The two departed together. The room fell quiet for a moment, with silence all around.
“Wu… wu… yi wu…” In the bamboo-woven carrier beside the bed, Fengfeng rocked the frame, his large eyes staring at Tang Lici with dark, focused attention, as if quite displeased that he had been away for so long. Tang Lici sat up, looked at Fengfeng, reached out to pick him up, and gently stroked his head. Fengfeng grabbed his hair and kept pulling at it, his eyes immediately brightening, as if the meaning of his existence lay in tugging at Tang Lici’s gray hair. Tang Lici sighed lightly and was quiet for a while. “Fengfeng, someone said I’m too controlling, that I don’t distinguish between friend and foe… told me to change, told me to be a good person… but… but I don’t know how to be a good person…” He held Fengfeng and lay back on the bed, saying softly, “Not actually poisoning Yu Qifeng and those guests to death together—that should count as being a good person…”
With a light “tcha” sound, something stirred slightly in the grass outside the door, followed by a “bang” as the window flew open. A fierce wind rushed in, and within the wind, a sword pierced through the window, striking directly at Tang Lici’s chest. Tang Lici was holding Fengfeng and had just sat up upon hearing the sound. In that instant, he was facing the sword point directly. The attacker added force to his sword, intending to pierce both of them with one strike, when suddenly there was a crisp “zheng” sound. His hand felt light as the blade suddenly snapped, shooting upward with a “huo” sound and embedding in the beam with a “thud,” unable to come down. The attacker was greatly shocked and was about to withdraw, when his hand tightened—Tang Lici’s pale palm had grasped his hand along with the sword hilt. “Wait a moment!” The person was terrified beyond measure. His left hand swung down heavily toward Tang Lici’s head, but Tang Lici lifted his left hand, and with a “pa” sound, the person’s left hand struck his own right hand holding the sword. His wrist ached painfully to the bone, and he cried out “Ah! You… you… are you human or ghost?”
“Human,” Tang Lici gripped his hand without letting go, smiling slightly. His appearance was handsome and dignified, but in the attacker’s eyes, he looked like a living ghost. He heard him continue, “And a good person too.” The person involuntarily stepped back, and Tang Lici stepped forward. Fengfeng in his arms showed no fear amid the flashing blades and swords, sucking his finger and looking at the newcomer with great curiosity—a young man with a black mask, black hair, and a tall, slender build who looked quite handsome. Suddenly, Fengfeng grabbed the person’s mask and kept tugging at it, making an “ya ya” sound. The mask came off easily, revealing the person’s face. Tang Lici let Fengfeng reach out and tug without stopping him, glanced at the person, and said, “So it’s Brother Li from Master Pu’s school. My apologies, my apologies.”
The person was indeed Li Yuan, the third disciple under Pu Zhongqu. With his mask fallen, his face was ashen, and he tried several times to pick up the broken sword to kill himself, but his hands were sweaty and weak—he truly lacked the courage to die immediately. Tang Lici’s gray hair fell over his shoulders, his face full of gentle smiles. “I wonder if Brother Li also received ten thousand taels of silver from a masked client to come kill me?” He held the baby with a handsome countenance, emanating no killing intent whatsoever, yet for some reason Li Yuan’s forehead kept breaking out in cold sweat. His heart hoped the answer was yes, but his mouth said, “I… I…”
“So Brother Li didn’t receive ten thousand taels from someone else—that makes things easier to discuss,” Tang Lici sighed. “Then why did Brother Li want to kill me?” Li Yuan was tongue-tied, unable to say half a sentence. He heard Tang Lici say, “If you say you particularly dislike me and wanted to kill me, I’ll break one of your hands. If you say you meant to kill someone else but entered the wrong room, I’ll break your other hand. If you say…” Before he finished, Li Yuan was sweating profusely and stammered, “I… someone told me to come kill you…”
Tang Lici smiled slightly, “If you want to say you don’t know who told you to come kill me, I’ll break your neck.” Li Yuan felt the place where Tang Lici gripped his hand was warm and soft, then came a sharp pain. Tang Lici had already wrapped his arm around his neck and, carrying the baby, had moved behind him. As soon as he said he didn’t know, Tang Lici would first break his arm, then use that arm to strangle his neck. Li Yuan blurted out, “Young Master Tang, spare my life! Hero Yu told me to hurry back and kill you because there was poison in the wine and he suspects you put it there…” Tang Lici smiled slightly, “Oh? Why did you listen to him?”
“Because… because… both Brother Gou and I… fell for Shi Tinghe’s trick and were poisoned by the Nine Ghost Hearts Pill,” Li Yuan’s face was deathly pale. “But in the Central Plains heartland, the only person who could sell this drug is Yu Qifeng!” At these words, Tang Lici was quite surprised. “Not Shi Tinghe, but Yu Qifeng?” Li Yuan fell forward onto his knees with a thud. “Young Master Tang, spare my life! Several of us brothers are good friends with Feng Chuanxiang and Jiang Cheng. Feng Chuanxiang’s wife was killed by the Floating Ghost Shadow, and we were all very indignant. Shi Tinghe persuaded Feng Chuanxiang to take medicine to enhance his power. We were all present. Jiang Cheng didn’t take the medicine, but we all did… Heaven and earth as my witness… I originally wanted to avenge my friend… I was originally… a good person…”
Tang Lici said, “Is that so? Besides buying medicine from Yu Qifeng and having no choice but to follow his orders, what else do you know?”
“Many people in the martial world are like us—because of the Nine Ghost Hearts Pill, they have no choice but to follow Hero Yu’s… Yu Qifeng’s orders. But I know Yu Qifeng has a master behind him. The place that can really make the Nine Ghost Hearts Pill is called ‘Feng Liu Shop.’ In ‘Feng Liu Shop’ there are East and West Princesses. These East and West Princesses are incredibly beautiful—even Yu Qifeng must be respectful and deferential to them. Above the East and West Princesses, there are still others… As for who they are, I really don’t know…” Li Yuan said tremblingly. He couldn’t see Tang Lici’s expression—that person was behind him, a man whose divine or demonic nature was unpredictable and whose heart was cruel and ruthless.
Suddenly, a finger lightly slid to the back of his neck. He thought it was Fengfeng’s finger at first, but after a while, that finger slowly traced a circle from the back of his neck to the front. Someone leaned down at his neck, their warm breath audible. Li Yuan became even more terrified, feeling that person gently breathe into his ear, the finger tracing to his chest over his heart, pressing lightly. A gentle voice said, “Go back and tell your master, Sword King Yu… you couldn’t kill Tang Lici. His martial arts are unfathomably deep, the best in the world. The gift Sword King Yu just gave him is still on your body—please have him examine it. If you want to live, beg him to save you… though I guess he probably won’t be willing to save you, hehe.”
Li Yuan was so terrified his whole body went limp. Tang Lici leaned down from behind him, circled around his neck, and raised his head in front of him, smiling slightly. The person’s smile was still elegant and gentle, his palms warm and smooth as jade, yet Li Yuan felt like a poisonous snake was coiled around his body, and moreover… moreover this poisonous snake carried a slight seductive air… Though he was terrified to the extreme, the person before him still made him think involuntarily that this was a beautiful person…
“Go on.” Tang Lici flicked his sleeve, and Li Yuan was confusedly thrown out through the window. He ran toward Painted Eyebrow Hall in bewilderment, his heart still filled with terror… How… how could he be such a venomous and beautiful person… Wasn’t Tang Lici a gentle-spoken, well-educated scholar? He was clearly a gentleman, a good person walking the righteous path of jianghu—how could… how could he be like this?
In the room, Tang Lici elegantly gave a small yawn, placed Fengfeng back on the bed, and sighed lightly, “Sigh…”
“You nearly scared someone to death, and you’re still sighing?” someone said from a nearby tree. “Getting a bargain and still acting coy!”
Tang Lici gently patted his own face, “I told you to go save people—how did you come back so quickly?” The person watching the show from the tree was naturally Chi Yun. He heard Chi Yun say, “I’m not a doctor. The arsenic you used will give everyone stomach pain for a few days and make some hair fall out, then they’ll naturally recover. How would I know how to cure them?” Tang Lici smiled slightly, “What about Gu Xitan?” Chi Yun leaped down from the tree with an upright and graceful posture. “He’s naturally still saving people. Did Yu Qifeng use hidden force on you just now?”
Tang Lici looked up at the starry sky, “A cold internal force struck my heart meridian—not particularly sophisticated.” Chi Yun also glanced at the starry sky. “So when you left the table, you already knew for certain that the mastermind who killed Gou Jia was Yu Qifeng. You deliberately told Yu Qifeng that I suspected him. I’m afraid you didn’t want to use me as bait to draw him out, but rather wanted to lure him to avoid me and attack you directly, right?”
Tang Lici said, “Well… if you want to think of it that way, that’s fine too.”
“Old Yu’s martial arts aren’t weak, and his reputation is great. How could he be involved with harmful poison? Could it be that this hypocritical hero got tired of being a hero and decided to try being a demon?” Chi Yun asked in surprise. “He and Shi Tinghe both took the Nine Ghost Hearts Pill, so why was he defeated by Shi Tinghe’s sword at the Central Plains Sword Assembly?”
Tang Lici said, “Perhaps at the time of the Central Plains Sword Assembly, he was indeed still innocent. Being defeated by Shi Tinghe’s sword—such a tremendous humiliation—was the reason he became involved with the Nine Ghost Hearts Pill.” Chi Yun snorted, “So what if we know it’s Yu Qifeng? You let that kid go back just now. Yu Qifeng will probably kill him to silence him. With no witness to testify, this matter becomes as if it never happened.”
Tang Lici made an “eh” sound, “Testify?” He smiled, “Given Chi Yun’s character, when have you ever been reasonable in your actions?” Chi Yun stared at him, then after a while, threw back his head and laughed loudly, “Haha! I thought you’d been pretending to be a turtle for so long that you’d become half a living turtle. Turns out a fox is still a fox—even wrapped in white fur, it’s still a fox!” He spat, “And a poisonous fox at that!”
“I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare,” Tang Lici smiled. “Yu Qifeng’s martial arts are quite good. If he’s taken the Nine Ghost Hearts Pill, he’ll surely be even more difficult to deal with. If you and I go directly to find him, we may not gain any advantage.” Chi Yun sneered, “So what?” Tang Lici said, “Then we need to find a helper.” Chi Yun glanced at him sideways, “Didn’t you say your martial arts are superb, the best in the world? What helper do you need?”
Tang Lici lightly touched his temple with his finger, “My martial arts being superb isn’t false. As for being the best in the world… I’ve never competed with anyone, so how do you know I’m not?” Chi Yun was exasperated, “I’ve never seen anyone as shameless as you!” Tang Lici said, “A shameless master and an arrogant, domineering page boy—truly a perfect match, a perfect match.” After a slight pause, “Xue Xianzi would be a good helper, but unfortunately he’s too lazy, and Yu Qifeng isn’t some peerless beauty… Or we could find a righteous hero with decent martial arts and passionate blood. Hmm, how about Gu Xitan?”
Chi Yun said coldly, “Gu Xitan is good, but without evidence, asking him to believe your one-sided word and attack Yu Qifeng probably won’t work.” Tang Lici sighed, “Then we can only use the worst strategy.”
“The worst strategy? What?” Chi Yun’s eyes moved slightly, suddenly remembering this fellow’s usual habit of… Tang Lici said, “Hire someone with money. The Forlorn Thirteen Killer Tower—characters from first-rate to ninth-rate. Pay whatever price, get whatever kind of person.”
Chi Yun chuckled, “You want to buy a helper? Who?” Tang Lici said, “Fifty thousand taels of gold.” Chi Yun’s expression darkened slightly, “Shen Langhun?”
In jianghu, there were many killer gangs of all sizes, the most famous being Zhu Lu Tower. Zhu Lu Tower self-destructed due to internal strife several years ago, and was replaced by the Forlorn Thirteen Towers. The Forlorn Thirteen Towers had many talented people, and the most famous among them was naturally “Cold-Faced Snake Whip” Shen Langhun. His martial arts could rank in the top ten of jianghu. Three years ago, for unknown reasons, he actually condescended to become a killer, and he followed the rules, never failed a mission. As long as someone could pay enough, he could kill anyone. When Chi Yun spoke the three words “Shen Langhun,” even someone as arrogant as him felt his heart sink. Tang Lici smiled, “Exactly.”
“Sounds good,” Chi Yun heard Tang Lici’s “exactly” and burst into loud laughter. “If so, when this old man joins forces with evil demons and heretics like Shen Langhun, if we don’t beat that old Yu—this righteous hero—flat on the ground, wouldn’t that be extremely embarrassing?”