Chapter Eighty-Six: The Hardest Kindness to Repay Is a Beauty’s Favor

People often say that it is hard to go from luxury back to thrift, yet they do not know that the journey from thrift to luxury is an even greater test of the human heart.

There are far too many in this world who grow rich and forget their roots.

Take, for example, the previous life of Luo Changning on the Dragon Earth Continent. Yu, the lawful wife of Li Dan, prince of the Li dynasty, could endure ten years of exile in a bitter, frozen land with her husband, without a single complaint, devoting herself wholly to caring for the man who had fallen from power.

She weathered those years of hardship, endured ridicule and poverty alike, and for a full decade the husband and wife shared suffering and upheld one another. At last, the Empress Dowager brought Li Dan back from exile and restored him to the throne.

Yet at that point, Yu, having once more tasted wealth and rank, turned wickedly treacherous and murdered her husband for her own advantage.

How hateful, and how tragic!

People like to say that husband and wife are birds from the same forest, flying separately when calamity strikes. But they do not know that sometimes sharing prosperity is even rarer than sharing hardship.

It is like the common folk in the marketplaces: they do not fear lack, but unfairness. If there is no money, so be it; then let everyone be poor together. But if you are richer than I am, then you become an object of resentment and slander.

And what could those driven-off beggars and orphans do?

What little gleam they once had, that stubborn spirit, had already been utterly erased, leaving them with nothing at all. And by then, no one was willing to feed and shelter them with good food and fine drink.

Could a beggar child, after growing used to fine days, truly be content to return to begging and laboring as a drudge? I feared that in the end they would only fall onto the road of no return, climbing the mountain lair of thieves.

In short, under Chen Lin's strict supervision, Luo Changning's first step toward dominating the world finally unfolded in orderly fashion.

During this time, Ma Qingyun had not been idle either. The true master of the Su family courtyard had already left, and so he acted with ever greater boldness. The Su family courtyard was directly turned into the place where he met with the subordinates hidden in the shadows.

But in truth, Luo Changning had tacitly permitted this matter. After all, he had long guessed that Ma Qingyun must have forces of his own behind him.

They were of the same kind of people, both burdened with a blood feud, and naturally neither would stand in the way of the other's growth.

Of course, Ma Qingyun also understood why Chen Lin was doing what he was doing: nothing more than to develop those beggars into Luo Changning's power.

Though Luo Changning now had almost nothing and no capital whatsoever to contend with his enemies.

Still, Ma Qingyun gave not the slightest thought to the beggars in that residence. To someone of his noble birth, those beggars who lived by begging and hard labor were nothing but lowly ants, not even worthy of being his dogs.

At this moment, there was one principle he could never have understood. The things the world despises today may one day rise to heights beyond their reach. So long as one is willing to strive and struggle, one can become a person above others.

Meanwhile, Xiang Yinglong also intensified his own training, practicing martial arts day and night, all so that he might go out on training journeys as soon as possible and head to the southern Miao region to find Luo Changning.

Otherwise, he truly feared he would fail to keep pace with the growth and strength of his old brother. Xiang Yinglong knew that once the gap between people widened, certain things would change along with it.

He dared not gamble on that. It was not that he doubted the brotherhood between himself and Luo Changning; rather, he feared that one day he would no longer be worthy of standing shoulder to shoulder with him, unable to ascend the summit together.

Though Xiang Yinglong usually gave the impression of being carefree, simpleminded, and foolishly honest, in truth his heart was clearer than most.

He had long understood that Luo Changning's sudden devotion to martial arts must have some hidden reason. Ever since Luo Changning began training, his gaze had become far more murderous than before. Though still pure and upright, it carried a fierce edge.

Thus Xiang Yinglong knew that his brother had taken up martial arts for something very important to him, something that must be quite difficult and would require a formidable level of mastery to accomplish.

He was also keenly aware of his own abilities and knew that the help he could offer Luo Changning was limited.

If he wanted enough strength to fight alongside Luo Changning and solve problems together, then he would have to train with all his might.

Unlike his father, Xiang Ao, he had never lived in a Buddhist temple and had no deep attachment to the Buddhist faith. Naturally, he would not be as stubborn and inflexible as his father, who learned only the martial arts of the Buddhist school and refused all others.

As a result, after all these years, he still remained at the Postnatal Realm, kept down by the people of the Sacred Hands Martial Hall and forced to act with caution.

Just as when they had been in Blackwater County before, they could only seek the help of other lay disciples of the Buddhist schools to contend with Gao Ba.

Xiang Yinglong did not want to live like that forever. If he wished to uphold justice, help the weak, and roam the jianghu with honor, then he could only make himself stronger and bring his enemies down with his own fists.

Far away in the southern Miao region, Luo Changning did not know that in Qingyang County there was someone making himself stronger for his sake, nor that there was someone else devoting himself wholeheartedly to the tasks Luo Changning had entrusted to him, regarding Luo Changning as the one he would look up to all his life, willing even to spill his blood and sacrifice his very bones without regret.

Luo Changning himself was busy basking in a beauty's favor, while trying to shake off the little cousin who always trailed after his heels, Luo Qingshi.

Back then, Luo Changning had thought his special fondness for Ma Xue'e came from his longing for a younger sister. But when he truly found himself being pestered by a blood-related little cousin, he only found it utterly tiresome and wanted nothing more than to escape her clinginess.

Sisters could go to hell for all he cared!

He only needed Ma Xue'e as a sister. As for any other cousins, whether paternal or maternal, they could all get lost and stop bothering him!

As for why Luo Qingshi kept clinging to Luo Changning, in the little girl's own words: how could there be such a handsome big brother in this world? Big brother, will you marry me?

Luo Qingshi was a full year younger than Luo Changning. From childhood she had been pampered and spoiled in the palm of every hand, given whatever she wanted, never lacking for anything.

On the surface she seemed like a simple and lovely girl, but in truth she was not only outrageously indulged, she also adored beauty.

Anything beautiful, she wanted to claim for herself, including people.

By rights, an eleven-year-old girl ought not to understand beauty in such a way, yet Luo Qingshi somehow knew it all too well, and her greed was plain.

That greed was not physical, but psychological.

Thus, the moment she first saw Luo Changning, she silently resolved: this beautiful big brother could only be hers, and no one would ever be allowed to take him away.

Whether the big brother was willing to marry her was not something Luo Qingshi intended to worry about. In any case, he had to marry her, whether he wished to or not.