Chapter 53

Inside the room, Liu Qingshi walked to the memorial tablet and stood silently for a moment.

He reached out to pick up three sticks of incense, brought them to the candle flame to light them, and then solemnly inserted them into the incense burner.

Wisps of blue smoke rose, blurring his resolute face.

"Old Jiang..."

His voice was low and hoarse, carrying an irrepressible sense of guilt and nostalgia, "How are you doing over there?"

He was silent for a moment, as if waiting for a response that would never come.

"Yiyi has successfully entered the outer sect of the Profound Heaven Sect today."

He spoke slowly, as if chatting with an old friend sitting across from him, "That girl is promising; she will surely go further than me in the future. If your spirit is in heaven, be happy for her too."

"That child Zhao Gang has also broken through to the Transformation of Force Realm, and he will bring Shi Lei to the prefecture city to join me soon."

He paused, his mouth curling into a bitter arc, "He said in his letter that the kid Shi Lei misses you quite a bit... I don't even know how to reply to that letter..."

"Old Jiang..." His voice suddenly choked, and his hand hanging by his side tightened slightly, "That night, I couldn't find you. I... I failed you."

The swirling blue smoke made his resolute face appear flickering in the light and shadow.

He just stood there, motionless like a stone statue, turning all his guilt and self-reproach into silent stillness.

Outside the window, Jiang Ye stood quietly in the shadows, looking at the stiff back inside the room, at the rising blue smoke, and at the memorial tablet engraved with his own name.

He opened his mouth, but could not make a sound.

Having lived for seventy years, he had seen too much life and death and experienced too many partings, thinking he had long since become as hard-hearted as iron and stone.

But at this moment, looking at that cold memorial tablet and that silent back, he actually felt his eyes sting.

He had never imagined that he, a lonely man, would one day be remembered by someone like this.

"Liu Liu Guan Zhu..."

He called out silently in his heart; a thousand words eventually turned into a very, very light sigh.

He did not move, did not make a sound, and did not even let a fraction of his Qi leak out.

He just stood there quietly, like a withered tree merged with the darkness, deeply suppressing all his complex emotions in the bottom of his heart.

Not knowing how much time had passed, Liu Qingshi finally moved.

He bowed deeply to the memorial tablet, turned around, and left the room with heavy steps.

The door closed gently behind him, shutting all the blue smoke and silence of the room inside.

Jiang Ye remained in place, looking at the tightly closed door for a long, long time.

"Liu Liu Guan Zhu, rest assured, as long as I am alive, the Liu family will surely have peace for a lifetime."

Jiang Ye looked at the room housing his memorial tablet with deep eyes and murmured softly.

Immediately after, he retreated from the residence as silently as he had entered.

Jiang Ye did not return to the mountain immediately.

Feeling slightly heavy-hearted, he walked aimlessly along the long streets of the prefecture city.

The night market had just begun, and the lights were dim.

Shops lined both sides of the street, and the sounds of hawking, bargaining, and children playing intertwined, with the hustle and bustle of human life rushing toward him.

He walked and stopped, watched the juggling for a while, stood in front of a noodle stall for a moment, and finally turned into an elegantly decorated jade shop.

The shop assistant came up to greet him, and seeing him wearing the deacon robes of the Profound Heaven Sect, his attitude became even more respectful.

Jiang Ye did not say much, browsed casually, and finally pointed to a translucent green jade box and asked, "How much for this?"

"My lord has a good eye! This is top-quality green jade, with a fine texture, warm and moist like fat; it is most suitable for storing medicinal herbs..."

The assistant began to introduce it incessantly.

Jiang Ye waved his hand, too lazy to listen to his chatter, paid the money directly, and tucked the jade box into his bosom.

He bought this box naturally not to store any herbs, but to prepare for storing the fire centipede.

After leaving the jade shop, he walked on the street for a little while longer, completely suppressing the complex emotions in his heart, before turning and heading toward the direction of the Profound Heaven Sect.

By the time he returned to the mountain gate of the Profound Heaven Sect, it was already pitch black.

The towering mountain gate appeared even more solemn and majestic in the night, and two rows of stone lamp stands burned with faint blue flames, illuminating the stone steps in front of the gate with flickering light.

He walked up the steps with a steady pace, but when passing the area where the outer sect disciples lived, he couldn't help but slow down his steps.

He looked up.

In that cluster of well-arranged houses, dots of light were shining.

"That girl Yiyi should be living in one of those rooms."

His aged eyes flickered slightly.

He had the urge to go and see how the girl had settled in, but then he had second thoughts.

In the middle of the night, for an old man to sneakily peek at the residence of a young female disciple was somewhat inappropriate.

"Forget it, I'll go see her tomorrow morning."

He shook his head slightly, suppressing that impulse.

"I hope that girl can get used to life in the Profound Heaven Sect."

He pondered secretly in his heart.

Liu Yiyi had a cold personality and was not good at socializing, not as smooth as Su Yan.

And there were many outer sect disciples in the Profound Heaven Sect, which was very different from the Qingshi Martial Arts Academy before.

Where there are people, there is a world.

Jiang Ye was a little worried that the girl's cold personality would cause her to suffer some minor losses within the sect.

Therefore, he definitely had to look after her a bit.

The night was deep, and the moonlight was like water.

Jiang Ye walked silently through the herb garden as usual.

His figure was like a ghost merged into the night, not even disturbing the chirping of insects in the grass.

"This one is also trash."

A fire centipede that had just crawled out of the soil hadn't even had time to climb onto the nearest Tiankui grass before it was steadily clamped by two small twigs.

Killed the moment it showed its head!

Jiang Ye's technique was now extremely proficient.

He lowered his eyes to scan the faint fire mark on the insect's belly, turned his wrist, and with a casual flick of his knife, the fire centipede was cut into two pieces and fell to the ground.

He was about to get up and continue looking for the next prey.

Suddenly.

Hiss—!!!

A slightly sharp hissing sound, completely different from ordinary fire centipedes, came from the soil not far behind him.

"Hmm?!"

Jiang Ye, with his keen senses, turned around immediately, his eyes narrowing slightly.

He saw that at the edge of the herb field not far away, beside the root of a Tiankui grass, a fire centipede was poking its head out of the soil.

That fire centipede was less than half a foot long, even smaller than its ordinary counterparts.

But its entire body color was as red as if scorched by flames, and there was a faint dark golden luster flowing on its back armor, which looked particularly eye-catching in the moonlight.

What surprised Jiang Ye even more was this guy's boldness.

After crawling out of the soil, it didn't sense its surroundings with any vigilance; instead, like a red lightning bolt, it "swished" and climbed onto the nearest Tiankui grass, opened its ferocious mouthparts, and began to gnaw greedily without any scruples.

It ate with gusto, its half-foot-long body swaying slightly as if enjoying a feast, completely unaware that a thin, withered figure had already arrived behind it silently.

"Bold!"

Jiang Ye praised in his heart, and the two sharpened twigs in his hand had already reached out silently.

Swish!

A very slight sound of breaking through the air.

The fire centipede, which was burying its head in eating, seemed to sense something, stopped gnawing abruptly, arched its body, and was about to flee to the ground.

But Jiang Ye's speed was faster; before it could jump off the grass stem, the two twigs had already clamped it steadily like an iron cage and lifted it into the air.

Hiss!!!

The moment it was caught, the fire centipede let out a sharp, ear-piercing hiss, completely different from those counterparts that would only struggle in vain after being captured.

It twisted its body frantically, its dense legs dancing in the air, and the force was so great that even the twigs in Jiang Ye's hand trembled slightly.

It opened its ferocious mouthparts, aiming to bite Jiang Ye's fingers, looking fierce and unrelenting.

Feeling the struggle force that was completely inconsistent with its size, a flash of joy suddenly appeared in Jiang Ye's eyes, "Good fellow! Short and punchy!"

With such a small size but such powerful strength, the quality would definitely not be low.

He lifted the insect that was still struggling frantically and examined its belly carefully by the moonlight.

At just one glance, an irrepressible ecstasy suddenly erupted in Jiang Ye's aged eyes.

On the insect's belly, a fire mark was as red as blood, deep enough to reach the bone, and in the moonlight, it looked like the scorching sun in the sky, dazzlingly bright.

"Good, good, good!!!"

He couldn't help but praise three times in a low voice, and the most joyful smile in these days bloomed on his aged face.

After working hard for so many days and catching no less than a hundred pieces of trash, he finally caught a truly good piece of goods.

"This is a top-grade fire centipede!!!"

He was about to examine this treasure carefully, but when his gaze swept over the fire centipede's mouthparts, his pupils shrank suddenly.

In that ferocious, wide-open mouth, there were actually two pairs of deep red mandibles!

What is this situation?

A normal fire centipede only has one pair of mandibles.

This is clearly recorded in the "Poison Taming Scripture".

But the one in front of him had an extra pair, and the four fangs glowed with a cold light in the moonlight, like four sickles quenched with deadly poison.

"Could it be..."

Jiang Ye's heart shook violently, and a shocking thought exploded in his mind like a thunderbolt:

"Could it be that this is a mutant among fire centipedes?!"

The "Poison Taming Scripture" once recorded that among the poisonous insects in the world, there exist some extremely rare mutant individuals; they are either different in size from their counterparts or possess special talents, and are called "mutants".

As for where the mutants come from, the "Poison Taming Scripture" does not record it in detail.

As his thoughts turned sharply, the fire centipede that he was clamping and still struggling frantically suddenly opened its ferocious mouth with two pairs of mandibles, aiming at his face—

Hiss!!!

A cluster of fiery red poisonous mist sprayed out from its mouth, rushing straight toward his face.

The mist was scorching and fishy-sweet; just drifting in the air, it made people feel a faint burning sensation.

Jiang Ye turned sideways abruptly, narrowly avoiding the cluster of poisonous mist.

The poisonous mist drifted to the ground, and the leaves of several Tiankui grasses withered and turned black instantly, emitting wisps of blue smoke.

He was both surprised and happy, looking at the little thing in his hand that was still baring its fangs and brandishing its claws, as if wishing to swallow him alive, and the light in his aged eyes grew intense.

A fire centipede that can spray poison...

In the "Poison Taming Scripture", there has never been a record of ordinary fire centipedes having such means!