“Was she a child servant too? You both, you both worked for the same big family?” Qiu Yutong wondered.
“Of course not.” Xiao Wu smiled lightly, “He was from a noble family, and at that time, he was the unattainable cloud in the sky, and I was the mud on the ground.”
” So it’s like this,” Qiu Yutong nodded, his heart already clear.
It seemed that the woman who had abandoned Xiao Wu was a rich girl.
Qiu Yutong couldn’t help but think of the many dog blood books he had read in the past, in which the poor boy who had been abandoned by a rich lady would usually go to the capital to take the exams, then become a scholar, marry the prime minister’s daughter, and finally return to his hometown in glory. The rich girl who had abandoned the poor boy, by this time, would have often already lost her family and married to the wrong person. At this time, she would look at the former poor boy with regret.
Qiu Yutong had originally thought that these were just stories, he didn’t think they were true, so he asked, “What happened?”
Xiao Wu, naturally unaware of what Qiu Yutong was thinking, continued, “That man was from a noble background and could be said to have led a pampered life, but he was very gentle with me. When I met him, I was very sick, so he found a quiet place to allow me to get well, boiling medicine for me during the day and tucking me in at night, taking care of me in a clumsy way…”
When he said this, Xiao Wu’s expression took on a distant expression, as if he had fallen into an old memory, and the corners of his taut mouth even showed a little gentle smile, “In fact, the medicine he boiled every day was all mushy, burnt and bitter, and had little medicinal properties. Also, he couldn’t wait to cover me with all the bedding at night, always covering me so much that I would sweat, but I knew that he was really trying very hard and was very serious as he took care of me… No one had ever, ever treated me like that.”
Qiu Yutong couldn’t help but say, “It’s actually quite difficult to concoct medicine. I learnt to do it for a long time the first time, but I did quite well.”
Xiao Wu glanced at him with a smile that wasn’t a smile, “You did quite well? Oh, I see.”
“Yes, the patient said it wasn’t bitter,” Qiu Yutong said smugly.
Speaking of concocting medicine, Qiu Yutong recalled the time when he was taking care of little Lu Xiao, who had a high fever, in the small temple. At that time, although he had little experience in taking care of patients, he had done a good job, and little Lu Xiao drank the medicine every day, never complaining of pain or kicking the blankets at night. It was just that little Lu Xiao was so weak that he stayed in the temple for several months and only got a little better after the weather gradually turned warmer.
But it seems that he did a good job back then. At least the medicine didn’t turn black, and the blanket wasn’t too thin or too thick.
Qiu Yutong thought of those days in the temple and a small smile appeared on his lips, but soon he remembered with sadness that the little disciple he had saved was gone.
Xiao Wu asked, “What’s wrong?”
Qiu Yutong’s heart burst with pain, but he had always been good at saving face and didn’t want outsiders to see his emotions, so he shook his head, “Nothing, you… go on.”
Xiao Wu nodded and went on, “He treated me so well, and I wanted to work harder to take care of him. Later, I grew up and got a big residence. At that time, I thought that I could finally live a good life with him, inside this residence… but then, he left.”
“He left? Why?” Qiu Yutong frowned.
Xiao Wu laughed, “It’s actually very simple, all those things I fought so hard for, family home, money, or power… he didn’t even care about. With or without them, it was all the same. I remember the day he left, he rode… away on a stallion. I ran after him like a madman, desperately, and he didn’t look back once.”
“And then what happened? You went to find her?”
“No. At that time, I didn’t even know where to look for him,” Xiao Wu shook his head. “All I could do was wait, just keep waiting… for those years, I don’t know how I got through them, doing my best, running that big residence, hoping he would come back for a visit. Then he did come back, though not by choice… something happened to him and he had to come back, and in spite of that, I was as happy as a fool.”
“You’ve made up? If that’s the case, then why did she leave again?” Qiu Yutong was somewhat puzzled.
“After he came back, he stayed with me for a long time, and I followed him with shamelessly, afraid of being left behind again. Then he found out that I had something that was so valuable that everyone fought over it, and he… he stabbed me, took the thing, and left.”
Here Xiao Wu paused and added softly, “At that time, I was so badly injured that although I didn’t die, I couldn’t wait to die. Not a day went by in those years that I didn’t think about what I would do to him if I survived, if I could find him.”
The turn of events was so unexpected that Qiu Yutong was completely stunned, “How could she do this? You, you should take revenge on her!”
“He’ll make it up to me,” Xiao Wu said indifferently.
“How can a selfish person like her make it up to you?”
“I’ll show him what I can do, I’ll make him regret it,” Xiao Wu’s lips curled lightly, but there was no smile in his eyes at all. “He’ll pay me back everything he owes me, with interest, whether he wants to or not.”
Qiu Yutong shook his head. He really didn’t understand the love-hate relationship between these smitten men and women, “Sigh, I don’t really understand what you’re telling me…”
Xiao Wu’s dark eyes looked at him soberly, “Of course you don’t understand. Great Dao is emotionless, I understood that long ago.”
Qiu Yutong always felt that there was something strange about his words and didn’t know how to take them, so he turned his head away and looked at the dark mountains, his pair of snow-white bare feet kicking the snow in a bored manner.
Xiao Wu suddenly frowned and caught one of his feet, “Why are you again… Why are you not wearing shoes?”
“Uh, I don’t want to wear them, what’s wrong?” Qiu Yutong subconsciously struggled and pulled his foot back, slightly embarrassed. Because of this problem of not wearing shoes, he had been lectured by his senior brothers for two hundred years, but he still couldn’t change it. However, this Xiao Wu’s actions were too abrupt.
Xiao Wu also seemed to feel that it was inappropriate and pulled his hand back stiffly, “You’ll get cold if you do that.”
“My body is different from normal people. I’m not too afraid of cold, just a little afraid of heat,” Qiu Yutong explained. He really wasn’t too afraid of the cold nowadays, but for some reason, everyone seemed to think that he should be afraid of cold. His senior brother often sent some cold-repelling tonics to Feilai Pavilion, his third senior brother sent a large pile of cotton brocade robes over the other day, and Chen Yuelin kept on stuffing brass hand stoves into his hands all day long… Could it be because he looked too pale and bloodless?
“You’re not afraid of the cold?” Xiao Wu said lightly, “Yes, I have also heard that Peak Master Qiu has reshaped his dao body since his return from the secret realm.”
His tone made Qiu Yutong somewhat uncomfortable, and after a moment’s silence, he stood up, “You can continue to sit, I’ll go back first.”
After Qiu Yutong finished speaking, he turned around and walked towards the Feilai Pavilion, but for some reason, he always felt that Xiao Wu’s eyes were still staring at him from behind.
……
The next morning, Xu Dongqing pushed Xie Wanting’s wheelchair and arrived at the Feilai Pavilion.
“Yutong, who is this?” Xie Wanting glanced at Xiao Wu with a slightly puzzled expression.
“Oh, this is a new friend, Xiao Wu, a wandering cultivator whom I invited to stay for a few days,” Qiu Yutong hurriedly explained.
“City Master Xie, I’ve heard a lot about you.” Xiao Wu said.
“So it is Fellow Daoist Xiao,” Xie Wanting nodded slightly to Xiao Wu, then stopped paying attention to him and turned his head to look at Qiu Yutong. ” Yutong, how did the New Year’s shopping go?”
“Yuelin, where’s the New Year’s goods we bought yesterday? Hurry up and bring them out!”
Qiu Yutong hurriedly called Chen Yuelin and asked him to put out all the things he had bought in Qingshiqiao Town yesterday, and in no time, there was a huge table full of couplets, paper cuttings, cakes, firecrackers, and lanterns…
Xie Wanting casually looked at a few things and nodded, “Not bad. Dongqing, put the things away and have the children distribute them to the peaks.”
“Yes, Sect Leader.” Xu Dongqing hurriedly put the New Year’s goods away and walked to the side to instruct the two accompanying children to send them to the peaks later.
With the New Year’s goods arranged, Xie Wanting sat down opposite Qiu Yutong and took another sip of hot tea before saying, “Yutong, in fact, I came here this time to discuss something with you about this Immortal Alliance Conference.”
Xiao Wu glanced up at Xie Wanting for a moment.
Qiu Yutong nodded and said, “Yes, the Immortal Alliance Conference is coming up shortly after the New Year.”
“I didn’t want to go to the Immortal Alliance Conference, but since Gui Wuyou wants to be the leader of the Immortal Alliance, I’ll let him be. It’s just that…” Xie Wanting paused before slowly saying, “I recently got a definite message that the new Devil Emperor of the Devil World will be coming to the Immortal Alliance Conference this time to compete for the decree of the Leader of the Immortal Alliance.”
Qiu Yutong frowned and said, “I have also heard about this. Senior brother, what are you going to do?”
Xie Wanting sighed, “Ever since the death of the Haotian Devil Emperor, the Devil World has been in chaos, which has led to a few thousand years of peace in the cultivation world. But now it seems that these peaceful days are about to come to an end.”
“What is the origin of that new Devil Emperor?” Qiu Yutong wondered.
Xiao Wu lowered his eyes gently.
“This new Devil Emperor is very mysterious, no one knows where he came from,” Xie Wanting shook his head. “I have only heard that he is very cruel and murderous, and in just a dozen years he has killed several great lords of the devil world, finally putting to rest thousands of years of strife in the devil world. However, his ambition seems to go far beyond that. It is said that the post he handed to Nanshan Temple was extremely rude in wording and as if he were already the leader of the Immortal Alliance.”
Qiu Yutong couldn’t help but frown, “He is the Devil Emperor, how can he come to seize the position of Leader of the Immortal Alliance? This is too absurd.”
“Exactly,” Xie Wanting sighed. “Therefore, we in North Snow City can’t stand by and watch this Immortal Alliance Conference without doing anything. We must make a trip to Nanshan Temple.”
Qiu Yutong thought for a moment and then asked, “Has anyone ever fought with that devil emperor?”
“Not yet.” Xie Wanting shook his head, “However, I heard that the two devils who went to Nanshan Temple to deliver the post were two of the new Devil Emperor’s generals, and Qing Ci and Qing Hui, on impulse, fought with them; the other side didn’t seem to have done their best, but both masters were slightly injured. One of the devil creatures said that he was not as good as one of the Devil Emperor’s little fingers.”
Qiu Yutong’s eyes widened, “That powerful?”
“It is said that this new Devil Emperor has a very special bloodline and can suck the devil energy from any devil and is almost invincible in the Devil World.” Speaking of this, Xie Wanting looked at Qiu Yutong for a moment, “Perhaps, only you, at your peak, can fight him.”
Qiu Yutong took a deep breath, “I understand.”
“This Devil Emperor is extremely vicious, we can’t let him get the decree of the Leader of the Immortal Alliance and wreak havoc on earth,” Xie Wanting murmured. “When the time comes, the two of us, Hanyuan and I, will go up first to test him out, and if something happens to us, you will go up.”
“Senior brother, it’s better for me to go first…”
“It is my duty to exterminate devils, there is no need to say more.”
Qiu Yutong was silent for a moment before finally nodding, “In that case, I will go up to Wenjian Cliff after the year is over to form my core. This body of mine now is extremely prepared, with a great abundance of spiritual energy, and with Tianzhao Yunhai, I may be able to fight that devil creature and cut it down with the sword.”
Xiao Wu’s breath hitched hard, and even his voice went hoarse, “Master Qiu, is the devil so unforgivable?”
Qiu Yutong froze slightly, but before he could reply, Xie Wanting had already said coldly, “What words are you saying, Daoist Xiao? This new devil emperor is very murderous and extremely cruel. He once slaughtered twelve cities in order to unify the devil world. What’s more, the devil and the Dao are not mutually exclusive, so since he is here to fight for the decree of the Leader of the Immortal Alliance, he should be shown the power of my cultivation world.”
Xiao Wu clenched his fists slowly, “If the three worlds… the cultivation world, the earth realm and the devil realm were to become one again, would the Dao and the devil still be incompatible?”
