La lluvia escarlata inunda la ciudad

Capítulo 21

She subconsciously wiped her cheek, which was indeed damp. She quickly wiped it again before saying, "I...can't bear to."

The young master sighed softly, took her hand and said, "The mother leopard's sword wound has mostly healed, they will be fine."

Chu Xia nodded, took a few steps, and suddenly said, "I didn't know that parting... could be so painful."

On a cool spring night, when the young master heard her suddenly say those words, he was startled... He turned his head to look at her expression, and as if by telepathy, Chu Xia also turned her head, her eyes so soft that she couldn't bear to let anyone touch them.

The young master pursed his thin lips, this momentary premonition flowing towards the unknown future.

Chapter Twenty (Part Two)

Two days had passed since they left the Qingchuan River.

The group first entered the village closest to the Qingchuan River, found a wealthy local family, and borrowed half a courtyard to stay in.

The village was so small that there was nowhere to buy clothes, so Chu Xia had to ask the host for a set of old clothes, which she changed into after bathing. Although the dinner was simple country food and not particularly refined, it was the most delicious food Chu Xia had ever tasted.

A series of hoofbeats sounded outside the courtyard, followed by a young girl pushing open the door and entering.

It's snow.

She bowed to the young master, then turned to examine Chu Xia carefully before smiling and asking, "Chu Xia, are you alright?"

The young master had already made Bai Xue's identity clear, so Chu Xia didn't need to think too much to understand that the young master had tacitly approved of her tricking her into going to the cloth shop that day. There was no need to hold any grudges against her now, but she still felt a bit conflicted. Chu Xia said with a half-smile, "Thanks to Miss Bai Xue, nothing serious happened."

Bai Xue's expression stiffened slightly, but she said nothing, only saying, "Young Master ordered me to come as fast as I could. I thought you were seriously injured—"

The young master interrupted her calmly, asking, "Where is Azure Dragon?"

"He's behind us." Bai Xue turned to the young master. "Young master, are you injured too?"

"Skin and flesh injuries are nothing to worry about."

Bai Xue smiled and said, "No doctor likes the word 'it's alright'."

The young master frowned and said, "Then take a look for her, see if there will be any scars on her face?"

Bai Xue checked Chu Xia's pulse and examined the wound on the back of her head. Whether intentionally or not, she chuckled and said, "Young Master was afraid that Chu Xia would be disfigured, but he was heartless back then."

These words were rather harsh, and the young master's face darkened slightly. But then Bai Xue continued, "This little injury is nothing. I'll prescribe some medicine for you, and I guarantee it won't leave a scar." She paused, then added meaningfully, "Chu Xia, you really look different now."

Chu Xia pursed her lips, but said calmly, "I am still me, unlike Miss Bai Xue, who has become the Vermilion Bird Envoy in the blink of an eye."

Bai Xue's beautiful eyes widened, and she was about to speak when she heard the young master say, "Come in with me, my injury is on my back."

After a while, the young master came out from the inner room first. Bai Xue frowned and said, "Although you didn't injure your bones, you suffered quite a bit because of your perfunctory attitude."

"The wound medicine has been applied."

"Do you think I can't tell? You first applied bitter herbs, and only the other day you applied wound medicine, right?" Bai Xue said coldly. "Where's the Jade Peach Blossom Ointment I gave you?"

If Chu Xia wasn't mistaken, the young master's expression... seemed to show a rare moment of guilt. She paused, remembering the exquisitely crafted porcelain jar—could Bai Xue have thought the young master had lost the medicine she had personally prepared? Out of kindness, she interjected, "Young master, was the Yingyu Peach Blossom Ointment packaged in a small porcelain box?"

Bai Xue nodded, proudly saying, "That's right. Do you know why the wound on the back of your head healed so quickly?"

"That medicine is truly miraculous. The leopard suffered such a severe sword wound, and after you applied it, it recovered the next day," Chu Xia praised sincerely.

For some reason, the room fell silent. The young master sighed softly, while Bai Xue's face flushed and paled in turns. After a long while, she asked again, "You took that medicine... to give to an animal? You saved a leopard?"

The question was directed at the young master, but Chu Xia sensed the unfriendly tone and wisely kept quiet.

The young master coughed lightly: "Back at the Qingchuan River, that leopard saved us."

Bai Xue still looked incredulous: "Young master, have I ever told you that the Jade Peach Blossom blooms only once every forty years, and it is not easy to collect. Even if I offered 100,000 catties of gold for a small jar of ointment, I'm afraid there would be countless people seeking it?"

Chu Xia stared in astonishment and exclaimed, "This...is this so precious?"

Bai Xue said irritably, "Yes, the young master's standard for judging what is precious is quite different from that of ordinary people."

The young master remained silent for a moment, but his gaze inadvertently swept over Chu Xia before he said to Bai Xue, "You go out first, and come see me together when Qinglong arrives."

After Bai Xue left, Chu Xia said with annoyance, "So that ointment is so precious? Why didn't you say so, young master?" Now that he thought about it, he had never used this medicine on his own wounds... It must be extremely rare.

The young master's thin lips twitched slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just smiled and said, "It's just a box of medicine."

Before the words were finished, someone swiftly jumped in through the window, interrupting, "What medicine?"

Once he stood still, the tall, slender young man with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes was none other than Qinglong, whom he hadn't seen in a long time. He first bowed to the young master, then rushed to Chuxia, looking her up and down, and said somewhat incoherently, "Chuxia, are you alright?"

Chu Xia glanced away somewhat awkwardly and said softly, "I'm perfectly fine."

Qinglong was still unconvinced, looking her up and down several times before letting out a sigh of relief and saying, "Luckily, Young Master found you." He then turned to look at the young master and asked, "Young Master, the Qingchuan River is so vast, how did you find it?"

The young master smiled and said, "The bracelet you brought back."

Qinglong scratched his head and stammered, "What does the bracelet mean? I just can't figure it out."

Seeing his bewildered expression, Chu Xia felt a little guilty and said, "Qinglong, you didn't know about this, and no one else could have guessed it." She paused and continued, "Back in Shu Garden, one day you and I played a guessing game."

"Shoot the cover?"

“Shefu is a riddle,” Chu Xia explained. “It was in the study at that time. The young master answered with the character ‘silver.’ I saw the silver bracelet I was wearing and the bright moonlight that night, so I guessed that the young master was referring to Su Shi’s ‘The Milky Way is silent as the jade plate turns,’ and answered with the character ‘shuo’ (朔).

Qinglong was not good at poetry and prose, so he listened in a daze.

Chu Xia patiently explained, "There's a line of poetry that goes, 'The northern wind carries the sound of the watchman's clapper, the cold light shines on the iron armor.' This line, like 'The Milky Way is silent as the jade disc turns,' doesn't mention the word 'moon,' yet it describes a moonlit night. You covered the moon, so I hit it, that's all."

"Later, I was kidnapped by Tiangang. In desperation, I thought that the young master must remember the game of guessing riddles that day, so I straightened this bracelet to show the new moon, which is the first day of the fourth month."

Qinglong said with annoyance, "There are so many intricacies involved, no wonder I couldn't guess it—otherwise I would have rushed to save you."

These words came out of her mouth with great sincerity, and Chu Xia looked at her, feeling a slight warmth in her heart.

But then a woman's voice sneered from outside the window: "Little Azure Dragon, don't brag here. Even if you guessed it and got there, do you think you could escape unscathed from Tian Gang's armor and sword formation? Even the young master was injured when he went there in person."

Qinglong was shocked: "Young Master, you broke the armor and sword formation?"

The young master hummed in agreement, tapping his fingers on the table as if deep in thought.

"The armored sword formation? The same sword formation that killed Master Huifeng twenty years ago?" Qinglong asked calmly. "Young Master, how did you break it? Xuanwu and I studied those clues for a long time and felt that this sword formation should be flawless."

The young master sighed softly, "Over the years, how many people have died in this sword formation in the martial world, one after another, in secret?"

Chu Xia listened to them talk about things in the martial arts world, but she wasn't interested to begin with, so she quietly got up and left.

As she reached the door, she suddenly heard Qinglong call out to her: "Chuxia!"

She turned around: "Huh?"

"How did you become so handsome?" the boy asked loudly, his cheeks slightly flushed.

Chu Xia paused, unsure what to say. A glance from the corner of her eye fell on the young master; his lips were pursed, a half-smile playing on his lips, making his intentions unfathomable. Bai Xue, however, glared fiercely at Qinglong: "What are you babbling about? The young master has important matters to instruct you on."

The young master looked at the two men who were about to clash, pursed his lips slightly, and then took out a roll of thin paper, placed it on the table, and said: "This is the reason why I am determined to destroy Tian Gang."

The two, who had been glaring at each other, suddenly exclaimed in unison, "What?"

"Haven't you always wanted to know?" the young master said calmly. "This is information that I ordered Xuanwu to collect."

But the few words on that thin paper were extremely brief and baffling.

"In the spring of the fourth year of Tianzhi, in Taiyuan, there were seven people from the Wutai Sword Sect."

"In the fourth year of Tianzhi, in the tenth month, in Taizhou, at Tiantai Gate, there were nine people."

...

"In the summer of the 24th year of Tianzhi, in southern Sichuan, four people from the Tang Clan."

"What is this?" Qinglong frowned. "It makes no sense at all."

Bai Xue scoffed: "Can't you tell? This is a collection of murder cases from the fourth to the twenty-fourth year of the Tianzhi reign, cases in the martial arts world that could not be solved. Look, although the murderer cannot be found, there are several similarities among these dozens of cases of family annihilation."

The young master's eyes held an approving look, gesturing for Bai Xue to continue.

"Firstly, these murders caused quite a stir in the martial arts world. Not only were the deaths mysterious, but the most closely guarded secret manuals of each sect were also stolen. Secondly, the causes of death of the victims in each murder case were different, which concealed the fact that they were committed by the same person or the same organization."

"The last point is even simpler." Bai Xue smiled slightly. "Since it was Young Master who listed them, then Young Master must be 90% certain that these murders were committed by Tian Gang."

Qinglong frowned but remained silent.

The young master nodded: "You're right, but that's not entirely true."

"These nearly one hundred murder cases are selected from the more than two thousand murder cases that Xuanwu gave me over the past twenty years. I listed them together because I am convinced that they were committed by Tiangang. It's like an intuition about prey," the young master said calmly. "However, I do not have concrete evidence. And the extermination of Tiangang is to fulfill my father's last wish."

Bai Xue frowned and asked, "Old Master?"

The young master nodded: "He gave these instructions before he died."

“Young Master…” Qinglong’s gaze remained fixed on the thin piece of paper. “I’m thinking, Wutai, Tiantai, Tangmen… these are either famous sword sects or martial arts families in the Jianghu. If Tiangang could destroy them, their strength should not be underestimated.”

The young master nodded and said, "That's right."

"In the battle of Qingchuan River, Young Master broke through his armor, killed He Butuo, and wiped out the remaining forces. But I'm wondering... why would someone in charge of the Heavenly Gang personally come to the Jun residence as a spy?" His eyes gleamed. "Furthermore, they've been planting He Butuo in the Jun residence for years; they must have something to do with it. But what is it?"

Bai Xue sighed softly: "Your guess is not without reason, but Tian Gang is very mysterious. All I know is that the mastermind behind all the actions is this Great Leader. There is no other mastermind."

"Does this mean that if He Tuo were to die, these secrets would never be known again?" Qinglong frowned.

The young master thought of He Butuo's last words—he shouldn't have killed He Butuo so impulsively. But the events of that day were still vivid in his mind. If he had been even a moment later, he would have regretted it deeply. How could he bear it?

Spring insects chirped sadly, and the starlight was slightly cool. Through the thin paper window, the young master's gaze slowly fell on a silhouette.

The figure vaguely appears as a young girl sitting on a stone bench, chin in hand, lost in thought, though it's unclear what she's pondering. Could it be the white leopard cub by Little Mirror Lake, or her unseen lover?

The young master stood up, a hint of weariness hidden between his drooping eyelashes, and said in a low voice, "Yes, this matter may be far from over."

Green Willow Lane

Chapter Twenty-One

The next morning, the group set off to return to Cangzhou.

When Chu Xia reached the door, the guards had already mounted their horses, but only two horses remained at the hitching post. She looked around and asked Qinglong, "Two horses...we still have four people!"

Bai Xue's voice came from behind: "There are enough horses. Young Master has an injury on his back, so he needs to ride in a carriage."

Qinglong curled his lip and said, "In early summer, let's ride horses. Let the Vermilion Bird Envoy accompany you, young master."