Chapter 85: Knowing Nothing
Mingguang held his sword and glared angrily.
Today was the day Jiaoran had agreed with her to fight again, and the two of them had deliberately found a sparsely populated place in the Governor's Mansion.
Mingguang thought that if he seriously injured her here today, no one from the Chai family would stop him, but he still had to spare her life so as not to have to explain to the prince.
The master's wife had taught her painstakingly for more than ten years, but now it seemed that she was still no match for her despicable nature. Mingguang smiled.
If it weren't for the master's wife's partiality towards her, so many troubles would not have arisen, and she wouldn't have to leave the master's sect and wander around Chang'an.
Although Jiaoran felt a little uneasy when she met her, she was still happy to see an old friend. However, after spending so much time together, she could see that Mingguang disliked her deep down.
As it happened, she also hated her to the extreme.
"Senior sister, your memory is too bad. I still remember that when my junior sister was a child, she kept wetting the bed and was spanked by Master's wife. I wonder if Senior sister is remembering it wrongly?"
Jiao Ran sneered, "Senior Sister, if you remember correctly, that was when I was young and ignorant."
She recalled another incident. Master and Master were usually very busy, and sometimes when they were practicing, they would leave her alone in the mountains. Once, when they were fetching water and cooking in Zhuxing Mountain, no one was around, so Jiaoran crawled on the ground, picked up some sheep dung, and stuffed it into her mouth. "Little Junior Sister, do you still remember the smell of sheep dung?"
Jiaoran's face remained calm, and he said calmly, "These are all things from the past when I was a kid and couldn't even walk steadily. Why do you have to bring them up today, Senior Sister?"
"Alas, today it's just you and me, sister. I'm just catching up with you. Junior Sister, you won't be angry, right?"
"How could that be? Senior Sister Zhuxing still often talks about our childhood. You took care of me, how could I forget those wonderful days? That's why Senior Sister Zhuxing said that today I only want to learn a few moves from you, don't ask too much."
When talking about Zhuxing, Mingguang felt a little sad. She even met Bu Yue on the day of Cuju, but Bu Yue and Zhuxing were not as kind to her as before. Even when she told the prince about Jiaoran's past, Zhuxing had a murderous look in his eyes. Even Bu Yue was very protective of Jiaoran, but she was already an abandoned disciple of Huiyingmen, and they had forgotten her long ago.
Changing the subject, she said, "I won't kill you today, but if you're seriously injured by me, I won't take you back. You'd better crawl back by yourself, just like when you were a child. Don't you love crawling on the ground the most?"
Jiao Ran said, "Senior Sister, your swordsmanship is extremely fierce. I have witnessed it when I was a child. Don't worry, Senior Sister. I can protect myself."
Jiaoran knew Mingguang's temper since childhood very well. She always looked down on her junior sister, so her complacency was extremely beneficial to Jiaoran.
Just imagine, he couldn't even beat her apprentice, Jiaoran. What could he do to her if he fought against her today?
Jiao Ran said, "Senior Sister, if I beat you today, what then?"
Mingguang laughed a few times. "I don't care how many friends you have and how many masters you have, but you are definitely not my opponent. If you win today, I will give you whatever I have."
After a pause, he continued, "I will never break my promise."
Since that was the case, Jiaoran drew his sword. Somehow, Mingguang felt a chill run through his heart.
Mingguang's swordsmanship was extremely sharp from the start, stabbing shoulders and slicing wrists, and every move was aimed at crippling Jiaoran's sword-wielding hand.
It seemed that Jiaoran could only defend himself and was almost at a disadvantage.
It seemed that Mingguang was much better than Jiaoran in both body movement and sword skills. With a horizontal strike of her sword and a push of her hand, Jiaoran was forced to retreat a few steps.
Jiaoran kept backing away until she fell under a tree. The green leaves in the forest had turned yellow and were flying around like butterflies. Before she could stabilize her body, Mingguang leaped forward and chased her.
Jiaoran's figure was erratic, as if he was just trying hard to escape and avoid his senior sister's fatal move.
The two of them took a breath, and Ming Guang pointed his sword at Jiao Ran. "It's already remarkable that you were able to withstand these dozens of blows. I won't show any mercy next time. By the way, Master Mu Jin didn't come today? Oh, I see. You were afraid of losing too badly and being embarrassed if he saw you. But you're really lucky to have such a man. When you were little, you loved staring at the good-looking guests walking around the inn. Now that you've grown up, you've finally caught a stunning beauty."
Jiaoran was originally trying to find her flaws in her moves, so he moved swiftly, seemingly running away, but in fact he was forcing her to use different moves to deal with her.
Now hearing her such frivolous words, she shook her arm and came forward with a sword.
After she burned the library, the governor summoned them all and glared at her several times. Although he didn't touch her, Mu Jin was repeatedly punished by the governor on pretexts and was called away to paint more frequently, which made her even more upset. Mingguang didn't mention Mu Jin, but as soon as he did, Jiaoran wanted her to shut up completely.
A sword stabbed towards Mingguang's chest. Mingguang originally thought that Jiaoran's martial arts skills were far inferior to hers, but this move was almost impossible to resist. She couldn't help but feel shocked and angry, and she was defeated in the next few moves.
After fighting for half an hour, she could no longer hold on and was stabbed by Jiaoran. She wanted to escape again, but Jiaoran refused to let her go.
Suddenly, she flew up and kicked Mingguang to the ground. There was a shoe print on her chin.
Jiao Ran endured it for a while before saying, "How is it, Senior Sister? Although I no longer eat sheep dung and dirt, I'll let you taste the soles of my shoes today. Is that okay?"
She wanted to humiliate her and broke one of Mingguang's ribs.
Mingguang rolled on the ground in pain.
Jiaoran walked towards her, and Mingguang kept retreating. "Senior Sister, I'm not going to kill you, what are you afraid of? After all, we are fellow disciples."
At this moment, Mingguang stood up from the ground and stabbed Jiaoran's leg. Jiaoran was not surprised and cut her sword off with one sword.
He kicked her and sent her falling a few steps away. This time she couldn't stand up and attack her by surprise.
Jiao Ran stuck his sword into the ground, held the hilt and said, "Since you lose, I will take what you have."
"What do you want?"
Jiaoran shook his index finger and said, "I don't really care about Senior Sister's things."
She slowly drew her sword, wiped it clean, and sheathed it.
He smiled and said, "I just want Senior Sister to answer a few questions for me and resolve Jiaoran's doubts."
"If I don't answer, what can you do to me?"
"Senior Sister, since you are merciless and don't keep your promise, don't blame me for taking your life!"
"You dare to kill me?"
Jiao Ran chuckled again, "You can give it a try. At worst, I can kill you and say it was an accidental killing during today's competition. If the Governor's Office and the Prince really want to investigate, I'll just run away. What's the big deal? For people like us in the martial arts world, killing a few people by mistake is not uncommon. But killing fellow disciples... is relatively rare. But our Huiying Sect is not a decent martial arts sect, so let's just kill them."
After listening to this, she was silent for a moment and then said, "Okay, ask."
"First, how much do you know about what happened back then?"
"What do you mean?"
"When we were little, you often told me about that rainy night when my mother was hunted down and brought to the Huiying Inn. The people from the Huiying Gate then cut me open and pulled me out of my mother's body."
Mingguang laughed after hearing this and said, "Oh, so you want to know about this matter. You are threatening my life and asking me to answer the questions you have been wondering about for many years."
"This isn't a threat. If you lose, you'll naturally have to do what I say. You should answer whatever I ask you."
"Your life in exchange for a few words of truth. You will not suffer any loss in this deal."
She raised her eyebrows, "What you know is the truth. Your mother was a shameless thief who stole someone else's secret manual and was hunted all over the world. So one rainy night, she ran to the small town of Mianyuan in Xiu Tu, but was eventually hunted down and killed in the town. If it weren't for Master's wife, you would have died with your mother!"
Jiao Ran thrust his sword into the dirt beside her cheek, only a finger's width away from her face. "Senior Sister, do you not understand the rules of the martial arts world? You must answer truthfully when I ask you questions."
She laughed, "How do you know I'm not telling the truth? It won't do me any good if I lie to you."
Jiao Ran said angrily, "You are the earliest disciple to follow A Niang in our sect. I don't believe you don't know anything about what happened back then."
He leaned over and grabbed Mingguang's shoulders, gritting his teeth and saying, "Tell me, why was Huiying Inn called Huiying Inn so many years ago? Tell me!"
She laughed coldly, "Now you're begging me to tell you what happened back then. Asking someone for help requires attitude. You have to be lenient with me. How about this? Kneel down and kowtow to me. When I'm willing, maybe I'll tell you the reason for the one-word discrepancy."
Jiao Ran suppressed his anger and said, "Senior Sister, it seems you are really not afraid of death!"
Her sword had already pierced Mingguang's left arm and was spinning in her arm. The pain was unbearable for Mingguang. She cried out, "Even if you tear my flesh and bones apart, if I don't want to speak, I will never say a word."
Jiao Ran just sneered and said, "Okay, I'll tear your bones apart one by one. Senior Sister, you know I've loved taking things apart and putting them back together since I was a child. But I can't guarantee that after I tear your bones apart, I can put them back together exactly as they were."
Mingguang looked at her for a while, and the more he looked at her, the funnier it became. "If you really want to find the murderer, then the first person you should kill is yourself."
"What do you mean?" Jiaoran was very confused and could not understand what she said.
"She had already escaped death, but for you, she disguised herself again and came to see you. Don't you understand? It was because of your existence that she lost her life."
Jiaoran was shocked and lowered his head in silence.
After a while, he raised his head, stared at her and asked, "So, she didn't die in the battle at the inn that year, but just escaped?"
Mingguang suddenly laughed. "Yes, hundreds of martial arts masters and imperial masters surrounded her, but she managed to survive. But hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, who could have thought that she would die in my hands? I tell you, I only used one move, not even a second one, and she fell." Thinking of what happened back then, she shuddered. "I actually killed her, I actually killed her! And you, the only person she cherished in this world, didn't even know she was your biological mother before she died. She was even more ridiculous. She knew in her heart that your first meeting with her would be the last time she would see you, but she still sought death like a moth to a flame. Tell me, are there such ridiculous mother and daughter like you in this world?"
Jiaoran raised his head slightly, "What does she look like?"
"Look in the mirror and see your appearance, don't you know?"
Jiaoran suddenly couldn't help crying, "My mother said that my biological mother had died at the hands of those bad guys back then, and her death had nothing to do with Huiyingmen!" She could have pretended not to care, she thought she could not care.
But her heart was in so much pain that she told herself about the past, like her death yesterday. Only by letting go of the past could she find the path she should take.
But she just couldn't do it, she couldn't forget that purple dress.
I can't forget the tiny word "firefly" engraved on the bottom of the short arrow.
"Okay, you're right about everything. You said it had nothing to do with Huiyingmen, so it has nothing to do with it. I didn't kill your mother back then. She just died at the hands of those bad guys."
She grabbed Mingguang's shoulder with one hand, making Mingguang unable to move. With the other hand, she drew her sword and pointed it at her heart.
Mingguang was so frightened that he almost lost his soul. "If you think what I said is not true, why do you want to kill me?"
"Why did Huiyingmen set up an ambush to kill my mother? Tell me!"
"Didn't you say that her death had nothing to do with Huiyingmen? Then why are you asking me this?!"
Suddenly, Zhuxing's voice was heard, "Jiaoran, stop messing around and release Senior Sister Mingguang."
After a while, Chai Che and Zhu Xing came running over, but Mu Jin did not come.
In Jiaoran's hands, Mingguang's face turned pale.
She sneered, "Look, Zhuxing is here too. Although she doesn't know what happened back then, she knows a lot about what happened later."
Jiaoran looked at Zhuxing, only to see Zhuxing lowering his head.
Chai Che said, "Jiao Ran, since you defeated her, you should let her go. Do you really want to kill your fellow senior sister?"
Jiaoran's sword tip lightly scratched Mingguang's arm, and Mingguang's blood flowed down his wrist.
Mingguang said angrily, "If you want to kill me, just kill me!"
Zhuxing shouted, "Jiaoran, don't!"
Jiaoran laughed loudly, grabbed Mingguang's shoulders, lifted her shoulders up, and broke her scapula.
"ah--"
All that could be heard was Mingguang's painful roar echoing in the forest.
If a martial artist's scapula is broken, she will lose her strength in the future. No matter how good her martial arts skills are, they will be useless if her body cannot support them.
After the fracture, even with tendon-repair and bone-setting techniques, it cannot heal immediately. Even with the best medicine, it will take at least ten years to recover.
She cut Mingguang's scapula with a sword and threw her to the ground without even looking at her.
Before leaving, he just said, "The grudge between you and me is wiped out!"
With a move of her body, she disappeared from the sight of Zhuxing and Chai Che like a ghost. Zhuxing was surprised. He didn't expect that her lightness skills were so advanced now.
Chai Che thought to himself, "Her methods are so vicious that she wouldn't even let her senior sister off when she angered her. If I had known this would happen, I should have seized the opportunity and completely destroyed her martial arts instead of just temporarily sealing it off."
Zhuxing thought to herself, "It seems that with Jiaoran's current martial arts skills, she would have no problem killing Mingguang, but she spared her life and only broke her scapula. It shows that she is still the kind-hearted child she used to be."
Chai Che said, "Jiao Ran is like a murderous weapon now. He can only stop killing by drinking blood."
Zhuxing still said coldly, "Her affairs are none of your business!"
"Why are you so angry with me? Can't you see that Jiaoran is no longer the quirky, innocent little girl she was yesterday?"
Zhuxing smiled bitterly and said, "You never understand her."
This statement is somewhat similar to what Mu Jin said, who also said, "You know nothing about her."
Jiaoran and he are of the same blood of the Chai family, but both his wife Zhuxing and Mu Jin say that he does not understand her, so Chai Che can only be secretly angry.
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