Song of Everlasting Regret - Chapter 8

Lou Jing stood frozen in place.

The name Feihua Alliance was truly as resounding as thunder. Even a child who had never left the mountain would have heard of it. Though Lou Jing cared only for practicing martial arts and rarely concerned herself with worldly affairs, she had still heard the name from her fellow disciples and the sect elders.

Originally, the terms righteous and unorthodox had not referred to any particular factions in the martial world.

Those who upheld justice, acted chivalrously, and treated others with benevolence were righteous. Those who behaved perversely, schemed treacherously, and harmed innocent lives were evil.

Then the Feihua Alliance emerged and single-handedly claimed the title of the unorthodox path for itself.

The alliance had been established through the efforts of its leader, Qiu Zhaoyi.

Not only was his martial cultivation unfathomable, but he was also exceptionally intelligent and skilled at planning. Unfortunately, he possessed a cold and gloomy nature and had chosen a crooked path.

At first, the Feihua Alliance consisted of three major powers.

The first was the Chaosheng Sect. Qiu Zhaoyi had originally been its leader. After becoming leader of the Feihua Alliance, he entrusted the sect to his disciple.

Lou Jing did not know the disciple’s name. She only knew that others called her the Steadfast Star.

The second was Swallow Tower, an organization that conducted assassinations for payment. It possessed countless experts and unfathomable strength. Its work was reliable, and it rarely failed, so the tower master had earned the nickname Living Yama.

Because the tower master shared Qiu Zhaoyi’s ideals, Swallow Tower joined the Feihua Alliance.

The third was the Dingshan Sect.

Its leader, Long Chou, had a temperament similar to Qiu Zhaoyi’s, and the two became sworn brothers. The Dingshan Sect consequently joined the alliance.

Long Chou admired Qiu Zhaoyi’s talent and martial arts and was unwaveringly loyal to him, serving as his guardian. People therefore mockingly called him the Tianwu Officer.

Each of the Feihua Alliance’s three powers was a scourge of the world. Any one of them could rival a leading martial sect.

Once they united, who could withstand their momentum?

As the alliance’s reputation grew, it attracted many eccentric and rebellious sects, along with cruel criminals who harmed ordinary people and showed no regard for human life.

Although the Feihua Alliance was composed of many different factions, all of them were strange, ruthless people.

Some treated human lives like weeds beneath their feet, while others killed merely for amusement.

They filled the Central Plains’ martial world with chaos and corruption, leaving it without peace.

More than ten years ago, the Qianyuan Sect had brought many factions together to besiege the Feihua Alliance.

Although they failed to destroy it, they succeeded in driving it from the Central Plains and forcing it to lie low in Jiangnan, Jiangbei, and the surrounding regions.

In recent years, Long Chou had secretly entered the Central Plains several times to meet his lover.

Zhongwu Hall eventually discovered traces of his movements.

At the beginning of the second lunar month, Hall Master Mu gathered fellow martial artists to surround and kill him. Lou Jing’s martial uncle, Lu Yuanding, had also participated.

Lou Jing knew this much. She simply had not known that anyone had escaped.

From the surrounding conversation, the black-clad man finally realized that these people had not originally come to pursue him.

He had merely become so frightened and suspicious that he fled at the slightest disturbance, causing this misunderstanding.

Now, however, it seemed that fleeing had still been the correct choice.

These people recognized him. Even though they had not initially come to capture him, they would never release him after seeing him.

Therefore, the moment Cao Ruxu ordered that the two be taken back, the black-clad man suddenly erupted into action and attacked the weakest point in their encirclement.

He thought, If they take us back, death is certain. It is better to fight desperately. At least I may be able to protect Madam.

Cao Ruxu and his men drew their swords.

Cao Ruxu shouted, “Very well! Since he refuses to surrender, there is no need to hold back. Capture them—dead or alive!”

By now, if Cao Ruxu returned to Apricot Blossom Heaven, the thief who had stolen the Jade Buddha’s Hand would undoubtedly have vanished without a trace.

However, although he had suffered a loss in one place, he had unexpectedly gained something elsewhere.

The martial world knew that the senior heroes had killed the Tianwu Officer Long Chou at the beginning of the second lunar month.

Unfortunately, Long Chou’s trusted subordinate and his lover had escaped.

If Cao Ruxu captured these two and brought the demon-subjugation campaign to a perfect conclusion, it would still be a satisfying accomplishment.

Cao Ruxu took the lead with his sword, and the other six attacked close behind him.

The man wielded a ring-pommel saber, stirring waves of black wind with every strike. His attacks were swift and unmatched in force.

Even while resisting all seven opponents, he still had enough strength remaining to counterattack.

After a dozen or so exchanges, however, the situation began to reverse.

The man appeared to have an injured leg, making his movements less agile. He also had to prevent the pregnant woman from being harmed, which restricted him and kept him from displaying his full strength.

Two attackers seized the opportunity while he was protecting the woman.

They threw chain claws at him. The silver claws attached to the ends of the chains immediately buried themselves in his flesh upon contact.

The man was ferocious. He severed the chains with his saber so that the attackers could not restrain him.

However, the iron claws remained embedded in his arm and shoulder, and blood poured from the wounds.

Lou Jing leaned beneath a dead old scholar tree in the abandoned garden.

She had originally come to catch a thief, only to discover she had followed the wrong person.

As a disciple of the Qianyuan Sect, she did possess a duty to eliminate evildoers.

However, seeing Cao Ruxu and his men surround the pair with such confidence in their victory, she no longer felt any desire to interfere.

She was about to leave when she glanced at the pregnant woman.

Amid the flashing blades and sword shadows, the woman protected her belly and gazed down at it with both sorrow and tenderness. Her figure was tragic yet resolute.

Lou Jing hesitated.

At that moment, Cao Ruxu and the others recognized the man’s weakness—the woman who was about to give birth.

If they attacked her, he would be forced to protect her.

As the saying went, one should attack what the enemy was compelled to defend.

Half of the seven attacked the woman, while the others assaulted the man.

The man forced two of them back, but when he saw that he would not reach the woman in time, he abandoned his own defense.

He allowed Cao Ruxu’s sword to strike him and threw himself toward the woman instead.

The attacks from Caoliu Manor were not feints.

Even if the man failed to protect her, their swords would truly pierce her body.

In their eyes, this woman was also a member of the Feihua Alliance and naturally deserved to die.

The man knocked aside the two swords in front of her.

However, he could not possibly stop the two blades attacking from behind.

Seeing that the woman was about to be struck and her life hung by a thread, he felt as though his heart and liver were being torn apart.

“Madam!”

At that exact instant, a cold, brilliant light flashed.

A sword swept in from the side and knocked both blades away.

Cao Ruxu looked carefully.

The person who had disrupted everything was none other than Lou Jing, who had been standing nearby watching.

“Lou Jing! If you will not help, then stop making trouble!”

Lou Jing replied indifferently, “I merely cannot stand watching you bully a helpless woman about to give birth. The methods of Caoliu Manor are far too dishonorable.”

She frowned.

“I will not stop you from killing that man to settle your grievances. If you are capable of killing him, then do it. But using the life of a weak pregnant woman against him is contemptible.”

Cao Ruxu pointed at the woman.

“She willingly consorted with Long Chou. Do you think she is anything good?”

Lou Jing knew nothing about the woman’s character or whether she had committed any atrocities after becoming involved with Long Chou.

Therefore, she only condemned Cao Ruxu’s methods and did not argue that the woman herself was innocent.

“At the very least, the child in her belly is innocent. What evil could the child possibly have committed? One thrust of your sword would take two lives.”

Cao Ruxu replied, “Dragons give birth to dragons and phoenixes give birth to phoenixes. The child of that demon is naturally a demon seed!”

Hearing this, Lou Jing felt an immediate wave of disgust.

She stood beside the pregnant woman.

After she blocked the sword, no one temporarily dared attack the woman again. Instead, the people of Caoliu Manor turned their attention toward surrounding the black-clad man.

The man repeatedly looked back to check the woman’s safety.

Although Lou Jing had relieved the immediate danger, he still could not trust her.

Only after hearing what she said did he lower his guard toward her.

At the very least, he understood that Lou Jing would not attack Madam.

Seeing Lou Jing shield the woman and prevent anyone from targeting her, the black-clad man was freed from his greatest restraint.

He seized the chance to break through.

His saber attacks became ferocious, and he fought with complete disregard for his own life, overwhelming the people of Caoliu Manor with his sheer momentum.

He had already wounded one of Cao Ruxu’s men.

Cao Ruxu became unbearably irritated by Lou Jing’s unexpected interference.

“Lou Jing, move aside!”

At that moment, the pregnant woman heard Lou Jing’s words and felt hope arise within her.

She looked at Lou Jing as though grasping the final straw that could save her life.

“Miss, I am about to give birth. I know you are righteous and compassionate. If I deserve death, I accept it, but this child—this child is innocent. Please help me.”

Lou Jing said to Cao Ruxu, “Wait until she has given birth before deciding anything!”

Cao Ruxu suddenly thrust his sword toward her, his expression icy.

“Whether the child is born or not, it cannot be allowed to live! If weeds are not torn out by the roots, this child will inevitably become a future disaster.

“Long Chou killed children as well. What happens today is merely his retribution!”

Lou Jing was supporting the woman.

She blocked the strike with her sword and counterattacked in a circular motion.

Angrily, she said, “If Long Chou harmed people, then seek revenge against him! No one can know what will happen in the future. Do not dress up the murder of an innocent life with such grand and righteous words!”

Cao Ruxu narrowed his eyes.

“Lou Jing, you keep defending people of the unorthodox path. What is this? Do you share an understanding with them and deeply sympathize with their difficulties?”

Lou Jing greatly disliked the tone and expression he used.

“Were you born from a crack in a stone? Did you not have a father and mother? You are making things difficult for a woman in labor—do you have any shame?”

Cao Ruxu’s expression darkened.

With the argument having reached this point, both had become furious.

It was no longer necessarily that Cao Ruxu absolutely had to take the woman’s life. They were now fighting because neither would yield to the other.

As their swords clashed, their techniques became far more ruthless than before.

Under the moonlight, they resembled two silver dragons twisting and soaring through the air.

It was clear that after his previous defeat, Cao Ruxu had practiced diligently. His swordsmanship had become substantially more solid.

Lou Jing, however, had never neglected sword practice since childhood.

After their previous duel, she had taken the entire fight apart and examined it move by move in her mind.

Know yourself and know your opponent, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles.

It was a habit she had developed from constantly fighting Yu Jingqiu.

She would never overlook anything that might help her improve, even slightly.

Therefore, after the last fight, she had gained a certain understanding of Cao Ruxu.

This time, Lou Jing fought with greater ease than before.

At last, she sent Cao Ruxu’s sword flying with a single strike.

Cao Ruxu had never expected that after days of bitter training, his defeat would be even more humiliating than the previous one.

He stood frozen for a moment.

Then his face flushed crimson, and veins bulged across his forehead.

Lou Jing had underestimated Cao Ruxu’s pride.

He had been born into nobility as the young master of Caoliu Manor. He possessed some talent, was deeply loved by his parents, and had enjoyed a smooth life without ever suffering a true setback.

He took great pride in his martial ability and talent.

Now he had lost to Lou Jing twice.

He also remembered her words—utterly incomprehensible rubbish—and felt unbearably humiliated.

He did not realize that another emotion was mixed into that humiliation: jealousy.

Under the crushing weight of those intense feelings, he flew into a rage.

His gaze turned sinister.

He gritted his teeth and spat out, “Bastard!”

Lou Jing’s footsteps stopped.

Her voice resembled the night wind sweeping across an icy lake, deep and cold.

“What did you say?”

Cao Ruxu sneered.

“It is no surprise that you sympathize with the Feihua Alliance. Everyone in the martial world knows that your mother abandoned the sect and ran off with Shen Zhongyin.

“Several years later, she returned with you. An adulterous man and woman, and Lou Xuanzhi—”

Lou Jing abruptly turned around.

Hot blood surged into her head.

Every drop seemed to flood through her pores until her entire body felt swollen and ready to burst.

Her eyes were blood-red, and a dark fury covered her face.

She looked like a cornered beast whose deepest wound had been pierced, raging as it threw itself upon its enemy without regard for anything else.

Her sword pointed toward Cao Ruxu.

She unleashed Dormant Dragon.

The attack moved like startling thunder, filled with such bitter killing intent that it chilled the heart.

If there were two words in this world capable of hurting her most deeply and causing her the greatest pain, they were those two.

They were like a blade and a sword driven into her heart.

They could make her suffer.

They could make her weep.

They could leave her curled alone in a corner, licking a wound that would never heal.