Chapter 407: 407. Win decisively together

Translator: 549690339

The night wind brushed against his face, it wasn’t cold, but Nangong Lin couldn’t help but shiver. He knew very well, if Gu Ling said she wanted to kill him, she would really do it!

“I’ll talk.” History showed that Nangong Lin was a man who understood the times.

Gu Ling put away the gun in her hand, pulled up one of Nangong Lin’s arms, and dragged him from the ground into the room.

Su Liang closed the doors and windows, turned the lamp wick a bit, and the room became a bit brighter.

“Start talking, from the very beginning.” Su Liang sat down, her gaze coldly fixing on Nangong Lin.

“What…from the beginning?” Nangong Lin was dazed for a moment. He was thinking about how to describe the matter of Yue Mei.

“Start recounting from the day you were injured and escaped last year. Where you went afterward, who you met.” Su Liang said.

Nangong Lin’s heart tightened. If he started recounting from the very beginning, the time span was long, and the matters and people involved were large. If he had any oversight in any area, he would be discovered. At this point, he had no doubt about how terrifying the intellect of Gu Ling and Su Liang could be.

But, Nangong Lin dared not stay silent, he didn’t even have the chance to hesitate over what he would think, “When I escaped that time, I hid in Yin Country to heal after reaching the shore. My Achilles tendon was cut. It wasn’t until two months ago that I fully recovered. Before that, I did not go anywhere and did not contact anyone. I was afraid that practicing martial arts would further harm me and my leg would become useless.”

Su Liang believed this was plausible. If the Achilles tendon was damaged, it would not be easy to fully heal.

“More than a month ago, I left Yin Country and went to Liang Country to see Situ Xie, hoping to serve him.” Nangong Lin did not have time to fabricate a consistent story, so he decided to speak the truth about certain things, “You are certainly going to kill me. I had no other choice but to join Situ Xie…”

“No need to explain so much,” Su Liang interrupted Nangong Lin. “Just say what you have done.”

Nangong Lin’s face stiffened, he took a deep breath, and continued, “I got to know Yue Mei at Situ Xie’s place, I only knew she was a Poison Master, and nothing more. By that time, Liang Country and Qian Country had already started fighting, and Liang Country was failing in the siege. Many people were shifting the blame to Situ Jing…Qiao Jing’s shoulders, in Liang Country the call to quickly eliminate this traitor Qiao Jing, was very high. Situ Xie then sent me and Yue Mei to Xuanbei City to kill Qiao Jing.”

“I lied that Qianqian was with me, and wished to make a final farewell with Qiao Jing and master, in an attempt to lure them out of the city, but they didn’t go at all.” Nangong Lin’s face darkened, “Then we received new orders, to come to the capital city and kill you.”

Su Liang: …there really were quite a few people wanting to kill her during this period!

“I arranged with Yue Mei, tonight she would lure Gu Ling out, and then I would take Qianqian away.” Nangong Lin said, “I didn’t expect that Gu Ling didn’t leave, even if she did, Yue Mei wouldn’t have gone. She had fallen into the same trap before.”

“Then, how do you plan to kill me?” Su Liang asked.

Nangong Lin paused for a moment before speaking, “It was Yue Mei’s idea. She wanted to capture another child from your family, then find a place and have a daytime rendezvous with you, and let you make the exchange yourself.”

“Who do you plan to kidnap?” Su Liang’s eyes were icy cold.

Nangong Lin shook his head, “We haven’t decided yet. We agreed to wait until I took away Qianqian tonight, then decide according to the situation. She is now handicapped, so some things will have to wait for me to handle. But she has said it before, it’s not easy to kidnap a child from the Su Mansion, so it may be possible to kidnap one from the Lin Family. Even though tonight’s actions would alert everyone, you can’t protect that many people.”

“Where is your hideout?” Su Liang asked.

Nangong Lin provided a location in the woods outside the city.

“Finished?” Gu Ling asked coldly.

Nangong Lin sighed, and before him flashed a black figure. Gu Ling once again pointed the gun at his forehead, “Since you have nothing useful to offer, you might as well die.”

Nangong Lin’s eyes widened, and he began to sweat profusely. This was the first time he had felt the proximity of death, and he couldn’t keep calm anymore, blurting out, “I haven’t finished!”

“Continue,” Gu Ling did not withdraw her gun.

Although Nangong Lin’s story didn’t seem to have anything wrong with it, Gu Ling felt that it couldn’t be that simple.

“There’s one more thing. During the day, I followed Cen Man into the city and happened to see Su Liang. We trailed her in secret for a while, and then Cen Man suddenly left the city,” Nangong Lin recounted, drenched in sweat. “When she left the city, she was mumbling to herself while looking towards the capital city. I don’t know why. I asked her, but she wouldn’t say. But I guess it has something to do with Su Liang’s background. As long as you let me live, I will tell you everything! I swear, it’s true!”

Nangong Lin had managed to not panic in this critical situation. He was telling the truth, but he didn’t mention Mo Yan at first and deliberately saved the most important part for last. According to his guess, Mo Yan doesn’t know that Su Liang is his granddaughter or grandniece, and Su Liang has no idea about it either. Su Liang knew nothing about Xingluo Island and Mo Yan, let alone the fact that Mo Yan now wanted to kill her and was helping Situ Xie to fight against the Qian Country. From the respect Situ Xie and Yue Mei showed towards Mo Yan, it could be seen that Mo Yan was certainly a formidable and dangerous adversary, who might prove to be the greatest threat to Su Liang and Gu Ling.

Just as Nangong Lin thought he could make his escape by leveraging this secret, he noticed that Gu Ling’s face remained unchanged. Su Liang sneered suddenly, “Is that all?”

Nangong Lin’s heart skipped a beat. “You…don’t you want to know about your heritage?”

“Do you think you know more about my heritage than me?” Su Liang questioned back.

Nangong could hardly believe what he was hearing. Could it be that she knew about Xingluo Island? About Shen Qingxue and Mo Yan? Shen Qingxue… His expression suddenly froze as he realized that he had forgotten one thing! Mo Fei, Shen Qingxue’s senior brother and Su Liang’s master (also known as Old Bai, many of you might have forgotten it) might have told Su Liang that she is Shen Qingxue’s granddaughter or grandniece already! Moreover, Mo Fei might know who Shen Qingxue’s lover was!

No no no… Nangong thought something was off. If Su Liang already knew about Xingluo Island and Mo Yan, and that she could possibly be Mo Yan’s granddaughter or grandniece, she would not just stand by and do nothing. At least, she would have let Mo Yan know about this, and a lot of things might have been different!

But in the next moment, Su Liang spoke, “Xingluo Island? Mo Yan? Shen Qingxue? My birth mother? Anything else?”

Nangong Lin felt the chill of death upon hearing this. He marveled at his so-called secret, which Su Liang had known all along, and even more. Since she mentioned her birth mother, she must indeed be Shen Qingxue and Mo Yan’s granddaughter. Nangong Lin had not ruled out the possibility that Su Liang was their grandniece, because he always felt that Su Liang’s father couldn’t have been Su Yuanzhou’s son. The Su family couldn’t have produced a such monstrous person…

“Since you have never been to Xingluo Island, the so-called secret you told me today is just a guess based on Yue Mei’s abnormal behavior,” Su Liang hummed. “But, it’s meaningless now.”

“I… I can help you catch Yue Mei! She has taken your master captive!” Nangong Lin said urgently.

“No need,” Su Liang shook her head and Gu Ling moved the gun away from Nangong Lin’s forehead to shoot through both of his wrists.

Before Nangong Lin’s scream of agony could escape his lips, he fainted.

At midnight, Gu Ling disguised herself as Nangong Lin and left the city with Su Liang, who was disguised as Nangong Qian.

According to what Nangong Lin had told them, Gu Ling found the approximate location and stopped there without going further. She leaned against a tree and began to cough. It was to ensure Cen Man didn’t get suspicious should the exact meeting spot not be correct.

As expected, a short while later, there was a rustle nearby, followed by the voice of Yue Mei, “You’re injured?”

Gu Ling coughed again, and Yue Mei emerged from behind a large tree, leaning on a crutch, her iron hand emanating a cold light.

The distance between them was about three meters.

Setting Su Liang down by a tree, Gu Ling began to speak, “The woman who lives with Qianqian is an old lady.”

“The one we saw with Su Liang in the day? Regardless, I’ve already helped you get your daughter out of Su Mansion. Now, it’s time to get to real business!” Yue Mei huffed coldly.

Gu Ling nodded, “I’ll follow your lead.”

“If your injury isn’t too severe, act tonight. Go to Lin Mansion and snatch one of Lin Shuzhi’s grandsons! Thisbe easy for you, Lin Mansion can’t possibly have a master. Then, we can wait for Su Liang and Gu Ling to come begging. Ha ha ha ha!” Yue Mei sneered.

“Alright. Could you watch over Qianqian? Don’t wake her up yet,” Gu Ling said, adjusting Su Liang’s clothes.

“Just go, your precious daughter won’t experience any harm!” Yue Mei retorted walking over.

Gu Ling nodded, turned around, and quickly disappeared from Yue Mei’s sight.

Yue Mei stood next to Su Liang, looking at her coldly, “Why does he care so much for a useless daughter? He should’ve gotten a new woman and fathered a son.”

Meanwhile, Su Liang played the role of an unconscious girl while awake and began to wonder: Did Yue Mei have her own flesh and blood grandchildren hidden somewhere? Why else would she align herself with Situ Xie?

Su Liang slumped onto the ground. Yue Mei sneered, attempting to lift her with the crutch, but failed.

Cursing, Yue Mei approached again, trying to support Su Liang with her remaining hand.

In the next moment, Su Liang’s eyes snapped open, and her knife, cold and unyielding, mercilessly severed Yue Mei’s remaining hand!

Yue Mei fell to the ground in pain, just in time to see “Nangong Lin,” who had left not too long ago, appear by her side, holding something dark in his hand, targeting her left shoulder.

“You… Gu Ling?!” Yue Mei’s expression was one of horror. She could not forget Gu Ling’s calm yet terrifying eyes from when she had been pushed off the cliff.

Everything happened quickly. As Yue Mei opened her mouth, Gu Ling had already driven two nails into her shoulders, paralyzing her body from the neck up and down. And because Su Liang had cut off her hand, she couldn’t even use her poison techniques.

To make sure nothing went wrong, Gu Ling and Su Liang performed a show for Yue Mei, all to prevent her from getting a chance to poison them.

“Old hag, finally showing your face,” Su Liang stood up and slammed Yue Mei’s bloody severed hand onto her face.

Yue Mei had been splashed with her own blood. She watched Su Liang go to Gu Ling’s side, a cloth soaked with a medicine in her hand to reveal a face that sent Liam seething…

“Do you recognize me?” Su Liang asked, a smile playing on her lips, “But we’ve never met before. Do I resemble someone you despise?”

Yue Mei closed her eyes, refusing to look at anything. But due to her rage, blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

“You can think about how to deceive me. For every nonsense you say before you tell me the whereabouts of my master and the Ying siblings, I’ll cut one piece of flesh from you,” Su Liang calmly threatened, “If you don’t answer my questions, I’ll cut your flesh as well. If you really have the guts, you can bite your tongue. I don’t care. I know my sister Ying is on Xingluo Island; your so-called big secret was deduced and told by Nangong Lin. Moreover, I already knew it before he said it. I’m the granddaughter of Mo Yan and Shen Qingxue, right?”

Yue Mei’s body shook noticeably, and she spat out another mouthful of blood.

Continuing, Su Liang said, “Therefore, Mo Yan doesn’t care about you, and even if he does, after he knows, he might want to kill me, but the possibility of him killing you is greater, don’t you think?”

Instead of interrogating Yue Mei in the woods, Gu Ling and Su Liang brought her back to Su Mansion and tossed her into the same dungeon as Nangong Lin. Although Nangong Lin might be useless in the future, they temporarily kept him, thinking he could be of use someday. After all, he was now completely disabled and no longer posed any threat. They could kill him later if necessary.

By the time Gu Ling and Su Liang had dealt with Nangong Lin and Yue Mei, day was about to break, and the two of them went to sleep.

Early the next morning, everyone in the mansion gathered on the first floor of the Yuanming Pavilion.

Ji Xiaoshu and Zhengzheng were playing and chasing each other, while Gu Xiaonuan laughed and clapped her hands in Gu Ling’s arms, seemingly cheering for one of the brothers.

“Did anyone appear last night?” Cen Man enquired.

Nangong Qian tugged at her handkerchief. She and Qiuyue had been moved to a different place to stay, which Qiuyue suggested was probably for protection against Nangong Lin; no one else would come looking for them.

Su Liang nodded, “Nangong Lin came with the intention to kill Qiuyue and kidnap Nangong Qian. Both he and Yue Mei have been captured.”

Qiuyue’s face paled, and Nangong Qian looked down, her hopeful fantasies about Nangong Lin shattered.

In fact, Nangong Lin had been brought down by Gu Ling before even entering the room, but the black fog appearing from Qiuyue’s forehead indicated that she would have been killed by Nangong Lin last night if not for Gu Ling’s interference.

Su Liang mentioned this to ensure that Nangong Qian would no longer hold any hopes for Nangong Lin. He was not worth it.

Cen Man sighed with relief, “That’s good.” However, she also started doubting if Su Ling or Gu Ling had any predictive powers, but refrained from voicing her thoughts. If such special abilities existed, it was safest not to mention them.

After breakfast, Su Ling and Gu Ling went to the dungeon to interrogate Yue Mei.

At the same time, the Liang Country’s army was once again at the gates of Xuanbei City.

Mo Yan and He Wei stood behind the army, looking distantly at Xing Ji on the city building.

In a low voice, He Wei asked, “Master, taking Xuanbei City today is not a problem. However, if Yue Mei and Nangong Lin prove useless in the capital city, should I take a team there again?”

Mo Yan shook his head, “First destroy Xuanbei City, we can deal with the Su Liang problem when we return.”