Undercurrents

Yan Jue stared at the mouse for a long time, at a loss for how to react.

Qi Xianqing looked at her seriously.

Yan Jue felt she ought to give Qi Xianqing a little face.

So she opened her mouth and bit down hard on the mouse.

The night was quiet.

Qi Xianqing lounged against a pillow, idly turning a small wooden box between her fingers.

Yan Jue recognized it at once.

A Shadow Capture Box.

Qi Xianqing had her eyes closed, apparently sending her divine sense into the box to look at something.

Her brows and eyes curved slightly; a hint of laughter glimmered in her dark pupils.

Yan Jue’s curiosity stirred.

What kind of picture could make Qi Xianqing so happy?

As if sensing the little fox’s gaze, Qi Xianqing pressed two fingers together and lightly drew them across the top of the Shadow Capture Box.

A wash of pale blue light streamed out.

Yan Jue froze, staring at the scene before her as if she were watching a projector.

An image appeared on the green gauze curtain; rather, an image captured by the Shadow Capture Box was projected there.

It was actually her own image.

In the picture, the girl wore a jasper-colored daoist robe with narrow sleeves and bindings at the calves. A great sword hung on her back, and her fair face was flushed red by the summer heat. Two sandbags were tied to her legs, and she was climbing a mountain.

Qi Xianqing’s voice held a smile. “So silly.”

Yan Jue’s expression immediately soured a little.

Was that really polite of you?

Then the next picture showed Xiaoxing Village.

Yan Jue, turned into a little girl, sat leaning against a boy, frowning with an expression of complete unwillingness.

Then it was Fengxian Town...

Qi Xianqing flipped through the pictures one by one in a bored sort of way.

Yan Jue realized that she seemed to especially like taking pictures.

Not only had she taken pictures when they were out on missions together before, she had also taken quite a few when she went on missions by herself.

The image suddenly shifted.

It was a nest of black kitten cubs.

Inside the cave, six kitten cubs were all skin and bones, staring at Qi Xianqing with green eyes. They were rather cute.

Qi Xianqing stared silently at this picture, not knowing what she was thinking.

Yan Jue was a little puzzled.

Why had Qi Xianqing suddenly gone so gloomy?

Qi Xianqing rubbed the little fox’s head. “When I went to Jiangnan on a mission that day, I was dealing with a cat demon causing trouble in a residence.”

Jiangnan? Yan Jue suddenly remembered that last time, when she and Du Ying had gone to Emptiness Mountain to gather lingzhi, Qi Xianqing had just happened to be in Jiangnan on a mission.

“I’ve always regretted how it was handled afterward.”

Qi Xianqing: “There are many ways to deal with a demon beast; perhaps killing it isn’t necessarily the best choice.”

Yan Jue paused slightly and looked up at her.

Qi Xianqing said softly, “But inside the Five Dragons Sect...”

She stopped there.

Qi Xianqing actually wasn’t very good at judging what the best way to treat a demon beast was.

Her family had been killed by two tiger demons, male and female. The suffering she endured in the tiger demon’s lair during her childhood was something she still could not forget; those fragments often turned into nightmares that clung to her.

The reason Qi Xianqing had stepped onto the path of cultivation was not only because she possessed an Immortal Spirit Physique that was exceptionally suited to cultivating immortality, but also because she wanted to avenge her family.

Yet as she grew older, she discovered that some things were not so simple.

All at once, a moist sensation touched her palm.

Qi Xianqing was stunned. Turning her head, she found the little fox baby lying quietly beside her, seriously licking her palm, those amber phoenix eyes lowered.

Qi Xianqing smiled. “Thank you, little fox baby.”

The little fox’s movement clearly paused for a moment; pretending it knew nothing, it continued gnawing on the mouse in its mouth.

Qi Xianqing lay down on her side and rested her chin on one hand as she looked at her, not knowing whether she was talking to it or muttering to herself. “It’s just a pity that I’ll be busy the whole time during this Five-Dragon Summit.”

For a disciple like Qi Xianqing, the Five-Dragon Summit was originally supposed to be leisurely, but in truth it would not be easy at all.

After all, besides the disciples of the sect, many outer-sect disciples would also come to observe and learn.

As the core disciple of the new generation of the Five Dragons Sect, Qi Xianqing was the face of the sect; naturally she would be kept busy receiving guests.

Yan Jue had also heard Du Ying say before that because there weren’t enough referees for this year’s Five-Dragon Summit, the best among the inner-sect disciples would also be chosen to serve as referees.

That meant Qi Xianqing might also be working as a referee this time.

As the chief disciple, one could enjoy many honors, but also lose many things.

Yan Jue thought of this and couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for Qi Xianqing. She gnawed on the mouse with great concentration, then suddenly noticed something and froze.

Somehow, a meaty fragrance had spread through her mouth...

Yan Jue lowered her head abruptly and discovered that inside the big grass-woven mouse, there were actually several beef tendon balls hidden.

Aaaaahhhh.

The little fox was already hungry; it immediately started frantically eating the beef tendon balls. They might have been packed back from the south by Qi Xianqing, and they were really, really fragrant, and still warm.

Under the dim light, Qi Xianqing frowned slightly, her fingertips absentmindedly stroking the little fox’s soft fur.

Yan Jue had no idea that right now, all Qi Xianqing was thinking about was:

I won’t have time to guide Yan Jue’s martial arts during this Five-Dragon Summit. What if she goes looking for her own master, Yun Zhen...

-

Very soon, it was the Five-Dragon banquet three days later.

Night fell, and the entire Five Dragons Mountain was immersed in a lively atmosphere.

After all, the Five-Dragon Summit was held once every three years, and every summit was extremely exciting.

Not only would disciples from the Six Immortal Sects come to Five Dragons Mountain to exchange ideas and learn, but some great figures with considerable prestige in the cultivation world would also come.

According to custom, a banquet would be held on the eve of the Five-Dragon Summit.

The banquet was held at Sword-Dance Arena on Five Dragons Mountain.

After the banquet ended, everyone would also be arranged to rest in the guest residences at Sword-Dance Arena.

There were basically only two places where the Five Dragons Sect held gatherings.

One was Five Dragons Square, but that was outdoors; usually only inner-sect meetings were held there.

Sword-Dance Arena, on the other hand, was a venue specially set up for grand occasions. It had been built many years ago by a master craftsman hired by the Five Dragons Sect, Lu Xuezhi, and could accommodate over a thousand people. Not only was it gorgeous and exquisite in appearance, but all sorts of facilities were also complete. It was not opened lightly.

Although Yan Jue had gone to draw lots that day, she did not want to attend this kind of banquet.

Tonight was the day in the original story when she died.

Yan Jue was not in the mood for singing and dancing.

In the quiet night, one could faintly hear the gurgling flow of a stream outside the wooden house.

Yan Jue sat on the bed with her chin propped in her hand, her gaze hollow.

When Bai Ying saw her like that, she was puzzled again. “Sword-Dance Arena is so lively tonight. Why doesn’t Master go sit there?”

Yan Jue: “I don’t feel like joining the fun.”

Then she suddenly thought of something and instructed Bai Ying, “Go stand guard outside and see whether any suspicious people come near.”

Bai Ying was stunned. “Suspicious... people?”

Yan Jue: “Anyway, if anyone wants to approach this house, just tell me.”

Bai Ying:

“Yes.”

Then it turned into a wisp of green smoke and drifted away.

Yan Jue stared at her palm, deep in thought.

If that Demon Lord wanted to lure her out, then he could only do it through seductive arts.

In this world, if one wanted someone to follow without reason, only seductive arts could solve it.

But the Demon Lord should not know that she was a fox demon; seduction techniques like that would have no effect on her.

Aside from that, Yan Jue really could not think of any way the Demon Lord could make a move.

If she did not go out, wouldn’t their plan fail?

No, it couldn’t be that simple.

Yan Jue frowned.

Knock... knock... knock...

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.

Yan Jue’s blood seemed to run cold in an instant; her body also tensed subconsciously.

Using her divine sense, Yan Jue asked Bai Ying, “Who’s outside?”

Bai Ying’s gentle voice came back. “It’s Master’s neighbor.”

Yan Jue frowned and walked to the door to open it. Sure enough, standing outside was Du Ying.

Yan Jue curled the corners of her lips and asked, “What do you need?”

Du Ying looked very excited. “Junior Sister Yan, let’s go to the banquet? The disciples of the Six Immortal Sects are all at Sword-Dance Arena; it’s so lively.”

Yan Jue looked at Du Ying deeply.

Unfortunately, these eyes of hers could sense demonkind a little, but had no sense at all for high-level disguise techniques.

After all, compared with demons and ghosts, the methods demonic cultivators used to deceive people were countless, and every one of them was highly advanced.

Du Ying: “Why are you staring at me? Is there something on my face?”

Then she took out a small bronze mirror from her Qiankun bag and checked carefully. “I heard there are quite a few handsome men at Sword-Dance Arena tonight. If there’s something on my face later, then I’ll be doomed.”

Yan Jue: “......”

Listening to that tone... it really did sound quite like Du Ying.

Because whether it was the Demon Lord or the male lead, if they wanted to transform into Du Ying’s appearance, without a deep understanding of her, they would be unable to make it look exactly the same.

Yan Jue said helplessly, “There are so many people at Sword-Dance Arena; I’m not planning to go.”

Du Ying was stunned. “No way; you can’t really think the Five-Dragon Summit is just for fighting, right? Aside from matches, the real important thing is getting to know the outstanding disciples of the Six Immortal Sects and drinking and enjoying yourself with fellow disciples.”

Yan Jue: “Forget it; I’m not going.”

Just as she was about to turn back into the room, she suddenly heard footsteps from over there.

The night was very quiet; faintly, one could hear the water under the small bridge and the chirping of insects.

“Junior Sister Yan!”

Yan Jue turned around sharply and unexpectedly met Duan Luxi’s eyes from over there.

Duan Luxi was wearing the standard green-and-turquoise long robe of a Muyin Sect disciple. Panting, she ran over. “Junior Sister Yan, on such a lively evening, how can you be staying in the dormitory alone?”

Another one?

Yan Jue was bewildered now. It couldn’t be that the Demon Lord and the male lead had both transformed into her friends and come out to trick her into leaving, could it?

One after another, these people really...

Duan Luxi: “Junior Sister Yan, it’s lucky you’re here; otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to report back to Uncle Sect Master...”

Sect Master? Yan Jue said, “Why?”

Duan Luxi: “Do you know? You’ve become famous lately. Ever since you single-handedly challenged Li Hao at Five Dragons Square a few days ago and beat him black and blue, even the Sect Master of the Muyin Sect heard about your glorious deed. He was still asking about you at the banquet just now.”

Duan Luxi continued, “By the rules, everyone must attend the Sword-Dance Arena banquet. Sect Master asked you to go have a couple drinks and chat with everyone.”

Yan Jue felt like crying without tears. So being a person really was better when you kept a low profile. She had merely taught that bastard a lesson at Five Dragons Square, and somehow it had even reached the Sect Master’s ears.

Setting aside the fact that she had never even met this Sect Master before...

It was absurd.

Duan Luxi: “Come on. Everyone’s in a pretty good mood tonight. Go chat with Uncle Sect Master; maybe the Sect Master will even take you in as his disciple.”

Even among inner-sect disciples, there were differences depending on the status of one’s master. If one could become the Five Dragons Sect Master’s disciple, that was something many people could only dream of.

The Five Dragons Sect had five main peaks, all under the Sect Master’s rule; if one could be taken in by the Sect Master, that would be a tremendous honor for anyone.

This put Yan Jue in a difficult position.

She should never have, absolutely never have, taught Li Hao a lesson in front of everyone at Five Dragons Square.

Duan Luxi: “Junior Sister Yan, I advise you to go. Otherwise you’d be disrespecting Uncle Sect Master.”

Yan Jue: “......”

Forget it.

Anyway, she was already growing frantic from waiting alone in the room. She might as well go to Sword-Dance Arena.

A place with more people would be safer than staying alone in her room.

What’s more, Qi Xianqing was there.

Yan Jue did not know why she had suddenly thought of Qi Xianqing.

Clearly, tonight should have been the night the other person killed her.

-

Yan Jue brought her Qiankun bag and tightly fastened the Northern Sea black iron around her neck before heading to Sword-Dance Arena.

The place was packed with noise and the sound of phoenix flutes.

On the pavilion at the center of Sword-Dance Arena, seats were filled with people.

It was actually an open pavilion; sitting inside it allowed one to see the boundless grassland in the distance.

Above the grassland was a vast, crystal-clear starry sky; starlight shimmered and glittered.

There were even singing courtesans performing on the lawn.

Yan Jue paused slightly. Beautiful melodies rippled out from the strings.

She could even see pale blue waves of light in the sky, circling outward one ring after another.

These were disciples of Echo Hall, which specialized in music. Only when their skills had been cultivated to the extreme would such a phenomenon appear.

Wherever the music reached, peach trees bloomed, and clusters of peach blossoms fell like a starry rain.

Du Ying pulled Yan Jue to sit down at a table. The fine wines on the table had not yet been touched.

Du Ying whispered to introduce them to her, “See that? The ones playing over there are disciples of Echo Hall... And that one, the one sitting in front, did you see...”

Following Du Ying’s gaze, Yan Jue looked over and saw that at the far-left seat sat a woman in a light green trailing dress embroidered with butterflies and edged in gold thread. Her dark hair was meticulously pinned up with hairpins; she truly looked like an immortal maiden.

When she walked, her slender waist swayed like a willow in the wind; it was a Jiangnan style Yan Jue had never seen before.

The woman sat among the seats, a seven-stringed zither before her, her slender fingertips slowly plucking the strings.

Du Ying: “Her name is Meng Jinjia; she’s the chief disciple of Echo Hall. Isn’t she too beautiful? Good heavens, people from our little mountain villages have never seen Jiangnan style before; this is Jiangnan style!”

Du Ying’s chatter made Yan Jue relax a little, and she nodded slightly.

“Why do you look like someone owes you three thousand coins?” Du Ying said again, pointing out a direction. “That side is Tiangang Shrine.”

Yan Jue followed her gaze and indeed saw several muscular disciples in the crowd.

“Gentle Breeze Valley is here too.”

The disciples of Gentle Breeze Valley wore daoist robes and carried a small sword on their backs. On the surface, they looked similar to the Five Dragons Sect.

But Yan Jue noticed that every Gentle Breeze Valley disciple had a small bone flute hanging from their waist.

No wonder; Gentle Breeze Valley had always been famous for its mastery of summoning arts. In the original story, there had even been scenes during the immortal-demon war where Gentle Breeze Valley disciples used bone flutes to turn the tide with unexpected success.

Yan Jue knew that bone flutes should be a common summoning artifact used within the sect.

Her gaze soon fell on another group of disciples over there.

The disciples of Beast Taming Pavilion from the northwest wore cloaks; each of them looked travel-worn and sat cross-legged by the tables, silent. Only the woman in the middle, with black hair and blue eyes, looked a little more delicate.

Xue Shuangxing.

Xue Shuangxing noticed Yan Jue’s gaze, looked up, and paused slightly.

Yan Jue gave her a friendly smile.

For some reason, perhaps because she knew she was doomed tonight, seeing these former friends made Yan Jue feel especially close to them.

Yan Jue suddenly noticed something and asked, “Why isn’t Luan Terrace here?”

Du Ying: “You don’t know? Luan Terrace has been having a pretty bad falling-out with the Six Immortal Sects lately.”

Yan Jue perked up at once. “What happened?”

When she read the novel, she had only focused on the plot and hadn’t paid much attention to the worldbuilding.

Du Ying: “Those people from Luan Terrace are just relying on their phoenix bloodline and don’t want to be lumped together with the Six Immortal Sects.”

Du Ying added, “They want to break away from the Six Immortal Sects and become a separate sect, like South Tower or something.”

Only disciples with phoenix blood were qualified to enter Luan Terrace; among the Six Immortal Sects, Luan Terrace should be the most exclusive sect.

Phoenix blood, like dragon veins, was an extremely outstanding lineage, so it was no wonder they were so proud.

Yan Jue: “Weren’t you just saying the Five Dragons Sect Master asked me to come sit down? Why don’t I see him?”

Du Ying: “Uncle Sect Master is over there.”

Yan Jue looked in the direction Du Ying pointed and sure enough saw an old man with a white beard in a blue daoist robe standing among a group of disciples, smiling as he drank.

Du Ying: “Uncle Sect Master often goes into seclusion; once he comes out, he’s very close with the disciples. Everyone’s toasting him right now. Since you were the one he summoned, you should go toast him later too. He’s actually very easygoing.”

Yan Jue: “Mm.”

Her gaze subconsciously swept the surroundings.

She did not see Qi Xianqing anywhere. With such an important banquet, Qi Xianqing should be very busy too...

The Five Dragons Sect had six unreachable positions.

Five Peak Chiefs.

And the Sect Chief.

These six positions could be said to be the dream of every sect disciple. Of course, the Sect Chief who managed all matters of the sect was definitely higher in status than the chiefs of the five peaks.

Someone like Qi Xianqing, who was both the chief disciple of Thunderflame Sect and the chief disciple of the Five Dragons Sect, was simply a monster. That was why she was called the rightful Senior Sister of the Five Dragons Sect.

Not seeing Qi Xianqing here likely meant that, with the Five-Dragon Summit approaching, she had been called away for separate instructions.

“Yan Jue.” A hoarse voice suddenly sounded from above.

Yan Jue was spacing out when she suddenly heard someone calling her. Following the sound, she looked over and was surprised to find that above the hall there were actually... ten elders seated there.

These were all the most prominent figures from the five peaks, and the one who had just called her was wearing the purple-red daoist robe of Jingang Sect. Looking at his brows and eyes, Yan Jue found him vaguely familiar.

The elder stared at Yan Jue, his expression sharp as lightning. “So this is Yan Jue, the outer-sect disciple of Watercloud Sect?”

The hall was noisy, but the elder’s voice still reached Yan Jue’s ears just right, showing how deep his inner power was.

Yan Jue was stunned, then had no choice but to stand up and respectfully say, “Replying to Elder, this disciple is indeed Yan Jue.”

The elder: “That day at Five Dragons Square, you beat up a fellow disciple and left him with internal injuries, to the point that he nearly couldn’t participate in the Five-Dragon Summit.”

“How bold of you!”

As soon as those words fell, the surroundings fell into a brief silence.

Yan Jue was stunned; only after a long while did she realize what matter this elder was talking about.

Sure enough, what had to come would still come. Yan Jue’s gaze fell on the young man seated below the elder.

Li Hao was staring at her, a mischievous smile playing at the corners of his lips.

She had heard that Li Hao’s father was an elder, and that he was usually very favored within Jingang Sect.

Then this elder was Li Hao’s father.