Chapter 166: Planning

"Did your sister hang herself... because of this matter?"

Zhang Junxue nodded: "She trusted that person completely, and thought she didn't owe anyone anything. As a result, Qijiao Shang Huaitong crushed her—both her spirit and her martial arts future."

"The alliance between Zheng Shou and Xu Gu collapsed. Not only was Zheng Shou cold-eyed, but the people of Xu Gu couldn't lift their heads and also hated the Zhang family. So inside the Zhang family, they naturally placed their anger on her," Zhang Junxue said. "I went to deliver food and change medicine for her every day. She no longer looked like a person. Death is repayment, but perhaps it is also a kind of relief."

Seeing Pei Ye was silent for a while: ". Sorry, for making you recall this matter."

"It's okay," Zhang Junxue whispered. "I have never forgotten either."

"I also have close relatives who passed away," Seeing Pei Ye turned his head to look at the woman and said softly. "I know that feeling, the chest and abdomen are like... having a heavy cloud and mist, very difficult to pull out."

". Right, it's like that. Do you... miss your relatives very much?"

"Mm, from time to time," Seeing Pei Ye lowered his head and turned his head. "Don't you miss your sister?"

"Of course, I miss her too," Zhang Junxue's gaze moved to the distance.

".

"But, I also hate her very much, and look down on her," Zhang Junxue's lips were cold and hard. "Just a man... Dad, Mom, me..."

As if a breath was stuck in her throat, she didn't continue.

"There is no revenge that cannot be avenged, any humiliation can be washed away." With a "Clang," the woman started pushing the whetstone again, her coarse hair covering her angular eyes. "If she were still alive, I would show her."

"Do you... still plan to do this now?" Seeing Pei Ye looked at her. "After not getting the Ascension Pill."

"Mm."

"Can you succeed?"

"I don't know—actually, even if I got the Ascension Pill, I wouldn't know," Zhang Junxue said. "But I must do it. This Autumn Competition is the last opportunity, and he will leave Bowang afterward to go to the Sword Academy."

"Oh."

"So, the sword technique sparring you owe me..." Zhang Junxue sharpened the blade and said muffledly.

"Tonight," Seeing Pei Ye said. "Tonight after the cultivation class ends, okay?"

Zhang Junxue nodded.

Seeing Pei Ye stood up.

He looked back at the West Courtyard; the wooden door soaked by the rain was still closed.

He suddenly stood still and stopped quietly for a while.

"By the way," Seeing Pei Ye turned his head and looked down. "You said... when Bai Yuliang defeated Qijiao Shang Huaitong, he was a Sixth Life?"

"Mm."

Seeing Pei Ye cast his gaze back to that door again.

So.

If you have already been cut off once by a Sixth Life and Huang Feicui, and had to delay a year to start over, even if you are already a Sixth Life this time, by rights, you shouldn't be afraid of a little girl... but, do you really have the courage to gamble?

Seeing Pei Ye left Zhang Junxue, walked to the door, and raised his hand to knock lightly.

The person who came to open the door this time was not the young lady, but a tall man. When Seeing Pei Ye left the courtyard in the morning, he had seen his back, but in Seeing Pei Ye's memory, whether it was the first time staying in the West Courtyard or the following days of getting along, he had never seen this man.

Seeing Pei Ye cupped his hands in salute. The man seemed silent, raised his hand to return the salute, and invited him in.

Zheng Dong's corpse was parked under the small pavilion in the courtyard.

Several Cuiyu disciples were standing aside. Li Piaoqing was not among them. A long-haired man was sitting in the mud and water beside the corpse, his head lowered and motionless.

It was Xiao Qiu.

Seeing Pei Ye walked forward slowly and looked down. The blood color on the young man's face had finally faded completely, but his expression was still twisted, and a pair of narrow eyes were wide open.

That feather used as a murder weapon had been pulled out and placed aside. Seeing Pei Ye's gaze moved up; this was not the one gifted by Li Piaoqing. It was longer, thicker, and older, with one-third of it glued by blood and mud, and characters could be vaguely seen on the shaft.

"May I... take a look?" Seeing Pei Ye asked softly.

No one spoke. A Cuiyu disciple nodded at him.

Seeing Pei Ye picked up this feather. A blood film covered the entire shaft, and the carvings on it were strong and powerful. Even though the viscous red had smeared those sharp grooves, the handwriting could still be identified.

It was written: "Whoever does evil, we will kick them in the face!"

Seeing Pei Ye looked at this sentence and was truly quiet for a while.

This sentence was clean, powerful, free-spirited, and upright. The high-spiritedness of the person who carved the words seemed to press against his face through the brushstrokes.

Seeing Pei Ye's gaze moved away from this handwriting and fell on Zheng Dong's face behind. The clear and bright uprightness revealed by this line of words and the low-quality temperament of the corpse like a wild dog formed a strong contrast.

But it was in this awkwardness that Seeing Pei Ye suddenly understood what kind of days this young man had been living for two years.

He was dissolute, unkempt, and a 100% hoodlum, but every day he wandered around, what he heard in the teahouse were also the strange stories and great deeds of chivalrous knights, so he regarded dissolute fighting as free-spirited and heroic.

Until he met Bai Yuliang.

Regardless of how they met, in short, this Cuiyu direct descendant who was born noble, had high martial arts, and was handsome, actually didn't dislike him, but allowed him to stay by his side, becoming one of the many knights behind him.

That uprightness and glory of holding his head high was perhaps the highest level his life had touched.

They galloped through Bowang Street, sang and drank on the Zhuoyue Building, kicked open the doors of gangs, and beat their gang leaders severely in the main hall...

Chivalrous and righteous, rising whenever evil was heard, the entire Bowang seemed to have nothing that could stop them.

At that time, he was still reckless, rude, foul-mouthed, stupid, arrogant, impetuous, and shallow... but no one called him a hooligan.

Only because he followed the direction indicated by that white robe.

The common people called him Young Hero Zheng.

Seeing Pei Ye thought of that scene on the Observation Platform again, and he understood the insults when Zheng Dong saw Qijiao Shang Huaitong—When Brother Bai was still here, you were just a maggot in the cesspit!

He also understood the young lady's "I'm sorry" at that time—Sorry, you are still barking wantonly at the villain as always, but I can no longer be the lion in front of you.

Please go back to Zheng Shou first.

But he couldn't go back to Zheng Shou either.

A stray dog that lost its master, every bark was at the risk of being beaten to death. He didn't know how to restrain himself or was unwilling to restrain himself, so he was indeed beaten to death.

Seeing Pei Ye placed the feather back in its place safely. At this time, the door of a room behind him opened. Seeing Pei Ye turned his head, and Li Piaoqing stood at the door.

——

In the room, the door was open, and the cool air of the wind and rain blew in.

Neither the host nor the guest had any intention of making tea. The two sat side by side, each on a chair.

Li Piaoqing's emotions had already settled back down. In this regard, the young lady was indeed a qualified successor.

"Are we still sparring with swords today?" Seeing Pei Ye opened his mouth.

"No, there are things to be busy with."

"I talked to Zhang Junxue about the Winter Competition last year," Seeing Pei Ye said.

Li Piaoqing looked up at him in surprise.

"How do you plan to kill Qijiao Shang Huaitong?"

"..." The young lady laughed: "What are you talking about?"

Seeing Pei Ye smiled and nodded: "Then I'll think of a way myself."

". What way are you thinking of? Where did Qijiao Shang Huaitong provoke you?" The young lady couldn't help but laugh. "Just fight your martial arts competition."

"Mm." Seeing Pei Ye nodded again. "Then I'm leaving."

He stood up.

". Sigh!" Li Piaoqing was startled for a moment, stood up, and grabbed his sleeve.

Seeing Pei Ye looked back at her.

The smile on the young lady's face was both angry and helpless.

"I'm afraid you'll really do something without knowing the depth," the young lady sighed long. "Qijiao Shang Huaitong... cannot be killed, and we haven't made this plan."

"Why?"

"He is the most talented young person in the Seven Serpents Cave now, and he bears the hope of the Seven Serpents Cave to go further in the next twenty years. Maybe you didn't see it today, but if you really intend to do something to him, the thorns around him will reveal their fangs."

"Is a direct descendant of a major sect so difficult to kill?"

Li Piaoqing nodded: "Of course."

Then she saw Seeing Pei Ye looking at her silently.

". Li Piaoqing lowered her head. "Zhang Shixiong... we didn't think of it."

"Why?"

"Because, I said it before, before that, there was competition and friction between us and the Seven Serpents Cave, but it didn't reach this intensity," the young lady said impatiently. "Actually, until now, we haven't thoroughly figured out this matter. To this day, there are very few voices in the sect doubting whether this was really done by the Seven Serpents."

"Your Zhang Shixiong, threw Qijiao Shang Huaitong into a cesspit."

"I know, but he has always been like this," the young lady frowned and lowered her head. "Disciples of the two sects fighting, today the Seven Serpents hang two Cuiyu people on the building, tomorrow Cuiyu throws Seven Serpents disciples into the pigsty... Zhang Shixiong, he didn't do anything too out of line."

"Because if someone is killed, especially a disciple of Zhang Shixiong's status, the nature changes completely," the young lady continued. "That means the two sects have formed a deadly feud. Therefore, we really investigated for a long time, wanting to find evidence of framing."

"Bai Zhu Pavilion?"

The young lady laughed: "No, that's not the case, it's just the Seven Serpents Cave... we can confirm this point immediately."

"Is it what you are pretending to learn Huang Feicui to do?"

". The young lady looked at him and dropped her shoulders. "Is it that obvious?"

"Because you have been refusing to spar with me. And you went to buy the Ascension Pill yourself," Seeing Pei Ye said. "I think, if you really intend to be amazing in the martial arts competition, these two things must be more secret than the other."

". Yes, I released these two messages on purpose," Li Piaoqing smiled helplessly.

"However, isn't it too obvious?" Seeing Pei Ye pondered. "Maybe covering it up would be better."

This time the young lady's smile became cunning: "This is also on purpose."

Seeing Pei Ye tilted his head curiously—he noticed the young lady's mood was better.

"Because we know that no matter how we cover it up, it's impossible to hide from the eyes and ears of the Seven Serpents Cave—think about the Huxin Gang and you can guess, our information network in the city is far inferior to theirs."

". So you can try your best to hide it, anyway they can always find it."

"So we simply don't hide it."

". You mean, let them think this is an empty-city strategy?"

"Not bad."

". And they don't dare to gamble."

"Exactly."

"Then why didn't Qijiao Shang Huaitong test you today?" Seeing Pei Ye suddenly said.

". What?"

"A great opportunity today, he only needs to test it, and he can know your reality."

". Perhaps, the news didn't spread that fast," Li Piaoqing said. "I don't know... we can't think that much."

Seeing Pei Ye nodded.

That is indeed true.

"We will give them a chance," Li Piaoqing said.

"Let them kill you?"

"I won't die," Li Piaoqing looked at the young man's face and smiled low. "I am still very important."

"Nothing is impossible in a fight to the death."

"Mm... then there's no way."

"How is this plan made?"

"Very simple, I am alone, then Senior Uncle hides in the dark, waiting for the enemy to show up, and he strikes."

". Doesn't the other party know your Senior Uncle is accompanying you?"

"They know—we are actually just returning from Shaolong Prefecture this time," the young lady suddenly said. "Because the Seven Serpents Cave seems to have some support... Dao-Opening Society or something, so we also want to try it."

Looking at the young man's inquiring eyes, the young lady shook her head: "No results."

"In short," the young lady continued, "we plan to let Senior Uncle pretend to leave, then return in secret."

"They won't believe it," Seeing Pei Ye shook his head.

"So, we have a plan within a plan."

"Mm?"

"A senior from Bai Zhu Pavilion will help."

Seeing Pei Ye was startled.

"Do you know how many masters each of the three sects has?" the young lady suddenly changed the topic.

"I don't know."

"Seven Serpents Cave, eight years ago possessed a Grandmaster, which is also their first Grandmaster since the sect was established. In addition, they have one Eighth Life, five Seventh Lives; we, Master is also a Grandmaster, but, perhaps the last one. In addition, a Zhang Shixiong of the Eighth Life passed away last year, and now there are only three Seventh Lives. And Bai Zhu Pavilion, there is no Grandmaster," Li Piaoqing looked at him. "For twenty years, the ones supporting their sect are two Eighth Life seniors, born as twins, known as 'Qing-Zi Huang'."

"But last month, Senior Zi Huang went to the Xincang Mountains, don't know what he encountered, came back seriously injured, cultivation lost, even the energy center seed disappeared," the young lady frowned in a daze.

Then she saw the young man raise his head suddenly.

"This senior... is he called Zhang Siche?"

". No," unexpectedly, the young lady denied it. "Both seniors are surnamed Xu."

". Not a single true word in the mouth," Seeing Pei Ye muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing. So, Bai Zhu Pavilion is actually the weakest now?"

"Correct, this news is still being blocked," Li Piaoqing said. "If it is released, it will be much easier for the Seven Serpents to swallow them—this help is something the Seven Serpents would never expect."

Seeing Pei Ye nodded slowly.

So this web is connected.

"So, we don't need to investigate Zhang Shixiong's case anymore. If it's not the Seven Serpents, then this time, they won't come to prey on me," the young lady said.

Seeing Pei Ye combed through this plan. It is indeed highly feasible. It is also expected that the two sects joined hands in secret for the first time, and there will definitely be no omissions.

"It's just that I remembered that question again," the young man said. "If the Seven Serpents Cave kills you, it is due to your threat to Qijiao Shang Huaitong in the martial arts competition, then, your Zhang Shixiong had already won the championship at that time, and there was no such threat."

".

"Can Qijiao Shang Huaitong's anger alone move the sect to do this?"

"Perhaps... at that time the Seven Serpents Cave was also prepared to take action against us."

".

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 167 =====