Chapter 1201 - 313: Bozhou Pacified, Chivalry Revealed; Cleverly Foiling Schemes to Protect the People (Part 5)

Shi Feiyang froze where he stood, the hand that wanted to push her away suspended in midair.

Xue Qiuchun instead buried her face deep against his chest, her hair tangling with the toggle on his collar. "Let me hold you for a while, just for a while..."

Her voice was muffled in the cloth, tinged with stifled sobs. "Those few moves of Swordsmanship you taught me, I practice them every day until blood seeps from my palms. Last month when bandits robbed the road, I used the moves you taught me to drive them back. They said the wind of my sword carried your ruthless edge, but in my palms, all of it was the ache of missing you..." A mountain wind suddenly swept up the paper money before the grave, skimming past their pressed-together faces like flurries of snow.

Xue Qiuchun’s hands trembled as she unfastened the Jade Pendant from her neck and pressed it into Shi Feiyang’s palm. The icy jade lay against his warm skin. "This was my mother’s dying dowry to me. ’A long life of a hundred years’ is carved on it."

Her nails dug into the back of his hand. "I don’t want a title, don’t want a place in the Jianghu, I only want to stay by your side! As a maid, as a guard, even as the whetstone beneath your blade..."

Shi Feiyang stared at the mottled carving on the Jade Pendant, his throat tightening as if a grain of salt were stuck there. "Qiuchun, you and I..."

"Don’t say it!" Xue Qiuchun suddenly clamped a hand over his mouth, the rough callus at her fingertip grazing his lips. "I won’t listen!" Tears splashed onto the back of his hand. "I only want you to remember, the warm room of the Ningxia Salt Field will always have the charcoal burning, and the pot will always be simmering with lamb soup to ward off the cold."

She rose on tiptoe and branded a searing kiss onto his icy cheek. "If one day you are weary, wounded, betrayed by this Jianghu..." She choked as she staggered back, tumbling up onto her horse. "Look back, I’ll still be here."

Xue Qiuchun knelt on the wool felt, the salt-crystal tassels hanging from the silver ornaments in her hair trembling with a rustle, casting a strange halo across her pale cheeks. "Shi Lang!" Her voice tore through the dusk, the hoarseness dyed by Gobi wind and sand hiding a scalding obsession.

The hem of her skirt embroidered with salt-flower totems was crumpled in her grip, her fingertips biting deep into her palms. "Do you know, these past two years, I’ve counted the days by each crystal in the Salt Field, boiling my longing for you into poison and then swallowing it with my own hands!"

Shi Feiyang looked at the cracks at the corner of her lips, still dusted with the dirt of a long journey, yet unable to hide their cinnabar-bright color.

Outside the tent, a wild wind suddenly rose, the blown-up gravel striking the tent cloth like fine needles.

All at once Xue Qiuchun tore open the Brocade Pouch at her waist. Hundreds of salt crystals engraved with the character "Shi" spilled out, piling into a small mound on the wool rug. "I used the purest brine to carve your name three thousand times!"

Her nails dug deep into his arm. "They say I’m mad, but who told you to be my calamity?"

Shi Feiyang’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he watched the way her chest heaved with agitation. There, the Jade Pendant carved with "a long life of a hundred years" still hung, warmed by her body heat until it burned. "Enough..." His voice carried an almost imperceptible tremor, but it was drowned out by Xue Qiuchun’s crazed, enchanted laughter.

"Not enough! It will never be enough!" Xue Qiuchun suddenly ripped open his robe, her searing lips pressing to the old scar over his heart, her teeth closing on his collarbone, the taste of blood spreading between her teeth. "From today on, every new wound on you can only be kept for my sake!"

The wild wind suddenly lifted the corner of the tent, and sand poured in like a blizzard. Xue Qiuchun remained oblivious. She tore off her hair ribbon, three thousand strands of black hair spilling down to reveal the blood-written characters at her waist, traced with golden sore medicine—"Shi Feiyang’s Woman."

"Do you see?" She tilted her face up, her eyes burning with a near-mad fervor. "I’ve carved even my life into your name! If you dare push me away, I’ll use the Shadow-Clapping Technique to ruin my own face, and let the whole world know that Hero Shi failed a woman who was willing to be shattered to pieces for him!" Under the blaze of her feverish body heat, Shi Feiyang’s reason collapsed in a thunderous crash.

When he rolled and pressed her down onto the wool rug, he heard Xue Qiuchun let out a kitten-soft whimper.

Gasping against his ear, Xue Qiuchun whispered, "It should’ve been like this... It should’ve been like this long ago..."

Her nails traced down his back. "Even if your heart holds the whole world, at least for tonight... let me be your everything!" Outside the tent, the gale carried away the sound of their mingled breaths, blowing those name-carved salt crystals deep into the mountains and forests, like a grand, mad vow.

Lan Xiaodie wore a plain Miao Family dress as she stood on the bamboo house terrace, her gaze cast into the distance while her heart surged as restlessly as the ranges of Miaojiang. The rebellion had been quelled, yet the evil name the Five Poison Sect had left in the Jianghu over so many years still hung over her heart like a pall of gloom.

She knew well that if she wished to be worthy of Shi Feiyang’s upright righteousness, the Five Poison Sect had to undergo a rebirth from the marrow outward.

Lan Xiaodie turned and stepped into the room where the medicine cauldron stood. Inside the cauldron, a five-colored medicinal liquid was merrily rolling and tumbling, at times transforming into sinuous, lively venomous snakes, at times condensing into gorgeous lotus blossoms slowly unfurling.

With a light wave of her jade-like hand, she cast in a millennium-old snow lotus that emanated a faint, icy chill.

In an instant, a rich medicinal fragrance spread out, curling upward as if to completely dispel the poisonous miasma that had accumulated in the room over the years.

"Sect Leader, the Third Elder requests an audience." A disciple’s respectful voice came from beyond the door.

Lan Xiaodie’s dark brows knit slightly as she said softly, "Let him in."

The Third Elder strode into the room, a trace of unruliness and arrogance on his face, and cupped his hands. "Sect Leader, I hear you’ve been talking nonstop lately about reorganizing the Five Poison Sect. This old woman truly doesn’t understand. Our Five Poison Sect has been rooted in this Miaojiang for many years, relying on poison to establish our authority—that is the foundation of our survival. Why bring suffering on ourselves, fussing with this so-called reorganization?"

Lan Xiaodie turned around, her expression calm yet imbued with a resolve that allowed no dispute. "Third Elder, in the past our Five Poison Sect stopped at nothing in our actions. Though we inspired fear in the Jianghu, we were also despised by all. Now that I am Sect Leader, I must lead our followers onto the right path. Poison can save people, can aid the world, and need not be a murderous weapon."

The Third Elder snorted coldly, his tone full of disdain. "Sect Leader, have you had your wits muddled by that Shi Feiyang? The Jianghu is treacherous and human hearts are unfathomable. If we do not use poison, how are we to survive in this world where the weak are prey to the strong?"

A flicker of displeasure passed through Lan Xiaodie’s eyes, and her voice cooled a few degrees. "Third Elder, I respect you as a senior of the sect, but today I must ask you to hear me out. Hero Shi roams with his blade, upholding justice and protecting the common people. What he has done has shown me the power of righteousness. If our Five Poison Sect can use poison to save lives, we too can win the respect of the Jianghu."

The Third Elder was about to argue further when Lan Xiaodie raised a hand to cut him off. "Third Elder, my mind is made up. From this day forward, the sect is forbidden to use poison in private to harm others, and it is absolutely forbidden to use poison to seek profit through murder. I have already developed many antidotes. From now on, if anyone is poisoned by toxins from our Five Poison Sect, we must exhaust all efforts to save them." Though displeasure churned in the Third Elder’s heart, seeing Lan Xiaodie’s firm stance he could not continue to refute her openly. He could only say perfunctorily, "The Sect Leader is wise; this old woman will obey your teachings," and then took his leave.

Lan Xiaodie watched the Third Elder’s departing back and let out a faint sigh.

She knew all too well that reforming the Five Poison Sect would not be easy. Many within the sect were too deeply steeped in old notions for change to come in a day or two. But her resolve was set. No matter how arduous the road ahead, she would lead the Five Poison Sect onto the proper path.

From then on, Lan Xiaodie devoted herself each day in the bamboo house to studying medicine and the arts of poison refinement, striving to fuse poison and healing into a perfect whole.

She dispatched sect disciples in all directions to collect various rare herbs, personally experimenting with fusing the herbs and the Five Poisons, seeking formulas for detoxification and salvation. Each time she prepared a medicine, she was wholly focused, her eyes filled with determination and perseverance. The fine beads of sweat rolling down her forehead went entirely unnoticed. In rectifying the sect rules, Lan Xiaodie was swift and decisive.

She gathered all the members of the Five Poison Sect at the main altar and, standing atop the high sacrificial platform with solemn expression, announced the new sect rules: "From this day on, our Five Poison Sect shall take saving the world and aiding the people as our guiding principle. If any disciple violates the rules and uses poison for evil, they will be severely punished without leniency!" Below the platform, the sect members whispered among themselves, some faces showing approval, others curling their lips in secret, dismissive.

Lan Xiaodie’s gaze was like a burning torch as she swept her eyes over the crowd and continued, "I know change is not easy, but this is the only chance for our Five Poison Sect to be reborn. From today onward, we must cast aside the evils of our past and use our strength to help those in need."

However, the implementation of the new rules did not go smoothly.

Some stubborn disciples still used poison in secret for profit, even defying Lan Xiaodie’s orders.

When Lan Xiaodie learned of this, she showed no mercy in punishing these violators. Personally interrogating them, her eyes radiated both authority and disappointment. "You knowingly broke the rules. Have you thought at all that this will plunge the Five Poison Sect once more into a state beyond redemption?"

Those violators kept their heads lowered, not daring to meet Lan Xiaodie’s gaze.