A Melancholic Past
In the end, the four of them tied up the bandits and had them walk all the way to Luzhou behind the carriage. Tang Xia looked considerably happy, which was enough to creep Daiyu out. Who in the world got that happy after poisoning a man to death? Well, even a tiger's cub was a tiger after all.
Zihan courteously handed over the bandits to the provincial officers in Luzhou, and the officers had a wide grin on their faces. Catching the notorious bandits probably meant a promotion for them.
"Ah, what a shame. I wish I could've played with them a little more." Tang Xia spoke with a pout on her face and both Zihan and Daiyu turned to give her an incredulous look.
'People aren't toys, you brat!'
That is what they wished to say but decided against speaking anything at all. It would take half a day to reach Chengdu from Luzhou, and everyone decided to leave at daybreak to avoid any delays. The Martial Tournament's preliminary round was only five days away.
"Say, do you want to spar with me?" Tang Xia spoke directly to Daiyu for the first time, only to ask her for a spar.
"Spar?" They all were in the middle of eating when Xia brought up the topic. It sounded like a good opportunity for Daiyu, who had only sparred with Yuanjun. It could not even be called a real spar, considering how laid back he acted.
"Well, alright." Daiyu nodded and looked at Zihan who had a concerned expression on his face.
"Will you be using poison during the spar?"
"Hmm? Of course not. We are surely known for poison arts but that is not the only thing we are famous for." Tang Xia looked a little offended when Zihan questioned her. She wasn't wrong in what she had said.
Who was the Tang Family? Was it not the ruler of Sichuan, the ferocious family who stood strong in the roughest time and persevered to be on the top? Not only were their martial arts incredibly strong, they also had the best healers and medicines in the entire Central Plains. When it came to poisons, medicines or assassination arts, the Tang Family was second to none.
Once the dinner was done, the four of them left to search for a quiet spot and decided to have the duel in an empty field that was hidden from the outsiders by a thick layer of bushes and trees. Daiyu took out her Violet Blossom Sword and Tang Xia put her hand in her sleeve, waiting to strike.
"Good luck, Daiyu! Xia is incredibly talented so I hope you can avoid getting injured." Tang Bo's voice sounded concerned. If it was anyone else, they might have interpreted his words as rude and arrogant, but Daiyu had a faint inkling about what kind of person he was.
"I will intervene if I believe that things are getting out of hand. Refrain from making any lethal attacks. Now then, let us begin." Zihan had naturally assumed the role of a referee. Tang Xia made the first move and two daggers shot out from her hand at an incredible speed. Daiyu was surprised by the attack but she swung her word reflexively to deflect the daggers. However, an incredible amount of force had been put behind the attack, and Daiyu felt her arm go numb from the impact.
"Oh? I can't believe you managed to deflect that." Tang Xia in a genuinely surprised voice and she threw three daggers at once this time before throwing two more a second later. None of the daggers had the same trajectory and they all were coming at her from all sides with an incredible speed.
Daiyu twisted her body and swung her blade after infusing a great quantity of qi in it but she couldn't avoid the sixth dagger that Tang Xia had thrown secretly right behind the first five. The dagger had no force behind it but it was coming at her with even more speed.
"Hah." Daiyu could feel it coming closer and closer to her neck and her senses urged her to move. However, no matter what she did, she could not match the speed of the approaching dagger. Daiyu twisted her body again but it was too late. The dagger scraped her neck slightly and she could feel blood spilling out of the cut. It was just a minor injury but the implications of that cut were far too heavy and grave. Daiyu finally realized just how lethal the techniques of the Tang Family were in reality.
"Now, stop this!" Tang Xia shot out both her hands and seven daggers came at Daiyu all at once. She could already tell that she could not avoid the daggers or slash them down. She had to use a new method to dampen their impact.
Daiyu swung her sword and a violet butterfly appeared, and soon a river of butterflies covered the daggers and swept them away. Daiyu used the Seventh Movement of the Thirty Movement Violet Butterfly Sword Technique, the Butterfly River.
"What was that?" Tang Xia looked confused about what she had just seen. Her dumbfoundedness was the perfect opening for Daiyu to strike her down and win this duel. However, she wanted to see more of her techniques and counter them with her life on line.
"Hah! How unexpected. I will be ending the duel with this!" Tang Xia shot out two daggers and then three daggers in succession before releasing five daggers at once. Daiyu jumped upwards and swung her sword to create a wall of violet butterflies. The first five daggers broke the wall but lost their momentum but the next five daggers were still advancing with full speed.
Daiyu created another wall and then a river to overwhelm the sharpness and brutality of Tang Xia's silver daggers with gentleness and grace. The blades lost their momentum and when the overwhelming illusionary wall disappeared, Daiyu shot out and swung her sword at Tang Xia's neck, only to stop at the last moment.
"Whaaaat? I lost?" Tang Xia sighed and pushed the blade of Daiyu's sword away. "That technique is pretty strong. Congratulations, it's your win."
Daiyu was not a person of many words but the sudden compliment from the hissy Tang Xia made her feel a little shy.
"That was a good spar." She truly meant that. It was the first time she had felt so exhilarated. The adrenaline in her blood was making her feel elated, as if she could fight against anyone in the world.
"That was great Princess! Your execution and judgment were on spot. I see you have been practicing hard." Zihan had a proud smile on his face.
"That was the technique I was talking about." Tang Bo spoke to his sister who was collecting her daggers. "Isn't it pretty?"
"I guess." Tang Xia replied in a monotonous tone and stashed away her daggers back in her sleeves. Daiyu wondered how she managed to carry so many weapons so discreetly. Well, it was probably another Tang Family's secret. Daiyu wished that Haoran had been there to see her duel but he had been coming out less and less these days. She wondered if something was wrong with him.
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Daiyu kept thinking about her day over and over again in bed as she drifted to sleep. In her dreams, she saw a strange place she had never seen before. On further inspection, she realized it was a battlefield. The butchered corpses of men littered the ground and it was a sight that made bile rise up Daiyu's throat.
She looked around and saw Haoran drenched in blood, holding someone in his arms with a devastated expression on his face. Daiyu had no idea that Haoran could make such a face. The man in Haoran's arms was coughing up blood and she could see a long gash on his chest.
"Brother.. Haoran…" The man spoke with his dying breath. Anyone could tell that he didn't have much time left to live.
"Tang Fei, you annoying bastard. Don't you dare…" Haoran clenched his jaw but Tang Fei just smiled at him in reply.
"I don't regret following you, brother. However, please…" Tang Fei wheezed and struggled to finish his sentence. "Please look after… Tang Wei…"
That was the last thing he said before the light went out of his eyes. Haoran let out a loud scream and slumped over Tang Fei's dead body.
"I'm sorry…" He whispered with pain lacing his voice. Daiyu woke up with a gasp and looked around in confusion. Was that a memory? She remembered Haoran telling her she had looked into his memories before.
"Stop prying into my mind, brat." She heard Haoran's voice and turned her head to find him sitting at the window. His usual arrogant voice was gone and it sounded somehow softer and melancholic.
"Was that… the person from the Tang Family you mentioned?" Daiyu asked carefully.
"That fool. He was one of the only friends I had ever made. He just ended up dying needlessly in the war. That is why, I…" Haoran clenched his fist tightly and his voice shook with anger. "I can never forgive those Justice Alliance bastards. And I can't forgive myself either." Neither of them said anything any further that night.