Chapter 88
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Before Eldest senior brother went out to find Pei Yunshu, he had prepared for the worst.
He had told Yuncheng before that perhaps Little junior brother didn’t want to come back, or maybe he had already joined another sect.
Yuncheng mentioned the worst possibility, that Pei Yunshu might despise them.
Because they knew that Pei Yunshu had lost his emotions when the emotion string was severed, they never thought he would have someone he loved.
Neither of them had expected that Pei Yunshu already had a child.
Yuncheng threw the fox aside and walked expressionlessly to the bed, looking at the baby sleeping soundly on it.
The baby was fair and tender, sucking on his fingers sweetly, cheeks blushing as he slept.
Yuncheng’s voice, like an evil spirit emerging from the abyss, carried a bone-chilling malice that seeped through the cracks, making one’s scalp numb. “Who is his mother?”
“…” Hua Yue bit his tongue, the taste of blood in his mouth, “Dead, dead.”
“Dead?” Yuncheng chuckled. He turned to look at Hua Yue, the coldness in his black eyes piercing. “Do you think I would believe that?”
Hua Yue trembled with fear.
Yuncheng stared at him with eyes that seemed to look at a dead man for a while. Hua Yue’s hair stood on end, feeling as if he were being stared down by a wild beast, about to lose his life to him.
In the end, Yuncheng averted his gaze.
He bent down and gently picked up the baby from the bed. Eldest senior brother carried Hua Yue, and the two of them left the room, heading towards the mansion of the General.
After doing something wrong once, Yuncheng wouldn’t do it a second time.
He won’t kill them and will carefully utilize them.
***
Young Master Qingfeng’s goal was not the General’s mansion but the Flower Brocade Sect.
It took him three days to arrive at the Flower Brocade Sect. Upon entering the sect, he smelled a strong scent of blood.
Disciples who came out of the punishment hall and saw him were surprised. “Hall Master.”
Young Master Qingfeng looked at the punishment hall behind him. “Who is undergoing punishment?”
“The hall master in charge of the southern secret realm,” the disciple said with some disgust. “He left the secret realm without orders and tried to change his name to leave the sect. The Sect Master has let the poison in his body take effect and ordered the punishment hall to administer two hundred and one kinds of torture.”
Young Master Qingfeng’s eyelids twitched. “I understand. Where is the Sect Master now?”
“In the punishment hall, he left with Hall Master Zou just now.”
Young Master Qingfeng nodded and let the disciple step back, rushing to his residence.
He hadn’t been back for a long time, and there was a thin layer of dust in the room. Young Master Qingfeng didn’t care about it. He sat at the table, clenching his fists, and veins protruding on his back.
After a while, the door was pushed open, and a tall figure walked in, smiling ambiguously. “Ling Hall Master, you finally decided to come back?”
“Zouyu,” Young Master Qingfeng said, “you surprisingly didn’t die.”
Zouyu sneered, arms crossed over the door frame. “Don’t talk about me first. What did the Ling Hall Master do with these two extra months?”
His voice, mixed with the harsh sound of his teeth, seemed to suppress the resentment in his heart with all his strength, only allowing the fierceness to grind in his teeth.
Young Master Qingfeng casually said, “I was caught by Pei Yunshu, so I naturally spent these two months with him.”
When the three words “Pei Yunshu” were uttered, Zouyu suddenly straightened his body. The profound depth of his eyes, which had sunk to the bottom, suddenly surged up. Various emotions mixed together, and in the end, he laughed softly, his voice containing a desire-filled hoarseness. “Where is he? Did you bring him back?”
Young Master Qingfeng noticed his change and looked at him sharply. “Is the effect of the red powder on you still not over?”
“That thing can only last half a month,” Zouyu walked in, his eyes squinted. He looked at Young Master Qingfeng as if he was staring into a furnace, “You dared to come back. It must be that you’ve achieved success by bringing him back, right, Ling Hall Master?”
In the South Wind Pavilion, Zouyu almost lost half of his life to Zhuyou, and if his subordinates hadn’t arrived in time, Zouyu would have died on the way.
After waking up, what he felt was not pain or weakness but a crazy love for Pei Yunshu.
Every time he thought of the whip that Pei Yunshu used on him, he would have a reaction.
Even now, after the effect of the red powder had passed, he couldn’t help but be restless when he thought of Pei Yunshu.
Young Master Qingfeng frowned, “If the effect of the powder has disappeared, you better sober up.”
“I am very sober,” Zouyu’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he seemed to think of something. Suddenly, he burst into laughter, “That little fierce temper, Ling Hall Master, I really envy you. If it were me who was taken away for two months, wouldn’t it be great?”
Young Master Qingfeng’s brows furrowed deeper. When Zouyu finished his sentence, his brows relaxed, but his face turned ice-cold.
“Zouyu, some words can be spoken, and some are better thought through before saying.”
Zouyu sneered, “Ling Hall Master, are you going to tell me that all beautiful people are troublemakers?”
“Well,” he looked at Young Master Qingfeng playfully, “I forgot, you usually can’t stand those beauties who bring disaster… You don’t like beautiful people who might cause trouble, and you probably wouldn’t like Pei Yunshu, right?”
He casually probed, “After two months, does the Ling Hall Master still feel the same way?”
Young Master Qingfeng felt a sudden pain in his heart. He remembered Pei Yunshu’s expression at the door that day, half of his face turned away, expressionless.
Young Master Qingfeng didn’t know how he blurted it out, “Pei Yunshu doesn’t like me.”
Zouyu’s voice turned cold, “Does the Ling Hall Master like my beauty?”
Young Master Qingfeng said, “Your beauty? Zouyu, it seems you haven’t been whipped enough, or been beaten by someone close to Pei Yunshu.”
Zouyu didn’t say anything, just stared deeply at Young Master Qingfeng for a while. After a moment, he finally said, “Let’s go, Ling Hall Master, the Sect Master is calling for you.”
***
In the dim hall, silence prevailed.
Young Master Qingfeng knelt on one knee, “I am incompetent, please punish me, Sect Master.”
The Sect Master sitting high above said, “Let’s not talk about punishment yet. What did you bring back?”
Young Master Qingfeng pursed his lips and took out a scroll from his sleeve.
As soon as the scroll was brought out, the Sect Master smiled, “Yuan Er just told me that the Bestowal Divine Painting was intercepted on the way. It turns out it ended up in your hands after all these twists and turns.”
He walked down from the high seat and approached Young Master Qingfeng, “Sucked in?”
Young Master Qingfeng’s fingers holding the scroll turned white. There was no candlelight in the hall, but his hand had veins mingling with blood, restraining it to the point where it almost protruded.
“Yes.”
The Sect Master took the scroll from his hand, untied the golden thread, and unfolded it. The paintings on it were revealed.
Zouyu took a step forward, showing some interest, but when he saw what was painted, his eyes were filled with shock.
“Is this Pei Yunshu?” The Sect Master laughed, “I heard that senior originally intended to use the Emperor’s body as a way out, but he destroyed that route for senior.”
The Sect Master beckoned to the side, and someone brought a table made of rosewood in front of him. The Sect Master placed the scroll on the table, and with his hands free, he looked down at the painting.
Zouyu also couldn’t help but walk a few steps forward. The Sect Master glanced at him, “Zouyu, how do you rate Pei Yunshu’s appearance?”
Zouyu looked at the person in the painting, his burning gaze traveling from Pei Yunshu’s hair to his fingertips. Finally, he looked at Pei Yunshu’s eyes and spoke as if holding back, “It makes me want to hide him in my sleeve, not showing him to anyone.”
The Sect Master said, “Then he must be quite handsome.”
“Sect Master,” Zouyu extended his hand, gently placing it at the corner of the person’s eyes in the painting, “take a closer look.”
The Sect Master really leaned in. Even if he couldn’t discern the quality of beauty, he was momentarily surprised, “Blushing.”
“Blushing at the corner of the eyes,” Zouyu smiled while looking at Pei Yunshu’s eye corners, “the color is very light. If you don’t pay attention, you can’t see it.”
Speaking, his hand slid from the eye corner to the lips. The color on these lips was particularly vivid and bright, as if they had just eaten red sugar, giving off a sweet and faint red.
Just right, the Sect Master said, “This color looks good. The painter is quite skilled.”
Zouyu raised an eyebrow, “Isn’t the Bestowal Divine Painting supposed to absorb people? Pei Yunshu was absorbed, and this color should naturally be the color of his lips.”
He gently poked the lips of the person in the painting, as if he really touched soft lips.
The Sect Master had no feelings for beauty, which was why Young Master Qingfeng dared to present the Bestowal Divine Painting to him. The Sect Master only looked at these two traces of red, showing little interest. He was about to stand up, but suddenly smelled a hint of peach blossom fragrance.
The Sect Master lowered his body again, his nose twitching slightly, following the peach blossom fragrance to Pei Yunshu’s lips.
At this moment, he was only a finger’s distance from these lips.
The Sect Master moved his eyes away from the fragrance of peach blossoms, and he met the eyes of the person in the painting.
These eyes were extremely bright and clear, lively and smiling, so realistic that it no longer seemed like a painting.
The Sect Master stared for a while before standing up straight. Zouyu, on the side, said, “Sect Master, what do you plan to do with the person in this painting?”
The Sect Master asked back: “Do you want him?”
Young Master Qingfeng bit his teeth.
His leg kneeling on the ground ached, and his hands clenched in his sleeves, almost able to hear the sound between his teeth.
The sound of wanting to eat human flesh.
But on his face, he had to maintain an expressionless appearance.
Upon hearing the sect master’s words, Zouyu didn’t hesitate at all and immediately responded, “I want him.”
The sect master raised an eyebrow, giving Zouyu an extra look. He had never seen Zouyu so eager before. Instead of immediately agreeing, the sect master pointed to the white fox at Pei Yunshu’s fingertips in the painting and asked, “Who is this fox?”
Young Master Qingfeng lowered his head and said, “That is Pei Yunshu’s little pet.”
The sect master nodded and instructed the people around him, “Inform Yuan Er that the Bestowal Divine Painting is now in my hands.”
After the others withdrew, Young Master Qingfeng couldn’t help but lift his head.
When the Sect Master noticed this, he asked, “What do you want to know?”
Young Master Qingfeng’s Adam’s apple rolled, saying, “Sect Master, what did Yuan Er go to do?”
“Yuan Er went to play tricks with a mortal,” the Sect Master said, “she always likes handsome men. This time, it seems she has set her eyes on a mortal general?”
He turned to ask the people around him.
The person hidden in the shadows nodded, “This painting was drawn by that mortal general.”
The Sect Master nodded and then looked at Young Master Qingfeng, “You have also contributed, Qingfeng. Speak up, what do you want.”
Young Master Qingfeng’s name was Ling Qingfeng, and this title was just used on that day when strolling the streets. It was not meant to deceive Pei Yunshu and the others.
Young Master Qingfeng wanted to say “dare not,” but his lips moved several times, and he couldn’t say a word.
The Sect Master didn’t force him, just looked at the painting on the table and casually asked, “You’ve been with this person for more than two months, you shouldn’t have thoughts of betraying the sect, right?”
Young Master Qingfeng’s heart tightened, and he replied without hesitation, “Subordinate dare not.”
“Sect Master, you worry too much,” Zouyu sneered, “Ling Hall Master personally sent this painting. Pei Yunshu and the others will only hate him to death.”
The Sect Master chuckled twice, “Rise.”
Young Master Qingfeng stood up expressionlessly.
The Sect Master rolled up the painting on the table, finally tied it with a fine thread, and Zouyu couldn’t help but say, “Sect Master, can you reward Pei Yunshu to me?”
As if not hearing, the Sect Master tossed the scroll to the person beside him and instructed, “Hang it in my room.”
After giving the order, he looked at Zouyu and said leisurely, “You said Pei Yunshu is a beauty, so I want to see where his beauty lies. When I get tired of looking at him, we’ll talk.”
Zouyu instantly clenched his fists, his eyes dim and unclear, “Yes.”
***
For the Sect Master, a Bestowal Divine Painting, even if the person in the painting had some relationship with the Emperor, was not worth looking up to.
After dealing with matters, the Sect Master returned to his room. When he looked up, he saw the Bestowal Divine Painting hanging prominently in the room.
Approaching, he carefully examined it for a while but couldn’t see what made Pei Yunshu’s beauty special. Eyes were just eyes, and lips were just lips. In his eyes, it was only barely pleasing.
But for him, “pleasing” seemed not easy.
The Sect Master shifted his gaze to the wrists of the person in the painting.
He stared at the snake-shaped black bracelet and narrowed his eyes slightly.
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