Chapter 61: Senior brother, deducing in your head
After Lei Wanjun and Wang Shouren departed, Ye Anping finally let go of his concerns. At this juncture, his plan to use someone else to eliminate the Seven Killing Sect had reached its conclusion. He and Pei Lianxue had essentially severed ties with Wu You, directing all blame towards the Xuanxing Sect.
The next step was to wait for Feng Yudie to infiltrate Tianji Castle, retrieve the spiritual stones, and share the spoils with her. As for what would happen in the coming days…
He quickly ran through the possible scenarios in his mind.
…
“Master of the Seven Killing Sect,” Ku Jiuzhong, holding a crystal wine glass, embraced his two concubines, seated in the main hall of Tianji Castle, enjoying the dancers’ performances.
Suddenly, a resounding “Boom” echoed.
Thinking it was just a heavy rain outside, Ku Jiuzhong paid it no mind. But shortly after, the banquet door was forcefully opened.
A guard from Tianji Castle rushed into the hall, shouting, “Master, something’s wrong!”
“What’s the fuss about? Can’t you see I’m watching the beauties dance?”
“The girl named Feng is missing!”
“What? Why are you standing there? Find her! Can a Qi-refining girl like her escape from my Tianji Castle?”
Shortly after, another guard burst into the hall, exclaiming, “Master, it’s bad!”
“What happened again?”
“Suddenly, many white-robed cultivators appeared above Tianji Castle, and one of them looked like a Nascent Soul cultivator!”
“Ah!” Ku Jiuzhong looked alarmed but quickly composed himself. “What’s the panic? Ancient cultivators crafted this Tianji Castle and can block all spiritual investigations. Even if an old monster in the Returning Void Realm comes, as long as we don’t open the door, they can’t get in.”
As he spoke, a third guard rushed in, exchanged glances with the previous two guards, then continued shouting, “Master, it’s not good!!!”
“What now?” Ku Jiuzhong stomped his feet in frustration. “What happened now?”
The outer hall door of Tianji Castle suddenly opened. At this moment, a thought crossed Ku Jiuzhong’s mind: Can it be that a girl named Feng does it? But immediately, he doubted the idea. Impossible! How will she know where the central mechanism of Tianji Castle is? Even if she does, she will not know how to operate it!
…
Possibly, there were some differences in details, but it should be close enough. With this deduction, Ye Anping relaxed, no longer dwelling on the matter of the Seven Killing Sect. He planned to take a few days of rest and then went on a shopping spree with his junior sister. After that, he would begin preparing for his junior sister’s foundation building.
At this moment, the door opened again, and Bai Yuexin, who had been previously expelled, walked in.
She sat by the bedside and consoled, “Anping, don’t worry about the medical expenses. I just saw Elder Wang paying for them for you. Just focus on recovering, and I’ll come over to take care of you as soon as I finish classes these days.”
“…”
Ye Anping slightly opened his lips, momentarily admiring her determination. However, upon reflection, he realised that staying at Dr Zhou’s medical clinic had its advantages. Situated on one of the inner peaks of the Xuanxing Sect, only inner disciples could enter on regular days. During his hospital stay, he could secretly go out and check if his junior sister had been slacking off in her cultivation since she left him.
But where on earth did his junior sister live in Xuanxing Sect now?
Ah— He should have asked that earlier.
Tomorrow, he would find out…
Ye Anping sighed and waved his hand, saying, “Senior Bai, I’m going to take a nap. I’m tired.”
“Wait! Drink your medicine first! Elder Wang just came, and you haven’t finished your medicine yet, right!”
“…”
“Ah~~~”
Ye Anping reluctantly opened his mouth, “…Ah——”
…
The sunset over the western mountains. The autumn wind swept through fallen leaves, making apricot leaves on the ground dance gracefully.
On the high platform near the clouds, Xiao Yunluo, alone, waved her long sword. The collar of her white plain clothes was soaked with sweat.
For days, she couldn’t get the image of the attack during the previous physical examination out of her mind. Reluctantly, she had to admit it to herself.
Back then, if it weren’t for Feng Yudie and Pei Lianxue pulling her, she felt she would have cried in fear.
Xiao Yunluo had always believed that battling others wasn’t difficult as long as she could demonstrate the same skills she used in sparring with fellow disciples. Defeating a cultivator in the early stages of foundation building shouldn’t be hard. But when facing that group of people, her mind felt like mush. Her body froze involuntarily, and even the swordsmanship she had mastered was forgotten.
She didn’t even hold onto her own sword, allowing that thousand-year black stone sword to be taken by those people. It still hadn’t been recovered. She wondered if her mother would be utterly disappointed if she knew how incapable she was at that moment and how she lost the thousand-year black stone sword.
“The daughter of Immortal Danyue is really incompetent.”
“I heard she almost wet her skirt when facing the Seven Killing Sect thugs before!”
…
Of course, no one actually said those things about her. But it felt like she could hear those voices. Xiao Yunluo clenched her teeth, thrusting her long sword with all her strength. The sword’s edge was like a dragon’s head, cutting through the fog in her mind, and she charged towards the trunk of a ginkgo tree beside her.
“Shout!”
Swish—
The sword shadow passed through the tree trunk, breaking it into two halves that fell to the ground.
Xiao Yunluo sheathed her sword, controlled her breath, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and then pointed her sword finger. She took out a pill bottle from her storage bag, unscrewed the cap, and poured it into her mouth. But no pill fell from the bottle. She shook the bottle.
“I’ve finished eating the Spirit Gathering Pill…”
With a sigh, she put the empty bottle back into her storage bag, summoned her flying sword, stepped on it, and headed towards the sect’s alchemy room on the central peak.
The Spirit Gathering Pill was the second hard currency among cultivators, with the first being spirit stones. Before reaching the Nascent Soul stage, any cultivator could take it to assist in cultivation and Qi condensation.
Every month, each inner disciple of the Xuanxing Sect could receive a certain amount of Spirit Gathering Pills from the alchemy room. The higher the cultivation level, the more they would receive.
Xiao Yunluo walked to the counter, glancing at the disciple on duty. Awkwardly, she asked, “Um, Senior Sister Shi… do I still have a share of this month’s Spirit Gathering Pill?”
The disciple, who was taking notes, looked up and saw Xiao Yunluo. His eyes revealed a look of disbelief.
“…”
Huh! My share of the Spirit Gathering Pill! Xiao Yunluo thought she didn’t hear clearly, so she repeated it. Seeing the disciple staring at her blankly, she asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Young lady, what’s wrong with you?”
“What happened to me?”
“What’s with the sudden mention of the quota?” The disciple tilted his head in confusion. “How would the alchemy room keep track of your quota?”
“It was different before… I was a young lady before, and in a few days, I will be an inner disciple.” Xiao Yunluo pursed her lips and replied awkwardly, “If I have too many, others will gossip about me.”
“Everyone knows that you are the young lady of Xuanxing Sect. Who would gossip about you?”
“Anyway! Just write it down! I remember that the monthly quota for a disciple in the Qi Refining Stage is ten Spirit Gathering Pills, right?”
The disciple sighed faintly, then pretended to make a note on the book in front of him and even read it out, “Hmm… Xiao Yunluo, take away ten Spirit Gathering Pills this month. Remember it. I’ll go get it for you.”
“Well, that’s troublesome.”
Then, the disciple went to the alchemy storage room at the back to help Xiao Yunluo get the elixir.
Xiao Yunluo leaned on the counter, surveyed her surroundings, and suddenly heard a group of disciples not far away discussing something about Liuyue Lake, so she listened attentively.
“Just this afternoon, it seems that the girl who failed Senior Sister Bai’s move in the sword test was kidnapped.”
“That silver-haired girl with Heavenly Spiritual Roots, right?”
“Yes, that’s her. Senior Brother Chen said that Liuyue Lake was turned into fish soup, and the young master of the Hundred Lotus Sect was also there at the time. Now he is seriously injured… I feel that Elder Lei is probably going to explode with anger again and then be sent to the frontier by the sect leader…”
Hearing this, Xiao Yunluo was slightly startled. She hurried over, widened her eyes, and asked, “What? What are you talking about? Who was abducted? Who is seriously injured?”
