The tinderbox lit the oil lamp, which made the house flicker with light.
The wooden windows, tables and chairs were all shaky, and those near the wind vents would crumble with a slight push. The only intact piece of furniture in the room was a wooden cabinet in the corner, which was still acceptable because it was placed in a windproof position.
Zhao Mingchuan put on his tencel gloves and carefully opened the door. With a sharp creaking sound, fine dust floated in the air. There was nothing dirty in the cabinet that would offend the eyes. There were only a few thin clothes neatly stacked, a black bundle and a dark red purple clay teapot underneath.
Li Sui picked up the teapot. It was light and not a valuable item. But it was obvious that the owner of the teapot had cherished it very much. It was not scratched at all. The handle and spout were shiny and oily, and it looked quite old.
Zhao Mingchuan took out the rest of the things one by one, laid them out under the lamp, and said, "They all seem to be the clothes of a young boy. He looks slim, no more than sixteen or seventeen years old."
As for the bundle, it contained a wooden box containing a sewing kit, a handkerchief, a wine bag, a fish hook, and a broken piece of fishing net. There were a total of twenty or thirty items. Things that were easily bumped were wrapped in cloth.
All these factors combined are very consistent with the characteristics of Yuanyexing. The boy, thin, came from a fishing village in the East China Sea. His family was originally harmonious, but his parents died in a shipwreck, so he put all the memories of his home into this wooden box and brought it thousands of miles from his hometown to the snowy plain.
Zhao Mingchuan was puzzled: "If that's the case, then he should have treasured these belongings very much. Why did he stay in the stone house and not come back to visit for many years?"
Li Sui did not answer, but picked up the oil lamp on the table, walked along the wall, and finally stopped at the north and south corners.
Zhao Mingchuan also followed over, and when he saw it, he immediately gasped.
The stone used to build this stone house is hard basalt, which takes a lot of time to polish. It usually takes three or five strong men to work together and patiently polish it bit by bit to shape it. It should not be split by a knife or cracked by fire. But at this time, on the wall illuminated by the lights, there are fingerprints one after another, with different depths and uneven spots. In some places, the color is particularly dark, looking like dried human blood.
Zhao Mingchuan was shocked and quickly lit the firebox. He checked the rest of the stone wall again and found more scratches and many strange shallow pits. The pits were often accompanied by blood, as if they were punched out by someone. Because the color of the black rock is very dark, it is not easy to detect. If it was a light white wall, the bloodstains everywhere would have scared a lot of people.
Li Sui used his sword to sweep away the worn cotton wool on the bed, and found a rusty steel cable in the corner. One end of the cable was broken, and the other end was tied to an iron stake buried deep underground.
Zhao Mingchuan saw the clue: "This is a prison."
Moreover, the people imprisoned here must have suffered great pain all day long, leaving behind so many shocking traces. Since Yuan Yeyue insisted that this was his brother's residence, and the bundles and clothes in the closet did look like Yuan Yexing's, then...
Li Sui said: "He is dead."
Zhao Mingchuan was stunned: "Yuanye Star?"
Li Sui glanced at him.
Zhao Mingchuan probably realized that this question was a bit redundant, so in order to make himself look less stupid, he quickly added: "But if he dies, who is An?"
"Chitian."
It is said in the martial arts world that Chi Tian values An much more than other protectors, and he even teaches him kung fu personally. The two men's killing methods are indeed very similar, sometimes even exactly the same.
Zhao Mingchuan was even more surprised. He briefly sorted out the relationship between them. Yuan Yexing had been dead for a long time, and the master "An" who was active in the martial arts world was actually Chi Tian in disguise
Therefore, there are actually only fifteen guardians in the Burning Fire Hall, and there has never been any so-called "darkness".
Or maybe it did, but it obviously didn't last long.
The two men took the contents of the cabinet down the mountain.
Zhu Yanyin hadn't slept yet. When he heard the door open, he immediately threw off the quilt and ran out of bed without even having time to wrap himself in a cloak.
Li Sui ordered: "Stop and don't move."
The hand that Mr. Zhu extended enthusiastically stopped in mid-air. Why
Li Sui said: "I just touched a dead person's things."
Zhu Yanyin quickly took three steps back and said, "Okay, you are not allowed to go to bed before you finish taking a shower."
Things change so quickly.
The clean-loving nobleman from Jiangnan lay in bed for a long time before Li Sui came out from behind the screen. He wiped his hair with one hand, and his lips were steamed by the hot air... Ah, it's hard to describe. His shirt was open, and his pants were baggy. This kind of seductive look was intentional. So Zhu Yanyin cleared his throat and suggested, why don't you tie your belt first
Li Sui leaned against him: "I'm too lazy to tie it."
Zhu Yanyin: "Okay, then forget it. Let's get down to business. What's in the stone house on the mountain? Who is the dead person?"
Li Sui: “I’m too lazy to say.”
Zhu Yanyin: “?”
Li Sui stretched out two slender fingers and pinched his neck slowly like pinching a small animal, saying lazily: "Guess for yourself. If you guess right, I'll show you something good in two days."
Zhu Yanyin: What a bad taste, you big devil.
Li Sui looked at him with interest.
Zhu Yanyin: "Guess it!"
He wrapped himself in a blanket and sat on the bed: "You went to look for Yuanye Xing, but now you haven't brought him back. You also said there is a dead person on the mountain, so Yuanye Xing is dead."
Li Sui nodded: "Yes."
"Ye Yue insisted that her brother was still alive and was the guardian of the Burning Fire Palace, An. She was either not in her right mind or was deceived. I guess it was the latter."
"continue."
"The only person who can deceive her is Chi Tian. And the reason why Chi Tian wants to deceive Yuan Ye Yue is because Yuan Ye Yue still has value. Whether she helps him kill people or helps him practice martial arts, he wants her to be willing to serve him."
"Almost." Li Sui said, "I found Yuanyexing's things on the mountain. They were all the belongings of the Donghai fishing village. There are many bloodstains and impact marks on the walls. It seems that he did not die peacefully. Judging from the damage to the stone house, it has been vacant for at least two or three years."
"And the body?"
“No.”
Behind the stone house is a thousand-foot cliff, and the top of the mountain is covered with snow and wind all year round. If Chi Tian had thrown someone off the mountain, he would have been frozen by thick snow by now, and it would be unlikely to be found.
"So Yuan Yexing is dead, that's just your guess." Zhu Yanyin returned to lie down beside Li Sui, "But after listening to the situation in the stone house, I also think he is probably dead, otherwise he wouldn't have left his parents' belongings on the mountain and not gone back to check for so long."
Li Sui continued to pinch his neck lightly and heavily for fun: "Hmm."
"But that's not right." Zhu Yanyin leaned up a little more, "Although Lin Xuefeng is steep and dangerous, Yuan Yeyue is also a master. She loves her brother so much, why has she never gone up to see him in all these years?"
Li Sui said: "Maybe she wants to, but she doesn't dare."
Zhu Yanyin thought for a moment and said, "Are you saying that Chi Tian won't allow her to go up?"
"In fact, there is no need to issue an explicit ban. Just saying that Yuanye Xing doesn't want to see her, or else she will leave Linxue Peak and never come back, is enough to make Yuanye Yue stay at the foot of the mountain obediently."
"Then she really likes this brother." Zhu Yanyin rested his chin on his chest, "If Yuan Yexing is really dead, she will definitely avenge him, and then she will not help Chi Tian anymore. Let's take all those old things tomorrow and see how she reacts."
"good."
Zhu Yanyin wanted to analyze the situation again, but Li Sui had already pressed down on him, pressed his head against his chest, and said in a hoarse voice, "I'm tired."
There's even a hint of coquettishness in it.
Faced with this devilish posture, most scholars would not be able to stand it and their knees would become weak, but fortunately, Mr. Zhu was not an ordinary scholar, so he pulled the other's hair and emphasized: "If you are tired, just sleep well and don't take the opportunity to bite me."
Li Sui bit the inch of belt gently with his teeth, raised his head and smiled at him lazily, like the enchantress in the storybooks, with red lips and white teeth, alluring and charming, and eyes filled with the misty drizzle of spring, which would cause tears in his heart if he blinked.
No, something bad will happen.
Zhu Yanyin quickly pulled the quilt over his head and covered it.
Li Sui started laughing again, laughing against the quilt, shaking with all his body, not caring at all about his image as a super cold devil. Zhu Yanyin was laughed at so hard that his face turned red, and he simply turned his back to him and wanted to sleep, no longer caring about this weird guy with a unique sense of humor, but he was grabbed by the quilt, and this time it was not the belt that was bitten, but the tip of the nose, the ears, the chin and the Adam's apple. When it went down, the second son Zhu started to run around with his hands covering his clothes, but the fighting power of Palace Master Li was so strong that he could hold down ten scholars with just one finger.
So the rich young man from Jiangnan was held down.
The fine dampness at the tip of his heart surged into waves, making his limbs and bones weak. He bit the back of his hand and tried to push him with his other hand, but it was held tightly, causing him to feel sore and numb.
After a while, he finally couldn't stand it anymore and kicked him.
Li Sui let go of his hand, and covered him with his whole body, pinching his chin and kissing him passionately. Zhu Yanyin hurriedly turned his head and said, "Go rinse your mouth first—"
More sounds were rolled into the tip of the tongue.
Li Sui hugged him and kissed him madly and lovingly, with a little bit of strong oppression, leaving him no room to struggle and he could only respond. It was not until Zhu Yanyin began to cough with difficulty breathing that he let go and bit his red nose again.
The winter nights in Snow City are as humid as the plum rain season in the south of the Yangtze River.
The next morning, Zhu Yanyin rinsed his mouth almost three times. Zhu Xiaosui really didn't understand: "What did you eat, young master?"
Zhu Yanyin's body trembled, he picked up the cup he had just put down, and swiped it for the fourth time.
Zhu Xiaosui: “…”
Yuan Yeyue had been waiting the whole night, listening to the noise outside with her ears perked up. When the voices finally came, she wanted to rush to the door, but suddenly stopped, hurriedly wiped her even dirtier face with her dirty sleeves, and tied her messy hair up again. In her eyes, which had been cloudy and dim for several days, a rare glimmer of anticipation appeared.
As a result, when the door was opened, Li Sui and Zhu Yanyin were still the only ones there.
The radiance on Yuan Yeyue's face suddenly disappeared, and she asked anxiously and sharply, "Where's Ah Xing?"
"He's not at the top of Lin Xue Peak."
"impossible!"
"The stone house is empty." Zhu Yanyin said, "But we found some things. They should be left there by your brother."
The shadow guard brought the bag in, took out the things and spread them out one by one: a teapot, a wine bag, fishing gear, a handkerchief… Yuan Yeyue stared blankly at first, then suddenly became anxious again. He rushed forward and desperately put those familiar old things into the bag, repeating over and over again: "Put these things back quickly, otherwise Ah Xing won't see them when he goes back, and he will be angry, angry, hurry up!"
"He's not going back."
Yuan Yeyue stopped moving and turned back suddenly: "What do you mean?"
"The stone house has been vacant for a long time, and everything has weathered and decayed." Zhu Yanyin said, "No one lives there. We only found this bundle."
"Where are the A-Xing people?"
"Who told you that Yuanyexing lives in Linxue Peak, Chitian?"
"... Ah Xing lives there. You are lying to me. Yes, he was injured, so he must have gone somewhere else."
"Where did you go?"
"How should I know?" Yuan Yeyue looked at Li Sui fiercely, "You didn't bring him back."
"The stone house is covered with traces of blood from the struggle. If your brother really lived there, he wouldn't have a good life," Li Sui reminded coldly.
Yuan Yeyue's pupils suddenly contracted when he heard the word "bloodstains".
Zhu Yanyin probed: "You have never gone up to take a look in all these years? The bloodstains are very old, and look like they are at least two or three years old. They don't look like they were left recently."
Yuan Yeyue murmured, "No, it's impossible, Ah Xing lives there."
"Your brother did live there, otherwise we wouldn't have found these bags." Zhu Yanyin said, "But what happened after he moved into the stone house may not be the same as what Chi Tian told you. You'd better think about it carefully."
Yuan Yeyue looked at the old things in her arms. These were things that her younger brother cherished and would never allow her to touch.
Although the siblings agreed to follow Chi Tian to the north, the tension between them did not ease. From the fishing village in the East China Sea to Snow City, Yuan Yexing stayed by Chi Tian's side and was unwilling to look at his sister. Chi Tian also appreciated Yuan Yexing more. He not only taught him the Moon Devouring Technique himself, but also practiced with him.
Yuanye Xing was the "tool" originally chosen by Chi Tian to dissolve the internal force of others, but perhaps because he practiced martial arts improperly, he became possessed once during the process. After that, he had been suffering from chills and fever, and there was no improvement after two months of treatment.
On the night when everyone was sharing Li Sui's internal energy, Yuan Yexing was the first one pushed forward by Chi Tian. However, he did not take away much of the internal energy. He soon staggered away from the snow and said he wanted to go back to rest.
After that, Yuan Yeyue never saw him up close again. All the news about his brother came from Chi Tian's mouth - saying that he lived in Linxue Peak, that he didn't want to see him, and even didn't want to go on missions together, and that his martial arts skills were improving by leaps and bounds, and that he would soon become a master famous in the martial arts world.
And the facts also proved that Chi Tian was not lying. The boy wearing a black mask soon became a feared existence in the martial arts world. He personally created one tragedy after another, easily and effortlessly.
Yuan Yeyue was full of gratitude towards Chi Tian.
She was grateful that four years ago, when Chi Tian suddenly asked her if she was willing to practice Moon Devouring together, Yuan Yeyue's first thought was not the pain of being a tool, but she asked in panic: "What about Ah Xing?"
"His Kung Fu is already very good, there is no need for me to share his internal energy." Chi Tian looked down at him, "And you have limited talent. If you only rely on your own hard training, I'm afraid you will get further and further away from him."
Four years ago.
Four years.
Yuan Yeyue anxiously recalled the evidence that she had seen her brother in the past four years, but soon she found out in despair that she had not seen him, not even once. Every time she saw him, she only saw a black figure wearing a mask in the distance, as fast as a gust of wind. She did not dare to get close, but vaguely felt that her brother had grown up, so much so that even she began to feel strange, and almost unrecognizable.
"Axing..."
"If you don't believe the bloodstains all over the room, we can take you upstairs to see it." Zhu Yanyin said, "But if I were you, I would think about where else he might go, especially where Chi Tian would take him."
Yuan Yeyue tightly grasped the teapot in her hand until her fingers were numb. She was extremely panicked, but still had a glimmer of hope. Practicing Moon Devouring requires an extremely cold ice room. The reason why Chi Tian brought Yuan Yexing to Linxue Peak was because it was the highest and coldest place. She swallowed hard and said in a trembling voice, "I heard the leader say that there are many natural ice caves on the top of Linxue Peak, which can make practicing martial arts more effective. Ah Xing may have gone there because of her injury."
…
This time, when they went to the top of the snowy mountain, there were many more disciples from Wanren Palace and Mingjian Sect, and a group of guards from Zhu Mansion also followed. Zhao Mingchuan still followed Li Sui closely, because deep in his heart he really admired him - who wouldn't admire the best in the world? And the other party didn't ruthlessly and coldly drive him away, didn't this mean he agreed? Then why shouldn't he follow
The very cold-blooded villain felt the pressure of worldly ways for the first time.
Young Master Zhao didn't know that if it weren't for the loving advice of Second Young Master Zhu, he would most likely be hanging on the mountainside in the wind and rain.
Li Sui waved his hand and swept away a bunch of rocks.
Zhao Mingchuan also followed suit and cut off the ice and snow with a sword.
Li Sui: “…”
Linxue Peak is high, but the place is not very big. It stands alone like a stalagmite stuck in the snow. Because of the wind, most of the ice caves are formed on the south side, so they are easy to find.
The shadow guards searched one by one, and finally found a body in the ice cave at the bottom. Because it was covered by layers of ice, it looked intact. The body was wearing black clothes and curled up, with only the hands exposed, which had weathered into bones and were as brittle as glass, and would fall off at the touch.
Zhao Mingchuan was surprised and asked, "Is this Yuanye Star?"
"I don't know." Li Sui looked at the ice cube, "I'm afraid his sister will have to come and recognize it herself."