The night breeze blew steadily. Yu Zaixi rubbed his arms and could not help but click his tongue. “It is actually quite cold.”
When Qin Nai attempted to enter the city, the old soldier stopped them. After Qin Nai explained their reason for coming, the man claimed they did not need any defensive arrays because only one household, consisting of two people, lived in the entire city. Including the old soldier himself, that made three people in the whole city.
It was too pathetic. Yu Zaixi could not fathom why Tianhe would come to such a place to wait for his brother. He had never heard of Tianhe having a home here.
Xiao Ci was shielded by Miao Pei, while Qin Nai walked alongside the old soldier, talking as they went. Yu Zaixi simply had to concern himself with rubbing his arms to keep warm.
Once they entered the city, the temperature felt noticeably different from the outside. Whether it was psychological or not, Yu Zaixi did not know. He looked around; some of the dilapidated shops had doors that had collapsed, revealing rows of shelves inside. It looked like the place used to have a decent scale of trade; how had it fallen to such a pitiful state?
Earlier, Qin Nai had twice confirmed with the old soldier whether they needed an array. The man had been adamant at first: no, and he refused to let them see the item. But when Miao Pei took out his disciple token while retrieving the cloud-ship, the old soldier froze and asked, “Are you from the Tianji Pavilion?”
“To tell you the truth,” Yu Zaixi sighed and nodded, “this identity is truly not very useful down the mountain.”
The old soldier pursed his lips and hesitated again before asking, “Are you truly from the Tianji Pavilion? You are not lying to me?”
Yu Zaixi did not answer, but instead asked, “Has someone lied to you before?”
With this question, the old soldier fell silent. He merely bowed to them and requested, “Could you all do me a favor?”
“The item?” Yu Zaixi squinted.
“I will try to see if I can open it,” the old soldier replied, gritting his teeth.
Thus, they entered the city. It was the middle of the night, and the soldier said there was no ready-made accommodation, so they would have to settle for waiting. Since it would be dawn in less than two hours, it made no difference whether they slept or not.
Yu Zaixi gestured. “Find a table or something and wipe it down. The child needs to sleep; we will just make do.”
Xiao Ci looked up at Yu Zaixi, his expression one of feigned annoyance, a touch of arrogance in his demeanor. Yu Zaixi laughed and murmured, “I will not hold it against you.”
As the group walked toward the center of the city, Xiao Ci suddenly turned back. Miao Pei followed suit, looking bewildered, his sword already drawn in front of them. However, the street behind them was completely empty.
Yu Zaixi studied the situation for a moment, then reached out and tapped the back of Xiao Ci’s ear, sending a wisp of spiritual energy into his meridians. He leaned over and tilted his head to look at the boy. “Can you still hear it?”
Xiao Ci listened intently for a long while, then looked up and shook his head at Yu Zaixi.
Qin Nai glanced over. Yu Zaixi stood straight and shook his head. “It is nothing. Let us go.”
When they set off again, Miao Pei whispered, “What exactly is going on? Did you hear something?”
Xiao Ci shook his head, his expression more mature than someone of his actual years. “It is nothing.”
The old soldier had no name. He told Yu Zaixi and the others to call him Dalu, the furnace used by blacksmiths; he had been a blacksmith in his youth. The group followed him down a small street, turning left and right until they arrived at a private residence. There was a small defensive array on the door. Yu Zaixi reached out to probe it; the person who set it was only at the mid-stage of the Golden Core.
If there were no high-intelligence demons harassing them, it would be fine. Low-intelligence demons could not do much against an ordinary person with even a little martial prowess.
Just as he was thinking this, Dalu knocked on the door. A frail woman stood inside. It was impolite, but Yu Zaixi could not help but think of the phrase yellow-faced and thin with hunger. She looked young, perhaps in her twenties or thirties, but in the world of cultivation, age was impossible to judge.
The woman was startled to see four strangers at the door. Her gaze shifted to Dalu, and she could not help but ask softly, “Who are these people?”
Dalu first looked into the courtyard and asked, “How is Xiao Qiu?”
“He has spiked a fever again,” the woman sighed.
Dalu sighed as well, patted his armor, and bowed to Yu Zaixi and the others. “Please, follow me in. Sorry for the trouble.”
Yu Zaixi did not know what they were there for, but he walked in with a smile, asking, “You did not bring us here to be doctors, did you?”
Dalu shook his head. “No. Please, come in.”
As the four of them entered the house, they nodded politely to the woman who had opened the door. They were led into the front hall of the residence. The house had carved beams and painted pillars, suggesting it had not belonged to a poor family in the past, though now it was old and desolate.
The front hall only had three usable chairs. Dalu found a small stool from somewhere that was lower than Yu Zaixi’s knees. He invited them to sit. Xiao Ci consciously went to sit on the smallest stool. Miao Pei hesitated and asked Dalu, “Would you like to sit instead?”
Yu Zaixi was not about to stand. He sat down in the nearest chair, watching Miao Pei and Dalu exchange polite gestures. Qin Nai did not hesitate and sat down early, while Miao Pei, being the junior, had to ask three times before he felt comfortable sitting.
Once they were seated, Dalu asked the woman who had been watching from the courtyard to go rest. He closed the front door, leaving the room lit by only two candles, one of which was burning down to the wick, making the room too dark to clearly see anyone’s face.
The Divine Bone Candle brought by Miao Pei had been handed to the woman upon entering. Although there was an array on the main gate, it could not stop demons from sneaking in through the nooks and crannies; the candle made it safer.
The others squinted or used spiritual energy to assist their vision. Yu Zaixi did not need to; he was in his element in such an environment. He could even see Dalu’s subtle, sidelong glances at Xiao Ci.
“If there is a favor you want us to do, just say it,” Yu Zaixi said, interrupting his movements.
Dalu responded in the darkness, waiting two breaths before speaking. “There is a lingering soul in this city, a restless spirit. I would like to ask you to send him away.”
“A restless spirit?” Miao Pei asked, frowning.
“It is a ghost,” Yu Zaixi explained.
Miao Pei’s face lit up with realization. “That is simple. Just set up an array and send him into the cycle of reincarnation.”
If it were truly that simple, Dalu would not have waited until he heard they were from the Tianji Pavilion to let them in.
“Is that soul a high-level cultivator from the Tianji Pavilion?” Yu Zaixi asked.
Dalu shook his head. “No. It is a long story. In any case, he had always wanted to go to the Tianji Pavilion while he was alive. I have asked other cultivators for help before. Since you are from the Tianji Pavilion, I thought perhaps you could send him on his way.”
“Why did you not ask Tianhe for help when he was here?” Yu Zaixi asked.
Dalu sighed. “When that Elder arrived, his cultivation had already dissipated.”
So that is it.
Yu Zaixi looked at Miao Pei. If the spirit only recognized cultivators from the Tianji Pavilion, Miao Pei was the best candidate. But the timing was off for tonight, so he said, “Miao Pei can try tomorrow night.”
Miao Pei nodded readily. “Fine, I guarantee I will send him away.”
Hearing this, Yu Zaixi laughed. He turned to Qin Nai and said, “You set up the array for him. I do not trust him.”
“What is wrong with me? I am about to break through to the Transformation God stage; I am the recognized second-place on the disciple rankings.”
Yu Zaixi did not react at first, then asked, “Who is first?”
As soon as he asked, he remembered: the first was Jiang Yan, who refused to become an Elder.
After Miao Pei finished speaking, he muttered something else. Yu Zaixi had suddenly thought of something and had not been listening closely. When he looked up after Miao Pei finished, the boy was so angry he turned his head away.
Dalu breathed a sigh of relief as they settled the matter. For some reason, Yu Zaixi noticed that after sighing, Dalu seemed to go limp. Was the ghost’s influence on him that great? Should he not have stood taller after a sigh of relief?
Before he could ponder further, someone knocked on the door. The woman entered holding the Divine Bone Candle and asked, “I have tidied up two rooms. Will you make do with these?”
Yu Zaixi thanked her but remained seated. Qin Nai turned to Miao Pei. “Take Xiao Ci to one room; the two of you go and rest.”
Miao Pei looked at Yu Zaixi, who tilted his chin to signal he could go. His rules dictated that he should not leave, but since Yu Zaixi had given the order, he dared not refuse.
Xiao Ci had no such concerns. He knew he was a child and the only one without cultivation, so he was used to being taken care of. He stood up and pulled Miao Pei away.
Once they were gone, Dalu seemed to realize something and explained, “There are not many rooms left. Su Mo is a woman, so she must have her own room. Would the two of you mind sharing?”
Su Mo seemed to notice Yu Zaixi’s reluctance to sleep and quickly added, “It is no matter. I have to look after Xiao Qiu, so I will not be sleeping. One of you can stay in my room; it is clean enough. I hope the Immortals will not mind.”
Yu Zaixi certainly could not do that. He smiled and waved his hand. “I slept for a full day before coming here. I am not sleepy. I will keep watch.”
“How can that be! How can we inconvenience the Immortals? I will…” Su Mo began to protest, trying to argue, but Yu Zaixi raised his hand. “It is fine. We have a habit of keeping watch, and I do not need much sleep.”
Qin Nai nodded. “He tends to sleepwalk when he sleeps, so it is safer for him to sleep during the day.”
Dalu and Su Mo had never heard of such a thing. They did not believe it and assumed it was just an excuse. Yu Zaixi, however, suddenly laughed. “You say that, but I truly have no idea what I did while sleepwalking last night.”
He ushered the two of them out of the front hall. “You should get some rest, and take care of the patient. I will sit here; do not worry about me, but please do not disturb me.”
Qin Nai stood up and walked to the doorway, asking in a low voice, “Are you truly not going to rest?”
Yu Zaixi nodded. “You go. I have business to attend to.”
Qin Nai did not force the issue and turned to leave. Before going to bed, he did not forget to change the defensive array on the residence to a late-stage Nascent Soul level. Qin Nai’s cultivation was not particularly high, but he excelled at the precision of arrays and talismans, having been taught by the master of the Wufeng Tower, which compensated for his lack of cultivation.
There were only a handful of Transformation God-stage cultivators in the Twelve Continents of Yunlu. To be at the late-stage Nascent Soul was quite powerful, but compared to Jiang Yan’s Mahayana stage, they were worlds apart.
Yu Zaixi sat back in the chair alone. One hand tapped rhythmically on the armrest while the other formed a seal, using spiritual energy to probe his own sea of consciousness.
His memories had been erased. Otherwise, knowing himself, he would have jumbled them into a chaotic mess in his brain; he would not have been left with zero impression. He wanted to see if he could retrieve them.
The candles in the room flickered uncertainly. One of them finally burned down to the end; after a few desperate struggles, it went out with a pop.
Yu Zaixi sighed and opened his eyes, sneering at Jiang Yan, who had appeared at some point.
“I did not even have to look to know it was you,” he said, folding his arms and leaning back. “What is it?”
Jiang Yan’s eyes were pitch black. The flickering candlelight masked a portion of his emotions, leaving Yu Zaixi unable to understand them. Was he angry?
His voice was deep. “Why are you not resting?”
The tone was inexplicably condescending. Yu Zaixi scoffed. “What, do you want to sleep in the same bed with someone else while using your junior brother’s body?” He could not help but roll his eyes. “I am a man of principle. I do not want to mess around in a body that is not my own.”
For some reason, after he finished this sentence, Jiang Yan’s eyes darkened further, like eternal, unmeltable ice, scanning him with a palpable threat.
Yu Zaixi was confused. Surely he could not have slept with Jiang Yan while sleepwalking yesterday.
That is too disgusting, he thought. If that were true, he would burn his soul on the spot. Even if it meant his soul would dissipate and disappear from the world forever, he could not accept such a sickening thing.
But Jiang Yan said nothing. Yu Zaixi was genuinely uneasy; after all, in novels, there were always plots involving forced unions. His heart was tumultuous, but he feigned calmness. “Are you sick? Did I offend you?”
Jiang Yan seemed to be fuming, saying in a low voice, “You yourself…”
He did not finish.
Yu Zaixi’s heart skipped a beat. No way. “Right. So, go on, elaborate.”
Jiang Yan looked away and stopped talking.
Yu Zaixi gripped the hilt so hard his knuckles turned white. Thousands of thoughts of too disgusting drifted through his mind, but his tongue remained sharp. “Suit yourself. If you will not say it, you can stew in your own anger. At the very least, I can eat, drink, and sleep.”
Before his voice faded, the room suddenly erupted in a brilliant cyan light. He was forced to close his eyes, cursing internally: You never used to cast spells like this. Who are you trying to blind?
When he opened his eyes again, he was already at the Tianji Pavilion, in the disciple’s room that Miao Pei had sealed tight. The transition had taken a split second. Jiang Yan had lingered in the darkness to look at the window before leaving, ultimately saying nothing.
There were no candles lit in the room; it was pitch black. Yu Zaixi could not see clearly, but he instinctively felt that the other man looked somewhat dejected.
As soon as Jiang Yan left, he panicked and quickly checked himself all over. He felt no pain, no injuries.
He was stunned for a long time, then his eyes slowly widened.
He… he… slept… no!
That is the opposite of what is written in the novels!
And the critical point is that this is not even my own body!
Yu Zaixi quickly knelt on the bed to apologize to the spirit of Yuan Qi, then spat and cursed Jiang Yan for being disgusting.
And… incidentally, he should probably apologize to Jiang Yan as well.
He is quite pitiful, after all.