Bai Xiaoxiao: “......”
A single sentence from Yan Qing was like a strike of lightning. He stiffened in place, his frail, thin figure trembling, tears welling up in his reddened eyes. He was pitiful to the extreme.
Bai Xiaoxiao felt like his tongue had been tied in a knot. He said softly, “I…”
Tianshu felt his head beginning to ache again. “W-what’s going on?”
Yan Qing swept up Trouble, who had been sleeping on the ground, smiled and said, “Let my little shidi explain. I’m a little sleepy, and there’s too many people here. I’ll find a new room to sleep in.”
His cultivation was currently at the third level of Qi Refining, so he was little different from a mortal man.
Everyone at the scene could only foolishly watch him leave.
The delicate loops of red thread around Yan Qing’s wrist trailed into the air. He was clothed in blue, with ink-black hair, as graceful as if he were made by heaven. He was holding a bird in his hand, looking down lethargically under the light of the lamps. He cast a glance back at Bai Xiaoxiao, seeming like a smile, but without a smile.
Bai Xiaoxiao felt like that glance had frozen his soul.
As soon as Yan Qing walked out of the door, he relaxed his grip.
Trouble flew onto his shoulder. “It’s night, but you aren’t asleep. Where do you want to go?”
It was dark outside, and the brilliant moon was overhead. Above Springturn Sect, the prison formation shone with an ice-blue luster. The peach-blossom dust on the ground took on its cold light, glowing crystal-clear.
Cultivation Alliance members were watching all around. They wore black clothes, with only a faint layer of red thread outlining the shapes of lotus blossoms on their hems. They were hidden in the darkness, upright and cold, like weapons that knew only slaughter.
After learning about the Cultivation Alliance from Tianshu, Yan Qing understood their cruelty.
The place the Cultivation Alliance had in the cultivation world was above that of the nine sects and three families. They had an unquestionable power over life and death. No one knew how many greedy eyes of wolves gleamed underneath the rolling layers of Azurejade Palace’s steps.
Yan Qing said, “How about I take you to see your old enemy?”
“Who?”
“Zixiao.”
Trouble: “.......”
Trouble burst into anger. “No! I don’t want to! I don’t want to see that old cow ever again!”
Yan Qing was quite curious about what he had been doing in the Saintrest continent. He asked, “How did Zixiao manage to catch you?”
As soon as it came to this topic, Trouble turned depressed. “That night, I was starving at home, so I went out to find something to eat. Then I caught a phoenix beside the lake to have for supper. As soon as I brought the phoenix home, that old fogey Zixiao attacked me at the door.”
As he spoke, his anger grew, his wings slapping furiously against Yan Qing’s shoulders. “And then that beast went inside and stole away my phoenix! He even locked me up to boot!”
Yan Qing asked, “Why did Zixiao lock you up?”
Zixiao traveled there in order to capture the phoenix demonseed, and Trouble was only a bat who hadn’t grown up yet. He hadn’t killed anyone; he was just a bit of a glutton. According to reason, Zixiao shouldn’t have had anything against him.
Trouble said, looking wronged, “I don’t know. That old fogey Zixiao said I didn’t look like I was up to anything good. Even if I didn’t commit a crime then, I would afterwards.”
“.......”
Yan Qing gave Trouble a glance from the side.
He saw his pitch-black body, odd wings, red eyes and upwards-pointing ears.
Yan Qing said, “This reason has something to it.”
If he hadn’t found that this bird was foolish and naive after forming a contract with him, then at the first glance, he really wouldn’t think he was up to anything good either.
Trouble: “What do you mean?”
But after he finished speaking of his infuriating encounter, he immediately started boasting. “But after all, how could I be locked up forever by the likes of him? That’d be ridiculous! I turned into a few pieces of grass and sneaked away. After lying low for a year, I finally took my revenge!”
Once he finished speaking, he was about to tell the tale of his might in the Serene Prison with renewed detail, but then remembered its shameful ending. He instantly withered, furiously chomping on Yan Qing’s hair.
Yan Qing said coldly, “If you break a single strand of my hair, I’ll have you roasted.”
Trouble: “......”
He spat out the hair in his mouth with a ptooey.
When Yan Qing headed to the back of the mountain, all of the Cultivation Alliance was watching him. Their gazes raked down his back like knives, as if they were a kind of torture. But no one called out to stop him, nor did anyone make a move. The crowd of divinely-gifted Great-Ascension-level cultivators chose silence.
Trouble watched them carefully with red eyes. His home was in the Saintrest continent, and his experience was limited. All he knew about was the nine sects. He understood little about the Cultivation Alliance.
“Those people look like they want to kill us.”
Yan Qing said softly, “Yeah.”
Trouble: “What exactly are you going to do?”
Yan Qing: “Investigate the truth. What exactly are you?”
Trouble: “???”
Alone, Yan Qing went to the place at the back of the mountain from before. It had long since turned to a pile of ruins.
The mountain stone had caved in, and the Serene Prison was destroyed. Zixiao’s remains had turned to dust in the final fight with the phoenix demonseed as well.
Now there was a secret realm above the desolate land where the Serene Prison had been.
The violet entrance roiled with spiritual energy, flashing with silver and gold lightning. It whirled like a mirror hanging in the sky.
This was probably the Void Comprehension secret realm Zixiao had left behind after failing his tribulation.
Void Comprehension cultivators could open the void in order to cultivate. If they died and their cultivation disappeared, all the spiritual qi in their bodies would emerge, gathering in the void and becoming a secret realm.
In the secret realm, not only was there the cultivator’s spiritual qi, there was also the abiding obsession of every cultivator—the memories in the depths of their heart. These pervaded every corner of the secret realm.
It was hard to find a Void Comprehension secret realm. After all, elders of this level were rare, even in the upper layer.
Yan Qing had just been reborn, but he had already seen the most powerful cultivators in the upper realm. He didn’t know if his luck was good or bad.
“You want to go in?!” Trouble didn’t know what this purple mirror was, but he was naturally sensitive to danger. He was so shocked all the feathers on his body stood up. “Damn, don’t bring me in there to die with you!”
Yan Qing laughed and said, “Don’t worry, I can’t get in.”
Yan Qing reached out, wanting to touch the entrance of the violet secret realm. But as soon as he touched it, sure enough, frost began to form on his fingertips, as if he stood in the depths of winter, and snow covered the ground.
He immediately withdrew his hand.
His fingers were covered in a faint layer of rost, pale and clear. But Yan Qing didn’t think it was beautiful.
This frost hadn’t just formed on his skin, but had frozen his bones and blood as well. It was as if a blade had cut into his skin.
If he had touched it for a moment longer, he would have lost his life.
Yan Qing stroked his fingers and looked up at the violet secret realm. It was just as he expected. He sighed and said, “See, I can’t get in.”
“I knew that Xie Shiyi wouldn’t allow anyone to step a foot inside the place where he lived, but I hadn’t expected that was true of the places he visited as well.”
He was simply obsessed with cleanliness to a freakish degree.
Now, unless it was Zixiao, the owner of the secret realm, who appeared, no one could open the realm.
Trouble let his wings droop. “Let’s go back. I’m sleepy.”
Yan Qing looked around him and said, “No, let’s see if there’s some other way.”
Trouble tugged insistently at his hair. “Stop dreaming! If you want to know more about me, then ask, and I’ll tell you anything!”
Yan Qing looked at this silly bird with pity. “You yourself don’t know the answer to what I want to ask you.”
***
Lissome Palace.
“I-It’s like this.” Bai Xiaoxiao’s slender, pale fingers curled uneasily into his robes. He looked down, his eyelashes trembling. “Young Master Yan Qing stole the token Elder Zixiao gave me. I-I didn’t know that was Desireless Sect’s token, nor did I know Young Master Yan Qing would give the sect such an unreasonable request. I’m sorry, i-it’s all…my fault.”
When he finished speaking, the entire palace was so silent you could hear a needle drop.
Heng Bai leaned against the window, rolling his eyes to the back of his head. He said, “I just thought Yan Qing was a shameless bastard who wanted to take advantage of a favor. I hadn’t thought he was also a liar who stole someone else’s reward. Ah, this sure is something he’d be able to come up with.”
Tianshu felt like his head was about to split in two. He put a hand to his forehead, shaking his head.
Huaixu and the Springturn Sect leader dearly wished they could rip off Bai Xiaoxiao’s mouth. Such a wonderful event—why did he have to open his mouth and ruin it?!
The sect leader scowled and scolded him. “Bai Xiaoxiao!”
Tianshu let out a long sigh and stopped him. “Don’t bully the child.”
In fact, Desireless Sect didn’t see Zixiao’s death as a big deal. As the number one sect in the land, Desireless Sect wasn’t lacking in strength and talent.
Cultivators sought the changeless in constant change. Life, death, failure and glory were all part of fate. Zixiao often spent his time wandering through the land, so he had only a distant relationship with the sect.
If it wasn’t for that token, they wouldn’t even have come here.
The token had been passed down from the sect’s ancestors. It was the ancestors’ command that gave that token such great power.
With that token, one could give Desireless Sect any request.
One could say that the key point was the token, and not Zixiao.
The cultivation world valued fate and cause and effect. Since it was Yan Qing who took the token to them in the end, then Yan Qing was the owner.
Tianshu looked at the tears in the boy’s eyes, held his forehead and sighed. He was a Great Ascension cultivator, and had lived for untold years. How could he not understand this boy’s current feelings? Though he said that it was all his fault, in fact, he was filled with resentment and envy for Yan Qing. Every trace of malice that showed in his eyes was clear as glass to Tianshu. But he was still filled with pity for this young boy. He was young, so it was normal for him to have his little moods and ideas.
Tianshu beckoned him kindly. “Come, child, sit by me.”
Bai Xiaoxiao’s eyes and nose were red. He sobbed and was about to rise when he found that Yan Jianshui was holding on worriedly to his hand. Startled, he still tugged free and walked over.
Tianshu asked him gently, “It was you who saved Zixiao?”
Bai Xiaoxiao said haltingly, “Yes.”
Tianshu nodded. “That’s good, you’re a virtuous member of the new generation.”
Bai Xiaoxiao’s eyes secretly flashed, and he carefully said, “Then, Elder, what about Yan Qing and Venerable Duwei’s marriage?”
Tianshu sighed and said, “We can’t cancel it now. I know it’s a little ridiculous, but this is the rule that the ancestors passed down. Since he’s already taken the token to the sect and made his request, we have to agree to this marriage.”
Bai Xiaxiao said loudly, “What gives him the right?!”
But he soon found he’d gotten too agitated. He immediately shrunk back, trembling, his tears falling. “What gives him the right? What virtue or ability does he have, to deserve someone like Venerable Duwei? All I feel is injustice on behalf of Elder Zixiao. When he left this token for me, he must never have expected that someone would steal it, and even make this kind of…this kind of ridiculous request.”
Next to the window, Heng Bai rolled his eyes again.
He felt injustice on behalf of Zixiao? Wasn’t it you who gave the token to someone else without a care? He wasn’t like Tianshu, a friendly old man who thought everyone was a child. He was young and impetuous, and his name was on the Bluecloud Ranking. He just couldn’t find anyone in this run-down sect who met his approval. He scoffed. At that moment, he couldn’t tell who irritated him more.
The more Bai Xiaoxiao cried, the more wronged he felt. “It’s all my fault, it’s all my fault. I was the one who didn’t take good care of the token the elder gave me; that’s why Young Master Yan Qing was able to steal it. But Young Master Yan Qing isn’t Desireless Sect’s benefactor at all, nor did he save Elder Zixiao. On the contrary, he isn’t kind at all. If Venerable Duwei knew this, how could he agree to this marriage?”
Tianshu: “.......”
It’s all over, he felt dizzy again.
He really didn’t know how to explain things to this child.
All this talk of a benefactor was only for the sake of politeness.
Zixiao wasn’t the main point, nor was it the benefactor.
The main point was the token! The token! The token!
Without the token, even if you brought Zixiao back to life, that was only Zixiao’s destiny. It wouldn’t have anything to do with Desireless Sect.
As for whether or not Duwei agreed with this marriage…
He laughed. That wasn’t something any of them could worry about.
But after all, Tianshu was a kind man, so he comforted him. “Alright, child, don’t cry. I’ll report this matter to the sect leader when I return. You seem wronged, so when the time comes, you can come back to Desireless Sect with us.”
Bai Xiaoxiao’s tears immediately stopped. He said timidly, “I can go to Desireless Sect with you?”
“That’s right.” Tianshu nodded, thinking that he’d managed to arrange a marriage for Duwei, so he should at least be rewarded with a peak. Bringing someone back in addition shouldn’t be a problem.
Bai Xiaoxiao: “Then Yan Qing…”
Tianshu didn’t know why he was still tangled up in this. He said helplessly, “This is the order the ancestors gave us. Since the token has already been used, it can’t be canceled.”
Bai Xiaoxiao’s face was pale as ash. Hidden in his sleeve, his hand viciously pinched into flesh.
In a moment, his blood roiled. His heart felt as ice-cold as if water had been poured into it.
This was clearly, this was clearly his reward.
So Desireless Sect was planning to just keep the peace? They were going to bring him back with them, so they thought this matter was over with?
His achievement would become Yan Qing’s limitless future, placed above thousands of people?
Another clear stream of tears flowed down from Bai Xiaoxiao’s eyes.
Tianshu: “......”
Tianshu’s beneficent smile almost stiffened on his face.
Heng Bai couldn’t continue watching this.
This was the good-hearted boy Zixiao had spoken of? He really had been going blind from old age.
He jumped down from the window.
Tianshu wasn’t known as the kindest old man in Desireless Sect for no reason. Once he coaxed Bai Xiaoxiao back to calmness with sweet words, he felt like he was about to take on divinity.
After Bai Xiaoxiao sat back down, his mind was filled with this matter. In fact, he wasn’t someone who took advantage of gratitude to get a favor. When he carried out his act of kindness, he hadn’t been thinking of a reward.
But that didn’t mean he was willing for someone else to steal his achievement, and to suffer this wrong.
He couldn’t hear either Tianshu’s comforting words or Yan Jianshui’s interrogation.
“Xiaoxiao, where are you going?!”
A column of fire had burned away Bai Xiaoxiao’s reason. He stood up, tears streaming down his face, and rushed outside. In his muddled mind, he suddenly thought of someone. He thought of that ice-cold figure, and the snowy robes that brushed past the peach blossoms.
He was unresigned!
He was going to tell Venerable Duwei about Yan Qing’s true nature!
He was going to publicly announce Yan Qing’s actions!
“Xiaoxiao!”
Bai Xiaoxiao was so upset that he didn’t even notice the roiling spiritual qi within him was taking on a faint violet tinge.
Tianshu saw this from behind, and his eyes suddenly narrowed.
Wait, was this Zixiao’s power?
***
Yan Qing and Trouble took another few turns in the rubble.
Xie Shiyi didn’t want to let anyone in, so as expected, he wouldn’t leave anyone the opportunity to enter.
Yan Qing found a random rock to sit on, pulling a strand of grass into his hand to play with.
Trouble collapsed from exhaustion. “I told you it’d be like this. Let’s go back and go to sleep.”
Yan Qing sighed faintly. “I can’t sleep.”
He looked up at the sky. The ice-blue formation was like an aurora whirling against the curtain of the night, countless stars embroidered on the darkness past the Milky Way.
His fingers worked over the grass again and again.
The red thread around his wrist drifted in the wind.
Trouble looked at the sky with him, the ice-blue color glaring into his eyes. He covered his eyes with his wings, suddenly thinking of something. “Oh, who was that standing in front of you the other day?”
Yan Qing: “Xie Shiyi.”
Trouble: “Who?”
Yan Qing: “Xie Ying.”
Trouble fell onto the ground with a thump.
Yan Qing kicked him, saying, “I forgot to say that the old geezer Zixiao you’re always talking about is a supreme elder of Desireless Sect. Xie Ying came here for the sake of investigating this matter.”
“......”
Trouble, who had been struggling to rise, immediately withered. He slumped on the ground, not wanting to get up.
Yan Qing was just about to say something when he suddenly heard screaming.
“Xiaoxiao!”
“Xiaoxiao!”
He looked back and saw Bai Xiaoxiao running out of Lissome Palace, wiping at his tears. He ran all the way to the rear of the mountain. Bai Xiaoxiao was small and frail, as if the wind could blow him over, but he stubbornly raised his face, his eyes filled with tears.
It would have been fine if he was just running over here, but as he was running, a trace of violet light surrounded him.
Yan Qing broke the strand of grass in his hand in two. Something immediately flashed into his mind.
That’s right. In the original novel, not only did Zixiao give Bai Xiaoxiao his token, he also transferred his remaining power to him!
That was the cheat that belonged to the protagonist shou.
Bai Xiaoxiao couldn’t completely control it yet, but he still had Zixiao’s cultivation within him.
As expected, under a great deal of stress, Bai Xiaoxiao rushed over. The energy Zixiao had given him roiled within his body, and resonated with the secret realm hanging in the sky. In the space of a moment, broken rock tumbled down, grass trembled and the thin layer of ice over the secret realm entrance fractured.
Xie Shiyi just hadn’t wanted to be disturbed, so he’d set down a casual formation. Of course, it was only “casual” for him.
Now that Zixiao’s power and his secret realm were responding to each other, it felt like the owner had returned, so the formation was naturally broken.
Yan Qing hadn’t expected that such a lucky thing would happen just as he was sitting there. He smiled, swept up Trouble and said, “Let’s go.”
Trouble considered pushing away this duty. “That geezer Zixiao died early, but it wasn’t because of me, was it…”
Yan Qing thought, who cares about what you did now?
He stood up from the rock and leapt up into the secret realm.
In a moment, Yan Qing’s field of view flipped upside down. He dragged Trouble into the Void Comprehension secret realm.
When he landed, his feet sunk slightly into the ground. The sound of water burbled in his ears. He opened his eyes and found he was in a pitch-black cave. Or perhaps it wasn’t a cave, and was instead a subterranean tunnel. Within the cave, there was only darkness, and the air was damp.
Sticky moss covered the ground and walls. Small insects rustled within it, their calls mixing with the sound of the water.
Trouble felt as if he’d returned home. “Where is this?”
Yan Qing said, “The Void Comprehension secret realm where Zixiao met his death.”
Trouble: “Ah, why is it so dark?”
Yan Qing: “You’re a bat, and you’re scared of the dark?”
Trouble grew angry. “Don’t ask me to lead the way later.”
Yan Qing’s lips hooked up. “I won’t need you for that.”
He walked forward in the darkness with ease, his smoothness startling Trouble.
“You’ve been here before?”
“No, but I’ve been somewhere similar.”
“What?”
A butterfly glowing faintly with blue light swept past Yan Qing’s eyes. In the darkness, his thoughts reached back into the past. He said softly, “Blackwater Lake.”
***
Blackwater Lake.
In the third year after he came to the Saintrest continent, in order to heal his meridians, he and Xie Shiyi had to go to Blackwater Lake to retrieve a lingzhi mushroom.
The lingzhi grew within a lustful, greedy yao cultivator’s cave dwelling. With their cultivation at the time, they could only rely on outsmarting the inhabitants. It happened that at the time, the yao cultivator was forcing villagers to offer him a bride as a sacrifice.
Yan Qing had tried to persuade the other boy. “Xie Shiyi, why don’t you dress up as the bride being sacrificed in order to get closer to him?”
Xie Shiyi didn’t even think about it. “I don’t want to.”
Yan Qing bowed to him. “Alright, alright, then I’ll dress up as the bride, okay? I won’t make you lose face.”
Xie Shiyi coldly asked him in turn, “If you dress up as a bride, aren’t you still using my body?”
Yan Qing: “......”
Yan Qing: “Oh!!! Then why don’t we just stay here until the sky falls down, waiting for death?!”
Of course, in the end, the one who gave in was still him. Yan Qing used a dark spell to temporarily separate his soul from his body, entering the body of the sacrificed bride. Xie Shiyi dressed up as her attendant.
Following the dark river, a wooden boat brought them into a bottomless cave. In the pitch-black space, there was only the sound of water.
Bats hung upside-down from the ceiling, and moss covered every surface.
On the boat, Yan Qing was a little afraid. He trembled. “Xie Shiyi, are you sure about this?”
Xie Shiyi said indifferently, “No.”
Yan Qing exploded. “No?!” He was wearing a heavy phoenix headpiece and a sunset-colored cape. He was so angry he rushed over to squeeze the boy’s neck. “I’ll give you another chance. Rephrase your words for me!”
Xie Shiyi dodged his attack and said, “No means no.”
So before they met the yao cultivator, they met each other like enemies, and began fighting on the boat. This fight went on in an interesting way—most of it was venting the dissatisfaction and resentment that piled up on a daily basis.
In any case, once Yan Qing reached the yao cultivator’s nest, his hair pins had fallen all over the ground, his clothes were mussed and his makeup was muddy.
The depths of the cave were so sinister that this seemed like a ghost marriage.
Red candles were strung in rows, and the character 喜 for happiness was hung high up.
Only a fragment of their anxious, fearful crossing of swords was left.
Xie Shiyi thrust his sword into the yao cultivator, whose cultivation was suppressed after being poisoned. They obtained the jade lingzhi, though Yan Qing’s leg was broken by a falling table.
In the end, it was Xie Shiyi who carried him out of Blackwater Lake.
In the cave, there were blue butterflies and dense water plants.
Yan Qing leaned against Xie Shiyi’s shoulder, hissing with pain. “Why is it always me who gets injured?”
Xie Shiyi said coldly, “Don’t talk. Save your energy.”
Yan Qing was so angry he bit down on the boy’s shoulder.
The boy grunted, his thin lips tightly pursed. His ice-cold demeanor was like a jade sculpture untouched by smoke.
Yan Qing let go, his anger relieved.
He looked at the blue, sparkling butterflies and muttered, “Forget it, it hurts too much. I’ll sleep for a bit, so wake me up once we get to the entrance.”
He closed his eyes, but he couldn’t fall asleep no matter what he did. He opened his eyes again, and began talking with Xie Shiyi.
“Xie Shiyi, how many places have we been to in these three years?”
Xie Shiyi replied stiffly, “I don’t know.”
Yan Qing crooked his fingers. “I’ll count. Blackwater Lake, the Saintrest continent, the Southmount secret realm, eighteen mountain villages and more. I’ve found something they all have in common.”
Xie Shiyi looked down, quietly listening to him talking of these trivial things.
Yan Qing said happily, “Look, we’ve gone to so many places. We started out as beggars in Blackwater Alley, and even now, we’re still beggars. Have you found that we really like begging?”
Xie Shiyi: “......”
Xie Shiyi could no longer stand it. The boy’s voice was cold and clear. “Can you go to sleep?”
***
The author has something to say:
The last part is something I originally put in Chapter 15.
What do I have to do for you to leave comments?!!! I’m begging you QAQ. After this chapter, I’ll send out a hundred red envelopes. Give me some comments.
***
cela's notes:
2 hours and 9 minutes.
Giving us two chapters in two days, you're really spoiling us.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the chapter!