Wuji Sect, Lingxiao Hall.
Sect Master Su Xiaofeng had been busy these past few days preparing for the sect’s grand tournament.
Today he finally had some free time, and he planned to check his daughter’s cultivation progress.
Yet to his surprise, the place where she usually cultivated was completely empty.
The spacious, luxurious pavilion was silent as well.
Su Xiaofeng rubbed his forehead and sighed. “I knew it. With my junior brother away, Qing’er is slacking off again.”
Helplessly, he walked to the guest room and knocked on the door. “Qing’er, it’s Father. Stop being lazy and come out to cultivate!”
But after knocking for a long time, he still got no response.
Su Xiaofeng knew the strict proprieties between men and women, so he had no choice but to extend his spiritual sense to sense the movement inside.
Sure enough, there was only a pig in the room, snoring soundly.
Su Xiaofeng: “…”
He kicked the door open, only to discover something even more infuriating.
The lecher sleeping soundly in Qing’er’s bed was actually her fellow disciple, Senior Brother.
…
After a chaotic uproar, Shen Si sat slumped on the ground with bruised and swollen features, and aggrievedly explained how Little Junior Sister had taken his place and gone to the rescue.
Su Xiaofeng’s fury at this moment reached an unprecedented height.
Meanwhile, Su Yanqing – who had no idea she was about to be scolded by her father – was nervously asking Senior Brother why he had come.
“Senior Brother, it’s so late… what do you need?” Su Yanqing said, halfheartedly soothing the gentle, jade-like young man before her while sneaking a glance toward the window from the corner of her eye.
Just now, when Senior Brother had knocked on the door, Yueli had flashed a sly smile and quietly climbed out through the window.
Before leaving, she even mouthed, in a breathy whisper: “I live right next door. Call me if you need anything.”
That practiced window-climbing move left Su Yanqing completely stunned.
Do the female cultivators of the Hehuan Sect often run into this kind of catching-cheating situation?
Ah… pfft!
Senior Brother and she were not in that kind of relationship.
Su Yanqing shook her head and looked up at the elegant young man before her.
“This is Soul-Calming Incense. Once lit, it can repair damaged spirit meridians in your sleep. I saw that you overused far too much spiritual energy during the day, and I was worried you wouldn’t sleep well,” Mu Yunci said gently.
He did not mention Xie Qingxuan at all, which let Su Yanqing breathe a long sigh of relief.
She accepted the Soul-Calming Incense and casually picked up the incense burner on the table to light it.
Blue-green smoke curled upward, and the fragrance was pleasant.
Thank you, Senior Brother Mu.
“Thank you, Senior Brother Mu. I feel like a lot of the fatigue in my body has already faded away.” After sniffing it twice, Su Yanqing’s lively eyes immediately filled with joy, bright as stars.
But the next second, she could not smile anymore.
“Little Six, do you even realize that your high-profile actions today have drawn suspicion from many disciples?”
Mu Yunci’s brows furrowed. “I do not care why you were suddenly able to kill enemies above your level, but before you return to the sect, you must think of a reasonable excuse.”
“You can still claim the small teleportation array was a magical artifact gifted by the sect master. As for the mysterious sword art that can slash through demonic qi at will, Jing Sanhuai and the others might think it was a sword technique Master taught you.”
“But I have inherited Master’s true teachings, and I have never seen him use such an eerie sword art. The hardest thing to hide is that you suddenly recovered spiritual energy beyond the golden core stage.”
“Pills or cultivation methods that can increase cultivation this much are rare even in the entire cultivation world, not to mention the Wuji Sect. How are you going to handle everyone’s endless questioning?”
Mu Yunci’s blunt words were like a sharp dagger, slicing open the secret Su Yanqing had been trying so hard to conceal.
Earlier, in the Black Forest, many people had seen that icy blue sword light.
Jing Sanhuai had casually joked that it was a sword art secretly taught by Master, and that had covered things up.
But at the Grand Hall of the demonic cultivators, Su Yanqing had used that sword technique to effortlessly kill several golden core demonic cultivators.
Even at the brink of life and death, she could still instantly recover her spiritual energy and cut off half the shoulder of the vicious beast Zhu Yan, something even Master had struggled to kill.
She was only a female sword cultivator who had just established her foundation. How could she be this powerful?
“Senior Brother… I…” Su Yanqing stammered for a long while. “I don’t know how to explain it either.”
“Those strange powers can only be used once, and once they’re used up, they’re gone.”
“If this gets distorted and spread by rumor, and other factions get ideas, won’t it bring danger to the sect?” Su Yanqing looked up at him helplessly.
Mu Yunci gazed at her. Her beautiful eyes were full of panic, shimmering with tears, while her long lashes trembled like cicada wings.
That exquisitely beautiful little face showed an expression of fear and helplessness, like a fawn about to be devoured by a beast, making one unable to resist wanting to protect her.
For some reason, the fierce possessiveness in Mu Yunci’s heart nearly surged out.
Little Junior Sister… was too innocent, too beautiful.
In the middle of the night, a perfectly normal man came to her bedchamber.
And she actually dared to show that kind of gaze, the kind that nearly drove a person out of their mind.
Fortunately, it was him.
And it could only be him.
Mu Yunci’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He lowered his eyes, hiding the unclear meaning churning within. “Master is on the other ship and has already controlled the others’ words. You don’t need to worry about Bai Xiaoru’s side either. Third Junior Brother will handle it.”
“You only need to think carefully about how to give Master and the sect master a reasonable explanation.”
After saying that, Mu Yunci quickly stood up, intending to take his leave.
He was afraid that if he stayed any longer, he would not be able to resist doing something improper.
Su Yanqing was still unsettled over the cheats and did not notice the young man’s abnormality. She got up, intending to see Senior Brother out.
Who would have thought that another voice would come from outside the door: “Little Junior Sister, can I come in?”
Su Yanqing could not help but curse under her breath. Frowning, she without explanation stuffed the dumbfounded Senior Brother into the wardrobe.
One after another – what were they all doing up in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?
Senior Brother was one thing; after all, he was trying to clean up her mess out of good intentions.
But Murong Yi, that annoying pest – what was he doing here joining the fun?
Su Yanqing opened the door with annoyance, and the system’s “kind reminder” sounded in her mind:
『Host, pay attention to maintaining your persona. When you successfully change the ending of your previous life, you will be able to escape it.』
She forced out a stiff smile. “Senior Brother Murong, good evening.”
When boarding the spirit boat, Xie Qingxuan handed the little fox a jade token.
When he saw her frown as she took it, his eyes darkened, and he swept away with a flick of his sleeve.
That night, Xie Qingxuan – who was waiting for the little fox to come apologize – idly twirled a small crystal cup between his long, slender fingers and drank another cup of jade spirit tea.
Hmph.
She did not come.
No apology either.
Could she have forgotten the outrageous things she had done in the cave?
Xie Qingxuan’s sword-like brows lowered slightly, his eyes half-lidded, his expression haughty. “Is she expecting me to go and invite her personally?”
If not for the inner demon already being beyond control, he would not have been this restless.
The aura around Xie Qingxuan suddenly sank, and his sea of awareness was flooded with sharp, stabbing pain.
The glass cup between his two fingers was crushed into powder, falling through the air before scattering away in the night breeze.
Now that the matter of the Nine Yin physique had spread throughout the demon realm, the rumors were growing ever wider.
If he did not act to stop it, the tragedy from two hundred years ago might well repeat itself.
Thinking of this, Xie Qingxuan forcibly suppressed the two forces colliding within his body, and the strange black qi between his brows was also drawn back into his sea of awareness.
He no longer hesitated. He stepped out of the room with one foot and walked toward the place where Su Yanqing was resting.
At the same time, Su Yanqing was suppressing her restlessness and warmly entertaining the treasured darling from the novel whom “she” had loved to death.