La cúspide del mundo de las artes marciales

Capítulo 47

What good would it do to know? Even if I knew you used your sword to slowly and painstakingly kill the Queen and Baoze, what could I do? I know my own limitations perfectly well, and I'm afraid I'll overestimate myself... It would have been better if I had known nothing at all.

"If," I looked up at Yan Shu and smiled, "I mean, if I pleaded for Baoze, would you let him go?"

"No." Yan Shu narrowed his eyes slightly and said to me with a smirk, "I'll stab him a few more times to show you. I don't like you pleading for others."

I shrugged and said, "What's the point of telling me?" Without looking at him again, I turned and went back to my room, saying, "I just beg you not to force me to see it with my own eyes anymore... just let me sleep for a while."

The moment I closed the door, I heard the sound of fireworks exploding outside the window. Without closing the window, the bright colors of neon lights shone into the dark room. I went to the window and saw the twinkling lights of prayer lanterns in the night sky of Licheng.

This vibrant, bustling, and never-sleeping frontier city...

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I slept for a long time, from one night to another, and didn't wake up even when I heard knocking on the door several times. I only opened my eyes when I was so hungry that I couldn't stand it anymore. The doors and windows were tightly closed, and there was no light or sound.

I was hungry and thirsty, and my stomach felt empty and weak.

I only realized after settling in that there wasn't a drop of water in the teapot. Then I remembered what Yan Shu had said last night: I couldn't touch anything in Licheng today, not even water.

Hungry……

I opened the door, and sure enough, the girl in white was still waiting outside. She bowed to me and said, "Miss, you're awake. The High Priest instructed you to wait for him in your room for a moment after you woke up."

Another girl in white bowed and went to report to Yan Shu.

My stomach was churning with hunger, so I asked her, "Is there anything to eat?"

The girl in white was slightly taken aback, then said, "Please bear with me, young lady. There will be food after we leave the city."

Leaving the city? Didn't we just enter the city a few days ago? Why do we need to leave again?

I didn't have the energy to ask her anything. I stood anxiously at the door waiting for Yan Shu. A moment later, Yan Shu came up from downstairs with a radiant smile on her face. When she saw me, she smiled like a flower.

"You slept for a long time." He came over with a smile, waving for the girl in white to come into the house to get the cloak. As he draped it over me, he said, "I called you several times but you didn't wake up."

"Are we leaving the city?" I asked him, frowning as I suppressed my churning stomach.

Yan Shu fastened my cloak, put his arm around me, and chuckled softly, "Yes, this is my battleground, and you don't want to play along with me."

A chaotic scene... I wanted to ask something, but I opened my mouth and then closed it again, letting him embrace me as we went downstairs.

The inn was empty; there were no guests and no owner. Ye Baizhi had prepared a carriage waiting outside. As I left the inn, I couldn't help but look back and saw a dark pile of corpses in the corner, the deep red blood winding like small snakes...

"Sigh..." Yan Shu's slender white fingers covered my eyes, and she gently lifted my face, saying, "Didn't you say you didn't like watching?"

The moment I stepped out of the inn, I heard a strange sound, as if many, many people were crying, shouting, laughing, struggling, screaming, as if they had gone mad... There was no wind, and the sound echoed in the empty city of Licheng, as if there were no other sounds besides these, like a pot of messy porridge.

My cloak suddenly tightened, as if someone had fallen at my feet, their fingers gripping my ankle tightly. I stopped in my tracks, startled, and heard a child's weak, childish voice, "Sister... Sister, save me! Qiao'er doesn't want to die, doesn't want to die..."

I tried to pull Yan Shu's hand away, but then I heard the sound of wind rushing past my ears, a sword rang out, and a scream that sounded like a child crying. Hot liquid splashed onto my leg, burning me so badly that I was stunned. Something rolled to my feet, and when I lifted my foot, I touched something soft and yielding, I couldn't tell if it was flesh or hair.

Her hand froze in mid-air, her eyelashes staring blankly at Yan Shu's palm, yet she didn't pull his hand down for a long time.

I'm so hungry... I'm terribly hungry. My stomach feels empty and churning, and I feel like vomiting but can't.

"Su Xie, let's get off the bus." Yan Shu put her arm around me and we continued walking forward.

The hand gripping my ankle wouldn't loosen its grip even once; it held on tightly, so firmly that I couldn't move, pry it off, or shake it off.

I heard Yan Shu draw his sword again. I can't describe the sound of flesh and bone breaking. I only felt my ankles go empty and my hot blood burning intensely.

I was starving, my stomach was churning, and I was sweating profusely.

"Get in the car." Yan Shu gently nudged me.

I pulled his hand away, lifted the curtain, and leaped onto the carriage, my stomach rumbling.

I pulled Yan Shu's hand away, lifted the curtain, and jumped into the carriage, with Yan Shu following behind.

Hunger, my stomach was burning with hunger, that unbearable thirst... it felt like every inch of my skin was throbbing. The crying and laughter coming from the car window made me even more anxious, and I shouted, "Aren't you leaving?!"

"Leave the city," Yan Shu ordered, looking at me intently, somewhat surprised. "Su Xie? Are you feeling unwell?"

Is there?

I stared at him blankly, and blurted out, "I'm hungry."

"Hungry?" I frowned slightly, then smiled and said, "I thought you were like before, getting all excited at the sight of blood."

My fingertips trembled restlessly, my hair seemed to jump. This feeling... was both terrifying and unbearable... I was starving. My wet legs were getting colder and colder. I looked down and saw a severed hand clutching my ankle, which was stained with blood and unrecognizable.

Small and pale, it was particularly shocking against the backdrop of white bones and red blood, and it was clinging tightly to my ankle.

My chest and stomach contracted rapidly. I reached out in a daze to pry open the severed hand. It was hot, warm, wet, sticky, and gripped me tightly, refusing to let go even in the face of death.

“Su Xie…”

Yan Shu called me for a while before I heard him, and I looked up in surprise, "Huh?"

He looked at me with a slight frown, "You'll hurt yourself."

The severed fingernail was sharp. I pulled hard and, without realizing it, scratched my ankle, leaving bloody welts, but I felt nothing.

"Su Xie." Yan Shu pushed my hand away, squatted down at my feet, and drew his dagger, making a very light and quick cut on my severed hand. My ankle immediately loosened, and the fingers that were gripping me fell into the carriage with a clatter.

He looked up at me and asked, "Are you still the same Su Xie?"

I looked at him, my eyelashes fluttering.

“Since you came back from the dead, you have become…like a different person.” His tired face was marred by a pair of brows that seemed to be always smiling. “A person who lives in Su Xie’s body, but is completely different from her.”

He squinted and asked me, "Who are you? Why would Su Xie save me?" He paused and then said, "I heard Ruan Bicheng call you... Lu Ning?"

Lu Ning.

I looked at him, blinked for a long time, and said, "Does it matter? Does it matter whether I am Su Xie or someone else? If the world says I am Su Xie, then I can only be Su Xie."

He squinted at me for a long time. Suddenly, he smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who you are. No matter whose body you live in, you are mine inside and out."

Yan Shu handed me the dagger, making me look down at the scattered fingers on the ground, and said, "But you'd better get used to killing. I told you, I am an Asura from hell, a man-eating demon. With me, you must get used to this flesh and blood..."

I stared blankly at it.

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The carriage drove out of Licheng and stopped outside the city gate. Yan Shu helped me out of the carriage, and I saw a dense crowd of people kneeling on the ground outside Licheng, surrounding the entire city, and shouting to Yan Shu, "Welcome, High Priest!"

That sound drowned out all the screams in the entire city of Li.

Yan Shu had already set up camp outside Licheng without anyone noticing. He pulled me up to the city wall, and a group of men in black led the way, leaving behind a trail of blood and piles of corpses wherever they went.

I struggled to walk, and he pulled me up to the city wall. The sudden gust of cold wind made it hard for me to breathe. Standing on the city wall, he ordered Ye Baizhi, who was following behind him, "Go and tell the King of Licheng that I am waiting for him outside the city. As long as he hands over the Queen and Baoze, I will immediately give the whole city the antidote and send troops to suppress him."

"You poisoned them?" You poisoned the entire city? A cold wind tugged at my cloak. From the city wall, I saw the city of Li filled with madmen fighting each other. Men and women, young and old, all writhing and tearing at each other like wild beasts under the gloomy sky. A fire had broken out somewhere, burning fiercely across a street, thick smoke billowing. Soldiers were running through the streets, fighting or being killed by the civilians...

Last night, the city was just beginning to light up, but today it has become a city of carnage.

Yan Shu didn't look at me, but at the people below the towering city tower. Suddenly, he laughed. The wind ruffled his hair, and the scar on his forehead looked frighteningly grotesque as he laughed.

Ye Baizhi answered first: "The High Priest only sent someone to put a mind-altering drug in the water source of Licheng. You should know about mind-altering drugs, right?"

The Heart-Stealing Powder... I remember Ruan Bicheng saying that it was a strange plant that grew in the Hezhou area. When dried into powder, the powder was placed in water or fire. It was colorless and odorless. Those who drank or smelled it would immediately experience hallucinations, followed by mental paralysis and madness, like a mad dog that would bite anyone it saw. After a while, they would collapse in body and mind and die from exhaustion.

This is... an extremely vicious poison.

Yan Shu squinted at Licheng under the gloom, seemingly speaking to me, yet also to himself. His eyes were smiling, but his words were unusually cold, "I will make her personally taste what it feels like to be sacrificed by the man she has chosen..."

Ye Baizhi tentatively asked from behind, "What if the Prince of Licheng doesn't agree to hand over the person?"

Yan Shu turned to look at her and asked, "Do you think so?"

She then remained silent.

Yan Shu chuckled softly and said lightly, "If she really chose the right person, then let the whole city be draped in mourning and die with her."

"Yan Shu," I looked at him and asked, "You really... can't let her go?"

"I just want her dead!" Yan Shu suddenly turned and stared at me.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Besides fooling yourself, who else can you fool? You're gambling with the lives of everyone in the city, just to make her regret it, to make her beg for your forgiveness, isn't that right?"

Yan Shu suddenly grabbed my throat and said, word by word, "I swore that I would repay tenfold, a hundredfold, everything I had taken! She was the one who rejected me! It was her!"

I looked at him without speaking. The raging fire in his eyes gradually died down. He dejectedly let go of his hand, pressed the scar on his forehead, closed his eyes and said to Ye Baizhi, "Take Su Xie down."

Ye Baizhi responded, and I took the lead. As we descended the city wall, Ye Baizhi suddenly grabbed my arm and said in a low, quick voice, "Aren't you going to make a move? Even if you don't save the people in Licheng, don't forget that Leng Baichun is still in this city."

I tightened my grip, and after a moment I looked at her and smiled, "Since you already know she's in this city, you must have already sent people to look after her, right? You're going to let her die so easily? She was at least a useful pawn."

I shook off her hand and walked towards the camp, saying, "I'm starving."

Author's Note: I had a fever yesterday and took too much medicine, so I was in a daze all day and didn't update. Please forgive me, thank you!

I felt so good writing today! I guess I'm really suited to writing slightly dark stories! Are you guys happy?! It's getting closer and closer to a plot twist! The next few chapters will be quite exciting; what's meant to happen will happen! And what's not meant to happen is also coming! Writing in the first person isn't quite smooth...

This time, will you continue to guess whether King Licheng will choose the throne or the queen?

PS: The "Suwen" and "Nanjing" cited by Shixinsan record that a strange plant called Haining Xiangmu is produced in the Hezhou area of Xining.

56

I'm starving...

My heart and stomach felt empty, like they could never be filled. I was so hungry that every inch of my skin was restless and my scalp was tingling.

I stuffed all the food and pastries that were brought into my stomach, but it couldn't soothe the burning desire in my flesh and blood. I was starving, not just in my stomach, but my heart was also extremely thirsty.

I'm scared, I know it. I'm nervous and afraid, yet inexplicably excited...

A voice kept telling me, "Look, look! He killed so many people! He deserved to die! Hurry up and kill him, and everything will be over..."

Look, look! The city of Li is littered with corpses, all because of him, because of him…

Look, look! Leng Baichun will die, Baoze will die, everyone in Licheng will die. There's nothing to hesitate about. You saved him, and killing him now is just an exchange of lives...

It's like a beast lurking inside me, a man-eating beast, now awakened by hunger, ready to pounce.

I hate it, I hate it so much. I have never wronged anyone, and who has ever treated me sincerely? Ruan Bicheng betrayed me and used me, Yan Shu forced me and threatened me. He can do whatever he wants with just a word like "I like you". Why can't I?

I resent it so much! I didn't kill anyone, yet people killed me. Good or bad? There are so many people in Licheng, good or bad, and in the end, they all die. It's a world where the strong prey on the weak, and people will do anything. What's wrong with that?

Self-preservation, just for self-preservation, survival is more important than anything else...

What's wrong?

I stuffed a large stack of pastries into my mouth and took a heavy breath. Suddenly, someone outside the tent reported, "Miss, someone is looking for you."

Looking for me? I swallowed a bite of pastry, feeling a bit better, and wiped my mouth, saying, "Who is it?"