Chapter Seventy-Seven: The Wind Clan Capital

Under the pale moonlight, the yard stood drenched in misery.

The wind drifted by in utter silence.

The flames burned with a soft, wavering grace.

Blood spattered and fell in a steady patter.

Wings flashed and fluttered through the air.

In the glow of the firelight, a dark-clad figure stood motionless in the courtyard.

His face, smeared with blood, looked like a reaper’s under the bright moon, dreadful to behold.

His black robes, billowing above a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, remained pristine as if newly washed.

“Yan Chuanming! You will pay for this!”

“Ha...” Yan Chuanming lightly licked the blade of his halberd. “I’ve heard that at least a hundred times, and I’ve never seen anyone make me pay anything.”

“The Star Clan will not let you go! You commoner!” He no longer had the strength to rise from the ground, and the crimson wings spread behind him had not bought him a chance at survival.

A figure in green suddenly descended from the sky, casually sheathing the twin blades in her hands, and said with a smile, “Ever since I first cut down one of your Star Clan people, I never expected you to let us go.”

“Don’t be so smug. My flight ability is among the worst in the Star Clan, and our higher-ups already escaped...”

Suddenly, from another direction, a black shadow of a bird-man swooped down. In the firelit darkness, a gleaming sword flashed out with sudden precision, taking the falling figure cleanly and hurling him aside, avoiding the spray of blood that followed.

Then Leng Mujun slowly emerged from the shadows.

“Is that the one you meant?”

Seeing the figure collapse before his eyes, despair filled the Star Clan man on the ground. Then Yin Wen leaped in from the direction the bird-man had come, landing beside Yan Chuanming.

“Hmph...” Yan Chuanming raised his black halberd. “Let’s end with something Yezi once said.”

“Before killing you, we tell you our names. Even in the underworld, you must know who sent you there. Remember this well...”

“Yan Chuanming, the scholarly-faced brute; Yin Wen, the charming green ghost; Yue Zhe, the blade beneath heaven and earth; Leng Mujun, the assassin.”

No sooner had the words fallen than Yan Chuanming swept his arm. The pitch-black halberd blade, singing with the wind, came crashing down at once.

Just as the Star Clan man had already shut his eyes and waited for death, the expected agony never came. When he opened them again, he nearly lost his soul from terror.

The cold gleam of the black halberd hung suspended before him. Looking up, he saw Yan Chuanming crouched before him, that ever-present faint smile now ferocious beyond measure in the firelight.

“Remember it?”

The Star Clan man gave an almost imperceptible nod. Yan Chuanming spoke again.

“Repeat it for me.”

“Yan Chuanming...”

“Shh...”

The moment the Star Clan man began to speak, Yan Chuanming’s black halberd had already pierced down.

“Obedient, aren’t you...”

He stood and looked toward the sky, where the crescent moon was gradually slipping behind the hooks of cloud. His blood-streaked face seemed to bloom with the quiet elegance of an orchid.

“What, do you not wish to see such a sight?”

Yan Chuanming leaped upward and looked into the distance. “Good-hearted moon, perhaps... you will be disappointed.”

Below, Yue Zhe glanced at Leng Mujun, who wore an expression of utter disgust, then leaned close to her ear and murmured, “Don’t mind him. That’s just how he is. Otherwise, how could his title include the word scholarly?”

“Old Yue, what are you saying to your little lover?”

“Nothing. Just saying you’re being pretentious. Let’s go.”

...

A few days later, the group heading for the Necromantic Volcano began to feel that something was off.

“Where the hell is that kid?”

“We still haven’t seen a soul like that these past few days.”

Many had begun to waver, and quite a few had already left.

“Xiao Mo, Young Master Ye really hasn’t come?” Huang Jifeng and his men were staying in a town near the Necromantic Volcano. Many who meant to avenge themselves on Ye Pei, as well as those hired to do so, were lodged here as well.

Chen Mo shook his folding fan helplessly. “I told you long ago, that rumor was clearly spread by him himself, and it was probably meant for someone unknown to us.”

“Then...” Huang Jifeng rubbed his square, broad head. “What should we do?”

Chen Mo smiled. “Withdraw, of course. Unless you know where he is?”

...

The next morning, Ye Pei and Ziqing Rong arrived as agreed to find Dongfang Boyi.

Before they left, Sun Yanzhu kept reminding them again and again. From her eyes, Ye Pei could tell she dearly hoped her son would seize the chance to avenge this terrible blood feud, but she also worried whether this journey would accomplish anything, and whether it might bring danger...

Dongfang Boyi understood his mother’s feelings too. Just before stepping out the gate, he suddenly turned back and dropped to his knees. “Mother, if I don’t seize this chance, then I truly won’t know what other path remains for me to take revenge! Father’s death must be avenged. If I do not succeed this time, then I shall die trying!”

Hearing this, Ye Pei blinked and rubbed his nose. “I know you still don’t quite trust me. You think I may well be able to help you avenge your great hatred, but you also suspect this may be a trap set just for you.”

Ye Pei spread his hands. “But just as Young Master Dongfang wanted to invite me inside yesterday, if I meant to kill you mother and son, wouldn’t it be far easier to do it directly than to trick you somewhere else? Why bother deceiving just one of you?”

In the end, Dongfang Boyi still mounted his horse with the solemn resolve of one going to his death, and together with Ye Pei’s carriage set off toward the main city of the Feng family.

Ye Pei was not going there to speak directly with the Feng family, but to find the young man he had once met by chance, Yang Qin.

Along the way, Dongfang Boyi’s mood was indeed heavy at first, and from time to time a wave of tension would rise in him.

But after only a few days, all that remained in his heart was irritation.

Ye Pei and Ziqing Rong, as a newly established couple, presented the same scene throughout the journey.

“Yezi, I’m hungry!”

“All right, I’ll go catch you something wild.”

“Yezi, it’s dark. Don’t go any farther.”

“All right. We happen to be passing this town anyway. Let’s stay at an inn, and I’ll buy you something else to eat.”

“Yezi, I want to ride too.”

“No. I never taught you. You’ll fall off.”

“Oh...”

“Yezi, I don’t want to practice swordsmanship today...”

“Better practice a bit. Come, I’ll spar with you.”

“Okay.”

In Dongfang Boyi’s own words, “The scenes on the road made me deeply uncomfortable.”

A month later, the three finally neared the main city of the Feng family, while in Dongfang Boyi’s mind, the image of the couple arguing two days earlier kept replaying.

Two days ago, the pair had again disagreed over whether to train with the sword. In a fit of fury, Ziqing Rong had stormed toward the inn door late at night. Just as the man in the neighboring room, Dongfang Boyi, was secretly cheering, he saw that Ziqing Rong stopped at the doorway.

Then Ye Pei flashed down from the second floor to her side, patted her hair, and smiled. “How dangerous that was.”

Ziqing Rong nodded. “Mm.”

“Then go back and practice your sword properly.”

Ziqing Rong threw herself into Ye Pei’s arms. “Okay.”

“Hiss—”

Dongfang Boyi drew in a sharp breath, slammed the door shut, and went back inside.

“My heavens...” Dongfang Boyi roared inwardly. “We’ve finally reached the Feng main city! Can someone just kill me now? Don’t make me watch those two show off anymore!”

A piercing sound of air splitting suddenly rang out, and a sharp arrow sliced through the night, striking straight toward Dongfang Boyi.

In the blink of an eye, before Dongfang Boyi could even react, Ye Pei’s spear shot out like a dragon and knocked the arrow to the ground with a sharp clang.

At once, Dongfang Boyi felt as though he were facing a great enemy. He drew his longsword and retreated a good distance, watching Ye Pei warily while also guarding against the city walls.

Ye Pei frowned. “I don’t know what’s going on either.”

“Hmph... I was truly wrong to trust you!” Dongfang Boyi’s tone rang with iron, filled with a fatalistic resolve.

But a single sentence from the city wall swept away all his proud backbone.

“The main city of the Feng family is under curfew! No entry after nightfall!”

“A curfew?” Dongfang Boyi muttered. “Then why shoot an arrow at me?”

The guard atop the wall said, “I just started here. I was aiming in your direction. I got nervous and missed!”

“...”

“If that’s the case, let’s enter tomorrow,” Ye Pei said.

“Mm... that works.”

Afterward, the three of them found a level stretch of ground and prepared to rest there for the night.

“Ah... the earth for a pillow, the sky for a quilt...” Dongfang Boyi sighed, about to lie down, when he turned his head and saw Ye Pei taking a tent from the carriage. In a few quick movements, it was pitched.

“Um...” Dongfang Boyi clicked his tongue. “Brother Ye, do you have another tent?”

“Hmph...” Ye Pei snorted. “Nope.”

...

The next day, Ye Pei and Ziqing Rong, both bright and refreshed, and Dongfang Boyi, dusty and miserable from sleeping on the ground under the sky, entered the Feng main city.

As soon as they came in, Ye Pei asked a passerby, “Brother, could you tell me how to get to the residence of General Tianrui?”

The passerby smiled. “You must be new here, brother. General Tianrui’s estate is five streets north of here, the most magnificent one around.”

“Many thanks, brother!” Ye Pei said with a salute.

This Tianrui General’s residence was where Yang Qin lived. And General Tianrui himself was Yang Qin’s father, Yang Tianrui, reputed to be the greatest warrior in the Flame Land.

“So imposing... a general’s estate,” Ye Pei remarked, looking at the vast compound.

“What are you marveling at, Yezi?” Ziqing Rong asked in confusion. “Isn’t your father a marshal?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Ziqing Rong suddenly remembered that Ye Linhui had long since passed away and was about to apologize, when Ye Pei understood her meaning before she could speak.

Ye Pei patted her hand and smiled. “My home isn’t very large either, and there aren’t many servants. It’s probably the most modest official residence in the capital.”

“Oh...” Ziqing Rong stuck out her tongue and said no more.

Ye Pei stepped forward, and barely after he knocked, the gate opened.

Though the wooden door was huge, it made almost no sound as it swung wide.

“May I ask what brings you here, the three of you?” The gatekeeper was a man in his thirties, and very polite.

“Sorry to trouble you. May I ask whether Young Master Yang Qin is at home?” Ye Pei said.

The gatekeeper smiled. “Young Master is indeed at the residence. Please wait a moment while I go and announce you. May I ask your honorable name, young hero?”

Ye Pei replied, “Please excuse the trouble, sir. My name is Pei Ye.”