Singing with a Sword

The following is the main text of the novel "{?$article_title?}" ({?$jieqi_title?}) provided by {?$jieqi_sitename?}. Please enjoy! Since Xiaoru came to Shenfeng Hall, Yiran Xiao has taken good care of her, treating her like family. This is partly due to Meng Da's influence, and partly due to Xiaoru's own personality. To put it simply, Yiran Xiao felt close to Xiaoru because of her personality; in other words, he quite liked women like her—kind, ordinary, with no outstanding qualities or major flaws.

Xiaoru also treated Yiranxiao like family, always greeting her happily whenever Yiranxiao came to visit. To outsiders, the two seemed like a married couple.

Little An'an didn't quite understand the meaning of "husband and wife," but she knew the two were close, which was why she said that. Yi Ranxiao didn't care, and immediately beamed, stroking An'an's little head and saying, "No, Uncle came to see An'an." An'an said, "I don't believe you. Okay, okay, Uncle, why don't you go in and see Aunt Xiaoru? Auntie hasn't been feeling well lately."

Xiaoru, who was inside, had heard the commotion outside and came out on her own. Yiran Xiao saw her and, sure enough, she was pale and thin, looking sickly. He asked with concern, "Xiaoru, what's wrong? Are you sick?"

Xiaoru smiled and said, "It's okay. I always feel unwell in winter, cough cough... cough cough... I'll feel better after resting for a while."

"Have you taken any medicine? Have you had Mr. Zhi check your pulse?"

Before Xiaoru could answer, An'an huffed in dissatisfaction, "Fine, Uncle, you said you weren't here to see Aunt Xiaoru. Look, as soon as Auntie came out, you ignored me! I'm ignoring you!" With that, An'an turned her back, leaving Yiran Xiao with an angry back view.

Yiran Xiao smiled helplessly. This little girl was really mischievous. So she said a lot more nice things, but An'an still pouted, looking unhappy. Xiaoru also tried to comfort her, but to no avail. Finally, the monkey came on stage, and then all the problems were solved.

The little monkey had been sleeping inside Yi Ranxiao's clothes. When it woke up, it poked its head out from Yi Ranxiao's collar. Its big, bright eyes saw An'an pouting and acting sulky. An'an also saw it.

"Wow, what an adorable little monkey!" An'an immediately went from being annoyed to delighted, reaching out her arms to hug the little monkey. Yi Ranxiao naturally obliged, handing the little monkey to her. The little monkey looked at An'an with a grin, very happy, as if it had seen a childhood friend.

After Little Monkey returned to Shenfeng Hall with Yiran Xiao, he still didn't have a playmate. Little An'an had been living in Shenfeng Hall for so long without a playmate either. Now that the two of them were together, how happy they were!

"Uncle Yi, what's this monkey's name?"

Yi Ranxiao was taken aback. Uh, it seems we haven't named the little monkey yet. Suddenly, an idea struck him, and he said, "Uncle hasn't named it yet, so why don't you give it a name, An'an?"

An'an was delighted when she heard this. She tilted her head and thought for a while before happily saying, "Then let's call her Dingding! An'an Dingding, An'an Dingding, how wonderful!"

Yi Ranxiao and Xiaoru were completely baffled. Dingding? Dingding? Someone who didn't know the context would really think it was that character for "butt"! A monkey's name is actually "butt"—the possibilities are endless!

However, Xiao couldn't bear to go against Xiao An'an's good intentions, so he agreed to her masterpiece: "Alright, from now on he will be called Dingding." The little stone monkey was very happy. Dingding sounded very special! He didn't care about the name having great meaning, he just wanted it to sound unique.

An'an and Dingding went out to play. Only Yiranxiao and Xiaoru remained in the courtyard. In his previous life, Yiranxiao had been in love. While not exactly a seasoned player, he wasn't a naive newcomer either, and he could be quite at ease when alone with a woman. However, Yiranxiao wasn't the type to be a playboy who would seize any opportunity to flirt with women. With Xiaoru, Yiranxiao's current behavior was more of simple care. Although he liked her, he couldn't rush things; he had to take it slow.

As for Xiaoru, at this stage, she already regards Yiran Xiao as Mengda, as an older brother, so her feelings are mostly caring. Because of this care, she knows about the Hall Battle and has also learned about the rules from others: each side sends five people to participate in the battle, a best-of-five system, and generally, the senior brothers of the two branch halls will face off directly.

The reason Xu An fought Zhong Bugui last time was because Zhong Bugui was too weak and had no right to make Zhang Qiang take action.

The current senior brother is still young and is much stronger than Zhong Bugui. He can now fight Zhang Qiang head-on! But the problem is that although Zhang Qiang's strength is the same as Xiang Wuju's, both at the peak of the eighth level of the Transcendent Realm, Zhang Qiang is a disciple of the sect, and the techniques he cultivates are definitely more advanced than Xiang Wuju's. This determines that his combat power is much higher than Xiang Wuju's!

Besides, Yi Ranxiao killed Xiang Wuju by killing hundreds of his Divine Fist Gang members, which disrupted Xiang Wuju's mind and gave him the upper hand. However, against Zhang Qiang, with Yi Ranxiao's current seventh-level Transcendent Realm strength, it's somewhat risky!

Xiaoru could tell that Yiranxiao was worried—worried that she would lose! So Xiaoru comforted Yiranxiao with kind words. Xiaoru was indeed a girl who was good at comforting people; after her encouragement, Yiranxiao's mood improved considerably.

Meanwhile, Zhang Qiang has been extremely busy these past few days at the Vanguard Hall, but he's not busy with the hall battles.

A few days ago, someone broke into the sect with the intention of stealing the sect's magic manuals. However, the thief was encountered by the senior disciple Wen Erya and his master Shen Fanba. The thief was injured on the spot by Shen Fanba, but managed to escape.

The sect immediately issued an arrest warrant, ordering all branch halls to search for the person in and around their respective cities. As for Jianling City, which has two branch halls, the main hall completely ignored the Shenfeng Hall and only notified the Xianfeng Hall of the matter.

Zhang Qiang's Vanguard Hall was the second to last branch of the sect. As the senior disciple, he always wanted to make more contributions to improve the branch's ranking. So when this matter came up, he put in 100% effort. However, like other branches, he had no clues in the past few days.

However, just last night, his second junior brother Han Shuo encountered a suspicious man in black in Jianling City. He immediately led his men to chase after him, but he hasn't returned all night. It's unknown whether he caught up with the man in black, or whether the man in black is the criminal who stole from the sect.

If so, then his Vanguard Hall is going to be rich! So Zhang Qiang was anxious, nervous and excited at the same time, and he hadn't slept a wink since last night!

"Senior Brother, don't worry. With Second Brother's cultivation level, that man in black definitely won't escape," Third Brother Xu Chen reassured him.

Zhang Qiang nodded, "But I'm afraid this man in black isn't the person the sect wants to arrest!" Xu Chen said, "We can only hope this thief is honest and is the one who went to the main hall to steal. If that happens, we'll catch him, and the main hall will definitely give us a lot of rewards. Then we can strengthen the Vanguard Hall and challenge the Beast Taming Hall!" The Beast Taming Hall is the third-to-last branch hall.

Zhang Qiang said, "Hmm, not bad. —Hey, speaking of the hall battles, I suddenly remembered the Divine Wind Hall." He then gave a disdainful smile. "It seems that they will be challenging us in three days, on February 28th. Tsk tsk, I almost forgot about it."

Xu Chen suddenly realized, "Senior Brother, I really forgot about this. Haha, the Divine Wind Hall is really ridiculous. That Yi Ranxiao really thinks that just because his strength has improved a little, he can defeat you, Senior Brother. Hmph, besides, even if he defeats you, Senior Brother, does the Divine Wind Hall have other experts who can win the second and third matches?"

Zhang Qiang gave a sarcastic "hmm," then glared at Xu Chen. Xu Chen immediately laughed and smoothed things over, saying, "Haha, Senior Brother, I was just assuming, haha. Even ten Yi Ranxiaos couldn't beat one Senior Brother."

Zhang Qiang nodded in satisfaction and said, "Third brother, if I remember correctly, Xu An is your cousin, right?" Xu Chen nodded and said, "Yes, that's right. Xu An is not only my cousin, but also my childhood friend. We have a very good relationship. So, I want to ask my senior brother to avenge my brother! During the competition, let's give Yi Ranxiao a good humiliation!"

Zhang Qiang smiled slyly and said, "Even if you don't say anything, I will still humiliate Yi Ranxiao properly! This guy stole the incense offerings of our Vanguard Hall, how can I tolerate him?"

Just then, the voice of the second junior brother, Han Shuo, suddenly rang out, "Senior brother! I'm back!" Immediately afterward, a phantom flashed by, and a person appeared in front of Zhang Qiang!

Han Shuo was quite ugly; you can imagine an ugly face suddenly appearing in front of you—Zhang Qiang was genuinely startled, but he immediately asked, "So? Is that the person the headquarters wants to arrest?"

Han Shuo said somewhat dejectedly, "No...no..."

"Damn! Then why did you come back in such a hurry!?"