Chapter 261: Qin Shanshan’s Unrequited Love

Translator: Minotauruz

Jun Ziwen was none other than Ye Xiuwen whom everybody thought had perished. He had spent well over four thousand days and nights within the Death’s Gorge, and there was not a single moment when he did not long to breach the artificial barrier formed by spirit and demonic beasts so that he could return to the surface.

Even his master from within the Death’s Gorge had warned him time and again that he was far too reckless and daring.

But only Ye Xiuwen knew the real reason why he was willing to go so far – it was the worry and the concern on his heart.

After twelve full years, he finally eked out a painstaking victory against the throngs of spirit and demonic beasts within the Death’s Gorge and found his way back to the surface. When he finally achieved all that, he felt as though he had just been reborn.

His master thought to call upon some of the old friends of his, and they thus bade each other farewell at the precipice of the Death’s Gorge. Ye Xiuwen made haste and sped towards the direction of the Dawn Sect, hoping to return to the Heavenly Peak in the shortest time possible so that he could reunite with the ones whom he cared about. In the end, he heard rumours along the way that the Heavenly Peak had been annihilated.

To Ye Xiuwen, such news was like a bolt of lightning from the blue.

Along the way, Ye Xiuwen began to hear more and more about the Heavenly Peak. These pieces of news were purely hearsay, and it was evident that these stories had evolved as they were passed from person to person. After all, Ye Xiuwen heard varying accounts of what exactly happened to the Heavenly Peak.

Some said that the one-hundred or so people within the Heavenly Peak were all massacred – even Jun Linxuan and his wife Liu Qingmei were unable to avoid this calamity. When they perished, their blood dyed the entire Heavenly Peak a terrifying, blood-red colour.

Some others said that the people who perished comprised only a small part of the Heavenly Peak, while the remnant managed to escape and disappeared without a trace. At this point in time, the Dawn Sect’s Sect Leader and Sect Elders were discreetly activating their resources in order to track down the remnant from the Heavenly Peak who had managed to give them the slip.

There were yet others who told a different account, saying that not a single person from the Heavenly Peak perished. Rather, they had only been bound up and restrained for the time being. The rest of the members of the Dawn Sect were going to decide how they would deal with them after they had finished distributing the Heavenly Peak’s wealth among themselves.

These different accounts of the incident were all diverse and muddied, and there was not a single thread of consistency among them. Ye Xiuwen was none the wiser as to which version was true, and which version was false. The only thing he could glean from these rumours was the fact that He Zhang and his lackeys were responsible for Heavenly Peak’s plight!

He was reminded of what his little martial sister had earlier reminded him, particularly in respect of how He Zhang was not a benevolent and virtuous person, and that he would in due time make a move against the Heavenly Peak. Back then, despite how he was astonished at the changes to his little martial sister’s constitution, he barely took her words of caution to heart.

On hindsight, he found it truly regrettable that did not alert his master about these matters earlier...

His heart would be filled with pangs of pain whenever he thought about his little martial sister as well – he had not heard anything about his little martial sister at all. The rumours had all focused on the fate of the Heavenly Peak as a whole, and none of them addressed each individual within the Heavenly Peak. Even though his little martial sister was none other than the daughter of the Heavenly Peak’s Peakmaster, it was as though everyone seemed to have forgotten completely about her.

To the eyes of outsiders, Ye Xiuwen was a suave and charming young man with a cool disposition about him, yet he was also one who could only be admired from a distance because he was difficult to chat up. In his pain and solitude, Ye Xiuwen had shut himself off to outsiders, and consciously kept to himself in these days of muddle-headedness.

He was vexed by the fact that he was receiving a baptism of glances and stares everywhere he went, and there were even several ladies who would come up with all forms of excuses just to get close to him. Thus, Ye Xiuwen decided that he would return to how life used to be in the past when he covered his face with a veiled conical hat. With that, the annoying gazes that haunted and harassed him like flies over a rotten fruit finally diminished substantially.

Thus, Ye Xiuwen’s life became one that was filled with solitude and serenity once more. His garrulous master who would unceasingly blabber and jabber about anything and everything was no longer beside him; and his little martial sister who adhered herself to him as she bounced about like a jovial little happy pill was no longer around him either. All of a sudden, Ye Xiuwen found his life awash with an unprecedented solitude and loneliness.

He was a person who enjoyed his time alone to begin with. Back in the days while he was at the Heavenly Peak, even though he maintained a reasonably cordial relationship with his martial brothers, he could truly only be considered close to his little martial sister. In the preceding twenty-something years of his life, he had always been learning alone, practicing alone, and he was used to coming and going alone. Back then, he didn’t find anything uncomfortable or wrong with living a life of solitude.

However, in that moment that the fell into the Death’s Gorge and realized that he would no longer be able to leave in the near future, each and every day that passed within was a strong reminder to him that home was where the heart was – in this regard, the Heavenly Peak was like an eternal home to him.

Ye Xiuwen could hardly fathom the idea of looking for a new place to call home if the Heavenly Peak were truly gone as the rumours had suggested.

And there was still his little martial sister...

His little martial sister had been so heartbroken and distressed by the fact that he was receiving these strange and peculiar glances from the public as a result of the scar on his face, and it was for that reason that she had sought out the various constituent herbs necessary to purge the curse and demonic energy from the scar on his face. Now that his appearances had returned to normal, perhaps the one who would be most delighted and overjoyed would be none other than his little martial sister, right?

Ye Xiuwen longed to learn of Jun Xiaomo’s whereabouts, so much so that he had even begun to keep an ear out for news pertaining to Rong Ruihan. After all, Rong Ruihan possessed the same level of concern for Jun Xiaomo as he did. If his intuition was right, the confidante of the Inferno Kingdom’s first prince would be none other than his little martial sister.

Unfortunately, what he had just heard was undoubtedly a grave piece of news. After all, the burly man in the teahouse had earlier said that the confidante of the Inferno Kingdom’s first prince had been put to death by the Greenwich Kingdom’s king, and it was precisely for this reason that the first prince had in his fury launched an all-out invasion, surrounding the Greenwich Kingdom’s capital.

Could it be Xiaomo? In the moment that Ye Xiuwen heard this piece of news, his entire mind went blank with an eerie silence. His chest felt stifled as though a heavy boulder had just landed on it, so much so that his breathing had even come to a complete halt.

After ascertaining that the “Inferno Kingdom’s first prince” referred to by the group of men in the teahouse was indeed Rong Ruihan, Ye Xiuwen left the teahouse and continued on his way along the bustling main road. At that point in time, he was completely taciturn.

Sequestered by the veiled conical hat, everyone around could only tell that this man emanated a cold and distant aura that made him seem rather unapproachable. However, nobody could tell the distress and chaos that was buzzing in his mind.

His only hope was that Rong Ruihan’s confidante was not Jun Xiaomo, or that the rumours had evolved so much that they had completely warped the truth, and that the confidante was not actually dead.

In his sullenness, Ye Xiuwen serendipitously encountered Qin Shanshan and the entourage of disciples that followed closely behind her. Qin Shanshan’s unruly and headstrong behaviour coupled with her troublemaking character left him incredibly displeased. That said, he firmly believed in the notion of chivalry, and he was not a bloodthirsty murderer either. Therefore, he did not make a move and take Qin Shanshan’s life.

Then, as soon as Qin Shanshan disclosed her identity, Ye Xiuwen paused in his steps.

Nobody knew better than these Dawn Sect disciples what exactly happened to the members of the Heavenly Peak. Thus, he intended to elicit more of the truth about the Dawn Sect disciples directly from Qin Shanshan’s mouth.

At the same time, Qin Shanshan was not aware of Ye Xiuwen’s true identity and the purpose for which he was inquiring all these things. In fact, she had thought that Ye Xiuwen had taken an interest towards her, and she would cast meaningful, coquettish glances at Ye Xiuwen from time to time, and even broach topic after topic to learn more about Ye Xiuwen. In the end, Ye Xiuwen merely gave curt responses, such as “Mm”, “Yes”, or “Nope”.

Qin Shanshan gritted her teeth with infuriation – This man is far too cold, isn’t he?!

But it wouldn’t be challenging and interesting otherwise, would it? Qin Shanshan thought to herself as she steeled her resolve and dug deeper.

“Ah, brother Jun, let’s have a chat inside this teahouse! Its décor and cleanliness both seem pretty decent.” Qin Shanshan pointed at one of the teahouses nearby as she suggested to Ye Xiuwen.

Ye Xiuwen had earlier told Qin Shanshan to address him as “Jun Ziwen”, yet Qin Shanshan had of her own volition decided to call him “brother Jun”, because such a term of reference made it sound as though they were closer and more intimate.

Since Ye Xiuwen’s surname wasn’t Jun to begin with, he could hardly be bothered to correct Qin Shanshan’s manner of addressing him.

As soon as he heard Qin Shanshan’s suggestion, Ye Xiuwen calmly nodded his head, before taking the lead and walking straight towards the teahouse.

Qin Shanshan was taken aback by Ye Xiuwen’s curt and simple actions, and she stared at his back with rage in her eyes.

Why doesn’t this guy have any sense of chivalry at all?! When he becomes my boyfriend in future, I’m going to have to teach him a thing or two about chivalry!

The martial brothers following behind Qin Shanshan exchanged sheepish glances with each other. Qin Shanshan’s infatuation for that man was so obvious that they couldn’t turn a blind eye to it even if they wanted to. However, it was clear that the man had no interest in Qin Shanshan whatsoever. Thus, everyone was concerned about whether the diva Qin Shanshan would throw a tantrum when she finally realized that she was not going to be able to obtain what she wanted.

In fact, they were not so much afraid of Qin Shanshan as they were the firm mountain that was backing her which took the form of her brother. It was only on account for her brother that they continued to attempt to cajole Qin Shanshan and treat her well.

Forget it, let’s deal with things one step at a time. The Dawn Sect disciples shook their heads in resignation as they followed Qin Shanshan into the teahouse.

As her determination to win Ye Xiuwen’s heart manifested, Qin Shanshan truly pulled out all the stops. She cast aside her diva-like attitude and turned into a demure, polite lady as she took the initiative to wash the teapot, rinse the tea leaves and then rinse the cups. Everyone around, apart from Ye Xiuwen, were completely flabbergasted by the stark change to her temperament.

They had never seen such a side to Qin Shanshan before! It was as though the sun was going to rise from the west tomorrow!

In order to sell her tea-making abilities to Ye Xiuwen and leave a good impression, she made sure to perform each of the tea ceremony moves with flair and poise. She would even from time to time bring her hand gracefully across Ye Xiuwen’s eyes, before casting him a slightly shy and abashed look.

However, everything that she had done seemed to have been in vain. Ye Xiuwen’s eyes continued to be fixed on the surface of the table, and his expressions remained placid. Nobody could tell what was running through his mind.

“Cough...martial sister, you’ve been rinsing the tea for quite a long time now.” One of the other Dawn Sect disciples couldn’t help but remind Qin Shanshan.

Qin Shanshan’s soft and tender actions were far too peculiar and incredulous, and none of the disciples could take it any longer.

“Who told you to butt in!” Qin Shanshan glared at the disciple who spoke up.

“Let me do it instead.” Ye Xiuwen nimbly took over the pot of tea from Qin Shanshan’s hands, and he began to make tea.

Ye Xiuwen was fluent and proficient in his tea-making abilities, and the tea was ready in no time. He even exuded a cool and down-to-earth aura as he performed the actions in the tea-making process. Several people who stole glances at him immediately began to feel as though the fragrance of tea that was wafting into the air was imbued with a sense of otherworldliness. Qin Shanshan’s proficiency in the craft of tea making could hardly hold a candle to Ye Xiuwen’s, and she could even be described to have been making a fool of herself earlier.

Even though Qin Shanshan felt that she had lost face in this regard, she was at the same time incredibly proud that her dear brother Jun truly lived up to his name – even a simple action like making tea could be done with such graceful poise. By this point, she was almost certain that he must hail from a large sect.

Qin Shanshan thought about Yu Wanrou and the group of men she had gathered about her, and she couldn’t help but chuckle excitedly – if she could subjugate brother Jun and make him hers, she would most certainly gain Yu Wanrou’s admiration and envy.

After all, none of the men around Yu Wanrou were a match for her brother Jun in terms of both their looks as well as their auras and dispositions. As Qin Shanshan thought about these things, she bit down on her lower lip and cast an impassioned gaze towards Ye Xiuwen.

However, Ye Xiuwen had not agreed to enter the teahouse just so that he could act as Qin Shanshan’s eye candy.

Thus, he got straight to the point, “I wonder if this lady would be willing to discuss with me the matter pertaining to the Heavenly Peak?”

Qin Shanshan was slightly taken aback at his eagerness in this regard, and her curiosity was piqued.

“Brother Jun, why do you want so much to know about the Heavenly Peak?”