The Smiling, Proud Wanderer 63 Chapter Thirty-Five: Vengeance Part 3 Of 3

Yingying thought, "You can say these words now, then Chong-lang's love for you wasn't in vain."

(Translator's note: To call someone 'lang' has romantic connotation.)

Lin Pingzhi sneered coldly. "He's so good, why didn't you go with him?"

"Brother Ping, even until now, you still don't understand my heart. Big martial brother and I have grown up together since we were little. In my heart, he's just like my real brother. I love him dearly like a family member and regard him as my big brother. I've never regarded him as my lover. Ever since you came to Mount Huashan, you and I have matched really well. If I don't see you for some time, then my heart becomes unhappy and uneasy. My feeling towards you will never change."

"Your father and you are somewhat different, you're… you're like your mother." His voice had become softer as he said this; it was clear his true feeling towards Yue Lingshan was being moved. The two of them didn't speak another word for a long time before Yue Lingshan broke the silence, "Brother Ping, you have such a deep hatred toward my father, so it won't be easy for the two of you to reconcile. I'm already married… I… I will definitely always follow you. Let's go somewhere far and find somewhere secluded to pa.s.s our days happily there."

Lin Pingzhi laughed coldly and replied, "What you thought is quite good. But the whole world would've known by now that I killed Yu Canghai and Mu Gaofeng, so your father naturally knows that I've learned the Evil Resisting Sword Art. How can he let me keep on living in this world?"

"You said my father sought your sword manual. Based on the fact, there's nothing I can do to defend him," Yue Lingshan dejectedly said. "But you keep on saying that he's going to kill you after you've learned the Evil Resisting Sword Art. What's the logic in that? The 'Evil Resisting Sword Manual' belongs to your family, so it's perfectly justified and totally natural for you to learn this sword art. There's no reason at all for my father to want to kill you, and he won't kill you just because of this."

"You can say this because you don't understand what kind of person your father is. You also don't understand what this 'Evil Resisting Sword Manual' really is."

"Even though I'm totally devoted to you, I still don't understand what's in your heart."

"That's right, you don't understand! You don't understand! Why do you want to understand?" He became really irritable at this point.

Yue Lingshan didn't dare to speak too much, so she said, "En, let's go!"

"Go where?"

"Wherever you want to go, I'll go with you. I'll go with you even to the edge of the world."

"What you're saying is true? No matter what happens in the future, you won't regret it?"

"I've made up my mind to be with you, to marry you. I've long ago decided to be with you forever. How can I regret it? Your eyes' injury, whether it's going to heal or not, I'll accompany you always, attend to you, and be together until both of us died."

These words were said sincerely, and Yingying was moved on hearing them. Lin Pingzhi snorted sounding like he didn't believe her. Yue Lingshan softly said, "Brother Ping, you still don't believe me. I… I… tonight I'm going to give you everything, you… so you will trust me always. Tonight will be our wedding night, and we'll become real husband and wife. From today onwards, become… real husband and wife…" Her voice became softer and softer as she spoke, at the end it was barely audible.

Yingying became terribly embarra.s.sed, and she thought, "If I still listen to what they're doing now, how can I still be a person?" She slowly moved away while secretly scolding, "This Miss Yue really is shameless! They're in the middle of a major road, how can… how can… pei!"

Suddenly, she heard Lin Pingzhi ferociously crying out. His voice was extremely sad and shrill, followed by him shouting, "Scram! Don't come over!"

Yingying started and thought, "What's going on? Why is this Lin being so fierce?" This was followed by Yue Lingshan weeping loudly. Lin Pingzhi shouted, "Go away, go away! Quickly go far far away, I'd rather be killed by your father, I don't want you to come with me."

"You're being so mean to me… what… what did I do wrong…" Yue Lingshan cried.

"I… I…" Lin Pingzhi stammered. After a pause, he went on, "You… You…" But he stopped talking.

"Say what your heart wants to say," Yue Lingshan said. "Did I do something wrong, or maybe you're blaming my father and don't want to forgive me. Just say it clearly once and then you don't need to do anything, I'll immediately kill myself with my sword." With a hissing sound, she drew her sword. Yingying thought, "She's going to be forced to die by Lin Pingzhi, I have to save her!" She quickly walked back and got very near to the carriage so she could rescue her.

Lin Pingzhi again stammered, "I… I…" After some time, he let out a long sigh and said, "It's not your fault, it's me who is no good."

Yue Lingshan cried mournfully. Lin Pingzhi relented and said, "Alright, I'll tell you."

"You can hit me, kill me, but don't leave me not understanding anything," Yue Lingshan said between sobs.

"Since your feeling towards me isn't fake, then I'll tell you everything so your heart can die over this."

"Why?" Yue Lingshan was perplexed.

"Why? My Lin family's Evil Resisting Sword Art is very famous throughout Wulin. Yu Canghai and your father are both headmasters of a school, their own sword arts are already strong, but they still planned on stealing my family's sword manual. But my father's martial art is useless, and other people can just bully and humiliate him without him being able to fight back at all, now why is that?"

"Maybe because father-in-law wasn't suitable to learn martial art, or maybe his body was weak," Yue Lingshan guessed. "From among the school's disciples in Wulin, it's not necessarily true that every one of them has strong martial art."

"You're wrong. Even though my father's swordplay was no good, it was only because he didn't study it enough. His internal energy was weak, and his attainment of the sword art was also poor. But the Evil Resisting Sword Art that he taught me, the foundation was wrong, and from the beginning to the end, it wasn't right."

Yue Lingshan hummed deeply and said, "This… This is really strange."

"Actually, it's not strange," Lin Pingzhi said. "Do you know what my great grandfather Yuantu originally was?"

"I don't know."

"He was originally a monk."

"So he was a Buddhist. Some heroes of Wulin do a lot of outrageous things in Jianghu, but when they got older, they got quite worn out from all the things happening in the world, so they become Buddhists. This can happen," Yue Lingshan said.

"No. My great grandfather didn't become a Buddhist when he got old. He was a monk first before returning to secular life again."

"There were also heroes who were monks when they're young. Our founding ancestor of the Ming, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, he was a monk before he became the emperor."

Yingying thought, "Miss Yue knows her husband is narrow-minded. Not only does she not dare to offend him, she keeps trying to rea.s.sure him."

She then heard Yue Lingshan went on, "Father-in-law must've told you that your great grandfather Yuantu was a monk when he was young."

"My father never talked about it, I don't think he knew about it. My house at the Xiangyang Lane has a Buddhist hall in it; we went in there together on that night."

"Yes."

"Why was this 'Evil Resisting Sword Manual' recorded on a Buddhist robe? It was because he was originally a monk, and when he saw the sword manual, he quickly wrote it down on his Buddhist robe and got out. Once he returned to secular life, he built a Buddhist hall at home and didn't dare to forget about Buddha."

"Your guess is very reasonable," Yue Lingshan agreed. "But, it's also possible that the sword manual was given to Grandfather Yuantu by an eminent reverend, and that the sword manual was originally written on the Buddhist robe. So Grandfather Yuantu may have obtained this sword manual frankly and uprightly."

"It's not like that."

"Your conjecture isn't necessarily right."

"It's not my conjecture; it's what Grandfather Yuantu wrote on the Buddhist robe."

"Ah, so that's how it is."

"He wrote this at the end of the sword manual. He was originally a monk, but because of an especially lucky chance, he heard of this sword manual from other people's mouth and wrote it down on the Buddhist robe. He warned that this sword art is too cruel and sinister, and once you learned it, you'll die without an heir. It's already unsuitable for even nuns or monks to learn as it violates the compa.s.sion of the Buddha, so for secular people, they shouldn't learn this even more."

"But he had already learned it himself."

"At that time, I also thought the same thing as you. This sword art is said to be cruel and sinister, and inadvisable to be practised, but after Grandfather Yuantu studied it, didn't he still manage to take a wife and get an heir?"

"That's right. But it could be that he took a wife and got an heir first before studying this sword art."

"It can't be," Lin Pingzhi said. "Everyone who studies martial art in this world, no matter how heroic you are, or how powerful your martial art already is, once you see this sword manual, you couldn't possibly not practice it because you want to see how the first move goes. Once you've tried the first move, you'll definitely try the second move. Once you've tried the second move, you cannot not try the third move. Even if you haven't seen a sword manual before, once you've seen it then you'll definitely go crazy about it and it's very difficult to free yourself from it, and you'll practice it from top to bottom. Even if you know there's an enormous disaster tied to practising it, you still won't care about it."

Yingying heard till here when her thoughts turned to her father. "Daddy once said, this 'Evil Resisting Sword Manual' actually has the same root as our sect's 'Sunflower Manual' and they have the same fundamental principle. It's no wonder Yue Buqun's and Lin Pingzhi's sword art actually looks very similar to Dongfang Bubai's." She also thought, "Daddy said, there's something harmful in the martial art contained in the 'Sunflower Manual'. He knows that once a person who studies martial art sees the content of this martial art secret, he would definitely fall under its trap and would find it hard to free himself from it even if he knows it'd be disastrous to study it. So he simply refused to look at the Manual, which was the most sensible thing to do." A thought suddenly flashed in her mind, "Then why did he give it to Dongfang Bubai?" She thought till this point, and she automatically deduced, "So at that time Daddy already saw Dongfang Bubai harbouring an ill intention, so he gave him the Manual to harm him. But Uncle Xiang didn't know anything about this, and Dongfang Bubai was also ignorant of this and was still blissfully unworried. Actually, my father is such an astute and formidable person. How could he have been muddled headed for so long? It's just that a person's thought isn't as good as the thought of heaven. Dongfang Bubai unexpectedly struck first, captured daddy, and imprisoned him under the West Lake. But his heart wasn't especially bad. If at that time, he were to have killed daddy, or may have given an order not to give him food and drink, how could Daddy have the opportunity to take his revenge? Actually, it was a really lucky thing that we were able to kill Dongfang Bubai. If not for Chong-lang's help, Daddy, Uncle Xiang, Shangguan Yun and me, the four of us would've been killed by Dongfang Bubai at that time. Also, if it weren't for Yang Lianting messing with his heart, Dongfang Bubai would still be undefeated." She thought till here, and she couldn't help feeling that Dongfang Bubai was somewhat pitiful.

She thought, "After he captured my dad, he treated me generously and gave me a lot of gifts. When I was in the Divine Sun Moon Sect, I was no different from a princess. Today, when my own dad is the Chief, I instead, didn't have the authority I used to have. Ai, now that I already have Chong-lang, why do I still need that authority for?" As her thoughts wandered to the past, she thought her father's scheming was very deep and she couldn't help be frightened. "Even now, Dad still hasn't told Chong-lang the method of dispersing the internal energy. Chong-lang had already ama.s.sed several different qi from other people, and they still haven't been dispersed yet. This disaster will get bigger and bigger as days go by. Sooner or later, he will definitely be in trouble. Daddy said he must join our sect and once he did, not only will he be imparted with this technique, he will immediately be sworn in as the heir to the Chief. But Chong-lang isn't willing to submit and he will be in a great deal of trouble later." She was half happy and half worried. As she quietly stood in the cl.u.s.ter of tall sorghum, her thoughts wildly went from here to there, but no matter what she thought about, it always returned to Linghu Chong.

At this time, Lin Pingzhi and Yue Lingshan were also quiet. After a long time, Lin Pingzhi said, "After Grandfather Yuantu saw this sword manual, he of course practised it straight away."

"If there's really a big trouble a.s.sociated with this set of sword art, it wouldn't just come out straight away," Yue Lingshan reasoned. "It's always after practising for ten years or so that the harm would come. Grandfather Yuantu must've taken a wife and gotten an heir before this trouble manifested itself."

"That's. Not. It." Lin Pingzhi stressed each word without any hesitation. After a pause, he went on, "In the beginning, I also thought the same thing as you did. But after a few days, I found out it wasn't so. My grandfather simply couldn't be Grandfather Yuantu's son. He's most likely adopted by Grandfather Yuantu. Grandfather Yuantu took a wife and got an heir merely to fool everyone."

Yue Lingshan gasped in surprise and said in a trembling voice, "Fool everyone? But… why?"

Lin Pingzhi snorted but didn't answer her. After some time, he said, "When I first saw the sword manual, I was already very close to you. Several times, I thought I should wait till we get married and become a real husband and wife before I start studying the sword art. But it's impossible for a martial art person to resist not studying what's written in that sword manual. I finally… I finally… castrated myself to practice the sword…"

Yue Lingshan absentmindedly replied, "You… You… castrated yourself to practice sword?"

"That's right," Lin Pingzhi gloomily said. "The first sentence in the Evil Resisting Sword Manual is: 'To dominate Wulin, swipe your sword and castrate yourself'."

"Why… why?"

"To practise this Evil Resisting Sword Art, you must start with the internal energy first. If you don't castrate yourself, once you practise it, you'll immediately feel like you're on fire, fire deviate, and die."

"That's how it is." Her voice was like a mosquito and very hard to hear.

Yingying was also thinking, "So that's why!" Now, she understood everything clearly why Dongfang Bubai, who was such a masculine man with the number one martial art of the world, was wearing woman's clothes, embroidering, and was so crazy about Yang Lianting. So in order to practise this demonical martial art, he had become not a man and not a woman.

She then heard Yue Lingshan sobbed lightly and said, "Back then, Grandfather Yuantu pretended to take a wife and get an heir to fool everyone, you… you're also…"

"That's right, after I castrated myself, I still married you to fool people. But it's only to fool your father."

Yue Lingshan wept sorrowfully upon hearing this.

"I've told you everything now," Lin Pingzhi said. "You must hate me to the bone now. Why don't you go away?"

"I don't hate you," Yue Lingshan sobbed. "You were forced by circ.u.mstances and had no other alternatives. I only hate… only hate whoever wrote that 'Evil Resisting Sword Manual' back then. Why… why did he want to harm other people like that?"

Lin Pingzhi giggled. "This senior was a eunuch."

Yue Lingshan groaned. "So… so my father… is also… is also like you…"

"Since he's studied this sword art, how can he be different? Your father is the headmaster of a school, if anyone found out he castrated himself and then spread the word out, how can he not become the laughingstock of Jianghu? That's why if he knew that I've learned this sword art, he must definitely kill me. He's already asked several times how I treated you because he wanted to know whether I've castrated myself or not. If at that time you complained even a little bit, then my life would've been gone."

"Now he knows."

"I've killed Yu Canghai, killed Mu Gaofeng," Lin Pingzhi was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with pride as he said this. "Within a few days, the word would've spread throughout Wulin and the whole world will know."

"In that case, I'm afraid… I'm afraid my father won't let you go then. Where should we run off to?"

"We? You already know what I am now, you still want to follow me?"

"Of course. Brother Ping, my feeling towards you will always be… always be the same. Your lot in this world is so pitiful…" She had not finished saying this when she suddenly cried out and jumped off the carriage as Lin Pingzhi pushed her out.

"I don't want your pity! Who wants your pity?" Lin Pingzhi angrily retorted. "Lin Pingzhi's swordplay is complete. I'm not scared of anything. Wait until my eyes are better. Lin Pingzhi will then rule the world. Yue Buqun, Linghu Chong, Monk Fangzheng, Priest Chongxu, they are not my match."

Yingying inwardly got angry and she thought, "Wait till your eyes are better? Hng, have your eyes ever been good?" When Lin Pingzhi was injured, she originally felt quite sad for him. But when she saw how uncaring he was towards his wife, how ruthlessly he treated her, and also how conceited he was, she couldn't help despising him.

Yue Lingshan sighed. "You must first look for a place to hide for a while. Wait till your eyes are better before doing anything else."

"I have a method to deal with your father."

"It must be horrible to hear and of course you can't say what it is. Father also doesn't need to worry about you for now."

"Hng, I understand your father way more than you do. Tomorrow, I'm going to tell the first person I see about this."

Yue Lingshan worriedly said, "Is that necessary? Aren't you…"

"Necessary? This is the method to preserve my life. I'm going to tell every person I meet. In no time at all, word would've spread to your father's ear. Then, since Yue Buqun knows it was me who said this, he cannot kill me to shut me up. On the contrary, he must protect my life."

"Your idea is really strange."

"What's so strange about it? Whether your father has castrated himself or not, no one would be able to see it. When his beard falls off, he'll glue them on and there will be people who will believe it and those who won't. But if I suddenly die without any reason, everyone will say Yue Buqun is the one who did it. This is called wis.h.i.+ng to cover it up but exposing it more instead." Yue Lingshan sighed and didn't say anything else.

Yingying thought, "This Lin Pingzhi has a very keen mind, and his method really is formidable. Miss Yue is in a very difficult position here, she's trapped in the middle. Her parents' reputation will unavoidably be destroyed, but if she thought of a way to prevent it from happening, then it'll endanger her husband's life."

Lin Pingzhi went on, "Even if both of my eyes can't see a thing from now on, I've avenged my parents and I will never regret it. Linghu Chong told me the last words of my father. He said there's a relic in the old residence at Xiangyang and I should never take a look at it. This was the instruction Great Grandfather left behind. Now, I've taken a look at it. Even though I violated Great Grandfather's instruction, I've taken revenge for my parents. If it weren't like this, other people would've said my Lin family's Evil Resisting Sword Art has an unearned reputation, and that the heads of the Fortune Prestige Escort House had been cheating people."

"Back then, both father and you suspected big martial brother. You were both saying that he took your Lin family's 'Evil Resisting Sword Manual', saying he fabricated Father-in-Law's last words…"

"Just say I blamed him wrongly. What do you want to do?" Lin Pingzhi interrupted. "At that time, didn't you suspect him too?"

Yue Lingshan softly sighed. "Big martial brother and you haven't known each other for a long time, so it's not surprising you suspected him. But father and me, we shouldn't have doubted him. The only person in this world who truly believed him was only mother."

Yingying thought, "Who said only your mother?"

Lin Pingzhi coldly laughed. "Your mother truly adores Linghu Chong. I don't know how many times your parents argued because of this little kid."

Astounded, Yue Lingshan asked, "My father and mother argued over big martial brother? My father and mother never argue, how do you know about this?"

Lin Pingzhi laughed coldly and answered, "Never argue? That's only to put on an appearance in front of other people. For this matter, Yue Buqun put on his hypocrite mask. I heard it all with my own ears, could it be fake?"

"I didn't say fake, but it's really strange. How come I've never heard of it, but you heard of it?"

"I'll tell you now, it's all irrelevant. That day in Fuzhou, two people from Songshan School s.n.a.t.c.hed that Buddhist robe away. These two people were killed by Linghu Chong, so naturally the Buddhist robe was taken by Linghu Chong. But at that time he was heavily injured and lost consciousness. I searched his body, but I didn't know where that Buddhist robe had gone to."

"So in Fuzhou city, you had already searched big martial brother."

"That's right, so what?"

"Nothing."

Yingying thought, "If Miss Yue follows this cunning and irritable little kid, she'll be miserable for the rest of her life." Suddenly she also thought, "I've been here for so long, Chong-lang must be worried." She tilted her ear to one side to listen but there was no noise at all, so she thought that he must be settled and everything was well.

She then heard Lin Pingzhi continued, "The Buddhist robe wasn't on Linghu Chong's body anymore, so it must've been taken by your parents. From Fuzhou till Huashan, I quietly observed things. But your father covered up really well and I didn't manage to see anything wrong at all. Your father was sick at that time. Of course, who would've known that once he's seen the 'Evil Resisting Sword Manual', he immediately castrated himself to practise the sword. During the journey, there were a lot people there, so I didn't dare to peep in on your parents. Once we returned to Huashan, I hid on top of the precipice outside your parents' bedroom every night to hear their conversations and to find out where my sword manual is."

Yue Lingshan asked, "Every night you hid yourself on top of the precipice?"

"That's right."

Yue Lingshan again repeated her question, "Every night?"

Yingying couldn't hear Lin Pingzhi's answer. She thought he must've nodded his head. But she heard Yue Lingshan sighed and said, "You have a strong will."

"For vengeance, I had to succeed."

"Yes," Yue Lingshan meekly agreed.

Lin Pingzhi narrated, "I listened in for more than ten nights, but I didn't hear anything unusual. But one night, I heard your mother said: 'Martial brother, I feel there's something amiss with your appearance recently. Did you have some kind of trouble learning that Divine Art of Violet Twilight? Don't seek perfection too much and invite trouble.'

Your dad laughed and replied: 'No, my martial art practise is going smoothly.'

Your mother said: 'Don't hide it from me. How come your voice has changed recently? The pitch of your voice has become higher and sharper, just like a girl.'

Your dad said: 'Nonsense! My voice has always been like this.'

When I heard him say these words, I heard his voice was really sharp just like a girl throwing a tantrum. Your mother said: 'You're still denying it? In your whole life, you've never said those words to me. In the years we've been together, when have you concealed anything from me when something's troubling you?'

Your dad said: 'What's there to trouble me? En, the meeting at Songshan isn't too far away and Zuo Lengchan's intention to annex the four schools is very obvious. I'm troubled by this, that's some of it.'

Your mother said: 'I see that it's more than this.'

Your dad got angry again and in his sharp voice said: 'It's your blind suspicion, what else is there besides this?'

Your mother answered: 'When I say it out, don't get angry. I know you've wrongly blamed Chong'er.'

Your dad said: 'Chong'er? He and his Devil Sect people meddle together, he also has a relations.h.i.+p with his Devil Sect Miss Ren, everyone in the world knows about this already. How did I wrongly blame him?'"

When Yingying heard him narrating Yue Buqun's words, mentioned her own name, furthermore mentioning 'he also has a relations.h.i.+p with his Devil Sect Miss Ren, everyone in the world knows about this already', her whole face slightly heated up, but a soft and tender feeling rose up from her heart. She then heard Lin Pingzhi continued, "Your mother said: 'You didn't wrongly blame him for making friends with people from the devil sect. I'm saying you wrongly blame him for stealing Ping'er's Evil Resisting Sword Manual.'

Your dad said: 'Could it be he didn't steal the sword manual? His swordplay suddenly advanced tremendously, he's even higher skilled than you or me, haven't you seen that already?'

Your mother said: 'He must've met with something else for that. I'm certain he didn't take the Evil Resisting Sword Manual. It's true that Chong'er likes to make trouble and he doesn't listen to our teachings. But ever since he was little he's always been frank, and he'd never steal anything. After Shan'er became fond of Ping'er and he was jilted, he's still such a proud person. Even if Ping'er gave him the sword manual willingly, he still wouldn't accept it.'"

Yingying heard till here and she felt an unspeakable happiness in her heart. She was hoping she could give Madam Yue a hug right then and express her grat.i.tude. Yingying was thinking it wasn't in vain that you've raised Chong-lang since he was little; from everyone in Huashan, you are the only person who truly understands him. She also thought based on Madam Yue's words, if Linghu Chong had a chance someday, then he must repay her well for what she just said.

Lin Pingzhi went on, "Your dad snorted and said: 'It looks like you regret expelling this little kid Linghu Chong from our school.'

Your mother said: 'He violated the school's rules, and you carried out our ancestor's instructions and upheld the school's principle, so no one can criticise you for this. But your accusation of him turning over to the unorthodox path is already enough, why did you have to wrongly blame him for stealing the sword manual too? Actually you know this much better than me. You know he didn't take Ping'er's Evil Resisting Sword Manual.'

Your dad shouted: 'How would I know? How would I know?'"

Lin Pingzhi's voice had also become high and acute imitating Yue Buqun's sharp voice in shouting angrily. In the still and calm night, a sharp cry of an owl was heard frightening Yingying. After a pause, Lin Pingzhi continued, "Your mother slowly said: 'Of course you know, because you're the one who took this sword manual.'

Your dad angrily roared: 'You… You're saying… I…" But after saying these few words, he stopped. Your mother's voice was completely tranquil as she said: 'That day when Chong'er was injured and unconscious, I stemmed his bleeding. At that time, I saw a Buddhist robe on him on which many small words were written, looking like some type of sword art. The second time I replaced his medication, that Buddhist robe had disappeared. At that time, Chong'er was still unconscious. Within that time, there was no else who had entered the room besides the two of us. And I didn't take that Buddhist robe.'"

Yue Lingshan choked and whimpered, "My dad… my dad…"

Lin Pingzhi said, "Your dad had already tried to interrupt a few times already, but after saying one or two words, he didn't say anything more. Your mother's voice gradually got softer and she said: 'Martial brother, our Huashan School's swordplay is made by our own school, and the Divine Art of Violet Twilight is an outstanding qigong to fight against other people. Our martial arts reputations have also been well spread in Jianghu, so there's no need to learn another school's swordplay. But recently, Zuo Lengchan's wild ambition has become even more fervent and he wants to annex the four schools. The Huashan School is in your hand. Whatever happens it won't be annexed by Zuo Lengchan's hand. Let's contact Taishan, Heng-Shan, and Hengshan Schools. When the time arrives, the four schools will fight against his school, and I think we'll have a sixty percent chance of winning. If we didn't win, then we'll go out fighting and give our lives at Songshan. When we arrived at the Nine Fountains, we won't have to be ashamed in front of the Huashan School's ancestors.'"

Yingying heard till here and she secretly praised, "This Madam Yue really is an upper cla.s.s heroine, she's much stronger in spirit compared to her husband."

Then she heard Yue Lingshan said, "My mother's words are very reasonable."

Lin Pingzhi coldly laughed and said, "But at that time your father had already taken my sword manual and had already started practising it. Why would he be willing to listen to Master-Wife's advice?" He suddenly called her 'Master-Wife', showing his true heart that he still had not lost the respect he had for Madam Yue. Then he continued, "Then your father said: 'What you said is from the point of view of a woman boasting the braveness of her husband. After we've given our lives, Huashan School will still be swallowed by Zuo Lengchan. And after we're dead, it's not necessary that we'll still have enough face to see the ancestors of Huashan School.'

Your mother didn't reply for a long time, then she sighed and said: 'If you're really anxious about this and wants to protect our school, then I won't blame you. But… But practising this Evil Resisting Sword Manual will only bring harm. Otherwise, why did the descendants of the Lin family not learn this sword art and were forced by other people till they have no way out? I advise you to stop practising it before harm comes to you.'

Your father shouted: 'How did you know I was learning the Evil Resisting Sword Art? You… You… are you spying on me?'

Your mother replied: 'Why do I need to spy when I already know?'

Your father shouted: 'Say it, say it!' He was hissing at the top of his voice. Even though his shout was really loud, he seemed to be rather discouraged.

Your mother said: 'Everyone already noticed that your voice has completely changed. Couldn't you feel it yourself?'

Your dad was still denying it: 'My voice has always been like this.'

Your mother said: 'Every morning, lots of your beard fall off inside the quilt…'

Your father sharply shouted: 'You saw it?' His voice sounded terrified.

Your mother sighed and said: 'I've seen it some time ago but I've never said anything. You can fool other people with your glued-on beard, but how can you conceal it from your wife who has shared your pillow for dozens of years already?'

Your father didn't deny it anymore seeing that everything was exposed. After a long time, he asked: 'Who else knows of this?'

Your mother answered: 'No one.'

Your father asked: 'Shan'er?'

Your mother said: 'It's unlikely that she knows.'

Your father said: 'Then Ping'er naturally doesn't know then?'

Your mother answered: 'He doesn't know.'

Your father said: 'Alright, I'll listen to your advice. This Buddhist robe, tomorrow, we'll think of a way to return it to Pingzhi, and we'll slowly think of a way to clear Linghu Chong's name. I won't study this sword art anymore starting from today.'

Your mother was jubilant and she said: 'That's for the best. But this sword art harms people, so how can we let Ping'er take a look at it? It's best to just destroy it.'"

Yue Lingshan said, "Of course father didn't agree. If he agreed to destroy this sword manual, then things wouldn't have come to this."

"You guessed wrong. Your father said: 'Very good, I'll destroy the sword manual immediately!' I was extremely startled and wanted to say something to stop him. The sword manual belongs to my Lin family, whether it harms people or not, he has no authority to destroy it. At this time, I heard the window creaked open and I hastily pulled my head in. Then I saw a red item which was that Buddhist robe floating down, and the window was closed again. In a moment, that Buddhist robe floated besides me and I tried to grab it but it was outside my reach. At that time, I knew that whether I can avenge my parents or not depended on whether I can grab that Buddhist robe or not. So I disregarded my life and with my right hand I held onto the precipice, and I kicked out with my left feet. I felt the tip of my foot snagging the Buddhist robe and I quickly pulled it in. It was very lucky that I hooked that Buddhist robe in and it didn't disappear into that bottomless Heavenly Gorge."

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Yingying was captivated listening to his narration. She thought, "The really lucky thing would be if you didn't manage to hook that Buddhist robe in."

Yue Lingshan said, "Mother knew Father had tossed that sword manual into the Heavenly Gorge. Actually, father was already familiar with that sword art and the Buddhist robe was of no use to him anymore. But because of this you managed to learn this sword art, isn't that right?"

"That's right."

"That's really Heaven's will. The G.o.ds have arranged everything and they want you to avenge father-in-law and mother-in-law. That… That… That's very good."

"But there's one matter. In the last few days, I've been racking my brains but I still don't understand. How come Zuo Lengchan also knows how to use the Evil Resisting Sword Art?" Yue Lingshan groaned and her voice was indifferent. It was obvious she didn't care if Zuo Lengchan knew how to use the Evil Resisting Sword Art or not.

Lin Pingzhi said, "You didn't learn this sword art, so you don't know its obscurity and cleverness. When Zuo Lengchan and your father fought on top of that place of wors.h.i.+p, at the end of the fight, the two of them were using Evil Resisting Sword Art. But Zuo Lengchan's sword art was completely false, each of his move was deliberately trying to lose to your father. His swordplay foundation is already very high, every time he was in a difficult situation, he quickly changed his move to avoid it, but at the end, he was finally blinded by your father. If… en… If he used Songshan sword art, and he was defeated by your father, then there's nothing strange about that. Evil Resisting Sword Art is matchless under heaven and the Songshan sword art is a worthy opponent. Zuo Lengchan didn't castrate himself so he didn't complete his practise of Evil Resisting Sword Art; this is also not strange. What I don't understand is, where did Zuo Lengchan learn his Evil Resisting Sword Art from, why was the one he learned was pleasing to the eye but false?" His last few words were said hesitatingly, revealing that he was still thinking deeply about this.

Yingying thought, "There's nothing to be heard anymore. Zuo Lengchan's Evil Resisting Sword Art is most likely stolen from my sect. He only learned a few moves, but he didn't understand this shameless method. Dongfang Bubai's Evil Resisting Sword Art is much more formidable than Yue Buqun's. If you had seen it, even if you have three heads working together, you still wouldn't have worked it out." She was just about to quietly step back when she suddenly heard the sound of horses' hooves coming from far away. There were more than twenty horses galloping quickly through the main road coming towards them.