Snow in the Spring Courtyard - Chapter 4 - Like An Old Friend

Chapter 4 – Like An Old Friend

　　The golden needle was pulled out, bringing out a very thin strand of blood with it.

　　Yang Bu fell to the ground, covering his wound. He struggled for a moment before finally dying as his blood seeped into the snow on the eaves.

　　Shen Yi’s fingers holding the golden needle trembled involuntarily. After all, the revenge was very fast. In the blink of an eye, the murderer who killed her junior brother died in front of her eyes. Not just that, but, Ye Lique’s temperament was unpredictable. She didn’t know if she would turn around and kill her and the rest of junior brothers and sisters.

　　The chill spread along Shen Yi’s spine and rushed into her limbs, causing her to shiver several times in a row. She didn’t want to die, because she still had grievances to settle. If she died here tonight, who would avenge the sixty-seven souls who died tragically under the knife of the Cangming Sect?

　　A smile appeared in Ye Li Que’s eyes. She gathered her arms and held her in her arms from behind. “Miss, don’t be afraid. I won’t kill you.”

　　Shen Yi didn’t believe a word of it.

　　If it weren’t for the strange and difficult way this person sealed her acupuncture points, she would’ve already used her internal energy to break through the acupuncture points and find the right opportunity to escape from her palm.

　　”In this case…” Shen Yi tried her best to keep calm and said slowly, “Why don’t you let me go?”

　　Ye Lique smiled lazily, “Miss, if you’re willing to tell me your name, I’ll let you go.” As she spoke, her breath brushed Shen Yi’s ear, instantly making Shen Yi’s ear redden.

　　Shen Yi had never been so intimate with anyone before, but now she had no choice but to endure Ye Lique’s flirting. Even if she wasn’t controlled by her, at Shen Yi’s current level, she definitely wouldn’t even be considered Ye Li Que’s opponent.

　　With a hint of despair mixed in with shame and anger, Shen Yi bit her lower lip and whispered, “If you look at me like that again…”

　　”Why, do you still want to dig out my eyes?” Ye Lique couldn’t help but laugh out loud. She loosened her hand holding the needle before unexpectedly pinching Shen Yi’s jaw, forcing her to look at her, “The orphan of the Yangwei Escort Agency, Shen Yi.”

　　Shen Yi was extremely shocked and couldn’t believe what she heard.

　　Ye Lique got the answer she wanted, and suddenly chuckled, her eyes were bright and clear, as if she was not the same person as the murderous Rakshasa barely a moment ago. She finally let go of Shen Yi, taking the golden needle from Shen Yi’s hand, gently spinning it between her fingers before smiling, “So you’ve been hidden in Tianfo Sect, making it easy for me to find.”

　　”You…what are you looking for me for?” Shen Yi was vaguely uneasy. Being targeted by this person was definitely not a good thing.

　　Ye Lique put her hands behind her back, occasionally turning the golden needle between her fingers. Then, without warning, she suddenly moved closer to Shen Yi, her nose almost bumping against Shen Yi’s nose, and said with a smile: “Guess!”

　　Shen Yi’s heart was beating wildly, and her breathing was slightly heavy. The girl in front of her was really detestable, and she really wanted to slap her first.

　　”Let go of my sister!”

　　Suddenly, a girl’s light rebuke sounded behind Ye Lique, and Shen Yi hurriedly shouted: “Xiaotang, you are no match for her, run!”

　　”Too late!” Ye Lique shot out a golden needle with a backhand, and it penetrated Qi Xiaotang’s sleeve without deviation. The strong internal force actually managed to pull Qi Xiaotang back three steps, and the golden needle had transfixed her sleeve to a pillar under the eaves.

　　Shen Yi felt that her heart had jumped to her throat. Fortunately, Ye Lique did not intend to kill her sister, otherwise, she definitely would’ve died on the spot.

　　Seeing that both the senior sister and junior sister were defeated by this red-dressed demon woman, the fellow junior brother hiding in the dark who had wanted to sneak attack Ye Lique now had to suppress his impulse and could only shrink back into the dark.

　　Qi Xiaotang anxiously pulled at her sleeves, the golden needle was sunk deep into the pillar. Unless she took off her outer clothes on the spot, she couldn’t pull it out at all.

　　”Senior sister…” She couldn’t help but look at the eaves anxiously.

　　Ye Lique shook his head and sighed, “Even after so many years, you have only learned the golden needle skills of Tianfo Sect. Unfortunately, Tianfo Sect has so many talented people, you can’t compete for the top three in this field, unless…” As she said that, she unscrupulously stroked Shen Yi’s spine, “You’re stupid?” As soon as she finished speaking, she put her two fingers together and stroked from Shen Yi’s coccyx all the way to the cervical vertebrae. Wherever she touched, the warmth of the internal energy burned into Shen Yi’s clothes, causing Shen Yi to shiver twice.

　　”Believe it or not, I will chop off your hand!” Shen Yi had never been humiliated like this before. Today, she was like an ant in Ye Lique’s palm; however, no matter their difference in strength, she could not let Ye Li Que treat her so frivolously. “Stop it…you!” Before she finished her words, Ye Li Que circled to her front, shamelessly opened his right palm, and stuck it on her dantian.

　　The palm was burning hot, containing internal strength.

　　Shen Yi was shocked by her internal strength and felt that the deep part of her dantian seemed to be ignited by something in an instant, and half of her body was burning.

　　”Slut! Thief!” Shen Yi gritted her teeth and shouted angrily, and her eyes were red with shame.

　　”Let my sister go!” Qi Xiaotang immediately took off her outer clothes and broke free from the clamp of the golden needle, flying to the eaves in an instant.

　　Ye Lique frowned slightly and said coldly, “What a restless person.” While speaking, she lifted a vertical tile on the eaves with her feet and kicked it lightly, the tile smacking across Qi Xiaotang’s knee horizontally.

　　Qi Xiaotang covered her knee in mid-air and screamed in pain. Like a bird flying in the air suddenly being shot down by a hunter, she fell heavily to the ground with a muffled groan.

　　”Xiaotang!” Shen Yi was anxious.

　　”Master… Senior Sister…” Qi Xiaotang climbed up despite the pain, but as soon as she stood up straight, a sharp pain like a bone fracture rose in her knee, and she couldn’t help but sit down on the ground, covering her knee.

　　Ye Lique’s internal energy invaded Shen Yi’s eight extraordinary meridians from her dantian. After completing a complete circle, she finally withdrew her right palm from her dantian.

　　”It’s quite standard, there is still hope.”

　　After she said that sentence, she turned around and walked towards Yang Bu’s body. After searching for a while, she finally took out a small brocade box the size of a palm. She then smiled and stood up, approaching Shen Yi before opening the brocade box in front of her.

　　A strange yet familiar medicinal aroma wafted into Shen Yi’s nose.

　　”This is the first pill.” Ye Lique said, gently pinching her cheek with a little force, causing Shen Yi to open her mouth. “Don’t worry, it’s not bitter.” After saying that, Ye Lique stuffed the pill into Shen Yi’s mouth, lifted her chin, and forced her to swallow the pill.

　　”Cough cough.” Shen Yi swallowed very quickly and couldn’t help but cough. Once the pill entered her throat, she felt like she had swallowed a burning bead of fire, burning her internal organs.

　　”This medicine is a secret medicine of the Cangming Sect. If an ordinary person takes one, their inner strength can be increased by ten years.” Ye Lique explained lightly, and glanced coldly at Yang Bu’s corpse.

　　The pill quickly dissolved in Shen Yi’s body, and as the warmth spread along her meridians, Shen Yi realized that it was too late to spit it back out.

　　Seeing that Shen Yi’s face was burning, Ye Lique said gently, “You will feel better in a while.” After that, she raised her eyes to look at the sky, before sweeping them down toward the eaves, and walked straight to the pillar where Qi Xiaotang’s clothes were nailed, pulled out the golden needle on it, and picked up Qi Xiaotang’s clothes.

　　Ye Lique slowly approached Qi Xiaotang and threw her clothes at her. “If you don’t know what’s good for you, next time, I’ll send you to see the King of Hell.” Her tone was grim, and she was completely different from the Ye Lique who spoke so gently just then.

　　The girl in front of her was born charming yet acted very strangely. Qi Xiaotang had no idea what she liked or disliked, it was the first time that Qi Xiaotang was so afraid of a girl.

　　So, Qi Xiaotang didn’t dare say a word.

　　Ye Lique was too lazy to say another word to her. She raised her face to the broken snow, squinted her eyes, and smiled brightly at Shen Yi on the eaves, “Shen Yi, the next time we meet, I’ll give you another gift!” After that, she gently turned the golden needle between her fingers before turning around and jumped up the low wall in the distance, quickly disappearing into the wind and snow.

　　The junior brother listened for a long time, confirmed that the witch had indeed left before jumping out from the dark. He first climbed onto the eaves, helped Shen Yi undo her acupuncture points before then jumping down the eaves to help Qi Xiaotang, who had injured her knee.

　　Qi Xiaotang pinched her junior brother angrily, “You are so shamefully timid!”

　　”That monster’s too powerful! Even if I do jump out, all I’ll accomplish is an early death!” The junior brother retorted loudly.

　　”It’s just shameful!” All that big talk about not being afraid of death becoming dispelled in an instant. So, Qi Xiaotang just pinched him again.

　　Her junior brother begged for mercy, “Isn’t it enough for me to admit my mistake!”

　　After not hearing Shen Yi speak for a long time, Qi Xiaotang decided not to argue with her junior brother anymore and instead looked at the eaves with concern. Her senior sister’s acupuncture points were clearly unlocked, so why was she still standing there as if she was made of wood, clearly thinking about something.

　　”Senior sister.” Qi Xiaotang called her.

　　Meanwhile, Shen Yi really just couldn’t understand why Ye Luosha, who killed people without blinking an eye in Jianghu, treated her so well? She came here for Yang Bu’s secret medicine, but ended up gaving her the secret medicine and even accurately revealed her identity as if she had been looking for her for many years.

　　”Shen Yi, next time we meet, I will give you another gift!”

　　The last words Ye Lique said to her replayed in her ears and she felt her ears burning. Shen Yi closed her eyes, yet what emerged in her mind was not of Ye Lique’s cold-hearted killing, but of her beautiful and dazzling smile.

　　Since she entered the Tianfo Sect, she has never left the sect. If she had not been ordered to deliver medicine to Sanshan Pavilion this time, she would not have set foot in the world. She can be sure that she and Ye Lique have never met before!

　　Although Ye Luosha is not a member of the evil cult of Cangming Sect, she does not have a good reputation in the world. Such a woman who kills without blinking an eye yet helped Shen Yi increase her internal strength by ten years for no reason, just what is she trying to accomplish?

　　”Senior sister, are you hurt?” Qi Xiaotang still didn’t hear Shen Yi’s response, and called her again worriedly.

　　Shen Yi finally came back to her senses and sighed, “I’m fine.” As she spoke, she felt the burning sensation in her dantian suddenly disappear. She secretly circulated her internal energy and found that several key acupoints that were blocked and difficult to break through when she practiced internal energy were silently unlocked by Ye Lique.

　　At this time, her internal energy was unobstructed, and her internal energy cultivation increased several times over with the help of the secret medicine.

　　Shen Yi fell into a trance again and couldn’t help but softly mutter, “Just who are you?” If there was anything about that witch that seemed familiar, it was only at that one moment –

　　The moment when Ye Lique almost bumped into her nose and showed her a sly smile, just like… Like Shen Yi’s sister three years ago.