Chapter 246: A Spirit Sword Collector Maniac
Although they had already guessed that Boss Tan was somehow connected to this man from Immortal Mansion, whether it was Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal or Dharmaraja, they hadn\'t expected the relationship to be that close.
Bro...ther?
Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal blinked and felt like he was watching a melodramatic soap opera.
Because whether it was in terms of build or appearance, Boss Tan and the man on the floor were completely unalike.
Boss Tan was of medium build with well-defined muscles, but nowhere close to this man\'s tall and sturdy frame.
Seeing the man huddled in the corner, Boss Tan clearly twitched, and he put one hand to his brow as if his head hurt. "Didn\'t I tell you to leave? Why are you still fooling around there after all these years?"
The man looked a little aggrieved. "Master told me that after I complete one more task, I\'ll be promoted to branch leader! And after I retire from the division, I plan on getting the pension..."
Boss Tan was instantly speechless. "..." His little brother was still so naïve! He would believe anything, even such nonsense about a pension!
Boss Tan couldn\'t help recalling when he had chosen to leave the sect back then after he had seen through that stingy Master of Immortal Mansion! Boss Tan\'s pay had been far less than what he now earned, after opening his shop!
Of course, that was just one of the reasons why Boss Tan had left — the most crucial thing was that this Immortal Mansion was too complicated.
Furthermore, he had been able to tell earlier on how twisted this Master of Immortal Mansion actually was!
"How long has it been since you caught my brother?" Boss Tan sighed and asked.
"Probably less than two hours," Dharmaraja answered.
"If I remember correctly, Immortal Mansion has a routine check-in procedure. Whether the mission is a success or not, if there hasn\'t been a progress report by the allocated time, it would be treated as a failure." Boss Tan narrowed his eyes. He was well aware that once Immortal Mansion determined that the mission had failed, the person who had been assigned the mission would very quickly become a target to be eliminated.
Without saying anything else, Boss Tan straightaway took out the phone from the man\'s pocket, pressed the callback button and put it on speaker, then stared at the man in front of him. "You know what to say, right?"
The man looked aggrieved. "Bro..."
Boss Tan\'s expression was severe as he pressed down on the man\'s head. "Cut the crap! Behave yourself, or I\'ll crush your head between my thighs!"
The man: "..."
Soon, a voice came over the line. "Hello? Little Tan, what is the status of your mission?"
After a short period of silence, he finally answered, "Reporting, Chief, I ran into a bit of trouble, but it wasn\'t of any consequence."
"Oh, then do you need reinforcements?"
"...That is unnecessary, I can handle it."
"Very well, I await your victory."
After that, Boss Tan ended the call and breathed a sigh of relief. "I\'m sorry to trouble all of you. Let me introduce him; this is my biological brother, Tan Qian."
"No wonder," said Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal. "I felt that his spirit energy was similar to yours. When the two of you were talking just now, I instantly thought that your voices were alike. Could it be that this little brother Tan and Boss Tan are twins?"
"Yes, we\'re twins," Boss Tan said. "Did you think our looks and builds are different? That\'s because he cultivates Immortal Mansion\'s Panwu Immortal Martial Arts. This technique makes up for the lack of any innate talent; after cultivation, a person becomes taller and stronger, and their appearance changes. However, it has one drawback, and that is it shortens a person\'s lifespan."
Boss Tan seemed to be recalling a lot of things. "In the past, I saw with my own eyes how those who cultivated this technique for hundreds of years all became giants tens of meters tall, and they moved in an abnormal way."
Ab...normal 1 ?
Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal and Dharmaraja\'s lips twitched. "..."
"Do you know what happens to these abnormal types?" Boss Tan gave his little brother a meaningful look.
"Chief said that those who cultivate the Panwu Immortal Martial Arts are assigned roles as competent staff who work behind the scenes at Immortal Mansion\'s Peach Blossom Source, where they can get anything they want," replied Tan Qian.
"It looks like you don\'t know anything at all."
Boss Tan laughed, but there was sorrow in his expression. "People who cultivate this technique are indeed ultimately sent to a place called Peach Blossom Source. But the truth is that that place is one of Immortal Mansion\'s secret execution grounds. Every last person in the late cultivation stage of the Panwu Immortal Martial Arts is executed... their bodies, moreover, become sources of immense power."
"How can that be..."
Tan Qin was dumbstruck — he had known nothing about this at all.
Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal and Dharmaraja were soaked in cold sweat. It was true that after cultivators died, their bodies could actually become powerful sources of energy. But what did the Master of Immortal Mansion need so much energy for?
"Unfortunately, I was only able to uncover this much before I made the decision to leave. I don\'t know what their ultimate goal is. Back then, I did everything I could to escape those people." The distress on Boss Tan\'s face was apparent.
"Then Boss, do you have your own suspicions?"
Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal furrowed his brow. If Boss Tan was telling the truth, then Immortal Mansion was far more evil than he had imagined.
"I might have a rough idea." Boss Tan continued, "As far as I know, the Master of Immortal Mansion is actually a spirit sword collector maniac. He already has two-thirds of the spirit swords on the historical cultivation list of swords. Also, based on the clues I collected, it looks like he\'s trying to create the ultimate godly sword to crush all the other swords on the list..."
Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal was abruptly struck by something. "That person from Immortal Mansion who caused a ruckus at my place was looking for the maker of the stone ghost mask. Does that have anything to do with this?"
"It\'s very likely." Boss Tan nodded. "If they want to create the ultimate godly sword, they need to find a powerful smith."
Hearing this, Tan Qian felt like giving up on thinking. Huddled in the corner, he gripped his head in pain.
"Senior Immortal, are you going to deal with him?"
Boss Tan looked at Tan Qian before turning his head to face the young man in white in front of him. "He probably doesn\'t know any more than I do about Immortal Mansion. If you let him go, I\'ll tell you whatever you want to know, and I won\'t leave anything out."
"Since he\'s your little brother, we can talk about what to do next," Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal replied.
"That\'s good."
Boss Tan let out a breath. "But Senior Immortal, I have one request."
Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal nodded. "Boss Tan, feel free to say it."
"Everyone says that you know a lot of strange techniques. Do you perhaps know of a way to make a person forget the abilities that they\'ve cultivated?"
Boss Tan looked at Tan Qian and said, "He hasn\'t cultivated the Panwu Immortal Martial Arts to a high level, but this technique is addictive; a person can easily become hooked on it, and it\'s hard to give up unless one forgets it."
Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal understood what Boss Tan was saying.
Indeed, it would be very dangerous to continue cultivating this art.
However, trying to get rid of one specific memory was really too difficult!
Furthermore, the art itself would be embedded in the depths of a person\'s mind, and was the hardest type of deep-set memory to extract.
Boss Tan: "Senior Immortal, do you have any good ideas?"
Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal scratched his head, then pointed at Tan Qian. "What if... I try punching him?"
Boss Tan, Tan Qian and Dharmaraja: "..."