“Sect Leader Cheng…?”
Xie Youlan’s shock and fury seemed ready to spray from every syllable.
“What is he doing here?!”
“Palace Master Xie is asking me?”
Yugong Zhaoye tilted his head away from a palm strike and returned a tricky slash during the opening. “Why don’t you ask him yourself?”
Xie Youlan swept the blade aside with his sleeve, turned, and chopped the edge of his hand toward Yugong Zhaoye’s neck.
“You’re obviously the one who brought him here!”
A burst of internal force struck the blade with a metallic clang, sending vibrations through it. A moment later, Yugong Zhaoye’s next attack forced Xie Youlan several steps backward.
“If you already know, why ask?”
Blood and qi churned inside Xie Youlan’s chest. He knew that the young man before him was no longer what he had once been. A winner could not easily be decided now.
His impression of Yugong Zhaoye still belonged to years ago: a silent, vicious boy who had sought revenge for Wei Fu, nearly been struck over a cliff, and stood back up anyway with blood streaming down his face. His arm had been so exhausted he could barely grip his weapon, yet he still staggered forward as though determined to throw his life away.
He had been born with an intelligent face and somehow possessed only a single stubborn line inside his head. Otherwise, why would he have remained so devoted to that mute younger brother of Xie Youlan’s? They had met only a handful of times. Yugong Zhaoye had not even known Wei Fu’s real identity, yet he had still been willing to risk his life for him.
“What exactly are you trying to do?” Xie Youlan had once pressed a stolen blade against his neck and stared incredulously at the face drenched in blood. “Even if you go back and train for another ten years, you still won’t defeat me. Do I have to slit your throat myself before you understand what it means to strike a rock with an egg?”
Yugong Zhaoye had raised a hand and seized the blade itself.
Blood immediately welled from his palm and streamed down his wrist, dyeing his sleeve red.
He had acted as though he felt nothing. Bending one knee, he kicked Xie Youlan violently in the chest and sent him staggering backward. Then Yugong Zhaoye rolled to his feet, wiped the blood from his face with his robe, picked up the fallen blade, and said between ragged breaths with the faintest regret:
“Because… I didn’t do everything I could for him.”
Stubborn idiot.
Back then Xie Youlan had told him to return after another ten years of training.
Only half that time had passed.
Yet after exchanging little more than a dozen moves with him now, Xie Youlan knew this was no longer an opponent he could dismiss casually.
Xie Youlan was still in his prime. The Scripture of Movement and Concealment had healed his internal injuries, but he had practiced it only briefly and had yet to recover completely. Yugong Zhaoye was younger still and currently in excellent condition, with both stamina and reflexes at their peak. Xie Youlan could not suppress him quickly. If the fight dragged on, there was no telling how it would end.
On the other side of the courtyard, Cheng Yu methodically sealed the pressure points of every black-clad man and stacked them in the corner. Then he called toward the two fighters locked together in the courtyard.
“Heroes, for the sake of having traveled together and shared danger, could the two of you perhaps stop for the moment?”
No one present was better suited to offer them a way down.
Yugong Zhaoye and Xie Youlan exchanged another violent series of blows in midair, blade-light and palm shadows overlapping, before simultaneously leaping backward and landing at opposite ends of the courtyard.
Xie Youlan stood tall and imposing, every inch the grand master of a major sect.
Then he looked around.
All three men stood opposite him.
No one stood behind him.
His face instantly darkened beyond the bottom of a cooking pot.
“Good. Very good. You’re all together.”
Cheng Yu: “Cough.”
Yugong Zhaoye asked, “What exactly are you feeling wronged about? Weren’t you the one who came here looking for trouble?”
Wei Fu immediately called, “Sect Leader Cheng! Hero Cheng! I’ve admired you for years! Back then I never got to see your face and thought we might never meet again. Who would have guessed? We’re more than merely on the same side—this is destiny cultivated over three lifetimes! Let’s drink together later, hahaha…”
Xie Youlan: “…”
“Forget it.”
A cold laugh left his throat. He swept his robes aside with magnificent severity.
“The two of you can attack together. I’m taking that map today no matter what!”
“Wait!”
A shout came from behind Yugong Zhaoye.
Protected by the two greatest experts of Yeguang, Wei Fu poked his head out.
“Why do you want the Earth Mirror Map?”
Xie Youlan snapped, “What business is it of yours? Why can’t I want it?”
Wei Fu had met every imaginable type of person. Plenty reflexively contradicted everything anyone said, whether good or bad. But someone like Xie Youlan—who clearly understood perfectly well yet insisted on opposing you anyway—was rare.
Wei Fu decided to lay everything openly on the table.
“Do you want the Earth Mirror Map because you plan to exchange it for wealth and status? Or are you simply furious that Mother left it to me instead of you and came to steal it out of spite?”
Given Xie Youlan’s personality, he could never admit the second possibility. Yet admitting that he coveted wealth and status would make him sound vulgar and cheap, damaging the dignity of a great hero of the jianghu.
Naturally, he could not admit that either.
So Xie Youlan answered with great restraint, “I’m fulfilling my late father’s final wish. He obsessed over it his entire life. Can’t I burn it as an offering to the old man?”
“Oh, that’s easy.” Wei Fu replied. “I’ll copy it right now. It won’t take long. Then we can burn the original together for your honored father.”
“…Enough!”
Xie Youlan’s face flickered between green and white. He glared viciously at Wei Fu, finally realizing that if he refused to speak honestly, Wei Fu would simply continue torturing him by pretending to be insane.
“The Earth Mirror Map is the greatest treasure under heaven. With it, forget mere wealth and status—even being granted territory and ruling one’s own domain would be possible. It belongs to the Jiang family. My taking it is perfectly legitimate. As for spite…”
His gaze swept contemptuously across Wei Fu.
“You think far too highly of yourself.”
“Good. So you really do hold a grudge.” Wei Fu nodded with certainty. “Then you sincerely want the Earth Mirror Map and would pay any price to obtain it?”
Xie Youlan did not answer immediately.
He examined Wei Fu suspiciously. Something about that calm expression smelled deeply wrong. The brat clearly had a belly full of bad intentions and seemed to be crouching beside an enormous pit, wagging a fox tail and waiting for Xie Youlan to jump in.
“Stop wasting my time. Hand it over.” He lowered his voice threateningly. “You don’t seriously believe those two can stop me, do you?”
“Of course not.”
With a metallic clang, Wei Fu snapped the iron box shut and smiled.
“Why would we need to trouble our Highness?”
Everyone: “?”
Then, under everyone’s bewildered gaze, Wei Fu turned to face Xie Youlan and raised the iron box with all the solemnity of presenting the imperial jade seal.
He shouted each word with ringing conviction:
“I object!”
Everyone: “…”
The warm spring seemed to be cursed into the depths of winter. Even the air in the courtyard appeared frozen.
Xie Youlan asked, “Has he shown symptoms like this before?”
Yugong Zhaoye replied, “Shouldn’t I be asking you that, Brother?”
The only reliable person present, Cheng Yu, asked gently, “Young Master Wei, what exactly are you objecting to?”
Wei Fu spun around, seized his hand, and said with complete sincerity:
“Benefactor, I object to you and Xie Youlan being together!”
Everyone: “…”
Nothing Wei Fu had said before had truly caught Xie Youlan unprepared. This sentence, however, struck precisely at his weak point.
His expression darkened instantly.
“What did you say?”
“If Palace Master Xie sincerely wants the incomparable treasure that is the Earth Mirror Map, I can give it to you.” Wei Fu held the iron box in one hand and Cheng Yu in the other. “But on one condition. I want you to swear publicly that if you take this map, you will never again become close or intimate with Cheng Yu, Sect Leader Cheng, for the rest of your life. From this moment onward, you will walk separate roads beneath the open sky. You may not meet him, and you may not be with him.”
“So?”
“Do you agree?”
“…”
An invisible storm seemed to gather in the air.
The words emerged one by one between Xie Youlan’s teeth.
“Wei Fu. You. Want. To. Die.”
“What are you saying, Palace Master Xie?” Wei Fu still wore that freely available, gentle false smile. “For a treasure like the Earth Mirror Map, all you have to do is say one sentence and I’ll immediately offer it with both hands. I’m helping you achieve what you want.”
Originally, Wei Fu had remained perfectly composed, deliberately provoking Xie Youlan while enjoying the show.
Yet the moment he saw how violently Xie Youlan reacted, anger suddenly surged through him without warning. His chest tightened, and his eyes stung.
“You surrounded a private residence with your men, tried to seize the only thing Mother left me, and pointed weapons at me. I’m not even angry. What exactly are you angry about?”
You clearly know pain and warmth and cold. You have blood, tears, and people you care about. Why is it that every time I think there might still be some affection between us—that even if we can’t be brothers, perhaps we could at least be friends—you immediately put on that face of denying every bond of kinship and insist on cutting me off completely?
Yugong Zhaoye rarely saw Wei Fu genuinely angry. Usually Wei Fu merely puffed himself up in irritation, and a little coaxing would make him fluffy and docile again.
Now, unexpectedly singed by the edge of his fury, Yugong Zhaoye found that the sight of Wei Fu smiling while hiding a knife behind it had a certain unusual flavor.
Cheng Yu glanced toward Xie Youlan, whose expression seemed covered by black storm clouds, and sighed.
“Young Master Wei…”
Wei Fu looked at him.
For his benefactor’s sake, he swallowed some of the harsher threats still waiting in his throat and calmly issued Xie Youlan an ultimatum.
“It’s your turn to choose, Palace Master Xie.”
Perhaps Xie Youlan had been startled by Wei Fu’s anger. He remained silent for a long time.
Bright spring sunlight filled the courtyard. Several cats lay along the roof ridge, sunning themselves beneath the warm, gentle breeze. Only above this particular courtyard did a bank of invisible rain clouds seem to gather, draping everyone in the damp weight of indecision.
“Cheng Yu.”
Xie Youlan suddenly called his name.
Cheng Yu looked at him. “What?”
“If I agree to his condition today,” Xie Youlan asked, “will you ever see me again in this lifetime?”
He asked it directly to Cheng Yu’s face.
The innocent bystander, Sect Leader Cheng, instantly became the center of everyone’s attention. Even the men stacked in the corner held their breath and pricked up their ears.
“If an oath is made, then naturally one should keep one’s word,” Cheng Yu said after thinking carefully. “Palace Master Xie and I can at least be called old acquaintances. For the sake of that friendship, I certainly wouldn’t seek you out for no reason and deliberately force you into breaking your oath.”
Cheng Yu did not particularly mind Wei Fu using “feelings” as a blade to threaten Xie Youlan. He had voluntarily stepped into this tangled mess and had chosen to stand on the opposite side from Xie Youlan.
Precisely because he knew their feelings had not reached that point, he had assumed Wei Fu’s threat could never achieve its intended effect. At most, Xie Youlan would become furious from embarrassment and launch them all into another war of words.
That night trapped in the cellar, Xie Youlan had said, “Who would’ve thought I’d end up like this one day?”
At the time, Cheng Yu had assumed he was mocking himself for being a fallen tiger bullied by dogs.
Only after meeting Jiang Fengxun and learning the events of the past did Cheng Yu understand what he had actually meant.
Who would’ve thought I’d end up following in her footsteps too?
The righteous and the wicked could not coexist. For someone from the unorthodox path to become entangled with an upright gentleman was Xie Youlan’s greatest taboo in life.
And yet he had repeated the very same mistake.
Now Wei Fu demanded that he swear to draw a clean line between himself and Cheng Yu. In front of Cheng Yu himself, Xie Youlan certainly would not be able to save face.
But asking him to abandon his original goal for that same ambiguous, confused tangle of feelings should have been even more impossible.
After listening to Cheng Yu, Xie Youlan actually gave a slight nod.
“I thought so.”
Cheng Yu knew he would never simply follow Wei Fu’s wishes and tried to mediate. “There are no absolutes in this world. Why must the two of you fight like dragon and tiger until both sides suffer? Why not each take one step back and sit down to discuss matters properly?”
Yugong Zhaoye added, “Even blood brothers should keep clear accounts. Can the two of you settle your accounts first and fight only if you truly can’t?”
Wei Fu had only just squeezed an indignant “Hmph!” into his throat when Xie Youlan suddenly said:
“I don’t want it anymore.”
Under a sea of stunned gazes, he walked to the corner, released his men’s sealed pressure points one after another, then looked deeply at Cheng Yu.
Without another word, he leapt onto the wall and departed with his subordinates.
The courtyard instantly became spacious and silent. The spring breeze, warm as soft down, blew across three completely blank faces.
Wei Fu awkwardly released Cheng Yu’s wrist.
“I didn’t think he would actually… From now on, um, well, Sect Leader Cheng, please… be patient with him… Our family didn’t pass down any jewelry—no, wait… do you want the Earth Mirror Map?”
“No, no, no…” Cheng Yu was clearly just as disordered. “I… that’s not… he… he probably didn’t mean it like that…”
“Huh? He didn’t? He did, right?”
Wei Fu’s hands trembled chaotically as he grabbed Yugong Zhaoye.
“Didn’t he? Your Highness? Your Highness, say something!”
Yugong Zhaoye: “…”
He caught Wei Fu’s paws before they could scratch wildly in every direction and sighed.
“Whether he meant it that way or not, you should probably chase after him first.”
Cheng Yu looked lost. “…Should I?”
“I doubt he went far. He’s probably crouched in some gloomy corner waiting for you to collect him.” Yugong Zhaoye said, “Why don’t you go outside and look?”
Wei Fu stared at him. “You understand him awfully well…”
“Mhm.”
Yugong Zhaoye answered casually and peacefully.
“Because you’re exactly the same.”
Cheng Yu: “…”
“Then I’ll…” He cleared his throat rather awkwardly. “Take my leave.”
The Wei residence was the second house in the alley, so the alley entrance was only a few steps away. A tall figure stood there against the light, arms folded as he leaned against a stone wall. His eyelids drooped halfway. He appeared distinctly unhappy and cast occasional glances toward the people coming and going outside.
He was handsome with a touch of wickedness, like a large fox impatiently swishing its tail while waiting for someone.
Cheng Yu deliberately made his footsteps heavier.
Xie Youlan’s ear twitched, but he did not turn around.
“You…”
Before Cheng Yu could finish his tentative opening, Xie Youlan cut him off.
“That day outside Songhua Town, why did you leave first?”
Heat rose into Cheng Yu’s face.
Xie Youlan meant the period after they had been pursued to the abandoned Daoist temple and spent several days hiding together in the cellar. Once the effects of the aphrodisiac finally passed, they escaped and traveled toward Songhua Town.
Xie Youlan’s internal injuries had been severe. Cheng Yu had therefore offered to enter the nearby town and buy medicinal herbs and food. Because they remained close to the Daoist temple and there might still be pursuers nearby, he had told Xie Youlan to rest and wait in the woods outside town.
Xie Youlan waited from morning until night.
Cheng Yu never returned.
Xie Youlan’s trusted subordinates found him first. By then he was too badly injured to wait any longer and was escorted back to Beizhu Palace.
“After buying the medicine, I saw people lining up for freshly baked pastries,” Cheng Yu explained. “I thought you might like them, so I bought several.”
He had probably never imagined he would one day need to explain this, and therefore kept it remarkably concise.
“Unfortunately, some of Beizhu Palace’s pursuers spotted me. I had to circle around for a long time to shake them off. By the time I returned outside town, you were already gone.”
Xie Youlan gave a quiet “Oh.”
Then he continued, “And when you left the Heavenly Pit with Yugong Zhaoye and the others, you didn’t wait for me then either.”
The complaint was completely unreasonable.
Cheng Yu nevertheless answered patiently, “It wasn’t that I refused to wait. His Highness asked me to temporarily conceal my movements and keep an eye on you to see what you intended to do. And didn’t we catch you precisely because of that?”
Xie Youlan: “Oh.”
They stared at each other.
For a while, neither spoke. The alley was so quiet that the cries of merchants from the busy street beyond suddenly became unusually clear.
Something chaotic seemed slowly to settle and separate within that wordless silence. What needed to sink finally sank; what needed to disperse drifted away.
In the end, all that remained was a handful of clear, gentle feeling.
“I’m hungry.”
Xie Youlan lowered his eyes toward a pebble near his feet.
“On the way here, I saw someone selling pastries. Sect Leader Cheng, buy me some.”
“…”
This temperamental devil king, changing moods whenever he pleased, really was the sort of person only someone personally afflicted with him could understand.
Cheng Yu turned his head and laughed. His voice was warm and faintly helpless.
“Alright.”
He walked toward the bright entrance of the alley.
As he passed Xie Youlan, something suddenly hooked his sleeve.
And so Sect Leader Cheng walked calmly into the bustling crowd with a grumpy Palace Master of Beizhu Palace hanging from his sleeve like a burr.b
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