The meaning was simple. He acknowledged the other’s account and agreed to the other’s terms.
Once he was settled, Yin Shanhe did not waste words. He glanced at the unconscious Long Xingyun, then pointed at Yu Qing and warned, “You had better not try any tricks.”
With that, he turned to leave, to honour the exchange. One life for another.
To him, Qing Ya’s survival was clearly unimportant, far less so than Long Xingyun’s life. He could not even be bothered to consider the rights and wrongs of it. In the vast world of cultivation, who deserved to die and who did not?
But Yu Qing worried something might go wrong and called out, or rather, offered a reminder. “Qing Ya should not be that easy to deal with.”
Yin Shanhe halted, responding with his back turned. “A thug with one broken leg.”
The more he spoke like this, the more Yu Qing worried. He had never seen it but he had heard it. Since ancient times, how many things had gone wrong because of underestimating the enemy? He did not want the matter before him to fall short at the last hurdle. Ignoring the other’s impatience, he urgently reminded again, “How does the situation in Haishi compare to Chilan Pavilion? I fear it is even more severe. To sit as the top local boss in a place as mixed as Haishi, he cannot be simple. I do not think a head-on clash is advisable. He should not yet know of the present change. Senior, you can approach him calmly.”
He said no more. The other was not stupid. He believed the meaning of his words should be understood.
“That is my concern, not yours. I will be back shortly.”
Yin Shanhe dropped those words and vanished.
Watching the man who had exerted such immense pressure depart, Nan and Mu both heaved great sighs of relief, yet they dared not relax their vigilance of their surroundings. They had to guard against Yin Shanhe feinting a move and circling back to attack. Additionally, that old man fishing was also of unclear origins.
Yu Qing looked at the unconscious Long Xingyun, not knowing what kind of smoke poison he had been hit with. There had been no sign of him waking up.
However, one thing was certain. There should be no danger to his life. Otherwise, Yin Shanhe would not have been so unconcerned.
He also drew his sword. He had no choice. If he left it too long, Long Xingyun would die from excessive blood loss. After drawing the sword, he had to urgently treat the wound.
To have to help treat someone like this left him displeased. In his younger years, he would likely have simply stabbed the man to death to vent his hatred. But over these years, he had indeed experienced some stumbling and gradually faced reality…
A figure descended from the sky. Qing Ya and the others looked up. By the light from Zilan Island, they vaguely made out the figure of Yin Shanhe and watched him land on Cui You’s boat.
Cui You and the others looked around. Seeing no sign of Long Xingyun, they felt puzzled.
Qing Ya could not help but ask, “Brother Yin, where is Young Pavilion Master?”
Yin Shanhe, who had secretly tightened his grip on the tobacco pipe in his hand, said nothing.
Although he had not thought much of Qing Ya, and had been quite arrogant in front of Yu Qing, at this moment of action he hesitated. He sized up Qing Ya, who had a knife on his back and a lame leg but still looked leisurely and relaxed. The words “fight me” that had reached his lips were slowly swallowed back down.
So he rose slightly and leaped, leaving Cui You’s boat and jumping onto the other’s boat. He stepped forward two paces, looked towards a patch of sea, and raised his chin to signal. “The Young Pavilion Master is here.”
Qing Ya immediately followed his gaze, but saw nothing. He was instantly alert. The scene of the other coming onto his boat just now flashed almost instantly through his mind.
Although on this journey to the Nether Sea, he, Long Xingyun, and Yin Shanhe had been on the same boat, often standing close together and speaking at close range, which seemed perfectly normal, at this moment he still sensed an abnormal risk based on certain signs.
Regardless of whether there was a problem or whether he was overthinking it, he immediately prepared to flash to another boat to put some distance between them first.
But the instant his body was about to move, his hair stood on end in alarm. He sensed a powerful attack aura erupting abruptly at his side. Without even looking, he immediately swung his arm fiercely to strike back, regardless of whether the other lived or died. Strike first.
But ultimately, he was a step too slow in his haste, and the distance was too close. His reaction had not had time to register, not to mention the one striking was also an expert.
Boom! A thunderous crash.
Qing Ya, who had spun to swing his arm, was sent flying, blasted away by Yin Shanhe’s sudden heavy punch. “Pfft.” He spat out a mouthful of blood mid-air.
Pang Chengqiu, who reacted a moment later, immediately threw a punch to rescue him, but Yin Shanhe had planned this and was prepared for the reaction of those behind him. With a wave of his hand, he struck out a palm, using a cultivation realm that surpassed Pang Chengqiu by a full level to send him flying. He held back, injuring Qing Ya but not him.
The boat beneath the three men’s feet shattered into pieces. The boatman Jiao Ren panicked and fell into the water. The two ferry boats on either side were directly overturned. The other two Jiao Ren also fell into the water. Cui You leapt into the air, also bewildered, not knowing what was happening.
Qing Ya, who had been sent flying, did not resist. Following the momentum of his flight, he plunged headfirst into the water.
Yin Shanhe, who had sent Pang Chengqiu flying with one palm, was primarily focused on him. How could he let him escape? He flashed after him, and with a flip of his hand, flicked out a glowstone. When he arrived, he struck a palm down at the water’s surface. The glowstone exploded into luminous powder, following the palm force down towards the sea. The sight was quite beautiful, like a nebula.
Boom!
The sea surface did not erupt in a massive spray of water. It simply sank in like a huge cauldron bottom, a large area suddenly sinking in like a small hill.
His gaze also keenly caught the direction of a figure in the water. He quickly dove down in pursuit.
In fact, this move was something he had thought of earlier due to the commotion on either side of Zilan Island, but had not yet had a chance to use. Now he had employed it.
The sunken sea surface quickly rebounded, swallowing the two figures, one after the other.
Pang Chengqiu, who had fallen into the sea, and Cui You, who had drifted down to the sea surface, both watched this scene with alarmed expressions.
Pang Chengqiu immediately rushed forward quickly. He knew Qing Ya had been ambushed and injured, and feared the worst. He wanted to rush to help, even though he knew he was no match for the enemy. Loyalty came first.
Seeing him react, Cui You, who also had his own camp and position, naturally would not be outdone and prepared to intercept.
But the moment the two of them successively rushed into the surging waves, they were so startled that they quickly retreated, their figures dodging repeatedly, badly frightened.
They saw that beneath the churning waves, pieces of what looked like ice suddenly flickered, like towering ice blades, their momentum fierce. The chaotic shadows they slashed out seemed as if they would turn that patch of sea upside down, even stirring up a massive whirlpool in the sea surface.
Even the three fellow disciples on Zilan Island at this moment saw the terrifying commotion from afar.
Yu Qing could not help muttering to himself, “Did he still go head-on? Why wouldn’t this white-haired old man listen to advice.”
All three realised that Yin Shanhe and Qing Ya had likely engaged in combat, and their hearts were all tightly strung.
After urgently dodging the slashing of the towering ice blades, Pang Chengqiu and Cui You moved far away before they could clearly see what the seemingly devastating towering ice blades were.
They were simply the fierce blade aura erupted by someone’s cultivation and blade-wielding realm reaching a certain level. Under normal circumstances, it should have been nearly invisible. The reason it presented an ice blade form was due to the involvement of seawater, combined with the refracted light from Zilan Island.
The fierce momentum and blade light erupting from the massive whirlpool did not last long, and soon abruptly vanished.
The whirlpool also quickly shrank as it churned, but the seawater gradually turned turbid. Clearly, the silt on the seabed had been stirred up.
The two overturned ferry boats had flipped back over. The two Jiao Ren boatmen pushed the boats, struggling to break free from the surging whirlpool. But suddenly, figures leapt out of the sea, flashing onto the boats. It was none other than Yin Shanhe and Qing Ya.
Qing Ya was clearly wilted, his hair dishevelled, held in Yin Shanhe’s grip.
And Yin Shanhe himself was clearly not much better off. There was a long gash, slanting across his chest and following the angle across his cheek. The half of his hanging hair parted in the middle had also been sliced off. Blood from the wound on his face half-flowed, with blood drops sliding down his chin.
Both experts’ bodies were soaked through. Under normal circumstances, their cultivation should have been enough to repel water, so they should not have become drenched like drowned rats upon touching water. It was clear how fierce their struggle underwater had been, to the point that their defences had been breached.
Pang Chengqiu and Cui You, seeing this, rushed over urgently.
The Jiao Ren boatman pushing the boat shouted, “Do not cause trouble here. If you want to fight, go somewhere else. Not on my boat.”
No one paid him any mind.
Pang Chengqiu, seeing Qing Ya’s miserable state, immediately cried out in alarm, “Lord Qing!”
He prepared to charge forward as if to fight desperately.
The large blade in Yin Shanhe’s other hand suddenly swung to point at him, warning, “I do not wish to kill. Do not force me.”
The blade in his hand was Qing Ya’s blade, now in his grasp like a trophy.
The feeble Qing Ya also struggled to raise his hand in a stopping gesture, shaking his head with difficulty, signalling Pang Chengqiu not to act rashly.
Because he was very clear. Pang Chengqiu was simply no match for the other. There was no need to sacrifice himself in vain.
The grief-stricken Pang Chengqiu had no choice but to stop nearby, pointing at Yin Shanhe and angrily denouncing, “Ambushing and injuring someone, what kind of hero is that?”
“How shameful!” Yin Shanhe looked up at the sky with a cry, gazing at the dark night. Whether this counted as a response was unclear. His fingers gripping the blade hilt loosened slightly, and two objects fell onto the deck with a clatter. They were none other than his dry tobacco pipe, now broken in two. From the smooth break, it appeared to have been cleanly severed by something sharp.
He lowered his head again, holding the half-black, half-snow-bright blade horizontally before his eyes, admiring it, and sighed with emotion. “What a fast blade, what a sharp blade technique. To draw a blade under the heavy resistance of the deep sea, yet to cleanly sever the pipe forged from ‘meteorite essence’ that the Pavilion Master gave me.
I once heard that Lord Qing of Haishi possessed a blade called the ‘Grass-Cutting Blade’. The name may be vulgar, but its strikes are extraordinary. Once the blade is drawn, it cuts down lives like grass, and countless petty souls have perished beneath it. I previously looked down upon it, but seeing it today, I know the reputation of Lord Qing of Haishi is well-deserved. How shameful!”
“Cough, cough.” Qing Ya, who was being held, suddenly coughed, coughing up a mouthful of stagnant blood. Only then did he clearly begin to breathe, as if he had recovered a bit of strength. He let out a humph, no longer showing the deference he had previously displayed towards Chilan Pavilion personnel. Instead, his tone was fierce. “Yin Shanhe, I have no grudge against you. Why did you plot against me?”
Yin Shanhe said with a melancholy expression, “Lord Qing, I am sorry. I did not wish for this either, but I had no choice. The Young Pavilion Master fell into that Tanhua Lang’s hands, and his life is now in his control.”
At these words, almost everyone present was stunned.
Qing Ya clearly had a dumbfounded expression. After a moment of stunned silence, he asked strangely, “Weren’t you protecting him closely? With that dog Tanhua’s cultivation, how could he capture someone from your hands? I say, you were the ones lying in wait to ambush him. How could you反而 be captured by him? With your cultivation holding the initiative, he probably couldn’t even pinpoint your position. How could he have found an opening to exploit?”
Yin Shanhe: “I haven’t fully figured out the specifics either. In short, I fell for his ruse of luring the tiger away from the mountain. I was separated from the Young Pavilion Master for just a moment and something happened.”
Qing Ya was somewhat speechless, but thinking about it, Wang Xuetang had also died in a baffling manner. To this day, they could only guess at the general idea and had not fully figured out how that dog Tanhua had accomplished it.
With this realisation, he then wondered, “I say, your Young Pavilion Master was captured due to your own failure to protect him. What has that got to do with me? Why did you ambush me? Hurry up and undo the restrictions on my body. Considering you have evil fire in your heart, I’ll count myself unlucky. For Chilan Pavilion’s sake, I’ll treat it as you venting your anger this once. I won’t hold it against you this time. Hurry up and let me go.”