Chapter 481 - 220: That Day
Chapter 481: Chapter 220: That Day
"I don’t know."
Luo Wenzhou gently shook his head.
Fang Shuwen raised an eyebrow, his smile vanishing.
Seeing his expression, Luo Wenzhou hurriedly added,
"I really don’t know. Among all the Twelve Hour Guards, perhaps only the Lord of Time knows the truth of ’that day.’"
"Then tell me about this Lord of Time."
"The Lord of Time is the master of the Twelve Hour Guards, overseeing all our affairs. But... the Lord of Time has never truly appeared before anyone.
"We only know that the Lord of Time isn’t a single person.
"The Lord of Time from thirty years ago is not the same person as the one today. The position changed hands again twenty years ago to the current Lord of Time.
"Perhaps in a few more years, another Lord of Time will take this one’s place.
"The Lord of Time never meets with us. On the rare occasions one appears, we only see a figure from behind.
"Everything we do is based on orders given by the Lord of Time.
"And the Lord of Time takes orders directly from the Lord of the Dragon Abyss."
Luo Wenzhou said,
"Within the Twelve Hour Guards, no one would dare to pry into the Lord of Time’s affairs.
"What we know about the Lord of Time... ends there."
He had said a lot, but none of it was of any real substance.
Fang Shuwen, however, was deep in thought.
"In other words, the Lord of Time is part of Dragon Abyss, and you Twelve Hour Guards serve under the Lord of Time."
"So, besides you Twelve Hour Guards, what other roles exist within Dragon Abyss?"
Luo Wenzhou shook his head.
"I don’t know that either..."
Fang Shuwen could tell from his expression that he wasn’t lying, which only annoyed him.
’Dragon Abyss is even larger than I’d anticipated,’ he thought. ’A single member of the Twelve Hour Guards possesses Martial Arts on par with Shi Wuya’s.’
’What kind of masters must be ranked above him?’
’Still, these were matters that would surely come to light in time.’ Fang Shuwen didn’t press Luo Wenzhou on the point and instead asked directly,
"Do you know where the Dragon Abyss headquarters is located?"
Luo Wenzhou glanced at Fang Shuwen and gave a bitter smile.
"You want to find Dragon Abyss and fight your way in?
"It’s useless. You won’t find it... and besides, I don’t know where the main headquarters is.
"I only know the location of the Twelve Hour Guards’ base.
"But even if I told you, by the time you rushed there from the Eastern Domain, the place would be long deserted.
"Because I’ve fallen into your hands.
"They all know I was handling matters related to the Seven Stars. Now that I’ve vanished without a trace, they’ll know I’ve failed.
"They won’t care why I failed, or even whether I’m alive or dead. All they’ll care about is that, with my disappearance, the location of the Twelve Hour Guards’ base is no longer a perfect secret.
"So, they will vanish completely."
"Won’t they come to rescue you?"
"Unless it is absolutely necessary... Dragon Abyss must not appear before anyone."
Luo Wenzhou said softly,
"The life or death of a single member of the Twelve Hour Guards is insignificant to Dragon Abyss.
"This is what ’not absolutely necessary’ means...
"My previous appearance before Shi Wuya was for the sake of the Seven Stars, so that was deemed necessary.
"But if the existence of the Seven Stars is enough to compromise one of the Twelve Hour Guards... then to prevent the problem from escalating...
"...and causing a flaw in our concealed status... then according to the principles of Dragon Abyss, they would abandon even the Seven Stars without a second thought.
"That’s why there’s no way they’ll come to rescue me.
"It would only increase the chance of exposure."
"Dragon Abyss... ’A dragon hiding in an abyss.’ It sounds impressive, but you’re just a bunch of cowards hiding in your shells."
Fang Shuwen sneered.
Luo Wenzhou’s lips twitched, as if to retort, but after a moment’s hesitation, he decided that discretion was the better part of valor.
’Arguing won’t change Fang Shuwen’s attitude, and it might just earn me more suffering,’ he thought. ’Why ask for more trouble?’
Fang Shuwen didn’t press the matter, instead asking,
"Tell me, what do you know about ’that day’?"
Luo Wenzhou looked at Fang Shuwen and enunciated each word carefully:
"Demons will run rampant; the world will be washed in blood.
"The Dragon Lord will emerge from the abyss to turn the tide!"
Fang Shuwen’s eyebrow twitched. Beside him, Yu Yaoguang couldn’t help but let out a cold laugh.
"Deceitful nonsense.
"Is this the kind of brainwashing you receive growing up in Dragon Abyss?"
Luo Wenzhou looked helpless.
"This is everything I know... I know that to you, Dragon Abyss isn’t a force for good.
"But from what I’ve seen, everything Dragon Abyss does is not in pursuit of some selfish ambition.
"It’s all in preparation for ’that day.’"
"You’re not actually going to tell us that Dragon Abyss has sealed away some Demon Cave, and on ’that day’ the seal will break, which is why demons will run rampant, are you?"
Yu Yaoguang pursed her lips.
"Even the scripts for plays are more creative than that these days."
Luo Wenzhou said no more.
Fang Shuwen, however, told him to reveal the location of the Twelve Hour Guards’ base.
Although according to Luo Wenzhou, since Fang Shuwen was currently far away in the Eastern Domain, the place would already be deserted even if he rushed there at full speed now.
But Fang Shuwen had other ideas. ’Even if I don’t go myself, the main branch of the Fang Clan still has people in the Central Domain.’
’Perhaps they could go and investigate.’
’Besides, I refuse to believe they’d all retreat without leaving a single trace.’
’Even if there really are no traces, wouldn’t they leave a few people behind to secretly watch and see if anyone approaches the Twelve Hour Guards’ base?’
’That’s a possibility, and it might just become a lead I can follow.’
Luo Wenzhou held nothing back and revealed the location.
Having asked most of the important questions, Fang Shuwen sealed his Mute Acupoint and left him to lean against the wall with Shi Wuya.
He took the notes Miao Feichan had been recording, looked them over, and then said to her,
"From the looks of it, the Twelve Hour Guards of Dragon Abyss were indeed the main culprits back then.
"And the one that made them do it was Dragon Abyss itself.
"But it’s going to take more time to fully uncover the truth about Dragon Abyss..."
"Mm."
Miao Feichan nodded.
"I’ve decided to return to Yuqing Pavilion with Yao Guang. We’ll cultivate the Lingyun Star-Stepping Strategy first. We can deal with everything else after that."
Fang Shuwen nodded.
He planned to make a trip to Guangning City after this.
Tonight, all the questions he had asked Luo Wenzhou concerned Dragon Abyss and the Twelve Hour Guards. For the time being, Fang Shuwen hadn’t asked about what Fang Mingxuan had experienced twenty years ago.
That matter involved the Fang Clan, so he planned to take Luo Wenzhou to Guangning City and question him again in front of Fang Mingxuan.
Nothing more of note happened that night. Except, in the dead of night, while Shi Wuya was sleeping soundly, he was woken by several hard slaps from Fang Shuwen, who made him recite the two verses again.
As expected, several parts didn’t match up.
In the end, he was tormented by Fang Shuwen’s ’A Line’ for half the night...
「The next morning.」
The group left the deserted village.
Fang Shuwen made the excuse that he had business in Guangning City. Yu Yaoguang and Miao Feichan decided to travel with him, planning to part ways once they arrived.
But before they were even halfway there, a figure covered in blood suddenly stumbled out of the woods.
Fang Shuwen had sensed the person’s approach much earlier but had assumed it was just some Jianghu person who had narrowly escaped death and paid it no mind.
To his surprise, however, the man’s eyes lit up when he saw Fang Shuwen, and he cried out,
"Hero Fang, I’ve finally... found you!"