Shu Ke peut regagner une fortune perdue

Chapitre 13

Ruan Qingxuan assumed that the other party would not break their promise in front of everyone, so he readily agreed: "As long as Sect Leader Liu puts down the sword first."

Liu Junru truly abandoned her sword and stood with her hands behind her back.

Ruan Qingxuan took two steps back, suddenly pushed Xu Lianning aside, and turned to run down the mountain. Before Xu Lianning could even stand up straight, she felt someone gently hug her from behind, their voice tinged with laughter: "I played along with you two in your play, but this time I didn't gain any advantage and even suffered some minor injuries for nothing."

Xu Lianning replied irritably, "I didn't force you to do that."

Suddenly, Liu Junru bent down to pick up the sword. With a swift, sweeping motion, she cut the sword into pieces, all of which shot forward. The attack was so sudden that Xu Lianning instinctively wanted to warn Ruan Qingxuan to be careful, but she couldn't utter a sound.

Who can understand human feelings when facing adversity?

The suddenness of the attack made Xu Lianning instinctively want to warn Ruan Qingxuan to be careful, but she couldn't utter a sound. Zhang Weiyi, disregarding her injured left hand, gently grasped Xu Lianning's hand and whispered, "If you act rashly, all of Miss Ruan's efforts will be in vain." With Ruan Qingxuan's identity exposed, Xu Lianning, who was very close to her, would inevitably be implicated. Everything she did in the end was merely for show.

That's why Xu Lianning realized she always owed her a great deal: if she had just watched quietly when her master made his move, and everything had remained speculation, she wouldn't have been able to do anything to her. She would have had many more opportunities to safely reunite with the Tianshang Sect in the future, instead of facing the swords and spears of the righteous martial arts world directly.

Xu Lianning could only watch as Ruan Qingxuan's figure drew closer and closer to the foot of the mountain, and further and further away from her. Instinctively, she reached out to grasp the hand of the person beside her, only to find it sticky.

Suddenly, Ruan Qingxuan stopped and remained motionless for a long while. Then, gradually, a few spots of crimson spread across her clothes, like red plum blossoms blooming in deep snow. The sword in her hand clattered to the ground, and a tear slowly slid down her cheek.

Xu Lianning looked over and everything she saw was slightly blurry; her whole body felt as if she had lost all sensation.

I vaguely returned to the ancient Helan path, perpetually cold, where the tall woman with a light veil plucked a plum blossom, then smiled softly and recited: "Several buds just beginning to hold snow..."

...May the wind understand my heart.

She suddenly turned around, her tone still smiling, but with a hint of coldness: "Who's behind me?"

The game is over; the game is almost completely lost.

Xu Lianning closed her eyes, forcefully suppressing the tenderness in them: "I'm fine. I can't let her not be able to leave in peace..."

Zhang Weiyi smiled with relief: "You're alright, but now I'm the one in trouble." Xu Lianning then realized that she had been holding his left hand, which was sticky with blood, and quickly let go.

Liu Junru casually tossed the broken sword aside, turned to the disciples of Longteng Post Station, and said, "How can people of the Demonic Sect be trusted? Remember this from now on."

Xu Lianning was filled with hatred, but his smile became even more natural as he stepped forward and said, "This junior thanks Sect Leader Liu for saving me."

Liu Junru turned her head and looked at her for a long time before saying, "It's nothing."

Xu Lianning said again, "This junior will take her leave." She took two steps back, but saw her master standing not far away, looking sad and as if he had aged ten years in an instant. She couldn't bear it and softly called out, "Master."

When Rong Wanci saw that it was her, she sighed softly, turned her back and said, "Master Tianyan mentioned to me that he wanted you to return to Wudang. I think it's better to see what you think."

Xu Lianning said calmly, "This disciple is unworthy. No matter who Master passes on his mantle to in the future, Lianning will do his best."

"Besides martial arts, I haven't taught you anything else, and I've let you run wild all this time." Rong Wan's tone was desolate. "Where can I start over for another twenty years? Enough, enough." With a flick of her sleeve, she left. Xu Lianning was at a loss for what to do, suddenly feeling that in this vast world, there was nowhere for her to belong.

She remembered the promise she had made with Ruan Qingxuan to travel all over the country one day, but now she was all alone.

What use is the position of Palace Master Lingxuan to her? She doesn't care about it at all.

She sighed softly, then suddenly remembered something and turned back to look for Zhang Weiyi. She saw him standing there, smiling as Li Qingyun bandaged his hand. She hesitated for a moment, then walked over, only to see Li Qingyun immediately look at her warily. Xu Lianning stopped three steps away from them, unsure how to phrase her words.

Zhang Weiyi squinted slightly as he watched her hesitate there, and finally heard her speak: "Young Master Zhang, I have a request, and I hope you will grant it."

Li Qingyun breathed a soft sigh of relief.

Xu Lianning waited a while but received no reply. She looked up at him in confusion and saw that he had a strange expression on his face, as if he wanted to strangle her. After a long while, she heard him reply, "Please speak."

Ruan Qingxuan's tomb stands on the back mountain of Wudang.

The bluestone tombstone stands empty.

Xu Lianjing watched quietly for a while, then turned her head and smiled: "Thank you for this time." Giving Ruan Qingxuan a proper burial was probably the limit of what she could do.

Zhang Weiyi stood behind her, with a half-smile on her face: "Then, I can settle this old score with you."

"Hmm?" She frowned slightly, then remembered her purpose in approaching him. But too much had happened since then, and she had no energy left to deal with them. Perhaps it was best to give up now.

“I thought about it carefully afterward. You didn’t say how you hoped I would treat you, nor how long you wanted to stay by my side.” He lowered his eyes and chuckled slightly. “If I said I had a lifetime to slowly treat you well…” Xu Lianning looked up at him and saw a gentle smile slowly spreading across his handsome face. She had never seen him look like this before, as if he were helpless and had no choice but to compromise in the end.

Xu Lianning felt frustrated. No matter what she said or did before, the other party just wouldn't take the bait. But now he was expressing his feelings: "If it's a lifetime, it would be more believable if we waited another five or ten years."

Zhang Weiyi was slightly taken aback, then smiled and said, "If I still care about you this much five or ten years from now, what will you do?"

Xu Lianning was furious: "Then we'll talk about it then."

Zhang Weiyi didn't seem angry at all. Instead, he asked a trivial question: "Do you remember the peasant uprising in the Jingxiang area four years ago?"

"Are you talking about the rebel army led by Li Yuan?" she asked casually. "I happened to be in Jingzhou that year. What's wrong?"

"It's nothing." He paused, then said calmly, "What you need to do now is actually very simple. Just accept my kindness, don't hide anything from me, and slowly you'll naturally become inseparable from me."

Xu Lianning knew she shouldn't have said those words, but she couldn't help asking, "If I care about you, is it still not as much as you care about me?"

Zhang Weiyi felt as if he had been slapped across the face. After a long while, he slowly said, "Are you trying to say that you were just playing me before? Fine, it's just a sword strike, it won't hurt you too much. Of course, if your martial arts are better than mine, then that's another story."

Xu Lianning smiled sweetly, looking very obedient: "Weiyi, you're really overthinking it." She suddenly remembered something and couldn't help but frown slightly: "Senior Sister Qingxuan—I can't change my tune yet. She's from the Tianshang Sect. How did Master and the others find out about this?"

Seeing that she had changed the subject, Zhang Weiyi simply said, "Your injury hasn't healed yet, so don't stand for too long. Sit down and I'll tell you slowly." Xu Lianning was also a little tired, so she picked a flat stone and sat down. Zhang Weiyi sat down next to her and slowly began, "When did you discover Miss Ruan's identity?"

"How would I know..." She only got halfway through her sentence before Zhang Weiyi looked over, and she quickly changed her words, "Although I had some doubts before, after what you said to me, I was pretty sure it was her. You said that the medicine could be prepared in advance, but it still needed a catalyst. I remembered that when Senior Sister Qingxuan was sparring with Liu Junru, I did smell a fragrance, but it was different from the incense she usually liked to burn. And the night before, when Senior Sister He and your Junior Sister Li saw me outside, I actually followed Senior Sister Qingxuan out, but I didn't notice her doing anything. Putting all this together, she did put medicine on me that night, but that one kind alone wouldn't be enough. On the day of the competition, that fragrance was probably the catalyst."

"I guessed it around that time too. Most people would want to sever all ties with this kind of thing, but you're happy to get involved," Zhang Weiyi said calmly. "As for today's situation, it was Palace Master Rong who came up with it. If you want to know, you can ask her."

"I wouldn't dare. Asking like that would be tantamount to telling Master that I already knew and was deliberately trying to hide it from her."

Zhang Weiyi leaned against the tree trunk behind him, stretched out his body slightly, and squinted at her: "There's one more thing you haven't said. Before I injured you that night, you seemed to have fought with someone?"

"I went to the appointment as instructed." She took out a note from her pocket. "Luckily, I arrived early. Seeing that the other person was masked, I knew something was wrong, and I ran into you after I made my escape." Zhang Weiyi knew that she was highly skilled in light-body techniques, yet she still ended up with insufficient internal energy, so the process must have been extremely dangerous: "Do you know who the other person is?"

“I have no idea.” Xu Lianning frowned, but then relaxed. “As long as I stay in the house at night, I should be safe.”

"You know that's good." He chuckled softly. "Anyway, you've been occupying my room for so long, so just keep staying." Xu Lianning didn't want to go back to Chunyang Palace in the first place, but she was used to arguing with him, so she couldn't help but ask, "What are you up to?"

"Yes, I do have ulterior motives." Zhang Weiyi narrowed her eyes slightly, lazily drawing out the last syllable. "Do you really want to know?"

Xu Lianning felt a chill run down her spine and said, "I don't want to, I really don't want to." She couldn't help but sigh inwardly, thinking that in terms of shamelessness, she was still far inferior to him.

The two then sat side by side, chatting idly. Xu Lianning looked at the moon high in the sky, feeling slightly drowsy. After saying a few more words, she gradually drifted off to sleep. In her hazy state, she seemed to hear a very soft sigh.

Moonlight bathed Xiao Qianjue.

His brows were furrowed, and a hint of regret seemed to flash across his face before disappearing completely.

"Master, the people have arrived," Yun Qian said softly, standing behind him.

Xiao Qianjue sneered: "Bring him here. I want to see if he still has the face to see me."

Before long, a man in black was brought before him. The man stood with his head bowed, trembling slightly: "Master..."

Xiao Qianjue raised his hand in mid-air, and with a loud slap, the man's face was turned to the other side. He spoke slowly and deliberately, each word as cold as ice: "If you're going to raise a piece of trash who only hides behind those self-proclaimed righteous sects and watches Qingxuan die tragically, you might as well feed him to the dogs."

The man suddenly knelt down and said, "The situation was extremely urgent, and the other side outnumbered us. Even if we risked our lives, we couldn't bring Miss Ruan back. Right now, there's only one way to wipe out these scoundrels from reputable sects without losing too many of our own men."

Xiao Qianjue raised an eyebrow slightly: "Oh?"

"Originally, besieging the foot of the mountain for a year or six months would have been enough to raze Wudang to the ground. But I fear they might fight to the death, with their backs to the wall, and our sect would inevitably suffer heavy losses. Perhaps the sect leader should temporarily retreat and issue a challenge to Wudang. They fear the ridicule of the world and will certainly come to fight. As long as the ambush is properly laid, and with my inside help, then..."

Xiao Qianjue gave a cold laugh: "Why should I believe you?"

The man simply knelt there, without saying a word.

Xiao Qianjue flicked his sleeve and said to Yun Qian, "We'll set off for the main altar early tomorrow morning." As he walked past the man, he tossed out a sentence: "I'll let you off this time, but if you make a mistake again, don't bother coming to see me."

I slept soundly until dawn, a very peaceful night.

"You're awake?" A soft whisper came from beside my ear.

Xu Lianning shifted slightly, then realized something was amiss. She remembered sleeping beside Zhang Weiyi, definitely not in his arms, and certainly not with his arm under her. She looked at him and asked, "You didn't sleep all night?"

"Hmm, I can't sleep." Zhang Weiyi rubbed his stiff arms, stood up and said, "I have to go to the morning class, so I won't go back with you." He took two steps, then suddenly turned back, a slight smile playing on his lips: "If you encounter any danger, remember to shout loudly."

Xu Lianning was exasperated: "Aren't you going yet?"

Watching his tall, slender figure disappear into the distance, she shook her head, frowned slightly, and stared blankly for a moment. She felt neither hunger nor was in a hurry to return to the True Temple; she simply strolled leisurely in the back hills. She vaguely remembered crossing a stream when she was a child; the water was so clear you could see the bottom, and fish swam among it.

As dawn breaks and the sky is still dark, walking along the bamboo-lined mountain path, the cool morning breeze offers a unique experience.

Xu Lianning quickly found the stream she used to frequent. Summer had arrived, and the heat was intensifying, making one want to take off their shoes and socks and wade in the water. Unfortunately, someone had already beaten her to it.

The man, his outer robe still damp, sat leisurely by the water. Xu Lianning glanced at him and saw that his fingers, supporting him on the ground, were long and slender, and a long sword lay beside him. The man also heard the sound behind him, turned around, and smiled slightly at her.

Xu Lianning paused for a moment, and for some reason, a sentence came to mind: "The mountains are verdant, the rivers are vast, and the virtue of a gentleman is as lofty as the mountains and as enduring as the rivers."

The man looked at her quietly, his eyes bright as morning stars, with a faint smile: "Meeting is fate, there's no need to care about names or identities, what do you think, young lady?"

She was about to blurt out "Master Shang," but upon hearing the other person's words, she quickly changed her mind and asked, "How did you find this place, young master?"

Shang Mingjian rested one hand on his knee, a blade of grass between his fingers, and smiled brightly: "I was just taking a casual stroll, but I got lost in the mountains. Luckily, I heard the sound of water and found my way here."

Xu Lianning smiled slightly and said, "It is indeed easy to get lost in some places in these mountains." She walked closer to the water and washed up briefly. The reflection in the shimmering water revealed a face with a sharp chin and an indescribable weariness in her eyes. She could only chuckle. Suddenly, she heard a melodious sound of a grass flute behind her.

She turned her head and saw that Shang Mingjian had already stood up, with a slender green leaf on his lips.

He turned his head slightly to the side, the sunlight behind him gradually brightening, but it couldn't match the smile on his lips. The melody of the grass flute faded away, and Xu Lianning saw him momentarily lost in thought, his gaze then falling on the jade flute she wore. She casually took it off: "I thought this flute was pretty, so I've been wearing it."

Shang Mingjian laughed and asked, "Are you hungry?" As soon as he finished speaking, he drew his sword from the side, brandished it in the water a couple of times, and when he pulled it back, it was already skewered with two fish.

Xu Lianning thought to himself that it was a pity to use such a fine sword to string fish; it was a complete waste of its potential.

He skillfully gutted and scaled the fish with his sword, his movements surprisingly natural. Xu Lianning gathered some branches. The two built a fire and grilled the fish. Xu Lianning found it amusing and couldn't help but ask, "Do you often sleep outdoors?" Shang Mingjian was taken aback, then laughed, "Homemade fish tastes much better than store-bought." He seemed to remember something and added, "There was a time when I was chased so badly I couldn't even stay at an inn. I miss those times now." Xu Lianning smiled in return, "Now that you mention it, I'm really hungry."

Shang Mingjian skewered the fish on a branch and roasted them over the fire, turning them over and over: "It would be even better if it had salt."

Xu Lianning said, "Some of these parts are burnt."

He glanced at her with a smile: "It's no big deal."

Once the fish was grilled, the two shared it. Xu Lianning turned her head to look at him, only to find his demeanor elegant and his laughter gentle as a spring breeze. She couldn't understand why Ruan Qingxuan had spoken of him with such sarcasm. Shang Mingjian also sensed her scrutinizing him and turned his head slightly to look at her: "Is something wrong?"

Xu Lianning shook his head: "Was the tune you just played 'Green Robe'?" "Green Robe" is a poem in the "Airs of the States" section of the Book of Songs, which is a lament for a deceased wife.

Shang Mingjian paused for a moment, then readily replied, "A long time ago, I wronged someone. Unfortunately, even after searching high and low, I couldn't find a trace of them." He smiled, "Back then, I was young and impetuous, doing whatever I wanted without a second thought, and I still do it now..." He stopped there.

Xu Lianning said calmly, "Do you still regret it now?"

"No, not at all." He raised an eyebrow and casually asked, "Are you going back?"

"Yes, we need to clean these things up before we leave." Xu Lianning pointed to the leftover fish bones and bones with a tree branch.

"Only the two of us would dare to do such a disrespectful thing to the God of Zhenwu," Shang Mingjian said with a laugh as he cleaned up the mess. Since the Song Dynasty, Taoist scriptures have said that the God of Zhenwu was born and ascended to heaven in Wudang Mountain, which is also the origin of the name Wudang.

Xu Lianning paused, then suddenly muttered to himself, "...Perhaps it's because I did too many disrespectful things here before."

After they finished packing, the two walked back along the mountain path.

Shang Mingjian accompanied her to the front of Fuzhen Temple before smiling slightly and saying, "Then I'll take my leave. We'll grill fish together again sometime."