Fragrance rises to dance

Chapter 54

Liu Jiecui glared angrily at Yu Cuiwei, drew her sword with a "whoosh," but dared not strike because Li Lingyan was nearby. "Try saying that again!"

“You’re that jealous woman that Ling Yan hates so much,” Yu Cuiwei said softly. “Don’t glare like that. Glaring like that will easily cause wrinkles. Women should be gentle to be likable. No wonder Ling Yan doesn’t like you.”

Although he spoke as if nothing was wrong, every word he uttered infuriated Liu Jiecui. With a "whoosh," she could no longer bear it and thrust her sword, "Alluring Beauty," straight into Yu Cuiwei's chest.

Yu Cuiwei gracefully tossed aside his raincoat, revealing that he was still wearing his favorite flowing, wide robe underneath. The raincoat was removed to shield him from the sword; Yu Cuiwei's skill was on a completely different level from Sheng Xiang's. Two sharp daggers shot out simultaneously from his wrists with a "whoosh."

Liu Jiecui deflected two strangely shaped, sharp spikes with her sword, but unexpectedly, the two spikes circled back and flew back, their force weakened, but their direction of attack became even more unpredictable.

Yu Cuiwei raised his right hand, moved his five fingers, and said to Li Lingyan with a smile, "How about I kill her?"

“If you kill her, the girls under her will become disobedient.” Li Lingyan said without blinking. “How about this, you beat her half to death, and she won’t dare to oppose you anymore, and the girls under her won’t dare to make things difficult for me.”

"You pleaded for her, and I hate women like her who are vicious and aggressive the most." Yu Cuiwei raised his palm and slashed out from a distance. His "Splitting Palm" technique was quite powerful. With a "smack," Liu Jiecui was sent flying by his palm, crashing into the wall with a mouthful of blood. It seemed that Yu Cuiwei had killed half of her.

Yu Cuiwei clapped his hands. "Success."

Shengxiang smiled and looked at him, then at Li Lingyan, "You'll get your comeuppance for doing this to others."

“We’ve already received our retribution,” Yu Cuiwei said with a smile. “Haven’t we? So we might as well kill a few more.”

"I don't like this woman on the ground, but don't go too far. If I can't stand it and spread the word about this godforsaken place, and while I'm at it, I'll boast that Tang Tianshu's Leshan treasure is in your hands, Li Lingyan, then you're all doomed, constantly bothered by treasure hunters." Sheng Xiang said with a smile, "Ah—I might as well boast that this woman on the ground is an unparalleled beauty, that there is no woman more beautiful in the world than her, and I don't believe no one will come after your Blood Sacrifice Society, hahaha!" The more he thought about it, the happier he became, and he added, "We could also say that there is the Miao people's most incredible wine and gold here, and even magical drugs that can make people fall in love with other people..."

Li Lingyan and Yu Cuiwei exchanged glances. Li Lingyan coughed lightly, "This... I'm actually afraid of you."

Sheng Xiang was very pleased with himself. "So you can't afford to offend me. The only smart and happy choice is to form an alliance with me."

Yu Cuiwei and Li Lingyan looked at each other in bewilderment, and could only exchange bitter smiles.

"I want to eat braised eel," Shengxiang suddenly blurted out after looking around the hall.

"Eel stew?" Li Lingyan was taken aback.

"I want to eat braised eel!" Shengxiang announced.

“There are no eels on Daming Mountain…” Li Lingyan was confident in his intelligence, and Yu Cuiwei was not stupid either, but the two of them were puzzled as to why Shengxiang suddenly wanted to eat eel stew? Eels were lowly fish, and Li Lingyan did not eat them at all.

"Shall we go catch some? I saw a lot of ponds with lots of fish and lots of water when I was wandering around in the mountains. Come on, let's go catch some eels." Shengxiang grabbed Li Lingyan's hand. "If we catch some, we'll have eel stew. Let's go!"

"What..." Li Lingyan had no feeling in his hand and was completely unaware when Sheng Xiang grabbed him. He had never thought that anyone wanted him, nor had he ever thought that anyone would dare to grab his hand like this. "Go catch eels now?"

The members of the Blood Sacrifice Ceremony bet that this was the first time they had ever seen Li Lingyan with such a strange expression. Sheng Xiang dragged him outside, saying, "I don't care, I want to catch eels!"

Yu Cuiwei coughed lightly, "Uh... now is a good time to catch eels. I heard that eels come out when the moon rises."

Shengxiang was overjoyed when he heard this. "Great! Da Yu, you and Xiao Yan come with me." He grabbed Yu Cuiwei with his left hand and Li Lingyan with his right, then warned, "Da Yu, my hands hurt a lot, so don't move around."

Li Lingyan then said, "If you want to eat eel, I'll have the chef in the kitchen go with you to catch some..."

"I don't want to!" Shengxiang glared. "I am the son of the Prime Minister. I will not go catching eels with anyone except Da Yu and Xiao Yan! If you don't come with me, I will tell everyone that I am having an affair with Da Yu and that I am living with him!"

Li Lingyan finally made a historic decision: "I'm actually a little afraid of you."

Saint Xiang wins! With a cheer, Saint Xiang grabbed the two people and ran towards the door, disappearing into the moonlit night.

The members of the Blood Sacrifice Ceremony stood in the hall with strange expressions, looking at each other, unsure of what to say.

Aside from Young Master Shengxiang, probably no one else in the world would have thought of catching eels with great villains like Li Lingyan and Yu Cuiwei. However, considering that he also sat down to play mahjong with Wan Yuyuedan and Tang Tianshu, it wasn't too outrageous. Besides, Young Master Shengxiang had done many outrageous things; this kind of trivial matter was nothing to him.

The moonlight was bright.

Daming Mountain truly lives up to its name; under the moonlight, the sky is exceptionally clear and bright.

"I remember there was a pond there, look, it's right there." Shengxiang, along with two notorious villains feared throughout the martial arts world, searched the woods for the pond. After a while, Shengxiang announced that they had found their target.

Li Lingyan's decision to attend the banquet wasn't based on Shengxiang's absurd threat. His real motivation was to use the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of Shengxiang and Yu Cuiwei's character. Yu Cuiwei, on the other hand, was simply there for the fun of it. He had often played this game of catching eels in his youth, and he never imagined that after roaming the martial world and killing countless people, he would still be catching eels.

“Come on, come on! I remember when I was thirteen, Rongrong, Peitian, Yuguai, and I caught eels and poked hornet's nests together. We didn’t go home all night. My dad had people searching everywhere with lanterns, while Rongrong and I ate honey-roasted eels in the neighbor’s yard. We even picked some wild grass from the fields to eat. It was so much fun.” Shengxiang didn’t roll up his trousers when catching eels. With a “plop,” he jumped into the muddy pond with his priceless brocade robes, waving to the two people standing beside him, “Come on, come on!”

Yu Cuiwei laughed, "With your jump, all the eels that were peeking out of the mud have hidden away. Where are we going to find them?" His long robe, which looked like pajamas, swayed in the night, and a huge moth fluttered behind him, vaguely appearing real.

“Anyway, there’s still a mud candy over there. If we jump here, the eels will run off there.” Shengxiang smiled and pointed to the small mud pond next door with her mud finger. “How about we have a competition to catch eels? The bet is a story. The person who catches the most eels can ask the person who caught fewer to tell a story.”

"I'm too old to listen to stories or tell stories anymore," Yu Cuiwei said with a smile.

Shengxiang blinked. “For example, if Xiaoyan wins, he can ask me about my mother’s story… If Dayu wins, he can… um, I’ll tell him a secret of Young Master Shengxiang.”

"This prize seems very tempting," Li Lingyan said slowly. "If I win, wouldn't I be able to get Yu Cuiwei to tell me the story of Bingzhu Temple?"

Yu Cuiwei chuckled, "Beating me at catching eels isn't something you can just talk about."

"Is that so?" Li Lingyan cautiously raised his eyes to look into Yu Cuiwei's eyes, which were bright and clear, with a hint of cunning. "Then let's make the bet."

"One, two, three! The competition begins!" Shengxiang pulled himself up from the mud and lunged into the other side of the mud. With a "plop," he crashed into the mud like a stone, scaring the eels in the moonlight into scattering.

Li Lingyan and Yu Cuiwei frowned; this scene was practically testing their eyesight and their skill with concealed weapons. In an instant, more than a dozen eels that had been darting across the surface of the muddy pond were pinned to the mud by the leaves around Li Lingyan and Yu Cuiwei. But after that, the eels disappeared into the mud beneath the grass and could no longer be caught.

Yu Cuiwei was skilled at catching eels, so he naturally didn't find it difficult. He broke off tree branches and bark from the side to weave a net and began to scoop eels from the muddy bottom of the water. He tore off a piece of his clothes to make a cloth bag, and poured the eels he caught into it, catching them quite quickly.

Li Lingyan had genuinely never tried catching eels before, and to be honest, he wasn't quite sure which of the creatures scurrying around in the mud were actually eels. But his eyesight and patience were exceptional. He tore a thread from the edge of his sleeve, tied a small pebble to the end, and with lightning speed, whenever something moved in the muddy mess stirred up by the incense, he would throw the pebble. The pebble, still attached to the thread, would circle around the creature a few times before he easily caught it. He even tore off a piece of his clothing to make a bag, just like Yu Cuiwei had done, and put it inside.

Only Young Master Shengxiang was searching for something in the muddy water, seemingly groping around for a long time without finding anything.

After a full meal's time had passed, Shengxiang announced, "Time's up."

Yu Cuiwei immediately said, "I caught forty-three."

Li Lingyan threw the cloth bag on the ground, saying, "I didn't count it."