Mo Daoyun paused for just an instant, staring fixedly at Ye Qi. “You killed the Second Young Master, and you actually found a woman to impersonate her?!”
Ye Qi: “…”
Academician Mo’s fierce killing intent intensified. He swung his hand again, the sword body turning in an extremely tricky arc. Without a word, the cold blade slashed directly toward both Ye Qi and Changling.
Changling pushed Ye Qi away with her backhand. Her form nimbly spun in a circle, avoiding this surprise attack. Taking advantage of Mo Daoyun gathering his strength, she used her fingertips and knuckles to repeatedly strike several vital points on his chest and abdomen.
Mo Daoyun’s breathing involuntarily halted. He felt an overwhelming numbness spread throughout his entire body. Changling’s series of moves could be called extremely risky. If the opponent were just an ordinary martial artist, that would be one thing. But any expert skilled in adjusting internal breath could simply shift the acupoints and counter with a slash—yet Mo Daoyun was like someone completely subdued, frozen in place. By the time he came to his senses, Changling had already leaped three steps behind him.
Mo Daoyun stood stunned for a long while, slowly turning his head to look at Changling, stammering, “How could you…”
Changling smiled slightly. “Master Mo, has my set of Small Formless Finger techniques shown any improvement?”
Thirteen years ago, when Yue Changsheng introduced Mo Daoyun to Changling, Changling had only just returned to the Central Plains and had not yet made a name for herself. Mo Daoyun had casually said in conversation that “given time, the Second Young Master could achieve something.” Changling, upon hearing this, had laughed with supreme arrogance and replied, “What do you mean ‘given time’? Right now I can defeat Senior Mo within three moves.”
This statement was considered extremely rude by everyone at the time. Yue Changsheng had demanded she apologize on the spot. Who knew Changling would issue a provocative challenge, asking Mo Daoyun if he dared to compete? At that time, Mo Daoyun was already the foremost of the renowned Sword Saints. Naturally, he didn’t take the young Second Young Master Yue seriously, so he agreed to spar. Although Changling had already mastered the Shimo Nine-Level technique at that time, she also knew it was absolutely impossible to defeat the Central Plains’ number one swordsman within three moves. So when she truly entered the training ground, her first move was to use that set of Small Formless Finger techniques.
The Small Formless Finger was renowned for its extraordinarily fast and devious finger techniques. Once struck by a single finger, at best one’s entire body would go numb, at worst one would perish as if scorched by fierce flames. Changling’s movement technique was unimaginably fast. In an instant, she closed in on the enemy’s abdomen. Mo Daoyun naturally couldn’t resist in time, but simultaneously, his vital points were exposed to the enemy. If Mo Daoyun had used all his strength to thrust with his sword, they would have perished together.
Mo Daoyun, as a senior in the martial arts world, naturally would not use such a vicious move on Changling. That single Formless Finger subdued the world-renowned Sword Saint, leaving everyone stunned. Although Mo Daoyun felt annoyed, he couldn’t help but develop profound respect for this Second Young Master Yue—among those with powerful martial arts, there were always higher mountains beyond mountains, but top-tier masters who knew how to adapt and fight with their brains were extremely rare.
For an old acquaintance like Mo Daoyun, nothing was more convincing than a unique martial arts technique.
He stared blankly at this absolutely beautiful woman before him. What kind of enormous waves had surged in the depths of his heart, no one knew. A thousand words reached his mouth, but only a few came out: “You… are you truly… the Second Young Master?”
“If you still don’t believe…” Changling changed to her former masculine voice. “I can exchange a few more moves with you.”
With a “clang,” the long sword fell to the ground. Mo Daoyun’s mind buzzed for a moment. All sorts of feelings transformed into a surge of heat, his throat slightly choking.
Why was Yue Changling a woman?
And why would she be so young, why had she completely changed her appearance, why had she appeared here so suddenly?
None of that mattered.
What mattered was that the Second Young Master of the Yue family had returned.
Finally able to sit down and properly reminisce about old times, Ye Qi bowed to Mo Daoyun with apology. “I couldn’t be certain where Academician Mo’s heart truly lay. Earlier, I staged that scene to test you. I hope the Academician will forgive me.”
“Since it concerns the Second Young Master’s life and safety, the Marquis’s actions were entirely justified.” Mo Daoyun invited them to sit down again. Originally believing the Second Young Master had long since returned to dust, now finding him safe and sound right before his eyes, he was truly overwhelmed with mixed feelings. For a moment, with so many thoughts tangled together, he didn’t know where to begin.
“What was the truth back then…” In the end, it was Changling who opened this topic. “Is my eldest brother still alive?”
A trace of surprise flashed through Mo Daoyun’s eyes. “Didn’t Marquis He just mention that the Young Master was saved by Luo Zhou? How…”
“To be honest, that was just my wild guess.” Ye Qi spoke up to explain. “Before Jing Wuwei died, we pried some old matters from his mouth. However, we only heard that someone saved the Young Master, and that person used Maoshan sword techniques. I happened to hear that the great hero Luo Zhou of Maoshan had also disappeared from the jianghu for over a decade, so I deduced that the person who saved the Young Master and took him away was Luo Zhou.”
Changling had also had doubts about this point. She couldn’t help but look at Ye Qi. “Since you had this speculation, why did you never mention it to me?”
“The Maoshan Sect has many disciples. Those who know Maoshan sword techniques aren’t necessarily Luo Zhou. Academician Shu or Second Hero Mao, Qu Yunzhen, also have this suspicion. Whether they’re enemies or friends, whether they saved the Young Master or harmed him—all of this remains uncertain.” Ye Qi said. “I didn’t dare speak rashly and make you worry needlessly. I originally wanted to investigate the matter clearly before discussing it with you…”
Before he finished speaking, Mo Daoyun interjected, “It was indeed Luo Zhou.”
Changling and Ye Qi both turned their heads to look at him simultaneously.
“Eleven years ago, I lost consciousness in the cave at Beiming Peak. When I regained consciousness, I was already inside a military tent. But I was severely injured and couldn’t fully wake. I could only distinguish sounds and listen to the movements around me. At that time, I heard people outside the tent saying the Young Master was difficult to treat, that medicine was ineffective…”
Hearing that Yue Changsheng was critically ill, Mo Daoyun was shocked beyond measure. Summoning all his internal power, he finally managed to open his eyes—when he barely managed to leave the tent and head toward the main tent, he happened to witness that scene of a supremely skilled master appearing from heaven and taking the Young Master away with his own power alone.
Of course, at that time, he didn’t yet know that the black-clothed person had come to save someone. Shen Yao shouted hoarsely at the top of his lungs, “Capture the Yan Kingdom assassin, save the Young Master.” Mo Daoyun believed it was true for a time.
“But I recognized his sword…” Mo Daoyun’s gaze was profound as he looked ahead. “People of the Central Plains all say I’m the foremost of the Four Great Sword Saints, yet no one knows I once lost to Luo Zhou’s sword… Among the Maoshan Sect, Qu Yunzhen’s swordplay is nimble and varied, Shu Juan’s sword conceals needles in cotton, while Luo Zhou encompasses all. Jing Wuwei could only recognize it as a Maoshan sword, but I knew—it was Luo Zhou.”
When Luo Zhou abducted Yue Changsheng, the scene naturally fell into chaos. Mo Daoyun’s heart was filled with uncertainty and doubt. He knew deeply that Luo Zhou’s character would never collaborate with villains, but seeing the Young Master being carried away while severely injured seemed truly absurd—at that time, his heart had begun to suspect Shen Yao, though he hadn’t yet confirmed it. Even if he wanted to investigate thoroughly, helpless with his severe injuries, he had no strength to pursue Luo Zhou. He could only temporarily return to camp and observe the situation.
However, after observing for only a few days, the development of events far exceeded his expectations—Shen Yao announced Yue Changsheng’s military tally and testament, publicized the deaths of the two young masters of the Yue family to the world, and within less than half a month, the Yan Army was ambushed in return—the situation was set.
Only then did Mo Daoyun belatedly realize something, but he dared not jump to conclusions, especially since he had absolutely no capital to confront Shen Yao.
“I could only temporarily pledge allegiance. After that, Shen Yao and Jing Wuwei rushed to Jiangdong to take control of the Yue family’s troops. Using my severe injury as an excuse, I first returned to my hometown, then went to Maoshan and to all the places Luo Zhou might have gone, but there was never any news of him or the Young Master,” Mo Daoyun said. “Not knowing what to do, I thought of the Second Young Master.”
Changling felt inexplicably stunned upon hearing this. “Me?”
“Before the Young Master’s death, he asked Marquis He to take half a fan to find Fu Liujing to save you… I thought, since I couldn’t find the Young Master, I might as well first search for Fu Liujing or that child… oh, that’s Marquis He. If I found them, perhaps I could find you, Second Young Master.” Mo Daoyun sighed. “Unfortunately, I searched through all the old Jiangdong territories but found nothing… After more than a month, on my way to Jinling, I happened to encounter Fu Liujing.”
Changling was startled upon hearing this. “It was Fu Liujing? Not Fu Yangui?”
“It was Fu Liujing. At that time, I didn’t yet know he was today’s Prime Minister Fu.”
Calculating from this time, Fu Yangui should have just recovered from his injuries. Why had he disguised himself as Fu Liujing to move about again?
“I hurriedly went forward to inquire, asking if he had received the folding fan, if he had seen the Second Young Master. When he saw me, he was also very surprised. He only said that after being pursued by the Yan Army, he became separated from you. After inquiring in detail about what happened in the Beiming Peak cave, he told me he would search for a way to save the Second Young Master and asked me to first return to Shen Yao’s side and wait for news…” Mo Daoyun sighed. “At that time, I thought he was the person the Young Master entrusted on his deathbed, so naturally I believed him and followed his instructions.”
Changling couldn’t help but turn her head and glance at Ye Qi. “That was also when you gave him the folding fan?”
Ye Qi nodded helplessly. “Guan Bo had died. I walked on foot over mountains and ridges back to the He family, then had Seventh Uncle take me back to Beiming Peak. It was also then that I encountered Fu Liujing… I originally also thought he had stayed there looking for someone, perhaps looking for you, perhaps looking for the Young Master… Thinking about it now, if he wanted to find someone, he should have sent more people. But he was alone—he should have been waiting for someone.”
Changling subconsciously frowned, suddenly realizing. “He wasn’t looking for me. He was waiting for you. More precisely, he was waiting for the folding fan. He heard from Senior Mo about my eldest brother’s deathbed entrustment, so he returned to Beiming Peak… But why would my eldest brother trust him so much? Why did he believe he could solve the mystery of the folding fan?”
As she thought about this in more detail, she suddenly seemed to grasp a certain thought. Ye Qi spoke it out first—
“Since the Young Master held the folding fan, he should have known in whose hands the other half resided. If we say Fu Liujing accidentally learned the secret of the Wu Run folding fan legend and pretended to be my Uncle He’s descendant and disciple, then when the Young Master learned you and he were poisoned by the gu, it wouldn’t be strange for him to proactively gift the Yue family’s folding fan.”
Changling’s heart trembled violently. Her stomach churned, and she nearly vomited.
Ye Qi, however, sighed lightly. “Killing three birds with one arrow—truly formidable.”
Mo Daoyun didn’t know about the Tongxin Gu matter and asked curiously, “What do you mean by three birds with one arrow?”
Changling closed her eyes. Past events were like a revolving lantern—the doubt that had troubled her most deeply all along finally had an answer.
To take Yue Changling’s life didn’t require such a roundabout use of the Tongxin Gu at all. The Tongxin Gu was just a wedge, a wedge that killed three birds with one arrow.
The first arrow was to gain the trust of the two Yue brothers—nothing made them trust his loyalty more than having their lives tied to the same string.
The second arrow was to conceal the truth about the deaths of the Yue brothers—if not for the gu poison, Yue Changling wouldn’t have rushed back to Taixing City early. With Wei Xingyun’s group isolated, they naturally didn’t know what had actually happened outside the city.
And the third arrow took the Yue family’s folding fan—just as Ye Qi said, when Yue Changsheng heard Changling was in danger and injured, and knew his own life wouldn’t last much longer, he hoped that after Fu Liujing obtained the folding fan, he could save his sister’s life. This led to the entrustment in the Beiming cave.
Ye Qi saw Changling’s complexion growing worse and worse and didn’t want her to dwell further on these filthy calculations. He looked at Mo Daoyun and changed the subject. “Speaking of which, how did Academician Mo discover that Prime Minister Fu was Fu Liujing? And that folding fan… how did you seize it from his hands?”
“To be honest, it’s also embarrassing. I worked alongside him for many years and never discovered any clues. Just a few months ago, when the leaders of the eight sects fell into the Yan people’s trap and were ambushed, and Marquis He went to rescue them, His Majesty also ordered me to go north with Prime Minister Fu to assist and guard against the Yan Army taking advantage to raid our borders. At that time, Prime Minister Fu expended considerable manpower to investigate the source of the rumors. I found it strange then—Fu Liujing had been missing for many years. Why was he certain it was a rumor and not actually true?” Mo Daoyun said. “When he took military command on his own authority to go to the Five Poisons Gate, I felt even more suspicious and secretly followed. I actually discovered he broke into the Five Poisons Gate alone. The Five Poisons Gate followers used all their abilities to attack his vital points, yet he emerged unscathed—truly shocking… A single Ming Yuefei from the Five Poisons Gate could deeply poison the leaders of Eastern Xia’s martial arts world. No matter how powerful Prime Minister Fu’s martial arts, how could he come out without a scratch? Unless…”
Ye Qi said, “Unless he understands poisons and therefore knows how to avoid harm, and Fu Liujing back then was also an expert in poisons.”
“After I had this speculation, I kept paying attention to his movements. Through some small details, I was finally able to confirm it.” Mo Daoyun said. “As for the folding fan… after I learned his identity, I secretly infiltrated the Fu Manor and happened to overhear Fu Yanyang arguing with him…”
“An argument? About what?”
“Prime Minister Fu has good hearing. I didn’t dare get too close. I only heard Fu Yanyang say in extreme anger, ‘I’ll just throw away your broken fan and be done with it.’ I guessed the fan they were discussing was the Young Master’s possession, and Prime Minister Fu should be carrying it on his person. The next day, he heard you had left the Jinling Marquis’s estate and specially gave chase. Seeing him leave in a hurry, it was an excellent opportunity. I brought a group of trustworthy disciples, disguised as skilled fighters, and ambushed him halfway to seize the folding fan from him. Prime Minister Fu was outnumbered. Seeing he was powerless to retrieve it, he didn’t force the issue. As I was leaving, I heard him say something, which is why I shifted my target to Marquis He.”
Ye Qi said, “Did he say that even if you obtained this half folding fan, it would be useless, because only he could find the other half?”
Mo Daoyun nodded. “More or less.”
Changling saw Ye Qi rubbing his temples with a headache and said, “This is another trap he calculated, isn’t it?”
Ye Qi said, “He couldn’t have calculated that Academician Mo would ambush him. It can only be said that in the moment he was caught, he should have recognized Academician Mo and quickly thought of a way to salvage the situation—he wanted to use Academician Mo’s hands to obtain the fan diagram we possess.”
Changling was startled and stood up. “Stop talking for now. You should have Seventh Uncle and the others stop searching immediately, lest Fu Yangui beat us to it…”
“I’m afraid it’s too late.” Ye Qi smiled bitterly. “If I were him, at this moment, I should already have a complete diagram in hand.”
Changling froze. “At most, he knows those three locations like Academician Mo. How could he possibly have the fan diagram?”
“In Anxi Town, your aunt suddenly went mad, you were injured and unconscious—all of this was arranged by him.” Ye Qi said in a deep voice. “Even if he has to dig three feet into the ground, he will definitely turn the thing up.”
“But didn’t you already have someone retrieve the half folding fan from Yanling Mountain in Anxi Town?” Changling hesitated for a moment, then suddenly thought of something. “Could it be that after he found it, he recorded what was on the fan surface and then put it back?”
Ye Qi caressed the folding fan in his hand. “Only in this way would we not become suspicious, wouldn’t we?”
In the deep of night, before the ancestral tablets enshrined in the Fu Manor, Fu Yangui knelt before the incense burner, spreading open a hand-drawn fan diagram. The green brush strokes and poetic verses on it were all complete.
In the darkness, a trace of ambiguous meaning slowly emerged in Fu Yangui’s eyes.
On the empty street, Changling rushed toward the Fu Manor with a momentum that nine horses couldn’t pull back. Ye Qi had difficulty catching up to her, afraid she might impulsively turn the Fu Manor upside down. He quickly said, “Don’t be anxious. Earlier, in front of Academician Mo, it wasn’t convenient for me to say too much. Things haven’t reached such a serious stage yet.”
Changling was truly anxious. “He’s solved the mystery of the Wu Run folding fan. If he’s one step ahead of us, won’t all our efforts for so long have been in vain?”
“So what?” Ye Qi held her hand tightly. “Have you forgotten what the Village Chief said? Under what circumstances would the Patriarch pass down his legacy to future disciples and grandchildren?”
Changling stopped in her tracks, her eyes sharp.
The Village Chief’s original words were: If among future descendants there is someone who can obtain the fortune to cultivate supreme and superior techniques, as long as they bring the jade ring, they can make an exception and try.
Ye Qi said word by word, “In other words, if one hasn’t cultivated supreme and superior techniques, not only will they fail to inherit the legacy, it’s very likely to backfire. This is the reason why our Patriarch made Uncle He and Senior Yue vow never to unite the fans. However, up to now, we still cannot determine what standard ‘supreme and superior’ actually refers to, right?”
Changling understood. “You mean…”
Ye Qi spread open the fan, the corners of his mouth slowly curving into a smile. “Whether this object is a heaven-sent opportunity or a catastrophic disaster—how can it be summed up in a single phrase?”