Jinshui and his friends each suffered internal injuries, and some external injuries, but today's victory in the fight and the announcement of Yumen Jiao's return gave them great spirits, making no one want to get early rest.
They were all still gathered in the main hall of the Bai Family residence. While Yanzi and her sister treated Zhu Baique and Liuxin's injuries behind the room divider, the others sat on the floor and meditated to regulate the pure energy and deal with internal injuries. Shangguan Ruyin treated the wound on Qin Liangjie's chest.
Gu Chenhui sat waiting at the front of the room, a smile appeared on her face and she folded her hands across her chest, telling her late husband Wu Youwei that the youths who had been chosen by the guardians would restore their sect's glory.
Thirteen years ago, Wu Youwei was seriously injured after his fight with Zhang Zheliang. Chaos broke out at the Yumen headquarters not long after when alliances of three major parties launched a large-scale attack. The traitor Wang Ruanya leaked the map of the Yumen headquarters and rendered little resistance to the members present.
At that time Gu Chenhui realized that the Yumen headquarters would be destroyed. She decided to ask Wu Youwei's permission to pass down the exclusive orders to the eight guardians to gather new descendants so that in time they could re-establish their sect. Wu Youwei gave her the leader's order plate and asked Gu Chenhui to leave Yumen headquarters immediately and find Moying in order to personally pass on the order.
However, Gu Chenhui was worried that the arrival of the alliances would disturb the tranquility of her mother at sunset peak, so she then asked Menggui, the only guardian who was by her side at that time, to go find Moying and the other guardians to deliver the exclusive orders. Gu Chenhui herself then cut off several roads in Baiyu Shan, and managed to intercept the Yongjun Hui members before further damaging the Yumen base.
In order to stop the chaos, she also sacrificed herself and let Huan Jiaozheng take her away as a prisoner. At that time, she didn't get the chance to accompany Wu Youwei in his final moments or arrange for his funeral. In order to prevent the alliances from venting hatred on Wu Youwei's corpse, she gave orders to burn the Yumen base to ashes.
While living life as a prisoner at the Yongjun Hui base, she was told in person by Huan Jiaozheng that the Yumen base had burned to the ground with all those buried inside. Members of Wuyuan Dian did try to look for Wu Youwei's body among the ruins but found none. This pain then made her memory a little disturbed until she was rescued by Ma Yongtao.
When Gu Chenhui finally brought the descendants to Baiyu Shan a few days ago, the blind servant who always accompanied the great master of Baiyu Shan told her that after the people of the three alliances, all left after the destruction of Yumen old base, Yunian who did not know if her daughter was alive or death gave orders to search the ruins. At that time Wu Youwei's body was found locked in his practice room and then buried in the west of feicui feng, in the quietest and hidden place. The five element masters had locked the practice room at the last moment so that Wu Youwei could die peacefully.
Gu Chenhui brought Jinshui and his friends to Wu Youwei's grave after they had all treated their wounds enough. There they all paid their respects and announced that they would rebuild the Yumen headquarters and henceforth begin the long task of restoring the sect's former glory.
Some time ago in Wansui Gu, Qingyi had told Jinshui that Wu Youwei had never wanted his illegitimate son and these words had had such an impact on Jinshui, causing him to almost give up his duties as the primary descendant of Yumen. Xu Qiao then mentioned that Qingyi was just making up stories, and convinced Jinshui to go back with his friends.
"If you want to know the real thing about your birth parents, there is still that jiaozhu furen who can tell you," Jinshui still remembered Xu Qiao's words a few days ago before they were heading to Wuling City.
However, he had just won but was also aware of the state of his internal injuries and his leg which had not fully recovered. He saw how Gu Chenhui wept as she knelt before Wu Youwei's tombstone, mentioning that the descendants had succeeded. For some reason at that time, Jinshui did not want to talk about his parents to anyone, maybe also because he was worried that he would get an answer that was not as expected.
His mind was unsettled as if something would happen. When they left Wu Youwei's tomb and headed back down the Bai Family residendce, Jinshui realized that Xu Qiao had not joined in to pay her respects just now. The last time he saw Xu Qiao was when he left the ruins of the Yumen base.
"Where is Qiao-er?" he imperceptibly asked Huang Lian.
"She's with Shuqin Guniang, I guess," said Huang Lian. "Shijie is not well yet, Shuqin Guniang took her to rest."
"Jinshui, we'll have some wine to celebrate the victory." Li Qian beside Huang Lian said to Jinshui. "Although each of us is still deeply injured and needs to recover, Laofuren said it's okay to drink a little."
"We descendants usually don't like to drink and get drunk," Huang Yu disapproved, his words were aimed at Jinshui who counted the most to drink among others.
"A little drink is fine," Lin Jixuan quickly said. "It's really cold here in Baiyu Shan, wine can warm us up a bit."
That night they celebrated their victory, enjoying dinner and having some wine after the long journey to this place and three days of exertion to face Xie Tianhu. Jinshui only drank a cup, Huang Yu didn't even touch the wine. He also felt anxious, partly because his brother had escaped this afternoon, and had not found yet.
Huang Yu remembered the conditions of the bodies of the people from the Wine Vallet who were found dead three days ago, and then the Yongjun Hui people the next day. Li Zuyang didn't show up until the day of the final fight, and nothing was said about the killing.
"Jinshui, my brother intends to use the accusation that you have committed murders on the people of Wine Valley and members of the Yongjun Hui to provoke the people who came with him to reject Yumen's return, but he didn't get the chance," Huang Yu said to Jinshui. "He got away, I'm afraid he has other plans."
"He still has my xuanlong sword," Jinshui said, this was also his worry. "However, with just a sword, there isn't much that can be done."
"Oh no," Huang Yu suddenly said.
"We left Xie Tianhu just like that, he was still breathing."
Jinshui and Huang Yu quickly got to their feet and dashed down the mountain. The others just watched, already a little drunk. Only Zhu Baique paid attention, but since her leg was injured and could not move freely, she gave Ma Yongtao a signal to follow the two.
Jinshui and Huang Yu found Xie Tianhu's body still where it had been left, lying on the edge of the rubble and covered with a white sheet, while two of Yaoyao's followers were digging a hole nearby to bury him. Huang Yu quickly approached and opened the cloth covering to see the condition of the dead body.
The condition of Xie Tianhu's body was very horrible, his eyes were still open showing the horror that remained until his breath was cut off, his skull was partly crushed, and the bones all over his body had been broken. Huang Yu's stab wound was still there. The clothes and face of the corpse were obviously that Xie Tianhu who was killed here yesterday, couldn't be faked. But yesterday no one crushed his bones so cruelly. Someone else had come to see him before he died.
"My brother came back here when we all left, and found that his master was barely alive," Huang Yu said, trying to guess what was going on. "My brother, although he has followed Xie Tianhu for a long time and seems to worship him as his master, also knows clearly that Xie Tianhu is the killer of our parents."
"He's done his revenge," Jinshui replied.
"Not only that," Huang Yu said, "he once stole my part of wuqing xue manual, and practiced it in a heretic way. It was not enough to make him a very dangerous killer, but enough to give him the ability to drain someone's inner energy."
"He has already tapped into Xie Tianhu's inner energy," Jinshui said, not in the slightest bit expecting that Huang Zhe didn't miss the opportunity.
"Xie Tianhu was already in a dying state when we left him this afternoon, but he was still breathing," Huang Yu said, "my brother came back here and found him, and then used his heretic wuqing xue energy to suck Xie Tianhu's inner strength before killing him by crushing his bones, using the newly extracted inner energy," Huang Yu said.
"It was a bold move," said Jinshui, "he was chased by Liangshan member Liu Mo, and instead of running far, he took risk and coming all the way back here."
"I'm sure he's just reckless," Huang Yu said. "He followed Xie Tianhu all this time, humbling himself to be able to become his disciple, apparently during that time he also harbored immeasurable hatred."
Huang Yu picked up the piece of paper that was at Xie Tianhu's feet, tucked into his shoe. He showed it to Jinshui, again startling the two of them.
"A piece of the yin shou yang zhang manual," Jinshui recognized the paper as the cover of the original yin shou yang zhang manual given to Xie Tianhu three days ago.
"Liao Xian didn't manage to find the manual on Xie Tianhu's body when we overpowered him," Huang Yu said. "He must have given the manual to my brother before the fight with us. Because he has succeeded in practicing that manual perfectly and it is no longer useful to him."
"Your brother carries my xuanlong sword, has Xie Tianhu's inner energy, and has also obtained the original yin shou yang zhang manual," Jinshui said. "Yu, what do you think he will do next?"
"I don't know," Huang Yu replied. "My brother is very ambitious and has the desire to be number one in the martial world just to get back at me. He is also a ruthless man and cares for nothing to achieve his goals."
"It will take time for your brother to be able to control Xie Tianhu's inner energy he took, just like us descendants also had to adjust to it before we can properly use the inner energy bestowed by the guardians." Jinshui said. "I never learned yin shou yang zhang, but mastering a manual of such high knowledge would also definitely take time. Your brother is still young, he won't rush things and will definitely train himself first. For now, I don't think we need to worry about him."
"True, he will need to train himself and adapt to his new abilities," Huang Yu tried to calm down, "but we also have to find him as soon as possible."
"My master already asked Zu Ye Niang and the others to find him," Ma Yongtao said. "Until now they haven't come back."
Jinshui turned to look at him as if reminding him that Ma Yongtao also had good qinggong, an ability that can be used to chase someone.
"Alright, I'll go after them," Ma Yongtao raised his hand and then quickly turned around to look for his three brothers and their quarry.
"I will also have my men search for him," Yaoyao added.
"This young man could be very dangerous, you have to be careful," Jinshui said. "If you can seize the sword in his hand first, that would be better. The xuanlong sword is our Yumen Jiao's heritage. It has long been known as the leader's signature weapon. If he were to use it to kill people, then Yumen's name would be implicated. We cannot allow that to happen."
--
Jinshui did not join his friends who were still celebrating victory. He returned to his room, feeling a tightness in his chest from Xie Tianhu's impact earlier this afternoon, as well as pain in his leg that again made it painful for him to walk.
Someone came to him, put a warm coat on his shoulder, and gripped his arm gently. Jinshui turned his head and found Xu Qiao already by his side, smiling gently at him.
"Jinshui Gege, you have already avenged my family's death," Xu Qiao said. "I thank you."
"Xie Tianhu is dead," said Jinshui, "I have fulfilled my promise to you."
"It's freezing here, Jinshui Gege, how about we go inside first?"
"We arrived here during winter, this kind of weather you may not be used to," Jinshui said, "however we will adjust quickly."
They went inside the room. The maid had lit the candles and the warmer stove. Jinshui asked her out before she carried Xu Qiao onto the bed, checking her condition. Xu Qiao's pulse was still weak and not much changed compared to the previous day, but the three days that Shuqin gave her still had one more day remaining, her condition could be said to be quite good.
"I'm fine," Xu Qiao said in her soft tone. "Jinshui Gege, that fight is over. You've also announced Yumen's return. Today, you don't need to practice, you don't need to see anyone, you can have some rest here."
"I don't want to rest yet," Jinshui said. "Qiao-er, I…." He wanted to tell Xu Qiao about Huang Zhe and everything he saw with Huang Yu earlier. However, he was still worried about Xu Qiao's condition, so those words didn't come out.
Slowly, he just kissed Xu Qiao's lips, and with a flick of his sleeve, he turned off the light on the table.