There is a Xiao Chan in the Jianghu

Chapter 37

Yun Chan seemed not to be listening to him, and asked blankly, "Father, what happened to Ji Yue?"

Qin Hu couldn't bear to see her like this, and explained, "Xiao Chan, Ji Yue is a member of the Demonic Sect..."

A look of sorrow finally appeared in Yun Chan's eyes: "So what?"

Qin Hu had expected her daughter to be surprised and angry when she learned of Ji Yue's identity, but this was her reaction. She was also a little annoyed: "So what? Don't you understand? The Demonic Sect has committed many evils. Since she is a member of the Demonic Sect, she deserves to die."

Yun Chan cried out in despair, "But Ji Yue has been with me for so many years, and you've watched her grow up. What evil has she done?! Others may not know about her, but Father and Mother, how can you be so heartless!"

Qin Hu was furious: "What do you know, you little brat! The Demonic Sect is treacherous. All her previous kindness towards you was just pretense. This time, she switched the Boundless Technique to give to that demon, and you've been kept in the dark!"

Each sound was like a knife cutting into her ears, causing Yun Chan's heart to ache terribly.

—I know, I know all of this. I'm the one who made her switch the clothes! I'm the one who killed her!

In an instant, it was as if she had fallen into a suffocating vortex. Yun Chan gasped for breath, her mouth open, but she couldn't make a sound.

Seeing this, Qin Hu's tone softened: "Xiao Chan, I know you're not feeling well. But you are the daughter of Feiyun Fortress. Good and evil have always been irreconcilable. You must understand that."

The sect leader, Li, who was standing nearby, also advised, "Miss Yun, don't blame your parents. That girl from the Demonic Sect committed suicide."

Chief Zhao interjected in time: "Damn it, what bad luck! We were almost able to find that devil by following this girl, but who knew she was so clever and actually discovered that we were following her halfway through."

"But this girl is tough enough. Knowing she couldn't escape, she actually took her own life."

Qin Hu didn't want Yun Chan to hear any more of this, so he helped her up and coaxed her, "Little Chan, go back to your room first."

Feeling as if a thousand-pound boulder was pressing on her heart, Yun Chan turned to Qin Hu in a daze, her last glimmer of hope: "Mother, you all watched Xia Yi grow up. If he promises not to be an enemy of the martial world anymore, can we reconcile with him? Can we...?"

Let him go?

Before Qin Hu could speak, the newly appointed leader of the South China Sea Sect burst into laughter: "Make up? Miss Yun thinks this is child's play, that you can make up after a fight? Then who will settle the score with for the former leader of my sect?"

"And what about the grudges against Sect Leader Tan, Protector Hua, and all the innocent disciples from various sects who have died or been injured recently? The Xia family has killed so many people in the martial world over the past fifty years. Do you expect us to make peace with the Demonic Sect? We'll have to die before we can!"

Stop talking! Stop talking! Stop talking! Stop talking!

She knew Xia Yi was wrong, but, "But he only has a few months to live. Even if we leave him alone, he'll still die. Is that not okay?" Yun Chan squatted down, her voice pleading.

Hearing this, Yun Tianhai, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke up angrily: "Womanly compassion! Even if he's dead, his followers are still here, and a new leader will emerge. As long as the Demonic Sect isn't eradicated, the martial world will never be at peace. Xiao Chan, hurry back inside!"

Stop talking nonsense!

Seeing that her husband was also angry, Qin Hu quickly pulled Yun Chan aside and advised, "Xiao Chan, don't overthink it. I'll take you back to your room."

---

Yun Chan was eventually pushed back into the house. She had never imagined her courtyard would be so deserted, but it was all her own fault for being so clever; who could she blame?

Clutching a bottle of poison and a bottle of antidote, Yun Chan sat in her room in a daze for many days. Her ten-day promise with Xia Yi was fast approaching. But she thought, she didn't want to hurt anyone else.

On the tenth day, before she could even go to Lou Lou's place, Lou Lou came to her door himself.

Forever immaculate and ethereal. Yun Chan looked at the man standing by the window and said with a wry smile, "So your acting was pretty good too, you fooled me too." He had tricked her with a fake copy of the second volume.

Lou Lou did not deny it, and smiled gently: "At the time, I didn't think you would really want to help us catch him." But later he heard that Xia Yi actually appeared at Danxi Slope that night, which surprised him.

Yun Chan continued to laugh bitterly: "Why wouldn't I? Of course I'd help you catch him to save my own life."

Lou Lou jumped down from the windowsill, frowned, and asked, "What do you mean?"

Yun Chan poured herself a cup of tea, drank it all in one gulp, and then slowly said, "Xia Yi used Soul Devouring on me, threatening that if I don't get the second volume, I'll have to pay with my life."

Could Xia Yi really be so cruel to her? Lou Lou still wore a smile, then casually reached out to check her wrist. However, her pulse was indeed tangled and chaotic. Lou Lou's expression changed drastically, and he quickly pulled up her sleeve.

Several red and black lines appeared on Yun Chan's fair arms, as if they were etched into her skin, winding and enchanting.

Lou Lou's face finally turned ugly, and Yun Chan, seeing this, subtly withdrew her hand. She lowered her sleeve, trying to calm herself, and took a deep breath, saying, "Henchman, considering I once saved your life, how about you save me this time?"

"Give me the next volume so I can exchange it for the antidote, okay?"

Lou Lou looked at her with a complicated expression, without saying a word.

Yun Chan silently looked back at him, a hint of self-mockery in her heart. Still not enough? Sure enough, even her life wasn't enough to exchange for a secret manual.

Although Xia Yi had given her the antidote along with the Soul-Devouring Poison, she never intended for her henchmen to be poisoned a second time. Therefore, while drinking tea, she swallowed the Soul-Devouring Poison herself. She originally thought that using her own...

She was willing to risk her life to stage another play, hoping to successfully exchange it for the next volume, but she ultimately overestimated herself.

Yun Chan smiled wryly again: "Never mind, you don't need to make things difficult for me."

Lou Lou's expression finally showed a hint of regret. He closed his eyes and said, "It's not that I didn't want to save you, but the Boundless Technique doesn't have a second volume."

A single, soft sentence exploded in her ears like a thunderclap, leaving Yun Chan stunned and speechless: "What did you say?"

"Back then, when Master Tu was forced to hand over the Boundless Manual, he was unwilling to accept it. So he altered all the Ren Meridian cultivation methods in the Boundless Manual to be Du Meridian methods and gave them to Elder Xia, intending to cause him to suffer a qi deviation. However, Elder Xia saw through the problem with the manual."

They continued to torture the sect leader. The sect leader, determined to trick him into practicing the fake Boundless Technique, fabricated a story that the technique had two volumes. Then, without waiting for further questioning, he severed his own meridians and died.

So that's how it is! Yun Chan could barely stand, her voice trembling: "So, the Xia family's patriarchs have been practicing the False Heart Technique from beginning to end?"

Lou Lou nodded: "Master Xia believed the dying words of Master Tu, but he couldn't find the second volume. Determined to become the supreme martial artist, he thought it would be good to practice only half of it to open his Du meridian, so he couldn't resist practicing the fake Boundless Technique, and soon..."

He was consumed by the backlash of pure Yang internal energy and burned to death.

"So, Xia Yi is going to die no matter what?" Yun Chan's voice was extremely dry.

Lou Lou sighed and hugged her: "He poisoned you, and you're still heartbroken for him?"

Yun Chan suddenly grabbed his sleeve tightly: "Since he really only has a few months left to live, you... can't let him go?"

Let him go? Lou Lou gently patted her head: "To cut the weeds, you must nip them in the bud. If he were in my shoes today, he would make the same decision as me."

Yun Chan stopped talking.

There was no other way. Everyone wanted him dead; there was nothing more they could do. She finally gave up that ridiculous hope and just stared blankly into space.

Lou Lou looked at her, hesitating to speak: "Xiao Chan, the poison in your body..."

Yun Chan interrupted him with a smile: "It's okay, I have the antidote."

Lou Lou's gaze sharpened with pain. After hesitating for a long time, he finally said slowly, "You are afflicted with Canglan, which is incurable."

The poison, Canglan, is not particularly potent when it takes effect, yet no one in the world who has been poisoned by it has ever lived for more than two months. There is no cure for this poison.

Yun Chan was stunned. So that's how it is. So Xia Yi lied to her again. He really is a big bastard. No wonder everyone in the world wants to kill him.

As she pondered this, Yun Chan laughed. Oh well, if there's no solution, then there's no solution.

Lou Lou frowned even more deeply and grasped her hand: "I will take you to Fusheng Valley to find Mr. Hu immediately. His medical skills were once comparable to those of your master Xue Ren. Perhaps he can find a solution."

Yun Chan withdrew her hand, her eyes lifeless: "No need. Xia Yi is going to die anyway, and I promised to stay with him."

"Accompany him?" Does this mean he wants to die with Xia Yi?

Lou Lou's anxious expression suddenly froze, and anger finally flashed in his usually gentle eyes: "He's so cruel to you, don't you hate him? Why? You'd even die with him!"

Why? Yun Chan thought slowly. It was probably because even at this point, even though Xia Yi had lied to her time and time again, she still liked him very much, hopelessly.

She took two steps back and calmly said, "Actually, he didn't want to harm me. He wanted me to poison you." As she spoke, Yun Chan looked up at him with a relieved smile, "Luckily, I didn't poison you, otherwise I would have harmed you again. So..."

"Hey, please, don't tell anyone about my poisoning, I'm such a fool for swallowing it myself. I don't want my parents to know."

The wind howled outside, rattling the windows. His burning anger finally settled into sorrow and resentment; Lou Lou gazed at her, his heart heavy with bitterness.

Yun Chan ignored them and continued, "Also, since there's no next volume, I'll tell him to stop being your enemy. Whether you want to let him go or not, I... I'll stay with him."

---

It's midnight, the night is still and quiet, and there's no moon tonight.

Yun Chan arrived at Danxi Slope alone and sat on the Sleeping Lion Rock, lost in thought. Noticing someone approaching behind her, she didn't raise her head, but simply said softly, "I didn't poison the henchmen, nor did I obtain the second volume."

Xia Yi hugged her from behind, a hint of relief in her smile: "If you can't get it, that's fine. I'll take you away."

Yun Chan almost cried: "I can't save you."

"It's okay," Xia Yi coaxed her softly. "Even if I only have a few months left, we'll still be together."

Yun Chan's eyes lit up: "Okay, we'll be together. You damned Xia Yi, you won't be going against the major sects anymore, will you?"

Her eyes flickered, and Xia Yi said softly, "Yes. I won't."

Yun Chan finally buried her face in his chest: "Then I will always stay with you, and we will never be apart."

Xia Yi picked her up horizontally and smiled: "Where does Xiao Chan want to go?"

Yun Chan thought for a moment: "Wangshu City. There's a Wangshu River there, and I've heard it's incredibly beautiful at night. I've wanted to go see it for a long time."

"Okay." Xia Yi hugged her and lightly stepped forward, using her light footwork to move away. "Xiao Chan can go wherever she wants."

The warmth emanating from the other person was so comforting that Yun Chan could barely keep her eyes open. She yawned and said, "You little rascal, Xia Yi, I'm a bit sleepy."

"Okay, then you should take a nap first."

It felt like she hadn't slept well for several days; she was really tired. Yun Chan lay in Xia Yi's arms and closed her eyes peacefully.

---

In her hazy state, Yun Chan seemed to be having a very long and beautiful dream of growing old together. However, before that dream could end, she was awakened by a sharp pain in her arm.

Yun Chan opened her eyes and looked around blankly. Had they already arrived in Wangshu City?

This was a room she didn't recognize, and Qing Qi was standing in front of her, but Xia Yi was nowhere to be seen.

Yun Chan asked in surprise, "Qing Qi, what are you doing here? Where's that dead Xia Yi?"

Qingqi seemed to have been waiting for her to wake up. Hearing the question, a smile played on his lips, a smile tinged with pity and smugness: "You're asking about the sect leader? He's not here. He ordered us to watch over you here. You've been asleep for three days, and the sect leader ordered..."

They told us to let you sleep for three more days. Do you know why?

A sense of unease rose in her heart, then amplified infinitely, and Yun Chan instinctively wanted to cover her ears.

Qingqi stubbornly continued to speak, one sentence at a time: "Three days ago, the leader ordered that the righteous sects of the martial world hand over the Boundless Technique. If the major sects refused, he would slaughter the entire righteous sects of the martial world, starting with the South China Sea Sect."

Yun Chan's face turned pale.

Qingqi looked at her coldly: "Now all the major sects have gone to help the South Sea Sect, and the sect leader is also leading his followers to the South Sea Sect. Both sides are planning to completely eliminate the other."

Yun Chan's voice trembled: "Qing Qi, take me to see him. He doesn't know there's no next volume yet. We can't let him do this pointless killing anymore."

Qingqi laughed disdainfully: "So what? The sect leader's intention was never to obtain the second volume; he just wanted to lure all the major sects together and wipe them out in one fell swoop."

Yun Chan couldn't help but shout, "No way! He clearly promised me that he would no longer be an enemy of the martial arts world."

With a creak, the door was suddenly pushed open, and Jin Jia rushed in in a panic.

"Brother Qingqi, how come all the guards outside have been taken down?" Jin Jia stammered when he saw Yun Chan sitting on the bed. "W-what happened? Hey, hey, hey, why is Miss Yun awake?"