Flower Stealing Master

Chapter 934: Green Hatted Prince Hailing

Although the process sounds long when described, in truth everything happened in the blink of an eye. 

In Wanyan Liang’s eyes, one moment Gongsun Zhi had charged forward full of confidence, and the next moment his head was already dangling from his neck.

Ouyang Feng and Qiu Qianren both turned pale. Gongsun Zhi’s character might not have been the best, but his martial arts were undeniably formidable. The two of them knew well that killing him would not be easy. Yet now, he had been dispatched so cleanly by Tang Kuo Bian, as if it had taken just one move.

“Impossible!” Wanyan Liang blurted out. His expression suddenly changed. “Who exactly are you?”

Song Qingshu spread his hands. “Your Highness, surely you recognize me? I am Tang Kuo Bian.”

“You are most certainly not Tang Kuo Bian.” Wanyan Liang’s tone turned cold. He was perfectly clear about Tang Kuo Bian’s level of martial arts. If he truly possessed such skill, he would not have been so easily injured by Huang Rong’s Dog Beating Staff back in Kaifeng. Wanyan Liang had even sent a physician to confirm that Tang Kuo Bian’s spine had been seriously injured before sending assassins to finish him off.

Song Qingshu laughed. “Since Your Highness has seen through me, there’s no point pretending further.” Saying this, he removed the mask from his face, revealing his true appearance.

“Song Qingshu!” Wanyan Liang instinctively took a step back. Back at the inn, he had witnessed with his own eyes how Song Qingshu single-handedly defeated the Mongol masters. That sight had left too deep an impression, so much so that now, faced with him again, Wanyan Liang could not help but feel fear rising in his heart.

Empress Pei Man’s expression was equally fascinating. She had long been waiting for Song Qingshu to appear and save her, but she had never expected his other identity to be Tang Kuo Bian! Suddenly, she recalled that Tang Kuo Bian was Gebi’s husband. Her heart skipped a beat. If so, didn’t that mean as her sister-in-law’s elder, she had ended up sharing the same man?

Daiqisi, meanwhile, recognized him as the man she had encountered that night in Wanyan’s bedchamber. Thinking of how he was the only man apart from her husband before whom she had willingly disrobed, her cheeks grew warm. Strictly speaking, she and Song Qingshu were enemies, yet compared to falling into Wanyan Liang’s hands, ending up with Song Qingshu seemed easier to accept.

Still, she wasn’t too optimistic about Song Qingshu’s chances. On Wanyan Liang’s side were the famed Western Poison Ouyang Feng and Iron Palm Floating on Water Qiu Qianren. She vividly remembered how the once-arrogant Wind and Cloud Envoys had been killed within moments by their hands.

Moreover, the guards by Wanyan Liang’s side were also highly skilled. They seemed to possess a strange combined formation. Daiqisi, the Purple-Robed Dragon King, was herself a top-tier expert in the martial world—back then, even Abbess Miejue might not have defeated her without the Heavenly Sword. Yet two of Wanyan Liang’s guards working together had captured her alive within just a few moves!

Both women’s feelings were complicated at this moment, and Ouyang Feng and Qiu Qianren’s attitudes were equally subtle.

For Ouyang Feng, there was no enmity between him and Song Qingshu. On the contrary, they shared a rather deep connection—he owed his recovery from madness on Divine Dragon Island to Song Qingshu’s help, a debt he remembered well. After a series of later events, though not exactly friends in the conventional sense, their bond ran deeper than most friendships. Yet now, standing on opposing sides, Ouyang Feng was torn about what to do.

To risk his life for Wanyan Liang and fight Song Qingshu to the death was something he had no intention of doing. Yet Wanyan Liang had not treated him poorly of late. If he turned his back on him now, others would say he had cowered before a junior, tarnishing his reputation as the Western Poison.

Ouyang Feng, known as Western Poison and reviled by the martial world as a demonic figure, scoffed at concepts like loyalty. But reputation—face—he valued greatly, leaving him in a dilemma.

Qiu Qianren’s expression, however, was far uglier. Back at the inn, he too had witnessed Song Qingshu fighting the Mongol grandmasters, and the sight had shaken him deeply. Later, he had relied on sheer numbers to dare confront Song Qingshu, yet time and again he gained no advantage. In the end, at Kaifeng, he had even been gravely injured by Song Qingshu and had spent months in recovery. Having only just returned to the martial world, he now stumbled upon this harbinger of disaster once more.

After so many encounters, Qiu Qianren might not want to admit it, but he knew the gap between him and Song Qingshu was only widening. If he had to choose the opponent in the world he least wanted to face, Song Qingshu would undoubtedly be at the top of the list.

Wanyan Liang finally recovered from his shock. Suddenly, a thought struck him, making his face turn even darker. “That night in the Prince Consort’s mansion… was that you as well?”

Song Qingshu knew exactly what he was referring to and smiled faintly. “Indeed. I never thought Your Highness would show me such favor, letting your princess personally keep me company. I must say, her b0dy was soft and tender…”

“Shut up!” Wanyan Liang’s face turned green as he hurried to interrupt. “That night, Gebi was mine—I had my way with her thoroughly!”

Song Qingshu looked at him with pity. “Now that you know Tang Kuo Bian was just my disguise, do you still naively believe it was truly Gebi with you that night? She was nothing more than a courtesan I found in the Eight Alleys of Pleasure.”

“Pff!” Wanyan Liang’s chest heaved violently before he finally spat out a mouthful of blood.

Though the others present did not know exactly what had happened that night, from their exchange they could guess eight or nine parts of the truth. One by one, they began casting pitying looks at Wanyan Liang.

Empress Pei Man, long seasoned in court life, had seen many such scandals among nobles. Usually, however, they involved $wapping concubines or mistresses. But Wanyan Liang—$wapping his own wife? This was the first she had heard of such a thing. Remembering how he had forced her into desperation earlier, she now felt immense satisfaction.

Daiqisi, meanwhile, was both ashamed and enraged. In her eyes, both Song Qingshu and Wanyan Liang were vile men. Yet, between the two, Wanyan Liang, who had allowed his wife to be dish0nored, was the worse of the two evils.

Ouyang Feng’s mouth twitched. This kid truly was a cunning one. In all the time he had known him, Song Qingshu had always been the one taking advantage of others—never the other way around. If only he had been born a few years earlier; had his son Ke’er apprenticed under him, learning even a single trick, his fate might not have ended so tragically. Hm… a man who disregards propriety and law so brazenly—wasn’t he the perfect choice to take revenge on Guo Jing and Huang Rong?

Sensing the pitying gazes of those around him, Wanyan Liang could no longer bear it. Pointing at Song Qingshu, he roared: “Everyone, attack together! Kill him for me!”