Wuxia: Become the 100-Victory Sword King at the Beginning

Chapter 409. Peach Blossom Shadows and Hidden Feelings: Love's Threads Intertwined
Shi Feiyang's body stiffened slightly, then relaxed.

He reached out and gently embraced Lianxing's slender waist, feeling the warmth of her body seeping through her clothes.

A gentle breeze stirred the peach blossoms, swirling up fallen petals. The pink petals, stained with blood, danced in the air, mingling with the pungent smell of blood and the sweet fragrance of jujubes, creating a strange yet moving atmosphere.

In the shadows, the Palace Mistress of Yaoyue, dressed in a long, flowing ice-silk gown, stood quietly beneath an ancient peach tree. Her figure remained as upright as a pine tree, as proud and aloof as a winter plum blossom. Yet, at this moment, her hands, gripping the icicles tightly, were slightly pale, her nails almost digging into her palms.

Her gaze was as cold as a star, yet it concealed a hint of jealousy she herself refused to admit, as she stared intently at the two figures nestled together. "Hmph!" Palace Mistress Yaoyue snorted coldly, her voice filled with barely concealed jealousy and dissatisfaction. She turned and left, her long, flowing silk dress leaving a cold trail on the ground, and wherever she passed, peach blossoms were covered with a thin layer of frost.

However, she left in such a hurry that she did not notice a white plum blossom in her hair that had inadvertently fallen and landed beside Shi Feiyang and Lianxing, silently expressing the unspeakable feelings in her heart.

In this world of swords and shadows, the seeds of love quietly blossom amidst the bloodshed and carnage. The peach blossoms remain, the scent of blood lingers, and two hearts drawn together find tenderness and peace in this chaotic world.

A sweet sensation spread across her tongue, but Lianxing felt that the pounding of her heart was more dizzying than the sweetness. Seeing her dazed look, Shi Feiyang couldn't help but reach out and gently stroke her burning earlobe: "What's wrong? Are you mesmerized by my charm?"

Though his words were teasing, his fingertips gently brushed away the fallen petals from her temples, his movements as tender as if touching a rare treasure. Lianxing, with a sweet date in her mouth, let out a soft moan, unable to suppress the surging emotions within her, and gently buried her burning cheeks in his chest.

“Actually, these jujubes,” Shi Feiyang suddenly spoke, his voice so low that only she could hear, “I hid them for three days, intending to find a special opportunity…” His words stopped abruptly, and Lianxing looked up sharply, meeting his eyes with an unprecedented seriousness.

The twilight deepened, casting a hazy golden hue over his silhouette, yet making his eyes shine even brighter.

At dawn the next day, when Lianxing carried the food box toward the peach grove, she found Shi Feiyang leaning against a tree trunk, pretending to be asleep.

The morning light filtered through his slightly curled eyelashes, casting dappled shadows beneath his eyes. Lianxing tiptoed, about to put down the freshly baked osmanthus cake, when she suddenly felt a tightness in her wrist and fell into a medicinal embrace.

"My beauty, trying to sneak away?" Shi Feiyang opened his eyes, a smile brimming in them. "You said last night you'd make me osmanthus cake, are you trying to renege on your promise?" His thumb unconsciously rubbed the inside of her wrist, feeling her rapid heartbeat, and his smile grew even brighter. Lianxing struggled to get up, but he held her even tighter: "Don't move, let me smell the jasmine scent again."

From afar came the cold shouts of the Palace Mistress of Yaoyue, but Shi Feiyang ignored them and whispered in Lianxing's ear, "At midnight tonight, under the old peach tree deep in the peach grove, I have something good to show you." When he let go of her hand, he secretly slipped her a small jade pendant with half a lotus flower carved on it.

Clutching the jade pendant, Lianxing watched his retreating figure as he used his lightness skill to disappear into the distance. Her heart pounded like a drum, unaware that the smile on her lips was more radiant than the most beautiful peach blossoms in spring.

The night was as dark as ink, except for the old peach trees deep in the Peach Grove of Yihua Palace, where "colorful lanterns" strung together by Shi Feiyang using fireflies flickered in the wind. Lianxing, lifting her skirt, came running over, jasmine blossoms in her hair glistening with night dew. From afar, she saw Shi Feiyang leaning against a tree trunk, his Xuan Shuang Blade whittling a piece of wood. Amidst the flying wood chips, he looked up and grinned: "My beauty is three incense sticks late, what is your punishment?"

Though he spoke in jest, Shi Feiyang couldn't hide the nervousness in his eyes. He handed over the wooden hairpin he had just finished carving, on which a lotus flower was crookedly carved: "The girls in Yihua Palace all use jade hairpins. I don't have the money to buy jade, so I carved one myself—it's a bit ugly, but it's unique."

The moment Lianxing's fingertips touched the wooden hairpin, she felt as if a feather had lightly tickled her heart, and her eyes suddenly burned. Suddenly, the sound of something cutting through the air rang out, and three poisoned crossbow bolts shot towards her, piercing the night. Shi Feiyang's pupils contracted sharply; he grabbed Lianxing and spun around to dodge, his Xuan Shuang Blade slicing a silver arc and shattering the crossbow bolts.

"Murong the old devil's men!" he cursed under his breath, circulating his Mingyu Gong, his skin glowing with an icy blue light. A sinister laugh came from the shadows, and Murong Hui appeared with dozens of Heart Gu puppets. The moonlight shone on his newly changed skull mask, which gleamed with a chilling blue light. "Shi Feiyang, prepare to die!" the puppets roared in unison, their weapons forming an impenetrable killing formation.

Shi Feiyang shielded Lianxing behind him, drew his Xuan Shuang Blade, and unleashed the "Dog-Beating Stick Technique: A Pack of Dogs Fighting for Food." Thousands of stick shadows clashed with the weapon, sparks flying everywhere. But the puppets, fearless of death, surged forward wave after wave, gradually forcing the two to the edge of the cliff.

Suddenly, Lianxing played her jade flute, the sound waves forming an invisible barrier that temporarily forced back the enemy. Shi Feiyang seized the opportunity to unleash his "Thousand Miles Without Leaving a Trace," but as he leaped up, he caught a glimpse of a cold light flashing from Murong Hui's sleeve—it was a silver needle coated with deadly poison, aimed directly at Lianxing's back!

At the critical moment, he twisted his body and used his back to block the silver needles. "Shi Lang!" Lian Xing's scream was swallowed by the chaos of the battle.

Shi Feiyang felt as if his back was being bitten by a venomous snake, with the poison spreading wildly along his meridians.

He forced himself to circulate the Heavenly Silkworm Technique, sending silver threads like a net towards Murong Hui, but the poison caused them to veer off course, only managing to graze the other's mask.

Murong Hui seized the opportunity to throw out the "Breaking Yuan Sand," and the peach forest instantly shook violently, uprooting the peach trees and turning them into deadly weapons.

"Go!" Shi Feiyang grabbed Lianxing and leaped toward the cliff, throwing out the Xuan Shuang Blade and embedding it into the rock wall as they fell.

The two were suspended in mid-air, with a bottomless, icy pool below.

Lianxing trembled as she hugged him, touching the sticky, poisonous blood on his back: "I'll take you back, Sister Yaoyue will definitely have a way..."

“It’s too late.” Shi Feiyang turned his head with difficulty, black blood spilling from the corner of his mouth, but he still forced a smile. “I’ve never been afraid of anything in my life, except…” His voice grew weaker and weaker, “except that I’ll never be able to eat your osmanthus cake again.” Lianxing burst into tears and suddenly pressed the jade flute against his back: “Bear with it!” The jade flute emitted a sharp sound, and the sound waves turned into a warm current, forcibly forcing out the poison.

Murong Hui grinned maliciously at the edge of the cliff, commanding the puppets to pursue him with ropes. Shi Feiyang gathered his last strength and unleashed "No Dogs Under Heaven." The Xuan Shuang Blade transformed into a sky full of light and shadow, clashing with the puppets' weapons.

Lianxing's sonic waves complemented his staff techniques, causing sand and stones to fly through the peach grove, and severed limbs to dance in the air.

When the last puppet fell off the cliff, Shi Feiyang could no longer hold on and collapsed, his vision went black.

When he woke up again, Shi Feiyang was lying in Lianxing's boudoir, his nose filled with the sweet fragrance of osmanthus and jasmine.

Lianxing lay asleep by the bedside, tears still clinging to her eyelashes. He reached out and gently wiped them away, a tenderness he had never felt before welling up in his heart. Outside the window, Palace Mistress Yaoyue stood beneath the peach tree, her gaze upon the room complex and unreadable. The icicles she had conjured in her hand shattered silently, turning into shimmering fragments scattered on the ground.

(End of this chapter)