Night fell, with winter’s bare trees clawing at the sky, casting long dark shadows.
Shen Xi sat meditating under a tree. Nearby, over a dozen Wushi Sect disciples either conversed quietly or meditated. Some leaned against trees, drowsy. Farther from the fire, Chu Xin stared blankly at the jade tablet in his hand.
“Why aren’t you resting?” Xie Jiu walked over and sat down beside him, handing him a water pouch.
Chu Xin took a sip and said, “I’m thinking about the past.”
Xie Jiu leaned against the tree and reached out to pat Chu Xin’s head.
Chu Xin smiled briefly before his expression fell again. “My mother died right after I was born. My father was busy cultivating, so he sent me to the sect’s Yushan Hall. At five, they tested my aptitude. The master saw I had decent potential and took me to Yuanye Peak…”
“Master only took five disciples in total. I was always the one who troubled him most. My senior brother Chu Li was extraordinarily gifted and the most promising, but he perished a year ago while following the Chongzheng Alliance to battle Ning Buwei. My two older senior brothers, though average in aptitude, were always kind. When Chu Zhi and I misbehaved, they would always help plead our case…”
“When I went to Linjiang City with martial uncle, I thought I had made two good friends. I didn’t expect they would be so unscrupulous as to side with villains.”
As Chu Xin spoke, visions of his fellow disciples’ tragic deaths flashed before his eyes. He covered his face with his hands. “Brother Xie, I can’t forgive myself.”
Xie Jiu crossed his arms and stared at the distant fire. “After a few hundred years, you’ll find these things aren’t so significant.”
Chu Xin was stunned. “Not so significant?”
Xie Jiu chuckled. “Sorry, I meant you won’t feel so heartbroken about it by then.”
Chu Xin nodded. “Right now, I just want to become stronger so I can kill my enemies with my own hands.”
“Killing your enemies with your own hands is certainly satisfying,” Xie Jiu said slowly. “But sometimes, using their own methods against them works just as well.”
Chu Xin listened, not fully comprehending.
Xie Jiu smiled faintly. “Of all forms of revenge, destroying one’s spirit is supreme.”
Whether due to the deep night or a cold breeze, Chu Xin felt a chill run down his spine as he looked at Xie Jiu.
In the distance, Shen Xi slowly opened her eyes and took out her waist tablet. It displayed nothing.
“Elder Shen, what’s wrong?” a young disciple nearby asked.
Looking at the tablet, Shen Xi said, “We’ve been out for so many days, yet the sect hasn’t contacted us once.”
The young disciple smiled. “Naturally, the sect leader knows Elder Shen is steady and always thorough in her actions.”
Shen Xi shook her head. She wasn’t originally supposed to lead the team for this Dao Discussion Conference. Coincidentally, the junior brother scheduled to go had been injured on a sect mission. Chu Linyuan’s other disciples were either in seclusion or out training. Only she remained at the sect, investigating the Yuanye Peak incident. Such good opportunities as the Dao Conference were eagerly sought after by all peaks and valleys, naturally sending their most valued disciples. The lead elder had to be from the main peak to put minds at ease. Seeing no progress on the Yuanye Peak incident, Chu Linyuan specifically named her to go…
It was one thing for Chu Linyuan not to contact her, but she was leading the cream of the crop from various peaks and valleys. Surely their masters couldn’t all have agreed to keep quiet and not reach out— Shen Xi frowned as she thought of this. Something wasn’t right.
Her gaze swept over the nineteen disciples accompanying her, landing on the only one who had come with a companion. This cook called Xie Jiu was talking to Chu Xin, even affectionately patting Chu Xin’s head, causing Shen Xi to furrow her brow.
Seeming to sense her gaze, Xie Jiu suddenly turned his head, meeting Shen Xi’s eyes. He nodded to her.
Shen Xi glanced at him, then lowered her eyes.
The young disciple beside her asked, “What’s wrong, Elder Shen?”
Shen Xi set up a sound barrier and transmitted a few words to the young disciple.
—
On the main street of Leyuan City, Ning Buwei was leading Chu Jun and Cui Yuanbai to Chengyun Tower when an old woman stopped them. “This young master, have you seen a girl in a light blue dress? About this tall, with a mole on the tip of her nose, fifteen or sixteen years old, with big eyes…”
She gestured as she spoke, tears in her eyes.
“Haven’t seen her,” Ning Buwei shook his head.
The old woman, either accustomed to such answers or already in despair, continued forward to ask others.
“Sigh, another one. Is there some kind of demon around here?” someone muttered.
“That can’t be, with so many cultivators these past few days, how could demons run rampant?”
“But how many is this now? Always targeting young, beautiful female cultivators. Could it be someone assaulting women?”
“Fortunately, I’m ugly.”
“Pfft, what are you afraid of? You’re a male cultivator.”
As people around whispered, Ning Buwei looked at Chu Jun.
Chu Jun said, “What are you looking at?”
“Just in case this assailant grabs all the good-looking ones, the Venerable had better hurry back to Wushi Sect,” Ning Buwei said with a serious expression.
Chu Jun remained unmoved. “If it comes, it would be good to capture it and bring it to justice.”
Ning Buwei: “……”
In a private room at Chengyun Tower.
Cui Yuanbai obediently knelt on the couch, holding a small pinwheel Chu Jun and Ning Buwei had just bought him. He reached out to touch it, and the pinwheel instantly crumbled to dust.
The child froze, looking at his palm.
“Try to control the knife energy inside you,” Ning Buwei made a hand seal, restoring the pinwheel to its original state. “Guide it along your meridians to gather in your dantian.”
Cui Yuanbai followed his instructions with a serious expression. When he reached for the pinwheel again, it didn’t crumble. He looked up at Ning Buwei, his eyes filled with admiration.
“Not bad,” Ning Buwei patted his head. This child was clever.
Chu Jun sat across from them, cultivating. After a moment, he opened his eyes.
“How is it?” Ning Buwei asked.
Chu Jun shook his head.
That meant he hadn’t found any traces of gu worms in his body.
Ning Buwei stared at the pinwheel in Cui Yuanbai’s hand, lost in thought.
Earlier, observing Chu Jun’s battle with that green light, he noticed the green light’s cultivation was no lower than Chu Jun’s. But directly confronting the green light wouldn’t end well. Clearly, the opponent didn’t want mutual destruction, so they resorted to such a vicious method as gu worms to deal with Chu Jun. If not for Feng Zizhang’s special constitution that led to its discovery, those few left at Yijian Peak would likely have fallen victim.
For someone at Chu Jun’s level of cultivation, even planting the tiniest bit of heart demon could potentially cost him his life when facing future tribulations.
Ning Buwei had originally thought the green light was only after himself, hence his hasty departure from Wushi Sect. He didn’t expect the green light to still end Chu Jun’s life.
“Where’s your white clothed shell?” Ning Buwei suddenly asked.
Chu Jun calmly replied, “I’m using it now.”
Ning Buwei: “…You finally deigned to mold its face?”
“Otherwise, it would be quite inconvenient,” Chu Jun said.
“When did you come out of seclusion?”
“The day you came to Yijian Peak.”
Ning Buwei stared at his current body. “Where did you keep this shell while in seclusion?”
“In my personal storage bag,” Chu Jun said. “It never left my side.”
“There’s one thing I still can’t figure out. How did he put the Suzaku knife fragment in there?” Ning Buwei said, patting Chu Jun’s chest with a grave expression.
Chu Jun stiffened at his touch, stepping back half a step. “I never sensed it.”
They fell silent for a moment, then suddenly said in unison. “Gu worms.”
“That night on Yijian Peak when the green light first appeared…” Ning Buwei began carefully recalling the events of that night. “After you battled him in the void, I only sensed the other knife fragments with my piece of the Suzaku knife. Then I carried away your shell. Assuming he orchestrated everything in Linjiang City and Yunzhong Sect, his initial plan must have been to end your life. Even you couldn’t detect these gu worms. That night, his plan should have been—”
“To use the gu worms to place the Suzaku knife fragment into my actual heart,” Chu Jun furrowed his brow.
Ning Buwei licked his teeth hard, sneering, “How painstakingly thorough.”
The Suzaku knife fragment was already special. With the gu worm wrapped around it, Chu Jun couldn’t detect it. It would slowly fuse with his heart. If he wanted to retrieve the knife, Chu Jun would surely die.
If it weren’t for Chu Jun releasing a shell, he might have truly fallen into the trap.
“But how did he know for certain you’d come out of seclusion that day?” Ning Buwei asked, puzzled.
“Before ending my seclusion, I communicated with Chu Linyuan,” Chu Jun pondered briefly. “But I didn’t mention a specific time for ending seclusion.”
“Rather than lying in wait for you, he might as well have followed me around,” Ning Buwei narrowed his eyes. “He only needed to control Dulu’s remnant soul to know what I was doing at any time.”
Dulu’s remnant soul was sealed in the Suzaku knife handle. In theory, it shouldn’t know what was happening in the outside world, but there was one method to connect with the outside… This was an array that would automatically appear in one’s mind after the Suzaku knife acknowledged its master, used for life-saving purposes. Naturally, only the owner would know about it, and usually wouldn’t tell others.
Besides him, only Ning Xingyuan and his accompanying vine knew of this array.
This wasn’t just the Four Symbols Six Harmonies Array that could be casually told to others.
“What’s wrong?” Chu Jun asked, noticing his expression change.
“Nothing,” Ning Buwei shook his head. “Has Ning Xiu eaten?”
He suddenly asked this out-of-the-blue question, but Chu Jun played along, “He just had a small bowl of rice porridge and two bites of jam.”
“Oh,” Ning Buwei nodded. “Sang Yun should be here soon.”
Just as he finished speaking, there was a knock at the door.
“Come in.”
However, it wasn’t Sang Yun who entered, but an unfamiliar man.
He wore a long-sleeved robe, with his hair tied in a high ponytail. His features were deep-set, giving him a brisk and capable appearance. After entering, he cupped his hands in greeting and asked, “May I ask which of you is surnamed Ning?”
Ning Buwei looked him over. “What’s the matter?”
“I am Pei Heguang, sent here on Miss Zhong’er’s behalf,” Pei Heguang said with relief. “Miss Zhong’er is currently severely injured and unable to move. She asked me to invite Fellow Cultivator Ning over, saying there’s an urgent matter to discuss. This is the token Miss Zhong’er gave me, saying you’d recognize it at a glance.”
Pei Heguang finished speaking and handed over a smooth, round stone.
Ning Buwei took it and looked, confirming it was indeed Sang Yun’s possession. He nodded.
Chu Jun said, “I’ll go with you.”
Ning Buwei said, “You stay here and look after—”
“Father, I want to go too,” Cui Yuanbai ran from the couch to his side, hugging his leg tightly. He looked up at him with an expectant face. “I’m very good at fighting.”
Ning Buwei: “……”
In the seventeen states, which great demon would go to fight while dragging along their entire family!
Pei Heguang was intimidated by the murderous aura of this father and son duo. He quickly looked towards the “vase” who seemed to have influential words, waving his hands repeatedly, “There’s no need to fight, really no need.”
The “vase” had an aloof demeanor that seemed detached from worldly affairs, looking like a refined person who disliked violence.
