Food Fairy Lord

Chapter 810 Eyes flashing with swords and spears, hearts burning with hatred and enmity (Part 3)
Xu Chuo got off the carriage and Jiang Yin'er got on. The carriage then turned out of the gate again and drove onto the long street.

The atmosphere inside the car seemed to linger, and Jiang Yin'er sat quietly without saying a word.

After a short while, Pei Ye, who was leaning on his hand and looking out the window, turned around and smiled at the girl: "Well, did Chief Ying criticize you?"

“…No,” Jiang Yin’er said.

"Right? I told you Chief Ying wouldn't criticize you for eating sweets."

“No,” Jiang Yin’er whispered, “because I didn’t tell Master.”

"..." Pei Ye thought for a moment, "Then you probably didn't tell her about me asking you to keep it from her that you hit Chen Mishuang, right?"

"I already told them."

"..."

Jiang Yin'er turned her head away guiltily.

“Yin’er, you should either be obedient or naughty. Why keep switching between the two?” Pei Ye said seriously.

Jiang Yin'er blushed slightly: "No, it's because Master didn't ask about food, but he did ask about the chess sword."

Pei Ye thought for a moment: "Is the chief culprit vicious or not?"

Jiang Yin'er shook her head: "Master seems to be quiet, but he is actually not fierce at all and has a very good temper."

Shenxiao Courtyard is very small and quite unique. Unlike other houses with grand pavilions and plaques, it is very quiet. It would be hard to imagine that it is the residence of a martial arts sect when passing by.

"Because the Shenxiao Sect doesn't have many people." Jiang Yin'er pushed open the door and welcomed the boy in.

Indeed, there wasn't even a servant in the courtyard. Upon entering, one would find a path surrounded by bamboo groves. Jiang Yin'er turned around, closed the door, and led the boy forward.

"Chief Ying really likes bamboo."

“Yes. Because there are many bamboos around the Lishui River,” Jiang Yin’er said. “However, the bamboo in our area is ochre-colored. My master said that the bamboos he brought over here several times could not survive in Shenjing.”

"So that's it."

The path wasn't very long; once you walked out, you came to a courtyard with a two-story building and several rooms.

Ying Suyu is sitting here.

Pei Ye immediately understood where Jiang Yin'er's crane-like temperament came from, because the woman herself was a large crane.

Seated cross-legged beneath the bamboo grove, on a rock, her crane-feather cloak like wings, her hair adorned only with a single jade hairpin, revealing a serene, beautiful, and pure face. She resembled a banished immortal.

Her face showed no signs of aging, but she didn't look like a young person in their twenties. Having been the leader of the sect for a long time, she had a very dignified and composed demeanor.

Pei Ye stood upright and bowed, saying, "Pei Ye greets Senior Ying."

Ying Suyu didn't speak. She looked at him for a while and said softly, "Come closer."

Pei Ye was slightly taken aback and walked to the stone.

"How have you been doing in the capital for the past six months?"

"...It's alright, Senior Ying. You've been working under His Highness the Crown Prince all along."

Ying Suyu nodded, looked up at him, and said in a clear and pleasant voice, "When you first arrived in Shenjing, I wrote to her and learned that you wanted to stay in Shenjing. If you are ever unhappy, come to Shenxiao Sect. I only have Yin'er as my successor, and it would be good for you two to be fellow disciples."

This was their first meeting, and Pei Ye was still somewhat unfamiliar with this face when she suddenly heard these words. It should have been a bit abrupt, but her tone was gentle and calm, and her feelings were sincere. The bamboo grove in the small courtyard was also very quiet, so for a moment Pei Ye had a strange feeling of closeness.

Pei Ye nodded: "No... Senior Ying, I'm not unhappy. I've had a great time in Shenjing these past few days. His Highness the Crown Prince has also treated me very well."

Ying Suyu nodded, then looked at him carefully, as if trying to find some trace on this completely unrelated face.

But she ultimately gained nothing, and withdrew her gaze, gesturing, "Please sit down."

He tilted his head and said, "Yin'er, you go first. I want to talk to your brother."

"Yes."

After Jiang Yin'er left, Pei Ye sat down on the stone mound. There was no table or tea, so he sat down next to the leader of the Shenxiao Dao sect.

“I thought you were more handsome. Yin’er said you have many girls around you.” Ying Suyu smiled gently.

"..." Pei Ye was caught off guard. "No, no... they're all friends... Yin'er knows that too."

"I know, I didn't say you were a playboy. But if you have someone you like, you should stay away from the others, otherwise it'll be easy to get upset."

"Yes Yes."

Ying Suyu looked at him: "Is there anything you want to ask me?"

Pei Ye was going to ask her, but at this moment she seemed unwilling to rush to mention the arena, and just shook her head: "I know that you and Grandpa Yue are old friends... I don't know what to ask you."

Ying Suyu smiled: "Then let me ask you. Did he mention me to you before he died?"

"I mentioned it." Pei Ye quickly took out the small jade sword from the dragon ring.

This small sword, meticulously carved yet clumsily crafted, rests in the palm of your hand. The two small characters "Yongsheng" on it are slender and golden, with slight wear on the edges of the strokes, giving it the feel of time's passage.

Ying Suyu gazed at it quietly, without uttering a word.

“Grandpa Yue said that this little sword is a lifesaver, and that if there is any real emergency, you should take it to meet… the leader of the Shenxiao Sect,” Pei Ye said.

"Did he also say that unless there is an emergency, we should pretend that we don't have this jade?" Ying Suyu said softly.

Pei Ye was speechless.

"Hmph," Ying Suyu said, "I think you're a good kid, and Yin'er likes you too. We're happy to have a good relationship, so what does it have to do with him?"

As Ying Suyu spoke, he lowered his head, gently closed his outstretched palm, and wrapped the small sword inside: "Here, take it as a pendant. No matter when or what happens, whether you have it or not, you can always come to find the Divine Firmament Daoist Master."

Pei Ye's heart skipped a beat: "Chief Ying, we've only met once..."

“We only met once back then,” Ying Suyu said. “We became fast friends, didn’t we?”

"……Yes."

“‘Eternal Victory.’ These are the words I wrote, and I’m entrusting them to you now,” Ying Suyu said. “I wrote them for him with tears in my eyes, because I knew that for someone like him, one defeat would mean utter ruin.” “…”

"And it turned out just as I expected," she said softly.

Pei Ye pursed his lips and blurted out, "They actually dared to use his sword."

He didn't know why he suddenly blurted out those words, and he only felt the coldness in them after they were spoken, and was momentarily stunned. Ying Suyu watched him quietly from the side.

"You watched Yong Ji's arena today, didn't you?"

"Ah."

"Are you angry?"

"Ah."

"Okay," Ying Suyu said softly, "I'm angry too."

Ying Suyu looked at him, and Pei Ye met those eyes. The flames burning in his chest and abdomen could no longer be suppressed and surged up, as if they were about to burst out of his mouth, nose and eyes.

He gritted his teeth and turned his head to look at the ground.

He is now much better able to control his anger than ever before.

Or perhaps this matter isn't worth getting angry about at all.

That "Unrestrained" style was utterly clumsy, devoid of spirit and its form distorted... The poor imitation was laughable. He felt no threat whatsoever. If it really came down to a sword fight, let's see. Do you even know what a sword is? So what if you've surpassed Gao Ge? Even if you've surpassed He Yaoyao or Lu Wei, I'll still make you kneel with a single strike. A clown trying to imitate the way others walk in Handan dares to draw his sword before me...

But that was a lie; he was genuinely angry.

Angry.

When Pei Ye saw that sword, even if it was just an old image, even if it was just a pirated shell, he still felt a sharp pain in his heart.

You dare to touch his sword?

“I’ve come to visit Senior Ying,” Pei Ye said in a low, hoarse voice. “I want to ask about this matter. I don’t know why Yong Ji suddenly possesses such swordsmanship skills, nor do I know why he can use a portion of [Unrestrained]. I guess it’s his eyes.”

"You know he has a powerful left eye."

“I know, but I don’t know its purpose or its origin,” Pei Ye said. “I think you are probably the only one in the world who knows.”

“You guessed right. Yongbei obtained that eye eighteen years ago and placed it inside his own eye. We confirmed this a long time ago,” Ying Suyu said. “I just didn’t expect him to take it out here and hand it to Yongji. I thought we wouldn’t be able to get it back until we killed him.”

Is this eye important?

Ying Suyu paused for a moment: "Perhaps. I suspect that many things later were actually related to it, and the cost of separating Yongbei from it would not be small."

She tilted her head slightly, as if recalling something: "I do know some things; he told me about it. That eye was given to him by an old, sage-like man when he was very young. At that time, his left eye had been stabbed out, and he was covering his face, bleeding."

"He has talked about the wonders of this celestial eye many times. What he talks about most often is that it always seems to be pulling him and guiding him, as if it wants him to go somewhere, but he didn't have the time or interest at the time."

"'I already have a mountain of troubles on my hands, why would I go looking for more? I'll be grateful if this thing can even serve as an eye.' That's exactly what he said." Ying Suyu smiled, then lowered his eyes. "But he probably still went later. After leaving the capital."

Pei Ye listened quietly.

"Regarding the function of this eye, he once mentioned three points. First, it is sensitive to true qi and spiritual essence, and can better perceive the flow of a person's true qi and the mobilization of spiritual essence; second, it possesses the ability of the mind realm; and third, it can record."

"Record?"

“Yes,” Ying Suyu said. “This is what he mentions most often. He always says that he can still see every detail of our time in the Lishui River in the southwest. He says that those memories are bound to another sword style. He also sometimes says that the eye will give him some swordsmanship decisions when he fights, all based on his previous sword fighting experience.”

"Senior, are you saying that the eye possesses Grandpa Yue's experience in swordsmanship?"

"Or rather, it observed and absorbed those, thereby acquiring a certain level of swordsmanship and decisiveness that could be used by its contemporary host," Ying Suyu said. "However, he often said that those 'suggestions' were boring and cumbersome."

"...It sounds like it's alive."

"It is indeed alive."

"what?"

“He said that when this eye came in, it looked like an octopus crawled into half of his head. Those patterns were the tentacles buried underneath. Hearing that made me not want to see him for several days.” Ying Suyu smiled, then paused. “As for swordsmanship like [Unfettered], it should also be recorded in it. However, his sword is different from all the swords in the world. It can never be learned just by memorizing it. It has always been a technique that only he can use.”

"...So Yongji can use its projection."

"Yes."

“But there’s one thing I don’t understand,” Pei Ye said. “Using a sword requires sword talent. Even if you obtain a treasure trove, someone who can’t lift anything can’t bring anything with them. How can Yong Ji use those sword skills? Could that eye help him make up for the deficiency in his sword talent… but it’s just an eye.”

Ying Suyu remained silent for a moment, then shook his head: "I don't know either."

Pei Ye was deep in thought.

Ying Suyu looked at him: "What do you think of Yong Ji's sword strike?"

Pei Ye was silent for a moment: "It was clumsy, but quick."

"Is it faster than the [Unfettered] state you've learned?"

"...Without activating [Sleeve Tiger], the difference is negligible."

“That should be the case. Because he was already very powerful when he lost this eye,” Ying Suyu said. “So even some remaining experience is enough for him to run rampant in the Scale Tribe; a fake old shadow is enough to astonish the world quickly.”

Pei Ye lowered her eyes: "It's because... I myself didn't learn it well. I can't use this sword technique well, which has brought shame to Grandpa Yue."

Ying Suyu gently pressed his hand down: "But only you in the world can use it well."

"..."

"Truth is truth, and falsehood is falsehood. Even if a pine seedling is shorter than a weed for a time, and even if a weed grows impressively for a time, you know clearly which one can truly soar straight into the sky."

Ying Suyu smiled slightly: "Aren't you burdened with the Mirage Realm? If you can't learn it well, just let him teach you a few more times. Outsiders can only get an old shadow no matter how hard they try, but we family members can use the real thing if we want. Why bother with this?"

Pei Ye remained silent, then said in a muffled voice, "He refused to teach me. Every time, I had to lie for a long time before he killed me. He also refused to take me on as his apprentice and wouldn't properly explain to me how to use it."

Ying Suyu narrowed his gentle eyes, put his hand on his hip, and said, "He wouldn't dare."

(End of this chapter)