Qiao Yiting turned his head to look at the owner of those hands. Before he could even ask, his wrist was grabbed by him, while the others crowded around closely, “Fourth Senior Brother, you better check him properly. I hope he isn’t truly addle-brained.”
The person feeling the pulse shook his head slightly, “From the pulse, there doesn’t seem to be anything major.”
“I told you, Sixth Senior Brother has great fortune and will definitely be fine.” The person speaking was dressed in luxurious clothes, a hint of smugness in his tone.
Another person nearby, holding a fan, also smiled and chimed in, “Eldest Senior Brother is right.”
He didn’t catch what that group of people behind was chattering about. Suddenly startled in his heart, just as he wanted to open his mouth to ask Zeng Youran, he heard a sound from outside the door, and that Eldest Senior Brother hurriedly ran out, “You brat, carrying a bucket of water and you’re still this slow!”
When they came back in, Eldest Senior Brother had a child with him, “This is your Sixth Senior Brother. Why aren’t you greeting him quickly?”
That child obediently knelt down, lowered his head, and murmured, “Greetings, Sixth Senior Brother.”
“This is Zeng Youran. He just joined the sect last year, and the Master accepted him as an inner disciple, making him our Junior Brother.”
Looking at the timid and cowardly person, Qiao Yiting felt a surge of joy. He had thought he would kick the bucket the moment he time-traveled, but it turned out he had transmigrated right when the protagonist was just beginning his apprenticeship.
Looking at Zeng Youran, who was soaked in wet clothes and kneeling honestly on the ground, he quickly spoke up, “Get up quickly, don’t catch a cold. Go change into some dry clothes.”
Upon hearing the voice, Zeng Youran first timidly raised his head to glance at Qiao Yiting, then lowered it quickly, before raising his head again to look at Eldest Senior Brother, and only then slowly stood up.
Witnessing all these subtle movements, Qiao Yiting thought to himself: Such a timid person is going to slaughter a whole mountain in the future. Truly unimaginable.
“Junior Brother, since you’re fine, we’ll be leaving first.”
Hearing those words, Qiao Yiting pulled back his thoughts and nodded, “Alright, thank you everyone.”
The unfamiliar environment left him at a loss. Hearing the rustling sound of bamboo leaves brushed by the gentle breeze outside the house, he couldn’t help shivering, immediately scrambled up from the bed, put on his clothes, and began wandering around the room.
He looked at the items he scavenged from this small room: two plain vases, a worthless painting, a few ragged garments, and a long sword that looked to be of decent quality.
“What on earth are all these things?” He frowned and picked up the sword, “The sword looks nice. It should fetch quite a bit of money.”
With that, he rummaged through a pile of rags to find a relatively sturdy piece of clothing, spread it flat on the floor, dumped all the items from the table into it, and carefully wrapped them up.
The sun outside the window gradually sank in the west, and a crescent moon slowly rose. Qiao Yiting was fully geared up. Holding the sword in his right hand and carrying the packed bundle on his left shoulder, he carefully opened the door, preparing to slip away stealthily.
He had originally thought that no one else would be wandering around the mountain at this hour, but unexpectedly, the moment he opened the door, he saw Zeng Youran, that future Demon Lord who would slaughter the mountain to exact revenge on everyone.
“Sixth Senior Brother, are you going out?”
A guilty expression flashed across Qiao Yiting’s face. He smiled all over and said, “No, no, why hasn’t Junior Brother gone back to sleep yet?”
The person in front of him seemed not to dare look him in the eye. Lowering his head, he whispered, “Eldest Senior Brother said you haven’t fully recovered from your major illness, so he asked me to take care of you.”
Qiao Yiting couldn’t help sighing in his heart over his ruined plan, “Junior Brother, go back and rest early. I’m already feeling much better.”
With that, he turned back, slammed the door shut with a loud bang, paced over to the inner chamber, and sat down, pondering to himself: It seems I still need to wait a little longer before heading out.
Ever since that group of people left, he had thought of a way to return. Since he arrived via a car accident, wouldn’t another car accident do the trick! That was why he had packed his things, ready to go down the mountain to sell them so he could buy a carriage.
Glancing at the bundle on the table, he could never have imagined that a former elite of the emergency department would one day have to worry about a few pennies of pocket change. He knew those pieces of junk wouldn’t fetch much money, but the legendary Qingxuan Mountain was a place of immortality-seeking Dao. If he slapped a nice-sounding, auspicious label onto those few items in the bundle, they might just sell for a good price.
Thinking about how there were no cell phones or internet here, Qiao Yiting became even more determined to leave the sect. Then he stood up and pumped himself up: Old Man Marx, you must bless me to successfully go back down the mountain and return to reality.
With that thought, he opened the door once more, preparing to resume his escape plan. Unfortunately, he still failed to escape successfully this time, because he saw Zeng Youran right outside his door again, leaning against the wall motionless.
Asleep?
He squatted down carefully, looking at the person sleeping soundly before him. The description of Zeng Youran in the book suddenly became concrete. High nose bridge, thin lips, sword-like eyebrows and star-like eyes. To Qiao Yiting, he looked every bit like the embodiment of the righteous path, bearing no resemblance whatsoever to that crazy Demon Lord, except for a small mole at the corner of his eye that added a touch of allure to his otherwise bright and striking face.
He thought, since he was the male lead after all, he certainly looked quite handsome; otherwise, how could he win the favor of so many beauties later on?
“Junior Brother… Little Junior Brother.” As he called out, he began poking Zeng Youran’s face with his finger. But after poking twice and finding no reaction whatsoever, he set his mind at ease.
He took a bold step forward. After walking a few paces, he suddenly remembered the miserable state of the mountain described in the book, and turned back.
Since Zeng Youran was truly asleep and completely defenseless,
wouldn’t killing him right now and then going down the mountain permanently eliminate any future trouble? Qingxuan Mountain wouldn’t become a barren, lifeless wasteland in the future, and his so-called senior brothers and sisters wouldn’t have to suffer at his hands. Even if he didn’t go down the mountain, his life wouldn’t be in danger anymore either.
With that thought, Qiao Yiting drew his sword. As a surgeon in the operating room, he knew precisely where a stab would be most fatal.
In the eyes of patients, a doctor is both the god of life and the god of death. The lives of patients in the operating room lie in the doctor’s hands; if saved, they show boundless gratitude, but if helpless, they resort to all sorts of slander. Yet he had never had an accident on the operating table; he kept the Hippocratic Oath in mind, treated every patient with utmost dedication, and tried his absolute best to save every single one every single time.
Yet now, he was being asked to make a move against the child in front of him… He inevitably found it hard to bring himself to do it. Qiao Yiting struggled internally, then silently sheathed the sword he had just drawn.
He’s just a child, what does he know! These were words often spoken by elders.
Then he relaxed again, rationalizing to himself: Although Zeng Youran before him is still just a child, in a few years he will become a ruthless murderer. Either he dies now, or he will torment me in the future. Thinking about how he wasn’t even sure when he could return to reality, or if he could ever return at all,
he drew his sword from its scabbard once more. The blade reflected his hesitant gaze under the hazy moonlight.
Yet a single shout of “Senior Brother” instantly shattered his hesitation, and he drove the sword straight into Zeng Youran’s chest.
“Senior Brother, you…”
Seeing the incredulous expression on Zeng Youran’s face, he pulled the sword out, but immediately thrust it forward again, aiming straight for his carotid artery without the slightest hesitation. He had already stabbed him once, and drawing the bow meant there was no turning back. In this situation, Zeng Youran had to die; otherwise, he would die an even more miserable death, and going down the mountain wouldn’t help either.
The book didn’t describe Zeng Youran’s fatal weakness in much detail, but it worked. Combined with Qiao Yiting’s familiarity with human anatomy, he clearly knew how to make someone die quickly.
Until the blood on the tip of the sword slowly dripped onto the ground, making a drip, drip sound that woke Qiao Yiting from his panic.
When his consciousness returned, he saw wisps of green smoke rising from Zeng Youran’s corpse and attacking him. He frantically reached out to block it, but to no avail.
With a clatter, the sword slipped from his hand and fell to the ground. He subconsciously looked down, seeing the bloodstains of his face reflected on the blade, and stumbled as he collapsed to the ground.
Staring blankly at the person lying in a pool of blood before him, he couldn’t believe he had killed Zeng Youran so easily. That same Junior Brother who had just been cautiously asking how his health was had now become a ghost beneath his sword.
He gasped for breath, trying to calm down. But he had never encountered a scene like this, never imagined that the hands he took pride in would now make him a murderer.
After a long while, Qiao Yiting finally remembered his goal. He wanted to climb up from the ground, but his legs seemed not yet to have recovered from the shock, stumbling and causing him to fall to the ground once more. Forcing himself to calm down, he picked up the bundle and the blood-stained sword with trembling hands, and left Zhiyi Hall to head toward the mountain gate. He needs to get down the mountain before anyone discovers Zeng Youran’s death.
Unfortunately, fate did not grant his wish. The more anxious he was, the more things went wrong. Qingxuan Mountain was so vast, yet he wandered in circles and somehow ended back at Zhiyi Hall. From afar, he saw Zeng Youran’s corpse, instantly generating a chill and making his hair stand on end. Figuring he had run into a ghostly maze, he muttered the 21st-century warding-off mantras of prosperity, democracy, civility, and harmony under his breath as he quickened his pace, pressing forward to find a way out.
Having no memories of the original owner, he could only scurry around the mountain like a headless fly, until he finally stumbled upon the location of the mountain gate by accident.
True to its reputation as a renowned major sect, Qingxuan Mountain’s mountain gate soared into the clouds, shrouded in immortal mist. The stone walls on both sides were carved with sect rules and admonitions, radiating a sacred and solemn aura that left people in awe.
As if seeing hope at last, the eerie sensation finally dissipated a little. He thought to himself that he could finally go down the mountain, and all his trials and tribulations tonight weren’t in vain.
Yet upon closer inspection, the mountain gate was tightly shut. Two child disciples beside the gate saw Qiao Yiting approaching and immediately stood up to welcome him. But he had no time to waste talking. Without a second thought, he charged straight toward the mountain gate. Right now, he was single-mindedly eager to go down the mountain, single-mindedly eager to return to reality, and didn’t want to stay here for even a single second longer. He desperately hoped this was just a dream and that he would wake up to find himself lying in the hospital duty room.
Yet he never expected that among the five senior brothers and sisters, none could tell that their Sixth Senior Brother was no longer the original Sixth Senior Brother, while two little kids could tell at a single glance that he wasn’t their Qiao Senior Brother, even launching a fierce attack against him.
Even though the original Qiao Yiting possessed formidable cultivation, the present Qiao Yiting was unfamiliar with the original owner’s techniques. Not to mention he had just risked his life to kill someone, leaving him panicked and unable to hold his sword steady, he was beaten back step by step with no room for counterattack by these two children of unknown origin, until one of the child disciples struck him with a palm, knocking him unconscious.