Supercomputadora - Capítulo 40
"If you want me to let her go, that's simple." Qiao Fenglang chuckled, just waiting for him to say those words.
"I'm just afraid you can't do it."
"What do you want?" Mu Li glared at him.
"I want...everything of yours." He smiled faintly, "Your status, your identity, and your life."
Yin Wuxiao opened her lips with difficulty, but was unable to speak further. Did Qiao Fenglang really intend to make an exchange with Mu Li? She understood; he merely wanted to see Mu Li struggle with her choice and witness his own disappointment. Today, Qiao Fenglang, consumed by hatred, would not let either her or Mu Li go.
She knew she shouldn't wait for Mu Li to make a decision, because she didn't care about his answer, and she couldn't let herself become a bargaining chip in their struggle. But she held her breath, a faint expectation in her heart. She wasn't expecting Mu Li's answer, but someone else's.
Mu Li fell silent.
"You can't bear to part with it?" Qiao Fenglang chuckled, unsurprised.
"It's not that I'm reluctant to give her up, it's that I'm useless. If I really put my life in your hands, you'd be even less likely to let her go."
"..." Qiao Fenglang laughed loudly, "You know me very well, brother."
This title shocked everyone present.
Qiao Fenglang, however, leaned close to Yin Wuxiao's ear and said with a smile, "Look, this is your Fenglang brother."
Shi Mansi, who was hiding in the crowd behind, was secretly anxious. This stubborn woman, why is she showing off her toughness at this time? If she doesn't play dead now, when will she?
Qiao Fenglang took Yin Wuxiao's delicate hand, which was hidden in her wedding dress, and looked at Mu Li with a smile: "Since you can't bear to part with her, you must bear the consequences of that."
With a "crack," accompanied by Yin Wuxiao's unbearable scream, her wrist bone was snapped in full view of everyone.
"You're so scary." Yin Wuxiao gritted his teeth and stared intently at Qiao Fenglang.
"What?" Qiao Fenglang was surprised that she would speak at this moment.
“You’re not seeking revenge, you’re just venting. Your hatred has nowhere to go, and it’s turned you into a monster.” She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, they were glistening with tears. Her voice was weary: “Brother Fenglang, you shouldn’t…hate me so much. Please stop, okay?”
Qiao Fenglang felt a jolt in his chest, as if something sharp had slashed through his heart.
"Brother Fenglang, shall we sneak out to play?"
"Brother Fenglang, will you help me make a kite?"
"Brother Fenglang, please don't tell Aunt Yun that I broke her porcelain, okay?"
"Brother Fenglang...is that alright?"
Amidst gasps of surprise, Yin Wuxiao fell to the ground like a bright red butterfly, leaving the stunned Qiao Fenglang no time to catch her.
"Xiao'er!" Mu Li let out a wounded beast-like howl.
“…Miss!” Fang Hongjing stepped forward, glaring angrily.
Qiao Fenglang's heart skipped a beat. "Carry the lady to the inner hall to take care of her." He kept his eyes fixed on the scene and suddenly smiled smugly.
"Qingyi, it is truly an honor for the entire 'Traceless' organization that your captivating disguise skills have caught your eye."
Everyone was awed.
Mu Li suddenly turned around and glared at Fang Hongjing behind her.
Fang Hongjing raised an eyebrow. "I gave myself away." He calmly removed the human skin mask.
※ ※ ※
Are you cold?
Yin Wuxiao vaguely heard someone ask her that question.
She wanted to say she was cold, but couldn't open her mouth. There was an indescribable smell in the air, damp and rotten.
"Cold, that's right." The person's voice suddenly drew closer, their breath almost touching her ear.
She suddenly opened her eyes.
"Who...who are you?" she uttered broken words with difficulty, the dark figure before her making her dizzy. The air was thick with the smell of grave soil.
"Don't you recognize me?" The man laughed gruffly, his features gradually becoming clearer. He wore a strange mask, revealing only his eyes, and had a slender figure, seemingly a woman.
"Where is this?" The person who appeared next to her should have been Mansi.
“This place is still ‘Traceless’.” The strange man waved his hand, and a person stepped forward from behind him, respectfully calling out in a soft voice, “Master.”
Yin Wuxiao looked closely and realized that the person was none other than Yuwen Cuiyu! This strange man was Yuwen Cuiyu's master, the founder of "Wuhen," and the one who taught Qiao Fenglang martial arts after he was injured and lost his memory. This person was still alive!
She then realized that she was tied to a stone platform, but the ropes were useless because she was already unable to move.
"Don't you want to know what's really going on?" the strange man laughed again.
Yin Wuxiao turned his head away wearily. "What good will knowing do?"
Seeing that she wasn't enthusiastic, the strange man didn't force her. He reached out and turned one side of the stone platform, and the opposite wall disappeared with a whoosh, replaced by a crystal wall as smooth as a mirror. There were even shadowy figures moving on the wall, and faint sounds could be heard.
"This is..." Even with her vast experience, Yin Wuxiao was speechless with astonishment. She noticed that Yuwen Cuiyu was also both surprised and puzzled by the sight.
The strange man turned his back: "This is a rare stone that is only seen once in a hundred years. Through its ingenious design, it can transmit the scene seen through a small hole in the hall wall to this place. Isn't that a masterpiece of nature?"
"Is this the scene in the hall?" Yin Wuxiao was stunned. She looked closely and indeed saw the figures of Qiao Fenglang and Mu Li, while Baili Qingyi stood between the two, speaking calmly.
"What is your purpose in showing me these things?" Yin Wuxiao's heart suddenly pounded, and he vaguely sensed that something terrible was about to surface.
“Master…” Yuwen Cuiyu also looked at the strange man with confusion, but when she met his sharp gaze, she hurriedly lowered her head, concealing her fleeting doubt: “Master naturally has his own reasons.”
"Yuwen Cuiyu!" Yin Wuxiao shouted, "Look carefully! Don't you understand now? There are actually two Fenglang brothers!"
"What?" Yuwen Cuiyu exclaimed in disbelief.
Yin Wuxiao sighed softly, staring at the ceiling of the secret room, unable to bear looking at her: "Brother Fenglang has a twin brother. The one you fell in love with is Brother Fenglang, but when I confessed my feelings for you that night, it was someone else, Mu Li. He deceived everyone, including you."
Upon hearing this, Yuwen Cuiyu remained silent for a long while before laughing: "Why should I believe you?"
"You..." Yin Wuxiao suddenly felt a pang of pity for her. "If you don't believe me, why don't you see for yourself?"
Yuwen Cuiyu turned around with some doubt. Through the crystal wall, she saw two men with identical figures facing each other. Although one of them had been disfigured, the similarities between the two were still easy to see.
"You're too fixated on this. You only see the name and the status, but you can't see that the current Qin Qiyun and the Feng Lang you fell in love with back then are the same person? And although the current Feng Lang looks the same, his personality is completely different from before!"
"Yu'er, this girl is stalling for time, can't you see that?" The strange man chuckled, showing no concern whatsoever about the impact of Yin Wuxiao's words on Yuwen Cuiyu.
"..." Yuwen Cuiyu stared at the two people at the other end, unable to hide her suspicion any longer, and finally couldn't help but ask, "But Master, what if what she said is true... what if Junior Brother really is him..."
"Wake up, will you? Fenglang was pulled into 'Wuhen' by your master. How could he not know his true identity? Maybe your master orchestrated all of this. He deliberately set up a scheme to make my two brothers kill each other, and used you to sow discord between them!"
"Hmph, how dare you! You actually dare to sow discord between us, master and disciple? Yu'er, do you believe her but not your master?"
"Master, your disciple wouldn't dare!" Yuwen Cuiyu lowered her head in alarm. "This vile woman's words are full of flaws, how could your disciple believe them?"
Yin Wuxiao couldn't help but feel a little sad: "Whether it's full of flaws or not, you know in your heart, but it's an indisputable fact that Brother Fenglang fell in love with you back then, otherwise why would there have been a wedding banquet at Chuxiu Manor?"
"That...that's just a common tactic used by martial arts practitioners to form cliques!" Yuwen Cuiyu cried out in a desperate attempt to escape, but her flustered tone betrayed her involuntary belief in Yin Wuxiao's words. She looked at the strange man pleadingly, "Master, tell me, everything she said is false. If you tell me, I'll believe you!" If what Yin Wuxiao said was true, then who had she been targeting with all this hatred over the years? What was the point of all her revenge and conspiracies? Her meticulously planned drama at the wedding banquet at Chuxiu Manor had only taken her further and further away from what she wanted—what a cruel irony!
"Hmph," the strange man sneered, suddenly ceasing his defenses. Before Yuwen Cuiyu could react, he swiftly sealed all the vital acupoints on her body.
“Yu’er, you are truly the most unsuccessful disciple I have ever taught. Even if you believe it now, you should pretend not to believe it in order to save your life.”
Yuwen Cuiyu stared in disbelief at the strange man, dumbfounded: "Master! Could it really be you...?"
“It was me,” the strange man readily admitted. “It was all me. I did everything. I saved Qiao Fenglang, helped him regain his memory, and taught him to kill all those who had wronged him and all those he disliked.”
"I knew perfectly well that the person in the position of leader of the Qiao Gang was an imposter, and I even hinted that you should infiltrate Yin Wuxiao's side to wait for an opportunity to act. I just didn't expect that you, this useless thing, couldn't even attract Mu Li's attention. So I had no choice but to encourage you to kill everyone in the Yin family. But I didn't expect that you couldn't even do such a simple thing well, and actually let Yin Wuxiao escape!"
“In fact, it was I who told Mu Li that as long as Qiao Fenglang was gone, you,” he pointed to Yin Wuxiao, “would naturally belong to him. That’s why he was able to make up his mind to assassinate his own brother, personally disfigure him, and push him off the cliff.”
"You..." Yin Wuxiao could not calm his excitement and spoke in a trembling voice: "What deep hatred do you have for our Qiao and Yin families? Why, why did you go to such lengths to make us kill each other and separate our families?"
"Deep-seated hatred? Hmph, my hatred extends far beyond the Qiao and Yin families. I also hate the Baili Manor, the Qiong Sect, Mu Wanfeng, and the entire martial world!"
"So, all these years you've been using me?" Yuwen Cuiyu seemed to have her soul ripped out in an instant, and gave a dejected, bitter smile.
"Use you?" The strange man grinned menacingly. "You're not worthy of being used by me! All those years of painstakingly teaching you, I thought you resembled me in my youth, I thought I could rely on you to eliminate my enemies in this world, but I never expected you to be such a useless wretch! You only care about men, where is your master? What can a woman as worthless as you accomplish?"
"Look at those two kids outside, aren't they both incredibly intelligent? Yet they're still completely manipulated by me. Hmph, so what if they're the sons of the Qiao Gang leader and the Qiong Sect leader? They still ended up killing each other, didn't they? Qiao Baiyue, you've been clever all your life, did you ever foresee this day?"
Yin Wuxiao was terrified: "You...who exactly are you?"
The strange man laughed loudly: "So even someone as clever as you has moments of being at a loss?"
Cold Mountain Journey
Yin Wuxiao and Yuwen Cuiyu both turned pale.
Yuwen Cuiyu was thinking about how meaningless the path she had walked over the years had been. She was completely immersed in confusion, as if she had suddenly lost her way and did not know what to do next.
Yin Wuxiao's mind was racing.
The person before them not only possessed intimate knowledge of the Qiao family's secrets but also had a significant connection to the deceased Qiao Baiyue. Furthermore, she knew intimately about Yin Wuxiao, Mu Li, and Qiao Fenglang, and the relationships between them. Such a person must have been lurking within their inner circle, someone intimately familiar with them. Who could it be?
In the end, Yin Wuxiao dared not think any further.
Suddenly, on the other side of the crystal wall, a person in the crowd walked smiling to the center of the hall, said something, and then gently wiped his face with his hand.
Yin Wuxiao felt a little relieved. Since this person had come, he must have a way to resolve this matter.
But even if he was the smartest and most powerful person in the martial arts world, how could he have guessed that there would be a mechanism like the Crystal Wall, or that there would be layers upon layers of mystery behind the whole thing?
But no matter what, with him around, this strange man's conspiracy could never be accomplished.
Now, her own safety was her concern. She chewed a Chinese medicine pill. According to the plan, Mansi should have been there to meet her, but why had she fallen into the hands of this strange man and been forcibly awakened? She couldn't help but feel anxious, wondering how Mansi was doing.
On the other side of the crystal wall, Mu Li stared dumbfounded at Baili Qingyi, who had suddenly appeared.
"You...didn't you gather the Nine Villages and Eighteen Sects and wait at the foot of the mountain? How come you're here?"
"Chief Qiao, or should I call him Chief Mu?" Baili Qingyi walked to the center of the hall, looked around, and his stern gaze made everyone around him involuntarily lower their heads and dare not look him in the eye.
"You knew all along? You knew my true identity all along?" Mu Li exclaimed in disbelief, suddenly looking up at Qiao Fenglang with a crazed glint in his eyes. "Could it be you? Did you join forces against me? Baili Qingyi! Although I am at odds with you, I have never done anything to harm your Baili family. Why did you harm me?"
"Join forces?" Qiao Fenglang seemed to have heard the biggest joke in the world. "If Baili Qingyi would join forces with others, I wouldn't have let you live to this day!" He turned to Baili Qingyi: "Young Master Qingyi, I remember your life-saving grace that day. But today's matter is a family affair of the Qiao family. Does Young Master Qingyi really want to interfere?"
Baili Qingyi frowned: "This matter has developed to the point where it is no longer a private affair of your Qiao family. Qiao Fenglang, you were betrayed by Mu Li, resulting in disfigurement and amnesia. The martial world will give you justice. However, in your pursuit of revenge, you have implicated too many innocent people. The Baili family will not stand idly by."