A sword was like life to a swordsman. As long as the sword existed, the person who wielded it lived and lost his life when it was gone. "Whether you want to kill me with them or scrape them, it's up to you." Liu Yidao said without being arrogant or humble.
"I'm not a bloodthirsty demon, so why should I kill you?" Rong Yi handed Liu Yidao the three pieces of his broken sword and added: "I don't want to kill you, but of course, if you don't want to live anymore, I will gladly do it for you. I give you two choices: the first is to die; the second is to take these three pieces of your broken sword to an ironsmith and have him forge them into three kitchen knives, and from then on rename yourself Liu Sandao1 as you roam the jianghu2."
"I choose death." Liu Yidao answered without hesitation.
Rong Yi frowned. "Life is precious, so I advise you to think twice."
Liu Yidao said nothing, remaining unmoved, not even the slightest bit.
Seeing that Liu Yidao was determined to die, Rong Yi couldn't help but advise, "'Liu Yidao' isn't your real name, anyway. It doesn't matter if you change it to 'Liu Sandao1' since it's still unpleasant to hear. As for roaming in the jianghu2 with three kitchen knives, don't you think it's easier to make a name for yourself with those than with a big sword? There never has been and never will be another person who uses three kitchen knives as weapons. You are the first and the only one!"
"That, Yi-er, Liu Yidao is his real name." Fu Chengfeng interjected with a face full of black lines.
"Uh," Rong Yi was incredibly embarrassed. What had she just said? It didn't matter if his name was changed to Liu Sandao1 since they all sounded equally unpleasant. They were both stranded people from the farthest reaches of the realm3, yet she spoke hurtful words to him. This was not right. This was really not right. Hey, who could blame her anyway? How could she have known that someone would actually name him 'Yidao4'?
After some remorse in her heart, Rong Yi offered Liu Yidao substantial compensation. "Names are given by parents, and we shouldn't dislike them, let alone change them casually. You will continue to roam the jianghu2 as 'Liu Yidao', but your weapons must be three kitchen knives."
After a moment of silence, Liu Yidao asked, "Will a dagger do?"
Rong Yi was shocked by his serious expression when he asked for her advice. After being speechless, she asked, "You think the kitchen knife is ugly?"
"Ugly." Liu Yidao replied coolly.
"......" You have the nerve to dislike kitchen knives when you have such an unpleasant name? Rong Yi spat in her mind. "I can't break my own words. It must be the kitchen knives." She flatly rejected Liu Yidao's suggestion.
Liu Yidao had calmly read and understood Rong Yi's intention from her determination: There is a shortage of people in the jianghu2 who roam with kitchen knives to entertain the public, and you will fill that gap.
Liu Yidao hadn't had the slightest interest in filling this gap, but since he was inferior in skill, he had to succumb to her power.
"This sword is called the Liu Ye Dao5." Liu Yidao said with some emotion as he looked at the remains of his sword.
Rong Yi immediately understood what he meant and said very understandingly: "You want to keep its name?" Seeing that Liu Yidao didn't refute, she knew her guess was correct, so she continued: "Okay. From now on, Liu Yidao's unique weapon will be called 'Liu Ye San Caidao6'."
The corners of Liu Yidao's mouth twitched wildly as he argued, "It will be called 'Liu Ye San Dao'. If you insist on adding the word 'cài', then take my life first and find another owner for them."
Ugh. Rong Yi was stunned. Was this guy threatening her? First the crying, then the shouting, and finally the threat to kill himself. Wasn't this, this, this the exclusive trick of disgruntled women? When had the chivalrous people of jianghu2 become so good at these acts?
Rong Yi suddenly felt that the future of jianghu2 had become bleak and hopeless.
"Then let's call it Liu Ye San Dao." Rong Yi couldn't let Liu Yidao die. After all, he didn't have much of a beef with her, and taking his life would only add to her sin, which wasn't worth it. Besides, she had promised Fu Chengfeng that she would never kill again, and he would do the killing instead.
Thinking of Fu Chengfeng's willingness to bear the sin of murder for her, Rong Yi was deeply moved. Ignoring Liu Yidao, she approached Fu Chengfeng and said, "Big Brother Fu, I've made you suffer."
At her words, Fu Chengfeng looked at Rong Yi in embarrassment, not knowing whether to laugh or cry as he spoke, "Yi-er, don't keep stealing men's lines. You will scare away your world's number-one husband."
Rong Yi chuckled and stared intensely at him, saying, "Don't worry, he has such a huge nerve that he won't run away easily."
Fu Chengfeng knew that the 'he' coming out of Rong Yi's mouth was referring to himself, but he didn't dare to accept it. For while she was settling her old grudge with Liu Yidao, he noticed a change in himself. This change came too fast and too suddenly for him to expect it. Although he had expected that his life would inevitably change drastically when he first broke his ban on killing, he hadn't expected it to be this kind of change. He thought that, at most, he would only have a few more enemies. He had thought things too simply.
Fu Chengfeng should have known that with his Master's old heart, there must be a reason why he made him swear not to kill anyone.
A noob translator, きつね, translated this noob translation. Please read this chapter at xin-shou.site. If you read this in another location other than the site stated, it has been taken without the translator's permission. Please don't support this kind of act.
But he had no regrets. It seemed that if he had not killed, it would have been difficult to save Yi-er's life. It was the lesser of two evils. It was worth it for him to kill. It was a consequence he was also willing to bear.
"Where is your brother?" Fu Chengfeng asked.
When Rong Yi saw that Fu Chengfeng avoided responding to her words, she was a bit unhappy and replied sullenly, "It's enough for me to deal with these old, weak, sick and disabled people on my own, so there's no need for him to interfere. He has gone ahead to scout the way."
The words 'old, weak, sick and disabled' caused black lines to appear on the faces of all the men present. Whether these four words were taken together or separately, they all were clearly scorning them.
Fu Chengfeng shook his head in amusement and said, "Let's go and meet up with him."
"Okay." Rong Yi put her fingers in her mouth and whistled softly, and a horse immediately galloped out of the forest. A sign of satisfaction appeared at the corners of Rong Yi's lips as she jumped up to mount the horse, but suddenly, she heard Fu Chengfeng shout from the side, "Yi-er, be careful!" Rong Yi wondered why Fu Chengfeng said that, as she didn't sense any threat. At that moment, a hand suddenly sealed her blood vessels from behind, and then a very warm stream poured in from behind. Not only was there no pain, but it was also very warm as if a ray of sunshine had entered her heart.
Soon, Rong Yi realised that something was wrong. Someone had sealed her inner strength!
What was going on?
Rong Yi turned to look at Fu Chengfeng, only to see his ashen face as he stumbled a few steps forward to embrace her, nervously asking, "Yi-er, how are you feeling?"
Rong Yi shook her head. "I don't feel anything. It's just that my internal strength seems to be sealed off."
Fu Chengfeng immediately heaved a massive sigh of relief. "Fortunately, he has sealed your internal strength. Fortunately." He didn't expect that the lie he had casually made up had inadvertently saved Rong Yi's life, and for a while, his heart was overwhelmed with emotion.
"Who sealed my internal strength?" Rong Yi asked as she turned to find Liu Yidao standing to her right. His fingers were still pointing, seemingly unsure if he had accomplished his mission, not daring to let go of his hand easily. "Were you who sealed my internal strength from behind just now?" Rong Yi asked, not quite believing it, and when she saw Liu Yidao nod his head, she added, "If you were this near to me, there is no way I would not have noticed you."
"It is the Terrifying Dragon's Leaf. Those enveloped by the Terrifying Dragon's light will lose all of their senses." The person who said this was Qin Mu'an.
Fu Chengfeng nodded along with his words. Only God knew how desperate he felt as he watched the bright light enter her body while he could do nothing to stop it.
At this point, Qin Mu'an added, "Although there is only one shot of each Terrifying Dragon's Leaf, there are eighteen of them here. Apart from the one I used on Xu Qingshan, seventeen are left."
Fu Chengfeng expressed: "Their skills have obviously been rigidly sealed by me."
Without waiting for Qin Mu'an to open his mouth, Liu Yidao coldly interjected, "If you can seal it, someone else can unseal it."
"You mean there is another secret expert here?" Fu Chengfeng looked around as he asked this but found no one suspicious.
"No need to look around. I'll take you to that person." After saying that, Liu Yidao gave Rong Yi a cold look and said, "I'll give you three minutes to say goodbye to him."
When Rong Yi heard this, she took a silver ticket from her bosom and gave it to Liu Yidao, saying, "I will spare your life because you have saved mine. I won't change your name either because you have given me time to say goodbye to him. Take this silver ticket, find a good blacksmith, and forge yourself a good new sword."
"No need." Liu Yidao refused Rong Yi's kindness and walked to the side of the road with his back to everyone.
Rong Yi understood Liu Yidao's meaning. He didn't want to be friends with anyone, whether he was actively seeking connections in high places or not.
So be it. Jianghu2 people have always been a little eccentric in one way or another.
Although Rong Yi had been severely injured by the Terrifying Dragon's Leaf and her internal strength had been sealed, she was still in an excellent state of mind, and there was no trace of sadness on her face as she said goodbye to Fu Chengfeng.
"Big Brother Fu, although the Terrifying Dragon's Leaf injured me, I have gained something from it. At the very least, I now know that when I am enveloped by the light of the Terrifying Dragon's Leaf, my senses will become dull or even disappear, allowing people with even lower martial arts skills to get close to me and take my life easily. That is why Xu Qingshan was so terrified before he died. He must have seen the danger approaching him then, but his body couldn't avoid it, so he was shocked and frightened. Until you figure out how to handle the Death Door7 of the Terrifying Dragon's Leaf, don't come to my rescue, or you'll only get yourself into trouble."
After Rong Yi finished a long paragraph in one breath, Fu Chengfeng had nothing to say to her. He gazed at her in a complicated way for a long time before he said, "If I never come looking for you, you should...... find a good man and marry him."
Rong Yi was shocked when she heard his words, and a wave of anger surged to her forehead. Had her inner strength not been blocked, she would have given in to the urge to wring his neck. "It's only a temporary separation, not forever. What nonsense are you talking about! Since I, Murong Yi, have decided to marry you in this life, I will make sure that I am buried next to your grave even if I die!"
Fu Chengfeng: "Yi-er, don't get too agitated. I'm just saying, what if. After all, life is impermanent."
"There is no what if." Rong Yi looked at him coldly and continued, "Fu Chengfeng, as long as I am alive, you are not allowed to die. As long as you are not dead, you must come to me."
Fu Chengfeng felt helpless. This girl had a queenly demeanour, and when she spoke, she was even more domineering than the Emperor. With a sigh, Fu Chengfeng vowed, "I promise you that as long as I am still alive, I will definitely look for you. If I die, I will also entrust someone to report to you. If you die before me, I will entrust someone to scatter my ashes in front of your tomb."
Initially, Rong Yi didn't like to listen to Fu Chengfeng's demoralising words. Now that he had made such a solemn promise, she suddenly had a bad feeling in her heart that this farewell would be forever.
Footnotes Full List
- san=three, dao=sword/knife
- lit. rivers and lakes—people who wander from place to place and live by their wits, e.g. fortune-tellers, quack doctors, itinerant entertainers, etc., who are regarded as a social group
- from a poem called Pipa Xing (Song of the Pipa) by Bai Juyi. I've mentioned this poem before in Black Belly Wife Chapter 85, and the poem has even been made into a song. A good one.
- yi=one, dao=sword/knife
- liu (柳)=willow, ye=leaf, dao=sword. Liu Yidao's surname is also written as 柳. Do you get it? Liu Yidao? Liu Ye Dao? 😏
- liu=willow, ye=leaf, san=three, caidao=kitchen knife (literally, cài 菜 means vegetable. But when put together with dāo 刀, it means kitchen knife)
- Death Door is one of the doors in Qimen Dunjia.
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