Chapter 95
Within Anyang County borders.
It was late autumn currently, and the tea shed next to the official road was having a particularly good business.
The weather was already cold, and for the pedestrians on their journey, it was getting difficult to endure the bone chilling cold wind. They enter the tea shed and drink a cup of hot tea to drive away the chill that penetrated deep into their bone marrows. The son of the tea shed’s owner was a well-known speaker within Ten Li and Eight Towns. Some time ago, he studied the art from the most famous storytelling instructor in the county. At this moment, within the tea shed, he was practicing the skills he had learned one by one.
"It is said that, the Duan family’s hidden sword pavilion held the number one amongst the top four pavilions in those days. If it weren"t for the pile of tragedies, it’s beauty wouldn’t be any less than Lin family’s Jing city.
Contrary to what one might expect, this secretive, thin young man had learnt the skill of keeping people in suspense really well, but when everyone was waiting to hear the tragedy, he changed his mind.
"Speaking of the Duan family, one couldn’t help but mention that Duan Family’s scion, Feiqing. Barely sixteen years old, and he had already ranked first among the top four young masters in the martial artists circle. This lowly one’s father once had the great fortune to meet the Duan Family’s young master. Although since it was from a distance, and young master Feiqing’s face wasn’t visible clearly, but his whole body exuded gracefulness, as if moonlight brightly shining upon a blanket of snow. It wasn’t something ordinary people like us could imagine..."
"Enough darn it, how could there be such a person in this world. This kind of demeanor, apart from those heavenly immortals..." The complaining guest, before he finished speaking, swallowed back his words. Because, he saw the two people walk into the tea shed.
Not only the complaining guest, but the entire tea shed suddenly became quiet, and the secretive thin boy also stopped his story, staring dumbstruck at the two who walked in.
There was no empty table in the tea shed, the white clothed young man with bright moonlight-like apparance looked around, and then softly whispered something to their companion draped in cloak. The appearance of the young lady was not clear, but the gentle expression made the young girls in the tea shed itching to exchange places with her.
After that, the white-clothed young man walked over to the customer who was just complaining: "This friend, would it be possible to help us out?"
The white-clothed young man had flawless etiquette and graceful bearing. Even if the guests on the other side of the table normally would have used harsh words, this time, they couldn’t help but rise up and leave saying: “Please make yourself at home”.
After smiling and expressing his grat.i.tude, the white-clothed young man looked behind him and called out to his cloak-draped companion at the door: "Dearest Heng, come here."
After the cloak-draped young lady sat down, she raised her hand and lifted the hood on her head. The people in the tea shed were shocked again. They had been making guesses for a while now, but n.o.body expected that underneath this cloak was such a surprising appearance. This young lady and the white-clothed young man were completely incompatible. It"s not that this woman was without salt*. On the contrary, out of everyone who were present, none of them had ever seen anyone who looked better than this woman.
[T/N: Reference to Zhong Lichun who was a talented but unattractive person - 鍾離]
It"s just that this was a Miao girl. She had beautiful eyes and eyebrows, but her eyebrows were too sharp. She had fair skin, but she looked very fearsome because of the thick shadows that outlined the corners of her eyes and her dark red lips. What was even more daunting was that the silver jewelry on the black hair of this Miao girl was actually a life-like scorpion, and the raised tail hook seemed like it would come piercing down at any moment.
However, what puzzled them was that the white-clothed young man was surprisingly very considerate to the mysterious Miao-girl in every way. When the Miao-girl sat down, apart from opening her mouth to drink tea, the white-clothed young man did the rest of the work.
When finally the two of them finished drinking hot tea, went out, mounted their horses, and disappeared at the end of the official road, the atmosphere in the tea shed became active again.
"Young master Feiqing, if he was at this age, his style should not be inferior to this young man in white." The secretive thin boy had always admired the Duan family’s scion Feiqing.
"Hey, kid, do you think that person is Duan family’s Young Master Feiqing?"
"Impossible, how can an upright gentleman from a martial arts family like him, marry a Miao girl as his wife..."
The two people at the center of this topic were naturally Duan Feiqing and Lu Heng. Traveling all the way to the interior of the Central Plains, Lu Heng, who was born in the hot and humid Miao territory, became more and more unable to bear the coldness. His internal strength was extremely poor and could not be used to keep out the cold. So, as early as a few days ago, the two began to ride together. Duan Feiqing held Lu Heng in his arms all the way and provided him with a steady stream of heat. Lu Heng barely held on.
It"s just that Duan Feiqing felt distressed to see his face turning pale being exposed to the cold wind. Duan Feiqing always stopped to order a pot of hot tea for Lu Heng whenever he encountered a tea shed. Only after his face regained a bit of color, he could rest a.s.sured on the road. This was the reason for the encounter just now.
A short while after departing from the tea shed, he entered the boundary of Duan Family’s hidden sword pavilion that was just spoken about. Although the hidden sword pavilion was cruelly burnt down, Duan Feiqing was still very much alive, and was currently a famous senior disciple of the Taichu Sect. After the head of the Taichu sect met with accident, there was tacit approval amongst the people in the martial arts circle that Duan Feiqing would definitely hold the position of the next sect head. Therefore no one dared covet this pavilion.
Duan Feiqing led Lu Heng directly to the rear mountain where the Duan family were buried. On the scenic rear mountain, there were rows of graves, which were clean and well-maintained, and fresh tributes were placed in front of each gravestone.
"Does anyone come here to offer prayers?" Lu Heng asked.
"A few years ago, when I came back, even though I wasn’t brave enough to dare approach, I couldn"t bear to leave my family’s resting place in shambles. So I gave money to a tenant in the town to clear the weeds and burn some paper money. Just a small display of filial piety..."
Duan Feiqing"s mood was still calm at the moment. Because when Lu Heng entered his vicinity, he held his hand tightly.
In the utmost central place, was the resting place of Duan Feiqing"s grandfather, next to his parents’ burial tomb. Duan Feiqing let go of Lu Heng"s hand, walked over and knelt before the tomb.
"Grandfather, father, mother, this is my...dear Heng." Duan Feiqing was unsure of his own state of mind, and swallowed the word “sworn brother” as he was about to say it, leaving only one vaguely inaudible word .
After three kotows and nine bows, Duan Feiqing prostrated on the ground, his forehead touched the back of his hand, and did not get up for a long time.
Lu Heng was a little worried. He was just about to step forward, when he saw Duan Feiqing straightening up and looking back. There was sadness and nostalgia in his eyes, but on the whole, it seemed normal. Lu Heng"s heart that hung in the air was then at ease.
"Dearest Heng, come and see grandfather and parents." Duan Feiqing explained, "Just now, I have introduced you to my grandfather and parents, and I explained about out encounter and persuaded them."
By the time they finished paying respects to Duan family, the sky grew dark. Duan Feiqing right away suggested leaving for the rear mountain’s living area for this one night. Either way, even if they went to the remains of the front mountain of the pavilion, they wouldn’t be able to find anything in the darkness.
The rear mountain was a place the Duan family usually maintained well, so they built a small courtyard in the middle of it to relax. The main courtyard of the front mountain pavilion was burnt down, but this other courtyard should be well preserved.
Walking along the twisting path to the depths of the rear mountain, both of them caught sight of the other courtyard.
"Dearest Heng, stay a few steps behind. No one has been in this courtyard for a long time. There is an awful amount of dust inside, don’t let your clothes get dirty." Seeing Lu Heng taking a couple steps backwards, Duan Feiqing with a single push, shoved open the courtyard gate.
A gliny of cold light pierced through the air. Duan Feiqing rolled up his robe, and moved his palm in counterattack, but at the last moment, retreated violently instead and protected Lu Heng with his body.
"d.a.m.n it!"
Lu Heng originally thought it was those people in black once again perhaps still lingering. The gu worms on their bodies may have recovered, but what came from inside the door was a woman"s cry of pain.
Falling in the gate of that other courtyard was a girl dressed as a maidservant. The girl was mercilessly swept to the ground by Duan Feiqing"s palm, clutching her chest and couldn"t get up for a while.
The origin of the girl was unknown, and Lu Heng did not step forward, but secretly on guard.
At this moment, they heard another tender scolding voice from the courtyard: "Where did this small thief come from, trespa.s.sing here and hurting my maidservant, what a guts!"
Following this tender shouting voice, white silk burst broke through the empty air. The originally soft white brocade, upon being infused with internal force, became solid and nearly unbreakable. Should an ordinary sharp weapon encounter this white silk, it would likely be entangled so tightly that it would not be able to break through.
It"s a pity that this white silk’s master met Duan Feiqing. From the Shadow Sword was held in his jade-like left hand, a cold light flashed along with the creaking sound of silk being torn, and the long white silk was split in half from the middle. The real face of the a.s.sailant hiding behind was exposed. She was dressed in white and her face was covered with white gauze which made her appearance indiscernible. The white-clothed girl"s weapon was damaged, but she didn"t stop in the slightest, and a short sword appeared in her hand, moving to pierce between Duan Feiqing"s eyebrows.
That day, Duan Feiqing was wearing silk gloves on his right hand. When the weapon came flying towards his eyebrows, he used his hand to forcibly stop the sword in mid air, and then wrested it away from the white clothed lady wielding it. The momentum of her weapon being forcibly jolted away from her flung her away, causing her to lose balance and fall.
Duan Feiqing felt different as soon as he touched this short sword. He looked down and found that the appearance of this short sword was exactly the same as the Shadow Sword.
The twin swords of light and shadow were tailor-made by Duan Feiqing"s family when he was young. This light sword was commissioned by his grandfather to make it, while the shadow sword was given by his mother. At that time, Feiqing"s mother said that this Shadow Sword was the weapon she had been using, and that it was no longer needed, so she gave it to Duan Feiqing.
The material of the Shadow Sword was very special. Duan Feiqing has never seen a second weapon with the same material as the Shadow Sword. Now the short sword in his hand, although the casting method was completely inferior to the shadow sword, the material is exactly the same.
The girl in white also saw the shadow sword in Duan Feiqing"s hand, and asked with joy: "Are you Duan Feiqing?"
Duan Feiqing glanced at the short sword in his hand and nodded.
"Older cousin!"
【Congratulations, No. 666, the key figure No. 2 has appeared. 】 The little a.s.sistant"s tone was clearly br.i.m.m.i.n.g with joy.
【Number two? 】 Lu Heng didn"t react for a while.
【It is the second among the seven beautiful flowery wives, Duan Feiqing"s cousin and fiancee!】
【……】
Stallion like eldest senior brother, seven beautiful flowery wives- when Lu Heng had seen the information, he felt sick in his heart. Only after confirming that Duan Feiqing was actually Shi Kong*, he had completely forgotten the matter.
Right now, it was the stage of the seven beautiful flowery wives. Lu Heng"s face turned black with anger.
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Sorry for the late release. A loooot of stuff happened but I am back (for now).
This is the first chapter that I tried to translate without solely depending on MTL. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know in the comments.