"Lin Yue!"
A soft cat-like call came from a tree.
Lin Yue looked up and saw Li Le, dressed in all black, squatting in a large tree like a monkey, waving a paw at her. Having been gone for three years, his skin was three shades darker, but nothing else about him had changed. He called out softly.
"Get up here!"
Lin Yue took two steps, tapped her toes, and leaped up into the tree, staring back at him.
"What are you doing up here?"
Li Le coughed, turned to look at the lush leaves, and said with a lazy expression, "The feng shui here is pretty good. I'm enjoying the scenery."
"Then keep at it. I'm leaving."
"Hey! Wait!" Seeing that she was really about to leave, he hastily pulled her back. "Didn't you come looking for me?"
Carrying her basket on her back, Lin Yue blinked with an honest expression and said, "I found you, so now I'm heading back to let them know."
"How are Jingcheng and the others?"
"Without you, they've grown much more sensible."
Li Le glared at Lin Yue. "What do you mean by that? Did I corrupt them? I taught them that young people should have pride, confidence, and treat others with sincerity—what's wrong with that?"
Confidence? Sincerity? Lin Yue's lips twitched. No wonder they were so punchable—it turned out to be a matter of interpretation.
Li Le hesitated for a moment before asking, "Did someone come to the compound?"
"Three people came."
"Three?"
Lin Yue nodded. "One of them claims to be your woman."
Li Le shuddered, causing the branch to shake beneath him. With a look of utter disbelief, he said, "I didn't do a single thing! How dare she say that? Slandering my purity! That woman is out of her mind!"
"You really didn't do anything?"
"No!" Li Le spread his hands in indignation. "I genuinely didn't see a thing! Yet she insists I peeped at her body, smeared poison onto my clothes, and shamelessly followed me all the way here to demand an explanation. What a shrew!"
"Did you look?"
"No!"
"What about the other one?"
"What do you mean, another one? There's only one! Couldn't the others just be struck by my handsome looks and come to repay a favor?"
Lin Yue fell silent. "One is named Meng Yanshuang, and the other is named Yu Chenghua."
"I never asked her name."
Li Le knit his brows as he recalled, raising his right hand to gesture. "She's a bit taller than you, not skinny, looks kind of plump, wears pink clothes, carries a sword... She looks decent enough, a bit cute."
"Heh heh..." Lin Yue couldn't help but chuckle. "I know who you're talking about. But that's not called being fat; that's called curvy and healthy."
"That one is Meng Yanshuang. The other is Yu Chenghua." Pausing, Lin Yue also raised a hand to gesture. "Her appearance... her appearance is quite wild, defying societal conventions... A bit dark-skinned, a bit stocky, with a voice as bold as her personality. She says you groped her."
"Groped her? Groped her where?"
"Here."
Snap!
Li Le slapped her hand away and said indignantly, "That is absolute slander..."
Lin Yue recounted what Yu Chenghua had said, making Li Le even more agitated.
"She was wearing men's clothes at the time, had a fake mustache on, her face was as black as charcoal, and her whole body was built like an ox! She was picking on an eight-year-old child, so I just threw a palm strike! How the hell was I supposed to know she was a woman?! I didn't feel a thing—she felt just like a man! Lured by my beauty! She's definitely after my looks!"
Lin Yue thought for a moment, then corrected him, "She wasn't wearing a fake mustache."
That single sentence rendered Li Le completely speechless.
"Don't speak recklessly when you get back."
Li Le finally reacted and waved his hand. "I just came back to take a look. I still have things to do."
"Losing isn't a big deal. You can just win it back next time."
"How could this sect master lose? I am already invincible across the world! I am going to challenge a Master Realm martial artist and break through my realm!"
"If you don't come back with me, I'll tie you up and hand you over to them."
Li Le stared wide-eyed at the calm youth before him, never having realized she could be so overbearing.
"You can't beat me."
But right after he said that, he saw her let out a soft chuckle and coldly spit out a few words.
"Try circulating your internal energy."
Li Le's eyelids twitched, and he hastily tried to circulate his internal energy, only to find he could mobilize a mere trace. He couldn't help but frown. Damn it! To think he had trusted her so much—he never imagined she would be such a scheming hypocrite!
"What did you do to me? When?"
"Limp-Tendon Powder. When you slapped my hand."
"You bunch of vicious female—"
Crack~
Lin Yue kicked him down, snapping several branches, and leaped down herself.
"Are you walking yourself, or am I tying you up, Sect Master?"
Knowing she wasn't bluffing, Li Le cursed his rotten luck and climbed up from the ground. "Once I recover, I'll—"
"Deal with those two first. After that, even if you want to pass away where you stand, I won't stop you." Lin Yue cut him off and shoved the basket into his hands.
Li Le caught the basket and said in an irritated tone, "Just send them away. It's absolute nonsense. Does this sect master really need to handle it in person?"
Lin Yue took a deep breath. "Old Huang is dying. He wants to see you one last time before he passes."
"It'll happen in a day or two at most."
Li Le froze for a moment, then looked up and sighed. "Ah, time truly makes people age quickly."
"I never expected that at such a young age, I'd have to see off another old man."
"Let's go."
He tidied up his appearance and swaggered off toward the outside of town.
Returning to Mount Guiwu, the first thing they saw was a crowd of men whose eyes were welling up with tears of emotion. Every single one of them was welcoming him with saber or sword drawn. They had waited three long years—their wives had even run off with other men—all for this very day!
"I am Li Qiang, the Unblack Wave of Yanzhou Prefecture!"
"I am Jin Dafa, the Golden-Faced Tiger of Geda Mountain!"
"I am..."
Seeing the crowd of burly men rushing toward him, Li Le let out an "Whoa!", hastily dodged, and sent them flying with a beating.
That day, many people packed their luggage, left Mount Guiwu, and continued on their journey.
After knocking down the last man, Li Le stretched his muscles and turned to go up the mountain. Looking up, his eyebrows twitched. He saw Old Huang standing at the entrance of the compound, leaning on a cane, cheerfully waving at him with vibrant energy. With eyes that sharp, he didn't look like someone on the verge of death at all. Just then, a flat voice beside him spoke up.
"That is terminal lucidity. Old people often get like this a few days before passing away."
Li Le frowned. "Is that so? When that guy named Song passed away, he wasn't like this."
"Everyone's situation is different," Lin Yue said in all seriousness.
"Li Le! You bastard..."
Hearing this roar, Li Le shuddered. A dark, unidentified object came swooping toward him with a gust of wind. Seeing that it was about to collide with him, he dodged instantly, breathing a few deep gasps in relief to compose himself after the narrow miss.
"Who are you?"
"Your granddaddy! You don't even recognize me anymore?! Huh?!"
Li Le sized her up. "That punk who was picking on a child?"
"What do you mean picking on?! That's my neighbor! I was comforting her!"
"Take a look at yourself! Who on earth would believe that?!"
"What did you say?"
With a roar in her raspy, duck-like voice, Yu Chenghua glared, while Li Le stiffened his neck, looking stubborn. "I'm telling the truth!"
Seeing more and more onlookers gathering, Lin Yue urged them to head inside before continuing their chat.
Stepping into the main hall, the two were still arguing. One insisted that since he had groped her, he had to take responsibility; the other argued he hadn't known she was a woman, critiqued her from top to bottom, and vowed he would rather die than comply.
Aside from Old Huang, everyone else stared wide-eyed, listening with utmost focus, terrified of missing a single detail.
"I am an unmarried young lady!"
"How are you any different from a big man?!"
"Either way, you have to take responsibility!"
"Responsibility for what? You were picking on a child! She was crying! Built like a giant ox, anyone looking at you would think you're a bandit!"
"Well, you laid hands on me! Who told you to strike me out of nowhere? After this, who would ever marry me?!"
"Did anyone see?! If someone were willing to marry you, would they care about this?!"
"I don't care! My purity is ruined, so you must give me an explanation!"
"My purity is the one that's ruined..."
Having listened for two whole quarters of an hour, Lin Yue took a sip of tea to moisten her throat, looked at Meng Yanshuang, whose eyes were wide with excitement, and called out to her.
"Miss Meng."
"What kind of explanation do you want Li Le to give you?"
Meng Yanshuang waved her hand. "Mine isn't urgent! Sister Yu's main business comes first."
Lin Yue: "..."
Rate on N.U.
