Chapter 198: Luzhou

The four got off the carriage. The students of the Dragon Gate Class were actually behind, but they were with Cuiyu, and the Cuiyu disciples had long been waiting on the opposite bank, so they were led by attendants toward the lake.

By the Zhuoyue Lake, a row of small boats were tied to the shore. The four shared one, bathing in the wind and dividing the waves. The small island in the center of the lake gradually grew in their field of vision.

Before long, scattered figures could be seen on the island.

"We are considered relatively late. In about half an hour, people will gather toward the Egret-Watching Platform one after another, and the poetry meeting will begin," Li Piaoqing pointed to the edge of the building exposed on the island from afar. "At that time, cultivators will test their swords, and literati will chant poems, all in the same venue, and there will be exchanges between the two sides. Therefore, for us, if the sword test is outstanding, naturally there will be a lot of people to praise it for you. If you can produce one or two good poems among them, then the reputation will be considered to have reached the end."

Then she scanned the circle. Zhang Junxue looked at her seriously and silently, Yang Yan reached out of the boat to play with the lake water, and Pei Ye leaned at the stern of the boat, holding the book with his brows tightly locked. Everyone looked like they regarded fame and wealth as dung.

Li Piaoqing poked the youth: "Did you hear that? This is the first opportunity for Bowang City to hear the name 'Pei Ye.' When the time comes, I'll fight you, you just need to win me."

"Ah? Don't... it's also a critical time for you." Pei Ye put down the book and looked at her briefly, then picked it up again to cover his furrowed brows. "And I don't have the energy to do this."

The girl leaned her elbows and supported her chin: "Then what do you have the energy for?"

Pei Ye raised his eyes again: "The most critical one, I definitely have the energy for, which is after the poetry meeting, after that adult from Shaolong Prefecture comes. We will try our best not to let Qijiao Shang Huaitong get what he wants."

This was indeed the serious business this time.

Just as Li Piaoqing's courage to fight to the death won a new life for Cuiyu, Luo Defeng's sudden arrival was also stained with the bandit spirit of seeing blood.

Unwilling to gasp for breath under the erosion of Tianshan and Cuiyu, he abandoned the mountain gate and pressed the heavy treasure on Qijiao Shang Huaitong, fighting to continue a longer-term future for Seven Serpents.

This was naturally a gap opened in the situation that was originally a sure win for Cuiyu, but on the other hand, these two days Cuiyu and Bai Zhu were eroding the Seven Serpents that had no power to resist at a crazy speed. If they could also press down on Qijiao Shang Huaitong's attempt, it would be equivalent to saving two or three years of effort to destroy this behemoth—within a few months, the master of the Bowang Jianghu would change.

Li Piaoqing had already explained the key points to the youth in detail, and the Luzhou Poetry Meeting was the first place of confrontation.

"Is this book that good?" the girl continued to support her chin and ask.

The Cuiyu disciples arrived two days ago. She went out to live with her fellow disciples for one night, and when she came back, she found that the youth had inexplicably acquired this quality of loving to read.

"Mm, a very good book," Pei Ye buried his head in the paper, and looked up in the gap of turning the page. "Do you want to read it together?"

"Is it okay?" the girl tilted her head.

Pei Ye was really stunned for a moment, looked at the book in his hand: "It should... be okay."

Miss Ming probably didn't care about this, and it wasn't any precious secret manual. He intended to leave a copy in the martial hall anyway.

"It's just that it might be hard to read." Pei Ye hesitated and spread the book between the two.

This sword theory primer book, which Ming and Zhu both praised in unison, didn't spread to all Jianghu sects, not because the big sects were monopolizing it. This book didn't belong to any one family, nor did it relate to any martial arts secrets. As long as they were willing to print it, there were as many copies as they wanted.

Many people hadn't heard of it for a very simple reason—it really couldn't spread.

It was too high-reaching, and the intent was too high.

No one read it.

People like Ming and Zhu naturally regarded it as the best primer, reading it to establish cognition of the entire sword mountain, knowing where the sword in their hands was, how it flowed and differentiated, what the sword above was, and what the sword below was, etc.

But for most ordinary cultivators, reading it in a daze, and then lowering their heads to look at the sword in their hands, they would really not know what they were doing.

Before learning the sword, you insist on counting the pros and cons of the Dongting sword, and then talk about the high-level mystery of the Yunlang sword. After finally learning it, lowering your head to look, the sword technique in your hand is called "Fuliu Sword," which is already the best one in the martial hall, and based on your own aptitude, it would be a blessing if you could learn it in five years.

It's really flattering, but next time, tell a storybook story.

So in reality, only a very small part, those who have the opportunity to climb to the upper half of the sword mountain, can treat it as a primer book.

In the circles of some young sword geniuses in high places, if you say your first sword theory book is "General Theory of Six Dynasties Sword Art," you will immediately get a different look.

"Exactly. I've been keeping him company here for the past two days and haven't gone to the martial arts hall." Zhang Dingyun pointed at the scholar beside him, pinched his chin, and said, "And has anything been going on at the martial arts hall these past two days? It feels like something is wrong in the city."

But Li Piaoqing had already lowered her head to look. The youth had just turned to the one-third position, and she didn't ask to start from the beginning. Contrary to the youth, she recognized every character, and the meaning of the sentences was clear—not to mention being annotated in detail by a free and easy font—but the meaning in it made her stunned for a moment.

But it wasn't completely blank. After reading half a page, the girl's brows furrowed involuntarily, and she stopped with a solemn face, returning to read this paragraph again.

This was definitely not the side-door stuff she guessed that was used to make up numbers on the street stall. The girl clearly felt that some profound and high-level things were exposing the tip of the iceberg to her, but she had to be very difficult to touch it.

Pei Ye didn't expect her to be fascinated all at once, but this was actually quite good. The youth smiled and lowered his head. The two read quietly together. The girl's fragrance was right at the tip of his nose. Honestly, this feeling was much better than reading hard alone. Any ideas that popped up could be told to the person beside him at any time.

But this "quite good" disappeared when Pei Ye was about to turn the page.

The youth who had finished reading this article tilted his head, only to see the girl still facing the first paragraph, her brows furrowed and muttering to herself.

So slow.

Pei Ye weighed the pages waiting to be read behind, and somewhat wanted to pull the book back.

Looking at the girl's appearance of thinking hard with all her heart, he finally couldn't help but point: "This one is talking about the 'Intent' sword!"

Li Piaoqing's brows raised, looking at him without speaking, with an expression of understanding but seemingly not understanding.

"Sigh, only the Intent sword can involve emotion, so conversely, emotion can also affect the sword. Thus, once the sword is controlled by emotion, practicing emotion can be considered practicing the sword. What is said here is such a path!"

Li Piaoqing's mouth "oh" into a circle. Although her face was still blank, the "understanding" on it indeed overwhelmed the "not understanding."

But she came back to her senses, quickly furrowed her brows, tilted her head and stared at him: "Why are you so fierce, I haven't understood the Intent sword either."

"I—" Pei Ye stared.

The girl had already lowered her head again, her gaze placed on the second paragraph, and then pointed in surprise: "Ah! Yunlang Mountain!"

"Mm."

Li Piaoqing smiled happily, furrowed her brows and read this paragraph once, pondered, simply didn't ponder anymore, held the book in front of the youth and pointed: "Tell me quickly, what good things does this paragraph say about Yunlang Mountain?"

Pei Ye was silent for a moment, then suddenly took the book back: "Don't read it."

Li Piaoqing looked at him in astonishment.

"Because I'm in a hurry to read this," Pei Ye explained. "You read too slowly, there's no time to wait for you. After I finish reading, I'll answer your questions."

"... You were the one who called me to read it together!"

"Not calling anymore."

The girl really took a deep breath to maintain her image, and slapped him on the shoulder: "You're really annoying!"

Pei Ye held the book and didn't look back—annoying or not, if I don't finish reading this, I'm a mortal before the Heavenly Law.

Unfortunately, the time he won by offending the girl didn't last long. The book hadn't been turned two pages when a slender figure stood in front of him again. Pei Ye looked up, and Qi Zhaohua's smiling face entered his field of vision.

"What is Young Hero Pei reading?" She looked curiously at the book in Pei Ye's hand.

"Sword theory book," Pei Ye smiled, showing the cover to the woman. "Is there anything, Miss Qi?"

"Oh, I don't understand this," Qi Zhaohua tilted her head and smiled. "Young Hero Pei, please step aside, I have something to ask, is that okay?"

"Oh, alright."

Pei Ye nodded, and Qi Zhaohua turned and walked away first. When Pei Ye got up, his sleeve was pulled. He looked back, and it was the girl's solemn face and whisper: "She has been very intimate with Qijiao Shang Huaitong these days."

Pei Ye was stunned: "I know."

Turning back, he caught up in two steps and walked side by side with the woman out of the Egret-Watching Platform. Pei Ye said first: "I heard from a friend that the Zhuoyue Lake project can't be started this year?"

"..." Qi Zhaohua shook her head and smiled. "Every time we meet, you ask, Young Hero really remembers this matter clearly."

Pei Ye smiled, the day the woman stood by the railing, cutting the big lake in half with her arm, and describing the grand picture of "using this as a boundary, leaving the north and going south" with a calm voice, indeed left a very deep impression on him.

"I hope Miss Qi hasn't forgotten either," the youth smiled.

Qi Zhaohua sighed lightly: "There's really not much hope this year."

"Not much hope?" Pei Ye looked at the woman, his eyes turned, and suddenly laughed.

"... What is Young Hero laughing at?"

"In the eyes of outsiders, this matter is already impossible to succeed this year."

"... That's not wrong, this matter really involves too much, and the promotion is too difficult."

"The biggest difficulty, isn't it because it blocked Seven Serpents' way of making money?" Pei Ye said directly.

"..."

"That day I heard people at Zhuoyue Tower say that the Five Lakes Gang's business comes from Zhuoyue Lake, and these five gangs are exactly the main trunk of Seven Serpents' Bai Shui Cave." Pei Ye looked at the woman quietly.

"..." Qi Zhaohua smiled helplessly. "How did it become Young Hero questioning me?"

"Miss Qi can't always get something for nothing from me," Pei Ye smiled. "We can be considered standing on opposite sides now, so we have to distinguish clearly."

Qi Zhaohua raised her eyebrows: "Is Young Hero Pei selling his life for the Young Master now?"

"Miss Qi's words today are not pleasant to hear," Pei Ye smiled. "Between friends, helping each other, what's strange about that."

"Oh, then Young Hero only recognizes friends surnamed Li, and doesn't recognize friends surnamed Qi?"

"Friends also have closeness and distance, which is also very normal."

"So it's still Li Piaoqing who has Young Hero spinning around."

"Don't sow discord anymore," Pei Ye warned with a smile. "But speaking of this, Miss Qi is indeed more unsuccessful, not having Qijiao Shang Huaitong spinning around."

"... Where does this come from?"

"Otherwise, why wouldn't Seven Serpents be willing to make things convenient for Zhuoyue Lake?" Pei Ye looked at her. "For someone like Qijiao Shang Huaitong, Miss Qi can't 'make him do whatever she wants,' right?"

"..."

This must have uncovered something.

Because the woman was silent for a long time, until she looked up at Pei Ye, a pair of autumn-water-like eyes buried with sincere pain, two things twisting in it.

"... I'm very embarrassed, Young Hero Pei," she said in a low voice. "I always thought... I could make a decisive choice between 'emotion' and 'matter'."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 200 =====

Unlike the lush flowers and green willows of that day, the woman was dressed more like a scholar today, but she had spent no less effort on her appearance; she was like a wisp of elegant, clear mist, and her faint, cold fragrance could be smelled through the eyes.

The moment he saw the woman, Pei Ye felt a deep resonance with the little fatty's words, "You're truly beyond saving, damn it"—with this air of grace, it was impossible to see what she was being "forced" by.

(End of chapter)