Chapter 63: Like an enemy, like a friend
There was deathly silence in the dark room, so quiet that Liu Xunyi could almost hear his own heartbeat.

Liu Xunyi leaned his back against the door, pointing his sword at the dark shadow in the corner, his cold eyes emitting a faint brilliance in the darkness. After shouting loudly, he did not act rashly, but listened carefully to the uninvited guest's every move, responding to all changes with the same attitude.

"Liu Xunyi."

The uninvited guest didn't seem to have any intention of attacking. Even facing Liu Xunyi's sword, he remained surprisingly calm. He stood motionless in the darkness like a sculpture, staring at him silently.

Liu Xunyi was startled by the familiar voice. He slowly put down his sword, frowned slightly and walked forward, taking every step carefully, and asked, "Who are you?" Unfortunately, the uninvited guest did not intend to answer him, and Liu Xunyi's voice fell on deaf ears and received no response at all.

Walking slowly to the table, Liu Xunyi's eyes were still fixed on the figure in the corner, and his hands were groping around on the table. With a soft "hiss" sound, the candlelight suddenly lit up the dark room, and the surroundings were dim yellow.

The face of the uninvited guest quietly emerged in the candlelight. It was Tang Afu, the ruthless swordsman who had fought with Liu Xunyi in Quanzhou.

"It's you?"

Liu Xunyi had never expected that the late night visitor would be him, so he raised the sword that he was about to put away again, stared at Tang Afu cautiously, and asked tentatively: "You chased here, are you looking for revenge for Quanzhou?"

"Hate?" Tang Afu's eyes were calm, and his tone was without any emotion. He replied calmly, "The person I want to kill is Shen Dongshan. What kind of hatred do I have with you? Moreover, if I wanted to kill you, why would I let you live until now?"

Although Tang Afu's words were quite impolite, they did make some sense. If Tang Afu really came to kill Liu Xunyi tonight, he would have taken action as soon as he entered the door. With Tang Afu's martial arts skills, why would he have to wait until Liu Xunyi fully react?
"Then what are you..."

"I came here tonight to tell you two things." Tang Afu said straight to the point, "In Quanzhou, although you tried to stop me, you finally let me go in front of Zhongli Mu. If you had agreed to let Zhongli Mu take action at that time, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to escape unscathed."

Liu Xunyi shook his head as if he understood, "The grudge between you and Shen Dongshan has nothing to do with me, so why should I make things difficult for you? So that night I didn't want to stop you, nor did I want to save you..."

"I have never owed anyone anything in my life." Tang Afu interrupted Liu Xunyi and said calmly, "You once let me go, so I want to return the favor to you, so that we don't owe each other anything."

"Is this the first thing you want to tell me?" Liu Xunyi laughed dumbly, then put away his sword and asked with interest, "Then how do you plan to repay me for this favor?"

A cold light flashed in Tang Afu's eyes, and he said quietly, "There is a man... called Feng Tianba, an official. Do you know him?"

Liu Xunyi nodded with no objection: "Could it be that you know him too?"

"This person has been following you secretly since you left Pingjiang Prefecture. Now he lives in the Longfu Inn opposite." As he spoke, Tang Afu turned his head and glanced out the window. The Longfu Inn was located at the other corner of the fork in the road, forming a pincer attack with Long An and Long Xiang.

Liu Xunyi was shocked and asked, "Why is he following me?"

"I don't know." Tang Afu said bluntly, "But this person is hiding behind you, sneaking around, I don't think he's doing anything good."

"This……"

"But you don't need to worry." Before Liu Xunyi could speak, Tang Afu said, "I will take care of this tail for you tonight, as a way of repaying you a favor."

Liu Xunyi pondered carefully with a strange look in his eyes, and asked casually: "How do you plan to deal with him?"

Hearing this, a hint of pride appeared on Tang Afu's face, and he snorted, "Don't worry, if I take action, he will not live to see tomorrow."

"Absolutely not!" Liu Xunyi objected urgently, his eyes filled with surprise and horror.

Tang Afu seemed to have not expected Liu Xunyi to react like this. He was startled and asked suspiciously, "Why not? He will be a disaster for you sooner or later..."

"That's my business." Liu Xunyi admired Feng Tianba for his integrity, but he couldn't tell Tang Afu the truth, so he had to bite the bullet and make a specious argument, "Maybe he doesn't have any ill will towards me... Anyway, you can't kill him, and I don't need you to kill him for me."

Tang Afu's face was filled with surprise, and he shook his head coldly, "Whether you want to or not is up to you, but I must kill him to repay you."

Liu Xunyi didn't expect that there are people as stubborn as Tang Afu in the world. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry for a moment, and hurriedly explained: "You don't owe me any favors, and you don't have to do anything for me. What's more, it may not be a good thing for me if you kill him..." At this point, Liu Xunyi almost lost his words, and hurriedly explained, "What I mean is that Feng Tianba is an official, and he must be following my orders. If he died in Huodu for no apparent reason, wouldn't I be in even greater trouble?"

Tang Afu looked at Liu Xunyi thoughtfully, and after a short silence, he spoke: "Whether you have trouble or not is your business, and has nothing to do with me. How I repay your favor is my business, and has nothing to do with you. I never owe anyone anything, and the same goes for you. In short, I will definitely kill him for you, whether you need it or not, once Feng Tianba is dead, we will be even."

"You are so unreasonable." Liu Xunyi had never seen anyone forced to repay a favor like this. In a hurry, he didn't know how to convince Tang Afu, who was so obsessed with this. He just felt angry and ridiculous, but helpless.

However, Liu Xunyi was well aware of Tang Afu's bad reputation. Now that he had said it, he would definitely keep his word. If he really left like that, Feng Tianba would definitely die tonight.

"That..." Liu Xunyi pondered over the words, trying to control his emotions, and said slowly, "If you really want to repay me for this favor, please let Feng Tianba go. As long as you don't kill him, we'll be even. How about that?" Tang Afu frowned slightly and asked, "Why do you insist on saving him? He's against you now."

"When I rescued Miss Bai Shuang from you in Quanzhou, weren't you also against me? You even tried to kill me, but I let you go in the end?" Liu Xunyi explained, "I'm not determined to save anyone, I just don't want to get myself into trouble that has nothing to do with me. I did it to you that day, and I'm doing it to Feng Tianba today. What's more, although Feng Tianba followed me secretly, he didn't do anything to harm me. How can you assert that he will definitely deal with me?"

Tang Afu seemed to be convinced by Liu Xunyi. After thinking for a moment, he slowly nodded and said, "I can promise you that I will not kill Feng Tianba tonight, but I will definitely repay the favor I owe you. Since you want Feng Tianba to live, I will wait for him for three days. If he leaves Huodu on his own initiative after three days, I will let him go, but if he still stares at you, I will kill him."

"Okay." Liu Xunyi had learned a lesson from Tang Afu's temper. This was Tang Afu's last concession. If he pushed further, it would only backfire. Moreover, three days was enough for Liu Xunyi to persuade Feng Tianba to leave, and she could also take this opportunity to ask Feng Tianba why he had followed her all the way.

"I have finished talking about the first thing. Now I will tell you the second thing." Tang Afu spoke slowly, as if he was delivering a message for someone else. He had no expression on his face, neither happy nor angry. "I know your purpose in coming to Huodu is not simple, but I can tell you clearly now that if you are here for the Jingfenghuayutu, then you'd better stop here."

"Why?" Liu Xunyi didn't expect that Tang Afu also knew about the Jingfenghuayutu. However, since he didn't know how much Tang Afu knew about it, he didn't argue rashly. Instead, he asked tentatively, "What does Jingfenghuayutu have to do with you?"

Tang Afu stared at Liu Xunyi quietly with a watery gaze. After a long silence, he said calmly, "My purpose in coming to Huodu is to obtain the Jingfenghuayutu."

"Hiss!" Liu Xunyi was shocked and asked hurriedly, "You also want the Jingfenghuayutu? Why? Could it be that you are also interested in the legendary Jin Kingdom treasure and the Golden Feather Divine Art? Or..." Liu Xunyi suddenly changed the subject and carefully asked, "Is Jueqing Valley interested in this picture?"

"Do you think I will answer you?" Tang Afu sneered at this, with a hint of disdainful sneer on his lips.

"Did you really show up in Quanzhou that day just to assassinate Shen Dongshan? In fact, you were also after Mo Cen's Jingfenghuayutu, right? It's just that before you could make your move, the man in black got there first, so Feng Tianba came after me, but you followed the man in black, right?" Liu Xunyi thought about it and soon figured out the key, so he smiled and said, "Suwen Jueqing Valley has always been low-key in the martial arts world. Even though it was regarded as a heresy by the martial arts heroes, it never came out to refute it. It has been looming for so many years. It seems that you have only had a feud with the Xianwang Mansion, but have no grudges with other martial arts sects. Why are you suddenly interested in the legendary thing like Jingfenghuayutu?"

What Liu Xunyi said was indeed true. Although Jueqing Valley was listed as one of the four major pagan religions, it was far different from the other three. Tianshan Jade Dragon Palace, Longxiang Mountain and Peach Blossom Island had all killed innocent people indiscriminately and had ill intentions towards the Central Plains martial arts world. From time to time, they would jump out to cause chaos in the martial arts world and had offended many upright people in the martial arts world. Therefore, the three of them deserved to be labeled as pagan religions.

The Jueqing Valley is different. It has no ambition to dominate the martial arts world, nor does it do anything to cause chaos in the martial arts world. It has been keeping a low profile for many years. Even if some of its disciples occasionally kill a few people in the martial arts world, it is not considered a big crime. However, the Jueqing Valley is still classified as one of the four major heretical religions. The reason for this is that the Jueqing Valley has offended the Xianwang Mansion more than once.

So if the Jade Dragon Palace, Dragon Elephant Mountain and Peach Blossom Island are notorious because they offended the entire martial arts world, then the Unrequited Valley has become a heresy because it offended Luo Tianjin alone.

As for the grudge between Jueqing Valley and Xianwang Mansion, no one knows. It is said that even Luo Tianjin himself does not know why Jueqing Valley suddenly appeared and opposed him from time to time.

"I have said what I want to say, you can do whatever you want."

Tang Afu ignored Liu Xunyi's confusion and turned to leave, but Liu Xunyi asked first: "What if... I mean, what if I also want to get the Jingfenghuayutu?"

When Tang Afu heard this, a cold light flashed in his eyes, and he said coldly: "If so, then you are my mortal enemy. Not only will you not get the Jingfenghuayu Tu in the end, but you will also lose your life."

"Are you threatening me?" Liu Xunyi said with a wry smile, "Didn't you just want to repay my favor?"

"If you don't kill Feng Tianba within three days, you will have repaid your favor." Tang Afu said expressionlessly, "One thing is one thing. If you dare to interfere in my affairs, I will kill you."

Tang Afu's words finally provoked Liu Xunyi's anger. He stared at Tang Afu with a gloomy look and said with a smile: "Don't forget that I let you go in Quanzhou, not you. If you really could kill me, you would have killed me long ago."

"You are lucky to be in Quanzhou."

"My luck won't be bad in Huodu."

"Then why don't you try it?" Tang Afu's provocative gaze shot straight at Liu Xunyi like a sharp blade.

"Okay!" Liu Xunyi agreed happily, "If I am also interested in the Shocking Wind and Rain Painting, I don't mind competing with the Merciless Swordsman."

"Are you interested?" Tang Afu raised his eyebrows and asked with interest.

"Who knows? Maybe!"

After saying that, Liu Xunyi gave Tang Afu a harmless smile.

Tang Afu looked at Liu Xunyi deeply, but did not say anything more. He suddenly turned around and jumped out of the window, disappearing into the night in the blink of an eye.

……

(End of this chapter)