“Master taught me for twelve years; to me, he is already beyond what ordinary people can compare to.”
When Tan Congye arrived at the spot, what met his eyes was Chen Wen lying unconscious on the ground.
The person who had struck him seemed rather kind-hearted, at least sparing him from landing face-down.
Tan Congye squatted down, channeling a surge of internal energy from his palm directly into Chen Wen’s body. Before long, the unconscious man blinked awake.
A dull ache still lingered at the back of Chen Wen’s neck, but he pushed it aside to immediately offer a confession: “City Lord, it was my incompetence. That Jade-like Slim Snow…”
“We were played by him.” Tan Congye slammed his sword forcefully into the dirt.
The traces of combat left behind here were glaringly obvious, clearly showing no intent to conceal anything on the culprit’s part. Aside from Ying Laixian, who had orchestrated and performed the entire act himself, Tan Congye could not picture a second person capable of such a feat.
Chen Wen nodded. “That Jade-like Slim Snow is utterly cunning. He deliberately left me behind to deal with him alone, lulling my vigilance, while secretly having Jiang Ni positioned nearby all along.”
“He knew about this place long before I did.” Tan Congye narrowed his eyes. He had always suspected that Ying Laixian never relied solely on his face to get by; this person possessed terrifying depth, using his outward appearance merely as a weapon to disarm others.
A disciple of Wei Heng? Never set foot in the Jianghu? Lacks martial arts? Just how much of all this was true, and how much was false?
What an inscrutable person.
“Set off.”
“Huh?” Chen Wen blinked, bewildered. “Go where?”
“Back to Yishui City. Investigate every single detail of his past for me.”
“Young Master, are we truly returning to Quedu on this trip?” Jiang Ni asked anxiously along the way.
By now, Ying Laixian was the sole remaining person who knew the clues regarding the Changye Hall treasure—even Yan Zheng of Huayu Pavilion had never personally unfurled that scroll. Consequently, endless trouble and danger were bound to hound them every step of the journey.
Sipping the newly brewed tea inside the carriage, Ying Laixian replied, “I am returning to Quedu simply to bid farewell to my teacher. Rest assured.”
“Even so, the Young Master will inevitably plunge himself into perilous peril.” Uncomprehending, Jiang Ni could not fathom why, despite traveling thousands of miles back to Quedu and facing potential ambushes along every inch of the road, Ying Laixian remained dead set on returning.
Yet his sole reason for going back was merely to say goodbye to Wei Heng.
“The extent of a person’s capability dictates how long they are destined to survive. Since I have seized the clue to the treasure, I will not fall here,” Ying Laixian said, resting his head on his hand. “I still have to keep climbing upward.”
He needed to shake off the demon clinging relentlessly to his side, make that monster pay the punishment it deserved, grow strong enough to stand against it as an equal, and protect every single friend who had once perished because of him.
In countless past lives, Ying Laixian had yearned to accomplish these very things, yet despite dying innumerable times, he had never once succeeded.
“Master taught me for twelve years; to me, he is already beyond what ordinary people can compare to.”
Having spent a considerable amount of time by Ying Laixian’s side, Jiang Ni understood him quite well. Though she had no inkling what grand schemes he was plotting over the years, one thing remained crystal clear to her: “The Young Master needs allies, and City Lord Tan is unquestionably the finest choice.”
“You don’t understand why I played tricks on him this time?”
Jiang Ni nodded.
Ying Laixian let out a soft sigh. Lowering his gaze, he struggled to recall the Tan Congye of his previous lives, attempting to dredge up reliable reasoning to smooth over the situation.
Yet there was none. Not a single fragment of those memories could justify what he had done today.
“Jiang Ni, do you know what a mutual destruction entails? When two evenly matched adversaries cross paths and belong to opposing factions, mutual destruction is frequently their ultimate conclusion.”
“However, the moment one party tosses out a decoy and reveals a flaw, that deadlock can be shattered with effortless ease,” Ying Laixian explained. “Tan Congye has always judged people by their strength rather than their background. If I had simply handed him the intelligence today, perhaps any future possibility of cooperation between us would have vanished forever.”
Yet how could he possibly let a hard-won opportunity slip through his fingers like that?
“The present Tan Congye is itching to strip my skin and grind my bones to dust. Precisely because of that, he will certainly refuse to let me go, guaranteeing that we will cross paths again. The more hostile things become, the more resolutely he will stand on my side to sweep away the obstacles along my path.”
Never had Jiang Ni anticipated that Ying Laixian would project so far into the future. She had originally assumed he was merely borrowing Tan Congye’s influence to secure the Changye Hall treasure clues, never dreaming that he had already calculated his entire future into the grand design.
Dropping his gaze, Ying Laixian murmured, “Let’s find an inn to rest for the night and take care of a few pesky rats along the way.”
Huayu Pavilion
In the end, Yan Zheng finally waited for Ji Tingzhong’s return.
Having just endured a brutal battle, Huayu Pavilion lay in utter, chaotic ruins. Leading his surviving disciples in tidying up the debris, Yan Zheng kept a close watch near the entrance.
Sure enough, the person he held in his heart returned.
Standing upon the mountain path with her hands clasped behind her back, Ji Tingzhong gazed across the distance from opposite ends of the stone steps.
The scene carried an overwhelming sense of familiarity, prompting Ji Tingzhong to recall that their very first encounter had unfolded right here.
Back then, a fifteen-year-old Ji Tingzhong, brimming with characteristic arrogance, had caught wind that the newly appointed master of Huayu Pavilion possessed exceptional martial prowess and stood out as a peerless talent among the younger generation.
Thus, she had gone on a night excursion to Huayu Pavilion, crossing paths at this exact spot with Yan Zheng as he prepared to step outside.
“I knew you would return,” Yan Zheng said, a flash of joy lighting up his face as he stepped forward. “Is it because of me, or because of the Jade-like Slim Snow?”
With eyes as clear as spring water, Ji Tingzhong replied, “You know precisely what I wish to ask.”
A fleeting shadow of disappointment crossed Yan Zheng’s face. He knew Ji Tingzhong far too well; she was fiercely proud and unyielding, and would never grant easy forgiveness. Coming back here could only mean one thing.
“I never laid eyes upon that object either,” Yan Zheng admitted honestly. “When Changye Hall was destroyed, my father the former Pavilion Master of Huayu Pavilion rushed to inspect the scene at the earliest possible moment. Aside from mountains of corpses and oceans of blood, not a single useful clue remained. That scroll was the only remnant my father managed to recover from the site.”
“Yet you claimed it held the clues to the Changye Hall treasure.”
“That is correct,” Yan Zheng said. “Though I never opened it myself, I distinctly remember my father mentioning that the scroll depicted an old acquaintance from Changye Hall.”
An old acquaintance?
Ji Tingzhong’s thoughts drifted back to Ying Laixian. Standing right beside him at the time, she too had caught a glimpse of the figure painted upon that scroll.
It was a woman of breathtaking, peerless beauty.
An old acquaintance of Changye Hall, worthy of being preserved in a portrait, and possessed of such extraordinary loveliness.
Ji Tingzhong could only think of one person: the wife of the former Changye Hall master.
She was a deeply enigmatic woman; vanishingly few people in the Jianghu had ever laid eyes upon her visage, yet every single person who did had been utterly spellbound by her loveliness.
“Your friend, the Jade-like Slim Snow he chose to destroy that scroll, likely because he recognized the person depicted within.”
A single sentence caused the fog shrouding Ji Tingzhong’s mind to instantly dissipate. Indeed. Ying Laixian had targeted that scroll from the very beginning; every action and reaction of his indicated a deep familiarity with the woman in the painting.
Yet his goal had never been the treasure. Ji Tingzhong knew him well enough to realize that even setting aside the fact that Ying Laixian was far from an ordinary worldly person, the sheer volume of wealth registered under his name alone could comfortably sustain an ordinary family for generations.
What, then, was the true purpose behind his painstaking efforts?
“After Changye Hall’s destruction twelve years ago, the true culprit was never brought to justice?” Ji Tingzhong asked in a low voice.
Yan Zheng replied, “Twelve years have elapsed, and not a trace was left behind back then, making it infinitely harder to fathom now.”
Frowning deeply, Ji Tingzhong muttered, “He is investigating events from twelve years ago, and it involves Changye Hall. Why would he suddenly take such an interest?”
Yan Zheng understood that the “he” Ji Tingzhong referred to was none other than Ying Laixian.
“Not a single soul survived the catastrophe at Changye Hall back then; everyone perished in the raging sea of flames,” Yan Zheng said, as though visualizing towering infernos burning those grand towers down to ash before his eyes. “I refuse to believe any such treasure truly survived.”
Yet people stubbornly believed what they wished to believe.
Greedy individuals were perpetually eager to chase shortcuts, pinning their desperate hopes upon unrealistic rumors.
A heavy boulder seemed to weigh upon Ji Tingzhong’s chest. She mentally combed through every conceivable connection between Ying Laixian and Changye Hall, yet every single thread led to a dead end, entirely devoid of evidence.
“I am returning to Quedu,” Ji Tingzhong announced abruptly.
“To seek out Old Master Wei?” Yan Zheng hurried forward to block her path. “Ying Laixian is currently the prize everyone in the Jianghu is fighting tooth and nail to capture. Whatever he wishes to investigate is his own affair; why must you drag yourself into this mess?”
“Shut your mouth!” Ji Tingzhong blazed with anger. “Several years have passed, and you remain as relentlessly selfish as ever.”
“I’m doing this out of concern for you.”
“I have no need for it. Yan Zheng, there are times I genuinely wonder if anyone other than that useless younger brother of yours is ever worth an ounce of your effort.”
“Xiao Zhou is my younger brother”
“I have no patience for your lengthy lectures.” Taking a deep breath, Ji Tingzhong suppressed her fury. “I appreciate your help today, but from this moment onward, I hope we never cross paths again.”
“Tingzhong, are you truly so cold-hearted? Is our past merely a burden in your eyes? You are so desperate to distance yourself from me if not for today’s incident, would I never have seen you again for the rest of my life?”
“Cold-hearted?” Ji Tingzhong sneered. “Then allow me to ask Pavilion Master Yan: what do you call someone who breaks their promise of marriage at the eleventh hour and proclaims he will remain unwed for the rest of his life? I am not here to reminisce with you. If not for my martial brother, I would never have set foot inside Huayu Pavilion for the rest of my life.”
Struck completely speechless, Yan Zheng found no words in defense. His affection for Ji Tingzhong was genuine, but his ultimate betrayal of her was equally true.
Well aware of his own fault, he had never dared show his face before her once in the span of five years.
Without a single parting word, Ji Tingzhong stepped backward. “I have found the answers I sought. Many thanks, Pavilion Master Yan.”
The events of five years ago remained an unhealable knot in both their hearts; even if they remained unchanged at their core, they could never return to the way things once were.
Retracing her steps down the mountain, Ji Tingzhong purchased a horse in the city and spurred it relentlessly, determined to ride through the night back to Quedu.
She had studied beneath Wei Heng for nine years, spending those exact nine years alongside Ying Laixian, yet she realized she knew virtually nothing about her younger martial brother.
Hopefully, Master could provide some answers. If not, there was always that other person someone who would undoubtedly refuse to let Ying Laixian run wild unchecked.
“Hyah!”
The dust kicked up by the horse’s hooves drifted lazily through the air. From the second-floor window of a roadside inn, Tan Congye watched the lone female rider gallop past.
“It’s the Fragmentary Jade of Mount Kun,” Chen Wen noted, spotting her as well. “She isn’t traveling with the Jade-like Slim Snow?”
Tan Congye shared the exact same perplexity. Has Ying Laixian truly grown arrogant enough to court death? Accompanied by nothing more than Jiang Ni, he dares return alone? Countless people are thirsting for his life along this exact route.
“City Lord,” Chen Wen asked hesitantly, “are we still returning to Yishui City?”
Tan Congye’s eyes flickered as an image of a pair of cyan-colored pupils flashed vividly across his mind. “Change course. Head to Quedu.”