Chapter 128#
Early morning.
When the first ray of sunlight spilled from the sky, Xie Zhefeng had already risen.
But as his divine sense swept out, he found that An Wuxue was gone, and those few “furnaces” placed in another guest room were also missing.
This time, Xie Zhefeng wasn’t particularly panicked.
Last night, Senior Brother had said he would return the “gifts” to the Xue Clan; he should have gone already.
He just hadn’t expected him to go so early.
The day is so long, why didn’t Senior Brother rest a bit more?
He walked out of the room and stepped into the small courtyard.
The accumulated snow in the courtyard had been swept clean by spiritual power. On the plum trees, there were only drifting blossoms and light plums, along with the lanterns hanging from the treetops and under the long railings.
Kunkun was lying on the swing under the tree, eyes closed, swaying gently. Its long tail hung down, the tip sweeping the ground like a brush.
Even with this sweeping motion, its tail fur remained snowy white, showing the care of the person who swept the snow.
As he walked forward, Kunkun heard his footsteps and opened its eyes: “Wu!”
Xie Zhefeng stepped forward and picked it up: “Did Senior Brother sweep it?”
Kunkun nodded.
Xie Zhefeng turned around and looked up once more.
The snow had been piled up for so long that even the people passing through had grown used to it and paid it no mind.
Suddenly being swept clean felt somewhat unfamiliar.
Holding the small beast in his arms, he murmured: “Senior Brother hasn’t… swept the snow in a long time.”
The Qu Clan.
A boy led An Wuxue inside. An Wuxue left the few furnaces outside to wait for a moment.
He walked to a courtyard with winding streams and heard voices from not far away.
“You, surnamed Qu, are you doing this on purpose?”
“What am I doing on purpose?”
“The City Lord’s Mansion wanted the Qu Clan’s register for a headcount. You said the register needs the City Lord’s official seal. I sent someone to deliver the seal, but then you picked apart the seal, insisting it wasn’t real. Now I’ve come personally to fetch it, so there can’t be any fake, right? And now you say the register isn’t ready!”
“It’ll be ready soon,” Qu Jizhi said calmly. “I’m just asking you to wait a moment.”
“…Then what are you having me stay here and drink with you for!!!”
An Wuxue: “…”
As he approached, both people in the pavilion quieted down and turned to look.
It was a pavilion in the middle of a lake.
Outside the pavilion was lake water that had not frozen. Many immortal trees stood around the lake, bringing vibrant vitality and dispelling the winter’s chill, as if locking a spring day that shouldn’t appear at this time within the lake.
Qu Jizhi and Pei Qian were sitting on either side of a stone table in the lake pavilion, which seemed to have delicacies and immortal brew.
Qu Jizhi bowed to him from afar: “The Head Disciple has arrived.”
An Wuxue rose into the air, his feet not touching the ripples, and landed in the lake pavilion.
It wasn’t until he sat down on the empty stone chair that Pei Qian realized: “Qu Jizhi! You knew Suxue and I would come, so you set up this banquet.”
An Wuxue said with a smile: “I sent a transmission to Clan Head Qu last night, saying I would visit the Qu Clan at dawn today, wanting to see you and Clan Head Qu.”
Pei Qian was stunned: “You said you wanted to see me too? Then…”
“Good for you, Qu Jizhi!”
Pei Qian rolled up his sleeves.
“And you say you didn’t do it on purpose? You deliberately tricked me into coming!”
“Mm.” Qu Jizhi nodded with a smile.
“Why didn’t you just tell me Suxue wanted to see us both at the same time? You just wanted to see my reaction after being tricked, right?”
“Mm.”
Pei Qian: “…”
He sat down huffily. “I only stayed for Suxue’s sake.”
“Mm.”
“This City Lord commands you, no more ‘mm’!”
“Okay.”
An Wuxue: “…………”
Pei Qian finally reacted.
“Wait,” he muttered, “Suxue wanted to see me, why send a transmission to Qu Jizhi?”
He looked at An Wuxue: “Aren’t we closer at the City Lord’s Mansion? You could have sent me a message and had me bring Qu Jizhi to the Mansion, wouldn’t that work?”
An Wuxue raised an eyebrow: “Who was it yesterday who sent several furnaces to my door?”
Pei Qian’s arrogance immediately wilted, and he said guiltily: “You said to leave them…”
“When the Xue Clan sent furnaces, they should have been told to scram.”
An Wuxue took a sip of tea and said: “When immortal sects send gifts, if it’s just ordinary spiritual treasures, whether they are kept or not doesn’t matter much. But the nature of sending furnaces is entirely different.”
He had been the Head Disciple of the immortal sects at a young age and knew the tricks and thoughts of these clans and sects all too well.
“Gifts, unless they are world-shaking spiritual treasures of heaven and earth, no one cares. But giving people—keeping them represents my willingness to establish a long-term relationship with the Xue Clan, and these furnaces are the bond of that relationship. The City Lord’s Mansion also put in effort, which means City Lord Pei is also involved. In the future, if the Xue Clan gets into trouble, in the eyes of others, the City Lord’s Mansion and I, the Luoyue Head Disciple, might act for the Xue Clan.
“Furthermore, the biggest difference between living people and dead objects is that living people can eavesdrop on information, or even betray you.”
Pei Qian said sheepishly: “Qu Wenxin didn’t teach me these things before, it was my oversight…”
“It’s fine, I’m just mentioning it to you.”
Qu Jizhi poured each of them a cup of hot tea and said leisurely: “There are many ways to handle certain things and respond to certain situations. You were a rogue cultivator before and could do as you pleased without thinking of the twists and turns, but now you are a City Lord, so you should look three steps ahead. The Head Disciple let me pit you a bit, letting me trick you once to give you a little surprise.”
An Wuxue knew Pei Qian would be annoyed by Qu Jizhi, so he had Qu Jizhi arrange the meeting, letting Pei Qian experience “all’s fair in war” for himself.
“Is it really okay to just say it out loud like that?” Pei Qian was dumbfounded. “And how is this a little surprise!”
An Wuxue said to Qu Jizhi: “I walked all the way in and saw that the Qu Clan has already reorganized in these two days. Despite losing so many experts who went astray, the family shows no signs of decline. The young immortal master is indeed impressive.”
Qu Jizhi smiled: “Since those people would harm Beiming for their own selfish interests, they were never truly pillar-like figures. Whether they are gone or not doesn’t make much difference.”
When not teasing Pei Qian, Qu Jizhi sat aside in his black robes with a smile, holding the teapot. At first glance, anyone would say he was an elegant and refined young gentleman.
“Last night, the Head Disciple said he wanted to get something from me. I wonder what it is?”
“It’s not really a ’thing.’ Although I stayed in Beiming for a long time in the past, after a thousand years of changes, the world’s landscape is no longer the same. Clan Head Qu has been in the First City all these years; I want to ask about the locations of various clans and their respective experts.”
An Wuxue listed the clans he wanted to know about one by one.
Qu Jizhi listened carefully and exchanged a look with Pei Qian.
After Qu Jizhi told An Wuxue everything about the locations and experts of these clans, Pei Qian asked hesitantly: “These immortal sects… they all seem related to your ambush at Jingji Plain back then?”
“Not related,” An Wuxue said decisively, “but participants.”
“Did the Head Disciple come so early today because he wants to visit the Xue Clan to return the furnaces, and then go through these immortal sects one by one?”
“Yes.”
Qu Jizhi looked surprised.
An Wuxue said helplessly: “What? Is it surprising?”
“Shouldn’t it be?” Qu Jizhi asked back. “Yesterday, the Chuhan sword light fell upon the Qi Clan’s gates to make an example of them. On the surface, it seemed only to be for the rampant puppet technique, but those who know the inside story understand that the Immortal Venerable didn’t choose anyone else but the Qi Clan because they once participated in the ten-thousand-sect ambush.
“I’m not surprised that the Immortal Venerable acted. But I thought that was all.
“After all, the Suxue I know doesn’t seem to be someone who dwells on past grievances, perhaps even more indifferent to grudges than I thought. Before meeting the Head Disciple, I thought the Path of Ruthlessness looks upon all living beings, and the Path of Floating Life enters the mortal world. But after meeting the Head Disciple and the Immortal Venerable… I realized the Path of Floating Life can also look upon all living beings with many emotions without being disturbed, and the Path of Ruthlessness can also enter the mortal world with emotions without being chaotic.”
“…You flatter me.”
Pei Qian rarely agreed with Qu Jizhi: “I thought so too. I thought that when you returned their compensatory gifts last time, it was settled.”
A gentle breeze blew, lightly moving the ripples.
The young man’s hair swayed, his eyes as gentle as lake water, but his voice was resonant and powerful.
“I did indeed plan that before. But after a thousand years of life and death, and having traveled through Zhaoshui, Langfeng, and Beiming, in these past two days, I’ve learned many things from the past… I suddenly feel that I should change my way of living. A thousand years ago, I was the head disciple of Luoyue, the Head Disciple of the immortal sects. During the immortal disaster, every word and action could affect the safety of lives. But now it’s different; I don’t have to care about the rumors of the two worlds, nor do I need to worry about the storms of the four seas.”
He raised his eyes and took a long look at the rising sun in the distance.
“The winter snow in Beiming is too heavy, so heavy that the cleanest ground in the middle of the long streets cannot be seen.”
“When I was in Beiming a thousand years ago, every year I saw the heavy snow, I would leap into the air, thinking that if I put in a bit more effort, I wouldn’t ruin the tranquil white snow on the ground. But now I feel that if the white snow blocks the path, then it is better for me to sweep it all away.”
An Wuxue stood up.
“Thank you, Clan Head Qu, for informing me. I still have snow I want to sweep, so I won’t stay longer.”
An Wuxue first took those few furnaces to the Xue Clan.
He presented a visiting card under the name “An Wuxue,” and the head of the Xue Clan hurried to welcome him.
But An Wuxue’s first words were to return the furnaces.
The Xue Clan head’s expression immediately became awkward.
Other members of the Xue Clan were watching from the side. Yesterday they were still praising the clan head for his competence, having actually connected with the Head Disciple who had returned from the dead after a thousand years, but they hadn’t expected An Wuxue to personally come to return them today.
The Xue Clan head was a Tribulation Stage cultivator from the past thousand years, still quite young.
Being young meant he didn’t know how An Wuxue had truly acted a thousand years ago.
The other party still wanted to negotiate with him: “Head Disciple An, why not come in and sit for a while…”
“No need,” An Wuxue said with a cold face. “I have already clearly asked what intentions were hidden in sending people.”
The Xue Clan head immediately looked at those few shivering furnaces.
But An Wuxue said: “They are but duckweed and can decide nothing. If you vent your anger on others, it truly loses the style of a great clan.”
The Xue Clan head’s face darkened: “The Head Disciple has just returned; there must be many matters in Luoyue that haven’t been taken over yet, right? Returning the furnaces is fine, but why do you still want to manage how we handle our own people?”
An Wuxue gave a light laugh.
Suddenly—
He pressed his two fingers together to manipulate spiritual energy. Without even taking out Chunhua, he actually drew the Xue Clan head’s own sword!
The spiritual sword hummed and shot through the air!
The sword intent swirled through the surrounding flowers and grass, and while everyone was still in shock, it fiercely grazed the Xue Clan head’s cheek.
Others immediately recognized it—this was clearly their Xue Clan’s sword technique!!!
The Xue Clan head was only at the early stage of Tribulation, and he had no power to fight back before An Wuxue, who had already recovered to his peak cultivation. By the time he regained his senses, a bloody streak had been left on his cheek.
The young man’s voice was gentle, but his tone was even sharper than the sword intent just now: “I have indeed just returned, giving you juniors who don’t understand me a heart of contempt. You should find someone to ask about my style of action back then, and then ask the sword in your hand—even if comparing with your Xue Clan’s sword technique, could you possibly fight a battle with me…”
The figure in plain clothes disappeared before the Xue Clan’s gates, and the last words left behind drifted over.
“If you cannot, please do not go looking for trouble.”
The Xue Clan head staggered back a few steps.
After a moment, someone asked cautiously: “Did… did he leave?”
“Hurry and take these furnaces away!”
“Was that our clan’s sword technique An Wuxue used just now? How does he know our clan’s sword technique?”
“I seem to have heard that the previous clan head discussed swordsmanship with An Wuxue during the immortal disaster.”
“The rumors of having an immortal body and jade bones, sensing the Heavenly Dao, and mastering all sorts of techniques and swordsmanship at a glance… are actually true…”
“…”
The Xue Clan was filled with trepidation, still planning to hide the matter of today’s setback. But unexpectedly, by dusk, all the immortal sects in Beiming had been visited and challenged by An Wuxue.
Aside from the Xue Clan, the rest were all clans that had old grudges with An Wuxue!
Head Disciple An actually had grievances to settle and debts to collect, going alone and visiting them one by one.
If the person who participated in the Jingji Plain ambush back then had already perished, An Wuxue would point out that person’s descendant. If they were still in the world, An Wuxue would call that person out.
Back then, An Wuxue had fought with all his might to escape the ambush, covered in wounds. These wounds all came from various sects, and every single wound had an origin.
He returned every blow to whoever had dealt it, defeating them with the very techniques they practiced, leaving identical wounds on their bodies.
Before leaving, this Head Disciple who had returned from the dead only said: “My actions today do not mean our grudges are settled. Perhaps one day if I’m in a bad mood, or if you all commit evil, I might ‘visit’ your doors again just like today and leave sword marks in the same places.”
“Oh, right.”
His eyes curved slightly, and he said with a smile: “Those of you in the two worlds and four seas who have schemes in your hearts—if you have the leisure to speculate on the relationship between me and the puppet technique resurrection method, you might as well practice your swordsmanship. If you can’t even win against me with your own clan’s sword techniques, then stop dreaming about returning souls from the underworld.”
Beiming was in an uproar!!
Dusk had arrived.
The sun was sinking in the west, and the bright moon and the setting sun shone together.
In the flowing golden light, An Wuxue silently returned to that secluded plum forest in the City Lord’s Mansion.
Someone was waiting for him in the courtyard.
The Junior Brother turned his head in the bright light of the setting sun, his eyes lighting up: “Senior Brother is back? You’ve been out all day; did you go to do something?”
An Wuxue’s footsteps paused.
“I went to sweep the snow,” he said. “To sweep a great snow that has fallen for a thousand years.”