Book 14: Chapter 78
The Lesser Lord’s Wound
“Surely you have heard about the massacre at Shangri-La, Sister Bai. It was a bizarre massacre that took place at a small town in Beihai around ten years ago. The 313 residents died overnight without any witnesses or clues, resulting in numerous rumours being propagated. One rather interesting theory is that, if there was a Liu Shan Men at Beihai’s border, then the tragedy never would’ve taken place. Do you know why I am bringing this up, Sister Bai?”
Bai Yumo shook her head, but she had a feeling that the answer wasn’t nice.
“Because Brother Tang’s father, a swordsman by the name of Tang Nuan, was among the victims. Since there was no clue as to who the culprit was, Brother Tang’s mother succumbed to depression and passed away afterwards, orphaning him. Frigid snow and ice envelope Beihai’s winters, yet a boy twelve years old at most had to step into the pugilistic world. His lonely, sad and frustrated gaze that cursed the heavens for being unfair might still be the same now.”
Bai Yumo moved her gaze to Tang Ye. His gaze had all the characteristics and oozed the same vibe Xun Feng just illustrated. Even though it was her first time seeing that sort of gaze, she didn’t fear him. Instead, she pitied him.
“I really want to know if a young man as I described would be disappointed after joining a Liu Shan Men that still has yet to achieve anything. What do you say?”
“That’s enough, Brother Xun Feng. If what you say is true… If what you say is true… In any case, you can’t dig into someone’s painful past like this.”
“What gives you the right to tell me what to do, Sister Bai?”
“How should I know?! Just… Why are you even bringing up this bizarre topic? I’ll be the first to beat you if you keep talking about it.”
Xun Feng shrugged. “You’re really emotionally mature, Brother Tang, but don’t you think it’s not really masculine to hold it in?”
“I thought I told you to stop!”
“Sister Bai, you’re wrong if you think Brother Tang purposely let you win. If I’m not wrong, although I don’t know the reason, he has suffered a serious internal injury. He’s no match for neither you nor Che Gulu in a one-on-one fight at the moment. He fooled both of you to secure second place. Think about it: isn’t Liu Shan Men in first place now based on total points?”
Bai Yumo turned to Tang Ye with wide eyes, but Tang Ye didn’t look her way.
“Venerable Xun Feng, the mad monk said to be a wealth of knowledge who was said to sing heartily after wine, is one of Cold Mountain Temple’s smartest among their Four Holy Monks. In short, you’re not as useless and incompetent as the image you’ve built based off your performance in the capital. I’ve had my eyes on you since day one. You don’t need to put on the façade in front of me; it’s never worked and won’t work. You seem eager to provoke me into attacking so that you have an excuse to kill me.”
“It wouldn’t be fun otherwise, Brother Tang.” Xun Feng looked even happier despite Tang Ye’s scathing response. “Tomorrow is the last day, so why don’t we be frank. Since you’re curious, please pardon me for a moment as I fetch some evidence of my sincerity.”
The atmosphere turned awkward when Bai Yumo and Tang Ye were left alone, so awkward that Bai Yumo forced herself to ask, “Hey, are you really hurt bad?”
Tang Ye glanced to Bai Yumo out of the corner of his eyes, scaring her for a second. She was the one who was duped, yet she was puzzled as to why she felt guilty. Tang Ye lowered his head and then chucked up blood all of a sudden.
Tang Ye wasn’t indifferent to Xun Feng’s taunts. Ever since utilising Hazy Steps, his true qi flowed rampantly; he could hear the surging true qi flowing erratically inside him while firing back at Xun Feng. Xun Feng left to reduce Tang Ye’s stress. As a result of relaxing after prolonged anguish, Tang Ye couldn’t control his injury and lost his composure. Assuming Bai Yumo was Bronze Mask, she was presented with a prime opportunity to finish him without breaking a sweat.
“How are you?!” Bai Yumo lunged over to support Tang Ye.
Tang Ye vigilantly looked up at Bai Yumo. Though he was the one who was powerless to retaliate, she was the one who panicked.
“Do you have any medicine? I… I can feed it to you.”
Although Bai Yumo was skilled in wielding her internal energy, she hadn’t learnt to imbue objects with it – besides her blade – which was why she didn’t know how to treat Tang Ye’s injury. He was going to shake his head, but his eyes instinctively made their eyes down to his chest. Catching that, Bai Yumo reached into his shirt for the small crimson porcelain bottle.
“Is this it?” Spotting the Tang Ye’s face go bright red and signs of him about to bleed even more, she started panicking even worse. “Hurry, hurry!”
The stench that burst out once Bai Yumo pulled out the cork would easily make a crowd think an explosion went off. She had to bear with the pungent stench whilst trying to pry open Tang Ye’s mouth, yet he refused to let her open his mouth.
“T-take it already!” Because he seemed on the verge of death, Bai Yumo teared up. “You’re so annoying!”
Both Bai Clan’s virtuous and stubborn characteristics burst to the surface, prompting Bai Yumo to pressed Tang Ye onto the ground. Having his head bounced off the concrete caused him to open his mouth a tad, which Bai Yumo instantly jumped on. Although he was still seeing stars, Tang Ye knew what danger was coming as she pried his mouth open more since his olfactory system still functioned just fine.
There was only the one pill, the pill that Ming Feizhen upgraded using a better furnace and luck – unknown pill 2.0, “life and death unknown pill”. According to Ming Feizhen, he could resurrect the dead with it.
Tang Ye diverted his strength to his jaws.
This guy is so annoying! Why is he resisting when he’s about to die?!
Bai Yumo set the pill down on the ground so that she had two free hands for prying Tang Ye’s mouth open. Tang Ye stopped resisting at the point since she didn’t have a spare hand to feed him the pill. Liu Shan Men’s lesser lord accounted for the clumsy mistake. However…
Bai Yumo, mounting Tang Ye, bent over to pick up the pill with her mouth and then plastered her lips to his.