Chapter 74 Shangguan
The next day, the sky was overcast at the Governor's residence.
Qingyu stood not far from the gate, looking at the exquisite gate and the guards on both sides, and the girl smiled.
She stepped forward, but the guards stopped her.
"Who are you, and what brings you to the Shangguan residence?!"
Qingyu tilted her head slightly, seemingly puzzled. "Didn't Shangguan Xiu say that we have guests visiting today?"
The two guards at the gate exchanged a bewildered glance. One continued to guard the gate, while the other ran into the Shangguan residence to inquire.
Qingyu wasn't in a hurry. As the cool morning light shone down, the girl quietly pursed her lips, her expression composed.
A short while later, the one who went to inquire returned. He shook his head at the other guard. Just as the two guards were about to drive Qingyu away, they saw the girl shake her head helplessly. She rarely listened to the scholar's advice to try persuasion first, but what to do about Shangguan Xiu was truly troublesome.
As the morning breeze blew by, Qingyu lightly raised her fingertips, making three swirls to form a seal. The spiritual energy of the array silently overflowed. With the "thump" of the two guards falling to the ground, the girl slightly dusted off her dress. A string of delicate, round Chinese herbal beads on her wrist emitted a faint white light, carrying a light fragrance.
She strolled leisurely into the Shangguan residence.
A magnificent screen wall comes into view, and in the distance, a winding corridor winds through the snow-covered landscape.
Occasionally, servants would pass by, either collapsing to the ground due to the formation or running away in a panic as they saw the red-clad girl approaching, shouting incoherent things like "Someone's coming!" or "Someone's coming again!"
Qingyu: "..."
Don't be like that, they just fainted, everyone's breathing is very heavy.
Before long, amidst the chaotic shouts of those people, the entire Shangguan mansion once again realized that an enemy had arrived—
A green sword light shot straight at Qingyu's face from the eaves. Qingyu raised her hand to form a seal. As the green array spun, she countered the sword light. A cold wind rose in an instant. The girl lightly touched the wall and used the wind to spin around her body, creating another red array with blood energy!
With another "thump," the swordsman guarding the manor fell off the eaves and landed in the snow below.
As the snow fell, Qingyu raised her eyes and spoke frankly, her clear voice echoing throughout the Shangguan Mansion.
"Qishan Qingyu has come to visit Shangguan Duxiu to learn about the poison of Youzhou Hanxue."
"My intention was not to harm innocent people, but the Shangguan family refused to see me."
"Then please don't blame Qingyu for being rude."
With that one sentence, killing intent arose. Under the sunlight, the wind stirred up snowflakes, and countless red blood arrays emerged. At this moment, all the guardian cultivators in the shadows of the Shangguan Mansion were on the verge of death!
"Witch! How dare you!"
A sweet voice rang out, and Shangguan Han, dressed in yellow, appeared out of nowhere. She shouted at Qing Yu, "What are you doing! Did you kill my brother?!"
"Witch! You killed my brother on Cloud Boat, and now you've come to my door again! The Nine Provinces will not let you get away with this!"
"Witch! You shameless woman! You killed someone in my Shangguan family, and I will make you pay the price!"
"You are arrogant! Shameless! Vicious!"
I will definitely kill you!
Shangguan Han'er was filled with righteous indignation and spoke quickly and at a rapid pace. As she spoke, Qing Yu laughed. The girl reached out her hand, and a blood array suddenly appeared, spreading to Shangguan Han'er's feet.
Qingyu slightly moved her fingertips, and the panicked Shangguan Han immediately felt a squeezing sensation inside her body. It wasn't painful, but it was enough to terrify her. "You... what do you want to do... you witch..."
Qingyu looked her up and down. "You talk too much nonsense and it's all so inexplicable. I'm not going to waste my time on you."
"I only ask you, why didn't Shangguan Xiu tell me I was coming today? And where is the person in charge of your household?"
She spoke calmly, her fingers twirling lightly. Shangguan Han glared at Qing Yu, her eyes red with malice, seemingly speechless with anger at Qing Yu's first words. Qing Yu raised an eyebrow at this.
"Don't want to talk? Then never talk."
Just as Qingyu was about to raise her hand, Shangguan Han seemed to snap out of her daze and immediately shouted, "I don't know!"
"I...I...Shangguan Xiu didn't come back yesterday! My father, my father is in the study!"
"And my sister, she's in Jianxue City! Yes, you mean the Cold Snow Poison? She, she can make it! Really! In our family, besides my father, only she knows how!"
"Let me go! I don't know anything!"
"Please, please let me go!"
"Sister, I was wrong, I was wrong..."
"Let me go..."
Shangguan Han wept uncontrollably. She felt utterly innocent. How could she be inferior to her sister, and even more so to this vixen? And it was all her father's fault! It was Shangguan Xiu's fault! Shangguan Nan got lost because he couldn't find his way, and now she blames her for leaving early? How could she be blamed? It was Shangguan Nan who insisted on staying another night! And Shangguan Xiu, he... he knew the vixen was coming but didn't say anything! It was all their fault!
These past two days, the servants in the manor have been saying bad things about her. Dou Dou is dead, and Wen Guyou is gone!
He went to see Xuecheng! He'll like your sister too!
Her father was the same; he didn't protect her and even scolded her for being useless!
And...Shangguan Ming...no...my older sister...
Kill them! Yes, kill them!
Kill them!
She collapsed to the ground, then suddenly reached out and grabbed Qingyu's dress. Qingyu, who was about to go to the study, turned around and saw Shangguan Han with bloodshot eyes and a look of madness. She whispered, "Kill them, kill them..."
Qingyu tried to leave, but Shangguan Han suddenly gripped her skirt tightly. The girl in yellow looked up, her eyes filled with a terrifying gloom and a fleeting moment of clarity. She opened her mouth, blood flowing from it, her voice carrying a plea no one else knew. She said her last words...
"Kill...my sister..."
Qingyu gave her a deep look, then turned and walked into the depths of the Shangguan Mansion.
Shangguan is truly an interesting place.
Even his own children can be this crazy.
...
Near the study was a medicinal herb garden.
As Qingyu walked along, she passed many cultivators struggling in the blood array. Some cursed and swore, wishing they could devour her alive. Others remained extremely calm, advising her not to seek revenge against the Shangguan family. Still others simply looked at her coldly, their eyes utterly numb.
They were all laughing and crying, saying, "You're finished."
They were all saying the same thing: Don't go.
The Shangguan family is insidious and vicious; we cannot leave.
Qingyu finally reached the entrance of the herb garden. The girl in red smiled, turned around and said to them, "The weather is nice today, perfect for sunbathing."
After saying that, she stepped into the herb garden.
A faint fragrance of medicine seemed to waft over. The girl took a deep breath, looked up at the sky behind the high eaves of the government office, and smiled.
"Uncle, you really should come and see."
Let's see how many people your medicine will save today.
Let's see how many people from the Shangguan family will die today.
It seemed as if the heavens had heard this and caused the sunlight to clear away the clouds, but alas, in an instant, it turned dark again.
At some point, Shangguan Feng slowly walked out and saw Qing Yu standing unharmed in the herb garden. A gloomy look flashed across the middle-aged man's face, but then returned to calm. "I wonder what exactly you want to do here today, young lady?"
Qingyu smiled softly as she began to recount her past for the first time.
"Two years ago, in the winter, I was waiting for the snow to fall in Danzhou, intending to go to Qingshui to see the sea."
"I was pursued by the Lone Swordsman, and ended up in the South China Sea."
"Thinking back on it now, even if Wen Gujian was cold, he wasn't as cold as the snow that day, especially when the snow fell on him, it was icy cold and bone-chilling, making his heart clench. It was truly amazing."
"As expected of the official from Youzhou, the Poison of Cold Snow."
Before she could finish speaking, the girl laughed, and as the red blood array surged, Shangguan Feng collapsed to his knees, clutching his neck, his face flushed red. "You...you're talking nonsense!"
"How could you... break through the snow..."
Qingyu curled her lips, her expression disdainful and mocking, "The Cold Snow Poison was not created by you, so how do you know its antidote?"
"Today, I've come to seek your guidance, and I only have one question to ask,"
"Who poisoned me with the Cold Snow Poison back then? And who, along with Wen Gu, wanted to kill me?"
She read each word carefully, her hands moving without pause. The beads of traditional Chinese medicine on her wrist emitted a white light. Shangguan Feng struggled and rolled, his hand slowly reaching into the study—
"Bang!"
In an instant, a fierce blade of light struck, and the door to Shangguan's study was shattered into pieces, even the windows were blown open, startling the people hiding inside!
Zhang Xuan stood on the rooftop not far away. The young man snorted softly, a string of medicinal beads on his wrist. He held his sword, the tip of the Blood Moon Blade pointing at the study. "Everyone inside, get out!"
Several old men huddled together in the study, while middle-aged and young people stood quietly, none of them obediently coming out as Zhang Xuan had instructed.
Zhang Xuan narrowed his eyes slightly, and in an instant, he drew his knife towards the crack in the door and window, a cold glint of light flashing across his face—
The oldest man inside clutched his chest, coughed up a mouthful of blood, and then fell silent.
"I said, get out here."
They won't listen unless someone dies.
As the boy's murderous words landed with each step, the people in the study walked out shakily. I can't remember exactly who they were, but they were all members of the Shangguan clan.
It's quite rare to find several old men inside, still alive at their advanced age.
Seeing this, Qingyu curled her lips in a mocking smile, "I suppose Governor Shangguan alone cannot explain it clearly, so let all the members of the Shangguan family speak together about who administered the Cold Snow Poison to me back then."
Shangguan Feng stared intently at them. How could this be? How could they be completely unresponsive to the Bewitching Poison?
"well,"
Zhang Xuan sighed from the rooftop, "Sister Qingyu, stop talking nonsense. If you can't find them, just kill them all."
"How dare you speak like that!"
Suddenly, the scholar's voice came from outside the herb garden. Qin Tianshu was handing papers to the guards outside the garden while calling out to Zhang Xuan, "Let her take revenge herself. You just do your job."
"If you're alright, hurry up and get down to help Dr. Lin push the medicine cart!"
After shouting this, the scholar turned back to the cultivator struggling in the blood array and spoke with a smile.
"Come, come, sign these papers to prove that the Shangguan family is insidious and uses poison to control cultivators. Their crimes are heinous and cannot be tolerated in the Nine Provinces... Just sign here."
"Oh...no need for blood...never mind, please go ahead."
Lin Fanxiang pulled the medicine cart in front, handing out pills one by one, along with the corresponding antidote for mind-altering.
Having healed another cultivator, the girl called softly to the scholar, "Brother Tianshu, this one is healed too."
...
Seeing this, Shangguan Feng seemed to finally realize that the Bewitching Poison, which the Shangguan family was so proud of, was ineffective against them, and even the Frost Poison had been cured by this demoness...
"You...hahahahahaha—"
He burst into laughter, and many members of the Shangguan clan tried to help him up, but Shangguan Feng waved them away!
The middle-aged man's eyes were bloodshot as he spoke to Qingyu, word by word.
"It was me. Back then, I heard that Wen Gu had found their missing direct descendant, and that he had been with a vixen all along. The Wen Gu family head was very troubled, so in order to be on good terms with Wen Gu, I gave him the Frost Snow Poison Pill."
"It was me! It was me who ruined you back then!"
"What do you want to do! What are you going to do!"
"Kill me if you want! Spare my people!"
Qingyu smiled upon hearing this. She looked at Shangguan Feng, her gaze sweeping over the dozen or so clansmen behind him. Her voice was calm but laced with ruthlessness.
"When I, Qingyu, seek revenge, I never involve anyone else."
"It's a pity that your Shangguan family has committed numerous evils, poisoning people, intimidating people with your reputation, and even controlling innocent cultivators to work for you. You can even harm your own children. Let's not talk about Uncle He's past. Shangguan Nan forced and raped and murdered women, and Shangguan Xiu, in her snake demon form, devoured countless people. The Shangguan family has a good reputation, yet you used the Cold Snow Poison to harm me... Even now, the seventy-six cultivators of the Shangguan family are hiding in the shadows, poisoned by the mind-controlling poison, and will serve your Shangguan family to the death."
"Even if I don't kill you, they will."
"You're asking me what I'm going to do?"
"Alright, then I will tell you. Today, I will make this official of Youzhou settle his grievances and avenge his wrongs."
"The cycle of karma dictates that blood debts must be repaid with blood."
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Author's Note: This book will be available for purchase on September 23 (tomorrow). The first chapter to be available for purchase will be Chapter 22. I will update 10,000 words on that day and continue to update daily thereafter.
——
What I really want to say is here [hugs]:
Thank you so much to the readers who have made it this far! To be honest, this book doesn't have any trendy tropes or dramatic plot twists, and the beginning isn't particularly outstanding. If I had to describe it, it's really just a simple story about a group of people traveling in a fantasy setting. It's actually quite far-fetched, and some of the later plot points are even more so [glasses]. This is my first book, and it's a single-player draft, so I'm kind of treating this book like a fantastic animation that I've loved since I was a child [milk tea]? (I don't know if anyone else can sense that, haha).
...
Getting back to the main point: That's why I was quite bewildered when it became a VIP book (and it really was a reverse VIP, the data was terrible haha [shrug]). I was also super happy when readers started following the updates, because as I just said, I subconsciously felt that this book was very basic, so I was really touched when readers actually followed it this far, including those who left comments in the early stages. I'm especially grateful for your support and feedback. I always believe that all exchanges and encounters are two-way and meaningful, even if the other person is a distant celebrity or a virtual figure that cannot be physically touched in this space—so, regarding this book, to those who have been with Qingyu and the others on the train, going from one stop to another, I bow here and give you all a hug on their behalf [heart emoji].
...
Haha, I might just be a little confused because I was lucky enough to encounter a platform with incredibly high traffic, so just the other day I was leisurely lamenting the frozen state of my backend, and today I'm finally going to be a VIP... I've also been reading a lot of posts about the difference between readers before and after VIP, so I have some feelings to share. I might be rambling a bit [melted]... But the point is simple: thank you all for your support!!! Whether you continue reading or not, I'm super grateful!!! [hugs]
Okay! Tomorrow I'll be going to pay for this, with a 10,000-word update. A heads-up: in the Northern Paradise chapter, Yu Mei and Chuan Zi will get married, hehehehe (Why is Chuan Zi so busy proposing? Who else from Snow City is appearing...? It's so hard to guess [shy]).
Stay tuned! [kissing emojis]
Finally, here's a random character: [Noob Dog]
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