She buried her face in his chest, ready to die together, no longer hiding her true feelings...
Chu Yening turned around, her eyes filled with murderous intent: "Who are you mourning? And who exactly is this blank memorial tablet for?"
The short man seemed not to hear.
Chu Yening immediately drew his sword and thrust it into his arm. The tip of the sword twisted and turned deep into the flesh, and he smiled contemptuously.
The man screamed repeatedly, "What? What memorial tablet? How am I supposed to know who I'm commemorating!"
Chu Yening suddenly let out another cold laugh.
Qin Weixi glanced at him coldly and walked towards the old monk, asking softly, "Venerable Master, where do you come from? And who are you paying homage to?"
However, the old monk, nearing the end of his life, kept his eyes tightly closed and continued to chant Buddhist scriptures in a low voice.
Chu Yening quickly drew his longsword and then stomped on the short man's hand.
The man immediately winced in pain, letting out a cry of "Ah!" and gritting his teeth, he said, "I was only working for the master... How would I know!"
Chu Yening punched him in the eye socket again, coldly saying, "You're already a fish on the chopping block, still trying to struggle in your death throes? Even a celestial being couldn't save you today!" After saying that, he glanced at the Bodhisattva statue enshrined in the shrine, turned back to look at him, and sneered, "Foolish thing!"
The man groaned, his face contorted in pain, veins bulging. He curled up into a ball, trying to speak, but no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't utter a single word.
Chu Yening glanced around, then took a hemp rope, perhaps the one he used to tie up the old monk, and tied the short man's hands together behind his back before whispering to Qin Weixi, "Keep an eye on him."
Qin Weixi nodded, closed the open door tightly, and bolted it again.
Then Chu Yening walked to a table, took one of the two lamp oil lamps on the table, and handed it to her.
Only then did Qin Weixi notice that there was a plate of raw, bloody meat and several unlit incense sticks on the table. She felt a surge of nausea and couldn't help but gag.
Chu Yening asked, "What's wrong?"
Qin Weixi said, "It's nothing."
Upon hearing this, Chu Yening's brows twitched: "You're going to wait for me outside?" Then, thinking of Song Yang and the others, whose whereabouts were unknown, his brows furrowed slightly.
Thinking of this, he lowered his eyes to look at the long robe covering him, raised an eyebrow, and asked with a hint of probing, "Use this to cover yourself?"
Qin Weixi followed his gaze and saw his Adam's apple bobbing slightly. Moving her gaze further down, she said, "No, Fourth Brother, I'll wait for you here. I'm not that delicate."
Seeing this, Chu Yening nodded and quickly tossed the plate of raw meat out through the crack in the door. Qin Weixi noticed a hint of displeasure on his face. His lips were pursed, and his expression was tense.
She observed this, wondering if this dashing young general also had a capricious side.
She picked up the oil lamp, as if trying to see him more clearly by its light.
Chu Yening suddenly chuckled and said, "Wait for me here." Then he strode towards the old monk and said in a low voice, "Master, monks are supposed to be compassionate. You must have been forcibly taken here by those people. I can rescue you today, so you must lend me a hand."
The old monk remained silent with his eyes closed.
The short man then let out a cold laugh.
Qin Weixi immediately took the short dagger from his waist and stabbed it viciously in his buttocks. She coldly said, "Shut your mouth!"
The man immediately exclaimed "Ah!"
Upon seeing this, Qin Weixi immediately pulled out the short dagger, gave a disgusted look, and plunged it back into the other, still relatively intact part of his body.
The man repeatedly cried out, "No, no! Why are you stabbing my butt!"
Qin Weixi sneered, stood up and looked at him with disdain in her eyes: "Oh, I never do things the conventional way."
Chu Yening ignored the old monk for the time being, walked up to the short man, pondered for a moment, and then suddenly drew his sword and pointed it at him.
Only then did the man's eyes show fear: "What are you going to do?"
Chu Yening sneered, "Stubborn to the end." Then he said to Qin Weixi, "It seems we won't get anything out of him." After saying that, Chu Yening turned back to look at the old monk again.
The short man's eyes were filled with malice. Hearing this, he sneered and suddenly mustered all his strength to leap up, intending to pounce on Qin Weixi's direction, saying, "Is this your weakness?"
Before he could finish speaking, Qin Weixi was about to slightly raise her arm and press the trigger to release the arrow hidden in her sleeve. Almost at the same time, or even earlier than her, Chu Yening flew past and struck him on the back of the neck with a palm strike. The man felt a blackout and immediately fainted.
Chu Yening sneered, "Stubborn fool." He looked down at the short man lying unconscious on the ground, then smiled and said, "I never let anyone hurt my weak points."
Qin Weixi put the hidden arrow back into her sleeve and looked up at him upon hearing this. Just then, Chu Yening also looked at her, then shifted his gaze to the hidden arrow, and then paced around the room for a moment.
Ten years ago, before Li Mou went to war with his father, he saw a lame young man outside the Woxue Pavilion. Then the case of the Duke of Dingguo came to light, followed by a fire that killed a pitiful person. After returning to the capital, he made a slight attempt to probe, which quickly led to his assassination attempt with Lao Tao.
Furthermore, the incense and candles that should have been purchased by Master Fang appeared in Ma Lianren's residence. And there were strange things going on in this mansion.
If it were someone else, they might have sold the theater and the house behind it immediately. Why hide it for ten years and even buy a lot of incense and candles to worship a blank memorial tablet in the house?
The room was quiet, and Chu Yening stared at the memorial tablet on the altar, lost in thought.
Qin Weixi watched his every move from a short distance away. She saw him staring at the wall for a long time, and for some reason, she remembered the teachings her grandfather had given her when she was young.
"Something unusual must be going on."
"No!" the two exclaimed in unison.
As she blurted out the words, Chu Yening said the same thing at the same time.
They looked at each other and both knew what was going on.
Chu Yening said, “When we first entered this bamboo forest, I sensed something unusual. I read in my grandfather’s notes that during his early years of war, he accidentally entered an isolated old forest. There seemed to be a kind of grass there that could bewitch the mind. The scent released by this grass could disorient people, causing them to lose their way and eventually die in that old forest. So I speculate that the incense was an antidote to the bewitching poison of this grass, provided for those who came here. Those who did not smell the incense would accidentally enter this bamboo forest and be bewitched by this poisonous grass. Perhaps, as you said, there are traps in this bamboo forest specifically prepared for trespassers.”
No wonder.
Qin Weixi recalled the dizziness she felt when she first entered this bamboo forest, but they were fine afterwards. Instead, they followed the footsteps of the cook who had been knocked unconscious by Tao Qingyun and arrived at this place.
She suddenly remembered the small pills left behind by the itinerant doctor when she was looking for medicine for Afu years ago.
Chu Yening smiled. "Now that I think about it, it must have been that itinerant doctor you met in Jiangnan who saved our lives." He looked at the short man who was already dead, then at the old monk. "As for this old master..."
The old monk's chanting resumed, and the two turned around to look, only to see that a tear had slid down the corner of the old monk's eye at some point.
The old monk held prayer beads in one hand and raised the other palm, softly saying, "Amitabha, my two benefactors, good and evil will be rewarded in the end. Follow your heart and you will see the truth for yourself."
The old monk had barely finished speaking when the tightly closed door was forcefully chopped open.
Qin Weixi felt a gust of wind, a dark shadow flashed before his eyes, and then a loud "thud" rang in his ears. Suddenly, the spot beneath their feet turned into a deep, square hole. The man in black robes, wearing a hooded black cloak and holding a bright sword, who had come with the gust of wind, forcefully pulled Chu Yening back.
At the critical moment, Chu Yening snatched the sword from his hand, and the two of them fell into the deep hole together.
"Chu Yening!" In the nick of time, Qin Weixi instinctively grabbed Chu Yening with one hand and braced herself against the ground with the other.
The two immediately realized that this was a secret room with hidden mechanisms, and the mechanism was set under the old monk's seat, concealed by the futon.
But this man in black robes who suddenly appeared...
Chu Yening looked sharply at the person who was holding him tightly at the feet.
Ma Lianren!
Chu Yening let out a cold laugh.
In a short while, a thin layer of sweat had formed on Qin Weixi's forehead. She looked at the black-clad man with a hood tightly gripping Chu Yening's feet, her gaze growing increasingly cold: "Don't let go."
She turned to look at the old monk who had opened his eyes, his eyes brimming with tears, and couldn't help but say, "Master, what do you mean by this? We want to save you from this sea of suffering, you..."
"Qin Luo, let go!" Chu Yening's voice was firm in the darkness.
Qin Weixi was using all her strength to pull him upwards when she saw him look at her with a smile in his eyes. She then looked past him down at the endless darkness below and the black-clad man with a black hat, who dared not raise his head. Tao Qingyun and the others were still outside the Qingzuan room, but she didn't know what dangers lay within that endless darkness. A thought struck her, and she used all her strength again, extending the hand containing the hidden dart downwards, her expression unwavering. Chu Yening understood, chuckled, and then calmly pulled out the dart.
In the darkness, he sighed softly again: "Qin Luo, have you forgotten that your fourth brother was an incredibly audacious man? Back then, he would secretly call everyone he met 'Little Tyrant'."
"Let go quickly and wait for me here. This time, I will not break my promise."
It was as if the two of them had parted ways by the lakeside years ago, one going to the battlefield and the other to the south of the Yangtze River. The promise they made to each other was soon broken by the time they were separated by the world.
Chu Yening immediately tossed the longsword in her hand up, leaving only the words, "Keep it for self-defense." Then she heard two muffled thuds in the darkness, and then there was no more sound.
"Fourth Brother!"
She stared at the endless darkness in the deep cave for a long time, then looked back at the long sword. Even now, when the young man went to the Northwest, Chu Yening had never let it out of his sight for a moment.
Without a second thought, he left the sword to her and resolutely leaped into the darkness. So, from childhood to adulthood, just like his sister-in-law Zhu Ruo, he always protected her in front of danger.
He ventured into the depths of the swamp.
Qin Weixi suppressed the surging emotions that suddenly welled up inside her, but she couldn't stop her whole body from trembling. She turned to look at the old monk, only to find that he had been leaning against the corner of the wall, his gaze following her direction, his eyes closed, and he had passed away.
Without lingering or hesitating, she picked up the longsword and leaped into the endless darkness.
Just like that year, he took Ah Xia and jumped into the mighty Yangtze River.
"Fourth Brother?" In the pitch-black darkness, the deeper she went, the more suffocating it became. A faint smell of blood seemed to linger in the air, along with squeaking noises and rats frantically scurrying past her. Her teeth chattered, but she hurried forward. Suddenly, she tripped over something, instinctively taking a step back, her heart pounding, but she quickly bent down and touched it.
It was a person. In the darkness, she first groped around a bit, then carefully felt around the person's hair, face, and the clothes covering their upper body. It wasn't Chu Yening; her intuition told her that it wasn't her.
Her heart pounded, and she shouted loudly into the long corridor, "Chu Yening!" But no one answered her. Without thinking, she got up again and walked forward aimlessly.
"Qin Luo?" After a long while, a voice suddenly responded from the darkness.
Hearing the faint echo coming from the darkness, Qin Weixi immediately ran towards the source of the sound.
"How did you get down here..." Before he could finish speaking, he felt a gust of wind and the person in front of him instantly rushed into his arms.
She buried her face in his chest, no longer suppressing her sobs: "Chu Yening, if we die, we die together, did you hear me! Did you hear me!"
Her whole body trembled, her arms tightly gripping his waist, and she spoke in a hoarse voice.
Chu Yening's throat bobbed involuntarily, and then he suddenly pulled her tightly into his arms, which were originally outstretched.
The girl in his arms hugged him tightly once again.
So what if you step into an abyss?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
