Chapter 943: Deceptive Outcome

"Gu Yifan, young Sanzi, where are you..."

Six hours later, in the area where a brutal cleansing had taken place, where not even a blade of grass grew, a pure and naive girl was shouting.

The frail lass cried at the silent heavens as a gale blew across this desolation. Her tone was filled with worry, her cracking voice showing signs of breaking down crying.

There were a dozen more youths looking around and shouting with her. "Mister Gu! Young Sanzi!"

All their shouting and searching proved fruitless in these strong winds, swallowing their voices.

They finally gave up hope an hour later, leaving only the girl still frantic and consumed with the thought of finding them. She never stopped, never rested, always crying out till hoarse, "Gu Yifan! Young Sanzi! Where are you?"

"Young miss, save your energy. You've seen what attack did this. They had no chance against such misfortune. There's no point searching."

One youth sighed, "It'll be a miracle if someone could survive two Sword Kings. Mister Gu... let's follow Clan Head's words and look for any clues Mister Gu left us to reach the Soaring Sword."

The girl glared back at him, "Shut up! Gu Yifan is fine! They can hear us and we'll soon find them. They have to be, or..."

Shangguan Qingyan trailed off.

"Young miss, in this desolate place, any kind of sign would've been noticed easily. If we can't see them, it makes no sense for two Sword Kings to be blind to anything obvious. That only leaves death, destroyed completely. Young miss, our top priority still is finding Mister Gu's clues..."

He shook his head, trying to make her see reality, but then a ripple echoed out.

Two figures slumped to the ground, popping out of thin air, and soaking the yellow dust with their scarlet blood.

Shangguan Qingyan shook and cheered, crying tears of joy as she rushed over, "Mister Gu, young Sanzi, you're alright! You're still alive!"

"In the name of all that's holy, the guy actually got away from two Sword Kings! What did this freak do?"

The guy held his head in complete shock, needing some time to react to this sudden realization. Then he rushed over to help, only for a bloody arm to clutch his shirt, dragging him down.

He looked stunned at Zhuo Fan, who was gasping for breath, using the last of his energy to shout, "I told you to come and help not give me a burial. The least you could do is see if we're still alive, not go straight to business!"

Zhuo Fan's eyes rolled back and he was out like a light. Only his other hand held an unconscious Gu Santong, never letting go.

"Uhm..."

The youth who got stained, looked at Zhuo Fan holding Gu Yifan close and spoke with respect, "Gu Yifan is truly amazing. He's hurt so much but still has the energy to curse. He had been protecting his son all this time, not letting anything happen to him..."

Shangguan Qingyan nodded, choking with emotion and pain from seeing Zhuo Fan covered in those deep wounds.

"Get Mister Gu and his son back now! They need healing!"

Noticing Shangguan Qingyan was in no state to boss them, the guy shouted for the others, carrying the two away.

Across the large expanse of this yellow wasteland, a conspicuous stain of scarlet blood on the dry dirt was the only proof that someone had survived this ordeal...

It took Zhuo Fan three days to wake up, finding himself in a dark cave. Nothing came as a surprise for him, knowing that they had been rescued.

It was part of his deal with Shangguan Feixiong. As long as they were drawing breath, they had to be tended to, or death was sure to grasp them in its cold grip if left out there in the desolate place.

Shangguan clan thus sent the juniors to save them.

This was why Zhuo Fan knew that after saving young Sanzi, the Shangguan clan would comply since he still held the sword they wanted.

This was the perfect time to use it for all its worth.

[With this sword around, the Shangguan clan won't ever let me die!]

If the chances were death would have come instead, he'd have set the sword out of his ring for Shangguan clan to take. He didn't need it where he was going. Zhuo Fan had taken all aspects into consideration.

On one hand, he had bluffed Baili Jingwei into leaving and on the other, he had Shangguan clan eating out of his palm.

The thought brought an insidious smile to Zhuo Fan's lips, resting as he was on the cold hard bed. [Ha-ha-ha, at the end of it all, be it Flying Cloud manor or Shangguan clan, all danced to my tune.]

[I have turned despair into hope once more...]

Cackling like mad, Zhuo Fan stood up, only to feel a sudden pain stab at his mind. The agony coming from every part of his body made him grit his teeth, "Damn that Danqing Shen, couldn't he have taken it easier?

"Then again, being ruthless was the only way of fooling Shangguan Feiyun's senses and intuition."

A faint and childish voice came, "Dad, you told him to and now you're blaming him for it. If the old man knew you're cursing him, he'd wished he'd killed you instead."

Zhuo Fan raised an eyebrow, smiling, "Young Sanzi, you knew?"

"Of course!"

Gu Santong just woke up, still pale but quite happy, "Is there anything I don't know about you? Ever since you had Shangguan Yulin sent to give me some nonsense signal, I knew that it wasn't meant for me. We never had private code phrases. What's that stuff about a gentleman's promise and wanting to save me anyway? I knew then and there it was for that old guy's ears, he-he-he. Too bad Baili Jingwei and Shangguan Feiyun had no clue whatsoever, ha-ha-ha..."

Zhuo Fan nodded, "Yep, the signal was for Danqing Shen, though I was still skeptical if he'd help or not. The most uncertain part of my plan was whether the old guy would play ball for the greatest deceptive outcome ever. His sword was savage and powerful, but scattered on impact, shaking the space around and hiding us from Shangguan Feiyun's senses. I used this chance to activate Divine Eye of the Void 6th stage, Void Domain, and hid us in a pocket space. It also helped cement the idea of our demise to Baili Jingwei and leave the area."

"And what if the old guy didn't help us?" Gu Santong asked.

Zhuo Fan shook his head, "The idea was to make an opening for Danqing Shen to strike by becoming heavily wounded in three clashes with Shangguan Feiyun. Next was up to him. If he was going to help, he was sure to speak up. If not, I'd have no choice but to resort to a Dragon Breath Pill. But then everything went south when Shangguan Feiyun struck me so hard that I couldn't even move, making throwing the Dragon Breath Pill useless. There was only one way of getting out of there alive. Thank god the old guy was still nice. I finally get it now, there's no 'man proposes, god deposes,' not when you have enough friends. More friends means more lives, he-he."

"Why all the hassle, dad? Just throw him a Dragon Breath Pill to his face and be done."

"Young Sanzi, we only have two of them."

Zhuo Fan rolled his eyes, "It's easy to kill them all with one, but then what? With a Prime Minister and a Sword King dead, the Sword Star Empire will then send the other seven Sword Kings after us. That'll be the end of us. Even with one Dragon Breath Pill left, can we get them all?"

"Young Sanzi, no matter what a man does, even if it's wrong, he has to suffer the consequences. Using the Dragon Breath Pill will end with us being hunted down and killed. We're not the Shangguan clan, we have no one to shield us. The central area's Genesis Stage experts can't handle them even if found. We, on the other hand, are finished. That's why a trump card like that can't be used unless it's the only one available. We're not on Invincible Sword's level so we can't use it to mow down grunts."

Young Sanzi nodded, but then muttered, "But you used one on Universal Righteous Sect and only got two now. Dad, didn't you mow them down?"

"Uh..."

Zhuo Fan flushed from being stuck, "Men are impulsive. I just wanted to know its power, that's all, ha-ha-ha..."