Chapter 188: Fruit

By the lakeside, Lu Lu Yunsheng swallowed a pill.

Unlike Meng Meng Chuyuan, he truly had miraculous medicine.

Meng Meng Chuyuan being able to strike even after his heart was mostly shredded was certainly due to his tenacity beyond ordinary people, but it was also inseparable from the Eighth-Life's thick True Qi. Although being pierced through the heart was absolutely a fatal injury, fortunately, the sword blade was light and thin enough. Relying on the "second kind of blood" of humans, Lu Lu Yunsheng could hold on for a considerable period.

And this pill was prepared for this moment.

Lu Lu Yunsheng swallowed it and breathed deeply a few times. His face finally regained some ruddiness. He still didn't dare to have too big movements, vigilant of the surroundings, stood up lightly, walked to Elder Qinghuang, and fed a pill into the man's mouth who was breathing finely.

Then he sat down cross-legged again.

He was still thinking about everything that had just happened and the current situation.

The old man didn't release that fiery True Qi technique in the end. This abnormality made him frown.

And the cooperation between him and Meng Meng Chuyuan was slightly beyond expectations—he and Elder Qinghuang were discussing and rehearsing, but the other party's two were improvised, like comrades-in-arms for years. According to the previous feeling, the connection between the Soul-Snatcher and the Seven Serpents shouldn't have been this close.

Tonight they had truly cut off almost all of his wings, and in the face-to-face clash, almost left his life behind.

But it was precisely because of this that Lu Lu Yunsheng felt a bit uneasy.

He would rather this person hadn't appeared, was in good condition, and even had one or two Seventh-Life helpers by his side, so that there would be capital to continue to the next step.

And now he left heavily injured, likely giving up the "fruit" and leaving Bowang.

All of Lu Lu Yunsheng's efforts over these days were to nail this person here. If there wasn't a thread to climb, Heavenly Mountain's investigation would be rootless.

He hoped that their heavy injuries could also give them confidence, hoped that their determination to pick the "fruit" would be greater, hoped that the "fruit" was already within reach, and tied them here.

Otherwise, he could only go and search for the traces of their escape.

In this anxiety, Lu Lu Yunsheng slowly sealed the wound on his heart with the medicinal power, slowly pulling out the sword blade in his chest.

This was the most critical step and must not be disturbed by anything. Therefore, when he saw a black shadow slowly walking out of the building from the corner of his eye, his heart sank.

But when he calmed his expression and raised his head to look, he couldn't help but be stunned.

The young girl looked like she had crawled out of a sea of blood.

Her injuries were no heavier than the man's, but the blood truly splashed over most of her body. Her hair was messy and black-red, her cheeks were pale and stained with blood, and her green skirt was simply a bit wet and heavy.

She was dragging a corpse that was in a mess by the collar on the ground. Until she walked close, Lu Lu Yunsheng recognized its shape.

The young girl threw it in front of him.

"I killed him." The young girl's voice was low and hoarse. Her shoulders were loose, carrying a weakness of unloading everything. "Mr. Lu, have we... won?"

"..." Lu Lu Yunsheng looked at this corpse. On the crack he had previously caused, there were small blood cuts cut from the inside out. He recognized at a glance that this was the injury caused by the Wind and Snow Order.

He had handed this one-time small artifact to the young girl because he had more cards in his hand than opportunities to play them. If there was a chance to hurt the other party, the Eight Steeds Sword was a better choice, and 【Hundred Birds】 could probably achieve the effect of the Wind and Snow Order.

And releasing the Wind and Snow Order had no requirements for the cultivator's strength, so he handed it to the young girl, hoping she could delay a move or two at some point.

But... what the young girl achieved was far beyond his expectations.

Lu Lu Yunsheng looked at this corpse, dazed again for a while, then raised his head, revealing a weak smile in front of the young girl for the first time: "Won... Young Master, thanks to you."

As if needing someone else's confirmation, the young girl dared to accept this victory. Her eye sockets first flooded with moisture, her lips trembled twice, and then she squeezed out a heavy yet relaxed smile.

The young girl breathed deeply, was silent for a while, and said in a low voice: "Mr. Lu, are you okay?"

"Should be able to live." Lu Lu Yunsheng smiled reluctantly, the atmosphere relaxed, and he looked at the corpse: "Wasn't this person from the Joyous Death Tower?"

"What?"

"Nothing," he gently raised his hand to signal the corpse: "Dig out the bead."

"Would he carry it on his body?"

"Once this artifact has some storage, it must be injected with True Qi to support it at all times."

Li Li Piaoqing nodded, knelt to the ground, and touched it inch by inch from top to bottom. However, until she took off the boots, she didn't see such a thing.

She turned her head to look at the man.

"None."

"..." Lu Lu Yunsheng was dazed and speechless.

"Indeed none." The young girl repeated.

"Turn it over again." The man said solemnly.

The atmosphere quieted down. Li Li Piaoqing looked at the man dazed for a while, then started the second pass from the beginning. Her expression didn't change much, but her shoulders tightened again.

This time she touched it much more carefully and much slower than the first time.

"Maybe... he entrusted it to someone else for safekeeping, Mr. Lu." The young girl said with her head lowered.

Lu Lu Yunsheng was silent.

Until this pass ended, the Soul-Snatching Bead was still nowhere to be seen.

"Is it only... the corpse that won't work, Mr. Lu?" The young girl knelt on the ground. Perhaps due to weakness, her tone was trembling.

"Having the corpse is also fine." Lu Lu Yunsheng was silent for a while, then said slowly: "But, what if the corpse is also wrong?"

"..."

Lu Lu Yunsheng looked at this corpse silently.

"You're not joking."

"Go and reveal his face."

Li Li Piaoqing could hear her own breathing. Her hands trembled slightly as she pressed onto the old man's face, pulling hard—it didn't move.

The young girl's eyes brightened, tilted her head: "Mr. Lu?"

However, Lu Lu Yunsheng's expression didn't change.

"This is right." The man said.

"What... is right?"

"He is a Seven Serpents Elder."

"Right, he is Xu Cang, the Second Cave Master."

"But the Soul-Snatcher is not."

"..."

"So you could use the Wind and Snow Order to kill him," Lu Lu Yunsheng said slowly, "because even if he heard about the existence of this thing from the Soul-Snatcher, he lacked the habit of being vigilant against it—the Soul-Snatcher is very difficult to make such a mistake."

"..."

"So he is not strong enough, so he and Meng Meng Chuyuan cooperated seamlessly, so he doesn't know that True Qi technique... So, this corpse didn't turn into ashes." Lu Lu Yunsheng continued to speak, as if saying it to himself: "He is a true Seven Serpents Elder, but a fake Soul-Snatcher."

"The Soul-Snatcher is just using this identity," he said. "Using this face to move around in the city is both convenient for acting and can erase his own tracks. Two people will never appear at the same time, so you have never discovered that Bowang had an extra Seventh-Life."

"... No, that won't happen." The young girl's voice had a hoarse variation. "We discussed it before... there is no such logic... how could it be... not real?"

Yeah, how could it be?

If the Soul-Snatcher didn't come, why did these people come?

These people came, why didn't the Soul-Snatcher come?!

Now that these people are all dead, isn't that all the claws and teeth gone, leaving only him without support?

In a fight between two strong parties, dispersing one's own strength to let the other party eat it is the most stupid behavior.

How can he still harvest the "fruit" in front of the victorious Heavenly Mountain and Green Feather Sect now? And how can he gain a foothold in the city?

As long as he is found, he will die.

He couldn't still be hiding in the surroundings now. Otherwise, as long as he strikes now, who else can resist him?

They had analyzed before that this would be a decisive battle, and the enemy would definitely accept the challenge, because as long as they won, they could wait for the "fruit" to ripen without being disturbed.

They had also considered the situation of the Soul-Snatcher avoiding the battle and fleeing Bowang, but the problem returned to just now—if the Soul-Snatcher fled, why did the Seven Serpents Cave still have to fight for their lives?

In the absence of the Soul-Snatching Bead in Bowang, there was no contradiction between the Seven Serpents and Heavenly Mountain.

Therefore, the enemy either simply didn't come, or exerted all their strength. Why would they suddenly divide their forces?

What did the old man who was divided out go to do?

Li Li Piaoqing looked at Lu Lu Yunsheng with trembling lips. This man's face had also turned pale early on.

They were equally smart.

Unless—the "fruit" ripened tonight.

"Maybe, he didn't have time." The young girl's voice was dry and hurried. She stood up, and bent down to pick up the sword again. "Let's go and stop him quickly."

However, she stood blankly, not knowing where to step for a moment.

"Too late." Lu Lu Yunsheng said in a low voice. "If the Soul-Snatcher went to harvest the fruit, then Meng Meng Chuyuan's task is self-evident."

"..."

Yes, they wanted to, hold us back.

They wanted to ensure that during this time, we couldn't disturb the action of picking the fruit.

The Seven Serpents certainly wanted to win; no one wanted to die in vain, so they fought with all their might and invested all their strength. But for the Soul-Snatcher, no matter win or lose, as long as this battle started, he had already achieved his goal.

No need to hold any fluke; they must have started at the same time, without leaving any time difference. When Lin Lin Shuiying struck at Li Li Piaoqing, that side must have also revealed the cold light; and when Li Li Piaoqing threw Xu Cang's corpse here, the Soul-Snatcher must have also packed the bead and left this city.

Even if that side was delayed, they didn't know where to look.

"Why did this fruit... ripen at this time?"

"If it didn't ripen, the Soul-Snatcher would come here. With one extra Seventh-Life, we would still lose." Lu Lu Yunsheng comforted in a low voice. "Not a crime of war. Don't panic, think about the next step."

However, there was no need to think about the next step; the consequences of failure had already been placed in the young girl's heart.

"This is just your speculation. Maybe, he just temporarily entrusted the Soul-Snatching Bead to someone else..." The young girl said with a hoarse, trembling voice. "It doesn't necessarily have to be such a coincidence... Mr. Lu."

Lu Lu Yunsheng was silent for a while, admitting: "Yes, maybe I am overthinking it, but there is a way to verify it."

"... What?"

"When we first met in the forest, I chased to the corpse, and the culprit hadn't completely escaped the field of vision. At that time, I picked up a fine needle that had fallen, and shot his right shoulder." The man looked down at the corpse. "You can see if there is this wound."

Li Li Piaoqing knelt down, pressed her hand on the old man's shoulder.

Pausing for four breaths, she tightly gripped the already broken clothes and pulled hard.

The old man's upper body was almost nowhere intact, but the right shoulder was indeed the place stained least by blood color.

The piercing wound left by Elder Qinghuang's short sword was ferocious below, but apart from that, there were no other wounds.

The Lost Jade Sword made a "ding-lang" sound and fell to the ground powerlessly. Following it, the wet and heavy clothes collapsed to the ground.

——

"Ding-lang"

This was the sound of ironware hitting the wall or falling to the ground.

Seeing Pei Ye knew this wasn't the first time he had heard this sound. In the past ten days, he had heard it no less than thirty times, but the source that had aroused his curiosity and attention was only one.

When Seeing Pei Ye didn't know who lived in the West Courtyard of the Wu Gong Hall, every morning and evening, when the young boy came and went to the Wu Gong Hall, that sound always came from inside the courtyard wall.

Now Seeing Pei Ye knew.

The young girl couldn't control the power in the sword, the two trends were twisting each other, so the sword flew out of her hand.

Every "ding-lang" was actually the same attempt as his own now.

She was practicing the last three styles of the Huang Feicui.

Just like the Yellow Sparrow in his hand now.

The sword-writer did not possess the Yellow Jade Sword Scripture, so he had to rely on his memory to compose this sword technique that resembled a bird's form but lacked its spirit; when the sword-learner reaches a high enough realm to perceive the correct direction and attempts to correct it, this "clink" is the affirmation for the learner.

Because learning the Huang Feicui means crossing this difficult threshold. A sufficiently strong sword has never been easy to learn.

When Seeing Pei Ye connected the Huang Feicui and the Sparrow part, a path was built in the young boy's mind.

The meeting between himself and Li Li Piaoqing that night was not the first exchange between these two swords.

Earlier, Bai Bai Yuliang and Zhao the Dart Master had discussed swords.

Zhao the Dart Master's notes said "After practicing for seven years, I suddenly felt the possibility of the last two styles advancing further." When reading the notes, Seeing Pei Ye hadn't learned the last two styles of the Sparrow part. Now looking back, wasn't it exactly these two swords?

"Considering those two 'waste styles' with this line of thought," the so-called "waste styles," weren't they exactly 【Spread Wings】 and 【Clear Chirp】 that "could not be used in actual combat"?

"The waste styles actually need to be used when the Clumsy Realm is at its peak." Seeing Pei Ye was able to use 【Spread Wings】 and 【Clear Chirp】 in actual combat precisely when he stepped on the peak of the Clumsy Realm.

The notes he read that day flashed through the young boy's mind rapidly, each sentence fitting perfectly, and he finally knew what sword Bai and Zhao were discussing at that time.

It was exactly the "Cicada Sparrow Sword" and the "Huang Feicui Collection."

The "Cicada Sparrow Sword" was passed down by the Feng Huai Wu Gong Hall. Except for Seeing Pei Ye, it shouldn't have been circulated, so Seeing Pei Ye had never thought in this direction.

But at this time, he remembered that this sword was actually not only known by him.

"Only Zhao the Master knows how to use this sword." In Feng Huai, Master Huang handed this old sword book to him, saying so.

Zhao the Master had the best talent in the Wu Gong Hall and broke through the Fourth-Life at a young age, so he moved to the prefecture.

Thus he became Zhao the Dart Master.

When this point was connected, the doubts about Bai Bai Yuliang's murder case were answered.

The notes once said that Bai Bai Yuliang felt peeping when discussing swords with Zhao the Master—right in the Mighty Dart Bureau next to the Long Road Wu Gong Hall.

Yang Yan said in Catch-Moon Tower that the old man was his enemy, and his enemy was seizing martial arts.

So what that old man was peeping at was exactly this sword technique.

What he wanted was also exactly this martial art.

So the Seven Serpents suddenly dealt a heavy blow to the Green Feather Sect, so the Green Feather Sect was caught off guard and couldn't believe the Seven Serpents' sudden strike.

Because this wasn't the Seven Serpents' decision, this was the need of the old man who sent the pill. Shang Shang Huaitong was not enough to defeat Bai Bai Yuliang. He wasn't the culprit, just following along to vent his anger.

The old man killed Bai Bai Yuliang thinking he had already mastered this set of sword techniques. However, the man hadn't reached the peak of the Clumsy Realm at that time. He did practice the Huang Feicui and learned other sword techniques of the Cicada part, but 【Spread Wings】 and 【Clear Chirp】 also temporarily blocked him.

It was only after the old man succeeded that he discovered this point.

Seeing Pei Ye lowered his head and picked up the sword. The night wind was blowing, and the moonlight was quiet.

At this moment, it was just like that time and that moment.

He raised his head and looked at the three-story small building in front of the martial arts field. That pitch-black window was still open. On the night when the young boy and the young girl talked about swords and laughed, it had always been watching them quietly.

——When you peeped at Bai Bai Yuliang, was it also through such a window?

The Seven Serpents Elder lived here.

The fruit ripened.

"He is alone."

Yes, I have completely learned the Cicada part just now. So, are you coming to pick this fruit of mine?

Seeing Pei Ye gently pulled the sword.

At this time, the black cat's voice came from his abdomen: "Come on, Seeing Pei Ye, it's about to start."

"..."

"Seeing Pei Ye?"

"..."

"Seeing Pei Ye?!"

"... Have to wait a moment." Seeing Pei Ye turned his head to look at the old man walking toward him holding a staff. That yellow-weasel-like white, wrinkled old face was expressionless, and the fine wrinkles on this face were like small ripples on a silk scarf.

"You help her first, I have something here." The young boy said.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 189 =====