Chapter 243.2: Into the Kang City, Tang Manor Destroyed, the Slaughter Begins! (II)

Tang Lu was wounded.

A cold smile spread on the face of the fourth master.

The fourth master's spirits rose and a cold smile spread across his face. "My niece, I never imagined you could fight this well. Still, you are foolish for not going into hiding after that miraculous escape. Maybe you could've lived a few more years in hiding.

"Instead of running, you foolishly tried to storm Tang Manor all by yourself. Is that how my eldest brother taught the two of you? Still, this suits me well. You and your brother have delivered yourselves to my door, so stay here forever. I shall bury you myself!"

The fourth master's expression contorted with savagery. Previously, he had been worried that the siblings would plot their revenge in the years to come. He had never thought Tang Lu would be foolish enough to willingly walk into Tang Manor.

Sometimes, what you seek appears only when you stop looking. The two siblings were now courting their own deaths.

Drip, drip.

Blood trickled down Tang Lu's arm, dripping to the ground. Hunted down by dozens of archers and a pack of saber-wielding guards eyeing her like tigers, her face darkened utterly, and she ground her teeth in what looked like bitter resentment.

But despite that bitterness, Tang Lu understood clearly that on her own, even with her constitution elevated twofold or threefold, she could not take her revenge.

"Master, I am useless. I must trouble you..."

Tang Lu spun around and dropped to one knee before a young man whose right hand still held a little boy—the young master of the Tang family.

The sight gave the pursuers pause and even the fourth master of the Tang family stood there with his mouth open, his expression riddled with confusion.

"Master?"

The Tang household was astounded. Had the eldest young lady of the Tang family really sold herself into servitude? Or did this man come from some great background? Yet as they looked him over, there was not a single retainer behind him. It seemed that he had come alone.

"Fourth Master, what should we do...?"

One of the house guards hesitated, unable to make out where the young man had come from. The fourth master, however, hardened his heart, knowing that if he did not finish off the two siblings, then he would be the one to die.

After making up his mind, the fourth master gave the order. "Kill them! Kill that man along with the siblings! I'll take full responsibility!"

Whoever this young man was, if he was going to meddle in the affairs of the Tang family, then he could hardly blame the fourth master for what was to come.

The archers promptly obeyed the order and unleashed another hair of arrows that blotted out the sky before falling down on Lu Changsheng and Tang Lu. No one, however nimble, could evade something like that.

However, Lu Changsheng only smiled faintly and swayed forward to stand between the arrows and the two siblings, his hands still hanging at his sides, motionless, letting the whole sky of arrows come down on him.

Clatter.

Every eye went wide and every expression froze. The people of Tang Manor could not believe what they were seeing. Someone taking a volley of arrows head-on? Was he wearing armor beneath his clothes?

But there was nothing on his face, and they could see clearly that the arrows striking that pale skin failed to leave so much as a red mark, bouncing straight off, some of the arrow heads even snapping on impact before scattering across the ground.

The uncanny scene left everyone in Tang Manor shaken to the core.

"Wh-Who exactly are you?" the fourth master stammered, fear evident in his voice.

A man who can shrug off arrows... Is he even a man at all? Where did Tang Lu find this freak?

"It's been a long while since I relied on martial skill..." Lu Changsheng said under his breath.

He could not use his Saint Body or his divine abilities for the time being, lest a deity was watching him. And so, he had to rely on his own physique, and to kill he would have to fall back on martial skill.

Martial skill was hardly foreign to him. From the days when he first began practicing martial arts at Miaoshou Garden, he had practiced countless martial techniques in order to raise his Perception.

Even though his cultivation had climbed so high that he scarcely ever drew on such techniques anymore, they had long since become something close to instinct. He could never forget them.

Swish!

Lu Changsheng made his move, shooting forward in an instant like a cheetah. Unlike Tang Lu, his physique was perhaps ten thousand times stronger than that of an ordinary person. Whatever the exact figure, to the ordinary people of the Divine Region, Lu Changsheng's physical prowess was simply inconceivable.

And so, with a single stride, Lu Changsheng found himself in the middle of Tang Manor archers. Wielding nothing but a broken arrow shaft, he wove through like a shifting mirage, and only a few breaths later, he came to a stop.

Thud!

Archers and house guards dropped one after another without so much as a scream. The whole thing had happened in the blink of an eye, and Lu Changsheng's white robes remained pristine, without so much as a drop of blood or speck of dust on them.

The fourth master stood surrounded by corpses, the only one left on his feet. He was quaking with fear, his eyes wide with despair.

"S-Spare me... never wanted to kill your father and mother either, but if I hadn't killed them I could never have taken control of the family. The seat of patriarch of the Tang family should have been mine from the start..."

He was almost hysterical, dragging up grudges from the generation before.

Tang Lu said nothing. She simply gripped her dagger and walked toward him, one step at a time.

Shing!

With a flash of white, blood spurted from the fourth master's throat. He slowly sank to the ground, twitching and coughing. A moment later, he stopped struggling.

Just like that, the fourth master of the Tang family had been slain.

The few people of the manor still standing nearby immediately crouched down, shivering all over. Fear took over as they realized they might be the next ones to add to the rivers of blood.

"Mercy, Miss, have mercy...The fourth master forced us..."

"We're only maids and servants. We didn't dare defy the fourth master."

"Miss, Young Master, we beg you for mercy..."

The maids and servants of the manor scrambled to their knees and pleaded. Now that even the fourth master was dead, resistance was pointless.

Tang Lu was well aware that these people had never had any choice in the matter, and killing them would serve no purpose. She had finally exacted her vengeance, and all hatred and resentment had finally faded from her heart.

She turned to Lu Changsheng and knelt. "Master, Tang Manor has been reclaimed. I await your instructions as to how to deal with these people."

Tang Lu had placed herself exactly where she belonged, understanding that her revenge had rested entirely on this Evil God before her, and that everything of hers had long since become his. Naturally, that included Tang Manor as well.

"Tang Lu, you did well. The manor belongs to you and your brother now."

With that, Lu Changsheng glanced at Tang Lu's little brother. "Hmm... Tang Lu will stay at my side. Tang Chong, from today, you are the master of Tang Manor."

At that, Tang Chong's eyes went wide. Young as he was, with his family struck by sudden ruin and killers at his back, he had come to understand more or less how things stood.

"Sis..." Tang Chong was shaking with emotion.

"Tang Chong, thank Master at once." Tang Lu immediately pulled him to kneel next to her.

"Enough. See to the affairs of the manor yourself and settle things as quickly as you can. And try not to let what happened here spread beyond these walls. To the outside world, say you came into a stroke of fortune of your own," Lu Changsheng said mildly.

Many people had in fact seen what happened at Tang Manor, but all they had witnessed was Lu Changsheng making his move. As for the rest, no one outside had witnessed a thing of what took place within, because a servant had shut the main gate the moment Tang Lu entered.

"Yes, Master. I will handle it properly!"

Tang Lu understood that no information about this Evil God could be allowed to get out. It was her duty to make sure that what had occurred at Tang Manor would not spread beyond the manor itself.

It took Tang Lu several hours to bring the manor fully under control, and when the gates opened again, crowds pressed forward one after another to look inside. They saw no bodies. Even the blood on the ground had been scrubbed clean by the servants.

"What in the world happened in here?"

"Tang Lu and her brother went in hours ago, and that mysterious man with them, and still nobody knows a thing."

"There seem to be far fewer people in the manor. And neither the two siblings nor the fourth master has come out."

"The place is in perfect order and even the blood has been washed away. I'd guess the fourth master won..."

The people jostled and speculated, all of them very curious about what had transpired at the manor. Many concluded that the fourth master had to have won the struggle and the two siblings had been killed.

But then, another figure appeared.

"Is that... Ms. Tang Lu? How come she's here?"

"And the young master Tang Chong. Neither of them died?"

"But no sign of the fourth master. Could it be..."

Shocked as they were to see the siblings alive, they guessed the truth at once. The Tang siblings were the victors, and the fourth master was dead.

Tang Lu came out through the gate with Tang Chong and looked at the assembled crowd. She had no real need to explain the Tang family's affairs, but her master needed stability, so she had to appear in person and put out word of what had happened at the manor.

"Neighbors, from this day forward, Tang Chong is the head of the Tang family. The family's business continues as before."

With that, Tang Lu turned and took Tang Chong back inside.

The crowd erupted. Not one of them had imagined that the fourth master could lose his power while holding all the cards. The idea that he had perished against Tang Lu was simply inconceivable.

"And who was that mysterious man?"

Some of them recalled the young man, but the Tang family had suppressed all word about him. In the end, not a single soul learned anything about him.