“…Brother Peacock!”
Her heart instantly settled back into place, and Mo Xiaoxing lunged forward, hugging the man’s thigh.
“Is it really you, Brother Peacock? Woooooo, the world outside is so terrifying! You don’t know how miserable I was. I just ran into two bad people, and they were two-on-one against me! I almost died!”
Mo Xiaoxing was crying for real, and she was crying quite miserably.
She knew she couldn’t be cowardly, and she had forced herself to stay calm after killing those two cultivators, but the moment she saw the White Peacock, she truly couldn’t hold it together anymore!
Perhaps it was because the White Peacock was so incredibly strong that cultivators at the Qi Refining stage were beneath his notice.
Even though she had already dealt with the threat, seeing the White Peacock gave her such an overwhelming sense of security that the tightly coiled spring of her nerves suddenly snapped.
The man looked down, observing the child who was hugging his thigh and sobbing uncontrollably… He seemed a bit bewildered.
He moved his leg, but the child held on tighter, sliding forward a bit along with his movement.
“…”
“Child, stop crying.”
Mo Xiaoxing didn’t listen; instead, she cried even louder.
When a person is crying, if no one pays them any mind, they eventually stop; but if someone does, the tears become unstoppable…
The man had no choice but to wait for a while.
Only when Mo Xiaoxing’s sobbing quieted slightly did he say, “They were two against one, and then?”
Mo Xiaoxing sobbed, “Then, then…”
The man said, still in his indifferent, leisurely tone, “Then you killed them?”
Mo Xiaoxing nodded her head.
The man chuckled.
Mo Xiaoxing couldn’t help but look up. “What are you laughing at?”
The man lowered his gaze to look at her. “I am laughing because they didn’t die unjustly, yet they still have someone to mourn for them.”
Mo Xiaoxing instantly realized that the one “mourning” was her.
“I’m not mourning them! I’m crying because… I don’t even know what I’m crying for…”
The man grabbed Mo Xiaoxing’s arm and hauled her up to her feet.
“You are crying because this is the first time you’ve killed someone. You are crying because you know it won’t be the last. You are crying because you want to reach the heights, and to do so, you must step upon such corpses, piled high in heaps.”
With tears still clinging to her lashes, Mo Xiaoxing stared blankly at the man, speechless.
Because it seemed the White Peacock had hit the mark on every count.
The man suddenly pushed at the space between her brows again.
“Child, if you intend to cultivate, you will encounter all sorts of people. Survival of the fittest—the sooner you understand this, the better. Someone as silly as you is very easily targeted.”
Mo Xiaoxing rubbed her forehead. Although she didn’t feel silly, she didn’t refute him because, after hearing the White Peacock’s words, she felt much lighter.
“Brother Peacock, why are you still at the Everlasting Sect?”
“I am wherever I wish to be.”
Mo Xiaoxing narrowed her eyes and stared at the man. “Brother Peacock, you aren’t up to something devious, are you?”
The man narrowed his eyes as well. “What kind of devious things could I be up to?”
Mo Xiaoxing subconsciously glanced left and right, then lowered her voice and leaned in closer to the man, acting rather sneaky.
“For instance, are you here to steal something? Or do you have some other plot? And you haven’t succeeded yet, so you’ve been lingering here?”
The man’s expression turned peculiar. This child’s imagination was truly absurd.
“What if I said yes? What would you do?”
A look of “I knew it” appeared in Mo Xiaoxing’s eyes. She said, “I advise you to leave quickly! My Master has already returned to the mountain. If he discovers you, he will definitely not spare you!”
“And how would he not spare me?”
Seeing that he showed no sign of fear, Mo Xiaoxing intentionally tried to scare him: “My Master will definitely beat you back into your original form, pluck out all your feathers, and set you over a fire to make roasted peacock!”
The man’s hair stood on end all over his body! He shuddered slightly.
Even if he wasn’t afraid, hearing about his feathers being plucked made him subconsciously nervous.
A pair of clear eyes suddenly gazed at Mo Xiaoxing with an ominous, chilling glint.
“Child, I think you are looking for a beating.”
Mo Xiaoxing lifted her chin without an ounce of fear.
“Why would you beat me? It’s not like I’m the one who wants to turn you into a roasted peacock—it’s my Master! To be honest, my Master is an incredibly vain person with a highly jealous nature. If he saw feathers as beautiful as yours, he would definitely pluck you bald and make a peacock cloak for himself!”
“Vain? Highly jealous? Pluck bald?”
The man repeated the words one by one, as if they were being squeezed out through gritted teeth.
Mo Xiaoxing continued, quite pleased with herself. “Yes, now do you know how terrifying it is? So I advise you to put away your devious schemes and head down the mountain quickly!”
The man was still grinding his teeth. “You certainly care quite a lot about your sect.”
Mo Xiaoxing frowned. “I care about you too! One side is my sect, the other side is Brother Peacock—I’m stuck in the middle, it’s very difficult, you know.”
The man walked forward a few steps and stood with his back to the cliff, letting the cold wind blow over him.
After a long while, the man said, “I heard some gossip in the sect, saying you were so infatuated with the Crown Prince of the Demonic Sect that you betrayed your sect, which is why you were confined to the back mountain. Yet, now you are siding with the sect?”
“That wasn’t me at all…”
She wanted to argue her case; after all, it didn’t matter what others said, but the White Peacock was the first person she had met here, and she didn’t want him to think that way about her.
However, since he had already heard it, what was the point of explaining? She couldn’t tell him that Mo Xiaoxing and Qin Yu were two different matters…
She shifted the tone. “Who hasn’t made a small mistake? I have mended my ways now, is that not allowed?”
“It is allowed.”
The man replied quickly, but then he added, “I’m just curious, what charm does the Crown Prince of the Demonic Sect have that he could leave you so infatuated?”
Mo Xiaoxing scratched her head.
“That… is hard to say. Maybe I was just possessed by a ghost.”
The man turned around to look at Mo Xiaoxing. “If the Crown Prince of the Demonic Sect didn’t find you useful, you would have been dead long ago.”
“Child, beauty can also kill.”
Mo Xiaoxing nodded obediently.
“Then Brother Peacock, do you never use your hands to kill, but only your beauty?”
Upon hearing this, the man was highly pleased.
“It seems your eyes are not blind. You were indeed possessed by a ghost before.”
Mo Xiaoxing gave a cooperative, silly laugh.
“After all this talk, Brother Peacock, when are you finally leaving the Everlasting Sect? Where are you going? Will we be able to meet again?”
The man was just about to speak when he suddenly glanced at the mountain path.
“Someone is coming.”
Mo Xiaoxing took a look as well. When she turned back, a white shadow flickered—the White Peacock had already left!
“Why do you always leave so fast!”
The next second, a figure landed on the edge of the cliff on a flying sword.
A Taoist robe with cloud patterns and fine silk, long hair tied high, and striking, expressive features. He possessed a fiery, imposing presence that was so strong it was impossible to ignore.
Nanshan Lie looked at Mo Xiaoxing, his brow furrowed. “What are you doing here?”
Mo Xiaoxing looked at him, subconsciously wanting to retreat.
How could I run into Nanshan Lie!
That day, the Eldest Senior Brother was present, so she dared to talk back to the Second Senior Brother. Now, the Eldest Senior Brother was gone, and she had already infuriated Nanshan Lie quite a bit previously.
Was he here to settle the score?
“I’m just… blowing in the wind here. What are you here for?”