Snow in the Spring Courtyard - Chapter 3 - Ye Lique

Chapter 3 – Ye Lique

The woman in red walked out of the dark step by step, lightly balancing on her toes, and sat on the railing. She supported herself with her left hand, and her legs folded outside the railing, looking down at the nine people downstairs like watching a play.

　　The dim candlelight illuminated her face. Her beautiful eyes were full of spring, and her smile was as beautiful as a flower as she said lazily: “Watch me kill all of you, just the few of you can’t compare to me.”

　　Obviously, the seven men in the netherworld did not know this woman in red.

　　The shopkeeper and the waiter sneered at the same time.

　　The waiter drew out a dagger and reminded: “These words are yours, Ye Lique!”

　　Hearing the three words “Ye Lique”, not only the seven people were shocked, but also Shen Yi, who was pinned behind the railing. It is rumored that this person is a top-notch killer in the world, and that her master was Ying Guan, the lord of Wuliang City, himself. Because of her speed, accuracy, and ruthlessness, she’s called the “Ye Luosha” of the world. Once she’s set her eyes on her prey, it’s as good as dead.

　　Currently, however, she was sitting languidly on the railing, as charming as a fox fairy. Suddenly, she laughed and urged, “Why don’t you do it? Do you really want me to help you?”

　　”No need!” The shopkeeper took the lead. He slapped the abacus on the counter, ricocheting it up and firmly grasped in his hand. The sound of wood breaking came from his palm as the abacus beads were pinched in his fingertips and bounced towards the seven people like meteors.

　　Strangely enough, the seven people barely had enough time to pull out their weapons before they were hit by the beads and fell down one after another.

　　The waiter felt something was not right, and went forward to check the neck pulses of the seven people. None of them was holding their breath, pretending to be dead, they were truly all dead. He looked at the shopkeeper in disbelief, “Dage, something is wrong! If it was this easy, how could the person who placed the order spend a fortune to buy the lives of just these eight people?”

　　The shopkeeper too also realized something was wrong, “Not good! Could it be…” He looked up at Ye Lique, “You deliberately set us up tonight, and you killed them long ago?!”

　　”Idiot.” Ye Lique squinted at the two of them, glanced at Shen Yi, and asked, “Tell me, where would the yellow bird hide?” As she spoke, she tapped the acupuncture points on Shen Yi’s body.

　　Shen Yi immediately took three steps back, golden needle in hand, and said angrily, “What does it have to do with me?!”

　　The waiter and the shopkeeper then realized that there was actually someone hiding behind the pillar all along and glanced at each other. Today’s incident involving people from the Tianfo Sect, was not actually a good thing.

　　”Indeed, it has nothing to do with you now, but in a while…” Ye Lique narrowed his eyes at her, and suddenly sniffed in the air, “Don’t you smell the scent of blood?”

　　Shen Yi was suddenly reminded by her and sharply inhaled, her face changing drastically, “Not good! Junior brothers and sisters…” She turned around and intending to go out through the window, but the window was still blocked by iron bars.

　　”Let me out!” Shen Yi turned back and shouted with tears in her eyes.

　　At this time, she was standing in front of the window, and with the snow light outside the window casting on her face, Ye Lique could finally see her eyebrows and eyes clearly.

　　It seemed familiar.

　　Ye Lique couldn’t help but be a little absent-minded. Suddenly, she heard the sound of clothes rustling coming from behind her. She turned her sleeves and slapped outwards, forcibly forcing the two people who jumped onto the second floor to retreat.

　　She glared at the two people behind her and asked coldly, “Didn’t you hear what the young lady said?” If Ye Lique was considered a charming enchantress just a moment ago, then the current Ye Lique at this time was a demon incarnated as a fierce ghost.

　　The most ordinary words, when spoken from her mouth, were as sharp as a knife blade, making people feel frightened for no reason.

　　The waiter felt his legs go weak as he held the dagger in reverse to give himself some courage, and shouted: “Why should I listen to you…” He immediately felt something cold scraping across his throat, and he covered his throat in horror before falling to the ground like mud.

　　Blood quickly flowed out from between his fingers, and he stared with unwilling eyes, unable to say a word.

　　The shopkeeper’s legs went weak, and he could no longer stand. He clearly saw that the copper coin that took the waiter’s life passed through the waiter’s throat and was nailed into the depths of the wooden cabinet in the distance.

　　With such internal strength, looking at the entire Wuliang City, except for the four guardians and the city lord, there was no one can be the opponent of that girl. No wonder she had gone missing for a long period of time, it turned out that she found a safe place to cultivate in seclusion. After not seeing her for several months, her martial arts have drastically improved to a scary degree.

　　”Hmm?” Ye Lique snorted coldly.

　　The shopkeeper almost crawled to the loom, pressed the mechanism, and opened the cage mechanism here.

　　Although Shen Yi felt a chill running down her spine, her attention was solely focused on the current state of her junior brothers and sisters. Seeing that the mechanism was opened, she quickly rushed out and headed for the backyard.

　　”Please…” The shopkeeper deliberately kept a distance of three steps from Ye Lique, bowed, and hid two abacus beads for self-defense. He silently swore to himself that if Ye Lique suddenly attacked, he would not be beaten passively.

　　Ye Lique nodded with a smile, as if she was very satisfied with the shopkeeper’s approach, “I’ll say a few good words about you to the city lord when I go back. I’ll just say…” She stood at the window and thought for a moment, but did not finish her words. She just smiled meaningfully at the shopkeeper before jumping out of the window.

　　The shopkeeper breathed a sigh of relief and quickly made his way to the window to see where Ye Lique had gone.

　　Unfortunately, when he approached the window, he had no time to look around as a thirteen-section silver whip suddenly wrapped around his throat. He knew that his death was imminent and could not help but shout, “Ye Lique, you’re despicable!”

　　The silver whip suddenly tightened, and with a sound of bones breaking, the shopkeeper fell on the window, dead.

　　Ye Lique pulled back the silver whip, tied it back to her waist, and sneered, “The law of the jungle is the law of survival in Wuliang City. Since you are not as skilled as others, you might as well go to see the King of Hell earlier, maybe you still have a chance reincarnate.” After saying that, she turned over and climbed onto the eaves. She took a deep look in the direction of the backyard, but suddenly dodged to the side with caution, barely dodging a cold arrow.

　　”Bitch!” The man was wearing a white suit with a cluster of blood-red flames on his shoulders, the emblem of the people of the Nether Prison.

　　”Hasn’t anyone ever taught you that men can’t hit women?” Ye Lique said, smiling delicately as she stood with her hands behind her back.

　　”Ye Luosha! How many men have died in your hands!” The young man in white climbed to a high place and occupied a favorable position. “If I hadn’t been more careful tonight, I’m afraid I would have become the same as them, just another dead souls under your knife!” Ye Lique sneered before smiling as she faced the arrow of the young man in white. “Excuse me, your brothers were wasted when they are alive. You should have sent them to die long ago.”

　　”Shut up!” Her words poked a sore spot in the young man in white, causing him to shoot another arrow at Ye Lique.

　　Ye Lique didn’t move, rather, she just put her fingers together to receive it, and then easily caught the arrow between her two fingers.

　　The young man in white was shocked. In the wind and snow, Ye Lique looked like a big red demon flower, so evil and charming that it was terrifying.

　　Ye Lique turned the arrow between her fingers, playing with it in her hand, and sighed: “Little brother, hand over the things obediently, and I will let you die painlessly.”

　　”Who do you think you are!” The young man in white asked in hatred.

　　Ye Lique shook his head helplessly and murmured: “Yang Bu, the most beloved disciple of the Nether Prison Impermanence.”

　　”You…you are worthy of calling me by my name!” Yang Bu immediately became more confident when he heard her speak his name, “Since you know whomy master is…”

　　”Swish!”

　　Before he could finish his words, he was alert to the sound of a golden needle breaking through the air behind his head.

　　Yang Bu turned over and barely avoided the golden needle.

　　”For killing my junior brother, I want your life!” Shen Yi held a golden needle in each hand, and as fast as lightning, she instantly shot the golden needle in her left hand at Yang Bu.

　　Yang Bu felt that he was really was unlucky tonight. After realizing that he was being targeted by Ye Luosha, he thought that he could get rid of Ye Luosha’s pursuit by sending those incompetent brothers to die. After he heard the sound of the mechanism in the inn, he expected to see the infighting in the city of ghosts, but instead, surprisingly, he found the disciples of Tianfo Sect in the courtyard.

　　Since ancient times, good and evil cannot coexist. How could he let go of the disciples of the four major families? He immediately shot an arrow from his sleeve to take the life of a disciple.

　　He really didn’t expect that his brothers were such idiots. They learned so much in their daily lives, but they couldn’t even hold on to a single move when they met two assassins.

　　Hearing the sound of the mechanism and someone rushing out of the window, Yang Bu quickly hid in the dark. The woman in white quickly found the deceased brother lying in the courtyard, and even followed the footprints and quickly found where he was hiding. He finally got rid of the woman in white and seized the opportunity to shoot Ye Lique with a cold arrow, but he never could’ve expected that Ye Lique’s kung fu was so much better than his, and even Shen Yi, who was thrown away, managed to chase him to here.

　　Now, he was attacked from both sides, and he quickly made a choice. Although Shen Yi’s kung fu was good, she was definitely not as good as Ye Lique. If he wanted to survive, he would have to go through Shen Yi.

　　In a flash, Yang Bu dodged Shen Yi’s attack, shifting his weight to his toes before turning over and rushed towards Shen Yi.

　　Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a red shadow in his peripheral vision. He suddenly realized that something was wrong and noticed that Ye Lique had taken a step ahead of him, rushing in front of Shen Yi to grab her wrist.

　　Shen Yi subconsciously wanted to break free, with tears in the corners of her eyes, she was still trapped in the grief of her junior brother’s death, “Let me go!”

　　Her eyebrows and eyes were exactly the same as that person’s.

　　However, Ye Lique had no time to reminisce about that person. She smiled and clasped Shen Yi’s wrist tightly, softly saying, “Miss, please don’t cry.” As she spoke, her other hand came to Shen Yi’s waist and quickly touched her acupuncture point.

　　”You! Witch!” Shen Yi realized it too late and could only let her manipulate her like a puppet.

　　Ye Lique looked at Yang Bu who was in shock, but said to Shen Yi, “To avenge, you have to do it yourself, he…” Ye Lique’s eyes suddenly sank, cold as ice, “The King of Hell must accept you tonight!”

　　Shen Yi was still in shock, but Ye Lique had already taken her to Yang Bu.

　　Yang Bu tried to escape, but Ye Lique slammed her foot down into the ground, her internal energy shaking the rubble of the eaves out of the snow, like sharp thorns standing up.

　　Yang Bu stumbled and fell headfirst onto the rubble. Finding murderous intent coming from behind him, he turned around in panic, but before he could shoot the arrow in his sleeve, the golden needle in Shen Yi’s hand had already pierced his heart.

　　A warm breath brushed Shen Yi’s ear as Ye Lique smiled softly, her voice as loud as a silver bell, “Look, he paid for your junior brother’s life.”