Wei Qing and Le Hu wilted under Xu Ziyan’s glare, feeling so guilty that the fighting spirit they had just worked up immediately evaporated.
They would settle their scores another day!
The two exchanged a knowing look. Then one resumed his haughty bearing and the other his unruly attitude, and both silently followed behind Xu Ziyan.
“Senior Brother Qilian, how did things go for you this time?” Xu Ziyan called out to Qilian Hongyun from some distance away.
Qilian Hongyun smiled. “Not bad.”
Xu Ziyan did not press him. He had only meant to exchange greetings. If the other man did not want to elaborate, he had no intention of prying.
The rabbit on Xu Zirong’s shoulder was still crunching away at its carrot, utterly indifferent to everything happening around it.
Nobody knew that, in a secluded corner, a white-robed man was staring at Wei Qing in astonishment. Clutched in his palm was a dragon-shaped jade pendant that had grown scorching hot…
This trip into the Azure Spirit Secret Realm had yielded gains for practically every sect. The elders leading the groups could generally tell how successful their disciples had been just by looking at their faces. The occasional dejected expression actually seemed rather unusual.
Once they had emerged from the Azure Spirit Secret Realm, the elders exchanged a few polite words and took their leave one after another. Nobody noticed that the Tianyu Sect’s group now had one more person than it had brought in.
Perfected Qixuan smiled when he saw that every disciple from his sect had returned unharmed. The Azure Spirit Secret Realm was almost entirely free of danger, but an unlucky encounter with demonic cultivators could still end very badly.
Since the inheritances everyone had obtained were confidential, the pink rabbit on Xu Zirong’s shoulder became the center of everyone’s attention instead.
A boy as delicate and adorable as snow, yet as cold as ice, had a soft, fluffy rabbit perched on his shoulder. The rabbit was even chewing a carrot with enthusiastic crunches. Many senior brothers and sisters could scarcely suppress the urge to squeal at the sight. Unfortunately…
Xu Zirong’s eyes were nothing like those of an ordinary twelve-year-old. All those senior brothers and sisters could only weep inwardly: why did such an adorable child have such an unadorable personality?!
“What is that…?” Even Perfected Qixuan looked surprised by the rabbit. Although few people could bring spirit beasts out of the Azure Spirit Secret Realm, it was not unheard of. Most people, however, brought out majestic, imposing beasts. He had never seen anyone bring out one that relied entirely on cuteness.
Perhaps because the rabbit looked so harmless, Qixuan did not bother trying to identify its species. There were countless varieties of demonic beasts in the cultivation world, and crossbreeding between different species could give rise to entirely new appearances.
A rabbit with deer antlers certainly looked strange, but Qixuan had seen far stranger demonic beasts. Something that appeared completely incapable of hurting anyone naturally did not merit his attention.
He chuckled to himself. A child was still a child, after all. Even with Foundation Establishment cultivation, Xu Zirong had chosen a gentle, adorable animal for his spirit beast. Perfected Qixuan had no intention of criticizing him, though. He was not Xu Zirong’s master. Let Luo Yun worry about such things.
Having irresponsibly dismissed the rabbit from his mind, Qixuan brought out the flying boat again and took everyone aboard.
The return trip was much faster than the journey there. It took only five days to cover the entire distance.
All along the way, the disciples excitedly exchanged stories about their experiences inside the secret realm. They tacitly avoided revealing the specific inheritances they had obtained.
Le Hu and Wei Qing still acted like mortal enemies, giving Xu Ziyan no end of headaches. He could not understand how the heir to a dynasty in the Central Plains and a young warrior tempered in the Far Western Lands, two people whose backgrounds and upbringing could hardly have been more different, had managed to become equally childish!
Neither of them behaved on the boat. They did not actually come to blows, but their barbed remarks and murderous exchanges of looks never ceased. Xu Ziyan could only sigh once again at how obedient his own little brother was. Zirong never made him worry about a thing.
After returning to the Flowing Light Sect, both Xu Ziyan and Xu Zirong realized it was time to enter seclusion and cultivate.
This would not be like the past year’s cultivation sessions, in which they woke after three or five days. They meant to enter true seclusion. Each session would last at least half a year; anything shorter hardly deserved the name.
Previously, Xu Ziyan had disliked cultivating this way. Long seclusion was dull, for one thing, and a trial for his stomach for another. But this trip to the Azure Spirit Secret Realm had convinced him that going into seclusion was now unavoidable.
He had taken in far too much recently. Aside from the method Xu Zirong had taught him for controlling the golden puppet, working out how to absorb that bolt of Purple Firmament Divine Lightning was a major problem.
He certainly did not believe he could simply swallow the Purple Firmament Divine Lightning as the cultivator in the murals had done. If he tried that, his entire body would probably explode and turn to ashes.
Besides figuring out how to digest the Purple Firmament Divine Lightning, he had neglected his Nine Transformations of the Purple Firmament for far too long. His ‘sparring’ sessions, or rather one-sided beatings, at the hands of the lightning figure seemed to have taken place a year ago. Ever since joining the Flowing Light Sect, he had been too busy to cultivate properly.
Learning a great many things meant nothing if he could not turn that knowledge into combat strength. Since sensing a strange crisis inside the Azure Spirit Secret Realm, Xu Ziyan had begun to feel ashamed of his own idleness.
The novel’s main plot had not even begun yet, but the world had already changed somewhat because of his influence. Who could guarantee that the story would continue along its original path?
He was much stronger than the original Xu Ziyan. But after meeting Lin Xiaotian, he suddenly realized that he was only a little stronger than the original and still amounted to very little compared with other extraordinarily gifted geniuses.
He did not dare underestimate the original male lead Bai Hua’s charms. Who knew whether, now that Bai Hua had lost him as the original third gong, he would find a fourth or fifth instead…
If Xu Ziyan’s laziness left him too weak, not only might he fail to protect Zirong, but he himself might also get dragged down!
For the sake of his own life and his precious little brother’s safety, he had no choice but to force himself to work harder.
The expedition had also exposed a serious weakness of his. Because he possessed the original body’s memories, he was familiar with a great deal of cultivation-world knowledge. But being familiar with something did not mean knowing how to apply it. In that underground tomb, for example, he knew Soft-Skin Moss existed but had failed to connect the real thing with his remembered knowledge.
Cultivating and thoroughly assimilating the original body’s memories: these were Xu Ziyan’s two goals for seclusion.
Compared with Xu Ziyan, Xu Zirong’s motives were much simpler. The sight of a figure resembling Bai Hua, together with Lin Xiaotian’s presence in the Azure Spirit Secret Realm, had thoroughly provoked him.
Being killed and having his soul tortured in his previous life were hatreds engraved into his heart. He would never forget them.
The Blood Sea Heart Scripture Xu Zirong cultivated was an extremely bloody technique. If Xu Ziyan had not stayed by his side in this life and given him a reason to consciously restrain his killing intent, Xu Zirong would have attacked Lin Xiaotian the instant he saw him.
But his brother’s opinion of him mattered more than killing Lin Xiaotian. Rather than ruin his image as a ‘good baby,’ he preferred to swallow his anger and wait for another chance.
Lin Xiaotian, Mo Ziyuan, and the mastermind Bai Hua: he would not spare a single one. Unfortunately, he did not even know Bai Hua’s whereabouts; Mo Ziyuan remained hidden behind Moyulong Pavilion; and Lin Xiaotian, though they had met, was a disciple of the Tianyu Sect’s sect master, making it impossible to act rashly.
Fortunately, Xu Zirong had always been patient. He believed that, if events followed his previous life’s course, he would eventually meet all these people again.
And when he caught one of them alone… A bloodthirsty smile curved Xu Zirong’s lips. He could take his time repaying the debts of his previous life.
Of course, all of that depended on having enough strength to kill them. He did not yet know the others’ current abilities, but meeting Lin Xiaotian had made one thing painfully clear. Although the Blood Sea Heart Scripture was a high-level technique unaffected by spiritual-root limitations, his enemies were also heaven-favored geniuses with heavenly spiritual roots. Moreover, with his brother beside him this time, he could not hunt without restraint as he had in his previous life. One careless mistake, and he might be the one who died instead.
Having suffered such torment in his previous life, how could Xu Zirong bear to stumble over the same obstacle again? However reluctant he was to be separated from his brother for so long, he forced himself to suppress that longing and insisted on going into seclusion.
To his surprise, his brother also proposed entering seclusion. Xu Zirong did not know why, but he could hardly have asked for anything better.
Even if they each stayed in a separate meditation chamber, entering seclusion at the same time as his brother was a comfort to Xu Zirong.
Luo Bigfoot raised no objections when they proposed going into seclusion.
Strangely enough, Xu Ziyan could not tell whether it was his imagination, but Luo Bigfoot seemed to have become somewhat colder toward Xu Zirong.
In the past, Luo Bigfoot had often traded barbs with Zirong. Recently, however, that had almost entirely stopped. On the surface, master and disciple seemed to be getting along more harmoniously, but Xu Ziyan did not think that was what had happened.
Xu Zirong appeared not to notice at all. Or perhaps he had noticed but simply did not care.
There was only one person in this world who could truly stir his feelings: Xu Ziyan. Luo Bigfoot treated him reasonably well, but Xu Zirong had only ever classified him as ‘acceptable.’
Without expectations, there could be no disappointment. So when it came to Luo Bigfoot’s subtle change in attitude, Xu Zirong was far more untroubled than Xu Ziyan.