Tome of Troubled Times

Chapter 76: Cui Clan Controversy

Zhao Changhe happily chowed down on his food, having broken through to the fourth layer of the Profound Gate earlier than expected. He could not be bothered with whether Cui Wenjing was just faking it, or if the ninth man on the Ranking of Heaven really was such a child prodigy. For all I know, he could have reached the eighth layer in five months. Who freakin’ cares?

The saber he remembered from his dreams was much too heavy, and Zhao Changhe did not have enough strength to wield it. However, having broken through to the fourth layer of the Profound Gate for external arts, his physical power was nothing like before. If he could smoothly wield a steel saber weighing ten jin, then it would not be impossible for him to use one weighing twenty or even thirty jin. The only difference should be how long I can use it.

Zhao Changhe wondered if he should return and test out that broad saber that was four or five chi long...but after seeing the young lady beside him rubbing her eyes, he thought, Forget it, she’s already chosen this saber for me. It won’t look good if I say I don’t want it. We’ll leave things as they are for now.

How could he know that she had actually long since planned on giving him the Great Xia Dragon Bird? With that thought occupying her mind, she had not even introduced the name of the random saber she had given him.

They were being considerate to each other, so much so that their gazes when they looked at each other both had an indescribable sourness.

Even Cui Yuanyong could feel the acridity the moment he entered the room and felt that he had arrived at the wrong time. Although, now that he thought of it, it actually was just about the right time for his sister to find a man.

With that in mind, he, as her elder brother, was not even engaged... Before he left Qinghe last year, the clan was preparing to discuss a marriage arrangement with the Wang clan. Having to go back and forth was extremely troublesome. Even now, the matter was still being discussed, and before it was settled, his sister had found a man...

“Second brother!” Cui Yuanyang realized he had arrived and happily waved at him.

“Eh? Brother Cui, you’re here?” Zhao Changhe wiped his mouth before asking curiously, “Where were you all this time? For a matter this serious, I’m quite surprised we never bumped into each other at all.”

Cui Yuanyong laughed, casually sat where his father had sat and poured wine for his guest on behalf of his father. “When I brought my sister to tail you and let her see firsthand the dangers of the jianghu, I could tell that, sooner or later, there would be some change in how she saw you.”

Cui Yuanyang blushed, “Second brother!”

Cui Yuanyong did not concern himself with her and smiled at Zhao Changhe. “Brother Zhao, there is no need to question me like that. Do you really think I’m the traitor?”

Zhao Changhe smiled. “So perceptive. I was only asking. I thought we were friends, you know.”

“I knew that there would be people who think I’m the culprit. After all, my sister ran away under my supervision. If her running off to your mountain stronghold was also considered running away, then that means I let her run off twice. For an idiot to be so able to slip away—wouldn’t it seem like I was letting her do it intentionally?” Cui Yuanyong sipped his wine and sighed. “Even if I wasn’t the traitor, someone would use this against me. They’d say that I wasn’t prudent enough and my future looked bleak.”

Cui Yuanyang felt a little sorry. She was the one who put her brother in such a tough situation.

From her perspective, the two times she ran away had nothing to do with her second brother. If she ran to the mountain stronghold in the middle of the night, what was her brother supposed to do? Was he supposed to monitor her in his sleep? If he could, then this would really be a problem.

Her running off to find Zhao Changhe had even less to do with Cui Yuanyong—she was being escorted by a subordinate and found an excuse to sneak off. How was her second brother supposed to know she would do that?

Even though it seemed like Cui Yuanyong was wrongly accused, he could not wash away his “mistake” of not being meticulous enough. In fact, these could not be considered unjust accusations. He himself did not have much experience in the jianghu, so it was actually true that he had not thought things through thoroughly.

It was precisely this reason that made it even more unlikely that Cui Yuanyong intentionally let her run off. He held a stable position in the clan and had no reason to do such a thing; his reputation would plummet.

Cui Yuanyong sighed and said, “As for these past few days, I retraced our original path to try and find you two. I even found the city you guys stayed in. I never guessed that you’d travel through the mountains, so I had no way of bumping into you. I don’t mean to be petty, but if you two slipped back into the city, hid for a while, and waited for me to find you, maybe things wouldn’t have gotten so out of hand...”

At this moment, Zhao Changhe’s face twitched.

He thought carefully for a moment and came to the conclusion that his interlocutor was actually right. What the hell, who said that there were only two options back then? This was obviously a third option, and it might have been the easy way out. I actually didn’t think of it...

Cui Yuanyang sneered and pulled Zhao Changhe’s hand, gently telling him, “Don’t mind him.”

Zhao Changhe finally nodded. “Fine. Why defend yourself like this? I was only joking.”

“Because all this is really disgusting! So many people wish to force the blame on me. It feels like I’ve swallowed a fly. Now that the main people affected by this incident are before me, how could I not say a few things!?” Cui Yuanyong could only ask his sister, “In just a bit, there will be another trial. I’ll have to plead my case. Will you be there to listen?”

Cui Yuanyang thought for a moment and nodded. “I’ll go with Big Brother Zhao. He can come, can’t he?”

Cui Yuanyong said, “He’s one of the involved parties. We would obviously require him to provide some explanations, but his situation is special. Father hasn’t said anything about this, and the rest of us can’t just summon him in front of the clan to be put on trial like a criminal. If you guys are willing to participate in the hearing, that would be for the best.”

Zhao Changhe indeed wanted to go. He felt that there was something fishy about this and was interested in getting to the bottom of all this. What’s more, the culprit wanted to kill Yangyang. He shivered thinking about how someone who wanted her life would hang around her on the daily if they were not caught. It was paramount that the culprit be sniffed out and cut down.

Cui Yuanyang, on her part, really did not wish to know who the culprit was. Whoever it was, it would be hard for her to accept. However, she knew that this matter needed to be settled sooner or later.

*

Evening. At Cui Clan Ancestral Hall.

Zhao Changhe and Cui Yuanyang stood behind Cui Wenjing and stuck out their heads to look at the situation here.

At the center of the room, Cui Yuanyong stood shoulder to shoulder with another youth that looked incredibly similar to him. Both of them had exasperated expressions, but the other young man looked a little more terrible; his complexion was horrible. Zhao Changhe thought that he must have been a child that has never had to endure hardship before. He had become wretched and dispirited just from having been locked in the dungeon for two days.

He was Cui Yuanyang’s third brother, Cui Yuancheng—the one under the most suspicion.

The elders of the Cui Clan were all gathered here. Even the Commandery Administrator of Qinghe, Cui Wenjue, had hurried here. It was not about a youngster pestering some random girl on the street; a member of the clan had attempted to assassinate another member. This was an exceedingly grave issue. All the clan members felt it difficult to face.

Among them were a few who fixed their gazes on Zhao Changhe with a fierce might that made him go numb from head to toe.

Obviously, he was far from being able to tell their cultivation levels, but when people at the eighth or ninth layer of the Profound Gate or even the Profound Mysteries looked at him, he could naturally feel an indescribable oppression.

However, Zhao Changhe did not care and just grinned. Cui Wenjing didn’t even show off like this to me, so what’re you people doing this for?

An elder spoke slowly, “I’m sure everyone here is clear about this matter. I shall emphasize, for the last time, why we have shifted the focus onto Yuancheng. There are only so many ways to distribute bounties to criminals. We’ve already flipped Qinghe on its back searching all over the place and have determined that the culprit has spread their bounty with the help of merchants from the merchant hall belonging to salt smugglers operating in this area. We caught their hallmaster who confessed that it was Yuancheng who issued the bounty. There is a clear trail.”

Everyone nodded. This was easy to investigate. One needed a channel to disseminate the bounty; they also needed a way to hand down the reward for it. It was too easy for the Cui Clan to find out all this information. There was basically no way to cover this up.

But the problem was...

“After he confessed, he bit on some poison he hid in the gaps of his teeth beforehand and committed suicide. This means that there is still the possibility that Yuancheng has been framed. Thus, people have begun suspecting that Yuanyong was the one that did it. There are many who hold this view, including Wenjue.”

Cui Wenjue nodded and bowed. “Correct. Yuanyong, do not blame your uncle for being suspicious. Anyone in my position would be.”

Cui Yuanyong replied calmly, “As for my suspicion, I can clear it with but a single point: everyone knows that I was still on the way home when my sister ran off. I couldn’t have had time to set everything up, unless I did it beforehand. But her decision to run off was an impulsive one. Not even she knew she would run off on her own. How could I have set up the bounty before all this transpired? Uncle, do you really take me for an idiot?”

Many people nodded, including Zhao Changhe and Cui Yuanyang. Cui Yuanyang was even clearer about the fact that her decision to run off at the time was made on impulse. How could he have predicted it, and set up everything beforehand?

However, if this was the case, then there was trouble. Because the one who confessed killed himself, there were doubts about Cui Yuancheng being the killer; it was also not very possible for Cui Yuanyong to set up everything beforehand. Had the trail gone cold?

The Cui Clan proclaimed themselves hegemons of Qinghe, and yet, they could not find out who was the culprit behind Cui Yuanyang’s attempted assassination!

Countless gazes landed on Cui Wenjing, who had not uttered a word. They told him with their eyes, Let’s use the Qinghe Sword.

Zhao Changhe furrowed his brow.

He did not know anything about the characteristics of the Qinghe Sword, but this current turn of events made him feel that something was terribly off. Is the culprit’s real goal the Qinghe Sword?