Fight poison with poison
She put down the wine and food basket, bowed, and said, "Indeed. I apologize for my presumptuous visit to this forbidden area last time." At the same time, her gaze swept over the vast palace complex behind Chu Yuanyi. The moonlight outlined the flying eaves and overlapping halls, giving the abandoned palace a unique and enchanting beauty.
To everyone's surprise, upon hearing her confirm that it was A-Qiu, Chu Yuan rushed out of the door, grabbed her hand, and burst into tears, saying, "A-Qiu, you're so grown up! You haven't come to see your aunt all these years! Do you know that we have no other relatives besides each other!"
Tears streamed down his face, which was covered in wrinkles, and he sighed deeply.
On a large tree five zhang away from the gate of Qiwu Palace, two people stood facing each other, concealed. Upon hearing this, they were both speechless.
Zhongli Wuyan leaned forward a little more to get a better look through the gaps in the leaves, and said, "So this little girl is really the child from back then?"
As she moved closer, she drew even closer to Gu Yi. Gu Yi frowned, then simply stood up and leaped to another tree nearby. He replied, "Yes."
No sooner had he stood still than he heard the sound of wind again, and it turned out that Zhongli Wuyan had followed him again.
Oblivious to what was happening, she kept an eye on the two of them while whispering in Gu Yi's ear, "This is terrible! She's back, so our forty-year agreement is still valid. Unless she says she'll release them, the four of us can't leave."
Then, he hesitated and said, "But even if she is that child from back then, she might not necessarily be..."
Gu Yi's face darkened, and he finally couldn't bear it any longer and said, "Senior, please stay away from me." As he spoke, he moved a foot away and added, "Men and women should not touch each other."
Zhongli Wuyan almost burst out laughing beneath her gorgeous veil: "You greenhorn, do you think I'm taking advantage of you because I'm interested in you? Go look in the mirror!"
He muttered again, "How can you compare to even half a finger of our Senior Brother An! You always think so highly of yourself, like every woman in the world, young or old, wants to take advantage of you."
Gu Yisu rarely argued with people, but this time he suddenly decided to retort: "If you didn't want to take advantage of me, why did you come with me?"
Zhongli Xiaomei, dressed in flowing purple, was so angry she almost fell off the tree: "Your sweetheart let out a Lanling howl on the top of Xianyang Palace last time! If I don't keep an eye on her, will there be any place for the four of us in this palace?"
Gu Yi shrugged nonchalantly: "Then you should be watching her, not following me. If you only follow me and not her, then you're after me, and don't blame me for saying you're disrespectful and don't know how to behave."
Zhongli Wuyan was so angry she almost fell over. She wanted to say that she couldn't keep up with A Qiu, so she had to follow him instead, but she felt that it would be quite embarrassing to say that. However, she was also a very clever person, and she immediately came to her senses and said with a smile, "No matter what you say, you just want to shake me off. That's definitely not going to work. I'm going to watch the show. Sorry."
As she spoke, she deliberately squeezed closer to him.
And so—it was Gu Yi's turn to be expressionless and speechless. He snorted and had no choice but to take another step to the side.
Chu Yuanyi suddenly released his grip, took a step back, and said coldly, "No, you're not A Qiu. The martial arts you used last time you came were clearly those of an assassin. A Qiu is a noblewoman; she would never learn such low-class skills! You're trying to fool me!"
Once she made up her mind, she immediately gathered her strength in her palm, generating wind and thunder, and brought it down directly on A Qiu's head.
Gu Yi sighed silently.
Zhongli Wuyan immediately sensed something and said, "Why are you sighing again? Do you think Yuan Yi is mentally unstable and prone to turning on people and hitting them? Do you know how she has lived all these years and how much she has suffered? You, Young Master Gu, have always been pampered and privileged, so naturally you can't understand!"
Gu Yi: ...
He decided to keep his mouth shut. Tonight, Zhongli Wuyan wouldn't be able to pry a single word out of him.
A Qiu stood still, and without thinking, she swung her palm back, which blocked Chu Yuanyi's incoming palm.
Chu Yuan's eyes flashed with a strange light. He whispered, "Good!"
A fierce wind arose again, and another palm strike, accompanied by wind and thunder, arrived in an instant.
As if she knew in advance which palm strike A Qiu was going to use, she swiftly and accurately intercepted A Qiu's palm strike.
Chu Yuan was taken aback and immediately withdrew his move and changed his stance.
Logically, it would be extremely inconvenient for her to change her approach now that she's using an outdated move. For a master like her who has been famous for nearly sixty years, changing it would inevitably be awkward and sluggish, making it a rather risky situation. It would be better to just go for it head-on. But Chu Yuanyi insisted on changing it.
A Qiu did not take advantage of the gap in Chu Yuan Yi's move to launch a counterattack. Instead, he waited for Chu Yuan Yi's palm strike to come, and then skillfully turned the palm into a slash, cutting off the path of Chu Yuan Yi's palm strike.
If Chu Yuanyi had continued with his palm strike in the same manner, he would have been struck on the elbow by A Qiu midway through the attack.
Chu Yuanyi was shocked at this moment, and he withdrew a palm strike that was already halfway through its strike without any suspicion.
Gu Yi's originally calm and composed face now showed a hint of a smile.
Zhongli Wuyan, standing to the side, rubbed her eyes and said in disbelief, "These two people are using the exact same moves?"
Her question was quite deliberate.
It's not difficult for two people to know the same martial arts. As long as they come from the same school or have learned the same skills, it's enough.
However, when A Qiu and Chu Yuanyi exchanged blows, Chu Yuanyi took the initiative to attack first, but A Qiu returned Chu Yuanyi's attack almost exactly as it was, using an offensive stance as a defensive stance to counter it, and each time she was able to force Chu Yuanyi to change his move midway.
Only a master with exceptional insight into martial arts, capable of effortlessly adapting techniques from various schools of thought for their own use, could accomplish this.
The other party was clearly just a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl.
Little did she know that A Qiu was originally the top-ranked figure on the "List of Banished Immortals," meaning he was the number one assassin in the world.
Although the assassin's martial arts are quite different from the orthodox martial arts of famous schools, those who can reach the end and the extreme of a single path have already surpassed all other unorthodox paths.
Starting from this point, one can then explore the martial arts of other schools and comprehend them in a matter of days.
Gu Yi had not expected that after he had only given a few pointers at Jinlingtai, A Qiu not only remembered Chu Yuanyi's Wind and Thunder Slash, but also immediately showed an intention to surpass his master and surpass him.
Chu Yuan stood still for a moment, then suddenly his palms moved like lightning, unleashing three consecutive attacks on A Qiu with the moves of rising, crouching, and piercing.
The Three-Strike Combo is a deadly move in the "Wind and Thunder Slash" technique, with one palm strike following another, one move after another, leaving the opponent no time to react.
Unexpectedly, A Qiu was even faster. Just as Chu Yuanyi raised her palm, A Qiu's identical palm strike had already reached her. Palm against palm, chain against chain. Each move was preemptively placed in the opening before the palm strike was launched, intercepting the unfinished attack and capturing the unformed state.
After the three moves were completed, A Qiu's two beautiful, orchid-like hands patted Chu Yuanyi's right chest and left shoulder respectively, gently pushing her away, and said with a smile, "Auntie, you're too kind!"
This victory was also achieved under the premise that A Qiu was fully familiar with Chu Yuanyi's "Wind and Thunder Slash," and that Chu Yuanyi had no intention of harming anyone at the moment, but was only using his moves to maneuver.
Chu Yuan was stunned for a moment, then suddenly hugged A Qiu and burst into tears. Between sobs, she said, "You really are my little A Qiu. I never thought that you would remember so many things your aunt taught you over the years. Your aunt has not treated you badly!"
A Qiu inwardly wiped away a cold sweat, feeling ashamed. —Over the years, she had completely forgotten everything Chu Yuanyi had taught her. Her current ability to use it freely was purely due to her astonishing martial arts talent and Gu Yi's guidance back then.
Being able to complete a full round of the Thirty-Six Paths of "Wind and Thunder Slash" under the pressure of Gu Yijun and Tian Yuheng is far more effective than practicing it seventy or eighty times on your own.
Gu Yi, however, was pondering something else. No matter what one studies, the most dreaded thing is this: deeply ingrained bad habits that are difficult to reverse. A Qiu's use of "Wind and Thunder Slash" this time was remarkably clean and composed, leaving absolutely no trace of assassination. To be able to change course so thoroughly after just one instruction is truly a rare talent with potential.
Besides Yuheng, he also possessed a sword named "Louyue," which he used to pacify the world. At this moment, he conceived the idea of passing this sword on to Aqiu.
Chu Yuan wiped away his tears and said, "You are much better than your good-for-nothing father. He was unwilling to learn anything and unwilling to endure hardship. In the end, he was neither good at literature nor martial arts."
These words struck A-Qiu like a thunderbolt. She remained silent for a long while before managing to utter a few words: "Auntie, who...is my father?"
No one present expected that Chu Yuanyi would bring up this topic so soon.
From the moment A Qiu met Gu Yi, she had a vague feeling that her background was probably not as simple as it seemed. Someone like Gu Yi, whether in the past or in the future, was certainly not someone an ordinary person could approach or get to know.
Gu Yi's revelation that she had learned the "Wind and Thunder Slash" from Chu Yuanyi further confirmed her suspicions.
Chu Yuanyi was one of the "Four Heavenly Secrets," and had been living in seclusion in the palace for many years. He had few friends and acquaintances, so how could he casually pass on his unique martial arts to just anyone?
But Ah Qiu, instinctively, felt that the matter was of great importance, and therefore did not want to think about it.
My master once said that the past is just a hindrance.
He also once said, "If you had been happy in the past, you would never be in Lanling Hall now."
The deeper meaning is probably that when you have to face and bear your unhappy, or even your family destroyed, background one day, will your hands still have the strength to hold the daggers in your palms?
She... didn't really want to know who her father was.
The other two people present, who were invisible, tacitly pretended not to hear.
Because, regarding the question of who A Qiu's father is, in this palace back then and now, it is probably an unsolved mystery that no one can solve.
Chu Yuanyi, however, couldn't help but speak out upon seeing A Qiu because that person had been regarded as her own son for many years and she thought about him day and night.
She coughed awkwardly twice and changed the subject, saying, "Ah Qiu, I haven't seen you in the palace all these years. What brings you to my forbidden area?"
Her implication was that A-Qiu had simply gone out for a short trip before returning.
However, when Chu Yuanyi entered the palace forty years ago, she was a young woman in the prime of her life, but now her hair is completely white. In her view, A Qiu's departure for ten years is tantamount to her leaving the palace for a short while.
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