left behind were in the Elders’ Pavilion.

For the great elder to gather them all in such a rush, they were shocked and felt uneasiness in their hearts.

“Great Elder…” Shu Chen saw that the great elder was holding the box in his hands, and her voice trembled a little.

The great elder didn’t say anything, only holding out the intricate box towards her, closing his eyes and saying nothing.

Shu Chen’s hands were shaking so much as she took the box and tried to open it three times and failed. Jiang Han had stepped forward to help her, but Shu Chen stopped him. She took a deep breath, and finally opened the box.

The jade pieces that had been perfectly fine were now powdered dust!

Bang!

Shu Chen fell to the ground, a blank look on her face, her mind completely empty. She didn’t know what to say. Every time Jiang Shuxuan went out on a mission, she would always send him off. Now there was also Gu Xiqiao, and she had sent both of them off, and had prayed with all her might that the two would come back safely.

But now, she felt like she was in a nightmare, her entire person in a dazed state. The blood rushed to her head, and she dropped into a faint.

In her heart, Jiang Shuxuan had the capabilities to reach the skies, while Gu Xiqiao could do everything beyond that. Who wasn’t a fan of either of them in the ancient martial arts world right now?

You could say that the reason the ancient martial arts world could reach this state, the fact that the secular world could so easily accept the existence of the ancient martial arts world and the looming disasters were only because of Gu Xiqiao’s existence!

The turning point of the calamities, it was also Gu Xiqiao!

Unexpectedly, everyone’s hopes—Gu Xiqiao and Jiang Shuxuan, were no longer around!

Almost hundreds of people were now sitting and standing in the Elders’ Pavilion, looking at the intricate, vermillion box. Disbelief and shock were on everyone’s face, their bodies trembling. The jades that represented the lives of Miss Gu and Jiang Shuxuan were broken?

“The main problem right now is not the jade.” Luo Wenlang clenched his fist tightly, his mind working at full speed. He could already map out the possibilities that may happen in the future. “But how to conceal this news, and deal with the coming calamity that will hit the world. The matter of Miss Gu and Mr. Jiang will be known eventually, and I’m guessing that those people will already know by now.”

“Mr. Luo is right.” The second elder picked himself up slowly, as though just waking up from a daze. “We definitely will not be able to conceal the matter of Miss Gu and Young Master Jiang. The danger both our ancient martial arts world and the secular world are facing is also about to arrive. If we can’t hold this out, we’ll all really be wiped out.”

As soon as he said those words, everyone pushed down their grief and straightened up, looking at the second elder.

The second elder didn’t continue to speak, turning to look at Luo Wenlang instead. He knew that in Peace Manor, apart from Gu Xiqiao, the real master of the place was Luo Wenlang. Now that something had happened to Gu Xiqiao, Luo Wenlang was the only one who could control Peace Manor. “Mr. Luo, what should we do now?”

“Now the most important thing to do is find Mr. Zhuge.” Luo Wenlang stood up. “Elders and patriarchs, please follow me to Peace Manor to look for Mr. Zhuge.”

The group left for Peace Manor, and they didn’t leave until the next morning. When they came out, their faces were grave.

Gu Xiqiao and Jiang Shuxuan, the two most powerful people in the world had fallen, what hope did the power worlds still have at this point?

At first, the elder held out a sliver of hope that the information on the jade pieces was wrong. Gu Xiqiao and Jiang Shuxuan would send news eventually, but as the days turned into a week, and there was still no news, the elders and everyone else started to feel the hope die.

As news of Gu Xiqiao and Jiang Shuxuan’s fall spread, many forces began to rise.

“Do you think Miss Gu has really… ” Yu Ning opened his mouth to say, but the rest of his sentence got stuck in his throat. He stood at the entrance of the network room of Nine Heavens, an unclear expression on his face.

Luo Wenlang who was currently in the ancient martial arts world, had his fist clenched tightly. “Miss Gu must still be alive. Yu Ning, you and Uncle Mu must stay strong. The Peacekeepers have gone out on missions, we won’t have to fear once they return!”

Yu Ning replied softly, his eyes lowered as he saw a group of people coming from downstairs. He hung up the call, walking into the office.

“President Mu, Mr. Yu Ning. Have you considered it?” The office door was pushed open, and those people downstairs were already inside the room. All of them had triumphant smiles on their faces, it was people from Chu Enterprise.

Veins were popping out on Mu Zong’s head. He had always been one of the most mild tempered people in Nine Heavens, but now all he wanted to do was throw these bunch of people out of Nine Heavens!

“What?” The leader of Chu Enterprise sat in an empty chair, a strange smile on his lips. “President Mu, you know that those who are stronger will prevail. I don’t think you wish for a bloodbath to happen in Nine Heavens, right? If you agree to hand over all the research data on Star Net, then everything will be fine. If you don’t…”

The leader of Chu Enterprise snorted coldly, a black flame emerging from his body. “Today is the deadline.”

Mu Zong was aware now that these people were not ordinary people. Ever since news of Gu Xiqiao’s death had spread, many families in the Imperial Capital suddenly popped up with a lot of mysterious people. Perhaps they had existed even when Gu Xiqiao and Jiang Shuxuan had been alive, but had been concealing themselves among the ordinary people.

Now that Gu Xiqiao and Jiang Shuxuan had fallen, the Peacekeepers were also caught up with various people. Once news of their fall had spread, the power world seemed to be tightly oppressed by an invisible strength.

While Nine Heavens in the secular world was the one to bear the brunt first!

If they were fighting with their brains in business, ten of Chu Enterprises wouldn’t be able to compare to one Nine Heavens. But Chu Enterprise had countless master martial artists, and they were using brute force. They would just kill anyone who refused to obey them!

They wanted the research data of Star Net, the one that had been fueled by the efforts of Yu Ning, Gu Xiqiao, Jiji, and the rest of the web development team. There were huge amounts of information within it, and it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that it would be a rewrite of a new era. These people had done nothing to contribute to the research, and now they just waltzed in and demanded for it?

How could Mu Zong agree to that?! But just as he opened his mouth to speak, Yu Ning pulled out a USB drive from his pocket, handing it to the people from Chu Enterprise. “This is the data for Star Net, Keep it safe.”

“Yu Ning?!” Mu Zong was looking at Yu Ning, an incredulous look on his face. He knew that this project was Yu Ning’s life work! And the life work of the entire web development team!

He didn’t expect Yu Ning to just hand it over!

Yu Ning didn’t say anything, his eyes fixed on the people from Chu Enterprise. The leader of the group handed the USB drive to the person beside him, and signaled with his eyes. The one who took the drive plugged it into the computer, confirming that it was genuine. The leader then turned his head to Yu Ning. “So we finally met, young man. But you dragged this on for two days already, wasting so much of our precious time. We’re not ones to be easily bullied. How about this, if you bow down with your head on the ground three times, I’ll let you off. Otherwise…”

He flashed Yu Ning a triumphant smile.