Chapter 37 Enemy or Friend?
After Yu Sui entered, Wei Ren felt extremely uncomfortable and subconsciously avoided eye contact, as his disheveled state made it difficult for him to face the situation.
Wei Ren's feelings for Yu Sui were complex and could not be explained in a few words.
Yu Sui walked up to Wei Ren, squatted down close to him, and whispered, "Let's talk about Madam Su."
Wei Ren tightened his grip on his shoulder. Right, the reason she didn't kill him was because she wanted to know information related to Madam Su.
He had to rely on the enemy to tell him about his mother's past.
Wei Ren took a deep breath, grabbed the door frame and stood up in a disheveled state, sweat pouring down his face, his clothes soaked through, and his dark hair clinging to his skin.
It looks like it won't live much longer.
Wei Ren climbed up the wall and walked into the room. He struggled to the bedside and sat down, slowly looking up at Yu Sui standing at the door.
He asked in a hoarse voice, "What do you want to know?"
Yu Sui entered the house and closed the door behind her.
Mei Liangyu, locked outside: "..."
Fine, he's not interested anyway.
Mei Liangyu lifted her eyelids, grabbed the clothes on her shoulder, and went back to her dormitory.
Yu Sui stood at Wei Ren's door, keeping a distance that was neither too close nor too far from him, just within her range where she could kill Wei Ren instantly.
At this moment, she had no intention of killing Wei Ren, nor could she kill him within the Taiyi Academy.
Yu Sui asked directly, "What is your relationship with Madam Su?"
"Before I answer you, I need to take a moment. The damage to the Five Elements Light Core caused by self-destruction of cultivation is no joke. After circulating my Qi just now, I almost didn't get to wait for you to ask me." Wei Ren spoke softly, loosened his fingers, picked up the medicine bottle on the bedside table, opened it, and slowly put the medicine into his mouth.
Yu Sui waited patiently without saying a word.
The room was quiet, the windows were closed, and the dim light made everything seem shrouded in gray, cold and desolate.
After taking his medicine, Wei Ren calmed down and his expression and emotions became more composed. He finally dared to look at Yu Sui and said in a deep voice, "My relationship with her is not as good as you think. It's complicated to explain, and there are too many things involved. It will probably take some time to explain."
“I have plenty of time today.” Yu Sui pulled up a chair and sat down by the door. “When I came here, I thought we would probably talk for a long time. During this time, I will have to make many decisions, such as whether I should still hold the intention to kill you when we meet again in the future.”
Wei Ren's gaze followed her movements.
Yu Sui sat in the shadows by the door, leaning back in her chair. When she faced Wei Renshi, she slightly raised her chin, her eyes filled with an inscrutable expression: "Whether we become friends or enemies depends on what you say next and what I decide to do."
“It seems that whether we are friends or enemies, we have a strange connection.” Wei Ren smiled slightly, pondered for a moment, and then said, “Your mother, Madam Su, is a powerful sorcerer of the thirteenth realm and a ninth-rate sorcerer of the Farmer Clan. She was also one of the leaders of the Qingyang Farmer Clan.”
"Her remarkable skill lies in mastering the Celestial Mystery Technique of Beast Possession, a practice forbidden by the agricultural community, to its utmost perfection."
Lady Su practiced forbidden techniques of the farming family.
Upon hearing this, Yu Sui remained expressionless; it seemed that she had expected this news.
Yu Sui wasn't surprised that someone like Lady Pixel would practice forbidden arts; she just wanted to know how strong she was as a ninth-rate sorcerer of the thirteenth realm.
"In other words, with the help of the Heavenly Mystery Technique and the Illusionary Beast, her peak strength can rival that of a Saint," Wei Ren said slowly. "Therefore, almost all the farm disciples in Qingyang who practice forbidden techniques follow her as their leader. It is never surprising that they follow the strong."
"Here, we also need to explain the issue of forbidden techniques used by farmers."
Wei Ren looked at Yu Sui and said, "You should have some clues about the Celestial Mystery Technique of the Farmer's Clan now, right?"
Yu Sui said softly, "Illusory beasts, which are materialized from the five elements, can they be considered to know the Nine Schools of Arts and have different realms?"
Wei Ren held up his hand and counted for Yu Sui: "Farmer disciples below the tenth realm can only summon one phantom; Farmer disciples above the tenth realm can summon two. The Farmer Clan originally thought that the limit for phantom beasts was three, but Madam Su broke through this limit. At her peak, she could summon five phantom beasts."
Five illusory beast phantoms.
Yu Sui repeated the number in his mind.
Wei Ren added, "Each illusory beast phantom possesses the strength of the thirteenth realm."
Yu Sui lightly lifted her eyelids; Madam Su's strength did indeed sound somewhat heaven-defying.
"From the perspective of farmers, although the Heavenly Mystery Technique's phantom beasts are powerful, their phantoms are born from darkness and contain killing intent, evil thoughts, and evil energy. In battle, they may become uncontrollable, brutally kill their opponents, and turn against their masters. That is why they are forbidden to cultivate them."
Wei Ren patiently explained, "In the past, some members of the Farmer Clan who practiced magical beasts were backfired and killed hundreds of Farmer Clan disciples. Later, it was listed as a forbidden technique by all Farmer Clan sorcerers on the continent and was not allowed to practice. If any Farmer Clan disciple practiced magical beasts in private, he would be expelled from the Farmer Clan and called a traitor. Farmer Clan disciples could kill him if they saw him."
Even so, there are still disciples of the farming family who continue to practice the Nine Streams Techniques and the Illusionary Beasts.
"This happened about two hundred years ago. It was quite normal to cultivate the Heavenly Mystery Technique and summon beasts back then. But after it was listed as a forbidden technique by several sages of the Farmer's School, disciples who knew how to summon beasts were forced to abandon their cultivation. Some people were unwilling and became enemies of the Farmer's School, and could be hunted down."
“These disciples of the Farmer School are called traitors to the Farmer School.” Wei Ren couldn’t help but laugh as he said this, but the laughter aggravated his wound, and he immediately frowned in pain again.
Yu Sui stared at him and asked, "What does the forbidden technique of the Farmer's School have to do with the Breath of Earth?"
"Hmm?" Wei Ren looked at her with some surprise, then smiled and said, "You're not as stupid as they say."
"The Breath Soil, a treasure of the farmers, contains the ever-flowing energy of the Five Elements, which can ensure the long-term stability of the Nine Streams Technique," Wei Ren said simply. "As long as there is the Breath Soil, the possibility of backlash from the phantom beasts can be avoided, thus making it without any weaknesses."
"The Farmer's Clan has long been torn apart, but they all share the same attitude towards the existence of 'traitors.' So we, the traitors who cultivate magical beasts, had no choice but to go to the Yan Kingdom to seize the Breath Soil, to clear the name of the magical beasts, and to make the Farmer's Clan withdraw the accusation of traitors, so that we no longer have to live in hiding."
"The Yan Kingdom?" Yu Sui was somewhat surprised.
Wei Ren was even more surprised than she was: "You don't even know that your mother is from the Yan state?"
Yu Sui blinked gently and smiled slowly, "Indeed."
Not to mention the past, even in the last two years, Madam Su has barely spoken more than a few words to her.
Wei Ren laughed as well: "Compared to you, I know far more."
“Initially, the Yan Kingdom was powerful, and the Farmer School had the strongest influence there. The Breath of Earth was also controlled by the Farmer School's sage. But decades ago, both the Yan Kingdom and the Farmer School were fragmented and plagued by internal strife, allowing the other five kingdoms to divide and occupy the land, leaving the people to live in misery.” Wei Ren coughed lightly twice, lost in thought. “Some of the low-level sorcerers in the Yan Kingdom had already lost faith in the kingdom, and Lady Su was one of them.”
“The people who raised me said that Lady Su seized the Breath of Earth so that we ‘traitors’ could live a peaceful and normal life without being hunted down. The Yan Kingdom is beyond saving, and no one will come to save us, but Lady Su will.”
Yu Sui sighed, seemingly casually saying, "She doesn't seem like that kind of person."
"People believe it unilaterally, and there's nothing I can do about it, because that's what I've heard since I was a child; Lady Su has shown great kindness and righteousness to us peasant traitors, submitting herself to Prince Nangong of Qingyang, and after obtaining the Breath Soil, she was hunted down, and even her eldest daughter was implicated and killed." Wei Ren said, looking up at Yu Sui, "As for you, people don't have a good impression of you, because your existence transferred the Breath Soil from Lady Su's body, but it was controlled by Nangong Ming, causing Lady Su's previous plan to fail, and also implicating her in being blackmailed and restricted by Nangong Ming."
The peasant traitor followed and trusted Madam Su, not Madam Su's children.
"Over the years, the number of people who have tried to kill you in the Qingyang capital has only increased, but do you know that the majority of the peasant disciples who have come to kill you are those peasant disciples from the Yan Kingdom who are still resisting and trying to save the world?"
"Because they are the ones who most desire and urgently need the Breath of Earth, to reclaim it, heal the wounds of the Yan Kingdom's agricultural sage, and save the Yan Kingdom, which has been divided from within." (Moon) Xia Lige Qian
"We are merely observing, as well as other sorcerers from various schools who are trying to seize the treasure."
Wei Ren continued to stare at Yu Sui, not missing any emotion in her eyes at that moment, as if she were waiting, or as if she were searching.
His contact with Yu Sui was brief, lasting only a few days, yet it was incredibly profound. These few days were enough to overturn all the personal information he had about Yu Sui.
The young princess of the Nangong Prince's Mansion is not a person of ordinary skill, nor is she stupid or dull, nor is she just an insignificant weakling.
This young princess didn't live a happy and carefree life either; everyone was unhappy, and so was she.
I believe Yu Sui should be smart enough to understand the information Wei Ren just revealed to her.
He was waiting for Yu Sui's reaction to confirm his guess.
Yu Sui leaned back in her chair, her posture relaxed. Wei Ren couldn't tell whether she was aware of the problem or not. He only heard her say with a smile, "You traitors from the peasant family, you've only been observing all these years, but you directly attacked me after I came to Taiyi."
Wei Ren caught the faint sigh in that light tone.
Yu Sui asked, "Did someone order you to take action?"
Seeing that she was neither sad nor angry, but calmly and indifferently accepted it, Wei Ren understood and smiled, "It seems that your relationship with Madam Su is not good at all. It's not the deep mother-daughter relationship I imagined, where you depend on each other for survival. No wonder, I can understand why I was sent to Taiyi this time."
Yu Sui's dark, bright eyes reflected Wei Ren's pale face. She sat up slightly, leaned closer, and chuckled softly, "You'll also become her child. Live for eighteen years in her care, and then you'll know what my relationship with her is like."
Wei Ren was captivated by the smile in Yu Sui's eyes, but before he knew it, he remembered the scene underwater. The fear of death descended upon him instantly, and he subconsciously looked away.
“Killing someone of low skill level doesn’t require finding someone too powerful, but if the location is Taiyi Academy, it will become very troublesome, so I was sent here. I’m not exaggerating, but among the younger generation, I’m the most powerful one.” Wei Ren coughed, covering his mouth, his usual nonchalant demeanor disappearing. “After all, I can control three phantom beasts at the fifth level, and the organization values me quite a bit. They sent me not only to kill you and seize the Breath Soil, but also to have me study hard at Taiyi.”
He sighed, "It's a pity that you've killed the only promising talent in the organization."
Wei Ren spoke as if it were someone else's business, not his own, and there wasn't a trace of resentment in his words.
Yu Sui looked him up and down for a while: "If I had known you were this good, I would have killed you even if it meant losing points."
“If we’re going to hurt each other, then I’ll just have to be blunt,” Wei Ren grinned. “It’s your mother, Madam Su, who sent me to kill you.”
Yu Sui felt no surprise or astonishment whatsoever.
Her first thought was, "Finally!"
“You don’t seem surprised or sad. I suppose in these past ten years, Madam Su may not have been the mother your child relied on.” Wei Ren tapped the table repeatedly with the medicine bottle in his hand, making a tapping sound that matched the rhythm of his words. “Me too. In the eyes of my master and the others in the organization, Madam Su is the savior of these traitors, but in my eyes, she is just a thirteenth-realm cultivator who failed to seize the Breath Soil.”
"As for the forbidden techniques of the Farmers, I have high talent, so I learned them. As for the powerful Heavenly Secrets Technique, why not learn it if I know it?" Wei Ren said with a smile. "After learning it, I found that it was not as difficult or terrible as people say. I am confident that I will not be harmed by the backlash, so I don't care much about the matter of the Breath of Earth saving the traitor. I am just interested in the Breath of Earth."
Yu Sui blinked at him. When this person talked about the Nine Schools of Arts, he inexplicably put on airs, full of confidence and completely unwilling to admit defeat.
“Lu Haiye was just following orders. My master received Madam Su’s instructions. They communicated using the Farmer’s Voice Transmission Beast, and only Farmer’s disciples could decipher the beast’s language. I was with you then to make sure I could keep you alive. When I saw you take action yourself, I wanted to see what kind of strength you were hiding.” Wei Ren became more and more relaxed as he spoke, as if he was certain that Yu Sui wouldn’t kill him, and he became as carefree as before. “Let me remind you, my master is deeply devoted to Madam Su. As Madam Su’s most loyal dog, even if Madam Su asked him to kill me one day, he would do it without hesitation.”
Yu Sui responded with an "Oh," and said, "My loyal dog."
“Your focus should be on his deep affection. How could a man like that tolerate the woman he loves being with another man and even having his child?” Wei Ren’s gaze fell on Yu Sui. “My master’s first hated person is your father, Nangong Ming, and his second hated person is you, Nangong Sui.”
Yu Sui laughed and said, "An incompetent man."
Wei Ren was amused by her comments, but as he laughed, the movement aggravated his wound, causing his face to contort in pain.
“Your father, Nangong Ming, was also a ruthless man, which is why I find it strange that someone like him, who had taken Lady Su hostage, would allow the news of the Xirang being in the possession of a mere Ping Shu to spread throughout the six kingdoms.”
"The peasant disciples of Yan State flocked to the capital of Qingyang, and every peasant disciple who tried to save his country died in the capital of Qingyang."
Wei Ren said softly, "A mere person of Ping Shu is enough to tempt all the peasant disciples of Yan to risk everything and fight for that last bit of luck and possibility to seize the Breath Soil."
Nangong Ming only needed Yu Sui to restrain the Yan peasants and make them willingly come to their deaths.
Initially, he only spread the word that the Breath of Soil was in the hands of a child who was powerless. Later, it turned out that the child was a person of Ping Shu. Although Nangong Ming was somewhat regretful, he also took advantage of this to give hope to the farmers of Yan State, so that they would come to him on their own over the next eighteen years.
"The Yan Kingdom has no sages. The only sage of the agricultural school was seriously injured because he lost the Breath Soil. If he had recovered, the Yan Kingdom would not be at the mercy of others, and the people living in the Yan Kingdom would not have no hope at all."
Because of the oath of non-aggression between the six states, no cavalry of any state set foot on the land of Yan. There was no trace of war or smoke in Yan. However, Yan was infiltrated from the top down by other states. For decades, a steady stream of sorcerers from the five states and the lower classes entered Yan, provoking battles and causing the lower classes of Yan to be reshuffled and reorganized.
As long as the oath of non-war is lifted, the Yan state will truly be "torn apart".
"Are you from the State of Yan?" Yu Sui asked.
“I grew up in Qingyang, so if you're going to count, I’m a Qingyang native.” Wei Ren blinked and said, “My nationality isn’t important. What I’m really curious about is you. Was it Madam Su or Nangong Ming who made you pretend to be from Pingshu, or did you deceive Madam Su and Nangong Ming?”
Yu Sui's Wind-Listening Ruler buzzed. She took it out, opened it, and replied perfunctorily, "Don't you think it's dangerous to know too much?"
“I’m not afraid of danger,” Wei Ren said. “If I can know what I want to know before I die, then it will be worth it.”
"Besides, this will determine whether I follow you or continue to follow Madam Su."
Yu Sui paused, pointing at the crossword puzzle, and looked up at Wei Ren, who raised an eyebrow at her and smiled, "Didn't you say it yourself, whether to be enemies or friends?"
Wei Ren told her a lot of information today, more than Yu Sui had imagined, giving her a deeper understanding of Madam Su and Nangong Ming, and even allowing her to guess some things she hadn't realized before.
While Yu Sui paused to think, Wei Ren continued, "You said that you and Madam Su each possess half of the Breath Soil, which is why Madam Su wanted to kill you. I can understand that now. She observed you for eighteen years, and only made her move after you left the capital. I don't think she was showing you mercy or being reluctant to let you go. I guess she couldn't make a move because there were people from the Nangong family in the capital."
In Wei Ren's eyes, a powerful woman like Lady Su, whose peak strength was comparable to that of a saint, would absolutely not be able to accept her current situation.
He was controlled by others, his old wounds had not healed, and he had been proud all his life, but he became a prisoner because of his second daughter.
Wei Ren wasn't surprised that Lady Su wanted to kill Yu Sui.
But he believes he is inherently cold-hearted and has little concept of family affection.
Yu Sui thought, even if Madam Su was controlled by Nangong Ming and left alone in the capital, how could she be sure that Madam Su was really alone?
Yu Sui chuckled to herself, realizing that she hadn't thought things through enough.
Nangong Ming probably also wanted to pledge allegiance to Madam Su's peasant power, so he wasn't in a hurry to let Madam Su recover from her injuries.
The main reason why Madam Su has not taken any action against her all these years is that Nangong Ming used Qingkui to threaten her.
Back then, Nangong Ming told Madam Su that he knew Qingkui had been taken away by Mr. Zhou, one of the three sages of medicine.
Nangong Ming knew the whereabouts of Qingkui and Mr. Zhou. Perhaps, Qingkui and Mr. Zhou had been living under Nangong Ming's surveillance all these years.
Did Madam Su suddenly decide to kill because she felt the time was right, or was she in a bit of a hurry?
Why are you in such a hurry?
Yu Sui caught a glimpse of the medicine bottle in Wei Ren's hand and suddenly froze.
The previous messages flashed through her mind.
A young woman named Chu Jin arrived in the capital and was hailed as the Little Medical Saint of the medical profession.
This young medical genius went to the Prince of Nangong's residence to treat Lady Su's old ailment.
Old Master Yan said that the Little Doctor did not see Madam Su.
Zhong Lique said that she was only a few years older than us.
How much older is Qingkui than her? Three years.
Is it because of okra?
Yu Sui's eyelashes trembled slightly as she lowered her gaze to the faintly glowing Listening Wind Ruler. Her fingers lingered on the crossword puzzle, her eyes reflecting the message Zhong Li Que had just sent:
"I just came back from the clinic. Sister Chu's clinic is so lively. There are so many people coming every day."
elder sister?
[Author's Note]
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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