Chapter 371 – Disappearing Without a Trace
“Jiang Chenzi is Du Qiying’s…” Yan Tianhen was stunned as he stared with wide eyes. “It can’t be?”
“Why not?”
Yan Tianhen’s expression changed several times. At last, he angrily gnawed at the chicken feet. “Shameless, so that’s why he teamed up together to harm you!”
“En, it’s true that they teamed up to attack me, but it is over now.”
Yan Tianhen nodded, “That’s true.”
After thinking for a moment, Yan Tianhen asked, puzzled, “How does Dage know this kind secret about Du Qiying?”
Lin Xuanzhi answered, “Tong Le switched sides, otherwise this plan would not have been carried out so easily.”
“Haha!” Yan Tianhen laughed, refreshed and satisfied, “I’ve long known that this boy Tong Le wasn’t a good person. Now it seems that this boy truly has a kind face and a black heart.”
Lin Xuanzhi, “……”
“However, will Dage let Tong Le go just like this?”
Back then, Tong Le also took part in the plot against Lin Xuanzhi, so he wasn’t a good character.
Lin Xuanzhi nonchalantly responded, “We’ll see what his fortune is for the time being.”
Yan Tianhen didn’t put Tong Le too much in his eyes either. He then asked, “What else are the people in Profound Sky Sect saying now?”
Lin Xuanzhi glanced at Yan Tianhen, “They also said that it was the work of a demonic cultivator.”
Yan Tianhen, “……”
Yan Tianhen gave Lin Xuanzhi a somewhat guilty glance, then continued to crunch on the chicken feet, his teeth chewing at a fast pace.
Lin Xuanzhi smiled, “Little Ah Hen, I wondered at that time: who in the world stood up for me and eliminated Du Qiying? I didn’t think it was actually you.”
Yan Tianhen threw away his chicken feet. “Dage, you won’t despise me for being cruel?”
“No matter how cruel your actions are, can they be crueler than mine?” Lin Xuanzhi downplayed the matter and wasn’t the slightest bit concerned. “Not even death can wipe clean his crimes. I just didn’t want to dirty my hands.”
Only then did Yan Tianhen feel relieved. As long as Lin Xuanzhi didn’t despise him for killing people, then he wouldn’t care about anything else.
Yan Tianhen had already walked out of the tangled mess of misconceptions and seen the error of his ways. Now he understood that “righteous path” or “demonic path” didn’t matter; anything that could protect one’s life and increase one’s cultivation to make him stronger was a good thing.
Yan Tianhen shifted as he scooted over to Lin Xuanzhi’s side. His eyelashes fluttered as he gazed at Lin Xuanzhi. “Dage, I didn’t expect that you would cut the grass but not eliminate the roots. When I went there, I found that he was about to use that voice transmission talisman to send a message outside.”
Yan Tianhen shook his head, “No way.”
Lin Xuanzhi rubbed Yan Tianhen’s head.
“One more thing.” Lin Xuanzhi continued, “When Lin Yurou heard that Du Qiying had died without an intact corpse, she immediately experienced quite a shock. It’s probably because of this that the child in her womb couldn’t be saved, and she also went half-mad. She couldn’t even recognize other people.”
Yan Tianhen was surprised, “That’s possible?”
“Yufan asked me whether he should inform the Lin family or whether he should let her die of her own accord. Which one does Ah Hen think is better?”
Yan Tianhen thought for a moment, “Although Lin Yurou reaped what she sowed and Dage has also said that if she was determined to follow Du Qiying, then she would no longer be recognized as a member of the Lin family, but presumably she had already experienced suffering and had become half-crippled. Even if she were allowed to return to the Lin family and be looked after by her relatives, it still wouldn’t be a big deal. Why don’t we let her go back?”
Lin Xuanzhi nodded, “Since Ah Hen said so, then I will let her go.”
However, Lin Xuanzhi didn’t mention that in the short half-month since Lin Yurou went up the mountain, Du Qiying had either been beating or scolding her the entire time. Lin Yurou also seemed to sense that she had made an extremely wrong choice and had secretly let people send the news, hoping Lin Xuanzhi could save her by taking her away.
Lin Xuanzhi was in closed-door cultivation at that time. No one dared to pass the news to him. Naturally, he did not know.
After leaving secluded cultivation, Lin Xuanzhi got the news but did not take any action.
No one will know whether Lin Yurou’s baby had been lost by accident or had been lost due to some other reason.
Whether Lin Yurou is truly mad or merely pretending to be mad will be revealed sooner or later.
However, Lin Xuanzhi didn’t care much.
Even if she was pretending to be crazy, so what?
The fact that the Lin family gave her a place to live was already a matter of utmost benevolence.
As for Lin Yurou herself, after experiencing such ridiculous and laughable matters, her thoughts would probably no longer be the same as before.
A dusty gray bird, ordinary-looking except for its tail feathers, fluttered over.
Feng Jingyu jumped onto Yan Tianhen’s head and shouted, “Ah Hen, Ah Hen! Where the hell did you hide Ling Chigu? I’ve searched all around for hundreds of miles, and I can’t find any trace of him at all!”
Yan Tianhen rubbed his nose as he thought, I can’t tell you that Dage hid Ling Chigu in the soul plate, can I now?
The existence of the soul plate was really special. Yan Tianhen could never reveal the soul plate to Feng Jingyu when he still didn’t fully trust him.
The reason why he hid Ling Chigu inside the soul plate was precisely because Ling Chigu had a loyal soul and noble bones. Since he had already signed a master-servant contract with Yan Tianhen, it was doomed to be impossible for him to betray Yan Tianhen.
Yan Tianhen casually spun a lie, “Since he can’t be found within a hundred miles, then you might as well search for him within a thousand miles. Anyway, I have a contract with Ah Gu, so he won’t be lost no matter what.”
Feng Jingyu was so angry that his feathers were about to blow up. “Do you think it’s easy to search for a thousand miles all around? You are just deceiving me. Could it be that you lost Ah Gu, and now even you have no idea where he is?”
Lin Xuanzhi couldn’t watch this any longer. He took Feng Jingyu down from Yan Tianhen’s head and replied lightly, “I do know where Ah Gu is, but it is not suitable to tell you now. You don’t have to look for him either. Anyhow, I can assure you that I will never lose him.”
Feng Jingyu wilted. He discontentedly found a corner to brood with a disheartened expression.
Ah Bai walked over and used his head to nudge Feng Jingyu. When he tried to lick him with his tongue, he was suddenly pecked by Feng Jingyu.
Ah Bai, “Ao!“
Feng Jingyu, “Chirp chirp chirp!“
Hu Po looked at Ah Bai’s stupid antics and rolled his eyes, turning his head toward the side of the window. He couldn’t bear to look straight at this scene.
Yan Tianhen watched Feng Jingyu, who looked as if he were about to cry. He didn’t have the heart to continue watching and scooted over. He sat next to Feng Jingyu, rubbing his head, “Maomao, don’t be like this. I promise you, Ah Gu is safer than any of us right now.”
“I am not angry with you.” Feng Jingyu said with a dejected face, “I’m angry with myself; I’m such a disappointment.”
Yan Tianhen, “……”
Feng Jingyu chirped twice, burying his body in Yan Tianhen’s palm and whispering, “I care so much about him and worry about him, but Ling Chigu, this stupid block of wood, doesn’t care so much about me. Say, am I not getting the short end of the stick?”
Yan Tianhen thought for a moment, then nodded. “You are. You’re getting a really bad deal.”
Feng Jingyu, “……”
What to do? He feels even more depressed.
Feng Jingyu stared at Yan Tianhen with reddened eyes, “Can’t you say something to comfort me?”
Yan Tianhen thought for a moment more, “But I think that you and Ah Gu don’t quite fit, both in terms of race and in terms of attributes. There is no future if you date each other.”
Feng Jingyu almost started crying with a “Waah!”
Yan Tianhen hurriedly comforted, “I was joking. It’s up to you who you like and whether you guys are a good match or not. Others have no say in this. As long as you feel happy with him, it doesn’t matter what he looks like or whether he has feelings or not.”
Feng Jingyu sniffled and spoke with a child’s voice, “I think, it’s pretty good right now. Although he won’t like me anymore, similarly, he won’t like that damned Third Prince anymore either. In any case, he also didn’t like me before. So if you think about it this way, I’m still not losing out.”
Yan Tianhen, “……”
He felt that according to Feng Jingyu’s logic, he truly couldn’t think of a response to this.
Moreover, how come he felt that Feng Jingyu was so miserable?!
It can’t be that he only has such a low bar for Ling Chigu?
Lin Xuanzhi looked at Feng Jingyu lightly, “What if Ling Chigu always remains like this?”
Feng Jingyu gave Lin Xuanzhi a glance, “I won’t let him stay like this all the time. Even if his souls and spirits have scattered away and dissipated, it’s still possible to gather his seven souls and three spirits again. If his souls and spirits have entered the reincarnation cycle, then I will look for his next life. I can always find him if I search both heaven and earth.”
Lin Xuanzhi asked, “Is it worth it?”
He was clearly the ruler of one of the Nine Lands, the West Lands, but he had squandered away his time in such a tiny place for the sake of a walking corpse. Moreover, the reason that Feng Jingyu looked like this now wasn’t necessarily unrelated to Ling Chigu.
Lin Xuanzhi had no evidence, and Feng Jingyu also stuck to his statement that he was injured by his enemy. However, the time when he appeared and the time when Ling Chigu was killed was perhaps too coincidental, which made Lin Xuanzhi doubt.
Of course, doubting these things was just because Lin Xuanzhi held some interest in their past. Whether they were true or false didn’t really affect anything.
But if this truly was the case, then Feng Jingyu was perhaps too foolish.
Is it worth it?
Lin Xuanzhi wasn’t the only one who had asked him this.
“You treat him like this, but all he thinks about is how to take advantage of your power to fight for his Third Prince. Be honest with yourself — is it really worth it?”
“Phoenix Monarch, for the sake of your good relationship with me in the past, I’ll be frank with you about certain matters — you are the ruler of the West Lands. Originally, merely that fact alone would have garnered you the fear of that one in the Royal Heavenly Palace, but now you just had to interfere in the North Lands’ business; aren’t you asking for trouble? Besides, it’s still alright if Little General Ling took you seriously, but he just had to be all childhood sweethearts and innocent playmates with that one prince and can willingly risk his life and limb for that prince while leading an entire family to its destruction by taking his side. Is he truly worth the trouble? You shouldn’t wait until the end when you still can’t get the person, but you’ll have dug yourself into such a mess.”
“Feelings and love are all bastards. Little Feather, the first to fall in love loses. I am a prime example of that. After chasing Yan Zhonghua for so many years, I finally got him, but in the end, am I not all alone in the world with nothing? It would be better to be alone from the beginning.”
Is it worth it?
Feng Jingyu was silent for a long time.
Just when Lin Xuanzhi thought he wouldn’t speak, Feng Jingyu chuckled softly, “Whether or not it’s worth it, I don’t know, but what’s done is done, so it’s impossible for me to have the chance to turn back everything anymore. The reason I treat him like this is not all because of love. As far as I’m concerned, he saved my life. Naturally, I can’t abandon him when he is at his lowest. Otherwise, it will appear that I, Feng Jingyu, am too heartless and merciless.”