Chapter 873: The Disciple Has a Secret?

Chapter 873: The Apprentice Has a Secret?

Yangzhou was still a short distance away, but theoretically, such proximity already guaranteed safety. If the imperial court allowed the Jade Badge of the Demon Suppressing Division to be slain and the Battle Knife of the Prince of Zhao to be plundered right outside such a major stronghold, the Empress would have to issue an edict of self-reproach. The arrival of Master Baoqin was clear proof of this; the court's vanguard had obviously arrived to rendezvous, and visually, more powerhouses were bound to rush to the scene.

As far as the jianghu was concerned, this was the absolute zenith of the Canal Gang's power, and by now, they ought to have brought the river section under control.

Yet Ling Ruoyu still felt a lingering sense of crisis. This was precisely when people were most prone to letting their guard down, and it was entirely possible that some were secretly assembling, waiting for this exact moment. Especially since Wan Dongliu of the Canal Gang had strangely failed to show his face even now, it made a mishap all the more likely.

How odd indeed. Why hadn't the members of the Canal Gang shown themselves? Could it be because Master Baoqin had arrived, making Gang Leader Wan feel entirely secure?

But at this very moment, Master Baoqin was being held inside the cabin by a man, with no one knowing what they were up to. Perhaps they were already doing those shameful things; what use could she possibly be?

With a mind full of chaotic thoughts, the young girl sat cross-legged at the bow of the boat to rest, silently staying vigilant of her surroundings. Suddenly, she felt as though she had transformed from a high-and-mighty blade-guarding trial-tester into a mere doorkeeper for someone else, a sensation that felt incredibly awkward.

Whether what Master Baoqin was doing at this moment counted as shameful was debatable, but she was merely nestled in the man's embrace, being held and kissed.

The raging, foot-stomping fury she had displayed outside just moments ago was utterly dissolved by a single kiss...

No matter how much she had walked the world over these years under the official guise of the imperial court, and no matter how full of majesty she remained in her daily life, the moment she saw her own Young Mistress and Young Master, Baoqin still felt like nothing more than a little handmaiden.

A little handmaiden who utterly adored her Young Master, her eyes and heart completely yearning for his affection.

She had yearned for so many years. Her countenance remained unchanged, but did her heart still belong to a young maiden?

"Coaxing me only to run away, you irresponsible, foul man..." Baoqin leaned against his chest, her nose twitching as she whimpered. "If you hadn't coaxed me back then, Young Mistress would have married me off long ago. Why would I have to wait here for thirty years? You aren't the only man in the world..."

"Then do you want to marry someone else?"

"I don't. Thankfully you did coax me, so Young Mistress wouldn't marry me off to anyone else."

So, in the end, are you blaming me for coaxing you or glad that I did? Sensing the thousands of twists and turns within the maiden's heart, Zhao Changhe said softly, "Back then, I truly never imagined that departure would last so long... You weren't very old at the time, and I figured there was no rush. I even dropped hints to Wanzhuang, intending to wait until I returned to... I am sorry."

Setting up flags like 'I'll get married after this battle' really was something one shouldn't do recklessly—a bitter and painful lesson.

"Do you think I'm old now?" Baoqin looked up resentfully.

"How could I?" Zhao Changhe looked down at her still-delightful countenance, lightly kissing her forehead. "Compared to back then, your brows and eyes possess a bit more heroic spirit, making you even more alluring..."

"Humph, speaking of age, except for Cui Yuanyang, I am still the youngest one. Everyone around you is an old crone on the verge of menopause, and there are even those who are countless tens of millions of years old!"

"Emmm..." Zhao Changhe was just about to say that they wouldn't experience menopause when, before the words could leave his mouth, Baoqin suddenly grew alert. "The doorkeeper at the entrance doesn't count! Don't tell me you actually dare to have designs on her?"

Zhao Changhe didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Where are your thoughts wandering? I truly look at her as a daughter and an apprentice. I say, don't always steer your thoughts in this direction. It's fine if the reputation of our older generation is ruined, but my apprentice needs her reputation. Even when watching her fight, I sit a whole zhang away, alright..."

Baoqin was suspicious. "Have you changed your nature? She is so beautiful, with a slender waist and long legs, valiant and formidable. Except for not wearing those tacky red clothes, she is practically a second Yue Hongling. You don't like that?"

"That is my own daughter! Just like Longque and Xinghe, who would ever think along those lines?"

Baoqin grew even more suspicious. "Have you seriously never thought about Longque and Xinghe?"

Who on earth ever thought about that... Zhao Changhe couldn't explain it clearly, so he simply leaned down and bit her lips once more.

To deal with Empress Baoqin, one didn't need to care about anything else—just plug her mouth, and any method would do.

Before long, Baoqin, who had just mustered a shred of fighting spirit, dissolved once more into a puddle of mush. Her eyes were like water, her breaths delicate and hurried. "Master..."

"..."

"Baoqin missed you."

The combat power activated by this utterance of 'Master' was more rampant than 'Lord', and in an instant, Zhao Changhe felt entirely set ablaze.

It seemed Baoqin had still been making progress over these years, leading the trend.

Having activated the warrior's berserk state, Baoqin herself didn't have it easy either. Within moments, her clothes were thrown into utter disarray, her lapels torn open and her collar pulled down past her shoulders, revealing her snow-white shoulders and collarbones.

"Clang!" The sound of clashing weapons echoed from the bow outside the cabin.

Ling Ruoyu brandished her longsword to guard the cabin, while a large circle of black-robed figures closed in around her.

She looked more and more like a doorkeeper... Ling Ruoyu glared at the fierce-breathing cultists before her, secretly crying out in dismay. As expected, her previous premonition had been correct; this moment of entering Yangzhou was precisely the most dangerous time.

Why did it feel like there were several experts of the Desolate Realm here, yet not a single one was recognizable? What was going on with the Chronicle of the Turbulent World nowadays? Were the demons of the Desolate Realm not even recorded anymore?

Not only were they unrecorded, but this group of cultists didn't waste any words either. The moment they stepped up, they struck directly, aiming straight for vital points. It appeared they intended to swiftly kill and seize the blade before Yangzhou could react, then flee far away with a single strike.

Inside, Baoqin was murmuring, "Aren't you going to help your apprentice..."

Zhao Changhe said, "Longque has already been stifled to breaking point along this journey..."

No one knew which Longque was stifled to breaking point. The Longque on this side whistled out, and the Longque outside the cabin also leaped into Ling Ruoyu's hand.

The young girl suddenly found a massive door-panel of a blade added to her hand. A wild, ferocious force carried her along, whirling her around several times like a great windmill, completely unable to stop.

"A pack of small fry, do you truly take this young lady for a bystander! Endless, endless!"

"Splash!" The great windmill churned up a sky full of blood and rain, as severed limbs and broken arms flew across the river surface.

On the distant city wall, the muscles on Wan Dongliu's face twitched, utterly unable to describe the scene before him. A beautiful young girl was spinning around like a windmill while wielding a massive broadsword almost as tall as she was. The adorable scene was accompanied by wildly splattering blood and flying limbs, looking bizarre no matter how one viewed it.

Inside the cabin, Baoqin endured the stimulation of being toyed with by her Young Master as she once again opened the pouch and waited outside the cabin door.

Several streaks of black mist were sucked inside, gathered together with the previous one.

The pouch was pulled shut, and the cabin door closed with a thud. Ling Ruoyu spun until her eyes were filled with circles. Turning her head in a daze, she only managed to see a fair, jade-like arm expertly tying the mouth of the pouch before it was immediately blocked from view by the door.

With a heavy thud, the young girl slumped to the deck, just as the great vessel docked at the shore.

Lifting her head with great effort, she saw a large contingent of horses and men waiting to receive them on the bank. At their head, Wan Dongliu gave Ling Ruoyu a sympathetic glance and sighed. "I've seen people bully others, but never have I seen someone bully their own apprentice... All just to avoid suspicion, look what the poor child has been turned into..."

Ling Ruoyu didn't hear clearly, saluting with stars in her eyes. "Senior, what are you saying..."

Wan Dongliu replied, "It's nothing. I was just thinking that my youngest son is also among the foremost of the Hidden Dragons, and is currently unwed. I also share an old acquaintance with your master, so I wonder if the young lady..."

Before his words could land, Baoqin adjusted her lapels and emerged from the cabin. "Prefect Yang, please arrange food and lodging. Tonight, this official will trouble Yangzhou for a night, and early tomorrow morning we shall cross the river to Gusu. By the way, Miss Ling, this is now official business, so do not go staying at some irregular, disreputable jianghu sect. Come with me, I have matters to ask you."

Wan Dongliu: "..."

Weren't you two planning to avoid suspicion? What are you doing now?

And what do you mean by an irregular, disreputable jianghu sect? We are under the banner of the Four Symbols Cult, and I am directly subordinate to the Vermilion Bird Venerable among the Twenty-Eight Mansions. Why don't you say those words to the Vermilion Bird Venerable?

Oh, almost forgot. This Chief Secretary represents Chancellor Tang, who is precisely at odds with the Vermilion Bird Venerable.

Wan Dongliu clutched his head.

...

In the evening, the night was as cool as water.

Yesterday, the Qingming rain had fallen continuously, but today the rain had stopped. The air was moist, and the fragrance was fresh.

Having taken a comfortable bath and changed her clothes, sitting in the open-air courtyard after the rain while eating the dinner sent by the Yangzhou prefecture and refusing all interruptions from outsiders, Ling Ruoyu finally felt a sense of peace, as if she were insulated from the world.

The surging waves of the jianghu and the razor's edge between life and death over these past two days felt like a dream. Only during quiet reflection did it bring boundless benefit to her martial path. Ling Ruoyu knew how immense the benefit of this experience was for her; when she climbed to the Desolate Realm in the future, these two days of experience would be the most solid foundation.

If not for Chief Secretary Baoqin and that ancient senior sitting across from her, proving that everything that had transpired was entirely real, Ling Ruoyu truly would have thought these past two days were merely a dream.

Even right now, it still felt very much like a dream. The Chief Secretary and this senior were far too intimate. Looking at their posture, she was almost sitting on his lap, her chopsticks pinning food to deliver to his lips to feed him, while her mouth still murmured, "Having slumbered for so long, have you already forgotten the delicacies of the mortal world? Come, taste this..."

Ling Ruoyu poked and prodded her chopsticks inside her bowl, feeling that her presence here was entirely redundant. Didn't you say you had matters to ask me? Why are you just making me sit here to eat your public displays of affection...

If you want to pitch woo, just pitch your woo. What are you dragging me here to sit for? I heard that Gang Leader Wan's youngest son is also a dragon and phoenix among men, yet you won't even let a person go take a look? Are you my parents? You certainly meddle a lot.

Baoqin was currently whispering into Zhao Changhe's ear. "In the past, I had only seen her once and didn't know the details. Looking at her now, does your little apprentice seem a bit simple-minded? Even after all this, she still doesn't suspect your identity?"

Zhao Changhe transmitted his thoughts. "It's merely a matter of preconceived notions. Barging into an ancient secret realm and encountering a revived senior, and at the time I didn't display any familiarity with Longque either. Without cause, how could her thoughts ever wander there?"

"So why exactly are you hiding it? Is it fun to bully your own little apprentice?"

"Fishing? That little girl is clearly a rigid little prude who can't act. If she knew her grandmaster was protecting her from behind, you wouldn't have had such a bountiful harvest of spirit bags today. Besides, that would have robbed this journey of its edge of sword-testing—a true pity."

"Can you tell me now, then…?"

"Not quite yet. I need to check the Star River's information. If I'm not mistaken, there will be a shift at Tang Buqi's birthday feast. But why are you so eager for me to say it?"

"Because if you don't, in her eyes, I'll look like some woman who throws herself at a stranger with just one glance—utterly embarrassing."

Zhao Changhe nearly burst out laughing: "Did Wanzhuang send you?"

"I've been assigned by my lady to Gusu these days, overseeing audits of maritime affairs. When the Chaos Chronicle announced that your little apprentice was escorting the blade south to Jiangnan, of course I had to come see the situation."

"Standing on your own now, my little maid."

"Abandoned wife and child for thirty years now, my lord."

Zhao Changhe was struck silent by that single sentence, eating his food in sullen quiet.

"I'm full." Ling Ruoyu set down her chopsticks and gave a junior's salute: "I'll leave Longque to you, Chief Steward. I'll head back to my room to rest and won't disturb you and the senior's moonlit romance."

"Hey, wait." Baoqin called out: "Better keep Longque with you for now."

"Why?"

"Haven't you noticed it's fated with you? Not everyone can make Longque spin so eagerly." Zhao Changhe suddenly said: "Don't you feel Longque likes you?"

Ling Ruoyu hesitated a moment, then said: "I do like it quite a bit too. I don't know why—I'm clearly a swordswoman, with no interest in blades at all. But seeing it feels familiar, and the more time I spend with it, the more I find myself reluctant to part with it… This mix of disdain and closeness is utterly baseless…"

Zhao Changhe's gaze shifted, scrutinizing her from head to toe.

Ling Ruoyu took a half-step back, her expression wary.

Zhao Changhe was speechless: "What's with that look?"

Ling Ruoyu asked: "What exactly is the relationship between you, Senior, and Lady Baoqin?"

Zhao Changhe wrapped an arm around Baoqin's waist: "Exactly what you see."

"If I'm not mistaken, you and Lady Baoqin met for the first time today."

"Correct. That's called love at first sight."

"And you've also declared your heart belongs to my master."

"Correct again. Who says you can only love one?"

Ling Ruoyu's face went blank.

"So." Zhao Changhe said with utter seriousness: "I'm telling you I adore your master while getting cozy with Baoqin—doesn't that make it perfectly clear to a little girl like you that there's no chance between us? Who are you making that face for?"

A string of ellipses ran through Ling Ruoyu's mind. So he could turn it around like that? Wasn't this behavior just proving he was a lecher, someone to keep far away from?

Baoqin laughed out loud.

Ling Ruoyu said crossly: "Milady, what exactly did you see in him at first glance?"

Baoqin replied with a smile: "I just like that he's strong and powerful—the moment he held me, I went weak… And he's a man with a story, having lived through ages and epochs."

"…" Ling Ruoyu said stiffly: "Then what does Senior like about my master? I'll tell her to change it."

Zhao Changhe nearly spat out his food laughing: "I like everything about your master."

Ling Ruoyu immediately pointed out: "Chief Steward, look—this is the kind of man you've set your sights on…"

Baoqin stifled her laughter: "It's fine. To steal a man from the Sunset Divine Sword—I'd say I've come out ahead."

Ling Ruoyu was fuming.

Zhao Changhe said: "Seeing as you helped guard the door today, put away that narcissistic expression and go back to your room to digest what you've learned from the battle. Review and reflection are crucial—no one is born knowing everything. Back in the day, I… someone used that kind of review to cheat, rapidly amassing combat experience in the early stages that would take others years to accumulate."

With the topic shifted, Ling Ruoyu didn't want to argue with this senior. He had indeed helped her greatly. After a moment's hesitation, she said honestly: "Every battle is vivid before my eyes; every thread unravels in my heart like moonlight on water. My master says it's my talent."

Zhao Changhe narrowed his eyes.

Ling Ruoyu hugged Longque and took another step back.

Seeing the girl's adorable wariness, Zhao Changhe chuckled and waved: "Then go rest. I need to rest with Qin'er too."

Ling Ruoyu silently "tsked" and ran off, clutching the massive Longque.

Baoqin wrapped her arms around Zhao Changhe's neck and whispered: "Are you thinking…?"

Zhao Changhe watched his apprentice's retreating figure and murmured: "It's possible… but strange. If she were Xinghe, I should sense it very easily, and Longque should too… But so far, I feel nothing, and Longque hasn't given any such answer—only said it likes her quite a bit. If it's true, it would only prove that Hongling and Jiuyou had some secret pact. Without Jiuyou's involvement, such a result couldn't be achieved."

For now, Zhao Changhe had only just re-cultivated, returning to the strength of the third realm of Imperial Realm—roughly a bit thicker and sturdier, but still far from the peak of the third realm once held by the Ye sisters and Piaomiao… Still, at least he stood on the same level.

Now Ye Wuming had broken through that barrier, and Ye Jiuyou had likely done the same, widening the gap once more. If they were behind this, Zhao Changhe might not be able to unravel the situation quickly.

"Just keep an eye out—it might not be her. Anyway, Longque is watching her closely; it will give a clearer answer." Zhao Changhe lifted Baoqin in his arms and walked toward the room: "No matter what troubles lie ahead, I don't want to repeat past mistakes… When there's a flower to pluck, I must not neglect my Baoqin again."