The distress spirit bird released by Fu Yun had attracted an uninvited guest.
Xie Yun did not look at Fu Yun. Instead, he bent down slightly and picked up the wooden branch that had fallen to the ground.
Then, with a soft crack.
He actually snapped the branch, which was harder than refined steel, into two pieces and casually tossed them aside.
“It’s been ten years, Fifth Senior Brother. Your elegance has only grown,” Xie Yun said with a smile, standing precisely where Fu Yun had buried the body. “Your methods of killing remain just as impressive.”
Fu Yun’s expression remained unchanged. “You flatter me, Junior Brother. My cultivation is weak. I merely relied on a few defensive artifacts bestowed by our master to barely survive.”
The system belatedly screamed, “The protagonist definitely saw you kill and search the soul! Will he report you?!”
“He won’t,” Fu Yun replied. “Because he’s done the same thing.”
One night ten years ago, Xie Yun was preparing to break through to the Golden Core stage when several disciples who often bullied him came to “visit.” Naturally, they were defeated, but Xie Yun’s breakthrough failed as a result.
Xie Yun searched their souls and discovered that they had received a voice transmission message revealing the time and place of his breakthrough.
Xie Yun had only told one person about these matters.
All of this was personally recounted by Xie Yun to Fu Yun the very next day.
[I am grateful for your care over the past year, Senior Brother. Though it wasn’t sincere, I still benefited greatly.] Xie Yun cut his robe to sever their ties. Finally, leaning in close, he whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear
[The next time we meet, I will kill you.]
Ten years later, the boy had grown into a young man handsome, cheerful, and understanding, which only made Fu Yun despise him more. The pressure of Nascent Soul realm spiritual power bore down on Fu Yun, rendering him immobile.
Xie Yun wore his usual smile, but his eyes were pitch black, his eyelids deep-set, and the reflection of a crescent moon’s pale gray in his pupils had nothing to do with cheerfulness.
It perfectly matched the image Fu Yun held of him in his mind.
Yet Xie Yun was hypocritical. How could he easily reveal his identity when coming to kill his own senior brother?
But regardless of whether the Xie Yun before him was real or fake, Fu Yun no longer had the strength to resist a Nascent Soul cultivator.
Xie Yun asked, “Fifth Senior Brother, have you decided how you want to die?”
The tip of his sword lifted Fu Yun’s chin, drawing a thin line of blood. Fu Yun’s complexion was even paler than the blade.
Fu Yun tilted his head slightly, avoiding the sword’s edge, and smiled sincerely. “Little Junior Brother, what if I give you Xie Lingjun’s sword tassel and you spare me?”
Xie Yun watched Fu Yun. Even facing the sword, this man remained smiling and stood tall. The Fifth Senior Brother from Xie Yun’s memories, whose face was blurred but whose nature was venomous, actually had some backbone.
Xie Yun felt a rare flicker of curiosity. “Senior Brother is a man of grace. Why did you always want to harm me ten years ago?”
“Because you were in the way,” Fu Yun said.
“Whether it’s Xie Yun, Wang Yun… or even Fu Yun, anyone who blocks my path should disappear.”
Xie Yun said, “How extreme. And reasonable.”
Their smiles were eerily similar cold and detached. Spiritual power surged from all directions, and mist slowly gathered. The tension was palpable, ready to erupt at any moment
Fu Yun fixed his gaze on the protagonist’s shoulders and, the moment they twitched, scattered an unknown powder.
The powder dissolved, merging into the darkness and the white mist.
Xie Yun actually faltered for a moment, but his sword energy did not stop, piercing through Fu Yun’s body.
Yet Fu Yun’s lips slowly curved upward.
His eyes were moist and bright, like a dewdrop clinging to the edge of a flower’s calyx, ready to fall at any moment and transform into a spirit to escape.
Xie Yun’s pupils contracted slightly.
His sword had not felt the solid resistance of flesh, nor had any blood sprayed after the penetration. Instead, it was Xie Yun whose blood surged upward.
At the same moment, Fu Yun’s body shattered.
All that remained on the ground was a grass puppet, torn to shreds by the sword energy. A talisman paper was pasted on its face, drawn with a comical smile, as if mocking this “earth-shattering sword strike.”
“Puppetry.” The faint, composed smile on Xie Yun’s face melted away like thin ice under the sun.
Puppets could serve as substitutes for death and rebound attacks this was a technique from the Nine Streams Path, recorded in Taiyi’s library.
But few inner disciples practiced it. First, a puppet required a wisp of the user’s soul to be infused into it. If attacked, the master’s soul would also suffer injuries. With so many protective spiritual treasures available, there was no need to use such a technique with severe backlash.
Second, the rebound effect was rather useless. It required matching talismans with complex patterns, demanding a single, smooth stroke of uniform thickness.
Had Fu Yun truly mastered such an obscure technique to the point of deception, even briefly fooling him?
No, it wasn’t just the puppet’s effect. Xie Yun stared at the surrounding mist.
This fog was problematic it could actually shake his soul.
For cultivators, the soul was far more important than the physical body. Xie Yun had the protection of his elders and had always focused on tempering his own soul. The strength of his consciousness far surpassed that of his peers, rivaling even those who had just entered the Great Ascension stage. Yet this fog could affect him?
Xie Yun had only used thirty percent of his strength in that sword strike. The soul within the puppet remained unbroken. Just as he was about to crush it, his hand suddenly felt empty
The puppet melted into water, seeping through his fingers.
Only two things remained. One was a note, written in elegant, delicate calligraphy: “Wait for me.”
A low chuckle escaped Xie Yun’s throat. Though the meaning was clearly “Wait for me to kill you,” it was written like a friendly promise…
The other was a sword tassel, which fell to the ground. Xie Yun flicked it with the tip of his foot, and it returned to his hand. At a glance, it was indeed Xie Lingjun’s.
The puppet had left Xie Yun one final gift a handful of sticky grass debris, as if laughing, “Xie Yun, oh Xie Yun, you wanted to be the oriole behind the mantis, but ended up with blood on your hands.”
Xie Yun pointed like a sword, piercing through his palm.
Blood gushed out as he pressed the grass fragments and mud deep into the wound, bit by bit.
Intense pain surged through him.
He would remember this.
“Side Quest One is complete.”
In another part of the dense forest, Fu Yun was healing his injuries. He had managed to escape by relying on three things: the flower mist, the puppet, and his ability to bend without breaking he had fled the moment Xie Yun struck.
With Side Quest One completed, the system felt no joy, as if mourning a great loss.
“Why did the protagonist, who hadn’t killed you in ten years, suddenly take action tonight?” It had thought the protagonist held some goodwill, or at least a favorable impression, toward Fu Yun.
“Because it’s troublesome,” Fu Yun replied. “For the past ten years, I’ve been within the sect. Killing me would have been too troublesome. But this time, I walked right into it.”
The system struggled to believe that its “little sun” could harbor such thoughts.
Yet the protagonist had indeed tried to kill him.
The system reported truthfully to the main system, questioning for the first time the feasibility of pursuing the protagonist.
Fu Yun, however, was not surprised at all. He had known ten years ago that the protagonist was essentially the same kind of person as him hypocritical to the core, feigning grace and composure.
Back then, Fu Yun had been tasked by his master to look after his junior brother. Though not a good person, he was still human enough not to bully a child.
Xie Yun was skilled at crying knowing when to sob aloud and when to hold back tears, pretending to be stubborn. This was what Fu Yun had observed and summarized over a month.
Fu Yun despised tears, and he despised Xie Yun even more.
Xie Yun was clever, sensing that Fifth Senior Brother wasn’t swayed by such tactics, so he only put on a smiling face in front of him. Finally, one day, Fu Yun was moved: “When you fake a smile, remember to curve your eyes a little too.”
At that time, he held a sliver of sincerity, but even more, he was consumed by overwhelming jealousy.
Xie Yun was merely a Five Spiritual Roots cultivator, yet his training received the personal attention of the sect master. Qing Sheng frequently returned to the sect in his avatar form, just to inquire about his little disciple’s progress.
They were both disciples of Qing Sheng. Why couldn’t the master, while always keeping an eye on the protagonist, spare a glance for Fu Yun as well?
Fu Yun tormented the protagonist, condoned bullying, hoping the master would scold him and then teach him properly. Unfortunately, Fu Yun overestimated his own importance and underestimated Qing Sheng’s concern for the protagonist.
After his malice was exposed, Qing Sheng said nothing, only never met with Fu Yun alone again.
Fu Yun was forgotten by Qing Sheng and the Qing Sheng Hall.
Ten years passed, and even the protagonist forgot about this senior brother of his, but he remembered to wear that smile, becoming the “sun” among the younger generation.
Fu Yun sneered, pulling at his strained muscles. He cursed under his breath, “Damn Xie Yun,” before finally calming down.
He then went back to repairing his precious puppet.
Xie Yun had underestimated his opponent and hadn’t used his full strength, allowing the puppet’s soul to remain intact, which Fu Yun could now reclaim.
Fu Yun inspected the puppet, feeling both disgust and satisfaction it indeed bore traces of Xie Yun’s sword intent, which reeked terribly.
Fu Yun stored the puppet in his storage pouch.
The deeper one’s sword cultivation, the longer the sword intent lingered. On a massive boulder at the entrance of the Taiyi Sect’s mountain gate, there was a sword scar that had lasted a hundred years, left by Sword Sovereign Chu Wuchun.
The System: “What are you stealing the protagonist’s sword intent for?”
Fu Yun: “To prove that the protagonist and I are deeply connected, making Xie Lingjun willingly step aside. After defeating the harem, I’ll take my rightful place.”
For some reason, the System felt no joy at all, just an overwhelming urge to vomit.
Fu Yun was very interested in the hallucinogenic pollen and wandered through the forest, subduing several small vine demons, forcing them to release all their pollen before knocking them all unconscious.
Fu Yun tried to tie them tightly together to prevent them from tracking him by scent later.
At first, he tied meticulous, tight knots, but there were too many vine hands. After tying over a dozen knots, Fu Yun looked at the tangled mess and muttered to himself, “Forget it, formalism is pointless.”
So he switched to tying bows, his fingers flying swiftly and smoothly. The System watched with pride: As expected of my host, capable of both killing and robbing, and even tying up demons!
Fu Yun flicked his sleeves, leaving behind only a field of “butterflies” chirping and squeaking.
Using the illusionary mist, talismans, and dense forest as cover, Fu Yun made his way back near the campsite but didn’t approach.
He planned to seize the opportunity to leave the team, secretly follow Xie Yun, and wait for the core of the secret realm to open before swooping in for the spoils, all while plotting a sneak attack on Xie Yun.
But when he reached the campsite, it was completely empty.
All he saw was a vast expanse of thick fog and signs of a struggle.
The System exclaimed excitedly: “New plot unlocked.”
“Earlier, it was mentioned that Xie Lingjun and Xie Yun confirmed their relationship during this secret realm expedition,” the System explained. “The full version is that the Hehuan Sect ambushed the team, and both members of the Xie family fell under a charm technique, tumbling into the core of the secret realm together.”
Fu Yun understood: “So they started having a wild time.”
The System: “You’re so crude.”
Fu Yun pondered: “I wonder if they’d mind adding one more to the mix.”