Chapter 185 - The Whip

After Xu Yuan finished speaking, the tunnel sank into pitch-black silence.

Xu Xinyao stared blankly at the third brother before her, a man both familiar and strange. Hurt and confusion flickered in her eyes, and a faint, bitter ache spread through her chest. She remembered the look of disgust in his eyes when he had called her a wild-bred little bastard.

Her fists clenched slightly. Back then, she had been hurt, yes, but it had not felt like this. This was a razor through the heart, a suffocation that hollowed her out from within.

She did not understand why he would think she might betray their taciturn, respectable father. Her pale lips moved. By instinct, Xu Xinyao wanted to deny it. But as she looked at Xu Yuan’s calm eyes, she fell silent for a moment, then said in a trembling voice, “If I were truly to do such a thing, please kill me yourself.”

Xu Yuan narrowed his eyes and gently rubbed his thumb against his forefinger. After a long while, he nodded and gave a single word. “Good.”

Xu Xinyao pressed her lips together and gave him a faint smile. Then she glanced at the thumb-thick branch Xu Yuan had set on the ground beside him.

“Third Brother, are you... going to whip me?”

“Yes. That was what I had in mind at first.” Noticing her gaze, Xu Yuan casually picked up the branch from the ground and gave it a swing. The branch cut through the air with a low, whining sound. He glanced sideways at her. “But after talking with you, I don’t think there’s any need. Even if I beat you, you still won’t listen to me. Everyone in our family is like this. Stubborn to the grave.”

At those words, Xu Xinyao could not help but picture Xu Yuan back in the imperial capital, strung up from the rafters by their eldest brother and lashed with a whip. A gleam passed through her beautiful eyes, and she nearly laughed despite herself.

But the light in her eyes dimmed again in the next instant. Her brother’s distrust in her, together with the wretched state of Sageridge, turned into blades that churned endlessly inside her heart.

Xu Yuan looked at her like this and stroked the branch in his hand as though he were caressing a sword. “The formations you study can influence this world far more than your cultivation. They are a sword. Used well, they can save the nation and its people. Used poorly, they can bring ruin for ten thousand years. This time, you handed that sword straight to someone whose character you did not know. I hope you remember this lesson properly. Next time, it may not be as simple as two hundred thousand lives.”

After a quiet pause, Xu Xinyao raised her eyes to Xu Yuan and said softly, “Third Brother, you should still hit me.”

Xu Yuan was rendered speechless. He looked at her and said, word by word, “You think if I hit you, you’ll feel a little better?”

Xu Xinyao said nothing.

Xu Yuan was silent for a breath. Then he made his decision, picked up the branch, and rose to his feet. “Kneel.”

Xu Xinyao bit her lip lightly, stood, and knelt in the direction of Sageridge.

Without a sound, Xu Yuan stood to one side and looked at her straight, jade-like back. Then he swung hard.

CRACK! After the branch tore through the air came a sharp, ringing lash.

He did not strike her back. He struck the fair hand Xu Xinyao had laid across her lap.

After that one lash, a bright red wound appeared across the back of her hand. Blood began to seep out at once.

Xu Yuan had used source qi. The branch was wrapped in a faint blood colored glow. Rather than saying the branch had whipped her, it would be more accurate to say his source qi had.

The pain bored straight into her bones. Xu Xinyao’s delicate body trembled, but she clenched her teeth and made no sound. She remained kneeling, back straight.

CRACK! Then came the second lash.

A second bloody welt appeared just beneath the first. Against her snow-white skin, the two red marks looked especially glaring.

Two lashes. Job done.

Xu Yuan looked down at his adopted sister and said in a low voice, “I believe that before you reached an agreement with the Myriad Manifestations Sect, you did do some investigating. You looked into the sect’s attitude. You looked into whether they could be trusted. But in the end, you misjudged them. This is a lesson. Those friends of yours may also become a second Myriad Manifestations Sect. You can know a person’s face, but not their heart.

“Traveling the world was Father’s decision. I won’t interfere with that. But from now on, before you do anything, I hope you’ll look more often at those two scars on the back of your hand. If you don’t want to see them, you can always use ointment to remove the scars.”

Xu Xinyao looked down at the wounds on the back of her hand. She raised her other hand and gently brushed them, then murmured, “Yes. I’ll remember.”

Xu Yuan took a deep breath, turned around, and glanced back from the corner of his eye. “I’ll give you some time alone. Ran Qingmo and I will wait for you at the cave entrance.”

Before he left, Xu Yuan faintly saw a glimmer of wetness beneath her lowered lashes.

As his soft footsteps gradually faded into the distance, silence returned to the tunnel.

The girl knelt there in a daze for a long time. In the end, she sat down on the ground, hugged her knees, and began to sob quietly.

As Xu Yuan walked along the passage leading out, the voice of the Sage's remnant soul suddenly sounded. “Xu boy, that adopted sister of yours is crying.”

Xu Yuan’s expression remained calm. His steps did not stop. “I know. She’s always been like this. She only ever hides by herself and cries in secret. That’s why I left early, to give her time to cry.”

The Sage's remnant soul fell silent for a moment, then shook his head lightly. “Judging only from you and that lad called Xu Changge, I thought everyone in your family was cut from the same cloth. Who would have thought there’d be a girl like this among you?”

Xu Yuan thought for a moment, then replied in a low voice, “That’s just her nature. But more than that, it’s because Father and Xu Changge protected her too well. After this, she should change somewhat.”

The Sage's remnant soul chuckled softly. “To be honest, after seeing how you acted in the Splendorbloom Sect, I always thought you brat had possessed someone else’s body. But now it seems I was probably wrong. If you had, there’s no way you’d be this familiar with that girl.”

At this point, the Sage's remnant soul changed the subject. “But tell me, why do I get the feeling you’re quite certain this sister of yours will betray you?”

“Certain?” Xu Yuan tossed away the branch in his hand and replied casually, “I was certain before. Very certain. Now, not so much. But some things still need to be said to her in advance.”

The Sage's remnant soul sounded curious. “Why were you so certain? Because of her personality?”

“Something like that.” Xu Yuan sighed and gave a vague answer. After a brief silence, he asked quietly in his heart, “Old Luo, do you think my adopted sister’s method has any chance of succeeding?”

The Sage's remnant soul pondered for a moment. He did not answer directly, but laughed softly. “Heh. In truth, there are many merits to what your adopted sister is doing. But only if it is treated as an idle move in your father’s greater plan, not the whole plan itself.”

A thoughtful look appeared in Xu Yuan’s eyes. “Tell me.”

The Sage's remnant soul shook his head. “It’s too late.”

Xu Yuan said, “That doesn’t matter. Just tell me anyway.”

The Sage's remnant soul considered his words for a moment, then smiled. “There has never been a shortage in this world of people with kind hearts, nor a shortage of capable people. If your adopted sister spent a dozen years or so traveling all under heaven, the number of people drawn to her by reputation alone would not be small. Even if only one or two useful people remained out of every ten, and they continued developing their strength in secret, that would still become a tremendous force.

“Once those people grew within their respective sects, they might not be able to seize full authority, but the internal friction they caused would be enough to give those sects a hard drink to swallow. Of course, only a drink. Nothing more. And besides, it’s too late now. Your father will probably make his move within the next few years.”

Xu Yuan listened carefully to the end, then glanced back at the pitch black tunnel and sighed. “Right. Such a simple truth. I hope after she runs into enough walls, she’ll finally understand it.”