Chapter 82: Provoking Red Tiger?

"This blade?"

Lei Yan usually uses a blade, or a sword.

The Bǎi Duàn Dāo's Tang horizontal-blade form pleased Lei Yan immensely; she took it and immediately wanted to try it out.

After inspecting the Bǎi Duàn Dāo's quality, she was even more delighted.

"What a fine blade — this has to be a divine weapon, right?"

Lei Yan's greatest hobby in ordinary life was collecting all manner of weapons. She was most skilled with blades and swords, but she had also formally studied every other strange and unusual kind of weapon; though she could only say she knew how to use them, not that she was especially proficient.

As a martial practitioner, Lei Yan understood all the better the preciousness of a divine weapon.

"A treasure like this, and you just handed it over to me without any fuss?"

Sheathing the Bǎi Duàn Dāo once more, Lei Yan looked at Ye Tian with delight mingled with something more complicated.

"..."

What kind of expression is that?

In truth, he still had many blades of this kind.

But Ye Tian certainly wouldn't say it out loud.

"You don't want it back?"

"I do!"

She decisively tucked the Bǎi Duàn Dāo closer to her chest. Ye Tian hadn't truly intended to take it back either; he just smiled and withdrew his hand.

"Um... thank you!"

Lei Yan didn't know what to say; she felt a flutter of first love.

After hesitating for a while, Lei Yan suddenly took a jade hairpin from her person and handed it to Ye Tian.

"?"

"This was given to me by my mother back then. Consider it... consider it a token of our betrothal."

Such an important treasure could be given to him — Ye Tian must have regarded it as a betrothal token, so she couldn't show no response at all.

If only Ye Tian knew what Lei Yan was thinking, he'd surely have had a word or two to say — this girl certainly knew how to let her imagination run wild.

"Then I'll accept it."

He didn't find it beneath him, though he didn't know what use this hairpin would be to him, that was all.

Seeing Ye Tian accept the hairpin, Lei Yan couldn't help a smile rising to her face.

"Our betrothal..."

"You don't want to?"

"No, I do! I want to marry you!"

Catching Ye Tian's gaze, Lei Yan felt a little shy again, but still said it earnestly.

"It's not because of my father — it's me, personally, who wants to marry you."

She still didn't care for that whole arrangement-by-parents, matchmaker-and-words business.

But now, Lei Yan had begun to take a liking to Ye Tian on her own.

"There's no rush about the marriage. Wait until I've become Hall Master of the Black Water Gang. Now tell me about yourself — what kind of place is Yue Mountain Sect? Were all your martial arts learned there?"

"That's right!"

Hearing Ye Tian bring up Yue Mountain Sect, Lei Yan immediately perked up.

"Let me tell you — don't be fooled by how small Yue Mountain Sect is. There are still a lot of martial arts inside the sect, and many of our disciples are really strong."

The following stretch of time.

Basically, Lei Yan did all the talking while Ye Tian listened, only chiming in with the occasional word or two.

He couldn't tell whether the girl was genuinely open-hearted or simply hadn't thought much of it, but everything about Yue Mountain Sect came spilling out of her like beans from a jar, the whole lot at once.

,,,

A single day passed in no time.

When the sky outside gradually darkened, Lei Yan finally took her leave, reluctant to part.

And over on Red Tiger's side—

He had spent the whole day drinking with his men, and by the time he got home he was reeking of liquor, swaying unsteadily with every step.

The moment he reached his room, he flopped down and went straight to sleep.

He never noticed that tucked into one corner of the roof beam was a small-built man — none other than Gold Coin Rat.

Once Red Tiger was thoroughly asleep, Gold Coin Rat quietly and lightly leapt down from the beam, confirmed Red Tiger's face, then took an envelope from his chest and set it down beside Red Tiger's pillow.

After that, he slipped away without a sound.

Without alerting anyone.

It wasn't until the next day, when Red Tiger slowly came to, that he saw the envelope beside his pillow.

"Hm?"

Red Tiger was no greenhorn just starting out in the jianghu; even before reading the letter's contents, his expression had already turned wary.

Being able to place an envelope beside him without a sound — didn't that mean someone could kill him without a sound?

"Who could it be?"

Frowning, he picked up the envelope, hesitated a moment, then opened it anyway.

Since whoever placed the letter hadn't harmed him then, they probably wouldn't have hidden poison in it to deal with him now.

The letter's contents were very simple.

'I can put you in that seat, and I can kill you dead.'

The name in the signature line was none other than Lei Tang.

This letter was handwritten by Mei Yongning. The scholar's identity, after all, had been promoted by Lei Tang, and Mei Yongning had once seen Lei Tang's handwriting, so he deliberately imitated Lei Tang's tone as well.

"Trying to scare me!"

Mei Yongning had taken the trouble to learn Red Tiger's temperament beforehand, which was why he had sent such a letter.

Sure enough.

Not only did this letter fail to frighten Red Tiger, the fierce glint in his eyes only grew thicker.

"Damned thing, you think a little trick like this can scare me, Red Tiger?"

Does he really think I've wasted all these years wandering the jianghu? Every inch of territory I hold now was carved out by Red Tiger's blade, blade by blade — the one thing I've never lacked is the courage to kill.

"Hmph!"

With a cold snort, he tossed the envelope aside.

He set off with great strides, ready to leave.

But the moment he pushed the door open—

"Whoosh!"

An arrow shot past, grazing Red Tiger's cheek by a hair's breadth.

Red Tiger, reflexes sharp, swiftly dodged to one side and reached up to touch his face — a thin cut had been left on it.

Staring at the arrow that had flown into the room, its tail still quivering, Red Tiger's expression gradually turned savage.

"Lei Tang!"

Since you don't dare to kill me, then what comes next is me killing you.

On purpose. This is absolutely on purpose — he just wants to scare me.

Red Tiger knew Lei Tang's current situation only too well: having lost Wang Hu and Lei Yun one after another, if Red Tiger were gone too, Lei Tang would have no face left under him at all.

So when the other side spoke like that, it had to be a deliberate warning — to make him lie low, to make him absolutely not dare to truly kill him.

But a warning like this only succeeded in igniting the vicious fury in Red Tiger's heart.

,,,,

"That's enough?"

Inside a pavilion not far from Red Tiger's residence.

Watching Red Tiger duck back into his room, Feiyu calmly lowered the longbow in his hand, as if an arrow that precise moments ago was nothing at all to him.

Besides Feiyu, Mei Yongning and Gold Coin Rat were also in the room.

"Fine shooting."

Even though Feiyu had told him beforehand that his archery was very accurate, seeing it with his own eyes still made Mei Yongning unable to help exclaiming in admiration.

"Without the longbow Boss specially crafted, at this distance I wouldn't have been all that confident either."

The distance from here to Red Tiger's room was well over a hundred paces.

Feiyu did not take credit for himself, but instead attributed it to Ye Tian.

"Still, if it had been Tou Ying who came, he definitely wouldn't have shot that accurately."

"..."

Mei Yongning had seen Feiyu and Tou Ying compared before. Though both were archers, they weren't the same type — Feiyu's archery was more accurate, but Tou Ying's observation was sharper.

He really couldn't see what there was to compete over.

Mei Yongning shook his head before continuing.

"This is enough. From what I know, Red Tiger isn't the sort to stay content under anyone — you could even say he bears grudges over the smallest slight. There will be a fight between him and Lei Tang sooner or later; all we're doing is making that struggle come a little sooner."

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