The night was deep and utterly silent.
Two crows fluttered away from a bare branch. In the secluded, shadowy alleyway, they shifted into human form and dropped to their knees to pay homage to the young man clad in black.
“Young Master, here is the elixir to suppress your cultivation.” Crow One offered a wooden box with both hands.
“Young Master, here is the lotus leaf chicken.” Crow Two presented a brown-paper parcel in the same manner.
Xie Chenzhou took the parcel and flicked open the lid of the box with one hand. Inside lay a single, brownish spiritual pill, its medicinal aroma bitter and sharp.
He picked it up casually and swallowed it.
As the pill settled into his stomach, the spiritual energy surging through his body rapidly ebbed away, and a faint, stinging ache began to prickle along his meridians.
Xie Chenzhou didn’t mind in the least. “How long will this last?”
Crow One: “Three months to drop to the Golden Core stage, and another three months to settle at Nascent Soul.”
Xie Chenzhou nodded. “Six months. That’s more than enough.”
Crow One: “By then, even if the Master of the Xiaoyao Sect himself shows up, he won’t be able to sense your true cultivation. He’ll just take you for a remarkably handsome and exceptionally gifted ordinary mortal. You’re bound to infiltrate the Xiaoyao Sect successfully!”
Crow Two: “Wait… wasn’t our target the fragments of the Kunlun Jade?”
Crow One snapped, “What do you know? The only reason the Young Master followed them all this way to the Xiaoyao Sect isn’t just for the fragment on Sang Yunling. He’s undoubtedly planning to take down the entire Xiaoyao Sect in one fell swoop and catch the righteous sects off guard.
“Young Master, am I right?”
Xie Chenzhou: “…”
Xie Chenzhou: “Right.”
Crow One: “The Young Master’s grand strategy is simply beyond our reach!”
Crow Two looked perplexed. “Sang Yunling ran into mortal danger several times along the road—why did the Young Master save her? Wouldn’t it have been much easier to just let her die and take the fragment?”
Xie Chenzhou leaned back against the wall and cast him a lazy glance. “Are you questioning me?”
Crow Two: “This subordinate wouldn’t dare!”
Xie Chenzhou’s voice remained flat and detached:
“If Sang Yunling dies, the fragment within her will vanish along with her. If we want to get our hands on it, we have no choice but to look for another way.”
Crow One: “The Young Master endures humiliation for the greater mission; we are entirely unworthy!”
Crow Two had a sudden epiphany. “Ah, I see! For a moment, I actually thought the Young Master had fallen for her too.”
Xie Chenzhou sneered:
“Hah! I could never possibly fall for such a rude and ill-mannered woman.”
Crow One: “The Young Master remains steadfast in his heart; we are entirely unworthy!”
Crow Two: “I’ll find a chance to sneak into the Xiaoyao Sect and give the Young Master my full support for the grand scheme. We’ll conquer Xiaoyao in no time!”
Xie Chenzhou said with a chilling tone, “Before we take Xiaoyao, there is still one more thing you need to do.”
Crow One and Crow Two instantly turned solemn.
“We are ready to go through fire and water for the Young Master!”
Xie Chenzhou crooked a finger at them. “Come here.”
The two of them stepped forward nervously.
Xie Chenzhou transmitted his voice directly into their minds. Their expressions shifted dramatically as they exchanged bewildered glances.
Xie Chenzhou: “Did you catch that?”
Crow One and Crow Two nodded in unison: “Understood!”
Xie Chenzhou: “Scram.”
The two bowed respectfully and vanished in a blur.
Left alone in the alley, Xie Chenzhou brushed some nonexistent dust from his lapel and glanced up at the starry sky. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly as he hurried back toward the inn, holding the lotus leaf chicken by its wrapper.
When he pushed open the door, Sang Nian was sprawled across the table, intently studying a bird’s egg.
Seeing him return, her eyes lit up. She hurried over to snatch the paper parcel from his hand, complaining, “What took you so long just to buy a midnight snack? I was about to starve to death.”
As she spoke, she tore open the parcel: “Ooh, it’s lotus leaf chicken!”
Xie Chenzhou said coldly, “I am not a servant from your household. If you ever order me around again—”
Before he could finish, a chicken leg was abruptly shoved straight into his mouth, cutting off the rest of his sentence.
“Stop talking and eat it while it’s hot,” Sang Nian said around a mouthful as she ripped off the other drumstick and took a huge bite. Her voice was slightly muffled. “It won’t taste good if it gets cold.”
Xie Chenzhou pulled the chicken leg out of his mouth and frowned at her greasy fingers.
“I washed my hands before eating—three times,” Sang Nian retorted unhappily. “Stop looking at me like that.”
A trace of mocking amusement flickered across Xie Chenzhou’s brow. “Miss Sang’s table manners are truly… heroic.”
Sang Nian rolled her eyes and shot back without hesitation:
“Nobody in this world has ever been born who can gracefully finish an entire lotus leaf chicken. If you want to eat, eat; if you don’t, shut your mouth and go to sleep. Stop standing there making snide remarks and ruining my appetite.”
Xie Chenzhou tightened his grip on the chicken leg.
He had been wrong. Sang Yunling wasn’t just rude, ill-mannered, and fickle.
She was also sharp-tongued.
And a glutton.
He took a vicious bite out of the chicken meat.
Anyone who could actually fall for a woman like her had to be either a complete fool or completely blind.
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Without exception.
Downstairs, the inn worker tidied up the tables and chairs, said goodbye to the proprietor, and clocked out for the night.
Once everyone else had cleared out, the proprietor pulled open the counter drawer, grinning from ear to ear as he counted his banknotes.
“Knock, knock—”
Someone tapped on the countertop.
He looked up, instantly on guard.
Standing before the counter were two men in black. One wore a ghastly green-faced, fanged ghost-king mask, while the other wore a white-browed, red-eyed demon mask.
Though their faces were hidden, their aura was terrifyingly oppressive.
The proprietor’s heart skipped a beat. He quickly tucked away his banknotes and forced a ingratiating smile.
“We’re completely fully booked, gentlemen. Perhaps you could try another place down the street?”
The black-clad man in the ghost-king mask spoke in a chilling tone:
“And if we refuse?”
The proprietor didn’t even dare to breathe heavily.
“Honorable sirs, this humble one has no idea how he could have possibly offended the two of you?”
The other man in the demon mask slowly chimed in:
“Take a guess.”
Cold sweat began to roll down the proprietor’s back as he tried to flatter them:
“How about this, sirs? I happen to have an authentic talisman personally drawn by Master Ruozhi of the Mercy Cliff, along with two heirloom swords passed down in my family. Normally, these would fetch at least ten thousand spirit stones, but today I’ll give them to you for free—not a single coin. Consider it a gesture of making friends, how does that sound?”
The man in the ghost-king mask replied:
“Splendid.”
The proprietor hurriedly pulled out the talisman and the swords:
“Please, accept them as a token of goodwill.”
The moment the words left his mouth, the other man violently grabbed him by the collar and hauled him close.
Unable to break free, the proprietor leaned backward in sheer terror:
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
The man in the demon mask let out a sinister chuckle, waving a hand to cast a barrier that sealed off all sight from the outside world:
“You ignorant, death-seeking scoundrel. How dare you pull your swindling tricks on our Young Master? Tonight, we’re going to teach you the true price of offending him.”
Perhaps it was due to sleeping on an unfamiliar bed, or perhaps because his mind was still preoccupied with the upcoming selection trials, sleep came rather restlessly.
When Sang Nian woke up, dawn was just breaking, and the morning mist had yet to disperse.
Faint sounds of vendors chatting drifted up from the street. Small wooden carts loaded with goods rumbled heavily across the ground, and skylarks swept through the clouds, leaving behind a trail of crisp, clear chirps.
It wasn’t exactly noisy, but it wasn’t quiet either.
She rolled over and looked down at the young man sleeping on the floor.
He slept with rigid precision, his hands crossed over his chest, completely motionless.
Having forgotten to close the window the night before, a few strands of morning light fell unobstructed across his face, dampening his delicate, finely etched brows.
“Even in his sleep, he’s frowning,” Sang Nian muttered to herself.
Finding herself unable to fall back asleep, she simply got out of bed and tiptoed across the room to close the window.
She had only taken a single step when Xie Chenzhou snapped his eyes open and sprang up. In the blink of an eye, his sword flashed from its scabbard, pressing straight against her throat like a ferocious, predatory beast.
Sang Nian’s foot remained suspended mid-air: “…I was just trying to close the window.”
Coming to his senses, he withdrew his sword and heavily pressed his fingers against his temple.
With the window successfully shut, Sang Nian asked, “Are you always like this?”
Xie Chenzhou let out a soft hum, a faint trace of exhaustion bleeding through his brows.
“No wonder your temper is so terrible,” Sang Nian observed. “Very few people who sleep poorly have a good disposition.”
Xie Chenzhou raised his eyes, a half-smile playing on his lips:
“And yet you aren’t afraid of death? Provoking my anger at every turn.”
Sang Nian thought about it for a moment, then said sincerely:
“Then I’ll treat you better from now on. I won’t make you angry, and I’ll spoil you more.”
Xie Chenzhou scoffed in disdain:
“Empty words.”
Sang Nian looked right into his eyes:
“It’s pure sincerity.”
The two of them locked gazes. After a moment, Xie Chenzhou looked away and let out a low, dry laugh:
“Sincerity? I’ve never seen such a thing in my life.”
Sang Nian’s gaze was as clear as water:
“Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Time reveals a person’s true character—you’ll see in the future whether I’m sincere toward you or not.”
Xie Chenzhou tightly kneaded his knuckles, finding the whole notion utterly absurd.
The person who had once subjected him to every imaginable humiliation was now swearing up and down to offer him her sincerity.
How utterly… laughable.
What was even more laughable was that, for a single, fleeting second—
He had almost believed her.
Xie Chenzhou closed his eyes, his knuckles turning pale.
Useless creature.