Chapter 175: Chapter 173: Just a few words of reassurance_1
Fang Ren removed the straw hat from atop her head, her white hair cascading down like a waterfall, her stunning face adorned with a joyful expression.
"How did you end up coming here?" Fang Ren pinched her face, his own feeling an unstoppable flow of happiness.
Mu Huanqing smiled and glanced at him, "If I didn't come over, my husband would have been snatched away by someone else."
"That's not true," said Fang Ren.
Mu Huanqing reached out and grabbed his ear, smiling as she spoke, "I heard every single word you two said outside, clearly and distinctly. For instance, her willingness to accompany you anywhere, and then there's the part about you going to the hotel with her, right? What for, to discuss the great matters of life?"
Upon hearing this, Fang Ren panicked and immediately tried to explain, "That wasn't my fault, the girl just overimagined things and I was helpless. When she asked where I was going, I just subconsciously uttered... and I mentioned the hotel because we needed to seize the time to cultivate, not to discuss any great matters of life, okay?"
"Sure, sure."
Mu Huanqing looked at his frantic explanations, then let go of his ear and gently touched his head with a smile, "Xiao Xi wouldn't fall for a dummy like you."
"Xiao Xi?"
Fang Ren paused, then realized that Bai Qi often called her Sister Hui Qing.
"Are you two really close?" asked Fang Ren.
"Very close. I used to take her out to play when we were little," Mu Huanqing said with a smile. "But we only spent just over four years together before I was called back to my family to focus on cultivation. After that, we had less contact. The last time I saw her, she was eighteen and went to the battlefield for trials, and I went with her again."
"Then why didn't you tell me about your relationship with her when you learned about my marriage engagement with her?" Fang Ren was baffled.
"There was no need. At the time, she must have thought I was dead, and you also said you wanted to break off the marriage engagement with her to be with me. At that time, we wouldn't have had any more interactions with her, so I didn't mention it." Mu Huanqing continued, "But unexpectedly, you two met."
"It's quite an annoying situation. Her grandfather doesn't agree to breaking off the engagement, and her coming to my school was also her grandfather's arrangement. He said to see how things go without feelings between us for two years," explained Fang Ren.
He certainly couldn't tell Mu Huanqing directly about the unspeakable secret of the Cultivators' marriage engagements in the Central Area and that he and Bai Qi were obligated to have a child.
If he did tell her, she definitely wouldn't be able to accept it for a time since she was the Great General of the Central Area, and having lived there for so many years, she certainly had feelings for that place.
Mu Huanqing said, "Grandpa Bai probably feels he owes a lot to your family from back then. Xiao Xi is also very picky, so directly breaking off the engagement seems improper. Hence, he forced her to spend some time with you. If you both don't like each other in the end, then the engagement can be dissolved, which would serve as a proper acknowledgement of the past favor."
"I guess so," Fang Ren smiled and nodded.
"Speaking of which, when I heard you two talking, it sounded like she thinks you like her?"
"I definitely never said that. Like I said, it was all in her imagination," Fang Ren said with a helpless face as he sat on a stone bench and looked up at the sky.
"As long as you don't like her, that's all that matters," smiled Mu Huanqing as she sat beside him. "If you fall for her, I'm sure I would do something drastic."
After hearing this, Fang Ren replied with a bitter smile, "Such as?"
"I'd beat you up ten times until you only like me," said Mu Huanqing.
"This... one punch from you could send me to meet the King of Hell, let alone ten times..." Fang Ren laughed and shook his head, acknowledging the extremity of it. Then he continued, "How long do you reckon you can stay this time?"
"The battle zone isn't far from here; it's just a half-hour away, which means I have eleven hours to spend with you," Mu Huanqing explained.
"Then don't go tonight. Let's discuss life."
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"You look like death!" Mu Huanqing pinched his waist, her voice full of grievance, "Talking about life, when life is about to be brought forth."
Upon hearing this, Fang Ren's gaze drifted towards Mu Huanqing's belly, "This little one has been there for over a month now, hasn't it?"
Mu Huanqing also lowered her head to touch her belly, her face brimming with a blissful smile, "Yes, in nine more months, the little one will be able to meet daddy."
As Fang Ren watched her joyful expression, the smile on his face gradually faded away. To protect this happiness, he was ready to take an extreme and lethal path. He still needed to build momentum, to the point of completely overpowering the Central Area.
His participation in the Alchemy competition was, of course, not only about slapping his uncle's face. More importantly, it was about using the event to shed the label of "ordinary mortal" from himself, to expand his reputation in order to establish his own power.
He intended to stir up a big fuss in this Alchemy competition, the bigger the commotion, the better.
After all, with the identity of the Fang Family's eldest son, no one dared to touch him. And if there were those who were reckless enough to try, well... didn't he have his wife there to back him up?
In the end, just do it and it's done. As long as the relationship between himself and Mu Huanqing isn't exposed, he would undoubtedly be the most dazzling star of the Alchemy competition.
"Qing'er," Fang Ren suddenly thought of something.
"What is it?" Mu Huanqing asked, leaning gently on his shoulder.
"I heard that Xia Fu Lan from the Tiandao Sword Sect will be coming to this Alchemy competition," Fang Ren said.
Upon hearing that name, Mu Huanqing's mood fell a bit.
Xia Fu Lan was a fellow clanswoman and comrade-in-arms that she had treated with true heart. However, it was Xia Fu Lan who had almost caused her death on the battlefield and led to so many of her sisters in the Nine Heavens Corps losing their lives, causing her immense pain.
"Don't bother with her," Mu Huanqing said.
"I want to help you get revenge," Fang Ren declared.
Mu Huanqing immediately stood up upon hearing this, frowning, "No."
"Why not? She almost got you killed on the battlefield. Doesn't she deserve to pay with her life?" Fang Ren argued.
"There is no evidence for that, even if a part of people are clear in their hearts, there's no way to convict her," Mu Huanqing continued, "To say she should pay with her life, I myself could kill her ten thousand times, but I cannot kill a clanswoman. It would cause division among our ranks, especially now that the Void Hole is becoming more and more peculiar.
If humanity begins to fight within while facing this, the consequences would be unimaginable."
Fang Ren's expression turned serious as well, and he said, "It's precisely because you care too much about the big picture and cannot bring yourself to act that she should be killed by me."
"But if you kill her, you will be convicted, and every human will see you as a cancer that must be eliminated," Mu Huanqing immediately grasped his hand, anxious, "Please don't do this, okay? Our child isn't even born yet; don't do such dangerous things... "
Fang Ren pulled her into his arms, stroked her hair softly, and whispered, "I haven't said how exactly she needs to pay with her life. Don't worry; I will just ensure all the debts she owes will be repaid, based on ensuring my own safety."
"But I'm so worried... Don't go..."
Mu Huanqing suddenly realized how vulnerable she felt. This matter involved too many things, and she was about to become a mother. The father of her child was about to do something dangerous, which threw her mind into chaos.
"Well then... I guess I just won't do it," Fang Ren said.
Not do it?
Impossible.
It was just a comforting lie.
If the world would not refrain from anything against him, why would he treat the world with any courtesy!