Arrogant truly, outrageously arrogant.
The storyteller found it hard to believe, yet the two husbands looked so utterly normal that it instead caused him to doubt whether he was simply making a mountain out of a molehill.
Chi Qiqi agreed with Beisi’s proposal, saying with a hint of cheer, “Yesterday’s braised chicken with chili peppers was quite good. How about we have that again today?”
He had only recently discovered that the mortal world held such an abundance of delicious food. Looking back, he felt he had really missed out in the past for letting so many delicacies pass him by.
Beisi curved his lips into a smile; naturally, he had no objections whatsoever.
Once the two of them finished discussing, they remembered the person standing nearby. Chi Qiqi cast a glance at the storyteller, who looked just like a vagrant, and politely asked, “Will you be joining us?”
A chill ran down the storyteller’s spine. That gentle expression was genuinely hair-raising; when things were abnormal, demons were bound to be at play.
Even if he were dressed cleanly and respectably, he wouldn’t dare accept, let alone looking like he had just rolled around in a mud pit. He could only dare to grumble and complain inside his own mind.
“No need, you’re too kind. I’ll just rest here for a moment,” the storyteller replied.
The two did not press further and stepped into the tavern through the front entrance.
Every table in the main hall was occupied, save for the one right in the middle, which had previously been used by Shi Junyan and his “brothers.” The table and stools had already been neatly cleared by the waiter.
The commotion from earlier had not yet subsided. The people from the Fengling Sect were busy gathering up the scattered books, and for the moment, no one paid any attention to the two newcomers as they walked over and took their seats at the empty table.
“Waiter,” Beisi called out.
Someone responded immediately. Shaking off the mindset of a mere spectator, the waiter hurried over at the call and asked, “What can I get for you, honored guests?”
Upon closer inspection, he found the faces of these two men extraordinarily familiar, though try as he might, he couldn’t for the life of him remember where he had seen them.
Nearby, the Fengling Sect members paused in their movements upon hearing that voice—it sounded entirely too familiar.
Chi Qiqi reeled off the names of several dishes, and after making a mental note of them, the waiter prepared to withdraw. As he turned, his back collided with someone. He hurriedly mumbled an apology, but the stranger paid him no mind, striding directly toward their table.
Several shadows fell across the table. Unsurprised, Chi Qiqi looked up to see that it was indeed the people from the Fengling Sect. Their eyes were bulging wide, each staring with an expression more incredulous than the last.
“You…” one of them began, but remembering they were no match for these two, he abruptly swallowed the rest of his words.
Chi Qiqi guessed that the man had wanted to ask why on earth they dared to show their faces here again.
Neither of the two men spared them a glance, acting precisely like ordinary diners patiently waiting for their food.
Over at the counter, the waiter fetched a pot of Biluochun tea. Watching the two remain completely unperturbed even while under the heavy stare of a brawny giant, he couldn’t help feeling a surge of respect.
As he poured tea for them, his mind was still working frantically to figure out where he had encountered them.
Suddenly, his hand jerked, sending water spilling straight over the rim of the teacup. Blurted out before he could stop himself, he cried, “Aren’t you two the people on the wanted poster?”
In an instant, the two men became the focal point of gazes coming from all directions.
Beisi lifted his head to glance at the Fengling Sect members. After a moment of silence, one of them forced out, “The wanted poster was just a malicious fabrication by the He clan; pay it no mind.”
The crowd remained half-doubtful. Under normal circumstances, encountering people featured on a wanted poster would have instantly provoked a flurry of fists raining down upon them.
From upstairs, a sharp voice suddenly rang out.
“What?!” Yu Fengyao slammed her hand down in fury once more. The newly brought table met a tragic fate, shattering instantly into fine splinters. Biting down hard on her teeth, she hissed, “How dare they return? How dare they act so flagrantly in broad daylight!”
Casting a sideways glance at the messenger, Yu Fengyao demanded, “Has the message been sent out?”
Receiving an affirmative nod, Yu Fengyao’s wrath morphed into a triumphant smile. It doesn’t matter. My martial uncle will help me vent my anger. I can’t wait to watch those two grovel on the ground and beg for mercy.
We will leave aside for the moment whatever she was plotting upstairs.
Downstairs, the waiter had finished serving all the dishes. Amidst the curious, covert glances of everyone present, the two of them picked up their chopsticks and began to eat.
“Eat your fill. Soon, we won’t have a quiet moment to eat in peace,” Beisi said, picking out the pieces of meat that Chi Qiqi favored and placing them directly onto his plate.
Chi Qiqi casually popped a morsel into his mouth, his curiosity growing by the minute.
“I truly never imagined that clan head would secretly practice demonic arts!” A voice rang out before its owner even crossed the threshold.
“Wasn’t he known as the most charitable and benevolent man around? How could he do such a thing?”
“Who’s to say otherwise?”
A small group of people discussed animatedly as they stepped into the tavern, their words instantly hijacking the attention of everyone present.
Unable to suppress their curiosity, a few patrons immediately stood up, intercepted the newcomers, and pressed them for details.
The gossiping newcomers swelled with enthusiasm. “That clan head is dead! His corpse is currently lying right there on the public notice board! Do you want to go take a look?”
Upon hearing this, the people in the hall completely lost interest in eating. A heaven-shaking secret had just dropped, and the protagonist of that massive secret had suddenly turned up dead.
“Who killed him?” someone asked.
“Who killed him? He practiced himself to death, that’s what! As for the corpse…” The speaker lowered his voice, adopting a deeply mysterious tone. “It was actually hauled over by the black market! Because… someone stole their Aiyou Grass, and since the grass is missing, they had to vent their anger somehow.”
Chi Qiqi caught every single word without missing a beat, his movements at the dining table never skipping a beat. Seeing Beisi’s expression remain entirely unchanged, and even receiving a gentle smile when their eyes met, he asked, “Is this the grand show?”
“The prelude,” Beisi replied, casually tossing another piece of meat into Chi Qiqi’s bowl.
Chi Qiqi could already roughly guess what would unfold next.
The people who had just entered were promptly bombarded with questions by the tavern patrons, finally grasping the series of events that had occurred earlier. It sounded utterly bizarre too bizarre to be real.
“The He clan must have committed some monstrous crimes! Right now, the eldest daughter of the Fengling Sect’s sect leader is staying right here shouldn’t we go ask her to investigate this thoroughly?”
“Makes sense.”
The crowd echoed the sentiment in agreement. The bolder individuals among them had already marched upstairs to knock on Yu Fengyao’s door. They held no particular fear toward the Fengling Sect, figuring that as upright practitioners of the righteous path who had protected this territory for so long, the sect would surely never harbor wrongdoers.
Chi Qiqi watched as Yu Fengyao pulled her door open. Her sharp eyes cut straight past the shoulders of the person knocking, locking directly onto him down below.
Wasn’t this move basically backing Yu Fengyao into a corner? She wouldn’t dare renege on her public commitments now, would she?
Yu Fengyao stepped down the stairs, each heavy footfall practically telegraphing her desire to stomp the two of them flat.
Without uttering a single word, she swept a deeply meaningful, razor-sharp look across the two men before striding straight out the tavern doors.
Outside, a small dark dot was rapidly darting closer.
Beisi narrowed his eyes slightly. Just as that tiny dot was about to cross the threshold, he casually directed a piercing gaze outward.
Shi Junyan’s foot was suspended halfway in the air, with only the ball of his other foot touching the ground, when he abruptly froze in place, utterly paralyzed.
He attempted to put on a pitiful expression to soften his martial brother’s heart, but to no avail. Instead, he received a clear message from Beisi’s eyes: If you dare to interrupt our private time, I’ll chop you into minced meat.
Since he couldn’t move forward, Shi Junyan swiveled his foot sideways, finding that he could move perfectly fine in another direction.
With no other choice, Shi Junyan turned around with a heartbroken expression and scuttled away from his martial brother’s field of vision.
Only then did Beisi withdraw his gaze.
Recalling the venomous glare Yu Fengyao had shot his way before leaving, Chi Qiqi chuckled softly. Leaning closer to Beisi, he teased playfully, “My, aren’t you a bad one—refusing to let her off the hook.”
Beisi calmly swept a glance over his dao companion’s clearly amused expression and repeated the word: “Bad?”
“Is that ‘other person’ you?”
“If that other person is you,” Beisi picked up a piece of food and fed it straight to Chi Qiqi, successfully sealing his lips before concluding, “then I suppose I’ll have to be even worse.”
Chi Qiqi was momentarily stunned. Realizing Beisi was intentionally playing dumb and teasing him back, his mouth was too full of food to form a retort without losing his dignity. He could only puff out his cheeks and chew vigorously, looking for all the world like a little hamster that had stuffed its mouth with winter provisions.
Amused by his adorable appearance, Beisi couldn’t resist lightly pinching Chi Qiqi’s slightly puffed cheek. The young man’s eyes rounded into perfect circles, making him look even cuter.
“You’re the bad one,” Chi Qiqi finally managed to swallow his food, scolding him with mock indignation.
“It seems,” Beisi curved his lips, “that other person really was you.”
Realizing he had walked right into another verbal trap, Chi Qiqi turned his head away in a huff, ignoring Beisi and focusing entirely on his meal though in truth, he had never been particularly clever when it came to these verbal sparring matches.
Beisi watched with an indulgent smile as the other person practically buried his face in his bowl, feeling his own appetite remarkably improved.
Teasing someone should always be kept within reasonable limits; Beisi had no intention of genuinely angering Chi Qiqi. He offered a gentle explanation: “Colluding with the Fengling Sect is one aspect, but more importantly… Yu Fengyao has no right to look down on you.”
Not everyone is born into a prominent immortal family or blessed with a sect leader father to lavish them with countless cultivation resources. How could someone like that presume to look down upon others?
Qiqi was exceptionally brilliant; he had simply started down the path of cultivation a bit later, but given time, he would undoubtedly shake the entire realm of cultivation.
Of course, what Beisi didn’t know was that Chi Qiqi had already shaken the cultivation world to its core long ago—just through an entirely different reputation.
By now, the tavern had emptied out as the curious onlookers rushed off to watch the spectacle, leaving only a handful of diners finishing their meals.
With sharp eyes, Chi Qiqi spotted a familiar figure clad entirely in black approaching from a distance. The moment he and Beisi stepped outside the tavern doors, that figure came bounding over at full sprint.
If he had to find a comparison, it looked remarkably like an overly excited, happy puppy—Chi Qiqi noted silently.
Who else could it possibly be besides Shi Junyan?
“What a coincidence, what a coincidence, my saviors, sister-in-law!” Shi Junyan beamed brightly as he hurried over. “It seems fate truly desires for us to meet again!”
The moment the words left his mouth, he received twin glares of icy disdain from the two men.
Unfazed, he smoothly continued, “I wonder where the two of you are headed next? Would you allow me the honor of escorting you?”
Sensing that Beisi was about to reject him outright, Shi Junyan hurriedly turned his attention toward Chi Qiqi, producing a tiny miniature boat from his sleeve.
Though no larger than an inch in length and roughly the height of two millet grains, it featured a fully articulated central pavilion, cast entirely from wood and stone with every structural detail faithfully rendered in proportion. Its craftsmanship was so exquisitely delicate and intricate that it was breathtaking to behold.
“This boat is called the Seeking-Qian Boat,” Shi Junyan held the boat closer toward Chi Qiqi, chiming in happily, “Isn’t it amazing?”
His eyes burned with bright anticipation as he eagerly awaited praise.
Observing the direction of Chi Qiqi’s gaze, Beisi felt a tiny prickle of lingering annoyance. Without a word, he reached out and placed his hand directly over the Seeking-Qian Boat, enclosing the tiny vessel entirely within his palm and taking it away.
Shi Junyan’s expression instantly twisted into panic. Martial brother wouldn’t accidentally snap my precious creation in half, would he?!
“Shi, take it easy,” Shi Junyan pleaded pitifully. “It took me ages to finish building that.”
Beisi remained silent.
Shi Junyan grew frantic: “Careful with it!”
Beisi adopted a solemn, serious tone: “Just looking.”
It’s definitely not because of jealousy.