Even when A-Qing’s legs wobbled, she still spat in a strong voice, “Hmph! I’m not gonna open it for you. Kick however you please.”
Xue Yang laughed, “Mark your words. Daozhang, fix the door afterwards. Don’t blame it on me.”
After he spoke, he immediately kicked the wooden door open. He stepped over the high threshold and walked inside. He held the basket filled with vegetables on one hand, and a crimson apple on the other. Just as he took a bite out of it, he looked down only to see Shuanghua, which sunk into his stomach.
The basket dropped to the ground. The cabbage, carrots, apples, and steam buns rolled onto the floor.
Xiao XingChen shouted in a low voice, “A-Qing, run!”
Moving as fast as she could, A-Qing barged through the door of the coffin home. Immediately afterward, she went on another path and crept back again. She climbed to her usual hiding spot, the one she used most often and was most familiar with, and even popped her head out to watch what was going on inside.
Xiao XingChen asked coldly, “Was it fun?”
Xue Yang took another bite into the apple that was still in his hand. He only replied after calmly chewing for a while and swallowing the fruit, “Yes. Of course it was fun.”
He used his original voice again.
Xiao XingChen, “Just what do you want to do, having stayed with me for all these years?”
Xue Yang, “Who knows? Maybe I’m bored.”
Xiao XingChen pulled out Shuanghua and got ready to attack again. Xue Yang added, “Daozhang Xiao XingChen, do you still want to hear the second half of the story that I didn’t finish?”
Xiao XingChen, “No.”
Although he refused, his head tilted slightly forward and his sword paused as well. Xue Yang replied, “Well, I’m gonna tell it anyways. After you hear it, if you still think it’s my fault, you can do whatever you want.”
He casually wiped the wound on his stomach, suppressing it so that it didn’t bleed excessively, “The child saw the man who fooled him to take the letter. He felt both frustrated and happy. He threw himself to the man as he cried, and said to him, ‘I brought the letter there, but the pastries are gone and I was beaten up. Can you give me another plate?
“The man seemed like he had been caught by the brawnier one and had been beaten as well. His face was injured. Seeing the dirty little child clinging onto his leg, he couldn’t help but felt annoyed and kicked him away at once.
“He climbed up the ox cart and told the cart driver to leave at once. The child climbed up from the ground and kept on chasing the cart. He really wanted to eat the plate of sugary pastries. Having finally chased up to it, he waved his arms in front of the cart for them to stop. The man was too irritated by his crying. Snatching the driver’s whip, he lashed at his head and threw him onto the ground.”
He spoke one word at a time, “And then, the wheels of the cart ground over the child’s hand, one finger at a time.”
Xiao XingChen couldn’t see, but Xue Yang raised his left hand at him anyway, “He was seven! The bones of his left hand were crushed, while one finger was ground into battered flesh on the spot! This man was Chang Ping’s father.
“Daozhang Xiao XingChen, you were so just, so stern when you brought me to Koi Tower! You condemned me and asked me why I wiped out an entire sect simply because of some suspicion. Is it that, since the fingers weren’t yours, you guys were incapable of feeling the pain?! You guys didn’t know how horrifying screams sounded like out of your own mouths? Why didn’t you ask him why he decided to amuse himself with me without a single reason?! The current Xue Yang was bestowed upon you by the past Chang CiAn! The YueyangChang CLAN was only reaping what it had sown!”
Xiao XingChen spoke as though he couldn’t believe Xue Yang’s words, “Chang CiAn broke one of your fingers in the past. If you sought revenge, you could’ve simply broken one of his fingers as well. If you really took the matter to heart, you could’ve broken two, or even all ten! Even if you had cut off an entire arm of his, things wouldn’t have been like this. Why did you have to kill his entire clan? Don’t tell me that a single finger of yours was equal to more than fifty human lives!”
Xue Yang actually pondered upon the matter, as if he found Xiao XingChen’s questions strange, “Of course. My finger was my own, while those lives were other peoples’. They wouldn’t be equal no matter how many lives I killed. It was only around fifty. How could it have possibly been equal to one of my fingers?”
Xiao XingChen’s face grew paler and paler from Xue Yang’s confident tone. He shouted, “Then what about others?! Then why did you wipe out Baixue Temple? Why did you blind Daozhang Song ZiChen’s eyes?!”
Xue Yang asked in reply, “Then why did you stop me? Why did you hinder what I wanted to do? Why did you stand up for those dregs of the Chang Clan? You wanted to help Chang CiAn? Or Chang Ping? Hahahaha, how did Chang Ping first cry tears of gratitude? And how did he later beg you not to help him? Daozhang Xiao XingChen, this matter had been your fault, ever since the beginning. You shouldn’t have meddled with the rights and wrongs of other people. Who was right, who was wrong; would an outsider be able to understand? Or, maybe you shouldn’t have even left the mountain in the first place. Your teacher, BaoShan SanRen, was indeed smart. Why didn’t you listen to her and obediently cultivate in the mountains? If you couldn’t understand the happenings of this world, then you shouldn’t have come!”
It was more than Xiao XingChen could bear, “… Xue Yang, you really are… too disgusting…”
Hearing this, the killing intent that hadn’t flashed through Xue Yang’s eyes for quite a long while had appeared again.
He laughed bitterly, “Xiao XingChen, this is why I hate you. The people that I hate the most are ones like you who say they’re righteous, who think they’re virtuous, precisely stupid, naive, dumb idiots like you who think the world’s better just because you did something good! You think I’m disgusting? Very well. Would I care if anybody thinks I’m disgusting? But, on the other hand, are you in a position to be disgusted by me?”
Xiao XingChen paused slightly, “What do you mean?”
A-Qing’s and Wei WuXian’s hearts were about to jump out of their chests!
Xue Yang spoke in an affectionate manner, “Recently, we haven’t went out at night to kill walking corpses, have we? But, a few years ago, didn’t we go outside and kill a bunch every couple of days?”
Xiao XingChen’s lips moved, as though he was feeling somewhat uneasy, “Why are you bringing this up now?”
Xue Yang, “Nothing, really. It’s just really unfortunate that you’re blind. You dug out both of your eyes, so you couldn’t see those ‘walking corpses’ that you killed. They were so scared, so pained when you pierced them through the heart. Some even kneeled down and cried and kowtowed for you to let off the young and elderly of their families. If not for how I cut off all of their tongues, I bet they would’ve been wailing and shouting ‘Daozhang, spare us’.”
Xiao XingChen’s entire body started to tremble.
After a long while, he managed, “You deceived me. You wanted to deceive me.”