Super Allrounder

Kapitel 43

"No, you don't understand!" Yin Wuxiao shouted in horror, "Once Aunt Yun sets her mind on something, she will never give up! She has worked so hard all these years for this day, and she will definitely continue to wait for an opportunity to act, even if it costs her own life!"

"But……"

"Listen to me, quickly call everyone up from below the cliff! The sooner the better!"

"But... the explosives have been defused, and all the members of 'Traceless' have been subdued..."

"No buts! If you were Aunt Yun, would you only lay one thread to detonate the explosives? You've waited so many years, wouldn't you have a backup plan?" Yin Wuxiao roared.

"You mean..." Baili Hanyi instantly realized the seriousness of the matter.

“I was raised by Aunt Yun, so I know her best. She is very meticulous in everything she does. When I ran away from home as a child, she would definitely block all three routes and wouldn’t give up until she caught me!”

"If that's the case, then I'll do it immediately..."

"Second Young Master! Something terrible has happened!" someone cried out as they rushed in.

"...What is it?" Yin Wuxiao asked first, his heart pounding with anxiety.

"Clearly... Clearly, Chief Qiao and Master Qin, who were being watched over so well, have suddenly disappeared!"

※ ※ ※

In the dark room, Mu Li and Qiao Fenglang faced off.

"Kill him! Kill him, you good-for-nothing!" Aunt Yun shouted from the side, but it was unclear who she was referring to.

"Have you forgotten? Have you forgotten everything he did to you? Didn't you say you would get it back tenfold or a hundredfold?" This was said to Qiao Fenglang.

"And you? Are you willing to give up everything you have now? Everything you've worked so hard to achieve?"

"You two, if you're men, fight me to the death!"

The two stared at each other, but neither moved, as if they were looking into each other's souls one last time.

Finally, one of them raised his sword.

It is wood.

He raised his sword, but turned to look at Aunt Yun: "Are you so eager to watch us kill each other?"

"Yes, so what?" Aunt Yun laughed. "Now that things have come to this, what haven't you two brothers done, things you should and shouldn't have done? Can you still not take action? Even without me, can you pretend none of this ever happened?"

Mu Li smiled bitterly: "It's impossible." He looked directly into Qiao Fenglang's eyes without flinching. "When I pushed you off the cliff that day, I should have known this day would come."

Qiao Fenglang sneered: "You're not going to say you regret it, are you?"

"No, I don't regret it." Mu Li put his hands behind his back and moved his longsword behind him. "If you want to kill me, then do it. But I will never regret what I have done."

"I will never regret what I'm about to do," Qiao Fenglang said with a cruel smile. "From this point of view, we really are true brothers."

"But I don't want us to both suffer losses."

"You have no choice." Qiao Fenglang impatiently brandished his sword, the sound of the blade piercing flesh not making him hesitate for a moment. He viciously thrust the sword to its end, only then stopping in surprise.

"Are you serious?" He abruptly withdrew his blood-stained longsword.

As soon as the sword tip left his body, Mu Li collapsed to the ground, unable to continue.

"What do you think?" he smiled.

Qiao Fenglang stabbed again with disgust.

"You don't deserve to be my brother. It's ridiculous that you're begging for mercy at the last minute."

"I did not beg for mercy." Mu Li covered his wound with his hand and forced himself to stand up, the sword still inside his body.

“Whether I fight or not today, I’m destined to die here. I don’t want to see the way Xiao’er looks at me after she knows the truth.” He lowered his head, making it impossible to see his expression. “Of the two of us, it’s enough if one of us lives. The one who lives can also live on for the one who died.” He looked up. “That’s what I thought when I pushed you off the cliff. Now… now that the roles are reversed, it’s not impossible. You can live on for me too. Anyway, it makes no difference whether you live or I live.”

"You..." Qiao Fenglang was somewhat agitated, and he gripped the hilt of his sword tightly. "Do you think I'll soften my stance just because you say that?"

“Whether you are soft-hearted or not…” Mu Li gripped the sword in front of him, ignoring the excruciating pain from the friction of the blade inside his body, and slowly walked towards his twin brother step by step.

“I won’t survive. But you must remember, we still have a mother.” He turned and looked at Aunt Yun with disdain. “Of course, not this terrible woman. You don’t owe her anything, but I do, and now only you can repay that debt for me. And Xiao’er… Xiao’er, she can only have one Feng Lang brother, only one…”

"What are you doing!" Aunt Yun, who had been watching from the sidelines, could no longer contain herself and snapped the sword blade in two with a single blow. "You should be fighting! Fight! Not giving your last words with such sentimentality! Qiao Fenglang, you coward! You're no different from your father! Why don't you just kill him? And you, where did your ruthlessness go? Why are you crying like a woman now? I... I'm going to kill you all, kill you all!"

"Enough!" It was Qiao Fenglang who shouted to stop her.

“Those who deserve to die, I will kill; those who deserve revenge, I will avenge. But we have no reason to let you have your way! Mother!” He paused, then uttered each word slowly and deliberately: “Or should I call you Master? In any case, this is the last time I will call you that. You terrible woman, you have deceived me so badly, so badly.”

Aunt Yun was startled, and her face suddenly turned pale. Her stepson, whether before or after her disfigurement, had never said a harsh word to her, not even once.

She opened her mouth, suddenly realizing that she had lost something this time. She had always thought she had nothing left to lose.

Qiao Fenglang turned his head to look at Mu Li, who was on the verge of death.

"No matter what, he's my brother."

"Well said." It was Baili Qingyi who walked in slowly.

"Just for those words, I, Baili Qingyi, respect you."

Qiao Fenglang scoffed dismissively, "I'll still kill him."

"No!" It was Aunt Yun who shouted to stop her. "What...what's the point of killing him like this for me?" She backed away, muttering to herself, "It's all in chaos, everything's in chaos."

Suddenly she looked up to the sky and roared, "Qiao Baiyue! Qiao Baiyue, you persistent ghost! Even in death you still won't let me have my way? I've painstakingly planned for so many years, so many years... Hahaha... You have such a good son, such a good son!"

Her once meticulously styled black hair fell in disarray due to her rage, distorting her face and making her appear ferocious and terrifying. She approached Mu Li, somewhat dazed, and looking at his face, which was about to lose all color, she suddenly smiled sweetly like a little girl. She reached out and cupped Mu Li's face in her hands: "But that's what I love about you. You love what you love, and you don't love what you don't love. But whether it's the one you love or the one you don't love, you can be so heartless, so heartless... Then let's die together, let's die together... What do you say?"

Baili Qingyi shouted alertly, "Watch out!"

But it was all too late.

Aunt Yun solemnly and swiftly pulled out the gold hairpin from her head, and with a flick of her wrist without even looking, the hairpin accurately pierced the crack in the stone. The ensuing explosion engulfed everything.

This explosion blew up the entire Seven Absolutes Cliff, killing and injuring half of the martial arts practitioners who were still unable to escape.

This explosion brought many people into the annals of martial arts, while also causing many others to be deliberately forgotten by the martial arts world.

On the trees in the garden of side stories

He stared intently at the lost little girl.

The little girl looked to be about six or seven years old, but her eyes gleamed with a mischievous light. She was currently fiddling with flowers and plants in the garden, occasionally finding some strange or unusual herbs and exclaiming in surprise, oblivious to whether anyone was around. She was unlike any other girl her age he had ever seen. He vaguely remembered that there were many girls her age in the Northern Desert Dome Sect, mostly with pale skin and dull eyes. From the moment they could speak, they were either constantly professing loyalty to the sect leader or mechanically practicing martial arts to rise through the ranks in the sect.

But this girl was different. Her skin wasn't very fair; it was rosy, like a ripe apple. She bounced around everywhere, completely oblivious to her panting. He felt she was very innocent, the kind of innocent that comes from being well-protected and untouched by the filth of the world. Yet, her eyes told him not to be careless, because underestimating this little girl would lead to a terrible setback.

"That girl is so clever, she can often make you feel happy even when she's taken advantage of. She's practically a little devil." He thought of Qiao Fenglang, his twin brother, who mentioned this to him with a doting smile.

This must be the legendary eldest daughter of the Yin family, right?

To be honest, he had absolutely no good feelings towards the Yin family. If it weren't for his aunt taking his father away, perhaps his father and mother could have lived together forever, and perhaps he wouldn't be in this state now.

The twelve-year-old boy lurked in the grass like a wolf, quietly watching the playful girl. He himself was not quite sure what he wanted to do.

"So you were here." Another boy, who looked exactly like him, quietly approached from behind. He followed his gaze and looked ahead, seeing the little girl playing. He smiled: "You're looking at Xiao'er. This little girl is really clever and cute, isn't she?"

The boy suddenly blushed: "Who? Who looked at her!"

The boy chuckled teasingly, "What are you being shy about? Xiao'er is my cousin, so naturally she's your cousin too."

"Cousin? She's not my cousin."

“Ali, don’t be like this. I know you don’t like your mother’s family, but your mother is a good woman. And Xiao’er, she also has a tragic fate. At least we have our own father and mother, but she lost both her parents when she was born.”

"She...she's an orphan?"

"That's not quite right. She's the eldest daughter of the Yin family, showered with love and affection. Her wet nurse, Aunt Nan, her mother, and I all do everything we can to pamper her. Even her father, despite his usually cold and ruthless demeanor, softens his expression when he sees Xiao'er."

"Hmph, then why did you say she had a hard life?"

“I…sigh, no matter what, Xiao’er is just a little girl. What awaits her is the burden of the entire Yin family. I have watched her struggle since she was a child, having to practice music, chess, calligraphy and painting, and learn how to do business. Her life couldn’t be harder, but I have never heard her utter a single complaint.”

"...If I could, I would like to live like her, at least I wouldn't be ignored..." Mu Li murmured to herself.

"What?"

"It's nothing." Mu Li snapped out of her reverie and changed the subject. "Tell me, what do you think would happen if she saw us both appear at the same time?"

"Ah Li, don't get any funny ideas, it'll scare her."

"Didn't you say she was exceptionally intelligent? I'd like to see if she's so easily intimidated."

"Ali! You've frightened her. What if she tells your mother about it..."

"If you call that woman 'mother' again, I'll disown you as my brother!" Mu Li angrily grabbed his twin brother by the collar, staring straight at him: "We have a real mother in the Northern Desert!"

“But…” Qiao Fenglang stammered, “But I’ve never seen her, and… and she was the one who rejected me back then…”

"She didn't abandon you! That man stole you away from her."

"...But...that man is my biological father, and also your biological father..."

"Shut up!" Mu Li shoved him impatiently. "How could I have a brother like you, a sissy?"

Qiao Fenglang was silent for a long time before suddenly speaking: "Ali, what kind of person is Mother?"

Mu Li asked knowingly, "How would I know which mother you're referring to?"

"It's...it's that mother from the northern desert, our own mother. Father always forbade me to mention her, but when I found out my own mother was still alive, you have no idea how happy I was, how incredibly happy..."

"...When I...found out I had a father, I was happy, but I never expected that I also had a younger brother, a younger brother who looks exactly like me." Mu Li's expression softened, and even he himself was not used to the strong emotions in his tone.

"Is Mother...beautiful?"

"Of course, Mother is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. In the northern desert, Mother is the universally acknowledged thorn flower."

What is a thorn flower?

"It's a flower from the northern desert. No matter if it's trampled by horses' hooves or run over by wheels, it will still bloom brightly the following year."

"Oh, Mother is so beautiful."

"Tch, you've never even seen your mother."

"I... will see her someday. When I see my mother, I will tell her in person that she is the most beautiful woman in the world."