Chapter 5: Misjudging Friend and Foe

  Xiang Shao Yu didn't want to be hit by Yao Guang again in a short period of time, so he changed the subject and made some polite remarks. When he mentioned his extraordinary strength, Yao Guang let out a "hmm" as if she was somewhat skeptical. The young man's pride flared up again, and without thinking, he said: "Then please take a look for yourself!"

  Yuki-onna happened to walk over and heard this sentence, laughing and asking: "Oh? What does Shou Yu want Yao Guang to see?"

  Xiang Shao Yu looked up and asked: "Snow Girl, is there anything particularly heavy here?"

  "Are you particularly strong?" The Snow Girl hesitated for a moment, as if thinking, and said, "Do you want to try your strength?"

  "That's right!"

  "Hmm...the thing is here. Iron Brother, you've arrived just in time. There's a young whippersnapper here who wants to test his strength."

  The big iron hammer widened its eyes, "Oh? Want to try your strength? This little guy?"

  The big man glared down at the young boy on the ground, but Xiang Shaoyu refused to back down and glared right back up at him.

  Yao Guang silently watched as things directly developed into the two of them boasting and wanting to compare their strength, with the time, place, and method all being settled in just a few sentences. The group directly headed off in that direction, she didn't know what to say, could only sigh, and silently followed after them.

  Her questioning tone was not a doubt about Xiang Shu Yu's boastful claim of having extraordinary strength, but rather puzzlement over what kind of relationship existed between Xiang Shu Yu and the legendary Xiang Yu who "could uproot mountains and cover the world with his aura".

  The news that Datie was going to have a contest of strength with a young man spread quickly, attracting over a hundred people to come and watch.

  Under the guidance of Da Tie Chui, twelve forging departments of Mohist disciples worked together to carry out a huge bronze tripod.

  The big iron hammer boasted of its great strength, let out a loud roar, and with one hand grasping the handle of the cauldron and the other grasping the foot of the cauldron, it lifted the copper cauldron with force. After holding it for a few seconds, it threw down the copper cauldron, which crashed to the ground with a loud "clang" sound, even denting the ground slightly.

  Dai Tie hammered looked at Xiang Shao Yu with a disdainful gaze.

  "How's that? Still dare to compare?"

  Xiang Shaoyu smiled and nodded at Yao Guang, walked over, easily lifted the bronze cauldron, and even tossed it up with a flick of his wrist.

  A group of people let out a cry of surprise.

  Yao Guang keenly detected that the cries of surprise were mixed with unfamiliar voices, and apart from this, a faint but sharp sword aura appeared in the scene. She immediately cast her gaze in that direction, but couldn't find anything unusual among the crowd, all of whom were dressed as Miao family disciples.

  Is it an illusion?

  No...

  This sword energy... isn't an illusion... and it's getting closer.

  In less than half a second, the bronze cauldron had already fallen down. Xiang Shao Yu caught it with both hands amidst the crowd's gasps of surprise, steadily holding it up in mid-air, looking around at everyone with some pride. When his gaze swept past Yao Guang, he even raised an eyebrow, as if saying - How about that? Didn't I tell you so?

  All the gasps turned into cheers, like a tidal wave that went on and on without end.

  Yao Guang couldn't help but smile, and not only nodded her head, she also clapped her hands together, generously praising: "Good!"

  Although Yao Guang's voice was drowned out by the cheers of the crowd, Xiang Shao Yu could still judge from his mouth shape that his self-esteem and vanity had been greatly satisfied. Only then did he throw the bronze tripod to the ground and provocatively look at Da Tie Chui.

  "How's it? Still comparing?"

  The giant hammer raised its arms in surprise and admiration, staring at the young man he had just belittled.

  "According to the State of Yan's calculations, this cauldron weighs 2,500 catties. I wasn't able to lift it until I was eighteen years old. You're only fourteen now, you win."

  Dai Tie Chui conceded defeat, and Xiang Shao Yu became the winner. The cheers of the crowd rose again, and Xiang Shao Yu smiled with a hint of embarrassment as he bowed to thank everyone.

  Xiang Liang actively stepped forward to thank Datie Chui for tolerating his junior, and Datie Chui did not learn the hypocrisy of the nobility, but instead directly praised Xiang Shaoyu.

  Just as the scene was peaceful, a small object wrapped in wind sound shot towards Xiang Shao Yu's back of the head. He himself was still holding his fist to thank everyone and had not detected this crisis at all. Instead, it was Yao Guang beside him who first discovered that something was wrong due to the sword energy coming from an unknown place.

  Yao Guang immediately stretched out his right hand, with his thumb and middle finger clasped together. His arm did not retract, nor did his wrist curve inward. The jade Linglong was propelled by the force of his fingers to swiftly pierce through the air like a flowing light, colliding precisely with the hidden projectile hurtling towards Xiang Shao Yu. A clear "ting" sound echoed after the collision, and the jade Linglong continued flying forward. Meanwhile, another hidden projectile disintegrated into dust scattered all over the ground.

  This is the attainments of elite disciples in Pure Yang Sect on hidden weapons, this kind of launching hidden weapons technique far surpasses ordinary Jianghu techniques like "Rainbow Qi Soars The Sky".

  Xiang Shao Yu heard the sound and turned his head, naturally seeing the two hidden weapons colliding. He was about to thank Yao Guang, but before he could speak, he stared in astonishment as Yao Guang's feet touched the ground and her whole body rose into the air like a light and agile white crane. He subconsciously turned his gaze to follow the blue-white figure, seeing her take a few steps in mid-air, as if she had grown wings, yet swiftly and unmatchedly dash towards a certain location on the second floor. Before anyone could react to what was happening, she grabbed hold of a boy, her right palm grasping a thin-bladed flying knife pressed against the boy's neck.

  "Who are you? How did you sneak into the city?"

  Yao Guang had thought that she would be facing a "highly skilled assassin", and reflexively activated "Ti Yun Zong" to chase after him. At the time, she hadn't been fully prepared, but what she didn't expect was that following that one strand of discordant aura, she only found a child - and at that, a child who basically knew no martial arts! She easily caught hold of the boy, looked around at everyone's expressions, and saw that not a single person showed any sign of recognizing the boy. Connecting the dots, she directly placed the boy in the position of "scheming spy".

  The boy struggled desperately, shouting "Let me go! You freak!", Yao Guang impatiently sealed his acupoints and threw the immobilized boy to the ground. Just as she was about to find Xue Nu to deal with this matter, the sharp sword aura from earlier suddenly became clear. She instinctively raised her head and met a pair of cold, stone-like black eyes.

  Yao Guang couldn't help but slightly furrow her brow and asked aloud, "Is this child someone you brought in?"

  Previously, the sword energy was suppressed so well, but now it's been released. To say that there is no connection between the two would be something even a fool wouldn't believe.

  The tall and dark-haired man nodded slightly.

  "Under the lower cover. Please let go of Tianming... He's just naughty and has no malice."

  Yao Guang didn't respond to this sentence, but instead shifted her gaze to the sword at the man's waist.

  "You have a good sword."

  Even in its scabbard, the sword still has a sharp and fierce aura. If it were to be unsheathed... if it were to fall into the hands of a swordsman worthy of it, this sword would surely unleash extraordinary power.

  Gai Nuo Wei Leng, there shouldn't be a small number of people in this world who know that he possesses Yuan Hong. Why did the girl's words seem like she didn't know Yuan Hong's name? Even more strange is that right after she finished speaking, Yuan Hong actually started to hum slightly.

  "This sword is called Yuanhong."

  "Yuan Hong... I can roughly guess which Yuan and which Hong. This sword is upright and dignified, I believe you won't be a person with malicious intentions."

  This kind of person, if said to be a heroic husband, she believed that going to do espionage would be completely unsuitable. Looking carefully, there were several people who came with him, including several leaders of the Mohist school. If they came together openly and honestly with the leader, it was naturally impossible for them to be enemies.

  Yao Guang finally spared a glance at the boy on the ground with an angry face, looked him in the eye and then turned back to Ge Nie, smiling, "If he were your disciple or nephew, you'd probably have to worry more. Don't do such underhanded things again, if my sword hadn't broken, it would've already been out of its scabbard. You're a guest of the Mo family, right? I'm also a guest here now, my name is Yao Guang."

  Yao Guang bowed his head as a courtesy, and Gai Nie returned the gesture with a clenched fist. As two swordsmen, they shared the same intuition in some aspects, and this tacit understanding allowed them to comprehend each other's meaning without needing further explanation.

  Yao Guang knew that Gai Nie Ding would solve the puzzle, so he didn't bother with the boy on the ground. He jumped onto the railing and floated gently back down to the ground, smiling at Da Tie Chui and Xiang Shao Yu, who were still staring in shock.

  "It was just a false alarm, I hope it didn't cause you two any worry."

  Datie hammered down his chin, "Yaoguang girl is so light in her work."

  Xiang Shao Yu followed in agreement: "Yes... too fast..."

  It was too fast, just a blink of an eye and she had already rushed from here to the second floor and caught the person who was secretly attacking her.

  But why is Tianming here?

  Mr. Gai and Miss Rong, Miss Yue, and Master Ban also came.

  Yao Guang's eyebrows furrowed slightly.

  "Never mind my lightness. Your vigilance should also be practiced well, if I'm not around and that hidden weapon is not a small stone, you might have gone to see Yan Luo already. Since you have high aspirations, first of all, you must have the ability to protect yourself, if you die early, then there's no need to think about anything."

  Xiang Shaoyu awkwardly touched his head and bitterly smiled in response: "Yes..."

  Yao Guang suddenly asked: "Do you know that boy?"

  Xiang Shao Yu couldn't help but be shocked.

  "Yes, how did Elder Yao Guang know?"

  "Because you didn't even ask him about it." Up to this point, Yao Guang sighed and said somewhat embarrassedly, "Thinking about it now, you guys were just joking around as friends. I was too hasty in my actions and wasn't very considerate, fortunately I didn't hurt him earlier, sorry about that."

  Xiao Yu Lian waved his hand repeatedly, "Daozhang, please don't say that! I'm grateful for your help. That Tian Ming is a mischievous and arrogant kid, if I had really hit him, he would have boasted about it endlessly. Daozhang just taught him a lesson, so he won't be daydreaming all the time."

  Yao Guang smiled and looked at the few people who were walking down the stairs, saying to Shao Yu: "Is it not delightful to have friends coming from afar?"

  What's the point of staying here if you don't go see an old friend who has come?

  Xiang Shaoyu laughed a few times, nodded his hand at Yao Guang, and ran over to meet old friends.

  Yao Guang walked towards a dimly lit corridor, saw Xue Nu and Gao Jianli hiding in the dark, nodded in greeting, then smiled at Xue Nu: "Miss Snow Girl, this time I was really rude, actually treating Mo Family's guest as an enemy."

  Xue Nu smiled and said: "Rong Jiejie and the others just came back, I haven't had a chance to tell you yet. Unexpectedly, your lightness skill is so good, when I wanted to chase out, you already caught that little guy. You don't need to mind, secretly hurting people has never been in line with our Mo family's rules, Rong Jiejie and Ban Dashi won't be dissatisfied with you for this kind of thing either. Gai Nie doesn't have any reason to get angry. Speaking of which, Yao Guang, your injury hasn't healed yet, using lightness skill rashly, won't it aggravate the injury?"

  Yao Guang smiled and shook her head.

  "It's just these few steps, nothing will happen, thank you for worrying, Xue Nü."

  "That's good. You take care of your injury and next time something like this happens, just let us know."

  "At the time, I didn't have a chance to think much about it, just afraid of letting the assassin go..."

  The Snow Girl and Yao Guang were chatting in a harmonious atmosphere, while Gao Jianli stood beside them with a cold face, his icy killing intent directly pointing at Ge Nie outside.

  Gai Nei seemed to have a feeling, looked towards the passage, but because of the dim light, he couldn't see anything clearly.

  The person over there... could it be...

  The boy who was previously mistaken for an assassin by Yao Guang was making gestures with the girl who came with him.

  "Xiao Yue, didn't you see just now? That strange person appeared like a ghost, and before I knew it, he grabbed me. His hand was ice-cold, and who knows if he's even human! He must have used some kind of magic to immobilize me!"

  Gao Yue sighed helplessly.

  "It's dawn, don't be like this... That girl is likely a Taoist, she's wearing a Taoist robe and has a feather duster on her back. Her lightness skill is so good, her martial arts skills won't be bad either. She has already shown mercy by not hurting you, don't talk nonsense about others. The matter earlier was your fault to begin with, you should be the one apologizing."

  Tian Ming's movements paused, "Daoist? Which Daoist?"

  Gai Nuo replied in a low voice: "The Taoist school is one of the hundred schools, advocating for quietness and non-action, unity of heaven and man..." He glanced at Tian Ming, whose curse seal might still need to be lifted by the Taoist school, "In short, don't intentionally provoke her."

  Tian Ming was confused by the previous two words and finally couldn't help but say, "What's with this 'anyway'?! You're just afraid I'll go teach her a lesson, aren't you, uncle?!"

  Ban Dashi and Dao Jie almost burst out laughing, while Du Mu Rong couldn't help but curve the corners of her mouth.

  It's obvious who is teaching whom!

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