It wasn't until she gently curled his lips with the tip of her tongue that he awkwardly opened his mouth and shyly entwined with her.
"Brother Mu Yuan, is this your first time?" she then asked him.
Mu Yuan remained silent as always. However, there was a hint of awkwardness in his silence.
His martial arts skills are so high, his mind is so sharp, and he's so rational it's almost freakish, yet he doesn't even know how to kiss. For the first time in many years, Xuezhi laughed out loud at the strange thought in her mind—the world-renowned Mu Yuan was actually a virgin.
This is completely different from the Zhaojun sister who frightened her to tears because she was too vulgar. They are not the same kind of people at all.
Therefore, even if she is with Mu Yuan, it doesn't mean she is using him as a substitute.
Perhaps, it really is time to forget Shangguan Tou...
With only a few months left until the triennial Heroes' Gathering, Xuezhi prayed that nothing else would happen in the meantime. However, in this treacherous world of martial arts, even a single hour could see hundreds or thousands of wronged souls reporting to the underworld.
Almost every day, new sects are established, while many others decline and disappear from the world.
Almost every moment, an unknown newcomer emerges from obscurity, or a highly skilled young man becomes famous overnight, becoming a great hero or a notorious thief. At the same time, many martial arts heroes retire from the world, fading into obscurity or even being completely forgotten.
A month after the Weapon Ranking Tournament ended, another celebrity appeared in the martial arts world: Lady Seven Cherry Blossoms.
The easiest way to become famous is to kill. To verify whether someone has achieved fame, all you need to know is how many people want to kill them. And these two things are inextricably linked.
Lady Seven Cherry Blossoms rose to fame at an astonishing speed. This meant she had killed many people. Moreover, countless people wanted to kill her.
There are many renowned heroes in the martial arts world who do not belong to any sect, such as Hua Yijian, Zhong Tao, and Qiu Jianyou, who were acquainted with Shangguan Tou before. However, it is extremely rare to find someone like Lady Qiying, who possesses a large sect system and team but does not establish a sect.
Lady Seven Cherry Blossoms certainly killed many people while roaming the martial world, but she was incredibly swift and decisive. She wouldn't kill those who shouldn't have been killed, and she wouldn't use two sword strikes to finish someone off with one. If a task required a thousand taels of silver, she wouldn't be stingy with a single copper coin, but she also wouldn't waste an extra one—such a style of conduct is something everyone dreams of. However, someone truly capable of being so unaffected by emotions is a rare find, perhaps only once in a century.
Her followers were countless, but only six remained by her side long-term, making a total of seven, including herself. They all wore masks in all situations. However, the six others wore white masks, while Lady Seven Cherry Blossoms herself wore a black mask. All seven masks were adorned with red cherry blossom petals. This is the origin of her name.
In fact, nobody knows her name.
Lady Seven Cherry Blossoms' six attendants are collectively known as the Blood Cherry Six. All six are male, and their physiques vary greatly: two are exceptionally tall and strong, one is exceptionally short, and one is exceptionally thin. The other two are of average build.
Some say that not all of the Blood Cherry Six are skilled in martial arts, since only three of them actually know how to fight. However, it's more likely that the other three never even had a chance to use their skills.
Because if any one of these three people commits murder, they will not have the opportunity to use a second move.
As for Lady Seven Cherry Blossoms' martial arts skills, no one has ever seen them. Even if they had, they could only have been dead.
Xuezhi had long since stopped caring about these new developments in the martial arts world. She had heard about Lady Qiying long ago, but only took it seriously after getting involved with Chonghuo Palace.
178
July.
Chang'an.
In the sweltering summer heat, the sky was a white expanse, and Chang'an was bustling with carriages and horses, layers of dust drifting in the air. The blazing sun hung high above the dust, its rays like golden rockets, their flames shooting straight to the ground, almost burning a hole in the imperial city. The rays also transformed into sharp swords, piercing the skin of those exposed to the air. Everyone felt like a fried monkey, restless and agitated.
On this day, Zhu Sha brought several disciples from Chonghuo Palace to Chang'an to pick up a shipment from Pinghu Chunyuan. Because the carriage broke down at the last minute, the meeting place was changed from Baihu Gate to Chang'an Chun Restaurant in the East Market.
As always, Chang'an Chun Restaurant was bustling with people coming and going in front of the door, and packed with guests inside. But on this particular day, there were quite a few regular customers crowding outside.
Before an incense stick had burned, Situ Xian, the youngest son of Situ Xuetian, the richest man in Chang'an, was pushed out by the waiter. He rolled around on the ground for a long time before being caught by his elder brother, Situ Yan. Before leaving, he said, "Wait until my father buys this lousy restaurant of yours, then we'll see if you dare to act so disrespectfully towards me again, hmph!"
The shopkeeper apologized to Situ Yan while explaining that he truly had no choice that day; the person inside was someone important and he couldn't afford to offend them. Situ Yan repeatedly asked who it was, and the shopkeeper could only bow and sigh, saying that too much talk leads to mistakes, and that Boss Xu had promised to personally apologize another day.
Of course, Situ Xuetian wasn't without a way to buy Chang'an Chun Restaurant. However, even if he bought all the buildings in this area right now, he would only be able to stand outside the door.
Many distinguished guests were turned away that day. The shopkeeper was heartbroken, but Boss Xu couldn't stop smiling—he was in his room counting a large box of gold ingots, biting at them with his shiny gold teeth.
However, just before Zhu Sha went in, a corpse was thrown from the second floor and trampled to pieces by the hooves of galloping horses.
The shopkeeper touched his neck, shrank to the side, and sighed, "Didn't Mount Hua just lose a sect leader? Why are they sending people to their deaths so soon?"
"They say a new broom sweeps clean. But I think Sect Leader Lu's fire died down way too quickly."
"I suppose only Chonghuo Palace can get to the third floor," the shopkeeper said, looking up at the red window under the blazing sun.
At this moment, Zhu Sha led his disciples straight into the Chang'an Spring Restaurant.
The waiter quickly stepped forward to block Zhu Sha: "Sir, our shop is full today and we cannot serve any more customers. Please find another place..."
Before he could finish speaking, the innkeeper had already smacked the waiter on the head with his abacus: "What nonsense are you spouting!" He then bowed obsequiously to Zhu Sha: "So you're the heroine Zhu Sha! We're really too busy right now, but we'll definitely come to visit another day—"
The cinnabar eyes were on the shopkeeper's head; he went straight in.
The waiter panicked and immediately grabbed Zhu Sha's sleeve: "No! You'll definitely die if you go in. Look at those, those, and those..."
Zhu Sha turned around, looked at the waiter's hand clutching her clothes, and remained silent. The waiter was so frightened that he quickly withdrew his hand, stammering, "It would be such a pity to kill such a beautiful girl." Before he could finish speaking, Zhu Sha slapped him away.
As soon as Zhu Sha and his group entered the restaurant, the innkeeper got excited and shouted to everyone, "The people from Chonghuo Palace have gone up!"
People crowded around.
Despite the restaurant being described as packed, the main hall was completely empty except for a few waiters. At the top of the stairs on the second floor stood two men wearing cherry blossom masks, both burly and at least two heads taller than Zhu Sha. One sat beside the stairs, while the other, with a long beard, stood ramrod straight.
The man sitting by the stairs had limbs twice the size of an average person. He was holding about a dozen silver ingots and a few small copper coins, putting the silver ingots into his pocket one by one. But accidentally, a copper coin fell into a crack in the wall. He reached in to retrieve it, but couldn't—the crack wasn't actually small, it was just that his hands were too big. But without any intention of asking the man next to him for help, he punched through the wall, picked up the copper coin, wiped it, and stuffed it into his pocket.
Zhu Sha glanced at them and sat down directly on the first floor.
“Our master is upstairs, please leave,” the standing man said.
Zhu Sha said, "We're eating on the first floor, what's it to you?"