Three dark lines slowly descended across Yun Fuzhao’s forehead.
‘What the…?
Who is this guy?’
‘How dare he snatch my little blanket away so brazenly?’
Yun Fuzhao flew into a rage and yanked her small blanket back.
With the blanket gone, the person underneath was revealed.
“…”
—A face as old and wrinkled as tree bark.
With the blanket gone, the old man was jolted awake by the cold.
He cracked his eyes open into a narrow slit, struggling to make out the scene before him.
Most of Yun Fuzhao’s morning grumpiness vanished.
The old man looked rather pathetic.
As if on cue, the old man let out a couple of coughs.
At that moment, Yun Fuzhao’s pity for him reached its peak.
She silently…
…pulled the blanket a little tighter around herself.
The old man: “…”
“You little brat, can’t you see this old man is so cold my nose is running and my eyes are watering?”
Yun Fuzhao nodded, tucking her hands inside the blanket as well.
‘It really is cold in this Book Collection Pavilion,’ she thought.
‘The wind blows in gusts.
They probably keep it like this to stop disciples from hiding in here to slack off and sleep.’
Seeing that she remained unmoved, the old man’s anger flared up.
“You wretched girl!”
Yun Fuzhao remained as still as a mountain.
“Could you please be reasonable?
This blanket is obviously mine.
You stole it, and now you’re yelling at me?
That’s just absurd.”
The old man’s expression flickered with guilt, but it vanished in an instant.
He huffed, “You have no respect for your teachers or their teachings!”
As he spoke, the tuft of white beard on his chin trembled.
Yun Fuzhao hadn’t expected him to be so unreasonable.
Judging by his attire, he looked like an elder in charge of the Book Collection Pavilion, but his clothes were so tattered he looked like he was from the beggar gang.
‘Then again,’ she mused, ‘in novels, aren’t characters with this kind of identity always some hidden Great Power?’
The words on the tip of Yun Fuzhao’s tongue took a turn.
She chuckled and scooted a little closer to him.
“Venerable, are you part of the Wuya Sword Sect?”
The old man saw right through her little scheme.
He decided to play hard to get, shuffling away from her and snapping, “Why should I tell you?
Are we that familiar with each other?”
Yun Fuzhao shuffled closer.
“Come on, don’t say that.
We’ve already forged a revolutionary bond by sharing a blanket.”
The old man looked utterly scandalized, as if he’d never met anyone who spouted such nonsense.
“You wretched girl, don’t you dare ruin this old man’s reputation!”
“…”
‘Who?
Me?’
Yun Fuzhao silently glanced at his sagging face, where the wrinkles were deep enough to crush a fly.
“Venerable, how could you say that about me!” Yun Fuzhao’s face flushed red with indignation.
“I just wanted to be your friend, and you tarnish my name like this!
If that’s how it is, I might as well just die!”
With that, she abruptly shot up, looking for all the world as if she were about to run headfirst into a stone wall in despair.
The old man remained utterly still.
Yun Fuzhao pulled the small blanket back over herself and went to sleep.
A moment of silence.
The old man: “What’s your name?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“…I said, what is your NAME!”
Yun Fuzhao closed her eyes serenely.
“Why should I tell you?
Are we that familiar with each other?”
“…”
‘This damned girl holds a grudge!’
She slept straight through until late evening.
In the end, Song Ying had to come and wake her.
Yun Fuzhao was still dizzy with sleep.
She glanced to the side, but the old man was long gone.
Not paying it much mind, she yawned and asked, “Did you find a Sword technique?”
Song Ying’s cheeks were flushed with excitement.
“I found it!
I found it!
Senior Sister Yun, you’re incredible!”
She had gone to the second floor to find the Three Extremes Technique that Yun Fuzhao mentioned.
Song Ying had three spiritual roots, and while that was better than having Five Spirit Roots, cultivation was still a laborious process for her.
Not only were the sword moves of this Sword technique exceptionally sharp, but it could even integrate her Spirit Root Attribute into the attacks.
It was truly astounding.
Yun Fuzhao wasn’t surprised in the slightest.
‘Of course not,’ she thought.
‘The ones guiding them were none other than the number one Sword Cultivator, Yunding Sword Venerable, and the founder of the Wuya Sword Sect, the ancestor of the Wei Family.’
These were two legendary figures who could make the entire Cultivation World tremble just by stamping their feet.
“Did the other four choose the Sword techniques I told them to?”
Song Ying nodded.
“They did, they did.
You should have seen the looks on their faces.
It was quite a spectacle.”
Chatting as they went, the two of them headed back to their living quarters.
They were halfway there when a figure stepped out from the shadows.
Song Ying jumped in fright.
“Who are you?!”
An exquisitely handsome face, revealed in the moonlight, was enough to leave one momentarily dazed.
“Yu Ze, what are you doing here?”
Yu Ze glanced at Song Ying, then at Yun Fuzhao, but didn’t answer.
His gaze flickered between the two of them.
Song Ying seemed to catch on, giving Yun Fuzhao a knowing look before making an excuse and disappearing.
With no one else around, Yu Ze’s tense body relaxed.
He slowly approached Yun Fuzhao.
“I killed him.”
“Who?” Yun Fuzhao didn’t react at first.
“Wu Song.”
If he hadn’t mentioned the name, Yun Fuzhao would have almost forgotten about the guy.
He was always courting death; it was only a matter of time before Yu Ze killed him.
Yu Ze’s gaze was fixed on her, unwilling to look away for even a second.
His voice was thick and low.
“He cursed you…”
“—He deserved to die.”
Yun Fuzhao was surprised.
‘Does this mean he killed Wu Song just because the man was rude to me?’
She couldn’t quite figure out Yu Ze’s intentions.
‘Did he do this to pay off the one thousand top grade spiritual stones he owes me?’
‘I was just kidding around.
Did this kid actually take it seriously?’
An idea sparked in Yun Fuzhao’s mind.
She put on a serious face.
“Fine.
Since you did this work for me, we can deduct ten top grade spiritual stones from your debt.”
A hint of confusion flickered in his dark eyes.
Yu Ze stared blankly for a long moment before he understood what she meant.
Yun Fuzhao took a few steps forward and asked in a low voice, “What did you do with the body?
It’ll be a huge hassle if it’s discovered.”
The sudden proximity disrupted his breathing.
Her faint camellia scent seemed to pierce through his skin and flesh, seeping into his very bones.
Yu Ze’s eyelashes trembled.
He felt a sudden agitation, though he couldn’t pinpoint the reason.
“Aren’t you going to answer?”
Yun Fuzhao watched him suspiciously.
Yu Ze’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
It took him a moment to find his voice.
“I threw his body on the back mountain…”
As he said this, his blood began to boil, as if he were lost in a memory.
He grinned, his stark white teeth glinting coldly.
He stared at Yun Fuzhao, his eyes dark and bright, gleaming with an eerie light.
He savored every word, murmuring as if reliving the moment.
“There’s a pack of wolves on the back mountain that has been hungry for a long time.
The moment they saw his corpse, they pounced like they were possessed.
They tore into his flesh, gulping it down, CRUNCH, CRUNCH…”
Yu Ze’s eyes turned red with excitement.
“Making the sound of bones being chewed!”
Yun Fuzhao’s scalp went numb.
She took a large step back.
‘The way he’s acting…
it’s almost as if he was the one who devoured Wu Song alive.’
The thought terrified her so much that the hairs on her body stood on end.
Then again, she recalled that after Yu Ze became the Demon Lord, his mental state became extremely unstable.
He would repeatedly desecrate the bodies of Cultivators.
It wasn’t entirely impossible that he had actually…
eaten them…
“Yun Fuzhao.”
Yu Ze’s face suddenly went cold.
“Why are you backing away?”