Chapter 17 Just Friends
Jiang Zhaoyu's initial concerns were actually quite reasonable.
After all, according to the character design in the plot, Ren Yi is currently only wearing the guise of a zither master, lacking direct offensive power and with abilities more inclined towards support.
During the mission, Ren Yi diligently maintained his persona. Although he would help with sparring, that was only when Jiang Zhaoyu had just begun his training. After that, it completely exceeded the capabilities that his disguise should have—not that he couldn't beat him, but that he couldn't create a life-or-death situation for him without harming him. Therefore, Jiang Zhaoyu's later training was all guided by his proper master.
The story has now come to an end, and it's "off work time."
Just like the amusement park staff in the world Ren Yi once visited, who wore mascot costumes and handed out flyers. During the intermission, most of them took off their headgear. Although they were still wearing their costumes, they exuded a decadent and irritable aura of "don't touch me," and were not cute at all.
Ren Yi's situation is not much different. Although he is still wearing his disguise, he is not in a working state and is a bit unrestrained. For example, Yan Shuoyun saw at a glance that he was not a simple zither player and sent him a zither with a hidden sword mechanism.
All I can say is that every support player has the heart of an ADC, especially since he originally transitioned from ADC to support.
Ren Yi's undisguised behavior had another reason: he was facing Jiang Zhaoyu.
The child's personality was actually very simple. Just like now, he had no doubts about Ren Yi's change in aura. He made a gesture of asking for advice and then thrust his sword forward.
However, because the person standing opposite him was Ren Yi, Jiang Zhaoyu hesitated for a moment when the sword was thrust forward. But before he could deflect the sword from its vital point, he felt a numbness in his wrist and the sword in his hand was forcibly knocked away.
Jiang Zhaoyu blinked, still a little dazed, as the branch he had just broken off pressed against his shoulder and rested on his neck. He stiffened slightly, looked down at his empty palm, then turned slightly to the side and finally saw the longsword stuck in the ground a few steps behind him.
Jiang Zhaoyu's eyes widened slightly, but after a moment of shock, he quickly came to his senses.
The boy looked straight at Ren Yi, his eyes shining.
Ren Yi curled his lips slightly and asked, "Again?"
He received a deep nod.
This time, Jiang Zhaoyu focused his mind and acted without hesitation.
However, this sword move, which was much sharper than the previous one, ended up with the same result: it was knocked away in the instant it passed by, and the sword landed exactly in the same spot as before, fitting perfectly into the mark left earlier.
"Again."
The same two words were spoken, but this time it was Jiang Zhaoyu who spoke.
Ren Yi nodded in agreement.
The third time, the fourth time...
The same scene repeated itself over and over again, until a circular pattern was drawn around Ren Yi with him as the center, drawn by the sword marks that had been struck. Jiang Zhaoyu's voice was already a little hoarse when she said "Again".
Ren Yi raised his arm again, but Jiang Zhaoyu, who seemed unstoppable, changed his move midway. Ren Yi finally showed a look of surprise and was forced to take a step to the side, while flicking the branch in his hand.
Jiang Zhaoyu gritted her teeth, revealing a somewhat unwilling expression, but the longsword still slipped from her hand. The person wielding the sword also lost their balance when they landed because of the forced change of move midway. They rolled half a circle on the ground before dissipating the force. Their clothes were covered in sweat and mud, and they looked extremely disheveled.
But when the boy propped himself up and looked up, his eyes, though equally disheveled, remained as bright as ever.
"Again...cough...again."
He coughed, repeated the words somewhat incoherently, staggered to his feet, and reached for his sword, but Ren Yi shook his head and refused this time.
Jiang Zhaoyu's previously enthusiastic expression froze, and she looked at Ren Yi in astonishment, as if she didn't understand why he would refuse.
Ren Yi's eyes showed a hint of a smile. Although Jiang Zhaoyu always looked expressionless, those who got to know him better could tell that the boy's micro-expressions were actually very rich.
Thinking about all this, Ren Yi raised his hand and flicked his sleeve, revealing the cut that had been made by the sword wind earlier. He then gestured to the longsword that had finally deviated from the circle. "That's enough for today."
Jiang Zhaoyu was clearly still not satisfied. He felt that he still had the energy to continue, but since Ren Yi had said so, he couldn't force him. Just as he was about to get up and bow to say "Thank you for your guidance, Uncle-Master", he saw that Ren Yi's grip on the branch had changed and he said softly, "Watch carefully."
Jiang Zhaoyu's heart skipped a beat, and a premonition suddenly arose in his mind. He didn't even have time to get up, his eyes fixed on Ren Yi's movements, afraid that he would miss any details.
The person in front of him was indeed holding an ordinary tree branch. Jiang Zhaoyu had even seen the other person break it off the tree with his own eyes. But this unremarkable tree branch had become a sword in the other person's hands. This definite understanding even affected what Jiang Zhaoyu saw. In that moment of hallucination, he seemed to see Ren Yi holding an incomparably sharp longsword.
Jiang Zhaoyu didn't know if it was because he was too focused that the flow of time slowed down, or if the other party deliberately slowed down the speed for him to demonstrate. He clearly saw the trajectory of the "sword", watching how the crisscrossing sword energy obediently converged into a line, and then suddenly accelerated, like a streak of light breaking through the air, swiftly slashing forward.
Amidst the swirling dust, Jiang Zhaoyu disregarded the risk of the sand and dust squinting into her eyes and strained to open them wide.
Although this place is considered an open space, it is covered with gravel and various undulating mounds, so it is not actually flat. However, as the dust slowly dissipates, a flat open space with a slight slope appears before us, as smooth as a mirror.
Jiang Zhaoyu had clearly seen that this move, like the exchange between the two earlier, did not utilize any spiritual power; it was purely a sword strike. In other words, even a mortal with no cultivation could create such power—if he could use this move.
A faint rustling sound came from beside my ears. It turned out that the tree branch could no longer withstand the sword energy and peeled off inch by inch, eventually turning into dust and falling down.
As Jiang Zhaoyu stared blankly at the scene before her, Ren Yi turned his head and looked in a certain direction with some confusion.
For a fleeting moment, he felt as if there was someone there.
...Is it just my imagination?
Ren Yi frowned and looked at it a few more times, but ultimately couldn't figure out anything, so he looked away.
Not long after Ren and Jiang left, a person slowly walked out from the direction Ren Yi was looking at. It was Xiao Hanzhou, who was originally going to look for someone.
Xiao Hanzhou stared blankly at the sword mark left on the spot, his expression somewhat dazed.
Has A-Yi ever used a sword before?
Xiao Hanzhou didn't know, and he had never seen it before.
However, he knew clearly that such swordsmanship skills could not be learned in just three years, no matter how talented one was. A-Yi had been using a sword before, and his swordsmanship skills were extremely profound.
Xiao Hanzhou had always felt that A Yi seemed much more unfamiliar when they met again in Xizhou, but now it seemed that it wasn't "unfamiliar" at all, but rather that he had never truly understood the other person.
Just a few steps away, the clearing carved out by the sword exuded a chill and gradually condensed into a layer of white frost. Because there was no spiritual power to enhance it, this thin layer of frost was quickly melted into glistening dewdrops, half of which evaporated into the air and half of which soaked into the soil below, as if it had never existed.
Xiao Hanzhou recognized this sword intent.
The inheritance that the Xiao family patriarch obtained back then—which was the foundation of the Xiao family's rise and also the culprit that led to the extermination of the entire Xiao family—was a sword manual.
But if a single sword technique can hold the fate of an entire family in its hands, it must be extraordinary. It is the legacy left behind by Qingran Sword Master, who once slew the demonic dragon with his sword and suppressed it with his own body.
The Xiao family patriarch knew the gravity of the situation and never revealed this to outsiders. Even within the Xiao family, it was a secret passed down orally among the direct descendants. After all, if this matter were exposed, it wouldn't just be the families in Tianhuan City eyeing the Xiao family, but the entire aristocratic families of the Eastern Continent. However, greed knows no bounds. Even though the Xiao family carefully guarded this secret and didn't reveal a single detail, this "unknown" inheritance still brought disaster.
...
Xiao Hanzhou never imagined that he would one day see this sword technique in someone else's hands.
How could A-Yi know that?
Is it because of him? Is it because you've seen his swordsmanship?
Xiao Hanzhou quickly dismissed the idea.
The sword manual that the Xiao family patriarch obtained back then was only a fragment, but the moves within it already had countless variations. He had studied it for so many years, but what he had learned was only the tip of the iceberg. Although A-Yi's move just now could be seen to be from the same source, it was not any of the moves that he had learned.
If it were anyone else, Xiao Hanzhou would probably suspect that the other party had obtained the Xiao family's sword manual through some means. However, when the same thing happened to Ren Yi, he didn't even consider that possibility. This wasn't just because he trusted Ren Yi's character, but because if Ren Yi really wanted to inherit the technique, he had countless opportunities to do so over the past decade.
At this moment, Xiao Hanzhou recalled the first words spoken by the handsome and flamboyant young man when they first met—
"Your swordsmanship is quite good."
Xiao Hanzhou suddenly became lost in thought.
In fact, before taking A-Yi's care and favoritism for granted, Xiao Hanzhou was puzzled for a long time by the preferential treatment A-Yi gave him.
The person treated him too well, far beyond the boundaries of a stranger, to the point that he couldn't help but feel wary.
At that time, Xiao Hanzhou suffered a tremendous change, suddenly transforming from the young master of the Xiao family, who was surrounded by everyone, into a rat hiding in the street. The hatred of the massacre of his family was so deep, but the hardships of exile were no less severe. At that time, his primary goal was not even "avenging" but "surviving".
For a child who was once pampered and now has nothing, the latter goal is enough for him to give up his dignity, his upbringing, and everything he was once proud of, just to survive.
Xiao Hanzhou even wondered if he would become just like any other beggar on the street if things continued like that. But no, someone reached out to him and pulled him out of the mud.
By then, Xiao Hanzhou was no longer the young master of the Xiao family who took the kindness around him for granted.
Having been in exile for so long, he clearly understood that there is no such thing as a free lunch in this world; every gain must come with a loss, and most of the pie that falls from the sky hides poison.
He was wary and resistant, like a wolf cub locked in a cage, lurking and ready to bite at any moment.
However, he waited a long time for the poison to take effect.
Young Xiao Hanzhou was confused and bewildered, yet he stubbornly believed that all kindness was motivated by ulterior motives, waiting for the imagined "sinister truth" to be revealed. Having just experienced the coldest low point in his life, the young boy couldn't help but immerse himself in that false warmth. Occasionally... very occasionally, during long, sleepless nights, he would have the weak thought, "Even if this is fake, it seems like dying like this wouldn't be so bad." But at sunrise the next day, he couldn't help but bitterly despise himself for the previous night.
...
At this moment, Xiao Hanzhou stood in front of the open space and suddenly remembered the struggles he had in his youth.
In fact, given his close friendship with A-Yi, which involved several life-and-death experiences later on, he could have easily asked A-Yi about this unresolved question, and he believed A-Yi would have given him an answer. However, the fear he had as a teenager that "once the truth is revealed, there's no going back to the past" was etched into his subconscious. He was deliberately trying to forget that memory and deliberately avoiding that question.
But now, Xiao Hanzhou vaguely had a guess that the sword manual that the Xiao family patriarch obtained back then was only a partial fragment, which seemed to have been lost due to the passage of time. If the lost fragments were in A Yi's hands, then... A Yi took him in back then because he recognized the sword technique and out of the idea of "taking care of his fellow disciple".
The long-standing doubts seemed to have finally been answered, but for some reason, Xiao Hanzhou was not happy.
A voice inside him was asking, "Is that all? Is that all there is to it?"
Xiao Hanzhou lightly pressed his fingers against his heart, looking confused.
So what answer does he want?
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