Chapter 350: Victory Is Clear
The night was like ink, pitch black and sticky.
The starlight wine was like a tangerine that had fallen into the inky veil of the night.
Si Jin smelled Li Ruoxuan’s aura and chased it quickly, as quickly as the flash of a shadow. However, the rank nine powerhouse was not weak and could sense that his opponent had exerted all his power to escape.
Si Jin chased him leisurely, not utilizing his power beyond rank nine!
He chased him all the way to the village a few miles away.
Suddenly, he sensed the silhouette slowing down, even coming to a halt. Standing under the star-filled sky, he turned around and calmly waited for him.
He also slowly pulled down his face towel, revealing his gentle and clean face.
Si Jin also stopped, then tilted his head to look at him. “You are the State Preceptor.”
“Exactly.”
Li Ruoxuan smiled faintly as he looked at the beautiful and pure-looking youth under the night sky.
“Why did you lure me here?”
“You’re a grand master.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“I really am not.”
“…”
The youth did not intend to acknowledge the accusation.
“If you aren’t, I’m afraid you’ll have to leave your will here today.” Li Ruoxuan laughed as he spoke, the corners of his lips hooking up into a cold smile.
His smile was like a blade.
Then, Li Ruoxuan immediately stepped on an array and activated the makes.h.i.+ft four guardians, seven-kill formation!
While this array had only been created temporarily, it had a lot of explosive power due to a slight alteration.
It was a one-time thing.
It would no longer be usable the moment it broke…
Si Jin felt the surrounding air turn unusual after that second. He had of course managed to see the array being executed by using his cultivation.
He had come to know all sorts of things about the world of humans ever since leaving the water, but he had never seen this array before.
That was why he was shocked.
He even tilted his head curiously as he stared at the array trapping him.
Immediately, the second after that, something inconceivable happened.
Large-scale explosions were continuously set off by the array!
Si Jin was shocked for a moment before he hurriedly thought about how to escape. The array, however, had trapped him quite securely. He could not escape and could only helplessly endure the explosion attack.
After the power of the explosion’s aftermath had weakened, the power of the array also disappeared.
Si Jin’s clothes had been torn apart by the explosion. He flashed past and left the place, but he had not been expecting a second wave of explosions to start again.
He could only forcefully use one of his hands to create an energy defense barrier to block the attack again.
He then escaped.
Only to fall into another trap again.
Si Jin used his barrier for the third time.
He did not move again when the current round of defense ended. With one of his knees digging in the ground, he panted as he looked at the two silhouettes nearby that were flickering between clarity and obscurity under the night sky.
Si Jin’s eyes, which did not usually contain much emotion, were instantly filled with murderous intent. His brows twitched, the coldness he radiated seemingly seeping into bone.
The left corner of his lips fainted curved upwards, which made him look a little horrifying.
Feeling satisfied, Li Ruoxuan looked at the youth among the smoke and dust. His clothes had long been ruined by the aftermath of the explosions. He had injuries all over his body too, and it seemed he had gotten hurt from the explosions.
He had executed a threefold four guardians, seven-kill formation to be prudent. The effect it had had was pretty good.
Si Jin’s voice was ice-cold. “You! Are you trying to kill me?”
“If I am able to,” Li Ruoxuan replied.
Si Jin sneered. ‘I shall give you one more opportunity today, then.’
Then, with his bare foot, he lightly poked the ground. Confirming that the circle was useless, he ran toward Li Ruoxuan swiftly like wind, like an arrow that had just been released from its bow.
The youth’s hand looked like the soft and delicate clouds in the starry sky.
Just as he was quickly nearing Li Ruoxuan’s front, another figure suddenly s.h.i.+elded Li Ruoxuan. Si Jin struck it with his left palm, and the person was pushed back some ten zhangs. (T/N: A traditional unit of measurement equivalent to 3.33 meters.)
They reapproached quickly.
Si Jin felt like this figure’s aura was also very familiar, so he did not plan on holding back anymore. After three strikes, tiny drops of blood on Jiang Yeqian’s forehead gradually dripped onto his face, forming a tiny stream.
Li Ruoxuan took a break and regained his energy.
He stood together with Jiang Yeqian.
Si Jin looked at the two of them. Li Ruoxuan took off his face towel. The other person had a black cloth covering his face, but because his aura was so familiar, Si Jin barely needed to sense it to know who it was.
This was very interesting.
Jiang Yeqian had teamed up with Li Ruoxuan in an attempt to kill him late at night!
For what purpose, Si Jin was too lazy to guess.
Although he had resorted to using the defense barrier three times in a row, leaving him a serious decline in his stamina, it would be more than enough to deal with these two people…
…
…
After Qi Qingyao woke up early the next morning, she continued working on funeral matters with Qi Boli and the others from the Sun family. She had been busy for a while when she realized that someone was missing. She asked Qi Yuanxiu, “Where’s Si Jin?”
Qi Yuanxiu answered quietly, “That kid disappeared in the middle of the night.” That young boy was so beautiful. Maybe he disliked that the village was too poor and did not want to stay here, so he ran away in the middle of the night?
Qi Qingyao asked, “How did you know that?”
Qi Yuanxiu sighed and said, “I got off the bedstove in the middle of the night to go to the toilet, and I realized he was gone. I thought he might not have wanted to sleep with us on the soil beds of the village…”
Qi Qingyao pondered for a moment and said, “Si Jin likes to enjoy the moonlight in the middle of the night and drift off into a daze, but he would definitely return to my side in the morning.”
Qi Yuanye was listening keenly to the conversation between the two people by her side, and she could not help but interject and ask, “Sis, do you think something’s happened?”
Qi Qingyao let out a violent shudder, “Let’s split up look for him…”
She had said they should look for him, but that merely consisted of just asking the neighbors on both sides whether they had seen a very beautiful and pure-looking young boy recently. The neighbors said they had not seen him.
When Qi Qingyao was starting to grow a little worried, someone in the village shouted, “Something seems to have happened on the road connecting the village to the town last night.”
“What does that mean?”
“A big explosion happened over there! It left the road a mess. It also seems like… there are traces of a fight.”
When Qi Qingyao heard this, she said with a grim expression, “I’ll go have a look.”
Qi Yuanxiu and Qi Yuanye followed behind her, and the group ran out of the village.
After running a few kilometers away from the village, the village head of Xingli Village and a few elders in the village examined the road.
“There are bloodstains over here.”
Qi Qingyao got close enough to take a look. Not only were there bloodstains in one area, but there were also several places with large pools of blood…
The bloodstains made Qi Qingyao’s brows screw up tightly.
She muttered, “Don’t tell me Si Jin fought with someone here last night.”
Qi Yuanye circled around the area twice and said seriously, “There’s been an explosion, but no corpses…”
Qi Qingyao’s expression was unsightly, but she said determinedly, “Then he surely didn’t die.”
Qi Yuanxiu pointed to several destroyed trees nearby and a ruined harvest.
There were more blood stains under the trees.
Qi Yuanxiu yelled, “There’s a lot of bloodstains here! Come and see.”
Qi Qingyao stood and observed for a while. She was sure that a rather serious fight must have happened here last night. The potholes and scorch marks on the ground were remnants of an explosion.
The destroyed trees had extremely sharp incisions. It was almost certain that they had been felled by the explosion’s aftershocks… that had sliced into the trees while the powerhouses were clas.h.i.+ng against one another.
Qi Yuanxiu’s expression had changed. “Sis, what should we do now?”
“Continue handling Qingzhu’s funeral,” Qi Qingyao lowered her face and said.
She was very worried about Si Jin, but she could not make Qi Yuanxiu and the others worry anymore! She had to handle things one at a time.
…
…
Lu Yan looked at the ledger for a while and gave a few orders. He suddenly felt very restless, so he got up and demanded, “Dong Jing, make a trip to Qi Qingzhu’s village.”
“Master?” Dong Jing was puzzled.
Lu Yan’s eyebrows sank. He said, “I have a feeling that something happened.”
Dong Jing nodded slightly and said that he understood.
Just before he left, Lu Yan gave him some more orders.
Dong Jing nodded, then took more people along with him and quickly headed to Xingli Village.
After arriving at Xingli Village, Dong Jing found Sun Shuli’s house and found that Qi Qingyao and the others were handling the funeral together. Dong Jing found her. “Young mistress?”
“Dong Jing.” Why was he here?
Seeing an acquaintance show up, Qi Qingyao’s spirit relaxed slightly.
Dong Jing patrolled around and asked, “Why don’t I see Si Jin around?”
“He…” Qi Qingyao did not know what to say, so she said she did not know.
Dong Jing’s features twitched.
Could it be that the Master had guessed right? Had something really happened?
Dong Jing did not ask any more questions and went directly to look around the village to investigate. He even went to that road outside of the village to examine the scene of the explosion in person.
After he completed the investigation, he came back.
Dong Jing said to Qi Qingyao, “Master asked me to come over to help you deal with these matters.”
Qi Qingyao thanked Dong Jing.
Dong Jing asked in a low voice, “Should we send some people to look for Si Jin?”
“…” Qi Qingyao pondered it for a while and finally nodded solemnly.
Dong Jing did not dare to delay nor did he wait to report back to Lu Yan. He hurriedly sent people to look for Si Jin.
The old lady, Madam Wu, and the others all came over in the afternoon. Madam Wu laid on the coffin and broke down into tears, crying so hard she could hardly control herself.
Qi Qingyao stood next to her, her expression seeming to grow more and more silent.
Madam Wu knew this was also tough on her, so she said nothing.
Funerals in the village were generally carried out over seven days. Everyone noticed that the face of the little lady named Qi Qingyao had become calmer, though it seemed like she could erupt at any time.
Qi Boli also felt like her mood was very unstable and unpleasant.
However, he did not dare to ask her about it.
After Qi Qingzhu, Sun Shuli and the others were buried.
Qi Boli looked at Qi Qingyao and asked, “Qi Qingyao, are you going back?”
“Yes.” She nodded slightly.
“We’ll take good care of ourselves,” Qi Boli said.
“Okay.” Qi Qingyao nodded again.
On the way back, Dong Jing sat in the carriage with Qi Qingyao. It had already been six days and there was still no news about Si Jin. Dong Jing did not dare to speculate, so he asked lightly, “Young mistress, where do you think Si Jin went?”
“If someone really created a diversion to lure that innocent boy out that night, and they trapped him, I’m afraid that…” The outcome would not have been great.
“Si Jin couldn’t have died, right?” Cold sweat beaded on Dong Jing’s forehead.
“Si Jin hasn’t died!” Qi Qingyao said clearly, “Because there was no dead body at the scene.”
Si Jin was very powerful.
He absolutely would not have died.
She was sure of it.
Qi Qingyao said, “I have faith in him. He surely wouldn’t have died. He’s probably injured, so he has perhaps disappeared or gone to heal his wounds.”
“Then we…” Dong Jing did not know what to report back to his Master when he arrived home and was suddenly at a loss.
A faint light flashed through Qi Qingyao’s eyes. She said, “You’re one of Lu Yan’s men. You must have looked into Si Jin’s information before, right?”
Dong Jing nodded embarra.s.sedly.
Then, under Qi Qingyao’s gaze, he began to tell her all relevant information about Si Jin.
Qi Qingyao listened to everything with a frown, chewing on his words. “You’re saying that he doesn’t have a special background.”
“Yes.” He had been telling the truth.
“…” Because Qi Qingyao knew Dong Jing was not lying, she was speechless for a while before she said, “I don’t know why he’s become my companion, I only know that he has never betrayed me. The Zhaixing Administration is useless for not being able to find out his true past!!”
The carriage had initially been heading straight back to Qingzhou City, but Qi Qingyao pondered for a bit and asked the coachman to take a trip to the nearest koi temple.
“I’m going to the koi temple.” Qi Qingyao held her forehead. Feeling a little awful, she said, “I’ll pray for him, pray that he recovers as soon as possible.”
Dong Jing agreed to it.
He thought to himself that the young Si Jin would surely be blessed by the heavens.
After Qi Qingyao arrived at the koi temple.
Once she entered, she kneeled down reverently and threw a stack of paper money into the wis.h.i.+ng box. She then put her palms together, closed her eyes, and prayed quite earnestly.
“Koi G.o.d, if you hear my prayer, please keep Si Jin safe!
“Oh Koi G.o.d, please answer my prayer! Please be sure to bless Si Jin’s safe return.”
…
…
Jiuli River.
A golden koi fish was wriggling in the spring water, enjoying its sweetness.
However, the koi fish seemed to have many wounds, most of which had not healed!
A streak of light suddenly flashed through the golden eyes of the little koi fish. He shook his body and transformed into a naked young boy. There were a few wounds on the young boy’s body, and his pupils were pure gold in color.
The young boy swam to the sh.o.r.e, golden light gleaming in his eyes.
He listened to someone’s voice, which seemed as far away as the edge of the sky yet as close as an echoing whisper in his ears.
“If you’re really injured, why didn’t you stay where you were and wait for me to look for you so I could help you? Have you forgotten? I’m a doctor, Si Jin.”
The corner of the young boy’s lips curled up.
He was a little happy.
Sister was worrying about him!
However, he had depleted too much of his stamina after using the energy defense barrier three times, so he had to stay in the water for a while to recover to his original self.
Otherwise… with his current body, he would not be able to stay in his human form for a long time!