Chapter 547: Commissioned

A flash of sword light blinked in the snow. The message that Venerable Lord Ice left vanished.

"Head back!"

Venerable Lord Sword's voice sounded parched.

"We'll talk after we return to our room."

Venerable Lord Snow and Venerable Lord Frost were startled out of their daze, bitterness filling their hearts.

There was, of course, a need for discussion when they returned to their room but as they had stood frozen out in the open for nearly a quarter of an hour now, it would be a lie to say that they did not attract any attention.

"How much of what Ice said about the God Bone is true?" asked Venerable Lord Sword with a frown.

Venerable Lord Snow sighed and answered, "Possibly...one hundred percent."

"A hundred percent?!" Venerable Lord Sword turned around abruptly to look at his brother.

"Yes." Venerable Lord Frost nodded as well.

"Why?" Venerable Lord Sword's cultivation base was remarkable but his astuteness was far from reaching Venerable Lord Snow and Frost's level. Generally speaking, Snow would rank first followed by Ice then Frost among five of the Venerable Lords in terms of intelligence; Saber and Sword usually had no opinion of their own, knowing only to charge and fight with brute force.

"I've been doubtful for many years too," Venerable Lord Snow said with a frown, "Where have the Four Seasons Tower's previous Venerable Lords gone to? Before us Five Venerable Lords, there should be plenty more Venerable Lords! Perhaps they're just like us, Saber, Sword, Snow, Frost, and Ice, but it's possible there are others."

Venerable Lord Sword retorted, "So many years have passed, they must have died! If they aren't dead, how do we go up in rank? Is this even a real question?"

"Of course I know that they've all died. Even if they're not killed by others, they'd have died from old age." Venerable Lord Snow spat his words out slowly, "What I'm asking is even when they've died, where have the God Bones gone to?"

Venerable Lord Sword's jaw dropped.

"We all know that all the God Bones ultimately belong to the Four Seasons Tower and our ultimate goal is to complete the God Bone collection! To become an immortal deity."

Venerable Lord Snow spoke slowly, "Theoretically, since we've become the new Venerable Lords, the God Bones that the previous seniors had should be handed to us for our utilization, right? After all, a piece of bone made us who we are now - what about three? Ten? Twenty?"

As his questions piled, Venerable Lord Sword and Frost looked worse than before.

"But, the fact is that they weren't passed to us. But why not? In other words, since the bones were not given to us, who were they given to?"

Venerable Lord Snow lowered his voice as his expression darkened too. "According to the boss' bold vision, how could he allow such a gem to be sealed in dust?"

"There's one more thing - even if we're lucky and have received the rest of the God Bones, what we get wouldn't be complete. Why is that?"

Venerable Lord Frost exhaled and chimed in with a low eerie voice, "I've also been thinking about this."

Venerable Lord Sword was already chilled to his core.

He stood there with a vacant look, his gaze lifeless, he had lost his shine. After a long time, he suddenly coughed in a low grunt as a thick trail of blood trickled from his mouth. Yet he still stood dumbly, like he did not realize that he had just spat blood.

His physical, mental, and emotional state had collapsed. He had served the Four Seasons Tower his entire life, fighting in the martial world and gambling his life away thousands of times; he had never suspected anything.

However, it was today, within this short amount of time, that his lifelong pursuit and belief had altogether crumbled!

This was as if the sky had fallen on Venerable Lord Sword.

"Sword!" Venerable Lord Snow cried out in worry.

Venerable Lord Sword turned around stoically like a puppet and answered numbly, "What?"

Right after the one-word reply, he spluttered another mouthful of blood. He looked very pale. The thought of dying crossed his mind at that very moment. Knowing that such violent emotions could scramble his cultivation method and mess up his meridians thus causing his mystical Qi to retaliate against him, he allowed it to happen, not doing anything to restrict the chaos occurring within him.

His pair of eyes had already turned into two black holes, not unlike the eye sockets of a skull that had been buried for decades underground.

Boom!

Venerable Lord Frost blew Venerable Lord Sword away with a slap. Freezing cold frost landed on Venerable Lord Sword alongside the sound as Frost pounced and choked Sword's neck; he roared out loud, "What are you going to do? Are you going to die? Who among us doesn't want to die?! But should you die just because you want to? Committing suicide right in front of your own brothers, what are you thinking?!"

Venerable Lord Sword gurgled from the choke but finally broke out of his trance. He blinked, regaining clarity, and grabbed onto Venerable Lord Frost's hand, mumbling, "That's right, I can't die yet."

He then sat himself down crossing his legs to cultivate and sort through his meridians. Despite the bud of suicide being nipped, his expression still spoke of incredible sullenness.

"What do we do now?" asked Venerable Lord Frost.

"Right now, we can only look for Ice first!" Venerable Lord Frost's gaze glinted dangerously. "Only when we brothers are together can we discuss what we're going to do next!"

"Otherwise, even if we were to come up with all sorts of ideas, it would be useless if Ice doesn't know it."

Venerable Lord Snow said faintly, "We brothers, shall live together and die together. When we fight, we shall fight together. But if one is disappointed enough to quit the martial world... then, we'd quit together too!"

Venerable Lord Frost said aloud, "That's right! We live and die together, we fight and quit together!"

His eyes met with Venerable Lord Snow, discerning the thoughts that each other harbored within.

When Venerable Lord Snow mentioned about quitting the martial world together, Venerable Lord Frost had known that the former had already thought about doing so when he uttered that very line; after all, they had been brothers for so many years. More so, the former might have already decided to quit!

Venerable Lord Sword tended to his injury while Snow and Frost stood guard by his side. Quietly, both of them no longer spoke another word. What was in front of them had already spoken loud enough - they could not talk about revenge but they were more than reluctant to continue, thus it gave them only one way out, and that was to quit.

In spite of it, to quit would mean facing the Four Seasons Tower's endless pursuit. How could they really quit then?

"The world is vast, the martial world massive, but where can peace be found?" Venerable Lord Snow finally uttered after a long time, feeling a little lost.

This statement seemed to have expressed Venerable Lord Frost's own inner thoughts as he could not help feeling a pinch at his nose, tears were almost dropping from his eyes.

Before today, who would have thought that they would face something like this?

It was at this time, suddenly...

Knock, knock, knock.

Someone was at the door.

Venerable Lord Snow and Venerable Lord Frost jumped up in surprise. Exchanging a glance, both of them could only see each other's pale face and panicked eyes.

Venerable Lord Snow breathed in deeply and tried to calm his voice down, before asking, "Who is it!"

Outside, a clear voice rang out. "Are Snow, Frost and other seniors inside? I am Yun Yang, paying an intentional visit."

Yun Yang? Young Master Yun?

Both men were surprised to hear this.

When they had come to the capital city prior, something seemed to contain Young Master Yun's shadow within. And then, he was also part of what happened with Lei Dongtian. When they had blocked and guarded the valley to stop any relief troops, it was Yun Yang who breached them and left. Now, when they were in such a perilous situation with such bad timing, this Young Master Yun had appeared once again!

What was he doing here?

Venerable Lord Frost snorted coldly and answered, "So it's Young Master Yun. But we don't seem to share a relationship close enough with Young Master Yun for you to pay us a visit? I wonder for what reason has Young Master Yun come?"

With how they were feeling now, the Venerable Lords did not want to see anyone. Their terrible mood was at its 'finest'. What was more, wasn't it Yun Yang who was their enemy? He was someone they would love to attack the moment they made contact.

Outside, Yun Yang's clear voice rang out again, "Our relationship naturally doesn't suffice. But the reason I have come doesn't require any relationship. I have been commissioned by someone to visit you. If the various Venerable Lords don't want to meet me, I can just return."

Commissioned by someone?

Venerable Lord Frost's eyes glinted; he opened the door abruptly, "Who has commissioned you?"

Yun Yang was clad in purple, standing outside the door, as graceful as ever; he smiled in reply, "It would be better to talk about this after I enter. Of course, if Venerable Lord Frost wants me to speak of it right here at the door, it's fine too."

Inside, Venerable Lord Snow spoke, "Since Young Master Yun has made your way here, you're a guest regardless. Please come in and have some tea."

Venerable Lord Frost made way for Yun Yang and said, "Come in."

Yun Yang smiled, entering with grace.

Venerable Lord Frost sat upright, his gaze on Yun Yang sharp, as he said, "Young Master Yun, I wonder who has commissioned your visit?"

"Him," Yun Yang answered.

With a slip of his wrist, a piece of bone-white jade appeared in his palm.

The room's temperature swiftly dropped dozens of degrees! It was suddenly freezing cold.