Xian Qinglin turned his gaze toward the sound, but saw nothing at all. He had no idea who this newcomer was, here to watch the show for entertainment, or…
“The man clearly said no, no, and yet you still shamelessly threw yourself on him.” Xu Yifan said. “If that’s not asking to get hit, what is.”
Ma Xiu saw only the wooden stick tilted toward the ground, slowly closing in on him. The voice rang out again.
“How do you not understand plain speech! So low and shameless, and drugging someone on top of it, you damn bastard.”
“Today I’m going to carry out justice on Heaven’s behalf.” [1]a phrase often used by vigilantes claiming moral authority to punish wrongdoers jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3015877_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3015877_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
“You wouldn’t dare,” Ma Xiu barked, turning to run to the table and grab his sword. He had no idea what kind of person this was, but being unable to touch or see his opponent was naturally terrifying.
Xianhao Sect didn’t allow disciples to harm their fellow disciples, and Ma Xiu already had a mark against him from before. He wasn’t the only one with his eye on Xian Qinglin either, so within the sect he’d never dared make a move. Today he’d finally gotten his chance, and fearing something might go wrong at the last moment, he’d set up heavy restrictive barriers outside the door. Yet this person had managed to slip into the room without him noticing at all, their cultivation clearly wasn’t something to underestimate.
“Do you know who I am?” He tried to scare the other party off by invoking his status.
“I’m the son of the Hall Master of the Spirit Beast Hall of Xianhao Sect. If you dare touch me, Xianhao Sect won’t let you off.”
“Ooh, so impressive!” the voice said.
Ma Xiu’s face turned ashen.
The man’s mouth claimed fear, but his tone carried none of it at all.
Xian Qinglin dug his nails viciously into his own arm, the pain giving his muddled mind a brief moment of clarity. He crawled aside to lean against a chair, breathing rapidly. He heard the person say, in a lazy tone,
“Hall Master of the Spirit Beast Hall? The way you talked big just now, I thought you were the son of Xianhao Sect’s Sect Master! Turns out you’re just some shit-shoveling official in charge of watching over livestock. You think I’d be scared of him? What a joke!”
Xu Yifan snorted and swung the wooden stick at Ma Xiu.
Ma Xiu, his face livid, drew his sharp sword, and the two instantly clashed together.
Ma Xiu was at early Foundation Establishment, and the sword in his hand was a third-grade magic tool, a third-grade magic tool would be more than enough to deal with a Golden Core cultivator. By all rights, Xu Yifan shouldn’t have been any match for him.
Yet the two of them fought to an even standstill.
The tables and chairs around them were pulverized to dust by the leaking spiritual energy. Xian Qinglin, being close by, hastily circulated spiritual energy to shield himself, but was still grazed by the residual energy of the sword, his dantian shuddered instantly and he spat out a mouthful of blood, dragging his weak, sore body further back.
Only the two disciples pinned in place by immobilization talismans suffered pitifully, their whole bodies sliced up by the stray sword energy from Ma Xiu’s blade.
Xu Yifan hadn’t taken a breath-suppressing pill, so Ma Xiu easily locked onto his position. Having just been humiliated by Xu Yifan, Ma Xiu now struck with vicious, lethal intent in every move, turning his attacks toward Xu Yifan’s vital points. After dozens of exchanged blows, when Ma Xiu swept his sword in a horizontal slash, Xu Yifan raised his stick to block, the wooden stick was instantly cut clean in two.
Ma Xiu let out a scoffing laugh.
In the cultivation world, cultivation level alone didn’t determine everything. If an opponent’s cultivation was low but their magic tool was good enough, they still couldn’t be provoked carelessly, because if pushed to fury, they could channel their entire body’s spiritual energy into controlling a high-grade magic tool and easily kill someone above their own level. Most people, however, generally wouldn’t go that far, since once spiritual energy was fully depleted, without an Origin-Restoring Pill or a Breath-Replenishing Pill, it would take ten days to half a month to recover, and during that time, one would be extremely vulnerable to enemies hunting them down or others killing them for their treasures.
They’d been fighting this long, and the other party still hadn’t used a single magic tool. Must be some poor bastard, not much to him after all.
Ma Xiu’s courage surged, and he redoubled his assault on Xu Yifan.
Xu Yifan clicked his tongue, tossed away the stick, and flashed to Xian Qinglin’s side, scooping him up under the man’s startled, terrified expression. “I’m done playing with you.” He tossed a talisman at Ma Xiu, then sped rapidly out of the courtyard.
“Put him down.” Ma Xiu raised his sword and gave chase, but Xu Yifan was far too fast, a hundred paces in a single stride, and vanished from the room in the blink of an eye.
Xian Qinglin’s body went rigid. Before he could even ask who this person was, he heard a deafening boom behind him, his ears ringing from the shock. Turning to look back, he saw the courtyard had already been blasted to dust, the foundation sunk dozens of meters down into a pitch-black crater. He stared, dumbfounded.
“This…”
“Shh, don’t talk, someone’s coming.” Xu Yifan said.
Xian Qinglin didn’t dare speak and immediately fell silent.
Given the commotion just now, Ma Xiu surely couldn’t have survived. Although Xian Qinglin hadn’t done the deed himself, if anyone found out he was connected to this incident, given the temperament of the Spirit Beast Hall Master, he probably wouldn’t survive either.
“Help… help me.” he finally said.
Xu Yifan was still in his concealed state. Xian Qinglin stared at a patch of empty air, the lust in his body still surging. The corners of his eyes were flushed a peach-pink, his eyes moist like an autumn morning mist, and he bit down hard on his lower lip, as if trying to resist the reckless desire rampaging through his body with sheer force of will.
Xu Yifan lowered his gaze, and it happened to meet Xian Qinglin’s own.
He said nothing, just stared at Xian Qinglin. Xian Qinglin’s face had always been like fine jade, his features exceptionally striking, already, by Xu Yifan’s standards, handsome to the point of being almost laughably unfair. And now, with this look of desire clinging to him, even his voice carried a bewitching quality, all the more maddeningly seductive, the kind of look that made blood rush straight to one’s head.
Why the hell did he have to be born this good-looking.
This man really had no sense of restraint.
Xu Yifan’s deep-set eyes gradually darkened into something faintly frightening, his prominent Adam’s apple bobbing once. Xian Qinglin, resting right against his chest, clearly heard the sound of him swallowing.
…
Even Xu Yifan himself felt a bit startled.
He’d once believed his heart was solid as stone, not easily swayed. After all, he’d lived free of desire for many years, in that place, there had only ever been him alone. When he’d first come out of there, there had indeed been a period where even a sow looked delicate and fair-featured to him, nearly rivaling Diaochan [2]one of the legendary Four Beauties of ancient China, a byword for extraordinary female beauty jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3015877_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3015877_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); in his eyes. But after seeing more people over time, he’d gradually stopped caring much either way.
Yet now, in front of someone he’d only just met, his composure had been thrown into disarray.
This person was gorgeous to death, really his type.
Knowing full well the other man couldn’t see him, Xu Yifan still awkwardly looked away.
“Where do you live? I’ll take you back.”
Xian Qinglin shook his head, his tone strained with restraint. “…Can’t go back.”
He was an outer disciple, brought along this time purely to run errands for the elders and inner disciples, to put it plainly, he was just hired help doing odd jobs. All the outer disciples were crammed into one courtyard together, in his current state, the moment he went back, everything would be exposed.
“No need to be afraid,” Xu Yifan set him down and pulled a pill from his pocket, handing it to him. “Take this and you’ll be fine. If you don’t go back all night, it’ll only raise suspicion.”
Xian Qinglin thought it over, he didn’t seem to have any other choice at the moment. He took the pill and swallowed it. The moment it went down, he felt the reckless desire rampaging through his body dissipate instantly, strength returning to his weak, aching limbs, and the spiritual energy in his dantian seemed noticeably more abundant than usual.
Pill masters were rare on low-grade continents. The most skilled ones on the Southern Abyss continent were only fourth-grade pill masters, and there were only two of them, one at Xianhao Sect, one at Xianling Sect.
He had once spent years of savings to buy a second-grade pill within the sect, and that pill, once swallowed, hadn’t had nearly this dramatic an effect.
He was somewhat stunned, thinking he now owed this person a great debt.
Xian Qinglin’s mouth moved, about to say, tell me your name, I’ll sell everything down to the pot and pan to get you spirit stones when I get back, when he heard the man say, “That was a third-grade antidote/detox pill. It sells for a fortune out there, tens of thousands of spirit stones.”
Xian Qinglin: “…”
Even ten of his lives wouldn’t be worth that price.
“I never do business at a loss.” Xu Yifan added.
The flush that had just faded from Xian Qinglin’s face rushed back. “I, I don’t have any spirit stones.”
Xu Yifan changed the subject. “Where do you live?”
Xian Qinglin blinked, then raised his hand to point.
Xu Yifan swallowed again.
He hadn’t noticed it before, this person’s face wasn’t the only good-looking thing about him, even his fingers were slender and beautiful.
This, this…
He wasn’t going to be able to hold himself together!
He scooped the man up, and Xian Qinglin only felt a moment of disorientation before finding himself back in his room. He was set down on the bed, and the person seemed to lean in very close, warm breath spilling over his face with every exhale. He heard the man say, mischievously,
“You’re really good-looking.”
Xian Qinglin’s heart clenched, and he instinctively gripped the bedsheet beneath him.
“Give me a kiss, and we’ll call it even.” Just as Xian Qinglin was still frozen in stunned surprise, Xu Yifan puckered up and planted a kiss on his face.
What a shameless flirt.
Xian Qinglin reached out to hit him, but instead heard the man make a string of spitting noises.
“Damn it, that’s disgusting as hell, tastes like someone’s spit.”
Xian Qinglin: “…”
He remembered then—Ma Xiu had licked his face earlier, and the exact spot happened to be where this man had just kissed him.
Xian Qinglin instantly felt torn between laughing and crying.
“…Serves you right.” he said.
The room fell silent, and no one answered him again.
…
Xu Yifan carried the demonic plant back home, gripping one end of it and swinging it wildly through the air.
“Waah… Boss, Boss, spare me!”
“Enjoyed the show, did you?” Xu Yifan asked coldly, not stopping his hand.
The demonic plant had no idea what it had done wrong, but begged for mercy on pure instinct. “I was wrong, I was wrong.”
“Wrong how?”
“I shouldn’t have snuck into people’s wine jars, wuuuu…”
The demonic plant sobbed. As dusk had approached, it had been planning to head back, but partway there it had suddenly caught a very fragrant scent and, unable to help itself, had gone to trace the smell. While those people weren’t paying attention, it had slipped straight into a wine jar in a flash, only to end up getting drunk and falling asleep.
If Xu Yifan hadn’t blown things up with that talisman, it probably wouldn’t have woken up for a good three days.
“Wuuuu, Boss, Boss, please stop swinging me, I, I have injuries.”
“That’s what you get.” Xu Yifan showed not a hint of softening.
The demonic plant looked at him in disbelief. “Boss, you nearly blew me up, and yet you’re saying this kind of thing, have you no conscience at all? Wuuuu, I knew it, I’m just a little grass that nobody loves and nobody cares for, I don’t want to live, I don’t want to live anymore.”
Xu Yifan: “…”
References[+]