66: Ye Guhong has no desire in life, and Dugumei doesn't recognize any relatives!

“I know you, and I know you challenged Ximen Chuixue. On the fifteenth of August, at The Summit of the Forbidden City, under the full moon, Sword Qi will pierce the sky.”

Lu Jiuyuan slowly stood up, his green robes unchanged, as if the earth-shattering blow just now had nothing to do with him.

He walked in front of Ye Guhong, looking down at the disheartened young swordsman.

“But what do you take The Summit of the Forbidden City for? A place where you can come and go as you please, where you can arrange a duel whenever you want?

Did you ask me before deciding to duel at The Summit of the Forbidden City?

Did I agree?”

Ye Guhong was a very proud man, so proud that he felt he was no less capable than Ximen Chuixue.

However, reality told him that this was a firefly contending with the bright moon, and he was that firefly.

This year, on the fifteenth of August, if he truly went to duel, the vast difference would make him a joke.

If he didn't dare to duel, he would be an even bigger joke.

If he didn't want to become a joke, then he had one more choice.

Ye Guhong reached out and gripped his sword again, slowly stood up, and raised his sword to point at Lu Jiuyuan.

“A junior disciple, Ye Guhong of Wudang, requests guidance from Sword Saint Lu! Please, Sword Saint Lu, draw your sword!”

“My sword is in its sheath; you may live. If I draw it, your life will be gone.

Guhong Sword never leaves anyone alive.”

“I respectfully request Sword Saint Lu to draw his sword!”

The moment these words left his mouth again, the remaining Internal Energy within Ye Guhong was forcefully activated, like a dying ember bursting with its last light and heat!

He transformed into a pale streak of light; it was no longer the elusive phantom sword art from before,

but a headlong charge, condensed with all his unwillingness, despair, and the last shred of his obsession to “prove himself,” an unstoppable advance!

The sword tip pierced the air, striking directly at Lu Jiuyuan’s heart!

This was the strongest, fastest, and purest sword strike Ye Guhong had ever unleashed in his life, discarding all flashy imitations, leaving only the desperate resolve to perish together.

There was nothing else in his eyes, only Lu Jiuyuan’s figure and the strange sword hidden in the cloth sheath.

Death! To die beneath this peerless famous sword, to die by the hand of the current Sword Saint, would prevent him from being mocked by the world, from being called overconfident.

It would also leave behind a lifetime of glory.

“Swish!”

Guhong Sword flashed and was gone.

Ye Guhong’s forward momentum stopped. “So… this is Sword Devil! So fast!”

He softly fell forward.

Lu Jiuyuan reached out and steadily supported his falling body, his movements even carrying a hint of gentleness.

“Alas! He was just a young dreamer!”

In Ye Guhong’s unfocused pupils, Lu Jiuyuan’s indifferent face was reflected. His lips moved a few times, as if he wanted to say something, but only a mouthful of blood foam gushed out.

The light in his eyes completely extinguished.

Lu Jiuyuan gently laid him flat on the ground, his gaze sweeping across the mortuary filled with the scent of decay.

Several thin coffins were scattered about, covered in thick dust.

He walked to a coffin that appeared relatively intact, reached out, gripped the edge of the lid, and applied a slight force.

“Creak—”

The heavy coffin lid was easily pushed open a crack by him.

A more pungent, decaying smell, mixed with old dust and a peculiar herbal scent, wafted out.

Lu Jiuyuan’s movements paused.

His eyes instantly sharpened like an eagle’s, the indifference he had shown towards Ye Guhong vanished without a trace, replaced by a cold killing intent that was almost tangible.

Inside the coffin, it was neither empty nor filled with ancient bones.

A living person lay within!

A tall, shifty-looking old man!

His eyes were tightly closed, his face a unnatural bluish-gray, and his chest showed no rise or fall, as if he had been dead for a long time.

He was covered in dust and carried a faint smell of decay, like a zombie freshly dug out of the earth.

But Lu Jiuyuan’s keen senses told him that within this “corpse,” there was an extremely faint, yet remarkably tenacious heartbeat, like a hidden river flowing slowly beneath a layer of ice.

His breathing was even weaker, almost imperceptible, yet it was maintained by a peculiar rhythm.

Turtle Breath Technique! And a very advanced one!

The corners of Lu Jiuyuan’s mouth slowly curved into an extremely cold arc.

There was no hint of a smile in that arc, only killing intent.

“Dugu Mei…”

“What a ‘disregard for kin,’ truly living up to the name. Even faking death, he does it with such professionalism, such… creativity.”

“Ye Guhong chased you all this way, yet he never realized you were hiding right beside him! Or perhaps he did, but thought you were dead!”

Inside the coffin, the “corpse’s” eyelids twitched ever so slightly.

Although still tightly closed, and his breathing and heartbeat remained too faint to detect, Lu Jiuyuan clearly caught that momentary emotional fluctuation.

“I’m very curious, are you hiding here waiting to collect someone’s corpse, or… waiting for someone to collect yours?”

Inside the coffin, Dugu Mei’s heart pounded frantically in his chest, almost bursting!

The state of suspended animation created by the Turtle Breath Technique was almost shattered by this extreme fear.

He had calculated everything, predicting that Ye Guhong, the clean freak, would overlook this most obvious and ominous coffin,

and that his Turtle Breath Technique could deceive the heavens, but he never calculated that he would encounter this great harbinger of doom here!

And that he would open the coffin.

Sword Devil! Lu Jiuyuan!

Shouldn’t he be in Hangzhou? Wasn’t he chasing that lecherous thief in Jiangnan? Why did he come to Taiyuan?

Dugu Mei felt his blood almost freezing.

What to do? Continue to play dead? Or… make a desperate strike!

Lu Jiuyuan’s fingertips tapped lightly on the coffin lid, making soft thudding sounds that, in the dead silence of the mortuary, were like the drumbeats of death, striking Dugu Mei’s heart one after another.

Just as Dugu Mei’s thoughts raced, fear and despair intertwined, and he was almost unable to resist springing up for a desperate struggle.

“It seems he’s truly dead.” Lu Jiuyuan’s voice carried a sigh.

Before his words finished, his right hand shot into the crack of the coffin lid like lightning, so fast it left only an afterimage.

Two fingers, held together like a sword, accurately poked two extremely hidden vital points beneath Dugu Mei’s ribs!

Inside the coffin, the “corpse” trembled violently! As if scorched by a red-hot branding iron, he could no longer maintain the sophisticated illusion of suspended animation.

A powerful, scorching, and utterly domineering Internal Energy instantly penetrated the acupoints, immediately sealing off all his Qi circulation.

Dugu Mei’s bluish-gray face instantly contorted, his eyes suddenly snapped open, filled with extreme pain and incredulous horror.

“You put on a good act!” Lu Jiuyuan looked down at Dugu Mei, who was staring wide-eyed in the coffin. “Don’t pretend next time.”

He withdrew his hand, as if merely dusting it off, then grabbed the edge of the heavy coffin lid and, with a “clang,” closed it completely!

“Since you like to play dead, then play dead thoroughly.”

Lu Jiuyuan rummaged through a pile of clutter and found several rusty, yet sufficiently thick and long coffin nails, and a stone.

“Thud! Thud! Thud!…”

One after another, steady and forceful, echoing in the empty mortuary.

Each strike was like a direct blow to Dugu Mei’s heart.

The coffin nails pierced through the lid and the coffin body, making a “creaking” sound of wood being forcibly torn.

Dugu Mei lay in complete darkness, his body unable to move an inch due to intense pain and sealed acupoints, only his consciousness struggling frantically in boundless fear.

He could feel the vibration of each nail being driven in, and smell the pungent odor of rust and decaying wood mixed together.

Cold, darkness, suffocation, excruciating pain… the shadow of death had never so truly enveloped him completely.

He disregarded his kin, committed adultery, rape, and plunder. He could sleep with his niece and his nephew’s wife. Ye Guhong chased him, Pink Swallow chased him, but he wasn’t afraid; instead, he found it exciting and interesting.

Now, lying in the coffin, he was afraid!

Death itself wasn’t scary; what was scary was waiting for death. Every minute, every second of waiting, was stretched out, a torment.

“I searched high and low, but found nothing. Now, what I sought comes to me effortlessly. You’re dead for sure, I said it! I want to see if anyone can save you.”

“Can a living person turn into a ghost?”

He found another coffin and placed Ye Guhong inside.

Three days passed in a flash. Ye Guhong was buried by Lu Jiuyuan behind the mortuary.

Lu Jiuyuan didn't know if Dugu Mei was dead or not; perhaps he would only know after a few more days, when he started to rot.

But in these three days, no one entered the mortuary, and no one came to bother him.

I remember that once a contract with Youling Villa is signed, they will definitely escort you to the villa.

Now, it seems, that may not be the case.

“Logically, I should wait longer, wait for you to slowly die, but I don’t have time to waste here!” Lu Jiuyuan stomped his foot, and Ye Guhong’s sword flew up directly.

With a clang, it unsheathed, then was driven horizontally into the coffin from the bottom of the front end.

A line of blood appeared from the point of entry, and drops of blood slowly dripped down.