Baiyujing, Tianxuan Sect, the number one sect under heaven.
North facing the Night Xiaoxiang, south facing the Pin-Flower State, it possessed all the romance of the immortal realm.
Haomiao Peak was vast, the blue void infinite; a single gust of wind shook thousands of mountain ranges, while immortal mist steamed into clouds, exhaling phoenix marrow.
This was the scene before Su Yunyu’s eyes as he arrived from the immortal ark.
If Xiao Shuying weren’t trailing beside him, he would have stopped to fully appreciate the grandeur.
Currently, with important matters at hand, he couldn’t afford to waste time on scenery and simply led Xiao Shuying back to his own Haomiao Peak.
Haomiao Peak was usually like a world of colored glass, with the Beiming Palace at its highest point where he resided, and empty disciple quarters below.
Su Yunyu settled Xiao Shuying in the disciple quarters and, looking at his pale complexion, felt puzzled.
When he had woken up this morning and was about to subconsciously stretch, he had been met with a pale face right beside his bed.
It was like seeing a ghost in broad daylight, nearly causing him to choke on his own breath.
Once his sleepiness was startled away, Su Yunyu realized this pale “ghost” was Xiao Shuying.
There were faint dark circles under his eyes, his brows trembling slightly; he looked as if he hadn’t slept for the entire night.
Just as Su Yunyu was about to ask, he sensed the severity of the injuries inside him and, unable to overthink, simply assumed it was an additional side effect of his severed meridians.
Thus, he traveled without pause, bringing Xiao Shuying to the Tianxuan Sect and settling him on the bed before taking a Marrow-Cleansing Pill from his space.
Though this pill could not mend meridians, it was sufficient to heal internal injuries and flush out useless meridian fragments from within Xiao Shuying’s body.
After all, to heal the meridians, one only needed to repair the primary ones; as for the fragments that couldn’t be pieced back together, it was better to purge them.
“Eat this,” Su Yunyu placed the pill in Xiao Shuying’s hand, instructing him concisely:
“It will help your meridians. I am going to find the Sect Leader.”
Although he was a peak master, he didn’t manage affairs; because of his cold temperament, all operations of the Tianxuan Sect were handled by the Sect Leader, Wen Renli.
With that, he flicked his sleeve, his white robes fluttering, and drifted away.
Xiao Shuying looked down at the pill in his palm and sniffed it. It was a Marrow-Cleansing Pill; he wasn’t certain if it was poisoned.
However, based on last night, Su Yunyu didn’t seem to have any intention of poisoning his medicine.
Moreover, the Marrow-Cleansing Pill was indeed beneficial to his meridians, so Xiao Shuying placed it in his mouth and swallowed.
To his surprise, the moment the pill melted into his dantian, its medicinal power burned through his entire body like searing fire.
His four limbs, hundred skeletons, skin, and inner dantian all began to ache violently with the burning sensation.
The pain was so intense that Xiao Shuying immediately doubted whether this was truly a Marrow-Cleansing Pill.
But soon, he didn’t even have the strength to doubt; the pain surged like a raging sea, wave after wave, tormenting him.
At first, Xiao Shuying only curled up on the bed, but by now he had lost consciousness. Tossing and turning, he fell off the bed and crashed into the golden-wood table nearby, shaking a vase off the table to shatter on the floor.
A thin layer of cold sweat covered his forehead, and he bit his lower lip until it bled. Through his fragmented consciousness, Xiao Shuying concluded that Su Yunyu had poisoned him this time.
Everything before his eyes was already pitch black. He clawed at the floor with trembling fingers, leaving streaks of blood, hating that this lifetime still hadn’t come to an end.
In the next life, he would certainly exact vengeance for this skin-tearing pain and bone-breaking misery!
Just as his consciousness was about to fade, footsteps sounded outside, and a disciple pushed the door open.
When he finally recovered from the excruciating pain, Xiao Shuying opened his eyes. His consciousness was still sluggish. He looked around and found the room somewhat familiar.
Wait. Why am I still in the disciple quarters?
Did I not die from poison?
Creak,
Someone walked in from outside. Xiao Shuying lifted his gaze and saw the person wearing the attire of an inner-sect disciple.
Seeing that he had woken up, the man sighed in relief:
“Thank goodness you’re alright.”
Xiao Shuying had just woken up, his senses still muddled, and he hadn’t clearly heard what the man said, still immersed in the belated realization that he hadn’t died.
“What… happened to me?”
Only upon speaking did he realize his voice was hoarse. Looking inward at his dantian, he was astonished to discover that the small fragments in his meridians had been purged.
Hearing his question, the disciple scratched his head:
“I don’t know, either. I just channeled some spiritual energy to you earlier; otherwise, I really felt like you were going to faint from pain.”
“Oh right, I came to take you to the sect plaza. Immortal Venerable Fengchi is holding an initiation ceremony.”
With that, the look in the man’s eyes toward Xiao Shuying was filled with envy and curiosity, as if he were wondering how someone with severed meridians like him could become the disciple of the number one person in the world.
Xiao Shuying ignored his gaze or rather, he was accustomed to it. He knew that such gazes would only become more unbridled in the future.
With Su Yunyu’s tacit consent, perhaps this envy would evolve into jealousy, and jealousy would nurture malice; that was when the true disaster would begin.
Thinking of this, Xiao Shuying wished all the more to kill Su Yunyu with his own hands.
Arriving at the high platform in the sect plaza, where three pillars rose to the sky, heavy and imposing, carved with imperial gold decrees and dancing dragons and phoenixes, Xiao Shuying saw Su Yunyu standing in the center at a single glance.
The white jade crown he wore now trailed two frost-colored silk ribbons behind his hair; as they moved with the wind, his ink-black hair lightly fluttered, and with the jade-white contrast, he appeared all the more ethereal and transcendent.
It captivated the inner-sect disciples beneath the platform, but Xiao Shuying only felt disgusted.
Merely having a false reputation, only a face to look at; nothing remarkable beyond that.
At that moment, Su Yunyu, standing beside his senior brother, the Sect Leader, was feeling incredibly joyous. Having lived so many lifetimes, he could finally enjoy the treatment of the number one person in the world.
Look at the admiring gazes of these disciples below, and look at this glorious scene of myself dressed in silver and jade; if it weren’t for the presence of others, I would really want to take a mirror from my space to appreciate myself.
Actually, this face was extremely similar to his original one; he even suspected that the author had intentionally written this character’s appearance to be like his, so even looking in a mirror didn’t cause any sense of uncanny substitution.
Just as he was immersed in his own drift, the system reminded him:
[Long Aotian is here, please stop pretending.]
“…” Su Yunyu curled his lip, then immediately restored his composure, introducing Long Aotian to his senior brother, Wen Renli, very naturally.
However, as Xiao Shuying walked over, Su Yunyu noticed that his complexion was even paler than it had been in the morning.
Strange. After taking the Marrow-Cleansing Pill, his internal injuries healed; shouldn’t he have some color in his face?
His entrance, looking like a wandering soul, made him appear as if he had survived some great catastrophe.
As Xiao Shuying reached him, Su Yunyu took his wrist to check his spiritual energy. Before he could discover anything, Xiao Shuying said weakly:
“Master, am I late? I’m sorry, I just fainted from pain earlier.”
What does he mean by that? What do you mean by fainting from pain?
While Su Yunyu was still pondering, Xiao Shuying had finished his sarcastic remark, and he hadn’t discovered a trace of guilt on his face, but rather, a momentary flash of bewilderment.
Hah. Truly great acting. He is pretending very well.
If he hadn’t really fainted from pain, he would have thought Su Yunyu was truly kind enough to give him a Marrow-Cleansing Pill.
Su Yunyu, having discovered no abnormalities, asked the system for help. The system pondered for a moment and asked:
[Did you give him the wrong grade of Marrow-Cleansing Pill?]
Su Yunyu also pondered for a moment and discovered that seemed to be the case…
Pills were divided into nine grades; the first grade was the lowest, and the ninth was the highest.
He had just remembered that the original owner was a master of alchemy, and the pills in his space were at least grade five.
As for Xiao Shuying, with his severed meridians, he shouldn’t consume pills of too high a grade first or second grade would have been best, so…
So the Marrow-Cleansing Pill he had just given him was grade five. No wonder it made him faint from pain; the power was simply too strong, and he couldn’t withstand it.
“…” Finally realizing the crux of the matter, Su Yunyu felt a moment of guilt. He gripped Xiao Shuying’s wrist, channeled a bit of spiritual energy into his meridians, and then said calmly:
“I just remembered; you have no cultivation, so you should not consume high-grade pills. This was my oversight.”
With that, he wanted to pull something from his space to compensate Xiao Shuying, but realized that since Xiao Shuying had no cultivation, nothing was suitable. He simply took a fish-bird jade pendant a defensive magical artifact that could deflect five attacks.
He tied the pendant to Xiao Shuying’s waist and, once finished, said to his senior brother:
“We can begin.”
“Good,” Sect Leader Wen Renli was a gentle and generous man. He had no flashy features but carried the air of a great leader; looking at him, he didn’t seem like a sect leader, but he had a sense of restraint that could not be underestimated.
In reality, his role here was minimal; he was just a witness like the other disciples.
On the platform, the tea and utensils needed for the apprenticeship ceremony were set out. Su Yunyu lifted his robes and sat down gracefully. He was as upright as green bamboo and white jade, his spine as straight as a ruler, waiting for the Long Aotian to offer tea.
Before arriving, the inner-sect disciple had already informed Xiao Shuying of the apprenticeship etiquette: nothing more than the ordinary customs of kneeling and offering tea.
But Xiao Shuying was not someone willing to kneel and offer tea to Su Yunyu. He wished for the man’s life; how could he endure such submission?
So, Xiao Shuying glanced at the teacup on the table, which was still steaming, and conceived a plan.
He picked up the hot teacup and looked “timidly” at Su Yunyu, who was seated high above.
Then, he slowly moved closer. Just as he was about to bend his knees, his arm trembled violently.
Clatter. The sound of porcelain shattering into pieces, accompanied by splashing tea.
The tea was boiling hot, and as luck would have it, it all splashed onto Su Yunyu’s hands, which were resting on his knees.
Su Yunyu was not a cultivator who ran defensive techniques twelve hours a day, nor was he like others who could remain unscathed. His defensive spells were for large-scale attacks, not minor burns. In that instant, he could only feel the pain of burning fire on his hands.
Hiss it hurts, hurts, hurts!
The pain was so intense that Su Yunyu almost ground his teeth, barely able to maintain his facial expression. Just as his body was about to collapse, the system electrocuted him:
[OOC prohibited; the original owner would not be burned.]
Su Yunyu was now both burned and electrocuted; he felt like crying:
“……I’m already like this, and you’re still shocking me? Sob, sob, sob.”
But he didn’t wallow in tears. He took a deep breath and quickly restored his composed appearance. Even though his hands were trembling, he still reached out to support Xiao Shuying immediately:
“Did you get burned?”
Xiao Shuying was momentarily stunned at hearing this. He stared at Su Yunyu’s slightly trembling hands, hidden behind his back, and confirmed once again that it was he who had been burned, not himself.
So, this person’s performance is truly successful.
Xiao Shuying was still not satisfied. Why didn’t it make him faint from pain to comfort the grudge of the pain I suffered earlier?
“I…” Xiao Shuying quickly adjusted his state, acting scared and terrified, as if Su Yunyu might attack him the next second:
“I’m sorry! Master, I messed up again…”
If this scene appeared in a female-oriented novel, there would be a word to describe it: “White Lotus.”
Unfortunately, Su Yunyu was a male-oriented editor. Looking at his teary-eyed appearance now, his mood was complicated; he felt something was strange.
But he couldn’t put his finger on what was strange, so he could only endure the pain in his hands to comfort him:
“Do not fear; it is merely a cup of tea.”
With that, he repaired the shattered teacup on the floor into its original form with a spell, put it back on the table, and said to the Sect Leader:
“Let today be considered the end of the ceremony; I hope my senior brother and the sect will not be overly concerned with small details.”
Wen Renli didn’t object, nodding:
“Naturally, as you say. However…”
He looked at Xiao Shuying. This look held doubt and confusion; it was a mix of many emotions. Xiao Shuying immediately ducked behind Su Yunyu.
He was tired of such gazes to the extreme.
Su Yunyu thought he was just too timid and, protecting him like a cub, pulled him further behind his back, saying to the Sect Leader with some shame:
“My disciple has a weak constitution; I hope you will forgive him, senior brother.”
The disciples below the platform thought: This isn’t just “weak,” he’s as fragile as a willow in the wind…
Who falls over before they even finish kneeling to offer tea? And the Immortal Venerable actually doesn’t blame him. This person is truly fortunate.
Regardless of what those people were thinking, Xiao Shuying, hidden behind Su Yunyu, looked at his reddened hands.
These hands, which usually performed sword dances and spells slender and fair, barely able to hold anything were now suffused with a rosy glow, spreading with crimson, which made one’s heart tremble.
But Xiao Shuying thought that Su Yunyu’s brain must be muddled.
He clearly knows how to use a spell to restore a teacup, yet he doesn’t know how to cast a spell to treat his hands?
Wait. I know this person is probably doing it on purpose, intentionally letting me see it so I will feel guilty.
Unfortunately, I will not feel guilty at all; I only feel pure pity. A mere burn is nothing compared to one ten-thousandth of what I have experienced.
However, there is still a long time to go. Su Yunyu will have his chance.
He will have the chance to experience the suffering he once endured.
A thousand times, a hundred times over, added upon his own body.