CH 7.1

Snowbun12-15 minutes 08.05.2023

When they first heard Lei Lei speak, everyone was stunned. Although nobody wanted her help with anything, chatting with her was fine. Moreover, this woman was unlike the other maids who only talked about their husbands, food, and clothing all day long. Most of the time she could keep up with them and talk incessantly, asking about interesting things in the world of martial arts, so they never excluded her.

Wang Cong was surprised, “The matter of the longevity fruit is such a big issue, you don’t know about it?”

Lei Lei shook her head.

She was so far behind the times! Everyone looked at her scornfully. Even Aunt Hong, who was busy in the kitchen, knew about this.

Lei Lei sat down hurriedly, “Hurry and tell.”

Wang Cong looked at the crowd and said, “It’s a long story. Do you know Bo Yao Qian, the idiot doctor in the Bai Xian Mansion? The old man is a good person with excellent medical skills but he leads a poor life.”

Lei Lei nodded, his name was “Don’t Want Money”, so of course he was poor.

(TLN: “Don’t want money” in pinyin is Bu Yao Qian “不要钱”, which sounds similar to the doctor’s name Bo Yao Qian “卜耀谦”.)

Wang Cong said, “Half a year ago during one night, Old Mr Bo was killed at home.”

Lei Lei said, “There must have been some benefit from killing him.”

“According to his brother, Bo Yao Ming, it’s because of a treasure called the longevity fruit,” whispered Wang Cong, “Old Mr Bo once mentioned to his brother before he was killed that he should sort out his relics, but there was no such thing.”

The older brother did not want money, and the younger brother did not want his life! Lei Lei was surprised, “What’s the longevity fruit used for?”

(TLN: Bo Yao Ming “卜耀明” sounds like Bu Yao Ming “不要命” which means “don’t want your life”.)

Wang Cong’s spirits lifted, “People live to a hundred years and death is inevitable. It’s said that the longevity fruit is very strange. If you’re over 70 years old and you eat it, you can be reborn and live another hundred years.”

“Really?” She was surprised.

“Old Mr Bo is known to be a medical nerd and studied medicine hard all his life. His words will definitely never be false.”

Longevity. The dream of emperors since ancient times, being able to live a century longer than others. No one could resist this temptation. Lei Lei finally understood why everyone was willing to spend a lot of money to buy information on its whereabouts, “The longevity fruit must have been taken away by the murderer.”

Wang Cong said, “Not only Young Miss, everyone thinks this too. Old Mr Bo’s martial arts skills were not bad at all, but he died under the power of an outsider’s ordinary palm strike. It should be someone who was extremely trustworthy to him, someone who hit him when he was unprepared. Coincidentally, only three people saw him that night. They were Yan Wen Dao, leader of Dong Shan Sect, Wen Ting, leader of Xi Sha Sect, and Leng Ying, leader of Nan Hai Sect.”

Dong Shan, Xi Sha, Nan Hai. Seeing as how these were named, Lei Lei doubted the intelligence of the R&D department guy even more, “So, the three of them are most likely the murderers.”

Wang Cong nodded, “The three of them were old friends of Old Mr Bo. They had good reputations in the martial arts world. Old Mr Bo was kind and honest so it would not be strange for him to tell them about the longevity fruit.”

Lei Lei said, “It’s such a treasure, it’s likely it made them all greedy.”

Wang Cong said, “Exactly. Old Mr Bo only died half a month ago, but the Nan Hai Sect suddenly spread news that the longevity fruit was in the Leng family’s residence. The last person who saw Old Mr Bo that night was also Leader Leng Ying. In this way, suspicion naturally fell upon him.”

Lei Lei hurriedly said, “Who released the news?”

Wang Cong sighed, “It was a servant from the Leng family. Not only this, when they found the servant to confront him, he had actually been nailed to death with a sword piercing straight through his heart. Everyone said that it was Leader Leng who silenced him via murder. There was nothing Leader Leng could do to clear his name.”

Lei Lei suddenly said, “Since the longevity fruit is so good, why didn’t Old Mr Bo eat it himself?”

Wang Cong said with a smile, “You wouldn’t know this, but it was said that even though the longevity fruit is so good, if someone younger than 70 years eats it, it would only strengthen your body and was useless otherwise. Old Mr Bo was only in his 60s.”

So it turned out to be like this. Lei Lei pondered for a moment and then said, “Leader Leng was probably framed. Although he was the last one to see Old Mr Bo that night, the others could have quietly gone back to kill Old Mr Bo after he left, and snatch the longevity fruit. Besides, to release the news that the longevity fruit was in the Leng family’s house, they could just bribe the servants, and then kill the man again and blame it on Leader Leng.”

Everyone said, “Who wouldn’t understand this reasoning?!”

Wang Cong laughed, “Leader He is wise and found this to be strange early on. Naturally, he did not condemn Leader Leng so easily. Unexpectedly, another big event happened after.”

Lei Lei quickly asked, “What?”

Wang Cong said, the three main sects have always been friends. Since something happened, they could not help but suspect each other. So, the three leaders secretly arranged to meet at the top of Mount Hua to sincerely and openly clarify this matter with each other.”

What the people of the martial arts world valued the most was righteousness. Lei Lei sighed secretly, “And then?”

Wang Cong said, “The disciples of the three sects were waiting at the foot of the mountain that day. Yet, only two leaders came back down. Leng Ying, the leader of the Nan Hai Sect did not appear for a long while. The disciples of the Nan Hai Sect had no choice but to go up the mountain to investigate. They found him dead on the mountain path. He had been killed by the unique palm strike move from the Xi Sha Sect.”

Lei Lei immediately remembered the black and purple palm print on the handsome man in the inn, “Leng Ying’s martial arts were not as good as Leader Wen’s?”

Wang Cong said, “Of course not, but the Leader of Dong Shan Sect also went up the mountain with them. If he joined forces with Leader Wen, it would not be difficult for them to kill Leader Leng.”

Lei Lei said, “They definitely won’t admit it now.”

“Exactly!” Wang Cong clapped his hands, “Now, Leader Yan has repeatedly clarified, saying that at that time, it was true the three of them did not get along with each other and Leader Leng left in a rage. The two of them had no choice but to go down the mountain. However, Leader Wen found an excuse to lag behind and the underlying meaning was that he also suspected Leader Wen. Leader Wen refused to admit it no matter what, but the wound on the leader of Nan Hai Sect was still there and it truly was the palm strike from the Xi Sha Sect. The new leader of Nan Hai Sect, Leng Sheng Yin, has tried to avenge his father several times. Fortunately, Leader He stopped him. It’s presumed that hatred has been forged between the Nan Hai Sect and Xi Sha Sect.”

The original investigation was to probe into the death of Mr “Bu Yao Qian” and the whereabouts of the longevity fruit. Now that this had happened, it was time to focus on investigating the cause of former Leader Leng’s death. No wonder Leader He Tai Ping was so busy!

(TLN: Lei Lei uses the “Don’t Want Money” characters to call Old Mr Bo.)

Lei Lei thought of what the young master said and also grew suspicious, “Knowing that it would be troublesome to kill Leader Leng, why would Leader Wen use his unique palm strike technique? Could it be that someone else did it to frame him? For example, a demonic cult?”

Wang Cong shook his head, “The Xi Sha Sect’s palm strike method follows a strict path and the cultivation method is unique, so how could it be imitated so casually? What’s more, it can shatter a person’s internal organs without breaking their ribs. To practise the palm strike to that extent, only Wen Ting can do that.”

Was it really Wen Ting? Of course, he would not admit it. The dignified leader of the Nan Hai Sect died so innocently, of course the alliance leader would deal with the murderer. Everyone knew this, and people were afraid to die.

Lei Lei thought to herself and asked casually, “There’s Dong Shan, Xi Sha, Nan Hai. Why is there no Bei?

(TLN: Dong Shan “东山” means East Mountain, Xi Sha “西沙” means Western Sands, Nan Hai “南海” means Southern Sea, Bei “北” means North.)

Everyone scorned her more and more.

“Our Bai Sheng Shan Village is known as the Bei Dou of martial arts. With the Xiao’s Xiao Phoenix Crying Blade, the demonic cults dare not make trouble so blatantly and only like this can the world of martial arts have peaceful days.”

(TLN: Bei Dou “北斗” means the Big Dipper constellation.)

“Even the three main sects have to give way, not to mention the small gangs and factions.”

“Don’t even know something like this!”

…

With this, Lei Lei finally understood the status of Xiao’s Xiao Phoenix Crying Blade and she felt admiration in her heart. She started asking about another important matter, “Then what’s up with the Qian Yue Cave?”

Everyone’s expressions changed.

Lei Lei nudged Wang Cong, “Tell.”

Wang Cong looked around, then spoke in a low voice, “It all started with the demonic cult back then. A hundred years ago, Nan Xing He, the leader of the demonic cult, ran rampant in the world of martial arts. Later, Leader Wu gathered several major sects and eradicated him. He died under the Phoenix Crying Blade of Xiao Min, the ancestor of the Xiao family. After Nan Xing He died, the demonic cult’s vitality was greatly damaged and since then, it had split into two sects, Qian Yue Cave and Chuan Qi Valley.”

Lei Lei said, “Chuan Qi Valley?”

Someone snorted coldly, “Chuan Qi Valley’s Leader Fu Lou was ruthless and cruel. Not only did he abandon righteousness and defect to the demonic cult, he even killed his teacher at the time and forcibly married his teacher’s wife.”

Wang Cong said, “Not only that, Shang Guan Qiu Yue, the leader of Qian Yue Cave, is even more cunning. Our Old Master would not use his sword to kill women, so he deliberately sent his witches and as a result, the Old Master was poisoned to death. So you must never mention the words “Qian Yue Cave” in front of Butler Zhao.”

Using righteous methods to deal with the demonic cult, of course you would suffer. Lei Lei was not surprised. Thinking that she might be related to that devil Shang Guan Qiu Yue, she dared not continue the topic. She shook her head, “Such three great main sects became like this over a longevity fruit.”

Everyone also sighed.

Wang Cong said, “However, there are still many people trying their hardest to find the location of the longevity fruit. I heard that the longevity fruit fell into the hands of a mysterious person and that there will be an auction in a few days!”

Everyone was surprised, “Really?”

“It’s absolutely true!”

“It seems like Leader Leng had really been wronged back then.”

“Certainly!”

“…”

While they were all discussing, Lei Lei already knew about this so she lost interest and stood up to leave. That man had sold news for ten thousand taels of silver and on the first night of the Lunar New Year in Bi Shui City, there would be an auction for the longevity fruit. It was only early August so there was still quite a while until the new year.