Chapter 185

Unlike the brief exchange of good mornings that had ended things earlier, this time, after they said good night, the woman opened her palm and pointed at the teapot in front of her.

She was inviting him for tea.

At that gesture, Tan Wenbin, who had been chatting with Brother Fatty Jin, turned toward the woman.

Lu Runsheng and Lin Shuyou, who had been about to go into their room, stopped at the same time.

Yin Meng stopped admiring the potted plant in the corner and turned sideways to look back.

The woman did not mind. After extending the invitation, she withdrew her hand, crossed her legs in a different way, and looked at the boy with amused eyes.

Li Zhuiyuan did dare to go drink tea with her.

Because she did not know that he also had a shard of jade in his possession. In theory, she had no legitimate reason to make the first move against him.

Under normal circumstances, even if she had to endure karmic backlash, she could simply force the kill through. If merit had to be deducted, so be it. If some tribulation had to be borne, she would bear it. But right now they were in the surging current of the river, and everyone would be especially cautious.

Because here, any tiny flaw could trigger an uncontrollable chain reaction and hand an opportunity to someone else.

Besides, the way the woman had followed him from a distance all day had already confirmed his guess that she wanted to use his team as a shield. She had no motive to strike him now.

And yet, Li Zhuiyuan did not choose to go over for tea.

Since she already saw him as a soft persimmon she could squeeze at will, why should he go strut his courage in front of her?

When a killing blow was coming soon, every bit of advantage before that was precious and worth preserving.

The boy let difficulty show on his face, putting on just the right amount of resistance and embarrassment.

The woman smiled, stood up, and went into her room.

Very soon, she came out again.

Her long hair hung loose over the right side, perfectly covering her right cheek so that Brother Fatty Jin and his family, bustling about in the front house, could not see the terrifying cracked lines on that side of her face.

This one was fake.

She had left her real body in the room and sent out a dummy to make contact with him.

The dummy crossed the courtyard and walked toward Li Zhuiyuan.

He could sense that the aura on it was extremely faint. It was hollow inside as well.

Normally, a formation would have been set in advance inside it so it could self-destruct at a crucial moment.

It really was a porcelain figure she had casually pinched into being. To soothe his anxious, fearful heart, she was being quite sincere.

Faced with that level of persistence, Li Zhuiyuan could only accept. He turned slightly toward his own room and made a welcoming gesture.

No one was stupid.

Even the four people who had died upstairs last night had certainly not been fools.

But as long as someone was human, they had their flaws.

Li Zhuiyuan had only reflected on his own during the day, and the woman had one too.

Her actions revealed caution, but she could not conceal the arrogance clinging to her.

Of course, for someone wandering the jianghu alone, she did have the right to be arrogant.

The woman entered the room and sat at the edge of the bed. Li Zhuiyuan glanced at his companions outside, then went in after her and shut the door.

If she wanted to size him up, then let her.

In the short distance from the doorway to the other bed, the boy had already designed an identity for himself in his mind.

“Xu Yijin.”

The woman got straight to the point and gave her name.

“Li Zhuiyuan.”

Xu Yijin looked thoughtful. The cracks between her brows surfaced slightly. Clearly, she had never heard that name before.

That was only natural. Li Zhuiyuan had always treated others kindly and had very few enemies.

And the very few people who knew his identity would guard that secret for him, Zhao Yi among them.

When people had fallen into a pit themselves, they tended to hide it carefully, afraid the ones behind them would fail to fall in too.

Xu Yijin said, “I can tell you aren’t disguising your age. What you’re showing is your real appearance, the way you truly look at this age.”

A young boy sitting in the seat of honor within a team.

That alone was enough to surprise anyone.

In a brief encounter it might not have been obvious, but she had followed them all day today. Even from far away, she had caught enough details.

Li Zhuiyuan stiffened himself and said stubbornly, “Who says being young means you can’t wander the jianghu?”

Xu Yijin took a porcelain bracelet from her pocket and handed it to him. “Auntie is giving you a present. Try it on and see if it fits.”

Li Zhuiyuan did not reach out.

Xu Yijin kept holding it out and did not withdraw her hand. “It’s just a simple ornament. It isn’t worth much.”

Li Zhuiyuan’s gaze first fell on the bracelet, then shifted to Xu Yijin’s face.

He knew perfectly well that she was using this as a way to make physical contact with him.

She was probably trying to probe whether he knew martial arts.

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. “I can’t accept a gift for nothing.”

“I’m older than you. You already called me Auntie. Is it so wrong for me to give you something?”

“I didn’t prepare anything in return.”

“Take it.”

Even though this was just a dummy, the sense of pressure still came crashing down.

Mostly because her performance last night had indeed been impressive.

Li Zhuiyuan stopped acting coy. In fact, he wanted her to discover that he had not yet begun martial training.

The boy reached out and picked up the bracelet.

It was icy cold in his hand, and a dim glow surfaced across it.

At the same time, a similar gleam flashed through Xu Yijin’s left eye.

Then a crack appeared in the pupil of that eye.

The bracelet really was ordinary. There was no hidden mechanism in it. But it had probably been pried from some part of this dummy’s body that was hidden beneath its clothing.

At such close range, touching the bracelet was no different from directly making bodily contact with her.

Li Zhuiyuan set the bracelet on the bedside table.

Xu Yijin leaned back slightly, her hair falling behind her, looking somewhat lazy and at ease.

She was not beautiful.

Of course, she had no need to be.

Under a different set of circumstances, another kind of wave altogether, such as joining forces against an evil presence, he might actually have gotten along with her quite well.

Li Zhuiyuan rather wanted to ask her about this porcelain puppet technique. He believed he had things in hand that he could trade for it.

Unfortunately, in different circumstances, relationships between people also changed with them, or were even destined in advance.

In this wave, everyone was a competitor.

And among them, Li Zhuiyuan was actually the most innocent one, because he did not need to seize other people’s jade shards at all. He only kept adding more seals to his own.

And then Xu Yijin chose him.

“The four who checked in yesterday are dead.”

A trace of shock flickered in Li Zhuiyuan’s eyes. Then he nodded, swallowed, and tried his best to maintain his composure.

“I saw the four mounds of earth by the entrance.”

Tomorrow, either one more mound would appear in the field by the door, or five more.

“Their jade shards are in my hands now.”

“I guessed as much.”

“We can cooperate.”

“In what way?”

What she was probably about to say was the second line of thought he himself had considered before.

Put simply, it sounded nice enough that he could save a bit of face, but in reality it meant nothing.

“I can’t suppress the corpse aura inside those jade shards forever. Once it erupts and reveals itself, I’ll need you and your people to stay in the open while I remain in the dark.

When someone tries to attack you and seize your jade shards, I’ll strike them from the shadows.

You help me deal with those wild dogs lunging in to bite, and when you discover the owner of a second jade shard, I’ll also help you take it.

That place has three seats. Both our sides can get in.”

Li Zhuiyuan pressed his lips together and said frankly, “In this vision of cooperation, all I can see is what I have to give. You, on the other hand, are under no restraint.”

“Because this is a unilateral declaration of cooperation.” Xu Yijin answered as if it were only natural. “I spent the whole day keeping you company today. I could tell that you really do like Lijiang.”

“The scenery here really is wonderful, isn’t it?”

“You can keep changing the subject. I’m only here to inform you.”

“This isn’t fair.”

“You shouldn’t be this naive. Didn’t the adults in your family ever tell you that on the river, you have to compare fists first before you earn the right to talk reason?”

Li Zhuiyuan clenched his fists.

The moment Xu Yijin said, “the adults in your family,” Li Zhuiyuan knew his performance had worked.

This was the persona he had designed for himself.

A child of a great family, young and ignorant of the height of heaven and depth of earth, setting out on a river walk early in life with powerful protectors at his side, making it this far.

Otherwise, there was no way to explain why he appeared on the river before even reaching the age for martial training.

And even after entering the jianghu, he still refused to train in martial arts because he wanted better development for the future.

With convincing acting and an obstacle that no one could avoid guessing about, Li Zhuiyuan had no fear that she would not speculate in exactly that direction.

Because even Liu Yumei had never been able to understand why the river paid him such special attention.

And Li Zhuiyuan played this role with perfect ease.

Because he really did have a family.

“Cooperate properly, do what you’re supposed to do, and I probably... won’t let you come out the loser.”

“Doesn’t the word ‘probably’ sound a little too perfunctory?”

“I don’t want to lie to you, because everything depends on the exact situation. If we work together well, if conditions allow, and if you are very obedient, why wouldn’t I take the initiative to help you obtain a jade shard, so you can go in there with me?

Three seats. My side taking two of them. What a huge advantage that would be.”

She really knew how to paint a tempting picture. Paired with her strength, the picture was genuinely attractive.

Li Zhuiyuan began to act as though he were thinking it over.

Xu Yijin waited quietly.

A shield had to be easy to control, and this kind of pampered young master’s team on a river walk was the easiest sort to handle.

They were usually arrogant, clever with calculations, and at crucial moments desperately afraid of death. They understood compromise better than anyone.

A few rough sounds came from Li Zhuiyuan’s throat. His eyes reddened faintly as he said,

“But I’m not really convinced.”

“I’ll make you convinced.”

After leaving behind those words, Xu Yijin stood up.

Then her whole body cracked apart.

On the ground, she became a heap of broken porcelain.

Li Zhuiyuan raised his boot and stomped on it. Once. Twice. Three times.

The banging rang loud and clear, audible even outside the room.

After venting, Li Zhuiyuan sat back on the bed and muttered to himself,

“You’ll pay for your arrogance.”

…

Xu Yijin came out of the room once more and resumed sitting there drinking tea.

Brother Fatty Jin carried over a thermos flask, smiled at Xu Yijin, and replaced the old one.

With fresh hot tea steeped, Xu Yijin held her cup and watched the people going in and out of the room opposite.

She saw Tan Wenbin carrying exquisitely made flag markers and sneaking into the front house to set things up.

What he was laying down was an isolating formation. It was intricate and high-level, but the way he set it up while reciting mnemonic verses under his breath looked rather stupid.

Xu Yijin could tell this was not an act.

Because acting required skill, and this rigid, almost force-fed style of laying a formation was not something someone could improvise on the spot.

And Tan Wenbin truly was not acting. This was simply how their team set formations: plain, honest, and unadorned.

Yet because of that, it became another important piece of evidence in Xu Yijin’s eyes that this was the team of a great family’s young master.

Xu Yijin did not stop Tan Wenbin from setting the formation.

She also did not want to affect Brother Fatty Jin’s family, because by the usual rules of the river, this household would surely have another role to play later, and at some critical moment it would likely provide her with an important clue.

After all, while she now held the invitation, she still had no idea where exactly she was supposed to go to attend the banquet.

Up on the rooftop, Yin Meng was blending poisons in preparation for the coming fight.

Xu Yijin frowned slightly. She could detect a faint scent drifting through the air. By the time it reached her, it was far too thin to be poisonous, but she could still tell the methods involved were chaotic.

The extraction of the original toxins was very pure, but the handling was utterly unsystematic and astonishingly bold.

Xu Yijin did not believe this was an act either.

Who would act to that degree? It was like grilling meat beside a methane pit.

The room window stood open, and from Xu Yijin’s angle she could see Lin Shuyou inside painting his face.

Hah. Officers of the Command Banner.

Xu Yijin knew of Officers of the Command Banner, but had little interest in that inheritance, because it was too recent and riddled with flaws.

Not only would the Yin gods they summoned never truly exert themselves, the technique also had an extremely harsh time limit.

Though the young man wore a solemn, serious look, he was not worth worrying about.

On a stool by the doorway of the boy’s room sat Lu Runsheng.

Xu Yijin drank tea. Lu Runsheng smoked a cigar.

She drank hers; he smoked his.

Several times, Xu Yijin tried to catch his gaze, but each time she failed.

Because the man across from her did look at her, but he looked only for the sake of looking.

There was no scrutiny, no thought, no observation... his eyes were so clear it was as though thought itself did not exist within them, as though he had entered some state of awakened emptiness.

And in Xu Yijin’s eyes, he was also the one in this young master’s team most worthy of attention.

That boy definitely possessed something special, and might even know a few unusual techniques, but overall he was not much of a threat.

But the man sitting there smoking, even from so far away, still let her hear the surging blood and vitality rolling through his body.

This was someone who had walked the path of body refinement all the way, someone who had developed his physical form to an extremely high level.

Dealing with him might be a little troublesome, but it was no great issue. No matter how strong a body was, could it really be stronger than sharp porcelain?

That man in the short-sleeved shirt last night had also taken the body-refinement route, and he still went down in a single move.

Still, once she started using this team as a shield, having a person like this among them would indeed be a major advantage.

He could rely on his body to stand in front, and if she decided it was time to hunt and ambush someone, it would make things much easier for her.

Xu Yijin truly did want to help Li Zhuiyuan snatch a jade shard.

But not because she wanted another helper once they went inside for the banquet. It was because she wanted to eliminate a powerful hidden opponent in advance.

Everyone was busy, and busy without any attempt to hide it.

Xu Yijin simply sat there, drinking tea and watching.

Inside the room, Li Zhuiyuan first stuck up isolating talisman paper, then carried out today’s sealing on the jade shard in his possession.

The fluctuation was tiny, almost impossible to detect. With the filtering effect of the talisman paper added on top, there was no way Xu Yijin could sense it.

Once that was done, Li Zhuiyuan began thinking about whether he should temporarily design a high-level formation pieced together from multiple simple, low-level formations.

Should he lay it out right in front of Xu Yijin, then give her a huge surprise once the fight began?

After thinking it over for a moment, Li Zhuiyuan gave up on the idea.

He could not really treat her as some complete fool.

Right now, the people under him showed no flaws at all, because all of them were simply being themselves. He could not afford to ruin that by overdoing things.

Still...

Li Zhuiyuan picked up the porcelain bracelet. At this distance, it had already lost its connection to the main body. Besides, the porcelain dummy that had served as the relay point was already shattered.

So, you excel at controlling porcelain, do you?

Li Zhuiyuan tapped his fingertip lightly on the table.

He was not skilled in puppet arts, because the basic ones were useless to him, and the advanced puppet arts were closely guarded secrets of high-ranking families and sects.

But he was very good at controlling other people’s puppets.

Pop!

Li Zhuiyuan opened another can of Jianlibao. It was sickeningly sweet, but he still had to keep drinking it.

It did not matter if he ran out of the cans he had brought in his own bag. Every one of his companions had packed several cans for him too.

Li Zhuiyuan did not know whether revealing all their hidden cards and going all out from the very start would cause the numbers to overflow.

He only knew that he absolutely could not hold back, because he would have only one chance.

Even defeating her would not be enough. Making an enemy of a powerful lone wanderer here would be an absolute nightmare.

Still, he truly envied her.

Walking the jianghu alone.

If only the river would give him a few more years, until he came of age, he too could walk the river alone.

At most he would bring Lu Runsheng so someone could carry him when he got tired. At most one more Zhuangzhuang to help him manage social dealings. Mengmeng had to come too, otherwise he would lose his connection to The Great Emperor of Fengdu.

Lin Shuyou...

That already made three. One more Lin Shuyou would not make much difference.

Li Zhuiyuan parted his lips slightly. The hint of a smile almost surfaced.

Though only almost, never fully appearing.

Still, the boy had truly caught that feeling of a knowing smile.

In a barren desert, he had finally managed to cultivate a tiny patch of green. As its gardener, he delighted in every emotional seed he managed to obtain.

After finishing a can of Jianlibao, Li Zhuiyuan turned sideways to face the front house.

The four people buried in those earth mounds by the entrance might also become one of her backup measures.

Forget it, let them stay. Let them remain as a way of stabilizing her confidence. People needed to feel that everything was under control before they would be willing to keep playing along with you.

Night deepened little by little.

Xu Yijin yawned, set down her teacup, and said,

“I’m done drinking. I’m sleepy.”

What she meant was: I’ve already given you enough time. It can begin now.

Li Zhuiyuan pushed open his door and walked out, looking at the woman across from him as he said,

“Thank you.”

Xu Yijin shook her head. “No need. It goes both ways.”

While giving them time to prepare, she had also been observing them. No one had really come out at a disadvantage.

Li Zhuiyuan shifted his gaze toward the front house.