Chapter 1335: Am I Not Good Enough?

Shao Sansheng had long known that Shao Pingbo had been trying to deduce the Shopkeeper's identity. Unable to restrain himself, he asked, "Who is it?"

Shao Pingbo said, "Someone who can freely enter and leave the Sacred Realm, who can keep track of detailed information about Niu Youdao inside it, and who could force Hong Yunfa, one of the three chief deacons of the All-Under-Heaven Money House, to his death. Outside the Sacred Realm, this person is especially well informed about the Western Three States, while his ability to gather news from the east is noticeably weaker.

"From the timing of our several exchanges, we can make another judgment: this person should be somewhere in the Western Three States. Judging from the frequency and timing of his messages, we can also conclude that he has been based there for a long time.

"Taking all those circumstances and signs together, how many people do you think could satisfy every condition?"

Shao Sansheng considered it for a moment, then said doubtfully, "There should be quite a few people in Misty Pavilion who meet those conditions, shouldn't there?"

"It may look like a lot, but there are actually very few who satisfy every condition completely and naturally..." Shao Pingbo looked back with a smile. "One test will tell us."

Shao Sansheng asked, "How do we test him?"

"No hurry. I'll tell you after I return tonight."

...

Inside the Qin imperial palace, Zhuang Hong and her son stared at each other after hearing of Yucang's death.

"Dead..." Zhuang Hong slowly paced through the hall, worry on her face.

Xia Lingpei waved all the servants away, went to his mother's side, and lowered his voice. "Imperial Mother, Xiaoyue Pavilion is leaderless now."

Zhuang Hong turned and looked at him coldly. "What are you thinking of doing?"

"It's not that your son wants to do anything. I simply don't know what will become of Xiaoyue Pavilion now."

Zhuang Hong turned away. "Pei'er, do you still remember what your teacher told you?"

At that, Xia Lingpei fell silent.

Zhuang Hong's expression grew solemn. "Given Qin's present situation, what do you think would change even if you truly became an emperor who held real power in his own hands? What would you use to change anything? The empty title of emperor is only what appears on the surface. In the end, what matters is strength. If you possess strength, what does it matter whether you are emperor or not?

"From the day I married your father, I was honored as Empress. After all these years, I understand far too well what an empty title feels like. Don't forget: Yucang may be dead, but Xiaoyue Pavilion still exists."

"Ah..." Xia Lingpei sighed, his expression dimming slightly.

...

Back in the prefectural city of Nanzhou, Niu Youdao and Yun Ji had returned. Yuan Gang, meanwhile, had been dropped off at Demon Ridge after they made a detour.

The moment Guan Fangyi heard they were back, she gathered her things and went straight to Yun Ji's place.

Seeing Yun Ji was only the pretext. Seeing Niu Youdao was the real purpose.

The moment she entered the secret chamber and saw him, Guan Fangyi froze. She walked a circle around him, looking him up and down.

Niu Youdao grew uncomfortable under the scrutiny. "What are you doing?"

Guan Fangyi stopped and asked curiously, "You went to meet Monkey, so how did you end up red too? Did Monkey pass it on to you?"

Niu Youdao said blandly, "The desert sun was a little strong. What's strange about getting sunburned?"

"Pfft..." Even the usually aloof Yun Ji could not hold it in and let out a muffled laugh.

She had discovered that Master Dao truly cared about his appearance. What was there to hide about something like this? Was he afraid his subordinates would laugh at him and undermine his authority?

Guan Fangyi immediately caught Yun Ji's reaction and realized the matter was definitely not as Niu Youdao claimed. Her gaze darted to his neck. Without warning, she reached out, grabbed his collar, tugged it open, and rose onto her toes to peer inside.

Niu Youdao, somewhat embarrassed and furious, pried at her hand and shoved her away. "Where did you pick up this rotten habit?"

Mockery gleamed in Guan Fangyi's eyes. "Master Dao, you said the sun turned you red. Fine, the parts outside your clothes got sunburned. But how did everything inside your clothes turn red too? Don't tell me you stripped naked and lay in the desert sun."

"What would you know?"

Guan Fangyi lifted her chin toward him. "Just how fierce was that sun? It even curled your hair?"

Niu Youdao said impatiently, "If you have business, say it. If not, stop looking for trouble."

His skin was no longer as red as it had been at first. The color had faded somewhat, though it would probably take time to return completely to normal.

Guan Fangyi walked over to Yun Ji and tugged on her arm. "Sister Yun, what happened?"

Niu Youdao immediately fixed Yun Ji with a cold warning look.

Yun Ji was not afraid of him. If he had not tried to intimidate her, perhaps she would have let it pass. Since he insisted on giving her that look, she had no reason to be polite. She said calmly, "Nothing much. He was struck by lightning."

Guan Fangyi stared. For a moment she thought she had heard wrong. "Struck by lightning? How did he get struck by lightning?"

"That you'll have to ask him yourself." Yun Ji was not about to casually blurt out the matter of the Fifth Domain.

"You really got struck by lightning?" Guan Fangyi turned back to Niu Youdao, her face full of novelty.

Seeing how impatient he looked, she understood. It was probably true.

She immediately laughed until she could barely contain herself. "Master Dao, just how many wicked deeds did you commit to bring heavenly punishment down on yourself? Come on, tell me. What happened?"

In the common understanding of the world, being struck by lightning meant someone had done so many evil deeds that retribution had finally come. How could she not find it funny?

"If you don't understand, don't talk nonsense. Do you have business or not? If not, get out!"

Once Guan Fangyi stopped laughing, she seemed to remember that she truly did have something that was no laughing matter. She looked at him. "Have you heard what happened to Ximen Qingkong?"

Niu Youdao hesitated. "What happened to him? Wasn't he at Wuxin's place? Something went wrong?"

He had not brought any messenger Goldenwings on this trip, and because the journey was secret, he had maintained no contact with anyone else.

From his reaction, Guan Fangyi knew he had not heard. She sighed. "Ximen Qingkong is dead. He killed Yucang!"

Niu Youdao and Yun Ji both froze.

Even by Yun Ji's standards, Ximen Qingkong had been a formidable expert. Before her cultivation broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm, she had not considered herself his match.

"Yucang is dead too..." Niu Youdao's expression grew slightly grave. In his eyes, Ximen Qingkong was far less important than Yucang in terms of practical value. He pressed, "What exactly happened?"

"Ximen Qingkong didn't stay long at Wuxin's place before secretly leaving the Qi capital. Bai Kuanyuan, Jin's envoy stationed there, was the one who smuggled him out. He probably intended to use Ximen Qingkong, but not long after they left the city, Ximen Qingkong killed Bai Kuanyuan, and the incident caused quite a stir. Later, Ximen Qingkong rode alone with a single sword into the Qin army camp..."

Guan Fangyi carefully recounted everything their intelligence channels had gathered, from beginning to end, all the way through Ximen Qingkong's final death.

When she finished, the secret chamber remained silent for quite some time.

At last Niu Youdao slowly shook his head, infinite feeling in the gesture. "To break a Heavenly Sword Talisman with one sword... The number-one expert on the Golden Core Ranking truly lived up to his name."

He himself had endured Heavenly Sword Talismans before and knew exactly how terrifying their power was. Even with his cultivation and the profundity of his arts, all he could do was withstand them for a time, and each occasion had left him seriously injured. Yet Ximen Qingkong had actually broken one with a single sword, then killed the man wielding it in the same stroke. The level of strength involved was astonishing.

Yun Ji sighed softly as well. "With cultivation talent like that, to throw his life away so lightly... what a pity."

Niu Youdao sighed with regret. "Could it be that only people this stubborn are capable of attaining truly profound cultivation?"

Yun Ji gave a questioning sound. "What do you mean?"

"It's just a feeling I have. Look at Kunlin Shu of Tianhuo Sect. To avenge himself on me, he ignored everyone's advice and shut himself away in a lightless place for ten full years. And what happened? He mastered a supreme art that several generations of Tianhuo Sect had failed to master.

"No need to look that far away. Look at Monkey. Stubborn enough for you? Once he digs in his heels, even he won't listen to me. Plenty of people practiced that hard qigong for strengthening the body, but only he managed to turn it into something.

"And now we have Ximen Qingkong, another man who refused to listen to advice. Ah..."

Yun Ji became thoughtful and slowly nodded. "There may be something to that. The path of cultivation probably does have something to do with holding fast to one's original heart."

Guan Fangyi spoke softly from the side. "But Ximen Qingkong didn't have their good fortune. Monkey and Kunlin Shu at least had you protecting them. What did Ximen Qingkong have? I asked you to save him, and you wouldn't even make the attempt."

Niu Youdao shot her a sidelong look. "You're still blaming me for that? It's not as though I never saved him. When he was poisoned in Wei, if I hadn't shown them the way to save his life, he'd have died then. But afterward he still ran back. From that point on, I knew there was no saving the man. Once Xuan Wei died, no one in the world could save him.

"Didn't the Ghost Doctor save him? What difference was there between the Ghost Doctor saving him and me saving him? And look at the result. He still went off to die. Who can save a man like that?"

Guan Fangyi's tone carried a trace of grievance. "In the end, you simply didn't think he was worth the trouble. If you had truly insisted that he stay alive, I don't believe you couldn't have found a way."

Niu Youdao turned toward her. "Hongniang, what is wrong with you? Is one Ximen Qingkong really enough to make you resent me like this? There are countless suffering people beneath Heaven. Why are you fixated on Ximen Qingkong and making things difficult for me over him?"

"I'm not making things difficult for you. I just think there are hardly any good men beneath Heaven to begin with. When one like that appears, no woman wants to see him die. At least I wanted him to live well."

Niu Youdao fell briefly silent. Nantian Wufang flashed through his mind. Looking at Guan Fangyi's downcast expression, he casually said, "You're thinking too much."

Guan Fangyi shook a sheet of paper from her sleeve and handed it to him. "The Golden Core Ranking has announced its new standings. Yan Baoru is now number one. This message came from Guo Man. Read it yourself."

Something in her tone sounded unusual. Niu Youdao did not know what kind of message had arrived. He took the paper, read it, and fell silent.

The information Guo Man had been unable to transmit last time had finally reached them. It solved the mystery of the Mist Bureau roster and answered the question Niu Youdao had been unable to make sense of before.

His guess had been right. The bracelet truly had been one of Xuan Wei's personal ornaments. It was her own bracelet, and before her death she had entrusted it to Guo Man to pass on to Ximen Qingkong.

At the time, Guo Man had intended to find an opportunity to examine the bracelet and see what secret it held. She had been considering the possibility that Wuxin might still save Xuan Wei, in which case being unable to return the bracelet could cause trouble.

Then events changed abruptly. Yucang came personally to their door, and in the urgency of the moment, Guo Man had no time to examine its secret carefully. She could only seize a chance to pass the bracelet out immediately.

And Xuan Wei had told her why the bracelet was to be given to Ximen Qingkong.

It was meant to preserve his life.

Reading that, Niu Youdao felt a quiet sorrow. He also roughly understood what Hongniang had been trying to express.

The thing Xuan Wei had left behind on her deathbed to save Ximen Qingkong's life had ended up in their hands, while they had refused to save Ximen Qingkong himself.

Seeing that Yun Ji wanted to read the message, Niu Youdao handed it over, then turned to Guan Fangyi. "Hongniang, you know perfectly well that whether Ximen Qingkong lived or died never depended on whether he had this thing. If he wanted to live, then this might have helped him. If he didn't want to live, you could give him ten things like it and he still wouldn't survive."

Guan Fangyi looked bereft. "I know. Whether Xuan Wei was alive or dead, all he wanted was to be with her. But I still feel awful. Such a good man... how is it that I never meet one?"

Niu Youdao ran both hands up and down himself in display. "Am I not good enough?"

Guan Fangyi snorted. "A man Heaven itself struck with lightning? You have the nerve to compare yourself?"

She rolled her eyes, turned, and walked away.

[End of Chapter 1335]