“Since Xue Xianzi is very likely infected with parasites, I’ll find another way.” After a slight pause, Tang Lici pointed toward the door, “I’ll have someone escort you down the mountain, no need to worry.” Qiyang breathed a sigh of relief. After encountering this great ghost, he could finally leave. He had regretted for a long time coming here because he wanted to see some “medicine person,” “I’ll leave right away.” Tang Lici nodded, “Very well.” Qiyang looked at him a couple more times and couldn’t help asking again, “Why won’t you go back?” Tang Lici remained motionless, as if he hadn’t heard at all. After a while, he smiled slightly, “After you return, don’t tell anyone you saw me.”

“Of course I won’t say anything. If I did, immediately thousands of people would demand I bring you back—how could I handle that?” Qiyang rolled his eyes in front of him. Tang Lici suddenly asked, “Is the Tang Group… also looking for me?” Qiyang scratched his scalp, “The Tang Group? I don’t know. It seems like it’s all entertainment reporters looking for you, your fans, your women looking for you. I haven’t heard of the Tang Group publicly searching for you.” Tang Lici smiled slightly again, “Go back then, you have your matters to attend to.” Qiyang was startled. This person always gave off a very hypocritical feeling, putting on airs, never speaking from the heart, but this sentence “Go back then, you have your matters to attend to”—that feeling… whether it was because of fatigue making his tone weary, or simply because his voice was gentle, it sounded… very tender.

Like genuine consideration, and therefore very tender.

For a moment Qiyang felt a subtle confusion, unable to describe what he was feeling.

Tang Lici stood up and clapped his hands toward the window. Two disciples from the sword assembly came leaping over. Tang Lici briefly gave them instructions and was about to have them escort Qiyang away when he suddenly paused slightly, waved his hand to have them still withdraw outside the room, then raised his head and stared blankly out the window for a while.

The two sword assembly disciples looked at each other in bewilderment and withdrew. Qiyang’s eyes grew wider and wider—he felt his eyeballs were about to fall out. This person was actually showing an expression that was almost dazed. It was truly seeing a ghost.

After a while, Tang Lici sighed softly, “Does your hospital do plastic surgery well?” Qiyang cursed silently, “‘Your hospital’? That’s genuinely ‘your family’s hospital.'” This person had no awareness or sense of responsibility as acting director. “Plastic surgery is decent enough, at least not worse than others.” Tang Lici looked out the window, “Then… after you finish those surgeries, could you please come again?”

Qiyang blurted out, “You want plastic surgery? That can’t be…” Tang Lici’s eyes looking out the window moved slightly, “Is it possible?” Qiyang took a step back, “This…” Tang Lici said quietly, “I’m asking you.” When he said this, Qiyang’s whole body broke out in goosebumps and he stammered, “Of course it’s possible, but… but you have absolutely no need for plastic surgery…”

Tang Lici wasn’t listening to what he was saying, “After you return, help me bring someone back.” Qiyang scratched his hair, “That’s possible, but it’s best if they’re not from the Song Dynasty—without ID cards and such, everything would be very difficult to handle.” Tang Lici said quietly, “He’s not from the Song Dynasty.” After a pause, he said, “I… don’t want to know where the passage is, and I don’t want any news about it. When you come again, wait for me at the National Uncle’s residence. I’ll arrange for someone to go back with you.” Qiyang looked at him strangely, “Who do you want to send back?”

“Vered.”

Qiyang was overjoyed, “So he’s not dead either—that’s wonderful! I love his guitar playing. That technique is incredibly impressive.” Tang Lici still wasn’t listening to what he was saying, “His face was injured, and he has a comminuted fracture of his leg bone. I hope the hospital can heal him, but please don’t let news of his injuries spread.” He shook his head slightly and said quietly, “His mood is very disturbed, and he has strong pride—don’t discourage him.”

Qiyang looked at his expression, “You two… have been through a lot?”

Tang Lici smiled faintly, “Yes, we’ve been through a lot.”

Qiyang asked carefully, “A lot of bad things?”

“I don’t know.” Tang Lici slowly raised his eyes to look at him, “I can’t distinguish… what are good things, what are bad things…”

Qiyang couldn’t make out whether the emotion in his eyes was joy or anger, sadness or pain—it was like a kind of almost blank chaos that made him gasp.

“Go.” Tang Lici said nothing more and clapped his hands again. The two sword assembly disciples came floating in and led Qiyang away.

As he left, Qiyang sighed inwardly. He completely didn’t understand Tang Lici, but this person seemed far more complex than he had imagined—complex to a degree that didn’t seem like what a “person” could bear…

That nearly blank, chaotic look in his eyes was as if he was always on the verge of hysteria and collapse, and with just one careless moment, “Tang Lici” as a person, including both his facade and his truth, would completely turn to ash and smoke.

His entire… soul seemed about to burn out…

Cheng Yunpao came out of Tang Lici’s room, tucking the paper ball he had given him into his chest, and quickly returned to his own room to open the paper ball. The paper was densely covered with writing. Tang Lici had written out in great detail the various strategies Yu Konghou might recently adopt, and also made clear that he didn’t want Haoyun Mountain’s newly consolidated morale to disintegrate because of this, allowing the Romantic Store to profit from it. Therefore, he hoped Cheng Yunpao, Meng Qinglei and others would cooperate with Miss Hong to complete his strategy of turning the tables.

That is to say, when Yu Konghou framed him, he needed no one to defend him—they should create a situation where everyone pointed fingers at him. Because as long as anyone supported Tang Lici, the nearly thousand people on the mountain would split into two factions and then fight among themselves, causing the expedition against the Romantic Store to fail without a battle. Since at this moment they couldn’t obtain conclusive evidence to expose Yu Konghou, he would frame himself to ensure these thousand warriors would unite as one, sharing both sweet and bitter.

The hatred of a thousand people was also a kind of collective power—perhaps even stronger than the power of pursuing righteousness.

After reading it, Cheng Yunpao clenched his five fingers and destroyed the letter.

Suddenly an indescribable wavering arose in his heart. He had always been unwavering in his path—punishing evil and eliminating wickedness, sacrificing life for righteousness. No matter what price he had to pay for this, it was martyrdom for the cause, nothing to be regretted. For Tang Lici to do this, given his character, there was nothing unacceptable about it. If he were in Tang Lici’s position, if he could think of such a strategy, he would do it without hesitation as well.

But when he had just seen the letter, why did his heart suddenly waver? A kind of panic enveloped his mind, making him restless.

Was it because the person being sacrificed was Tang Lici?

Because he was the person least likely to be sacrificed, the one most impossible to be sacrificed? How could someone who shaped the big picture suddenly be thrown out of it halfway? What depths would someone who had always been high above fall to?

He almost wanted to oppose this decision. In his shock, he suddenly realized that he was actually so dependent on Tang Lici—not just him, but perhaps Meng Qinglei, Yu Furen, even Dong Hubi and others had long regarded Tang Lici as a kind of pillar. A kind of magic treasure one could rely on for answers and victory, like the most indispensable thing on one’s person at this time.

There were nearly a thousand people on Haoyun Mountain, and military morale couldn’t be disrupted. But Tang Lici hadn’t considered that after he left this way, how would everyone’s anxiety and confusion be resolved? Not to mention that once they thought of him suffering the misunderstanding and pursuit of the entire martial world because of this, once they thought he might be injured or die with grievances, he would suffocate completely.

Tang Lici believed he was the most resolute person, so he informed him of this matter first. Yet his heart was in complete turmoil, unable to speak a word for a long time.