Chapter 149: Kill With a Borrowed Knife

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

A massive swamp was located in the boundless wilderness. Looking from the shore, it felt like one was on the coast.

A black boat was moving forward in the wind and waves as soybean-sized raindrops hit the boat’s canopy, making crackling sounds.

Xuanyuan Hongzhi, the second master of Jun Mountain Terrace, held a black oil-paper umbrella in his hand and moved toward a pleasure boat floating on the water with a frown.

This morning, Jun Mountain Terrace had sent a messenger pigeon to Xuanyuan Hongzhi, saying that a mysterious person had provided a clue. A new expert had appeared in the Black Office. His name was Ye Jingtang, and he knew the Eight-Steps Frenzied Blade. He was deeply valued by the Prince of Jing.

The intention of the person who provided the information was very obvious.

He knew about the old enmity between Jun Mountain Terrace and the

Eight-Steps Frenzied Blade and deliberately provided information in order to use Jun Mountain Terrace’s saber to kill.

Xuanyuan Hongzhi didn’t know the identity of the person who provided the information, but he felt that this news was most likely true.

A few days ago, he had examined Zhou Huaili’s corpse, which had died at the hands of the Eight-Steps Frenzied Blade. The Imperial Court had admitted that this matter was done by someone from the Black Office.

This saberman was very likely the Ye Jingtang that the mysterious person had mentioned.

If he only knew the Eight-Steps Frenzied Blade, Xuanyuan Hongzhi wouldn’t have thought that the situation was urgent. But the words ‘deeply valued by the Prince of Jing’ hit Jun Mountain Terrace’s fatal spot.

Jun Mountain Terrace had been conferred the title of marquis by the Imperial Court. Even if someone from Jianghu had a blood feud with Jun Mountain Terrace, under the deterrence of the Imperial Court, they didn’t dare to rashly exterminate the entire Jun Mountain Terrace.

But the Imperial Court was different. If it said that an entire family would be seized and executed, it would seize and execute the entire family. With Lu Taiqing and Daoist Xuanji around, the so-called current Saber Chief was just a Jianghu soldier in the eyes of the Imperial Court.

Back then, Jun Mountain Terrace had destroyed Zheng Feng’s marriage and crippled his body, causing him to be neither human nor ghost for the rest of his life. To the successor of the Eight-Steps Frenzied Blade, this was an irreconcilable mortal enmity.

Xuanyuan Hongzhi knew very well what the outcome would be if he let Zheng Feng’s later generation grow up.

Therefore, even though he knew that the mysterious person was using them to kill Ye Jingting, he would rather ‘kill the wrong person than let him go’ and think of a way to deal with this serious problem before his opponent grew up.

But the source of the information was unclear, and Ye Jingtang was the Prince of Jing’s person. Xuanyuan Hongzhi couldn’t take the risk to eradicate the problem himself. There were many ‘knives’ in Jianghu, so he didn’t need to do it himself.

The black boat drifted to the side of the pleasure boat. Xuanyuan Hongzhi tapped his toes lightly and landed on the deck of the boat.

On the pleasure boat, a young master in a scholarly robe quickly came forward to welcome him. “Uncle Xuanyuan, have you found any news?”

The young master was Zhou Ying, Zhou Huaili’s eldest son of his first wife. He had already recovered from his injuries, but his anger still made his handsome face look sick.

A few days ago, Zhou Huaili had been killed by the Imperial Court. In order to protect their reputation of chivalry, the Zhou family had expelled Zhou Huaili, this unfilial son who had violated the laws of the country, from the family.

As the eldest legitimate son, although Zhou Ying was not deprived of his inheritance rights, the current head of the Water Cloud Sword Pool was the third master, Zhou Huaiyi.

With such a huge family business in front of him, no matter how much Zhou Huaiyi valued brotherhood, he couldn’t treat his nephew Zhou Ying as his biological son.

The enmity of killing his father was behind him, and the enmity of losing his inheritance was in front of him. The Zhou family wanted to settle the matter peacefully, but how could Zhou Ying swallow this resentment? He was still working in secret, wanting the blood debt to be repaid with blood.

Xuanyuan Hongzhi, like a kind elder, put away his umbrella under the eaves of the pleasure boat, took out a note from his sleeve, and handed it to Zhou Ying. “Nephew Zhou, my condolences. The murderer has been found. Brother Zhou was killed by someone from the Black Office called Ye Jingtang in the capital. 1 can only help this much. The rest depends on you.”

Zhou Ying picked up the note and read the content carefully. “Ye Jingtang…

What is his relationship with the Prince of Jing?”

He’s a new chief constable of the Black Office. He might be the future Seventh

Fiend. I don’t know who his master is, but he can’t be underestimated.”

When Zhou Ying heard that it was someone like the Six Fiends, he looked troubled. He thought for a moment and said respectfully, “Second Uncle is the current Sword Saint. The Imperial Court was unreasonable and forced the Zhou family to admit guilt. It’s really not appropriate for us to do it openly. We can only rely on external forces for this matter. Uncle Xuanyuan, I wonder if you can…”

Xuanyuan Hongzhi’s expression darkened, and he was rather displeased. “Huili was my best friend and brother. Helping you investigate this matter in private is already violating a taboo of the Imperial Court. Nephew Zhou, do you still want to drag Jun Mountain Terrace into trouble?”

Zhou Ying wasn’t stupid. He never thought that Xuanyuan Hongzhi really treated his father as a brother. When he heard this, he said directly, “Uncle Xuanyuan, as long as you can help me contact a few trustworthy experts, I will definitely thank you heavily.”

Then Zhou Ying entered the deckhouse and came out with a white sheathed sword in both hands. “This sword is called ‘Inspiration’. My father was lucky enough to obtain it ten years ago. He never showed it to outsiders. It’s often said that a treasured sword should be given to a hero. Today, I’ll give it to…”

When Xuanyuan Hongzhi saw this swordsmanship supreme treasure, one of the ten famous swords, surprise flashed in his eyes. He took it and sized it up. “The young master of the Thousand Crane Villa came to Ze Province to study swordsmanship ten years ago. On the way back, he died at the hands of Jianghu bandits…”

Zhou Ying raised his hand slightly. “This matter has nothing to do with my father. My father bought it on the black market and was afraid of being misunderstood, so he never showed it to anyone.”

Xuanyuan Chao understood. After looking at the sword for a while, he held it in his hand and sighed. “Forget it. Wang Chengjing and his brother are walking around Ze Province recently. 1 will help you contact them. As long as the price is high enough, they will dare to accept this matter. 1 can only help you until here. The rest will depend on you.”

“Thank you, Uncle.” Zhou Ying hurriedly cupped his hands and bowed…

Yun’an City…

Outside the courtyard, it was drizzling. The raindrops slid down the umbrella ribs and formed a curtain of rain in front of Ye Jingtang.

The bird was squatting on his shoulder and stretching out its wings to touch the rain curtain. In the end, its wings became wet. It was very unhappy and wiped them on Tangtang’s robe.

?

With one hand holding his umbrella, Ye Jingtang rubbed the bird’s head and looked at the small room behind him.

Because of the rain, there was some water in the room.

The door of the main room was open. Little Yunli was sitting in front of a desk with a look of despair on her face. There were books, brushes, ink, paper, and an inkstone in front of her.

Heroine Luo, who was wearing a blue summer dress, was sitting at the desk like a strict mother and pointing at an article in the book. “Start from here and copy this page. You can only go out to play after copying it. If I come back and see that you haven’t written it…”

“Sigh, I know…”

When Ye Jingtang saw this scene, he didn’t gloat. He just waited outside the door.

After a while, Luo Ning finished arranging Yunli’s homework, opened her oil-paper umbrella, and walked out the door. Without looking at Ye Jingtang, she walked straight to the entrance of the alley.

Ye Jingtang wasn’t surprised at all. After all, he had indeed made a small mistake.

Last night, Heroine Luo had taken the initiative to get into his bed. But he had misjudged her attitude, and his old habit of ‘taking advantage of Ning’ had recurred.

When Heroine Luo got up and went out of the curtain to light the lamp, he didn’t know what he was thinking. His heart fluttered, and he patted the big moon in front of him.

Pa-

Ripples trembled-

Then the room fell dead silent.

Heroine Luo definitely wouldn’t believe him if he said he wanted to hit a mosquito. She felt that she had been greatly offended and humiliated, so she immediately beat him up on the spot and then ignored him.

Seeing that they had space to be alone, Ye Jingtang walked up to her and comforted, “I really didn’t hit you last night. 1 just touched you a little harder…”

Luo Ning’s expression was as cold as ice, and her eyes were murderous. “You’re still saying you didn’t hit me? Little thief, you have no conscience. 1 must have been crazy to want to help you. From now on, think of a way to recuperate your body on your own. I won’t care about this matter anymore.”

How could Ye Jingtang bear to hit his wife? He just couldn’t help patting her yesterday. He couldn’t explain it at the moment, so he said softly, “Alright, let’s not talk about this anymore. Next time, 1—”

“There’s no next time!” Luo Ning’s eyes were resolute. “I will go to the Wang family’s clinic and get you some medicine. In the future, you’ll drink medicine to recuperate…”

Ye Jingtang was stunned. “Can this be treated by drinking medicine?”

Luo Ning was about to nod when she suddenly felt that something was wrong. That’s right. He has too much yang qi. Drinking some medicine to cool down the heat won’t have the same effect. 1 thought of this last time, so why…

Ye Jingtang realized the issue from the change in Heroine Luo’s expression. Afraid that she would really make up her mind, he shook his head and said, “Medicine is thirty percent poison. Moreover, the sages said that it’s better to remove it than to block it. Medicine isn’t a long-term solution.”

Luo Ning blinked. She felt that this explanation could explain her train of thought last night, so she harrumphed softly. “I will go get you some medicine. If you don’t know etiquette and respect women, you can make your own medicine.”

“If I behave well, will you reward me?”

?

Luo Ning felt that this statement was very strange, but the meaning was indeed so. She didn’t reply and instead said, “Where are you going to buy a house?”

Ye Jingtang was going out today to look for a bigger house in the capital.

He liked this courtyard in Double Osmanthus Alley very much, but it only had three rooms and was too small. There wasn’t even a living room. The two girls didn’t have any privacy at home, and it was inconvenient for them to take a bath.

“Heroine Luo, you’re from Jiang Province. The houses in the capital that are similar to the style of Jiang Province’s water towns are all by the inland river, starting from Literary Virtue Bridge to Heavenly Water Bridge…”

“Why are you considering me when you’re buying your house? 1 will return to the South Firmament Mountains sooner or later.”

Ye Jingtang shrugged slightly. “1 can’t find rammed-earth houses in the style of Liang Province. The houses at the border are not as tidy as the ones in Double Osmanthus Alley. Heroine Luo, you’re familiar with Jiang Province, so you’re just helping look.”

After thinking about it, Luo Ning didn’t say anything. She left Dye Workshop Street with Ye Jingtang and went to the inland river.

The inner river in the capital was called the Southern Breeze River. The river was about 60 feet wide, and there were several stone bridges along the river connecting the two banks. The scenery on the banks was beautiful. There were many private residences of the wealthy in the capital, and the Pei family was one of them. But in order to keep a low profile, the Pei family didn’t buy a residence by the river.

Luo Ning wasn’t very interested at first, but standing on the white stone arch bridge and looking at the white walls and blue tiles under the rain, she recalled memories of her childhood and began to accompany the man to look at houses seriously.

The Southern Breeze River was close to the Imperial City. The farther upstream one went, the more outrageous the people living there were. As a Jianghu person, Ye Jingtang definitely went downstream. After looking for a long time, they gradually arrived at Heavenly Water Bridge.

Ye Jingtang was standing on a stone bridge and showing the location of the Pei residence to Heroine Luo when he saw Chen Biao rushing out from the escort agency to the Pei family’s alley with an umbrella.

Seeing Ye Jingtang standing on the stone bridge in the distance, Chen Biao was stunned for a moment. Then he held his robe up and jogged over. “Young Master, something happened…”

Holding his umbrella, Ye Jingtang frowned, walked down the stone bridge, and asked, “What is it?”

Chen Biao ran up to him and guessed that the woman behind him was the one who had quarreled with the boss the day before yesterday. He nodded respectfully and said nervously, “The sect master of Iron Buddha Ridge, ‘Glaring Vajra’ Cheng Shilu, is here.”

Ye Jingtang knew that the Cheng family would come looking for trouble. He had noticed something was abnormal with Second Master Cheng’s body and wanted to verify it. Hearing this, he said, “Where is he? Did he destroy the Pei family’s property?”

Chen Biao shook his head and said solemnly, “No, he abducted someone.”

?

Ye Jingtang’s eyes turned cold. “Abducted who? Pei Luo?

“No, Yang Guan!” Chen Biao sighed. “Cheng Shilu said that if you don’t arrive at Blue Lotus Villa before dark, he will break Yang Guan’s legs! Sigh, he’s too cruel…”

“???”

Ye Jingtang thought about it for a long time. He still couldn’t figure out the iron head’s thoughts and asked, “What does it have to do with me if he abducts the Three Absolutes Elderly Immortal’s disciple? Why should 1 go there?”

Chen Biao shrugged slightly. “I don’t know. It’s probably because Yang Guan was too cowardly last time at the Orchid Pavilion. He kept saying you’re powerful, so the Iron Buddha Ridge treats him as your lackey. Young Master, should we intervene in this matter?”

Ye Jingtang deliberated for a moment before saying, “Let me take care of something first. Go do your work.”

“Alright.”

Luo Ning waited for the escort to leave before walking up to Ye Jingtang. “Last time, you said that something was wrong with Second Master Cheng. Aren’t you going to take a look?”

“I definitely have to go take a look. Perhaps I can find clues about the Golden Scale Picture. It’s just that the Iron Buddha Ridge is even more careless and crude than Uncle Song. If I go over, I’ll be like a crazy busybody… Forget it. It’s still early. Let’s look at houses first.”

Hearing this, Luo Ning didn’t say anything else and continued to look at houses…