Wandering Sword Seller's Life in the Qin Dynasty

Finally, she had the idea of ​​wanting to see him again.

This idea has finally come true today.

“People change. You only mentioned my changes, but you didn’t mention your own changes.” Xu Qing said calmly, his gaze falling on the woman in front of him.

The other person's appearance at this moment was completely different from their previous meetings.

It was neither the glamorous, powdered face she wore when she frequented brothels, nor the cold, aloof figure she had when she was in the Net, clad in fish-scale armor and wearing a metal mask.

Instead, she wore a simple, coarse cloth outfit, looking similar to a village woman. But this lack of deliberate adornment only accentuated her ethereal beauty, after all, she was naturally beautiful.

"I don't know how to address you now?"

"Jing Ni? Or... Long'er?"

Xu Qing mentioned two names that were extremely familiar to the person in front of him.

Upon hearing this, the woman paused slightly, her gaze becoming somewhat complicated.

Strictly speaking, neither of these two names is actually her original name.

The former was the name given to her by the Luo Wang after she became a first-class member of the Luo Wang organization. It was named after a sword, which was also the destiny of all first-class members of the Luo Wang organization.

The latter was her alias used in the brothels during her time in Xinling.

Very few people know the name that follows.

And the person in front of her was one of them, and today she even mentioned him in front of her.

"Call me whatever name you like." After a moment of contemplation, the woman spoke. Although she had escaped the net, she did not deny her past.

Whether it's Jingni or the earlier Long'er, they are all part of her life.

"Then I'll still call you Jingni."

Xu Qing spoke calmly.

“With the sword in their name, within the Net, they are slaves to the sword, but outside the Net, they may be masters of the sword, and the sword becomes famous because of the person.”

"How come I never noticed before that you are so eloquent?" The woman, or rather Jing Ni, smiled slightly as she listened to Xu Qing's words.

"Then I can only say that we haven't had enough contact in the past, and you don't know me well enough," Xu Qing replied.

Jing Ni nodded to herself, confirming that this was indeed the case.

Even though the person in front of her had left a different mark on her heart, in fact, they hadn't really interacted much before.

If I really want to count them, I've only seen them a few times.

"How have you been all these years? Has the Luo Wang organization stopped bothering you?" Jing Ni asked Xu Qing.

Hearing this question, Xu Qing paused for a moment, looking at Jing Ni with surprise, "You're... concerned about me?"

Jing Ni did not avoid Xu Qing's gaze and calmly said, "Back then, I was the one who led you into the Luo Wang. Later, I betrayed the Luo Wang. If you have been implicated because of me, I feel a little guilty."

Xu Qing fell silent for a long time before saying in a complicated tone, "You've changed quite a bit."

"As a former ruthless killer, he actually took the initiative to care about others and was concerned about whether he would implicate them."

Jing Ni did not refute. Over the years, she had personally integrated into the mortal world. Unlike the puppet in the Luo Wang who only knew how to carry out missions, she had developed "emotions." As an assassin, this was something she could not have, but as a human being, it was proof that she had once existed.

She wanted to be a real person rather than an assassin.

"I've had a pretty good life these past few years. I've enjoyed the scenery of the water towns in Jiangnan and also experienced the ice and snow of the North."

Xu Qing briefly recounted his experiences over the years, which mainly consisted of traveling between countries and experiencing their customs and cultures.

After listening to Xu Qing's experiences, Jing Ni thought of the infamous "Sword Maniac" Xu Qing, which was the talk of the town in Yan. That was Xu Qing's experience in Yan, and similar experiences were obviously not limited to Yan. In other words, Xu Qing had had a very "rough" life in the past few years.

However, since Xu Qing didn't mention these things, she naturally didn't say anything more.

"That's pretty much my experience."

"As for you, you've really kept it well hidden all these years!"

Xu Qing looked at Jing Ni in front of him and sighed. During his journey, he would occasionally think of Jing Ni, but even he could not find her whereabouts.

Similarly, another organization also wanted to find Jing Ni and retrieve the sword, but they never succeeded.

"The Net has been searching for your whereabouts in a long and arduous search, but to no avail!"

Jingni's gaze immediately hardened.

"You still have connections with the Luo Wang?"

It would be absolutely impossible to know Luo Wang's movements without having connections with Luo Wang.

Jing Ni had thought that her advice and the destruction of some files before leaving Luo Wang would make the person in front of her completely break away from the Luo Wang organization, but now it seems that this is not the case.

"I do still have connections with the Luo Wang!" Xu Qing did not hide anything and answered Jing Ni's question truthfully.

"You!" Jing Ni looked at Xu Qing in disbelief upon hearing this.

She knew, of course, that Xu Qing was very bold and that he had joined the Luo Wang organization back then, most likely to seize the sword-forging materials within it.

But you only need to do that once or twice.

If you do too much and become deeply entangled with the web of intrigue, it will be very difficult to extricate yourself from it.

Since there is an opportunity to completely escape the snare, why not seize that opportunity instead of continuing to entangle with it?

“I know you are extremely wary of the Luo Wang, but the Luo Wang is a powerful force that spans all the countries in the world. If you can make good use of this power, you may not be able to gain benefits for yourself... What is poison to you may be candy to me.”

Xu Qing did not elaborate much on his arrangements within the Luo Wang network.

He only briefly mentioned one point: "You are not the only one among the top-ranking members who want to betray the Net. Not everyone is willing to become a sword slave. The difference is that you have successfully escaped the Net, while others remain in the Net and strive for this goal."

Jing Ni's expression changed again. She hadn't expected that this matter would involve other top-ranking individuals.

She wanted to ask who Xu Qing was.

But then I gave up.

After all, she really didn't want to get too entangled with the Luo Wang organization.

"You already know what I've been through all these years. Now you can tell me what you've been through." Xu Qing's expression was calm. The matter of the Luo Wang did not cause him any emotional fluctuations. He then asked Jing Ni.

Jingni gathered her thoughts and began to recount her experiences over the years.

Unlike Xu Qing's eventful life over the years, Jing Ni's life has been remarkably uneventful.

However, the place where she was staying surprised Xu Qing greatly.

Chapter 222 Jingni's Return, Before Parting

There's not much to say about Jingni's life in the early days after she escaped the net.

They simply hide and flee throughout the world to escape the pursuit of the net of justice.

Later, perhaps due to internal changes within the Luo Wang organization, the number of people chasing her suddenly decreased, and she gained a period of peace. It was during this time that she coincidentally joined a sect, where she remains to this day.

Xu Qing was very familiar with the sect where she was temporarily staying; it was the Farmer's School!

He had just parted ways with Tian Guang, the leader of the Farmer's Clan, and Jing Ni appeared shortly after Tian Guang left. Now that he thought about it, it was no coincidence. Jing Ni probably followed Tian Guang and that's how she found this place.

Of course, Xu Qing's thoughts went beyond just these.

He once again recalled the plot points related to Jing Ni in the original novel. In the original novel, after Jing Ni betrayed Luo Wang, she hid in a farmhouse.

She became engaged to Tian Meng, the head of the Lieshan Hall, and Tian Yan thus became Tian Meng's stepdaughter.

But who would have thought that while she was pregnant with Tian Ci, her identity was discovered by Tian Meng, who did not hesitate to kill her. Although he did not take her life, he crippled her martial arts skills.

It was this sudden attack that caused Tian Ci to be born prematurely, resulting in mental impairment and making him an intellectually disabled person.

These past events were all recounted by Tian Yan to everyone later.

It's hard to tell what's true and what's false.

However, judging from the overlooked details in the original work, Tian Meng is by no means a good person. On the surface, he is the dignified and just leader of the Lieshan Hall, but in secret he is ambitious. In order to compete for the position of leader of the Farmer's Clan, he does not hesitate to secretly collude with forces and eliminate dissidents.

Jingni's decision to attach herself to him was ultimately a result of her poor judgment of character, leading her astray.

Thinking of this, Xu Qing looked up at Jing Ni, who was sitting quietly opposite him, and asked in a deep voice, "You've stayed in the farmhouse for so long, what kind of person do you think Tian Meng is?"

Jingni was taken aback at first, but then she came to her senses.

Having lived in hiding in the farmhouse for many years, she knew the heads of the various branches of the farmhouse. Tian Meng, as the head of the Lieshan branch, was an important figure in the farmhouse, so she was naturally familiar with him.

Although she didn't understand why Xu Qing suddenly mentioned Tian Meng, she still answered truthfully: "Tian Meng appears to be upright on the surface, but in reality he is ambitious and ruthless, and is by no means a kind person."

"Since you knew he wasn't a good person, why did you still..." Xu Qing's words were cut short, but her tone carried a hint of probing.

Jing Ni was stunned again. She looked up at Xu Qing, her eyes full of surprise: "You don't actually think that there's some special relationship between me and Tian Meng, do you?"

"Don't you have any?" Xu Qing raised an eyebrow.

Upon hearing that Jingni had joined the Farmer's Clan, his first thought was of her entanglement with Tian Meng in the original story. But now, hearing Jingni's words, it was clear that things had deviated from what he had imagined.

“Tian Meng is the head of the Lieshan Hall, while I am a member of the Siyue Hall!” Jing Ni explained her identity in the Farmer’s Clan to Xu Qing with certainty. After she finished speaking, a faint smile suddenly appeared on her lips. “Speaking of which, my joining the Siyue Hall is actually related to you in some way.”

Seeing the curiosity in Xu Qing's eyes, Jing Ni explained the matter in more detail.

Basically, she was originally wandering the world. Although she joined the Farmer's Clan, she only regarded it as a temporary place to stay and did not intend to stay for long. However, she heard the name "Xu Qing" in the Farmer's Clan. She found out that Xu Qing had business dealings with the Four Mountains Hall.

Therefore, he eventually joined the Four Mountains Hall.

"Siyue Hall is indeed a good establishment," Xu Qing commented.

The two branches of the Tian brothers were clearly the worst.

As for Gonggong Hall, it's doing alright at the moment, but the future leader of the hall is "Tian Zhong," who is not a good person either, even worse than Situ Wanli. Situ Wanli would betray his friends for profit, but this person directly betrayed his adoptive father and even changed his surname in order to sever ties with the Zhu family.

The remaining three are the main branches.

At present, Kuiwei Hall has fallen into the hands of Da Tiechui. If Jingni had chosen to join Kuiwei Hall back then, it would have been a good choice now. But back then, who would have thought that Da Tiechui would not have joined the Mo family, but instead joined the Farmer's School?

The last Shennong Hall is actually the best one.

However, this is only relatively speaking.

Overall, after escaping the net, Jingni's choice to go to a farm was not a good one.

"You seem to have many friends." Jing Ni looked at Xu Qing, her tone tinged with complexity.

Situ Wanli, the leader of the Four Mountains Hall, is Xu Qing's close friend; Tian Guang, the leader of the Farmer's Clan, values ​​Xu Qing highly and even discusses some of the Farmer's Clan's secrets with him; even the new leader of the Kuiwei Hall, Da Tiechui, has a close relationship with Xu Qing.