“Senior brother, you came at the right time!” Chu Zhi saw him enter and pulled him in. “Come quickly and help me decide which clothes to wear tomorrow!”
Chu Xin’s expression was solemn. As he was dragged in, he saw several senior and junior brothers gathered together discussing the grand ceremony for Venerable Jinghe’s emergence from seclusion tomorrow.
“Tomorrow, our peak’s position seems to be quite close to the people from Wanxuan Academy. I heard that Dean Hao Zheng has also come…” a senior brother said. “If we perform well, we might be chosen if we have good potential.”
“Hahaha, keep dreaming!”
“Hmph, maybe I’ll be the one chosen. Don’t come begging your good senior brother to take you along then.”
“Good senior brother~ I’m calling dibs in advance, haha!”
“Ugh! Get lost!”
Everyone burst into laughter. Chu Xin asked, “Why isn’t Master in the main hall?”
“Oh, Master went to the main peak early,” Chu Zhi said. “Senior brother, what’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.” Chu Xin shook his head and pointed to the clothes on the left. “The one on the left looks good.”
“Great!” Chu Zhi smiled. “Then I’ll wear this outfit.”
The main peak could not be entered without summons. Chu Xin could only temporarily suppress his heavy heart. He thought he wouldn’t be able to sleep, but unexpectedly fell into a deep slumber as soon as his head hit the pillow.
The moon rose to the center of the sky. The cold moonlight shone through the window into the room. Warm water flowed down his cheeks, bringing a slight tickle. Chu Xin frowned and opened his eyes.
It felt like something was pulsing in his palm. He raised his hand and saw a warm, still-beating heart.
Sticky blood dripped onto his brow, feeling no different from the warm water on his face. His nostrils were instantly filled with a strong smell of blood. Chu Xin threw away the heart and suddenly sat up in bed.
In the moonlight, he could see the scene in the room clearly. Dismembered limbs were strewn all over the floor. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but thick blood. His hands and body were covered in sticky, warm blood. The stench and heat mixed together, making one nauseous.
He seemed to hear a groan. He turned his head to look and found himself face to face with his junior brother Chu Zhi’s half-bloodied face, one eyeball protruding and bursting into bloody pulp.
“Ah—”
A scream rang out from the disciples’ quarters of Yuanye Peak.
At Yijian Peak.
Ning Buwei, who was meditating on a stone bed, suddenly opened his eyes.
How could he sense the aura of the Ning family’s Four Symbols Six Harmonies Array in Wushi Sect?
However, the aura of this array was intermittent and not very clear. His expression darkened slightly, and he then got up and left the cave silently.
The white-clothed shell that had been quiet in the corner of the cave moved its feet slightly, but in the next moment, it seemed as if someone had firmly pressed down on its shoulders.
Chu Jun remotely pressed down on his uncontrollable white-clothed shell, wrapped his son tightly in swaddling clothes, and appeared in front of the white-clothed shell from the cave on the mountainside in just one breath.
With a wave of his long sleeve, a red-clothed shell appeared in the cave.
Chu Jun split his divine consciousness in two, then handed the child to the red-clothed shell and chased after Ning Buwei in the direction he had left.
Unable to use spiritual power freely, Ning Buwei still relied on the power of talisman arrays. His speed was not very fast, and Chu Jun soon caught up with him, slowing down to follow beside him.
Ning Buwei was still using blood talismans, cutting his palm with a broken knife without blinking, making Chu Jun frown.
When he saw Ning Buwei’s wild and unrestrained talismans, his brow furrowed even more deeply.
Ning Buwei’s expression was also very unpleasant.
The Four Symbols Six Harmonies Array was unique to the Ning family—more accurately, it was an array created by Ning Xingyuan. Although not as famous as his Rejuvenation Array, because the array was easy to operate and had great power, it became the Ning family’s hereditary array and was not passed on to outsiders.
If the Rejuvenation Array was mainly for life, then the Four Symbols Six Harmonies Array was mainly for killing. Whenever the array was activated, there would be bloodshed. Ning Buwei’s Soul-Devouring Array was derived and created based on the Four Symbols Six Harmonies Array, taking its killing nature to the extreme, to the point where anyone who entered the array would have their soul scattered.
Ever since the Ning family was destroyed five hundred years ago, the Four Symbols Six Harmonies Array had disappeared from the seventeen states along with the Rejuvenation Array. This was the first time Ning Buwei had discovered its trace.
Clearly, this array was aimed at him.
The enemy was hidden while he was exposed… Ning Buwei’s footsteps faltered slightly, and he suddenly turned his head to look behind him.
The moon was high in the sky, and tree shadows swayed. There was no sense of any strangers.
Ning Buwei looked back twice uneasily, took out several concealment and barrier talismans from his bosom, slapped them on himself, and then continued to walk forward.
Chu Jun’s eyebrows twitched slightly. Before Ning Buwei applied the talismans, he used scarlet spiritual energy to condense an extremely thin thread, which silently flew out and wrapped around Ning Buwei’s waist. The thin red line disappeared silently into the air the moment it touched Ning Buwei, completely undetected.
A person who couldn’t even use spiritual energy dared to boldly venture into dangerous territory alone.
Both of them simultaneously looked up and saw a burst of blood-red light shooting up from Yuanye Peak, illuminating the pitch-black sky.
Ning Buwei’s talisman-throwing speed involuntarily quickened. Half an incense stick later, he finally arrived at the source of the blood-red light, only to find that many disciples of Wushi Sect had already gathered outside the quarters.
A blood-covered youth knelt on the ground in panic, clutching the robe of an elder, crying, “Master, it wasn’t me, it really wasn’t me!”
That youth was Chu Xin, and the elder he was clutching was the peak master of Yuanye Peak, Chu Wu.
Chu Wu had originally been discussing matters with Sect Master Chu Linyuan and others at the main peak. He was urgently called back to Yuanye Peak in the middle of the night, only to find that several of his close disciples had all died tragically. He immediately suffered from shock and anger, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
When he saw the blood-covered Chu Xin, his eyes were full of disbelief.
The surrounding area was filled with the aura of the Four Symbols Six Harmonies Array, and the array-setting technique felt extremely familiar to Ning Buwei. He clenched his fist tightly hidden in his sleeve.
As a practitioner of array and talisman techniques, he naturally knew that the array-setting methods of the array’s creator and a learner… were very different.
“Why don’t we look at the Retrograde Realm to find out,” Shen Xi, the head disciple of the main peak, stepped forward and said.
The Retrograde Realm could only trace back scenes within an hour, and it required the presence of the people involved at the time. It consumed a great deal of spiritual energy and demanded extremely high cultivation from the caster, making it not very practical. Thus, not many cultivators practiced it.
Shen Xi had practiced this technique since childhood, so it was not difficult for her to use it. She made hand seals, and in an instant, a huge water mirror appeared before everyone.
In the water mirror, Chu Xin, who was sleeping peacefully in bed, slowly opened his eyes, got up from the bed, and grabbed the long sword placed beside him.
Thick black qi twined around the sword blade, countless fierce ghosts wailing. The youth’s eyes were blood-red, his face twisted into a ferocious smile as he raised the sword and chopped down at his sleeping fellow disciples.
Blood splattered on his fair chin. He licked the crimson at the corner of his mouth, tilted his head slightly, and that cold, vicious gaze seemed to look through the water mirror at everyone present—or rather, seemed to be staring intently at someone who was destined to come.
He revealed a mocking smile.
Then, continuous screams and wails came from the water mirror. Everyone was shocked into stillness by this one-sided cruel massacre.
Chu Xin watched himself and his slaughtered fellow disciples in the water mirror with a deathly pale face. He shook his head in bewilderment, tears gushing out, and said hoarsely, “No, it wasn’t me, it wasn’t me…”
Those were the brothers he had grown up with. Just before sleeping, they were still laughing and talking together. Junior brother Chu Zhi had even asked him to help choose clothes—
Yet in the water mirror, he ignored Chu Zhi’s terrified pleas and split Chu Zhi’s head open with one sword strike.
Chu Xin collapsed, grabbing his own hair and curling up in pain. “It wasn’t me, I don’t remember…Why don’t I remember anything!?”
“Now that we have both witness and physical evidence, what more can you argue?”
“It’s clearly demonic magic! Didn’t you see the ghostly energy on the sword? It’s exactly the same as Ning Buwei’s Suzaku knife!”
“What grudge, what hatred… We’re all fellow disciples, why resort to such deadly measures?”
“Wanxuan Academy came to select disciples, right? I heard they were going to pick one from Yuanye Peak… You never truly know a person.”
“We shouldn’t jump to conclusions. It looks to me like he was controlled by some evil entity.”
“Not necessarily. He might have secretly practiced evil techniques and lost control… I heard that back then, Ning Buwei fell into the demonic path because of evil techniques…”
“But this is too strange, it doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“But he did indeed do this! It’s recorded clearly in the water mirror.”
The surrounding disciples whispered incessantly. Chu Xin knelt on the ground, desperate and desolate. He looked up at Chu Wu, saying tearfully, “Master, it really wasn’t me… Please believe me, it really wasn’t me!”
Chu Wu looked at him with grief-stricken eyes, seeming to have aged hundreds of years in an instant. “I watched you grow up, so I naturally know your character. There’s something strange about this…”
Chu Xin raised his head and suddenly met Ning Buwei’s gaze behind the crowd.
‘The ghostly energy on that sword is exactly the same as the ghostly energy on Ning Buwei’s Suzaku knife…’
Chu Xin moved his lips, tightly grasping Chu Wu’s sleeve, and spoke anxiously. “Master, Ning—”
Before he could finish, a green light suddenly attacked from behind him.
“Xiao Xin!” Chu Wu’s expression changed, and he suddenly exerted force to pull him away, but it was already too late to dodge.
Chu Jun noticed and acted immediately, but at the moment he moved, a sharp pain suddenly came from the wound on his shoulder, causing him to be a breath too late.
Chu Wu was hit directly in the chest by the green light.
“Master!!!” Chu Xin turned his head in panic, just in time to see Chu Wu fall. He quickly lunged forward to catch him.
In the crowd, Ning Buwei met a pair of smiling eyes. The owner of those eyes smiled slightly at him and turned to leave.
Ning Buwei quickly followed.
Chu Xin, holding Chu Wu’s body, cried out in pain. Seeming to sense something, he raised his head and saw Ning Buwei’s retreating figure. He shouted in a shrill voice. “Ning! Bu! Wei!!”
Ning Buwei’s back stiffened, but his steps didn’t stop.
Chu Xin, his eyes blood-red, was about to grab his sword and give chase, but was restrained by Shen Xi and others.
Shen Xi held him down and said in a deep voice. “This matter is of great importance. Junior brother Chu Xin, you cannot move around freely now. I will go report to the Sect Leader immediately.”
****
The person seemed unhurried, yet their speed was extremely fast.
Ning Buwei pursued closely. The moment he clearly saw the other’s back, he suddenly shouted fiercely, “Stop right there!”
Surprisingly, the person cooperatively stopped and turned around leisurely, revealing a gentle yet unfamiliar face. He smiled slightly and said, “Fellow Cultivator Chengfeng, we meet again.”
Ning Buwei was stunned for a moment. “Xie Jiu?”
Xie Jiu stood there with his hands in his sleeves and smiled at the question, “Of course. I wonder…who did you mistake me for?”
Ning Buwei stared at him intently. “An old acquaintance.”
Xie Jiu smiled more brightly. “It seems this old acquaintance is very important to you.”
“Just a friend from the past,” Ning Buwei said. “I’ve been looking for him for a long time.”
Xie Jiu’s smile faded slightly. “Just a friend from the past, why keep looking?”
Ning Buwei was silent for a moment. “Why are you in Wushi Sect?”
“Naturally, I came to be a cook,” Xie Jiu’s peach blossom eyes sparkled with mirth. “Disciples from Linggu Sect are in high demand outside. I’m especially skilled at roasting sparrows. If you want to eat, you can come find me at Ruogu Peak anytime.”
Having said this, without waiting for Ning Buwei to speak, he turned and continued walking forward.
Ning Buwei was about to pursue when suddenly a commotion arose behind him. He was about to turn his head when someone suddenly grasped his wrist and pulled him into a crevice between rocks.
The Suzaku fragments in his hand suddenly lashed out, followed by his elbow slamming backwards. His whole body abruptly turned, about to slam the blood talisman in his palm towards the other person’s chest.
Chu Jun gathered those ferocious Suzaku fragments into his sleeve, then pinched the acupoint on Ning Buwei’s wrist, firmly twisting that blood-light-emitting palm behind his back. “It’s me.”
Ning Buwei was surrounded by a murderous aura and said impatiently, “Who are you?”
Chu Jun: “…Chu Shan.”
Ning Buwei was stunned for a moment. “Why aren’t you at home watching the child? Where’s the child? Did you leave him alone in the cave?”
Chu Jun, listening to the commotion outside, said in a low voice, “My brother Chu Qiu is helping to watch him.”
“You—” Ning Buwei frowned, but in the next moment, a long, warm hand covered his mouth. A cool, unfamiliar fragrance entered his nostrils, causing his entire body to freeze in place.
“Someone is giving chase,” Chu Jun tilted his head slightly to listen to the sounds outside.
As Chu Jun tilted his head, his soft hair lightly brushed against Ning Buwei’s eyelashes.
Ning Buwei blinked instinctively, only then belatedly realizing how cramped this place was. The two were extremely close, with the other person almost entirely pressed against him.
He lowered his gaze. In the moonlight, he could clearly see even the fine down on the other’s earlobe. The smooth, beautiful line of the jaw disappeared into the thin collar along the fair neck…
Ning Buwei’s gaze seemed to have been scalded. He abruptly raised his eyes, only to meet Chu Jun’s picturesque face. His breath caught, and he instinctively leaned his head back a bit, trying to distance himself.
“Hm?” Chu Jun noticed his unnatural expression and made a questioning sound.
Ning Buwei’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He extended a finger to push against Chu Jun’s shoulder, keeping his voice extremely low, with a hint of gritted teeth. “Get away from me.”
As luck would have it, his finger pressed right on Chu Jun’s shoulder wound. Chu Jun’s lips paled, and he grabbed Ning Buwei’s hand, saying in a deep voice. “Don’t mess around.”
The shallow breath fanned across the tip of his nose. Ning Buwei wished he could turn around, dig a hole, and stuff him in it. He glared at him irritably.
Chu Jun was bewildered by his glare and whispered, “They’re here.”
Ning Buwei grabbed a handful of concealment talismans and very roughly slapped them on Chu Jun’s forehead, covering up that distracting face.
Chu Jun: “……”
