A Little Hope for the World

"Who are you?"

Tang Ziqi asked warily. Meeting someone in a place like this—even an old man—was no reason to let down his guard.

Besides, in the martial world, practitioners of internal arts only grew more formidable with age.

The disheveled old man stopped, opened one eye, and swept his gaze over Li Qingqiu and the others, settling on Yan Wujin.

"The Great Sun Yang Gong. What relation are you to Zhao Yan?" the old man rasped.

At his question, Yan Wujin and Tang Ziqi both paled.

Li Qingqiu felt he had heard the name Zhao Yan somewhere before.

Wait.

The current emperor's elder brother, the former Crown Prince, had apparently been called Zhao Yan. He was also the man Wu Baoyu had followed.

Tang Ziqi asked coldly, "And who are you? How do you recognize the Great Sun Yang Gong?"

A sinister smile spread across the old man's bark-like face. "There's no need to be nervous. Since you inherited the Great Sun Yang Gong, we're all on the same side. I was once the chief instructor of the Imperial Guard under the former Crown Prince. My name doesn't matter anymore. You can call me Mad Old Freak. My past has nothing to do with me now. I just want to spend my remaining years here, rambling like a madman."

Tang Ziqi couldn't help looking back at Yan Wujin.

Yan Wujin stepped forward. "My father's letter said that after his death, the Imperial Guard would certainly be purged. Did you hide here to escape the current emperor's pursuit?"

"I did flee to the Tai Kun Mountain Range to escape the Third Prince's pursuit. But now I'm trapped here, with no way out."

As he spoke, Mad Old Freak plopped down on the ground.

Yan Wujin frowned. "Because of the mist?"

"That's right. This miasma isn't poisonous, but it can trap a person until he dies. I've been stuck here for almost twenty years, living off raw meat and blood, barely surviving."

Mad Old Freak's words sent a chill through Yan Wujin and Tang Ziqi. Trapped for twenty years?

It was absurd!

Tang Ziqi suddenly thought of something and turned to Li Qingqiu. "What about you? Why did you come here?"

Yan Wujin and Mad Old Freak both turned their eyes to Li Qingqiu. His robes were clean; he didn't look like he'd fled here in desperation.

Li Qingqiu smiled. "This is the back mountain of my sect. Why can't I come here? I'm just out for a stroll."

Yan Wujin furrowed his brows. Tang Ziqi, meanwhile, found Li Qingqiu far too strange; the man made him uneasy for no clear reason.

Mad Old Freak looked at Li Qingqiu with curiosity. "You're a disciple of the Qingxiao Sect? Who's your master?"

"Lin Xunfeng."

"Him? He was just a young lad back then, and now he's a master himself. Time really does fly."

Mad Old Freak sighed. Then a fierce glint entered his eyes, and his voice turned icy. "Since you're Lin Xunfeng's disciple, Qingxiao True Person is your grandmaster. If he hadn't refused to tolerate me and even hunted me down, would I have fled here? Very well. Killing you will count as revenge."

As soon as the words left his mouth, he hurled the gourd in his hand. A terrifying force shot toward Li Qingqiu, and Yan Wujin hurriedly pulled Tang Ziqi back.

Smack!

Li Qingqiu caught the gourd and dispelled the force behind it. His arm didn't tremble in the slightest, and his body remained utterly still. Yan Wujin and Tang Ziqi both paled at the sight.

This kid was no ordinary man!

Mad Old Freak narrowed his eyes. "To possess such skill at your age—you're worth remembering. What's your name? Tell me."

Li Qingqiu crushed the gourd in his hand and smiled. "You old bastard, you don't pull your punches!"

His raised right hand suddenly twisted. A steel needle shot from between his fingers and pierced straight through Mad Old Freak's forehead.

Mad Old Freak's eyes widened, and he toppled backward.

Yan Wujin had only caught a glimpse of something shooting from Li Qingqiu's hand. When he saw Mad Old Freak fall, shock surged through him.

That old freak's martial arts were no weaker than his own, yet he'd been killed in an instant.

Just how many monsters was the Qingxiao Sect hiding?

Tang Ziqi came to his senses and trembled all over, staring at Li Qingqiu in disbelief.

Before dawn, the woods were thick with swirling mist. Tang Ziqi couldn't make out Li Qingqiu's expression; at that moment, Li Qingqiu looked like a vengeful ghost to him.

Cold sweat streamed down Yan Wujin's face. Judging by that single move, he didn't think he could escape—and his injuries hadn't even healed.

Tang Ziqi was just as terrified to move. For a moment, the woods fell utterly silent, the air thick with oppression.

Li Qingqiu shifted his gaze to Yan Wujin. He said nothing, but his eyes pressed down on Yan Wujin like a weight.

Clang—

Li Qingqiu suddenly drew the Heavenly Rainbow Sword at his waist. Its gleaming blade flashed across Yan Wujin's and Tang Ziqi's faces.

Thud!

Tang Ziqi dropped to his knees and begged, sobbing, "Please, senior, spare us! We can't die—no, he can't die!"

Hearing this, Yan Wujin lowered his head. His hands clenched inside his sleeves, his heart full of pent-up humiliation.

Li Qingqiu asked, "Why can't he die?"

Tang Ziqi crawled forward a few steps until he reached Yan Wujin. He lay on the ground like a dog, forehead pressed to the earth, and gritted his teeth. "He is the son of Zhao Yan, the former Crown Prince, and the imperial grandson personally chosen by the founding emperor—the true Son of Heaven. His father was murdered by treacherous men, and he was cast adrift among the common folk. The current emperor is incompetent and trusts demons. He has thrown the realm into chaos and driven countless commoners from their homes. The Demon Emperor has even greater ambitions: he wants eternal life, and to that end, he secretly abducts boys and girls, causing untold human tragedies. Only if Yan Wujin overthrows the current imperial house can this world see the light again, and the people know peace!"

"Enough!"

Yan Wujin said in a low voice, his anger clearly at its limit.

Tang Ziqi turned to him, his voice breaking into a hysterical shout. "Brother, you can't die! We can't die here! Even if we lose every shred of dignity tonight, we have to beg him to spare our lives. You carry the responsibility of someone who must not die!"

Yan Wujin was torn between two choices.

"You think you can use the fate of the whole world to pressure me? You were the ones who picked a fight with the Qingxiao Sect. Why are you making yourselves sound so wronged?" Li Qingqiu's tone didn't change at all.

Tang Ziqi turned back to him and hurriedly explained, "We had no choice. We had to rise through the martial world and gather our strength, while also collecting evidence of the current emperor's crimes. We chose the Qingxiao Sect because the Tai Kun Mountain Range is far from worldly affairs, and the court rarely reaches this far. We never intended to wipe you all out; we only wanted to absorb your sect. We'd resort to killing only if you resisted to the death."

Li Qingqiu didn't lower his sword or say a word, as if weighing the costs and benefits.

Tang Ziqi continued, "We admit we were at fault. We'll make amends however you want. We only ask that you spare us. We can die, but we shouldn't die here!"

He truly felt hopeless, his heart burning with resentment.

Ever since he met Yan Wujin, he had been awed by his peerless martial arts. After learning Yan Wujin's story, he had been fired with ambition. He had thought that with Yan Wujin's formidable skills and his own standing as a member of an Aristocratic Clan, they could build a great enterprise.

Who could have imagined that their newly founded sect would be crushed before it could take root, and that now, in this dead end, he would have to beg for mercy like a dog?

Tang Ziqi had always been proud, from childhood to adulthood. In this moment, he had been brought utterly low.

"You're his strategist, aren't you? He's spent his life practicing martial arts, so I can excuse him for not having the brains. But you're a strategist. If you don't investigate your opponents before acting, can you really help him save the people of the world?"

Li Qingqiu's words reached Tang Ziqi, filling him with shame. He had no answer.

Yan Wujin's resentment ran even deeper than Tang Ziqi's. He didn't blame him. If only he had been strong enough, none of this would have happened.

"Go in that direction. Keep your eyes closed and don't open them. Wait until you no longer feel the chill, then open your eyes."

Yan Wujin and Tang Ziqi looked up in delighted surprise. Li Qingqiu raised his sword and pointed it diagonally in a direction.

"Thank you, senior!"

Tang Ziqi hurriedly thanked him, then stood and tried to pull Yan Wujin along. But he couldn't budge him.

"You trust us just like that?" Yan Wujin couldn't help asking. Tang Ziqi was frantic; how could he suddenly say something so foolish?

Li Qingqiu looked at him and replied, "It's not that I trust you. I just want to leave a little hope for this world."

Yan Wujin gave him a long, searching look, then pulled a manual from his robes and tossed it to him. "Our cause may not succeed. Let the Qingxiao Sect keep this copy of the Great Sun Yang Gong."

He turned and led Tang Ziqi in the direction Li Qingqiu had indicated with his sword. Before long, they disappeared into the thick mist.

Li Qingqiu flipped through a few pages of the Great Sun Yang Gong. Seeing no hidden weapons or poison, he tucked it into his robes with relief.

He set off in the direction indicated by the memories of his Fortune Inheritance, but memories from his childhood kept surging into his mind.

Before he was even a year old, his father had tried to win favor with the Linchuan Li Clan by passing him off as a lost member of the clan. But when his father brought him and his mother to the Linchuan Li Clan's ancestral residence, there was a demonic priest inside who declared him an ill-omened child and insisted he be abandoned. Only then would his parents be allowed to join the clan.

His parents agreed and left him outside the city. Before parting, they told him they would be father and son, mother and child again in their next lives.

Li Qingqiu had never hated the Li Clan before. After all, his father wasn't really a member of the clan. He hadn't hated his parents either; he had considered the debt of being born repaid.

Now he finally understood why he and his master had been hunted when he was still young.

Even if his father had joined the Li Clan, he would have been no more than an ordinary clan member. The real reason was that the emperor had been seizing children. Without his master's rescue, it was hard to imagine what might have happened to him.

Perhaps that demonic priest had been placed there by the emperor. The Li Clan's rise to power must have been closely tied to the emperor.

As he recalled the past, Li Qingqiu quickened his pace.

Though the miasma in this place was harmless, it could confuse the senses. To avoid losing his way, he had to keep his eyes on the ground. But wild beasts also lurked in the mist, making it difficult for anyone to keep watching the earth beneath their feet.

Looking closely, he saw that beneath the fallen leaves there was a faint path, one made by those who had come before.

As he walked, the morning sunlight spilled into the woods, but everything around him remained a sea of white.

After traveling about twenty li, he began to see human skeletons along the path, still clothed. He didn't stop. First he had to find the giant tree; afterward, he would count the corpses along the way.

Since this tree was his Fortune Inheritance, that meant nothing on this path would threaten Li Qingqiu as he was now.