Chapter 80: Having a Heart of Chivalry, When Will the Cycle of Vengeance End

Bazhou is not very far from Tongzhou; if one travels with a fast horse and a whip, one can depart in the early morning and arrive by dusk, and even at a slower pace, one can arrive in two days.

Yet Ye Yu had been on the road for four days and was still traveling.

The matter must be told from three days ago, when he descended the mountain and led his horse into Bazhou City, wanting to eat a grand meal before continuing on.

Having finally descended the mountain, he certainly had to enjoy himself to the fullest.

He stopped his footsteps when passing by a brothel.

In this day and age, transportation is inconvenient, and people in the interior rarely get to eat seafood, so he wanted to taste an abalone feast.

"Master said that lust is a man's greatest weakness; today I shall challenge my weakness!"

With a resolute expression, Ye Yu left his horse for the brothel's attendant to care for and walked inside with steady strides.

Once he went in, he did not come out for three days.

It was only because he had a heart of chivalry.

The young women here all had difficult life stories.

A gambling father, a sick mother, a young brother, a broken home—if I don't help her, who will? Ye Yu felt pity, and thus threw away thousands of gold and gave generously.

Until the fourth day.

He was, in every sense of the word, almost completely hollowed out.

Only then did he reluctantly set out on his journey again.

This time he traveled quite fast, because he only had a few copper coins left on him and had to hurry to Tongzhou to see his Master's wife to have food to eat; being hungry was quite uncomfortable.

By the time he left the borders of Bazhou and entered the borders of Tongzhou, it was already noon, and Ye Yu's stomach was growling with hunger.

After traveling for another half an hour, the aroma of dishes and wine wafting from a roadside tavern stirred his cravings.

At this moment, seven fine horses were tethered outside the tavern.

Inside the tavern sat seven men; the leader was a young man draped in brocade robes with a face like jade, while the other six wore black robes and looked like guards.

On their table were meat dishes that were not exquisite but were full of grease and generous in portion, and they were feasting heartily.

Ye Yu was even hungrier; he had to satisfy his hunger.

He felt the few copper coins in his bosom.

He rode his horse over, dismounted, tied the horse, and shouted to the shopkeeper: "Shopkeeper, bring two large flatbreads."

"Coming right up, guest, find a place to sit; the water and bread will be here in a moment," the hunchbacked shopkeeper said enthusiastically.

Soon, the shopkeeper's granddaughter, a girl of about ten years old, brought water and bread and placed them on his table.

Ye Yu was startled and said: "I didn't order tea."

"This is a gift from Grandfather; he said that for a martial artist like Young Master, if you weren't temporarily strapped for cash, you wouldn't only order two flatbreads. Dry bread is hard to swallow, so he sent a pot of tea for you to have with it," the little girl said with a giggle.

Hearing this, Ye Yu felt somewhat ashamed, as he had spent all his money at the brothel and ended up in this state; he pursed his lips and said: "Thank you, little girl, and thank you, old man."

He learned from his mistakes and secretly swore in his heart.

From this day forward, I shall abstain from lust!

I must never again indulge in beauty!

"Shopkeeper, bring another pot of warm wine," the brocade-robed Young Master sitting diagonally across from Ye Yu said indifferently.

"Eh, coming right away," the little girl replied, smiled at Ye Yu, and turned to leave.

Ye Yu was gnawing on his bread, but his eyes were fixed on the meat on the opposite table, eating with great relish.

As long as there is meat in one's heart, everything one eats is meat.

The little girl was walking toward the brocade-robed Young Master with a pot of warm wine, but suddenly her foot slipped on a bone they had just thrown, and as she cried out "Ah," her body tilted forward and the wine pot flew out of her hand.

Seeing the wine pot smashing toward their Young Master, one guard stood up and flicked his finger, and the wine pot exploded in mid-air.

A surge of true Qi radiated from the brocade-robed Young Master's body, shaking away the spilled wine, but his expression was not very pleasant.

"Young Master, forgive me!" The guard was shocked, and in order to clear himself of responsibility, he kicked the girl, who had just steadied herself, in a moment of urgency, and sternly scolded: "You wretched woman! Clumsy and careless, how are you doing your job!"

The little girl fell to the ground wailing in pain, her face twisted, tears streaming down, and her head covered in sweat.

"Xiao Hong! Xiao Hong!" The busy hunchbacked old man rushed out to pick up his granddaughter and apologized to the men: "Honored guests, please calm your anger, please calm your anger; you are magnanimous, please do not hold it against a child."

"This is outrageous!" Ye Yu, having reacted, slammed the table and stood up, staring at the men with a face full of fury, saying coldly: "The little girl just slipped, how could you resort to such a vicious blow? To be so lacking in empathy—do you not have families? Are you all orphans?"

"Slap his mouth," the brocade-robed Young Master said coldly.

"Yes!" One guard rushed toward Ye Yu.

"Well come!" Ye Yu was not afraid and drew his sword to meet the enemy, but fearing he would accidentally hurt the old man and the granddaughter or destroy the tavern, he deliberately moved the battlefield outside.

The two fought back and forth, evenly matched.

The other five guards saw that their Young Master already looked displeased, so three more flew out.

Two fists are no match for four hands; Ye Yu was soon unable to parry, "What kind of martial hero bullies others with numbers!"

"All of you, back off," the brocade-robed Young Master commanded.

The four guards immediately withdrew in unison.

The brocade-robed Young Master darted out like a thunderbolt, raising his palm to strike Ye Yu; as soon as one move landed, another followed closely behind.

The mighty true Qi was like waves, continuous and unending.

Roaming Dragon Realm!

Ye Yu was horrified; he knew he was no match but did not admit defeat or beg for mercy, gritting his teeth to hold on, but was soon beaten, vomiting blood and flying backward several meters, his parcel falling off.

"My sword!"

He struggled to get up and rushed toward the parcel.

The brocade-robed Young Master was a step faster, stepping forward to kick him away, then tapped his toes on the ground; with a vibration of true Qi, the parcel flew up into the air. He reached out to grab it and gave it a shake, the silk on the outside shattered, revealing the brocade box inside.

He opened the box and his eyes lit up as he looked at the sword inside; although it had not yet been unsheathed, he could already feel the restrained sharpness, and he exclaimed: "A good sword."

"Give it back to me!" Ye Yu said anxiously.

"This sword, this Young Master will buy." The brocade-clad Young Master took the sword out of the brocade box, discarded the box, casually pulled out a money bag and tossed it in front of Ye Yu, then leaped up and mounted his horse, saying loudly, "Let's go."

The six guards leaped onto their horses one after another.

"Giddyap!"

The sound of horse hooves drummed as they headed toward Tongzhou.

Ye Yu clutched his chest, watching the figures of the few men disappear with a pale face, his heart filled with self-reproach.

He had lost the sword his master had given to his mistress.

He hurriedly felt his chest; fortunately, the letter was still there.

"Young Master, are you alright?" The young girl ran over, stumbling, to support him and ask with concern.

"Customer, you shouldn't have fought back!" The old man walked over and said, "Although we commoners have cheap lives, they wouldn't dare kill us wantonly. It would have been enough to just let them vent, but now you have been implicated, Young Master."

"I am fine. Seeing injustice on the road, one should naturally draw their blade to help. It is just my own lack of skill to blame, not you." Ye Yu gave a forced smile, picked up the money bag from the ground, opened it, took out a tael of silver, and tossed it into the old man's arms. "Their wine money."

He then turned around, stumbling, mounted his horse, and left.

The old man held the silver, looking at Ye Yu's back with complicated feelings. Jiang Hu people often fought in his tavern, and afterwards, no one would pay the bill or offer compensation.

Only this Young Master was the exception.

"I hope Heaven has eyes, and good people get good rewards."

He muttered to himself.

Having lived for more than half his life, what he usually saw was that such good people ended up with no good outcome.

…………………………

Tongzhou Jing'an Guard Hundred-Household Office.

"My Lord, the people sent to the prefectural city to investigate the Shu Prince Mansion have returned," Chen Zhongyi reported to Pei Shaoqing.

Pei Shaoqing immediately said, "Quickly, call them in."

"Yes!" Chen Zhongyi turned and left.

Soon, he brought two Jing'an Guards in.

"Greetings, My Lord!"

Pei Shaoqing said hurriedly, "No need for formalities, quickly, please rise, and tell me what you have found."

"Yes!" The two responded, one of them taking charge of the report while the other provided supplements.

"My Lord, the Shu Prince Mansion has been annexing land for years, taking advantage of constant natural and man-made disasters; their reputation is extremely poor. The Shu Prince lives in seclusion, associating only with scholars and poets, and maintains close ties with the Prefect. Thousand-Household Lu, however, rarely associates with them.

The Shu Princess is a second wife and has given birth to two sons and two daughters. The second son, Yan Siqin, is brilliant in literature and deeply favored by the Shu Prince. The current Marquis Heir, Yan Sichen, is the posthumous son of the Shu Prince's late wife; he prefers martial arts over literature, is overbearing and stubborn, and is insatiably greedy, which the Shu Prince dislikes.

Yan Sichen lives in the Prince Mansion, but he has many residences outside the mansion, controls many money-making businesses, and has raised a group of death-sworn retainers under the guise of household guards. He often takes people out of the city to hunt."

Pei Shaoqing pondered in silence after hearing this.

Judging solely from the two men's report, the Shu Prince likely does not know what his "good" son Yan Sichen has been doing.

However, father and son are one; if he were to verify the evidence of Yan Sichen's crimes, the Shu Prince would inevitably be implicated.

Not to mention their father-son bond, from the perspective of interests alone, the Shu Prince would hate him to death from now on.

It is very likely he would retaliate.

As the saying goes, when will the cycle of vengeance end? The hatred of the previous generation should not be passed down from generation to generation.

To prevent this, Pei Shaoqing felt it was necessary to have the entire Shu Prince Mansion buried with Yan Sichen.

Cutting the weeds and digging up the roots is the way of a gentleman.

"Young Master!" At this moment, Zhao Zhilan, who should have remained at the mansion, walked in hurriedly.

Pei Shaoqing raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"Mistress has an urgent matter and asks you to return to the mansion to discuss it."

"You two have worked hard, go down and get a good rest for two days," Pei Shaoqing said to the two subordinates.

The two subordinates received the order and left.

Pei Shaoqing followed Zhao Zhilan back to the mansion.

They went straight to the main hall, where, besides Liu Yuheng, there was a pale-faced young man.

"Young Master." Liu Yuheng stepped forward to greet him.

"Who is he?" Pei Shaoqing looked at the weak young man and asked, "What happened?"

"Replying to Young Master, he is my second disciple, Ye Yu," Liu Yuheng introduced him first, then said, "To thank you, Senior Brother ordered him to bring the Iron Sword Sect's treasure, the Mo Tan Sword, down the mountain to present to you. Unexpectedly, he was intercepted halfway. Yu'er says that group of thieves also headed in the direction of Tongzhou City."

Although she did not quite approve of her Senior Brother gifting the sword, now that the sword was lost, it would have been better to just give it to Pei Shaoqing; she only wanted to find it back as soon as possible.

"How bold! Daring to rob my things!" Pei Shaoqing's face turned cold as he looked at Ye Yu. "Do you remember any characteristics of that group? How many were there in total?"

Although he had never seen that sword.

But since Gongsun Yi dared to send it as a gift to him.

One could imagine it must be a top-tier precious sword.

Yet it was robbed! This is truly outrageous!

He was the only one who ever robbed others!

"Replying to Young Master, there were seven people in total. The leader was a young master wearing red brocade and a golden hair crown; the other six were all in black," Ye Yu stood up with effort, leaning on a chair, and answered in a deep voice.

Just as Pei Shaoqing was about to tell Ye Hanshuang to pass a message to Chen Zhongyi to search the whole city, a servant came hurriedly with a visiting card to report, "Master, someone outside claims to be the Shu Prince Heir and has come to visit."

"Shu Prince Heir?" Pei Shaoqing raised an eyebrow upon hearing this; he had not expected this person to come to his door voluntarily.

He slowly exhaled and said, "Invite him in."

"Yes!" The servant lowered his head and turned to leave.

A moment later, the servant returned.

Behind him followed a group of people; the leading young man held a folding fan and wore a long sword at his waist, truly looking graceful and dashing.

"It's him! It's him! It's definitely him!" Ye Yu pointed excitedly at the Young Master in brocade clothes leading the group, gritting his teeth as he said, "He is the one who snatched away the Ink Epiphyllum!"

At the same time, the Shu Prince Heir, who had just stepped into the main hall, also caught sight of Ye Yu, whom he had met once before.

Pei Shaoqing, however, looked toward the long sword at the other's waist.

That was his sword!

(End of this chapter)