Chapter 30: Chu Hongshang

The status of Wantong Inn in Beihai Market was similar to that of Wangyou Tower in Lianshan City; both were the kind of places low-level Jianghu People liked to frequent.

The food and wine at the inn were reasonably priced, and the atmosphere was very lively as everyone chatted, bragged, and shared gossip and intelligence.

Compared to Wangyou Tower, Wantong Inn served another purpose: many Blades-for-Hire gathered there, making it a place to both post and accept tasks.

The so-called Blades-for-Hire originally referred to Jianghu People who performed tasks for the Imperial Court to claim rewards from official bounties.

When the Great Xia first established its rule over the world, the Jianghu was still in a state of chaos, with countless rebels and bandits everywhere.

Lacking sufficient manpower, Great Xia would issue bounties to recruit Blades-for-Hire to handle matters for the court.

In those days, the status of a Blade-for-Hire was quite high; even the Imperial Court had to treat some of the more powerful ones with respect.

Later, as the global situation stabilized and Great Xia’s strength grew, they no longer needed Blades-for-Hire and gradually abolished the system.

However, Blades-for-Hire still existed throughout the Jianghu. They were mostly low-level Jianghu People, drifting without a Sect or faction, willing to do anything as long as someone paid.

Normal tasks included escorting caravans, guarding homes, or following fleets out to sea.

Dangerous tasks involved participating in struggles between Gangs and Sects as external personnel.

Or they might be hired as thugs, or even as assassins to commit murder, among other things.

In short, the current Blades-for-Hire were a mixed bag, but generally speaking, ninety-nine percent were incompetent Jianghu People just scraping by.

Chen Yuan stepped into Wantong Inn. This place was much larger than Wangyou Tower, several times its size.

However, the environment inside wasn’t much different from Wangyou Tower.

In the center of Wantong Inn stood a massive wooden board divided into upper and lower sections, both covered in wooden plaques.

The plaques on the upper section listed various tasks.

If someone wanted to hire a Blade-for-Hire, they would write their requirements on a plaque and hang it up.

If a Blade-for-Hire in the inn was interested, they would take down the plaque and contact the client at the provided address to negotiate the price.

The plaques on the lower section contained brief introductions of the Blades-for-Hire’s strengths and specialties; if someone wanted to hire one, they could take the plaque and contact them.

Overall, it was something like a Jianghu version of a talent market.

Chen Yuan marveled silently; the owner of Wantong Inn was quite clever to come up with this.

Both posting and accepting tasks in the inn were free; anyone could hang a plaque.

However, those Blades-for-Hire who wanted to take tasks had to stay in the inn for long periods to keep an eye out, or else the good tasks would surely be snatched up by others.

If you’re staying in the inn all the time, wouldn’t you feel embarrassed not to order something?

Moreover, they were all martial artists with high energy consumption; they’d get hungry every few hours, so almost all three meals had to be settled within the inn.

Thus, while other inns were only busy during mealtimes, Wantong Inn had a constant flow of people at all hours, even late into the night.

Chen Yuan stood before the wooden board for a long while but didn’t see the task he wanted to take.

Could it be the person hasn’t arrived yet? Or has that plot point already passed, and I’m too late?

Chen Yuan was a bit uncertain.

He used to fast-forward through plotlines that only existed in the background, so he couldn’t be perfectly precise with the timing.

But since he was here, he might as well wait for a few days.

Chen Yuan found a seat and ordered several local seafood specialties.

Lianshan City was inland, so it was basically impossible to eat seafood there, except for some frozen or dried goods in the winter.

The seafood in Beihai Market was fresh and succulent, and the taste was indeed excellent.

After his meal, Chen Yuan waited in the inn. It wasn’t until evening that a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl dressed in red walked in.

The girl had a clear and beautiful Face and a tall, graceful figure. Although she was still young, one could tell she was definitely a beauty in the making.

However, her eyes were hollow and lifeless, occasionally flashing with a bone-chilling hatred.

The girl took out a wooden plaque and hung it on the upper board, but she didn’t leave. Instead, she crouched beside the board and waited for someone to take her task.

Chen Yuan squinted his eyes to read the contents of the plaque.

“Exterminate the entire Zhu Family of Gushan City!”

The vast majority of tasks in Wantong Inn were for hiring Jianghu People for maritime trade or exploring overseas ruins.

A small portion involved Gang and Sect struggles; tasks involving killing were as rare as phoenix feathers.

After all, these Blades-for-Hire were called that to sound nice, but in reality, they were just poor, low-level Jianghu People, not professional assassins.

A task like exterminating a whole Family was almost unheard of.

Seeing the girl, the Jianghu People in Wantong Inn immediately began to whisper among themselves.

“This child is here again. How many times has it been? No one is going to take her task.”

“Sigh, this little girl is truly pitiful. I heard she had just gotten engaged to the Wang Family of Nanshan City, but now the marriage is off, and her entire Family has been wiped out. The Zhu Family is truly ruthless.”

“If the Zhu Family weren’t ruthless, how could they dominate Gushan City in less than thirty years? The five tigers of the zhu family are no pushovers.”

“Especially the fifth, Zhu Chengzhong. He has already joined the Huangji Sect, a major Sect in Yongzhou. Naturally, the Zhu Family has risen in status along with him.”

Amidst the discussions, an old man in his fifties or sixties, wearing a tattered sheepskin coat, walked up to the girl and sighed, advising her:

“Young lady, you should leave quickly. No one will take your task. That is the Zhu Family, the masters of Gushan City. Who would dare provoke them?”

“You’ve been posting this task here for two days; the Zhu Family might have already received word.”

“With the Zhu Family’s temperament, they will surely send someone to pull you up by the roots. If you leave now, you might still save your life.”

The girl shook her head, the hatred in her eyes almost overflowing.

“I won’t leave! It’s better if the Zhu Family comes. Even if I die, I’ll bite a piece of flesh off them!”

The old man shook his head, gave the girl a look of pity, and stopped trying to persuade her.

He could already foresee what the girl’s fate would be once the Zhu Family arrived.

Chen Yuan let out a soft sigh; finally, the moment had come. Fortunately, he was neither too early nor too late.

The girl before him was not a character from the first version of the plot, but one of the bosses from the third version: the ‘Chi Lian Demon Lord,’ Chu Hongshang.

Don’t be fooled by her current harmless and pitiful appearance.

In ten years, she would stir up countless storms of blood in the Jianghu, killing so many people that it could truly be described as a river of blood.

Regarding Chu Hongshang’s background, there was only a brief introduction at the end of the third version’s plot.

She was originally the legitimate daughter of the Chu Family, a small Family in Gushan City, and had been engaged since childhood to a legitimate son of the Wang Family in Nanshan City.

There was another Family in Gushan City, the Zhu Family. They weren’t strong before, but they had developed rapidly over the last twenty or thirty years to become the city’s greatest clan.

The Zhu Family acted domineeringly, wanting to rule Gushan City alone and not wanting any second power to exist within it.

So, initially, the Zhu Family went to the Chu Family to propose a marriage, wanting to marry Chu Hongshang. This way, the two families would become one, and they could occupy Gushan City without bloodshed.

The Chu Family was small, with fewer than a hundred people including collateral branches. They had no great ambitions and didn’t want to compete with the Zhu Family.

However, the Chu Family’s values were very upright. They believed that since their daughter had been engaged to the Wang Family of Nanshan City since childhood, how could she marry two husbands? So, they politely declined the Zhu Family.

But the Zhu Family felt the Chu Family was not giving them Face and was deliberately stalling them.

How could they allow others to sleep beside their bed? Not marrying into the Zhu Family meant being an enemy. So, they found an excuse to launch a sneak attack on the Chu Family, exterminating the entire household.

Only Chu Hongshang, who had been invited by the Wang Family for a visit at the time, managed to escape.

However, upon learning that the Chu Family had been wiped out, the Wang Family immediately kicked Chu Hongshang out, tore up the marriage contract, and severed all ties with her.

The Wang Family’s engagement with the Chu Family was based on equal social standing; both were small families of average strength.

Now that the Chu Family was gone, marrying Chu Hongshang would not only bring no support from in-laws but might also offend the Zhu Family. Thus, they decisively chose to break the engagement.

The Chu Family had refused to break the engagement even at the risk of offending the Zhu Family, yet the Wang Family broke it out of fear of the Zhu Family.

One wonders if the members of the Chu Family would regret it if they knew in the afterlife.

By this time, Chu Hongshang was at the end of her rope, her heart dead and full of despair. She came to Wantong Inn to post a task, seeking someone to help her take revenge.

The result, naturally, was that no one would take such an absurd task, and news of it reached the Zhu Family, who then sent people to kill her.

Perhaps Chu Hongshang herself knew the task was absurd and that no one could help her.

But she had no hope left and was ready to die; if the Zhu Family came, even if she couldn’t defeat them, she would drag them down with her!

After several days like this, the Zhu Family sent people to eliminate her.

At the critical moment, Shi Xueyan, the ‘Blood Hand Fairy’ and an expert from the major Demonic Path Sect, the Wanmo Sect, was returning from overseas and passed through Beihai Market, witnessing the scene.

Shi Xueyan saw Chu Hongshang’s fearlessness in the Face of death and her immense hatred. Feeling she was a talent worth cultivating, she took her as a Disciple and brought her back to the Wanmo Sect.

The Wanmo Sect’s system was cruel; Disciples killed each other in a survival of the fittest.

No one knew what Chu Hongshang experienced within the Wanmo Sect, but when she reappeared, she had become the Chi Lian Demon Lord, one of the three great Demon Lords of the Wanmo Sect.

Among the three Demon Lords, Chu Hongshang had the most brutal and mercurial personality; exterminating an entire Family over a single sentence was a common occurrence for her.

Some Sects and families didn’t even know why they were being killed before they died.

In the original plot, Chu Hongshang didn’t even respect the Wanmo Sect’s Sect Master.

The only one who could make her submit was the extremely mysterious Martial Forest Alliance Leader, Chen Jiutian, in the final chapter.

He unified the Martial Forest and the Jianghu, making the paths of Dao, Buddhism, and Demons all submit. In the final chapter’s introduction, Chu Hongshang appeared again as a background character for Chen Jiutian.

Chu Hongshang could be said to be the strongest person from the original plot that Chen Yuan had seen since his Transmigration.

Of course, for now, she was just a pitiful, helpless, and despairing young girl.

Chen Yuan stood up, walked to the wooden board covered in tasks, and took down the plaque Chu Hongshang had hung up.

Chu Hongshang’s eyes widened as she looked at Chen Yuan in disbelief.

“Let’s go. I’ll help you exterminate the Zhu Family.”

Chen Yuan pulled up the girl crouching on the ground and walked out of the inn under the incredulous gazes of all the Jianghu People in Wantong Inn.