Chapter 287

【He never once considered whether Xiang Wentian had committed murder and arson, or whether he had raped and pillaged everywhere, stirring up such wrath that so many came to hunt him down.】

【And his reason for stepping in was laughably absurd—purely because he saw Xiang Wentian, standing as the target of everyone's arrows, still calm and composed, utterly oblivious to it all, and felt admiration stirring in his heart, along with a sense of fellow suffering and mutual appreciation between kindred spirits.】

【Doing exactly as he pleased, willful and reckless, making no distinction between right and wrong.】

【If at this point one could still say Linghu Chong was merely imprudent, then later, after Linghu Chong learned Xiang Wentian's identity and still chose to stand up for him, that would truly be indefensible.】

【Was it simply that he saw Xiang Wentian wearing chains, looking wretched, and felt sympathy, hence lending a hand?】

【That would be utterly laughable!】

【By Linghu Chong's logic here, if he were sent to stroll through the imperial prison, wouldn't everyone there be wronged?】

Seeing this, quite a few people shook their heads silently.

Linghu Chong's heart was in the right place, but he acted without considering the consequences, driven entirely by a head full of passion.

This kind of person was absolutely unfit to hold power, but fit to be a wandering knight-errant.

Moreover, though his heart leaned toward justice, in truth he stood between right and wrong, easily led and used by others, thereby doing some foolish things.

In short, unfit for great responsibility!

【Afterward, the two of them were no match for their foes, fighting as they retreated.】

【During their flight, they came upon three ordinary commoners riding past on horseback; Xiang Wentian killed them outright and seized the horses, his methods vicious in the extreme.】

【And Linghu Chong, seeing him slaughter the innocent, only sighed inwardly.】

【Not a single word of reproach, no falling-out with Xiang Wentian, as if nothing had happened at all.】

【And all of this, simply because he and Xiang Wentian were kindred spirits!】

【Afterward, to replenish their food, Xiang Wentian's method of butchering the horses was also extremely brutal and bloody.】

【His fingers tore open the horse's neck, he bent his mouth to drink, and after finishing he simply kicked the horse down the ravine.】

【Then, for no reason at all, he kicked the second horse—still perfectly intact—down as well.】

【With the third horse, Xiang Wentian first cut off its two hind legs, then kicked it into the ravine as well.】

【As for this act of Xiang Wentian's, Linghu Chong's assessment was this—】

【"So it turns out he cut off the horse's legs for use as food, not out of pure cruelty and bloodlust."】

【Listen to this! Listen to this!】

【If those three horses had spirits in heaven, they'd surely curse Linghu Chong's ancestors for eighteen generations.】

【You wanted to butcher a horse for food to stave off hunger—the first horse alone would have been plenty, yet you insisted on killing all three.】

【And you call this "not out of pure cruelty and bloodlust"?】

【After all, the three horses carried the two of them for a stretch, allowing them to temporarily escape pursuit—that counts for something.】

【Yet Xiang Wentian was so brutally savage, utterly inhuman!】

【The two men and three horses—none of them could be called human.】

When the diary reached this point, Yue Lingshan clearly felt the pressure in the air around her dropping.

As if rolling dark clouds had shrouded the place, weighing heavy on the heart.

Yue Lingshan stole a cautious glance and saw that Ning Zhongze, though saying nothing, wore a face dark as water.

Yue Lingshan swallowed hard inwardly, thinking: "Senior Brother Linghu, oh Senior Brother Linghu, you'd better pray for yourself, this little sister can't help you."

She knew what her mother was angry about.

Ning Zhongze was a knight-errant woman, one who always upheld the way of chivalry; the slaughter of innocents was what she despised most—it could be said to have touched her bottom line.

Though Linghu Chong had not done such a thing himself, he had allowed the other party to commit evil, kept company with such a person, even lent him a hand...

This made the veins on Ning Zhongze's temple bulge and twitch.

【Comparing the two incidents with Yilin and Xiang Wentian, one can see that though Linghu Chong has a chivalrous heart, his knight-errant way yields to his personal preferences.】

【Even his sense of right and wrong, good and evil, is muddled and unclear.】

"A sense of right and wrong, good and evil..."

Ning Zhongze chewed on the phrase, finding it very much to the point.

She resolved in her heart to summon Linghu Chong tomorrow and give him a proper lecture.

She absolutely could not let him become like the one in the story.

【As for being deeply devoted and faithful, that should be Linghu Chong's one and only uncontested virtue.】

【Linghu Chong went through two romances.】

【The first was with his childhood sweetheart, his little martial sister Yue Lingshan; the second was with the Holy Lady Ren Yingying, who stayed by his side during his most down-and-out, dejected days.】

【At the story's opening, he loved Yue Lingshan deeply; for her sake, even facing the beauty Yilin, Linghu Chong only admitted in his heart that she was prettier than his little martial sister, yet never harbored any improper thoughts.】

【Afterward, when Yue Lingshan's affections shifted elsewhere, Linghu Chong was utterly devastated.】

【But he still could not forget Yue Lingshan.】

【Whether beset by calamity or accompanied by beauties, he remained constant and true.】

【Even after Yue Lingshan married another, he remained infatuated and unchanged.】

【And during this period, faced with the silent courtship of the foremost beauty of the Smiling, Proud Wanderer—Ren Yingying—he could remain utterly unmoved.】

【The occasional intimacies beyond propriety were only because he dwelled on Ren Yingying's kindness to him, or because Ren Yingying was simply too beautiful, beautiful beyond his ability to restrain himself.】

【They say a woman chasing a man is separated by but a veil, yet as the female lead, Ren Yingying had to chase him for half the book before she won Linghu Chong's true heart.】.

318 Yue Buqun castrated himself to practice swordplay? The unluckiest wretch in the Jin novels

"Ah? Senior Brother Linghu likes me... likes me that much? How did I not know?"

Yue Lingshan was both dumbfounded and blushing.

Past moments flashing unbidden through her mind, Yue Lingshan grew even more bewildered.

Because in her impression, Linghu Chong was a free-spirited, easygoing person—likely no one on all of Mount Huashan was more easygoing than he was.

Precisely for this reason, he was taken notice of by Feng Qingyang, who taught him the "Nine Swords of Dugu."

From beginning to end, Yue Lingshan had never heard even a whisper of whom Linghu Chong liked.

Yue Lingshan, Hua Zhenzhen, Gao Yanan… these beautiful female disciples of Mount Huashan — none of them shared any more-than-friendly feelings of love with him.

"Could it be another plot change?"

Yue Lingshan could only think of this explanation.

Because in reality, she and Linghu Chong were not childhood sweethearts, but merely senior brother and junior sister.

……

Manor of the Mandarava.

Ren Yingying was utterly speechless.

She hadn't expected that in "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer," she, the female lead, was still the one chasing the male lead — and had chased him for fully half the book at that.

How utterly undignified!

Did the face of she, the Holy Maiden, still matter or not?!

Ren Yingying had always been thin-skinned; thinking that the Zhongnuzhe Society might very well be laughing at her right now, she could not help feeling vexed.

"Knock knock——"

A knocking sounded at the door, and immediately Lan Fenghuang's coquettish, soft, sweet voice came through: "Holy Maiden, it's me."

Ren Yingying could not help rolling her eyes, and said irritably: "Asleep! Not seeing anyone!"

……

【In light of all the above examples, I will say: Linghu Chong is a deep-feeling wanderer who has a chivalrous heart, yet lacks a correct sense of right and wrong, good and evil, and does everything purely according to his own whims】

【Besides this, Linghu Chong still has many points of controversy, for example——】

【He discovered the Five Mountains Sword Technique at the Back Mountain's Reflection Cliff, yet concealed it and did not report it】

【If he had not, Yue Buqun would not necessarily have castrated himself to practice the "Evil-Repelling Sword Technique"】

【Another instance is calling himself sworn brother with the lecher Tian Boguang】

【Although at first Linghu Chong did not acknowledge this friend, later, believing they were both about to die, and Tian Boguang still addressed him as brother, he was moved in his heart and only then accepted this friend】

【But a flower-picking thief is, after all, a flower-picking thief — a villainous wretch who has ruined the chastity of countless women, unforgivable!】

【Then again, he mixed with all sorts of people from the three teachings and the nine streams】

【The so-called "Gathering of Heroes at Five Hegemons' Hill," named heroes, was in truth a hotchpotch of dragons and snakes, among whom the wicked and bandit-like far outnumbered the good, and there were even scums like the "Twin Heroes of the Northern Desert" who ate human flesh and gnawed human bones】

【Yet Linghu Chong could sit at the same table and drink with them, and take delight in it】

【……】

【Cases such as these, many and many more】

【So all in all, this person Linghu Chong, just as Jin Lao himself evaluated——is not a great hero, but rather a recluse like Tao Qian who pursues freedom and the liberation of individuality】