Qing Miao had never expected so much. Hearing Song Lianzhou point it out, he suddenly reacted and couldn’t help getting goosebumps all over: “He was faking it? He deliberately let us go?? Is he a smiling tiger??”
“I don’t know what the village chief really has in mind, but in any case, we must remain highly vigilant,” Song Lianzhou said, the smile fading from his face. “Let’s wait and see how things develop.”
As they spoke, the two of them had already walked to the exterior of the house. A single candle was still burning inside, casting a dim, faint candlelight through the crack in the door.
Song Lianzhou pushed the door open and saw Ye Xisheng resting his head in his hand, sitting by the table where the candle was burning.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, Ye Xisheng quickly turned his head. The moment his gaze met Song Lianzhou, it immediately turned aggrieved, his ending tone drawn out long: “Oh, you’re finally back?”
“A-Sheng, you haven’t gone to sleep yet.” Song Lianzhou smiled, placed the oil lamp aside, and walked into the room.
“Senior Brother, you haven’t come back yet, how could I possibly sleep in peace?” Ye Xisheng stood up, failing to notice Song Lianzhou’s increasingly furrowed brows behind him.
Song Lianzhou’s footsteps gradually grew weak and unsteady. His body swayed, and suddenly he uncontrollably pitched forward!
“Senior Brother, watch out!” Ye Xisheng stepped forward in a few strides and caught him by the waist.
Half of Song Lianzhou’s body fell into his arms, his eyes tightly closed, his face completely devoid of blood and as white as snow. Ye Xisheng suddenly realized something was wrong and pulled his entire body firmly into his arms: “Senior Brother? What’s wrong with you?!”
Still in a daze, Song Lianzhou stubbornly persisted in answering: “N-nothing…”
Not believing it, Ye Xisheng turned his head and asked Qing Miao, “What is going on here?”
In a panic, Qing Miao scrambled clumsily forward to check on Song Lianzhou’s condition: “I don’t know either! Weren’t they all fine just a moment ago.” As his voice trailed off, a thought suddenly struck Qing Miao, and upon realizing it, he practically wanted to slap himself across the face.
With injuries as severe as those, how could he possibly have recovered just like that? The way he had pretended to be fine earlier was probably nothing more than putting up a tough front!
Indeed, Song Lianzhou was merely putting up a tough front.
Being in an unfamiliar environment, he could not easily expose his weaknesses. Therefore, when facing the village chief, he had intentionally concealed his wounds and purposely claimed that none of them were injured.
While the wound on his side continued to throb with dull pain, Song Lianzhou had had to put on a nonchalant facade to converse with the village chief, leave the forbidden area in his company, and maintain absolute composure without showing a single flaw. This undoubtedly consumed an immense amount of energy.
Thus, upon returning to the room, the moment his tense nerves relaxed, exhaustion instantly rushed over him like a tidal wave, causing Song Lianzhou to collapse from sheer depletion of strength.
Especially the instant he opened the door and saw Ye Xisheng’s back, he felt an immense sense of peace.
Is this what it feels like to have someone waiting for you to return?
It is truly wonderful, having the warm candlelight and a warm embrace.
This comforting feeling allowed him to surrender himself entirely to the encroaching wave of exhaustion and let himself fall, knowing for certain that someone would be there to catch him.
Unable to help himself, Song Lianzhou nuzzled against the collar of Ye Xisheng’s garments and mumbled in a daze, “I really am fine. I’m just a bit tired, I’ll be fine after a sleep.”
“The village chief escorted us back just now, and Senior Brother has been putting up a tough front all along without letting on. Perhaps he really is exhausted now,” he heard Qing Miao’s muffled voice sounding by his ear.
Ye Xisheng seemed to acknowledge this with a murmur, and then scooped him up entirely in his arms, carried him into the bedroom, and gently laid him down on the bed.
Despite taking such careful precautions, Ye Xisheng’s wrist accidentally brushed against the wound on Song Lianzhou’s side, eliciting a soft hiss of pain.
Sensing that Ye Xisheng had completely frozen in place, Song Lianzhou forced his eyes open just a crack and patted the back of his hand soothingly: “It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s okay now.”
Ye Xisheng’s gaze drifted downward. Previously, all his attention had been fixed on Song Lianzhou’s face, but now he noticed a patch out of place on his waist, as if a strip of cloth had been patched over it.
Leaning in closer for a careful look, he caught the scent of blood.
With bloodstains invisible against the black night-attire, Ye Xisheng gently touched the fabric at that spot, feeling the rough and stiff texture where the material had been soaked in blood and then air-dried.
Ye Xisheng’s hands were trembling: Judging solely by the area of the congealed blood clots, he could easily imagine just how horrifyingly shocking Song Lianzhou’s injury must be.
In a deep voice, he asked, “What is the meaning of this injury?”
“Inside the forbidden area, Senior Brother sustained the injury to protect me…”
Drowsy as he was, the moment the word “forbidden area” reached his ears, Song Lianzhou snapped upright from the bed: “The forbidden area! That’s right, I haven’t told you yet what we saw inside.”
“You need to rest first, we can talk about it tomorrow,” Ye Xisheng pushed him back down. “Tomorrow you can talk for as long as you want.”
“Oh.” Reassured, Song Lianzhou let his head drop with a soft thud onto the pillow and fell soundly asleep, his dark hair scattered casually across the snowy white pillow.
Lowering his gaze, Ye Xisheng stared at Song Lianzhou’s sleeping profile.
After a long pause, he softly asked, “Senior Brother Qing Miao, could you explain in detail how Senior Brother was injured?”
Song Lianzhou’s sleep was far from peaceful throughout the night. His mind bounced repeatedly between waking up due to pain and sinking back into exhaustion due to fatigue, frequently waking up for no reason only to drift off into a heavy slumber once again.
It wasn’t until he felt a warm energy enveloping him, easing the pain at his side, that he could finally sleep peacefully without a single burden.
The next morning, he was coaxed awake by a wave of fragrant aromas.
Bright sunlight poured in through the window, casting dappled spots of light across the floor. Rubbing his eyes, Song Lianzhou turned his head and saw a neat set of clean clothes, a roll of bandages, and a jar of ointment laid out orderly beside the bed.
Not far away, a kettle of boiled water sat quietly in place, wisps of white steam curling from its spout.
Enveloped by a sense of absolute tranquility, Song Lianzhou couldn’t help smiling before getting up to wash up. He carefully tended to his wound and re-wrapped it with two fresh layers of bandages.
When he dressed and opened the door, three people outside stopped what they were doing in unison and looked over.
Looking bright-eyed and refreshed, Song Lianzhou greeted them, “Good morning.”
“Waaah, Senior Brother!!” Fei Yi immediately let out an earth-shattering wail and charged straight at him like a cannonball.
“Hey!” Qing Miao’s voice chased after from behind. “Watch yourself, Senior Brother is still injured, don’t crash into him.”
Executing an emergency brake right in front of Song Lianzhou, Fei Yi grabbed his clothes and looked him up and down: “How are you feeling right now, Senior Brother? When I heard you were injured this morning, I was worried to death.”
“I’m already a lot better.”
“Let’s eat first,” Ye Xisheng said, walking up to his side and guiding him over to the dining table. “Senior Brother slept all the way until just now, aren’t you hungry?”
So the aroma he had smelled upon waking up came from right here.
Realizing upon closer inspection that he actually was quite hungry, Song Lianzhou obediently took a seat, while the other three occupied their respective sides to encircle the entire table.
Taking a bite of food, Song Lianzhou suddenly remembered what happened yesterday: “That’s right, yesterday in the cave.”
“Qing Miao already told us everything about yesterday.” Indifferently, Ye Xisheng picked up a mouthful of vegetables and placed them into Song Lianzhou’s bowl.
Sensation told Song Lianzhou that Ye Xisheng wasn’t in a good mood, so he covertly glanced at him, once, then twice, while nibbling on the vegetables placed in his bowl.
The look nearly caused Ye Xisheng to lose control of the rising corners of his mouth; he hastily coughed lightly to change the subject: “However, Senior Brother Qing Miao also discovered something else.”
“Oh right,” Qing Miao said. “Yesterday at the Pure Lotus Pond, Senior Brother, did you notice the things on the wall?”
“The wall?” After carefully recalling, Song Lianzhou shook his head and asked, “What things?”
“Roots. The walls were covered entirely in the roots of those lotus flowers. I looked over them repeatedly, so I can’t be mistaken.”
Recalling the sight on the stone wall at that moment, Qing Miao lost his appetite entirely and simply set down his chopsticks: “The roots of those lotus flowers all grew upside down, crawling all the way up the cavern walls from beneath the water right to the very top. Unfortunately, the top of the cavern was too dark, so I couldn’t tell where those roots extended to.”
“Roughly estimating, it seemed like the roots of every single lotus flower were plastered densely across the wall. Pretty much the entire wall was covered, and in some spots, I saw multiple layers piled up,” Qing Miao described vividly. “Those roots were twisted and intertwined, constantly sprouting tiny branches just like a tangled mess of blood vessels.”
“Woah, stop, stop, stop, stop!” Fei Yi got goosebumps all over. “We’re eating here, why are you describing something so disgusting? Are people supposed to enjoy their meal or not?”
Unconvinced, Qing Miao retorted, “Weren’t I just trying to explain in detail so Senior Brother could understand better?”
Acting as a peacemaker caught in the middle, Song Lianzhou said, “What Fei Yi said is right, and what Qing Miao said is right too.”
“Still, I actually didn’t notice anything unusual on the surrounding stone walls. Junior Brother is truly observant,” Song Lianzhou praised.
Flattered by the praise in front of so many people, Qing Miao felt a mixture of shyness and modest pride, lifting his chin with a triumphant look: “Actually, it’s nothing much. It’s just that Senior Brother, your attention was entirely focused on dealing with the saintess at the time, which is why you didn’t notice.”
“Senior Brother, me, me, me, what about me!”
Still chewing away, Fei Yi couldn’t sit still any longer at those words and eagerly chimed in with muffled speech: “I made a new discovery too!”
Song Lianzhou said, “No rush, take your time. Finish eating before you speak.”
“Oh.” Swallowing the rice ball in her mouth in a hurry, Fei Yi said, “Senior Brother, didn’t you ask me to check those four locked rooms on my side? I found out that those houses are constantly being watched by someone in secret, so I could only slip into those empty rooms to investigate at night when no one was paying attention.”
“Oh~” Ye Xisheng suddenly chimed in.
Lazily tossing a lotus seed into his mouth, he spoke in a casual tone: “Looks like I was the only one idling around last night.”
Fei Yi: “?”
Now certain that Ye Xisheng’s mood was off today, Song Lianzhou gave a dry laugh and stuffed a chicken leg into Ye Xisheng’s mouth: “A-Sheng is just hungry. Junior Sister, continue.”
“Oh. Last night I searched just two of the rooms and found all sorts of living utensils completely stocked. There wasn’t much dust on the floors or tables either, making it look as though they had just been cleaned recently. Therefore, I deduce that someone had been living in these houses not long ago.”
“Not only that, I also found several bundles inside the rooms. The style of the clothes inside differed from what the women in the village usually wear, bearing a closer resemblance to the attire favored by ordinary women down the mountain. At the same time, those bundles also contained some cosmetics and golden hairpins.”
“In another room, I found several matched swords along with a few spiritual stones, plus some burnt paper talismans in the corner. From the looks of it, these rooms must be where those ‘guests’ who came up the mountain earlier used to live.”
“But where have they gone now? And why are these houses locked up?” Fei Yi furrowed her brow.
Song Lianzhou observed, “If that’s the case, it basically proves that those missing persons did indeed come to the village before, and there is a high probability they are currently somewhere unknown within the village.”
“Furthermore, I have my own deductions regarding the holy land. The pond beside the waterfall is enormous in size, and the path inside that cavern continues downward, meaning that after entering the cavern, we should have been operating directly underneath the pond. Since the root systems of the lotuses in the Pure Lotus Pond all grow upward, they must inevitably extend toward a single location, which is very likely this pond outside the waterfall.”
“Let’s go investigate it again in a little while,” Song Lianzhou tapped the table lightly, finalizing the upcoming itinerary.
Breakfast concluded swiftly. Refusing to let Song Lianzhou exert himself, the other three cleared away the bowls, washed them, and returned them to the Li family household, after which the group prepared to head out.
Before their departure, Song Lianzhou suddenly called out to Ye Xisheng: “A-Sheng, come here for a moment.”
Pausing in his tracks, Ye Xisheng pivoted halfway on the spot with one foot propped on the ground, lowered his head, and followed Song Lianzhou into the house.
Lifting his head slightly, he saw Song Lianzhou staring at him in silence.
Ye Xisheng: “…”
Oh no, Song Lianzhou couldn’t possibly be angry, could he?
Thinking carefully, had he gone a bit too far with his temper today? That’s right, Song Lianzhou was a universally revered genius and an immaculate, breezy grand senior brother of the sect; ordinarily, nobody would ever dare give him attitude. Oh, Ye Xisheng, oh Ye Xisheng, you truly forgot what your identity is right now…
Lost in anxious thoughts, Ye Xisheng suddenly heard the person before him call out: “A-Sheng? Ye Xisheng?”
meeting Song Lianzhou’s gaze with lingering apprehension, Ye Xisheng noticed the expressionless look on Song Lianzhou’s face and instinctively tightened his grip on his hemline.
Song Lianzhou asked, “A-Sheng, you.”
“Are you angry with me?”
Taken aback, Ye Xisheng asked, “What?”
Are you kidding me? How could he ever dare to be angry with him?
“Yet your mood has been off all day,” Song Lianzhou observed him. “I thought you were angry… angry that I didn’t take you with me yesterday?”
“I’m not angry.”
Deflated instantly, Ye Xisheng slumped and listlessly pulled a chair over to sit down: “While part of it is indeed due to that reason, I’m actually angry at myself.”
“I couldn’t help with anything and could only wait here for you to return,” a trace of grievances he hadn’t even noticed himself seeped into his voice. “I didn’t even find out about your injury right away.”
“Senior Brother, actually, if I had gone with you, perhaps you wouldn’t have been injured.”
“Alright now, I know you were actually just worried about me,” Song Lianzhou sat down beside him and rubbed his head soothingly. “Just as you worry about me, I worry about you too. I don’t want to see any of you get hurt.”
“In fact, I’m rather glad you didn’t go. That forbidden area is fraught with danger, you probably wouldn’t have been able to protect yourself, and I wouldn’t have been able to protect you either.”
Refusing to concede, Ye Xisheng defended himself: “Even though I’m only at the Foundation Establishment stage, I know plenty of esoteric arcane techniques. Senior Brother, you shouldn’t underestimate me; you might not even be able to beat me.”
Song Lianzhou chuckled: “Very well. At the cultivation world grand tournament two years from now, I’ll be waiting for you to challenge me.”