Chapter 500: Chapter 227: Thrown into the Sea

The voice from behind the hunchbacked figure wasn’t loud, but it struck him like a clap of thunder.

He whirled around in terror, instinctively opening his mouth to shout.

But a hand shot out of nowhere and clamped over his mouth.

The force was so great it lifted him right off his feet.

His horse stance was completely useless.

His center of gravity was completely at the mercy of that single hand, which slammed him helplessly to the floor.

A muffled THUD echoed.

The fall wasn’t severe, and the hunchbacked figure thought he saw an opening.

But before he could move, a massive fist landed squarely on his torso.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Three punches in total, each varying completely in force.

The hunchbacked figure could feel that his attacker was probing his strength.

The three punches left him in agony and completely immobilized, yet they stopped just short of being fatal.

But the attacker was clearly not taking any chances. His fingers, like iron claws, moved toward the man’s limbs.

CRACK! CRACK!

The agony of his bones shattering naturally made the hunchbacked figure scream.

But before the scream could escape, his Mute Acupoint was struck.

All he could manage were a couple of raspy, gurgling sounds.

Zuo Xuan hadn’t heard what the hunchbacked figure said upon entering, nor had he heard the man’s weak, gurgling cries. But the sound of shattering bone was crystal clear.

He had been sitting cross-legged on the floor. At the sound of the commotion, he instantly leaped to his feet.

His eyes scanned the room, and before he could even draw his sword, he saw Fang Shuwen pinning a hunchbacked figure to the floor. Fang Shuwen then looked over at him as if he were watching a performing monkey.

"What are you so jumpy about?"

Zuo Xuan froze. He glanced from Fang Shuwen to the hunchbacked figure on the floor, his mind reeling in confusion.

"What... what’s going on?"

"Light the lamp."

Fang Shuwen didn’t answer, but simply spoke again.

Zuo Xuan took a deep breath, but he had no choice but to obey. He went over and lit the oil lamp.

Meanwhile, Fang Shuwen casually shut the cabin door.

The sudden light in the room startled the others awake.

Zuo Hong’s eyes immediately fell on the hunchbacked figure on the floor, and she instinctively pulled Luo Shuqing behind her. Zhou Zhengze seemed completely bewildered, as if he didn’t even know what day it was.

’How did I wake up to find an uninvited guest in the cabin?’

’And from the looks of him, a rather pathetic one at that.’

Once Luo Shuqing took in the scene, she was about to cry out in alarm.

But before the cry could escape her lips, she heard Fang Shuwen’s sharp rebuke:

"Quiet."

Luo Shuqing immediately clamped her mouth shut and pressed closer to Zuo Hong, only then feeling a little safer.

Zuo Xuan couldn’t help but ask:

"What’s going on?"

"I’d like to know that myself."

Fang Shuwen hauled the hunchbacked old man up. After a moment’s thought, he decided not to release his Mute Acupoint just yet. Instead, he said:

"I’m going to give you a little taste of what’s to come. When I start asking questions, I suggest you cooperate. Otherwise, you’re not going to like how this ends."

As he finished speaking, he sent A Line into the man with two fingers.

The old man’s eyes instantly bulged wide.

Just then, however, Fang Shuwen noticed something off about the man’s complexion. He looked closer, toward the edge of the man’s cheek, and tried rubbing it gently with his finger. The skin actually started to curl up.

"A human-skin mask?"

Fang Shuwen was intrigued. ’In all my time in the Jianghu, I’ve never seen one of these.’

’The only master of disguise I know is Ye Feihua.’

’But her Non-Flower Attraction has long since transcended the common Disguise Technique. She wouldn’t bother with something as crude as a human-skin mask.’

Fang Shuwen pinched the edge of the mask with two fingers and smoothly peeled it off.

The face underneath was completely different.

It was no longer an old man, but a middle-aged one.

Zuo Xuan took one look and gasped:

"Qian Bu’er!"

Fang Shuwen glanced at him, unsurprised that he knew the man’s name.

’The man was obviously after Luo Shuqing, so it was only natural for them to know each other.’

Still, Fang Shuwen asked:

"Who is he?"

Zuo Xuan glanced instinctively at Fang Shuwen, his eyes flickering with uncertainty and shock.

Then he said in a low voice:

"He’s one of the Seven Fiends of the Dark Sea, ranked fourth."

"The Seven Fiends of the Dark Sea are known by the titles: ’Death Sentence,’ ’Bone Scraping,’ ’Flaying,’ ’Heart Gouging,’ ’Tendon Pulling,’ ’Throat Cutting,’ and ’Soul Severing’..."

"He is ’Heart Gouging’ Qian Bu’er."

"But those seven have always operated within the Dark Sea Territory. Why would he show up here?"

"The Dark Sea Territory..."

Fang Shuwen raised an eyebrow. He’d heard Zhou Zhengze mention it before.

The so-called Dark Sea Territory was, to be precise, a lawless zone.

That stretch of sea was extremely treacherous, riddled with countless reefs and whirlpools. Although there were islands one could land on, ordinary people who didn’t know the safe routes would never dare to venture in.

Later, some sea pirates, while being hunted down, charged into that region and managed to find a path through it by trial and error, a matter of life and death.

They established a base there and began to expand their reach into the surrounding waters.

Eventually, it became a lawless territory spanning a radius of three thousand li.

The area was teeming with pirates who preyed on passing ships, their methods utterly ruthless.

If anyone couldn’t stand it and tried to enforce justice, the pirates would simply flee into the reefs and whirlpools, making them impossible to track.

’However, Fang Shuwen felt that the matter was probably not that simple.’

’If someone truly wanted to wipe these people out, there were plenty of ways to do it.’

’They were just routes, after all. Find someone who knew them, beat the information out of them, and then test them a few times. It could always be figured out.’

’It was merely a question of will.’

’As for why this man was here... well, he’d find out after a bit of questioning.’

’There were only two possibilities: either it was for the Profound Celestial Iron Mirror, or it was directly related to Luo Shuqing’s younger brother.’

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