Chapter 359: Mutual Suspicion and Deception

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“It’s in broad daylight now so don’t tell me they can just engage in fighting openly?” The young police officer curled his lips in disapproval and muttered under his breath. It was apparent that he felt that the old police officer was making a fuss over this. Even so, he still followed him closely.

However, they were half a village apart from the two men and two women so no matter how fast they walked, they could not chase up to them within a few minutes. Unable to call out to stop them, they could only watch the four of them knocking on the wooden door of the Zhang Family’s old house.

When the door knocking sound echoed into the gloomy old house, Zhang Lisheng, who was sitting on the wooden bed in the main house, felt the space between his brows jolt right away. Faintly sensing that this must be some kind of premonition, he calmed his emotions down and trod on his cloth shoes to walk quickly to the courtyard. Purposely stopping his steps, he asked loudly, “Who is it?”

“Hello, Mr. Zhang, I’m Su Deli from the Heng Xiang Group. I have something to talk to you so can you open the door please?” A gentle and refined voice, that used a lot of retroflex words with a false pretense, resonated.

“Heng Xiang Group? Heng Xiang Group? Oh, so it’s you guys who want to take this land away from me, the Father! Let me be frank with you guys, you can dream on…” When Zhang Lisheng heard that the ‘leading character’ had arrived, he purposely put on a grave expression and mumbled as he opened the door.

When he swept his gaze outside, he actually found a person standing on the mountain road appearing to be particularly familiar, prompting him to widen his eyes and burst out loud, “Sister Min Lan, it’s you?”

Among the four people standing outside the door visiting Zhang Lisheng with no good intentions, the refreshing white-dressed girl exchanged glances at Zhang Lisheng and was also dumbstruck. “Lisheng, it’s really you! Y-You’re still alive…”

The girl was one of the disciples who followed the six great wizards from the Three Gates of Witchcraft of Life, Death and Sacrifice to sneak into Shrimp B1 Island to hunt for the spiritual monster’s Gold Cores. That time, she was responsible for monitoring Zhang Lisheng, who was captured by them to become a guide, and after spending a long time together, she gradually became friendly with the young man.

Zhang Lisheng knew about her identity of being an elite disciple of the Gate of Witchcraft so after his initial shock subsided, he no longer was surprised by her sudden appearance. however, he had a new estimate to the incomers’ strength and soon, he put on an astonished look, as he began to talk incoherently, “Sister, you’re from Heng Xiang Group? T-This… That is…”

“Stop your ‘this’ and ‘that’!” Seeing two police officers panting heavily while walking on the mountain road moving towards them, Min Lan frowned and said. “Let us enter the house and continue our talking inside.”

Then, she proceeded to reach out a hand to push Zhang Lisheng.

When the young man saw just how powerful the deterrent force of the national’s public authority on the Gate of Witchcraft, how they made this one powerful witch to be so cautious with just the appearance of two ordinary police officers, he smiled in his heart but maintained an unchanged expression on his face. He stepped aside and let the four of them enter his ancestral house.

The fact that he remained silent did not mean that the others would do the same too. The other gorgeous young girl wearing the gray suit among the four of them burst out laughing the instant she walked into the house, “Oh Min Lan, you’re always so cautious. Now, our Gate of Witchcraft is no longer the same as before. We haven’t done anything yet but you’re scared of two small policemen already, how…”

“Ruo Zhen, don’t spout nonsense. We have to be more careful and cannot be smug at times like this. Min Lan is right in being cautious,” the eldest man among the four of them interrupted the gorgeous girl and then looked at the refreshing looking girl as he asked with a blank expression, “Min Lan, do you know this little brother here?”

“Junior Uncle Chen, he’s the American outer disciple of that Gate of Witchcraft who was found by Senior Uncle Ouyang who helped us hunt for Gold Cores on US Shrimp Island last time. I can’t believe that he’s actually still alive…”

“That’s right, Sister Min Lan. I passed out after being bombed by the aborigines last time and when I woke up, it was already day time. It was fortunate that I wasn’t eaten by any beast that night but I just couldn’t find any of you at all. Oh yeah, don’t tell me that I’ve misunderstood you? The reason you guys came here is not to take my ancestral house away but to purposely look for me instead? I knew this day would eventually come! That time, I’ve already told Senior Ouyang the moment I met him that I was born in Zhang Family of Guawo Village in Damu Town, Qu County of the Western Sichuan Province and that all of my ancestors are Fathers in the mountain for the past thousands of years. I still remember that Senior Ouyang has even praised that I’m the descendant of the main family in the outer sect and said that it’s all because of our protection that the witchcraft’s reputation could be so well-maintained for thousands of years…” Zhang Lisheng continued to chatter without stopping.

Actually, he was very clear that he was only a dead chess piece in the eyes of the Gate of Witchcraft so how could they possibly purposely send somebody to look for him.

The fact that he was born in Zhang Family, Guawo Village, Damu Town, Qu County must have also been long forgotten by those great wizards and elite disciples, or otherwise, such matter would not have happened today.

Even so, he purposely pretended to be more enthusiastic and ignorant, so that he could grasp these people from the Gate of Witchcraft in his hands via words, and so that they would not have a fall out and make their moves on him so easily.

As expected, upon hearing Zhang Lisheng’s words, a slight awkward look that was hard to notice flashed across Min Lan’s face as she coughed lightly. “Lisheng, after you’ve been blown away by the Gold Core’s self-detonation of the demons on the Shrimp Island, we’ve searched for you for a long time but we could not find you. This was why we had no choice but to leave eventually. The reason we came here today, erm well, it’s because we wanted to see if there’s any successor to this Zhang Family, and also it’s because we really want to buy your ancestral house.”

“B-Buy my ancestral house? B-But according to our mountain villagers’ custom, having our ancestral house taken away would mean having the coffins in my Zhang Family dug out too. H-How can this…” Zhang Lisheng said in shock, at the same time, he rejected it in determination.

Before he had even finished his words, the black-clothed old man by the side suddenly asked sinisterly, “Little Brother, let’s put this topic about this house aside first and talk about the deaths of Guo Zhongxiang and Yang Baokui who were both from the Witchcraft’s Gate of Death. Do you know about this?”

“Who are these Guo Zhongxiang and Yang Baokui? I haven’t even heard of them before so what do their deaths have to do with me?” Zhang Lisheng was stunned. Shaking his head, he denied it entirely.

“Oh, so you have no idea, huh?” The black-clothed old man smiled cynically and huffed from his nose. Right away, a huge winged carp-snake burst out right away.

The poisonous snake only had the thickness of a little finger when it came out of the old man’s nostril. However, its extended body soon began to double in size for every inch that came out. By the time its head had extended out, without taking in the wing length, its neck had already become as thick as a water tank. It opened its mouth that was covered with poisonous teeth wide above Zhang Lisheng’s head and was itching to have a go, as though it was about to devour a person, appearing to be extremely horrifying.

The huge snake that suddenly charged out of the black-clothed old man’s nostril sent chills down Zhang Lisheng’s spine.

The limit that he could expand his wizard gu using spells was only up to 36 times in size. Based on his experience, the wizard gu that he refined could only shrink up to more than ten centimeters long at its smallest size so it was absolutely impossible for it to hide in his nostrils.

Deducing the old man’s ability via his strength, the young man felt that his wizard gu must have reached a stage so strong that he was unable to achieve at all.

He could take a risk for the sake of getting his hand on the secret cultivation method of Witchcraft’s Gate of Sacrifice but he could not just resign himself to defeat. Zhang Lisheng watched the snake’s mouth with full vigilance as colorless scales gradually appeared on his body, about to make his move and fight anytime soon.

To his surprise, a faint dim expression suddenly appeared at the black-clothed old man’s face. Shaking his head in disappointment, he actually retrieved the winged poisonous snake back into his nostril, not before saying, “Guo Zhongxiang was still okay but Baokui alone was not somebody this boy could fight against with this chameleon incarnation of his. Look at the bearing, the viciousness, it’s just far too inferior. It seems like it must be those orthodox religions who have sent assassins, seeing that my witchcraft is getting increasingly stronger now…”

Then, he no longer said anything more.

Breathing a long sigh of relief, Zhang Lisheng knew that he had once again escaped a catastrophe because of the Mask of the Comedy King but he purposely pretended to be cold and said with a slight pretense of fear, “W-Why? You want to kill me to rob my land now? C-Come on then! M-My Zhang Family from Guawo Village is brave and perverse!”

“Mr. Zhang, don’t misunderstand please.” This time, it was finally the young man dressed in a casual wear, who was obviously the leader, who spoke. Speaking in a retroflex manner, he waved his hand, “I’ll be frank with you. Two days ago, two of our sect’s disciples were suddenly killed. One of them was even related to Master Chen. For this reason, Master Chen could not help but try and test you, to see whether you have anything to do with this incident or not. Now, it seems like all of these are just mere misunderstandings. In that case, let us get back to the main topic. Mr. Zhang, the situation right now was an emergency that our witchcraft sect has never encountered before in the past tens of thousands of years ago. Since you’re also an outer disciple of our witchcraft community, and the one that you’re cultivating is the Gate of Death, you should return to our sect and lend some help to the prosperity of our witchcraft, and to also build a good future for yourself as well. Looking at it now, the gains and losses in the mundane world means nothing at all. You must have been through a great deal of hardship to make a breakthrough to Rank-6 Wizard just by relying on the long-lost cultivation method of the outer sect, and of course, this also means that your cultivation talent must be a cut above the rest as well. I’ll tell you this, the world is huge beyond our imagination so we must have a long-term perspective in everything.”

“You have a point. However, no matter what you say, you still want to snatch the ancestral house of my Zhang Family right?” Zhang Lisheng was stunned for a while before saying with a wry smile. “B-But I can’t just cut off the root of the Guawo Village’s Zhang Family like that. I still intend to return here when I’m old so that I can pass on the family name.”

Upon hearing his words, the young man dressed casually had his face turn grave right away. However, because of Zhang Lisheng’s identity as an American, and the warning he received from his predecessor before they came here, he still suppressed his anger forcefully and said with full patience, “You can still pass on your Zhang Family’s inheritance without this house right? Yes, I know that with the yin energy of this house, it’d be safer and more stable when you’re cultivating witchcraft but once you have a proper secret cultivation method, wouldn’t it be just the same?”

At this time, only then Zhang Lisheng found out that the yin energy in his house could actually allow the breakthrough of witchcraft to be more safe and stable. Maintaining his composure, he hesitated for a while before riding on the young man’s words and blurting out, “So you’ll offer the witchcraft secret cultivation method in exchange for this ancestral house of mine?”

“Of course, as long as you join the Gate of Death and become an inner disciple, you’ll naturally be bestowed with the secret method.” When the young man saw Zhang Lisheng’s tempted yet hesitating manner, he laughed out loud and added, “But since this house of yours is useful to me, of course I’ll use a better cultivation method to exchange with you. What do you think?”

Lowering his head, Zhang Lisheng walked to and fro in the courtyard. After a series of expressions coursed through his face, he felt that the opportunity had finally presented itself. Gritting his teeth, he said, “In that case, I want the secret cultivation method of the Three Gates of Witchcraft, Life, Death and Sacrifice, all the way until the ‘Shed and Restore’ stage.”

Upon hearing his words, the black-clothed old man who had remained silent for a long time smiled coldly. “That’s quite a huge demand, to think that you actually want the secret cultivation method to all Three Gates of Witchcraft of Life, Death and Sacrifice. Don’t you know that it’s hard to chew if you’re too greedy? You should also know that you won’t be able to become an elite disciple in your entire life if you do so.”