Qin Shi: I went astray in the Heavenly Sect

Chapter 240 Investigating Origins, Confronting the Quicksand

"Sister Rong, that uncle has woken up."

Duanmu Rong was still arranging medicinal herbs in the courtyard when she suddenly heard Yue'er's sweet voice. She frowned slightly, seemingly somewhat surprised.

However, she didn't say anything about it. Yesterday, Gai Nie had already woken up once, but that time was very short.

Gai Nie's cultivation level is very high, and his physique and physical constitution are excellent. In other words, his foundation is very good. Therefore, it is understandable that he was able to wake up in just one day.

"It's good that he's awake. Tell Tianming that he was just clamoring to see his uncle."

Duanmu Rong continued to bend down and tidy up the medicinal herbs. With Qingxu's intervention, she didn't have any special feelings for this man from Guigu Valley; she just treated him as a patient.

Hearing Duanmu Rong's words, Yue'er stood there, somewhat conflicted. When she changed Gai Nie's bandages earlier, Gai Nie said he wanted to thank Duanmu Rong, but judging from Duanmu Rong's expression, she didn't seem to care about it.

"Sister Rong, that uncle said he wanted to thank you."

After thinking it over, Yue'er relayed Gai Nie's words to Duanmu Rong. Having been entrusted with a task, she had to be loyal to it. It must be said that the young girl did a good job in this regard.

"I don't need his thanks. Even if it wasn't him who came, I would still save him. Besides, I don't save people for the sake of gratitude."

This time, Duanmu Rong didn't even look up. Upon hearing the other person's words, Yue'er stuck out her tongue. In fact, she knew this in her heart. Duanmu Rong didn't have many rules when it came to saving people. As long as it wasn't a vicious and ruthless villain, she generally wouldn't stand by and watch someone die.

"Oh~~"

Seeing that Duanmu Rong didn't intend to pay attention, Yue'er nodded helplessly. Although she was young, she actually understood a lot about human relationships, but she still couldn't quite understand her sister Rong's way of doing things.

She wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt that her sister Rong had been in a good mood these past two days. Seeing that Rong was organizing medicinal herbs again, the girl thought for a moment and then went outside the courtyard. Old Man Ban said he would come back after sending the Xiang family away, so she went there early in the morning.

It's not that Tianming and Old Man Ban have a good relationship, it's just that Tianming is eyeing the mechanical bird that Old Man Ban has again.

As soon as she stepped out of the courtyard, she saw Qingxu walking slowly towards her from the lakeside.

"Master Qingxu~"

Yue'er had a good impression of this young man from the Taoist Heavenly Sect. He was neither arrogant nor had any other negative emotions; he was like the water in a mirror lake, calm and peaceful.

"It's Miss Yue'er!"

Upon seeing the little girl, Qingxu smiled and nodded, then casually asked another question.

Where are you going?

Yue'er blinked, remembering Duanmu Rong's relationship with the other party, and didn't hide anything, but said directly: "Tianming's uncle woke up, and Sister Rong asked me to tell Tianming that he was clamoring to see him this morning!"

Upon hearing this, Qingxu nodded.

"Tianming seems to be by the lake. Just turn one corner and you'll see him."

Yue'er seemed to recall some of the funny things that had happened before, and when she heard Tianming waiting expectantly by the lake, she couldn't help but laugh.

"I understand, thank you, Master."

Watching the little girl's departing figure, Qingxu narrowed his eyes slightly. Feiyan did not become the Crown Princess of Yan, but this little girl still appeared. He didn't know if this was a correction of fate or if there was another hidden reason for this.

He hadn't had a chance to talk to Duanmu Rong alone before, but now that those who were supposed to leave the medical manor had left, it was a good opportunity. After thinking for a moment, Qingxu lifted his leg, his figure flickered and disappeared from the spot. Then his figure appeared a few feet away and moved towards the courtyard.

Seeing that Duanmu Rong was organizing medicinal herbs, Qingxu did not disturb her, but instead found a place to sit down.

However, Duanmu Rong at this time was no ordinary person. With the special mental cultivation method provided by Qingxu, her realm had crossed the threshold of the Innate Realm and reached the Grandmaster Realm. However, her combat power was slightly weaker and her attack methods were somewhat limited.

After tidying up briefly, Duanmu Rong came to Qingxu's side.

"Have you packed it up?"

Seeing Duanmu Rong approaching, Qingxu couldn't help but ask a question.

Upon hearing this, the girl nodded slightly.

"The medical clinic is located by the lake, where the air is somewhat humid. The medicinal herbs need to be taken out and aired frequently to prevent them from getting damp. However, because of this, the clinic does not store too many spare medicinal herbs. If needed, they are usually collected from the mountains."

Upon hearing Duanmu Rong's explanation, Qingxu nodded. The medical manor was too close to the water source, so it was perfectly normal for such a situation to occur.

"This place is exactly the same as when I last came here; nothing has changed."

Qingxu raised his head and looked up at the azure sky, which was as clear as if it had been washed, with several birds circling overhead.

Upon seeing those little creatures, a strange light flashed in Qingxu's eyes. He was right; Wei Zhuang seemed to be really impatient. These birds were not other species, but Spywings, which were Bai Feng's tools for reconnaissance and tracking.

"You want change?"

Duanmu Rong's gaze was leisurely; everything in the medical manor was proceeding in an orderly manner, just like her life.

In this world, some people like adventure, some like excitement, but others prefer a peaceful and routine life. However, this is something that is impossible for her.

Because the medical clinic is not like any other place, many times, patients may be sent there without prior notice, and sometimes they may have some difficult and complicated diseases that would leave ordinary doctors at a loss.

Therefore, her life is never ordinary. Every time she saves someone, she is thinking about how to pull them back from the brink of death, rather than letting a life slip through her fingers.

"do not wish."

Qingxu shook his head.

To be honest, he's not a very nostalgic person, but there are some things he doesn't want to change.

"I once heard a poem that said, 'If life were only as beautiful as the first time we met.' The road of life is long, and many people drift apart along the way. I have thought about the reasons, but in the end, I attribute it all to helplessness, because that is the way of the world."

“What Master Nian Duan pursued throughout her life never changed, and she did not stop until her death. To be honest, I admire such a person. To outsiders, perhaps Master Nian Duan was stubborn and inflexible, but in my opinion, Master Nian Duan practiced perseverance and upheld her original aspiration. She knew how she should live her life, so every day of hers was valuable.”

Duanmu Rong lowered her eyelids, her mind suddenly feeling a bit chaotic.

She was an extremely intelligent woman, and from Qingxu's words, she discerned something else entirely.

In this young man's eyes, it seems that what he values ​​is not the medical clinic itself, but the people in the clinic.

Suddenly, Duanmu Rong seemed to sense something and subconsciously looked up. She saw the boy slowly raise his hand and then reach out to her.

Looking into the other person's calm gaze, Duanmu Rong felt a sudden panic, but when she tried to dodge, her body wouldn't obey her commands.

It wasn't until she felt that hand brush against her headscarf that the girl's cool and pretty face began to flush.

Seeing the girl with her head down, Qingxu seemed to sense something and shook his head with a light laugh.

As if by some strange twist of fate, he lightly flicked the girl's forehead.

Duanmu Rong winced slightly, her arched eyebrows furrowing involuntarily, before she looked over.

"you"

But as soon as she looked up, she saw that Qingxu had a white feather in his hand. The feather was small, but very peculiar.

"It's a bird feather talisman. You should have heard of the assassin named Bai Feng in the quicksand. This is his most commonly used method, which helps the spy birds gather information. This is a method of location tracking."

Duanmu Rong narrowed her eyes. If she wasn't mistaken, the bird feather talisman was on her headscarf, but she had no recollection of when it got there.

"The people of quicksand"

Perhaps because of her profession, this girl had never had much affection for assassins, so when she heard Qingxu mention Bai Feng, a hint of disgust appeared in her eyes.

"They probably can't wait any longer."

Qingxu sighed inwardly. There was no one around the medical manor at the moment, but that didn't mean Wei Zhuang and the others weren't planning to take action.

Who exactly is Tianming?

After a moment of silence, Duanmu Rong slowly raised her head and looked at Qingxu. She had suspected the child's identity before, and now that only the two of them were left in the courtyard, she wanted to verify it herself.

"You've already guessed it, that person and Gai Nie are friends from the mountains. They are both swordsmen, and that person is also skilled in assassination and has considerable combat strength. Over time, they became friends."

The two were now sitting on the ground. Duanmu Rong sat to the side, her knees slightly bent and her hands casually hugging her legs. When she heard Qingxu's words, a trace of reminiscence flashed in her eyes.

"According to rumors circulating in the martial arts world, wasn't it Gai Nie who stopped him from assassinating the King of Qin?"

Qingxu nodded.

“You’re right. If we really talk about it, Gai Nie was indeed the main culprit for his failed assassination attempt on Qin. But at that time, everyone was on their own side, so it’s hard to say who was right and who was wrong.”

"His junior sister was named Gongsun Liji. By chance, she was taken into Ying Zheng's harem. At that time, Liji was already pregnant. So his assassination attempt on Qin was not entirely due to Yan Dan. There were some things he had to do."

Duanmu Rong clenched her fists gently; such a tragedy was indeed a great shock to a young woman.

A man who, for the sake of his woman and child, is willing to single-handedly shake the imperial court—such courage is not something everyone possesses.

Thinking of this, the girl seemed to remember something else.

Back in Shouying City of Chu, Qingxu seemed to have done the same thing. At that time, he faced no fewer people than that person, or even more!
A heartwarming story is like a fine wine, becoming more fragrant and mellow with the passage of time. Just like the young man beside her, it's hard not to be moved.

"The wind howls, the Yi River is cold, the hero departs, never to return." Regarding the heroic act of assassinating the Qin emperor, she remembered a musician from the Mohist school composing a melody on the banks of the Yi River to bid farewell to his friend.

Do you think he did the right thing?

Qingxu flicked his finger, and the bird feather talisman shot straight into the sky like a flying knife, shooting down the spy-winged bird that was still circling above the medical manor. Then he continued to ask.

"I don't know, but I heard from those martial arts practitioners who came to seek medical help that Ying Zheng seemed to be a tyrant, and that he committed many evil deeds."

Upon hearing this, Qingxu suddenly smiled.

Perhaps the truth has been distorted in this way! In fact, what Ying Zheng did was, in his view, an effort to quell the turmoil in the world as soon as possible. It's just that he took too big a step, which was not easy for the people of the six states to accept.

"Am I wrong?"

Qingxu braced himself against the ground with one hand, moved closer to the girl, and then picked up two small stones from the ground.

Duanmu Rong felt a weight behind her and glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. She found that it was Qingxu leaning against her and wondered what he wanted to do.

Before long, her ears twitched slightly, and several whooshing sounds rang out in succession. The birds that had been lingering above the medical manor were all shot down by her.

Have you ever heard the saying, "One who stays near vermilion gets stained red, and one who stays near ink gets stained black"?

Qingxu clapped his hands and then continued to ask.

Duanmu Rong shook her head.

However, this statement is not difficult to understand; one can guess what it means simply from the literal meaning of the words.

"The people you come into contact with are all from the martial arts world, or more precisely, most of them are restless anti-Qin elements. How could you possibly hear anything good about the empire from them?"

"If the person seeking medical treatment were a minister or general of the empire, you might not hear these things."

"Whether a person is good or bad needs to be felt with one's own heart, rather than following the crowd. In the case of Ying Zheng, we need to look beyond the individual and consider the country as a whole. For the people of this era, his merits outweigh his faults."

"If the seven kingdoms had not been unified, the wars between them might have continued, and the number of people who died each year would have been far greater than it is now."

"Don't assume that those kings are all benevolent people. Take the case of Shouying City back then, for example. It's very likely that the King of Chu was manipulating things behind the scenes. In order to regain power and stabilize the court, those people are ruthless!"

Duanmu Rong was speechless for a moment. She had experienced exactly what Qingxu was saying, so she didn't know how to refute it.

Of course, this is also related to what Qingxu said about merits outweighing demerits. Qingxu did not mean that Ying Zheng had no faults at all, but rather that his merits outweighed his demerits.

“I’ve heard Master Ban say that Ying Zheng seems to think highly of you.”

Duanmu Rong then asked about another matter, which she was quite curious about, especially since the protagonist was someone she cared about a lot.

Qingxu shook his head.

"While I am optimistic, I had previously visited Xianyang City and Xianyang Palace, where I met him."

"We each have our own vision of the world, a different vision of the world. He couldn't convince me, and I couldn't convince him, so we parted on bad terms."

Upon hearing this, Duanmu Rong was taken aback.

The situation between Qingxu and Ying Zheng was not quite what was rumored. It was widely believed that Qingxu was indifferent to court affairs and refused Ying Zheng's request. However, the truth was that the two could not reach an agreement.

However, the topic ended there. Duanmu Rong did not delve any further, because she knew her own limitations and knew that there were some things she shouldn't know, and she didn't want to ask.

"If one day Tianming finds out his true identity, then Gai Nie..."

Upon hearing Duanmu Rong's words, Qingxu's eyes flickered slightly.

From an outsider's perspective, Gai Nie's actions at the time were not wrong, but from Tianming's perspective, Gai Nie was always one of the culprits who caused his father's death.

If he hadn't existed, the plan to assassinate the King of Qin might have succeeded. Of course, in that situation, Jing Ke might have died, but his death wouldn't have been so meaningless.

"I don't know the answer either, but time will tell. Everyone grows with time, even that little guy. That's how it is in the martial world. Many times there is no right or wrong, only different perspectives."

"Today we may become friends because of the same stance, but next time, we may become opponents because of different stances. This kind of thing is very common in the martial arts world."

“Of course, if he still can’t get it, that’s fine. Gai Nie will give him a fair chance to duel. But I think that with Gai Nie’s talent, Tianming will probably never catch up with him.”

Upon hearing this, Duanmu Rong shook her head.

How many people in this world can let go of family feuds and national hatred? Even one's own master is no exception. However, for Tianming, although Gai Nie was one of the culprits, the other party also saved him from dire straits. In this sense, the man did not seem to owe him anything.

"By the way, I do have something to tell you."

"what's up?"

"Who is Yue'er?"

"I don't know the specifics, but it was sent by someone from the Mo family. Judging from Master Ban's tone, her identity seems to be quite extraordinary. However, Yue'er is well-behaved and sensible, and I like her quite a bit."

"I see~~"

On the other side, Yan Lingji led Wushuang to a valley where they found Wei Zhuang, Honglian, Bai Feng, and the others. Upon seeing them, Wei Zhuang and the others did not look too happy.

After all, Wushuang was a member of Quicksand, and for him to betray them like this would be a glorious thing for any faction.

"You've got some nerve, daring to come knocking on my door."

Upon seeing Yan Lingji, Wei Zhuang's tone was chilling. He was indeed wary of Qingxu, but that didn't mean he was a coward who would only cower in fear.

The Taoist Tianzong sect has grandmasters, and so does the Guigu sect.

"Oh, why don't you dare?"

Upon hearing this, Yan Lingji smiled.

"We're all old friends. It's been so many years, I've missed you all a bit."

Bai Feng stood on a tree branch, toying with a bird feather talisman in his hand. Seeing Yan Lingji's indifferent expression, he narrowed his eyes and then examined her closely.

At first, he didn't find any clues, until he accidentally glanced at the wooden sword behind Yan Lingji, and his grip tightened subconsciously.

There are countless wooden swords in the world, but there are one or two that are worthy of everyone's attention, such as the one that this girl carries with her.

"Aren't you afraid that I will kill you?"

Wei Zhuang's pupils contracted. He naturally noticed what Bai Feng noticed as well. When he saw the wooden sword, he had a guess in his mind, but he still wanted to test the other party's background.

"Young Master once said that Quicksand has its own principles, and I have no intention of being your enemy. Last time, the Wolf King was able to leave alive. Mr. Wei Zhuang, you don't think it's because I couldn't kill him, do you?"

Upon hearing Yan Lingji mention the word "Young Master," the expressions of the people present darkened.

Who else could this girl call "Young Master" but the one from the Heavenly Sect?
"So, it seems I should thank you."

Yan Lingji waved her hand. She still didn't really like dealing with Wei Zhuang. This man was just as cold as the Blood-Clad Marquis.

Then she glanced at Honglian, who was standing to the side without saying a word, and after thinking for a moment, she said, "It was his idea to come here. There is also some news that I can give you for free. He is currently in the medical manor. If you really don't listen to my advice, you can go and try."

"He told me to tell you that the Medical Manor is not a place for fighting. If you really want to fight, then find another place. Also, Wushuang, he was originally one of our Baiyue people. Now there are only the two of us left in Baiyue, so I want to take him with me. Young Master has agreed to this."

Upon hearing this, the pupils of the people present shrank. Just moments ago, they were discussing how to make their move, but unexpectedly, the Grandmaster was in the Medical Manor. Those of them who had had contact with Qingxu before were still somewhat intimidated.

Especially the other party's incredible methods; it's hard to understand the extreme sense of oppression without experiencing it firsthand.

Even Wei Zhuang, who was present, couldn't guarantee that he could draw his sword smoothly in front of the other party.

If a force that could eclipse the heavens and earth were to crash down, driven by the formidable internal energy of a Grandmaster, it would likely result in an instant kill.

"He went down the mountain?"

Honglian glanced at Yanlingji with some surprise. In the past seven years, Qingxu had rarely gone down the mountain, spending most of his time on Mount Taiyi.

Yan Lingji knew in her heart that without evidence, it would be difficult to dissuade these people from their thoughts. So, after thinking for a moment, she mobilized her internal energy and summoned the peach sword behind her.

“Peach Blossom!”

Everyone saw the peach sword behind Yan Lingji suddenly unsheathed, hover in mid-air twice, and then land steadily in her hand.

Feeling the intense heat emanating from the peach-shaped sword, Bai Feng suddenly spoke up, "Is this the only peach-shaped sword listed in the Famous Swords Register?"

Honglian carefully examined it, and said leisurely, "This peach sword contains a piece of fire essence, which is actually from our Korea! In the end, it was successfully integrated into the wooden sword by Master Qingxu, which is why it is now a top-ranked divine weapon."

After saying this, Honglian looked at Yanlingji again and said, "Miss Yanlingji, the pursuit of Gai Nie is not a personal grudge of our Liusha, but an imperial warrant. Even if we don't take action, others will. Gai Nie is a problem right now. I don't think keeping him in the Medical Manor is a good idea."

"Young Master said he won't get involved in the affairs of Guigu. He will leave naturally once Gai Nie recovers from his injuries. But if Master Wei Zhuang wants to win unfairly and then obtain the title of Master Guigu, then..."

Wei Zhuang gave a cold laugh.

"What a ridiculous attempt to provoke him. Even if he recovers from his injuries, so what? Some things were already destined."

(End of this chapter)