Yin Wuxiao felt the ropes binding her being silently loosened. She turned her head slightly, and what came into view was Cen Lu's magnified face.
Cen Lu hid behind the stone platform, gestured to her to be quiet, and continued to untie her restraints.
While Ruan Yun was in a frenzy, Yin Wuxiao mouthed to him: Where is the exit?
Cen Lu pointed to an inconspicuous brick in the corner and mouthed in response: Don't worry, I left a mark.
"Don't worry about me, go get reinforcements first!" Yin Wuxiao urged him urgently. The reason Ruan Yun hadn't noticed Cen Lu was because she was currently delirious. Once she regained her senses, they would all die here together!
However, it was too late to signal.
"So it was you." Ruan Yun finally noticed him. "How did you know the location of the secret chamber's mechanism?"
Cen Lu stood up calmly and smiled faintly: "Don't forget, I am also a disciple of the Heavenly Mystery Elder."
Ruan Yun's eyes flashed with anger, but then she suddenly laughed. She reached out and removed her mask, revealing her fair skin and beautiful face, untouched by the ravages of time.
"You're quite stubborn, let's see how long you can keep it up."
She clenched her left fist and made a claw with her right, attacking Cen Lu with unpredictable moves.
Watching the two exchange blows, Yin Wuxiao was extremely anxious. Although she did not understand martial arts, she could tell that with Ruan Yun's skill, Cen Lu would not last more than a few moves against her.
Suddenly, Yin Wuxiao felt a sense of liberation in her left hand. She looked up and saw that the one who had finally freed her from her restraints was Yuwen Cuiyu, whose acupoints had been released by Cen Lu.
“You…” Yin Wuxiao looked at Yuwen Cuiyu in surprise, then at the two people in the battle circle, his pleading was all too clear.
Yuwen Cuiyu avoided her gaze.
"Don't even think about it, I won't make a move."
"If you don't intervene, we'll all die here!"
A hint of a smile flashed in Yuwen Cuiyu's unfocused eyes: "What difference does life or death make to me?"
"Even if you don't think about yourself, you should think about Feng Lang. Don't you want to ask him yourself whether he ever truly loved you back then?"
“…” Yuwen Cuiyu glanced at her, “I don’t want to.”
"Aren't you curious? Or are you afraid to ask? You're afraid the answer will make everything you've done seem even more absurd."
Yuwen Cuiyu looked at her again: "Yin Wuxiao, back then, just because of your question of whether you wanted to know, I ruined my entire youth."
Yin Wuxiao was speechless.
"You're about to die, yet you still have the mind to meddle in other people's business?"
"I... I can't just stand by and watch this absurd thing happen, even if I die right now! Someone has to stop it!"
Yin Wuxiao used her last bit of strength to grab Yuwen Cuiyu's hand: "Please!" She stared at Yuwen Cuiyu, her eyes filled with an unyielding determination.
Yuwen Cuiyu's lips twitched slightly, and a ripple finally appeared on her emotionless face.
“…Okay, I’ll help you.” She stepped forward, then turned back and left with a single sentence:
"Yin Wuxiao, you're living a life that's too tiring."
Yin Wuxiao was taken aback, and then he actually smiled slightly.
She remembered someone.
No matter how tiring her life is, can it be more tiring than Baili Qingyi's?
Chapter Twenty-Two: Overlapping Joy Turns into Sorrow (Part Four)
Yuwen Cuiyu gripped her short sword and joined the battle between Ruan Yun and Cen Lu. However, her arrival did not improve Cen Lu's situation in the slightest. After all, they had been master and disciple for many years, and even though she knew she had been deceived and used, Yuwen Cuiyu could not immediately bring herself to kill Ruan Yun.
However, after several dozen moves, Yuwen Cuiyu realized that she had made a huge mistake.
Ruan Yun moved with incredible speed, like a ghostly shadow. Yet her body was so hard it seemed unnatural. Even if one managed to land a blow or two on her, it felt like touching only sharp bones, impossible to apply any force. When swords struck her, they produced a metallic clang.
Cen Lu feigned an opening and attacked her ribs with his unique technique from the side, but it felt like hitting a steel bar. Before he could retaliate, Ruan Yun's hands swooped down like chicken claws, tearing ten bloody holes in Cen Lu's chest. Her hands, covered in blood, gripped Cen Lu's sternum through the flesh and threw him against the mountain wall, where his body actually smashed a large hole in the wall.
Yuwen Cuiyu was horrified. Before she could react, the short sword had already automatically slashed towards Ruan Yun's wrists. Ruan Yun smiled and flipped her wrists, and the short sword broke with a clang, its tip flying into Yuwen Cuiyu's chest.
Yuwen Cuiyu collapsed to the ground, crimson blood trickling from between her fingers. Her face was ashen, not from weakness, but from terror:
"Master... have you mastered the third level of the Soul-Destroying Strike?"
Ruan Yun sneered: "That's right! If I hadn't suffered a qi deviation while practicing three years ago, how could my entire plan have been delayed until now?"
"Going mad with cultivation... Could it be that the injury and unconsciousness you suffered when I struck you three years ago wasn't an act?" Yuwen Cuiyu asked, trembling. At that time, she didn't know that Ruan Yun was her master; she only thought that Ruan Yun, like Yu Nan'er and the others from the Yin family, had died under her Soul-Destroying Kill.
"Of course it's a disguise. If I didn't pretend to be unconscious, how could I have gained these three years to recuperate and how could I have secretly collected this pair of exquisite blood jade pendants to achieve my ultimate skill?" Ruan Yun took out a pair of blood jade pendants from her waist.
"So... you took advantage of my jealousy back then, ordering me to sneak back into the Yin residence, and then, at the opportune moment, ordering me to kill everyone in the Yin residence, including yourself? For this piece of blood jade, you were willing to kill your own niece and everyone living under the same roof?" Even the ruthless Yuwen Cuiyu couldn't help but be moved when she recalled this.
Yin Wuxiao's face was filled with grief: "Aunt Yun, you want to kill me just for this piece of blood jade? Even if you want to kill me, what did Aunt Nan do wrong? What did the steward do wrong? What did those servants who have served us for more than ten years do wrong? Why do you have to kill them all too?"
Ruan Yun sneered, "Xiao'er, you're wrong. I want the Blood Jade, but that doesn't necessarily mean I have to kill you. What I originally intended to kill was Yu Nan'er and everyone in the Yin family!"
"Why?"
"Just because Yu Nan'er caught me practicing! Although she didn't tell you, she leaked it to the steward and a few maids, ordering them to be wary of me. Tell me, how could I allow people who would ruin my plans to exist? Xiao'er, only you know nothing, which is why I've allowed you to live until today. Aunt Yun has been quite good to you." Ruan Yun stepped forward with a smile, but that smile was more terrifying than a skeleton.
"Xiao'er, you've always been a very calculating child. For the past three years, you must have felt that you were the reason everyone around you died, right? That's why you dared not show yourself, hiding your identity, afraid of implicating more people. Do you dream of their resentful faces every night?" Ruan Yun chuckled softly. "But you don't know that, in fact, you were implicated by them. If it weren't for them, how could I have the heart to kill my precious niece?"
At this point, she reached out and gently stroked Yin Wuxiao's face, a hint of affection appearing on her face.
Yin Wuxiao, however, felt only a chill run down his spine.
"If it weren't for that girl Cuiyu's jealousy and resentment, how could she have let you, this source of trouble, go? Now that I have mastered the Soul-Destroying Killing Technique, even if Baili Qingyi and Mu Wanfeng stood in front of me at the same time, I wouldn't be afraid! Besides, one of them has lost half of his power, and the other is still suffering from a mental illness that he can't extricate himself from. Tell me, is there anything in this world that I, Ruan Jun, cannot do?"
Yin Wuxiao stared at her blankly for a long time, then suddenly burst into a loud laugh: "Not bad, not bad. Is there anything in this world that you, Aunt Yun, cannot do? But Aunt Yun, do you know why you have committed so many evils?"
Ruan Yun was clearly stunned for a moment.
"What for?" she asked, somewhat bewildered, before finally letting out a cold laugh: "I'm here to take revenge on Qiao Baiyue, of course!"
"Your uncle is dead, how will you take revenge?"
"Death? What does death matter? I only regret that he died too soon! I only regret that I wasn't by his side when he died, that I wasn't able to tell him my whole plan in person!"
"Your plan? Aunt Yun, what plan do you have? Everything you've done has been completely futile." Yin Wuxiao's mind raced as he verbally provoked Ruan Yun while simultaneously searching for a way to escape. Now, he was truly in a situation where he had no one to rely on but himself.
"Who says I didn't?" Ruan Yun roared. "I turned his two beloved sons against each other, and I made the woman he loved almost die at the hands of her own son! How can you say I didn't achieve anything?"
"The killing of Feng Lang and his brother was caused by their own greed, jealousy, and resentment. Mu Wan almost lost her life, which was also the result of the evil she had sown in the first half of her life. What does it have to do with you? Even without you, would all of this have not happened? In the end, you have only done all your work for nothing!"
As Yin Wuxiao refuted the claims, her eyes caught sight of the explosive device triggered just three feet away. She reached into her clothes and grasped the replica blood jade pendant, already having made up her mind.
"You...you're talking nonsense!" Ruan Yun's face showed fear. She had painstakingly planned for over ten years, but had never looked at her actions from this perspective. She assumed that everything today was due to her own efforts, but had never considered whether any of this would have happened without her involvement.
Yin Wuxiao looked at Ruan Yun, a hint of pity in his expression.
"Aunt Yun, what have you been hating all these years? I really don't understand."
Ruan Yun looked at her and smiled bitterly: "Xiao'er, do you remember a few days before you were to marry Mu Li, I told you that for a woman, being able to marry a man who loves her and live a peaceful life is already the greatest blessing."
Yin Wuxiao nodded: "I remember." At that time, she thought Ruan Yun was still delirious and talking nonsense.
“I used to think that way. Before I got married, I always thought that I could marry a man who would love me, be a good wife and mother, and that would be enough for me in this life. But after I married Qiao Baiyue, I found out that he not only already had a son, but also a woman he deeply loved in his heart, and there was no room left for me. Do you know how I felt at that time?”
"But you and your uncle have been married for so many years. Even if he had other women before, can't you develop feelings for him again?"
Ruan Yun said sadly, "It's no use. I only found out later that it was all a lie. He knew I liked him, so he lied to me and said he liked me too. He tricked me into marrying him, but he treated me like a decoration, a tool to increase his power and realize his ambition. Tell me, would you fall in love with a tool?"
Yin Wuxiao remained silent for a long time before saying, "Although your uncle doesn't love you, he has always treated you with great respect and has never neglected you. Even if he doesn't love you, does that mean your love for him is fake? Why let love turn into hatred to this extent?"
"Do you know what it means for love to turn to hate?" Ruan Yun chuckled. "Xiao'er, you're too young to understand. Do you know that a woman's demands on the man she loves can be extremely few or extremely many? If he gives you the one thing you want, you'd be willing to die for him. If he's willing to give you everything but refuses to give you the one thing you want, then you're like a fish out of water, having your life-saving water taken away, half-dead, wishing you were dead."
A moment of silence.
Yin Wuxiao suddenly understood that no matter what Ruan Yun did, she couldn't quell the resentment in her heart. Ruan Yun was like a bird clinging to life; the sorrow of the past twenty years was a giant net she had woven for herself, binding her so tightly that she could only escape it at death. That resentment was merely a reason for her to continue living; without resentment, she could not survive.
Yin Wuxiao was terrified.
She had always considered herself carefree and thought she could take a detached view of romantic relationships. She never knew that a woman's humble and timid love could unleash such earth-shattering energy and such profound resentment.
“Aunt Yun, if you activate the explosives, you will surely die, and hundreds of lives will be lost with you. If you think that such a dramatic death can free you from the resentment of more than twenty years, then go ahead and do it,” Yin Wuxiao said softly.
She was so calm that Ruan Yun was slightly taken aback.
Then Ruan Yun smiled and said, "Alright, let's leave this filthy world together, mother and daughter."
No sooner had the words been spoken than the crystal wall collapsed with a deafening roar, sending large and small crystal fragments crashing to the ground, some of which tumbled down the cliff.
As the crystal wall shattered, Baili Qingyi leaped into the cave. His hands were covered in blood from smashing the crystal wall.
The appearance of Baili Qingyi caught both Ruan Yun and Yin Wuxiao completely off guard.
No one can imagine how a person could split open such a thick and hard crystal wall with just their bare hands.
However, Baili Qingyi was able to do it.
His endurance was always inexhaustible. Whether it was the palm strike he took from Mu Wanfeng to save the Yuwen sisters, the half of his power he expended to save Yin Wuxiao, or the internal injuries he sustained after taking a palm strike from Yin Bitong following his fight with the master of "Traceless," all of these were within his tolerance. Therefore, people called him a god, a god who could not be injured. Even Baili Hanyi often forgot that this elder brother, when injured, also felt pain and gritted his teeth.
But only Baili Qingyi himself knew that he was not a god; he was just someone who had to swallow his pride and bear the pain.
At this moment, he was shrouded in powerful rage, standing majestically at the cave entrance, like a beautiful god of punishment.
His sharp gaze swept over Yin Wuxiao, his face turning slightly pale.
"Are you alright?" he asked, his gaze fixed on Ruan Jun, not daring to be careless in the slightest.
"I'm fine," Yin Wuxiao said with a self-deprecating smile.
Her wrist was broken, her forehead was bruised, and her face was covered in blood. But she was still alive, which was a relief.
Baili Qingyi stepped forward a few steps and said, "Madam Yun, I really didn't expect that you were the one who manipulated everything behind the scenes."
Ruan Yun said, "I really didn't expect that you, a junior, could force me into such a situation. It's just a pity that no matter how hard you try, it's all in vain. As long as I press this button, everything on Seven Absolutes Cliff today will be reduced to ashes."
Baili Qingyi's heart skipped a beat: "Madam Yun, what good will it do you if we perish together?"
Ruan Yun waved her hand: "The benefits of mutual destruction, how could you men possibly understand?"
Baili Qingyi looked at Yin Wuxiao with a puzzled expression. Yin Wuxiao received his gaze and could only lower his head and smile bitterly.
“Young Master in Green Robes, Aunt Yun has already mastered the Soul-Destroying Strike. You… you are probably no match for her. It’s best not to concern yourself with such matters and leave as soon as possible,” Yin Wuxiao said.
Baili Qingyi knew that she was reminding her to be careful of Ruan Yun's martial arts, and laughed: "The wicked have not been punished and the innocent have not been saved. How can Qingyi leave? Besides, without you by my side, I can't leave alone."
Yin Wuxiao was startled when she met his complex gaze, and hurriedly lowered her head again.