Love & Redemption
Chapter 235: Volume 5 Phoenix Flower Blooms, - 42: Reviving Majesty (Part 5)

Chapter 235: Volume 5 Phoenix Flower Blooms, Chapter 42: Reviving Majesty (Part 5)

At the third watch of the night.

It’s the end of the month, brazenly asking for your monthly votes~~~~

I’ve been quite diligent lately... consider it encouragement for Shisi... blushing as I run off...

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As soon as Xuanji heard the name, her whole body instinctively bristled. The deeds of this person were simply appalling. He had nearly killed Si Feng and later nearly took the life of Zhong Minyan. Although both had eventually healed, in her heart, Ruo Yu was equivalent to a murderer.

She almost immediately launched an attack. Ruo Yu only saw a flash of cold light before the icy sword reached his face. He did not dodge, but looked steadily as the sword tip stopped less than three inches from his eyes—Xuanji’s wrist had been caught by Yu Sifeng. Several strands of hair, shredded by the Sword Qi, slid down along his mask, and he knelt down smoothly, calling out loudly, "Disciple pays respects to the Palace Master!"

"Shameless!" Xuanji cursed bitterly, flinging off Yu Sifeng’s hand and, fuming, stood to the side with her arms crossed, silent.

Yu Sifeng frowned and said, "The one you should be kneeling before is not me, right? Unfortunately, the Vice Palace Master has already been taken by the people of Heaven, leaving only you behind. You should be kneeling to him."

Ruo Yu remained silent, head bowed. Yu Sifeng continued, "How did you end up here? Where were you before this?"

Ruo Yu said indifferently, "I have always been in Lize Palace. It’s just that the Palace Master did not care to notice. Seeing that the moon was particularly beautiful tonight, I came out to clear my mind. I didn’t intend to run into you both and was about to avoid you, but it seems I couldn’t after all."

Yu Sifeng laughed, "Lying to my face! If you were always in Lize Palace, why do you still wear a mask?"

"I assumed that the Palace Master’s demand to remove the mask was but a joke. Since it matters to the Palace Master, I shall remove it right away." Without waiting for Yu Sifeng to respond, he reached up and removed his mask. Although Xuanji was annoyed with him, she was also curious about his true appearance. However, when the mask was lifted, his face was revealed to be covered in huge scars. It was clear that the assailant was brutal, the injuries almost fatal. His features were mangled into a grotesque mess, dreadful like an evil ghost, startling them both.

Yu Sifeng said, "Your face... what happened? You didn’t look like this before..."

With a calm gaze, Ruo Yu replaced his mask and said softly, "I’ve startled the Palace Master. My apologies."

Yu Sifeng, with a frown, retorted, "What ’disciple’ and ’Palace Master’? Stand up first and tell me what happened. If I’m not mistaken, you were working for the Vice Palace Master, right? Was this his doing?"

Rising slowly, Ruo Yu adjusted his mask, speaking in a light tone, "Why dwell on the past? You also need not show me your magnanimity. Having once taken harsh actions, I never expected your forgiveness."

He even has the nerve to speak as if he’s in the right! Xuanji’s face turned ashen with rage, glaring murderously at him. Had it not been for Yu Sifeng’s earlier intervention, she really would have split him in two with her sword. After thinking it over, Yu Sifeng said, "If you refuse to speak, then let me guess. Although I don’t know why the Vice Palace Master sent you to kill Min Yan, you did go. Min Yan said that before you tried to kill him, you shared many secrets of Lize Palace and took off your mask. Could it be that you actually didn’t want to kill him?"

After a long silence, Ruo Yu replied, "Do you really not understand why the Vice Palace Master wanted me to kill Min Yan? He’s merely a Six-Feathered Golden Winged Bird, who could never become the true Palace Master in his lifetime, especially with the likes of you, a Twelve-Feathered one, beneath him. First, he wanted to kill you, but your life was spared because of your luck. Later, seeing through his scheme that you’d sacrifice your life for Chu Xuanji, he devised a plan to unite you two and have you leave Lize Palace of your own accord. And the biggest obstacle to your union was none other than Min Yan, right?"

This question left Yu Sifeng dumbfounded, and Xuanji’s face flushed red with embarrassment. Her secret crush on Zhong Min Yan, something she thought was deeply hidden, turned out to be known to all! It was one thing for someone sharp like Liu Yihuan to know, and understandable for someone as meticulous as Yu Sifeng, but how could the Vice Palace Master also be aware?!

Ruo Yu continued, "Moreover, he had been to Buzhou Mountain and knew what it was like there. Keeping him would’ve been troublesome. For me, there was no question of wanting or not wanting to kill; as long as the Vice Palace Master commanded it, I would do it."

"Is it because your sister is being held by him as leverage?" Yu Sifeng asked in a low voice.

Ruo Yu replied lightly, "So what if it is? Do you pity me? Are you going to offer some clichéd justification that I can be excused for the circumstances? Or perhaps, do you want to use her to blackmail me, to make me work for you?"

Yu Sifeng ignored his provocation and carried on, "The Vice Palace Master has quite the temper, doesn’t he? He sends you to kill someone, yet you dawdle and share many secrets with him. No wonder he was furious. The scars on your face... did he inflict them then?"

Ruo Yu remained silent, slowly lowering his head, his thoughts seeming to drift back to that afternoon. In a half-dazed state, he had killed Zhong Minyan, and similarly dazed, he followed the Vice Palace Master away from the Shaoyang Sect. Many details of what came next had slipped from his memory. Having long turned into a walking corpse since his sister’s captivity, he never questioned his orders to kill. With one sword strike, the deed would be done. For a long time, he found comfort in this routine, accustoming himself to it.

He hadn’t felt that deep sense of aimlessness for a very long time, not since the moment Zhong Minyan fell to his sword, leaving him feeling lost. It was the extreme pain that snapped him back to reality. His vision was a blur of red as the Vice Palace Master, laughing coldly, hacked and stabbed at his face with a dagger, saying, "Now why do you look like you have a conscience?! What’s the value of your conscience?!"

"Why remove the mask? Are you confessing your true feelings? Touching indeed! Ah... sorry, it seems I’ve disfigured your face. If your dear brother Minyan ever saw this monstrous visage, how shocked would he be? Oh right, I forgot, he’s already dead! Too bad he didn’t live to see your face now."

For some reason, the incident evidently touched a raw nerve in the Vice Palace Master, making him cruel and vicious in his attacks, almost turning Ruo Yu’s face into that of a ghost. Even amidst agonizing pain, he dared not retaliate. Eventually, he collapsed to the ground, unconscious, only to be shaken awake by a bucket of cold water poured over him head to toe. The Vice Palace Master then tenderly applied medicine to his wounds—he was indeed capricious, terrifying as an evil spirit when angry but fatally gentle when calm.

"Ruo Yu, brothers are unreliable creatures, only good for being used," were the last words he said to him. When he was injured, festering wounds almost claimed his life, inevitably delaying the Vice Palace Master’s schedule, he was left alone on the roadside as the other man walked away.

In some respects, he, Ruo Yu, really was like a loyal dog; barely snatching his life back from the Gate of Ghosts, the first thing he did was rush back to the Vice Palace Master’s side—if he were too late, his sister’s life would be at stake. Then he received a mission: to secretly surveil Yu Sifeng.

"I guess he either tasked you or someone else to watch me and Xuanji in secret. That’s why, after we met with Wuzhiqi, he came so quickly. Am I right?"

Sometimes, Ruo Yu was genuinely terrified of Yu Sifeng’s cleverness, his innate ability to see through the essence of events, strikingly accurate. No wonder the Vice Palace Master tried time and again to find an opportunity to get rid of such a fearsome individual who, had he been older, would have certainly been a formidable foe.

He was right; as soon as the Vice Palace Master heard of Wuzhiqi’s appearance, he rushed over immediately, while Ruo Yu was sent elsewhere to stand by. After waiting three days without any word, he tried returning to Lize Palace only to find everything turned upside-down. Both Palace Masters—one arrested by Heaven, the other persecuted to death—and Yu Sifeng became the unanimous choice for the new Palace Master, initiating widespread reforms.

"Now that the Vice Palace Master has been captured, you’re free. So why remain in Lize Palace? As you said, I’m not magnanimous enough to readily accept you. You must give me a reason for being here now," Yu Sifeng said indifferently, his expression solemn, "If you fail to satisfy me, I won’t hesitate to kill you on the spot."

Ruo Yu remained silent for a long time before he finally spoke, "My sister... she’s imprisoned here."

Yu Sifeng frowned slightly, "Here? Ridiculous, how could there be a dungeon near Silver Spring!"

"I have no reason to lie to you." Ruo Yu turned and walked towards Silver Spring, the reflection of the water turning him a silvery white, "Below Silver Spring is a secret chamber, left by our ancestors. I don’t know what it’s for. The Vice Palace Master also discovered this place a little over a year ago. He imprisoned my sister here, and I’ve seen her once."

Yu Sifeng’s lips moved slightly as if he wanted to say something, but he remained silent. After a while, he finally said, "All right, let’s go down together. If your sister is indeed there, then you can take her and go home with her. Don’t stay here anymore; no one here wants to see you."

Without a reply, Ruo Yu dove into the water and quickly submerged. Xuanji whispered softly, "How pitiful. Is his sister really locked down there? Even if there were a secret chamber, being locked up for a year could kill a person, right?" Yu Sifeng shook his head, murmuring softly, "She may already be... Anyway, let’s go down and see."

Both of them jumped into Silver Spring. Although Lize Palace was an isolated island in the sea, the peculiar thing was that this Silver Spring was not salty. There was something special in the water that made it glisten, and as they dived deeper, the light grew brighter, the silver-white color saturating their vision. After descending about fifteen feet, they saw a small black door on the cave wall, already open. They swam through it together and, strangely, although the door was open, the water stopped right at the threshold, not a drop penetrating as if a barrier had been placed on the door itself.

Beyond the door was pitch darkness; nothing could be seen, and a musty, salty stench hit them. Xuanji quickly drew out her Bengyu, gently brushed her fingers over it, and the sword immediately emitted a bright fiery glow, revealing the chamber within. There was just a very narrow and short passage behind the door, and only one door in the left wall. Now the door was open, and Ruo Yu’s gentle voice came from inside.

"Sister, I’ve come to see you. This time your big brother can finally take you out of here, we’ll go home together. Are you happy?"

Never before had he spoken with such tenderness, a tenderness that was almost heart-breaking. They walked in slowly, and as Xuanji lit the way with her sword, she was so shocked she nearly screamed. In the chamber was just an iron bed with a rotten skeleton, now only bone, leaning against it. Ruo Yu hugged the bones to his chest, speaking tenderly and laughing.

This scene was, of course, extremely eerie. Xuanji stepped back, watching incredulously. The skeleton in his arms didn’t look human, with a long neck and pointed beak and wings—it was clearly a massive bird, unmistakably a Golden Winged Bird. Xuanji said in a trembling voice, "You... you... Is that your sister?"

Ruo Yu turned to look at her reproachfully and whispered, "Keep it down, don’t scare her. My sister is timid."

Xuanji’s mouth fell open, unsure of what to say. Yu Sifeng spoke softly, "Well, now that you’ve found your sister, this place is damp. Let’s get out of here first." Ruo Yu nodded, holding the pile of bones tenderly in his arms, careful not to disturb her, smiling as he walked out.

"Has he gone mad?" Xuanji pulled on Yu Sifeng’s sleeve and asked in a low voice from behind, "Or is this a trick?"

Yu Sifeng replied softly, "When he was once drunk, he confessed. He was forced into Lize Palace; his parents were killed during the abduction, leaving only his little sister. The Vice Palace Master promised to take care of her, but for some reason... by the looks of those bones, she must have been dead for more than a year; he must have known."

So had he come specifically to collect her bones? But that didn’t make sense either. If he knew his sister was dead already, then why continue to work for the Vice Palace Master? Xuanji couldn’t figure it out and could only follow Yu Sifeng back to the shore. Ruo Yu was wiping the wet bones with his equally damp sleeve. The bony wing sported a distinctive jade ring, which must have been what Zhong Minyan gifted him at that time.

"Now that I’ve found my sister, I’ll honor my promise and leave immediately, never to return." He turned and said, his mask likely washed away by the water, revealing a twisted and fierce face, yet his gaze was tender and content.

Yu Sifeng nodded silently, watching him walk away with the bones. He couldn’t help but say, "You’re just going to hold her like that? Don’t you need... something to wrap her in?"

Ruo Yu laughed, "What are you talking about, wrap? She does need to buy some new clothes though... Yes. There, there, big brother will take you to the market for clothes and food soon."

Yu Sifeng finally fell silent, watching him leave and not quite knowing how to feel. (To be continued... For more of the story, please visit www.qidian.com. More Chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)