Xiao Nian smiled and said, “Don’t worry, next time I won’t give you another chance like this.”
Shu Chen didn’t take the male lead’s duplicity to heart. While concealing the spirit artifact, an idea struck him, and he transformed it into a style he liked.
The cold touch still lingered as Xiao Nian reached for his neck, where something was indeed still there.
He looked up, his voice dark and brooding. “Are you messing with me?”
Shu Chen took a step back, admiring his own handiwork. The silver collarbone chain suited the male lead perfectly.
“Changed my mind on the spot. Wasn’t planning to mess with you.”
Xiao Nian channeled all his fury into his hands, trying to snap the chain. He was strong, and the chain quickly rubbed a red ring of marks around his neck.
Shu Chen let out a soft “tsk.” “I told you, you can’t take it off. Why hurt yourself?”
Xiao Nian, already seething with rage, snapped, “Put a dog chain on you and see if you can stay calm then.”
Shu Chen frowned. “What dog chain?”
How had his proudest work become a dog chain?
His art was too ahead of its time in the mortal world, such chains were only used to leash dogs, so it wasn’t really Xiao Nian’s fault for disparaging his work like that.
Realizing he couldn’t break the chain, Xiao Nian clenched his fist and swung again.
This time, Shu Chen was also carrying some anger over his “masterpiece” being slandered, so instead of subduing the male lead immediately, he opted for a brawl to drag out the fight.
The male lead was thoroughly enraged, cursing as he threw punches. “You little freak, you’re the one who deserves a dog chain.”
The progression-style male lead’s setting was invincible at the same realm, occasionally even killing above his level, but the gap between him and a cultivator’s second-generation heir like Shu Chen was too vast. At this stage, he was destined to be crushed.
Shu Chen blocked the male lead’s fist. “Shut up.”
If you’re going to fight, fight no need for the mouth to run wild too.
Xiao Nian got fired up and deliberately said things to provoke him.
Fortunately, Shu Chen had the foresight to set up a barrier when closing the door, muffling the sound. Otherwise, who knew what those two in the same courtyard would spread about them.
Just as they were tangled on the ground trading blows, a deafening explosion rang out from outside. Both instinctively froze.
Shu Chen halted in place he’d heard his master’s name.
Xiao Nian snapped back to reality first, pinning the careless youth down by the throat and grinning recklessly. “I win.”
Shu Chen pressed his lips together. The male lead was too smug he was starting to get on his nerves.
Xiao Nian pressed his palm against the youth’s Adam’s apple, threatening, “Take this thing off.”
The suffocation slowly set in. It wasn’t enough to kill a cultivator, but it was uncomfortable.
Shu Chen stared at him steadily, displeasure written on his face.
He hadn’t achieved his goal, but Xiao Nian felt a surge of satisfaction in that moment the little freak’s face finally wasn’t stuck in that unchanging cold indifference.
Xiao Nian’s tone was smug. “Or.”
Before he could finish, the world flipped upside down. The water he’d released was reeled back in by Shu Chen. Pulling a rope from his storage ring, Shu Chen tied the male lead to the leg of the tea table in a few quick moves.
“I’ll come find you again next time.”
With that, he got up and left without a second glance. The moment he stepped out the door, he heard the sound of wood snapping behind him.
Shu Chen glanced at the sky. It was still early he could probably come back tonight to play with the male lead again.
The explosion had come from outside the sect. By the time Shu Chen arrived, the Sword Peak Master, his Third Senior Uncle, was already locked in battle with a man in red robes. Not far off stood another man in red.
The gatekeepers deftly shoved the disciples who’d poured out to watch the commotion back inside the sect.
Things weren’t going as he’d expected. Shu Chen lost any interest in spectating. Without waiting for the gatekeepers to shoo him off, he turned and headed back.
Going to find the male lead now would just give him a chance to mock his earlier slip-up, so Shu Chen could only head back to his own peak.
He walked slowly. By the time he reached his residence, the fight outside was already over and the participants had flown over.
As he turned around, he came face-to-face with the three who had just arrived.
“Who are you? How dare you appear on Baili Peak?” the man who’d been fighting his Third Senior Uncle demanded.
Shu Chen shot back, “This is my home. Why shouldn’t I be here?”
The man narrowed his eyes, his tone dangerous. “Your home? This Lord hasn’t been here for a few days, and someone dares to exploit the gap.”
He looked Shu Chen up and down with contempt. “What are you? Your scent is disgusting.”
Shu Chen returned the cold stare. “Right back at you. You’re pretty foul too.” The fire essence wafting off him made him nauseous.
Ling Guang hadn’t expected him to talk back. He flipped his hand, gathering spiritual energy into a devastating strike aimed at the man before him.
The other man in red, clearly his companion, hurried forward to stop him. “Big Brother, don’t fight.”
The Sword Peak Master glanced ahead, lowered his hand that had been gathering spiritual power, and stood silently in place, clad in black.
The next moment, this living heat source that disgusted Shu Chen was hurled off the Nameless Peak, vanishing from sight in an instant.
With one dealt with, Baili Qinglan’s gaze, devoid of warmth, fell on the other man.
Chi Dan quickly waved his hands. “I’m different from my brother. I’m harmless.”
Baili Qinglan didn’t want to hear his explanations. With a casual flick of his hand, he sent him flying to land beside Ling Guang, who had been frozen into an ice sculpture.
Climbing up from the ground and seeing his brother turned into a frozen ice bird, Chi Dan wasted no time wrapping the ice-encased figure in flames.
How pitiful inside there, he couldn’t even save himself.
After dismissing the uninvited guest, Baili Qinglan turned to face his disciple. “You…”
For some reason, after uttering that single word, he trailed off.
Shu Chen waited a moment, then, reading the situation, replied, “Thank you, Master. Your disciple is unharmed.”
Though the man’s expression revealed nothing, Shu Chen felt that after he finished speaking, his master seemed to let out a subtle sigh of relief.
Baili Qinglan handed him a water-attribute magical treasure without saying another word. “He was originally here for me.”
Shu Chen understood he had been caught in the crossfire, and his master was offering compensation.
When an elder bestows a gift, one must not refuse. Shu Chen accepted the treasure, and when he looked up again, the Sword Peak’s master had already vanished.
At the foot of Nameless Peak, Chidan, who was in the middle of thawing out his brother, showed little reaction as the black-robed man approached. In the next moment, the two brothers were bundled up and tossed into the woods outside the Tianyan Sect.
Having been thrown down twice in less than an hour, Chidan resignedly picked himself up from the ground and continued thawing out his immobile brother beside him.
There was no helping it they were born with an innate aversion to water. Carrying a block of ice all the way back would be the death of him.
He had no idea how his brother had fallen for Baili Qinglan, whose attribute countered his own. Every time his brother got beaten, he was dragged along to collect the body. Fortunately, no one was around.
As the male lead, Xiao Nian was often guided by fate to do things that were unexpected yet perfectly reasonable.
Chidan instinctively stepped in front of Ling Guang, trying to protect what little dignity his brother had left here at the Tianyan Sect.
Xiao Nian ignored them and walked forward calmly.
Taking this path was shorter than going down the main road, and besides, turning back now would only look more suspicious.
Chidan’s gaze involuntarily fell on the collarbone chain around Xiao Nian’s neck. Clearly, he too was a native of this world, and he couldn’t help but let out a laugh.
Xiao Nian silently cursed the little pervert in his heart once more, then looked past him and said, “That one’s about to die.”
After devouring the remnant soul, he had become especially sensitive to ghostly aura. In his eyes, that block of ice was emitting wisps of deathly energy.