Shao Yanping inwardly praised the skillful technique—with a subtle twist and spread of his fingers, he effortlessly evaded Pu Kui Sheng's finger strike without leaving a trace. The only pity was that he still refrained from using Inner Energy, making it impossible to gauge his true cultivation level. "Impressive skill!" Several at the banquet praised in unison. After downing this cup of wine, everyone felt a growing fondness for Tang Lici, and the discussions at the table became even more candid and bold.
Chi Yun drank coldly. The white-fox's methods of winning people over were always masterful. No matter who it was, if he wanted to charm them, none could escape his grasp. With a sidelong glance, he noticed Yu Furen quietly listening while holding his chopsticks, silently drinking. Amidst the banquet's praise and laughter, it seemed none of it reached his ears—lost in his own thoughts.
When this man wasn’t smiling, he looked somewhat familiar. A faint trace of surprise flickered in Chi Yun’s mind, but his memory had always been poor. He couldn’t quite place who he resembled.
A maidservant approached quietly, whispering a few words into Shao Yanping’s ear. Shao waved her away and turned to Tang Lici. "The Sword Association has an esteemed guest who wishes to speak with Young Master Tang tonight. Would you be willing to meet her?" Tang Lici smiled faintly. "Since it’s a guest of the Sword Association, how could I refuse?" Shao Yanping laughed heartily and addressed the group, "This guest’s identity is rather special, so I must beg your pardon for not disclosing it."
The attendees nodded in understanding, and the banquet’s merriment continued unabated. Confidence in eradicating the Dissolute Shop grew, and various strategies were discussed in detail—
Some fool missed a section while pasting, so Chapter Eleven starts here...
After the banquet.
Shao Yanping led Tang Lici to a side chamber to meet the guest. Chi Yun had intended to follow and see the spectacle but was politely turned away. Furious, he returned to his room and promptly fell asleep. The senior martial artists exchanged pleasantries before dispersing—some went fishing by the mountain stream under the moonlight, others returned to their quarters to meditate and regulate their breathing. People differed, and so did their ways.
In the side chamber, a single lamp burned, its light neither too bright nor too dim—just right.
When Tang Lici pushed the door open, he saw a woman in green robes sitting beside the lamp, needle and thread in hand, carefully embroidering a child’s design onto her lucky undergarment. She looked up at his entrance and smiled softly.
He had thought nothing could surprise him anymore, yet he was genuinely taken aback. "A Shui…"
Shao Yanping chuckled. "It seems you two are indeed acquainted. A Shui has come a long way, so take your time. I’ll excuse myself now." He closed the door behind him, his smile unmistakably hinting at the assumption that Tang Lici, young and handsome, was about to embark on another romantic entanglement.
A Shui tucked the embroidered pouch back into her robes and stood. "Young Master Tang."
Tang Lici steadied himself against the sandalwood chair beside him and sat down instead. " Cough ..." He coughed softly, taking slow breaths to steady himself before speaking. "Why have you come here...?"
A Shui reached out to support him, kneeling before him. "You’re injured?"
Tang Lici smiled faintly. "It’s nothing serious. You’ve taken a risk coming here—there must be an important matter." His complexion was far from ideal. After the banquet, the wine had flushed his cheeks, but between his brows lingered traces of exhaustion and pain. The rosy hue took on a sickly tinge, yet under the lamplight, it carried an almost bewitching allure."The current location of the Dissolute Shop is in the Windbreak Forest, not far from Good Cloud Mountain." A Shui took out a handkerchief from her bosom and handed it to Tang Lici. "Tonight, he took me out to drink at Evening Breeze Hall, then he got drunk and disappeared." She studied Tang Lici's expression. "So I came here."
"You came... to see Feng Feng, or to see me?" Tang Lici asked softly, his question entirely unrelated to what A Shui had just said. His breath still carried a faint trace of alcohol, intoxicating under the lamplight.
She sighed lightly. "I... really wanted to see Feng Feng, but I also wanted to see you." She didn’t look at Tang Lici’s face, instead gazing at her own fingers, which appeared fair and delicate under the light, strikingly beautiful. "I heard that you..." She paused slightly. "Haven’t been doing well lately."
"I... have never been well," Tang Lici murmured gently. "From birth until now, never once. So what?"
Caught off guard by his words, she hesitated briefly. "You... are in a bad mood?"
Tang Lici’s eyes flickered, his gaze lifting slightly as his lashes rose, quietly observing her before he let out a soft, unrestrained laugh. "My mood has never been good. Didn’t you know?"
She met his eyes without responding. Under the gentle glow of the lamp, her serene demeanor waited for him to continue—or not. There was no trace of shock or fear in her expression, only a quiet intelligence shining in her eyes. Perhaps this calm, wise heart was the treasure that allowed this woman to tread through thorns unscathed.
But he didn’t continue. Instead, he slowly reached out, lightly touching her forehead, covering her eyes, and gently brushing downward... "If you keep looking at me like that, I’ll gouge out your eyes... Don’t open them."
She closed her eyes and remained silent.
Tang Lici’s warm fingers gradually withdrew from her cheek, like an inescapable net softly retracting. Though the net was gone, she still felt ensnared. At that moment, Tang Lici whispered tenderly, "My mood has never been good... When I was young, I wanted freedom but had none... Later, I abandoned my parents and gained absolute freedom, but that freedom nearly destroyed me. I wanted friends... but no one was willing, no one dared to befriend me... When I realized no one dared because my freedom terrified them—I found it laughable—so I discarded that absurd freedom and regained my parents and friends. But things lost and then regained... don’t you always feel they still don’t belong to you? Like a dream... I often doubt whether the regained affection is fake. But if the only things I possess are illusions, then what is real? I’ve never had much to begin with, and I don’t want to lose even a shred..." His voice dropped to an almost inaudible murmur. "I also believed I wouldn’t lose anything, but I already have. What should I do?"
She stayed silent for a long time. Just as her lips parted slightly, his warm hand covered them again. "Don’t speak," he said.What is lost is lost, never to be retrieved. Either you learn to endure, accept, and seek new replacements, mourning the lost for a lifetime; or you evade, deny, and convince yourself you never lost it; or—you go mad, and never have to think about loss again. What else... can be done? Her lips were covered by his hand, and she slowly opened her eyes to look into his.
His eyes were closed, something glistening between his lashes, trembling faintly.
Ah... when something is lost... you can still cry...
The room remained silent for a long while. After some time, Tang Lici slowly withdrew his hand. "I'm sorry, I'm a little..." He pressed his forehead with the back of his hand. "A little unsettled..."
She smiled faintly. "I didn't quite understand what Young Master Tang said earlier either. It's alright." She patted the back of his other hand. "Young Master Tang holds a crucial position, with great influence over the martial world. Eradicating the Dissolute Shop is an immensely difficult task, one that surely demands your utmost effort. You must understand the weight you carry—the lives and futures of countless humble women like A Shui rest upon your shoulders..." She sighed softly. "A Shui, too, has countless worries and troubles, but... at this moment, the priority must be destroying the Dissolute Shop's Ape-Demon Nine Heart Pill."
"Mmm..." Tang Lici closed his eyes briefly, then smiled and opened them again. "Can you tell me what troubles you?" His earlier turmoil had settled slightly, and his smile now carried a trace of steadiness.
"I..." she murmured. "I..." In the end, she didn't speak. Instead, she stood up and smiled. "I should go."
Tang Lici rose to see her out. With his keen perception, he had known from the embroidered bellyband she wore earlier... she was likely carrying Liu Yan's child. A young woman without martial skills, repeatedly abducted and violated, giving birth to two children with different fathers—one entrusted to another's care, the other's fate uncertain... while she herself remained trapped in a heretical sect, serving as a slave, under constant suspicion, her life hanging by a thread. Yet despite such suffering, she had not chosen death.
She walked out, disappearing into the distance. Shao Yanping had arranged everything meticulously—a swordsman escorted her to a bustling town nearby, where she entered a teahouse to drink tea and listen to opera before he departed. The Dissolute Shop would find her, assuming Liu Yan had abandoned her along the way and she had wandered here, lost.
Tang Lici leaned against the doorframe, pressing a hand to his chest.
She was a woman with innate charm, her elegance restrained, her beauty etched into her bones—no man could resist her.
Yet her most captivating trait was not her innate charm.
Just then, a sudden "hum" sounded from behind the door, and a blade pierced through the wood, aiming straight for Tang Lici's back.
With a "clang," something shot out from the shadows, striking the blade and deflecting its trajectory. The sword gleamed once before vanishing into the darkness.
"Fine blade," someone remarked coolly from beyond the corridor. "A pity."
Tang Lici remained leaning against the door, his expression unchanged. "A pity it's not as good as yours."Outside the long corridor, someone gracefully leaped over the railing. "If he hadn't been afraid of revealing his identity and struck ten or eight more times, perhaps one or two of those strikes might have slipped past my guard." This unremarkable-looking man was none other than Shen Langhun, who had abruptly left before the banquet and now appeared here as if he had been lurking in the shadows for quite some time.
Tang Lici's lips curled slightly in a faint, ambiguous smile. "If he were truly determined to kill me, failing this time wouldn't stop him—there'd always be a next time, and another after that... cough ... he'd find his chance eventually." He coughed twice and slowly stepped away from the doorframe. "Haha, since you saved my life, I'll treat you to a drink."
A faint smile also surfaced on Shen Langhun's face. "Is saving your life really that easy? If I hadn't intervened just now, would you have killed him?" Tang Lici raised an eyebrow, his laughter carrying a wild edge. "Hahaha... a cripple who's lost all his martial skills and Inner Energy—do you really think he could still kill anyone?" Shen Langhun didn't laugh, replying calmly, "Yet I suspect that when you're stripped of your martial prowess, you might be even more ruthless than when your Inner Energy was intact." With a turn of his body, Tang Lici smiled faintly, his sleeves swaying behind him. "Haha, hahaha... let's drink over here."
Chi Yun called this man the "White-Furred Fox." Watching his retreating figure, Shen Langhun noted how one person could embody both an eerie aura and wild arrogance, elegance and cruelty. The corner of his lips twitched—indeed, he was a white-furred fox. Tang Lici led the way, passing through several doorways before entering a room. Shen Langhun paused in surprise—wasn't this place, with its chimney, water vat, and adjacent firewood shed, none other than the kitchen? Tang Lici stepped inside. The kitchen had just been cleaned, night had fallen, and the servants had all retired, leaving it silent and empty. He walked straight to the chopping board, picked up a still-damp kitchen knife, and ran his pale fingers along its spine before suddenly smiling. "What would you like to eat?"
"Bitter melon stir-fried with eggs," Shen Langhun replied flatly.
With a thunk , Tang Lici yanked the knife free and slammed it into the chopping board. "Bitter melon with eggs, red peppers stir-fried with green peppers."
By the time an incense stick had burned, two dishes were laid out on the kitchen table of the Hall of Sharp Virtue: one of bitter melon with eggs, the other of red and green peppers, both vibrant in color and steaming hot. Shen Langhun eyed the two large bowls on the table. "I never knew you drank from bowls."
"Whether it's a bowl or a tiny cup, isn't it all just drinking?" Tang Lici took a sip, his gaze flickering. "Just like whether you sip or gulp, isn't this wine stolen all the same?" Shen Langhun burst into laughter. "So this is the wine you're treating me to?" Tipping his head back, Tang Lici downed the bowl in one go and said mildly, "The wine was stolen by me, not you."
Shen Langhun picked up a piece of bitter melon and chewed thoughtfully, his expression shifting to surprise. "Good eggs, good bitter melon." Tang Lici picked up a sliver of pepper and inhaled its pungent aroma— cough ... Shen Langhun looked puzzled. "You can't handle spice?" Tang Lici nodded, chuckling softly. "I can drink, but I can't eat spicy." Shen Langhun asked, "Then why did you stir-fry peppers?" Tang Lici smiled faintly. "Because I felt like it." Shen Langhun took a bite of the peppers. "The flavor is exceptional—fine craftsmanship!" Setting down his chopsticks, he took a sip of wine and abruptly changed the subject. "That man switched swords—how did you recognize his identity?""He's surnamed Yu," Tang Lici said. "A skilled swordsman I've never seen before, holding a high position in the Sword Association. He deliberately carried a famous sword with him..." He smiled faintly. "Though I don't know if Yu Qifeng had a son, I'm not foolish enough to think no one would come seeking revenge after his death." Shen Langhun chewed loudly on spicy food. "You're saying he carried Azure Jade to prove he wasn't the one who tried to assassinate you?" Tang Lici smiled. "That's at least one reason for him to carry Azure Jade. But Yu Furen has clear principles and uncommon insight—neither a blind follower nor an ordinary man. I quite admire him." Shen Langhun downed a bowl of wine. "Striking once and retreating immediately shows both his determination and confidence in killing you." Tang Lici lightly tapped his wine cup with chopsticks. "A good assassin." Shen Langhun gave a faint smile. "Drink!" Tang Lici raised his bowl in response. "Drink."
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