Xu Ziyan said, “We just ran into people from the Yu family, didn’t we? Yu Nianbai looked a little like Junior Brother Yu to me. And since they share the same surname, it reminded me of him. Oh, right, do you remember the six red jade pendants we took from Yu Hao during the entrance assessment?”
Xu Zirong raised an eyebrow. “Brother, aren’t you remembering it wrong? We took four pendants.”
“Oh? Haha, I must have misremembered.” Xu Ziyan quietly let out a breath. Perhaps the pressure of dealing with this suddenly grown-up version of Xu Zirong had made him wonder whether someone had possessed Zirong during those five years of seclusion.
He had not forgotten how Zirong had nearly been possessed in the Azure Spirit Secret Realm. But the answer just now reassured him. Unlike Xu Ziyan’s own transmigration, cultivators who seized another person’s body could not inherit the original owner’s memories. He was reasonably sure this Zirong was genuine.
Huh? Transmigration?!!
Xu Ziyan’s heart lurched again. He had inherited the original body’s memories because he had transmigrated, but what about Zirong…?
He thought for a while and did something rather foolish. Looking Xu Zirong straight in the eyes, he declared solemnly, “The Heavenly King covers the Earth Tiger!”
Elio’s Notes: “The Heavenly King covers the Earth Tiger!” is a famous Chinese call-and-response password from Tracks in the Snowy Forest, widely known through Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy. The expected answer is “The Pagoda suppresses the River Demon.” Xu Ziyan is using a pop-culture recognition test that someone from his original world might understand, not casting an actual spell.
Xu Zirong looked utterly bewildered: ???
Seeing no suspicious reaction on Xu Zirong’s face, Xu Ziyan relaxed for the second time. Unless Xu Zirong had been an actor of extraordinary talent before transmigrating, how could he possibly hear a phrase like that without giving himself away somehow?
(Actor Xu: …)
“Brother, what are you talking about? Is that some kind of spell?” Xu Zirong asked calmly, even as he filed the phrase away in his little mental notebook. His brother would never blurt out something like that without reason. Was he suspicious of him?
“Oh, nothing. It just popped into my head. Anyway, Zirong, what were you saying?” Suddenly recognizing how ridiculous he had been, Xu Ziyan stiffly changed the subject.
Fortunately, his “adorable, obedient” younger brother never made things difficult for him. Zirong smoothly followed the change of subject. “Nothing much. I just feel a little disappointed that I can’t help Brother with his troubles.” He even gave a soft sigh to match his words.
Xu Ziyan immediately felt guilty. He had never failed to notice Zirong’s concern, but this matter involved the secret of his transmigration. There was simply no way he could reveal it.
Despite that guilt, Xu Ziyan kept his mouth firmly shut and did not pursue the subject.
Xu Zirong had no intention of pressuring him just then. He considerately left the room so that Xu Ziyan could think in peace.
On the surface, Xu Zirong seemed to be showing Xu Ziyan complete trust. In reality, he understood that the more thoughtful and understanding he appeared, the guiltier Xu Ziyan would feel. He could make up for any losses elsewhere. Indeed, he was already considering whether he should take Brother drinking again.
He had no Drunken Immortal Wine left, but ordinary spirit wine could still be bought in Wuti City. Given his brother’s tolerance for alcohol, making him drunk for one shichen should not be difficult…
Wearing a faint smile, Xu Zirong wandered happily into the back garden.
And inside the room, things were going just as he had predicted. Xu Ziyan watched Zirong’s retreating figure with immense guilt and silently told himself, I’m sorry, Zirong. There really is no way Brother can tell you about this, but if there’s anything else you want, I’ll do it for you. (A candle for him.)
“Who are you?” Just as Xu Zirong was pleasantly admiring the Jiang family’s garden, a shrill female voice suddenly rang out.
Xu Zirong turned and saw a striking young woman in yellow frowning at him.
He knew she belonged to the Jiang family, but had no intention of speaking to her. He had not missed the flash of admiration in her eyes when she saw his face. In his experience, women who looked at him that way generally meant one thing: trouble.
Xu Zirong had never been a gentleman, in either his previous or current life. This encounter would be no exception.
When the handsome stranger she had encountered in the garden merely glanced at her and turned away, Jiang Ting’s recently softened expression changed at once.
Only moments before, she had quarreled bitterly with her mother again and stormed into the garden. Already upset, she had seen an unfamiliar man strolling around and demanded to know who he was.
But the instant he turned around, his exquisitely beautiful face left her stunned. There could not be another man this handsome in the whole of Wuti City!
Who was he?
The thought flashed into Jiang Ting’s mind. She had never seen this young man before, yet one glance had been enough to set her heart racing.
Unfortunately, that was the only glance he gave her. He walked off without another gesture. Humiliation and disappointment flooded her, but what she most wanted to know was still his identity.
Luckily, her momentary daze kept her from stopping Xu Zirong. Without his brother beside him, Xu Zirong might otherwise have settled the matter by the quickest means possible.
Jiang Ting was not entirely foolish. The Jiangs were Wuti City’s second-ranked family, and their ancestral home naturally had formidable defensive formations. Anyone who could walk around the estate freely had to be a guest. Many relatives and friends had been staying there recently for Jiang Ying and Fang Tianyun’s wedding.
Watching Xu Zirong walk away, Jiang Ting bit her lower lip and made up her mind. Most of the guests invited to the estate would belong to families of roughly comparable standing, and such families made excellent marriage-alliance partners for the Jiangs.
Marriage alliances were indispensable to a prominent family’s long-term prosperity. The benefits Jiang Ying’s marriage to Fang Tianyun had brought the Jiang family made that obvious enough.
Jiang Ting had not seen the young man before, so he must have arrived that morning or afternoon. Jiang Tianxing wanted to unveil Xu Ziyan’s identity at the wedding for maximum impact. Accordingly, almost no one in the Jiang family apart from a select few knew who Xu Ziyan and Xu Zirong were.
Xu Ziyan had enthusiastically agreed with Jiang Tianxing’s proposal. If everyone learned in advance that they were direct disciples of a Nascent Soul Dao Lord from the Flowing Light Sect, there would be no peace for them anywhere in Wuti City.
Leaving the garden, Jiang Ting immediately put her people to work finding out who had arrived at the Jiang family residence that day…
After walking around the garden, Xu Zirong habitually released several blood lice to examine his surroundings. It was a habit from his previous life. During the years when he was still weak, he had often been hunted, and security had become an obsession. Wherever he stayed, he sent blood lice to investigate the area thoroughly. These tiny blood puppets had no offensive power and pitifully weak defenses; even a relatively strong mortal could crush one. But they consumed very little spiritual power, existed in large numbers, and were particularly sensitive to formations, reacting at the slightest contact.
In his previous life, Xu Zirong had also spread blood lice across large areas of secret realms. After all, places protected by formations in secret realms often concealed extraordinary opportunities.
“Hmm?” Xu Zirong raised an eyebrow. He had only been following a habit, yet his search had actually uncovered a hidden formation.
His blood lice had already located and marked all the Jiang family’s outer defensive formations. But an illusion formation concealed within an artificial rockery intrigued him.
Ordinary defensive formations guarded against threats from outside. Family scripture repositories and treasure vaults often had such arrays. This one, however, faced inward. In other words, it was a formation designed to serve as a prison.
“Interesting.” Xu Zirong curled his lips into a smile and then walked away.
What did it matter to him whom the Jiang family imprisoned? He had come to lend them support, not uncover their secrets.
Back in the room, he mentioned the discovery to Xu Ziyan as though it were an amusing anecdote. Naturally, he did not reveal the blood lice, attributing everything to his wood-element spells instead.
But unexpectedly—
“A prison?” Xu Ziyan’s eyes suddenly lit up. He had just been worrying about how to expose the Jiang family traitor collaborating with demon cultivators, and now the heavens had dropped an opportunity right in his lap.
Who could possibly be held in the Jiang family’s prison? Obviously the Jiang family’s eldest young master, the one with the Demon-Attracting Dao Body whom Jiang Tianxing had deliberately hidden away!
“Hmm? Brother, are you interested in the person inside?” Xu Zirong smiled brightly. “Then I’ll go rescue him for you right now.”
Xu Ziyan broke into a cold sweat. He certainly wanted to speak with the Jiang family’s eldest young master, but was Zirong seriously proposing a jailbreak so openly?
Something about this felt terribly wrong!
Zirong, where did all the principles of right and wrong I taught you go?! Did you eat them?!
Xu Ziyan gave Xu Zirong a stern lecture, once again emphasizing the importance of moral judgment. Even an elder brother could make mistakes. Zirong needed to decide for himself whether a request was right or wrong instead of blindly following Brother’s orders.
This was the cultivation world, where countless techniques could disguise someone as Xu Ziyan or even control Xu Ziyan. If Brother ordered him to murder people or set buildings on fire, would he obey that too?
Xu Zirong nodded calmly.
Xu Ziyan: _(：з」∠)_
“I would never mistake someone else for Brother, and I could tell if he were being controlled. Apart from those two possibilities, I believe everything Brother says is right,” Xu Zirong declared with absolute conviction.
Xu Ziyan covered his forehead helplessly. He had given Xu Zirong perfectly ordinary, healthy lessons about right and wrong. How had they ended up with a result like this…?
Where exactly did I go wrong??!!
Xu Zirong watched his brother’s thunderstruck expression and raised an unimpressed eyebrow. In his previous life, he had been a demonic cultivator. Murder and arson had practically been routine. By comparison, his brother was absurdly kind. If Zirong followed his own values, those irritating people, including Le Hu and Wei Qing, would have died ages ago. He had been restraining himself all this time for Brother’s sake!