Chapter 317 - 164: Li Tianyu
This man had perfected the art of being utterly bewildered.
Jiang Ran couldn’t help but glance at Tang Huayi.
"What’s wrong with him?"
His unspoken question was, ’What did you do to him?’
Tang Huayi pondered for a moment, then suddenly smiled and looked at the black-clad archer.
"Digua, don’t you remember me?"
"..."
The black-clad archer was baffled.
Jiang Ran and everyone else were just as baffled.
"Digua?"
The black-clad archer pointed at himself in a daze. "My name?"
"Yes."
Tang Huayi nodded emphatically.
"You’re Digua, my younger brother."
"The two of us are brothers. We were orphaned at a young age and wandered the streets for years."
"You were always frail, so whenever I managed to beg for food, I always let you eat first."
"But one time, things were tough. I begged for three straight days and couldn’t get a single scrap."
"That’s when I got desperate and stole half a roast chicken from a shop, hiding it in my shirt to bring back to you."
"And you ate... ah, you ate with such relish."
Everyone stared at Tang Huayi in disbelief.
Listening to her spin this tale so logically and with such a straight face, anyone who didn’t know better would have thought the black-clad archer was really her brother.
Spitting out lies like that so effortlessly was a skill few possessed.
They all wondered how she would possibly continue the story.
Then they heard Tang Huayi continue:
"Unfortunately, I was still young and foolish back then. They caught up to me."
"And they beat me unconscious."
"When I came to, I found myself in a guest inn."
"Sitting before me was a formidable-looking middle-aged man."
"That man is my honored master now."
"After they knocked me out, they were going to take us both and sell us to human traffickers."
"My master didn’t arrive quite in time. He saved me, but you, my brother... they had already taken you away."
"All these years, whenever I think of it, I’m filled with regret..."
As she spoke, Tang Huayi’s eyes turned red.
The black-clad archer listened, stunned. For some reason, he found every single word she said utterly convincing.
He spoke softly.
"Brother, don’t be sad. Nine times out of ten, life doesn’t go as planned."
"Besides, we were young and weak back then, powerless to control our own destinies... We could only drift with the tide."
Tang Huayi let out a soft breath. She adopted Li Tianxin’s signature blend of arrogance and faint contempt as she said softly:
"You’re right... That’s why I’ve spent all these years following my master, training relentlessly."
"Finally, I’ve achieved some level of mastery."
"So I came down from the mountain to find you. First, I found the men who beat me all those years ago."
"From them, I found clues about your abduction."
"After a long and arduous search, I finally learned the truth... The traffickers sold you to an assassin organization called... the Death Building."
She brought it all together!
Everyone nodded. She’d gone in a huge circle, but she’d finally brought it all home!
Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!
Even the Great Sir was dumbstruck. ’I have to get some pointers from this Li Tianxin,’ he thought. ’With his help, my Golden Cicada Heroic Legend and Golden Cicada Shocking God Record would surely be remembered for a thousand years.’
Upon hearing this, the black-clad archer’s face twisted in pain.
In a daze, it seemed as if flashes of images and memories appeared before his eyes.
Tang Huayi watched him coolly. Only after he had calmed down did she ask:
"Digua, what is it?"
"I... I think I remember something. I... I think I really was in the Death Building."
"Memories of the Death Building... they’re coming back to me."
"They... they locked a group of us children in a large room and forced us to kill one another..."
"The only way to survive was to kill the others."
At this, the black-clad archer couldn’t stop himself from clutching his head and collapsing to his knees in agony.
Tang Huayi slowly walked to the black-clad archer’s side. Her hand rested on the hilt of her blade as she spoke in a gentle voice.
"Digua, don’t think about it anymore. Let those painful memories go."
"After everything I went through, I’ve finally found you..."
"But our reunion has angered the deadly assassins of the Death Building."
"They wounded you gravely. If not for Brother Jiang’s help, the two of us would likely be journeying to the underworld together today."
"You’re lucky to have woken up at all, so don’t dwell on the past."
Hearing this, the black-clad archer looked down at his own hands, the lingering agony still visible in his eyes.
"You’re right, Brother. Those things... it’s better to forget them."
"Does that mean... you’ve already rescued me from the Death Building?"
"That’s right."
Tang Huayi raised an eyebrow slightly, relaxing her grip on her blade’s hilt. She smiled.
"You’re safe here, rest assured. With Brother Jiang around, even if the Death Building returns in force to either drag you back or silence you for good, they won’t succeed."
Jiang Ran couldn’t help but laugh when he heard this.
’This little vixen from the Demon Sect really is something else.’
’Seeing that the black-clad archer had forgotten his past, she seized the opportunity to paint a false history for him.’
’To turn him to our side.’
’The man’s archery is extraordinary; he would certainly be useful.’
’The brilliance of Tang Huayi’s ploy was that she didn’t hide the existence of the Death Building. Instead, she cleverly twisted the archer’s relationship with it. Now, even if he encounters people from the Death Building, he’ll only assume they’re there to capture him or kill him to tie up loose ends.’
’He’d never suspect that the people from the Death Building were actually after him, Jiang Ran.’
At this point, Tang Huayi proceeded to introduce the others present to the black-clad archer.