Chaotic World Book-Chapter 61 - 60: Yangyang’s Crisis

Rain was still falling, and Cui Yuanyang, clutching her head, followed Zhao Changhe through the mountains. She watched him expertly find a cave’s indentation to crawl into, where he scraped together some dry branches and leaves and lit the fire lighter.

It quickly formed a warm little nest.

Changing locations wasn’t purely because the sight of corpses everywhere was disturbing, but more so because Zhao Changhe didn’t want to encounter any more "rain shelter seekers." With strange murderous intents targeting Cui Yuanyang, Zhao Changhe had to be extra cautious and thought a cave in the desolate wilderness was unlikely to be found.

Cui Yuanyang sat by the campfire, hugging her knees, shaking her hands back and forth, roasting her slightly damp rabbit fur clothes, wanting to take them off but not daring to.

Inside was only a thin undershirt with a mandarin duck playing in water design.

Zhao Changhe didn’t bother with her much, undressing and drying his clothes bare-bodied.

Cui Yuanyang did not dare look at his muscular body, turning her head and muttering, "Bandit."

Zhao Changhe couldn’t be bothered with her, "You spied on me practicing sword this morning, it’s not like you haven’t seen, now playing coy... I’m not about to overpower you."

Cui Yuanyang couldn’t scold Zhao Changhe and instead blamed the heavens, "What awful weather, so annoying."

"Spring rains are normal, without them, there wouldn’t be your family’s autumn harvest," Zhao Changhe, while drying his clothes, sighed, "Shouldn’t your mind be preoccupied with figuring out who wants to kill you? Have you offended anyone in the past?"

Cui Yuanyang shook her head absentmindedly; she had been the beloved young lady of the family from a young age, loved by everyone, how could she have offended anyone? If she had to say, scolding the servants occasionally was the extent, but surely no one would hold such a small matter in their heart and hire an assassin?

That was just too...impossible to guess.

Zhao Changhe also found it extremely puzzling, what could this young girl have done to offend anyone? Financial entanglements? She wasn’t involved in any financial interests.

It makes sense if the Cui Family had enemies, but targeting such a young girl, what was the point? Saying someone kidnapped her to harm or threaten makes sense, but hiring an assassin to kill, was it just out of spite?

Of course, if someone was acting out of spite, it wouldn’t be strange; such people exist... but if so, then it truly was impossible to guess.

No, wait!

Zhao Changhe suddenly had a realization, "When you ran off to find me, who knew about it?"

Cui Yuanyang paused, "My family must know by now... Outsiders, I’m not sure..."

"Right," Zhao Changhe snapped his fingers, "Even if your family urgently sent people to find you, you hadn’t been gone long. News should have just been reaching people now, yet the assassin was already at your door! This timeline, it’s unlikely to be an outsider who hired the assassin."

Cui Yuanyang shivered, murmuring in disbelief, "Someone from my own family wants to kill me?"

"Not just someone from your family, but also someone who knew you ran off to find me, that’s how they could quickly locate you," Zhao Changhe said emotionlessly, "Do you think it could be Cui Yuan Yong? He fits the description."

Cui Yuanyang exclaimed loudly, "Impossible!"

Zhao Changhe shook his head; he also felt it was unlikely, "If Cui Yuan Yong wanted to kill his sister, he could have done so in countless ways long before, why wait until now? Even if he wanted to avoid responsibility by distancing himself, he couldn’t. Everyone knows you went out with him, and if you die outside, he’d still be held responsible."

Right now, the person most frantic would be Cui Yuan Yong.

"Not Cui Yuan Yong, but it might be someone wanting to make it look like Cui Yuan Yong failed to protect his sister, causing her death," Zhao Changhe chuckled, "Seems there’s a struggle for succession within your family. On the Hidden Dragon List, isn’t it just Cui Yuan Yong from this generation of the Cui Family? What about the others?"

Cui Yuanyang bit her lower lip, remaining silent.

Being on or off the Hidden Dragon List didn’t necessarily mean others were less capable than Cui Yuan Yong. After all, the Chaotic World Book spoke according to achievements, some might have unnoticeable achievements but sufficient strength.

Furthermore, the selection of the Family Head by an Aristocratic Family doesn’t necessarily depend on strength; the status of being the legitimate eldest son is even more crucial. As long as strength and character aren’t atrocious enough to provoke the opposition of the entire clan, basically no one can shake the position of the legitimate eldest son.

Both Cui Yuanyong and Cui Yuanyang were born from the principal wife of the main family branch. It seems that Cui Yuanyong isn’t the eldest son, having an older brother... However, this older brother was born from a concubine, which means that despite Cui Yuanyang calling Cui Yuanyong the second elder brother, Cui Yuanyong is actually the legitimate eldest son.

With the best status and ranked third in Hidden Dragon, as well as being the most famous, he was basically the heaven-designated next Family Head of the Cui Family. Others truly had no competitive power in front of him.

But what if something were to happen to him?

Would the crime of causing his sister’s death suffice? Hard to say, but it’s good leverage.

At the very least, Cui Yuanyang’s principal wife’s older brother wasn’t just Cui Yuanyong; there were the eldest son of the concubine and the legitimate second son. Whether other branches of the family were also coveting the position was unknown.

In this generation of the Cui Family, the males were flourishing.

However, according to this reasoning, the most likely candidate seemed to be the legitimate second son, Cui Yuancheng, who was also a close brother from the same father and mother as Cui Yuanyang. This possibility left Cui Yuanyang so numb that he couldn’t speak for a long time.

Zhao Changhe said, "Why are you not speaking? I’m not familiar with your family matters. You need to speak so that it helps in the analysis."

Cui Yuanyang stammered for quite some time before vaguely describing the situation.

Zhao Changhe’s expression twitched slightly. Terms such as main branch, secondary branch, legitimate eldest, concubine’s eldest, legitimate second, it all made his head swell. It took him a long time to comprehend, and there were indeed many affairs in such large families.

Rubbing his temple with a hint of a headache, he said, "You don’t need to look so devastated. It might not be your own brother; it could be someone else. The more important issue we face now is—I might not be able to defeat an assassin."

Cui Yuanyang also thought of this possibility.

If it’s the descendants of the Cui Family who offered a bounty, her bounty might be even more outrageous than Zhao Changhe’s thousand taels of gold. The assassin lured by this wealth might not be just anyone from the Third or Fourth Layer of Mystical Gate; how strong they could be was uncertain. freёwebnoѵel.com

Actually, Zhao Changhe’s own bounty might also attract terrifying enemies, which is why he needed to conceal his movements.

No extremely powerful people had shown up yet; it was simply not such good luck to have an assassin who was interested in this bounty and just happened to be very strong nearby. And even if they were nearby, by what chance would they actually find them?

Han Wubing also, from who knows where, had come from far away, and the assassin earlier might only have gone to the Mountain God Temple to take shelter from the rain and coincidentally stumbled upon a dead rabbit. The real encounter factor was that everyone was taking shelter in the Mountain God Temple, not because they had radar. So there certainly were stronger people around, but they just hadn’t encountered them yet. Zhao Changhe, merely a Third Layer of Mystical Gate—how many could he handle?

If it were just Zhao Changhe, it might have been quite simple—nobody knew which direction he would go in. If he didn’t act heroically, revealing himself as Zhao Changhe "below" in martial halls, who would know his whereabouts in a month? It would all be quiet soon.

But Cui Yuanyang needed to return home eventually. The location of Qinghe was known; people didn’t need to find them but simply wait on the routes to Qinghe like sitting ducks. How could he be safely delivered?

"Now it’s time to see the Cui Family’s response, whether they will send elite troops to cover all routes..." Zhao Changhe started saying but soon negated himself, "That seems unlikely too. They wouldn’t know you are being assassinated. They probably think you’ve eloped with some rascal, not daring to make much noise."

Cui Yuanyang hung his head low, almost drooping like rabbit ears to the ground.

Running away from home felt good momentarily, who knew it would bring such troubles... At this moment, the girl truly thought that Zhao Changhe’s earlier scolding was correct; she was being foolish.

"I have an idea," Zhao Changhe stroked his chin, "but your reputation might be completely ruined."

Cui Yuanyang curiously asked, "What idea?"

"If we just don’t go to Qinghe and do the opposite, like going to see the mists and rains of Jiangnan, or the landscapes of the Northern Desert. I myself don’t even know where to go, they don’t have celestial vision, how could they find us? Even if later your family learns of your whereabouts, perhaps half a year or a year would have passed. By then, they might have even decided on what names to give to their grandchildren, and the whole world would probably know..."

Cui Yuanyang just opened his mouth, not knowing how to respond.

Leaning against the cave wall, Zhao Changhe closed his eyes to rest, "There’s another direct approach. We could travel day and night to rush back to Qinghe. The bounty offer has just begun, not many know of it. The chances of many setting up a Heavenly Net to capture you are actually non-existent. In other words, if we are to go back, we must hurry. As the opportunists make their move, you and I would have already reached Qinghe."

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