If it weren’t for that unexpected slap, Ning Buwei wouldn’t have paid attention to this little fool.
But buying her a roasted sweet potato to apologize was the right thing to do.
So he bought Ah Ling the biggest roasted sweet potato and warned her with a gloomy tone, “Don’t follow me anymore, understood?”
Ah Ling hugged the steaming sweet potato and nodded with vague understanding.
Ning Buwei grabbed her collar and placed her under a pear tree by the road, casually drawing a line with spiritual power, “Stay put, you can only move after I leave, understand?”
Ah Ling took a bite of the sweet potato, her thin cheeks getting covered with bits of it, and blinked at him with a smile.
Ning Buwei turned and strode away. Just before turning the corner, he looked back vigilantly and saw the little beggar still obediently staying under the tree eating her sweet potato, only then did he leave with peace of mind.
On the other side of the wall, the Yan mansion.
Yan Liuguang sat lazily in the main seat drinking tea, while a man in black robes stood examining a pair of paperweights on the antique shelf.
“Brother Pei, do you like these trinkets?” Yan Liuguang asked upon seeing this.
Pei Heguang smiled and said, “It’s just that my younger brother used to like these things, always pestering me to carve some jade for him to play with, so I learned a bit about it. The relief carving technique on these paperweights looks familiar.”
“I see, you must care deeply for your brother.” Yan Liuguang thought of his own elder brothers and couldn’t help but sigh, his impression of Pei Heguang improving even more. He said generously, “I heard from the person who delivered these that they’re legacy works from a Jade Spring craftsman in the mortal realm. I don’t really understand these things, Brother Pei, if you like them, please take them!”
“So they’re from Jade Spring, no wonder they look familiar.” Upon hearing this, Pei Heguang glanced lightly at the pair of paperweights, his smile slightly fading, “But there’s no need, I’m afraid my brother wouldn’t want to see me now.”
Seeing his sad expression, Yan Liuguang didn’t dare to ask more and changed the subject, “My marriage to Jinshu could only happen thanks to Brother Pei persuading my father. Brother Pei is our great benefactor, I really don’t know how to repay you.”
Pei Heguang casually brushed the paperweights and smiled with his hands behind his back. “I helped because I admire your character, there’s no need for repayment. However, I do have a small favor to ask of you.”
Yan Liuguang waved his hand grandly and said, “Please tell me, Brother Pei.”
Pei Heguang said, “An old acquaintance of mine has come to Li City. We have past grievances, and she’s skilled in formations. With my current serious injuries, I’m afraid I’m not her match. I’d like to request the Yan family’s assistance.”
Yan Liuguang’s smile slightly stiffened, “This… Brother Pei, as you know, my father doesn’t think highly of me. I have limited control over the Yan family’s people, I’m afraid—”
“Don’t worry about it, brother.” Pei Heguang’s eyes darkened, “You’ve already helped me.”
Yan Liuguang was confused by these words but still felt relieved, “I’m glad I could help Brother Pei. But your injuries are so severe – I know some skilled medical cultivators from Medical Immortal Valley, I can introduce them to you.”
Pei Heguang shook his head helplessly, “My injuries can’t be healed quickly, so don’t trouble yourself.”
Yan Liuguang had to give up, “Tomorrow night I’ll be hosting friends at Chengyun Tower, Brother Pei must attend.”
“Alright.”
****
Ning Buwei looked at the towering tower before him. The Chongzheng Alliance guards stood watch at the tower, their faces stern. Everyone entering or leaving needed identity jade tablets and had to pay spirit stones.
“It now costs three thousand high-grade spirit stones to enter once. Why don’t the Chongzheng Alliance just rob people directly?” A cultivator muttered in the nearby tea pavilion.
“Keep your voice down,” his companion warned quietly. “If they hear you, you can forget about getting in.”
“The mortal realm entrance used to be freely accessible, why did they have to build this tower?” that person said disdainfully. “Has Young Master Xingyuan’s Chongzheng Alliance become like this? It was quite good at the start… Now they might as well change their name from Chongzheng (Upright) to Qiangqian (Money-grabbing) Alliance.”
His companion sighed. “Young Master Xingyuan had good intentions, but alas, heaven envied talent… The Ning family incident still has no conclusion. They say it was evil formations and the vine demon, but the formations disappeared and the vine demon vanished…”
“Heh, it’s been twenty years, everyone in Xun Prefecture died. Who still cares how they died? Want to bet that in a few hundred years, they probably won’t even know who Ning Xingyuan was…”
Ning Buwei leaned against a tree, drawing formations while drinking pear blossom wine, finding the wine unbearably bitter.
In these twenty years, he had searched everywhere for souls that survived the Xun Prefecture disaster, but gained very little useful information. He discovered that at the time, Ning Xingyuan was likely setting up an extremely large formation that covered the entire Xun Prefecture, and before the incident, Ning Fan had frequently appeared between the mortal realm, dark realm, and Ning mansion…Unfortunately, the trail ended with Ning Fan.
As for Ning Fan and his parents’ deaths, they were undoubtedly connected. Ning Buwei recalled Yan Jinzhou’s earlier words to him and suppressed some dark suspicions in his heart.
Ning Xingyuan had no reason to do this.
But Yan Jinzhou was clearly also investigating the Ning family matters. Last time he finally successfully tracked where Yan Jinzhou disappeared to – it was this tower leading to the mortal realm. Her hurried arrival in Li City to take revenge on the Yan family was likely to eliminate her obsession for advancement to do something…
Someone who could make Yan Jinzhou so wary— Ning Buwei quietly sent his small formation under the tower, without attracting anyone’s attention.
After Yan Jinzhou took revenge on the Yan family, he would definitely go to the mortal realm. This time, he decided to take the risk of “betraying his master and destroying his ancestors” by following Yan Jinzhou to the mortal realm, so he came to make preparations in advance.
The next day, when he was about to go to Chengyun Tower to ambush and beat up Yan Liuguang, passing by that previous street, he was stopped by an excited and clear child’s voice. “Father! You finally came back!”
Ning Buwei turned his head in confusion and saw the little beggar called Ah Ling standing under a pear tree, jumping and waving at him with one hand while holding half a very smoothly licked sweet potato in the other.
Ah Ling happily showed him the line he had casually drawn with spiritual power yesterday at noon, “Ah Ling didn’t move! I’ve been good, waiting for father to come back and find me.”
“I…” Ning Buwei walked to the pear tree and said to Ah Ling, “I didn’t tell you to wait for me, I just told you not to follow me—”
Ah Ling nodded happily, “I didn’t follow father! I was very obedient, didn’t step over the line!”
The tiny bit of conscience remaining in his heart emerged unexpectedly. He knew she was a little fool, yet he deliberately drew a line on the ground to mislead her… But he really hadn’t expected this little fool would truly not dare to move.
Ning Buwei raised his hand to erase that line, “You can go now.”
“Here!” Ah Ling held out her half sweet potato in front of him.
Ning Buwei was stunned, “What for?”
“I saved it for father, half each!” Ah Ling said matter-of-factly.
Ning Buwei looked at the surface that had been licked extremely smooth, his mouth twitching, “No thanks, you eat it yourself.”
Ah Ling looked at him uncomprehendingly, “It’s very tasty, I didn’t eat my fill so I saved it for you.”
“I just ate a big one, I’m very full,” Ning Buwei said with an unchanged expression. “You eat it… Here’s some for you.”
Ning Buwei put a small handful of broken spirit stone in her sleeve, “When you’re hungry, go buy sweet potatoes to eat. One small spirit stone for one sweet potato, don’t give more even if others ask for more, remember?”
Ah Ling clutched her sleeve and nodded seriously, “I remember, one for one.”
Ning Buwei nodded, “Take care.”
Then he strode away.
“Father!” Ah Ling ran after him from behind, but because her legs were short she couldn’t catch up no matter what. Her eyes only reflected a tall black figure as she called out anxiously, “Father! Wait for me! I run slowly and can’t catch up to you!”
Ning Buwei didn’t even need to speed up to leave that urgent and helpless voice behind.
He beat Yan Liuguang half to death and destroyed all his cultivation.
On the wedding day, Yan Jinzhou killed Yan Jinshu and Yan Liuguang, then trapped their souls in the Union-Separation Formation.
The Yan family servants had all scattered and fled, making the huge mansion seem particularly quiet due to its emptiness.
Yan Jinzhou sat on the rockery watching the moon rise, and said slowly, “Buwei, I feel a bit sad.”
Ning Buwei sat by the pond basking in moonlight while meditating, not making a sound.
But Yan Jinzhou didn’t seem to want his response and continued talking to herself. “Even though my father and sister were my enemies, why do I feel sad after killing them?”
“People are really strange.”
“They looked so ugly when they begged me for mercy, making me seem a bit ridiculous.”
“I actually obsessed over people like this for a hundred years, it’s infuriating.”
“Revenge really is a meaningless thing.”
“Some things can’t be let go just by taking revenge… Actually, to be honest, the one I hate most isn’t my father and sister, but the useless Yan Jinzhou who could only shout and yell…” (TL: don’t know if it’s a typo or she is really referring to herself)
“How pathetic.”
Yan Jinzhou casually broke off a pear blossom branch and hit his head with it. The white pear blossoms fell into his hair, and seeing this, she laughed. “Hey, these white flowers make it look like you’re wearing mourning clothes for me.”
Ning Buwei frowned slightly and looked up at Yan Jinzhou, “Master, what do you plan to do?”
Yan Jinzhou looked at him blankly, “Huh? What am I planning to do? Naturally continue being my wandering cultivator self.”
Ning Buwei casually picked up some small stones by the pond to divine, but Yan Jinzhou hit his hand hard with the pear blossom branch. The small stones fell into the pond, ripples shattering the moon’s reflection in the water.
“Stop using your half-baked divination techniques, nine out of ten times they’re inaccurate, and the one accurate time is pure luck. I don’t know who taught you.”
“An annoying person,” Ning Buwei saw Yan Jinzhou stopping him and gave up divining, but was determined to stay close to her.
“Hmm, I heard the Floating Sky Realm opened a few days ago, seems it’s near a wine shop. You’ve learned enough, go try your luck there yourself, find some good things for your own use.” Yan Jinzhou said.
“What about you?” Ning Buwei asked.
“Me? Naturally I’m going to find my family’s monk.” Yan Jinzhou swung the branch in her hand listlessly.
Completely unlike her usual happiness when mentioning Zen Master Mingsang. Ning Buwei was about to ask more but was struck on the back by the pear blossom branch. Immediately a heart-piercing pain spread throughout his body, and his consciousness gradually blurred.
Before completely losing consciousness, he only saw a pool full of white flowers.
