When Xue Chengming suddenly appeared, Li Jiyun thought about using this opportunity to do something. But when he saw Lou Shuangzui’s golden eyes, calm and unruffled as if he had expected this, he realized his plans were likely to fall through.
Sure enough, Xue Chengming was defeated quickly, so quickly that it was almost embarrassing for the Shanhe Sect.
Lou Shuangzui first pressed down with his left hand, causing the bloodthirsty aura of the Shiyang Sect disciples to surge instantly. Li Xibai completely fainted, and Li Jiyun, who was still trying to think, clutched his chest and squatted down, barely managing to grab Ying Qi’s clothes to avoid falling.
Ying Qi stumbled from being pulled, and had to free a hand to adjust his belt. For the first time in his life, Young Master Ying was this disheveled. He could feel his strength and vitality draining away, making him weaker, and cold sweat trickled down his forehead.
He gritted his teeth, looking at the culprit in the center of the battle circle, swallowing the metallic taste in his mouth. The scorching liquid forced its way back up his spasming throat, making his entire respiratory tract dry.
Lou Shuangzui’s second move was a beckoning gesture, causing the ground to shake violently. Xue Chengming, enraged and humiliated, missed his attack.
His life-bound sword accidentally slipped from his hand, knocked away by Lou Shuangzui’s spiritual power, and fell into the distant forest. Unfortunately, although Xue Chengming was a sword cultivator, he wasn’t a sword bone, and his talent wasn’t great. Even with a life-bound sword, he couldn’t summon it back from such a distance.
And that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was that it wasn’t over yet.
The culprit behind the earthquake finally revealed itself. The black vines, entwined with ominous purple and green patterns, rose from the ground, turning the area into a prison.
The poisonous vines used heaven and earth as a cage, showing everyone present what the dead Dream Birds and Red Embroidery Trees had experienced.
“So it was you these past few days!” Li Jiyun weakly slumped to the ground. His eyes on Lou Shuangzui were filled with unwillingness and surprise, but the vigilance and wariness had disappeared—such strength couldn’t belong to a mixed spiritual root, and if it were a single spiritual root, it wouldn’t be a rogue cultivator. The Heavenly Dao wouldn’t allow it; it was likely a disciple from one of the other four sects.
But no matter who it was, outside the Nuwa Secret Realm, the elders of each sect were watching. They wouldn’t kill recklessly like rogue cultivators.
Lou Shuangzui indeed didn’t go for the kill, but not going for the kill didn’t mean he was merciful, especially towards Xue Chengming—for such scum, even if he himself wasn’t a good person, he still looked down on them.
Counting it up, living off others, mental infidelity, slandering a girl’s reputation with sweet words, and just now, attacking from behind despite having higher strength than Lou Shuangzui—this person was truly unlikable.
So when the vines attacked, they were much more ruthless than when dealing with the Shiyang disciples.
Xue Chengming’s strength was a notch higher than Lou Shuangzui’s, so the first attack didn’t break through his spiritual power defense, only making it unstable. But there wasn’t just one vine. After nine days in the Red Embroidery Forest, the vines had absorbed the life force of the Red Embroidery Trees and grown wildly. Now, there were nearly a hundred underground in this small area.
The second attack, the third attack, the fourth attack…
The outer disciples Xue Chengming brought along had already collapsed, and Xue Chengming couldn’t hold on for long either. At first, he thought about attacking Lou Shuangzui directly to end the situation, but the vines didn’t give him the chance.
The attacks were too many and too dense.
He couldn’t spare any attention to do anything else; just dealing with the vines was already enough to make him look pathetic.
In just two minutes, after a slip-up, a vine pierced through Xue Chengming’s shoulder.
Now he finally understood how the Shiyang Sect disciples felt—strength, life, consciousness, all rapidly draining away. Blood surged up his throat, and the color drained from his cheeks.
In the last moment before losing consciousness, the pink-haired beauty had already walked up to Xue Chengming. The genius with a single poison wood spiritual root lowered his head, leaning close to Xue Chengming’s ear, his breath hot.
“You should be grateful you didn’t go for the kill just now, or things wouldn’t be so pleasant.”
Lou Shuangzui looked down at him, and as he stood up, he casually took the teleportation jade pendant from Xue Chengming’s waist and threw it on the ground, stepping on it.
With a crisp “crack,” the jade pendant shattered into pieces, and the familiar weightlessness of teleportation appeared.
In his remaining consciousness, Xue Chengming couldn’t help but shiver—Lou Shuangzui didn’t sound like he was bluffing; the monster before him truly harbored murderous intent.
Lou Shuangzui knew what he was doing. He spoke so softly that even the nearby Shiyang disciples couldn’t hear, let alone the elders on the judging panel outside the space.
Seeing those golden eyes looking over, Ying Qi calculated and gave up struggling. The young master simply didn’t insist anymore. He let go of his sword, sat cross-legged in exhaustion, and looked at Lou Shuangzui with eyes full of hostility.
“Which sect are you from?”
Lou Shuangzui lazily walked up to him, casually dismantling the formation and setting up a new one to delay the time before these people passed out.
He chuckled softly, “Tiandao Sect.”
Upon hearing his words, Ying Qi didn’t react immediately, but the judging panel outside the secret realm exploded. The Tiandao Sect’s leader, Mo Junjue, hesitated to speak, then finally looked up at Wen Shunian, “Sect Leader Wen, your successor’s actions aren’t very appropriate, are they?”
Wen Shunian rolled his eyes without caring about his image, but since he only had one successor, he couldn’t just abandon Lou Shuangzui. After pondering for a moment, he smiled politely, “How about a deal, everyone?”
While Sect Leader Wen was racking his brains to cover for Lou Shuangzui and salvage his reputation, Ying Qi in the secret realm clearly wasn’t fooled. He sneered, “I don’t believe it.”
Li Jiyun, who was about to faint, laughed. He sat on the ground in a sorry state, but his smile was still confident, looking extremely cunning. “Even if Zuo Fulan had such a scheme, Tiandao Sect doesn’t have an inner disciple with golden eyes this time.”
Lou Shuangzui obviously didn’t hold out hope of deceiving them, so he just gave Li Jiyun a meaningful look. Then he lifted his leg and unhesitatingly stepped on Ying Qi’s thigh—the spot he had bitten that day.
He leaned down, pinching the young master’s chin, “Brother Ying, you’re in my hands now. How can you still be so arrogant? Not believing me won’t do; you can only say nice things now.”
Ying Qi gritted his molars, weakly grabbing Lou Shuangzui’s ankle, his gaze fierce enough to kill. After a while, he snorted, giving up, “Yeah, I just won’t say it. What can you do to me?”
“What can I do to you?” Lou Shuangzui laughed, teasingly looking at the young master’s defiant expression. He reached up and took a bead from his hair ornament—before entering, all magical treasures had to be checked, but things like recording stones, which weren’t offensive, weren’t confiscated.
Still wearing the fox-like face of his sect leader, Lou Shuangzui smiled like he had successfully pulled off a prank. Under Ying Qi’s wary gaze, he reached out and tore open Ying Qi’s shirt.
He looked down at Ying Qi, half-threatening, half-joking, “Young Master Ying has a nice body. How many female cultivators, male cultivators, and those on the Dual Cultivation Path do you think would pay to buy this recording?”
Ying Qi’s eyes widened, glaring at Lou Shuangzui, “You wouldn’t dare!”
The stone table on the judging panel shattered once again. Having been persuaded by Wen Shunian not to reveal Lou Shuangzui’s identity to his big disciple, Xi Ming broke down again.
He grabbed Wen Shunian’s collar, “Ahhh, damn you, Wen Shunian! How can your successor be like this?!”
Wen Shunian remained expressionless, but he didn’t have time to cover for Lou Shuangzui or feel embarrassed. The already numb sect leader even seriously considered it, calmly telling Xi Ming.
“Well, now there’s another bargaining chip. If you don’t help hide Lou Shishu’s identity, I’ll help him sell the recording stone footage.”
“You wouldn’t dare!!!”
Wen Shunian shrugged, adopting a ‘what can you do about it’ attitude, “What can you do to me?”
“Damn you, Chen Yue Sect!” Xi Ming looked shattered.
Meanwhile, Ying Qi, in dire straits, was pushed to the brink. He no longer had the strength to resist Lou Shuangzui, so after much struggle, Lou Shuangzui managed to pull off his shirt. Fortunately, Lou Shuangzui still had some conscience and didn’t strip him completely, only pulling his pants down slightly to reveal the sexy V-line.
The golden-eyed demon even threatened him, “Don’t cover yourself, put your hands to the side, or I’ll strip you completely!”
Ying Qi’s eyes were red with anger. Reluctantly, with no other choice, he could only threaten Lou Shuangzui, “Wait till I get out, you’ll see.”
Li Jiyun laughed so hard he almost fainted. He was about to pass out, but the scene woke him up. Clutching his chest, he looked at Lou Shuangzui pitifully, “If you strip him, you can’t strip me too.”
Before Lou Shuangzui could respond, he received a glare from Ying Qi. The young master chuckled, mercilessly abandoning brotherhood, “I’ll cooperate with you if you strip him too.”
“Whimper…” Li Jiyun shrank to the side, but soon he was horrified to see Lou Shuangzui, after filming Ying Qi, really walking towards him.
“Help!”
Of course, in this Red Embroidery Forest, no one would save Li Jiyun, so he was soon stripped by Lou Shuangzui too. But this time, it wasn’t a full strip, just half-covered.
The bizarre and embarrassing experience left the Shiyang Sect members with no mind to worry about their lost points and resources after being sent out of the secret realm. Compared to those things, they were more concerned about the integrity of their two senior brothers.
But that’s a story for another time. Although Lou Shuangzui shattered their jade tokens and sent them out of the secret realm after filming, the poison was too strong. Every single one of them passed out, and by the time they were finally detoxified and able to leave, the secret realm had already ended a day ago.
Author’s Note:
Earlier than yesterday is still early… Updates will resume at around six tomorrow.