Chapter 170 The Way Back, the Road Ahead
Lian fixed him with a low, steady voice.
“Why didn’t you come find me?”
“Find you?”
A faint smile tugged at the corner of Feng Yu’s mouth, but there was no warmth in it.
“You had already been installed as sect leader. The three elders held more real power than you ever did. If I had shown my face, I would’ve been dragged straight to their execution platform.”
Lian’s expression turned frost-hard.
“So you suspect the elders?”
“It’s not suspicion.” Feng Yu tilted his head slightly. “It’s confirmation.”
The air seemed to tighten.
I swallowed and still pressed on. “So the one who brought us into the formation… was you? You wanted us to see what happened back then?”
Feng Yu’s expression darkened instantly, as though I had stepped on a trigger. His gaze sharpened, cutting.
“Stop pinning everything on me.”
He gave a cold scoff, but didn’t explicitly deny it.
After a brief pause, he went on. “When I got out of the formation, it was gone. The mountain was spotless—too spotless, like someone had wiped it clean. But not long after, imperial troops came searching the mountain. They interfered with something they shouldn’t have, and the formation resurfaced.”
His jaw tightened.
“I want to know how that happened.”
“And I want to know exactly what the court wants from the Blood Lotus Sect.”
He stressed “my Blood Lotus Sect,” but the phrasing carried a refusal to admit he still belonged.
“After that, I disguised myself among the civilians they were capturing to test the formation. I ran into your group trying to force its way in. I didn’t stop you—I simply led you in through the hot spring entrance.”
I raised a brow. “Just ‘led’ us in?”
Feng Yu glanced at me sideways. “What, do you think I was waiting around specifically for you?”
“I originally just intended to see what the formation had become. But somehow… I ended up getting pulled in with you.”
His voice dropped slightly, turning even colder.
“And the moment I stepped inside, I saw those years again. Things I would rather never see.”
His eyes flicked briefly to Lian—resentment tightly contained—before snapping away, as if burned.
“Since I was already in there, I had to make sense of it. What you all did inside—I needed to understand.”
A thin, humorless laugh slipped out.
“And more than that,” his tone sharpened, “I wanted to see how the great sect leader deals with a past he pretends he’s forgotten.”
Lian stiffened.
That phrase—great sect leader—landed like a blade.
He stood perfectly straight, but something in his expression flickered, as if struck from within. Not anger. Not shock. Something closer to pain he refused to acknowledge.
He opened his mouth, then closed it again.
An uncomfortable weight settled in my chest.
Lian clearly wanted to speak—but Feng Yu’s words had shut it down.
Suddenly, Mu Cangli stepped forward.
I assumed he meant to mediate.
He didn’t.
The air around him changed.
“Court affairs,” he said evenly, “have nothing to do with you anymore, since you’re no longer of the Blood Lotus Sect.”
Feng Yu looked at him coldly. “And what exactly do you have to do with it?”
My stomach sank.
This was getting worse.
Mu Cangli’s lips curved slightly, but there was no warmth in it. “Nothing. I’m just passing through. Unlike certain people—who hid themselves away completely, and now suddenly appear as though they’ve been worrying about us all along. It almost looks like you’ve been guarding the sect all these years.”
Feng Yu lifted a hand slightly. “Are you testing me?”
“You’re the one testing us,” Mu Cangli replied without hesitation.
The tension snapped taut.
In the next instant—
Clang!
Steel cut through the wind.
Mu Cangli struck first.
Feng Yu already shifted aside, as if he had anticipated it. Their figures blurred into the shadows between the trees, colliding in rapid exchanges.
“Stop!” Lian barked.
But neither of them slowed.
Mu Cangli’s blade was precise and merciless, every strike aimed at vital points.
Feng Yu moved like a shadow breaking apart and reforming—slipping through openings, closing distance again and again. Every counterattack came from lethal angles.
Bursts of internal force cracked through the branches.
I turned to Lian, tense. “Why are they fighting?”
Before he could answer, Lian stepped in decisively. His sleeve swept outward, forcing himself between them.
“That’s enough.”
His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried absolute authority.
Mu Cangli paused, still sharp-eyed.
Feng Yu clicked his tongue faintly, irritation flashing—but when his gaze met Lian’s, even that edge dulled.
Lian turned to Feng Yu.
“Hua Xiang. Do you know why we came to North Ridge?”
Feng Yu hesitated, shifting slightly. “Medicinal herbs… isn’t it? That’s what most people come here for.”
I jumped in immediately, before the tension could build again.
“Exactly! And you should know—Lian may look fine, but he’s actually been poisoned. Severe poisoning. If we don’t find the Northern Vine Triflower within three days, he’s dead. Look at him—he’s already pale!”
Lian: “……”
I pointed at myself. “And I need Daily Evergreen too, or I’m done for as well. If you keep this up, you’ll be collecting two corpses right here!”
Mu Cangli paused, his eyes flicking toward Lian. His expression tightened—Lian’s complexion really was faintly off.
Feng Yu froze. “Poisoned…? Since when?”
Lian coughed lightly. “It’s a long story.”
Then, calmly, he introduced him.
“This is Mu Cangli. He’s also here for medicinal herbs.”
Mu Cangli gave a casual salute. “A traveling companion. Likewise.”
His gaze toward Feng Yu remained sharp.
Lian continued as if the tension didn’t exist.
“The Prince of the Eight Regions and the imperial court are now insisting the Blood Lotus Sect is tied to imperial secrets and old dynastic matters. I already had Hua arrange for sect members to send the so-called ‘classified objects’ into the palace… but—”
His expression cooled.
“I don’t understand why the prince is here in North Ridge again. Hua Xiang, do you have any thoughts?”
At that, Mu Cangli shifted slightly.
Feng Yu—Hua Xiang—fell silent for a moment.
“I only know they came up the mountain early,” he said at last. “They were searching for something. They ended up triggering the same formation that once trapped me. It was supposed to be dormant—but it has recently reactivated. So they began using civilians to test it.”
My anger flared. “That prince really knows how to cause trouble.”
Feng Yu exhaled. “Now that the formation is broken, they may already have found something. If they’re still looking for something else… we need to stay alert.”
I immediately cut in. “Can we stop talking about them for one second? We should be finding antidotes! Northern Vine Triflower and Daily Evergreen—that’s literally life or death!”
Lian shook his head.
“This matter is likely connected to the Blood Lotus Sect. I cannot ignore it.”
I stared at him.
He met my gaze steadily. “If what they’re doing is true, it will affect the entire sect—and the civilians down the mountain.”
“But you’re poisoned!” I snapped. “You’re mixing priorities—you’re gambling with your life!”
Lian gave a faint smile.
Gentle, but infuriatingly calm.
“The poison is under temporary control. Don’t worry.”
Mu Cangli spoke up at last, voice cool.
“Lian is right.”