Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 606 Secret Alliance (Part 1)

A moment later, back in the same guest room.

The three of them were already seated at the table.

Murong Xiao opened the jar of wine he had brought with a light tap of his finger.

"Good wine!" Huang Donglai, with his exceptional sense of smell, didn't even need to drink it; he just smelled the aroma emanating from the jar and couldn't help but exclaim in praise.

"Heh..." Murong Xiao chuckled, then personally got up to pour wine for Sun and Huang, saying as he poured, "As the saying goes, fine wine is for heroes, so please don't stand on ceremony with me... Let's drink until we're drunk today."

As he finished speaking, he poured the wine into the three bowls on the table.

At first glance, his actions don't seem particularly special; any random waiter could probably do it more efficiently.

But what happened in those few seconds would have a completely different meaning in the eyes of a true master...

As we all know, martial arts can be integrated into daily life—eating, sleeping, smoking, taking a walk, and even going to the toilet can all reflect a person's level of martial arts skills.

Ah-Xiao did the same thing when he poured the wine.

From the moment he stood up to the moment he picked up the wine jar and bent forward, it was clear that his waist and strength were extraordinary.

The time he spends pouring the wine, the speed and angle at which the wine jar tilts downwards, the amplitude and swirling motion of each small stream of wine hitting the bottom of the bowl, and the final amount of wine in each bowl... all demonstrate his precise control and predictive ability.

If a waiter were to pour the wine here today, his movements might seem more efficient than Murong Xiao's, but some wine would inevitably spill outside the bowl during the pouring process, and the amount of wine in the three bowls would certainly vary.

The three bowls of wine that Ah-Xiao was pouring were not only completely wasted, but the amount was also exactly the same.

His unassuming wine-pouring technique, upon closer examination, is remarkably smooth, steady, and precise…

"Here, let me offer you both a bowl first."

After Murong Xiaoxiu finished demonstrating his martial arts skills, he sat down again with a smug smile on his face. Then, he slowly raised the bowl of wine in front of him and offered it to Sun and Huang.

"Hey~ You're too kind, we're all brothers, drink up!"

"Yeah, yeah, I did it too, haha..."

Unexpectedly, the two guys in front of him completely failed to see the brilliance of Ah Xiao's move, and they both immediately picked up their bowls and started drinking with him.

This made Murong Xiao's previous "appearing humble on the surface but actually showing off" move seem like a waste of talent, as if he had really been a waiter for the two of them.

"Hmm... Cheers, cheers..." Murong Xiao's smile froze on his face, but he really couldn't say anything in this situation, so he could only awkwardly respond twice and drink the bowl with Shuang Xie.

Fortunately, as soon as he put down the bowl, Sun Yixie immediately changed the subject: "Second Young Master, don't blame us for what we did just now. After all, we're in a situation now... You should understand. It's always better to be careful."

"Hehe... Brother Sun, you're overthinking it." Murong Xiao replied smoothly, "Given the circumstances just now, it's understandable that you two were on guard, and I won't take it to heart."

"That's good." Huang Donglai then said, "Oh, by the way, Second Young Master, how is your father doing lately? It's been more than half a year since we last met, and I miss him terribly."

Here we should mention that Huang Donglai wasn't deliberately bringing up the sore spot; he genuinely didn't know that Murong Shu was dead.

Because Sun and Huang kept a low profile and tried to avoid too much contact with others after entering the pass, they had no chance to actively inquire about any major news in the martial arts world. At most, they could only obtain some information by listening to the chatter in public places, but that way of obtaining information was like watching short videos. You hear whatever you want, and all sorts of nonsense can be found. It's even less effective than watching short videos because there is no big data-driven targeted information.

Of course, Huang Donglai's question at this moment was not entirely a random thought; he wanted to use it as a breakthrough to find out if the Murong family had stolen the Silkworm-Seeking Ring and how they had stolen it.

After all... the Murong family was one of the organizers of the "Contending for Heroes Cup," and Murong Shu was deeply involved in the safekeeping and mutual supervision of the Silkworm Seeking Ring.

"This..." Upon hearing this, Murong Xiao's face darkened. "It seems that neither of you knows that my father... passed away several months ago."

"What?" Sun and Huang exclaimed in unison.

“Alas…” Murong Xiao sighed, “This matter is a long story…” He paused, then, taking advantage of Sun Huang’s lingering doubts, quickly dropped an even more bombshell, “I might as well tell you both that the real Silkworm-Seeking Ring ultimately ended up in my father’s hands…”

This time, Shuang Xie was indeed a little surprised.

They didn't expect that as soon as they started to probe, Murong Xiao seemed to have anticipated their intentions and gave them an answer that he shouldn't have given.

But from Murong Xiao's perspective, this is perfectly fine.

He came to see Shuangxie today because he wanted to "secretly form an alliance" with them. Once he achieved this goal, it wouldn't matter if he told them this.

Of course, if he fails to achieve his goal, he has ways, or rather, he is confident, to prevent the other party from revealing everything he heard today.

So, in the next few minutes, Murong Xiao told Shuang Xie two stories.

One story is about "Murong Shu seeing through Shuang Xie's 'matryoshka doll hiding ring' scheme on his own, colluding with the former Heavenly Thief who faked his death to successfully steal the Silkworm-Seeking Ring, and even silencing the latter."

Another story he told his family was about how Murong Shu gradually became possessed by evil spirits through practicing martial arts until he died.

Anyway, Murong Shu is already dead. With Ah Xiao's logic and eloquence, it wouldn't be difficult for him to make these two stories seem plausible.

However... we know Sun and Huang. No matter how surprised or congenial they seem on the surface, or how they act like they're on the same page, they actually treated Ah Xiao's words like bullshit from the very beginning—they didn't believe a single word of them.

Back then, Shen Youran's character was much more "pure" than A Xiao's. For a long time, Shen not only did nothing bad to Sun Huang, but also gave them all sorts of benefits... Even so, Sun Huang never trusted him.

As for Murong Xiao, it goes without saying that after hearing these two stories, Sun Huang already understood: you must have done everything, and then you killed your own father and made him take the blame.

It has to be said that sometimes, "petty logic" is a very efficient way of thinking... We don't care what you said, we only see that you have unparalleled martial arts skills, have received all the benefits, and your father has given them to you. So there is no need for any reasoning process. In short, I am convinced that you have a problem.

"Oh... I really didn't expect that... Your father is actually this kind of person..." Back at the table, Huang Donglai still had to put on his "tricked" act.

“Alas…” Murong Xiao’s acting skills were also quite good. “My father only made one wrong step. He wasn’t like this before… I hope that you two will not make this public for my sake.”

“That’s too polite.” Sun Yixie, the drama queen, wasn’t going to be outdone. He immediately stood up, patted his chest, and said, “Since the Second Young Master considers us brothers and has even told us such a secret, we would never do something like betraying our brothers! Right, Brother Huang?”

"Yes, yes, yes." Huang Donglai also picked up his wine bowl at the right time. "Come on, let's finish this bowl, and this matter will be buried in my belly along with the wine."

The three of them drank another round, but... before they could even swallow their wine, Ah-Xiao began to have doubts.

"Something's not right... These two aren't that easy to fool," he thought to himself. "The fact that they readily agreed with me without questioning me is suspicious..."

Just as he was thinking this, Huang Donglai suddenly turned to the side, covered his mouth with his hand, and whispered a few words in Sun Yixie's ear in a very low voice, so low that even he couldn't hear them.

"Or...should we just abandon the alliance and kill them all right here..."

Just as Ah-Xiao was hesitating about whether to take action...

Snapped--

Suddenly, Sun Yixie slammed his hand on the table, shoved Huang Donglai aside, and yelled, cursing, "What do you want the Heavenly Silkworm Skill for?" After yelling the first half of the sentence, he raised his voice again, and continued the second half of the sentence in an almost broken tone, "What do you want the Heavenly Silkworm Skill for!!"

Huang Donglai then looked rather embarrassed: "I was just saying..."

Sun Yixie persisted, "Why are you like this? The Second Young Master was having a nice chat with us, why did you suddenly bring that up?"

Murong Xiao didn't know how the two of them changed their accents from south to north as they talked, but he understood the general meaning of their "performance".

"Heh... I see." Ah Xiao made a judgment in his mind. He believed that Sun Huang's previous actions were ultimately because the Heavenly Silkworm Technique had been successfully found. They felt that turning against each other would not bring them any benefit, so they might as well go along with it and get a share of the spoils.

Once he understood this point, Murong Xiao was relieved.

"Hey~ you two, stop arguing." The next second, Ah Xiao quickly stepped forward to "mediate," pulling Sun and Huang apart as their verbal exchange escalated into a physical fight. "I understand what you two mean... This Silkworm Seeking Ring originally belonged to you both. My father's actions before were unethical." He paused, "How about this, I promise... I can secretly teach you the Heavenly Silkworm Divine Skill without telling my family."

"Oh? Is that really true?" Sun Yixie revealed a greedy look that didn't seem like an act.

Upon seeing this, Murong Xiao became even more certain that his judgment was correct: "Of course."

"That can't be right?" Huang Donglai further reinforced the authenticity of his and Brother Sun's series of actions. "Don't you have any...conditions?"

“Hmm…” Murong Xiao smiled, “Of course, there are some.”

Upon hearing this, Sun and Huang immediately regained their serious expressions, adopting a bargaining stance.

“Then… tell me about it?” Sun Yixie continued.

At this moment, Murong Xiao also sat back down in his original seat. His gaze swept over Sun Huang's face before he slowly said, "Both of you... still owe the young master a 'favor,' right?"

His sudden mention of the name caused a genuine change in expression on Sun Huang's face.

“I might as well speak frankly, I am currently cooperating with the young master, or rather, with the powerful force behind him…” Murong Xiao said. “Moreover, I know far more than you do.”

"What does that have to do with us?" Huang Donglai asked.

"Don't you want to... wipe the slate clean of this so-called 'favor' as soon as possible?" Ah-Xiao retorted.

“I want to, but you know better than we do how powerful the young master is. So many people in the martial arts world and the court are under his surveillance and control. How easy is it to get rid of him?” Sun Yixie continued.

"Hmph..." Murong Xiao laughed again, "Nothing is impossible for a willing heart..."

This common saying, if said by anyone, would mostly just be a slogan, but when Ah-Xiao says it... it has a different meaning.

“As long as you are willing to help me…” After a half-second pause, Ah Xiao continued, “I will tell you how to overthrow this mountain called ‘Master Bastard’ together.”