Song of Everlasting Regret - Chapter 44

After Lou Jing left, Zhan Sanxiao dismissed the servants.

“You appear to have something to say.”

“Where did you pick up that girl?”

“Along the road.”

Shao Yan had heard that Zhan Sanxiao had gone out but did not know where she had gone.

Judging from her tone and everything that had happened, she had most likely traveled into the Central Plains.

Shao Yan’s face darkened.

“Your health only improved a few days ago, yet you went through all this trouble. What if, like Long Chou, your whereabouts had been exposed?

“Do you have no regard for your life?”

“Grandmaster accompanied me. What could possibly happen?”

“Ah-Xue!”

In recent years, Zhan Sanxiao had appeared unchanged on the surface, yet Shao Yan felt her growing increasingly distant.

That lukewarm response nearly drove her mad.

But when she saw Zhan Sanxiao’s starry eyes lowered and her calm face as delicate as pear-blossom petals, all her frustration and anxiety turned into a sigh.

Her voice softened slightly.

“Do you truly intend to bring her into Fengyu Tower?”

“When have you ever seen me joke?”

“She is unsuitable.”

“Why?”

Shao Yan tossed the towel onto the armrest, her tone becoming heavy.

“Ah-Xue, someone has secretly colluded with the martial factions of the Central Plains and revealed Long Chou’s whereabouts, leading to his encirclement and death.

“Master has been in seclusion for many years. The stiffness caused by her cultivation method has finally been cured.

“Now that she has emerged and resumed control of the Feihua Alliance, she will certainly use the search for the traitor as an opportunity to establish her authority.”

Zhan Sanxiao did not look at Shao Yan.

Her voice carried mockery.

“You mean the entire Feihua Alliance must tremble in fear and conduct itself with the utmost caution.”

“Master is suspicious by nature, Ah-Xue,” Shao Yan said solemnly. “That girl belongs to the Qianyuan Sect. She is Lou Xuanzhi’s daughter!

“If you shelter her at a time like this, will you not invite Master’s suspicion?”

“The Qianyuan Sect no longer has any place for her. I suspect her name has already been removed from its register.

“If I take her in and make her a member of the Feihua Alliance, she may one day become the sharpest sword with which to wound the Qianyuan Sect.

“Surely that is precisely what the alliance leader would most like to see.

“Besides, since she is Lou Jing, you understand why I would shelter her. The alliance leader should understand as well.

“Whether considered through sentiment or reason, there is nothing improper about it.”

Meanwhile, Lou Jing returned to her room.

Her thoughts surged restlessly.

Zhan Sanxiao’s offer was extraordinarily tempting.

Shen Zhongyin’s whereabouts were uncertain, but although a monk might flee, his temple could not.

Since he belonged to Yanzi Tower, finding its roots would eventually lead her to him.

Yet she was entirely alone and had no one upon whom she could rely.

Attempting to infiltrate Yanzi Tower would be as difficult as ascending to heaven.

If someone helped her, and she entered the Feihua Alliance, then naturally…

Lou Jing’s heart tightened.

In the end, she still could not cross that barrier within herself.

The Feihua Alliance had committed countless evils and was cruel and tyrannical.

Asking her to join it and associate with such people would be more difficult than simply killing her.

She could not sleep during the lonely night.

In the latter half of the night, Lou Jing rose and approached the table.

She truly could not understand Zhan Sanxiao’s intentions.

The woman had said, Even if you refuse, you cannot leave this estate.

Yet she had left Lou Jing’s sword with her, and no one guarded the room outside.

Was she truly that certain Lou Jing could not escape?

Lou Jing’s gaze darkened.

She seized the sword and pushed open the door.

The snow had stopped.

The clean white covering reflected silver light, while the surroundings were silent except for an occasional gust of wind.

Lou Jing headed east.

She neither used the main entrance nor attempted to leave through the rear gate. Instead, she planned to cross the walls.

Moonlight shone from the heavens while snowlight reflected from the ground, wrapping her in a clear, cold radiance.

She moved like a dark bird—light and agile.

As she continued, the distant streets gradually came into view.

Only one more garden remained between her and freedom.

Lou Jing landed lightly inside it.

As she passed an ancient locust tree, her body abruptly stiffened.

A person stood beneath its shadow.

His breathing and presence were so restrained that he seemed to have merged with the darkness beneath the tree.

Lou Jing had come so close before noticing him.

Startled, she seized her sword hilt and prepared to draw.

Suddenly, wind and snow swept toward her, obscuring her sight.

Half a year of surviving within the serpent pit had honed Lou Jing’s instincts to an astonishing degree.

She dodged sideways.

A gray shadow blended into the flying snow, holding a long object that appeared to be a sword.

The long shadow thrust toward the ribs beside her chest.

Lou Jing raised her sword and blocked it with the scabbard.

Her other hand gripped the hilt, attempting to draw the blade upward.

The attacker immediately changed techniques.

His weapon slid downward, braced against the lower end of Lou Jing’s scabbard, and flicked upward with tremendous force.

The sword, which Lou Jing had drawn halfway, was driven back into its sheath.

Lou Jing rotated the weapon and held it horizontally, still attempting to draw.

The other person’s sword changed with her movements, following closely and striking the hand gripping the hilt.

The attack came too quickly, forcing Lou Jing to withdraw that hand.

She held the sheathed sword with her left hand and turned it downward, intending to let the blade slide naturally free.

It had fallen halfway when the attacker hooked it upward with one foot and kicked it back inside.

At the same time, he knocked the sword entirely from Lou Jing’s grasp, sending it flying into the air.

She still could not draw it.

Lou Jing clenched her teeth as irritation surged within her.

She used a palm technique, intending to knock aside the other person’s weapon.

Then she would use her fingers as a sword and strike an acupoint upon his arm, weakening his grip.

Yet the man seemed to have become one with his sword, his heart and intentions moving wherever the weapon went.

It was not a sword at all, but a fish swimming through water, a snake moving within a cave, or a hummingbird darting through the air.

Lou Jing could not catch it.

She was always short by the slightest fraction.

As her own sword fell, Lou Jing hooked it back with her foot and caught the hilt.

She needed only to pull forward to draw the blade.

The other weapon suddenly advanced and struck directly against the hilt.

The force was fierce and powerful.

Lou Jing’s sword slipped from her grip like an uncatchable fish.

Together with its scabbard, it shot into a brick wall.

The impact created cracks across the surface like a spiderweb.

The attacker’s weapon followed upward and struck the inside of Lou Jing’s right arm.

The instant that fierce sword wind approached, an image flashed through Lou Jing’s mind:

A blade severing tendons and bone.

Blood and flesh scattering.

Her own arm falling away.

Her heart lurched.

It felt as though she had swallowed ice, and cold spread through her body.

She still did not fear death.

She feared dying with lifelong regret—never, ever being able to take revenge.

Lou Jing failed to evade.

The strike landed upon her arm, bringing pain so intense that it felt as though her bones would break.

Yet it was a blunt pain.

There was none of the sharp sensation of steel cutting through skin and flesh.

Clutching her arm, Lou Jing fell into a seated position.

Cold sweat soaked her as her chest rose and fell.

The attacker stopped.

The tip of his weapon remained pointed toward her.

Lou Jing raised her head and only then realized that she had been delayed for so long that dawn had arrived.

The person who had fought her was now clearly visible.

He had a long graying beard and wore a gray robe.

Lou Jing vaguely remembered him.

He was the man who had fought Cao Bo on the day Caoliu Manor pursued her.

His name seemed to be… Yan Bumei.

Lou Jing also saw what he held.

It was not a sword, merely a wooden staff about three feet long.

Yan Bumei’s eyelids were wrinkled and sunken until scarcely a slit could be seen.

Yet despite being blind, he seemed to see more clearly than Lou Jing, who possessed sight.

Every strike anticipated her intentions, sealing every possible path so completely that she could not even draw her sword.

Lou Jing rose.

She now understood why Zhan Sanxiao had been certain she could not leave.

She glanced back at the sword embedded in the wall and suddenly felt utterly discouraged.

Yan Bumei did not need to say anything.

She turned back toward the path she had come.

“Take your sword,” he said.

Lou Jing pressed her lower lip tightly, unable to stop it from trembling.

Without speaking, she changed direction, walked to the wall, and pulled the sword free.

Day had fully broken, and light snow began to fall again.

There was no longer any need for her to conceal her presence.

Her steps were heavy, leaving a trail of footprints through the snow.

As she passed through a covered corridor, she suddenly saw Zhan Sanxiao.

The study stood between Zhan Sanxiao’s residence and Yan Bumei’s garden.

Amid the snow, Zhan Sanxiao stood in an open space feeding carrier pigeons that had been released from their cages.

Her slender figure resembled a plum branch in the winter wind, lean bones enduring frost with solitary pride.

A maid held an umbrella over her.

Zhan Sanxiao noticed Lou Jing from the corner of her eye and did not appear surprised.

When she saw Lou Jing’s defeated expression, the tenacious vitality and fierce brilliance from their first meeting suddenly gone, her quick mind immediately understood.

“You lost?”

Lou Jing stopped.

Zhan Sanxiao took the umbrella from the maid.

“Summon Banxia to examine Miss Lou’s injuries.”

“Yes.”

Zhan Sanxiao walked beneath the eaves.

“Grandmaster has practiced martial arts since childhood and devoted himself to the sword. He possesses more than seventy years of cultivation.

“Nothing can be achieved in a single step.

“Even a once-in-an-age genius could never defeat him while still in her teens.

“There is no need for you to lose heart.

“It is snowing. I will escort you back.”

“That will not be necessary.”

Lou Jing’s eyes were dim.

She lifted one foot and continued walking.

Silver snow settled over her body as she left Zhan Sanxiao far behind.

After returning to her room, she closed the door, threw her sword onto the floor, and leaned against the wood.

She slowly slid down until she sat upon the ground.

Her teeth bit through her lower lip and drew blood.

When she had pursued Yu Jingqiu, the gap between them had always been visible.

It was merely that Lou Jing stood at one end of a staircase while Yu Jingqiu stood at the other.

As long as she exerted herself, she could catch up.

In the end, she would not necessarily lose.

But Yan Bumei’s power was absolute and crushing.

It was an invisible deep sea, an unreachable mountain, a chasm impossible to cross.

For the first time, she understood the insignificance of an ant beneath a towering tree.

She felt humiliation and defeat unlike anything she had experienced before.

Being trapped in the serpent pit and narrowly surviving countless times had battered her body and emotions.

What happened today dealt a devastating blow to her proud and untamed spirit.

Her former contests with Yu Jingqiu now seemed like children playing.

She had studied bitterly for years and struggled to survive for half a year inside the serpent pit.

She had cultivated relentlessly and never dared relax.

Yet she was still so insignificant.

Before a true expert, she was nothing.

She could not even draw her sword.

As she was now, she could not defeat Elder Li.

She could not defeat Second Master Cao.

She could not defeat Snake Lady.

She could not defeat Cao Bo.

How could she take revenge?

If the person who killed her father possessed martial arts comparable to theirs, what could she possibly use to avenge him?

Lou Jing despised her own helplessness more than anything.