Chapter 10

Leaving through the west gate of Maple Forest City, one follows the main road straight for about seven or eight li, then turns left onto a small path. In less than half the time it takes to burn an incense stick, one can see the Willow River, with its willows swaying along the banks.

At this moment, the evening breeze caressed their faces, and the bright moon was reflected in the rippling water.

When Jiang Wang emerged from the small path, he saw Ling He's slender back, standing by the river like a silent tree.

"Hey, let me see, let me see." Zhao Rucheng darted in front of him, craning his neck and said, "You must have been crying, right?"

Ling He looked somewhat helpless, "How did you guys come here?"

"Your voice is hoarse. You must have cried!"

At this moment, a rough voice came from the grass by the river, "Zhao, sometimes you really need to be taught a lesson, you know?"

"Brother Hu, you're here too?" Zhao Rucheng shrank his neck. Du Yehu, that brute, would really start a fight at the slightest provocation and wouldn't care about his good looks.

"I was drinking here all along." Du Yehu said resentfully, the smell of alcohol wafting in the evening breeze, "I didn't expect him to carry that guy over here, what bad luck."

"Exactly! Why bury him at all?" Zhao Rucheng added, "A heartless and ungrateful person like him should be thrown into the river to feed the fish and shrimp."

Jiang Wang glanced in the direction Du Yehu had come from, "Is he buried there?"

"Old Three." Considering Jiang Wang's feelings, Ling He explained, "I haven't forgotten Pengju's bad deeds, but I also remember his good ones. My family was poor, and I often couldn't get enough to eat. Pengju would always make excuses to have me teach him martial arts, pulling me along and not letting me leave until it was time for a meal. His death was deserved, but I couldn't bear to see him left to rot in the wilderness... Of course, you've been good to me too. That year when we cleared the Green Ox Fort, you saved me..."

"Why are you saying all this?" Jiang Wang interrupted, "My father used to tell me that adults are different from children. The first thing adults need to learn is to seek common ground while reserving differences. The kind of 'I won't play with you, so you can't play with him' is for children. You and Fang Pengju and I, we each have our own reasons. I won't influence your deep bond with him, and you won't influence my severed ties with him."

"That's true." Ling He said.

He looked around the Willow River under the night sky, "There's always a feeling that it's like yesterday. The place hasn't changed much, but we have all changed."

"Nothing stays the same. The only constant in this world is change." Zhao Rucheng said meaningfully, then shamelessly moved in front of Ling He again, "Burying someone shouldn't take this long. Did you two cry together?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he leaped up and nimbly dodged Du Yehu's flying kick.

"Tsk tsk tsk, angry and embarrassed..." He taunted, then quickly bowed, "Sorry, Brother Hu."

Du Yehu, already rolling up his sleeves, chased after him, "You're not wrong, I just want to cry with you."

Watching the two play-fight, Ling He said, "But I believe there are some things that will never change."

"I agree with half of what you said." Jiang Wang said.

The "practice" between Du Yehu and Zhao Rucheng somehow turned into a four-person brawl. Punches and kicks flew, and everyone ended up exhausted, laughing and crying together.

If anyone had passed by the Willow River that night, they might have spread tales of water ghosts.

The four brothers finally left the Willow River together, leaving behind the place that recorded their youth and friendship.

No one spoke.

But Zhao Rucheng finally turned back and muttered,

"Over there, don't harm your friends anymore. Dead man."

...

The moonlight flowed over the rippling Willow River and spilled onto the broken roof of the Zhenzhen Temple.

Perhaps because of the moonlight, the two people speaking in the dilapidated temple looked extremely pale.

One of them was a beautiful woman, dressed in a bright red robe, with a perfect figure. The glimpse of white at her slightly open neckline was dazzling.

Her face was too pale, which should have made her look weak and sickly, but she exuded a stunning beauty, perhaps because of her vivid red lips.

She sat on the dusty altar without a care, so beautiful yet so composed.

She lightly touched her red lips with her little finger and said, "All the beggars in this temple are dead, truly a cause for distress. What can we use to summon the divine will?"

Her voice seemed to circle the spider webs at the eaves before reaching its destination, sounding somewhat hollow.

"A cultivator's life force will suffice."

The speaker stood at the door, unlike the woman in red, he seemed unwilling to step into the dirty, broken temple, and he covered his nose and mouth with a handkerchief embroidered with plum blossoms.

"Easy to say." The woman in red said, "We have to sneak around to kill a few mortals, and a cultivator? Afraid the Dao Academy of Zhuangguo will come knocking?"

"Every cultivator in this city will die sooner or later." The man said, frowning, "Do we have to talk in such a place?"

The woman in red laughed, "The famous Zuo Guanglie fell here. The people of Zhuangguo searched this place inside out at least ten times. There's no cleaner place around."

Mentioning Zuo Guanglie, she closed her eyes slightly, looking entranced, and her pale face quickly flushed, "I can almost still smell his powerful aura~"

"Back to business." The man interrupted her reverie without showing any emotion, "Wei Qiji is not to be trifled with, and now Dong A has arrived. We must find the Daozi as soon as possible. The Qin and Chu barbarians are causing chaos here, disrupting the sacrifices at Zhenzhen Temple. Instead of secretly capturing mortals one by one, it would be simpler and more direct to sacrifice a cultivator."

"There are many ways to die. Why be so fixated? Cutting the throat with a sword or being struck by lightning, why not?"

Perhaps annoyed at having her reverie interrupted, the woman in red opened her beautiful eyes and reined in her smile, "Before the Daozi appears, you'd better know what it means to be low-key!"

The man seemed irritated as well, covering his nose, "Miaoyu! As if the attack on Maple Forest Dao Academy wasn't your idea! Now the whole city is in turmoil. One misstep, and our grand plan will fail!"

"What do you know? The world is too big, and there are too many accidents! Who would have thought Zuo Guanglie would die like this, disrupting our sacrifice? The bones at the bottom of the Nianchuan River have been silent for too long! There can be no more accidents! Dong A is crucial in Maple Forest City now. We must clearly understand his strength and limits! Some sacrifices are inevitable. Besides..."

The woman in red, named Miaoyu, licked her lips, "Do you know that the beggars in this temple haven't all died? I smelled a familiar scent at the Maple Forest Dao Academy..."

The dirty environment made the man even more impatient, "Why should I care about the life or death of a beggar?"

Miaoyu stretched lazily, her perfect figure on full display, "Fool."

The man narrowed his eyes, hiding the fleeting desire in his eyes, "Don't think just because you're nominally the Daozi's woman, you can act so freely. The sect has had many holy maidens over thousands of years. When the Daozi appears, whether he wants you or recognizes you is yet to be seen."

"Beauty and bones, illusion and reality. Can't you see through it?"

"Ha ha ha ha." The man turned to leave the temple, "Whether I see through it or not, what does it matter? It's just like this."

After a long while, a seductive murmur echoed softly in the quiet, dilapidated temple, like the moonlight spreading out.

"How could he not love me? How could he not want me? I've guarded for so many years, waited for so many years..."