From Da Quan and Shen Qingshan's accounts, Fang Jie couldn't piece together much. A powerful, abnormal man had found them separately and then used overwhelming force to coerce them into joining his group. The simplest and most effective method was to threaten the safety of their families.
Fang Jie had never heard Da Quan mention having a younger brother, nor had Mu Xiaoyao or Shen Qingshan mentioned having families, and Qilin hadn't mentioned it either.
Fang Jie understood why they were only bringing it up now.
Perhaps they weren't even sure if Fang Jie truly knew nothing about his past. From their accounts, Fang Jie could sense that the man existed in their hearts like a god or a demon. Even recalling him filled them with fear and unease.
In other words, they might not have trusted Fang Jie before.
What if Fang Jie suddenly awakened one day and knew everything? Would he side with that man instead of Da Quan and the others? In that case, Fang Jie would become their enemy. They hadn't explained to Fang Jie before, firstly because they themselves knew very little. Secondly, they feared that one day Fang Jie would become like that man.
They were protecting themselves and their families.
Thinking of this, Fang Jie felt a pang of pain.
He realized that from birth, he had been tormenting so many people, causing so many families to be torn apart and destroyed. If Da Quan's brother, Mu Xiaoyao, and Shen Qingshan's families knew this, how much fear had they lived for the past sixteen years?
Perhaps, they hadn't slept soundly for a single day.
Sitting in the carriage, Fang Jie remained silent for a long time, not asking any more questions until the carriage stopped at the shop's entrance. He suddenly understood that every time he sought knowledge, he was rubbing salt into the already aching wounds of Da Quan and the others. That wound was called memory.
Why would a powerful cultivator do such a despicable thing? Threatening a group of innocent people with much lower cultivation levels than himself, just to protect Fang Jie, a guy of unknown origin?
Fang Jie felt ashamed. As Fang Jie was getting out of the car, he felt a warmth on his hand. He looked up and saw Shen Qingshan smiling at him, holding his hand. "Don't feel guilty… Have you forgotten that I've wanted to kill you more than once? If I hadn't been afraid of escaping that man's pursuit, you would already be dead."
Fang Jie smiled bitterly. "That's not a very good consolation."
"But it's the truth."
Shen Qingshan smoothed a strand of hair that had fallen across her forehead. "You asked me earlier if I kept pushing myself to cultivate in order to escape this so-called fate, and I said yes. But there's another reason… I once thought that when I could defeat that man, the first thing I would do was kill you without restraint, however I wanted."
These words sent a chill down Fang Jie's spine. The phrase "however I wanted to kill you" was enough to make his heart clench.
"When did you stop wanting to kill me?"
Fang Jie asked. Shen Qingshan said softly, "When I saw you again after three years apart, fifteen years had already passed. I was certain you hadn't awakened on your own; you knew nothing of your origins. At that time, I thought, haha... so little Fang Jie is just like us, a pathetic wretch."
Fang Jie hummed in agreement, then laughed self-deprecatingly, "You've never had pity on pathetic wretches, but you're also not interested in killing them."
Shen Qingshan didn't deny it, but instead took Fang Jie's hand, preparing to get out of the carriage: "Although we are still us, and you are still you... but this is Chang'an."
"So what if it's Chang'an?"
Fang Jie slightly... Sighing, "The man you mentioned is definitely more powerful than that old Buddhist monk called Wisdom. Even he could easily enter Chang'an and escape unscathed despite being surrounded by numerous ninth-rank experts. Now I realize that Chang'an isn't as safe as I initially thought."
"Environmental safety is never passive and is never static."
Chen Qingshan got out of the carriage, still holding Fang Jie's hand: "The greatest safety comes from one's own strength. This is the only thing I've come to understand in recent years, and I'm giving it to you for free."
Fang Jie smiled, glancing at Daquan and Qilin as he got out of the carriage. The two men, one tall and one short, one burly and one gaunt, were grinning at him, their eyes so innocent.
"Let's go."
Shen Qingshan looked at Fang Jie's shop and said with a smile, "Let's first check if the tailors you hired are slacking off, and then go to Hongxiuzhao to see Master Xi's flowing sleeve dance."
"No one can make Master Xi dance when she doesn't want to."
Fang Jie said as he walked, "Perhaps... even Aunt Xi can't."
Just as Fang Jie and the others reached the door, Daquan suddenly tugged at Fang Jie. When Fang Jie turned around, he found that Shen Qingshan was already facing away from him, towards the street. She wasn't holding a sword, but for some reason, Fang Jie clearly felt that an extremely sharp longsword was about to be drawn from Shen Qingshan's arms.
Across the street, a stunningly beautiful woman in a Taoist robe looked over calmly.
"Murderous intent."
Daquan uttered three words in a low voice, slowly pulling out a pair of steel-spike gloves from his robes. Fang Jie shook his head, signaling Da Quan and the others not to move rashly. He slowly walked forward, looking earnestly at the woman across the street, and asked, "How have you been?"
...
...
The two were separated by a street. On Fang Jie's side of the street was the couple selling hot noodle soup and steamed buns. They assumed Fang Jie was speaking to them, so they smiled and returned the greeting, saying, "Young Master Fang, it's been a long time." On the opposite side of the street, near the roadside, was a vendor selling roasted chestnuts. He also thought Fang Jie was greeting him, paused for a moment, and then muttered under his breath, "Idiot."
Across the street, the beautiful woman in the Taoist robe stood quietly. Her eyes seemed to hold nothing else but Fang Jie.
As their eyes met, Fang Jie suddenly felt absurdly that this side of the street was him, and the other side was also him. Although one was a man and the other a woman, one real and one fake. This feeling abruptly arose, yet it was undeniably real and impossible to shake off. That woman was another Fang Jie living in this world.
Fang Jie greeted her, saying, "Long time no see."
But Da Quan had just said he smelled murderous intent. If Da Quan said it was there, he couldn't be wrong.
How could a woman with murderous intent be "already well"?
"Congratulations," she said to Fang Jie from afar.
After a moment of silence, Mo Ningzhi suddenly smiled, the slight curve of her lips almost otherworldly. Although she wore only a plain Taoist robe, and her smooth hair was tied up in a bun, she was still so beautiful that many people on the street instinctively stopped to stare.
"Excuse me," Fang Jie said with a smile to the people on the street, "You're blocking my view of her."
The passersby looked at Fang Jie as if he were an idiot, and then someone said disdainfully, "You want to see her, and I want to see her too. Why should I give you space to see her?"
This made perfect sense, and Fang Jie couldn't refute it.
He chuckled and raised his voice towards the woman across the crowd, "Look, they won't move aside, delaying your kill of me. I'm truly sorry."
She smiled sweetly, "It's alright, killing you...no rush."
A skinny man in brocade robes approached, leering at Mo Ningzhi, and asked, "Did that bastard over there offend you, Daoist Master? Want me to help you teach him a lesson? Don't let my skinny appearance fool you, I'm a very strong man!"
The other men near Mo Ningzhi panicked, regretting not having approached her first. They glared angrily at Fang Jie, then huddled around Mo Ningzhi, chattering, "Daoist Master, if you want to teach that scoundrel a lesson, just say so. The men of Chang'an can't stand scoundrels bullying women. One word from you, and I'll go knock his teeth out."
Mo Ningzhi looked at Fang Jie, seemingly apologetically shrugging her shoulders.
Fang Jie shook his head indifferently, indicating it was alright.
Mo Ningzhi suddenly stopped laughing, her expression turning serious. Yet, precisely because of this, she appeared almost saintly. This beauty was even more irresistible to the men; some even felt their knees buckle and wanted to kneel down and kiss her toes. If she wanted, her boots would surely be chewed through.
"Are you willing to stand up for me?"
She asked.
The men, big and small, nodded in unison, promising as if swearing an oath of loyalty.
"Then are you willing to help me kill him?"
She asked again.
The men fell silent. A burly man said in a deep voice, "I'm good at slaughtering pigs, but I'm not good at killing. For you, we can beat him up for no reason, beat him half to death, but we can't kill him."
A clear look of disappointment appeared on Mo Ningzhi's face, and the pig slaughterer who had spoken began to regret it. He felt he had hurt her, and his own heart ached as well. The vendor selling roasted chestnuts couldn't help but curse, slamming the scale to the ground.
"Don't be sad, let's go kill him, okay?"
The gaunt young man who had been there earlier offered a soft, comforting voice, anxious and at a loss.
"Okay."
She smiled sweetly again: "Go help me kill him."
Then, the group of men turned and ran towards Fang Jie, their eyes filled with madness. Fang Jie shook his head helplessly, looking at Mo Ningzhi across the street and shouting, "You just want to disgust me?"
"How?"
She retorted.
Fang Jie nodded seriously and said, "Then you succeeded, but what disgusted me wasn't them, but yourself. Do you know that just now you looked like a slut? I even couldn't resist taking out my money pouch to ask how much you were selling yourself."
As he spoke, he punched the butcher to the ground and kicked the chestnut seller into a tree branch. The burly man's nose was split open, and the splattered blood looked like a flower. Fang Jie's second punch landed on the tall, thin man's stomach. The man immediately howled and collapsed to the ground, like a boiled shrimp.
Fang Jie, having knocked six or seven men to the ground, clapped his hands, straightened up, and looked at Mo Ningzhi opposite him. He saw anger in her eyes, knowing his earlier words had displeased her, which pleased him. Disgusting people was something Fang Jie was always good at.
"How much?"
He really asked.
"You can't afford it."
She answered, seemingly very seriously.
Fang Jie said "Oh," and said equally seriously, "Then I'll work hard to earn money, and try to do it before others try to swell up your clean, white body with money."
These words were shameless, vulgar, and obscene, yet Fang Jie said them with a surprisingly sincere tone.
The couple selling hot noodle soup and steamed buns, hiding to the side, looked at Fang Jie in horror, only then remembering that Young Master Fang was the top student of the Martial Arts Academy. How could a group of ordinary people possibly harm him?
"I will kill you sooner or later."
Mo Ningzhi suddenly withdrew all the anger from her eyes, her expression becoming calm and expressionless. Her voice wasn't loud, but Fang Jie heard it clearly. The voice was like an arrow, piercing through the wails of the men lying on the ground.
"You're too cruel."
Fang Jie said with a smile, "I never intended to kill you, but rest assured… I will definitely fuck you."
His words to that goddess-like woman sounded particularly jarring in the street.
The woman opposite him seemed to tremble slightly, then turned and left without saying another word. Fang Jie watched her figure disappear, sighed, and muttered to himself, "How could someone from the Daoist sect develop such an evil skill?"
"What did you say, Young Master Fang?"
The noodle shop owner approached and asked.
"I said, one bowl of noodles, extra shredded meat," Fang Jie replied with a smile.
"Alright!"
The owner became cheerful and said loudly, "Just come inside and wait; I'll bring it to you in a bit."