After lying down for a little while, Liu Ziyi drowsily felt like falling asleep again.
It was also partly because watching the martial matches today had been far too exhausting, consuming a considerable amount of physical energy. Moreover, having barely eaten a few bites of food, his stomach seemed to be growling with hunger.
Even though he had already reached the Inedia stage and no longer needed to eat, his mouth simply could not let go of fine cuisine.
Yet he could not slip out right now, and the duck meat stored in his storage ring could not be gnawed on raw.
“Ah!”
Bored to death, Liu Ziyi let out a howl on the couch, abruptly sat up, put on his shoes, and walked over to the bookshelves outside the inner chamber. He wanted to flip through the ancient texts he had read last time, hoping to find some clues regarding the Gu insects.
Even though it had been eradicated and destroyed by Shen Zhuoqing the moment it reared its head, Liu Ziyi had still caught a glimpse of what the Gu insect looked like.
Acting on the principle of treating a dead horse as a living veterinarian, Liu Ziyi rummaged through the bookshelves in the outer chamber a few times, then sat down on a straw cushion amidst the messy piles of books to read.
It wasn’t as though his Master was harsh and failed to prepare a desk for him; it was simply that he only ever liked reading and never liked writing, so the desk had been pushed aside to make room. The vacated space was entirely filled with the books he had read, stacked categorically in the corners.
The bookshelves were also crammed to maximum capacity, filled entirely with exorbitant unique editions and rare volumes he had sweet-talked Young Master Qin into purchasing with spiritual stones whenever he sneaked down the mountain.
Yet aside from the ones Qin Xiaoyi bought with spiritual stones, there were also plenty packed up and sent over by his Master and Senior Brother.
They claimed that this was his sole refined hobby that could remotely live up to his courtesy name, Mingxiu.
Hours passed just like that.
Liu Ziyi flipped through the previous ancient text and actually found the Gu-removal incantation from before.
Following that, he noticed hidden handwritten annotations along the margin of that page. Having merely skimmed through it in a hurry last time, he had only memorized the long incantation and paid no attention to this neat handwriting.
[This incantation consists of a total of five hundred and sixty-seven characters. Mispronouncing even a single character will cause a backlash, thereby fueling the Gu’s malice instead.]
Reaching this point, Liu Ziyi felt a chill run down his back.
Recalling it now, he felt fortunate that he hadn’t messed up the incantation. Still, he had to thank his lucky stars that he hadn’t seen this line of characters back then, or else he wouldn’t have dared to act so rashly and step forward to pull out the Gu.
[This technique is used to remove low-tier Gu insects and is ineffective against high-tier ones.]
“Hm?”
Liu Ziyi frowned upon reading the next line. Ineffective against high-tier ones?
With such rapid onset and such ferocious toxicity, how could it possibly be a low-tier Gu insect?
Moreover, even though Junior Brother Pu Yue was the youngest, he had already reached the Foundation Establishment stage; how could he have been so easily harmed by a low-tier Gu insect to the point of almost losing his life?
Carrying this doubt, Liu Ziyi continued reading downward:
[If supplemented with demonic power, the strength of this incantation becomes incalculable.]
There were no more words after that, leaving only a few ink blots. The annotator had likely changed their mind and dropped the thought right after writing the previous sentence.
“Demon power?”
Liu Ziyi blinked, flipping back and forth through several pages, but found no other annotations. He finally closed the book, crossed his legs on the straw cushion, and propped up his chin to think.
So-called demonic power naturally corresponded to the spiritual energy nurtured by human cultivation; it was the power belonging to demonic entities. As for those evil cultivators who fell into the demonic path, they utilized demonic force.
Several hundred years ago, when the cultivation world was rich in spiritual energy, the number of demon cultivators was vast, evil cultivators were scattered everywhere, and human cultivators were the minority. Later on, after a heaven-shaking trial by fire, the number of demon cultivators plummeted to near extinction, followed by the prolonged duel between the righteous path and the demonic path.
To this day, the war between the demonic path and the righteous path has never truly stopped.
Their lair was located west of Luozhou, where Tianshuang Cliff sat, the Hidden Fog Demonic Prison beyond the barren lands, though the demonic cultivators called that place the Hidden Fog Realm.
Nowadays, spirits and demons were rarely seen, so where on earth would demonic power come from?
Here in Luozhou, the most famous spirit would be the old tree demon behind the Ends of the Earth Inn.
In this back mountain, there were only some muddled little sprites, still a far cry from actual demon cultivators.
Could it be?
Because he had previously been scratched and poisoned by a spirit plant?
Liu Ziyi raised his right hand and inspected it.
No conclusion could be drawn.
He couldn’t entirely trust the annotator, nor was it possible for him to go out and test it on a Gu insect right now.
Thinking back and forth, it was all Shen Zhuoqing’s fault for obliterating that Gu insect completely!
If he had known what kind of Gu it was, perhaps all these problems would have been readily resolved. After all, no matter how similar Gu insects were, they would still carry the residual aura of their breeder.
Just as he was thinking this, a knock sounded at the door.
Liu Ziyi looked toward the entrance. Through the cracks of the lattice window shone the warm yellow light of the setting sun, making him realize how late it had unexpectedly become.
Liu Ziyi stood up to open the door, immediately recognizing the black silhouette outside through the gap.
Naturally, it was the good senior brother he had just been cursing in his mind.
Shen Zhuoqing’s eyes carried a hint of a hidden smile, seeming quite pleased that Liu Ziyi had obediently stayed in his room without attempting to slip away. Yet, his expression remained calm as he lifted the rather substantial food box in his hand and said:
“You must be hungry. I asked someone to bring this over from Shiyun Pavilion; it should all be your favorites.”
Hearing this, Liu Ziyi indeed felt his mouth watering.
Yet, having only just started feeling angry again, how could he change his expression so quickly? He merely snorted in defiance: “Since when does Senior Brother know what I like to eat? Weren’t you always busy as can be?”
Without answering, Shen Zhuoqing simply pulled out the top tier of the food box and showed it to Liu Ziyi.
As soon as the food box layer was drawn out, steam billowed upward, and that enticing aroma instantly rushed into Liu Ziyi’s nose, traveling along his breath into his mouth as if he were already tasting the flavor of the White Dew duck.
Inside, there was even the faint fragrance of silk-skin bark.
It was precisely the modified dish Liu Ziyi had muttered about wanting to try the other day.
“Inside, you put…”
Liu Ziyi muttered subconsciously, a pair of bright black eyes lifting to look at Shen Zhuoqing. As if instantly forgetting his previous displeasure, he stepped aside at the doorway to let Shen Zhuoqing enter the room.
Taking a careful sniff, inside there was not only the silk-skin bark but also the aroma of Sichuan peppercorns. Just smelling the scent made it feel as though he were already biting into a tender, savory piece of duck meat dipped in Shiyun Pavilion’s special dipping sauce, and Liu Ziyi could eat an entire duck by himself!
Amused by his expression, Shen Zhuoqing pressed his lips together in smile, though it vanished in a flash.
Perhaps Liu Ziyi didn’t realize it, but he was always skilled at disguising and hiding his emotions in front of outsiders.
Only in front of Master Shen Qing and Senior Brother Shen Zhuoqing did he act like a child, so innocent that even “I am still mad at you” was written all over his face.
It was precisely because Shen Zhuoqing understood this sequence of emotional changes that he found it amusing and endearing.
“Come on, let’s go inside.”
With that, Shen Zhuoqing walked with Liu Ziyi into the inner chamber.
Come to think of it, Liu Ziyi found it rather strange too: why did Shen Zhuoqing seem more familiar with his room than he was?
Yet the moment those steaming dishes were placed on the table, Liu Ziyi abandoned further thought, immediately sitting down opposite Shen Zhuoqing and picking up the utensils the other had laid out for him.
Seeing him so eager to taste the food, Shen Zhuoqing could only shake his head helplessly.
It wasn’t until Liu Ziyi inadvertently put down his bowl that Shen Zhuoqing took it over to fill it with rice, then placed the bowl back down in front of Liu Ziyi.
Noticing this gesture, Liu Ziyi froze for two struggling seconds before whispering a quiet “Thank you, Senior Brother,” and then promptly shoving that long-awaited modified dish into his mouth.
Whoa!
It was just as delicious as he had imagined!
Liu Ziyi glanced at the remaining dishes; they were indeed all his favorite foods, though none of the spicy, stimulating dishes were present.
This caused his chewing motion to pause for a second as he lifted his gaze toward his senior brother.
“Hm?”
Shen Zhuoqing was sitting right beside him. Seeing him suddenly look over, he raised his eyes inquiringly, as if asking if he had any questions.
Liu Ziyi fell silent for a moment, suppressing the internal struggle between his indignation and his appetite, and replaced it with another question: “How did Senior Brother know I wanted to add this? And the Sichuan peppercorns…”
“Xiao-Liu said so, before going to the back mountain,” Shen Zhuoqing replied.
“Oh, is that so? I suppose I did mention it.”
Liu Ziyi recalled for a moment, though he couldn’t find the segment where he supposedly said it.
However, pinned down tightly by Shen Zhuoqing’s candid gaze, he felt it would be discourteous to use his chopsticks alone, so he invited:
“Would Senior Brother like to try some too?”
“But we only brought one pair of chopsticks,” Shen Zhuoqing said with feigned regret.
Bringing only a single pair of chopsticks was naturally intentional on Shen Zhuoqing’s part. In his previous life, he had tasted this White Dew duck flavor, but that time it had been personally cooked by Liu Ziyi, who had specially prepared an extra pair of chopsticks for him.
Liu Ziyi looked at his own chopsticks and, hearing Shen Zhuoqing say never mind, replied: “I know there’s only one pair; if Senior Brother minds, forget it.”
“I don’t mind,” Shen Zhuoqing immediately followed up.
Only then did Liu Ziyi smile and nod, tearing off a piece of duck meat and feeding it across to Shen Zhuoqing. Seeing Liu Ziyi finally reveal those two shallow, dimpled smiles once more, Shen Zhuoqing finally felt his mind settle somewhat.
It wasn’t until Shen Zhuoqing raised a hand to grip his wrist, opening his mouth to bite down on that piece of duck meat, that Liu Ziyi abruptly snapped back to reality:
He was feeding Shen Zhuoqing food!
Yet Shen Zhuoqing’s strength was no joke either, giving Liu Ziyi no chance to pull back even an inch as he bit down cleanly on that piece of duck meat, before finally releasing Liu Ziyi with curved brows and smiling eyes.
Liu Ziyi held back a breath of frustration, realizing that Shen Zhuoqing had done this on purpose. The anger that had just dissipated thanks to the special meal seemed to bubble right back up.
Silently watching Shen Zhuoqing finish savoring that mouthful of duck meat, he remarked: “If Xiao-Liu wishes to stay at Shiyun Pavilion and become a hall master in the future, that wouldn’t be bad either.”
“Then I’d probably be lectured by Senior Brother and Master for three days and three nights.”
Liu Ziyi muttered to himself.
As he turned back to continue eating, Liu Ziyi silently added a mental tally against Shen Zhuoqing in his heart.
Trying to bewitch me with food? No way!
He even grabbed my hand to feed him, unbelievable!
Once fully fed and satisfied, Shen Zhuoqing did not linger and took his leave.
Having eaten his fill, Liu Ziyi sat back down in the corner by the bookshelf, hugging the Xiliu sword as he muttered:
“Tell me, what on earth is Senior Brother planning?”
He had clearly resolved not to pay attention to his senior brother anymore, only to completely collapse in the face of fine food and delicacies!
“Have some backbone, Liu Ziyi…”
Muttering to himself, Liu Ziyi patted his satisfied stomach.
Tomorrow, tomorrow he would definitely demand a clear answer!
“Besides, maybe this meal was just a trick he pulled to fool me…”
Just as he was randomly speculating like this, the moment Liu Ziyi’s words trailed off, he suddenly felt the Xiliu sword in his arms vibrate.
A clear, ringing sound of a blade leaving its scabbard pierced his eardrums. Without any summons from him, Xiliu spontaneously drew itself from the sheath, tracing a bright blue arc in the air before hovering right in front of him.
“?”
“Xiliu? Did you finally come back to life?”
Liu Ziyi instinctively spoke to it.
Yet Xiliu, which usually responded with a cute, high-pitched baby voice, replied to him for the very first time with a young man’s clear, mellow timbre:
“Master, please trust Shen Zhuoqing. There is indeed something fishy about the matter of the Gu insect.”
Before Liu Ziyi could even voice his questions regarding Xiliu’s words, he was thoroughly stunned by the respectful address and the word “Master.”
“Xiliu, did you get soul-snatched by a demonic cultivator too?”