EBE Chapter 166 What's stolen must be returned.
Chapter 166 What's stolen must be returned.
Chapter 166 What's stolen must always be returned.
"What evidence do you have?"
The night was deep and the frost was heavy. The wind howled outside the cave, but inside, all was quiet and peaceful.
Inside the warm cave, a campfire blazed brightly, and three people sat around it.
The old man who was speaking was so slovenly that he was startled by Fei Xi's words that he could hardly sit still.
Fei Xi leaned against the haystack, wearing a plain-colored brocade cloak with cloud patterns.
The brim of her cloak was adorned with a ring of fluffy, thick fox fur. The soft fur brushed against her cheeks, bringing a little warmth, but also making her want to sneeze.
Suppressing the itch in her nose, Fei Xi pulled her cloak down a little with her hand, but did not immediately respond to the old man's question.
She was just awakened from her dream.
She knew what she had said, but her mind was still reeling from it.
She didn't understand why she had suddenly said those things.
Before she was fully conscious, she looked around, trying to figure out where she was.
Her gaze naturally fell on the person who had awakened her; that person was the owner of the cloak.
The gentle and refined young man sat upright by the fire in front of him, head bowed. He then rose, lifted the medicine pot from the fire, and poured the medicine into a bowl.
Noticing Fei Xi's gaze, their eyes met, and the young master gave her a reassuring smile.
Across from the two, the disheveled old man frowned at Fei Xi's words, stood up, and paced back and forth.
He hadn't walked a few steps when he suddenly turned around, his gaze fixed intently on Fei Xi.
"No! Absolutely not! You must never mention this to anyone again. How dare you ask me, an old man, who would dislike your Qingcheng Sect?"
The old man snorted coldly, giving the gentle, refined man beside him a warning glance. His gaze towards Fei Xi was filled with disappointment and frustration.
"Judging from your current appearance, your strength is weak but you know too much. If this were a novel, someone like you would usually not survive more than three chapters."
"Don't think you can destroy a prestigious sect with just your words. Even if you have evidence, as long as Wushuang Manor stands, its backing will remain. The one who will suffer will not be the other side, but you and the Qingcheng Sect behind you!"
"So what if the other party is ruthless and inhuman? Without strength, there is no truth to speak of. On the contrary, the entire Qingcheng Sect will suffer annihilation because of your 'slander' of them!"
"If the Qingcheng Sect isn't enough, then let's add my Tang Family Fortress."
Fei Xi was looking down, seemingly lost in thought, when a firm and steady voice forcefully interrupted her conversation with the old man.
The man who spoke up for her was the same one who had just been warned by the old man's glare.
The other person seemed to ignore the old man's gaze and handed the medicine, which he had cooled slightly, to Fei Xi.
Seeing Fei Xi take the bowl and drink it all in one gulp, the man quickly took out some candied fruit from his pocket and brought it to the beauty's lips.
Seeing that Fei Xi ate it without refusing, the man's gentle gaze became even more tender.
“Xiao Xi, if you want to go to Wushuang Manor, just call me to come with you, and I will definitely protect you. You don’t need to be afraid of Wushuang Manor; Tang Family Fort will always be your strong support.”
These sweet nothings, even more cloying than love confessions, made the old man beside him ache with embarrassment. If it weren't for the other party's timely rescue, he would have grabbed the little girl and run away immediately.
Such a gentle and refined gentleman, who seems perfect in every way, and then there's this hero-saves-the-damsel-in-distress scenario—it all looks like a scam!
Several hours ago, the little girl suddenly developed a fever and fainted. He was carrying the little girl when they were surrounded by a pack of wolves.
The wolf pack leader was exceptionally cunning, deliberately cornering the two of them at the edge of a cliff. Just as he resolved to fight to the death, releasing his acupoints and unleashing his inner energy...
The wolf pack suddenly fell into chaos, with many wolves collapsing one after another. After the pack leader also fell, the wolves scattered in panic and fled.
A dashing and particularly pretentious figure appeared before him.
Tsk, young people these days are doing what he did back then.
The girl is still unconscious; who is she trying to impress with this act?
"Grandpa, I don't have any evidence right now, but one day I will make Wushuang Manor pay for the crimes they have committed!"
After swallowing the candied fruit, Fei Xi, feeling refreshed and regaining her senses, first responded to the old man's words, then put away the coldness on her face, turned her head, and smiled slightly at Tang Huaiyi.
“Brother Yi, it’s alright. Seeing you reminded me that our encounter with Xiao Zhengqing in Tongcheng wasn’t accidental. He was after you. If you ever meet him again, Brother Yi, please be extra careful.”
"I will, Xiaoxi."
Unreserved and wholehearted trust, a tacit understanding quietly emerges in their eyes as they gaze at each other.
"Why are you randomly claiming brothers?" The old man rolled his eyes, waved his hand at the air as if shooing something away, then looked seriously at Fei Xi and asked...
"Little girl, what do you mean by saying that the Xiao family boy once tried to harm this boy?"
Fei Xi ignored the old man's inexplicably ghostly expression. After drinking the medicine Tang Huaiyi handed her, she felt somewhat drowsy and sleepy.
She could feel that her body was very weak.
Now that she had spoken, perhaps influenced by the dream, she could no longer clearly remember many things from the dream.
However, she could not forget the helplessness she felt after killing Xiao Zhengqing in her dream, when she was feared and distrusted.
Looking at the two people in front of her who were worried about her, she suddenly felt a strong urge to confide in them.
"Aren't you afraid that what I'm saying is all a lie?"
"Hmph, I'm an old man, I have my own judgment, and I will never have any doubts about what I should trust."
“Xiao Xi, you are not someone who makes things up. Even if you lie to me one day, there must be a reason. I will never blame you for it.”
A blush rose on Fei Xi's pale face. She turned her head slightly to avoid his burning gaze.
"Back then, Senior Xiao unexpectedly obtained the Langxuan Grass. At that time, his friend was murdered by a villain and was on the verge of death. By chance, Senior Xiao swallowed the Langxuan Grass, which was full of his friend's internal energy, and gained half a century's worth of internal strength. From then on, he was unparalleled in the martial arts world and rarely had an opponent. Wushuang Manor also rose to prominence because of this and became a major sect in the martial arts world today."
"But this experience of taking shortcuts and changing one's fate overnight gave Elder Xiao a taste of success, and made the entire Xiao family feel that they had found a way to the heavens."
"For someone of mediocre talent, once they discover something that can break through their natural talent, allowing them to easily obtain the internal energy that ordinary people strive for their entire lives without having to work hard to practice martial arts or temper their muscles and bones day and night, they would probably be willing to go to hell, cough!"
Fei Xi coughed a few times, just catching her breath. Sensing something amiss, she looked up to find a leather water bag being handed to her.
The water in the water bag was warm, and a few sips warmed her heart. The person who handed her the water also asked, as if to echo her words:
"As far as I know, Langxuan Grass requires the user to infuse it with their own internal energy. Even if Wushuang Manor possesses Langxuan Grass, where would they find so many people willing to dedicate their internal energy to it?"
"At first, I thought the same as you, Brother Yi. When we saw that the people of Wushuang Manor were ignorant and incompetent but possessed powerful internal energy that was disproportionate to their physiques, we thought that the elders of Wushuang Manor had voluntarily passed on their internal energy to the younger generation in order to maintain the reputation of the manor."
"How could those despicable old bastards of Wushuang Manor be willing to sacrifice themselves for their children? They have all sorts of insidious and vicious methods to make someone hand over their inner energy. In recent years, most of the heroes who have gained some fame in the martial arts world and then disappeared have probably fallen victim to the poisonous hands of Wushuang Manor."
"Qin Hantian, the Tiger-Taming Hand; Shen Jinghong, the Crimson Flame Demon; Zhou Lingfeng, the Shadowless Thief..." Fei Xi nodded, took over the old man's words, and read out a series of names. After reading them, she drank two more mouthfuls of hot water.
The hot water instantly dispelled the chill in her body, making her feel a little better, even though she was only saying what she was about to say.
"These are just the tip of the iceberg that I know. I have no idea how many more people have been harmed by Wushuang Manor. Langxuan Grass is not something that can be taken indiscriminately without any conditions."
"When you take Langxuan Grass for the first time, your internal energy can be completely retained in your body, as if it were your own. But when you take it a second time, your body will have a rejection reaction because two very different internal energies appear at the same time."
"Even if the rejection reaction is very weak, as time goes by, the internal energy in the body will gradually decrease until there is no internal energy left in the body, and the person will become a cripple."
"There are very few people with truly powerful internal energy who can be controlled by Wushuang Manor. Few people in Wushuang Manor are willing to consume Langxuan Grass only once in their lifetime."
"So, one day, they started trying to eat people."