Trigger warning: Description of graphically violent scenes.
What remains of Duan Qigu isn't simply just a breath of life. All his limbs are cleaved off, leaving only his head attaching to his torso. After that cry, both of his eyes are open wide as he pants vigorously and excessively, inhaling and exhaling as much as he could.
Yan Xuexing stands at his side, yet he didn't stop the bleeding for him, simply allowing him to be tortured infinitely before raising his sword and punctures his chest.
The moment Duan Qigu abandoned his family to flee on his own, Yan Xuexing knew that it was no use using the Duan family to threaten him. People like him only knew how to be selfish and care for themselves. Before the face of death, their utmost priority would also be themselves. If one wanted him to feel pain, the only way is to inflict wounds on his own body.
With all the things Duan Qigu had done over these years, let alone the fact that Yan Xuexing dismembered all his limbs, even if he digs his eyes and nose out, Cui Buqu would not spare a flicker of sympathy for him. But right now, all that's left of Duan Qigu is only one silver of breath. It is obviously impossible to ask him anything regarding the Yunhai Thirteen Stories.
Once Yan Xuexing sees them, he laughs a mocking little laugh, "You want to kill him as well? Terribly sorry, I took that opportunity in advance."
He kneels to tap on Duan Qigu's meridians, sealing all his blood vessels to prevent the blood from flowing. Then, he kneels and transfers some energy to Duan Qigu, yet this didn't come from a desire to save him, but an intention of slowing down the process of his death, so that he remains in torture for longer hours.
Upon seeing Yan Xuexing picking up Duan Qigu by his collar, prepared to drag the person away, Cui Buqu refuses to come all the way here through unnumbered pain just to acknowledge that he had come for nothing, so he shouted, "Halt!"
Yan Xuexing pretends as if he heard nothing before proceeding to move on.
Xiao Lu raises his feet, sword flying towards the other.
His sword is sharp. Originally, Yan Xuexing did not put him in his eyes, but at that moment, he realizes that his path is completely sealed by the sword, so he is forced to put down Duan Qigu and engage in battle with all he could.
In the midst of sword glared, both parties engage in a ferocious battle before splitting apart.
Yan Xuexing's cold, distant, expressionless looking face finally yields a look of shock, "Who are you?"
Xiao Lu leaps down from the tree branch, robes fluttering as he did, and behind him, his long hair follows suit. His hair is raven-black, save for the tips being stained white like snow was clinging onto it. The reason he wields his sword with his left hand and not his right hand like the rest of the world, isn't because he is left-handed, but because—
Cui Buqu recalls the rumours about him going on among the common folk, so his eyes sweep across his right hand.
A large sleeve shields that hand, but when the spring wind bellows, one corner of the secret is revealed.
That is a skeletal hand, or perhaps, something that could no longer be called a hand, it looks nothing different from a tree branch.
A 'tree branch' should be on a tree, but now, it is on the body of a living person. Xiao Lu himself is beautifully handsome, but compared to Feng Xiao's bombastic antiques, Xiao Lu is undoubtedly a different sort of elegance. But with a defected hand, it was imperfection among perfection.
His face is pale, reflecting layers and layers of light beneath sunrays. The hand that holds his sword is also beautiful. However, the more beautiful other features of his looked, the more they made his defected hand look ugly.
Even though the official protocol to elect officers in the Southern Chen Dynasty is through written academic examinations, but in the end, they also glance into the candidate's family origins and background before rating their looks and conduct, and only then would they look at their academic abilities. A man like Xiao Lu who was from the former Dynasty and possessing a defect on his body, even if he scored distinctions in all eight subjects, it was difficult for him to crave a bright career path for himself. After all, the present Emperor of the Southern Chen Dynasty is someone who did not strive in cultivating and recruiting talents.
So when many people speak of Xiao Lu, even if they praised him endlessly, they couldn't help adding the word 'such a pity' at the back.
It is such a pity that the Heavens are envious of a hero such as him, a flaw within a man craved of jade.
When they were still in the underground vault, Cui Buqu already figured out Xiao Lu's identity, so he isn't too surprised by this.
But Yan Xuexing, who sees Xiao Lu for the first time, could not help showing his shock.
It would seem as if Xiao Lu is long accustomed to such a glare, so he answers calmly, "Duan Qigu also owed me a score. My brother, you have already tortured him enough, it should suffice. There is something I must ask him regarding the enmity between us, so please, entrust him to me."
Yan Xuexing gives a cold laugh, "If you can beat me, we can discuss a deal between us!"
As he finishes speaking he leaps into the air and rushes against the other, with a pivot of his wrist and waving of sword, a thousand meters flew behind him. His sword glare is like a shooting star, especially since his sword had just been used to torture Duan Qigu, fresh blood is thick on its flat, and his wrath and killing intent soared the air with a sense of chillness.
But Xiao Lu did not move even one step back, instead he engages inti battle with his left hand, his sword almost morphs into a thousand clones, burying his shadow underneath it. As Cui Buqu watches from the side lines, he could not tell between the two, who is the one with the upper hand.
Cui Buqu walks towards Duan Qigu.
The other man had lost all his limbs as he sleeps there unmoving. Only the steady rising of his chest is an indication that he isn't dead yet.
A man who was, before, a horse thief, to becoming the chieftain of a group of bandits going around robbing others, then later on he turned a new leaf and became one of the man of power within Qiemo, it can be considered that he raised his entire fortune and wealth from nothingness.
Even the Yunhai Thirteen Stories saw potential in him and tried to recruit him into their organization. However, it is a pity that Duan Qigu is unwilling to follow them in their pursuit to make enemies of a strong opponent like the Sui Empire. If he had agreed to ally with them, it wouldn't have been so easy for Cui Buqu to defeat him.
As he feels someone close, Duan Qigu twitches, his eyes swollen as they grow wide, leaking intense traces of fear and terror.
For a hero of his generation to meet an end like this, this is but the fruit of his own misdeeds.
Cui Buqu is originally thinking about something, but when he notices that the other is not moving, his eyes closing and opening at the same time, he realized that Duan Qigu was fightened to death by himself.
Perhaps the other thought that he was Yan Xuexing.
In the end, he could not ask anything, so all he had come all the way for nothing. It is rare for Cui Buqu to come to a situation totally unanticipated from his own plans, so he searches Duan Qigu's corpse instead and found an old, wrinkled letter.
Duan Qigu has turned into a bloody corpse, so this letter is also stained with blood. Fortunately, Cui Buqu did not possess that weird complex about cleanliness like Feng Xiao, so he immediately slips it into his pocket.
As Xiao Lu walks here and saw Duan Qigu in his death, he could not help but sighs, "I pity Lady Mei and those other innocent women who were abused by Duan Qigu. Even if this bastard dies a hundred times, it is not enough to mend their wounds."
Cui Buqu, "The sister of Brother Xiao is from the Huangshan Sect, and they are situated in the Lands of Jiangnan, so how was she kidnapped to a faraway place like this?"
Xiao Lu gives a bitter laugh. "The Jianghu province is originally a dangerous place on its own to begin with. Lady Mei grew up from the sect since she was little, and she hasn't seen the horrors of the world. This world is filled with kidnappers who snatch women from their families and turn them into slaves. Lady Mei's looks are outstanding, and she travels alone. Originally, she thought that her martial art skills were enough to protect herself, so she was targeted. On the road as I sought her, only did I realize that after she was kidnapped from Jiangnan, she was relocated to the North, she has even been to Daxing City before leaving through the Western port. I do not know how much she has suffered, and her family..."
After he sighs, and did not continue.
Cui Buqu knows what he wants to say, that whatever Lady Mei had been through would surely reach her family in one way or the other, and feared that it would affect her reputation in her family. This isn't only just Lady Mei, but every single woman who had been in the stone vault. Even if they were saved now, it is unknown whether a grim fate still awaits them.
Xiao Lu, "I should escort Lady Mei home. Dear Brother Cui, may I know your name, so that if Fate permits it, we can meet once more in Jianghu?"
Cui Buqu, "My name is Buqu."
Xiao Lu, "Do you have a courtesy name or an alias?"
Cui Buqu, "None."
It is quite rude to address him by his birth name, such as Xiao Lu having the alias of Song Xue. Many called him Sir Song Xue out of respect, if had they been closer to him, they may even call him by his rank among his siblings.
Xiao Lu, "Do you have siblings?"
Cui Buqu, "My parents both passed away when I was young. I have neither a sire nor a master, and I have no siblings. I am one on my own. Other than the name 'Buqu', I do not have any other aliases."
Xiao Lu puts his hands together and bows in apology, "I apologize."
As both his hands raise, it is unavoidable for that wrinkled hand to be exposed outside of his sleeve.
"I've scared you." Once he catches Cui Buqu's look, Xiao Lu allows his hand to fall back as if nothing unusual has happened.
Cui Buqu says plainly, "I am ill since I was born. Of all the doctors I've met, some said I could not live past the age of six, others say I could not make it to nine. No matter who I see, their predictions are that I would not live long, yet here I am until today. The Heavens weave our fate, but the people choose their path. A lot of people pay attention to the first half of the sentence, but they often forget the second half. It seems like Brother Xiao, you and I are both men who refuse to submit to fate."
Xiao Lu laughs elegantly, "Haha, these words of yours definitely makes me happy!"
"This old man was fighting to his death at the back, yet Master Daoist Cui is here busying himself with making new friends! Ever since you found a new person, you're forgotten the old one!"
Two snorts accompany it as the voice teases, and before both of them, a shadow appears a few meters away.
Xiao Lu yields a look of shock, as he realizes that another top martial artist has appeared.
The Heavens weave our fate, but the people chooses their path (成事在天, 谋事在人): Is a Han proverb that tells the people to always pick the right choice and do as best as they could, but whether their goals or efforts pays off, depends on the Heavens/Fate.