The Sixth Unlucky Soul

After eating her fill, Wen Que eagerly ran off to Qiu Jinling's courtyard to see the strange bird.

Master Qiu had no trouble being ruthless with his own troublemaking son. Until the strange bird stopped its heedless squawking, he had no intention of letting Qiu Jinling out.

With Master Qiu's written permission, Wen Que could pass freely through the restriction.

Qiu Jinyou watched Wen Que leave, measuring the distance between them. Beyond twenty meters, she could no longer hear Wen Que's stream of muttering thoughts. Beyond a hundred, she could not even hear the occasional startled outburst in her mind.

Of course, Wen Que might simply have happened to be thinking nothing at the time. That distance still needed testing.

"Jinyou, what's wrong?"

Madam Qiu took her precious daughter's hand. A flash of sorrow had crossed Jinyou's gentle face, and a trace of it seemed to linger in her eyes.

It was rare to see Qiu Jinyou look like this. She probably had not even realized that her distress was showing.

"Has something happened?"

"Mother..."

Qiu Jinyou did not know where to begin. If what Wen Que had said was true, everything between her and Lan Yezhou had become a joke.

"You can tell your mother anything!"

"Mother, I just don't know where to start."

She dared not mention the details Wen Que's thoughts had revealed in front of her mother. Instead, she asked a few roundabout questions about the wedding preparations and the Lan Family's response.

Madam Qiu was a shrewd woman. After only a few questions, she saw that something was amiss.

"Jinyou, tell me. Has something happened? Is it about Lan Yezhou?"

In truth, Madam Qiu had never thought much of Lan Yezhou.

He was a favored son of heaven, certainly, but he was cold by nature and obsessed with cultivation. He was hardly someone worth entrusting a lifetime to. Qiu Jinyou was gentle and mild, but stubborn to her core. Thanks to her father, she had set her heart on Lan Yezhou when she was little. The Lan Family had seemed enthusiastic too, so Madam Qiu had thought that even if Lan Yezhou was not considerate, Qiu Jinyou could still make a good life for herself.

Perhaps it was better that way. He would not set his heart on someone else.

At most, when frustration got the better of her, Madam Qiu would go back and give Master Qiu a beating. He was the one who had agreed to the marriage, all because he and the Lan Family's patriarch were close enough to wear the same pair of trousers.

But judging by Qiu Jinyou's expression today, her confidence in the approaching marriage seemed to have wavered.

Qiu Jinyou thought it over. She could not reveal Wen Que's involvement, but she could ask her mother for help. With her mother investigating, they would surely uncover more than she could on her own.

"Mother, when did you last see Lan Yezhou?"

"The last time?" Madam Qiu furrowed her brow and thought.

Madam Qiu rarely saw Lan Yezhou. The two families did not live close to each other, and it was mainly Master Qiu and the Lan Family's patriarch who were close. Even as mistress of her household, she had met the Lan Family's madam only a handful of times.

When Lan Yezhou was young, his father often brought him to visit the Qiu family. Master Qiu, of course, often took Qiu Jinyou to visit the Lan Family too.

That was how the families had maintained their ties, and how the two children had come to know each other. Later, their engagement followed naturally.

Once Lan Yezhou joined the Heavenly Martial Sect, he visited only to deliver New Year's gifts. Later still, he spent so much time in seclusion that years could pass without anyone seeing him.

The last time Madam Qiu had seen Lan Yezhou was when he had just advanced to Golden Core. The Qiu family had gone to congratulate the Lan Family, and the two families had formally settled the engagement.

Come to think of it, that was probably the last time Qiu Jinyou had seen Lan Yezhou too.

Ordinarily, Qiu Jinyou and Lan Yezhou only exchanged letters or had gifts delivered to each other—though Qiu Jinyou sent most of those gifts.

"Mother, do you know what cultivation art Lan Yezhou practices?"

"Cultivation art?" Madam Qiu's heart tightened. "The Heartless Sword Art?"

Truthfully, she had been deeply unhappy when she learned Lan Yezhou had chosen that art. He was a perfectly good young man, and engaged to Qiu Jinyou besides! Why practice a heartless sword art? Who was he planning to be heartless toward?

Master Qiu had reassured her that it was only the sword art's name. It meant being heartless toward enemies, not toward one's own people.

But Madam Qiu had thought that someone already so cold would turn into a great block of ice if he practiced the Heartless Sword Art. Better to have no cultivation partner at all than one like that!

She had swallowed her anger only because Qiu Jinyou had joined in trying to persuade her.

Madam Qiu's expression turned grave. "Jinyou, have you heard something?"

Wen Que's voice echoed in Qiu Jinyou's ears again. A chill crept down her back, and her face grew paler still.

"I only heard... that practicing the Heartless Sword Art means severing the heart and all feeling. That one must..."

The last few words stuck dryly in her throat. She forced them out with great difficulty.

"Kill. His wife. To prove his Dao..."

Madam Qiu gave a start too.

She had already had a bad feeling about the art, but even after hearing Qiu Jinyou say it, she found it hard to believe.

How had it come to killing one's wife to prove the Dao?

If Master Qiu had been there, he would surely have laughed and asked whether Qiu Jinyou had been reading some strange storybook again. One could not say such things carelessly.

If those words had come from that brat Qiu Jinling, Madam Qiu would not have believed them for a moment. But she knew her daughter would never make a baseless claim. Qiu Jinyou must have heard something to put such an idea in her head.

Madam Qiu drew the fragile Qiu Jinyou into her arms and said softly, "Don't be afraid, Jinyou. Leave this to your mother. I'll investigate it thoroughly and make the Lan Family give us an explanation."

She had found it strange. The Lan Family had seemed enthusiastic, yet they had never wanted to discuss a wedding date. Then, not long ago, they had acted as though they had taken the wrong medicine, dragging Master Qiu into urgent talks about the marriage as if they could not wait to bring Qiu Jinyou home as their bride.

Master Qiu had even laughed and said that after the clouds parted, the moon was finally in sight. The Lan Family had shown their sincerity at last.

Sincerity, my foot!

Qiu Jinyou lay against her mother, tears of lingering fright finally spilling from her eyes. The moment she had spoken those words, a memory had suddenly surfaced. Long ago, she really had overheard people discussing the breathtakingly talented sword cultivator from the Heavenly Martial Sect.

Of course she had known whom they meant. The most outstanding disciple of the Heavenly Martial Sect's generation was Lan Yezhou of the Lan Family.

Hearing their admiring praise, she had felt proud of him.

Then she had heard them lower their voices to discuss Lan Yezhou's cultivation art. Someone said his Heartless Sword Art was a secret of the Heavenly Martial Sect, never passed to outsiders. Powerful as it was, it had one flaw: something uncanny about it meant that every practitioner of the art killed his wife to prove his Dao.

What had she thought then?

She had only thought they were talking nonsense.

Even if the art truly was uncanny, the Heavenly Martial Sect knew Lan Yezhou was engaged. Why would they still have him practice it?

Now she finally understood. It was precisely because Lan Yezhou had a fiancée that they had given him the art.

The Heavenly Martial Sect had accounted for her from the beginning. She was the stepping stone they had prepared for Lan Yezhou's advancement.

"Mother..." Qiu Jinyou choked out.

"Don't worry, Jinyou. If this Heartless Sword Art truly is so wicked, I will make the Lan Family and the Heavenly Martial Sect give us a proper explanation. If the Qiu family doesn't carry enough weight, what about the Bai Family and the Heavenly Sun Sect as well? Will that be enough to make them answer us?"

As for Lan Yezhou, if he truly wanted to practice that sword art, the Qiu family would not object. But they would never let him use their Qiu Jinyou as a means to that end.

Nor would they let him do it to some other innocent girl!

If it was true, Madam Qiu would make sure the whole world heard about it.