"Wife, you..." Song Qingshu stared at Mu Wanqing in astonishment.
"Gou Dan'er, what a martial arts master you are!" Mu Wanqing pointed at him, trembling with rage. He had spun me around his finger these past two days and taken every advantage of me...
"Miss Mu, I am truly sorry." There was no point pretending any longer. Song Qingshu gave a bitter smile.
"You, a great master, toyed with an ordinary person like me. Was that fun?" Mu Wanqing's voice grew colder and colder.
I thought it was quite fun. Of course, Song Qingshu did not dare say that aloud. "I saw that you were heartbroken and seemed to be contemplating suicide. In my panic, I wanted to console you, but I feared you would shut out a stranger, so I resorted to this measure."
That brought up Mu Wanqing's grief again. Her little mouth pursed, and a mist rose once more in her beautiful eyes.
Though Mu Wanqing appeared cold and fierce, she was, in the end, merely a girl in the bloom of youth. In his previous life, she probably would not even have started college at her age. These thoughts flashed through Song Qingshu's mind, but for the moment, he had no idea how to comfort her.
After a while, Mu Wanqing turned away and secretly wiped her cheek with her fingertips. Then she asked in a low voice, "What is your name, really?"
Noticing those jade-like fingers, delicate as scallion shoots, Song Qingshu suddenly felt his mouth go dry. He hurriedly replied, "Miss Mu, my name is Song Qingshu."
"Thank you, Hero Song, for saving me the other day. This is farewell." Mu Wanqing spoke coldly, then turned and left. Though she was furious, by her usual temperament, she would have shot such a foul man dead with an arrow. But having witnessed his unfathomable martial arts firsthand, she abandoned that thought.
"You're leaving just like that?" Song Qingshu muttered, his reluctance plain to hear. Since the beauty had seen through him, he did not know how to ask her to stay. Given his nature, he could not bring himself to shamelessly trail after her like Duan Yu.
Hearing Song Qingshu's murmur, Mu Wanqing's ears reddened. She suddenly stopped, turned around, and stared at Song Qingshu. "Go wash your face. I do not want to leave without even knowing what my savior looks like."
"What is she up to now?" Song Qingshu knew Mu Wanqing's exceptionally tsundere nature, yet he could not guess her intentions. He could only run to the nearby stream, wash the grime from his face, and tie back his loose, disheveled hair with a headscarf.
Seeing the refreshed Song Qingshu, an almost imperceptible flush appeared on Mu Wanqing's fair cheeks. "All right. I have seen clearly." With that, she turned and left without hesitation.
Could it be that she had been captivated by the handsome face of the "Jade-Faced Mengchang"? Song Qingshu was bewildered. The original Song Qingshu had already been a famously handsome young hero in the martial world. Now that his divine arts had reached fruition, his restrained divine radiance and abyss-deep composure added even more to his charm. Every morning when he looked in the mirror, his first words were, "Damn, I woke myself up again with how handsome I am..."
Watching Mu Wanqing walk farther and farther away, Song Qingshu shook his head and smiled bitterly. Mu Wanqing was renowned in the original novel as a girl devoted to love. She had spent her life hopelessly in love with her brother, Duan Yu. How could she possibly fall for another man?
Yet, looking at her slender figure, Song Qingshu inexplicably called out, "Next, I'm heading back to Jiangnan."
When Mu Wanqing continued walking into the distance as though nothing had happened, without even the slightest tremor in her figure, Song Qingshu grew anxious and hurriedly added, "Duan Yu was captured by Jiumozhi, the Imperial Preceptor of Tibet. He said he was taking him to Gusu Murong Bo's grave to be cremated."
This time, Mu Wanqing's figure did indeed tremble. She paused briefly, then continued walking, finally vanishing from Song Qingshu's sight.
"Looks like my place in her heart still can't compare to that pretty boy Duan Yu!" Song Qingshu sighed with deep emotion, utterly failing to realize that he himself was also a bona fide pretty boy.
However, he was now certain that Mu Wanqing would rush to Jiangnan to save Duan Yu. Song Qingshu was not worried about her safety at all. Though Jiumozhi could be somewhat despicable at times, he was generally still an enlightened monk. He did not share Yun Zhonghe's particular tastes, nor would he cruelly harm a fragile young girl like Mu Wanqing.
The reason he had sent her toward Jiangnan was that Song Qingshu himself had already decided to head south.
During his spare time over the past two days, he had been planning his future. His former plan to plunder martial arts manuals from across the land no longer seemed realistic. But his current martial arts were already sufficient, especially after today's battle with Feng Qingyang, which had filled him with confidence. He knew that as long as he did not court death by provoking the infamous fiends of the martial world, he should have more than enough ability to protect himself.
Moreover, as his martial arts grew stronger, Song Qingshu's ambitions expanded as well. His rich experiences from his previous life had taught him early on that, in these chaotic times, no matter how powerful one's martial arts were, one was merely a pawn in the hands of those above, just like Guo Jing. In comparison, he envied Zhang Wuji, Cult Master of the Ming Cult. With hundreds of thousands of followers under his command, Zhang Wuji stood as a lord in his own right, with powerful troops and strong horses, and might even unify the realm.
But when Song Qingshu thought of that unclear, ambiguous relationship between Zhang Wuji and his wife in name, he felt a wave of irritation. He had no desire to become an unlucky fool like Li Yu. If Zhang Wuji unified the world and then, on a whim, summoned Zhou Zhiruo into his harem, there would truly be nothing Song Qingshu could do to stop him.
Besides, in his previous life, Song Qingshu had built a business empire with his own hands. He had grown accustomed to the feeling of being one of those at the top, holding the fates of many people in his grasp. Now he was merely a minor martial wanderer, and he found this change of role deeply uncomfortable. Thus, he had long entertained the idea of establishing his own power base.
The realm was now in chaos, making it the perfect time to build achievements and establish a career. Song Qingshu was not a political speculator like the Murong father and son, who aimed high but lacked ability and relied on clumsy methods. He had already mapped out his blueprint.
What was the essence of power? First, military authority; second, control over appointments. But the most important was financial power. When many people depended on you for their livelihood, immense power naturally followed. Of course, if you lacked the strength to prevent your property from being seized, power would be nothing but a laughable illusion.
Seeing no hope in the path of martial arts manuals, Song Qingshu decisively shifted his focus to searching for the treasures scattered throughout the land.
Though the martial arts manuals buried across the world belonged exclusively to the protagonists of the original novels, and he had no way to compete with them for their fortune, the original novels did share a common trait: none of their protagonists had touched the treasures mentioned in the stories! Most likely, Old Master Jin had done this to display the protagonists' noble disdain for wealth, treating money like dirt. But that was precisely what benefited Song Qingshu.
Since he did not need to compete with the original protagonists for treasure, Song Qingshu felt his thoughts suddenly become clear. Reviewing the treasures of the realm, the treasure of the Gaochang Maze lay far away in the Western Regions, within Zhang Wuji's territory, so it would not be considered for now. Chuang Wang's Treasure near Jade Brush Villa was too far away and located deep within Manchu territory; even if he found it, he could not transport it away. The treasure connected to The Forty-Two Chapters Scripture was even more difficult. Leaving aside the challenge of gathering all eight scriptures, Lu Ding Mountain was the site of the Manchu Dragon Vein. It would be impossible to secretly remove the treasure without alerting the Manchus.
The treasure at Tianning Temple in Jingzhou had originally been easy to find, but that was Ling Tuis's territory, and it lay in a war-controlled zone. Song Qingshu did not wish to alert the enemy prematurely.
After much thought, Song Qingshu finally fixed his gaze on the treasure hidden in Dagong Workshop of Jinling City!
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