Chapter 76: Old Lover?

The two contradicted each other. Who was she supposed to believe?

Pei! Fine, she won’t believe either!

“No matter which one of you is the real Pavilion Master, we have no past animosity nor any present hatred, so what is the meaning of this? Even if you want my life, you should at least give me an explanation?”

Upon hearing this, Boss Qing giggled nonstop. “Alliance Head Li surely is the model of ‘an eminent person has short memory’. It has only been half a year, yet not only did you forget about that matter, your memories of my family’s Pavilion Master has also been completely wiped clean. The rumor of Li Xueyi’s romantic and loose personality that has been spread throughout the Jianghu truly is genuine. My poor Pavilion Master deserves pity for thinking about and longing for you the entire half a year. Yet, it turns out the falling flower has interest but the flowing water is heartless. How lamentable.”

When Tang Doudou heard this, she couldn’t help but give a big eyeroll in her heart. Looks like she’ll have to find Bai Feiyun after she returns and extensively learn about her past circle of friends. Otherwise, she wouldn’t even know who she had encountered. And what’s with this Li Xueyi? Didn’t they say very few people had contact with him? Yet everywhere she went, there were people that recognized her and their relationships weren’t anything ordinary either.

“Ahem! My apologies, it’s been a little busy lately. However, I didn’t forget that matter, it’s just that I haven’t been able to get to it. I think your Pavilion Master also wouldn’t be so petty as to get angry over this, right? Why don’t you let us out first, then we can discuss this again?”

This wasn’t the time to have an acrimonious falling out, nor could she say that she lost her memories after being poisoned. All she could hope for was that the Pavilion Master cared about the matter a lot and overlooked her abnormal parts. If that didn’t work, she could only accept her fate.

When Boss Qing heard this, she turned silent. Just when Tang Doudou thought she wouldn’t agree, a third voice suddenly appeared in the darkness. “It’s really that Alliance Head forgot only because of being too busy?”

It’s a woman!

Tang Doudou looked hard at the surroundings, but couldn’t figure out the direction that voice came from.

When Lou Qingyun saw the person in the dark speak, he seemed to relax a little. He asked that person, “Pavilion Master Xin Yue and Alliance Head Li have a deep intertwining relationship, this is something everyone in Jianghu knows. However, ben xiaoye doesn’t seem to remember having any interactions with Pavilion Master. To bring me here without a word of explanation, wonder what is the meaning of this?”

He held back and didn’t ask what was going on with those bugs. If Rutaceae Pavilion was truly connected with the Demonic Sect, then that was no small matter.

The most worrying question right now was whether Xin Yue would kill in order to silence them. Li Xueyi was a first-rate expert and probably wouldn’t find it hard to escape. However, he was crapped.

Xin Yue didn’t reply to him and continued questioning Tang Doudou instead, “It’s because you were busy discussing passion and having talks of love with Baili Yu, right? Because you were flirting with him, you forgot the promise you made with me. As expected, Li Xueyi, you truly are heartless.”

The thick grievance in her tone caused Tang Doudou to be dumbfounded.

What the f*ck? It’s really a love debt that the damned ghost Li Xueyi stirred up!

But right now, she was Li Xueyi and Li Xueyi was also her. Hence, she had to handle these matters herself.

With regards to this, Tang Doudou was also exceptionally speechless. Even she couldn’t tell what part of herself was so great. She won’t discuss the fact that it caused Qing Yin to like her, but now a Xin Yue has shown up too. Could it be that the Old Heavens wants her to turn lesbian?

Could it be that Baili Yu was also a woman?

That’s why he’s insisting on becoming her bride?

Baili Yu’s androgynous face emerged in her head. This possibility really did exist...

Pei! Tang Doudou slapped this random thought out of her head and hastily pulled her line of thought that had flown off to outer space back into her body. After thinking for a while, she exposed a helpless expression. “Pavilion Master Xin Yue, this is a huge misunderstanding. There’s truly nothing between Baili Yu and I. You can think about it yourself, even if two men wanted to have a little something... ahem, it’s also not possible, right? As for Baili Yu insisting on being my bride, that’s just a temporary joke of his. After a while, he’ll lose interest.”

“Misunderstanding? Then why is it that from my point of view, Baili Yu seems to treat you differently?” Xin Yue’s displeased voice transmitted over. “Li Xueyi, even till this point in time, you’re still trying to use flowery, insincere words to coax me. That’s too hateful!”

“Aiy, everything I’ve said are truthful words. How could it be flowery insincere words? Pavilion Master Xin Yue, you’re exceptionally intelligent and should probably be able to differentiate between what is true and what is false!”

Xin Yue coldly laughed. “Li Xueyi would also speak truthful words? That’s truly an enormous joke!”

Whether Li Xueyi’s words are true or just shams, she wasn’t sure. But she, Tang Doudou, definitely speaks the truth ah!

From Xin Yue’s tone, it was clear that her current mood was quite bad. Tang Doudou didn’t know what promise she had with the departed Li Xueyi, but as the proverbs say, more words lead to inevitable failure. She decided to just shut up and didn’t continue the conversation.

Thinking again about the current situation, it was likely that she’ll really be treated as a heartless rat by this woman and killed if she made the wrong move.

Luckily, there was still a Lou Qingyun to keep her company to her grave, so that’s not too pitiful of a fate.

Tang Doudou’s thoughts started wandering off again. Meanwhile, Lou Qingyun probably didn’t have the energy to continue asking after being ignored by Xin Yue because he had been silent for a while. Then, the voice of Boss Qing came from above their heads. “Pavilion Master, there seems to be a disturbance outside. Should this subordinate head out to take a look?”

“There’s no need. There’s no other possibility for such a large disturbance except that it’s people here looking for them. Once I get the demonic bug to suck all of their blood and secretly throw their corpses into Huai River, even if Baili Yu manages to find out through investigation, he would only be able to follow the lead to the Demonic Sect’s Leader. At that time, once he starts fighting with Mu Ye, we can just wait in the background to reap the benefits,” said Xin Yue coldly.

After that much talking, it turns out the other party had long planned to take her little life ah!

Lou Qingyun sighed. He should have already thought of this, but no matter what, he couldn’t accept it. Li Xueyi was disloyal to Xin Yue, it was a matter of course that Xin Yue would take his life in retaliation, but what calamity had he incurred?

“Xin Yue, you’ve really underestimated Baili Yu and Mu Ye too much. Based on their intelligence and ability, how could they possibly miss the fact that this was a plot to shift blame? Even though your Rutaceae Pavilion has developed rapidly these past couple years, it won’t last against Baili Yu!” Although his Lou family had plenty of prestige in Huai City, in front of Baili Yu and the Demonic Sect, even in front of this Rutaceae Pavilion, it wasn’t powerful enough to compare. If he wanted to preserve his life, he could only borrow those two’s tiger skins.

“Humph, fear them? What a joke! As long as my Black Demonic Nightcrawlers mature, I can take over the martial arts circles. When that time comes, even the Lord of Cloud City wouldn’t be my match. So what need would I have to fear the two of them? Lou Qingyun, I advise you to obediently let my demonic bugs suck your blood. Perhaps that way, you can still live a couple more days. As for you, Li Xueyi...”

Hearing Xin Yin’s ominous dark tone, Tang Doudou gulped and then forced a smile. “In reality, if you need to feed the demonic bugs, you can just bring some death row criminals over. You can take a pint from each person and don’t even have to worry about offending anyone. No one would die either so you wouldn’t have to wear away any secret virtue, don’t you think so?”

The Black Demonic Nightcrawlers were the sacred bugs of the Demonic Sect. How did it end up in Xin Yue’s hands?

Xin Yue wasn’t even afraid of the Lord of Cloud City, so what exactly was her secret weapon? It definitely wasn’t the Black Demonic Nightcrawlers she talked about. If those toys were truly that amazing, then the Demonic Sect would have unified the martial arts circles long ago. How could they possibly still be socializing to gather connections?

Lately, Tang Doudou has learned about a lot of the matters regarding the martial arts circles while following Bai Feiyun around. She knew that although the Demonic Sect was impressive, their situation was actually not that great. After all, they were a newly arising power and even carried a reputation of carrying out unorthodox practicesT/N. The sects of the orthodox faction has always had the slogan of destroying those of the demonic path and defending traditional values. Due to Cloud City’s many years of military glory, no corrupt practices had appeared for many years. That’s why when the Demonic Sect was first established, they were seriously pitiful. Mu Ye was also quite a capable person to be able to hold on in that chaotic situation till now.

Soon after, due to the fact that the previous martial arts Alliance Head wasn’t the person the Cloud City selected, the martial arts alliance had a dispute with Cloud City for a while. There were a lot of matters that Cloud City refused to come out and handle and the two even had many battles and conflicts. This allowed the Demonic Sect to seize the chance to strengthen itself and grow. Only when Li Xueyi once again ascended to the large seat of the Alliance Head with the Lord of Cloud City’s order did Cloud City once again start helping the martial arts alliance suppress Mu Ye.

That was why the incident which Mu Ye took advantage of the Plum Garden Gathering to come make a deal with Li Xueyi occurred. Originally, the Lord of Cloud City was planning on directly getting rid of the Demonic Sect once Li Xueyi took the position. However, there was a setback where Li Xueyi was poisoned by the Disseminating Tassel Fragrance. Then, Baili Yu, this huge pain in the ass got dragged along. That’s why the plan to get rid of the Demonic Sect got pushed back again and again.

Back to the topic, even if that Black Demonic Nightcrawler was that powerful, it was still just a bug. They say that all living things coexist with mutual dependence after all, so there’s definitely something that can control them. That thing might just be within the Demonic Sect, so if Xin Yue wanted to get benefits by fishing from the sidelines, it truly wouldn’t be easy.

None of the people present were fools. What Tang Doudou could realize, the rest of them could also realize. She didn’t continue speaking and Lou Qingyun was thinking silently somewhere as well. It was actually Xin Yue that became impatient.

“How could those lowly people’s blood be fit for the demonic bugs to drink? I’ve chosen the highest quality blood to feed to the demonic bugs. Only this kind of blood would allow the demonic bugs to grow nice and fast... Hahaha, once they mature, I’ll extract the demonic bug’s juice to cultivate and my inner strength will increase by huge bounds. When that time comes, not even the Lord of Cloud City would be my match!”

Xin Yue started laughing wildly as if she got paranoia. Due to the hatchway being open, the surroundings wasn’t as dark. Tang Doudou faintly saw that there seemed to be someone’s figure swaying in front. It was just that the figure’s posture was extremely strange like a suspended puppet. In the current environment, it gave people an extremely creepy feeling.

Yet, laughter came from that direction. Tang Doudou couldn’t help but think of a very bad possibility - could it be that this strange figure is Xin Yue?

F*ck! She couldn’t be some strange creature, right?

What she saw, Lou Qingyun saw even more clearly. He even managed to see that the person’s hands and feet were locked with iron chains. Beyond the shock, puzzlement filled his heart. What exactly was going on?

The two looked at each other, then said at the same time, “Pavilion Master Xin Yue.”

“Ahem.” Tang Doudou didn’t expect Lou Qingyun to also speak and speedily reacted, “You go first.”

Lou Qingyun didn’t bother to be polite and directly continued, “I have a question I’d like to ask Pavilion Master Xin Yue to clear up. That way, at least I can understand why I died.”

“Ben zuo is in a good mood today. You can ask whatever you like. Once you clear things up, hurry up and pass on!”

Tang Doudou thought ‘crap’ again when she heard this. This Xin Yue is really beyond help. Her emotional fluctuation is so rapid, it seems very likely that she’s an old witch hag in the middle of the late stages of menopause!

When she recalled that Li Xueyi could have had affections with her in the past, Tang Doudou couldn’t help but shudder. Freaking meow! Isn’t that taste a little too heavy!?

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Credits: Translated by Chiyomira, Edited by ed.L

[Chiyomira's Corner]

T/N - The terms for those who cultivate on the orthodox path versus the unorthodox path is the righteous way(正道) versus the evil way(邪道) apparently. However, as some novels explore, the unorthodox way isn’t always evil... just not absolutely focused on being ‘just’. Also, in the same passage where this appears, it saids that those of the ‘righteous way’ defends traditional values, plus I seem to remember ‘orthodox’ appearing in a lot of translated novels, so I’ll be using orthodox vs unorthodox as well~