劍問蒼天 - 第140章 殺機 - 清風書屋

With that she set the matter aside and walked a few steps off, but she had gone only a short way when she suddenly stopped, and when she turned back her delicate brows were faintly knit, as though something had occurred to her. "By the way, when you saw that Li Xun of the Burning Cloud Valley today, did you not think something was off about what followed?"

Tian Buhui said mildly, "You mean the Sect Master having Little Zhu Peak's Lu Xueling go and receive him?"

Su Wan nodded. "So you noticed something off as well?"

Tian Buhui snorted. "There's nothing off about it. If there were really a problem, that senior sister of yours would have turned him away with a few cold words long ago. But you saw how she said not a word about it—which shows that the Sect Master at least spoke with her about the matter, and that senior sister of yours agreed to it."

Su Wan was taken aback, then nodded. "Mm, you're right. I hadn't thought of that. But my senior sister has always doted on Lu Xueling above all her pupils—how could she..."

Tian Buhui said coldly, "Is that Li Xun so very inferior? In her eyes, I daresay he's far better than the pupils of our own sect."

Su Wan said in surprise, "Whatever made you drag that into it?"

The corner of Tian Buhui's mouth twitched, and he said offhandedly, "That year on Flowing Wave Mountain in the East Sea, on that stormy night, when I punished Old Seven—did she not..." Here he suddenly caught himself and broke off, and for some reason shook his head and gave a sigh.

Su Wan frowned. "The more you talk, the stranger you get—now you're even dragging Xiaofan into it. What's going on?"

Tian Buhui seemed to have suddenly lost all interest, his spirits flagging. He shook his head. "Don't ask."

Su Wan knew her husband's temper and said no more, but her heart had been stirred, and she could not help sighing as well. "Ten years now. I wonder how Xiaofan is doing these days?"

Tian Buhui was silent a long while, then slowly rose and said coldly, "Haven't you heard? He's now the Vice-Sect Master of the Nether King Sect, renamed Ming Li, called the Blood Young Master—formidable indeed!"

Su Wan lowered her head and slowly sank into a chair beside her, and only after a long while did she say in a low voice, "Ah, when he first came to our sect, he seemed a bit slow and clumsy, but..." She did not go on, and after a long silence added softly, "He was such a good boy—so respectful and dutiful to you and to me alike. And now... to end up driven out of the sect like that!"

A flash of anger crossed Tian Buhui's face, and he suddenly cried out, "If they wanted to expel him, then expel him they would—but I never said I wanted to expel this pupil of—"

Su Wan rose to her feet at once, cutting her husband off. "Buhui!"

Tian Buhui glanced at his wife and swallowed the rest of his words, saying no more, though his face grew all the more indignant. Suddenly he stamped his foot, gave a heavy "Ai!", and strode off into the rear of the Hall of Guarded Stillness.

Su Wan watched her husband's retreating back in silence, then quietly sighed, turned, and looked out.

Through the great doors of the Hall of Guarded Stillness, the genial sunlight fell warm upon Great Zhu Peak, and in the distance, faintly visible behind the shadows of the trees, the secluded kitchen showed the corner of a roofline.

The house remained, but the man was gone.

Su Wan gazed at it a while, shook her head, and turned to go into the rear hall of the Hall of Guarded Stillness as well.

Night deepened, and layers of dark clouds pressed low in the sky, heavy enough to make a person gasp for breath.

In such weather, with neither star nor moon, there was only a single campfire burning on the lee side of a hill at the foot of the desolate mountain.