Chapter 668: The Three Noble Houses
Li Changge’s words left Qi Xuansu a bit puzzled. He thought, Weren’t the Li family and Prince Liao allies? What could possibly be “interesting” about this?
Did Li Changge truly carry the spirit of the Holy Xuan, biting the hand that fed him? After all, back in the day, the Holy Xuan had not treated the Li family kindly, often suppressing them. Yet his prestige had been so overwhelming that the Lis dared not disown their forebear. No matter how much bitterness they had endured back then, they now strove to uphold the Holy Xuan’s legacy, claiming proudly to be his descendants.
However, there were rumors that internal strife had plagued the Li family back then. The three Li brothers mirrored the current three Daoist sects, with the Holy Xuan taking the role akin to the Taiping Sect. Donghuang and the eldest Li brother had allied against their second brother, the Holy Xuan, who eventually emerged victorious, forcing the Donghuang to concede. Some speculated that the Holy Xuan’s later suppression of the Li family was actually a purge of internal rivals.
Though the Li family had seemed unusually united in recent years, far more so than the fractious Zhang family or the scattered Quanzhen Sect, internal strife could not be ruled out. But Li Changge was securely seated as the Li family’s third-in-command at his young age, so was there still a need to compete? Could his rival be the infamous Li Tianzhen?
Li Changge did not explain what he meant by interesting and simply gestured for Li Qingnu to continue.
“The Buddhist Sect has fallen into decline and corruption ever since the decline of their Eastern Sect and the rise of their Western Sect. Monk Yan Xiu turned out to be nothing more than a lecherous monk, spending his days practicing that so-called Blissful Method, resulting in the death of two of our girls at Sycamore Villa. Everyone here believes in the Daoist faith, where virtue is emphasized. To claim that every life is priceless is hollow at best, because something that is priceless is also often worthless. From a moral standpoint, a life shouldn’t be reduced to a value. But I’m just a person of the lower ranks, so what I care about is compensation. Each of those girls was worth over 5,000 Taiping coins. This incident was a major loss for the Sycamore Villa.”
Madam Qi’s influence was surely great, so much so that Li Qingnu’s words echoed that old miser’s calculative tone.
Qi Xuansu remained silent.
The deaths of the two women had come as a surprise to both Qi Xuansu and Li Qingnu.
Qi Xuansu had not expected Monk Yan Xiu to be so utterly deranged as to fling the two women as human projectiles at him without a moment’s hesitation. Thus, the two women’s deaths were brutal and sudden. Qi Xuansu had even tried to save them and gotten hurt in the process. Compared to his former self, he had grown far softer. Still, he was not soft enough to shoulder the blame for someone else’s crimes.
If he killed someone, he would own up to it. If he did not, he sure as hell would not take the fall. It was as simple as that.