CH 78

Chapter 78 - Just This Once, This Ends Here

Su Yi glanced at Mortals Edge and said flatly, “I disdained getting even with the Wen Family right from the start, yet you stubbornly refuse to back down. Even now, you dare ask such questions…..”

He looked up, a faint hint of a smile on his lips. “In that case, I don’t mind killing my fill of everyone in the room.”

The moment he said this, a terrifyingly sharp energy spread out around him. The air seemed to freeze. Bone-chillingly cold murderous intent swept across the hall.

Everyone quivered, visibly shaken.

What terrifying murderous intent! Even Wen Changjing felt suffocated, and his heart surged with inexplicable terror. For a moment, he was so shaken, he dared not say a single word.

Wen Changqing, who lay sprawled out before Su Yi, was the most affected. He felt as if tens of thousands of swords were pointed right at him, and so long as Su Yi willed it, he’d perish on the spot!

“Enough!” Suddenly, a harsh shout rang out from beyond the great hall.

Su Yi turned to look, then saw the white-haired Wen Family matriarch standing there, her face ashen, clouded over and furious.

And in her hand, she clenched a jade talisman.

This talisman was called Star Cleaver, and it was a gift from Su Hongli of the Jade Capital’s Su Family. It could kill Martial Dao Grandmasters in a single hit!

Su Yi naturally recognized it.

The Wen Family matriarch had threatened him with it during their meeting in the Floral Tea House.

“Old woman, didn’t you warn them not to provoke me after your birthday feast?” asked Su Yi calmly.

The Wen Family matriarch looked at the panicked, helpless Wen Family members, then at the impaled Wen Changqing sprawled out on the floor. Uncontrollable grief and indignation rose on her face.

She took a deep breath, then fixed her gaze back on Su Yi. “Might you give this old lady face and let this matter end here?”

Su Yi thought about it and said, “Just this once.”

Although he’d endured a lot of jeers and mockery in the year following his marriage into the Wen Family, no one had ever really hurt or physically bullied him. This certainly wasn’t because everyone in the family was kind-hearted. It was because those were the matriarch’s orders.

Today, the elderly matriarch, someone long accustomed to power, had lowered her head. He’d let this go on her account; he at least owed her that much.

When they heard Su Yi’s response, the gathered Wen Family higher-ups inwardly heaved sighs of relief; they’d sensed that they’d just narrowly avoided calamity.

The matriarch’s dark expression warmed somewhat. “I’ll remember this favor.”

Su Yi sheathed his blade, then turned and walked outside. He couldn’t be bothered to spare the others so much as a second glance.

But as he passed the matriarch, he paused and whispered, “I’ll be leaving Guangling City shortly. Going forward, I won’t interfere in the Wen Family’s affairs any further. Of course, if you’re displeased, you’re welcome to write a letter to the Jade Capital and request that the Su Family deal with me.” With that, he turned and left.

His silhouette slowly faded into the distance. No one dared attempt to stop him.

The Wen Family matriarch’s expression shifted back and forth. Finally, she sighed and put away the jade talisman she had clenched tightly in her fist.

Then she turned and entered the great hall.

The floor was covered in rubble, and the pools of blood were jarring and unmistakable. She then examined everyone’s uneasy, fearful expressions. An inexplicable emotion coursed through her.

As big as the Wen Family was, they didn’t have a single man capable of turning the tides today!

“The injured should leave for treatment right away. Everyone else, stay behind.” The matriarch repressed her grief and fury, then calmly gave her orders.

Before long, Wen Changqing and the injured guards were carried off for treatment.

Meanwhile, Wen Changjing told the matriarch everything that had happened, from beginning to end. He dared not hold back the slightest detail.

When she heard the full story, the matriarch was so angry that she quivered with rage. She stormed forward and slapped Wen Changjing right across the face, hard.

Whap!

This resounding slap left Wen Changjing a bit bewildered.

The others in the hall were stunned senseless. What’s up with the old lady?

The matriarch was practically burning up with rage. She shouted, “When Su Yi married into the Wen Family, did I not tell you to leave him to his own devices? That no one was to get involved in his affairs, regardless of his life or death?”

Wen Changjing said nothing; he naturally remembered her saying just that.

“If he were an ordinary live-in son-in-law, you could kill him as you pleased. But you’re the family head. Don’t tell me you still haven’t realized even after all this time that Su Yi is no ordinary person?” She looked at Wen Changjing in disappointment, then furiously rebuked him. “Tell me, ‘esteemed head of the Wen Family’: is the champion of the Dragon’s Gate Banquet, a youth both Fu Shan and Huang Yunchong think highly of, only worthy of becoming your son’s underling?”

Wen Changjing’s expression was unsightly. Wen Jueyuan stood nearby, and he felt utterly ill at ease; he even felt the urge to crawl into a hole and hide.

“Matriarch, I just thought that giving Su Yi too much power would invite disaster, but that you wouldn’t agree to simply kick him out. That’s why I proposed those conditions,” said Wen Changjing solemnly, attempting to explain himself. “Furthermore, I already made it clear that if he needed better conditions, he could go ahead and ask for them. I figured he was just a seventeen-year-old, and our live-in son-in-law at that, so I thought my offer was generous enough to get him to work for us. Who would have thought that he’d….”

His voice trailed off, and regret coursed through his heart. If he’d known just how powerful Su Yi’s Martial Dao was, how could he possibly have been so stupid?

The matriarch let out a long sigh. “I’m to blame as well. I’ve been under orders this entire time, so I couldn’t tell you the truth about Su Yi’s origins. Otherwise, this never would have happened….”

Her tone revealed both bitterness and self-recrimination.

“Matriarch, are you saying there’s something unusual about Su Yi’s background?” Wen Jueyuan couldn’t help but ask.

The others all turned to look at her. The matriarch then said with an air of self-mockery, “Do you really think that I’d simply hardened my heart to force Lingzhao to marry the cast-off disciple of Blueriver Sword Manor just because? I had no choice either….”

Everyone was stunned. So, the matriarch had no choice but to accept this arrangement either. There really was something fishy about this wedding arrangement!

Wen Changjing suddenly recalled something; it was as if he’d been struck by lightning. He couldn’t help but ask, “Matriarch, don’t tell Su Yi has something to do with the Jade Capital’s Su….”

“Silence!” The matriarch immediately cut him off, but his words were still enough to get the others pondering. Wen Jueyuan aside, all of their expressions filled with surprise.

All of them were well aware that years ago, when the matriarch was still young, she worked in the Jade Capital as the Su Family Head’s personal servant!

The Su Family! That was one of the top clans in the Jade Capital!

By comparison, the Wen Family was like an ant; they could only gaze upon the Su Family from afar!

But Su Yi was surnamed “Su” too….

Who wouldn’t have been shocked after putting the pieces together?

When the Wen Family matriarch saw this, she sighed inwardly, but on the outside, she was unusually solemn and grave. “Not one word of this is to leave the hall. Otherwise, it’ll bring annihilation upon the entire Wen Family. That’s no empty threat, either!”

Everyone’s hearts shook, and chills coursed down their spines.

With the power available to the Jade Capital’s Su Family, they wouldn’t even need to take action themselves. All they had to do was say the word, and countless people would charge forth to annihilate the Wen Family on their behalf!

“If I’d known there was something fishy about Su Yi’s background, I… I would never have….” It was as if Wen Changjing had lost his soul; he completely lost control of his emotions.

“No, you’re mistaken.” The matriarch’s expression turned indifferent. “Su Yi is Su Yi. He doesn’t represent anybody except himself. He’s just the unworthy child of a concubine. The more he jumps around, the closer he is to death."

The crowd’s minds went blank. Su Yi? An unworthy descendent?

That was certainly food for thought.

“Today’s incident ends here. Su Yi won’t remain in Guangling City any longer. That’s excellent news for the Wen Family.”

The matriarch rose and exited the hall. “Remember what I said today. You are not to get involved with that boy in any way. He’s a walking disaster, both to himself and to others!’

Wen Changqing suddenly recalled something, and he hurriedly asked, “Matriarch, what about Lingzhao? That girl wants nothing more than to annul this marriage. If she offends Su Yi, won’t that lead to trouble?”

The matriarch instantly froze midstep, her expression alternating back and forth.

Wen Lingzhao was a disciple of Heaven’s Origin Academy, the live-in disciple of the Martial Dao Grandmaster, Zhu Guqing. She represented the Wen Family’s hope for a brighter future.

She couldn’t let a good seedling like Lingzhao fall to ruin.

“I’ll personally write Lingzhao a letter and tell her what to do,” said the matriarch. With that, she turned to leave.

They sealed all word of what had happened in the clan hall today. No one was to spread news of this incident.

Fortunately, this incident had occurred within the clan hall, and there’d been no random bystanders present.

Otherwise, they could never have kept this under wraps.

But even so, Wen Changjing and the other higher-ups knew that they could hide this for a while, but not for a lifetime.

Still, this was all they could do now.

……

Late at night.

The Apricot Cottage.

Su Yi stood, hands behind his back, before the courtyard’s old locust tree. He narrowed his eyes and peered through the branches and up at the sky, perfectly relaxed.

“Guangling City is barely the size of my palm. There’s nothing here worth seeing.” After a while, Su Yi looked away, went to his room, and started packing his things.

He’d originally planned to wait for Wen Lingxue’s return and spend some time with her before he left.

But she’d stayed behind, and was currently cultivating at Blueriver Sword Manor. There was nothing else keeping Su Yi here, so he decided to leave for the Cloudriver Prefectural Capital at dawn!

The skies gradually darkened.

Once Su Yi had everything in order, he lazed in the courtyard’s bamboo chair and admired the light of dusk over the horizon.

Inwardly, he was pondering various matters. Most were related to the next steps of his cultivation, but some were memories of his time in the prefectural capital.

He’d spent three years cultivating in Blueriver Sword Manor, and he’d been to the prefectural capital many times.

It was just that most of his memories of those three years were tinged with grey; there was grief, regret, depression…

When he first entered Blueriver Sword Manor, he was just thirteen, and he was all on his own.

Due to his aloof nature and inability to get along with others, because he didn’t know how to ingratiate himself to his elders, and because of his stubborn refusal to lower his head to wealthy and influential sectmates, he’d suffered an unknowable amount of bullying, attacks, insults, and rejection…

But none of this knocked him down. On the contrary, it only fanned the flames of his hatred, motivating him to cultivate harder and pursue strength with everything he had.

During those three years, he’d advanced step by step, becoming the Sword Chief of the outer sect!

But then….

Before he could avenge his three years of accumulated hatred, an accident robbed him of his cultivation.

As a result, he’d yet to resolve the resentment he’d accumulated during those three years or the grudges and hatred he’d buried deep within his heart. They haunted him even now.

My past self could only suffer in silence. Although he was pitiable, he had an iron will. He never once lowered his head to fate… Su Yi leaned into his bamboo chair and let out a breath of turbid air. Those distant, profound eyes gradually lit up with sharpness and fire.

This time, when I return to the prefectural capital, I’ll be sure to resolve everything that happened then, one by one. I’ll cleanse my heart of all its grievances!