The poison took effect quickly, and Situ Yebai's face turned ashen in an instant.
After a long while, he finally let out a soft, intermittent chuckle:
"...Fine, perhaps this is my fate. What difference does it make whether I die three years earlier or three years later?"
In just a moment, his once handsome face became so stiff that he could no longer even manage a smile.
Lan Wuxie's cold voice remained unchanged:
"From this moment on, your body will begin to stiffen, and you will lose all your martial arts skills; after an hour, you will be unable to move your limbs, you can see, hear, smell, but you will be unable to speak or move, and you will be like grass and trees."
"Like grass and trees..." Situ Yebai murmured softly, forcing a smile as he slowly raised his hand and inserted the purple-gold phoenix-wing hairpin into his chest. The hairpin was very long, and his movements were already very slow; with each movement, the hairpin sank inch by inch into his chest. Hua Chongyang, Liu Da, and Chu San watched in horror. Liu Da whispered:
"He wanted to commit suicide..."
But Lan Wuxie didn't move at all, only coldly watching Situ Yebai struggle to move his fingers, pushing the hairpin into his chest. As a result, the hairpin was halfway in, and Situ Yebai was completely unable to move, frozen in place.
His eyes remained open, his face still bearing the same slight smile, but his body leaned motionless against the stone wall; not a drop of blood flowed from the edge of the hairpin embedded in his flesh—the sight was utterly grotesque. Liu Da's face paled at the sight, and he muttered to himself softly:
"...Situ Yebai is a madman...a madman..."
Unexpectedly, Chu San spoke up:
"Situ Yebai isn't crazy; I think he's perfectly lucid."
"How so?"
Chu San also withdrew his gaze, shivering:
"By stabbing himself with the hairpin like that, he will either die; or, if Lan Wuxie wants to see him suffer, she certainly won't use the phoenix-wing hairpin. If she does, he will surely die—"
Chu San hadn't finished speaking.
Hahahaha!
Suddenly, a burst of arrogant and out-of-control laughter erupted from the cave.
The three of them turned their heads at the same time.
Hua Chongyang was taken aback.
The one laughing wildly was An Ping. His hair was disheveled and his eyes were bloodshot. He walked step by step to the center of the cave, standing down in front of Situ Yebai, staring at him with wide, bloodshot eyes.
"Situ Yebai, Situ Yebai! You've finally met your match... You've finally met your match?!"
The cave was completely silent. Hua Chongyang's first thought was: Situ Yebai had poisoned Anping before, and now Anping was suffering from the poison and had gone mad.
But Anping stopped laughing and suddenly turned around:
"Lan Wuxie, are you feeling quite smug right now? Do you think you've gotten your revenge?"
That's a strange question.
Hua Chongyang immediately felt a sense of foreboding.
Even from a distance, she immediately noticed that Lan Wuxie's face turned deathly pale.
Anping burst into another fit of wild laughter, then stopped in front of Lan Wuxie, staring at him with a strange expression and a cold smile:
"What do you have to be proud of, Lan Wuxie?"
He slowly raised his hand, pointing at Situ Yebai, who was leaning stiffly against the wall behind him, his smile extremely sinister:
"The person you just killed was none other than your biological father."
Lan Wuxie stood quietly in place, motionless.
Anping drew closer, adding in a soft, hoarse voice:
"Lan Wuxie... your name is not Shangguan Rongzhi. Your real name... should be, Situ Qingliu."
He turned around, his voice hoarse yet laced with a sinister laugh, and addressed Situ Yebai:
"You never thought this would happen, did you, Situ Yebai? You've actually been reduced to a grotesque, inhuman state by your own son!"
90. Clear Stream
The entire cave was utterly silent, save for Anping's hysterical laughter, which echoed eerily. Lancao stepped forward and called out:
"Anping, you're insane!"
"I'm insane? Hahahaha!" Anping burst into another bout of hysterical laughter. "Yes! I'm insane! Ever since the day I switched you and the Crown Prince twenty-four years ago, I've been insane! I raised the son of my enemy with my own hands, and then watched him be driven to a dead end by his own father, suffering a fate worse than death—"
What did Situ Yebai feed you?
"Lan Wuxie, are you scared? To kill Situ Yebai, you endured over a decade of living hell, only to discover in the end that he was your own father—you are not Shangguan Rongzhi, you are Situ Qingliu—"
Lan Wuxie spoke coldly:
"Shut up."
"Don't want to hear it, is that it? More than twenty years ago, a few months before Situ Yebai stormed the capital, the princess foresaw that once he gained power, he would not let the Shangguan family go. Therefore, she ordered me to take the young master and infiltrate the Northwest camp to switch you with him—"
Lancao chimed in from the side:
"No, that's impossible. If you switched them, Situ Yebai couldn't have missed it—"
"Discovered? You might as well ask Prince Ningjing right now: from birth until he was a year and a half old, did he even glance at his son? He not only betrayed the princess, but he betrayed the county princess even more. When the county princess died in childbirth, he didn't even return to the Northwest to see her—such a person deserves to be killed by his own son!"
The echo reverberated.
Anping's voice calmed down as he slowly said:
"When the princess knew she was terminally ill, she summoned me to her bedside."
Xie Qiangwei was incredibly shrewd. On her deathbed, she instructed Anping: After her death, Anping should take the fake Shangguan Rongzhi and escape from the capital. The underground cave contained countless gold and silver, enough for him to live a carefree life. If Situ Yebai still had a shred of kindness, he would spare his own son. If he intended to exterminate them all, then he would be punished for his evil deeds.
No wonder the book left for Lan Wuxie in this grotto was Situ Yebai's book from his youth.
Situ Yebai, leaning against the entrance of the stone cave in the distance, changed his gaze from cold to shock, finally fixing it on Lan Wuxie, his eyes overflowing with immense pain.
The cave was quiet. Lan Wuxie stood in the same spot for a long time before slowly turning around.
He was dressed in white, his cuffs stained with someone else's blood, and he walked step by step toward the cave entrance.
Hua Chongyang was alarmed, fearing something might happen to Lan Wuxie, and stood up from behind the rock, calling out:
"Lan Wuxie!"
Lan Wuxie stopped, looked up, and stared at Hua Chongyang with almost numb eyes. After a long while, she murmured:
"...This isn't true."
Just as I was about to go over, a familiar voice sounded behind me:
"That's certainly true."
She turned around.
Situ Qingliu led Pinlan slowly into the passageway, and saw Hua Chongyang nod slightly:
"Miss Chongyang."
Hua Chongyang was at a loss for words.
Situ Qingliu then turned to look at Anping, his voice still gentle:
"Anping, it's all thanks to you. You are a hero of the Xie family's empire, and even my survival to this day is thanks to you."
Lan Wuxie looked up at him from the bottom of the passageway steps.
Situ Qingliu stood right next to Hua Chongyang, looking down at him with his eyes lowered, his voice unusually cold:
"Lan Wuxie, as a descendant of the traitor Situ Yebai, your crimes are unforgivable."
As soon as he finished speaking, Bo Jiang, who had already stood up, and several guards around him suddenly leaped forward and surrounded Lan Wuxie.
Without hesitation, Hua Chongyang flipped off the stone bell and stood beside Lan Wuxie. His gaze slowly swept over Bo Jiang and the others, but he avoided looking at Situ Qingliu.
"Whoever tries to kill him, I will kill them."
Liu Dachu San then followed behind the two:
"Anyone who dares to touch the Pavilion Master will be the brothel's mortal enemy!"
91. Bloodbath
As soon as he finished speaking, Lan Wuxie looked up, covered his chest, and lowered his face.
He covered his mouth with his other hand, so no one could see what was happening; but a moment later, blood gushed out, flowing down his fingers, wrist, and elbow in a continuous line.
Lan Cao rushed over, frantically trying to wipe away the blood with her hands.
More and more.
Lan Wuxie stood swaying precariously, finally managing to lift his face after a long while. His gaze was unfocused, and a smirk played on his blood-stained lips:
"...I schemed for twenty years, only to end up making my own father wish he were dead."
Before he could finish a sentence, he vomited another mouthful of blood. Lan Cao wiped it away repeatedly, but the blood only increased. Shocked and frightened, she released Lan Wuxie and leaped forward, shoving Situ Qingliu with a palm strike.
"You're using dirty tricks—"
Situ Qingliu dodged without hesitation and retaliated.
Hua Chongyang settled Lan Wuxie down to lie on the side of the stone wall, and then followed Liu Dachu.
Situ Qingliu's martial arts skills were somewhat inferior to Situ Yebai's, and even worse than Lan Wuxie's.
The problem was that Lan Wuxie couldn't intervene, and even the combined forces of Lan Cao and the other Lan Ying Palace disciples, along with Hua Chongyang and Liu Da Chu San, were no match for Situ Qingliu. Hua Chongyang fared somewhat better, as Situ Qingliu showed her some mercy; but Lan Cao and Liu Da Chu San suffered greatly. Liu Da Chu San lost an arm and a leg, and Lan Cao was beaten so badly she vomited blood and couldn't move. In the end, only Hua Chongyang remained, sword in hand, standing in front of Lan Wuxie.
Situ Qingliu stepped forward:
"Chongyang...you'd better step aside."
Hua Chongyang looked at him without saying a word.
Situ Qingliu looked away and said softly:
"I didn't want to hurt you, Chongyang... You're no match for me."
"I really didn't expect this," Hua Chongyang said with a slight smile, his sword held horizontally in front of him, "Young Master Situ, you and An Pingyuan were actually accomplices?"
Situ Qingliu shook his head:
"Father... Situ Yebai entrusted Anping to my care, and I only learned the truth yesterday--"
Hua Chongyang interrupted him: