He Still Wants to Confirm Again in the Bottom of His Heart...

The team led by the Tengyun Pavilion soon completely disappeared behind the pinnacle stones.

Gu Feidi and Su Yang made a detour to avoid the garrison from the Central Plains and went into the Phantom City from another direction.

The marks left by the Evil Sect around the Phantom City were made from stones, most of which were embedded in the ground under the pinnacle stones formed by wind erosion. The signs were not complicated and were easy to spot. But without understanding the meaning behind each mark, those marks would be easily missed and regarded as ordinary stones in the eyes of a bystander.

Because there were petal retainers with him the last time he travelled to the Sanctuary, it was not ideal for Su Yang to explain to Gu Feidi about these signs. However, this time, they were alone with each other. Su Yang described each mark and shared the meaning of each of them to Gu Feidi.

After learning how to identify the marks and find the way, Gu Feidi asked with a smile, “You are teaching me the road marks willingly. Do you not fear that I’ll do something harmful to the Evil Sect in the future?”

Su Yang rolled his eyes. “And we are going to the Evil Sect to do good things in the first place?”

Gu Feidi smiled and gave Su Yang a head pat.

Since they couldn’t currently determine the location of the marching force, after a brief discussion, they decided to go straight to the Sanctuary.

After walking for a short time, they met a group of three when they went around a boulder, a party of Plum Blossom Hall’s petal retainers.

When both parties confronted each other, they were stunned for a moment.

Immediately, a petal retainer nodded slightly and introduced himself in a deep voice, “Mei Nianqi, number twenty-seven of the Plum Blossom Hall, greeting the Young Master. May this subordinate ask why the Young Master is travelling with the Tengyun Pavilion’s Young Lord?”

Su Yang put his arm on Gu Feidi’s shoulder and answered with a smile, “He is not the Young Lord of his pavilion anymore, but the wife of the Evil Sect’s Young Master. Of course, we would be travelling together.”

Gu Feidi looked at the petal retainers with an expressionless face, moved to an non-obvious defensive posture, used his internal energy and was on guard secretly.

That petal retainer informed them, “Young Master, this subordinate apologises. I can’t allow you to step inside the Sanctuary.”

Su Yang raised an eyebrow. “Huh? Are you stopping me?”

The petal retainer made a hand gesture to the two behind him, drew his curved sword and said to Su Yang, “Apologies for the offence.”

As soon as he said that, he rushed forward and waved his blade in a full circle, chopping towards Su Yang—the petal retainer didn’t seem like he was only forcing Su Yang and Gu Feidi back, but going to kill his Young Master on the spot.

As Su Yang was about to draw his sword, Gu Feidi stopped him. He held the incoming attack with his Cherished Heart, tilting his head slightly to say, “Don’t waste your internal energy.”

As he said that, he went to face the three petal retainers alone, but he fought with mercy and didn’t end any of their lives immediately. 

However, the three seemed to be dead set fighting to the death. Two of them confronted Gu Feidi, keeping him busy, while the last one went around to attack Su Yang.

Finding the situation obviously strange, Gu Feidi frowned, twisted his Cherished Heart and sliced deeply towards the two petal retainers he was fighting. Then he turned around to help Su Yang.

Su Yang didn’t stay a sitting duck. He pulled out his sword and met the petal retainer’s blow.

“Are you using the Tengyun Pavilion as an excuse to silence me?” He narrowed his eyes and stared into the petal retainer’s eyes. “Before you, I met a servant from the Orchid Hall who tried to kill me...So it’s true that someone in the Sect is trying to seize power?”

Hearing this question, hatred burst out from the petal retainer’s eyes as he said through gritted teeth, “Since this is the case, I have even more reason to prevent you from returning to warn the Sect Leader!”

With a turn of his wrist, he changed his style. Each of his attacks became sharper by a large margin. The curved sword was hitting close to Su Yang’s life, who saw the lack of sentiment behind the attack.

Su Yang waved his sword to block the other’s blade, turned his head and shouted to Gu Feidi, “Don’t be merciful!”

This command was not needed. Gu Feidi had already heard the other and the petal retainer’s conversation as he immediately killed the two traitorous petal retainers with Graceful Wings and followed the slice with Sandfall.

Su Yang stared into Mei Nianqi’s murderous eyes and softly sighed in his heart. He swung his arm and stabbed his blade into the other’s heart.

In order to stop the fight, he had no choice but to kill.

He didn’t like this feeling, but...that was the nature of the Jianghu. That was how a battle was defined. Being in the middle of them, he couldn’t act as he liked.

“What do we do about the corpses?” He turned to Gu Feidi and asked, trying very hard to remain calm, “Just leave it here?”

Gu Feidi locked eyes with Su Yang, studied the other face and saw the distress. He came forward to give the other man an encouraging hug.

“There’s no time to deal with them. Let’s just leave the bodies here.” He murmured. “You...don’t have to bear any burden for it. If you really don’t want to fight the people of the Evil Sect, leave them to me and I’ll do it in your stand.”

Su Yang shook his head and said with a gentle smile, “I can’t always let you kill for me. Since I want to participate in these Jianghu affairs, I should do my own share.”

As he spoke, he sheathed his thin sword, lowered his hand and hooked his pinky with Gu Feidi’s. “When all of these messy things are behind us, shall we spend the rest of our lives together in the House of Jade?”

Gu Feidi smiled and promised, “Alright.” Feeling that their connected pinky fingers weren't enough, he clapped Su Yang’s hand between his.

Once noon approached, the sun rose higher in the sky.

The blazing sun soon warmed the dry wasteland. The wind surrounding the Phantom City also carried the heat, as the winter chill was slowly dispersed.

The two leaned against a boulder and snacked on a few mouthfuls of dry provisions. Su Yang shook the water sack and informed Gu Feidi, “We don’t have much water left. We should head to the Sanctuary as soon as possible.”

Gu Feidi nodded, put the last piece of dry biscuit into his mouth, examined the boulders scattered in the distance with a slightly dignified expression.

“What’s wrong?” Su Yang asked. “Are you worried about your pavilion? Do you think they also encountered people from my Sect?”

“I’m not worried about the battle they will face.” Gu Feidi insisted. “However, there are people that are bound to be separated while travelling inside the Phantom City. That’s who I fear for.”

Then he shook his head, turned towards Su Yang with a reassuring smile and said, “But it’s no use worrying. They must be prepared for it the moment they step foot into the Phantom City. Let’s move on. What we should be worrying about is ourselves.”

The two men walked for a long time. Once the sun tilted to the west, they suddenly caught the sound of clashing swords nearby.

“Let’s check it out?” Gu Feidi mouthed the words.

Su Yang nodded. They changed their direction and dived close to the place where the sounds came from.

What they saw was far from their expectations, they didn’t see the righteous force’s army, only Pu Lingyun and a guard from the Tengyun Pavilion. The two were fighting against three petal retainers. There were two bodies on the ground in a corner not far away. Judging by their outfits, it was another guard and a petal retainer.

There was no number advantage for the petal retainers, but Pu Lingyun still struggled with parrying all the attacks as she was pushed back step by step. The guard with her had received quite a few injuries as well, and those injuries were obviously taking their toll.

Seeing this scene, Gu Feidi exchanged a look with Su Yang, who did the same. They moved out from hiding and went straight into the fight, assisting the other two in defending against the petal retainers.

“Xiao-Shixiong!” Pu Lingyun called out in surprise. “Why are you here!”

Instead of answering, Gu Feidi asked, “Why are you here alone?”

Pu Lingyun uttered, “After we entered the Phantom City, we were surrounded by petal retainers and after the fight...I accidentally got separated from the others in the chaotic battle and...got myself a little lost…”

As the two disciple siblings were talking, the petal retainers were at a loss seeing their Young Master appearing with someone from the Tengyun Pavilion.

Glancing at each other in dismay for a moment, someone finally stepped forward and greeted loudly, “Mei Shi, number ten of Plum Blossom Hall. Greeting the Young Master...Please do not intervene in this matter!”

Su Yang mocked with a smile, “Oh! Are you guys preventing me from entering the Sanctuary?”

Mei Shi answered, “The Sect Leader has ordered that no one should be allowed entrance to the Sanctuary, including petal retainers from the Orchid and Plum Blossom Halls, and…yourself, Young Master.”

Su Yang raised his eyebrows and asked with a bright smile, “What’s wrong? Are you going to kill me if I insist on entering?”

Hearing this mockery, Mei Shi widened his eyes without realising, looking at Su Yang in complete shock.

Behind him, one of the petal retainer’s eyes narrowed slightly and gave the other an eye signal, then—the two petal retainers joined hands as they signalled and brought down their curved swords toward Mei Shi!

Unbeknownst to the two petal retainers, Mei Shi was on guard since the start and he raised his sword to fend off the two blades.

“Young Master!” He cried in a low voice. “There is chaos in our Sect. Please don’t involve yourself in this and leave now!”

As soon as he gave his warning, he couldn’t hold back the two traitorous petal retainers as he was stabbed heavily in his abdomen. He staggered backwards, but met another attack head-on, looking like he was ready to breathe his last breath.

The next moment, the curved sword was blocked by Gu Feidi’s Cherished Heart.

He flew forward, forced the two petal retainers back, and joined hands with Pu Lingyun to kill them.

Su Yang walked cautiously to Mei Shi, who collapsed from his heavy injury. He held his sword in alarm and asked, gazing down, “Are you not with them?”

Mei Shi squatted on his knees, pressed against the bleeding wound, struggling to look at Su Yang and addressing his Young Master, “This subordinate used to serve the Sect Leader in Bamboo Garden Island, and be personally commanded by him...The danger that our Sect faces...isn’t serious. This one trusts in the Leader’s plan...Please, Young Master...Leave for your own safety.”

Su Yang kept his sword pointed at the injured man and asked, “Why should I believe you?

Gasping for breath, Mei Shi remained silent to catch his breath before saying, “If the Young Master doesn’t believe it, you can check this subordinate’s back for the red spider lily tattoo…”

Red spider lily tattoo?

This was the first time Su Yang heard such a thing. Since this was not the right time to display his ignorance, he glanced at Gu Feidi for help.

Gu Feidi considered for a bit and suggested, “We can talk about it later. How do you want to deal with this petal retainer...?”

Before Su Yang could say anything, Mei Shi pleaded urgently, “Young Master! This subordinate begs you not to return to the Sect…”

“Didn’t you say the danger in our Sect isn’t serious?” Su Yang asked while frowning. “Since it’s not dangerous, why don’t you want me back?”

Mei Shi opened his mouth, but no words came out.

With a sigh, Su Yang took out a bag of wound medicine from his robe and tossed it to Mei Shi. “Find a safe place to treat your wounds and don’t stop me.”

When Shizun gave him the Jade Phoenix, the letter mentioned for him and Gu Feidi to come to the Phantom City. Although Shizun didn’t explicitly tell them to enter the Sanctuary, only mentioning taking a trip to the Phantom City in the wasteland. Theoretically, what was the point of just walking around the Phantom City without entering the Sanctuary?

Therefore, he had to take part in the chaos of the Evil Sect. Otherwise, he didn’t know if this would cause them to miss the opportunity of the E’Luo Gui Faction in the future.

Also, Su Yang himself still had some worries about the ending plot, the fall of the Evil Sect. It was fine if he avoided it early, but since he was already here, he still wanted to confirm again from the bottom of his heart—confirm whether he could escape the original Young Master’s fate.

Making up his mind, he turned to Gu Feidi and said, “Let’s go. We’ll hurry to the Sanctuary.”

Gu Feidi nodded. “Let’s make haste then.”