Book 8 Chapter 12

Unexpected reunions (再會)

At this point, Bi Ryuyeon had finished her errands at Aesop's and was looking for the

I was walking down fraternity row to get back to my dorm.

He was just getting into Thoreau.

There were two women walking from opposite directions.

Bi Ryuyeon's excellent eyesight informed her that the two were women, and that they were quite beautiful.

But Bi Ryuyeon was surprised to see her in a different way.

He had never imagined that he would be reunited with her in this way. My relationship with her was just a fun memory. I never thought I would see her again. But here we are, unexpectedly, in a dingy place. There was no way I could have prepared a response.

"Huh?"

Bi Ryuyeon squinted. His squinty eyes were obscured by his bangs, so he couldn't see his opponent.

"Huh?"

The other person's reaction was that of someone who had been caught off guard.

A lean, toned body. Skin like white jade. Eyes like obsidian. Exudes grace from head to toe. A noble fragrance.

And… black hair blowing in the wind.

She was a beauty to behold. She was trembling now, teeth clenched, fists clenched tightly.

Bi Ryuyeon unconsciously pointed a finger at her and exclaimed.

"Hey, fatty."

The beauty's face instantly contorted in displeasure. Her pearly white face instantly turned craggy. It was said that when a woman harbors resentment, frost will fall even in the month of May……. The air around her suddenly turned chilly, as if frost had fallen. The woman was unable to suppress her surging vitality.

Fang Yuqing, who was escorting the lady, was instantly overcome with self-doubt, wondering if he had heard the wrong thing. She couldn't believe that anyone would dare to show such extreme disrespect in the presence of the person she was escorting. What was even more unbelievable was that this unknown person who had suddenly appeared in front of her seemed to know the person she was escorting.

To be so disrespectful to a woman even after knowing her identity? It was outrageous. The unthinkable had happened, and for a moment, Fang Yuqing had forgotten what she was supposed to be doing.

Fang Yuqing turned and looked at the woman. She had never seen the woman so agitated before, and she could only think of what she had to do.

CHANG!

The Tao was drawn from her Tao Book, and she was a member of the prestigious Hebei Fang clan.

"You rude bastard!"

Pang Yueqing was being a jerk. He must be severely disciplined.

"I've never seen you before."

Bi Ryuyeon said to Fang Yuqing, who was equal in life. Pang Yu-kyung was furious.

"Shut up! Do you mean to tell me that a guy like you knows anything about the company?"

Fang Yuqing's memories of the man who was always in charge of her escort did not include Bi Ryuyeon.

Bi Ryuyeon's gaze fell on the woman. For a moment, the woman's body twitched.

"We meet again."

Bi Ryuyeon smiled.

"……."

The woman did not answer. She hadn't yet recovered from the shock. She bit her lip until it bled. The woman's body began to shake, and her eyes glowed.

Fang Yuqing had her sword drawn and was waiting for her command. To the woman's pride, this was an insult that would sever one of the veins in her limb.

"Is this a good thing?

The woman was panicking, and deep down inside, she was feeling alive.

'I can't believe I'm seeing him here…….'

He was a man who had returned to the Heavenly Martial Academy after five hundred days of closed-door training, feeling like he was going to fly, only to have his mood plummet to the bottom of hell in an instant.

If she made a mistake, she might reveal the part of her body she had so carefully concealed. Now she was in danger of revealing the secret of a lifetime, a secret that no one else should know. It was better to die than for it to be known.

Part of me wanted to kill him. I had to shut him up somehow. I didn't care what it took.

How bewildered I had been by his sudden appearance and disappearance that day… and how anxious I had been. Maybe it was just my luck that I met him today. I had to seal his mouth somehow. By any means necessary!

"I can't forgive you, I'll never forgive you!

He saw secrets of himself that should never have been seen. She would never forgive him. Rage and murder, bordering on hatred, ruled her mind and body. She had to bring him to his knees at all costs. That was her first task.

She hoped that Fang Yuqing would at least notice her feelings.

"How dare you think you know who she is and commit such an insolence?"

Fang Yuqing said. She had never seen such a stiff and rude Heavenly Guidance before. She had her doubts about whether or not he was the Heavenly Martial Academy's Guandao.

"Who is it, someone high up?"

Fang Yuqing was dumbfounded by Bi Ryuyeon's response. The woman was equally incredulous. Did he really know nothing about this? If so, it was likely that he hadn't told anyone. The woman was a little relieved.

"Wash your ears and listen carefully, this is none other than Iron Jade Sleep Maharishi, who serves as the President of the Heavenly Martial Academy's Warriors' Association."

The first time they see her, they wonder how she could be a woman and serve as the president of the Warriors' Council, one of the two great factions of the Heavenly Martial Arts Academy. But once they learn of her identity, they nod in understanding. They recognize that she is more than qualified to serve as President of the Warriors' Association.

She was none other than the maternal granddaughter of the Sword Saint Hahu Shik, one of the three Heavenly Martial Saints, and the Gold Branch Jade Leaf of the Iron Fist Majin Family of the Heavenly Martial Academy. She had one of the best bloodlines in all of Wulin.

"Ohhh!"

Bi Ryuyeon slammed her palm into her fist.

"Aha, I was wondering who you were, and you're that famous guy, thanks for showing me something interesting."

Bi Ryuyeon smiled brightly. Of course, Maha Ling was in no mood for laughter. She had to find a solution as soon as possible to resolve this predicament.

"But you didn't draw that sword to cut me, did you?"

Her finger pointed to the sword in Fang Yuqing's hand. To her eyes, the energy at the end of the dao was clearly alive. Fang Yuqing hadn't yet heard from the company owner, Maha Ling, so she was withholding her sanction.

"Did I do something wrong? You're a weird person to draw a line in the sand."

What an incomprehensible person, she thought, and then she warned him.

"If you don't want to get hurt, you better quit."

"What?"

Fang Yuqing was furious. It was as if she had specialized in studying how words could piss people off.

Fang Yugyeong's brow furrowed.

"I have no intention of tolerating any behavior that harms me, even if it's a woman, so unless you want to go terribly wrong, I think it's wise to keep your dao in your pocket."

She was giving her own advice, but there was no way that such arrogant advice that disregarded her opponent would be accepted by others.

Fang Yuqing was dumbfounded, "What a bunch of bastards!" was her honest sentiment, but the strange thing was that she still held the sword in her hand and wasn't swinging it. Normally, she wasn't a very patient woman, but the patience she lacked today didn't spring up out of thin air.

Something was interfering with her ability to attack, and she didn't know what it was. It was a self-defense instinct……. It was a sensation she couldn't explain; her body just rejected it.

I didn't realize I was talking too much because of it.

"What grade are you in?"

Fang Yuqing asked.

"Sophomore year, maybe?"

She didn't see any reason to hide it.

"What?"

Pang Yugyeong's eyes widened. She was now in her fourth year. The difference between her two years here at Tianmu Academy was enormous.

"Do you realize she's in the fourth grade?"

"Did you?"

He had no idea, but he also said he didn't care.

"I did."

'I was unnecessarily nervous'

At this moment, she looked down on Bi Ryuyeon. She made the mistake of not following her instincts. In an instant, the invisible shackles that bound her behavior were loosened, and Dokwang bared his sharp teeth.

She ignored his warning.

Fang Yuqing, who was a pseudo-tiger with the status of a lady, naturally became impatient because her nose was raised. As a woman, she had never had to wait for anything because everything was always resolved once and for all. She made the mistake of not following her instincts and dismissing Bi Ryuyeon simply because she was of a lower grade, simply because she was younger.

She kept her promise. She had even promised to make him regret it. This was a promise that she always kept.

Tup!

To her horror, the Hebei Peng Family Arcane Five Tiger Danmundo, which she had unleashed with all her might, was blocked from further movement by Bi Ryuyeon's two fingers. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't pull her sword out of the two fingers.

Bam!

That was it. The weapon, the pride of the warrior, was sliced in half by Bi Ryuyeon's two fingers and sent flying into the wall.

"Airborne white soldiers (碎兵)!"

The Maharajah exclaimed in disbelief.

This was not the kind of martial art that a mere second grader could perform, as it involved grabbing an opponent's weapon with his bare hands and breaking it! Bi Ryuyeon's fist slammed into Fang Yuqing's stomach. With a loud thud, Fang Yuqing's body crumbled to dust, and she let go of her mental tether.

"You… who are you?"

Maha Ling's voice trembled in shock. He hadn't expected that Fang Yuqing, one of the eighteen great masters of the Warriors Council, would be so easily defeated.

Not many people had surprised her this much. She felt as if she'd been doused with ice water from the crown of her head. The excitement that had been raging like a fiery volcano had subsided.

She, too, was a master of ceremonies. She had some sense of her opponent's strength.

Eek! Jaw!

It was all too easy, and Maharishi's left wrist was caught in Bi Ryuyeon's grasp. It was such an easy move, and yet she couldn't dodge it. It was such a ridiculous situation that everything she had trained for was for naught. Her guard was down, and she was angry.

"Let go!"

"No!"

He quickly denied her request.

"Let go!"

She screamed, but she couldn't shake off Bi Ryuyeon's hand, as if it were a noose around her body. An intangible force was controlling her entire body through her wrists. She struggled to escape, but to no avail. She had never been treated so harshly in her life. It was a shocking experience for her, who had always been supported by others.

"What are you so afraid of?"

"Let go!"

She cried out again, sharply, her hands shaking.

"Why are you so fidgety?"

Bi Ryuyeon asked in a curious voice.

"……."

She snapped and turned her head away, turning away from Bi Ryuyeon's face. It was an act of silence.

"Oh, is it because of that, because of what happened that night?"

Before he could finish his sentence, her face turned toward Bi Ryuyeon again.

Ryuyeon Bi sang a happy tune.

"Aha, that's what it was all about, what made you so anxious?"

This time, she didn't answer.

"Of course, it was a strange sight to behold."

Bi Ryuyeon laughed softly. It sounded like she was laughing at herself, Maharishi thought, and her face flushed red with shame.

"You… you!"

Her palm flew toward Bi Ryuyeon's cheek.

There was no 'mate!' Bi Ryuyeon had sneakily avoided her palm. She was so angry. She felt like she would die of shame if she couldn't overcome it. She wanted to vomit out this anger somehow. Her voice trembled as she spoke.

"This… this… this……."

She was so upset that she said something she shouldn't have.

"You lowly wretch from nowhere!"

I let my emotions get the better of me, and that was a mistake I should never have made.

A flash of cold light from Bi Ryuyeon's eyes pierced her entire body. The air instantly chilled. Maha Ling'er gasped for breath. It was fear that seized her heart.

She didn't feel the need to put up with it anymore.

"Mate!"

A loud boom rang through the air.

Perhaps she was stunned. Something so devastating had happened so quickly that it had sent her into a mental panic. She stood dumbfounded, clutching her swollen cheeks. It was a while before she regained her senses.

"You lowly bastard, yes… you dare!"

She had once again neglected her tongue, the source of all evil. It was too careless. Her pride controlled the tip of her tongue. It was an invitation to anger.

"Mate!"

This time it was her opposite right cheek. Both of her cheeks were now covered in bare handprints. Her eyes were cold and hardened. His cheerful smile from just a moment ago was nowhere to be seen. He was now indifferent. For a moment, she felt a chill run down her spine.

Even though her hair covered her eyes, she could see what Bi Ryuyeon was looking at. Deep, dark, and cold, like a bottomless pit, no one had ever looked at her like that before.

I was on the verge of tears.

"What?"

"What?"

"What?"

The same words were spoken in three places at the same time. The news of Bi Ryuyeon's behavior had reached all three organizations at the same time: the Guzheng Society, the Gunwung Falga Society, and the Asoser Society. It was natural for the people who heard the report to be alarmed by this unusual situation. The first to arrive at the scene, take control of the area, and stop the people was not the Gungwoong Association, where Maharishi is the chairman, but the Kujung Association. The mere fact that the Gujunghoe was slower to respond to the incident was a disgrace. Despite the fact that something happened to their leader, they arrived later than their rivals. The blame could only be directed at Bi Ryuyeon.

Baek Moo-young, who had controlled the perimeter with a curtain of yin to keep people out, hurried to the location in question. The strange confrontation between Bi Ryuyeon and Maha Ling was still going on.

It was at this time that Bi Ryuyeon first instilled fear in the warlord Iron Jade Dragon.

Boom!

"Wait!"

It was Baek Moo-young who barged into the scene. Baek Moo-young's eyes widened when he saw the woman holding his cheeks after being slapped by Bi Ryuyeon's hand. Baek Moo-young's words began to tremble violently. It was not a normal tremor, as the frequency was so high that even a person's body trembled with it.

"So… you?"

"Huh?"

She turned her head as if to say, "Why are you calling me?" with her whole body. Before long, she was regaining her old self. She was now so relaxed that she was happy to see Baek Moo-young.

Seeing that look, Baek Moo-young was certain that Bi Ryuyeon was completely unaware of the enormity of what she had done. I could have walked away with a fortune.

"How dare you touch him, knowing who he is, and… crab… and a handkerchief? Are you insane?"

Bi Ryuyeon's face instantly frowned as she listened to Baek Mu-young's nonstop stream of words. There was no reason to listen to her, since she had only lightly reprimanded a girl with a big nose and bushy hair. At least, that's what she thought.

"That's quite normal. I don't think I should be bad-mouthed for tutoring someone else's child, so Senior Bai's opinion must be wrong, right?"

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

His smile was uncharacteristically cold today. It was a far cry from his usual smirk, and for a moment, Bai Muyoung couldn't help but feel nervous. Of course, inwardly, he was actively approving of the scary lady over there's lack of tutoring, but he couldn't just play the scarecrow for the sake of his job and the eyes of others.

Baek Mu-young couldn't leave gracefully. He was probably disgraced by the fact that he had shown such an ugly face to Baek Moo-young. That was enough for Baek Moo-young. Now he had to finish the case as quickly as possible.

"Over there……."

Baek Moo-young was just about to say something to Bi Ryuyeon.

Urrrr!

"Mr. Chairman, are you all right?"

In the end, Bai Muyoung couldn't keep his mouth shut. Just as he was about to speak, the eight warriors suddenly broke through the Yin barrier and rushed in.

At this unexpected turn of events, Baek Moo-young quickly drew his sword and pointed it at the unexpected intruder. However, upon realizing the identity of the warriors, Baek Moo-young immediately sheathed his sword.

He was a familiar face, so there was no need to cross swords, identify himself, and engage in conversation.

Fang Hyuksung, Crazy Wind Meng Hao Sword Fang Hyuksung was a native of Fang Family in Hebei and one of the eighteen masters of the Warriors' Association. He had a friend with a temper so fierce that it could fit into a starry sky. It was doubtful that it would end quietly.

"Do you want to die?"

The leader of the hastily assembled rescue team, Fang Feng, drew his sword and pointed it at Bi Ryuyeon's head, speaking in a menacing voice. Apparently, he didn't want to know how Huizhou, a man of far greater skill than himself, had ended up in Bi Ryuyeon's hands; he didn't have the brains to think that far ahead.

Baek Moo-young shook his head in disbelief. He knew now that she was not the kind of woman who would fall for such trivial threats.

"I don't know……."

As expected, Bi Ryuyeon was weak. He was a monster who had single-handedly blocked the path of the Iron Horsemen. He wondered if Fang Yanhao would be able to make him raise an eyebrow.

"How dare you know who he is, you insolent bastard!"

Fang Wuhyuk wanted to rush in right away, but he didn't dare because the company's owner, Maha Ling, was in Bi Ryuyeon's hands.

"Whoever this woman is, whatever her status, whatever her position, whatever her lineage, it's none of my business. I'm not going to let someone who insulted me get away with it just because she's a woman."

Bi Ryuyeon continued in a calm tone.

"I think I'll hang her outside the gates for a few days, maybe that'll get some of that rotten spirit out of her. It's a shame, I'm sure, but if I let her out again in this condition, she'll be a nuisance to those around her, even though I'm 'sure' she's there."

"Shut up and let go of your filthy hands!"

Pang Hyuk-sung shouted at him. To Baek Moo-young, he looked like he was shoveling snow into my grave. Bi Ryuyeon silently turned her head to look at him. Pang Hyuk-sung had to tense his muscles as he was about to die.

"On what basis do you make such rabid statements about the cleanliness of other people's hands?"

Even as she spoke to Pang Woo-hyuk, Bi Ryuyeon's hand still hadn't moved away from Maha-ryung. She was like her frog cousin, with a twisted personality that would twist, twist, and twist again, even more so when told not to. She was so twisted that she couldn't afford to twist anymore, so there was no way she would listen to Pang Woo-hyuk's high-pressure command tone.

And then… suddenly, he let go of her wrist.

"Here we go!"

As Bi Ryuyeon's right hand dropped from her left, she could feel the intangible pressure that had bound her like a spider's web ebb and flow.

As her body was just breaking free, she tried to move the pew, to escape from the clutches of the man who had first offended and insulted her the most. But her attempt was unsuccessful. Before she knew it, Bi Ryuyeon's left hand was holding her right without a sound.

"That… that… that… that… that… that… that… that… that… that… that… that… that… that… that… that… that."

Pang Hyuk-sung's eyes turned upside down as he watched. His reason, which he had interpreted to mean that the company he had always admired was being toyed with at the hands of another slug, was now turned upside down.

Reason had long since flown out the window.

Tears welled up in the eyes of the Warlord Maharishi. She was never one to show tears or be vulnerable, but today she couldn't hold it in.

She had spent half a thousand days in the closed hall, undergoing special training, and what had she gained? She had worked so hard to defeat him, and this was all she could achieve? She couldn't understand why she should be humiliated by someone who didn't understand the basics,

For the first time in her life, she felt helpless.

"Kaaahhhh!"

Boom!

Fang Hyuksung, who was even worse, lost his temper and swung his greatsword. It was the Wu Hao Danmundo, a swift sword method of the Fang family. The great sword sliced through the air like a windmill.

Ssshhhh!

The attempted murderous blow was aimed squarely at her throat, and she dodged it with a simple dip of her head.

Fang Hyuksung's Sword, wielded with all his might, might be destructive, but its speed was nowhere to be found. Dodging such a sword was a piece of cake.

"Well, well, well, they don't seem to have any regard for your safety, and they're terrible people to try to run over a man and woman clinging to each other like this and force them apart."

Bi Ryuyeon's laid-back, gentle voice scratched Maha-ryung's nerves. Unable to understand why she had to show such an ugly side in front of the members, Maha-ryung bit her lip tightly. It was the first time she had ever felt such shame.

"Let-go-zero-three!"

He looked at her and said kanji after kanji in a playful voice. But her face remained serious.

"What?"

Still, her words were short. She hadn't spoken anything but commands lately, so it would be hard for her to suddenly become longer.

"Let-go-zero-three!"

Once again, Bi Ryuyeon spoke again. With a snap, she turned her head to one side and turned away from Bi Ryuyeon's face.

"……."

A brief silence followed. Armed with a high sense of self-respect, she could not allow herself to show for all to see that she had finally succumbed to the coercion of such a young man. It was something that her lofty pride would not allow, an unacceptable, unforgivable offense in her mind.

How could I, as the chairman of a work conference, plead with a younger junior to let me go? As the chairman of the two major conferences of the Tianmu Academy, that could not happen.

"Let-go-zoo-say! It's boo-tak-de-lip-nee."

Bi Ryuyeon was just as persistent. This time with an extra word at the end.

Boom!

Everyone held their breath as they watched Maharishi's reaction.

<Continued from "Fault Tolerance" Volume 9