Ye Xingchen thought to himself that his small life might truly be in danger this time.
Did Rong Nianxue want to become a widow this badly? Although the relationship between the two of them was indeed not considered good, and could even be described as mutual aversion, the person before him was currently lying quietly on top of him, her long, curled eyelashes fluttering slightly.
It felt a bit strange, yet he did not seem to find it very repulsive.
Quietly, a suspicious shade of red gradually spread across his ears.
Rong Nianfeng was entirely unaware of the thoughts in his mind. Seeing Ye Xingchen swallow the pill, he scrambled up from his body in excitement. Once the youth’s coughing symptoms improved, he would understand exactly why this enhanced version of Banlangen medicinal granule was so excellent.
“Honest clean deals, truly.”
He spoke with absolute certainty.
The person pinned beneath him uttered a soft grunt, and there was no further response.
Rong Nianfeng was still somewhat unaccustomed to him being suddenly so gentle, assuming that the youth had simply given up on treatment.
The next task was to clean up the mess the two of them had created. Ye Xingchen, for some unknown reason, had a blank expression on his face, curling up on his rocking chair without moving an inch.
Rong Nianfeng did not take it to heart, placing the remaining pills back into the wooden box.
After taking count of the items, the smile in his eyes faded slightly. He remained silent for a long moment before speaking in a slow voice: “I have a piece of bad news to tell you.”
Ye Xingchen remained silent.
“You took the wrong medicine.”
That medicine seemed to be specially refined for the little ghosts of the Corpse Puppet Mountain.
Ye Xingchen was completely speechless.
He knew that she harbored no good intentions.
“You simply want to poison me to death so you can form a bond with someone else.”
Rong Nianfeng pursed his lips: “Was it not because you refused to take it no matter what?”
He continued to mumble under his breath: “Rest assured, it will not kill you. It is just an ordinary Qi-nourishing pill, except it has a bit of my blood added to it.”
Ye Xingchen said gloomily: “Who knows whether you truly want to poison me to death or not?”
Rong Nianfeng had nothing left to say to him. Ye Xingchen, returning to his usual lazy self, sprawled sluggishly on the rocking chair, unwilling to budge from his nest.
“Do you want to take another pill?”
“No.”
He rejected the offer with a flat face, determined not to consume that bizarre pill even if it killed him.
Rong Nianfeng loitered about, lingering around the Xueyue Pavilion for several days, pacing back and forth anxiously.
Ye Xingchen, whose sleep was severely disrupted, felt a dull ache in his temples. He turned over and swallowed the pill under Rong Nianfeng’s highly expectant gaze.
“God will bless you, amen,” Rong Nianfeng said with an earnest expression, before departing on his little dark cloud.
Although he could not comprehend the strange words coming from his mouth, the Xueyue Pavilion finally regained its original tranquility. Ye Xingchen let out a sigh of relief, tossed the storybook back onto his face, and continued his salted-fish lifestyle.
After a long while, he stood up with a dark expression, retrieved his sword from the room, and began to study the mental cultivation method.
Several days passed, and Song Xiuyuan recently discovered a highly miraculous occurrence: Ye Xingchen was actually rarely coughing anymore.
Holding a folding fan in his right hand, he propped up his head and remarked in amazement: “Chenchen, do you not feel that your complexion has improved significantly of late?”
Ye Xingchen opened his eyes dazedl, letting out a yawn: “Has it?”
“Yes, tremendously so,” Song Xiuyuan affirmed with an earnest face.
“Rong Nianxue somehow managed to find some strange pills from somewhere, claiming they could relieve coughing.”
It was not a figment of Song Xiuyuan’s imagination. Although his meridians remained the same as always, his spiritual roots had indeed improved quite a bit.
Upon hearing this, Song Xiuyuan immediately leaned forward, hooking an arm around his shoulder: “Why do you think she treats you so well?”
Ye Xingchen paused: “Perhaps it is for a better assassination attempt on me.”
Song Xiuyuan felt exasperated at his lack of awareness, pounding his own chest: “You blockhead, she likes you!”
Ye Xingchen acted as though he had heard a joke, lowering his head to rest once more.
“She even dealt with Liu Wen and his lackeys on your behalf, and she even searched for medicine for you. If this is not affection, then what is it?”
Song Xiuyuan’s words lingered in his mind for a long time. After pondering deeply for several days, he still could not reach a conclusion, so he returned to his salted-fish lifestyle.
Forget it, it was far more realistic to believe that it was for a better assassination attempt.
A period of six months flew by in the blink of an eye. Rong Nianfeng used his pills to bait every single little ghost in the Corpse Puppet Mountain.
Qiu Nian finally understood why others claimed that raising a disciple was a source of endless worry. It was one thing for Rong Nianfeng to bait a bunch of little ghosts, but he even took them to trade with other disciples of the Corpse Puppet Pavilion, earning a fortune in the process.
Left with no choice, Qiu Nian entered isolated cultivation one day, and upon emerging, he immediately packed the youth up and sent him to the Xuantian Hall.
Rong Nianfeng stood with a bewildered expression, still holding two little ghosts that had been raised to a sleek, glossy sheen in his hands.
Seeing him dressed in a black robe, the surrounding disciples raised their eyebrows: “We did not anticipate that the Corpse Puppet Pavilion would also be interested in the Jiuyou Secret Realm.”
The Jiuyou Secret Realm?
Was it not said that only the hundreds of disciples selected from each peak were qualified to go? He had only reached the Foundation Establishment stage last month, and furthermore, the Corpse Puppet Pavilion had not gone at all in the book, so he had not taken it to heart.
Moreover, he possessed no fondness for watching someone get crippled.
Although Ye Xingchen, as the protagonist, would recover his cultivation sooner or later, witnessing it with his own eyes was naturally different from merely hearing about it.
If this plotline was an absolute necessity, he would rather listen to the gossip brought back by the returning disciples.
Firstly, it was because he truly had no such preference and could not bear to look at bloody scenes. Secondly, he feared being accidentally injured in the Jiuyou Secret Realm, which might cost him his life.
Over the past six months, apart from occasionally sending medicine to Ye Xingchen and warning Liu Wen not to strike too harshly, he had not interfered excessively with the majority of the plot.
If he went to the Jiuyou Secret Realm, he might not be able to resist telling Ye Xingchen to avoid going, warning him that his entire cultivation would be destroyed there and his master’s meridians would be damaged from saving him. If that happened, how would the subsequent plot proceed?
In any case, it was better to avoid unnecessary trouble.
He had never expected that he would still end up coming here, having been thrown over directly by Qiu Nian.
“This is wonderful, you are also going to the Merfolk Ruins of Jiuyou.”
Rong Nianfeng followed the sound of the voice and saw Xie Jingzhi.
The Jiuyou Secret Realm opened once every two years, whereas the Merfolk Ruins located within Jiuyou opened only once every three hundred years. The place they were visiting this time was the Merfolk Ruins rather than the actual Jiuyou.
Because it opened only once every three hundred years, the opportunities within the ruins were naturally more abundant.
Apart from the Xuantian Sword Sect, disciples from other sects would also participate.
This formation was extremely intricate, requiring grandmasters of different spiritual roots to channel spiritual energy simultaneously to activate it.
Rong Nianfeng nodded: “Since it is the Jiuyou Merfolk Ruins, does that not mean you can visit your home along the way?”
As he spoke, he rummaged through his cosmos bag and pulled out a thick register: “Last time, you mentioned you were looking for your brother, so I noted down every single person with the surname Xie from Lingyun Peak for you.”
Xie Jingzhi had not expected Rong Nianfeng to take the words he had spoken carelessly last time so seriously. His bright eyes darkened slightly, a strange expression flashing through them, before he curled his lips into a smile: “Thank you very much.”
“It is nothing, just a minor convenience.”
He thought to himself that if thanks were to be given, they should be given to Liu Wen instead.
In fact, it was also thanks to the little dark cloud. The little dark cloud had used up all its lightning strikes, causing it to lose quite a bit of weight, so he still needed to spend spirit stones to nourish it.
The disciples of each peak gathered before the entrance of the Jiuyou Secret Realm. Rong Nianfeng scanned the surroundings, accurately locating Ye Xingchen among the massive crowd of disciples from Lingyun Peak.
Despite the somewhat warm weather, the youth still wore a white snow cloak. His delicate face bore a sickly pallor, and the high-bound jade crown carried the unique pride exclusive to a youth.
Rong Nianfeng let out a sigh, and then let out another sigh.
The price of a phoenix rising from the ashes was incredibly heavy. The former favored son of heaven would have his entire cultivation scattered, becoming the laughingstock and target of humiliation for the masses. He would die once and then crawl his way out of purgatory, resembling the red equinox flowers of the Night Wangchuan River, blooming amidst withered bones and decaying flesh.
Ye Xingchen sensed his gaze, opened his mouth, and said soundlessly: “Do not look at me.”
Rong Nianfeng was left speechless. He should not have brought this upon himself.
The Elder’s voice, infused with majestic spiritual energy, clearly reached the ears of every disciple within the Xuantian Hall: “In the Merfolk Ruins, life and death are determined by fate, and each has their own opportunities. After entering the secret realm, all disciples must first seek out fellow cultivators of the same sect. Do not act alone under any circumstances.”
The Jiuyou Secret Realm opened.
On both sides of the narrow path stood cliffs that were thousands of meters high. Occasionally, the wind would sweep through, producing bursts of terrifying wailing sounds. The dim, dark clouds rolled violently, and the weak light stretched the shadows long, causing a sense of hesitation to rise in the hearts of the people.
The disciples of the Xuantian Sword Sect followed closely behind the Elders of their respective peaks. Rong Nianfeng turned his head, gazing straight at Ye Xingchen across the dense crowd of people, before vanishing ahead of the entrance to the secret realm.