TDSDE 21

21. They were all deceived.

In truth, according to Yuanxiu’s thinking, it would’ve been best to investigate the massacre of the Zhai family in Nanyang sixteen years ago without letting Xiao Qing know.

Although he didn’t know what role Xiao Qing played in that event, he could guess—it was probably not a good memory for him.

The capital of Dajing had a curfew, but for martial artists, the city walls were nothing more than a few extra bursts of internal energy to vault over. The imperial court turned a blind eye, so long as these martial artists didn’t use their skills to harm the people.

Bai Yuanxiu and Xiao Qing each took a different side, stepping up the uneven parts of the wall. In just four or five steps, they were on top of the city wall.

Bai Yuanxiu was still listening closely for any strange sounds around them when he turned his head and caught sight of the city guard’s utterly stunned face.

He grinned, gave the man a wave, then leaned back and disappeared into the pitch-black night.

Xiao Qing, watching all this: “……”

After holding back for a long time, Xiao Qing finally couldn’t resist: “Could you maybe not try to look cool for once?”

Bai Yuanxiu grinned, his teeth flashing white in the dark. “Oh? So you do think I looked cool?”

Xiao Qing ignored him, shifted slightly to the left, and in just a few flickers of his body, vanished from sight.

Bai Yuanxiu, in a good mood, jogged to the right and even started humming a tune.

He deliberately slowed down, but still, after running through the forest for less than half a stick of incense’s time, he spotted the figure ahead—white robes and long black hair. The “ghost” that had once wandered through the old Zhai estate.

Turning his head slightly to the left, Bai Yuanxiu saw, as expected, Xiao Qing standing quietly atop a treetop.

They didn’t exchange words, but both instinctively slowed their steps and movements, trailing behind the ghostly figure at a distance. Just as that person was about to come to a halt, Bai Yuanxiu purposely made some noise.

From afar, he watched as the figure spooked and took off in a panic.

Xiao Qing, watching from above, sent a voice transmission: “How long are you planning to mess around like this?”

If someone else had said that, it might’ve sounded like a rebuke. But when Bai Yuanxiu heard it from Xiao Qing, he wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination—but there was a hint of something else in his tone.

Bai Yuanxiu simply answered as he pleased: “Until he can’t run anymore.”

Hearing that, Xiao Qing surged ahead again, and soon settled at another vantage point with a clear view, like a cat toying with a mouse.

Bai Yuanxiu chuckled at the image and let himself sink into this rare moment of indulgence.

The “ghost” wasn’t particularly skilled—after just one more stick of incense’s worth of fleeing, he was completely spent.

Yuanxiu walked over at a leisurely pace, bent at the waist, and said, “It’s come to this—no need to wear the mask anymore, right?”

The man panted heavily, anger in his voice. “I didn’t think the praised and admired Hero Bai would act so despicably!”

Yuanxiu ignored the insult. He crouched down, picked up a branch, and poked the man’s head repeatedly. “Come on—what were you looking for in that house?”

Annoyed by the prodding, the man ripped off his mask, along with the blood-streaked hair tangled around it, revealing a face Bai Yuanxiu found very familiar.

Bai Yuanxiu’s eyes widened, then narrowed slightly. “Little brother, I feel like… you look kind of familiar.”

The one behind the ghost mask was a young man. Hearing Bai Yuanxiu’s comment, he replied in a low voice, “Of course I do. You’ve seen me before.”

“Oh?” Yuanxiu twirled the branch in his hand. “I don’t remember.”

The youth glanced at Yuanxiu and said bluntly, “Last summer. In Ai Li Village.”

Bai Yuanxiu had been quietly circulating his inner energy, but now his movements halted. He glanced into the shadows, then stood up abruptly, eyes wide. “It was you!?”

The youth frowned slightly, lifting his head to meet Vai Yuanxiu’s gaze, face solemn and sincere. “Hero Bai, you’ve been deceived by your friend.”

Seeing Bau Yuanxiu still looking confused, the youth sighed heavily. “That man isn’t some weak young lord. He’s from the Demonic Sect!”

Bai Yuanxiu stared, shocked. “What?! What do you mean?”

Seeing Bai Yuanxiu’s earnest expression, the young man finally started to tell his story.

His name was Zhou Xiaoxiao. He was an orphan. His master had told him that sixteen years ago, while passing through Nanyang, he heard a baby crying in the night. Curious, he climbed into the Zhai family estate—only to see corpses everywhere and a courtyard soaked in blood.

Zhou Xiaoxiao’s master had lived in seclusion for many years and didn’t want trouble. He found the baby hidden in a pile of ashes in the woodshed and quickly left.

Zhou Xiaoxiao grew up learning martial arts from his master, but his aptitude was poor. After so many years, he hadn’t even learned one-fifth of the techniques. He spent his days training his body instead.

Eight winters ago, still just a child, Zhou Xiaoxiao was practicing in the yard when he suddenly heard voices.

They lived deep in the mountains, hadn’t seen outsiders in over a decade. Curious, he crept closer to peek—and what he saw made his blood run cold.

Inside the house, there was blood everywhere. A youth stood beside his master’s corpse, hands dripping with blood.

Zhou Xiaoxiao was so terrified he accidentally stepped on a dry branch. The faint sound was enough to make that youth suddenly whip around and stare at him.

Zhou Xiaoxiao would never forget those eyes—cold, hollow, like a soulless corpse.

Paired with a face smeared with blood and flesh, it looked like a demon risen from hell to feast on human flesh. Absolutely terrifying.

As the youth drew closer, Zhou Xiaoxiao could hear his own heartbeat pounding in his ears. Out of sheer terror, he grabbed the unfinished powder at his waist—his master had been teaching him medicine, saying he needed a secondary skill to rely on in case martial arts didn’t work out.

That powder was supposed to kill on contact. But it wasn’t finished. Zhou Xiaoxiao didn’t even know what the exact effect was.

Still, when he threw it, the youth immediately coughed up blood. Zhou Xiaoxiao ran for his life, didn’t stop until nightfall, and hid in the snowy mountains for days. He nearly froze to death.

But he didn’t die. He survived by eating snow, bark, even bugs.

When he recovered, the first thing he did was return to that house. Half a year had passed, but everything was exactly as he remembered.

The cold temperature in the mountains—even in summer—had kept the corpse from rotting too badly.

Zhou Xiaoxiao had cleaned up everything. After practically digging up the ground and still failing to find any trace of that boy, he was certain now—the boy hadn’t died back then.

He gathered his master’s remains, tidied up the courtyard until it was as clean as it had been in the past, and then walked out of that remote mountain, one step at a time.

He was going to seek revenge.

But what Zhou Xiaoxiao hadn’t expected was that, after tracking clues all the way to the western regions of Dajing, he would uncover something even more terrifying.

—The Zhai family massacre all those years ago had been carried out by the Demonic Sect.

Everything suddenly made sense. The Demonic Sect had slaughtered the entire Zhai family, with only him surviving by pure luck. Then, years later, the sect found out someone had lived—and so they came hunting into that secluded mountain range.

Zhou Xiaoxiao was devastated.

He’d originally thought his only enemy was that one boy. But now, he had no choice but to accept the cruel truth: he was up against the entire Demonic Sect.

He took up residence in a small village near the sect’s territory. Every day, he watched the disciples coming and going, consumed with hatred over his own lack of strength—why couldn’t he just charge into the Demonic Sect and kill them all?

He even considered poisoning the village’s water source at its origin. But that would result in countless deaths, and in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Just when he thought revenge in this life was hopeless, he saw someone.

That person wore white robes, with skin pale as ice and a cold, chilling presence. Zhou Xiaoxiao recognized him instantly, purely from that eerie, unmistakable aura—that was the boy who had killed his master!

Eight years had passed. That boy had grown into a tall, refined young man. The face that had once been destroyed was now healed—so stunning it didn’t seem like something from this world.

Zhou Xiaoxiao could only think: Such a beautiful face… such a venomous heart.

He began tailing the man, waiting for a chance to poison him. But the man was highly alert and possessed deep inner energy. Even the slightest approach would draw his attention. Zhou Xiaoxiao followed him for over a month and still never found an opening.

Summer blazed on. No matter how powerful someone was, even they couldn’t resist thirst under the scorching sun.

Zhou Xiaoxiao saw the man’s water flask was empty—and he knew his chance had finally come.

But his luck was abysmal. Just as he found the perfect opportunity to strike, a few bandits with machetes came down from the mountain.

Zhou Xiaoxiao felt nothing but glee at the interruption, curious to see how the youth would handle the trouble this time. But before anything could happen, a voice rang out to stop the bandits.

At this part of the story, Zhou Xiaoxiao looked at Bai Yuanxiu, eyes filled with sympathy. “Hero Bai, that ‘knight saving the damsel’—was you.”

Bai Yuanxiu’s name had spread far in the martial world over the past few years, and Zhou Xiaoxiao deeply admired this righteous swordsman. That was why he had never tried to attack Xiao Qing in front of Bai Yuanxiu.

“Hero Bai, I know you’re someone who values loyalty and righteousness. But that Xiao Qing really isn’t a good person.”

Zhou Xiaoxiao’s tone turned heated, his outrage growing with every word. “We were all deceived by the Demonic Sect! If a monster who slaughters civilians can become one of their disciples, then the rest of them must be even worse!”

“And those Left and Right Protectors—they’re called Black and White Impermanence for a reason! Who knows, maybe they really drink human blood and eat human flesh, cultivating with people’s souls!”

Bai Yuanxiu: …

No, I don’t. And Xiao Qing’s tastes are pretty normal too… probably.

As he listened to Zhou Xiaoxiao’s endless ranting about the horrors of the Demonic Sect, Bai Yuanxiu felt incredibly frustrated. He couldn’t say a word to refute it.

He waited a while longer, but still didn’t hear the information he wanted. So he interrupted, asking again, “So when you went back to that estate before, it was because…?”

Zhou Xiaoxiao was jolted by the reminder and slammed his fist against the ground. “I had caught Xiao Qing. And he told me—my master wasn’t who I thought he was.”

Bai Yuanxiu looked at the talkative kid, his fingers twitching. He resisted the urge to hit him and asked with a warm smile, “What do you mean by that?”

Zhou Xiaoxiao fell silent for a long while, to the point where Bai Yuanxiu’s patience was about to run out.

Just as Bai Yuanxiu was about to reveal his identity to speed things up, Zhou Xiaoxiao suddenly lowered his head, voice choked.

“He said… my entire life was a lie.”