Chapter 235: Chapter 158: Former Imperial Tutor
Dead!
Pei the Second wasn’t exactly a major figure—just a local thug, a bandit.
Still, he was a ruthless bandit.
All Xie Luohe had done was make a simple flick of her chopsticks.
The other five bandits couldn’t even see what happened.
In the blink of an eye, a bloody hole had appeared between Pei the Second’s eyebrows.
As Pei the Second’s body slumped backward, the spray of blood didn’t fill the remaining five bandits with fear. Instead, after a moment of stunned silence, a savage killing intent surged through them.
"That bitch used a hidden weapon!"
One of them turned, his eyes nearly popping from their sockets as he stared at the wall. A chopstick was embedded deep within it, only the very end visible. Realization dawned, and he cried out in terror, "It’s a chopstick!"
"Fuck! That bitch only has one chopstick left! She can’t kill all of us! Whoever kills her will rank fiftieth on the Weapon Manual!"
"Whoever kills her can be the new second-in-command!"
"Kill her!"
The expressions in the five men’s eyes shifted—from shock, to fear, and finally to a blazing, murderous glare.
Five Ghost Head Sabers chopped down from different directions. As the five blades descended as one, three slashed toward Xie Luohe’s neck, while the other two sealed off the movements of her right hand, which still held a chopstick.
This alone proved that the five men Pei the Second had brought were anything but amateurs. They had instantly figured out how Xie Luohe killed their leader. And after his death, they felt no fear. Instead, their killing intent flared as they organized a siege, determined to cut Xie Luohe down on the spot.
Everyone in Black Wind Stronghold trembled at the mere mention of Xie Luohe’s name, but what they feared most were her arrows!
The Xie’s Archery Skill—famed for never missing a shot!
But a Xie Luohe without her bow was like a toothless Fierce Tiger—nothing to fear!
"You can’t scare—"
One of them bellowed.
The blade flashes sealed off Xie Luohe’s right, but the smile on her face never faded. She flicked her finger.
CLINK.
The wooden chopstick let out a crisp ring, as if it were made of metal.
Xie Luohe stood, her figure moving with a dancer’s grace, as if she had only taken a single small step forward.
She passed right through the flurry of blades.
She placed a gleaming piece of silver on another table and smiled at the Shopkeeper cowering beneath the counter. "Yunhe Village never bullies the common folk. This silver is to cover your damages."
With that, Xie Luohe walked toward the door. Halfway there, she seemed to recall something and glanced up at the second floor.
Zheng Xiu watched "Xie Luohe’s" pleasant smile.
Xie Luohe’s gaze lingered on Zheng Xiu’s face for an instant.
Her expression betrayed nothing unusual.
She clearly didn’t recognize "Gongsun Mo."
She cared even less about Gongsun Mo.
They were merely two strangers who had crossed paths by chance.
That brief meeting of their eyes confirmed it for Zheng Xiu.
’She doesn’t recognize this face!’
’She’s Xie Luohe, not Feng Bei.’
"Feng... Feng Bei!"
At that moment, Zheng Xiu called out Feng Bei’s name to Xie Luohe.
Xie Luohe’s pretty face stiffened, her gaze finally landing squarely on Zheng Xiu.
"Are you... calling me?"
Zheng Xiu frowned. The mocking glint in Xie Luohe’s eyes made him deeply uncomfortable; her gaze now felt utterly alien to him.
"You’re... Feng Bei?"
"Tsk. Scholar, you’ve got the wrong person."
Xie Luohe gave an exasperated laugh, shook her head, and left without looking back.
"Wait!"
Zheng Xiu watched as Xie Luohe, the spitting image of Feng Bei, was about to walk away. He couldn’t possibly let this clue, which had practically fallen into his lap, escape. Just as he was about to vault over the railing to jump down, Chu Chengfeng grabbed him by the collar from behind. "Are you crazy?" he said, exasperated. "You’re not afraid of breaking your legs?"
With that, he simply picked Zheng Xiu up and leaped down from the second floor.
He was worried the Scholar would break his legs, but he himself had no such fear.
After all, he was a man of the Martial World.
In this day and age, knowing Martial Arts meant you could do whatever you wanted.
Landing lightly on the ground, Chu Chengfeng didn’t forget to add a couple of mocking remarks. "See? I’ve said it before. What’s the point of all that studying? It’s better to live by the sword and roam the Jianghu freely."
’Seriously? Jumping down from the second story has you this full of yourself?’
Zheng Xiu cursed inwardly, but he ignored Chu Chengfeng and ran out of the teahouse.
The street in front of the teahouse was bustling. The adulterous couple and the wronged husband were still brawling, attracting a crowd of gawking onlookers. But Xie Luohe was nowhere to be seen among them; she had vanished.
Zheng Xiu searched around outside for a while, returning with a frustrated look on his face.
Inside the teahouse, Chu Chengfeng was carefully examining the bandits’ wounds, clicking his tongue in amazement from time to time.
"Divine skill! Absolutely divine! Ah, Younger Brother Gongsun, you’re back? Well? Did you manage to catch up with your sweetheart?"
Chu Chengfeng went straight for the jugular with his first words.
"Sweetheart? What sweetheart?!" Zheng Xiu flatly denied. "Don’t talk nonsense, or I’ll report you to the Government Office for slander!"
Chu Chengfeng patted Zheng Xiu on the shoulder, grinning as he pointed at his face. "Look at you, blushing like that, and you still won’t admit it?"
Chu Chengfeng wore an expression that clearly said, "We’re all men here, why be so coy?"
’Am I blushing?’
Zheng Xiu was taken aback and touched his own face.
After a moment, he nodded with certainty. ’Ah, right,’ he thought to himself. ’It’s Gongsun Mo who’s blushing, not me.’
’Almost forgot about that.’
He’d gotten so caught up in the role that, for a moment, he had once again failed to distinguish himself from Gongsun Mo.
Zheng Xiu was still puzzling over the relationship between "Feng Bei" and "Xie Luohe." Not wanting to get dragged into a debate about his "sweetheart," he changed the subject, asking, "Brother Chu, what were you looking at just now?"
"Right! You have to see this! I never imagined I’d be lucky enough to witness such incredible hidden weapon mastery with my own two eyes!"
The moment the conversation turned to Martial World affairs, Chu Chengfeng became animated. He pointed to the wound on the forehead of Pei the Second, the first to die, and said excitedly, "Look, first Xie Luohe killed Pei the Second with one chopstick. That’s nothing special. Although I’m no expert with hidden weapons, it’s not that hard to do with a bit of practice."
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