WangXian Forever 5

Chapter 16 Foe?

Hui Gai reluctantly transformed back into his original body. He sat across from the immortal, appraising him.

"What are you doing here?" Shou Xing asked him, impatiently.

"Where exactly is here?" Hui Gai fired back. He didn't particularly like this guy.

"We are on the outskirts of the place into which you are not allowed, under any circumstances." He frowned. "Did your master send you?"

Hui Gai bristled. "I do not have a master." He sneered.

"Then what do you want?" He pulled out a strange contraption that looked like a 3D compass. Four needles were moving in different directions as it clicked and hummed. "You are running out of time."

"Do you know of a Baise De Hua?" Hui Gai asked, watching him carefully.

There was no change, at all, on his face.

"Why do you ask?"

Hui Gai definitely didn't like him.

"You said it yourself, I'm running out of time." He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Agreed. I can tell you what I know, but I want something in return."

Shou Xing looked like a kindly old man, but in reality, he was a cold, ruthless business man.

Hui Gai felt dirtied. His lips curled with distaste.

"What do you want?"

"I want to talk to that young girl. Alone."

Hui Gai wanted to kill him on the spot.

"Not likely."

"As you wish." Shou Xing settled back and looked out of his window.

Hui Gai watched him, and thought hard. And then he vanished.

Shou Xing stroked his whiskers, satisfied.

******

Hui Gai appeared next to Wei Ying, who fell back, startled. Hui Gai just managed to catch him.

"Um...hi?" Wei Ying grinned at him, but seeing the look on his face, pulled him into a hug. "What's wrong, Hui Gai? Why are you upset?"

"You're not going to like it."

"Try me." Wei Ying told him confidently.

"We don't have much time. I thought about what you said, to find out about Baise De Hua, so I thought about trying to get into heaven, and I almost did. I met Shou Xing, and he knows something."

Wei Ying waited but he shifted his eyes and wouldn't look at him. And did not elaborate, so it couldn't be good.

"But?" Wei Ying prompted.

"He knows something but he won't tell me unless we give him something in return, and what he wants...I don't think it's right." Hui Gai sighed, wishing he did not have to say his next words. "He wants to talk to your daughter. Alone."

Wei Ying laughed.

Hui Gai stared at him. His friend never ceased to surprise him.

"Take me to him, right now." Wei Ying stood up, after scribbling something on a piece of parchment.

Lan Zhan hated notes, but he had no choice at the moment. And if luck was on his side, he'd be back before anyone noticed.

"You're not going to let him, are you?" Hui Gai asked, a bit worried. "You don't have to, I'll find another way-"

"You let me handle this, my friend. Now let's go." Wei Ying patted his back.

Hui Gai shrugged at the mischievous look in his friend's eyes, grabbed his hand and vanished.

"Not bad." Shou Xing said, putting away his compass thingy.

"Do you agree?" He looked at Wei Ying.

"No."

Hui Gai was proud of him

"Then why bother to return?" He stroked his whiskers, calculating.

"Because we have something else you might want. But if you're not interested?" Wei Ying thought quickly. What did he have that could be used as a bargaining chip? What? What???? He had no idea, but he could use the words that had surprised himself even, to buy himself some time.

"And what is it, that you think I should want?" Shou Xing looked at him doubtfully.

"I'm not going to say just yet. Not until I decide if your information is worth it." Brilliant! Wei Ying wanted to pat himself on his own back.

"We can do this all day," Shou Xing gestured between the both of them, "but it won't get us anywhere. One of us has to go first."

Both Wei Ying and Hui Gai folded their arms and raised a brow.

Shou Xing thought they could have been brothers, if not for the difference in their appearance.

"Fine." He sighed, his curiosity getting the better of him. "I'll tell you what you want to know, but in return, what you give me must be worth it."

"It is." Wei Ying leaned forward, lying through his teeth. At this point, even he didn't know what he had.

"Baise De Hua was killed by the assassins, the Children of the Tree. I'm assuming you know who they are."

Wei Ying didn't, but he mumbled noncommittally.

"The rumours are, she healed someone she wasn't supposed to, and the only way to stop her was to kill her off." Shou Xing leaned back, apparently done with talking.

"Who did she heal?" Wei Ying asked.

"I don't know. We think it's someone who wronged them somehow, or someone they had a grudge against, but information is scarce."

"So that's all you know?" Wei Ying was disgusted with him. He turned to Hui Gai.

"You brought me here, all this way, for that?" He tsked.

"I'm sorry I wasted your time, my friend." Hui Gai looked chastised.

"No, no, you weren't to know. If somebody had been honest from the get go, this wouldn't have happened." Wei Ying continued.

"I agree, friend. I don't think you should compensate him in any way." Hui Gai added, with a smirk.

"You're right. I could have found out all this by myself. And do you know what immortal-" Wei Ying lowered his voice to whisper nonsense into Hui Gai's ear, as if discussing something confidential and too important to say out loud.

Shou Xing leaned so far forward to hear, he nearly fell out of his seat.

Hui Gai coughed.

Wei Ying straightened immediately. "If you think you're our only source of information, you can forget it. I'm not giving you anything until you give us something substantially more than that."

Shou Xing didn't know what to think now. Maybe he had misjudged this immortal...

"Very well, have it your way." He looked very serious suddenly. "This is what I know."