Chapter 164

Bai Sibing waved his hand: "Go, and be careful not to delay the martial arts competition."

The two walked back, seeing the young lady leaning on the pavilion pillar across the lake from afar. Pei Ye's heart moved, and he asked: "Speaking of which, I heard that the Seven Serpents Cave can have its current momentum by accepting gangs indiscriminately and then exploiting the people through them. Does the court not care about this kind of thing?"

Bai Sibing shook his head and said: "If the Seven Serpents Cave doesn't accept gangs, will the gangs disappear?"

"."

"Actually, after being incorporated into the Seven Serpents Cave, because they have names, it's easier for the Prefecture Office to manage them," Bai Sibing sighed. "Of course, gangs are urban evils after all. Making them legitimate is not a good thing. But this is the Immortal Platform's consideration. If they feel it's really inappropriate, they will issue an official document. The Seven Serpents—"

"The Seven Serpents what?" Pei Ye was listening intently with his head down and asked subconsciously.

When he looked up, he saw Bai Sibing had stopped talking and was smiling at the front.

Pei Ye looked in that direction—under the willow tree washed green by the rain, a deep black cloak stood there, wiping its hands with an elegant light green handkerchief.

It was Qijiao Shang Huaitong.

In front of him was a slender woman. Due to the angle, her face could not be seen, but her posture was quite soft and beautiful. Her coiled hair was like clouds and mist, and the chin exposed to the side had soft curves, as fine as white fat.

She was wearing a long dress like blue clouds, as if melting into the green color after the rain. Looking closely, this long dress had many careful details, densely woven and finely hooked. Although elegant, it was also exquisite, making this figure transcend the simple and monotonous grass and willow colors around, becoming the most eye-catching brushstroke.

Qijiao Shang Huaitong finished wiping his hands and seemed to say something. The woman smiled gently, stretched out a slender hand, took back the crumpled handkerchief, lowered her head, hooked her fingers to spread it out, and folded it.

At this time, he seemed to notice the attention of the two, and Qijiao Shang Huaitong turned to look. As soon as he saw Bai Sibing, a smile appeared on his deep, stern face.

Bai Sibing nodded, and Pei Ye also nodded to him, receiving a faint smile in return.

At this time, the woman in front of him also discovered the shift in the person's attention in front of her and turned her head to look over.

Pei Ye was startled, and his eyes widened a little.

Granted, it was because of her beautiful blue eyebrows, red lips, ink pupils, and jade nose, but more because he had seen this face.

—Although he had never seen it look so beautiful.

Qi Zhaohua.

Very different from the riverside of the casino, the woman now seemed to have broken out of her cocoon and turned into a butterfly.

She was also startled for a moment, first showing a smile to Bai Sibing, and when her gaze was retracted, she also nodded slightly to Pei Ye.

The distance between the two sides was not close, and they didn't go over to chat. Pei Ye followed Bai Sibing past them.

"Do you recognize her? That's Qijiao Shang Huaitong," Bai Sibing said after walking far away. "The number one person among the young martial arts practitioners of this generation in Bowang."

"I've seen him twice," Pei Ye said truthfully. "I heard people say he wants to enter the Daoqi Society."

"Yes, this should be a sure thing. And the Prefecture Office has another higher expectation for him—to enter the Fu List within ten years."

"Mm..." Pei Ye nodded and suddenly remembered, "Does our Bowang Prefecture have any figures on the He Fu List?"

"The He List naturally doesn't have any, the Fu List... actually, by rights, there should be," Bai Sibing smiled helplessly. "But there isn't."

"The last one was twenty-six years ago, from the Cuiyu Sect," Bai Sibing said. Without waiting for the young man to ask, he continued to explain, "He took third place in the Divine Capital martial arts examination, later went to the Northern Border, and then climbed to the seven-hundredth place on the Fu List."

"And then?"

"And then he died on the battlefield," Bai Sibing sighed lightly. "It's not that I'm biased because of closeness, but I really feel that only Cuiyu can occasionally cultivate such talent. Bai Zhu can't, the Seven Serpents... let's just wait and see about Qijiao Shang Huaitong."

"Is it because they don't have martial arts like the 'Jade Collection'?"

"Only a very small part. Being able to get on the Fu List no longer relies on the original martial arts of the three sects," Bai Sibing shook his head. "More importantly, the two families of Bai Zhu and the Seven Serpents... don't have that deep tradition of cultivating sword materials for hundreds of years—I ask you, since you've seen Qijiao Shang Huaitong a few times, what is your impression of him?"

Pei Ye recalled.

"He is free and easy, grand, and knows how to advance and retreat... coming from a major sect, he can even help servants set up the venue. He seems like a man of great talent," he said.

Bai Sibing was startled, then shook his head and laughed.

"What?" Pei Ye tilted his head.

"I'm asking for your impression of his 'sword', not his character—don't you sword practitioners have a saying 'see the sword as the person, observe the person as the sword'?"

"." Pei Ye said, "I haven't heard this saying."

Then he thought about it and found it quite interesting.

This is certainly not an unbreakable theorem, but it does indicate a pattern. If a swordsman reaches a certain depth on the path of the sword, the person's temperament will merge into the sword, and the temperament of the sword technique learned will also affect the person's personality.

Pei Ye recalled the swords of Ming, Zhu, and Yue, and couldn't help but nod slowly.

But when he applied this pattern to Qijiao Shang Huaitong, he found that there were some contradictions—according to his impression, the sword of this Seven Serpents descendant should have a feeling of Zhu Gaoyang, but when this judgment was added to Qijiao Shang Huaitong, Pei Ye's own sword intuition felt very awkward.

"His sword should be... the thorough, painful kind," Pei Ye frowned and hesitated. "And... free and easy? And... perhaps a little ruthless?"

Bai Sibing laughed: "It seems this saying really isn't out of thin air."

Pei Ye looked at the old man who sighed and stopped talking, and asked curiously: "Am I right or wrong?"

"What right or wrong," the old man smiled. "I'm not testing you. Everyone has different views on things. Many times there is no right or wrong."

Pei Ye keenly grasped: "Then what is your view on Qijiao Shang Huaitong?"

"Me?"

"Mm."

"I don't have any understanding of swords, so I can only talk about his character. Do you want to hear it?"

"Of course."

Bai Sibing smiled, then turned his head to look at Pei Ye. His smile converged, his face became serious, and his voice was slow and earnest: "In my view, Qijiao Shang Huaitong is narrow-minded, vengeful, sinister, vicious, hypocritical, and cunning. He despises those below him and is jealous of those above him—if you have any conflict with him, it's best to keep one eye open when you sleep!"

"."

Pei Ye was stunned and speechless.

"Go." Suddenly the clouds cleared and the rain stopped, and the old man smiled again, his face gentle, just like his neutral attitude towards the world, as if the sharp words just now were just a joke. "Piaoqing is going to be in a hurry."

The old man raised his hand and pointed, and Li Piaoqing was indeed already in front.

——————————

"How did it go? Do you have an idea in your heart?" The two walked back to the Zhuoyue Pavilion under the willow shade, and the young lady asked.

"Mm." Pei Ye nodded, still thinking about the merciless words the old man used just now. "Bai Sibing, he talked to me about Qijiao Shang Huaitong."

"Oh?"

Pei Ye organized his language and was about to speak when two green-clad attendants walked towards them.

They were carrying clear water and towels, talking: "I heard you saw that criminal?"

"Yeah, he asked me to deliver wine at that time!" one green-clad attendant said with lingering fear. "I felt something was strange at the time..."

"Sigh, I thought it was just a fight. Who would have thought he would really dare to kill someone," the other sighed.

Pei Ye stopped in his tracks.

He turned around, reached out and grabbed one of their arms: "You two, what are you saying?"

"Ah, guest," the man saluted. "Don't you know yet—Commandant Zhao just sealed the building to search for the criminal, but the result was that the person hadn't been caught yet, and the blockade was lifted. It turns out that the criminal had already escaped, and killed someone after leaving the garden!"

"." Pei Ye doubted for a moment that his memory had gone wrong, but fortunately he quickly grasped the key point. "Where did you say someone died?"

"Just outside the garden. We are going to deliver clear water for the adults to use for the autopsy."

Pei Ye and Li Piaoqing looked at each other: "Take us there."

Actually, it didn't matter if they were taken or not. As long as they left the Zhuoyue Pavilion from the east, they could immediately see some gathered crowds.

The two went out the door. By the grassy lakeside outside Bowang Garden, several officials were gathered together.

"Nothing to examine! Commandant Zhao said it clearly, it was the criminal's doing. Which of the people he killed these days didn't have a strange death!" an official shouted while holding his blade. "Carry it back to the Prefecture Office. Just dissect it when the coroner has time."

Pei Ye scanned and saw that Zhao Fu and most of the officials had already left, leaving only these few to clean up. Judging from the situation, Zhao Fu seemed to really think there was nothing to investigate in this case.

But Pei Ye clearly knew that Yang Yan had been in the rockery all along, how could he have come out to kill someone?

His curiosity grew, and he walked up, but first saw a carriage tied under a tree.

The corpse was leaning against the wheel of this carriage.

Pei Ye walked over and froze.

His death was indeed quite strange. There were no wounds on his body, and the expression frozen on his face was a mixture of anger and fear. The emotion when he died must have been very intense, because all the blood had rushed to his head. He had been dead for nearly two quarters of an hour, and there was still a flush on his face.

There was only one fatal wound, a feather deeply stuck into his forehead.

Zheng Dong.

It was Zheng Dong.

Pei Ye breathed deeply twice, as if wanting to spit out the chill that had suddenly risen in his heart.

He looked quietly at the corpse, and suddenly remembered Bai Yuliang again, remembering the sword scabbard the young lady said he threw into someone's face.

A slap that made teeth fly and mouths swell was worth it for a single insult.

When this slap ended, the matter ended, and it wouldn't leave a trace in the man's heart.

His way of repaying resentment with uprightness was real, and so was his brightness and generosity.

The person whose lips and teeth leaked air from then on must still be living well.

Pei Ye pulled his drifting thoughts back and returned to the scene in front of him. Only then did he realize that, up to this point, he was seeing this Seven Serpents descendant for the first time.

Qijiao Shang Huaitong.

At the same time, he felt the young lady who followed him stiffen suddenly, and she began to tremble slightly.

"No need to trouble you adults," the young lady's voice was strangely calm. "Zheng Dong is under the Cuiyu Sect. This is Cuiyu's business."

——————————

On the carriage.

Pei Ye, Yang Yan, Zhang Junxue, Li Piaoqing.

The atmosphere was heavy.

If there was any liveliness among these four people, Li Piaoqing must take eighty percent of the credit, but at this moment, the young lady was just leaning against the wall looking out the window, the most silent of them all.

Pei Ye had never seen her so thoroughly depressed. The young lady was always good at adjusting her emotions. Every time she touched a place of trouble or sadness, she would just lower her brows slightly, and turn her head to be a light smile again.

But this time she seemed to be truly suppressed by some heavy and violent emotions.

Pei Ye tried to talk to her several times, but the young lady just shook her head lightly. Thus, all the way back to the Changdao Wu Gong Hall, Li Piaoqing jumped off the carriage silently and turned to walk towards the west courtyard.

"Piaoqing!" Pei Ye chased after her and stopped her before she closed the door.

The young lady looked up at him.

"It's okay, Pei Ye, I haven't lost my fighting spirit," Li Piaoqing whispered. "I will still do what I should do, and I will be even more determined."

". Yes, what you want to do will definitely succeed," Pei Ye looked at her earnestly. "I promise."

"I believe you," Li Piaoqing smiled reluctantly. "These things can't crush me."

"Then you..." Pei Ye looked at her with some worry.

"I just want to rest for a while first."

"."

"Because... it stirred up the thing I've always been unwilling to face," the young lady whispered. "On the way back, I kept thinking... how to avenge them?"

"."

The young lady revealed a miserable smile: "I don't seem to be able to do this, I can't do it within ten years... ten years later, I might be even less able to do it."

"It's okay, I'll be fine if I'm alone for a while," Li Piaoqing tried to squeeze a smile at him, probably meaning 'don't worry', and then slowly closed the courtyard door.

————————

Pei Ye came back and sat down on the stone. Yang Yan poked him lightly and whispered: "What's wrong with her?"

Pei Ye glanced at him: "A friend was killed."

"."

"If it were you, what would you do?" Pei Ye asked.

"A life for a life, take revenge."

"What if you can't beat them?"

"Then practice hard, and wait until you can beat them before going."

"What if the other party's talent is not worse than yours, and their future is bright, and their progress will far exceed yours?"

"." This made Yang Yan's face stiffen.

His head didn't move. Thinking of something, the expression on his face showed a complex and strange heaviness. For a long time, he shivered.

"As long as it's a person... they can be killed," he said slowly, his voice hoarse. "Temporary progress doesn't mean a lifetime of progress. Master said that no matter how strong an expert is, they will reveal countless flaws in their lifetime. I just need to seize a few of them..."

"Right. And, no one in the world is alone," Pei Ye looked at the horizon and added. "If you can't beat them, you can call your friends to help."

". I don't have such impressive friends."

"Friends will also keep getting stronger."

Yang Yan looked up at him.

But Pei Ye was no longer talking to him, saying to himself: "So, there is no revenge that cannot be taken."

He looked at the horizon, and a piece of distant dark cloud seemed to be drifting this way again.

You can't fob people off with an 'it's okay'. I won't let it be this time—what if you die?

Some memories surged into his heart, and Pei Ye frowned fiercely. Zheng Dong's sudden strange death hit his heartstrings, and the mist on his friend suddenly gave him a sense of insecurity.

He stood up.

Yang Yan was slightly startled: "Where are you going? Let's discuss the situation of that old thief first?"

"." Pei Ye didn't answer. He was turning his head to look at the corner of the courtyard. The tall woman was no longer waving the guillotine, she was sharpening it with a whetstone.

"Sorry, later, I have many friends."

(End of chapter)