Volume 3 Chapter 50 / Chapter 217: Senior Brother, Another Dao Companion?
The snow had not yet ceased, and the long night was not over.
Inside the sleeping chamber, the sound of wind and snow raging outside, once filtered through the doors and windows, transformed into a lulling “whoosh” sound, peaceful and serene.
On the red pear wood bed, Yun Yiyi’s tightly closed eyes twitched slightly.
Her brows trembled, and her bangs, soaked with cold sweat, stuck to her forehead.
It seemed she was trapped in a nightmare, unable to wake up.
Creak—
The palace door slowly opened a crack.
A slender adult woman peeked inside, glancing left and right.
She noticed the disheveled bedding on the maid’s bed opposite the main door, but no one was lying there, causing her heart to skip a beat.
Her name was Yu Shuiting, a disciple of Xiri Peak.
Last month, her Dao companion, Ye An, told her he had found a big job: kidnapping the eldest daughter of the Yun family.
When she first heard about this, she was adamantly opposed, but Ye An wouldn’t listen, insisting, “If we pull this off, we can buy our own cave residence and no longer have to live in the disciples’ quarters. All I need to do is capture her and hand her over, nothing else.”
Unable to change his mind, Yu Shuiting reluctantly agreed.
Fearing for Ye An’s safety, she decided to accompany him on this “big job,” thinking she could look out for him.
And if something went wrong, it was better for the two of them to face the consequences together than for one to be left alone in the world.
Yu Shuiting closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and entered the room, clutching the spiritual sword in her hand.
She listened carefully to the sounds within, and after confirming that Yun Yiyi’s personal maid was not present, she tiptoed toward the red pear wood bed.
Upon reaching the bedside, she saw Yun Yiyi, her brows tightly knit and her face drenched in sweat.
Yu Shuiting took a piece of cloth from her sleeve, awkwardly pinched Yun Yiyi’s cheeks, and stuffed the cloth into her mouth.
“Mmph—?!”
Yun Yiyi woke up instantly, her eyes wide with terror as she looked at the masked woman standing by her bed.
She immediately flailed her arms, trying to push and kick her away.
But given their positions, with Yu Shuiting standing and Yun Yiyi lying down, Yun Yiyi had no leverage and couldn’t overpower her.
“Mmph, mmph—?! Mmph—!”
Seeing her struggle so fiercely, Yu Shuiting glared and said, “Young Mistress Yun, if you want to live, keep quiet.”
Yun Yiyi stopped struggling.
Upon hearing herself addressed as “Young Mistress Yun,” she realized that her captor was likely a disciple of the Shadowmoon Sword Sect.
Her eyes steadied, and she made a few muffled sounds, signaling that she wanted to talk.
“Mmph… mmph—”
Seeing her calm down, Yu Shuiting breathed a sigh of relief.
It was her first time doing something like this, and she was filled with anxiety.
She flipped Yun Yiyi over, pressing her arms behind her back and binding them with an Immortal Binding Chain from her storage bag. She then secured her legs.
Noticing that the captor didn’t seem intent on killing her, Yun Yiyi felt a slight sense of relief.
She turned her head to glance behind her.
“Mmph—mmph?”
Yu Shuiting, still tying the knots, caught Yun Yiyi’s questioning look and replied, “Young Mistress Yun, please rest assured, we need to take you away unharmed. You won’t be hurt.”
“Mmph? Mmph…”
After binding Yun Yiyi, Yu Shuiting grabbed her by the waist and hoisted her onto her shoulder.
Noticing that Yun Yiyi was only wearing thin silk sleepwear, and worried she might get cold in the heavy snow outside, Yu Shuiting wrapped her in a blanket before lifting her again.
She opened the eastern window of the room and jumped out.
With Yun Yiyi on her shoulder, Yu Shuiting leaped onto the rooftop, braving the wind and snow.
She jumped from one rooftop to another, and before long, she reached the lotus pond at the back of the Yun family estate.
A man in a gray cloak was waiting at the pavilion by the pond.
Seeing Yu Shuiting return with a blanket over her shoulder, he immediately stood up to meet her.
He looked Yun Yiyi over and asked, “Any trouble?”
“No, it went smoothly. We didn’t encounter any guards on patrol, nor did we trigger any mechanisms or formations. I didn’t even have to use my sword.”
“That’s good…” The man nodded, glanced at the sky, then looked toward the direction of Ye Anping’s quarters. “The other three are taking forever. What’s keeping them? Is that Ye fellow so difficult to deal with?”
Hearing this, Yun Yiyi’s eyes widened in shock.
“Mmph mmph mmph—!!! Mmph—!”
“…”
“Mmph mmph mmph!!”
Seeing her becoming noisy again, the man hesitated briefly before pulling the cloth from Yun Yiyi’s mouth.
Yun Yiyi, who had been calm just moments ago, now looked frantic.
She wasn’t worried about getting hurt, as she was equipped with high-level protective Magical Tools.
Her plan was to play along and use herself as bait, leaving clues along the way so that disciples from Yishui Peak could track these people back to their hideout.
But when she heard that these people were also targeting her husband, she panicked.
“What are you planning to do?!”
Facing Yun Yiyi’s questioning, the man sneered and said, “Kidnap you and kill that young master from Hundred Lotus Sect while we’re at it.”
“You dare?!!” Yun Yiyi’s eyes blazed with anger, but the next moment, the man stuffed the cloth back into her mouth. “Damn you! If you dare—mmph mmph—”
“Mmph—! Mmph—!!”
Yun Yiyi struggled fiercely, pouring spiritual energy into the jade talisman sewn into her inner garment, preparing to use the magical tool to drive these people away.
But at that moment, another person, bloodied and disheveled, leapt into the pavilion by the lotus pond.
Ye Anping glanced at Yun Yiyi, who was thrashing on Yu Shuiting’s shoulder, and spoke in a hoarse voice, “It’s done, but Senior Qi and Brother Hu are dead. That Ye fellow was difficult to deal with.”
Hearing this, Yun Yiyi’s eyes widened in disbelief, staring at him with shock and fury.
“Mmph? Mmph—mmph mmph—!!”
Ye Anping ignored her, casting a sidelong glance at Yu Shuiting and the other man.
He noticed Yu Shuiting’s eyes were fixed on him, and a flicker of wariness rose in his heart.
He discreetly readied the spiritual sword from his storage bag.
Yu Shuiting, however, didn’t sense anything amiss.
She only looked at the wounds on Ye Anping with a hint of concern and asked, “Brother Ye, what happened to your voice?”
Brother Ye? Could this person be the one named “Yu Shuiting” from the jade pendant earlier?
Ye Anping hesitated and chose his words carefully. “My neck got hit… coughed up some blood…”
“I see… I’ll take a look at it later,” Yu Shuiting said, still looking worried.
The man looked at them both briefly, then glanced at the sky before turning to the fake mountain beside the lotus pond.
Without saying much, he moved the rock aside, revealing a small hidden tunnel.
“Let’s go regroup. The people from Xiri Peak and Jiuquan Peak should be waiting.”
With that, he jumped down into the small hole under the fake mountain.
Hearing this, Yun Yiyi, still slung over Yu Shuiting’s shoulder, paused the flow of spiritual energy into her jade pendant.
She bit down hard on the cloth gag in her mouth, glaring at the bloodstained Ye Anping, her eyes filled with murderous intent.
However, in the next moment—
Ye Anping stepped forward and swiftly struck Yun Yiyi’s neck with a knife hand.
“Mm…”
Yun Yiyi’s head slumped, and she went limp.
Yu Shuiting watched this, her brows furrowing slightly.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that her “Ye An” seemed different, though she couldn’t quite pinpoint why.
After a moment’s hesitation, she brushed the thought aside and quickly followed the man, carrying Yun Yiyi into the tunnel beneath the fake mountain.
Ye Anping followed closely behind.
After descending, he pushed the fake mountain back into place from below and continued down the rocky path toward the middle of Yishui Peak with the other two.