บท 19: Setting Off (1)
บรรณาธิการ: Kurisu
"Ah… my body is still too weak… just a few months’ cultivation is far from enough." Now that Lu Sheng stopped moving, his entire body was instantly attacked by pain.
Thankfully, Jade Crane Skill continuously circulated inner Qi by spreading out an enormous amount of silk-like threads, akin to weaving a spiderweb, to all sore parts of his body.
As the inner Qi continued to grow and nourish his body, faint sense of a numbing itch began to cover the parts that originally hurt.
‘The effects are indeed shocking. This kind of numbing itch should appear only when a wound is healing and growing new flesh,’ Lu Sheng speculated.
Glancing over at the corpses on the floor, he walked through the gap in the wall Lin Shuanghuo had appeared from earlier.
On the other side of the gap was a backyard belonging to another family.
Upon entering the backyard, Lu Sheng’s gaze swept over the footprints that lay on the ground. Following the footprints, he walked along towards the interior of this other family’s house.
As he entered the house, Lu Sheng was struck dumb as he saw the sight before him.
What greeted him was the sight of Lu Qinging hanging from the house beams, wearing nothing but a smattering of white-colored inner garments.
The lass had fainted. More than half of her inner pants was stripped off, revealing delicate and soft snowy-white buttocks. Her legs were tied apart from the other, causing both her legs to spread out wide in a humiliating posture.
If not for a strip of cloth obscuring it, one could almost get a view of the most crucial part.
As for her upper body, a large part of it was also exposed. Only a slight piece of cloth covered the center of her chest.
From the look of things, if Lu Sheng had arrived any later, Lin Shuanghuo would have certainly finished her off.
"Thankfully… thankfully…"
Lu Sheng hastily approached and removed his outer coat to wrap Lu Qingqing with it before putting her down.
No one else could know of this incident. Otherwise, Lu Qingqing’s reputation would go down the drain.
Lu Sheng decided to keep the fact that Lu Qingqing was held captive a secret.
In this generation, if people got wind of such incident happening to a woman, who would dare say for sure whether or not Lu Qingqing had been taken advantage of?
A woman’s purity was of extreme importance in the current times.
In some families, women who lost their purity before marriage would even be locked in pig cages and drowned!
With Lu Qingqing in his arms, Lu Sheng lightly slapped the girl’s face a few times.
If inner Qi could be freely controlled, then perhaps, just like the inner force that he had once heard of, he would be able to send some of it into others’ bodies to help them in healing.
It was a pity that his Jade Crane Skill inner force could not be moved outside his body in the slightest.
Only after slapping her over and over again did Lu Qingqing gradually and weakly regain some consciousness.
Having just awoken, both her eyes were dazed as she stared blankly.
Only when she felt chilly all over her body did she suddenly remember that she had been defeated and then tied up by those thugs.
Her current, odd situation caused her body to quiver all over. When she had come to, she stared at Lu Sheng, the rims of her eyes fast turning red…
Tears welled up in her eyes and threatened to flow out at any moment.
"Hurry and get dressed! Our family’s men will be here any minute," Lu Sheng hurried her up. Uncle Zhao and the rest should be able to find their way here very quickly.
Actually, only a very short amount of time passed since he entered and then dueled with the Phantom Head brothers. And precisely because of that Lu Qingqing was left with just enough buffer time.
Lu Qingqing’s face flickered and seemed to quickly understand something. She was no fool, and understood what her Big Bro was trying to say.
Hearing that there was still some hope to redeem the situation, she hurriedly straightened her limp body. She went around all over the house to gather her torn clothes, though she wasn't able to wear them all as some of them were rather damaged.
Some of her intimate parts were revealed as she put on her clothes, though she could not be bothered to care too much about that now.
Being sensitive and considerate, Lu Sheng turned around to back-face her.
He waited for Lu Qingqing to finish dressing herself before turning around again.
Seeing how considerate her Big Bro was, Lu Qingqing heaved a long sigh of relief. While her face was still slightly flushed, it was better than before.
"Big Bro, what about those thugs!?" A vengeful look appeared on her face.
"I killed them," Lu Sheng said calmly. "What about Little Eight? I didn't see him."
"I’m not sure… I didn't see Little Eight here."
Lu Qingqing had just answered, when suddenly, she seemed to collect her wits. In an instant, she was dumbfounded.
So many people, so many experts—and yet her Big Bro killed them all by himself?
She was rather doubtful.
In her impression, the image of Lu Sheng was always the refined, scholarly young master. Although he had started practicing martial arts recently, those men were highly skilled; even her Master might not be able to deal with them on his own…
‘How could Big Bro have done it by himself…?’
"We’ll look for Little Eight on the way back. You've finished packing? Later, we’ll say that both of us worked together to kill those men, got it? You were fighting head to head with their disciples when I arrived," Lu Sheng was preparing their oral testimony.
"Mm!"
Lu Qingqing knew the grave severity of the situation. Without asking further, she nodded her head seriously.
But as soon as she thought about how Big Bro must have seen her practically naked body, a strange sense of shame and humiliation rose up in her heart.
It felt as if she might as well be naked whenever she stood in front of Big Bro.
Thinking of that, her face once again flushed red. She quickly lowered her head to hide it.
Lu Sheng once again tried to tidy up the last traces of them in the house and kept the rope that was used to tie her earlier.
Halfway through, Uncle Zhao and the rest finally arrived.
The sound of hurried footsteps belonging to a group of people rushing into the next-door backyard could be heard.
Then, a cry of alarm rang out.
"It’s the Lin brothers, Severed Head Blade and Phantom Head Blade!" A slightly older guard’s voice sounded out loudly. The crowd got into a frenzy before quieting down for a moment.
Uncle Zhao’s voice rang out next, "Let’s find Young Master and Second Miss!"
"We’re alright!"
Lu Sheng, with Lu Qingqing in tow, returned to the earlier yard.
Uncle Zhao, dressed in black athletic robes and holding a twin-saber in his hand, was standing in the middle of the yard.
As for the other guards, they all split up to investigate the corpses and leads at the scene.
"Brother Sheng! Good thing you’re alright!" A look of relief appeared in Uncle Zhao’s eyes, and his originally stiff and severe manner immediately relaxed.
"This is not a good place to talk, let’s get back first."
After speaking, he looked at Lu Qingqing who was following behind, his eyes seemingly in thought. Although both their disguises could fool most people, it did not fool a seasoned player of the pugilistic world like him.
Lu Sheng nodded, knowing that someone from the Manor had already notified the authorities. Both of them led Lu Qingqing and the group of guards out and hailed a horse carriage.
The three of them sat in the carriage, while the rest either rode horses or ran back as they sped back the way they came. There were also a few people left in the yard who were responsible for communicating with the authorities from the yamen.
The three headed straight back to the Manor.
Then, they shut the main doors tightly.
Lu Quanan, Second Mother and the rest of the family members were already waiting within the Main Hall.
Lu Qingqing was brought there after she changed her clothes.
Lu Sheng did not follow along. He relayed the entire incident in detail to Uncle Zhao; only, it was a modified version, in which Lu Qingqing had been embroiled in a fight to the death with the enemy’s disciples when Lu Sheng arrived.
Thereafter, using his injuries as an excuse, he returned to rest.
The physician from the pharmacy also came by to check his wounds.
Torn muscles in many areas, some slight hairline fractures, and even a bit of internal bleeding. Shoulder blades were slightly dislocated, and so on and so forth.
Lu Sheng really detested these bothersome checks done by different groups going on and on. A very simple matter took half a day to settle.
After washing up, a teary-eyed Little Qiao helped him out of his outer coat and onto the bed to rest.
After the physician left, Lu Sheng once again felt that his injuries had recovered by quite a bit since their return. His spirit was full of vigor as blood pulsed through this veins; his body showed no signs of having experienced a great battle.
At the peak of Jade Crane Skill, the power to recover from wounds was indeed highly powerful and effective.
Lying on his bed, Lu Sheng rubbed his tummy, filled with the bowl of ginseng chicken soup he had drunk earlier. His whole body felt warm and fuzzy; it was extremely comfortable.
‘This trip has been a false scare. Little did I expect that although Second Sis had gotten herself into trouble, it was not with any demons, devils, ghosts or monsters, but two fugitive murderers from many years back instead.’
Initially, he was a bundle of nerves because he had previously run into strange occurrences along that street.
Therefore, he’d proceeded with much caution.
Little had he known that the source of harm was not the supernatural, but men…
He lay on his bed, running through the memories of the day’s duel in detail.
‘From beginning to end, my strokes could probably have been cleaner and more direct. If I used the numbing effect produced by the sound of the tiger’s roar in Black Tiger Saber more flexibly, then perhaps I could even have avoided that forceful head-on collision with the two of them.’
His brow furrowed as he began to reflect.
‘It’s truly challenging to face a physically stronger opponent. As a saber warrior, strength shouldn’t be my weak spot. Maybe I’ll need to find and train in some external force martial arts techniques to improve my strength.’
He had not attempted any of those external force martial arts that trained hard skills yet. How would those skills turn out after being modified by the Modifier?
***
The Lu Manor Main Hall.
Lu Quanan sat in the host’s seat, his face somber as he glared at Lu Qingqing below.
Next to him were seated Second Mother, Third Mother, and the rest. The whole family was gathered here to enquire into the details of the matter.
Lu Qingqing and Uncle Zhao stood below, a few other guards being present as well.
"…the situation roughly happened like that," Uncle Zhao added some finishing touches to the version provided by Lu Sheng and relayed it for everyone present to hear.
"As for the people from the yamen, I’ve already liaised with them. This case was to the credit of Brother Sheng, no one can snatch that away," when he said this, Uncle Zhao immediately broke into a light smile. "Brother Sheng likes to train martial arts, but little did I expect that he would actually be able to kill Severed Head Blade and Phantom Head Blade! Clearly, his prowess is extraordinary. He is gifted above others, a late bloomer!"
"With regards to Little Sheng, I’m very satisfied and very reassured."
Lu Quanan’s face softened a little. Because of Lu Sheng, this capable son of his, his initial anger had soothed quite a bit.
Right now, he looked again at Lu Qingqing.
"Little Qing, you take a look at your Big Brother, and then take a look at yourself. Other than creating trouble for your family and your older brother, can’t you do something useful for the family?" Lu Quanan’s voice was harsh. "I sent you to train martial arts, not to come back and kick up a ruckus!"
"Dad… I know my mistake," Lu Qingqing felt deeply regretful. If not for Big Bro who had arrived in the nick of time, then her whole life might have gone down the drain due to this incident.
"You know your mistake? When have you not said that? And then? It’s always the same thing!" Lu Quanan grew angrier the more he talked.
"After you've recovered from your injuries, I’ll find a family to marry you out and give birth to a son, that’ll finally ground you."
"NO!"
Once Lu Qingqing heard about being married off, she instantly reacted like a cat whose tail was stepped on, almost jumping out of her seat.
"I don't want to marry! No! Dad, I know my mistake now. In the future, I’ll definitely help with the family matters! I won’t cause trouble! You rest assured! Really! This time round it’s for real!"
Lu Quanan ignored her, instead looking towards the physician who had just entered from the side.
"How are Little Sheng’s injuries?"
This physician was actually a distant relative of the Lu family, except that he was in a different line of work. After the Lu Manor thrived, they were all gathered together.
"It’s alright, just some skin-deep abrasions. He needs to rest for about ten days to half a month and he’ll be fine," the physician hurriedly replied.
"That's a relief. I’ll ask him again at that time whether he still wants to head to Mountain Edge City to learn martial arts."
At that thought, Lu Quanan grew a little apprehensive.
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