The Creditor of Blades

Chapter 279: The Creditor of Blades

Li Huowang’s earlier guess had been wrong. There was no ghost stealing life-roots. Faced with the rumors spread by the Zuowandao, this beggar from the Supervisory Heavenly Office had simply used a completely different method than Li Huowang.

“Was that necessary? Was it necessary to act that realistically?” Li Huowang pointed at the corpses the Slanted-Brow man had killed.

“This was a trap set by the Zuowandao. If I didn’t act realistically, how would it work? You think people would just listen to something said casually? Besides, I watched the whole time I was fighting. The ones who died were all ordinary commoners.”

The other man’s words sent a chill through Li Huowang. How could he say something like that so calmly? Was everyone in the Supervisory Heavenly Office like this?

It wasn’t that Li Huowang felt especially outraged about the dead. It was that seeing how this man operated made him raise his guard considerably.

From now on, I need to be very careful when dealing with this guy. I don’t want to end up like one of those commoners used as props for his act.

Seeing Li Huowang standing there silently, the Slanted-Brow beggar spoke first. “I am Hong Da, a Creditor of Blades. A pleasure.”

Creditor of Blades. This was the first time Li Huowang had heard the term. If he interpreted it literally, the man was someone who extended credit for knives.

But if the man was a low-level agent of the Supervisory Heavenly Office, those three characters couldn’t possibly mean what they said on the surface. There had to be another meaning.

“Creditor of Blades?”

“That’s right. I am indeed a Creditor of Blades without any sect affiliation. Heh heh, True Man. Would you like to take a blade on credit?”

Hong Da pulled open his heavily patched robe. Inside, it was cluttered with all sorts of blades.

The blades were very old. Many of them had rust spots. The edges were either rolled or chipped. This was why Li Huowang’s Purple-Tasseled Sword hadn’t been able to injure him earlier.

But this also indirectly proved that these blades weren’t as shabby as they looked. Rusted, broken blades couldn’t block a military weapon.

“Heh heh, True Man. Would you like to take a blade on credit?”

As Hong Da asked again, he held a broken blade out toward Li Huowang, the edge pointed forward. A hint of expectant smile appeared on his face.

“If you give me this blade on credit, when do I have to repay it?”

“Since it’s on credit, when the time comes to repay, it will naturally need to be repaid.” Hong Da’s words seemed to say something, yet they also seemed to say nothing.

After thinking for a moment, Li Huowang slowly reached out toward the rust-red blade, his eyes fixed tightly on the other man’s demeanor.

Just as the red rust was about to touch Li Huowang’s finger, he pulled his hand back. “No need. My weapons are enough.”

“Ah, forget it then. If you don’t want credit, you don’t want credit. Since the matter in Pi County is concluded, True Man Erjiu, we’ll meet again.”

With a look of regret, Hong Da withdrew the blade, clasped his hands toward Li Huowang, and walked toward the mortuary’s exit.

Just as his hand touched the bronze ring-pull on the wooden door, a bloodied fingernail flew over and embedded itself into the door panel.

“Hold on a moment. I heard the Heavenly Office pays well for its work. Since I was involved with the Pi County business too, shouldn’t I get a share of the reward?”

Staring at the bloody, crescent-shaped crack in the wooden door, Hong Da’s voice carried a hint of surprise. “Oh? And if I say no?”

As soon as the words were spoken, the atmosphere in the mortuary became tense.

But with Li Huowang’s next sentence, the oppressive mood vanished instantly. “If you say no, that’s fine too. I can do this kind of business myself. Get me into the Supervisory Heavenly Office, and this debt is cleared.”

Hong Da turned around to face him, seeming quite surprised by the request. “Is that so? Fine, then. Come with me to the Ministry of Rites, and we’ll register your name with the Recorder of Portraits.”

“The Ministry of Rites?” The moment Li Huowang heard this, he rejected the idea. If he went to their headquarters and was discovered, he would be completely finished.

“That’s too far. I have urgent business. Is there another way? I heard the Supervisory Heavenly Office can be contacted independently?”

After listening to Li Huowang’s words, Hong Da considered it for a moment, then finally nodded. “Alright, here’s the plan. I’ll talk to my superiors. Don’t go looking for him. If he agrees, he’ll come find you.”

“Don’t worry. We’ve worked together now. I’ll put in a good word for you.”

With that, Hong Da pushed open the door and walked out. When he stepped onto the bustling street, he picked up a large ceramic child’s-head doll from the ground and placed it directly over his own head.

He pulled out a tattered fan that was almost nothing but the handle from his waist, fanned his face vigorously, and strode out of Pi County.

He walked until the noisy streets of Pi County were far behind him and the surroundings finally grew quiet, filled only with the sounds of summer insects.

After walking for another half an hour, he tossed the ceramic doll head into the woods on the side of the road and said, “True Man Erjiu, you can stop following me. If I really were a Zuowandao, today’s affairs wouldn’t have ended so easily.”

Li Huowang stepped out from the woods on the other side, clasped his hands toward him, and turned to walk back toward Pi County.

Only when Li Huowang’s silhouette had once again disappeared into the scattered lights of the town did Hong Da speak. “Well?”

The sound of dry leaves crunching came from the nearby woods. A heavily pregnant man wearing a large green outfit with a red drum tied to his waist and bright red rouge on his cheeks emerged from within. The man was wearing a ceramic child’s-head doll.

He was carrying the embroidered-ball dragon ball over his shoulder, still tied with red string and mounted on a pole.

“No good. That guy is furtive and of unknown origin. Just now, when you said you’d take him to see the Recorder of Portraits, he didn’t dare follow. There’s a good chance he’s a Zuowandao.”

The voice coming from under the ceramic child’s-head doll was unexpectedly young and gentle, completely mismatched with his bulky body.

As Hong Da habitually squatted down, the metal clatter of weapons sounded from his body. “I don’t think he’s a Zuowandao. A Zuowandao’s trick wouldn’t be this crude.”

The ceramic child’s-head doll turned slowly, its pitch-black hollow eyes fixed on Hong Da. “What if the Zuowandao guessed we would think that, and did it on purpose?”

“Besides, they’ve already lost two of their leaders recently. They probably won’t come looking for trouble for a while.”

The ceramic child’s-head doll didn’t move a muscle, but its voice repeated mechanically. “What if the Zuowandao guessed we would think that, and did it on purpose?”

Hong Da shot him an impatient glance. “Enough. I don’t have time to play word games with you.”

The ceramic child’s-head doll turned its head and stared at the distant town of Pi County again. “On his back he carries a copper coin sword from the Luo Sect. The other sword, with its hilt wrapped in cloth, gives off the murderous aura of a military weapon. And on top of that, he uses the secret arts of the Ao-Jing Sect. Strange, very strange.”

Hong Da nodded in agreement. “While he’s strange, he’s certainly powerful. Even if there’s a chance he’s a Zuowandao, he can still be used as a blade.”

“And then?”

Facing his companion’s question, Hong Da narrowed his eyes and stroked his chin with the pad of his index finger. “Then… we use him and watch him.”