The Flame's Daughter

Chapter 3 (Part 3)

Volume 1 Chapter 3 (Part 3)

A spring night in the fourth month.

Fluttering snow filled the whole sky.
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The sparkling and resplendent snowflakes danced on the jade stage, whirled about and smiled gently. They leapt out from the lapel and sleeves of the man dressed in snow-white who was playing the zither, revealing the most blissful smile.

The snowflakes beside the man dressed in snow-white seemed to have a life of their own. They were reluctant to leave him, brilliantly leaping on the tips of his eyebrows and the corner of the mouth.

Between the swirling and lingering snow.

The man clad in snow-white was like the most dazzling ray in the whole wide world.

A dazzling and absolutely stunning ray.

Snow.

The sound of zither.

Suddenly, it was limpid and transparent, the piece played to one"s heart content.

It was clear and melodious like spring water.

Suddenly, it was unadorned, rich, lofty like one living a simple life, sweet and serene.

It was rich like the soughing of the wind through the pines.

It seemed as if there was a hidden bitterness, something breathtaking, a deep and painful rancour that reached the mortal realm and the most loved and pitied joyfulness in the world of mortals.

This was a man who was like flowers.

His name was Xue*.

*T/n: Xue means snow

Ruge held her breath as she gazed at Xue in amazement and was unconsciously charmed by him.
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Among the dazzling rays, Xue was sparkling, translucent and unearthly.
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But there was an indescribable breathtaking and bewitching quality between his eyebrows. That kind of peerless beauty simply tore one"s heart apart.
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Suddenly, for a split second, Ruge vaguely felt that she had met him before.

But then again, this is absolutely impossible. If I have really seen Xue before, how could I have forgotten?
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Her thoughts were in a mess.

From his red jade phoenix zither, Xue walked towards her direction and smiled.

A type of natural charm lingered on his features just like that. It made people unable to finish reading, unable to read to the end and unable to read it clearly; It made people unable to refrain themselves from looking at it repeatedly, then looking at it once again.

Ruge did not dare to confirm the one Xue was gazing at was her because she realised that while Xue was smiling gently, the whole of Ping Hua Building had almost entered a daze.
*********


The piece ended.

Among their expectations, everyone raised their heads and looked around. The highlight of tonight was finally commencing!

That was ——

From the audience present, Xue would choose a master he would follow for his whole lifetime!

Who will it be? How will he choose? Ruge secretly conjectured.

Hm, will it be straight to the point and depend on who offers the highest amount of money? This type of method was very straightforward, except that it"s a little too vulgar. I"m afraid that it would insult Xue"s status.

A middle-aged merchant whose clothes were bedecked with brilliant jewellery waved a dozen of ma.s.sive jewel rings on his hands.

"Xue, as long as you"re willing to follow me, I am willing to offer 10 000 taels of gold!"

Ruge was dumbstruck. There"s really someone who is this direct.
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There was another person who shouted from the same place. "I am willing to offer 100 000 taels gold!"

"200 000!"

"500 000!"

"…"

"1 000 000!"

A crisp and willful voice surpa.s.sed the crowd and yelled a price tag that caused everyone to be speechless.

Everyone looked over in the direction of the voice but saw that the person was Dao Liexiang from Tianxia Wudao City!

Dao Liexiang had straight eyebrows slanting upwards and cherry lips. Her gaze was deep and bright, tightly fixed on Xue who was smiling leisurely. She repeated, "I am willing to offer 1 000 000 tales of gold as long as you stay by my side forever."

When Xue heard what she said, he smiled like a flower facing the wind.
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He reached out an immaculate finger and elegantly shook his head. "Not enough."

Dao Liexiang"s body stiffened. Her slanted eyebrows scrunched up and she ground her teeth. "I can give however much you want!"

There was an uproar among the people. What a bold woman.
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At this moment, a young man dressed in cotton clothes laughed. "This woman, do you want any face? You actually showed your face in public and offered money to buy a man. No wonder people don"t take a fancy to you!"

Dao Lie Xiang was not angry but smiled instead. "Oh, men are allowed to spend silver to buy women but women are not allowed to spend silver to buy men?"

Ruge secretly cheered. Well said!

The young man clad in cotton clothes was taken aback for a moment. He berated laughingly, "What a shrewish woman! Young Master, I, am lazy to dispute with you. There will be someone who will sort you out in the future!"
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Dao Liexiang smiled angrily. "Where did this reckless little fellow pop up from? He actually dared to speak to me like this! This great aunt is Tianxia Wudao"s Dao Liexiang. Today, I"ll stand right here and see who dares to come sort me out!"

"Tianxia Wudao, is that it? So stinky, so stinky! It"s so stinky that it"s deplorable to smell it." The young man dressed in cotton clothes giggled as he covered his nose. "So it"s because there"s you, Dao Liechou*!"

*T/n: Xiang means something like fragrant so he joked with her name by changing the last part to "chou" which means something like smelly.

Dao Liexiang was furious. As soon as she slapped the table, the Red Fragrance Sword flew into her palm and immediately aimed to take that young man"s severed head!
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The young man jumped as if he was as light as a feather until he was next to Xue who was dressed in frost-like white clothes. He bent his head and moved close to the front of his face, smiling naively and innocently.

"Wow wow, you are really beautiful. This young master likes you. Why don"t you follow me?"
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Dao Liexiang was not resigned about her sword missing the mark. She wanted to brandish her sword again but was held back by Dao Wuxia. "Wait a minute, this young fellow seems to be strange."

Xue smiled and sized up the young man dressed in cotton clothes.

The young man was approximately eighteen years old. His eyes were large and bright, his lips well-developed and slightly tilted up like a freshly peeled tangerine on a summer day, with a sweet scent a.s.sailing the nostrils.

His fingers gently caressed the young man"s alluring lips and plastered on a bewitching smile.

When he was caressed by him, three-tenths of the young man"s soul had drifted away. "I…ahem, this young master is Jiangnan"s Thunder Clap Sect"s Young Lord, Lei Jinghong."
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As he spoke, he grabbed Xue"s hand and smiled. "As long as you follow me, I"ll gift the whole Thunder Clap Sect to you!"

Jiangnan"s Thunder Clap Sect.

It was a new sect that had suddenly emerged in the martial arts community. It had developed extremely rapidly in the past few years and had the faint sign of being the hegemon in the Jiangnan region. The Thunder Clap Sect was well-versed in using various kinds of firearms that had formidable attacking power and strong killing power. Under normal circ.u.mstances, the other sects would not want to be enemies with them.
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The sect leader of Thunder Clap Sect, Lei Hentian was stern and egotistical, capricious and formed many enemies in the martial arts society. It looked like his son, Lei Jinghong"s temperament was also not any better.

Xue gently gripped Lei Jinghong"s hand in return and sighed politely, "Young Man Lei, you are very good…"

Lei Jinghong only felt that his palm was smooth and soft as if there were no bones and could not help but entered a daze.

"But it"s a pity that…" Xue sighed again.
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Lei Jinghong foolishly continued, "A pity…"

Xue smiled gently, his sorrow like the peerlessly beautiful white flowers late at night.

"…I already have someone in my heart. I like her very much but I don"t know if she will be antipathic towards me…"

As he elaborated, it seemed as if he was actually going to shed tears.
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Lei Jinghong"s heart crumbled into fragments due to his distress and patted his chest right away.

"Whoever dares to be antipathic towards you, I will bomb that person into pieces!"

"Also…" Xue looked at him faintly. It seemed as if there were beads of tears that were like the clear spring in his eyes emitting light brilliantly. "I"m afraid that others won"t allow me to be together with her…"
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"Whoever dares to say another word about you two, I"ll bomb that person into smithereens!"

Xue stopped his tears immediately and smiled. It was as if there were thousands of flowers instantly blossoming simultaneously.
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His beautiful jade-like finger pointed far into the distance——

"I want her to be my master."

Translator Corner:

As mentioned previously, this is the last part I"m releasing so that it"s easier for any future translator to pick up the project if he or she wishes. Thank you to those who have been reading on Michilun Translations!