Chapter 29

Yang Yuan followed Fang Lin for more than ten miles, and only after confirming that A Lu had not followed did she call Linju and ride on it.

Fang Lin, who saw her from afar, twirled the pen in his hand, a slight smile playing on his lips as he looked at her with disdain and mockery at her downcast eyes.

“I didn’t realize you were so cunning.” As she slowly rode over, Fang Lin reached down and took a silver needle three inches below his ear. His face contorted in a grotesque expression, but after a while, he transformed into a handsome young man. He moved his lips and eyes, adjusted to his new appearance, crossed his arms, leaned against a tree trunk, and scrutinized Yang Yuan.

"You said you would tell me her whereabouts once you shook off the Hidden Yuan Society. Where is she?" Yang Yuan ignored his sarcasm and rode straight up to him to ask.

"Wasn't the scroll detailed enough? We almost lost our lives because of it in Qutang Gorge," the man said helplessly, spreading his hands.

"bass--"

Yang Yuan took off the Dongxian Guide, drew her sword, and pointed it at his brow. Finally, there was some change in his expression.

"I have no interest in reminiscing with you about how you almost killed Ye Min. We'll settle that score later."

"Don't worry, Master said that if you came voluntarily, she will ensure your safety."

Yang Yuan gripped the sword tightly, and the sword tip was only an inch away from his forehead before he put the homework down.

Fang Lin smiled, dusted himself off, whistled, and summoned a white horse.

"Then come with me to Kunlun. Your master is already waiting for you there."

A-Lu didn't chase after her; he knew Yang Yuan's temperament. If he tried to restrain her, she would only distance herself further. But this sudden separation was a wake-up call for him.

A-Lu walked alone in the desolate outskirts of Taiyuan. Along the way, his horse saw many Napier grasses by the roadside and wanted to eat them, but A-Lu pulled it back with his resolute steps. The horse huffed and puffed in anger, which provoked A-Lu to strike it with his whip.

"Scream! You beast, you don't care, but I've painstakingly fed you, and all you care about are the wildflowers and weeds by the roadside! Get out of here, you heartless thing! All of you, get out!"

The deer bellowed at it, but the horse, of course, couldn't understand what it was saying. Seeing its master panting with his head down, it slunk away to the edge of the meadow to graze on the hay.

A-Lu was so angry with Yang Yuan that his liver ached. He couldn't vent his anger; he felt ridiculous and laughable for arguing with a beast who wouldn't even talk to him.

"Ah Lu? It's you."

The faint sounds of horses' hooves coming from afar made him look up. From about seventeen or eighteen feet away, he could see Ye Min and Jiang Chengfeng behind him.

Ye Min leaped off his horse, ran over, and hugged A-Lu tightly, as happy as if he had seen a flower. He hadn't seen his old friend for several days, which had worried him for a long time, but now that he saw her, all the gloom he had known before had vanished.

"How have you been lately? Are you doing alright? Look at how red your face is, you must have had a fight with Yang Yuan!"

Ye Min put his arm around A Lu's shoulder and looked around nervously, afraid that Yang Yuan would hear him. He then whispered in his ear, "I'm afraid Yang Yuan will hear me."

Hearing Yang Yuan's name again, A Lu felt a mix of emotions.

"She's not with me." Ah Lu turned her head away.

Ye Min looked at Jiang Chengfeng behind him with a puzzled expression. The latter waved his hand, also unaware of the situation.

Yang Yuan followed Fang Lin, traveling along the Yin Mountains to the Gobi Desert, and finally to the Kunlun Mountains. The journey was long and circuitous. Fang Lin showed no sign of urgency, and after more than half a month of travel, stopping and starting, they finally arrived at the Kunlun Mountains.

The snowstorms in Kunlun were terrifyingly heavy.

The last time I came here was when I went to the Valley of Villains with Ah Lu. On the way here, we saw a group of people robbing people to collect taxes. The people looked at the two people coldly, then buried the villagers they were carrying in the snow.

Yang Yuan turned her head and saw that Fang Lin had removed the silver needles from behind his ears, taken off his purple robe, and put on a thin white long gown. He then looked down at his own black clothes, a cotton coat with a white fur trim, rummaged through his bundle, took out a cloak, and tossed it to him.

The man caught it with his backhand, glanced at it twice, and then tossed it back to her.

"Don't try to bribe me with these things. You're such a fool."

"Kunlun is different from other places. It is constantly eroded by wind and snow. If you are not careful, you will get frostbite."

Yang Yuan explained expressionlessly, rode over, threw the horse back onto his saddle, and walked on.

The man in white glared, about to explode, looking at the blue cloak, touching the mink lining, and then raising his eyebrows to scrutinize Yang Yuan's back.

This cloak is worth at least a thousand taels of gold. To prevent it from being blown away by the wind, there's an extra layer of bamboo charcoal inside. It's meant to be used as a blanket indoors and to keep you warm and protected from the wind when you're out. Yang Yuan has quite the nerve to give it away so casually.

Chang Le Fang remained as quiet as ever. Yang Yuan noticed that the man in white was still not wearing a cloak, but she didn't mind. She followed him, dismounted, and walked into Chang Le Fang.

Her identity here was too conspicuous. The mark of the Valley of Villains was on her neck. When her hair was blown by the wind, the villagers saw her and cursed her under their breath.

"Look! Those villains are here again!"

“These guys come to the neighborhood to collect taxes time and time again, and they beat anyone who resists to death! Last time I saw Li Daniu’s son, his arm was broken!”

"This is utterly depraved; they'll get their comeuppance sooner or later!"

"That's right! You villain, you butcher!"

"Get out of Kunlun right now!"

The man in white turned to look at her, hoping to see some change in her calm expression. Yang Yuan, however, paid no attention, simply leading her horse, carrying her zither, and looking down at the road.

"Aren't you angry?" the man in white asked.

“She’s just a person with a tragic fate,” Yang Yuan replied casually, and then fell silent.

The man in white smiled and led her to a courtyard, where they stopped.

He loosened the reins and went forward to gently knock on the door.

"Master, she has arrived."

The door was slowly pushed open by a pair of hands, and the person who came out was dressed in bright yellow clothes, clearly a disciple of the Hidden Sword Manor. His hair was tied in a ponytail, and he wore the Hidden Sword Manor's signature ornament on his forehead. He wore a white silk cloak to protect him from the wind and cold, and his blue eyes were devoid of any emotion as he looked at Yang Yuan.

This person is none other than Ye Mo, who disappeared from Hidden Sword Manor and stirred up a storm in the martial arts world back then.

It turned out to be a girl.

Yang Yuan raised her eyebrows and looked at him; her eyes lit up with excitement.

"I'm so glad to finally meet you, Yang Yuan."

The man in white handed the reins to Ye Mo, then bent down so that Ye Mo could step onto his back to mount the horse. Yang Yuan looked her over, while Ye Mo glanced down at her.

"Follow me." With that, he kicked up dust and drove away.

Yang Yuan followed her all the way, passing by the trading post in the Valley of Villains and the guards stationed there by the Righteous Alliance. The woman didn't say a word, just rode forward on her horse. Yang Yuan couldn't figure out what she wanted to do, since she didn't carry any weapons, not even a sword.

But Yang Yuan remembered that it was she who killed Xue Hua.

The two walked northwards against the wind and snow. In the distance, Yang Yuan spotted a patch of green.

"At the end of Kunlun, there is a small remote peak. No one comes here all year round, yet it is always a green oasis shaded by willows." Ye Mo suddenly said, dismounted, and walked straight over.

"I remember the first time I came to Kunlun, I was startled by the wind and snow. It was cold, so cold it went to the bone. The night here seemed endless, but it came and went quickly. I was walking alone in the wind and snow when he saw me, gave me a cloak, said 'Be careful,' and then disappeared."

Yang Yuan dismounted and walked behind her, the two standing a few feet apart. She remained silent, listening to Ye Mo say what she wanted to know, what everyone wanted to know.

Before Ye Mo was engaged, she went out to train with her martial uncle from the manor. Upon entering the martial world, the magnificent scenery of this beautiful land captivated her.

Ye Mo was an obedient little girl; she neither ran around nor obeyed commands. However, she was completely captivated by candied hawthorns. Her martial uncle, worried that she would eat too much candy and ruin her teeth, had to distract her with various gold and silver objects.

But the little girl had been acquainted with these things since childhood, and seeing them always made her feel uncomfortable and nauseous. She pretended to have a fever and got sick to drive away her uncle, then secretly got out of bed and ran to the old man at the door to buy a dozen or so, which she ate while holding them in her arms.

As night fell, having enjoyed the food and strolling around to their hearts' content, they forgot to return to the inn. Their uncle, in a panic, sent people from the manor to search everywhere. They eventually found the girl sleeping on a bench outside a teahouse outside the town, with a soldier from the Tian Ce Mansion standing beside her.

This man was a new recruit who had recently joined the Tian Ce Prefecture. His parents had been killed when the Wolf Fang Army invaded the village, and he was found by his distant cousin and sent to the Tian Ce Prefecture.

Seeing that he had been staying by Ye Mo's side the whole time, his uncle, to show his sincerity, gave him one hundred taels of silver as a token of gratitude. Li Fuyuan was also a bit of a simpleton; seeing someone take out money, he thought they wanted him to do something for them, and quickly pushed it back.

He said he was on his way to Chang'an to resume his post, but he encountered this lost girl and decided to wait here for her family to come and pick her up.

When Ye Mo returned to the villa, her parents found out about the incident. They scolded her on the surface, but later only forbade her from going out and confined her to her quarters for two days.

As the girl spent more time at the mountain villa, she grew a bit, her features becoming more refined and her figure more graceful and full-figured. Ye Mo's parents, remembering that her distant brother-in-law had long admired her and wanted to marry her, thought about how Ye Mo's parents knew her.

Upon hearing this, Ye Mo swung his heavy sword and smashed it in front of his father, shattering the marble floor.

She left behind a two-word statement refusing to marry and departed the manor with a horse and two swords.

Having been in the martial world for so many years, and possessing numerous allies in the righteous cause, Ye Mo never cared about such things. He listened to the stories in the teahouse, smiled, put down the silver, and went to Kunlun alone.

She insisted on going to the Valley of Villains. She simply wanted to see what kind of place this Valley of Villains was, so that the Righteous Alliance would definitely deal with it.

Unfortunately, when she arrived in Kunlun, the little girl got lost and couldn't find a place to rest in the snowy night. She thought of resting at the Haoqi Alliance's camp. On her way there, she saw a bright light coming towards her from afar.

When I saw Li Fuyuan again, he was already a soldier in the camp. He was dressed in a red robe and silver armor, and the feathers on his head were fluttering in the wind. He had just left the tent after hearing his senior brothers and sisters say that they were going to find some firewood, when he saw Ye Mo coming towards him, freezing cold.

He took off his cloak and put it on her, then led the group to the camp. Upon seeing her, his senior sister smiled and asked:

"You're like dry tinder burning fiercely; you're only warming yourself!"

The next day, without saying a word, Ye Mo joined the Haoqi Alliance after Li Fuyuan and the others finished transporting the goods.

For several days in a row, Ye Mo enjoyed himself with the soldiers of the Tian Ce Mansion. Putting aside everything else, watching them ride horses and shoot arrows, hitting the bullseye, and wielding their spears with incredible skill, Ye Mo envied their lives.

Later, while waiting for Li Fuyuan's day off, the two went to Chang'an.

The two had arranged to meet at the West Market of Chang'an. Ye Mo got up early to dress up, changing into a red dress that made her look much more delicate and lovely. Upon seeing her, Li Fuyuan didn't recognize her and walked straight past. Ye Mo called out to him in annoyance, and only then did he realize who she was.

There was a place in the West Market where you could see a stunning dance for three thousand taels of silver. Ye Mo didn't believe it, so she paid out of her own pocket to see the dancer perform. The market was a mixed bag, bustling with people. The two were originally standing side by side, but when Li Fuyuan heard that Ye Mo wanted to eat candied hawthorns, he felt the few copper coins in his pocket and bought her a skewer anyway.

He disappeared without a trace. Ye Mo, realizing the person beside him was gone, frantically searched everywhere. He turned left and right, lost in the crowd, tears streaming down his face in despair.

"Amo!" A voice called from behind. Turning around, Li Fuyuan grabbed her hand and pulled her into his arms.

"Where did you run off to? I've been looking for you everywhere. Here, your favorite candied hawthorn!" Li Fuyuan let go of her, wiped away her tears, and handed her the candied hawthorn with a smile.

Ye Mo had always had a shadow in her heart, and Li Fuyuan gave her this light, filling that hole.