Chapter 165

To do something, to kill someone, must start from 'knowing'.

Pei Ye didn't do many things actively. In Xincang Mountain, when facing the Dragon Lord in Fenghuai City, he did try his best to contribute, but that couldn't be called 'active'. He was just rolled into it, and given his personality, he would never actively escape.

The young man was like a pawn. If you put him in front of darkness, no matter if he could do it or not, he would do his best to charge.

But sometimes, the 'General' in his heart would also be revealed, pushing the 'Advisor' and 'Elephant' in front of him aside, coming out of the crowd, staring at the heart of the opposite side, and betting his own life to do what he wanted to do.

Facing Wu Wu Zai Gu was undoubtedly one such time. Even though his relatives and friends were killed and the anger in his heart was extreme, the young man still tried his best to listen to the arrangements of several adults, tried his best to cooperate with every instruction, and did not do anything on his own.

Until several adults were defeated, but a smooth path of 'life' opened up in front of Pei Ye. He chose to turn back and actively look for that darkness.

This was undoubtedly the young man's own decision.

And now, the threshold for triggering this decision had been lowered—he no longer waited until there was no retreat, nor was it to prevent something from being changed, but after discovering that those who should be more reliable were not reliable, he decided to actively change something.

First he had to understand many things.

Pei Ye walked to the corner of the martial arts field. Zhang Junxue was drawing a bucket of water from the well and pouring it in front of her. Pei Ye walked closer and saw the clear water film sliding smoothly away, leaving behind a heavy blade that was black in body and white in edge, revealing its sharpness.

Then the woman put down the bucket, sat down, picked up the whetstone, and continued to sharpen it with a 'clang-clang' sound.

"Thank you," Pei Ye moved a stone and sat down beside the woman. "It was too urgent at the time, so I had to entrust the matter to you. I didn't ask for your opinion either. Sorry."

Zhang Junxue shook her head: "I am willing to help you."

"But, after all, it's going against the Prefecture Office, it's not an ordinary matter," Pei Ye sighed lightly and said again, "Thank you."

"Mm."

"Actually, when I entrusted it to you, I already believed in my heart that you wouldn't refuse," Pei Ye said, suddenly smiling. "I'm a bit curious—when you found Li Piaoqing, you must have said at least twenty sentences to explain the matter clearly, right?"

Zhang Junxue stopped her hand, her expression unchanged. She didn't seem to have the action of 'glancing', so she turned her head and looked at Pei Ye flatly, speaking in a muffled voice.

"Pei Ye."

"Mm?"

"I'm not a mute."

"Hahaha," Pei Ye leaned back and laughed. "I'm just curious, I haven't seen what you look like when you say a long paragraph."

Zhang Junxue started sharpening the blade silently again.

She wasn't annoyed by this kind of 'nonsense', but she really didn't know how to have this kind of contentless conversation with people.

Fortunately, Pei Ye quickly made this conversation very substantial. He stopped smiling and said: "Then let's have a long talk, okay?"

Zhang Junxue looked up.

The young man looked at her.

"I know what it's like to put in countless efforts and suddenly have it all come to nothing," Pei Ye held his ankles with both hands. "So I think, the feeling of not getting the Ascension Pill must be very hard to take."

"." Zhang Junxue lowered her head, seemingly wanting to continue sharpening the blade, but after she put the whetstone on the blade, she didn't push it down for a while.

The woman looked at the blade, her whole body slowly calming down. She did have a heart that was tough enough, but it didn't mean that any blow wouldn't leave a white mark on it.

"Can you talk about it?" Pei Ye said gently.

"The Ascension Pill can let me enter the Fifth Life," the woman whispered after a long time.

Pei Ye nodded and said: "Fifth Life, and then?"

Zhang Junxue was silent again and started sharpening the blade: ". Wait until the martial arts competition is over, I'll tell you then."

"No."

Zhang Junxue looked up at him, then lowered her head silently: "It's okay, you don't need to... worry about me too much."

"Fifth Life, can it let you deal with Qijiao Shang Huaitong?" Pei Ye said directly.

"." The woman paused.

"Because you have always been suppressing your strength to practice swords with me," Pei Ye said. "And I heard that during last year's winter competition, a woman named Zhang Junyu lost to Qijiao Shang Huaitong. She was your—"

Pei Ye looked at her.

". Older sister." These two words were somewhat obviously difficult for Zhang Junxue.

"Mm, Sister Junyu, she is now..."

"Passed away," Zhang Junxue whispered. "When I went to deliver food, I found she had hanged herself upstairs."

"."

"It was all last year's winter competition," Zhang Junxue lowered her brows and said.

Next, Pei Ye saw what she looked like when she said a long paragraph.

——

Zhang Junxue had always liked this sister who was two years older than her since she was a child.

People say that if siblings are close in age, no one knows how to let the other win when they are young, so it's easy to fight. But Zhang Junxue and Zhang Junyu were not like this. Junyu was like a mother, gentle and generous since she was a child, and had the appearance of an older sister at a young age; Junxue was like a father, not only did her physique exceed her sister's very early, but her personality was also just as dull and heavy.

The two had never quarreled or fought. Occasionally they had conflicts, it was little Junyu frowning and reasoning in a slightly heavier tone, and little Junxue keeping her head down without saying a word, not saying whether she was convinced or not.

Just like a pair of small-sized mom and dad.

Born in the Zhang family of Xu Gu, the two naturally practiced martial arts together. They grew up like this. When Zhang Junyu broke through to the Third Life at the age of twenty-one, she began to participate in the martial arts competition. Although winning the championship was hopeless, she had been making steady progress and gradually became the number one young person in the Zhang family.

Zhang Junxue grew up following this sister, listening to the teachings her sister had heard, practicing the sword techniques her sister had practiced, and then waiting for her to tell her about the fresh things in the Prefecture City every time she came back from the martial arts competition.

Zhuoyue Lake, Bowang Garden, the Academy, the three major sects... Zhang Junxue hadn't been to the Prefecture City, but she had never seen the brilliance in her sister's mouth. It must be because if you don't visit during the martial arts competition, you only see the mediocre appearance of this city without dressing up.

When the time came for the spring competition when Zhang Junyu was twenty-six, on the carriage of the Zhang family returning to Xu Gu, they were greeted by a burst of excitement and regret—Zhang Junyu, she was Fifth Life.

Why didn't she break through earlier?

But it didn't matter, there were still autumn and winter competitions this year.

During the autumn competition, Zhang Junyu was indeed amazing, making it into the final round in one fell swoop. However, although the woman had enough experience in martial arts competitions, her cultivation in the Fifth Life was still shallow, and she was finally one step short.

The Zhang family pinned their hopes on the winter competition.

Zhang Junxue, who learned the results of this autumn competition, was also unprecedentedly excited—the title of 'Martial Champion', which only three people had each year, the highest goal that the masters always used to encourage them, was about to be taken by her own sister!

When she ran to her sister's room, she saw her lying on the table, writing something with a smile on her face.

"What are you writing?"

Zhang Junxue leaned over to look. Zhang Junyu was startled, turned her head to look at her, and let out a long breath against her chest.

"You scared me to death."

"You were too absorbed."

Zhang Junyu smiled: "Writing a letter to a newly met friend."

"Male or female?"

Zhang Junyu glanced at her: "What about male, what about female? His attainments in swordsmanship are very high, and he has very good insights."

"Is that male or female?"

"Male."

"Oh."

"What are you 'oh'-ing about?"

"What's wrong with me 'oh'-ing?"

"."

"I heard you're going to win the championship in the winter competition."

"No such thing, listen to them talking nonsense," Zhang Junyu folded the paper. "I've been fighting for these years, and the biggest feeling is that there are endless heroes in the three sects, especially this year, Zheng Shou also has outstanding figures. I don't think I have much certainty about the winter competition."

"Then next year's spring competition, if not, then autumn competition... anyway, you will win the championship sooner or later."

"That's true," Zhang Junyu smiled from the heart, illuminating her face, as if there were countless beauties in the future that had already begun to show, waiting for her.

After passing an autumn like this, Zhang Junyu's daily busyness reached its peak.

Cultivation, breaking moves, studying opponents, occasionally writing a letter. At first, Zhang Junxue could go in and chat with her, but later she gradually began to close the door.

At the same time, for two months, people from Zheng Shou began to appear frequently in the county.

Zhang Junxue didn't know what they were doing here, until a month before the winter competition, when the masters gathered the young people from Xu Gu who were participating in the competition and announced a piece of news, the resulting boiling almost lifted the roof.

It turned out that Zheng Shou came frequently to bring a plan with quite a pattern—it was really more harm than good for the candidates of the two counties to fight back and forth, why not join forces to take a bite out of the three sects?

People who make money have unusual ideas. This thought made the Xu Gu disciples discuss it, but no matter how they reacted, this matter had already been decided—in this winter competition, everyone could go to the Longmen class in the Prefecture City, and all expenses would be covered by Zheng Shou.

Speaking of which, the two counties had been fighting for many years in the martial arts competition, and Xu Gu was still vigilant about this show of goodwill, but Zheng Shou's sincerity was fully reflected—facing the popular Zhang Junyu of this winter competition, they improved her meals and cultivation by more than one level, and gave her a sword technique purchased at a high price.

A month's time naturally couldn't make a sword technique look like anything, but the significance of this sword technique was not here, but it was also the first in Zheng Shou this year—Gu Guang's trump card sword technique.

Delivering it to Zhang Junyu so frankly and without reservation was obviously in line with what they said themselves: "Whichever family has good talent, we will never trip them up, and the two families will join forces to support them."

Gu Guang was also Fifth Life, not without the strength to compete, but Zheng Shou chose to support Xu Gu's Zhang Junyu. This sincerity was naturally enough to make Xu Gu trust them.

As the deadline approached, Zhang Junxue also followed to attend the Longmen class. There, as the people of the two counties got along, from hostility and embarrassment to the elimination of discrepancies, Zhang Junxue followed her sister and also met a group of figures such as Gu Guang, Xiao Qiu, Zheng Dong, and so on.

Gu Guang was a steady man, about thirty years old. When helping her sister practice that sword technique, he almost poured out his heart, even explaining his sword-using habits, strengths, and weaknesses one by one. Even someone as dull as Zhang Junxue could see that he had unusual feelings for her sister.

Xiao Qiu was a swordsman with a firm mind. His sword was very clean and powerful. Although he didn't seem to like to smile, he still tried to hook the corners of his mouth every time he saw the sisters.

Zheng Dong was someone her sister found a bit annoying. He was unrestrained, spoke without taboo, and was always going out to fool around, often disappearing. However, these shortcomings were not applied to the Xu Gu people. Her sister found him annoying mainly because he always tried to drag the Xu Gu juniors to 'play' together.

In this atmosphere, whether Zhang Junyu could win the championship and fight for a few more places for next year seemed less important.

"Damn it, what are you nervous about? If it doesn't work this time, then next time!" Zheng Dong chewed on a grass stem. "With my big brother, with your big sister, taking down the damn Seven Serpents Cave is sooner or later—but Cuiyu, hmm..."

Zhang Junxue then knew that the one he followed to fool around with was the descendant of the Cuiyu Sect.

But as the central figure of this cooperation, Zhang Junyu had some disconnection these days.

Others might not have noticed, but Zhang Junxue couldn't ignore her sister's whereabouts. She often went out and disappeared, and when she came back, she was either smiling or frowning in a daze.

"Where do you go every day?"

"None of your business."

"I know even if you don't tell me, is it that 'male' who is very good at using swords."

"."

"Some people think she hid it very well," Zhang Junxue rolled her eyes. "But the martial arts competition is about to start, you should be sober, don't delay the business."

"I know!" Zhang Junyu glared at her. "And this is also business..."

". It is indeed our Zhang family's business," Zhang Junxue said in a muffled voice.

"Hey! You're really annoying! I'm telling the truth, he, he is the descendant of the Seven Serpents Cave..."

This time it was Zhang Junxue's turn to glare: "Isn't this our enemy?!"

"What enemy, it's just a martial arts competition," Zhang Junyu said. "He, he's a very good person..."

". You have to think clearly, sister," Zhang Junxue wrinkled her two black eyebrows. "This time it's not just 'a martial arts competition', it's a big deal for our two counties, and it all falls on your shoulders. Don't... make any mistakes because of this."

"I know, you don't have to worry about me letting water—not to mention I might not be able to beat him, even if I could, I would definitely go all out. I've practiced martial arts for so many years, this is what I've always pursued," Zhang Junyu glanced at her with a smile and said earnestly. "I can distinguish what is light and what is heavy. Besides, he wouldn't agree either."

"What if he agrees?" Seeing her sister defending him in every way, Zhang Junxue began to feel a bit jealous.

"Then I would look down on him."

"Hehe."

Later, Zhang Junyu came back later and later, with more and more rosy smiles on her face, and she was always absent-minded about Zhang Junxue's words when she came back, often needing to be called several times before she could react.

Until another night, when Zhang Junyu came back very late, her face was dazed and her eyes were a bit red.

"What's wrong?"

". Today we talked about the martial arts competition, and I told him I wouldn't let water."

"He didn't agree?"

"No, he said, of course it should be like this."

"Isn't that very good?"

"He said... he wouldn't have any use for winning the championship anyway."

". Why?"

"Because he has an incurable disease," Zhang Junyu whispered. "He said that at most he can fight two more martial arts competitions for his sect before his body completely collapses."

". I haven't heard that the Seven Serpents descendant has anything wrong with his body."

"How can this kind of thing be spread out."

"."

"I really didn't expect that such a free and easy person would suffer such misfortune," Zhang Junyu looked out the window. "How uncomfortable it must be to have the martial arts path pursued for more than twenty years become a void. I can tell, he... really wants to win the championship once."

". Sister!"

"I think... I really want to let him win once. This might be the only opportunity in his life..."

"Absolutely not!" Zhang Junxue stood up, unprecedentedly serious. "Sister, this is a big deal for the two counties. You represent not just yourself, not just the Zhang family, and not just Xu Gu."

"You don't have the qualification to do that, sister."

"." Zhang Junyu looked up at her, her eyes crystal clear, and she lowered her head and smiled. "Mm, even you don't support me, I knew I thought wrong."

"You certainly thought wrong," Zhang Junxue stretched out her wide palm and placed it on the woman's head. "Sister, business is business, private feelings are private feelings."

"Alright, you're teaching me a lesson too," Zhang Junyu buried her head in front of the woman's abdomen and said in a muffled voice. "Then, I have a second idea."

"What?"

"That is this time, let Gu Guang win the championship."

". What do you mean."

"That is this time, no matter if it's me or... him, if we meet Gu Guang, we will deliberately lose and return this time to Zheng Shou. Then, in the next spring competition, if I have a chance to win the championship, I will give it to him."

"."

"What do you think?"

"I don't think much of it!" Zhang Junxue frowned. "This is your own future, sister."

"One year late, it doesn't matter."

"And this is faking, it's against the law!" Zhang Junxue said seriously. "If it's discovered—"

"It won't be discovered, we will do it very carefully," Zhang Junyu bit her lip and looked at her. "I only told you, keep it secret for me, okay?"

". How do you plan to do it?"

"I'm still thinking."

——

"You should know how she did it," Zhang Junxue said with her head down.

". To do it seamlessly, you have to act subtly," Pei Ye said. "To do this, you must be completely clear about the martial arts of both sides."

"Yes," Zhang Junxue said. "She told that person all the keys to that sword technique, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of Brother Gu Guang."

——

Until the martial arts competition started, the whole thing didn't reveal any clues.

Except for Gu Guang's heart being rejected, which inevitably caused some disputes, the plan of the two counties was still pushing forward.

Zhang Junyu was indeed a contestant capable of winning the championship. She had fought many martial arts competitions before, and the improvement from the Longmen class should have been minimal, but the woman was transforming every day.

The instructor said her state of mind was smooth, accumulating and breaking out, entering the leap period of strength that martial artists dream of.

The candidates of the two counties were even more looking forward to the results of this martial arts competition—the Bai Zhu Pavilion had just won the championship last time and temporarily had no one sharp enough; the Seven Serpents Cave had also almost sent all their people in the previous few competitions. Although the Fifth Life of this session also had the possibility of winning the championship, compared with Gu Guang, it was actually between four and six or even three and seven.

The only one who wasn't very sure was Cuiyu. Their descendant had never participated in the competition before. This was her first time participating, and she was also Fifth Life. It was unknown how strong she was.

In short, Gu Guang's probability of winning the championship was about twenty percent, and Zhang Junyu was over forty percent. Adding the two together, the two counties had about sixty percent certainty of winning.

On the day the martial arts competition started, everyone was in a good mood. Under the gaze of thousands of eyes in the entire state, the two candidates who had high hopes for the two counties easily passed the test, won countless cheers, and easily entered the top eight.

"It's just the next two rounds," Zhang Junyu coiled her hair and said to her sister who was wiping her sword in front of her. The battle in the previous round didn't even make her sweat. "Who is fighting who in the next round?"

Zhang Junxue saw the 'male' her sister mentioned. He was indeed tall, handsome, and extraordinary. He was not much worse than her sister, and the sword he used was a realm she had never seen before.

At this time, he was already on the field again.

"It's Qijiao Shang Huaitong, and Brother Gu Guang."

"Ah? It's in this round," Zhang Junyu smiled. "Too busy, I remembered wrong."

She tidied her hair, tied it with a hairband, and turned her head to look with a smile. There was no suspense in the result of this round. She just wanted to see how he performed.

Gu Guang drew his blade, Qijiao Shang Huaitong had already moved in advance, crashed into his arms, and printed a ruthless palm on his abdomen.

Gu Guang immediately lost all strength. With the next sword, Qijiao Shang Huaitong cut off his right arm with one sword.

In two moves, this big brother who had high hopes from Zheng Shou was kicked off the ring like a bedbug.

Zhang Junyu's movements were completely frozen there, like a statue.

Zhang Junxue clearly saw that this statue was trembling.

——

"You probably know what happened next," Zhang Junxue lowered her head and started sharpening her blade slowly again. "In the top eight, my sister fought her opponent in a daze. In the top four, she stood in front of Qijiao Shang Huaitong."

"Qijiao Shang Huaitong pierced through her abdomen, crushed her right arm, and abolished the sword technique she had practiced for more than twenty years," Zhang Junxue said. "That's it."

". Did Qijiao Shang Huaitong do all this just to win the winter competition?" Pei Ye asked softly. "He could have won it by himself in another year. Three places a year, why be so anxious?"

"Yes," Zhang Junxue said. "Later I found out that he had to win this championship to meet the standards in the next year's Daoqi Society recruitment. He should have been... not wanting to delay another year."

To be a year early, he could...

". Right, it's because he didn't win the championship in last year's winter competition that he fell short when entering the Daoqi Society in the spring of this year, and had to come back to fight the autumn competition," Pei Ye said. "However, he racked his brains, but still couldn't win the winter competition. The winner was..."

"Bai Yuliang of the Cuiyu Sect, he was already Sixth Life at that time."

"So... he must have hated Bai Yuliang to death," Pei Ye muttered.

"Yes," Zhang Junxue said, but her train of thought was on the other side. "After the winter competition ended, Bai Yuliang heard about this, took people to tie him up, and soaked him in a dung pit for half an hour."

"."

"I saw it with my own eyes when I passed by," Zhang Junxue whispered. "Bai Yuliang was riding on a horse watching, Zheng Dong stomped on his face a few times, cursed, and kicked him into the dung pit."

". So that's it."

"What?"

"Nothing," Pei Ye said. "It would be good if the man who was very good at using swords that your sister met was Bai Yuliang."

". Mm."

A hero insulted by a bedbug, a hero died at the hands of a villain.

Pei Ye thought.

Still owe 33 chapters.

(End of chapter)