YUE CHENQING GRINNED. "You asked the right guy, that's for sure! Every year in Chonghua, meddlesome people put out rankings for all sorts of things, and I love to read them! If we're talking the most beautiful maiden ten years ago, that's got to be Su Yurou."
Mo Xi knew little about women, and he was especially disinterested in those who stayed cloistered in their chambers yet were known as peerless beauties far and wide. The name Su Yurou was passingly familiar, but he couldn't recall precisely who this woman was.
"Have you ever seen her? Does she look anything like Hong Shao at all?"
Yue Chenqing shook his head back and forth. "Miss Su always wears a veil. Very few people know what she looks like. As her junior, of course I wouldn't have had the chance to see her face either." At this last, he heaved a rather regretful sigh.
"Did she eventually marry a cold-tempered man, just like the guoshi said in the vision?" Mo Xi asked.
"Hm? Yeah, she did." Yue Chenging pondered for a moment before he exclaimed, "Her husband does have that kind of temper! Was the guoshi actually talking about her?"
Mo Xi and Murong Chuyi exchanged glances. Given how easily even Yue Chenqing recalled this woman, it would surely be a simple matter to find out more. Li Qingqian must have long known her identity—so why hadn't he moved to capture her?
"Who did she marry?" Mo Xi asked.
Yue Chenqing stared, then smacked his forehead. "No way... I thought you two would've known whose wife she is, after I said all that! Fourth Uncle, Xihe-jun—y-you've never read Beauties of Chonghua? "
Silence.
"What about Chonghuas Wealthiest ?" Yue Chenqing asked helplessly.
"Who did she marry?" Mo Xi snapped impatiently.
"Medicine Master Jiang, Jiang Fuli!"!? Yue Chenqing was baffled. "She's the wife of Chonghua's richest merchant—you two didn't know?"
Mo Xi's eyes darkened. No wonder, he thought. The two most inaccessible places in all of Chonghua were Murong Chuyi's artificing workshop and Healer Jiang's medicine room. Mo Xi didn't know much about a "Miss Su," but he had heard of "Madam Jiang." It was said that this lady was incredibly delicate and remained in seclusion within the Jiang Manor's medicine room year-round to look after her health. She was completely shut off from the turbulent events of the outside world.
Li Qingqian must have initially been too cautious to move against the Jiang Clan directly. But now that he had fused with his sword vessel, all that remained was his demonic appetite for violence. He was surely going to target the Jiang residence next. At this thought, Mo Xi rose and glanced at Gu Mang, who was asleep beneath the porch, surrounded by a cluster of bamboo warriors. "I'll pay the Jiang residence a call," he said. "Murong, I'll trouble you to look after—"
A deafening explosion cut him off. Mo Xi, Murong Chuyi, and Yue Chenqing all looked up to see, over the walls of the estate, Chonghua's eastern market in raging flames, and noxious smoke billowing toward the sky.
"Wh-what happened?!" Yue Chenqing stammered in surprise.
"Let's take a look," Mo Xi said.
Yue Chenqing quickly nodded and started to follow Mo Xi. When he turned, however, he saw that Murong Chuyi hadn't moved. He was still seated at the stone table, giving instructions to a bamboo warrior he'd summoned. Yue Chenqing hesitated. "Fourth Uncle, are you not coming?"
Murong Chuyt's eyes flicked over to Gu Mang. "Didn't you hear Xihe-jun ask me to look after the criminal? I can't go," he said mildly.
That made sense to Yue Chenqing, so he left it at that.
The moment Mo Xi and Yue Chenqing stepped foot outside the grounds of Yue Manor, they were met with droves of commoners—women, children, and the elderly among them—fleeing in a panic. Imperial guards and cultivators attempted to direct the crowd from the sidelines. "Go to the Bureau of Public Safety! Everyone, go to the Bureau of Public Safety!"
The fire in the east roared brighter and brighter, illuminating a great swath of the sky. The imperial guards were like shooting stars streaking across the darkness as they mounted their swords to snatch commoners out of the sea of flame. Although Mo Xi and Yue Chenqing were still far off, they could hear the wailing sobs of the victims and shouts of cultivators.
"Capture him!"
"Bring in reinforcements! Capture the demon!"
Needless to say, that demon could be no other than the sword demon Li Qingqian. Yue Chenqing was shocked. "Why did Li Qingqian start his rampage here instead of going straight to Jiang Manor?"
Mo Xi suspected that perhaps Li Qingqian had gone to Jiang Manor but hadn't found the person he sought. "Let's head to the eastern market first."
They rushed forward. Upon their arrival, they discovered that the situation was even worse than they had anticipated. The whole marketplace had been set alight with demonic fire. The scarlet flames bloomed like colossal peonies, and thick smoke curled up into the sky. As they watched, a few cultivators rode swords out of the inferno carrying grievously wounded civilians.
"The fire's spreading! Quick—put it out!"
"If this goes on, the fire-blocking barrier won't hold up..."
The crowd was in chaos. The troops stationed in the imperial capital had rushed over to assist, and soldiers from the Northern Frontier Army were present as well. Men who had originally belonged to the Wangba Army happily called out "General Mo!" when they spied Mo Xi. Others whispered, "He's here—Stepdad's here." All these years later, the Wangba Army still liked to call Mo Xi "Stepdad" in private. The old moniker born of resentment had, with time, become a harmless joke.
"Stepdad" strode toward them through the smoke, his robes, black trimmed with gold, billowing behind him. His dark eyes flashed with a reflection of the eastern market's tempestuous flames.
"Dad—oops, uh, General Mo, there's an evil spirit making mischief here..."
Mo Xi nodded. "You focus on getting these civilians out," he said. "I'll take care of the rest."
The crowd of cultivators was somewhat shocked, unsure what their "dad" was about to attempt. Mo Xi was a fire-type cultivator; could he even extinguish flames? They were on the verge of despair when they heard Mo Xi's steady voice: "Tuntian, come!"
A clarion whistle pierced the air like a whale's call ringing through the abyssal ocean. A lustrous white scepter appeared in Mo Xi's palm. Its finial was woven from gold and silver, and it was inlaid with a dazzlingly precious spirit stone imbued with the soul of a whale, which shone with a magnificent blue light.
Yue Chenging was shocked—was this Tuntian's physical weapon form?!
Tuntian was Mo Xi's most powerful holy weapon. In most cases, a spoken command was sufficient to wield earth-shaking power. Because Tuntian was too strong, Mo Xi usually only employed it to conjure a defensive barrier. He rarely summoned Tuntian as a scepter. The logic behind this was simple: defense only required the giant whale's spiritual form, but when the scepter was called, it was to cast spells.
Gripping the scepter with slender, pale fingers, Mo Xi pointed it at the soaring field of flame. "Rain transformation."
A young cultivator gasped. "Holy...shit..."
How could a fire-type cultivator extinguish fire ? Even if he wasn't a real dad, their stepdad was real goddamn scary.
A beam of blue light burst from the tip of the scepter and shot straight into the sky, where it transformed into a colossal whale. With a stroke of its tail, it rushed open-mouthed toward the fire. A fierce gale instantly swirled to life, lifting sand and pebbles into the air. Many of the cultivators on the scene couldn't bear this surge of spiritual energy and fell to their knees one after another, pain written plainly on their faces. Even Yue Chenqing coughed repeatedly and squinted his eyes, completely disoriented.
The massive cerulean whale clashed with the rollicking sea of fire. Plumes of foam and furious gusts of wind came forth one after another as waves and flames surged for a hundred miles. In an instant, the dark night lit up, bright as day. A deluge of rain thundered down to soak the entire breadth of Chonghua's capital.
Mo Xi's face was pale as precious jade amid the torrential rain. Blue light and red fire chased each other through his eyes as his black imperial leathers whipped in the wind.
In the blink of an eye, the fire succumbed to the waves, the tongues of flame beaten back like a thousand-strong cavalry in retreat. The inferno subsided into a smoldering wreck, unable to flare up or dance any longer. Those cultivators lucky enough to personally witness this feat stared at Mo Xi's back, too shocked to stammer out a single word. Each harbored different feelings in their reeling hearts.
The male cultivators thought, Oh god, the women of Chonghua are going to go even crazier over this man.
The female cultivators thought, Aaaaaaaah!
The cultivators of the Wangba Army thought, Our stepdad is way too powerful—he's is so scary when he's mad!
In the heart of the ruins, surrounded by roiling curls of smoke, a figure slowly turned. Li Qingqian had indeed been the source of the flames. At this moment, demonic qi suffused his face. His eyes were scarlet, as if they crawled with thousands of red spiders, and his features looked more twisted and deranged than ever. Mo Xi could no longer see any trace of the "Benevolent Blade Parting Water" Li-zongshi in his countenance.
The character and temperament of sword demons were largely overpowered by those of their weapons' owners. Li Qingqian's consciousness had been completely drowned by the guoshi of the Liao Kingdom. He noticed Mo Xi and bared his teeth. "Mo Xi!" he cried. "You've protected Chonghua today, but can you protect it always? Can you guard this city without sleep for eternity? Hand over that Su bitch or I'll give Chonghua no peace!"
"Aha!" Yue Chenqing exclaimed. "It wasn't so easy to break into the Jiang residence, so now you've taken innocent lives to stir up trouble out here! How shameless!"
Li Qingqian threw back his head and laughed. "I'm shameless? Isn't that Su bitch the shameless one? The calamitous beauty who doomed so many girls to be buried on that mountain. But now she's holed herself up and lets the city burn while she cowers in Jiang Manor, unwilling to show her face! Ha ha ha... Hong Shao... Hong Shao died for nothing all because she resembled this woman! A filthy bitch—a fucking coward!"
There were healers from the Jiang residence among the cultivators on the ground. When they heard Li Qingqian's words, one of them couldn't help but lose his temper. "Nonsense! Our family's madam cultivates in seclusion away from outside influences. By no means is she the kind of person you describe! Wash out your filthy mouth!"
"She's not that kind of person? Then what kind of person is she?" Li Qingqian cackled. "I'm dying to see what kind of devastating beauty she is to be worthy of the guoshi's infatuation!"
"You're unfit to appear in front of our madam!" the healer replied angrily.
"Madam...hah...what madam! She's just a bitch!" Li Qingqian ranted madly, his words dripping poison like the fangs of a venomous snake. "I must see what this woman looks like. I'll ruin her face and toss her at the feet of the Liao Kingdom guoshi..." As he spoke of this man, the distorted malevolence of his features flared, more vivid than the raging inferno. "That beast... Ha ha ha, in front of that infatuated fool, I will tear her to pieces and rip her beauty to shreds! He killed my Hong Shao, so I'Il give the woman he loves a life worse than death!"
His howls pierced the sky, his voice strained to the limit with emotions ready to burst out.
"Be careful," Mo Xi warned those around him.
Li Qingqian's body was emanating black qi that coiled around his body in great spirals. In anticipation of another outburst of insanity, Mo Xi took a step forward, his Tuntian Scepter blazing. The others drew their longbows, ready to let loose a rain of arrows.
At that very moment, a sigh as light as smoke drifted over from the far end of the street. "Stop."
This new voice was pleasant and mellifluous. Even without seeing the speaker, it was obvious that these words came from the lips of a peerless and enchanting beauty.
Everyone jumped and turned their heads, and the crowd parted, leaving a clear path. At the end of it stood a figure shrouded in snow-white silk. A gauze veil obscured her features, and she held aloft an oil-paper umbrella made of black bamboo that shielded her from the faint drizzle. Like the Luo River goddess rising from the water, she stepped forward.
Li Qingqian's pupils contracted.
The healers from Jiang Manor were aghast. "Madam? Why have you come?" one of them exclaimed.
"Madam, it's too dangerous! If you were to come to any harm, how would we answer the master when he returns?"
"If not for the voice message from Yue Manor, I would not have known of such a serious event," Madam Jiang said. "How long were you planning to keep this from me?" As she spoke, she walked with steady steps toward the sword demon Li Qingqian.
Yue Chenqing's jaw dropped in astonishment. "Yue Manor...?" Ah— Fourth Uncle probably told her, he realized. The thought made him vaguely uneasy. Everyone said his fourth uncle was coldblooded and indifferent, that he lacked a moral compass and cared only for outcomes. Yue Chenqing knew there was truth behind these sentiments. Fourth Uncle had evidently summoned Madam Jiang because he wanted her to bring an end to Li Qingqian's madness. Although this tactic was highly likely to achieve the desired result, it had pushed Madam Jiang into the inferno.
"The Ignorant Immortal has never questioned the cost of attaining his goals. Even if the price was the life of a family member, he wouldn't think twice'—such was Chonghua's opinion of Murong Chuyi. Yue Chenqing deeply disliked hearing such words. In his eyes, his fourth uncle was a man of careful consideration who acted in accordance with his own principles. Yet such impartial consideration was at heart inherently cruel.
Madam Jiang stopped before Li Qingqian and gazed serenely at him.
"You're..." Light flashed in Li Qingqian's pupils. "You're Su Yurou?!"
"I am indeed," Madam Jiang said. "You sought me out in order to take revenge on the Liao Kingdom's guoshi. Isn't that right?"
"Yes!" Li Qingqian clenched his jaw. "I need to see what you look like... I must see the face that doomed all those girls from Maiden's Lament Mountain to be buried alive!"
Everyone expected Madam Jiang to refuse. She fell silent for a moment, then surprised them all. "Since you want to see my face,I'll let you look. It's just that..."
"Just that what?"
"There's something I want to tell you first," Madam Jiang said. "But aside from you, I don't want anyone else to hear. It doesn't concern them."
Li Qingqian looked her up and down, as if trying to determine whether she was hiding any demon-suppressing weapons. In the end, he spat out, "I'm not afraid of your tricks. If you lie to me, I'll gouge out your heart, tear it in half, and eat—"
"I've brought nothing with me besides this umbrella," Madam Jiang said. "But I'm afraid your mind will break down completely after you hear this. You may not be able to bear it. Think carefully about whether you wish to know."
Li Qingqian stared, then broke out into laughter. "You needn't try to provoke me! Just speak!"
"Then come closer," Madam Jiang said.
And so the crowd looked on as Li Qingqian tilted his head to listen and Madam Jiang leaned toward him. Beneath the drifting veil, her mouth moved slightly as she spoke. Li Qingqian's expression of deranged malevolence froze. By the time Madam Jiang straightened up to gaze at him calmly, the cold light in his eyes and the utter shock on his face had dumbfounded the onlookers.
"What did she say to him?" someone whispered.
"I don't know..."
Li Qingqian looked at Madam Jiang as if she were a ghost. After a long while, he took a step back, his face deathly pale. "No... It can't be... How could it be?"
"Not one word I spoke was a lie," Madam Jiang said.
There was a beat of silence. Li Qingqian suddenly howled like his heart had been torn out. "You're lying! You bitch! You liar! You made it up! You—you—"
"Didn't you want to see my face? After you see it, you'll know whether I made it up or not."
Madam Jiang stepped closer to Li Qingqian. From this angle, no one could see her features save for Li Qingqian himself. She raised her pale and supple fingers to lift her veil...
There was no sound whatsoever, a silence as though they had sunk into the deep sea. Then a wail rang out like a snapped qin string. "Y-you really..."
"Do you believe me now?" Madam Jiang asked. "Your hatred was misplaced all along."
Burst into maniacal laughter. "Ha ha ha...ridiculous! Aren't I truly ridiculous! All along...I believed... I actually believed..."
Fury tore through his heart; his wishes were smashed to bits. Under the onslaught of these emotions, he doubled over and spit out a mouthful of dark blood. Teeth stained black, his knees buckled, and he sat heavily on the ground. His entire being seemed to have been shattered. He laughed through his tears, then pointed at Madam Jiang. "So... So that's what it was!" He cackled, his chest heaving violently and his eyes a terrifying red.
Madam Jiang said nothing.
"Now I know...the guoshi's reasons were actually..." Li Qingqian didn't finish the sentence. His pupils contracted, and black blood dripped from his lips. Arching his neck to laugh again, he harshly cried out, "How absurd! How utterly absurd! Ha ha ha ha! What a joke... I hated for so long, all in vain! All for nothing!"
The sword demon knelt with his face upturned, wailing in anguish. He let out one cry after another, each more miserable and tormented than the last. In the end, he crumpled to the ground, spasming as black qi engulfed him. Li Qingqian raised one hand to block out the sky. He mumbled, choking on sobs, "All in vain..."
His obsession was released. He lay on the ground, and his mad laughter slowed and died in his throat. There was a rattle like the calls of a dying crow, which slowly softened into a rasp. At last, he lay curled on the ground like the awkward finale of a cruel joke.
Nobody could have imagined that a mere handful of words from Madam Jiang—a mere glimpse of her face—would unravel the obsession that had consumed this sword demon for a lifetime. He had seethed with killing intent only minutes ago, yet now he melted into a puddle of foul blood.
Just like that, Li Qingqian dissolved away.
"How... How could he..."
"What the...?"
The crowd lapsed into silence. Everyone stared at Madam Jiang in astonishment, as if trying to penetrate her veil and pry out her secrets. What kind of story had fluttered from this woman's red lips into Li Qingqian's ears? Those scant few words had ruthlessly overpowered this supernatural weapon and taken his life. Exactly what had Madam Jiang said to the sword demon?
At the center of these stunned gazes, Madam Jiang was tranquil, as if nothing unusual had happened. She glanced at the dissipating sword demon's body, then let down the veil on her bamboo hat and slowly turned around.
"Madam..."
"His resentment is gone," Madam Jiang said. "He won't be able to take human shape again. I apologize for troubling everyone today. My guilt and shame are immense." She bowed her head in obeisance to the assembled cultivators. "Regarding the damage to the eastern market, I'll tell my husband when he returns, and we will make reparations as soon as possible." She paused. "If you'll please excuse me."
She glanced at the servants from her own manor. "All of you, come with me."
There was an uneasy silence.
"Let's go, it's over."
"But Madam—"
"Let's go." Her elegant silhouette strode into the distance, graceful as a stilt walker. As she left, the crowd's eyes remained fixed on her in fascination or astonishment. Within the soaked and ruined eastern market, some looked vacantly at her diminishing figure, while others wept over their burnt and broken homes. And then there were those who stared spellbound at the pool of blood that was all that was left of Li Qingqian.
"Just how beautiful is she?" Yue Chenqing mumbled. "Why did Li Qingqian's obsession dissolve when he saw her? Is Madam Jiang that much more beautiful than Hong Shao?"
Mo Xi said nothing. He stared, frowning, at the grisly puddle on the ground. He knew the truth couldn't be so simple. Madam Jiang's ability to break Li Qingqian's obsession definitely wasn't because of her beauty— there must have been something more. Otherwise, he wouldn't have said that his hatred was "all in vain." What was it that he had hated in vain?
Yue Chenqing noticed his expression and ventured tentatively. "Xihe- jun..."
Mo Xi shook his head. "Everyone has their own secrets. If it's not necessary to know, then there's no reason to pursue this."
"Oh... Okay..."
"Return to Yue Manor. I'll report to His Imperial Majesty."
Yue Chenqing acquiesced. But as he turned to leave, he saw something in the periphery of his vision that made him stop in his tracks.
He walked up to a little house that had been in the path of the flames. This dwelling was humble and in a state of disrepair. It was obvious at first glance that it didn't belong to a rich family, yet on its window was a spiritual talisman that gleamed with gold—the Yue Clan's Talisman of Indestructibility.
On closer inspection, Yue Chenqing saw that this house wasn't unique: many of the surrounding structures bore the exact same talisman. Although these houses had been severely damaged by the fire, the talisman's protection had very likely prevented them from being completely devoured by the flames, and allowed their inhabitants to be rescued.
But...
Yue Chenqing reached up to take the depleted spiritual talisman between two fingers. His brow furrowed lightly.
How strange. The Talisman of Indestructibility was the most expensive one his family sold. When the rapist was going around, everyone had wanted to buy one, but few could afford it. His paternal uncle even had to repel a few cultivators who had stirred up a fuss, while his fourth uncle hadn't bothered to respond at all.
So then who? Who had given them out? As he turned the question over in his mind, Yue Chenqing thought of someone. A frail and sickly silhouette as pale as a lotus root, sitting on a wooden wheelchair with a blanket spread over his lap. Jiang Yexue.
That's right—Jiang Yexue had always been overly sensitive. He was an invalid who couldn't even take care of himself, but somehow, his heart was still too soft for his own good. The Talismans of Indestructibility affixed to these destitute homes were likely his handiwork, gifted to the poor.
Yue Chenqing felt some discomfort at this thought. On one hand, he felt that the dispassionate ways of his fourth uncle and father were rather cruel. But on the other, he had heard hundreds of derisive comments about Jiang Yexue ever since he was small. People said that Jiang Yexue didn't possess any particular talent, that he did nothing but sell out the Yue Clan's secret techniques in order to suck up to others and bolster his own reputation. But if Jiang Yexue hadn't given these people Talismans of Indestructibility out of kindness, then how many more innocent lives would have been lost in the eastern market today?
Yue Chenqing was conflicted; he had no idea what to think. The incessant noise around him disturbed his thoughts, making them even more confused and unclear. He thought vaguely, This time, between Fourth Uncle and Jiang Yexue, could it be that Fourth Uncle was wrong...