"If Yama decreed your death at midnight, Ping'an would keep you alive till dawn."
"That was an immensely famous saying in the Jianghu more than twenty years ago."
"If Ping'an hadn't saved me, I might have died back then, and you would never have come along."
Qi Shiyun hadn't expected the Dingyuan Marquis, Gong Wensheng, to suddenly draw her into reminiscing about the past.
She recalled some details Gong Yuyi had privately shared about how her parents got along, back when they were together, and weighed her response. "Mother, Father's bones are barely cold. You should at least show him some respect."
Gong Wensheng was unconcerned. "They've been cold for years. It doesn't matter."
Qi Shiyun said, "...Mother, am I Jiang Ping'an's daughter?"
Gong Wensheng sighed softly. "I wish you were, but unfortunately, Ping'an set his sights too high. When he saved me back then, he only said my crimes didn't warrant death. He held Yama off for me, keeping me from dying beneath Yama's Killing Sword, and never asked me for anything in return."
"No wonder you can't forget Jiang Ping'an, Mother. Still, for a physician to be evenly matched with Yama, one of the Four Great Elders of the Demon Cult, Jiang Ping'an really is an anomaly. He's worthy of being called a great talent who nearly inherited the Heavenly Physician's mantle."
By the end, Qi Shiyun felt something was amiss.
Under normal circumstances, anyone who could join Nine Heavens would surely be stronger than a Demon Cult elder.
Jiang Ping'an should have been able to suppress Yama.
Why had they only fought to a draw?
Outsiders and people in the Jianghu would certainly consider this reasonable. They might even think putting Jiang Ping'an on a level with Yama was overpraising him.
But as one of the Nine