Chapter 100: Killing Each Other Lingxu Bukong has become unknown, where is the white-clothed man with a sword...
Qing Guiyu learned a lesson this time, and she will never be able to pass through Shen Juansheng's hands so easily again.
She went back to change her clothes, and taking advantage of the opportunity to sneak to the ferry market when no one was paying attention,
He found a few half-grown children playing on the street, stuffed a few copper coins and a note with the unique secret code of Yaowang Valley into each of them, and instructed them to deliver them to various local medicine shops and charity halls.
Only after doing all this did I feel a little relieved.
On the third day, news indeed came back.
Young Master Jin Sheng was surprisingly obedient, never showing any resentment. He smiled every day, but sometimes he would look at her quietly. He still followed her wherever she went.
Therefore, the road to Baidi Temple is an overly quiet journey.
They found a small boat and rowed upstream, against the current. The boatman, an elderly fisherman, collected the silver and then simply rowed, not even glancing at the eerie young couple behind them.
The river turned, and the boat reached the foot of a steep cliff. The fisherman pulled the boat ashore and pointed to a bluestone path hidden among the trees on the cliff. "Follow this path up, and you'll reach Baidi Temple."
Qing Guiyu paid the boat fare and quickly jumped ashore.
The mountain path was deep and mossy, flanked by towering ancient trees that scattered the sunlight. The wind rustled through the treetops, creating a deep, surging sound that only accentuated the loneliness of the place.
This road seems to have been forgotten for a long time.
When they reached halfway up the mountain, Qing Guiyu slowed down his pace, and the sound of Shen Engraving behind him also stopped. He swept his eyes around calmly.
"What's wrong?" he asked softly.
"The moss on this road," Qing Guiyu squatted down and picked up some moss on the stone steps with his fingertips, "it's so complete."
She stood up and looked at the path leading up. "If Junior Brother had come here, he would have left footprints. But here, there's not even a piece of moss that's been trampled on."
Shen Juansheng didn't say anything, but his clear eyes sank slightly in the shadows of the forest.
Both of them felt a little doubtful, stopped talking, and quickened their pace.
*
An ancient temple stands on the edge of a cliff on the top of the mountain, overlooking the river flowing at its feet.
This is Baidi Temple.
The temple was small and even somewhat dilapidated, its vermilion lacquer pillars having long since faded, revealing the natural color of the wood underneath.
Qing Guiyu's heart trembled.
The palace door was rotten, and she pushed it gently.
A desolate smell of years of dust and the fading incense filled the air. The hall was dimly lit, the statues thick with dust and bird droppings. Cobwebs dangled from the beams, and a few shafts of light filtered through the holes in the roof.
Water dripped intermittently from the cracks between the tiles, leaving dark moss marks on the ground. It mixed with scattered dead leaves and made a subtle but clear cracking sound when stepped on.
"Junior Brother?"
Qing Guiyu called out, but his voice echoed in the empty hall without any response.
She and Shen Juansheng exchanged a glance, then each walked into the hall and checked separately.
The doors and windows of the side hall had long since rotted away, leaving it completely empty. A few bats, startled by her, flapped their wings and flew out from the broken roof.
The backyard was overgrown with weeds. Waist-high weeds had submerged an ancient well that had long dried up, and the words engraved on the stone railings beside the well had become blurred.
There is no sign that anyone has been here.
Lu Guiyan is not here.
Qing Guiyu's heart sank little by little. She hurried back to the main hall, only to see Chen Juansheng standing in front of the broken statue, looking up at something.
"Look." He pointed to the statue's still intact hand.
Qing Guiyu looked in the direction of his fingertips and saw that the palm of the clay sculpture holding the seal had a very faint mark made by a sharp weapon.
That is the word "danger".
The handwriting is thin and strong, with sharp strokes, which is exactly Lu Guiyan's handwriting.
It's a warning.
Qing Guiyu's face changed and he was about to speak when a burst of intermittent sounds of metal clashing, carried by the mountain wind, suddenly came from the cliff behind the temple.
It was short and intense, not like a sparring match, but more like a fight for life and death.
Without further hesitation, she used her Listening to the Rain technique, rushed out of the ruined temple gate, and ran towards the cliff behind the mountain where the sound of metal clashing came from.
The terrain became increasingly dangerous, with huge rocks scattered around.
The wind on the mountaintop was so strong that it made people's clothes dance wildly, as if they were flying away on the wind. On the side of the cliff stood a huge rock with a few large characters engraved on it: "Where the Divine Mother Fan Slew the Turtle with Her Flying Sword". The handwriting was ancient, clumsy, and weathered.
Behind the stone is a long-rotten suspended plank road, barely fixed on the thousand-foot cliff by iron nails and wooden stakes, stretching out into the depths of the clouds.
The mountain wind whistled through the cliffs, blowing the sea of clouds and river water below, pouring into the deep valley, and then rolling up, shaking out a sharp wailing sound, making the already shaky plank road make a creaking sound.
A brutal fight took place on this dangerous plank road.
Lu Guiyan, in white clothes and white hair, was a solitary speck of snow reflected in the river wind and flowing clouds. The Wuwang Sword shone with clear light, as he was being attacked from both sides, trapped.
The wooden stakes and iron chains of the plank road were now all soaked red with blood, which dripped down from the cliff. From time to time, a wooden stake was softened by the blood and fell out, falling into the abyss.
"Junior Brother!" Qing Guiyu's heart was in his throat, and he subconsciously wanted to jump.
"Don't go!" Shen Jiansheng said sternly, grabbing her wrist. "The plank road has reached its limit. If you go down, you will fall into the river together." His voice became steady. "You know it."
Qing Guiyu was anxious and angry, but he also knew he was telling the truth. This plank road couldn't accommodate another person. He could only watch helplessly, his heart aching.
The five men were extremely agile, some clinging to the cliff wall like geckos, some hanging upside down under the plank road, each holding a strangely shaped iron claw meteor hook with sharp claws and a long iron chain tied to the back.
"Hooks are for reaching out, chains are for binding feet. The Northern Frontier Guards are the Hook Matrix," Shen Jiansheng said gravely, "specializing in assassinations in dangerous and strategic locations. It seems my father is determined."
Qing Guiyu's heart skipped a beat.
Lu Guiyan had no time to see her. Someone pounced from above the cliff, iron claws falling. He leaned back, and the Wuwang Sword swung upwards, drawing an arc of light.
The sharp blade curved back and forth along the wrist bone, like a gray wind sweeping away snow, or white clouds wiping a sword. The killer screamed miserably, and half of his iron claw fell off along with his forearm. His body lost control and fell straight down the cliff.
As the young man retracted his sword, he glanced around and spun around to avoid the two iron chains under his feet.
With the force of the collision, he flipped in the air, his clothes fluttering, and landed silently behind the other person.
There was no earth-shaking sword energy, nor complicated moves, just a blank stab.
It passed through the gap in the rotating chain and sank into the throat.
Spots of blood fell into the mountain wind and wailed.
Seeing their companions killed one after another, the remaining three people's eyes became fierce, and they gave up the siege. They shouted angrily and threw the iron hooks in their hands.
The entire stretch of plank road shook violently, and the iron nails and wooden stakes were pulled up.
Lu Guiyan's feet were empty and his body suddenly sank down.
Qing Guiyu's heartbeat almost stopped, and he subconsciously rushed forward.
But Shen Juansheng grabbed her and said coldly, "Don't go. He has a way."
In the blink of an eye, the figure in white bent incredibly in the air, and at the moment of falling, he actually gained some leverage from the iron hook net.
The young man's white clothes spread out like crane wings, and he flipped upside down in the air. The Wuwang sword flew out of his hand, and a silver thread, straight into the rock wall in front, was nailed.
With the power of the sword, he rose again and spun back onto the plank road like falling flowers. Then he rushed forward, drew out his long sword, and swept it along the ground.
With the sound of a clear sword, the light of snow and moon intertwined, and the ankles of several people were cut off. They screamed, their bodies became unstable, and they rolled down the cliff.
The moonlight faded, Lu Guiyan put away his sword and stood up, his white clothes fluttering, his figure swaying in the wind, and he barely managed to stand firm.
He slowly raised his head and looked at the top of the cliff through the swirling clouds.
Those eyes, which had always been cold, were now filled with fatigue, but the moment they saw her, a warmth like the first melting of ice and snow spread out, and a very faint smile appeared on his white jade face.
There is an abyss between the upper and lower parts of the plank road.
They were just hanging by a thread, the line between life and death, staring at each other from afar.
"Junior Brother!" Qing Guiyu finally couldn't help but shouted loudly.
The mountain breeze carried her voice down. Lu Guiyan's lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just nodded slightly as if to comfort her.
"He's fine." Shen Juansheng stretched out his hand, trying to pull her back from the dangerous cliff.
Qing Guiyu struggled frantically and finally broke free. He took a deep breath and ran to the side of the cliff. He grabbed his outstretched arm, gritted his teeth, and pulled him up.
The energy within the tentacles was weak and scattered, and it was obvious that the fight just now had consumed a lot of her internal energy. She hurriedly followed the flow of energy on the jade slip and gathered the scattered true energy.
"Chen Yan's people?"
A soft voice came from behind.
Shen Juansheng walked steadily, as if strolling leisurely in a garden. He glanced at Lu Guiyan, then glanced at Qing Guiyu's hand that was holding Lu Guiyan.
Lu Guiyan nodded as a response. He looked back at her and said softly,
"I'm fine. It's just... I'm afraid I'll have to stay here for a few more days."
"I had them set up an ambush here, hoping to lure the snake out of its hole," he sighed, "but I never thought that it would lead to you, Junior Sister."
"Why are you attracting snakes? Are you trying to kill yourself?"
Qing Guiyu was so angry that he didn't know what to say. He just felt that he owed these people who practiced cold skills in his previous life, so he could only glare at him fiercely.
Chen Juansheng walked to the side of the two of them, swept his brows over Lu Guiyan's pale face, then looked at his frosty white hair, and suddenly chuckled.
"I didn't attract the snake, but I almost died here. If Miss Qing hadn't arrived, Brother Lu would have died here today."
He paused, took a step forward, leaned slightly closer, and spoke in a softer voice, almost whispering into her ear,
"Miss Qing, you see, he always makes you worry."
His words were meant to provoke, but Qing Guiyu was too lazy to pay attention and just treated them as wind passing by his ears. He kept exerting internal force in his hands and focused on stabilizing Lu Guiyan's true energy that was about to dissipate.
"What's going on in Yuzhou?" she asked in a deep voice.
"The Cao Gang said you were looking for me, but I didn't hear any news from you along the way."
Lu Guiyan glanced at the young man in black clothes beside her and said lightly,
"Tianji Pavilion has spies all over the world, so it's not surprising that the news can't reach you." He turned his eyes away.
"There's definitely an undercurrent surging on the Yuzhou dike right now. Those people in the northern border are acting much more hastily than before, as if they're rushing to catch up."
"The Cao Gang is just the first step," he said, his gaze turning towards the swirling sea of clouds below the cliff. "They're probably not only going to cut off Yuzhou's waterways, but they're also going to starve it of food. On my journey south, I've seen traces of Northern Frontier people active in many places along the river."
Chen Juansheng shifted his gaze from the two people's clasped hands and looked towards the clouds. His clear eyes reflected the light of the sky and the shadows of the clouds.
"The Queen Mother is dying."
He said coldly, "Of course they're rushing the clock. If she dies, the Northern Dynasty will inevitably fight among its kings. By then, the borders will be in mourning, the ruler will be young and the country will be in turmoil, leaving them no energy left to march south. Naturally, they have to start this war before the old queen mother takes her last breath."
He dissected these words with her, gathering the disjointed clues into a cold, clear thread.
The grain ships of the Cao Gang, the assassination by the hook matrix, and the trap at the Baidi Temple were nothing more than a few fallen leaves blown by the wind before the storm.
Qing Guiyu's heart tightened, and he thought of the siege he encountered at Xiaoluo Ferry, and couldn't help asking,
"Can Chen Yan really stir up such a storm?"
"Of course he can."
This time, it was Lu Guiyan who spoke.
"I know he's still alive," the young man in white sheathed his sword and said slowly, "Ever since the news of his return, I've been prepared."
Qing Guiyu paused, "But why would he want to kill you? He's colluding with Northern Frontier and wants the Bingxi Meridian Cleansing Technique. Wouldn't it be more useful to keep you around?"
"He doesn't want to kill me," Lu Guiyan shook his head.
"They want to trap me, drain my internal energy, and then capture me alive. This hook matrix is good at trapping, but not at killing quickly, and that's exactly why."
"As for this plank road," he said with a wry smile, "I led them here."
"This person is my blood enemy."
He paused, his voice filled with deep hatred.
"When I heard that Chen Yan was still alive, I knew he would come looking for me sooner or later. He coveted our sect's Ice Creek Meridian Cleansing Technique and slaughtered the entire Snow Mountain Sect, but he never succeeded."
As if unwilling to mention the bloody past, the white clothes rustled in the wind, appearing lonely and sad.
"He spent decades planning this, forcing my brothers to kill each other in order to achieve this feat. His methods were so vicious and his mind so deep that it was far beyond the reach of ordinary Jianghu heroes."
As soon as these words were spoken, the wind on the mountaintop stopped.
Qing Guiyu felt as if someone had stabbed him in the chest, and even the hand that was channeling his internal energy trembled violently.
Hadn't the entire Snow Mountain Sect been wiped out long ago? Junior Brother was the only survivor, so where did this...brother come from?
She stared at Lu Guiyan blankly.
An absurd thought that made her feel cold all over suddenly emerged from the deepest part of her heart without any warning.
Snow Mountain Sect.
Serene and solemn.
Bingxi Pulse Cleansing Technique.
She turned her head and looked at the young man in black clothes who was trapped in a blood net and was being manipulated by fate, but was still standing quietly.
He fell alone in the Medicine King Valley that year, but didn't want to live.
He has a similar physique to his junior brother, who practices Zhihan martial arts.
His attitude towards Shen Yan was complex and difficult to describe, a mixture of hatred and fear.
At this moment, countless clues that he had concealed with his beauty, illness, and romantic affairs were suddenly connected together by these four words, like threading a needle.
On one side were the piles of bones of the Snow Mountain Sword Tomb, and on the other side, he was clearly holding the young man in front of him who was as beautiful as a poisonous creature.
Qing Guiyu opened his mouth.
"What...fratricide?"
She heard her voice was a little dry, and asked him almost subconsciously.
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