Wandering Swordsman |

Yue Linglong stepped forward, gently supported her trembling shoulders, and whispered, "Perhaps... things are not as simple as we think."

Hua Tianyou narrowed his eyes, surveying the ancestral hall with a sharp, hawk-like gaze: "The memorial tablet is brand new, the incense ash is still warm, and the offerings are not yet dry—someone worships it daily. Moreover…"

He paused, lowering his voice even further, "The layout of this ancestral hall is clearly newly done."

Xie Xin looked up abruptly, a hint of surprise flashing in her eyes: "If it's not Fu Sheng, then... who could it be?"

Just then, a very light footstep sound came from afar, like a leaf falling to the ground, yet it was exceptionally clear in the dead of night.

The three men's expressions hardened, and Hua Tianyou shouted, "Go!" The three men moved like shadows of owls, their toes lightly touching the ground as they silently leaped onto the high beams of the ancestral hall and disappeared into the shadows of the intersecting beams.

The door was gently pushed open, and a figure in black robes slowly entered.

His posture was as upright as a lone pine tree, and his face was as cold and stern as iron; he was none other than Xie Changkong.

Behind him, Wei Honglian, in a blood-red dress trailing on the ground, followed quietly.

However, just as Xie Changkong stepped into the ancestral hall—

Hua Tianyou and Yue Linglong's pupils shrank almost simultaneously!

That face...it looks remarkably like Xie Xin!

The brow bone, bridge of the nose, jawline, and even the hidden aloofness in the eyes are all like reflections in a mirror—only the genders are different, and the temperaments are completely different.

"This... how is this possible?" Yue Linglong's heart trembled violently. She looked sharply at Xie Xin beside her and saw that her face was deathly pale, her lips were trembling slightly, and her eyes were filled with disbelief and horror.

Xie Xin felt as if she had been struck by lightning, and could barely breathe.

That man... was practically a male version of myself!

She had looked in the mirror since she was a child and never imagined that there was someone in the world who looked so much like her. It was as if fate had torn a crack in her and another "her" had emerged from it.

Overwhelmed by her emotions, her breathing became slightly disordered, and a wisp of her inner energy leaked out uncontrollably.

"Who?!" Wei Honglian shouted sharply, her gaze piercing the roof beam!

Before she finished speaking, she flicked her wrist, and a hidden weapon shot out, its cold light like a star, heading straight for Xie Xin's hiding place!

Xie Xin had no time to think about it anymore.

She lightly touched the beam with her toes, quickly dodging the hidden weapon, and then landed like a swallow.

"Bang!"

She landed steadily and stood inside the ancestral hall, her face clearly visible in the candlelight.

Seeing Xie Xin exposed, Yue Linglong was about to jump down to help, but Hua Tianyou grabbed her wrist. His eyes were icy, and he gently shook his head—the situation was still unclear, so it was best not to show herself rashly.

Inside the ancestral hall, a deathly silence fell instantly.

When Wei Honglian saw Xie Xin's face, she froze. Her eyes widened as she stared intently at Xie Xin's face—the eyebrows, the contours, the bone structure so similar to Xie Changkong's… she was clearly a female version of Xie Changkong!

"You..." Her voice trembled slightly, a shock she herself was unaware of.

Xie Changkong, on the other hand, was as if he were under a spell.

His gaze fell on Xie Xin's face, his pupils contracted sharply, and his lips parted slightly, but he couldn't utter a sound.

After learning about his origins, he believed that he was the only remaining member of the Xie family bloodline.

But at this moment, the woman standing in front of him resonated with his breath—it was a kind of intimacy that could be felt without words, an echo from the depths of his bones!

"What...what's your name?" he asked in a hoarse voice, almost pleading.

Xie Xin stared at him, her heart feeling as if a boulder was pressing down on it, making it difficult to breathe. She remained silent for a long time, as if trying to confirm whether she was dreaming. Finally, she spoke slowly, her voice as soft as a dream, or like a wisp of smoke in the wind: "I... my name is Xie Xin."

"Xie...Xin?" Xie Changkong murmured repeatedly, a sudden surge of intense heat welling up in his eyes. He took a step forward abruptly, his black robes billowing like waves of ink, his voice rising sharply with barely suppressed excitement: "Sister!"

That single word, "Sister," was like a thunderclap cleaving through the fog, sending a shiver down Xie Xin's spine.

She finally understood—why he resembled her so much, why the ancestral hall was rebuilt and the memorial tablet was re-erected, and why the air in Qilin Village was filled with a respect and sorrow she had never felt before.

"Brother?" Her voice choked with emotion, she could hardly believe her ears, and tears streamed down her face like a burst dam.

Xie Changkong's throat bobbed violently, his knees buckled, and he knelt heavily on the blue bricks in front of the shrine with a "thud." He wasn't kneeling to her, but to the three memorial tablets engraved with the Xie family's bloodline—as if only by performing the rites of a Xie family descendant could he prove to his ancestors that the Xie family was not extinct, and that the reunion of the siblings was not a dream!

"Sister," he looked up, his eyes glistening with tears, yet shining like starlight, "I only recently learned of your existence from Fu Jiang... My real name is Xie Changkong, and I am your younger brother!"

Xie Xin could no longer hold on and staggered forward, grabbing his shoulder for support.

When her fingertips touched the warm skin beneath the black robes and felt the real, powerful pulse, she was certain—this was not a dream, not an illusion, but the light that fate had finally returned to her at the end of the sea of ​​blood.

"Brother..." she sobbed, her voice broken like autumn leaves, "I... I was raised in the village by Fu Sheng as his adopted daughter since I was a child... I thought... I was the only one left in the Xie family, I thought... I would always be a lonely ghost..."

The two embraced before the memorial tablet, the flickering candlelight illuminating their similar yet weathered faces.

The swirling smoke of cigarettes seemed like the Xie family ancestor smiling from the afterlife, gently caressing the long-lost family.

Wei Honglian quietly put away her hidden weapon and retreated to the doorway, her blood-red dress glowing a soft, dark red in the candlelight. The usual coldness and murderous intent in her eyes had long since vanished, leaving only complexity and emotion. She gently closed the ancestral hall door, leaving this space of reunion to her blood-related siblings.

On the roof beam, Yue Linglong's eyes were already blurry with tears, her fingertips tightly gripping her sleeve, afraid that she would cry out loud.

Hua Tianyou stood beside her, his gaze calm and serene. He slowly released his grip on her wrist, which he had been holding to prevent her from acting impulsively, and whispered, his voice almost drowned out by the incense smoke: "Keep quiet... Don't disturb their reunion."

The night breeze slipped in through the cracks, stirring the candle flames and brushing against Xie Xin's long hair.

In this fortified village that once imprisoned her childhood, she finally found herself again—not just Xie Xin, but also the eldest daughter of the Xie family, Xie Changkong's older sister, and the last sibling of the Xie bloodline.

Inside the ancestral hall, incense burned continuously, and candlelight flickered like tears, silently witnessing this reunion that had been long overdue.

Wisps of smoke curled around the ancestral tablets of the Xie family, as if time itself had slowed down, unwilling to disturb this moment of bloodline reunion.

Xie Xin gripped her younger brother's hand tightly, her fingertips trembling slightly. Her eyes, still wet with tears, were brimming with a long-lost warmth: "How... have you been all these years? Who saved you?"

Xie Changkong lowered his eyes, remained silent for a moment, and then slowly said, "It was Situ Dengfeng of Jingtian Pavilion who saved me. He took me back to Changbai Mountain, took me as his disciple, and named me Situ Changkong... I grew up under his tutelage, learning martial arts and gaining experience, until..." He paused, his voice slightly hesitant, but did not continue.