Tianshu: “......”
Chengying: “......”
The round-faced disciple: “......”
When Yan Qing embraced Xie Shiyi, he felt as if he’d thrown himself into a pile of snow.
The material of Xie Shiyi’s robes was expensive and ice-cold, woven from the finest spiritual thread in the realm.
It was elegant and chilly, without a speck of dust.
Once he began crying and fussing, all the messy powder and rouge on his face rubbed off on it.
Yan Qing was still bawling without any fear for his life. “Venerable Immortal! He scared me to death, he scared me to death!”
“......”
The Cultivation Alliance disciples were as silent as wooden chickens, their expressions as if struck by thunder. They had never seen anything like this before, so they didn’t even know how they should react. Should they move up and haul that man away? Or should they scold him for being presumptuous?
Venerable Duwei was renowned far and wide. He had countless admirers, but the ones in the cultivation realm who could actually see his face were few. The ones who usually dealt with him were the sect leaders of the nine great sects, or else the three noble families of the Violetaurum continent. Every one of them was sly of mind and hungry for power. How could something like this happen???
Yan Qing hugged Xie Shiyi’s waist, crying as he surreptitiously lifted his head to glance at Xie Shiyi’s expression.
But as his gaze moved upward little by little, he passed by that snowy lapel, his collarbone, his Adam’s apple, and just when he reached his chin, he heard a cold and indifferent sentence.
“Let go.”
“Oh, of course!” Yan Qing let go right away, and sat upright among the peach flowers. At the same time, he wiped his face, mixing the streaks of ink and powder on his face together until he turned into a patterned monkey.
Yan Qing looked up with teary eyes and met Xie Shiyi’s gaze for the first time.
Xie Shiyi had a high nose, his lips were pale and thin and the shape of his eyes was sharp and cold. The aura around him was aloof and cool, as if he took no part in the common world. This made you think that the expression in his eyes should be clean, pure and aloof as well. But once you truly saw him, you’d find that his eyes were deep and black, mysterious and ice-cold, concealing depthless danger.
Yan Qing sobbed, his nose running. He said, “Venerable Immortal, thank you for saving me.”
Xie Shiyi said nothing.
Trouble let out a startled yelp as he came back from the dead. As soon as he looked up, he saw that his master, whose temper was so bad he angered both mortals and gods, was actually kneeling on the ground and crying pitifully. What kind of situation was this?
Trouble hastily flew over, flapping his wings. “What’s wrong with you, what’s going on?!”
“......” As Yan Qing was waiting with alarm for Xie Shiyi’s next reaction, he heard Trouble shouting next to his ear.
After he and Trouble formed a contract, their communication was automatically encrypted, but the one before them was Xie Shiyi.
He was a talent the cultivation world hadn’t seen in thousands of years. How could he not have heard?
Sure enough, the moment Trouble came closer, the peach flower dust lying quietly on the ground began to tremble softly.
Xie Shiyi didn’t move, but his killing intent had already flooded the space around him.
This stupid bird had really set up trap after trap for Yan Qing today. Once again, he came up with a genius idea in a perilous situation—when Trouble rushed over like a little cyclone, he went over and caught him in his hand with a clap, and shouted, “Venerable, be careful!”
Trouble gave out a muffled, questioning yelp.
Yan Qing held on to Trouble for dear life and set a silencing spell on him, then stood up quickly, giving Xie Shiyi a flattering, worried smile. “Venerable, are you alright?”
His face was murky with red and white, but when his peach blossom eyes curved, they were clear and bright.
Xie Shiyi finally looked down. In his hand, Regretless turned into flickering stars and streams of light, disappearing into his sleeve.
Tianshu was afraid he’d kill someone at the next moment, so he hurriedly ran over. “Duwei, Duwei, this little boy was scared just now, so he was thoughtless and infringed upon you. Don’t kill him!”
Xie Shiyi ignored Tianshu, saying mildly, “What’s in your hand?”
Yan Qing: “Ah?”
Yan Qing’s eyes widened, and he belatedly realized he was talking about Trouble.
The already precarious affection between master and servant instantly shattered. As if presenting a treasure, Yan Qing held the dizzy-headed Trouble out with both hands. “Venerable, are you talking about this? Ah, it seems like it’s a bird.”
Xie Shiyi said calmly, “It has a phantasm in it.”
“What?!” Yan Qing immediately revealed a look of exaggerated terror. He said in disbelief, “Venerable, you’re saying it has a phantasm?! Heavens, how terrifying!”
In this day and time, phantasms were the original source of terror.
The slaughter phantasms inflicted upon humanity was cruel beyond measure. They were bloodthirsty and ravenous, tearing bones apart for their pleasure. In places where a phantasm awoke, blood was sure to flow until the very houses floated, and corpses and skeletons would form heaps.
Xie Shiyi asked, “It’s yours?”
“No, no.” Yan Qing shook his head like a rattle-drum. “I saw it charging over, and was afraid it would hurt you, so I caught it. If you want it, Venerable, I’ll give it to you.”
Trouble, who had a silencing curse on him: “......” He silently poured out a lifetime of trouble.
Yan Qing stretched his hands further before himself, and revealed a dazzling smile beneath the light of peach blossoms and spring sun. “Thank you for saving me, Venerable Immortal. Here, this is my return gift. It’s a little ugly, but I hope you won’t look down on it.”
Trouble: “.......” He furiously let out a lifetime of trouble!!!
Xie Shiyi reached out. His hand was beautiful, and when his wrist extended out of its folded sleeves, it was like snow. Yan Qing thought that Trouble would land in Xie Shiyi’s hands and begin the trial of his lifetime.
Then Xie Shiyi’s hand suddenly turned, reaching past Trouble. In an instant, it brushed aside Yan Qing’s sleeve. The slender, ice-cold fingers gripped his wrist tight, allowing no resistance, and pulled it forward.
Yan Qing was startled. Xie Shiyi’s force was great, like the pressure before the mountain rain began.
His hand was lifted in the air, and the red threads tangled around it were revealed.
Xie Shiyi softly and calmly asked, “These threads—where did you get them?”
Yan Qing: “......” He felt numb.
Actually, it wasn’t just him who felt numb.
Tianshu was numb as well.
So was everyone watching.
Xie Shiyi’s palms were slightly calloused.
Yan Qing blinked, developing some measure of intelligence amid his anxiety. He squeezed out a few more tears and said, “Venerable Immortal, my grandmother gave me this. When I was young, a fortuneteller said that I was born under an evil star and I would be lonely until the end of my old age. So my grandmother got this red thread for me, saying that wearing it would give me luck with romance.”
Xie Shiyi gave him a faint glance, his tone calm. “Where did she get it?”
Yan Qing came up with more nonsense. “She got it from a cultivator who wandered the seven seas.”
Xie Shiyi: “A cultivator who wandered the seven seas?”
Yan Qing: “Yes, that cultivator said he’d traveled all of the nine layers and gone to every place there was.”
Xie Shiyi: “What did the cultivator look like?”
Yan Qing: “I don’t remember, but he was old and mysterious.”
Xie Shiyi said, “What’s your name?”
Yan Qing: “Yan-Yan Qing.” Damn. Yan Qing almost bit his tongue off. It was a good thing he had quick reflexes. With such a long train of questions, when he was suddenly asked such an ordinary question, it was easy for him to answer under the influence of his subconscious in this state of high tension.
Yan Qing complained at heart. Xie Yaoyao, you’re so sly.
Xie Shiyi asked, “Did your mother say when you could take the thread off?”
Yan Qing’s soul hadn’t settled back into place. He said weakly, “No, she didn’t say.”
Yan Qing: “......”
It turned out that after that heavy lead-up, the most fatal question was the last one.
Once he finished speaking, Yan Qing looked up. Sure enough, he met Xie Shiyi’s silent gaze. His pitch-black eyes were bottomless, and a cold light seemed to be flowing in their depths.
At this moment, Yan Qing realized why Tianshu and Chengying were so afraid of Xie Shiyi.
He practiced the emotionless path, and had a heart of stained glass. Xie Shiyi had never been the venerable immortal of the popular impression, who was cold, taciturn and slow of speech. On the contrary, he had a deep understanding of human nature and manipulated it to perfection.
Yan Qing had let down his guard in front of him.
Xie Shiyi seemed to hold a mocking smile at the corner of his mouth. His tone was frigid. “Your grandmother?”
Yan Qing simply threw himself at him again, bawling. “Venerable, Venerable Immortal, forgive me, I shouldn’t have lied to you. But this thread is a demonic artifact. I was afraid you’d kill me if I didn’t lie to you. Ah, all I wanted was a cultivation partner, so I put it on. Isn’t a red thread a lucky thing? I wore this for so many years. Don’t take it away from me, or my cultivation partner will disappear!”
“......”
The audience was already numb from this spirit of his, that was unafraid of death.
Tianshu felt his head throb.
He felt like everything that happened just now was like a dream, to the point that he was still dizzy now. This was Xie Ying?
He wasn’t surprised in the slightest that Xie Ying was able to pierce through this boy’s lies. After all, Xie Ying had been able to deal with the nine sects and three families for so long, and he sat on high in Azurejade Palace. He couldn’t possibly have a simple mind.
What surprised him was that Xie Ying would waste time and words on this boy.
Yan Qing was in the middle of crying when he suddenly felt his chin being lifted up. This time, it was Xie Shiyi’s hand.
Peach blossoms had shattered into fine snow, covering the ground with a thin layer of silver and white.
Xie Shiyi leaned down, his expression indifferent and emotionless. He looked at him silently. He did not possess the cold killing intent that he had when facing the crowd, but nor did he have the calculating attitude he had toward him just now.
He was silent and at rest.
Yan Qing blinked his teary eyes.
Xie Shiyi said, “Don’t cry.”
Yan Qing sniffled. “Okay, as long as you don’t kill me, Venerable Immortal.”
Xie Shiyi said calmly, “What would I kill you for, my future cultivation partner?”
Yan Qing: “......”
The crowd: “......”
Xie Shiyi lightly retrieved his hand and stood up, his black hair like a waterfall and his wide sleeves like clouds. At this moment, wind blew past the hair at his temples, like plum blossoms falling over the southern mountains, filling with the loneliness and desolation of the accumulated months and years, dawn after dusk, that had seeped down to the marrow.
Trouble was silenced, but he could still ram into him with his body in order to express his displeasure. “I’m dying from anger, dying, dying…”
Yan Qing was a little distracted. The tears in his eyes were still clinging to his lashes. He clasped Trouble firmly to his chest and said softly, “Don’t move.”
The Cultivation Alliance disciple wasn’t sure of the situation, but he still dutifully approached. “Alliance Leader, since we’ve found the phantasm that was within that phoenix demonseed, what should we do now?”
All Xie Shiyi said was, “Open the secret realm.”
The Cultivation Alliance disciple looked at Trouble. “Then this phantasm…” He saw Xie Shiyi’s lowered glance, and immediately bit his tongue, his expression serious. “Yes, as you command.”
Xie Shiyi walked toward the back of the mountain, Regretless appearing in his hand again.
Yan Qing looked at his figure and was a little dazed.
Had Xie Shiyi recognized him?
He’d recognized him. No, he hadn’t.
If he hadn’t recognized him, even a blind man could see the difference in him.
If he had recognized him, then wasn’t there something really wrong with his reaction?
Actually, they had met before after they went their separate ways, and their last interaction was a little embarrassing. It was at the Red Lotus Pavilion in Tenside City.
That was why Yan Qing didn’t want to expose his identity.
If he’d recognized him, then Xie Shiyi would never react like this. He should hate him when he saw him…right?
It must be because he had a few doubts, but didn’t feel like investigating further, right? Forget it, it didn’t matter, whichever way it was.
The hems of Xie Shiyi’s robes disappeared in the depths of the peach blossoms.
Yan Qing sighed and released the curse on Trouble.
Trouble howled, “And I had the goodness of heart to save you! You repay me like this?! Ungrateful bastard! You don’t have a conscience!”
Yan Qing patted away the petals on his face and said, “I let you look at the peach blossoms.”
Trouble: “You pressed my face into the ground, so it was the peach blossoms looking at me, wasn’t it?!”
Yan Qing smiled and said, “Were they beautiful?”
Trouble: “My ass they were beautiful.”
Yan Qing thought for a moment, then looked up at the sky full of peach blossoms like fine snow. He suddenly laughed, and said as if he had something on his mind, “I gave the siftrain flower to Yin Wuwang, and then Xie Shiyi gave me a sky full of peach blossoms.”
Trouble: “So what, you all have people giving you flowers. I’ll laugh myself to death. Did you think I’d envy you?”
Yan Qing comforted him. “No need to envy me, they’re only flowers. After you die, they’ll grow on your grave as well.”
Trouble: “......”
Trouble furiously bit Yan Qing with his little teeth.
“Young Master.” Tianshu had a strange expression as he came over to help him up.
Yan Qing stood up and brushed his hair aside. “Elder Tianshu.”
Tianshu’s gaze was incredibly complicated. He didn’t know what to say.
***
The author has something to say:
I’ll talk about what happened at Tenside City later.
But it really isn’t that melodramatic.
They won’t stand againt each other.
Actually, right now, Yan Qing sees Xie Shiyi as a good friend, the kind that you dislike, but still lend a helping hand to when they fall on hard times. = =
***
cela’s notes:
Tiānshū’s name is 天枢, or “heavenly pivot.” Again, I assume this is his title as an elder.
1 hour and 41 minutes for 2,532 words, or 4 minutes for every 100 words. A decrease in rate by a whopping 0.5 minutes!!! 😁
A total of 25 hours and 58 minutes for 34,585 words, or 4.5 minutes for every 100 words. No change.
If you would like access to the next six chapters, please consider encouraging me on Ko-fi! 💛
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