Chapter 162: No One of Worth in the Shangqing Sect

His words made Tang Yi’s heart tighten for him. Putting herself in his position, after the way the Shangqing Sect had treated him, and with the nominal bond between them still existing, he was now being made to serve her and another man in such a humble role. She felt she could understand his mood. She felt guilty.

In truth, she had always carried guilt toward him. Even so, she kept her voice calm. “I think you’ve misunderstood.”

“Misunderstood?” Niu Youdao smiled. “That is a strange thing to say. What exactly have I misunderstood?”

“Shao Pingbo and I are not what you think. There is no such relationship between us.”

“What relationship the two of you have—what does that have to do with me?” Niu Youdao’s tone remained mild. “You don’t need to explain it to me, and there is no reason to explain. You and I both know perfectly well that there has never truly been anything between us. Neither of us needs to carry an empty title that never had substance behind it, and neither of us needs to interfere with the other because of it. I already made everything clear to Elder Tang. Whatever relationship you enter with anyone in the future has nothing to do with me.”

Tang Yi said, “The Shangqing Sect wronged you in the past. Give me a little more time. When the time comes, I will give you an accounting. Whatever the Shangqing Sect owes you, I will repay with interest.”

“Sect Leader Tang speaks too seriously.” Niu Youdao shook his head. “The Shangqing Sect owes me nothing, and I owe the Shangqing Sect nothing. The great road stretches beneath Heaven. You take your side, I take mine.”

Tang Yi said, “Youdao, I know you’ve suffered grievances. But who goes through life without ever being wronged? The Shangqing Sect today is no longer the Shangqing Sect of the past. Many things are already over. Come back. I guarantee no one in the Shangqing Sect will ever harm you again.”

“Come back?” Niu Youdao smiled as he repeated the words. “How am I supposed to come back? I went through all that trouble to return Dong Guo Haoran’s remains, and the moment I arrived you people wanted to kill me. What had I done to deserve that? Five years in Peach Blossom Spring. Some things I knew about, some I did not. I won’t even bother listing all the fine things you people did. How many five-year stretches does a man have in his life? You kept me under house arrest for five full years. If I hadn’t known how to lower my head and cling to life, I would probably have died without even a place to bury my bones.”

“After I finally came down the mountain, you still refused to let me go. One letter tricked me to Nanshan Temple, and once again you tried to put me to death. Do not tell me you knew nothing about any of that. From top to bottom, including you, everyone in the Shangqing Sect either hoped I would die sooner or stood aside coldly and watched me walk toward death. Ask yourself honestly: if you were in my position, would a sect like that not chill your heart? How am I supposed to return? Sect Leader Tang, this is not me being petty. You people were simply too heartless. So heartless that it became frightening. The ties of gratitude and righteousness between us have already been severed. There is no going back.”

Tang Yi gently shook her head. “I understand everything you’re saying. I can understand how you feel. But your present situation is extremely dangerous. The court of the State of Yan will not let you go. At least here, the court of the State of Yan would not dare move against you lightly.”

“So what you mean is that without the Shangqing Sect, I can’t survive?”

“You’re overthinking it. At the very least, the sect can offer you some protection.”

“You’re the one worrying too much.” Niu Youdao replied calmly, “I was able to leave the Shangqing Sect alive, and I have survived until now. I’m not quite as useless as you imagine.”

“Youdao, this is not the time to act out of anger.”

“You’re still thinking too much.” Niu Youdao looked at her directly. “Let me put it plainly. The Shangqing Sect is not worth enough for me to be angry over. I don’t want to return because I have no desire to carry the Shangqing Sect as a burden. What everyone in the Shangqing Sect did to me, I can let go. Consider that my repayment for Dong Guo Haoran’s kindness. But I cannot repay enmity with kindness. You people are not worth returning for, much less worth exhausting my heart and blood over.”

Tang Yi said, “No one is asking you to do anything. No one is asking you to exhaust yourself. The Shangqing Sect wronged you. You can simply return and enjoy what is owed to you.”

“Enjoy?” Niu Youdao laughed as though he had just heard the greatest joke beneath Heaven. Then he sighed. “Tang Yi. Sect Leader Tang. It seems the gap between how you and I understand the world is rather large. Returning to the Shangqing Sect would be the beginning of my troubles, not the end. Once you are inside certain affairs, there are things you cannot avoid. Forget distant problems. Shao Pingbo alone would never let me go.”

Tang Yi frowned slightly. “I’ll say it again. You’re thinking too much. Shao Pingbo and I are not what you imagine. There is nothing shameful between us. My conduct is open and upright, and my conscience is clear. I have done nothing that wrongs you... nothing that wrongs the nominal bond between us. Let me put it this way: Shao Pingbo’s public courtship of me serves another purpose.”

“Oh?” Only now did Niu Youdao truly become interested. His eyes brightened. “What purpose?”

“You are clearly taking this to heart, so I can understand your feelings...” Tang Yi stepped closer and lowered her voice beside him. “Shao Pingbo’s true objective is not me. It is Zhao Xiongge of Demon Ridge. Zhao Xiongge is the one he actually wants.”

They stood very close together. The last time they had been this close was when they drank the wedding wine in Peach Blossom Spring. The faint fragrance of the woman stirred a few memories in Niu Youdao. He glanced at her from close range. “Oh. I understand.” Then he added, “But are you sure he hasn’t taken a liking to you?”

Was there a hint of jealousy in those words? Tang Yi could not tell whether she ought to feel pleased. She could not help looking at him a moment longer. “How he thinks is beyond my control. I know my limits. If you return openly under your true identity, he will naturally understand that there is no path forward and withdraw.”

Niu Youdao stared at her. “Sect Leader Tang, are you stupid, or do you think I am? Whether he has taken a liking to you or whether Zhao Xiongge is his target, he still has to obtain you first before he can approach Zhao Xiongge. If I return to the Shangqing Sect, wouldn’t I become the obstacle standing in his way? I’m afraid the first thing Shao Pingbo would do is find a way to get rid of me. And you call that protecting me? Are you joking?”

Tang Yi froze. She had been focused only on persuading him to return and had indeed overlooked this issue. After thinking it through, she had to admit the danger he described genuinely existed. “I only want you to understand that matters are not what you imagine. I know perfectly well what Shao Pingbo wants. And the Shangqing Sect also needs to borrow his power if it is to revive.”

“Absurd.” Niu Youdao shook his head. “On one hand, you say you know your limits and will never let him succeed. On the other, you want to borrow his power. Do you not see that those two things contradict one another? You are playing with fire. And I can say with certainty that you will not beat him at this game. Sooner or later, you’ll become meat in his mouth. If the Shangqing Sect hopes to revive under people like you, I see almost no hope at all. Because I can now confirm one thing. There is no one of worth in the Shangqing Sect. Only a pack of mediocrities. No wonder the sect fell to this state.” Niu Youdao sighed and shook his head. “I had actually been wondering how you had managed to hold out until now without falling into his hands. I thought perhaps the Shangqing Sect still had someone capable hidden inside. Now I finally understand. After all that, the reason was actually me.”

Tang Yi frowned. “What do you mean?”

“What do you think I mean?” Niu Youdao shook his head again. “You publicly announce that you are a married woman. So long as I remain alive, Shao Pingbo can never obtain you openly and legitimately. Because he cannot find me, he cannot conveniently make his move against you. Perhaps he has been waiting all this time for the State of Yan to kill me. If the State of Yan cannot do it, he may well begin finding his own method soon. Damn it.” Niu Youdao gave a humorless laugh. “Even this can create an enemy for me. If I hadn’t learned the truth today, I might one day die without ever knowing how it happened.”

“...” Tang Yi was left speechless. For a moment she wondered whether this man was perhaps being a little too full of himself.

“Tang Yi.” Niu Youdao’s tone turned more serious. “I don’t care whether your concern today is sincere or false, and I don’t know whether you’ll listen. But since you came here with some goodwill, and because I still remember Dong Guo Haoran’s grace in giving me a second life, I’ll give you one warning. When you depend on another power, you inevitably have to pay something in return. The Shangqing Sect will face that reality no matter whom it chooses to rely on. But you had best stay farther away from Shao Pingbo. This is not because he has designs on you personally. And whether there is anything improper between the two of you has nothing to do with me.”

“I advise you to find some other force to depend upon. From what I have seen, Shao Pingbo is dangerous. Extremely dangerous. You people cannot outplay him. Do not think cultivation strength alone settles everything. I later made inquiries into Zhao Xiongge’s history. Zhao Xiongge may possess tremendous martial strength, but under the right conditions, I am not convinced he would necessarily be Shao Pingbo’s match. The thing in a person that can cause the greatest harm is never brute force.”

Unexpectedly, Tang Yi took out the folded paper Niu Youdao had written. She walked to the charcoal brazier where soup was simmering and pushed the note directly into the coals. In moments, it became ash.

Niu Youdao naturally recognized what she had burned.

Tang Yi walked back to him. “If this is what you want to do, I won’t stop you. But I cannot accept that paper now. I already told you: the Shangqing Sect will repay what it owes you. Give me a little more time. If, in the future, you still want to write such a thing, I’ll accept it then.”

Niu Youdao understood. She still had not truly heard him. Thinking about it, he could understand why. An entire sect had already formed a consensus around its chosen path. How could a few casual sentences from him overturn it? And he still looked so young. His words simply did not carry enough persuasive weight.

Forget it. It had nothing to do with him. He had no interest in whether this group lived or died. The fact that he was not personally seeking revenge against them was already an act of great restraint. He sighed. “That paper could have made Shao Pingbo let me go. Burning it harms me.”

“You’re still young,” Tang Yi replied. “Don’t rush to reckless conclusions about everything. There is no need to fear him so much either.”

“Fear him?” Niu Youdao wore an expression of mocking self-amusement. “Perhaps to certain people, I am more dangerous than he is. I simply don’t want to invite a completely unnecessary problem onto my own head.”

“All right.” Tang Yi glanced toward the door. “I shouldn’t stay here too long. We’ll talk again another time.”

“Wait.” Niu Youdao walked to the window and beckoned her over. He pointed across the river toward a dim stretch of forest on the far bank. “See those woods?”

Tang Yi looked. “I see them. What about them?”

“You’ll understand later.”

On the riverside viewing terrace, Shao Pingbo was speaking with several generals when a cultivator approached and leaned close to his ear. “Tang Susu, Su Po, and Tang Yi have gone into the kitchen one after another.”

Shao Pingbo’s expression did not change. He merely gave a slight nod to show that he understood.

Back at the wharf, he had already noticed something strange in the expressions of Tang Yi and the other two when they first saw this Zhang San. So he had quietly ordered someone to keep watch.

Not long after Tang Yi left the kitchen, the cultivator who had gone out to buy the requested seasonings also returned and dumped everything in the kitchen.

Once the kitchen door had been shut again, Niu Youdao called Black Peony and the others to the window. He pointed toward the same stretch of forest he had shown Tang Yi. “Use the waste outlet to get into the river and leave by water first. I’ll follow shortly. If we fail to meet, return immediately to the old place in Beishan County and wait for me.”

Black Peony looked surprised. “Once we finish this meal, we should be able to leave openly. Why sneak away? If this angers Shao Pingbo, won’t it cause trouble? Has he seen through Master Dao’s identity?”

“Not yet.” Niu Youdao’s expression was grave. “But those three came into the kitchen one after another. Do you think Shao Pingbo is blind and deaf? That man is dangerous. Right now, he still doesn’t know what is happening and hasn’t focused his attention on watching us. Only while he remains unprepared do we still have a chance to slip away. If we wait any longer, we may not be able to leave even if we want to. We move immediately.”

[End of Chapter 162]