Chapter 189

“Oh.”

Li Zhuiyuan responded simply with a sound, seemed to feel it was too perfunctory, then added another sentence:

“Wish you success.”

He didn’t explicitly promise that Zhao Yi would be re-accepted and protected by him. Of course, there was a tacit understanding between them; after all, they still had to go together to “eat the feast.”

So, if Zhao Yi could evade the pursuit and return here, he would open the array to let Zhao Yi in.

But the attack at the doorstep was also part of the pursuit. If he couldn’t step both feet across the tile gap in front of him, the escape wasn’t considered over.

Zhao Yi would definitely understand this point.

Furthermore, the matter hadn’t reached such a grave extent.

Li Zhuiyuan knew that killing Zhao Yi to seize the jade was not the girl’s true intention.

If she really wanted to do that, she should have continued to hide quietly, waited for Zhao Yi to return, and delivered a thunderous strike. There was no need to specially run in front of him to show off, which would only increase variables.

There were two small stools placed in front of the house door. Li Zhuiyuan picked one up and threw it outwards.

The girl below A Yuan reached out and caught the stool.

Li Zhuiyuan walked into the house, took two bottles of soda from the counter, used an opener to pop the caps, then held them and walked out.

At this time, the girl also slid down from A Yuan. They stood outside the tile gap, with the dirt road beneath their feet. But when the girl landed, she didn’t kick up any dust. Most importantly, he didn’t hear a sound in his ears.

Li Zhuiyuan didn’t think she practiced martial arts. The Yu family couldn’t be that short-sighted. Most likely, she had some special characteristic about her.

This special characteristic was very difficult for him to replicate, or rather, he couldn’t accept its price, so it had no reference value.

Li Zhuiyuan threw the soda in his hand over. A Yuan caught it again, smelled it in front of his nose, then handed it to the young lady who was already sitting on the stool.

Yu Miaomiao took the soda, blew directly into the bottle opening, “gurgle gurgle.”

“Burp!”

She let out a string of loud burps, then inverted the bottle mouth, indicating she had finished it.

Then, she saw Li Zhuiyuan sitting opposite her, take out a straw and insert it, take a sip, and place the soda bottle on his knee.

Yu Miaomiao opened her mouth, exposing two overly long fangs.

“Hey, you really don’t care about him anymore?”

“Why should I care about him?”

“At least he accompanied you to perform a play.”

“He got the performance fee.”

“Boring, I thought you two had a good relationship.”

“It’s still okay.”

“Actually, I don’t have to kill him.”

“I thank you on his behalf.”

“But I need the two of you to promise me one request.”

“He is him, I am I.”

“I think he is willing to be represented by you, at least in this matter.”

“Okay, I agree to your request on his behalf.”

Yu Miaomiao closed her mouth and pursed her lips. Li Zhuiyuan could hear the grinding teeth sound in her mouth.

“The third piece of broken jade is also with you, right?”

Li Zhuiyuan held up the soda, biting the straw, and took a small sip.

“You are indeed formidable, being able to suppress the corpse qi inside for so long.”

Li Zhuiyuan continued to take a small sip.

“That is to say, there was a period of time before when you had two pieces of broken jade in hand, and both were suppressed by you.

Do you know that because you did this, there wasn’t even one piece of broken jade on the market during those days, forcing me to prematurely throw out the one in my hand to attract them to start competing and killing?”

Li Zhuiyuan continued taking small sips.

“Do you know that if not enough people die, you can’t open the banquet?”

Li Zhuiyuan spit out the straw, held the soda bottle high, and looked at how much was left.

She was giving herself false credit.

If she could have the same ability as himself to continue sealing the broken jade, then at least she should have come to have a sealing endurance race with him.

The reason she threw out the broken jade in her hand was because she knew she couldn’t seal it anymore.

If three pieces of broken jade with bursting corpse qi appeared on the market at the same time, she should have had the confidence to guard one, show enough dominance, and make others only dare to fight for the other two.

But when there was only one on the market, she also didn’t dare to become everyone’s target.

All of this was because Li Zhuiyuan, in order to buy time for his companion to recover from injuries, didn’t hesitate to endure nausea and forcibly patch the second broken jade for a period of days.

Actually, except for the time midway when he and Xu Yijin died in the Jianghu.

After arriving in Lijiang, most of the time, Li Zhuiyuan lived very quietly in this guesthouse.

But the rhythm of the bloody storm outside was basically all because of him.

“Hey!”

Yu Miaomiao was very angry.

Li Zhuiyuan didn’t respond, only single-mindedly drinking soda.

She finally knew what the boy meant by inviting her to drink soda; only she foolishly treated it as wine and finished it.

Li Zhuiyuan was waiting, waiting for her to state her real purpose, although he had already guessed it.

“After the banquet starts, I want you two to both listen to me.”

Li Zhuiyuan continued to drink soda.

The girl’s confidence was very high. Her words meant that she could let go of Zhao Yi and go seize another broken jade.

That broken jade, she could throw it out, and she could also snatch it back.

She was focusing on the next stage, which was the response after entering the seat.

She showed up today to advance integrate the team entering the seat. She wanted to be the boss.

Li Zhuiyuan had guessed her intention, but he didn’t expect her to use such a simple and crude method.

According to her thinking, she would first raise the big stick of threat, wait for him to be shocked, then follow her words, step by step to recognize her real request.

Was she training a dog?

Unfortunately, he didn’t follow her thinking, which now made her the one gasping for breath.

“Hey, I’m asking you, do you agree or not!”

“Hulu hulu hulu…”

The soda finally bottomed out.

Li Zhuiyuan: “I don’t agree.”

He was pursuing an alliance after entering the seat to cope with that situation. Zhao Yi was a qualified cooperator in his eyes, but the girl in front of him was not.

Li Zhuiyuan was even unwilling to pretend to agree, for example, agreeing first and then slowly planning and calculating.

Because the possibility of conflict when cooperating with her was far higher than not cooperating from the beginning and mutually guarding.

She was very smart, yet very impatient.

Li Zhuiyuan didn’t know why these two conflicting inner personalities would simultaneously appear in one person.

As if another thing was still living in her body.

Either always smart and calm like Zhao Yi, or simply barbarian to the end. These two kinds of people could team up and cooperate. What he was most afraid of was this kind of person who was both smart and would suddenly flip the table on you.

Yu Miaomiao pointed to herself and said: “I am not refined, but my parents paid no small price to raise me, so I am very expensive. Cooperate with me, listen to my command, and I at least won’t calculate the little bit of wealth you two have on your bodies, right?”

Li Zhuiyuan rubbed his brow and replied: “So, your meaning is, we two have to unite to calculate you, because you are very expensive and have a lot of resources on your body.”

Yu Miaomiao clenched her fist: “When I said my surname was Yu, your attention immediately shifted towards A Yuan’s body, even if only for a moment, I also noticed it. You know my family situation, right?”

Li Zhuiyuan sighed: “Here, comparing family background will seem a bit childish.”

Yu Miaomiao stretched out her finger and pointed to the ground under her feet: “Come out here, I want to beat you up!”

Li Zhuiyuan pointed to the empty bottle in his hand: “Still want to drink? Come in and get it yourself.”

Yu Miaomiao lifted her eyes and looked towards the guesthouse signboard, her gaze burning.

Behind her, A Yuan reached out and pressed his young lady’s shoulder, afraid she would act impulsively.

They had checked this array before. It was very difficult to break. Even if they could forcibly tear open a section of the array temporarily, there were also people inside on the other side.

Yu Miaomiao said coldly: “Since you refuse to cooperate, then I can only treat you as my enemy.”

Li Zhuiyuan nodded: “As you wish.”

Yu Miaomiao turned and left, with A Yuan following behind her.

Li Zhuiyuan then noticed that from the front view, A Yuan was only thin and tall, but from the back view, he realized the other party was severely hunchbacked. If the other party could stand up completely straight, he feared that when entering the towering earth house gate of Fat Gold Brother’s home, he would have to turn sideways and tilt his head.

Then he lowered his head. The dirt road outside the tile gap was overall recessed by several centimeters, forming a clear drop.

She was really preparing to rush the array just now.

Returning to the courtyard, Li Zhuiyuan repeated what happened at the front house door to his companions.

No one was very shocked or felt much pressure about the name of the Dragon King Yu’s family.

After all, their own family was also a Dragon King family, and there were two of them.

Tan Wenbin said, very bewildered: “Hiss… I really can’t figure out exactly what she wants to do!”

Li Zhuiyuan: “She should have mastered some of the clues in advance, and we have a certain information gap.”

Tan Wenbin: “But doesn’t she know that a forcibly twisted melon isn’t sweet? This kind of forcibly pieced together alliance will inevitably collapse, what’s the point?”

Li Zhuiyuan: “Perhaps just for that first mouthful to quench her thirst.”

The boy suspected that in the clues she had mastered, she needed to decide something with the identity of a three-party commander when she first entered the banquet.

As for whether the alliance would internal strife and collapse afterward, she possibly simply didn’t care. As long as the alliance was formed, at least at the beginning, everyone would give her face. Even if it was just acting, they would follow her first decision.

What she sought should be this.

But if it was really like this, she could have completely and directly stated it openly, each stating their needs, lobbying and trading. There was no need to put on the posture of using power to oppress from the beginning.

This kind of person was really difficult to calmly deduce their behavioral motives.

Li Zhuiyuan once again rubbed his brow.

Alas,

He missed Zhao Yi.

…

Just like this, another three days passed.

The travel map in the courtyard was drawn very crisscross and complex by Tan Wenbin.

The atmosphere in the guesthouse gradually improved.

Because although everyone’s injuries were not completely recovered, their faces all had the long-lost blood color after severe injury.

Even if they hadn’t rested to their peak state, they still possessed the ability to sustainably drain the pond to catch fish.

No matter when and where, strength was the real confidence.

Tan Wenbin calculated the latest corpse qi coordinate point, marked it, then placed his gaze on the map.

If Zhao Yi was still alive, then Zhao Yi would probably die soon.

Because the piece of broken jade representing him had a very high activity frequency recently, but his maneuvering space was increasingly being compressed.

Tan Wenbin: “Entering a desperate situation.”

Li Zhuiyuan: “He definitely still has backup plans.”

…

In the secret place on the hillside, Zhao Yi and his four people were taking a short rest.

Everyone was heavily injured, with Sun Yan and Xu Ming being the most serious.

Both of them had fallen into a coma. Xu Ming had even lost an arm.

The broken jade continued to emit corpse qi. It wouldn’t be long before a new round of attack appeared.

In fact, an important reason why they could escape to this point was that when that group of contending people made their moves, they often also prepared in advance how to guard against being robbed by another group after snatching something.

Zhao Yi had calculated and utilized the gains and losses and scruples among this group of people several times, thereby finding gaps and breaking out of the encirclement each time.

The mountain girl’s gaze deliberately circulated on Sun Yan and Xu Ming’s bodies. Earlier on the escape route, she had hinted to Zhao Yi to abandon these two heavily injured burdens.

But Zhao Yi remained unmoved.

She didn’t believe he didn’t understand. She liked this man precisely because he was smart and always clearer than others at critical moments.

Zhao Yi sat there, covering his chest, emitting painful nasal sounds from time to time.

This period of life and death escape had made the temporary heart of this spider unable to bear the load.

The mountain girl’s gaze slightly condensed, and she opened her mouth to ask: “Why not tell them that the group of people in the guesthouse still have a piece of broken jade in their hands, and they are all heavily injured, making it easier to snatch!”

Zhao Yi lifted his head and looked at the mountain girl with a look of seeing a fool.

That boy surnamed Li was really not afraid of him being a loudmouth and informing others.

Did she think that if he said he was using the empty city stratagem, others would believe it?

Without the bright corpse qi pillar standing there, even if they had doubts in their hearts, no one would go and ‘pretend to be smart’. They were all masters who wouldn’t act without seeing results. Who would risk their lives for an uncertain possibility?

Empty city stratagem and inviting the king into the urn were perhaps close synonyms.

The mountain girl asked puzzled: “Not okay?”

Zhao Yi shook his head: “No.”

Mountain girl: “But if we continue like this, we will really die, we will die!”

Zhao Yi once again lowered his head, one hand covering his chest, the other covering his forehead. Now not only his chest hurt, but his head hurt even more.

The mountain girl said angrily at his indecisiveness: “Should make a decision, can’t all die here!”

Zhao Yi didn’t lift his head this time, but took a deep breath and said seriously:

“Calculating others is calculating others. If I even calculate my own people and can abandon them casually, why should I still travel the Jianghu and be a Dragon King!

Don’t say this kind of thing again, otherwise, I will turn against you!”

In the sky, a one-winged bird was still circling very reluctantly, emitting a low cry like weeping blood. The enemy was approaching.

The mountain girl bit her teeth, pretended to be dejected, propped her hands on the ground, and let out a sound like crying and laughing, as if deeply hurt:

“Why do you have to say that to me? Am I not also doing it for your own good?”

Two centipedes crawled along her palms into the ground, then quietly appeared on Sun Yan and Xu Ming’s bodies respectively.

The mountain girl always stared at Zhao Yi with watery eyes, seeing that Zhao Yi never lifted his head to look over here. She thought in her heart:

You are unwilling to be this villain, I will help you; they are so heavily injured, I will help them find liberation!

Just as the two poisonous centipedes opened their mouths to bite, the comatose Sun Yan suddenly opened his eyes. A purple marten suddenly drilled out from Sun Yan’s clothes, and its sharp claws cut the centipede. Immediately, the purple marten jumped to Xu Ming’s body with extremely fast speed and picked up that centipede.

The one-armed Xu Ming let out a low growl, his body spun in the air, his joints cracking, and he collided towards the mountain girl. At the same time, he heavily knocked her down, grabbing a silver needle with one hand and stabbing it towards the back of her neck.

This needle was enough to make her whole body convulse and make her unable to mobilize the gu insects in her body for a short time.

At this time, Zhao Yi also finally lifted his head. He looked at the mountain girl expressionlessly and said in a low voice:

“I said, I will turn against you.”

After the initial astonishment, the mountain girl immediately screamed: “Zhao Yi, I might be doing it all for you!”

Sun Yan stood up, with the purple marten sitting on her shoulder, gnawing on a centipede with relish.

Above, that bird swooped down at a low altitude. The purple marten threw a centipede upwards, which was caught by the bird. It still knew not to eat alone.

“Zhao Yi, I’m doing this all for you, and you actually calculated against me. I like you so much, and you actually calculated against me!”

“You are doing this not because you like me, but because you don’t want to die here with me.”

Zhao Yi squatted down in front of the mountain girl, carefully examined her face and continued: “I am different from that guy surnamed Li. I can’t see any emotion in that guy’s eyes, so I will fear him.

Even if all his subordinates are lying there heavily injured, I will feel that the next moment he can sacrifice all his subordinates and stand up to make a final desperate struggle.

I am different from him. If you truly like me to death, I, on the contrary, will not let you die in front of me.”

“You’re talking nonsense, you’re babbling, Zhao Yi, you’re shameless, you heartless man!”

Immediately, the mountain girl let out a cold laugh: “How long can you trap me? Or do you want to kill me? Don’t forget, you can continue living all relying on the life gu I imposed on you. Zhao Yi, your life is all mine. You still dare to treat me like this, hehehe…”

The mountain girl’s laugh stopped abruptly.

Because she saw Zhao Yi stretch his hand to his chest and hard pulled down that big spider.

That area was immediately a blur of flesh and blood, but vaguely, one could see inside, there was a severely damaged heart, beating very weakly and slowly.

“How… how is it possible? Your heart wasn’t… wasn’t already…”

“Old Tian originally didn’t have to spend the rest of his life just lying in bed. He staked everything just to help me protect this last bit of heart.

He said, how can the life of the young master of the Zhao family be in the hands of others?

You think I don’t know? In that ancient burial of the Corpse Gu Sect, the person who secretly attacked me at that time was actually you.

You saw that the evil thing wasn’t working, so you came out and said you were willing to save me.”

The mountain girl’s gaze revealed a sinister look. She grinned: “Then why did you still have to bring me along and travel the Jianghu!”

Zhao Yi: “Old Tian wasn’t working, the team was short of people, and most importantly, the team lacked a role that could be sacrificed at any time. You were very suitable.”

The mountain girl’s gaze fell on the piece of broken jade emitting corpse qi: “What do you mean? Unless you learn that method and hand it over, otherwise you will all die. But if you hand it over, how long can this broken heart of yours beat?”

Zhao Yi picked up the broken jade and placed it on the big spider’s body.

The big spider’s legs wrapped around the broken jade and began to absorb the corpse qi on the broken jade frantically. Its color instantly turned black.

Upon seeing this, the mountain girl’s eyes widened: “How is it possible, how do you know gu technique, how is it possible…”

“After being sacrificed with my heart blood for so long, it listens to my words, is that very strange?

Hehe, do you know why that guy surnamed Li is willing to play with me? Because even if I am not as good as him, I am not too bad either.”

Zhao Yi stuffed the big spider into the mountain girl’s mouth, then used his own heart blood as a symbol, pointed at her brow, and forcibly urged all the gu insects in her body to riot, beginning to frantically absorb the corpse qi on the broken jade.

Because the absorption was too fierce and too fast, the originally pitch-black broken jade surprisingly presented its original emerald color again.

And the mountain girl’s body began to mutate, gradually becoming inhuman, like a fierce ghost.

Soon, she began to struggle violently, emitting roars. The gu insects in her body were also drilling around.

Zhao Yi kicked the mountain girl down the cliff with one foot. Large amounts of corpse qi rose from her body, while the broken jade in Zhao Yi’s hand no longer had corpse qi rising, although it was still visibly blackening.

But, this period of time was enough.

He had deliberately compressed his maneuvering range during this period, attracting all the pursuers densely. Now their attention was attracted by the mountain girl. He would just take this gap to jump out of the encirclement.

Zhao Yi looked at Xu Ming and Sun Yan, and waved his hand:

“Go, go seek refuge with my distant brother!”

——

Tomorrow, add one chapter to supplement the word count of this chapter.

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