The center of the valley at Broken Cliff Residence!
A middle-aged man in a black robe sat at the heart of a sea of flowers, both hands lightly caressing the seven-stringed zither before him.
The seven-stringed zither, also known as the guqin, yet nowadays fewer and fewer people know how to play it.
The man sat in the sea of flowers, his hands swiftly plucking the strings. On his chiseled face there was an almost intoxicated expression, as if his entire being had completely imrsed itself in the graceful music.
At the sa ti, the man’s eyes were tightly shut.
Suddenly, one of his ears twitched; a faint rustling of footsteps reached him, yet the man acted as if he had not heard a thing, completely unmoved.
"Your attainnt on the guqin grows higher by the day. No wonder the King praised you."
A deep, bell-like voice rang out around them, and at the sa mont the sound of the zither cut off abruptly.
The next instant, the man who had been playing slowly opened his eyes. Those pupils were filled with wisdom and unfathomable depth, like a vast ocean.
The man slowly let his gaze fall upon the figure who had suddenly walked over.
This person wore a slicked-back pompadour that had been popular in the 1980s, except his hair was not black but silver. He also sported a goatee, and wore a very thin blue long robe, on which a single large character had been delicately embroidered—"Stillness."
The man at the zither chuckled softly. "You’ve always been the sort who never cos looking for . How is it that you have so much ti today?"
"Truthfully, I didn’t want to co either."
"Yet you still ca."
"Yes." The goateed old man sighed helplessly. "I was forced to co."
"Looks like sothing rather big has happened here in Broken Cliff Residence."
"Just now soone broke into Broken Cliff Residence and killed three of my n." The goateed old man said quietly, "I had no choice but to co take a look at you. If they’re here for you, I’ll be in trouble."
The man smiled faintly. "This place is like an iron fortress. Even if soone does co, what can they possibly do?"
"You’re overthinking it."
"I hope I am." The goateed old man said mildly, "But too many things have been happening lately. I can’t help but face it cautiously."
"And besides, you absolutely cannot be rescued, nor can you die. Otherwise, I’d have no way to explain it to those above. You know this."
"In truth, you’re quite pitiful too."
"Pitiful?" The goateed old man couldn’t help but laugh. "You’re talking about yourself, aren’t you?"
"I an you." The man spoke with great seriousness. "From the mont I was imprisoned here, more than twenty years have passed, and you’ve stayed here guarding day in, day out, never once stepping beyond this place. How is that any different from being imprisoned like ?"
"At least I’m free. You, aside from staying in here, cannot go anywhere else." The goateed old man said with a smile. "And I’ll be leaving soon. Soone else will co to watch you."
"That’s not bad at all." The man said quite sincerely. "We’ve been neighbors for over twenty years, after all. I rather admire you."
"Faithful and devoted for more than twenty years without the slightest complaint—no different from a dog raised since childhood, is it?"
An angry flush imdiately surfaced on the goateed old man’s face. "You..."
"Did I say anything untrue?"
The goateed old man snorted coldly. "Don’t get cocky. Your Ye family—without you, without that one—has already begun an unstoppable decline. It won’t be long before your Ye clan is completely struck from the rolls. No one will even know you ever existed."
"And all of this was brought about by your stupid decision back then." The goateed old man said icily. "You will live to see, with your own eyes, the price that folly must pay."
"That’s not necessarily so."
As he spoke, the man lightly plucked a string, and a pleasant note reverberated through the valley.
"What, you still think you can walk out of here?" The goateed old man sneered. "Take a look at yourself—do you even have legs?"
The man was sitting cross-legged.
Of course, at a glance he rely appeared to be sitting cross-legged, but the goateed old man knew he wasn’t choosing not to stand—he simply couldn’t. His legs were gone, amputated high above the knee.
Or rather, it would be no exaggeration to say they’d been deliberately chopped off by soone.
"With no legs, do you still think you can beat ?" The man didn’t get angry; instead, he laughed.
The goateed old man’s expression shifted slightly.
He had to admit, the old bastard before him was terrifying. Even without a pair of legs, he was not soone the old man could kill.
And if he still had his legs, this Broken Cliff Residence might not have been able to hold him at all.
All these years, if not for him being confined and controlled, he would likely have found so way to escape long ago.
"You’re nothing but a cripple now. Letting you run your mouth a bit doesn’t matter." The goateed old man said magnanimously, "But once you’re done bragging, you’ll still be stuck here, going nowhere."
"Do you know why the King had imprisoned here?"
"To make you watch the Ye family’s downfall."
"He doesn’t dare kill ." The man smiled. "You really believe what the King said—that he deliberately spared my life?"
"Of course not. I’m nothing but a bargaining chip in his hand, and you’re nothing but a piece on his board."
With that, the man lowered his head and began to play again. "Just be a good dog. Serve your master well, and make sure you keep a close eye on . Otherwise, if I walk out of here, you’ll be left with only half your life."
"And right now, you ought to be tracking down whoever broke into Broken Cliff Residence, instead of wasting your ti on ."
The goateed old man snorted coldly and ignored him, turning around and leaving at once.
After the goateed old man left, the man’s wise eyes began to flicker incessantly, as if so calculation were working itself out in his heart.
Then his hands started to race over the strings, and the sound of the zither surged outward at once. More importantly, the music was no longer gentle as before, but filled with killing intent—as if ten thousand warhorses were galloping, as if countless n were locked in slaughter.
At the sa ti, the sound seed to pass through so amplifier, rapidly spreading outward.
In an instant, the entire Broken Cliff Residence was flooded with this zither music steeped in murderous aura.
Ye Xunhuan and Olivia, who had been studying the brocade pouch, both froze when they heard the sound, especially Ye Xunhuan.
"This... this zither sound..."
"You can understand it?"
"Slaughter." Ye Xunhuan said, his face thoughtful. "The slaughter of iron hooves and frozen rivers breaking into one’s dreams..."
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