Ch73 - In front of the grave

…is it the fad for young people to hold others by their necks nowadays?

Although Chu Zhishi had consumed a lot of spiritual power sparring with Mu He just now, he was still a high-level cultivation expert with plenty of strength in his hands. Xie Zhiwei didn’t feel much pain, but being tossed about like this still left him dizzy. He did his best to shake his head.

Chu Zhishi’s movements paused. “What, still shaking your head?”

Xie Zhiwei couldn’t be bothered with details anymore. He braced himself and said very softly, “I’m not…”

Chu Zhishi was puzzled. “You’re not what?”

Qiu Chongyun’s heart seized before she quickly looked at Mu He, but the latter was simply watching with his usual cold indifference. Only then did she calm down.

Chu Zhishi gave a cold laugh and tightened his grip. “You want to say you’re not the one who killed my second senior brother? Does the high and mighty Demon Lord only dare to do and not admit?”

Xie Zhiwei looked speechlessly at the sky as he began to calculate his options. If nothing else, I’ll just expose my identity. Although it’d be hard to explain things to the hero, he could at least redeem himself a little in front of Chu Zhishi! Let him pay back whatever he did to him today!

Qiu Chongyun noticed that Xie Zhiwei’s gaze was flickering and guessed that he was probably getting desperate. Too busy to bother with the little sister’s life or looks, he might expose the truth to save his own skin. But with Mu He’s orders holding her back, it’d be suspicious if she insisted on persuading Chu Zhishi to back down.

At this moment, a voice came from the skies.

“Zhishi, what are you doing?”

The next moment, Yan Zhifei and Xia Zhiqi appeared on their flying swords to land in front of the prisoner’s cart. The Heavenly Sun City disciples immediately paid their respects. “Greetings to sect leader martial uncle, third martial aunt.”

Xie Zhiwei and Qiu Chongyun both exhaled in relief.

Chu Zhishi tossed Xie Zhiwei to the ground before clapping the dust off his hands. “Eldest senior brother, you came just in time. Look at who this is.”

Xie Zhiwei silently crawled to his feet with his head bowed in time to hear, “Chi Yan? How could he be…”

Although it’d been awhile since they met, Yan Zhifei was still the same stern man. Even if the formerly overbearing master “Chi Yan” was thrown aside by Chu Zhishi like a pile of broken metal, his voice only revealed the slightest fluctuation while remaining calm.

“Eldest senior brother,” Xia Zhiqi remarked from the side, “Looks like Martial Nephew Mu He delivered him here.”

Mu He’s face finally broke into a normal-looking smile as he nodded. “This is precisely the huge gift prepared by this disciple. Are martial uncles and martial aunt satisfied?”

Yan Zhifei looked at him and said, “If he was really the one who killed Zhiwei, then not only us, but Zhiwei’s spirit in Heaven, will be gladdened.”

Slick, Xie Zhiwei mused. Killing Chi Yan is revenge, but if it’s a wrongful death then Mu He is still the only one responsible. As expected of the sect leader, he’s a smooth talker…

Xia Zhiqi said, “We can only say it was his fight that triggered second senior brother’s poison. We still don’t know who poisoned him in the first place.”

“Do you think Chi Yan would have dared to invade so rashly if someone from our sect didn’t alert him beforehand?” Qiu Chongyun said leisurely. “But he never expected Xie zhenren’s cultivation base to be so profound. It wasn’t until after he left that the poison broke out.”

Yan Zhifei’s expression finally changed as he looked towards Qiu Chongyun. “You cannot speak without evidence. My daoist sect has always been righteous and united, so who would have contacted Chi Yan?”

“Don’t be in such a rush, Sect Leader Yan,” Qiu Chongyun laughed lightly and beckoned to the carriage ahead. “Toss him out.”

Two demonic soldiers got into the carriage before tossing something out from its depths. Or rather, a person. But he hardly looked human anymore with empty eyes full of despair, darkened brows, and deep ravines on his face. He was more like an old, gnarled tree branch dressed in clothes, even thinner than Xie Zhiwei when he was still alive.

Bai Jianzhu had always enjoyed a life of comfort. Although cultivating didn’t spoil him to the point of being fat and chubby, his daily intake of pills bolstered his health so that he had a glowing face and superior temperament. When the three elders of the daoist sect saw him like this, they had to study his features in detail before Chu Zhishi exclaimed, “Isn’t this fourth marital brother?”

Yan Zhifei stepped forward and studied the man for a long time. Then he bypassed Qiu Chongyun to ask Mu He in a heavy voice, “You mean to say Jianzhu was the contact who reached out to the Demonic Clan?”

“That’s right.”

Qiu Chongyun added, “My Demonic Sect has intentions to turn towards the light. Today we accompanied the Shizi of the King of Nine Provinces to pay respects to Xie zhenren and brought along Chi Yan as a show of our sincerity. As for Bai Jianzhu, he’s a wolf with an ambitious heart who killed his fellow disciple. Wouldn’t it be a pleasure to have him pay for his crimes with death in front of Xie zhenren’s tomb?”

Xia Zhiqi furrowed her brows. “It’s been the long-cherished wish of the daoist sect to avenge second senior brother. But without any evidence, how are we supposed to believe that fourth martial brother harmed second senior brother?”

“Eldest senior brother.” Chu Zhishi shifted his gaze from Bai Jianzhu to speak. “I believe it.”

Besides Mu He and Xie Zhiwei, everyone else looked at him. Even Qiu Chongyun was a little surprised. Chu Zhishi turned to face Yan Zhifei and slowly spoke.

“Four years ago, second senior brother was invited to the sword conference at Ashen Cloud Sword Sect. Before he left, he asked fourth senior brother for some pills since Mu He was seriously injured. But Mu He accidentally dropped those pills into the pond. I saw with my own eyes how it poisoned all the fish to death.”

Everyone blanched and looked at Bai Jianzhu with various expressions. But the latter was simply like a corpse, lying on the ground in a daze.

As Chu Zhishi spoke, he walked towards Bai Jianzhu. “It’s not like Mu He would poison himself to death, right? I know that brat Bai Yu’s been coveting the Summit City city lord position for ages. All Mu He did was run into him, but he wanted to poison him in exchange. I don’t need to mention how much second senior brother was blocking this father and son’s advancement, either.”

Yan Zhifei’s expression grew heavy before he sighed. “I personally witnessed Jianzhu giving those pills to him, but never knew this happened afterwards.”

“Second senior brother is loyal and never competes with anyone. He left the mountain for the sake of the daoist clan, but unexpectedly ran into trouble and lost his life for nothing.” Chu Zhishi’s hands clenched into fists. “At that time, I…”

Although he was supposed to be recounting evidence, his voice grew lower and lower until it was inaudible.

“What?” Xia Zhiqi asked.

“At that time…I was too much of an idiot to think of darker implications. Second senior brother was even stupider and told me to keep quiet. Even though he’d been bullied so much, he still tried to cover up for Bai Jianzhu… Everyone assumed the Bai family did second senior brother a kindness and that’s why they could boss him around, but who expected Bai Jianzhu to be so cruel to second senior brother!”

Chu Zhishi smashed a fist against the pillar of the mountain gates, punching so hard that Xie Zhiwei felt a tremor beneath his feet. Mu He closed his eyes in grief, as if pained from the thought of recalling his past.

Cheese is still too low-level, Xie Zhiwei mused. Despite all that monologuing, the hero still beats his misery with a single look. Hmm…though if we add in Reflections of the Moon on Erquan as a BGM, this scene would be much more melodramatic.

Perhaps to confirm his speculations, Chu Zhishi also dragged Bai Jianzhu up from the ground. Though he didn’t hold him by the throat like he did with Xie Zhiwei, twisting Bai Jianzhu by the collar wasn’t much different from choking. The sudden pain caused Bai Jianzhu to recover his senses slightly. He did his best to open his eyes and look around. After a while, he creased his brows. “Youngest junior…brother you…what are you…doing…”

Chu Zhishi furrowed his brows back. “Shut up. From this day forward, I have no relation with you, surnamed Bai.”

“Why are you…” Bai Jianzhu’s brain spun wildly. He was still oblivious to his situation and turned away unhappily, eyes drifting aimlessly before they rested on Yan Zhifei. “Sect Leader Senior Brother…I… I want to go back to Pill Furnace City…send… Send two disciples to carry me…”

Before he could finish, a cold punch landed on his face and sent him rolling over nearly half the ground.

Qiu Chongyun covered her mouth and said with exaggeration, “Aiya, good punch. Daoist Chu is full of manly style, ah.”

Xie Zhiwei only felt heart palpitations. Fortunately, Cheese hadn’t hit him. If his mask was cracked in the process then…

Chu Zhishi stood up and took a silk handkerchief from one of his disciples to wipe his hands. He was expressionless as he spoke. “There will be disciples to support you, but definitely not to Pill Furnace City. You lot, come here and drag him to your second martial uncle’s grave.”

And thus, a few tall, strong disciples of Heavenly Sun City surrounded Bai Jianzhu and dragged him like a dead pig all the way to the back to Summit City. Even though Bai Jianzhu howled until his throat dried up, no one spared him any attention.

Xie Zhiwei was similarly dragged along. Frankly speaking, Xie Zhiwei had never thought of coming back after leaving the daoist sect. Not that he wasn’t willing. He just hadn’t figured out how to show up or the particular situation that would explain his presence here. Actually, he rather missed his days at Suihan Lodge. Although the days were rather bitter, they were at least restful. Now look, the fates had conspired to bring him back without a second thought.

But the daoist sect really treated him well. They regularly sent people here to clean up the gravesite. The soil outside Summit City was fertile so weeds could grow waist-high, but there were none around the tombstone. It looked worn by the wind and sun, but was basically spotless. That was only Xie Zhiwei’s speculation of course, because he couldn’t see all angles around the gravestone from his spot. He only saw Mu He standing there with his back to the crowd, rubbing the monument back and forth with his hands—especially the three characters “Xie Zhiwei” at the very top, which he seemed to have touched a hundred times already. Not much dust stuck to his fingers.

The hero really loves calligraphy. First he copied Xie Zhiwei’s handwriting and now he’s fascinated by a tombstone inscription. Looks like there must be something amazing about the “Xie Zhiwei” characters to capture his attention.

Speaking of which, Xie Zhiwei felt rather lonely after seeing his place of “eternal rest” for the first time. He was probably one of the only people in history to work so hard just to get screwed over like sh*t in this situation.

—

Translator’s Note: Sometimes I wonder how people like Xie Zhiwei could be so completely oblivious about someone else, but then I think of people like Mu He who only likes one person and one person only in his life and…y’know what, they’re both kinda extreme.

But very entertaining for the rest of us!