Chapter 502: What Must Come, Will Come
Then, Jiang Xinghai lifted the piece of paper and placed it in front of Arhat.
When Arhat saw the two names, he froze. His gaze remained fixed on the paper for a long while before his expression slowly softened.
"What’s meant to come will always come."
It seemed he had long expected someone to come looking for him. His voice was laced with a sense of helplessness and sorrow.
He knew the significance behind those two names, and he knew that all of this was inevitable.
Slowly, he raised his head, his murky eyes filled with a complex emotion. "Are you... their descendant?"
"No, you’re not. I’ve met their descendant before. You’re not him..."
Arhat shook his head again. "But those eyes of yours... they’re so familiar. So much like their only descendant, Jiang Xinghai. Could it be that you..."
"Tell me, where did you take that couple all those years ago?" Jiang Xinghai’s voice was deep and heavy, ignoring the old man’s question.
Their gazes met in midair.
Arhat seemed unable to withstand the pressure emanating from Jiang Xinghai, and a flush crept over his old face.
"PFFT!"
A mouthful of blood sprayed out, staining the paper on which Jiang Xinghai had written "Jiang Wendong and Ji Qingya" crimson.
He could clearly feel his life force draining away. He understood the purpose of Jiang Xinghai’s visit—and that he wouldn’t rest until he got what he came for!
"Back then... I was wrong. So terribly wrong."
Arhat’s gaunt, aged features made him look at least thirty years older than he was. A bitter smile touched his lips as he took out a tissue to wipe the bloodstained paper. "I failed them. Even if I were to die a hundred times, it wouldn’t be enough to atone for the harm I brought them..."
Jiang Xinghai said nothing, merely staring at Arhat with cold eyes.
"I will tell you everything I know from back then. Please, allow me to select two pieces of carving material first."
Visibly relieved, Arhat stood up and walked over to the shelves. He eventually chose two pieces of brass and sat down in front of Jiang Xinghai again.
"Why don’t you ask your guests outside to come in as well?"
Arhat glanced at Jiang Xinghai. "Including the two who have been hiding by my back door all this time. Ask them all to come in."
"Nightingale, you can all come in."
Jiang Xinghai wasn’t worried that Arhat would suddenly attack or had some powerful weapon to wipe them all out.
From the moment he had entered, he had sensed that Arhat’s Dantian had been destroyed.
Before him, the man was a cripple.
With his cultivation at the Middle Stage of the Celestial Destiny Realm, Jiang Xinghai could already disregard Hot Weapons.
Moreover, he could stop any surprise moves Arhat might try to make in an instant.
"So you noticed us hiding here long ago. Wasn’t it tough, keeping up the act?"
Nightingale didn’t hesitate. She walked in from outside, sat down beside Jiang Xinghai, and stared intently at Arhat.
At the same time, two men in camouflage gear entered through the back door of the house and sat down behind Arhat.
The three of them—Nightingale, a Great Venerable, and two Venerables—had been hiding nearby ever since they had tracked Arhat to this location.
"You give this dying man too much credit. My foundation may be injured, but I still have some perception. However, I only recently noticed the two hiding at the back door. As for you, Your Excellency, I never noticed you while you were pretending to be a grilled fish apprentice."
Arhat didn’t look up, instead studying the two rectangular, cigarette-pack-sized pieces of brass in his hands.
Then, he picked up a carving knife and began to engrave one of the brass blocks.
As he carved, he began to speak. "Five years ago, I received orders to go to Jizhou and rescue that couple. The mission was a success, but I never imagined that just as we were about to reach Shanghai, we were ambushed by a group of incredibly powerful masked assailants."
"Jiang Wendong and I were both Venerables, but Ji Qingya was just an ordinary person. Against more than ten of their Venerables, the three of us were powerless. We were ultimately captured and placed under house arrest..."
Arhat paused here, and then the carving motions in his hand grew faster and faster.
Before their eyes, the piece of brass in his hand was gradually carved into the shape of a dragon’s head.
"They demanded to know if the couple was Jiang Wendong and Ji Qingya. They promised I would live if I told them the truth... I thought of my family... I didn’t want to die. In the end, my cowardice won, and I gave them the answer. But after they destroyed my Dantian, they buried me alive! Those beasts in human form went back on their word!"
As he said this, Arhat’s entire body began to tremble.
He was furious—furious at himself for being a coward who sold out his companions, and furious at the masked men for their duplicity!
’A whore demanding a monument to his virtue?’ Jiang Xinghai fought the urge to kill Arhat with a single palm strike.
Arhat had given up his parents’ names to survive. From a certain perspective, that might have been forgivable.
But when the masked men broke their promise, Arhat wasn’t filled with remorse for his own actions. Instead, he grew hysterical himself!
"Afterward, I was heartbroken! I hated my selfishness, hated my stupid decision!"
Arhat finally finished carving the piece of brass into a perfect dragon’s head, then picked up the other piece and began to carve again.