After the shenanigans of both Gu Tian and Wu Chen was solved, they make up fast and have already began bantering about…
"Chicken is the best when it was stirred fried!" Chen said as he held on to a fierce emotion
"No! It was better when it's grilled over low heat!" Gu Tian said, her face, much like Chen, is fierce.
"You are delusional! Only beef is good when it's grilled! Especially when it was still half raw" Chen argument draws some intense reaction from Gu Tian
"Eww, you actually eat half-raw beef??!!" She said as she covered her mouth with her hand
"And now you dare slander the half-raw beef? You guys!" Chen then turned his face to look at both Ni Len and Xiu who just reacted to their foolish argument with disinterested look, as if screaming 'don't bother us with it'.
But Xiu decided to answer "We commoner just eat whatever is available…" he said as Ni Len nod at his answer.
"Tch..." Chen clicked his tongue as he scrutinizes his feature, expressing displeasure at their passivity.
Gu Tian looked at them with a confused expression.
"You guys never eat grilled chicken before?" she asks with bewilderment
"No?" Xiu said in an instant
"What!" She said, eyes blown wide as if her entire world had been flipped
"Why are you so surprised? Were you too sheltered to know such basic fact?" Chen said, as if mocking her
"You! What do you know hah!" Gu Tian response was fierce.
Chen was about to present a counter argument for something so useless to begin with, yet he was then surrounded by 2 black haired woman's who turns out to be the Demonic Princess Wu Laizha and Wu Liza.
"Chen!" they both said as they tightly locked Chen with their hands. Chen can only squirm once he realizes it was the dreaded twin sisters.
Gu Tian was startled at the appearance of these two black blobs, before hardening her feature and sharpening her gaze upon realizing that it's a woman, a beauty at that too.
"My ladies, please behave yourself" a male voice rings out from behind them, he wears a Black and red robes as his long black hair, untied and uncurled falls like black rain past his shoulder. His eyes are also glowing red which means he has eaten the Blood Worm.
Wu Chen remembers him as Musashi Yan, the son of Musashi Gen. He is to be the twin sister Guardian.
"Young master…" He bows to Wu Chen, which Wu Chen replies with a shallow nod as he casually breaks free from the embrace of his sisters
"Elder sisters, what are you doing here?" Wu Chen asks
"…We are a member of this camp, alongside Yan" Wu Liza said, Wu Laizha nods beside her.
"I see…" Wu Chen said, for a moment, the conversation awkwardly dies down as both Wu Chen and Gu Tian wears a neutral face.
"…We are here to announce that the Hunt for the murderer will begin once the nightfall… And we were to escort you and your group to a holding until the given time…" Wu Laizha said, Wu Liza nods besides her.
"Lead the way then…" Wu Chen said with a slight smile.
During the entire length of the journey, Wu Chen has noticed some peculiarity inside of the camp.
There are 2 walls inside, he originally thought it was meant to be a defense in case the outer wall falls, but it's not like that.
'It's to separate the commoner from the Noble'
Wu Chen silently thought, he can't help but ridicule those who still maintain such a rigid status-quo even in this deadly test.
'Come to think of it, isn't that stuck-up Mugeon Prince said that the test requires at least 5 people to pass? It doesn't seem like this test forced you to at least have 5 people'
Wu Chen connects the dot from the various fragmented clues he had gathered. The reason why there is a student outside Jiangnam Region and even someone from a supposed enemy faction was here in the Southern Academy in the first place.
'An execution ground for the unwanted Noble huh…'
He had finally connected the dot, why are there so many Noble here and almost all of them share one common trait.
'Stupid, arrogant, ignorant and short-sighted' in other words, liability to their Clan or Family
And the Southern Academy serve as a convenient place to kill them under the guise of training incident.
Wu Chen looks at Gu Tian who hides behind him over the leering gaze of the surrounding boys of Gu Liang camp. He realized the danger she was facing inside of this Academy.
Not just from the danger of mortality, but depravity too. And who knows what else this place hides?
'And we are clearly in the eastern region, I thought it was Sichuan Basin at first, but were in the central plain'
Chen continued to muse in his mind, a lot of the dots continued to be solitary and had no string attached anywhere, a dead end to information.
Before he knew it, he arrived at the lodging. It was a simple wooden cottage, but it was good enough.
"Here is your lodging, please feel free to ask anything to a servant inside" Wu Liza said
"Is the servant female?" Gu Tian asked with worried looks
"Yes, the servant is female" Wu Laizha answered with neutral face, her eyes glow red for a moment
Hearing that, Gu Tian felt relieved.
Xiu and Ni Len prepared to go inside, but Wu Chen had other thoughts.
"Can I meet Gu Liang?" he asks
"…" Wu Liza was silent for a moment, as if surprised, yet she didn't let out that emotion. With clinical voice she said
"Of course, since the meeting Gu Liang ordered should've past by now…"
"Let us then…"
Wu Chen said as he gaits away from his group. Gu Tian looked at his fleeting form, as if contemplating whether to join him or not, she decided not to.
"Yan, protect our guests" Wu Liza ordered Musashi Yan, but he seems reluctant to follow through it.
"…My place is beside the lady" he said with stern voice.
"Then I will stay behind…" Wu Laizha said in return which flustered Musashi Yan who can't help but to make a choice between following either of them.
"…I shall guard Lady Wu Laizha" he said, knowing he can't defeat the twin sister's machinations.
Satisfied, Wu Liza gestured at Wu Chen to follow her.
During the journey, Wu Chen continued to observe the Camp, taking in as much information as possible.
And he arrives at an otherwise normal-looking cottage, not so different from his lodging.
"Gu Liang is inside…" Wu Liza said, gesturing inside the Cottage
"I thank the Elder Sister" Wu Chen bowed slightly while smiling
"Don't be" Liza said as she watches Wu Chen enters the building.
.
.
.
Inside the building, Gu Liang is looking at the self-made map from one of the hunters of his camp, determining strategy for the Hunt. But he was interrupted by Namgoong Hien casual remarks
"Wu Chen is here…"
Gu Liang instantly shifted his posture and gaze towards the door. Seeing as it was closed, he said
"Let him inside, and leave…" Gu Liang said as he stows the map away, Namgoong Hien didn't do so much as to bow and instantly leaves the room. Not long after, Wu Chen goes in.
His strides were unlike what Wu Chen was a couple hours ago when they met. He seems more relaxed and somewhat hastened.
This lack of elegance and constructed charisma ironically makes him more imposing than he normally is, as if he was someone who always manages to make things go his way.
"I apologize to disturb you this late when the supposed deal has been contextualized and approved" Wu Chen said as he sits in the chair immediately.
His actions make Gu Liang anxious for a moment. Yet his urge for perfection manages to bury the feeling deep inside once more.
"Not at all"
"I'll be fast about this…"
Wu Chen said with haste, not wasting any time exchanging flattery and beating around the bush.
"I have my suspicions, but you and your sisters was sent here out of your will. Right?" He said with urgency.
Gu Liang stomach drop as he realized the gravity of the situation, he knows, he realized. But how? By just connecting the scattered dots of information? Or does he already have a well-established information broker?
And if he knew this, what else did he know of? His secret? His weakness? And even worse, Gu Tian vulnerability?
For a moment, he almost loses his cool as his face hardens and his knuckles tightening into fist behind the table.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to use it to blackmail you or your sister…" Wu Chen said with grim face
"To protect Gu Tian, I need your confirmation. I know that this place can become an execution ground for you and your sister, so cooperate with me" he said, leaving no room for Gu Liang to utter a single word
"And how can I take that promise? What is the collateral should you betray her?" Gu Liang said, his mask of perfection shattering, replaced with concern and wariness
"Betray her?" Wu Chen said, his face contorts into fury, something that Gu Liang didn't predict
"You should worry about the prospect of YOU betraying her… Not me" he said
Gu Liang face also contorts into a slight fury
"You underestimate my care for her, Wu Chen, should you bring harm to her, I won't hesitate to further antagonize you…"
"I am strong enough to repel danger out of her way"
"Yet you bring her here, you bring her to this cesspool of a camp"
"And you were the one who asked for her presence in the first place"
"I merely wanted to hear about her condition"
"Well it was your fault that you choose to ask such ambiguous question in the first place"
The back and forth bore no resemblance to a debate and is more like two children throwing tantrums against each other, ironically, they act more like an actual 10-year-old boy if they act like this.
Eventually, Gu Liang mask cracks, revealing the boy known as Liang to Wu Chen as his face is cracked with emotion unbefitting of his earlier action.
"Wu Chen… Do you want to die?"
He asks, no, threaten with gentle tone yet underlined with such heavy promise as he clenched his fist to the point that it might bleed out.
Wu Chen was taken aback by his loss of face, where is the Peerless Gentleman known as Gu Liang? Right now, all he sees is a boy who is just impulsive.
"Then it seems that our misunderstandings is just a product of a lack of communication, or the lack of clarity perhaps" Wu Chen said, defusing the tense situation. But Liang is still clenching his fist, yet he holds back from leaking his aura out.
"Which is why I decided to come here to discuss about you regarding Gu Tian safety, for it is unfortunate that I realized too late what kind of danger that lurks around her" Wu Chen said, he can't help but to also contorts in contempt when he saw the way the noble boy looks at Gu Tian with face full of lust.
"…" Liang, who saw his expression changed, calmed down for a second. Because he seems to already know that Wu Chen, to some degree, knows how rotten this camp is. And sadly, Liang couldn't agree more to that unsaid assumption of his.
"Fine… Speak your mind then" Liang said as he sat back down to his chair. Gu Liang then crossed his arms as they both talked about the danger posed to Gu Tian, the situation of each other camp and so-on.
.
.
.
"A Light"
A word was spoken
"A dream"
"A curse"
Word that can never be spoken, only thought, ringing inside a head of a boy.
Named Nanming. Or was it his name originally?
The boy holds a corpse, he didn't know him, but it's familiar. Familiar?
?
-a
"Aaaa"
'a?'
'/?/'
'killkillkillkillkill'
Even basic words are muddled in a mind overflown with intent to kill, the urge return and whisper the wicked will.
'killkillkillkillkill'
'killkillkillkillkill'
What was the poem his mother used to recite when he was overwhelmed with this, urge to become Wrathful?
"O tiny light, flicker on. O little flame, hold the dark."
The image of his mother, it's gone now. Just the memory of her feature, where is she now?
"Do not let the shadow take me, do not let the urge awake."
She is dead, but surely, a corpse should remain. Even if the boy can no longer meet her, talk with her.
"Save me—myself, save me— I will not become Wrath."
The boy wanted to go to that cottage, once more. And if there is anyone confronting him, he will perforate their visage until nothing, but soot is left.