The blind girl is called a saint with a sword!

Even someone who loves her deeply.

Even her own daughter.

Even if it means her life.

Liu Keren was simply unwilling to accept it.

She had waited so long, she had sacrificed so much, and now, she was only one step away from obtaining the true, insinuating blueprints.

As long as she gets her hands on this blueprint, she can replace Mo Yugu and Zhou Lingyue, becoming a brand new legend in the martial arts world.

However, the sudden arrival of the Joyful Taoist destroyed everything!

It destroyed her dream and her confidence in her own charm.

How could she not feel resentful?

But this resentment didn't last long.

When Liu Keren fell to the ground, she saw the eyes of the Joyful Taoist.

Those eyes were looking at her.

Those eyes seemed not to see her at all.

There was no smugness, no mockery, no contempt in those eyes—nothing at all.

In those eyes, it was as if she wasn't a person, but just a grain of sand, a speck of dust!

Years ago, as she knelt beside a tree that had withered from drought, guarding her parents' bodies, a luxurious carriage passed by, and the person who leaned out of the carriage looked at her with those same eyes.

That was the way she came from.

It was that experience that made her realize that a person can be something other than a person.

It was that time that made her determined to climb higher, to climb desperately, and to climb at all costs.

Liu Keren never imagined that, as she was dying, she would see such eyes again, and these eyes belonged to the Happy Taoist.

She suddenly laughed, a bitter, desperate laugh.

In this cold ice chamber, her laughter sounded particularly jarring, so jarring that even Huanxi Dao, who no longer considered her human, had to be more wary of her.

"what are you laughing at?"

Liu Keren covered her neck and forced herself to speak, "I'm laughing at myself, and I'm laughing at you too."

The Joyful Taoist said, "Are you laughing at me?"

Liu Keren smiled bitterly, "Now I realize that you and I are essentially the same kind of people. The more we lack something, the more we want to fill it. But some things cannot be filled. I can't do it, and neither can you!"

The Happy Taoist reached out and gently stroked Liu Keren's neck, a half-smile on his face: "I am not you."

Liu Keren felt like her neck was about to be snapped, but she kept saying, "You are me. You can fool others, but you can't fool yourself. You don't even know what you really want. You're just climbing up. Look, look at the top of your head. It's the same as mine. Hahahaha!"

She laughed so hard that air started leaking from her throat, and blood gushed from her throat and mouth.

Top of head?

The Taoist priest looked up at the top of his head instinctively, but saw nothing unusual.

He only saw Liu Keren raise her left hand, as if trying to grab something.

rope?

Or something else?

But there was nothing there, and she couldn't grab anything.

Just like her life, in the end it all came to nothing.

The Happy Taoist frowned, then suddenly smiled.

Why would I get angry with a madman?

He released Liu Keren's neck.

Liu Keren was still scratching in mid-air, making eerie giggling noises as she did so.

She wasn't actually smiling, because her eyes were already completely wet.

The Taoist priest indifferently stuffed the blueprint into his pocket, while deliberately leaving the bead and the other note inside it in the ice coffin.

Before leaving, he glanced back at Zhou Lingyue's corpse and Liu Keren.

"Zhou Lingyue, you've planned everything, but did you ever foresee this day?"

Hahahaha!

The Happy Taoist left the Mandarin Duck Palace amidst loud laughter.

The noisy ice room has once again returned to calm.

This calm did not last long.

About fifteen minutes later, the tightly closed stone gate of Yuanyang Palace was smashed to pieces by a single blow from the outside.

Amidst the rumbling sound, the person who stepped into the gravel was none other than An Qingwan.

Not long ago, An Qingwan followed in the footsteps of the Joyful Taoist in the Jade Valley.

As she approached the entrance to the Mandarin Duck Palace, she smelled the stench of blood everywhere.

Sensing something was amiss, she found her way to the entrance of the Mandarin Duck Palace and broke down the door without a word.

Finally, she stopped in front of Liu Keren's body.

"This is……"

“This is my mother, Liu Keren.”

At the entrance of the ice room, Gongsun Hongdie slowly peeked out, her face devoid of sorrow.

An Qingwan nodded, not surprised by Gongsun Hongdie's appearance.

Not long after leaving the courtyard, she discovered that Gongsun Hongdie had been secretly following her.

An Qingwan asked, "Where is this place?"

Gongsun Hongdie said, "This is the Yuanyang Palace, the place where the bodies of Zhou Lingyue and Gongsun Mo, the ancestors of Moyu Valley, are kept."

An Qingwan asked, "Why is she here?"

Gongsun Hongdie shook her head.

She and Liu Keren were never familiar with each other, so how could she know why Liu Keren would suddenly come here?

"She was stabbed in the throat. When she died, her left hand was outstretched, and there were wet marks on her face. Who killed her? What was she doing before she died?"

Gongsun Hongdie squatted down in front of Liu Keren.

An Qingwan ran her fingers over the wound, quietly feeling it.

Quiet.

very quiet.

The silence made Gongsun Hongdie uneasy. She stood up and walked to the broken ice coffin next to her.

Her pupils suddenly contracted.

"There's a piece of paper in the ice coffin!"

"Paper?"

Gongsun Hongdie picked up the paper, glanced at it a few times, and her expression turned strange.

"This note seems to have been written by our ancestor Zhou Lingyue."

An Qingwan's curiosity was piqued: "What did it say?"

Gongsun Hongdie said, "Our ancestor Zhou Lingyue said that he recently discovered someone sneaking into his ice chamber where he practices martial arts. The person only searched and didn't take anything with them. He suspects that the person wanted to steal the blueprints for the 'Hidden Sand Shooting Shadow' technique. The 'Hidden Sand Shooting Shadow' is the king of hidden weapons in the world, and even ordinary people can easily use it. Once the blueprints are exposed, it will inevitably cause countless deaths. He is worried and just wants to find the person who stole the blueprints as soon as possible."

"He also said that he already had the answer in his heart at the time, but he did not say it directly. First, he was afraid that he might be wrong, and second, he thought that if he could not catch them in the act, there would be no point in saying it. So he devised a plan."

An Qingwan said: "Ling the snake out of its hole?"

Gongsun Hongdie said, "That's right. He put the insinuating drawing and this note together in a bead. In addition, he made another preparation."

An Qingwan tilted her head: "What preparations?"

Gongsun Hongdie said, "He prepared a pot of wine in the room inside the ice chamber. It was a pot of poisoned wine. He knew that the man had a special habit: he had to drink to celebrate after he succeeded."

An Qingwan suddenly realized: "Zhou Lingyue was afraid that if that person was caught red-handed, he would kill him, so he prepared that pot of poisoned wine as a backup plan. If that person obediently admits his mistake, then everything will be fine; if that person remains stubborn, that pot of poisoned wine can also take that person's life."

Gongsun Hongdie nodded and said, "That's exactly what it says on the paper. Our ancestor Zhou Lingyue also said that he didn't know whether creating the Hidden Sand Shot was a good thing or a bad thing. If it weren't for the Hidden Sand Shot, the martial arts world of Sichuan would probably have been destroyed back then. But since the Hidden Sand Shot was created, one calamity after another will surely arise around it."

An Qingwan asked, "His concerns were valid. What happened afterward?"

Gongsun Hongdie said, "There is no more content on the paper."

An Qingwan said, "But Miss Gongsun, you must already know the details."

Gongsun Hongdie said, "Yes, I know. After reading the contents of this paper, everyone in Moyu Valley will know. There were two people who died in this ice chamber. One was our ancestor Zhou Lingyue, and the other was our ancestor Gongsun Mo. Our ancestor Gongsun Mo loved to drink, and she also died by poisoning herself."

An Qingwan was taken aback: "Everyone in the martial arts world says that Gongsun Mo died for love."

Who would have thought?

If the contents of this paper are true, then the truth of what happened back then was that Gongsun Mo attempted to steal the cryptic blueprints, but was discovered by Zhou Lingyue. She killed Zhou Lingyue, and in her moment of triumph, she was poisoned to death by a pot of poison left behind by Zhou Lingyue.

What a terrible truth.

Is the so-called perfect couple just an act?

Or was it that the most vicious hidden weapon in the world, the indirect attack, was too ruthless, causing even the once-perfect couple to change their hearts?

Gongsun Hongdie picked up the bead from the ice coffin again and held it up on Gongsun Mo's corpse.

"This bead must have been taken from the body of our ancestor, Gongsun Mo."

An Qingwan said, "When she was discovered, she swallowed the bead in a moment of panic."

Gongsun Hongdie said, "I'm afraid that's the case."

An Qingwan sighed: "There is nothing wrong with making insinuations, it's just that people's hearts are hard to fathom."

Gongsun Hongdie said, "Now that the bead has been taken out and this note has been left here, the blueprint with its veiled implications is nowhere to be seen. I'm afraid this is going to cause trouble."

An Qingwan said, "Miss Gongsun doesn't need to worry too much."

Gongsun Hongdie asked, puzzled, "Why?"

An Qingwan said, "If Zhou Lingyue is capable of preparing poisoned wine in advance, why would he honestly put the blueprint into the bead? Besides, I already know who took the blueprint."

Gongsun Hongdie was taken aback: "How did you know?"

An Qingwan lifted Liu Keren's right hand, and a patch of black spots had appeared on her fair left arm at some point.

Those black dots combined form four large characters—

The Joyful Taoist.

Gongsun Hongdie's eyes widened: "These are the scars left by the Zhou family's ultimate technique, the Sorrowful Palm. When did my mother learn this?"

An Qingwan stood up: "The only person who could break into this Mandarin Duck Palace and take the blueprints without a sound is Huanxi Daoren."

Gongsun Hongdie asked, "Are you going to Qingcheng Mountain?"

An Qingwan said, "That's right."

Gongsun Hongdie seemed to suddenly realize something: "Four days from now, the Qingcheng Sect will hold the once-in-a-decade Qingcheng Martial Arts Tournament at Qingcheng Mountain. If Yu Shenghan is Huanxi Daoren, will something go wrong during the tournament?"

"A martial arts competition at Qingcheng?"

An Qingwan frowned, then suddenly smiled.

"Perhaps we can figure out what exactly the Happy Taoist is up to!"

P.S.: Thank you Night Wind Feather, may the holy light shine upon your blade.

Eighty-eight deadly swords, the death of the Joyful Taoist! [3k]

After calming Gongsun Hongdie down, An Qingwan immediately left Moyu Valley to meet up with Jin Xueyi and Lan Xiaogu.

Qingcheng Mountain is actually not far from Moyu Valley, less than 100 li away.