Chapter 82 Tang died without regret.
"Princess."
The dungeon, which could be described as comfortable, was already filled with comfortable equipment. Fortunately, Ji Heng hadn't come to check it out even once in the past few days, otherwise he would have been furious.
Hengbo lay on the couch pretending to be deaf. Isn't Shen Guitang still a young master of the pavilion? How come he's so idle every day? He comes to her place before dawn and doesn't leave until it's dark.
He pretended to keep her company and chat with her to cheer her up, but she was mute!
He, on the other hand, could utter a single sentence with a mere flick of his lips, while she had to gesticulate wildly for ages. These past few days have truly felt like being in jail.
“Princess,” Shen Guitang’s slightly mournful voice came from behind, “don’t you have anything to say to me?”
A vein throbbed on Hengbo's forehead; even if she had a lot more to say, she should have finished saying it in the past ten days.
"Never mind, it's only right that the princess is fearless. Who told me to admit defeat?" Shen Guitang sighed and handed the bundle on her back over the beam. "This is the sword that my master asked me to pass on. She said to carry your own sword for self-defense."
Hengbo sighed. She was the one who was going to be beheaded. Surely her master's wife didn't think she was going to behead Ji Heng tomorrow?
Well, considering her master's wife's deep love for her disciple, she would bear it.
She reluctantly got up and took the sword, but before she could retract her hand, her slender, white but not weak wrist was suddenly gripped tightly by the person in front of her.
Hengbo looked puzzled. What was wrong?
But she saw Shen Guitang staring straight at her with his phoenix eyes, his dark pupils like a deep pool, as if brewing a storm.
He didn't say anything, but Hengbo felt as if a butterfly had been torn to dust and completely vanished with the wind.
Only when a cool kiss landed on her forehead did the dust slowly piece together its original shape.
Hengbo shuddered, but then heard Shen Guitang let out a soft, hoarse laugh.
Her cheeks flushed, not from embarrassment, but from feeling embarrassed that she had lost face in that gentle battle, and she was somewhat annoyed.
She glared fiercely, thinking she was being intimidating, but little did she know that her menacing appearance had gently touched the last thread of reason in someone.
A powerful echo exploded in her ears, the rich tone lingering on her lips. A tingling sensation traveled up her spine to every bone in her body.
The silent kiss began on her lips and moved inch by inch downwards, gradually warming the skin along its path. The frequency of her wing fluttering increased, and finally, unable to bear the heat any longer, the butterfly wanted to spread her wings and break free from the cage that had left her feeling so helpless.
However, the cage suddenly tightened, and the slender neck received a light but firm bite. This was a small punishment inflicted by the hunter for the prey's attempt to escape.
Now, the butterfly was completely frozen in place.
Releasing the tense person in his arms, his fingertips caressed her rosy lips, the desire brewing in his eyes growing stronger. However, before he could be seduced again by the alluring red fruit, Wenruan took the initiative to meet him.
Unlike the hunter's gentleness, who even punished her with minor offenses, the butterfly, when enraged, charged headlong into the fray. Under her clumsy bites, her thin lips, which had previously appeared indifferent in shape, were completely tinged with spring's color.
After a moment of stunned silence, the storm gradually subsided, eventually transforming into wisps of gentle breeze that lingered and undulated between each scale of the butterfly's wings.
Hengbo vented his anger with a rambling, incoherent retort until he felt a surge of resentment in his heart before finally stopping.
However, she was the one who was fierce just now, and now she is the one who dares not raise her head.
Until the hand tucked in her hair gently slid down her dark hair and onto her shoulder, and their foreheads touched, Shen Guitang's trembling eyelashes brushed against her face.
A deep voice traveled along the bones of the two leaning against each other to Hengbo's mind, "Princess, this is truly the happiest day I've had in years."
After calming down for a while, Hengbo finally delivered his most satisfying counterattack: he punched Shen Guitang.
Shen Guitang, clutching his wildly trembling chest, laughed out loud: "Tang, I have no regrets in dying."
Hengbo picked up the sword that had fallen to the ground, no longer wanting to pay attention to this shameless person, and turned to go back.
But she was stopped in her tracks by a single sentence: "Princess, I beg you, please take good care of yourself."
...
Late at night, Yokobo lay on the bed fully clothed, with her head resting between her arms, pondering the next day's plans.
Knowing her good uncle as she does, Ji Heng will surely go to witness her execution tomorrow, whether openly or secretly.
Ji Heng himself has never been a threat, and the only variable, no, the only certainty, for tomorrow is Jiang Chaosheng. Given how protective he is of Ji Heng's life, he would never feel comfortable with himself and Ji Heng together, so he will definitely show up.
Regarding Jiang Chaosheng, there was something she and Qingxuzi hadn't told anyone, including Shen Guitang and her master's wife. Until now, they still believed that tomorrow was merely a declaration of war against Ji Heng.
A few days ago.
Qingxuzi brought a meal cooked by Hengbo's wife to visit her.
"You asked when Jiang Chaosheng entered the celestial realm?" Qingxuzi stroked his beard, lost in memories. "Anyway, when I became his disciple, he was already a visitor from beyond the heavens."
"The Jingchun lineage has both a sword sect and a saber sect. He once had a senior brother from the saber sect, but unfortunately he disappeared when he stepped into the outer heavens. It is said that he was unwilling to be inferior to his junior brother and went to find the method of advancement on his own."
"But there has been no news of him for many years, so he has probably passed away."
“Now that you mention it, it does seem a bit strange.” Qingxuzi stopped what he was doing. “His swordsmanship is already unparalleled in the world, so why would he need to learn saber techniques after entering the Heavenly Realm? It’s as if he already knew that his senior brother was gone.”
Qingxuzi was lost in thought, unaware that Hengbo's hand on the table curled up uncontrollably.
Hengbo stared intently at her master's slightly tired face. Qingxuzi was actually an old man by age. Although he looked younger and stronger than an average fifty-year-old because of his profound martial arts skills, the death of his junior sister and the fact that he had learned of his master's betrayal had etched many indelible marks on his face.
She suddenly said: Master, take your mistress back to Biyun Mountain, and don't let her come down the mountain again.
Qingxuzi didn't know why she suddenly said these things. Upon hearing this, he immediately stuck out his neck and said, "I still need to clean house. What do you take me for? Are you starting to look down on me just because your martial arts have improved over the years?"
Seeing the old man's stubborn expression, Hengbo sighed.
It wasn't that she was afraid before the battle, but based on her previous two encounters with Jiang Chaosheng, which could hardly be considered sparring, and the information she gleaned from various clues, she believed that Jiang Chaosheng was definitely not just at the initial stage of the Heavenly Rank, but more likely at the middle or even high stage.
Qingxuzi refused to believe it. "Advancing to the Earth Rank is no longer a matter of hard work making up for lack of talent. Do you really think he's that genius?" In any case, he had never heard of the appearance of the middle stage of the Heaven Rank in his more than fifty years of life. Many old monsters never made any further progress after entering the Heaven Rank and died at the initial stage.
However, he also knew that Hengbo wouldn't lie to him just to get him to go back. The child wasn't that clever, and of course, not that filial either.
Therefore, Qingxuzi wore an expression as if he had heard a fairy tale, but in his heart he was thinking, "No way, does my dog master have some kind of secret method for advancing in cultivation? Why doesn't he pass it on to me?"
He really is a scoundrel.
Unaware of Qingxuzi's inner thoughts, Hengbo hesitated for a moment before ultimately deciding to let him know the truth, otherwise the old man wouldn't even know how he died.
The main reason is that Jiang Chaosheng even killed his own disciple, so he, who is a generation younger, must have died long ago. There is no one to go to his grave to answer his questions.
"You want me to investigate how that old hag died?" Qingxuzi was completely baffled. "Why didn't you ask Xiao Shen to run the errand for you? Did you two have a fight? I just think that guy is unreliable..."
Qingxuzi was in a very talkative manner, which shows how dissatisfied he was with the pig that wanted to steal his cabbage.
Hengbo:……
Fortunately, he wasn't just complaining without doing anything. After pointing and gesturing for a while, he finally said, "Then I'll run an errand for you, old man. After all, I'm your master." He was a much more competent master than Jiang Chaosheng.
However, when Qingxuzi was seen again two days later, he looked like a wilted eggplant, even more wilted than an overnight cabbage.
“Ah Yu,” he hesitated, then finally said, “I’ve lived for over fifty years and I’ve had enough. You’re still young, why don’t you let it go?”
Seeing his expression, Hengbo knew the outcome without needing to ask any further questions.
Empress Dowager Zhengde was indeed killed by Jiang Chaosheng.
First his senior brother, then his disciple, and now his "wife"—no wonder he was so cold to Ji Heng yet so concerned about his life. After all, if his only bloodline died, how could he "ascend to immortality"?
“No wonder,” Qingxuzi thought to himself a few days ago that Jiang Chaosheng hadn’t told him the “secret formula” for advancing to the next level, but now that he knew, he felt a chill run down his spine. But the answer also cleared up his doubts. “No wonder that heartless man suddenly had a child with a woman. So that’s what he was planning.”
His tone was one of disgust; such a method of gaining spiritual breakthroughs by sacrificing one's own closest relatives was utterly despicable.
This also proves that Jiang Chaosheng has indeed reached the high-level of the Heavenly Realm. If he were at the low-level, the three of them who were half-step Heavenly Realm experts would still have a 50% chance of winning. But against a high-level Heavenly Realm expert, let alone winning, their chance of survival is slim.
But this only fueled his hatred. His junior sister Yingxue was only seven or eight years old when she first arrived. Jiang Chaosheng was a man who didn't care about anything. It was he and his childhood sweetheart wife who raised her. Nominally, he was her senior brother, but in reality, he was more like a father to her.
Jiang Chaosheng only gave her some pointers on swordsmanship, but her rapid progress was mainly due to her excellent natural talent and diligence.
What right does Jiang Chaosheng have?! What right does he have to sacrifice Yingxue just to break through his cultivation realm? What kind of close relative is he to Yingxue?
Or perhaps, Jiang Chaosheng originally intended to sacrifice him, but his junior sister took his place.
He wiped his face, not daring to think any further. But no matter what, he had to try, even if it cost him his life. Even if he couldn't kill him, it would be worth it if he could cut off his path to immortality.
However, looking at his disciple, he said, "Yu'er, you are the most talented person I have ever seen in my life, better than Jiang Chaosheng and even better than your mother. Be patient for now. A gentleman takes his revenge even after ten years."
Hengbo shook her head. Leaving aside the question of whether her flawed heart meridian would allow her to ascend to the heavens in this lifetime, even if she could truly "repair her heart," Jiang Chaosheng might already have broken through to the Heavenly Realm by then.
She couldn't possibly resort to such underhanded methods, so now is the best opportunity!
Qingxuzi sighed. He wondered where this stubbornness came from. No matter how he tried to reason with him, he wouldn't listen!
After a moment, he suddenly realized: "So that's how it is. You wanted to keep it from Xiao Shen, so you made this old man run errands for you!"
"Fine!" Now he understood that Hengbo was determined to die. He stomped his feet in anger, "How could you be so stupid! Your parents only raised you for a few years? And you still have to think about avenging them?! They're really something, they could have just died themselves, but they still made you suffer!"
At this moment, the old man no longer cared about his junior sister's pity; he wanted nothing more than to point at her and scold, "That Yingxue, that child, why did she have to choose your father out of all the men in the world?! Now she's not only lost her own life, but she's also caused trouble for you..."
Hengbo remained silent and let the old man vent his anger. After a while, when he calmed down, she quietly reminded him that even if her mother didn't look for her father, Jiang Chaosheng might not let her go.
Qingxuzi choked for a moment, and finally had to compromise, "Then don't tell your master's wife about this, and I won't tell Xiao Shen either. It's just the two of us, master and disciple, who know about it."
Horizontal wave nods.
Qingxuzi gave her one last look. "There's always a way out. Jiang Chaosheng's method is bound to have some drawbacks. I'll go back and think of another solution."
...
Her master said he'd go back and figure something out, but she's about to be beheaded and still hasn't come. Could it be that he's too ashamed to come see her because he hasn't found a solution...?
Hengbo pulled out her slightly numb arm and subconsciously touched her throat, which had been gently bitten earlier that day. The slight tingling sensation seemed to linger from that moment just a few hours ago.
Tsk, she suppressed the unbearable reluctance and sadness in her eyes, she really was a mad dog.
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