“Lost in what?” Another voice suddenly rang out from within the cave.
Shen Xiuyun almost instantly shoved aside the person in front of him and looked toward the cave entrance. What he saw was a face not yet fully grown… that of a young lad, with lingering traces of boyish immaturity, and an unnatural flush on his cheeks, clearly owing to the poison.
“You…” Shen Xiuyun whirled around and glared viciously at “Zhu Xingyao,” who was holding onto the cave entrance while leaning against the stone wall. Only then did he realize he had been set up.
“Zhu Xingyao” said in a tone just begging for a beating, “Isn’t that so?”
The newly arrived Zhu Xingyao did not yet understand the situation, but he could sense it… the other person speaking in the cave was a demon.
Zhu Xingyao stepped closer. He pointed his sword at “Zhu Xingyao,” but his words were addressed to Shen Xiuyun.
“Master, how could there be a demon here? What were you two talking about just now?”
“Zhu Xingyao” brushed the dirt off his hands and stepped out of the shadows. Right in front of the little white rabbit, he cast Shen Xiuyun a gaze that was frivolous, insolent, and utterly unbridled, and provoked:
“Master, where did this wild disciple come from, running around calling people Master?”
Zhu Xingyao stared in shock at that face, which was ninety percent identical to his own. “You’re talking nonsense! I’m Master’s one and only disciple!”
He turned to Shen Xiuyun again. “Master, what on earth is going on? Master, say something!”
Master’s eyes were vacant, his expression wooden… his soul seemed to have abandoned him.
He didn’t want to talk. He just wanted to drop dead.
What in the world was this earthly love triangle?
He wished he could vanish into thin air on the spot, right this instant!
Numb.
Truly numb.
Shen Xiuyun screamed “Save me!” in his mind, yet at this very moment, the System was, for some unknown reason, quiet as a chicken, not letting out so much as a peep.
Stupid dog of a System… as expected, utterly unreliable!
“Master is mine and mine alone. Don’t even think about fighting me for him!” Zhu Xingyao bit down on the word “mine” with great force, as if declaring sovereignty.
“Zhu Xingyao” snorted coldly. “Who do you think you are? You think you’re worthy of contending with me?”
“And what are you, to have transformed into my likeness? Reveal your true form at once!” Seemingly provoked, Zhu Xingyao actually raised his sword and struck at the one who had fallen into demonic cultivation.
With a furious roar, the long sword in his hand swept out a blade of sword energy, shooting straight for “Zhu Xingyao’s” face.
“Zhu Xingyao” said contemptuously, “An ant trying to shake a tree.”
With the barest lift of his hand, he casually dissolved Zhu Xingyao’s attack.
“So this is the wild man out there who has Master longing for him day and night? Nothing special after all.”
“Zhu Xingyao” looked at Shen Xiuyun with leisurely composure.
“Master, what sort of taste do you have? How could you fancy a thing like this whose feathers haven’t even grown in?
Or is it that you like him because you want two disciples to serve you?”
Fuck!
Are you out of your mind?!
Don’t you dare corrupt my pure, innocent little disciple!
Sure enough, Zhu Xingyao was taken aback. He asked Shen Xiuyun curiously, “Master, what does he mean? What ‘two disciples to serve you’? Isn’t having me enough for you?”
Shen Xiuyun really wanted to tear apart that blabbering, cheap mouth of “Zhu Xingyao’s.” “Don’t listen to his nonsense!”
“Zhu Xingyao” feigned grievance. “Master has found a new love and forgotten the old one. It’s only been such a short time, and Master has already forgotten how your disciple used to make you happy?”
“Shut up!”
Shen Xiuyun flicked the undried blood off his sword and struck out directly, without the slightest mercy.
“Zhu Xingyao,” too, found that two fists were no match for four hands. On top of that, Shen Xiuyun had earlier run him through the heart with a single thrust. During the fight, the wound kept bleeding, and the excessive blood loss gradually wore him down, his face growing paler and paler.