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For a long time afterward, he devoted all his energy and effort to this boy. His rigorous training methods, bordering on cruel, terrified his students.

He, however, was cold and did things his own way.

Only he knew that once he stopped, he couldn't help but think of the most beautiful woman in the world. He remembered her smile, her gentle, soft voice… those familiar things clung to his heart, refusing to disappear no matter how hard he tried to forget. And when his mania eroded his reason, he even had the urge to go find her…

Find her, then what? Bring her back? Or kill her? ...This internal conflict left him no peace; anything related to her shattered his composure. What exactly was this feeling? He could never understand it...

...

The thirteenth year of Shaoxing, the beginning of autumn.

The sun was setting, but the heat remained unbearable.

"Hey, it's already the beginning of autumn, and the sun is still so scorching!" A burly man carrying a load said to the people around him, "If you keep walking like this, you'll die of heatstroke! Heh, you're lucky to have met me. There's not a single house for miles around!"

The man was around thirty years old, with a coarse appearance and unrefined speech. He was dressed in shabby peasant clothes. As he walked, he struck up a conversation with the person next to him.

The older man accompanying them was about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with handsome features and an extraordinary air. His eyes, in particular, held a haughty and exceptional arrogance, unlike those of an ordinary person. Beside him was a boy of about twelve or thirteen. Though young, he already possessed that same arrogance. He walked behind, his eyelashes slightly lowered, carrying a wooden box on his back.

"Hehe, looking at you two, I thought you were father and son!" the man carrying the load said with a laugh. "Brother, you're so handsome, how come you're still not married? Tsk, women must be blind."

The man smiled but didn't reply.

"Well, actually, there's no rush. What's that saying again?" The man carrying the load thought for a moment and said, "A real man... what wife?"

"A true man has no reason to worry about not having a wife."

"Yes, yes, yes! Just that one line! Brother, you're still young, no rush! ... Ah, we're almost at our village. Stay at my place tonight. It's simple, but very clean. My wife is very diligent and loves to tidy up... Ah, speaking of my wife, she's really beautiful, hehe, you'll be so envious when you see her..."

The man carrying the load became more and more enthusiastic as he spoke, but the listeners remained silent. In fact, a hint of disdain flickered in their eyes.

"Look, it's my wife!" the man carrying the load suddenly exclaimed joyfully.

Not far ahead stood a village woman. She wore a coarse linen skirt, its colors patched many times. She held a baby in her arms and approached as people drew near.

"Brother Yong, you're back."

Her soft, gentle voice seemed to penetrate right into my bones.

In that instant, the man looked up sharply, and when he saw the woman's face clearly, he felt his blood boil, and something surged up in his heart, clashing and shouting.

Upon seeing him, the woman's expression changed slightly, but then she smiled and asked, "Brother Yong, who are they?"

The man called Yong Ge put down his load and said, "I met them on the road. It's getting late, so I'd like them to stay at my house for the night. Yan Niang, what do you think..."

“Okay,” the woman replied. “By the way, Yong-ge, Aunt Jiu has been looking for you all day…”

"Oh dear! I forgot! She asked me to help her move some things. I'll go now, you take them home first!"

The woman smiled and nodded, watching her husband leave. Then, she turned and said, "Long time no see, Young Master Qi..."

Qi Han looked at her; the beautiful woman before him was none other than Yan Ji. "Yan Niang? What a ridiculous title..."

Yan Ji smiled, "Ridiculous?... My real name is Wang Yanniang..."

"Wang Yanniang?" He looked her up and down. She was slightly plump, far from the slender and delicate woman he remembered. Her once smooth, translucent skin, like white jade, had become slightly darker and reddish. Her jet-black hair was roughly tied up, secured with a crudely made copper hairpin… Just like her extremely ordinary name, she was no longer the stunning beauty who once captivated the world…

Yanji raised her hand to brush her bangs aside, looked at the boy next to Qi Han, and smiled, "Congratulations on finding your disciple."

Qi Han spoke up, "Congratulations on finding your Mr. Right."

Upon hearing this, Yan Ji smiled. At that moment, her eyes shimmered and sparkled, just as they had when he first met her. Only now, her radiance was tinged with contentment and happiness.

His heart skipped a beat, and he frowned slightly, asking, "Since you like this kind of man, why didn't you leave when I told you to?"

Yanji sighed and said, "Alright, I'll tell you..." The moment she changed her self-reference, her voice carried a strange arrogance, "Even if I left you back then, I would never have been free. 'The most beautiful woman in the world,' which woman who has such a title can truly be free?" A hint of contempt flashed in Yanji's eyes. "All the men in the world claim to love me, but in reality, they only love this face, this voice, this figure... Heh, youth fades quickly, beauty is fleeting, I understand that truth."

Yanji smiled and continued, "I tried everything to change my fate. Marrying into the Jiyu Manor as a concubine was just one step in my plan. However, I never expected you to suddenly appear and disrupt everything..."

Qi Han scoffed, "Didn't I tell you back then? If you want to hate, then hate. Back then, you were the one who said you wanted to follow me, weren't you?"

Yanji nodded. "That's right... But back then, even if I hated you and wanted to escape from you, would you have agreed?"

Qi Han was stunned and speechless.

"Of course not, isn't that right?" Yan Ji smiled knowingly. "Back then, not only you, but even Shen Chen hadn't given up. Shen Chen redeemed me with a thousand pieces of gold, and you exchanged me for a famous sword... In your eyes, I was just an object. And back then, it wasn't just the two of you who treated me as an object. Even if I left you, I would inevitably fall into someone else's hands again... I'm not stupid, so why would I make such a foolish decision?"

"So, everything you did for me was just an act?" Qi Han asked with a smile.

Yanji looked up at him and smiled, “I know men’s minds better than anyone. The more devoted and obedient I am to a proud man like you, the less you will respect me. I keep my patron’s white jade hairpin, so you know I’m vain and will look down on me even more. In this way, you won’t care about me or restrain me.”

She sighed and said, "Five years... I've waited a full five years. Waiting for you to discard me like trash, waiting for the whole world to forget me. I've finally waited..."

Qi Han looked at her and felt her whole body stiffen. The woman in front of her was so unfamiliar... The days they spent together, sharing a bed, all seemed like a dream.

“I knew you wouldn’t come out of the valley to find me…” Yanji said. “I never expected that fate would play tricks on us and that you would still run into me. You are highly skilled in martial arts, and if you want to kill me because of this, I have nothing to say. However, I, Yanniang, believe that I have done everything a wife should do in the past five years. I don’t owe you anything.”

Qi Han turned his face away and said disdainfully, "Kill you? That's making a mountain out of a molehill..."

Yanji smiled and said, "That's good."

Qi Han took a deep breath and said, "I have no interest in what you want. Where's the child? Give the child back to me."

Yan Ji gently patted the baby in her arms and said, "Qi Han, I've already said it, I don't owe you anything."

Qi Han frowned at her. "You think I can't take her away if you don't hand her over?!"

Yan Ji showed no fear. She spoke and laughed, "Qi Han, you underestimate women. ... I have already drawn a map of the valley where the Qi family lives in seclusion. If you insist on forcing the issue, don't blame me for making the map public. Of course, if anything happens to me, someone will do it for me... You can calculate for yourself whether that child is more important or the foundation of your Qi family."

"You..." Qi Han was astonished.

Just then, a girl's clear voice came from the side.

"Mother! Look!" A little girl of seven or eight years old came running over, holding a handful of dates in her hands. She ran to Yanji's side, raised her hand high, and smiled innocently.

Yanji smiled and said gently, "So many."

"Father loves dates the most! I'll go show them to him!" the girl exclaimed happily. Just as she was about to run off, she suddenly noticed Qi Han and his group. She quietly looked at Qi Han, seemingly recognizing something. She frowned, thought hard for a moment, and then looked up at Yan Ji, "Mother..."

Yanji smiled and said, "Yan'er, call him Uncle."

The girl's brows immediately relaxed, and she smiled at Qi Han, saying, "Uncle!"

Qi Han stood there, stunned. He then remembered that in the past five years, Yan Ji had never allowed this child to call him "father"... It turned out that this was a scheme that had been laid long ago. And he had always thought he was just an observer.

"Yan'er, this uncle is staying at our house tonight. Could you go and borrow a few eggs from him so we can have some extra dishes for dinner?" Yanji said, bowing her head.

"Eggs? Great!" The girl ran off happily.

Yanji looked up and said, "It's getting dark, I'll go back and cook."

“That’s my child,” Qi Han said, her voice filled with dissatisfaction, almost indignation.

“A man who wouldn’t even give her a name, and a man who was willing to walk twenty miles of mountain road and use half a year’s savings to buy her new clothes… Young Master Qi, tell me, who is more worthy to be her father?” Yan Ji turned around, “She is the child of Zhao Dayong and Wang Yanniang…”

The weather on the day of the Autumn Equinox was unbearably hot and dry, but Qi Han only felt cold. That chill seeped into her bones and wouldn't go away.

He couldn't help but recall Han Qing's words: There are some things in this world that cannot be exchanged.

That night, he sat on the threshold of a farmer's house, drinking cheap, muddy wine, and listening to the villager named Zhao Dayong talk.

"Sigh, those two are really pitiful... I heard her husband is a businessman who never comes home, and the child is five years old and doesn't even have a name. Later, he brought another woman back and divorced her. When she first came to our village, the child could barely speak. Tsk, so pitiful... Such a good woman, I think that man must have no conscience! He deserves to be struck by lightning! Don't you think so, brother?"

He gave a wry smile and drank glass after glass. But this cheap liquor couldn't get him drunk…

...

That year, he returned to the valley without changing anything. Afterward, he ordered his followers to leave and find a new place to live in seclusion.

From then on, Qi family weapons disappeared from the martial arts world. "Qi family weapons are priceless. Their superiority is only truly revealed through barter," this saying circulated for a few years before being forgotten...

...

In the spring of the twenty-third year of Shaoxing, Xingfeng Escort Agency received a big business deal.

Inside the seemingly ordinary wooden box lies a divine weapon known as the "Qi Family's Ultimate Weapon." The one carrying the salvage is the head of the Qi family, who has been missing for nine years. Their destination is Hero's Fortress in Jiangling.

To ensure the safety of this large shipment, Xingfeng Escort Agency sought assistance from Taiping City.

In February, four caravans departed from Xingfeng Escort Agency, heading straight for Hero's Fortress along four different routes.

At that time, the martial arts world was going through a turbulent period.

In the martial arts world, there is a four-line children's rhyme that goes like this:

The city of Taiping is not peaceful.

Heroes have all perished in Hero's Fortress.

Shennong Family, Baicaoling

The ghosts cried every night until dawn.

...

Volume Three: Undercurrents and Turbulent Events

Nine relatives and ten friends

The city of Taiping is not peaceful.

Heroes have all perished in Hero's Fortress.

Shennong Family, Baicaoling

The ghosts cried every night until dawn.

This children's song is known to everyone in the world.

Xiao Xiao had never been to Taiping City; it was far too dangerous for her to know. She had been fortunate enough to stay at Hero's Fortress for a few days, but she wasn't sure if there were any heroes there. After traveling by water for half a month, she stood expressionless on Shennong Baicao Ridge, quietly waiting for the ghosts to wail.

Of course, where would a ghost's wailing come from in broad daylight! Xiao Xiao couldn't help but laugh. She turned around and looked at the herbs covering the surroundings. As expected of the sacred land of Shennong, one of the three great families of the martial arts world, this vast mountain range was planted with various herbs from different regions, layer upon layer from the foot of the mountain to the top, which was truly breathtaking.

What amazed Xiaoxiao even more was that this mountain range was not restricted. She had only stood there for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn when more than a dozen people arrived carrying medicine baskets to gather herbs. Among them were farmers, scholars, old women, and children—a diverse group of people. For a moment, she couldn't help but think that the saying "Shennong went into seclusion, closing his doors and no longer practicing medicine" was pure nonsense.

She crouched down, looking at the unknown herbs scattered on the ground, when suddenly she spotted a tiny red dot among the green grass. She immediately smiled; it was a very small snakeberry. She had always had a sweet tooth, and whenever she saw snakeberries by the roadside, she would pick them and eat them.