In a fleeting moment, Changling thought she caught sight of her elder brother.
Yue Changsheng had a prominent nose bridge with a slight hump, paired with deep-set eye sockets that made him highly recognizable in a crowd. She had only glimpsed him for a split second, yet without a second thought, she followed. The person’s pace had originally been unhurried, but sensing someone following, he quickened his steps and hurried away in the direction opposite to the martial arts competition venue.
Just as Changling was about to catch up, her hand was suddenly gripped firmly—it was Ye Qi who stopped her in time. “Who did you see?”
“I think it was my brother…” Changling panicked slightly and pointed with her hand. “That person there, but I’m not certain…”
“Beware of a diversionary tactic,” Ye Qi said, his eyes fixed on the gray-clothed figure about to disappear into the distance. “I’ll chase him. You go back—your turn is coming up soon.”
With those words, Ye Qi lifted his steps and shot forward, vanishing from sight in an instant.
Though Changling was worried, she knew that in increasingly urgent situations, Ye Qi’s judgment was often accurate. Hearing the various cheers coming from the waterside, she suppressed the urge to chase after them together, gritted her teeth, and turned back to her seat.
This person’s qinggong was quite remarkable—though slightly inferior to Ye Qi’s, it seemed. In just a few moves, the young marquis had closed most of the distance to just a short gap. Thinking it might be Yue Changsheng, he immediately called out, “Sir, please stop!”
The person clearly heard him but had no intention of stopping. Instead, he quickened his pace and rushed toward the alley entrance without looking back. Ye Qi grew suspicious, but having promised to catch up with the person, he didn’t hesitate and followed, turning into the alley.
This estate was where the Xiaoyao Sect disciples lived and took their meals. The back alleys twisted and turned in seven or eight directions, leading everywhere. At this hour, those who didn’t need to work had all gone to watch the excitement. Ye Qi listened for sounds to track his position and finally managed not to lose the person—he intercepted him in the last dead-end alley.
“If you leap up now, sir, you’ll likely taste this whip,” Ye Qi said, drawing the Wuliang Whip from his waist. “Since you’re also a hero here to participate in the gathering, why hide and refuse to show your true face?”
“I don’t know you,” the person said, pulling out a cloth from his sleeve to cover his face, then turned around. “I don’t know why you’re pursuing me so relentlessly. I advise you not to meddle in others’ affairs.”
Ye Qi heard that this person’s voice was low and hoarse, clearly deliberately concealing his original voice. With his mouth and nose covered, only his eyes and brows showed, and they actually did bear some resemblance to Yue Changsheng. However, after more than ten years, even if Changling were here, she probably wouldn’t dare make a definitive conclusion.
“You bear some resemblance to an old friend of mine, sir,” Ye Qi said politely. “Perhaps we met many years ago, but I simply haven’t recognized you for the moment.”
“Hmph.”
The person let out a cold snort and suddenly pushed backward with his hand, actually pushing down the stone wall beside him with a “crash,” revealing a large hole—the other side of the stone wall happened to be the kitchen area. When the wall collapsed, the “clink clank” sounds of woks and spatulas colliding drifted out. Without further ado, the person dove into the room. Ye Qi followed closely behind and, just as he stepped in, saw a woodshed filled with firewood.
The woodshed was empty. Going out would lead to the kitchen hall, where thirty to fifty stoves were arranged in several rows. The cooks were busily chopping meat and stir-frying vegetables, and with servants coming and going to help, no one noticed whether outsiders had intruded.
Ye Qi’s gaze moved between different people. The kitchen workers here almost all wore gray clothes, looking identical at first glance—he saw that the main door of the kitchen hall was closed and instinctively felt the person was still inside. But seeing the flames rising high beneath the woks that the cooks tossed around him, he vaguely felt something was wrong.
Inexplicably, he recalled what Changling had said after the lantern festival that day: he could extinguish the candles on most of the street in an instant, which means his martial arts can control fire.
Fire?
Ye Qi realized something and stopped in his tracks. The next moment, several cooks beside him simultaneously let out horrified screams. When he turned around, he saw several waves of scorching flames rushing directly at him from all directions!
There truly wasn’t even time to dodge. Almost at the same instant, several vats of water in the kitchen hall flew up and spun out, their momentum like hidden dragons emerging from the sea, swallowing the first wave of flames around him in one gulp. Ye Qi and that person both spread their arms wide, and above the kitchen, water and fire intertwined, exploding into brilliant displays like fireworks.
In an instant, the kitchen descended into chaos like a boiling pot, with screams rising everywhere. The cooks couldn’t avoid it in time and scrambled over each other to flee out the door. Ye Qi saw that person about to take advantage of the chaos to jump out the window. Just as he was about to give chase, another flame whooshed toward him. He raised his palm to block it, but discovered the water in the vats was all used up. He could only use the wall to perform a backward leap, his body like an arrow released from a bowstring as he flashed backward.
An entire wall of windows burst into flames. Ye Qi had no choice but to use the door. By the time he rushed out, the person’s trace was long gone.
Ye Qi quietly gazed at the chaos all around him, belatedly realizing the shocking moment just now. He immediately returned the way he came and crouched down in front of the wall in the woodshed, looking at the bricks shattered on the ground, his mind already reaching a conclusion.
If internal force had been used to shatter them, the cracks between the brick pieces wouldn’t be so neat. That person must have tampered with this spot beforehand, precisely to lure someone into the kitchen.
If he hadn’t happened to know the Wanhua Treasure Mirror and there hadn’t happened to be several vats of water prepared in the hall, he would have been burned alive long ago.
Thinking that this trap was very likely set for Changling, Ye Qi clenched his fist with lingering fear. Suddenly, sweetness rose in his throat, and he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.
A chill shot up along his spine. He looked down at his numb hands and feet—at this moment, he didn’t even have the strength to stand.
Just now, to resist the fire attack, he had suddenly consumed quite a bit of internal force. He hadn’t expected that his body couldn’t even withstand this much.
Was his time running out?
Ye Qi took a heart-protecting pill. After waiting a moment for his breathing to even out, he supported himself against the wall to stand up. Just then, someone walked into the woodshed from the kitchen hall—it was Lu Yazi from the Xiaoyao Sect who had led them into the valley that day. Seeing his lapel stained with fresh blood, he exclaimed in shock, “Marquis He, how are you injured?”
“It’s nothing,” Ye Qi said, raising his sleeve to wipe away the bloodstain at his lips. “I was just tracking a suspicious person here. I saw him break through this wall, then fought with him for a while. I accidentally became agitated and had a heart fire flare-up, but it’s fine now… By the way, Brother Lu, why are you here?”
“I heard that an uninvited guest had infiltrated the inner kitchen and made a complete mess of things, so I hurried over to see what the situation was…” Lu Yazi asked, “Did you see who that person was, Marquis?”
Ye Qi shook his head. “This person’s martial arts are formidable, and his intentions are malicious. Brother Lu should investigate thoroughly and strengthen the patrols within the valley.”
“Alright, I’ll dispatch some people right away.” Lu Yazi nodded busily, then added, “By the way, when I came over, I saw that Young Master Murong has already defeated Young Master Mo from your academy, and your Dongxia’s chief has taken the stage…”
Before he finished speaking, Ye Qi removed his blood-stained outer robe and, without another word, took off running, leaving Lu Yazi alone staring at the blood-stained clothes thrown on the ground, scratching his head with a bewildered expression.
She had heard before that the Murong family’s swordplay was one in ten thousand, and among the famous swords of the world, besides the Wudang Taiji Sword, none could match it.
This was the first time Changling had witnessed that Murong Manor’s reputation was “well-deserved.” Mo Chuan’s swordsmanship foundation was considered refined, but in his duel with Murong Fei, he never made a mistake from start to finish, yet from start to finish, he never gained the upper hand.
Changling’s sword followed the domineering path of “killing one person every ten steps, leaving no trace for a thousand li.” In her bones, she had an attitude of dismissing this “flawless” school—why bother with so many fancy flourishes when it would be more direct to simply hammer you to death in one blow?
But after watching from below the stage for a while, she suddenly realized a rather thorny problem—under the premise of not being able to use the Shimo technique, the difficulty of controlling the match was very high. If she intended to fight to a draw, half an hour or even an hour wasn’t impossible.
She saw that Ye Qi had yet to return and was already growing worried. But seeing Mo Chuan defeated and Murong Fei still standing on the stage, his gaze calmly looking over, revealing a smile that said “I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”
The arrow was on the string and had to be released. She turned her head to look back at the vast sea of people, tossed her cloth-wrapped sword to Zhou Qin, and casually picked up Fu Yanyang’s sword, saying, “Let me borrow this.”
With those words, her figure flashed and she lightly swept to the center of the martial arts stage.
Everyone was startled. In that move, she had gone directly from her seat to the stage without borrowing any leverage in between—arriving in one step. Her qinggong could truly be called divine. Murong Fei looked at the sword in her hand, his eyes flashing. “Is the sword the young lady is holding the Autumn Cold Sword?”
This blade was precisely the one Fu Yangui had given to Fu Yanyang that day—the number one treasure sword of Dongxia. The one in Murong Fei’s hand was the equally famous Jade Water Sword. If one could say that after the first four matches, he had gone from disdain to developing some interest in Changling, then at the moment he saw the Autumn Cold Sword, he was already somewhat impatient to compete.
Seventy percent of Changling’s mind was on “why hasn’t Ye Qi returned yet?” Hearing Murong Fei’s question, she instinctively opened her mouth, but hadn’t managed to answer. At that moment, the gong sounded brightly. She drew her sword with a flash and thrust the long sword forward without hesitation.
Murong Fei: “…”
The previous moment she had looked like she was about to speak, the next moment she attacked—treacherous enough!
Silver light glittered, sword shadows flew diagonally. The Jade Water Sword was like rain beating on duckweed, swift as lightning. Yet the Autumn Water Sword moved left and right unpredictably, its momentum connected despite broken rhythm, like writing cursive calligraphy with inexhaustible brush intent—sometimes surging and fierce, sometimes melodious and flowing. Murong Fei had never seen such sword techniques before. For a moment, he was mesmerized, focusing only on defense and forgetting to attack.
This series of sword moves was truly exquisite to the extreme. Everyone in the arena was stunned.
The ten elders of the Martial Arts Alliance were drawn over by the scene at the red stage. Heng Yu Daoist from Kunlun watched for a moment and suddenly said, “This… isn’t this ‘Iron Strokes Silver Hooks’?”
The Wudang Sect’s leader stroked his beard. “It also quite resembles the ‘Brush Dancing Like Dragons and Snakes’ of Elder He from years ago…”
What Changling was using was precisely the blade and sword manual she had seen in the cave at Yanling Mountain. “Iron Strokes Silver Hooks” was originally a blade manual. When she used a sword in place of a blade, its ferocity was limited in display, so she added in a bit of the He family’s “Brush Dancing Like Dragons and Snakes,” precisely to catch Murong Fei off guard and, by the way, take this opportunity to let her family’s inherited martial arts reappear in the jianghu.
No one had ever seen Yue Changling use “Iron Strokes Silver Hooks” before, so no one would guess her identity. Even if someone suspected, she could say this move was passed down from the He family. Everyone knew she was Marquis He’s fiancée, so it would make sense.
Despite this opening dazzling the entire venue, Changling knew that once all the moves had been used through one cycle, the Murong sword technique would be able to counter and break them. The reason she borrowed her ancestor’s sword was precisely to mislead Murong Fei—to make him think this was her strongest capability.
Xu Laifeng had won his own match and rushed over impatiently to watch. Seeing Changling use a sword in place of a blade, he initially found it quite interesting, but the more he watched, the more he felt something was wrong. The next moment, someone clapped him on the shoulder, and he heard the young marquis say breathlessly, “How’s the fight going?”
Xu Laifeng looked at him strangely. “Why are you here?”
Ye Qi had no time to waste words with him. “I’m asking you what the situation is?”
“I feel like her movements have slowed down, but she hasn’t noticed it herself. I don’t know what trick this Murong fellow is playing… Eh?” Before Xu Laifeng finished speaking, Ye Qi took a large stride and quickly rushed forward.
Changling had originally only felt that Murong Fei’s sword was getting faster and faster, but because she was worried about Ye Qi’s safety, she had kept a thread of her mind on the area below the stage. Only when her peripheral vision glimpsed that white figure rushing toward her did she breathe a sigh of relief. But after that breath, she couldn’t help but draw in a sharp breath of cold air.
Because Ye Qi’s running footsteps and movements were slower than a normal person’s running motions—this was definitely not that the runner had slowed down, but that the person watching had become sluggish.
Changling’s eyes sharpened. She saw the Jade Water Sword transform into a long rainbow of sword light pouring toward her. By the time she realized it, within a two-zhang radius around her body, she was already enveloped by sword light. No matter what, there was no way to avoid it!