Volume Three: Rising Renown Chapter Twenty-Four: People Are Not All the Same

When Li Yu opened his eyes, the figures before him gradually came into focus.

“Awake?” Qingyang De was seated in the carriage as well. Seeing Li Yu stir, he hurried to speak.

Li Yu licked his parched lips and looked around.

Through the gap in the carriage, he could see that the jagged pass of red stone had long fallen far behind. Ahead stretched the vast and mighty army of the Green Sun Clan, a single line of troops winding endlessly along the road.

“Where is Little Cui?”

Li Yu’s heart sank. The maid was nowhere to be seen in the carriage. Before he had lost consciousness, she had been grievously wounded—could it be that...

Fortunately, Qingyang De’s answer let him breathe again.

“She’s in the rear. She took a troublesome poison, but it won’t be fatal...”

Qingyang De spoke vaguely, then added, “Listen to me: protecting yourself must always come first. As attendants, they were already prepared to sacrifice themselves.”

The sudden chaos within the narrow pass made it nearly impossible to mount an effective counterattack. In such a cramped place, with no room to maneuver, and bound by certain unwritten rules, the defenders could only respond with force equal to whatever level the assassins had displayed.

In those circumstances, an army of several thousand had been held in the pass by a mere hundred or so death warriors, and they had nearly succeeded.

Qingyang De said angrily, “The blade across your chest tore open your clothes—do you know the poison on it would have killed you within five breaths?”

“It’s fine. I dodged it, didn’t I?” Li Yu said with a smile, though he was inwardly relieved.

The return spear strike had come from the front while the black-clad man’s spiritual greatsword pressed in from behind.

In a flash of lightning, he had made his judgment: take the blow from the spiritual greatsword, whose danger he felt more keenly, and avoid the dagger that looked less lethal.

Though exchanging injury for injury usually meant sacrificing a minor wound to avoid a major one, whenever Li Yu faced that pitch-black dagger, he always felt a chill crawling up his spine.

That was why he chose to endure the attack from behind.

“Next time, you may not be so lucky.”

“Gambling has no winners. In the end, all gamblers lose,” Qingyang De lectured with a harrumph. Yet because of this, his regard for Li Yu had actually risen another notch. For him to act with such reckless disregard for his own safety on behalf of a servant could hardly come from a coldhearted man.

Seeing the essence through the appearance, if Li Yu could do this much, then he would surely do even more for An Qi. Qingyang De felt far more confident about this round of the Hundred Clans Council’s secret realm.

“Alright, alright, stop chanting that like a spell in my ear,” Li Yu said helplessly.

Qingyang De blinked. “What spell?”

“Nothing...” Li Yu waved a hand, only then realizing he had been wrapped up like a dumpling and could make only the slightest movements.

“And those assassins?”

Li Yu asked.

When the giant sword struck at the end, though he hadn’t been able to dodge it, he had formed a dense barrier of lightning spiritual power behind him. Coupled with the simulated body of a martial cultivator, his defenses had risen sharply, and he had narrowly escaped a certain death.

“Of course they’re all...” Qingyang De’s expression hardened. A cold light flashed in his eyes, and he made a slashing gesture.

Those assassins could absolutely not be left alive. Besides, the timing had been perfect for covering it all up and severing any hope of further investigation. None of those people had carried anything that could prove their identity, so even if they died, they died in vain.

“Come to think of it, you were unlucky. The assassin assigned to your side was originally meant to ambush Qing Yuan. You ended up throwing their whole plan into disarray, so they had to strike in a hurry. Of the three reported targets, you were the one they ambushed!”

Li Yu: ...

“Oh, that...” He opened his mouth. So it had still been his own restless hands that brought on this disaster.

“Enough. Rest well.” Qingyang De patted Li Yu’s shoulder and left, while the latter hissed through his teeth in pain.

He moved a little too much, and a wave of agony instantly shot through him. His whole back felt as though it were being torn apart. He bared his teeth and slowed his movements.

The moment he chose to take that blow on his back, he had already prepared himself mentally.

Still, as long as he survived, recovery afterward would not be a serious matter. The Qing family’s wood lineage, from which there had once emerged an ancestor of the highest rank, was famed far and wide for its healing arts, especially in matters concerning spiritual plants.

On top of that, he had taken cleansing marrow pills on several occasions, so his recovery ability far exceeded that of ordinary people.

“As long as I don’t die, I’m a cockroach,” Li Yu thought with a wry smile.

Then his expression grew grave.

Just as Qingyang De had said, gamblers were all losers. This time he had merely been lucky: the first black-clad man had not known he possessed lightning affinity, and Li Yu had struck him hard at the very start, which kept the later attacks from ever putting him under too much pressure.

And yet even so, two death warriors who had merely been trained up had nearly killed him?

If those had been elite fighters raised by a clan, the pressure on him would have been even greater, would it not?

“If I don’t want danger again, then I have to become stronger—strong enough to crush everything outright.”

Li Yu pressed his lips together and thought it over silently.

After quite a while, he came back to himself, lifted the carriage curtain, and saw the two people who had been arranged to wait beside the carriage.

“Qing Miaoyan, where is Little Cui?”

Li Yu said calmly.

“Answering the young master: Little Cui is resting in the rear,” Qing Miaoyan replied, neither servile nor overbearing.

“Bring her up here,” Li Yu had originally intended to turn back, but every movement tugged at his wounds, so he gave up and leaned against the carriage window instead.

“Young master, Little Cui is...” Qing Miaoyan spoke only halfway, clearly unwilling to comply.

“I said—bring her to my carriage!” How could Li Yu not understand the hesitation in her tone? That was precisely why he insisted on having Little Cui come.

From the way Qingyang De had been speaking haltingly just now, he had already felt a bad premonition.

Seeing that the middle-aged woman, whom he had only met a few days ago, still seemed reluctant, Li Yu’s voice turned colder. “Do you not understand what I’m saying, or must I go myself?”

“...I’ll go at once!”

Qing Miaoyan turned and left.

Only then did Li Yu let out a breath of relief. Qing Yingyao, who had been standing nearby and watching coldly the whole time, spoke up.

“Does the young master miss his maid? One who would accomplish great things should never be so indecisive!”

Only then did he notice this old woman, whose presence was so faint it was easy to overlook. During all the days they had spent together, she had spoken very little; this rare remark carried a faint edge of stern reproach.

Was she criticizing him for trying to save Little Cui?

And when the assassins had struck, these two later-arriving people had clearly been capable, yet they had come only after a long delay, plainly standing by in the shadows.

“I know what you mean. It’s just that people are not the same as one another.”

“And everyone measures things by a different standard! I cannot stand by and watch when someone I know is in danger!”

These words were a mocking reply to the old woman for standing idly by and then adding fuel to the fire.

Moreover, when he said that “people are not the same,” did he mean that their views differed, or that Li Yu valued each person differently?

If it was the latter...

The old woman fell silent and began to ponder carefully over the meaning of his words.