Food Fairy Lord

Chapter 840 One Mile

Chapter 840 A Thousand Miles (Part Six)
Lu Yuque stood up and, under the silent gaze of hundreds of eyes, walked step by step to Si Tiesong.

Si Tiesong put his hands behind his back, expressionless and silent. Lu Yuque pursed his lips, tied his wrists tightly, and then brought him to the young man in the forest.

He stood before the white-clad corpse, having already used the tip of his sword to pry open the mask, revealing a pale, young, and handsome face.

“I don’t recognize this person,” he said. “Has Palace Master Si seen him before?”

Si Tiesong had obviously seen him before.

He stared at the face in silence for a long time before saying, "This is Sheng Yuse."

"Sheng Yu Se?"

“Yes. Yi Jian Nan Zong, Sheng Xuefeng’s son,” Si Tiesong said. “Young Master Pei should have given him a chance to say something before killing him.”

"Is that so? Does Palace Master mean that I won't kill him just because he's Sheng Xuefeng's son?"

"..."

“Precisely because he is Sheng Xuefeng’s son, Sheng Xuefeng cannot escape responsibility.” The young man raised his eyes and said calmly, “Kunlun has lived in the west for a long time and probably doesn’t know me very well. It doesn’t matter, we will get to know each other later.”

He did not take Lu Yuque back, but sat there. Three quarters of an hour later, the Immortal Terrace of Dayue City rode over on horseback, with only five riders including a clerk.

Looking at this scene, only the leader, Prosecutor Chang, managed to maintain a normal expression.

Xianrentai has not been established for many years, and the west is indeed one of the most difficult places to infiltrate. It is vast and desolate, far from the imperial court, and the Changjian stationed there is indeed only one weak and powerless person.

"Detain these two. I have already sent word to the Xilong Immortal Terrace that they will come to pick them up tomorrow, or at the latest the day after."

Chang Jian's face turned slightly pale: "This, this, it's not that I'm unwilling to do my duty, but... my skills are meager, I've only just achieved seven lives."

"It's alright, Palace Master Si is already a Grandmaster. He will protect himself and you."

Si Tiesong remained silent, which was tantamount to acquiescing.

"Let's go." The young man led the horse over, handed it to Lu Yuque, and mounted it.

He didn't seem to care much about his recent victory. After giving his instructions, he abandoned the others and continued westward with her.

"You, you...Young Master Pei, may I ask you a question?" Lu Yuque suddenly spoke as they approached Donglu City, his voice trembling with surprise.

"what?"

Who exactly are you?

……

"Are you really Pei Ye?"

The seven-word melody rose and fell with its own rhythm. Lu Yuque moved closer to him, looking him up and down, his bright eyes blinking as if he were examining some rare treasure.

Pei Ye stopped eating: "Are you going to eat or not? The noodles are going to get soggy."

Lu Yuque lowered her head, picked up a chopstick and put it in her mouth, but her eyes were still fixed on him: "Are you really Pei Ye?"

"Yes."

“I don’t believe it,” Lu Yuque said.

The streets of Donglu City were bustling with people, but the noodle stalls were sparsely populated. Pei Ye and Lu Yuque sat at a table. Pei Ye had already finished two bowls of noodles, while Lu Yuque's bowl was still half full.

"If you don't believe it, then it's not true."

"then who are you?"

You can call me Zhang Siche.

Who is Zhang Siche?

“It’s me.” Pei Ye peeled a clove of garlic and threw it into the bowl.

Lu Yuque laughed.

She swallowed two mouthfuls of noodles, then leaned closer and asked cautiously, "Then, do you really know the fastest sword in the world?"

"I know a little."

"Then, I've heard that your sword can take a person's head from eight zhang away, and then return the sword to its original position, so that no one can see it clearly... Is that true?"

"more or less."

"Why?" Lu Yuque's eyes widened. "How could you do it so fast?"

“I’m finished eating, Miss Deer.”

"I've finished eating—I'm full." Lu Yuque jolted awake, picked up his sword, and said, "Let's not delay, shall we go now?"

"Eat quickly," Pei Ye said with a smile.

Lu Yuque felt a little embarrassed, lowered his head and quickly finished the bowl of noodles to fill his hungry stomach.

Pei Ye opened a map: "We still have an afternoon left today, enough to travel about a hundred li. Miss Lu, look, let's stay in this town tonight and set off early tomorrow. In three days, we'll reach Tingzhou."

"Tingzhou?"

“Yes. Tingzhou is the city of Yetian.” Pei Ye said, “Three hundred li to the west is Tianshan Mountain, and two hundred li to the north is Yanzi Mountain. At the invitation of the Tianshan Yaochi Alliance, all the factions in the western region are gathered in this city.”

“Hmm.” Lu Yuque paused for a moment. “Then there must be a lot of people.”

“Yes. At least most of the well-known sects in the two regions are probably already in this city.” Pei Ye put away the map. “Kunlun and Yijian Southern Sect must be here as well.”

"Shouldn't we avoid this?" Lu Yuque subconsciously touched the "Unexplained Sword Sutra" in his arms, somewhat worried. "If people from Kunlun Yanri Palace and Yijian Southern Sect come... then I think many people will want this martial arts manual."

"Avoid it, then what?"

"After that...after that..." The young man turned his head to look at her, and Lu Yuque was momentarily speechless.

"Miss Deer, what do you want to do?" he asked.

"……I think?"

“Yes, you think about it. You value this martial arts manual extremely, and you won’t let it out of your sight for even a moment,” Pei Ye said. “If you were truly afraid of their pursuit, you could have used it to secure your safety long ago. Why carry it with you on your escape, living in constant fear?”

"..."

"Now that your enemy is dead, where will you take it and flee to?"

Lu Yuque lowered his head, a torrent of indescribable emotions surging within him.

She watched as the man in white was killed, his limbs severed, and he died in agony, and she did feel a sense of satisfaction... but she soon realized that no emotion was actually relieved by it.

There was no anger, no grief, no confusion, and no sense of powerlessness.

Even if you pull the knife out, break it, or stomp on it a thousand times, the bloody hole left behind will never heal.

Jiandu Villa will forever remain empty; Father, Mother, and every familiar face will never return.

Therefore, she could not live without this martial arts manual. It was as if she were holding onto the last breath of the sword at the secluded villa.

“Because as long as you still carry it, the spirit of Jiandu Villa has not been extinguished.” Pei Ye said softly, “You have to make it public. Countless sects and gangs have come at your father’s summons. If you don’t fulfill your father’s promise to them, how can you prove that you are a good daughter of Jiandu Villa?” Lu Yuque stared at him blankly, two lines of clear tears flowing down her cheeks: “Yes… that’s how it is… I didn’t want to go with Lushan because… because they refused to make it public immediately.”

“So, we’re not just going to Tingzhou, we’re going to let everyone know we’re going to Tingzhou,” Pei Ye said. “We’ll take the main road, openly and honestly. So what if we get to Yetian City? Let’s see who dares to stop us.”

"..." Lu Yuque looked at him and felt a surge of warmth rise from her cold heart and lungs to the top of her head. With tears in her eyes, she gave a heavy "Mmm!"

"Let's go." Pei Ye smiled, stood up, and untied the two horses.

Lu Yuque wiped away her tears and took the gift. The two walked hand in hand toward the city gate. A cloaked puppet followed behind them.

“Si Tiesong doesn’t know much, but their influence is huge,” Pei Ye said. “They’re just stirring things up to get this martial arts manual, and the martial world is in turmoil.”

"Why did Kunlun make a move? They're already that powerful."

“Kunlun doesn’t think that way,” Pei Ye said. “They have lived in the West for a long time, so they have little access to the political situation in the Central Plains and do not have the high position of Tianshan. Now that the Western Regions have undergone great changes, they see it as a time for a reshuffling.”

"..."

“It’s not just them. Since the Snow Lotus of Martial Arts sprouted, the martial arts world in the Western Region has been in turmoil, and there are many similar people,” Pei Ye said. “I call them hyenas. They roam around, waiting for an opportunity to devour others. However, Kunlun is indeed the largest one.”

"...They gained nothing, but many people died." Lu Yuque lowered his eyes.

"Those who died weren't their people. Half of them died on Lushan Mountain, and Huashanglou was destroyed. The remaining casualties were all from small gangs and innocent pedestrians."

"Yes." Lu Yuque paused for a moment.
“The Southern Sect of Yi Jian is a vicious wolf,” Pei Ye said. “They must know something, and they have their own goals to achieve and things to hunt. They don’t care at all about harming the innocent for this purpose.”

"The Southern School of Swordplay is a renowned sword sect throughout the land." Lu Yuque stared blankly at the horizon. "It has thousands of disciples and countless masters... I never imagined that I would associate with such a sacred and powerful sect..."

“There are also countless vultures and venomous snakes. The more corpses that fall, the more of these things there are,” Pei Ye continued. “This is the current state of the Western Jianghu. Miss Lu, before your sect suffered this tragedy, countless bloodshed had already occurred elsewhere.”

"Thank you for saving my life, Young Hero Pei," Lu Yuque suddenly said earnestly.

"It's what I should do."

"Why do you say that...? Why did Young Master Pei come to Xilong?"

"We came here for what the Heavenly Mountain calls the Western Queen Mother's Celestial Court. But now I want to clean up the Western Territory first." Pei Ye stood up. "Let's go, Miss Lu."

"Ah."

They remained mostly silent throughout the journey, and after an afternoon, the two successfully arrived at the desolate little town.

There weren't even any inns in the town, so the two of them didn't look for anyone to stay with. They bought some food and started a campfire on a hillside outside the town.

The western night sky was vast and indescribably clear, and the firelight danced on the two people's bodies and faces.

The cold wind was blowing hard, but fortunately, it was blocked by two large rocks.

With the sword on his lap and the cat in his arms, Lu Yuque seemed to be in better spirits, but he couldn't help looking at him all the time. Pei Ye pretended not to notice and flipped through the letter in his hand.

"You're amazing," she suddenly said.

Even though Pei Shaoxia kept a straight face, he couldn't escape such sincere and sudden praise, so he could only turn around and smile: "Miss Lu."

"Are you really Pei Ye?" she whispered.

"Ah."

"Oh my god..." she stared at the man, "You, why aren't you staying on the Fu Bang? What are you doing here?"

Lu Yuque didn't realize that this was a foolish thing to say. Even though almost a day had passed since he put away his sword, she still looked at the young man beside her with a special kind of astonishment.

“Oh right. You’re no longer on the list.” She looked at him and corrected herself.

Pei Ye held the top spot on the ranking list for nine months.

In fact, he had already entered the Xuanmen in the seventh month, but two more months passed before the ranking list was updated, so he remained in the rankings for a while longer, suppressing the rankings of the next few by sixty days.

Yan Feiqing refused to accept this humiliation and ascended the Xuanmen Jade Steps the next day. However, Tianmu, Luwei, and Heyaoyao lacked the courage and remained below, jointly protecting the glory of Young Master Pei.

This news was a shock to the martial arts world of the Tang Dynasty.

Pei Ye's name spread far and wide. No matter how unfamiliar the two characters were, they became familiar after nine months. Without any prompting or arrangement, tabloids, teahouses, storytelling halls, inns, and taverns all eagerly spread the tales of Young Hero Pei's exploits in the martial world.

Everything related to Pei Shaoxia is indeed solid. Whether it's the original version or the perfunctory adaptation, every episode is worth talking about. What's even more remarkable is the abundance of versions, catering to a wide range of tastes. Whether you want to hear the chilling "Single Sword Eight Waters, Killing Xuan in the Rainy Night," the bright "Before the Crowd, One Sword Wins the Championship," or the tender "The Romance Between Pei Ye, His Highness the Crown Prince, He Yaoyao, Cui Zhaoye, Li Piaoqing, Ming Qitian, Shi Zan, Xue Ji, Jiu Ying, and Hongzhu Tianmu, there's always something to suit your taste.

It's hard not to wonder how intensely he spent those eight months in Shenjing.

Xilong was also swept away by this strong wind.

“Fu Bang doesn’t tie people to pillars,” Pei Ye said.

"Why do you have a little bird on you?" Lu Yuque asked. "If it weren't for it, I might have recognized you much earlier."

Do you know me well?

“I—” she paused, “I’m more familiar with it.”

Lu Yuque would never reveal which stories about him he had read.

Even though every description says that Pei Ye has a blue sword and a yellow sword, and is accompanied by an adorable black cat, she never connected the person in front of her with that image far away in the capital.

“You are completely different from the image I had in my mind,” she said.

"Really? What does Miss Deer think of me as?"

“First of all, I thought your hair was tied up like this… like this, you know?” Lu Yuque gestured with both hands above his head, speaking with great interest. “Then your face, I thought you were born more… more fierce…”

She kept talking, from head to toe. Pei Ye lowered his head and smiled as he flipped through the papers, not wanting to interrupt her. This woman was full of emotions and came and went quickly, but in recent days, she had obviously not shown such a smile much.

Lu Yuque laughed for a while, then stopped on his own.

After a long pause, she suddenly said, "Then, then you're only nineteen years old."

"Yeah, what?"

She thought for a moment and said, "I'm a year older than you."

“Really? I thought you were younger.” Pei Ye was slightly surprised.

"Yeah. I'm twenty... actually, almost twenty-one."

"I really couldn't tell."

"Am I born very young?" Lu Yuque sat with his legs tucked in, his chin resting on his arm.

"Not entirely, because—there's nothing wrong with that."

"What?" Lu Yuque's eyes widened. "How could you say that? You only told half of it."

"Because I think you cry a lot, so..."

Lu Yuque was stunned, and then his face gradually turned red.