Chapter 193: Morning Glow

"However, even without me, are you certain you can win the championship?" Pei Ye watched Yang Yan put away the jade pendant and smiled.

"... Otherwise what." Yang Yan frowned and looked up. "Who else is there? That local Sixth Life surnamed Shang?"

"Anyway, I won't use this sword in the martial competition," Pei Ye said. "When the time comes, let's see if you can win the championship."

"Oh... then thank you for letting me."

"It's not necessarily completely letting you." Pei Ye smiled. He lowered his head, looking at a medicine bottle he had taken out from the cloth bag.

The small bottle was porcelain, palm-sized. It wasn't the first time Pei Ye had seen it; that night in the inn, it had been given to the deceased by the culprit, and later taken away.

Pei Ye pulled out the cork, and a brown pill lay quietly inside. He poured it out; this pill was the size of a fingertip, a bit smaller than a Ginseng Pill. Although both were brown, its surface was as smooth as jade fat, naturally formed, and where it reflected the moonlight, one could occasionally see golden threads flash and vanish.

On one side was engraved a dense row of small characters, saying: "Running Star Avoiding Moon · Fifth Turn Ladder-Ascending Pill; Quanzhen Creation Palace, C-Room 12 Tripod, 123rd Furnace."

"This... is it real?" Pei Ye pinched it, frowning slightly.

Yang Yan took it over: "A Ladder-Ascending Pill... it looks real."

The old man had collected it after killing Jiang Hong, which perhaps indeed proved the value of this pill. When a Seventh Life advanced to the Eighth, although this pill couldn't provide much help, it was, after all, not without effect. The old man's intention in keeping it perhaps lay here.

The Chi shadow in his abdomen said: "Keep it for now. Your friend in the green skirt is walking back; you can take it for her to see."

"Alright." Pei Ye took it back, flipped it over to look twice, and put it into the porcelain bottle.

Rummaging further, there was only some broken silver and miscellaneous items left, so Pei Ye put them back into the cloth bag and stored them away for later inspection.

After tying the bag, he looked up. Shadows were already standing vaguely at the edge of the martial field, evidently startled by the fight and fire just now; there were students and masters alike.

"Is... is it Brother Pei?" People were wearing outer garments, mostly holding sabers and swords, walking toward this side and shouting from afar. "We heard fighting just now; was Brother Pei attacked?"

"Yes." Pei Ye sat cross-legged on the ground; this fight just now had indeed made him somewhat tired. He looked up and scanned them. "It was that Seventh Life villain who committed crimes in the county before."

"Ah?!! Go call the head instructor quickly!"

"The head instructor lives at home every night; someone has already gone to notify him," another person said in a deep voice. "Doesn't Elder Seven Serpents live here? Go invite this senior quickly!"

"Right! Go invite the senior! The senior is going to lecture us tomorrow and is staying here today!" This inspiration immediately drew rounds of agreement, and enthusiastic ones were already running toward the small building in the back.

"No need." Pei Ye shouted at the martial hall disciple running toward the back.

The crowd turned back to look at him.

Pei Ye used his sword scabbard to poke the intact face of the corpse at his feet, pushing it before the crowd: "This elder is already here."

——

The sky was just beginning to brighten.

By the lake, Li Piaoqing was the only one still able to hold on. She did a simple bandaging for Qinghuang, collected the corpse of her martial uncle, then rushed out the prepared carriage and moved the two of them onto it.

Sitting on the carriage board, Li Piaoqing reached out to help Lu Yunsheng, pulling the man up—when getting on the carriage, Lu Yunsheng glanced at her. The young girl's face was still pale, her whole countenance appearing dull and silent.

Li Piaoqing actually knew that she had to pull herself together again; there were too many heavy consequences behind waiting for her to bear, but at least for now, her brain was still floating and chaotic.

Even letting the girl watch that old man escape would have been better than now. Having finally won a tragic victory by exerting all her strength, only to be told it was a bubble, the girl's emotions had been completely consumed and exhausted.

She mechanically drove the carriage, her brain not thinking about where to go, only subconsciously returning toward the martial hall.

Lu Yunsheng sat behind the girl, leaning against the carriage door, his lips similarly pale and blue. The wounds on his heart and abdomen made him extremely weak.

His injuries were less "heavy" and more "dangerous." The wound on his heart wasn't too large, and under the effect of medicine, he could recover most of his mobility in half a month, but before the initial healing, every violent movement could lead to a rupture, and every rupture could be life-threatening.

"I will request the sect to send more people to investigate," Lu Yunsheng said suddenly.

"Thank you," the girl said in a low voice.

But both of them knew that after losing this accidental opportunity, it would be hard for Tianshan, far away, to catch the shadow of the Huan Si Lou again.

"The confrontation between Tianshan and Huan Si Lou hasn't ended. When the time comes, the victory on the other side might spread over here, and Huan Si Lou might retract their tentacles."

This sentence used two "might," yet what was even more "might" was that if Huan Si Lou really suffered a defeat more than two thousand miles away, they would instead retract to Bowang. Although Cuiyu had won a great victory over Seven Serpents in this battle, as long as Huan Si Lou didn't intend to give up here, Cuiyu, which had once been linked with Tianshan, would definitely be cleared out.

When they decided to stand with Tianshan, the victory or defeat between Cuiyu and Seven Serpents was no longer that important.

"Next, we can seek a way out from the Immortal Platform side, and at least I will stay here." The hoofs trotted on the stone road. Lu Yunsheng was silent for a while and said, "The sect will have the sect's decisions, but from the moment you extended a helping hand, we were comrades-in-arms. No matter what, I will face any battle together with your sect."

Li Piaoqing looked back at him and said another thank you in a low voice, but she couldn't even squeeze out an expression on her face.

It was a journey of suppressed dead silence. When the girl drove the carriage back to the martial hall, the people she met almost didn't recognize her.

Blood-stained, cold, pale, dull, heavy... the girl was almost like a corpse capable of movement. Everyone who saw her felt their throats choked, and not a single person went up to speak.

The girl couldn't see anyone in her line of sight either; her eyes were filled with night as thick as ink, and upon it was the bright red blood spilled by her martial uncle. The broken light and shadow of the sword flashed continuously on this curtain woven of black and red, mixed with the ferocious faces of different people.

Until the carriage stopped in front of the West Courtyard.

The morning glow overflowing from behind the three-story building pierced her eyes. The girl subconsciously dodged, and only when she saw the warm, glowing light and the golden-dyed locust tree did she realize the carriage had stopped.

And the youth was standing tall and straight at the entrance of the martial field, looking at her with a smile.

This was the best time of the day; the hope and happiness of the world were beginning to wake up, and those who rose early were looking forward to their path ahead.

When the girl saw this figure, everything in her brain was still cold and sluggish, but upon seeing that peaceful and stable smile, her lips suddenly trembled, and her emotions were about to break through the ice and surge out.

She subconsciously shrank back, suddenly feeling that she should retreat back into that cold and heavy dark night.

But it was too late. The youth had already walked over with large strides. In the process, the smile on his face faded, but his eyebrows furrowed deeply.

"What's going on?" The youth held her cold wrist, his gaze fixed on her abdomen soaked through with blood. "Why didn't you bandage it first?"

Li Piaoqing looked at him, pursing her lips tightly. The muscles on her cheeks and jaw twitched, as if she wanted to squeeze out a smile for him like every time they met before, but as long as her mouth relaxed even slightly, another completely opposite expression would be impossible to suppress.

"There's one thing, help me, remember it," the girl lowered her head, trying hard to control her throat, and said in a low, hoarse voice. "Everyone who knew Bai Zhu Pavilion was involved is dead. Senior Qinghuang is heavily wounded in the carriage; don't let him show his face. I will secretly send him back to Bai Zhu Pavilion later. Last night's matter has nothing to do with Bai Zhu, and what follows has nothing to do with Bai Zhu either."

Pei Ye was slightly stunned, didn't answer, and supported her arm: "You get down first, let me see the wound."

Pei Ye pulled, and the girl's mud-and-blood-stained hand entered his field of vision. This hand was gripped tightly, and the nails had lost their blood color. Pei Ye looked at the girl's vacant face: "What is it?"

He gently pried this hand, and the girl followed his strength to loosen her palm. A small copper-cast sword shell rolled twice in her palm.

Pei Ye was stunned, picked it up and put it into the girl's pocket, and supported the mechanically moving girl off the carriage. She was still muttering: "Still have to notify the people in the city to go handle the corpses by the lake..."

Pei Ye furrowed his brows and gently pressed on the wound on her abdomen, sending his remaining Qi inside.

"Sword wound," Li Piaoqing came back to her senses and said in a low voice. "It's fine, he didn't have time to send Qi into it."

Pei Ye felt slightly relieved, but his brows were still furrowed: "You've lost too much blood."

"It's fine, my Qi is still enough," Li Piaoqing rolled her throat twice, looking at the ground. "Pei Ye, I want to be quiet by myself for a while."

"... Let's be quiet later." Pei Ye held her arm and walked toward the East Courtyard. "Let me show you someone first."

Li Piaoqing looked at him blankly, but her body had long since lost any will of its own, letting the youth lead her over.

The East Courtyard was a desolate storage courtyard, almost no one came on weekdays, but this time, as soon as Pei Ye pushed open the door, seven or eight figures were standing in the courtyard.

A person was lying on the ground.

Gray clothes, old man—the two words flashed through the girl's mind. Getting closer, she realized this was a corpse.

"Take a look, do you recognize him?" the youth beside her said.

Li Piaoqing moved her dull gaze to this person's face, and then even her breathing stopped.

In an instant, she felt everything around her become unreal; she hadn't returned to the martial hall, but was still by the lake, still facing this corpse.

She hadn't used the Wind-Snow Decree and the small sword to kill him either, otherwise why was there only one wound on his throat?

When did she faint and have a dream, or... was she still in a dream now?

"He wanted to pick some fruit and came to kill me," the youth's clear voice continued to come from a higher place beside her. He was very close, so his voice was very low. "I killed him."

The girl turned her head blankly. She felt the earth moving away from her feet; trees, courtyard walls, the faces of the people around her were all spinning, hazy, and blurred. Everything was like a dream.

Only the youth's gentle face remained in her field of vision, real to the finest detail, and the touch of him holding her cold arm was warm and solid.

The girl pinned herself with this face and this hand. She gripped the youth's clothes tightly and said blankly: "You said..."

"I think the one you wanted to kill was this person, so I brought you to recognize him." The youth tilted his head and looked down at her, his voice still low and clear, as if afraid of shattering her.

"..."

"Is it?" The youth tilted his head to look at the corpse, thinking he shouldn't have made a mistake, then turned back and said, "This was at the Zhuoyue Tower the day before yesterday—"

His voice was suddenly cut off, because before his eyes, the girl's tears overflowed from her eye sockets. She bit her lip tightly, but her mouth still spread open, and her cheeks bulged and wrinkled high.

Pei Ye had never seen such an ugly side of the girl. This intense expression moved him to speechlessness. Pei Ye opened his mouth, and the girl had already thrown herself into his arms, crying silently, stretching her arms to hold him tightly. With just one breath, a large patch of warm tears soaked through the clothes on his chest.

Pei Ye stiffened for a moment, raised his hand, and gently patted her shoulder.

——

The others had already entered the side room, and only the two remained in the courtyard.

Pei Ye stood to one side, and Li Piaoqing sat cross-legged in front of the corpse. The girl's emotions had calmed down a little.

Actually, counting forward, it had been many days, especially last night: tense, anxious, choices, grief, fear, despair, determination, excitement, release... cold, dead silence.

Until now, her heart had been reignited. The girl had come back to life from the heavy cold, but the injuries to her body and the extreme emotional consumption still made her weak and dazed, and there was still some anxiety lingering in her heart.

"That's how it is; he wanted this sword technique," Pei Ye said briefly, then hesitated and asked, "Who is on your side? Can you say?"

"Tianshan. They only have one Seventh Life disciple here who hasn't entered the Wind Pool," Li Piaoqing said. "He is in the carriage outside, waiting for the Immortal Platform."

"Oh, Tianshan..."

Li Piaoqing was still thinking about the youth's words just now. Suddenly, she thought of something, her expression tightened again, and she looked up and held the youth's sleeve: "Does anyone know... that you killed this person?"

Pei Ye was stunned: "Yes, the people who were startled came over, it was too late to hide it... and I didn't intend to hide it."

The girl's face turned pale significantly, and she gripped his sleeve tightly: "How many people?"

"Seven or eight..." Pei Ye recalled. "We cleaned up the corpse and brought it here; the people behind didn't see it again."

"Do these people have a chance to talk to others?"

"Others? People who don't know? That's not the case. The matter is quite big. After the head instructor rushed over, he controlled the news and let everyone enter the East Courtyard—that is, the people just now."

Li Piaoqing slowly let out a breath: "... That's good."

"What's wrong?"

"The person you killed comes from a force called 'Huan Si Lou.' They can contend with Tianshan," Li Piaoqing said, pursing her lips and looking at him. "Later, you point these few people out to me one by one, and I will let them bury this matter in their hearts—you too, keep your mouth shut tight, don't let them notice you... Let Cuiyu take the blame for this matter."

"..." Pei Ye smiled. He wanted to say that he didn't lack one more debt on his body, but looking at the tension buried in the girl's eyes, he looked down at his own tightly twisted sleeve, composed himself, and gave a serious "Mm."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 194 =====