Seeing Ning Ying’s curious persistence, Ye Juan decided to be mysterious, grinning lazily: “They’re still fighting now. Want to go take a look? We’ll be back just in time for lunch.”
Ning Ying glanced back at Junior Brother Chu’s busy figure in the kitchen. Any thought of helping him had long been abandoned, replaced by gossipy curiosity. She followed her uncle-master on their swords, flying toward the entrance of Yaoyue Sect.
As they flew, Ye Juan filled her in on the background: “Your senior sister met those two guys in some secret realm. What exactly happened, even I, your uncle-master, don’t know. All I know is that after they came out of the secret realm, the Dao Son from Shaoyue Sect became unstable in his Dao heart, and the Buddhist Son from Lianhua Sect looked practically insane…”
Ning Ying was deeply impressed: “As expected of Senior Sister!”
A few days ago, when her senior sister returned from training and immediately went into seclusion, she’d thought Senior Sister had some insights and was about to break through. She never expected it was to avoid a love tribulation.
“We’re here!” Ye Juan pulled Ning Ying behind a peach tree and pointed toward the two figures fighting outside the mountain-protecting array.
Both were clearly outstanding young talents, with handsome features. But they’d completely red-eyed, hurling insults at each other even as they fought.
“You, Sikong, I advise you to give up. The reason she’s in seclusion and won’t come out is because she doesn’t want to see you!”
The Lianhua Sect Buddhist Son, draped in kasaya and adorned with prayer beads, had completely shed his usual holy demeanor. A seductive red lotus adorned his brow, his eyes bloodshot—he looked less like an enlightened monk and more like a fallen demonic priest.
“Heh, you bald donkey,” Sikong Qin glanced at the Buddhist Son’s shiny head gleaming in the sunlight, lightly plucking his qin strings, “She’d never fancy you either!”
“Who are you calling names?” Jing Nian immediately flared with anger. “Stinky music cultivator! Back in the secret realm, you needed a woman to protect you. You think you’re so great? Pretty boy!”
“I’m a support,” Sikong Qin’s handsome face showed a wistful expression. “Senior Sister Sang is a sword cultivator, charging ahead slaughtering everything. All I need to do is assist her from behind. Not like you, always trying to steal her thunder. No matter what, I’ll always be Senior Sister Sang’s most solid backup.”
“Sang Sang…” Hearing his beloved’s name, Jing Nian surprisingly didn’t retort. Instead, he too wore a wistful expression, his movements wielding the demon-subduing pestle slowing considerably.
“Aren’t they supposed to be fighting? Why are they getting all nostalgic about Senior Sister?” Ning Ying couldn’t help but snark from her hiding spot behind the tree.
“I’m going to write a ‘betting on the male lead’ story based on them,” a familiar voice sounded beside Ning Ying. Gu Qi said eagerly, “The righteous path’s Buddhist Son, pure and empty, untainted by worldly thoughts, actually willing to degrade himself for love—it’s just too interesting.”
“Senior Brother Gu, how are you here too?” Ning Ying looked beside her to find Ye Juan and Gu Qi sitting on branches to her left and right. With so many people sitting, the peach tree was nearly collapsing.
“How could I miss a place with gossip?” Gu Qi laughed heartily. “Uncle-Master Ye noticed me right away. You were just so absorbed in the gossip you didn’t even notice me sitting next to you.”
Ning Ying nodded thoughtfully: “But Senior Sister can’t stay inside the sect forever, right? Is it really okay to just let them keep fighting at the gate?”
“Not okay,” Gu Qi said. “Actually, Master sent me here. He instructed me to handle this—can’t have chickens flying and dogs jumping outside the sect, ruining Yaoyue Sect’s image.”
The corner of Ning Ying’s eye twitched.
Master knew Senior Brother Gu was the Demon Lord, and he still trusted him to handle this?
Then again, the Demon Lord had high cultivation—using him as a tool… wasn’t necessarily a bad idea?
“So what’s your plan, Senior Brother?” Ning Ying blinked curiously. “Going up there to mediate?”
Gu Qi shook his head cheerfully: “The one who tied the bell must untie it. The best solution is to trick Senior Sister out here and let her handle it personally~”
Ning Ying: …
The Demon Lord really was an entertainment-seeker!
Ye Juan, who’d been listening nearby, suddenly clapped his hands, his brainwaves syncing with Gu Qi’s: “Right, right! Let’s do that!” He looked like someone who loved watching the world burn.
Ning Ying offered a moment of silent sympathy for her Senior Sister in her heart, but eventually, she couldn’t help but speak up: “But Senior Sister’s in seclusion. Isn’t it bad to disturb her cultivation…”
“She’s not in seclusion at all,” Gu Qi said with a cold laugh. “When I found Sang Jinse, she was bathing with a handsome junior brother in the spirit spring behind the sect.”
Ning Ying: “!!!”
She widened her eyes in shock: “So you saw them, Senior Brother?”
“I only heard the sounds of bathing.” Gu Qi quickly shook his head. “I wouldn’t look. This venerable one must protect his purity—can’t let someone like Sang Jinse corrupt me!”
Ning Ying tilted her head in confusion.
Didn’t the storybooks say the Demon Lord was very romantic, with a harem of three thousand in the demon realm? Why was Senior Brother acting so pure? Was he really the Demon Lord?
“Anyway, I thought of a way to trick her out here. Look, here she—” Before Gu Qi could finish, the fighting Buddhist Son and Dao Son both stopped simultaneously, gazing at Sang Jinse as she confidently stepped out of the mountain-protecting array.
A graceful, lazy beauty in red emerged from the array. Her shoulders were partly bared, her skin like snow, her features lovely. Her autumn-water bright eyes glanced around as she muttered: “Didn’t Junior Brother Gu say Master had instructions and wanted me to wait here… Why are people still fighting over there? Ah, I get it—Master wants me to take them out.”
With that, she drew her life-bound sword and leaped into the fray.
“Swoosh swoosh”—
The Buddhist Son and Dao Son both turned around simultaneously.
Their eyes met.
The scene couldn’t have been more awkward.
Sang Jinse hadn’t expected the two men she’d played in the secret realm to chase her all the way to the sect gates. She hadn’t recognized them just now… She’d played so many men, it was normal not to remember every face, right?
“Senior Sister Sang, do me,” Sikong Qin immediately dropped his weapon and surrendered on the spot.
The three watching from the peach tree: “???”
Ning Ying whispered: “They play that wild?”
The Demon Lord looked profound: “Is this something I can watch without paying?”
Jing Nian wasn’t about to give Sikong Qin the chance. Seizing the moment he dropped his weapon, he swept his pestle toward his face, trying to make his love rival bleed on the spot.
Sikong Qin: !
That monk suddenly attacked—too late to dodge.
With a “clang” of metal striking metal, Sang Jinse had already blocked in front of Sikong Qin with her sword.
As the senior sister of Yaoyue Sect, Sang Jinse’s cultivation was naturally extraordinary. Going head-to-head with the Buddhist Son, she held her own.
Jing Nian’s expression changed, the hand holding his demon-subduing pestle trembling slightly. The blood red in his pupils deepened: “You’re attacking me for him?”
“This is Yaoyue Sect. I won’t allow you to fight and kill here,” Sang Jinse said coldly. “This is also Master’s wish.”
Ning Ying, observing secretly, looked at Gu Qi. Feeling he seemed cleverer than usual today, she casually praised: “Senior Brother Gu, you’ve really outdone yourself. Having Senior Sister step in to handle this is definitely the best move. It can be brushed off as a personal grudge, and won’t offend Lianhua Sect or Shaoyue Sect. Although those two sects aren’t as strong as our Yaoyue Sect, they have extensive connections. Better not to provoke them unnecessarily.”
Ye Juan also nodded: “It solves the problem, and we get a bit of a show to watch. Little Gu, your Uncle-Master thinks highly of you!”
The praise went to Gu Qi’s head, and he started to get a bit carried away: “Of course, just think who this venerable one is… Ahem, I mean, I’m the Sect Leader’s true disciple.”
Suddenly, with a “crack,” the branch beneath them broke, and all three fell together from the peach tree.
The “love-hate” trio stuck in mid-air turned around in perfect sync.
Jing Nian, who had been busy racking up darkness points —+1, +1— and on the verge of fully falling to demonhood, was interrupted by the sound of three bodies hitting the ground. He raised a hand to scratch his head, feeling his emotions couldn’t quite build up anymore—stuck between rising and falling.
Ning Ying: “Senior Brother Gu, what’s that Buddhist Son doing?”
Gu Qi: “Looks like he’s about to fall to demonhood. Should we give him a hand?”
Ye Juan: “I don’t know, seems inappropriate for outsiders to interfere. Let nature take its course.”
Ning Ying: “Uncle-Master makes sense.”
Sang Jinse looked at the three who’d fallen from the tree and were now gossiping on the ground, questioning her life choices.
Jing Nian: …
So, is he falling to demonhood or not?
Some things, once the moment passes, just aren’t the same if you do them later.