Under Shen Zhuoqing’s airtight barrier, Liu Ziyi managed to keep an hour of peace and quiet.
Next, he waited at the entrance of the martial arena, cheering on his junior brothers and junior sisters.
After all, since they were competing on their home turf, their momentum had to be fully displayed.
Seeing that Liu Ziyi seemed to have recovered his optimistic and cheerful self, Shen Zhuoqing, standing off to the side, felt slightly more at ease.
Last night he had relived the nightmare once again, closing his eyes only to be greeted by severed limbs and a mountain of corpses piled atop a sea of blood.
Shen Zhuoqing knew full well that his single strength was like a drop of water trying to put out a cartload of burning firewood, and the unspeakable truth would only make Liu Ziyi feel bewildered.
Whether being detested or being pushed away,
He only hoped that he truly could change something, Liu Ziyi, the Fuajian Sect, his father.
He never wanted to become an orphan left behind in this world all alone again.
Without the guidance of the Heavenly Dao, and without the aid of divine artifacts or rare treasures, the only things capable of making a change were his own pair of hands, alongside his vivid and profound memories.
“Ha?”
A youth’s cry of surprise interrupted Shen Zhuoqing’s train of thought. Lifting his gaze to look at Liu Ziyi, who was standing merely three meters away from him, he saw that the little fellow he constantly kept an eye on had already confronted Qin Xiaoyi right at the exit.
Qin Xiaoyi’s expression looked thoroughly unpleasant.
Liu Ziyi, who had cried out in surprise just then, wasn’t facing any major crisis; he was simply feeling perplexed by the arrangement of the martial assembly.
“You mean, this afternoon you have to fight that guy Chou Zaiqi?”
“Is there something wrong with that?”
It wasn’t that Liu Ziyi thought it was wrong, but deep down he felt rather worried.
This was Qin Xiaoyi’s first time participating in a large-scale sect martial assembly, and plenty of people up and down the sect had high expectations for him. However, if he ran into Chou Zaiqi right at the start, there was no telling whether he would still be able to participate in the grand competition tomorrow.
He might even get kicked out of the arena by Chou Zaiqi before the finals.
Though winning and losing were common matters, watching the two of them stand on the final battle stage was undoubtedly a scene everyone looked forward to.
Now that they had bumped into each other on the very first day, one of them was bound to be eliminated first. No matter how one looked at it, this boded no good for either Qin Xiaoyi or Chou Zaiqi.
As Liu Ziyi hesitated over whether to speak up, he saw Qin Xiaoyi before him crack a smile, as if knowing what he was worrying about, and patted his shoulder:
“Senior Brother Liu doesn’t need to worry, who wins and who loses is still anyone’s guess!”
“That’s true.”
Liu Ziyi crossed his arms, looking somewhat deflated. “Though my luck lately hasn’t been very good, I even overslept this morning.”
Injured by poisonous grass a few days ago, and now missing Qin Xiaoyi’s match. What kind of luck was this, one thing after another?
Seeing Liu Ziyi pouting his lips and looking rather unhappy, Qin Xiaoyi steered the topic away, pointing at his injured right hand: “Senior Brother Liu, is the injury on your hand doing well?”
Liu Ziyi held out his hand for inspection, catching a sidelong glimpse of Shen Zhuoqing approaching from the side, and sighed with emotion: “We owe it all to our Senior Brother; it was truly such a coincidence that he happened to harvest two medicinal herbs for the antidote, otherwise I might not even have been able to hold a sword anymore!”
That injured hand of his was promptly caught by Qin Xiaoyi standing before him, who cradled it in his palms, turning it over to examine it up and down for a moment before nodding upon seeing it had mostly healed.
Before he could speak, however, he was interrupted by another voice.
“Even though the wound has already healed now, you should still be more careful.”
Although Shen Zhuoqing wore a smile on his face, his gaze turned bone-chillingly cold as he looked at the hands of the two overlapping together.
Lifting his eyes to meet that noticeably chilly gaze, Qin Xiaoyi paused for a moment before finally letting go of Liu Ziyi.
Only after putting some distance between himself and Liu Ziyi did he feel the chill radiating from Shen Zhuoqing gradually subside.
Yet Liu Ziyi, caught right in the middle of this scene, remained completely oblivious. He merely drew back his hand on his own accord, crossed his arms again, and chimed in with an innocent, bright smile and a sweet tone:
“Senior Brother, I’ll be careful.”
With that, he stepped closer, seemingly to protect Qin Xiaoyi, or perhaps moving out of an unintended gesture, completely blocking Shen Zhuoqing’s gaze from reaching Qin Xiaoyi, before continuing:
“Look, the spot that burst open yesterday has healed too.”
He was referring precisely to the wound that had been pressed open by Shen Zhuoqing the moment Liu Ziyi woke up yesterday.
His tone was brisk, making yesterday’s incident sound like mere water under the bridge. Qin Xiaoyi, standing behind Liu Ziyi, naturally sensed nothing amiss, though he caught a glimpse of Shen Zhuoqing freezing in place right in front of Liu Ziyi.
Because only from Shen Zhuoqing’s perspective could one see that Xiao-Liu’s smile did not reach his eyes, and even the sweet little dimples at the corners of his lips were merely a faint trace.
Sensitive, good at disguising, knowing precisely when to make the other person raise their guard.
His Xiao-Liu was getting smarter by the day.
Exchanging a gaze with those eyes that seemed to say I haven’t forgotten, you better not forget either, Shen Zhuoqing simply smiled, completely unfazed that Xiao-Liu, having caught a glimpse of the truth, was baring his fangs at him.
He raised a hand to stroke the stray strands of hair by Liu Ziyi’s temple, his fingertips brushing casually past the ear as he whispered softly: “That’s good.”
“Is Xiao-Liu hungry? Would you like to go to Shiyun Pavilion to grab a bite?”
Seeing that Shen Zhuoqing’s expression remained as usual, Liu Ziyi didn’t bring up last night’s matter any further.
He merely felt his hair stand on end at this inexplicably tender attitude.
He had gone to the back mountain yesterday and gotten into trouble, and now out of the blue, he was proposing a trip to Shiyun Pavilion?
Liu Ziyi had no idea what medicine he was selling in his gourd, but he spoke up anyway: “Alright, is Senior Brother paying in spiritual stones?”
“Naturally.”
Hearing this, Liu Ziyi raised an eyebrow, turned around, and looked at Qin Xiaoyi: “Junior Brother Xiaoyi, are you hungry? Want to come along?”
Heh heh, if he brought one more person along, it would surely disrupt Shen Zhuoqing’s plan.
Taken aback by the sudden question, Qin Xiaoyi was about to accept. But feeling the weight of Shen Zhuoqing’s gaze landing on him, he shook his head instead, looking at Liu Ziyi with an apologetic expression:
“Master said I have to return straight to Youning Valley as soon as the tournament ends, so I’m afraid I won’t be able to accompany Senior Brother Liu.”
Liu Ziyi furrowed his brows inwardly, though outwardly he still laughed with a hint of regret:
“Is that so, never mind then. The martial tournament is so exhausting, Xiaoyi, you should go back and get a good rest.”
As the primary instigator behind Qin Xiaoyi’s confinement, it wasn’t his place to push further, so he simply bid farewell to Qin Xiaoyi.
If this one wouldn’t do, he’d just rope in someone else.
With that thought, Liu Ziyi turned his head to look at the flock of blade cultivators over there who were already preparing to head down the mountain.
They were none other than Chou Zaiqi’s fellow sect brothers and sisters.
Casting his gaze into the crowd, he saw the single-eyed blade fanatic cast a single glance at him before turning away with his long blade strapped to his back, leading the others down the mountain path without the slightest intention of staying behind.
Hence, Liu Ziyi hurriedly called out:
“Chou Zaiqi!”
His voice carried across the crowd, immediately drawing attention.
Seemingly not expecting Liu Ziyi to call out to him, Chou Zaiqi paused in his steps and turned back to look at him.
The clueless junior brothers and sisters beside him wore varied expressions, though all of them cleared a path for Liu Ziyi as he jogged over, their curious gazes darting back and forth between the two of them.
A portion of those gazes also landed on Shen Zhuoqing, who was trailing silently behind Liu Ziyi like a ghost, only to be greeted by a warm, jade-like smile in return.
“Are you heading back already?” Liu Ziyi asked.
He tried his best to make his tone sound friendly, after all, he still wasn’t sure whether this fellow had dropped his anger.
“Mn. The climate difference between Luozhou and Zhongzhou is too large, staying in this freezing place for too long makes them uncomfortable. It’ll be better at the inn.”
To his surprise, Chou Zaiqi gave an honest, earnest explanation.
He didn’t look like he was still holding onto whatever happened earlier.
So Liu Ziyi broke into a smile again, “Then why don’t you have your junior brothers and sisters come with us to Shiyun Pavilion? We’re having Golden Velvet Herb nourishing soup today, oh. Drinking two bowls can even warm you up!”
Upon hearing this, Chou Zaiqi likely wanted to refuse, but the junior brothers and sisters beside him immediately cheered in agreement the moment they heard it:
“Is what Senior Liu said true! I’d love to try the soup here!”
“Senior Brother, can we go?”
“Can we? Can we?”
Seeing that these high-and-mighty blade-carrying kids were actually so lively, Liu Ziyi relaxed as well.
With a helpless sigh, Chou Zaiqi nodded, “Let’s go, just remember not to disturb the other disciples once we get to Shiyun Pavilion.”
With his plan successful, Liu Ziyi watched as Chou Zaiqi consciously changed direction to lead the way, nodding appreciatively at his retreating back: “You actually still remember the way, not bad.”
“Tsk.”
A single response drifted out from the cold wind, dissipating shortly after.
Liu Ziyi and Shen Zhuoqing, lagging a short distance behind the tail end of the group, slowly paced along to keep up.
Noticing that Shen Zhuoqing still hadn’t said anything yet, Liu Ziyi felt rather puzzled. Could it be that Shen Zhuoqing wasn’t planning anything at all?
Or were all these people he invited part of her plan all along?
Did those divination Taoists in the Qinghong Realm give Shen Zhuoqing some sort of secret treasure capable of predicting the future?
That’s impossible; if such a good item existed, the entire cultivation world would probably run red with blood, and the Taoists would surely risk their lives to hide it.
Just as Liu Ziyi was harboring all sorts of suspicions toward the Shen Zhuoqing walking beside him, he suddenly heard a soft call brush past his ear:
“Xiao-Liu, come here.”
The voice was very low, inaudible to the people ahead, slipping exclusively into Liu Ziyi’s sole ear: “Hold this.”
The habit remained ingrained; he never dropped his guard against Shen Zhuoqing, instinctively taking whatever object the other handed over. It was only when it landed in his palm that he realized it was a piece of warm jade.
Warm jade was inherently a fine article for nurturing and nourishing the body; the moment it touched his palm, it began channeling spiritual energy toward his fingertips and meridians, directing it straight to his entire hand, precisely guiding away the warming spell that had congealed near his wound.
He hadn’t noticed that the skin around his wound had practically gone numb from the cold; if not for the gauze wrapping it, he probably wouldn’t have discovered it until the next time he changed his dressing.
Suddenly receiving care from the very person he had been racking his brains to suspect just moments ago, Liu Ziyi found himself uncharacteristically ill at ease.
He had no face to shove the warm jade back, so he simply clutched it tightly in his palm and muttered a quiet “Thank you, Senior Brother.”
Shen Zhuoqing’s voice reached his ear, and Liu Ziyi heard Shen Zhuoqing say:
“Rest assured, we are simply going out for a meal.”
So, how on earth did this guy manage to guess even this?!
Liu Ziyi inexplicably felt the warm jade grow scorching hot. Turning his head to cast a sideways, stealthy glance, he was caught red-handed by the other party.
“I didn’t say anything.”
I was just suspecting you in my mind.
Liu Ziyi thought this with a guilty conscience.
Yet Shen Zhuoqing dropped a sentence right beside his ear that was enough to make Liu Ziyi’s train of thought snap short: “Xiao-Liu indeed didn’t say anything.”
“It’s just that everything was written all over your face.”
Liu Ziyi abruptly clenched the piece of jade tighter, turning his head to look at Shen Zhuoqing. Shen Zhuoqing’s expression remained as usual, his smile merely a fraction higher at the corners than usual, yet it sent a sudden chill creeping up the back of Liu Ziyi’s neck.
His intuition told him that Shen Zhuoqing wasn’t referring to this matter at all.
That horrifying, chilling sensation of being seen through, pierced right through, and dissected open once more surged up Liu Ziyi’s spine, identical to yesterday when he realized Shen Zhuoqing had been able to anticipate the exact feeling of being injured by the Thousand-Fathom herb.