Chapter 95
Chapter 95
The location on the note was none other than Ding Manor.
But unlike their last visit, they encountered no one upon entering. The enormous residence stood completely empty, its darkness filled with a sinister air.
Every gust of wind made it still more frightening.
Qiao Ying moved closer to Shen Qingyu. Hugging the Demon-Subduing Sword, she shivered in the cold and said weakly, “These people are relentless in pursuing Ding Lingling’s soul. She’s an ordinary young woman. Why would anyone hate her so much?”
“How do you know it is hatred rather than greed?”
Qiao Ying stared up at him. “Have you noticed something?”
Shen Qingyu smiled pleasantly. “I merely smelled desire seeping from a soul. Very interesting.”
Qiao Ying looked skeptical. “Your nose is so keen that you can smell the desire in someone’s soul? Then tell me: what desire does my soul reveal?”
Shen Qingyu chuckled. “There is one.”
Intensely curious, Qiao Ying pressed him. “What is it?”
The night wind stirred the young man’s white hair and fluttered the hem of his azure robes, outlining his slender frame. He lowered his face with a faint smile.
“Me.”
Qiao Ying froze. After a moment, she said blankly, “That joke isn’t funny at all.”
Shen Qingyu seemed to find it hilarious. He first hooked her finger, then slid his hand upward until he held all of hers within his palm, his smile growing dazzling.
Perhaps because of his unusual appearance, or because his temperament was strange from birth, Shen Qingyu often greeted others with smiles and appeared easy to approach. In truth, that amiability was merely a mask for the indifference in his bones.
Only when deliberately teasing Qiao Ying did he seem vivid and uninhibited, no different from an ordinary boy next door.
Qiao Ying knew he was teasing her again.
She liked money, delicious food, and sleeping late. She was an ordinary person with all kinds of desires. How could he alone be the object of them all?
A sharp whistle cut through the icy wind as an iron arrow flew toward them. Without breaking stride, Shen Qingyu naturally moved in front of Qiao Ying.
His fingers curled. The ebony blind cane spun abruptly, dark light surging along its length. With a metallic ring, the Blind Staff intercepted the arrowhead precisely. A slight twist of his wrist sent the arrow hurtling back along the path it had come.
Someone fell in the darkness.
“I told you this young master was extraordinary. Your petty tricks could never suppress him, but you insisted on testing him anyway.”
Scarface slowly emerged from the shadows, sighing. “Young Master Shen, honestly, I truly don’t wish to make an enemy of you.”
He Fei had lived his life on the edge of a blade. After countless battles and corpses, he had developed an instinct for danger.
He sensed something wrong the first time he saw Shen Qingyu.
Shen Qingyu revealed nothing, and He Fei could sense no aura from the young man at all. Even a saint had a temper. How could anyone remain as utterly still as Shen Qingyu, without the slightest shift in presence?
He Fei had spent twenty years amid blades and blood, yet even he could not achieve such perfect calm.
Shen Qingyu stood in place with his Blind Staff resting on the ground, the curve of his smile unchanged.
Qiao Ying poked her head out from behind him. “If you don’t want to be our enemy, why not give us the antidote and release your prisoner?”
He Fei shook his head. “I cannot.”
Qiao Ying continued, “You seem highly skilled and have a group of people obeying your orders. You must be an important figure capable of great things. If you don’t want to do something, simply don’t do it. Could anyone truly force you to act against your conscience?”
For the first time, He Fei looked directly at her.
He had assumed Qiao Ying was merely a weakling dependent on Shen Qingyu, like the beautiful flower powerful men kept beside them for decoration, pleasing to the eye but otherwise useless.
Now, something in his gaze changed.
“There is no need to probe me, miss. No one is threatening me from behind the scenes. Everything I, He Fei, do comes from my own will. If I refuse something, no one can force me.”
Her scheme exposed, Qiao Ying showed no embarrassment. “Then what grudge do you bear against the Ding family that you insist on taking Miss Ding’s soul?”
Her eyes darted as she began speculating irresponsibly.
“Could you have fallen for Ding Fufu and want to prevent Ding Lingling from returning?”
Always eager to add fuel to the fire, Shen Qingyu said, “There is another possibility. Perhaps he is Ding Fufu’s biological father.”
“That does make sense. He isn’t young, so he could have fathered such a beautiful daughter. But I’ve never heard that he married. I still think it’s more likely he fell for the lively, adorable Ding Fufu.”
“Must one marry to have children? In the wilderness, one need only wag one’s tail and rub scents. If they like each other, one climbs onto the other’s back, and then…”
Qiao Ying covered Shen Qingyu’s mouth, smiling stiffly. “Be quiet.”
Shen Qingyu obeyed.
Across from them, He Fei’s expression darkened. “Don’t speak of me as though I were a wild beast. I may not be a righteous gentleman, but I am no vile degenerate either. Stop wasting time. I know what you want, and you know what I want. Complete the exchange and leave Ding Manor. From then on, we will have nothing more to do with each other.”
He Fei produced a medicine bottle. “This is the antidote to Ice Beauty. Ding Yanyu is also my prisoner. Hand over the Demon-Subduing Sword, and I will give you both the antidote and Ding Yanyu.”
Qiao Ying said, “We haven’t seen Young Master Ding. How do we know whether he’s alive?”
Finding her words reasonable, He Fei turned decisively. “Follow me.”
Qiao Ying whispered to Shen Qingyu, “Should we go?”
“Why not?”
He took her hand and followed He Fei at an unhurried pace.
Ding Yanyu was imprisoned in a chamber made entirely of metal.
At the entrance, He Fei said, “This chamber is forged from Adamantine Black Iron. This door is its only entrance or exit, and I possess the sole key.”