Jiang Xing thoroughly despised Zishu Bai, finding him eyesore from head to toe.
Why was he staring straight at him for no reason? Was he suspecting him of having ulterior motives?
He admitted that he indeed wanted to use Zishu Bai to get out of Shazhen, but he hadn’t committed any heinous acts. On what grounds was he suspecting him? Even if he was going to do something, he hadn’t even started yet, had he?
He shifted his eyes away, concealing the disgust and annoyance deep within them.
Soon. As long as the Sky Insects were eliminated, he would no longer need Zishu Bai.
Before long, the three of them finally arrived near the Sky Insects’ nest.
To everyone’s surprise, the nest of the Sky Insects was actually a massive sinkhole. Near the sinkhole, dense clusters of Sky Insects hovered continuously, like a cloud of eternal, unyielding darkness. The stench of rotting corpses could be smelled from dozens of meters away, filling the air with a foul odor.
Jiang Xing almost threw up the dry rations he had eaten earlier. Forcing it down repeatedly, he said in a deep voice, “There are too many Sky Insects; dealing with all of them will be too troublesome. But Sky Insects fear water, so you can use water-attribute spells to carve a path…”
Turning his head, however, he saw that Zishu Bai had somehow caught a few stray Sky Insects and trapped them securely with a ball of spiritual energy, casting an innocent look toward him. “We can disguise ourselves; that way, we won’t alert those Sky Insects.”
Jiang Xing: “?”
Zishu Bai pulled out a cloth, easily crushed those Sky Insects, and smeared their blood—mixed with corpse fluids—onto his own body. At this point, Jiang Xing genuinely gagged.
He looked at Zishu Bai in utter disbelief as the man walked toward him with that rag, instinctively backing away, “I’m not doing it, don’t come near me… stay away!”
Jiang Xing was a severe mysophobe. He didn’t mind himself, but he was thoroughly disgusted by others. Zishu Bai had already wiped his own body with that rag; how could he possibly use it on him? Besides, even if he weren’t a mysophobe and were a normal person, who could accept blood mixed with the foul stench of rotting flesh?
On the other side, Yan Zhun was already imitating Zishu Bai’s method, catching several Sky Insects and smearing the corpse fluid over himself. “Jiang Xing, what time is it for you to care about this? It’s very simple; just pretend you’re brushing sauce on yourself.”
“My grandmother said wild beasts rely on scent to identify their own kind. If you don’t rub it on, how can you go in with us?” Zishu Bai patiently advised him, coaxing him gently, “Come here quickly, I can cast a spell to block your sense of smell.”
Jiang Xing took a final deep breath of fresh air and had no choice but to look at the stinky, filthy rag in Zishu Bai’s hand. “Fine, whatever.”
He had already died so many times; what was there left to fear?
He snatched that torn rag from Zishu Bai’s hands and smeared corpse fluid all over his own body.
Zishu Bai praised him with a touch of joy: “Very good, Jiang Xing. You did exceptionally well.”
Jiang Xing knit his brows slightly, always feeling that his words sounded a bit strange, like some sort of tactic used to coax a child.
However, before he could think deeper into it, he saw Zishu Bai catch several more Sky Insects.
“Next, we just need to test whether it can fool the Sky Insects.”
He carefully wrapped those Sky Insects in spiritual energy and placed them in front of himself. All three held their breath and stared, not daring to utter a sound.
The instant the spiritual energy barrier unravelled, the swarm of Sky Insects inside rushed straight for Zishu Bai’s face.
Zishu Bai instantly drew his sword and slashed all the Sky Insects clean away. Only then did he raise his head to look at Jiang Xing and Yan Zhun, who were staring back at him with wide eyes, and whispered in embarrassment: “Apologies, it seems it didn’t work.”
Jiang Xing felt like he couldn’t catch his breath, unsure whether he was about to faint from the stench or faint from rage.
How had he been so foolish to trust Zishu Bai just now? This idiot’s grandmother wasn’t some hidden master; she was just an old farm woman from a village, and Jiang Xing had actually believed those absurd words!
“It’s fine. How would we know if it works without trying?” Yan Zhun wiped his face, taking it remarkably well as he chuckled, “Besides, you were thinking of our safety too. Don’t always apologize. Taking a step back, we’re already very grateful that you were willing to protect us both to stay alive until now, even making ice for me to eat.”
Yet Jiang Xing did not buy it in the slightest, stating coldly: “There weren’t any Sky Insects along the way at all. What was he protecting?”
That was entirely his own doing! He had relied on his experience from nine reincarnations to choose a path free of Sky Insects. What the hell did it have to do with Zishu Bai?
Yan Zhun nudged him gently with his elbow and advised in a low voice: “You’re really temperamental today. Alright, it’s just a matter of taking a bath when we get back.”
Jiang Xing’s face remained tense. Looking at Zishu Bai, who stood with his head lowered in at a loss, he forced out a sentence after a long silence: “Fine. Use water-attribute spells to clear a path.”
He was indeed furious; every single thing regarding Zishu Bai made him unhappy. He was simply incompatible with this person, annoyed the moment he saw that face.
In the end, it was also because he held expectations for Zishu Bai. He had already died nine times and didn’t want anything to go wrong on his tenth rebirth. Yet every step along this journey, Zishu Bai kept making mistakes.
These were stupid, bottom-tier mistakes that Zishu Bai wouldn’t have made in the original book at all! Having read Zishu Bai across a thousand chapters, not a single version of him in those chapters was like today’s Zishu Bai, constantly acting foolishly. Even if he was a Holy Father who often meddled in other people’s business, he executed everything he needed to do exceptionally well.
He was almost beginning to suspect that Zishu Bai was intentionally messing with him.
Hearing Jiang Xing’s words, Zishu Bai slowly raised his eyes to look at him, saying softly, “Mm, I understand.”
He didn’t know what was wrong with himself either. He was constantly worried about making Jiang Xing angry again, constantly worried that Jiang Xing would think he was useless or not worth relying on. The more he wanted to do well, the more frequently he messed up instead.
How embarrassing.
He released spiritual power from his palm, firmly encasing Jiang Xing and Yan Zhun within a water-attribute barrier, whispering softly: “I channeled a lot of spiritual power into the barrier. Unless I die, this barrier will not be broken.”
A fingertip lightly touched the water barrier, sending out soft ripples. Pure, untainted spiritual energy wrapped around the fingertip, softening the force and quickly restoring a smooth surface. A protagonist’s talent was indeed far beyond what an extra could match; this was a hundred times better than the barrier created by the two water disciples he had found previously.
Zishu Bai looked back at them, confirming that the barriers wrapped them up securely, and then leaped into that bottomless sinkhole without hesitation.
“Stay safe!” Yan Zhun lay on the edge of the sinkhole, watching Zishu Bai’s retreating figure and shouting loudly. After a long moment, he sighed softly, “He really is a good person. With so many Sky Insects, he’d rather face them all alone than let us be in danger.”
Jiang Xing stood with arms crossed, saying indifferently, “He willingly chose to.”
As his words fell, Yan Zhun turned his head to stare at him and suddenly spoke up: “Nobody willingly wants to get hurt. Don’t you think you’re going a bit too far?”
Jiang Xing knit his brows, walked over to him slowly, looked down at him from above, and said with indifference, “I don’t think so. What right do you have to judge me?”
A useless person like Yan Zhun—without him, he would have died in who-knows-where long ago. What right did he have to sit here and criticize him?
His gaze falling on that face, Yan Zhun fell silent for a moment before saying in a low voice, “I didn’t want to argue with you. I just feel like you’re very different from the Jiang Xing I knew before.”
Laughable. Even if it were the previous Jiang Xing, after dying nine times, he probably wouldn’t be much different from how he was now.
Jiang Xing scoffed in disdain, utterly unbothered as he said, “That’s because you don’t know me at all.”
Hearing this, Yan Zhun finally couldn’t help but frown, standing up to meet his eyes: “Jiang Xing, I think someone needs to tell you that the way you look right now is extremely asking for a beating—and a severe beating at that.”
Jiang Xing narrowed his eyes and pulled his sword from his waist. “Why don’t you try?”
“I can’t do it, but with your personality, someone will teach you a lesson sooner or later.” Leaving those words behind, Yan Zhun turned and walked away to a spot farther from him. “Just you wait; don’t regret it when the time comes.”
Regret? What a joke. He didn’t even know how to spell those words.
Jiang Xing never did anything that would make himself regretful. Better that I wrong the world than let the world wrong me. Vengeance must be paid back, just like right now.
He yanked Yan Zhun by his lapel, the two water-attribute barriers touching and instantly merging. Without hesitation, Jiang Xing threw a harsh punch directly onto Yan Zhun’s eye socket.
Yan Zhun cried out in pain, looking at him in utter disbelief, a flare of anger ignited within him as well. “You hit me? Not even my parents have ever hit me!”
Of course not. How could a pampered, newly rich young master have ever been beaten before?
Jiang Xing stared at him coldly, rolled up his sleeves, and threw another punch. “Then starting today, I’m your father.”
“Fine! You’ve got nerve!” Fire surging in his head, Yan Zhun grabbed Jiang Xing back and slammed a heavy punch into him. “Let me tell you, before I practiced cultivation, I was the boss in our town!”
“I don’t care who you were. Without my help, you’d have died long ago. You’re just an ungrateful wretch.”
“I’m ungrateful? When you had heatstroke, I fucking carried you on my back the entire way!”
And so, two cultivators ended up in a raw fistfight, trading punch for punch like this.
In the end, Jiang Xing gained the upper hand, pressing Yan Zhun to the ground and beating him black and blue. Flustered and furious, Yan Zhun yelled, “It’s not that I can’t beat you, I just don’t want to sink to your level, you ungrateful scum!”
Jiang Xing choked his neck and sneered, “Thanks for the compliment.”
Yan Zhun was infuriated by him. Just as he was about to curse a few more lines, his peripheral vision caught sight of something. His face turned deathly pale in an instant, and he stammered in fear, “Jiang Xing, Jiang Xing…”
“Begging for mercy won’t work either.”
Jiang Xing raised his hand to hit him again, but his fist was caught by Yan Zhun. Yan Zhun’s face looked terrible as he pointed behind Jiang Xing.
Following his finger, Jiang Xing knit his brows tightly and slowly turned around, only to see a overwhelming swarm of Sky Insects surrounding them so tightly that not a breath of wind could pass. Shocking cracks had even been bitten and rammed into the water-attribute barrier by the insects.
Crack. Under the frantic attacks of the Sky Insects, another crack was added to the barrier.
That sound was identical to the sound of bones being bitten and crushed.
His expression changed drastically, his whole body locking up in a stress response. The agonizing memories of being tortured by the Sky Insects during his previous nine deaths flooded back like a tide, instantly submerging him entirely.
He was going to die. He was going to die again.
Slitting his own throat hurt terribly; a lot of blood would gush from his throat. It was only slightly better than being eaten alive by Sky Insects.
He didn’t want to commit suicide. He really, truly wanted to live.
However, Zishu Bai wasn’t here.
Jiang Xing’s mind went completely blank, hearing only a voice drifting from near and far beside his ear.
“We have to jump! I’ll count to three.”
“Did you hear me? Three…”
“Two…”
A hand grabbed his wrist. Jiang Xing abruptly came back to his senses, only to find his body already falling straight down.
“Use spells, spells!”
Yan Zhun was shouting something anxiously, but his ears couldn’t hear a thing.
Seeing no reaction from him at all, Yan Zhun fell into despair for a moment, then looked toward that bottomless sinkhole and let out a heart-wrenching scream: “Zishu Bai, save us!”
Jiang Xing knew he was probably going to die again. Having just transmigrated, he didn’t know spells—how could he possibly survive falling into a sinkhole?
This was a novel way to die, at least.
Dying seemed to have become a regular occurrence for him, but getting used to it was absolutely impossible. The fear of death was carved deep into human bones; no living creature was an exception.
His eyelashes grew wet, his vision blurring. Jiang Xing couldn’t stop his tears from falling—a purely physiological reaction.
He wasn’t feeling sad; he was only angry.
What kind of bullshit life was this? Jiang Xing’s whole existence was far too unfortunate.
His body fell rapidly through the air. Suddenly, a soft wave of spiritual energy caught him securely.
Jiang Xing froze for a split second as his body was held tightly in a firm embrace—a strength he hadn’t felt in a very long time, not since he was ten years old.
“Jiang Xing.”
The other party wiped away the tears on his face, cradling his face to force him into eye contact. With his brows tightly furrowed, his voice sounded heavy, “Don’t you know how to call for help?”
What if he hadn’t seen them falling? What if he had been far away from this place…? Was Jiang Xing just going to die so silently like that?
His chest began to heave, his stalled breathing finally restoring. With trembling lips, Jiang Xing leaned weakly against his shoulder, gasping for breath.
In the chaotic, dim sky, it felt as though a ray of light had suddenly shone through.
Nothing else mattered anymore. It felt so good to be alive.