"Yaya, we're just acting. Uncle doesn't mean to hurt you. Can you go back inside and eat first?"
As Qin Cangjing's expression froze, the woman bent down, pinched the little girl's face, and said with a comfortable smile like a spring breeze.
Hearing the woman's words, the little girl was skeptical, but still clung tightly to Qin Cangjing's leg, afraid that if she let go, Qin Cangjing would make a move.
"Aunt Su, I'm scared. I'm afraid you'll disappear. Please don't disappear, okay? If you disappear, no one will love us, and we'll have no relatives."
The little girl looked at the woman with a pitiful expression and said, "I don't want you to disappear."
Seeing the little girl's reaction, Shen Lang suddenly felt a pang of sadness. Orphans without parents are more mature and sensitive than children their age. He used to be like this, but because of Chu Ge and Wolong, his personality changed.
However, no matter how reluctant this little girl was, the woman in front of her would eventually die. Even if Qin Cangjing couldn't bear to strike, Shen Lang would personally kill her.
In this world, some wrongdoings can be forgiven, but some cannot. For Qin Cangjing to wash away past shame and become a true hero, he had to kill this woman and sever ties with his past.
"Yaya, Aunt Su won't disappear. Hurry up and eat."
The woman didn't expect the little girl to be so sensitive. She, who had no fear of death, was now terrified of it. Her gaze towards Qin Cangjing also changed.
"Shen Lang, let's go first."
Qin Cangjing glanced at the woman, then at the little girl, and finally sheathed his Minghong Saber. He said to Shen Lang.
"Okay—"
Upon hearing Qin Cangjing's words, Shen Lang quickly followed him and turned to leave. Two minutes later, Shen Lang and Qin Cangjing walked out of the orphanage and watched it from afar, about two hundred meters away from the gate.
"Why did you get soft-hearted at the critical moment?"
Shen Lang looked at Qin Cangjing and said, "I can sense that you no longer have any affection for this woman. Logically speaking, you shouldn't hesitate to kill her. Why did you cancel the killing intent at the crucial moment?"
"And you, why didn't you do as we agreed and deliver the killing blow when I hesitated?"
After hearing Shen Lang's words, Qin Cangjing smiled with relief and said, "Actually, it wasn't just me who got soft-hearted; you did too. If I had insisted on killing her, you might have stopped me."
"Can you tell me about this woman?"
Shen Lang found a long bench and sat down, asking lazily.
"Her name is Su Daji. Yes, she shares the same name as the Su Daji who caused chaos in the Shang Dynasty during the Investiture of the Gods. Twenty years ago, someone built a tall building in Longdu, and its name was the Star-Plucking Tower."
Qin Cangjing sat on a chair opposite Shen Lang and began to speak slowly, "The tower is a hundred feet high, as if one could pluck the stars with one's hand. I dare not speak loudly, lest I startle the celestial beings."
"On my seventeenth birthday, the sky was ablaze with a rosy sunset like fire. As I walked beneath the Star-Plucking Tower, I saw a young girl playing an invisible guqin."
"The music was beautiful, truly heavenly. I was drawn by the melody and stopped. I saw the girl's face clearly, and I witnessed a spectacle I had never seen before."
"Thousands of birds were attracted by the music and finally landed on the Star-Plucking Tower. The scene was so shocking that it's hard to imagine unless you saw it with your own eyes."
"For the following year, whenever I had free time, I would go under the Star-Plucking Tower to listen to her play. Finally, I couldn't help myself and went up to the tower to see her."
"Although it was our first meeting, it felt like we had known each other for a lifetime. Without many words, we understood each other's thoughts, and thus, we fell in love."
"I promised her that I would make her my bride on her eighteenth birthday. Little did I know, she wouldn't become my bride; she would be married to my father."
Qin Cangjing sighed, "On that day, snow fell heavily. I channeled all the wind and snow in the city into a single sword, killing more than a hundred strong individuals of the Qin family. My father was also injured by my sword energy and died of grief two years later. After that, dressed in black like ink, I forged my sword into a saber and left Longdu, and from then on, I traveled alone, with just a saber, from dusk till night, from the ends of the earth to the corners of the sea."
"Many years later, I realized that the girl playing the invisible guqin at the Star-Plucking Tower was a carefully prepared scheme against me. Because of this scheme, my father and I fell out, and I became despondent ever since."
"I truly wanted to kill her, to give myself an explanation. But when I saw her, I realized she had become another person. She had become an ordinary person, and these children had changed her."
"If she died, these children would be plunged into immense suffering. Their already tragic lives would completely lose all hope."
Qin Cangjing shook his head and said, "Letting her live is a mercy for these children. Besides, when I saw her again, I understood that her life or death no longer mattered to me."
"Haha, it's great that you've come to understand this."
Shen Lang looked at Qin Cangjing, who had a look of relief on his face, and said with a smile, "You are completely different now from when I first met you. It seems that there will no longer be a 'Broken Saber' in this world, only Qin Cangjing."
"Whether it's Qin Cangjing or Broken Saber, we will always be friends."
Qin Cangjing slowly stood up and said to Shen Lang, "As I said before, if you are in Longdu, I will do my best to ensure your safety."
"It is my honor to have the Patriarch of the Qin family as a friend."
Shen Lang smiled and said, "From now on, we will share blessings and hardships together."
Shen Lang and Qin Cangjing left five minutes later. However, after they departed, in a place called the Black Ice Platform in Longdu, Kong Wu Dao and Qi Tuo Jiang were at a shooting range.
Kong Wu Dao held a sniper rifle and repeatedly pulled the trigger at a moving target 150 meters away. However, no matter how fast the target moved, Kong Wu Dao could accurately hit the bullseye. Ten shots in a row, not a single miss.
Qi Tuo Jiang was equally skilled, with a record as brilliant as Kong Wu Dao's.
"Young Master Kong, have you heard? Qin Cangjing is back. After forcefully subduing Qin Chun Qiu and Qin Lian Xing, he killed Qin Tian Xia. Now, the Qin family has transformed from a heap of sand into a solid steel plate."
Qi Tuo Jiang spoke, "It's truly perplexing. Qin Cangjing has been away from the Qin family for over twenty years, yet he so easily took control. I wonder what those Qin family members were doing."
Kong Wu Dao retorted, "This shows that Qin Chun Qiu and Qin Tian Xia are all useless. However, Qin Cangjing's sudden entry into the game might not be favorable to our plans."