However, now was not the time.
The faint fragrance of pear blossoms lingered at the tip of Chi Yan’s nose. It wasn’t overpowering, merely light and delicate, carrying a trace of coolness as though it had been steeped in melted snow. Somehow, it greatly eased the inexplicable heat burning through his body.
Chi Yan frowned slightly and bent down, moving closer in an attempt to find the source of the fragrance.
He wasn’t worried about waking Shi Qixue and being discovered.
Over the past few days, he had deliberately taken charge of Shi Qixue’s meals, secretly adding a colorless, odorless sleeping drug specially formulated for cultivators. The more spiritual energy the victim circulated, the worse the effects became. Chi Yan had increased the dosage little by little, and today, he had simply emptied an entire bottle into his food.
Shi Qixue shouldn’t wake up.
Through the gaps between the roof tiles, Wen Yao watched his brother sniffing around Shi Qixue like a cat that had discovered catnip and felt utterly hopeless.
Even though he didn’t want to praise their enemy, Shi Qixue really was extraordinarily beautiful. No matter how much Wen Yao hated him, he simply couldn’t bring himself to call him ugly.
But seeing his brother, wearing an utterly ordinary face because of his disguise, sniffing around a peerlessly handsome man…
How was that any different from a pervert?!
Could he just kill him already?!
Chi Yan had no idea what was going through Wen Yao’s mind.
His fingers moved from Shi Qixue’s waist and abdomen toward the side of his neck before suddenly stopping.
His eyes darkened instantly.
Shi Qixue’s entire body seemed to be steeped in the fragrance of pear blossoms, but the scent was strongest around his neck.
There was a small, slightly raised patch of soft flesh there, resembling a tender flower bud. It looked sensitive and fragile.
The restlessness he’d barely managed to suppress suddenly transformed into something else.
It was almost like an instinctive animal urge drawing him closer.
He unconsciously moved nearer.
His sharp teeth pressed against the tip of his tongue, the sudden sting of pain finally bringing him back to his senses.
He had just wanted to…
Bite Shi Qixue.
Disgust instantly filled Chi Yan’s eyes.
His sword blade stopped against the back of Shi Qixue’s neck.
Perhaps he should simply cut that piece of soft flesh out and see whether it still had any effect…
“Mmm…”
Shi Qixue turned over.
Through half-lidded eyes, he vaguely saw a figure standing beside his bed.
Terrified, he shot upright.
He touched his strangely cool neck, his lips parting slightly. Before he could ask anything, Chi Yan spoke in an unhurried voice.
“Someone broke into the forbidden grounds tonight and disturbed a magical beast, causing a disturbance. This disciple was worried about Master’s safety and came here to protect you. I was afraid of disturbing your pleasant dreams.”
As he spoke, the thunderous roar of a dragon could be heard from outside.
“Who dares trespass in the forbidden grounds?!”
“There’s a fire in the forbidden grounds!”
“Quick! Go summon the Sect Masters!”
The forbidden grounds.
It had to be extremely dangerous.
Shi Qixue’s body trembled slightly with fear. He could only pray that no one would come looking for this rookie cultivator—him.
“Master has been working tirelessly day and night. This disciple will go investigate.”
As he spoke, Chi Yan flipped his palm, and another blanket appeared.
It was made of white feathers.
“The jade bed is hard, and you must be uncomfortable tossing and turning on it. The weather is getting colder as well, so I prepared this white-feather blanket especially for you. I hope Master stays healthy.”
The bed really was hard and uncomfortable.
Shi Qixue had endured it for a long time.
Chi Yan truly was meticulous. He handled everything with perfect order and even remembered to keep watch over him while he slept.
He really was the kind of disciple who noticed everything that needed to be done.
And he genuinely cared about his master.
“You’re such a good disciple.”
Shi Qixue sincerely praised him before hugging the feather-light blanket and falling straight back asleep.
Chi Yan left Qingyue Hall.
His ordinary features looked calm and gentle as he walked through the surrounding crowd of disciples hurrying toward the forbidden grounds.
He passed a young man in blue robes with an innocent-looking face.
Their shoulders brushed.
A voice immediately sounded inside his mind.
“Did the Sect Master expose himself?”
It was Wen Yao.
The moment he realized Shi Qixue had awakened, he had panicked and rushed toward the forbidden grounds, deliberately stomping around and causing a commotion. He had even started a fire and shouted loudly enough to wake everyone up.
Wen Yao had been picked up and adopted by Chi Yan’s parents when he was young. The two of them were as close as biological brothers.
But after entering the Demon Cult, he could no longer address Chi Yan that way.
The people of the Demon Cult were all suspicious and calculating. As a weakling, Wen Yao absolutely could not become a weakness that others could use against his brother.
So for fifteen years, he had pretended they were strangers.
Now, he could only address Chi Yan as “Sect Master.”
“Shi Qixue is extremely calculating and ruthless. Could he have already started suspecting you, Sect Master…?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Wen Yao was slightly stunned by the certainty in his brother’s voice.
Why?
Chi Yan let out a cold laugh.
Because the Sect Master of Chaoyang Sect was nothing more than an idiot.
For the past three days, he had stayed by Shi Qixue’s side every day, deliberately probing his cultivation level.
His cultivation really was as unfathomable as the rumors claimed.
Yet normally, not the slightest trace of spiritual energy leaked from him.
He hadn’t even noticed Chi Yan drugging him so blatantly.
Every day, Shi Qixue did nothing but eat and sleep like a pig.
At first, Chi Yan had thought being accepted as Shi Qixue’s disciple would mark the beginning of his exposure.
Who could have imagined it would instead mark the beginning of his career as a cook?
If Shi Qixue really was pretending to be weak while secretly possessing immense power, just as those crazed Chaoyang Sect disciples desperately tried to rationalize on his behalf, then Chi Yan would have to be much more cautious with every move he made.
But that probably wasn’t the case.
Chi Yan lowered his eyes.
What appeared in his mind was the phantom spirit perched on Shi Qixue’s shoulder.
A nearly transparent rabbit.
Chi Yan had been born different from ordinary people.
He could see everyone’s phantom spirit.
A phantom spirit was essentially a tiny manifestation of a person’s true nature. It could reveal the deepest good and evil hidden within someone’s heart.
The more someone hated him, the darker their phantom spirit would become.
But Shi Qixue’s phantom spirit was nothing more than a rabbit.
A timid, transparent rabbit that knew nothing but eating, drinking, and sleeping.
And it harbored no malice toward him.
During cultivation theory lessons, he slept.
During formation lessons, he stared blankly into space.
During swordsmanship lessons, he ran away clutching his head.
But when it came to eating, he excelled.
He ate so much that even the rabbit had grown noticeably rounder.
Chi Yan was certain.
Shi Qixue had probably done so many wicked things in his life that his accumulated karmic retribution had reduced him to nothing more than a useless cultivator with an impressive appearance.
Wen Yao had already walked some distance away. He couldn’t see Chi Yan’s expression.
When he received no answer for a while, he didn’t press the matter. Instead, he brought up another important issue.
“A message came back from the cult. They still haven’t found anyone who broke into your sleeping quarters.”
“Could it be that your… mind is… seeing things?”
Wen Yao didn’t dare say that his brother had something wrong with his brain.
Who in their right mind would dare sneak into the place where his brother lived?
And why would anyone do it while his illness was acting up?!
When Chi Yan was sixteen, he suddenly developed a strange illness.
For five days every month, he would be unbearably hot and irritable, completely losing his reason and becoming like a crazed beast.
He traveled through mountains and rivers, seeking out famous physicians everywhere, but none of them could identify the problem.
Just as he was about to give up and return home, an old man with snow-white hair suddenly appeared.
The old man was dressed like a beggar.
“This is caused by an excess of Yang energy. You just need to balance Yin and Yang and release some of that excess Yang essence.”
The old man looked him up and down.
“You’re still a virgin, aren’t you, young man? There’s a brothel nearby where we could—”
Chi Yan’s face instantly turned black.
If he had to go to a brothel and find some random person to cure his illness, he would rather die.
As it turned out, the old man was quite the veteran when it came to brothels.
No one knew who the old man really was, but he was somehow able to suppress Chi Yan completely.
After just a few exchanges, Chi Yan was thoroughly beaten into submission.
He was tied up like a dumpling and forced to listen helplessly to the old man’s ridiculous ramblings.
Who would have thought that encounter would actually be a stroke of fortune?
The old man gave him a ten-thousand-year-old Icebind Cord.
Only when combined with the Demon Cult’s thousand-year-old Cold Spring could it suppress his strange condition.
Before leaving, the old man even left a pear-blossom-shaped mark on Chi Yan’s wrist.
He claimed that one day, someone destined to be his… something-or-other would come and take his virginity.
Chi Yan had almost fought him again on the spot.
He would never have a Dao companion.
Not in this lifetime.