Song of Everlasting Regret - Chapter 39

Before long, more people from the manor arrived and surrounded them.

The leader ordered, “As for those beggars, kill any who resist. The Manor of the Dead will not miss one or two of them.

“But this is the first time we have received a shipment of martial artists. You may break their arms and legs, but do not take their lives.”

The beggars heard him and saw the gleaming blades and spears closing around them. Terrified, they no longer dared to move.

The martial escorts who had traveled with Yu Jingqiu, however, felt their fury blaze all the way to the crowns of their heads.

They had accepted an escort job only to discover that they themselves were the cargo.

Their eyes widened with rage.

One shouted, “You dog-born bastard! Come and try breaking your grandfather’s arms and legs!”

The two groups immediately began fighting.

Yu Jingqiu could tell that the new arrivals possessed more restrained breathing and deeper martial cultivation than the earlier guards.

They were also badly outnumbered. Fighting to the death here was not a lasting solution.

She urged several of the martial escorts beside her to focus upon escaping.

Unfortunately, people who traveled through the martial world lived by their pride and treated life and death as minor matters.

Half of them charged directly into the enemy ranks.

If they could not leave happily, neither would their opponents.

Yu Jingqiu could not persuade them otherwise.

The remaining few sensed that something was deeply wrong with the manor and had no wish to linger. They followed Yu Jingqiu toward a weak point in the guards’ formation and fought their way out.

A waning moon hung high overhead, its cold light illuminating the courtyards.

The group sought a path through secluded and deserted areas.

No one blocked the road ahead, but they could not shake off the pursuers behind them.

Yu Jingqiu considered the situation.

Everyone in this manor appeared to be a skilled martial artist. Their techniques were fierce and ruthless, and they treated human lives as merchandise.

This place also seemed to lie somewhere in Jiangnan.

Although she had never heard of the Manor of the Dead mentioned by the leader, what other faction in the martial world besides the Feihua Alliance possessed such characteristics?

Because Yu Jingqiu was bringing Meng Kuzhuo with her, her pace slowed.

Their pursuers soon caught up.

Two powerful gusts stabbed toward her ribs from behind.

“Kuzhuo!”

Meng Kuzhuo was quick-witted. She immediately ran farther ahead so that she would not hinder Yu Jingqiu.

Yu Jingqiu twisted her sword into a flower.

It was as though she had grown eyes upon her back as she stopped both fast sabers.

Under the silver moon, sword shadows wandered and confused the eye.

One attacker closed his eyes.

Unable to adjust his saber technique in time, he fell prey to Yu Jingqiu’s move, Diverting Disaster Eastward.

She guided his blade aside, obstructing his companion’s path and causing the two sabers to collide.

Yu Jingqiu withdrew and quickly caught up with Meng Kuzhuo.

She glanced behind her.

The two men who had pursued her earlier had only just steadied themselves when a cold voice rang out.

“Useless!”

A pair of palms emerged from behind them.

The hands crossed, separated, and struck both men heavily upon the head.

They immediately spat blood and were sent flying.

The person who attacked them was revealed.

Moving like the wind, he pursued Yu Jingqiu directly.

It was the leader who had spoken earlier and brought the others after them.

Yu Jingqiu was alarmed and became even more certain of her suspicions.

These people carried an unmistakably sinister air and treated even their own subordinates with such cold cruelty.

She knew the leader was ruthless and possessed even deeper cultivation.

Unwilling to fight him, she did everything possible to evade him.

She picked up Meng Kuzhuo and leaped over a flowered wall.

The man had been only a few steps behind her, yet he unexpectedly stopped pursuing.

Instead, she heard him shout coldly, “Withdraw!”

Three other martial escorts had escaped alongside her.

All of them immediately sensed that something was wrong.

Those people would never retreat merely because the situation had become difficult.

Why would vicious ghosts that had pursued them relentlessly suddenly draw back?

They examined the secluded courtyard.

Dark clouds silently covered it, filling the place with a dense, ghostly chill.

If lesser demons avoided this place, then a King of Hell must dwell within it.

A suffocating pressure descended upon them.

Yu Jingqiu shuddered, and her heart struck heavily against her chest.

She shouted to the three escorts, “Run!”

It was already too late.

The doors and windows of the rear courtyard exploded beneath a surge of formidable inner force.

Splinters shot in every direction.

A black whirlwind flashed through the broken opening like lightning.

The three men were stunned by its power.

They stood frozen, eyes wide, without even enough time to blink.

Lines of blood suddenly burst across their bodies.

Within a single instant, all three died.

After killing them, the black wind immediately turned toward Yu Jingqiu.

The cold gale felt like sabers and swords.

Overwhelming inner force descended like collapsing mountains and overturning seas.

Kuzhuo was a young girl without the slightest inner force.

Unable to endure the pressure, her legs weakened and she fainted.

Cold sweat rolled from Yu Jingqiu’s forehead.

She could not even see the attacker’s figure clearly and could only sense the sword intent.

Forcing herself to move, she poured all her inner force into her blade.

The sword revealed its edge, shining like a single bright star in the pitch-black night as she met the attack with everything she had.

Yet the other person’s foundation was as vast as mountains and oceans, impossible to measure.

He seemed like the primordial god Pangu, capable of ending tens of thousands of lives with a single descending palm.

Yu Jingqiu was defeated in one move.

This person’s cultivation surpassed even that of her master, Lou Xuanzhi.

A long sword radiating a fierce edge and murderous qi pressed against her throat.

But the wielder did not strike.

Instead, he cried out as though possessed.

“The Qianyuan Sword Art! The Qianyuan Sword Art! Lü Keji has come!”

The clouds drifted away, and the shadows shifted.

Yu Jingqiu finally saw the person before her.

He stood seven feet tall, lean and agile.

His hair was loosely tied in a bun, with dry white strands hanging in disorder around his temples.

He wore a worn gray-white robe and appeared completely indifferent to his appearance.

A long string of prayer beads hung around his neck, while his hand held a sword meant for slaughter.

The combination was utterly incongruous.

His skin was wrinkled and signs of old age had appeared.

Experts with profound cultivation aged slowly. Someone who looked as he did was probably much older than his appearance suggested—perhaps more than sixty.

Most striking were the old man’s eyes.

The darkness made their color difficult to distinguish, but Yu Jingqiu imagined the whites must be bloodred.

An abnormal light blazed within them, and his expression appeared both crazed and demonic.

She looked again at the sword in his hand.

The characters Three Poisons were engraved upon its blade.

Yu Jingqiu immediately realized his identity and was shaken with disbelief.

Lou Xuanzhi had a close friend named Huixin, an enlightened Buddhist monk.

Lou Xuanzhi had received guidance from him, and many of the Buddhist scriptures she copied and the mental cultivation methods she practiced had come from his hand.

While explaining the Buddhist Three Poisons, Huixin had once mentioned a certain person.

That man had been a lay disciple of Buddhism with considerable spiritual insight.

But his worldly attachments remained entangled, and his six senses were not purified.

After fighting another person in a sword duel, troubles arose within him.

He coveted the title of greatest beneath heaven and thus committed the poison of greed.

When he lost, resentment and hatred arose, creating the poison of anger.

With those two evils combined, delusion followed.

From then onward, his understanding of Buddhist law became inverted, and he sank ever deeper.

Greed, anger, and delusion were the roots of all suffering beneath heaven.

This person had once possessed the potential to cultivate a bodhi heart.

In the end, however, he could only drown within an endless sea of bitterness, driven mad and demonic by his obsession.

People in the martial world called him the Mad Swordsman.

Huixin had told Yu Jingqiu the story as a warning.

Who could have imagined that she would one day encounter the man himself?

The Mad Swordsman belonged to the same generation as her grandmaster, Lü Keji.

Even then, he had been capable of competing against her grandmaster.

Yu Jingqiu had no possibility of defeating him.

Realizing this, despair arose in her heart.

She had fled and struggled through countless dangers, yet still could not escape death.

How could she face Lang Ye, who had sacrificed his life to save hers?

But the Mad Swordsman did not kill her.

His eyes darted from side to side.

“Where is Lü Keji? Where is he?”

“Does Senior not know? My grandmaster passed away many years ago.”

Lü Keji’s death had shaken the entire martial world.

Nearly twenty years had passed since then, yet the Mad Swordsman did not know.

Could he have lived in seclusion for almost two decades?

The Mad Swordsman stepped backward twice and stared into empty space.

It was as though his entire spirit had suddenly been hollowed out.

He became dazed.

Then his face abruptly twisted, and he shouted with furious severity.

“Bullshit! I spent more than twenty years creating new sword techniques, yet I have not defeated him! How dare he die?

“Did he fear losing to me and crawl into some muddy hole like those worthless pieces of rotten fish, hiding himself away?”

Yu Jingqiu knew she would probably die and had no desire to humor him.

She replied coldly, “While my grandmaster lived, when did he ever fear a challenge?

“When his immortal remains were buried, countless people from the martial world witnessed it with their own eyes.”

“He is dead. He is dead!”

The Mad Swordsman ground his teeth until they creaked.

The night was too dark to see the blood vessels spreading across his eyes.

He roared and struck Yu Jingqiu in the chest with one palm.

Yu Jingqiu had been prepared and attempted to receive the blow.

Yet she could not withstand such vast, incomparable inner force.

The palm energy was overwhelmingly fierce.

She was sent flying, crashed through the flowered wall, and fell outside the courtyard.

A large mouthful of blood burst from her lips.

Her organs twisted in agony, and she could not move.

The Mad Swordsman emerged through the broken wall like a ghost.

Yu Jingqiu saw the manor guards standing far away.

They bowed toward him and respectfully addressed him as “My Lord.”

The Mad Swordsman appeared not to notice them.

His figure flashed away into the distance.

Before Yu Jingqiu lost consciousness, she saw the manor’s guards gathering around her.

Then she fell into endless darkness.

She did not know how many days passed before she struggled awake.

While unconscious, her internal injuries had been severe. Her body felt as though it had been bound beneath shackles weighing a thousand catties.

After tremendous effort, she finally broke free of the darkness and opened her eyes.

She lay upon a pile of dry straw.

Her body was weak and powerless.

Only after a long while could she sit upright.

Looking around, she discovered that she was inside a cell.

Apart from the dry straw covering the floor, it contained nothing.

Yu Jingqiu walked to the cell door and looked through a gap.

Similar cells stood opposite and on either side.

Some held two or three people, while others were empty.

She assumed the manor’s people had captured her after she fainted and brought her here.

She did not know why they were imprisoning them.

The young beggar had probably also been captured, but she was not being held in the same cell.

Would Kuzhuo be afraid, imprisoned alone in this miserable dungeon?

Yu Jingqiu moved closer to the bars and called outside.

“Kuzhuo.”

No one in the neighboring cells answered.

After she called several times, a frightened male voice came from the cell opposite.

“Miss, stop calling. Please, stop. Don’t bring them here…”

His voice trembled continuously.

Only then did Yu Jingqiu realize that the man across from her was one of the escorts who had traveled with her.

He had once been extremely tough, willing to risk his life to fight the manor’s people.

Now he seemed to have become someone else entirely.

He was curled in the corner, trembling and too frightened even to speak loudly.

What could have happened to torment a man as fierce as a tiger or wolf into such a state?

At the far end of the corridor, flickering light appeared.

Someone was approaching.

A short while later, three people dressed in close-fitting black clothing, swords at their waists, stopped before Yu Jingqiu’s cell.

The man in front glanced sideways at her.

“You’re awake?”

He turned his gaze away and said to the two behind him, “We’ll use her today.”

The other two opened the cell door, seized Yu Jingqiu beneath both arms, and dragged her away.

Her injuries had not yet healed, so she half stumbled and was half carried forward.

Perhaps because she was wounded and they believed her incapable of resisting, they neither sealed her inner force nor placed her in chains.

They simply took her out of the cell.

They passed through corridors and halls before reaching a large building.

Even from the courtyard outside, Yu Jingqiu could smell an extremely powerful medicinal odor.

As the two men dragged her inside, another pair emerged carrying someone between them.

The person they held was terribly thin.

Her skin had turned cold, and her body was stiff.

A pair of once-lovable eyes remained painfully open, unable to close, though no one could tell what they were staring at.

A single glance was enough to know that she was dead.

The sight felt like a knife plunging into Yu Jingqiu’s heart.

Her feet seemed to take root upon the ground, leaving her unable to move.

Her throat tightened.

She could not make a sound.