Chapter 173
Chapter 173
"Me?" Nian Qiuyan stopped writing and looked up at her. "Since I've already gotten the thing back, this matter is over on my end."
"Over?" Yu Sui seemed not to understand.
Nian Qiuyan smiled: "Your Highness may not know, but people like us only follow orders. If there are no instructions from above, naturally we do nothing."
He addressed Yu Sui as Your Highness, as if discussing official business with her.
Yu Sui stared at him intently and said bluntly: "With Senior Brother's temperament, he won't tolerate you actually being part of the Lan Corpse organization. Even if Senior Brother's morally ambiguous nature could endure it, Zhongli Shan and the others wouldn't."
The Zhongli family had led troops in campaigns for years, sometimes encountering sinister methods, such as using Lan Corpse to control their soldiers.
Not to make them addicted in a short time, but to use Lan Corpse to completely destroy their Five Elements Energy. After being poisoned with Lan Corpse, they would see illusions and be lured into killing each other.
Even if they were lucky enough to survive, after their strength burst forth briefly, their inner core would become extremely weak, leading to certain death.
Zhongli Shan definitely couldn't accept that his good brother was a Lan Corpse who manufactured and sold Lan Corpse.
Lan Corpse was inherently a representation of evil. Those with righteous hearts would show no tolerance for it.
Yu Sui believed that Xing Chun, Kong Yiyi, and others were not the type to get along peacefully with Lan Corpse.
If Nian Qiuyan claimed he had compelling reasons and was deceiving and hiding things, that would be uncertain.
If Nian Qiuyan was willing, he knew how to make these people soften their hearts.
Yu Sui asked directly: "Do you want to completely break ties with them?"
Nian Qiuyan said: "If I can't keep hiding it, then that's the only option."
Yu Sui frowned, her expression seeming hesitant and confused: "Will Senior Brother and the others accept it?"
Seeing her eyes full of worry, Nian Qiuyan couldn't help but smile: "What does Little Princess want me to do?"
This "Little Princess" instantly reminded Yu Sui of Zhang Xiangyun.
Nian Qiuyan's current attitude toward Yu Sui was from his Xuan Kui-related identity, not as a Taiyi Academy disciple.
Before Yu Sui could answer, Nian Qiuyan had already spoken: "Continue lying to them? Mei Mei isn't easy to fool. There's already been a first time, he won't believe a second time. Even if I say something, he already doesn't trust me in his heart."
"I also have no need to continue lying. This day was bound to come sooner or later." Nian Qiuyan sighed softly, his dark pupils staring at Yu Sui as he said: "Little Princess, you need to understand one thing: I'm Xuan Kui's person, not their friend."
Yu Sui countered: "Aren't you?"
Nian Qiuyan said flatly: "I have been these past few years."
At least so far, he had never harmed Mei Liangyu and the others. Nian Qiuyan's relationship with Mei Liangyu and the others had started with polite greetings, being grouped together by chance during academy trials, often wandering around the outer city together, causing trouble together, dealing with problems together. Gradually they became more familiar, and later even experienced life and death together, where no one abandoned anyone.
Setting aside his Xuan Kui identity, there was indeed pure friendship between them, spontaneous, ineffable understanding and affection.
This wasn't Nian Qiuyan's first time doing such a thing.
Starting many years ago, he would spend certain periods setting aside his Xuan Kui Lan Corpse identity to make new friends with a completely new, clean identity.
During those times, he was wholehearted, sincere, and passionate.
But it never lasted long. After three to five months, Nian Qiuyan would grow tired of it.
Not only would he grow tired, he would also feel uncomfortable.
After leaving the world of Lan Corpse, Nian Qiuyan always had a sense of unreality, as if everything was ethereal and fragile, difficult to maintain as real.
When one of the friends he had made went mad and killed randomly because he couldn't buy Lan Corpse, Nian Qiuyan finally understood that he could never escape the world of Lan Corpse.
There were also friends who cursed and drew swords against him after learning of his Lan Corpse identity.
Indeed.
How could he deserve to have friends who didn't belong to the world of Lan Corpse?
He wasn't worthy of those people.
Rats in the gutter should consort with sewage and carrion, not dare to covet the clouds and light under the blazing sun.
Nian Qiuyan recognized reality and could decisively withdraw his emotions.
"After so many years of friendship, can you really give it up just like that?" Yu Sui looked at him in disbelief.
Nian Qiuyan said: "I've been with Xuan Kui much longer."
Yu Sui thought to herself, finally you've said what I wanted to hear. She deliberately asked: "Could it be that your feelings for Senior Brother and the others these past few years can't compare to your feelings for Zhang Xiangyun?"
Nian Qiuyan smiled: "I've indeed known Zhang Xiangyun longer."
Yu Sui's eyes widened slightly: "You've known each other since childhood?"
Nian Qiuyan nodded: "You could say that."
Zhang Xiangyun, Luo Fu, and Nian Qiuyan, and perhaps Qing Kui should be added to that list.
Ever since learning that Nian Qiuyan knew Cao Yan, Yu Sui had been thinking about this question and had some speculation in her heart. Now she finally got an answer from Nian Qiuyan.
Yu Sui also understood Nian Qiuyan's meaning.
If Mei Liangyu and the others didn't know his Lan Corpse identity, then they were friends.
When they learned what Nian Qiuyan was doing, they would no longer be friends.
They might even become enemies.
When Yu Sui showed a troubled expression, Nian Qiuyan said: "You seem to care a lot about Mei Mei's thoughts."
Yu Sui said: "He's my Senior Brother, of course I care."
"Having such thoughts isn't good for you." Nian Qiuyan put down the ink brush in his hand. "You should be concerned about how to deal with things after Mei Mei learns about the Lan Corpse matter. If you let Mei Mei ruin Xuan Kui's business in Taiyi Academy, how will you explain to the Prince later?"
Yu Sui bit her lip and dropped her head dejectedly: "Father wouldn't kill me in a fit of anger."
"He might not kill you, but he'll definitely kill Mei Mei, and you won't be able to hold onto your position as heir." Nian Qiuyan stared at Yu Sui. "Without the heir position, you'd have no value in staying alive."
"Do you understand my father that well?" Yu Sui looked up at him.
Nian Qiuyan pointed at the paper: "The hour of zi has passed. Today's first divination I'll give to you, to divine whether you and Mei Mei will have a future together, how about it?"
He smiled slightly, gentle as a spring breeze, making it impossible to guess his thoughts and intentions.
The night wind blew past, flower and tree shadows moved outside, bringing faint fragrance. Yu Sui raised her hand to press down the hair strands blown up by the wind: "The future between me and Senior Brother?"
"Didn't you say Mei Mei likes you very much?" Nian Qiuyan squinted slightly. "But in matters like this, one person's effort alone is useless. If two people are destined to have no future, it's better to break it off early to avoid trouble."
Yu Sui looked down at the divination array on the paper for a while, also seeing the Divine Wood Signs that Nian Qiuyan had placed on the table. She nodded thoughtfully: "I see."
Nian Qiuyan thought she had agreed to the divination, but saw Yu Sui also smile slightly at him: "Although Senior Brother Nian, your divination skills are excellent, I don't believe in this."
This familiar-sounding answer.
Nian Qiuyan couldn't help but think of Mei Liangyu.
Yu Sui extended her hand toward Nian Qiuyan inside the window. On the back of her pale jade hand was a copper coin. She said: "However, Senior Brother Nian is a Technical Arts School disciple, so you should believe in divination. I've also just learned a bit of divination recently, why don't I divine for Senior Brother Nian."
Nian Qiuyan: "......"
Was this pair of Senior Brother and Junior Sister's recent hobby to divine for Technical Arts School members?
He couldn't help but laugh: "What do you want to divine for me?"
Yu Sui raised her head slightly, smiling sweetly: "Divine life and death."
The smile on Nian Qiuyan's face diminished slightly as he went along with her words: "How do you divine it?"
"Very simple." Yu Sui gently raised her hand, the copper coin flew into the air and flipped between her fingers. She said very seriously: "Divine whether you'll die at the hands of Xuan Kui's people, or at the hands of people outside Xuan Kui."
As soon as she finished speaking, the copper coin that had flipped from her index finger to her little finger was propelled into the air again, flipping from top to bottom as it fell. Nian Qiuyan's gaze was unconsciously drawn to it, and in the square hole of the flipping copper coin, he saw Yu Sui standing outside the window.
In the rapidly flipping copper coin's hole, Nian Qiuyan glimpsed Yu Sui looking at him, her eyes like black lacquer, her gaze calm, which gave Nian Qiuyan a panicked feeling of being seen through. His heart rate accelerated while urgent fire rushed to his head, breaking out in cold sweat.
Just for an instant.
Nian Qiuyan reached out to intercept the copper coin before it could fall, grasping it in his own hand.
Yu Sui's divination array had just begun when it was snuffed out.
Nian Qiuyan restrained his gentleness and quietly looked at Yu Sui, saying in a low voice: "The day Mei Mei killed Wei Kun in the outer city, you were there too, weren't you."
"Really?" Yu Sui frowned in distress. "I can't quite remember."
But Nian Qiuyan continued staring at her: "You weren't just there, you also intervened in the battle between them."
After hearing this, Yu Sui just blinked and tilted her head slightly as if to ask, so what?
She knew this was all just Nian Qiuyan's speculation based on his divination for Mei Liangyu back then, with no actual evidence, so she wasn't panicked at all.
Nian Qiuyan examined the seemingly weak and harmless young lady before him, hearing her laugh: "At that time I had just started cultivating. Intervening in the battle between Senior Brother and Wei Kun, is that something I could do?"
"If using unknown methods, naturally it could be done." Nian Qiuyan said.
Yu Sui put on an eager-to-learn expression: "Unknown methods, such as?"
Nian Qiuyan said calmly: "Such as Divine Mechanism Arts."
Yu Sui lowered her eyes and smiled, then looked up at Nian Qiuyan again, still smiling sweetly, her tone gentle: "There's one point I agree with you on. When others don't know certain secrets, there can still be peace, but once they're discovered, it becomes very difficult to coexist peacefully."
"Oh?" Nian Qiuyan smiled. "Did I hit the mark?"
Nian Qiuyan's hand at his side gently rubbed the copper coin pinched between his fingertips, staring at Yu Sui who showed no flaws, thinking that the people at the royal manor had really misjudged.
Not only the people of Qingyang Royal Manor, but also the people of Taiyi Academy.
Eighteen years as an ordinary practitioner, a royal princess with mediocre talent, simple and harmless.
What a joke.
Yu Sui shook her head, her hand that had previously thrown the copper coin resting on the windowsill, tapping lightly on the wooden windowsill with her fingers, making low thumping sounds.
She said softly, with a hint of playfulness in her words: "At the bottom of the Spirit Bird ship, Zhang Xiangyun and Luo Fu almost died. If those water arrows had been aimed at Senior Brother Nian, then you would have been the one to die."
Nian Qiuyan's eyelid twitched upon hearing this, and his motion of rubbing the copper coin also froze.
Could it be... was it you?
Under his slightly strange and wary gaze, Yu Sui just heavily knocked once on the windowsill. The Five Elements Light Core attached to Nian Qiuyan's back shattered, and Masterless Energy transformed into School of Names: Water Arrow for a surprise attack, pressing against his back chest. Nian Qiuyan's whole body stiffened, and his protective energy ignited the moment the water arrow materialized.
What kind of Nine Schools Arts was this?
No, this was School of Names Word Command, but how could she know it?
At such close distance, why hadn't he detected any movement of Five Elements Energy?
Cold sweat broke out on Nian Qiuyan's back. His pupils stared unblinkingly at Yu Sui with somewhat grave intensity.
If Yu Sui truly had killing intent and this water arrow hadn't stopped, even if he didn't die just now, he would have been severely injured.
Yu Sui met Nian Qiuyan's grave gaze, extended her hand toward him, indicating he should return the copper coin he had snatched, squinting with a smile: "Senior Brother Nian, let's coexist peacefully."
The water arrow had already pierced through his clothing, pressing against his skin, ice-cold to the bone. Hearing Yu Sui's words again, Nian Qiuyan's temple twitched severely. He took a deep breath, was about to reach out to return the copper coin to her, when he discovered someone else had climbed over the wall and jumped in.
Both looked toward the person who had climbed over the wall. Mei Liangyu brushed off the thin bamboo leaves that had stuck to his clothes. As soon as he looked up, he saw Yu Sui leaning against Nian Qiuyan's window, couldn't help but squint slightly, saying with ambiguous meaning: "I didn't expect I'd have to come here to find you."
"Senior Brother." Yu Sui turned around and stood properly. "I came to Senior Brother Nian's to look for you."
Seeing her change expression instantly, the water arrow pressing against his back also disappeared immediately. Nian Qiuyan's feelings were complex, but he breathed a sigh of relief without showing it, his tongue tip lightly licking his sharp teeth. He hadn't expected that someday he would actually stumble at Nangong Sui's hands.
Nian Qiuyan rarely showed some irritation as he spoke: "Hurry up and take your Junior Sister back. You Senior Brother and Junior Sister can divine for each other, no need to keep thinking about divining for me. Don't show off your half-baked divination skills and try to be clever around me."
He flung the copper coin toward Mei Liangyu while simultaneously closing the door and windows.
Mei Liangyu steadily caught the copper coin with his hand, raised an eyebrow at Yu Sui, silently asking what had happened.