Even without turning around, Jiang Youbai knew who it was. He glanced at the feather on the ground and said with displeasure, “It can still be used. What a waste.”
The moment his words fell, the feather by his foot was instantly frozen by solid ice, and then it shattered and vanished, ceasing to exist.
Jiang Youbai: “?”
“Why are you here?”
Shen Changchuan released Jiang Youbai’s hand and glanced at the person on the ground. “Chasing him.”
Jiang Youbai asked, “What kind of person is he?”
Shen Changchuan said calmly, “The Fiend race.”
Jiang Youbai raised an eyebrow and re-examined the person on the ground. He walked back toward the figure, squatted down, and reached out to search the body.
Shen Changchuan stated, “He is neither Xie Qingli nor a clone.”
Jiang Youbai withdrew his hand with considerable regret. “What a pity. But why did he turn into your appearance?”
Shen Changchuan looked at him, implying something with his words. “He came for you.”
Jiang Youbai looked back at him, perplexed. “Came for me? Why did it feel like he came for you?”
Shen Changchuan asked, “How so?”
Jiang Youbai unclipped the jade token from his waist and shook it in front of Shen Changchuan. “To be precise, he came for this. Now everyone knows you gave the jade token to me, and everyone has their eyes set on me, wanting to get their hands on your weakness. You tell me how miserable I am! If I had known that being your disciple meant blocking knives for you, I would rather have just hurt to death.”
Seeing Jiang Youbai’s smiling and bantering demeanor, completely lacking any seriousness, Shen Changchuan knew the other was just joking. “With me here, I will not let anything happen to you.”
Jiang Youbai did not take Shen Changchuan’s words to heart, only mocking, “It is just a pity those fools cannot fathom how the dignified Immortal Alliance Leader, smart as he is, would openly place his weakness in such an obvious and easily manipulated place.”
Shen Changchuan looked at him again. “You are not easily manipulated.”
Jiang Youbai chuckled. “Should I consider that a compliment?”
Shen Changchuan did not answer, and Jiang Youbai was already used to it. He walked over to the bedside and sat down, recounting the matter of the lop-eared rabbit to Shen Changchuan, and asked, “Who do you think is behind this?”
Shen Changchuan walked up to him, raised a hand, and wiped the trace of blood from Jiang Youbai’s cheek with his fingertip. The smear of blood only spread across the other’s fair skin, looking as though it added a touch of rouge. “Hard to say.”
Jiang Youbai smiled. “Since Master is so smart, how could it be hard to say? Is it that you do not wish to gossip about people behind their backs?”
Shen Changchuan picked up a cloth handkerchief from nearby, dampened it, and proceeded to wipe away the remaining bloodstains on Jiang Youbai’s face. “Without evidence, do not guess blindly.”
Following Shen Changchuan’s motions, Jiang Youbai turned his face against the handkerchief, cleaning his entire face. “I call this reasonable suspicion.”
Shen Changchuan wrung the handkerchief dry and hung it back up. “Wait until the lop-eared rabbit wakes up.”
Jiang Youbai sprawled directly onto the bed, his tone steeped in lazy exhaustion. “I am sleepy and do not want to move. You go watch that little rabbit.”
In this entire world, Jiang Youbai was probably the only person who could order Shen Changchuan around with such a dismissal.
“Mn.” Shen Changchuan acknowledged. As he pulled the door open, he found a crowd of people standing outside. At the forefront was Aoqing Sect Master Sheng Xu, followed closely by Tang Ci and Jiuyuan, along with other disciples.
Upon seeing Shen Changchuan, the group froze in unison before hurriedly offering their greetings. “Leader.”
“Master.”
Yet through the crack of the door, they had clearly caught sight of Jiang Youbai on the bed. That snow-white, glazed-vessel-like figure was half-reclined on the bed, his hands in the middle of adjusting his outer robe, which hung half-off his shoulders as though he had just put it on.
In reality, Jiang Youbai was just about to take it off, but in the eyes of the onlookers, it looked like something entirely different.
Sheng Xu hurriedly pulled the door shut while saying, “Disturbance, disturbance. You continue, continue.”
The door clicked shut. Jiang Youbai shook with laughter on the bed. “Leader, your sterling reputation has truly been ruined by me.”
Shen Changchuan glanced at him and said calmly, “Were you not sleepy?”
Jiang Youbai had already re-done his outer robe. “I am awake now. With a whole bunch of people outside, something must have happened. That Sheng Xu’s eyes lit up when he saw you like he had just found his savior.”
Shen Changchuan said nothing and pushed the door open once more. Sure enough, the group was still standing at the doorway, waiting for him to emerge.
Shen Changchuan asked, “What is the matter?”
Sheng Xu hurriedly spoke up. “Leader, the lop-eared rabbit ran out just now. We went to look for Young Friend Jiang, but he was not in his room, so we came out to search.”
Shen Changchuan cast a glance at him, the indifference in his glazed pupils appearing even denser. “That room is not Xiaobai’s dwelling. Why search there?”
Sheng Xu turned his head back to look. “It was.”
Tang Ci stepped forward and said, “This disciple saw the lop-eared rabbit run toward this direction, so I gave chase. I never expected Master to have arrived at the Aoqing Sect. Has Master seen that lop-eared rabbit?”
Shen Changchuan: “I have not.”
Sheng Xu quickly chimed in, “Then perhaps we saw wrong, saw wrong. Let us go search other places.”
Jiang Youbai stepped out from the room just then, poking half his body out from behind Shen Changchuan. “Saw wrong? Sect Master Sheng can be excused for being old and dim-sighted, but Eldest Senior Brother is sharp-eyed and clear-minded. Did he see wrong too?”
Sheng Xu: “…”
Tang Ci looked toward Jiang Youbai, but because Jiang Youbai was hiding behind Shen Changchuan, his gaze happened to lock directly with Shen Changchuan’s. He quickly lowered his eyes to withdraw his gaze. “Are you implying that the lop-eared rabbit deliberately lured us here?”
Jiang Youbai smiled. “It may not be the lop-eared rabbit. Perhaps it was the person behind the scenes? Since that person could drive ferocious beasts berserk, controlling a rabbit to do something must be quite effortless, right?”
Tang Ci frowned. “If the lop-eared rabbit goes missing, the lead is broken.”
Jiang Youbai stepped out and stated, “Who said the lead is broken? That little rabbit has a trace of my spiritual energy on it. I know where it is.”
Tang Ci looked at Jiang Youbai with a flash of joy on his face. “Xiaobai is truly brilliant.”
Jiang Youbai glanced at Tang Ci and smiled lightly. “What a pity. I originally wanted to lure the person out, but who knew they would not take the bait.”
Before the others could react, Sheng Xu caught sight of the corpse on the ground and widened his eyes in shock. “Whose, whose, whose body is this?”
Shen Changchuan did not even turn his head. “The Fiend race.”
Sheng Xu: “Oh. The Fiend race.”
“The Fiend race?!”
Shen Changchuan cast a mild look at Sheng Xu, unbothered by the other’s jittery reaction, and simply instructed, “Send someone to dispose of it.”
Sheng Xu realized he might have reacted a bit too intensely. “Understood.”
It was merely a member of the Fiend race, not as though he had never seen one before. What on earth had startled him so much?
Sheng Xu’s gaze shifted back to the corpse on the ground. Blood stained the earth, and the clothes on the body were stained beyond recognition, save for the bloody hole in the chest where blood continued to seep out.
Jiang Youbai watched Sheng Xu’s reaction with great interest. The smile on his lips did not fade; instead, it grew somewhat more sardonic, though outsiders could not parse his varied smiles and simply assumed he had a screw loose.
Especially the Aoqing Sect disciples; when speaking privately of Jiang Youbai, they would always add a line saying, “He certainly looks gorgeous, what a pity he is a madman.”
Jiang Youbai led the group toward the back mountain of the Aoqing Sect. Past the winding veranda lay a towering peak that pierced the clouds. The mountain peak appeared as though it had been cleaved down the middle by a single sword, with stone steps leading straight to the Ninth Heavens.
Jiang Youbai ascended the heavenly ladder first. Mist above obscured the path ahead, mysterious and surreal. Clad in white robes, Jiang Youbai’s silver hair swayed lightly with his steps, making him look like someone crossing a heavenly tribulation to ascend into immortality, every movement imbued with an arrogant detachment from the mortal world. The mist behind him momentarily gathered into auspicious clouds of condensed spiritual energy on the Ninth Heavens, making him look like a divine being worthy of kowtows from mortals.
For a moment, the commotion behind him ceased. Jiang Youbai looked back to see a crowd standing at the base of the mountain steps, gazing up at him. He suddenly smiled, resembling a seductive succubus hidden in the mountain mist, soul-stirring and captivating.
“Are you not going to follow?”
The crowd snapped back to their senses.
Demonic beasts can shake one’s Dao heart.
Yet just as everyone prepared to follow, they saw that cold-tempered Leader Immortal Venerable had already stepped to Jiang Youbai’s side, walking step by step up the stairs alongside the demonic beast. One was a Leader harboring divine bones, the other a demonic beast resembling a seductress, yet walking together, their silhouettes were exceptionally harmonious and stunning, like a pair of celestial beauties traversing the heavenly ladder toward the Ninth Heavens.
Amidst waves of envious gazes, Mu Jiyuan’s expression darkened. He stared deeply at Jiang Youbai’s retreating back before tugging at Tang Ci beside him. “Senior Brother, let us catch up quickly.”
Tang Ci snapped out of it as well, nodded, and hurried to follow.
Seeing the two move, the other disciples scrambled after them.
Jiang Youbai had already walked up and asked, “What place is this?”
Shen Changchuan replied, “The forbidden grounds of the Aoqing Sect.”
Jiang Youbai smiled. “Is it really wise for us to barge into someone else’s forbidden grounds like this?”
Shen Changchuan gave him an ambiguous look.
As the two conversed, the disciples behind heard them clearly and stared at Jiang Youbai in disbelief.
You have already climbed all the way up, and only now you ask this? Isn’t that a bit late?
Jiang Youbai smiled again, but halfway up the mountain, he veered off into the depths of the forest.
Someone asked in confusion, “Are we not going up?”
Jiang Youbai held up a single finger and shook it. “The spiritual energy on the little rabbit leads this way. It did not go up.”
“Oh.”
Still, Jiang Youbai glanced upward, leaned close to Shen Changchuan, and asked in a low voice, “What is up there?”
Shen Changchuan answered, “An almighty ancestor of the Aoqing Sect is in seclusion there.”
Jiang Youbai raised an eyebrow. “An almighty ancestor? How almighty?”
Shen Changchuan glanced at him, the distance between them growing closer until they were almost touching. “The Soul Transformation stage. If he successfully emerges from seclusion, he should be ready to ascend.”
Jiang Youbai feigned shock. “So powerful? Shen Changchuan, what about you? What is your cultivation level now?”
Shen Changchuan: “Soul Transformation stage.”
Jiang Youbai paused. When Shen Changchuan went into seclusion in his past life, could it have been to prepare for ascension? Then why did he not go into seclusion in this lifetime? Could it be that some events happened earlier, yet Shen Changchuan’s cultivation or seclusion timing was fixed?
He gave the other a strange look and teased, “Then why do you not go into seclusion?”
Shen Changchuan replied, “I do not need to.”
Jiang Youbai: “…”
Jiang Youbai: “Shen Changchuan, as a disciple of the immortal sects and the Leader of the Immortal Alliance, should you not be courteous, modest, and gentle? Why are you so arrogant?”
While they spoke, they reached a dead end, their path blocked by a massive boulder of a mountain peak.
“There is no path left.”
“And we did not see the lop-eared rabbit either. Did we get it wrong?”
“Jiang Youbai is a demonic beast after all. Who knows if he secretly let that lop-eared rabbit go? Why would he help us find a beast? Is there actually anyone who believes his words?”
The expressions of the following disciples turned a mixture of blue and red.
Jiang Youbai chuckled softly. “Then why did you follow along?”
“I.”
The surrounding disciples immediately chimed in to refute, “That is right! You are so smart, why did you follow?”
That person was rendered speechless.
Tang Ci spoke up to ease the atmosphere. “Xiaobai, how should we proceed from here?”
Before Jiang Youbai could speak, a flash of pale golden light flickered past his side. A projection of a jade token stamped itself against the giant boulder blocking their way, and the next second, it exploded with a deafening crash.
Everyone instinctively stepped back, unleashing their spiritual energy to defend themselves. Only Jiang Youbai was shielded completely by Shen Changchuan standing in front of him, untouched by any spiritual force or flying debris.
As the dust and smoke cleared, a massive cavern had been blown open in the boulder, revealing a passage hidden inside!
This time, Shen Changchuan took the lead, with Jiang Youbai following closely behind, and the rest trailing cautiously in their wake.
The interior of the cavern was exceptionally cold and dim. Only a few oil lamps mounted on the walls illuminated the passage, though visibility remained severely restricted.
Jiang Youbai pressed his lips together and reached out to grab the hem of the person’s robes in front of him.
Shen Changchuan paused slightly, his pace unbroken as he continued forward, allowing Jiang Youbai to tug at him.
“Did I just hear a strange sound?”
“Me too. What on earth is inside?”
The voices of the speakers echoed in the narrow passage, accompanied by muffled whimpering sounds that filled everyone with unease.
The further inside they went, the clearer the sounds became.
“It sounds like crying.”
“And screams. They sound so pitiful.”
Jiang Youbai’s gaze darkened. As if realizing something, his expression turned grim.
Suddenly, the passage opened up into a wider space. Stepping out of the tunnel, the oil lamps illuminated the area, though the full extent remained obscured.
“Blood! There is blood!”
“What is this? Flesh? What on earth is that? Ahhhhh!”
Shen Changchuan’s jade token shot straight up into the ceiling, bursting with a brilliant golden light that illuminated every corner of the space.
Yet in the next second, Jiang Youbai felt his vision darken as all the light was blocked. A warm palm covered his eyes, and Shen Changchuan’s cold, crisp voice sounded beside his ear, “Do not look.”
Jiang Youbai was stunned. In that single instant, he felt the kind of gentleness people always spoke of from this man.
An illusion, right?
Jiang Youbai sneered, “I know what is here even without looking.”
As he spoke, he reached up, grasped Shen Changchuan’s hand, and pulled it away from his eyes.
“Demonic beasts! There are so many demonic beasts!”
“What happened to them? So much blood. What is that thing? It is as soft as if it has no bones!”
“And that one, all shriveled up. Is it starving?”
Jiang Youbai’s voice was tinged with a dark chill. “You are right. That one truly has no bones left. Yet it originally had bones, before you people hacked them out alive.”
“And that shriveled one, its blood was drained dry by you lot.”
Several people drew in a sharp breath.
One disciple refused to accept this and retorted, “What do you mean by us? We do not do such things! At most, we draw a bit of blood. How could we drain it dry? If you drain it dry, they die, and we do not actually kill the beasts.”
Jiang Youbai burst into laughter. In the quiet cavern, his laughter sounded bone-chillingly eerie. “Draw a bit of blood? You think those miraculous healing pills come from nowhere? You think the magical artifacts in your hands are made of what? You do not kill beasts? But out of all the methods humans use to torture beasts, which beast ever leaves alive? They only wish for a death worse than life. A quick sword strike is a mercy to a beast. If you were subjected to a thousand cuts, would you still say such words?”
“The claim that humans do not kill beasts is nothing more than a lie, a lie meant to cover up your greedy nature! You simply wish to prevent demonic beasts from going extinct so that we may serve you generation after generation!”
Jiang Youbai’s accusations rang out like the cries of a cuckoo spitting blood, stunning everyone present into speechless silence.
Someone unwillingly muttered, “But that is how it has always been. Demonic beasts exist to serve humans. It has always been like this.”
Jiang Youbai immediately fixed his gaze on the speaker. The hostility in his eyes stained his eye rims red, a look of bitter sorrow and rage. “Just because it has always been like this, does that make it right? Are wrong deeds allowed to continue simply because they are traditional?”
The person sneered, “They are just a bunch of beasts. It is enough that they can be of use to us. They deserve death.”
Before he could finish his sentence, he felt a chill at his throat. Slowly looking down, he saw a silvery-white feather pierced straight through his windpipe, its tip still shimmering with a biting, cold light.
He could not utter another word. Rolling his eyes back, he collapsed backward, his eyes still wide open.
The surrounding disciples instantly drew their swords, pointing them at Jiang Youbai in high alert.
Jiang Youbai flicked his wrist, a chilling smile in his eyes. “Then you deserve to be killed by a demonic beast.”
The Aoqing Sect disciples aimed their swords at Jiang Youbai, clearly intending to execute him on the spot.
Jiang Youbai swept his gaze across them, sneered, and as he moved to strike, a figure stepped forward. Shen Changchuan placed himself before him once again, his expression icy. “Though the Immortal Alliance has never explicitly forbidden the hunting of beasts, it has never condoned the abuse of them. A subtle difference in words, yet miles apart in humanity. Such an act by the Aoqing Sect is no different from the Fiend race. Will you still not admit your faults?”
Only then did the crowd snap back to reality. The person before them was the Immortal Alliance Leader, and Jiang Youbai was the Leader’s disciple. This was not a matter for outsiders to meddle in, so they hurriedly lowered their swords.
Jiang Youbai cast a deep, ironic look at Shen Changchuan, finding his hypocrisy laughable.
Without another glance, he turned around to release the demonic beasts trapped in the cages. Some beasts whose injuries were less severe managed to hobble away, but those on the verge of death could not move at all.
Jiang Youbai squatted down outside, looking at the beasts in the cages, amber eyes lost in thought.
“They cannot be saved.”
Shen Changchuan’s voice sounded beside him. Jiang Youbai slowly closed his eyes, his hands clenched tightly at his sides. After a long moment, he opened them again. His eyes were blood-red, the rims stained with a faint, weeping crimson.
Like a grief-stricken, maddened beast, he suddenly lunged at Shen Changchuan, slamming him back against the iron cage. He heard the sound of a body crashing into the metal bars, whether it was Shen Changchuan’s or his own, he did not care. Pinning the man down, he demanded with savage fury, “For the sake of human profits, you treat demonic beasts like this? Why? Why do you not simply ban the human hunting of beasts? All your talk of balancing the Three Realms is just a balance between you and the Fiend race, while demonic beasts are nothing more than sacrifices! Shen Changchuan, spare me your hypocrisy!”
Shen Changchuan said nothing, nor did he offer any rebuttal. He simply gazed quietly at him, an emotion swirling in the depths of his eyes that Jiang Youbai could not decipher.
Jiang Youbai had no desire to read it right now. He was only venting. Glancing at the tortured, unrecognizable beasts in the surrounding cages, anger flared within him. He bit down viciously on Shen Changchuan’s neck, his sharp teeth piercing skin as fresh blood bloomed in his mouth.
For a time, the surroundings fell so silent that only the whimpering of beasts could be heard. Shen Changchuan allowed Jiang Youbai to vent upon him, one hand gently stroking the youth’s back as if soothing ruffled fur.
An eerie stillness settled.
Until a flustered Sheng Xu rushed in, shattering the bizarre atmosphere. “Leader, this is bad! The Myriad Sword Sect has also experienced a berserk riot among their beasts! Ah?”
His shout cut off abruptly, his voice pitching into a bizarre tone as he took in the scene before him. Meeting Shen Changchuan’s icy, bone-chilling glare, Sheng Xu shrank his neck back in terror, eyeing the roomful of beasts with a guilty conscience.
Hearing the commotion, Jiang Youbai’s killing intent surged. As the Aoqing Sect Master, Sheng Xu could not possibly be ignorant of the forbidden grounds, or perhaps he was the mastermind behind all of this.
Just as he moved to act, a rustling sound came from beside his foot. Jiang Youbai turned his head to look and saw none other than the lop-eared rabbit.
He reached down and scooped the rabbit into his arms. “Little rabbit.”
The lop-eared rabbit’s eyes were round and wide. Seeing the blood at the corner of Jiang Youbai’s lips, it assumed he was injured and anxiously scrambled to reach his mouth, eager to lick away the wound.
Shen Changchuan recalled the day Jiang Youbai’s demonic pill had matured, when the youth had seen the wounds on his chest and licked them just as earnestly, his eyes hazy yet entirely focused.
His gaze darkened. With swift reflexes, he grabbed the rabbit by the scruff of its neck, lifted it up, and deposited it into his own embrace.
Jiang Youbai’s arms emptied. “?”