Finding Out
Yan Jue froze, then suddenly remembered something. Her pupils contracted sharply.
She seemed to have seen the name Cliff of Severed Malice in the original novel.
Just as Qi Xianqing had said, Cliff of Severed Malice was an assassination organization made up entirely of demons. Every one of its members was ruthless and highly skilled at killing.
The only reason these demons joined the organization was to make money.
The cultivation world looked harmonious on the surface, but in reality it was full of hidden currents and shifting tides.
There were many cultivators who wanted to get rid of their enemies, and most of them would not do the killing themselves.
Instead, they would pay a hefty sum to hire killers.
Cliff of Severed Malice was one such organization. After all, demons were not valued much in this world to begin with.
Even if an assassin died while carrying out a mission, it was no great loss.
That was the cruelty of the martial world.
But why would a demon from Cliff of Severed Malice appear here?
Who had hired them to assassinate Qi Xianqing?
The more Yan Jue thought about it, the colder she felt all over.
Qi Xianqing still insisted on keeping watch, and Yan Jue had no choice but to go back and sleep.
Recently, the little fox demon had been at that time of the month, so Yan Jue herself was also especially sleepy. But her sleep was light; she startled easily, dreamed a lot, and was very afraid of being alone.
Curling up in a corner, Yan Jue closed her eyes, wrapped her arms around herself, and quickly fell asleep.
...
After what had just happened, Qi Xianqing was thinking too much to sleep at all.
She came to the base of a large tree and studied it for a long while with narrowed eyes.
This tree was entirely snow-white, and faintly visible on it were fruits the size of cherries: red little berries.
Qi Xianqing knew this tree was called Fenghe.
There were many disciples in the Five Dragons Sect who were just beginning to learn swordsmanship, and they used this kind of tree to make sword sheaths.
Qi Xianqing slowly drew out her immortal sword, Zhuying.
In the darkness, a flash of blue light streaked by.
A thick branch from the white tree was instantly cut off.
Qi Xianqing sat cross-legged on the ground and gradually shaved away at the trunk.
In her hands, the thick branch slowly took shape as a long, narrow sword sheath.
Because Zhuying and Drifting Ice were a paired male-and-female sword set, Drifting Ice’s shape was exactly the same as Zhuying’s.
Qi Xianqing held Zhuying up against the sheath to measure it, then started carving again.
Fine wood shavings fell to the ground.
Before long, Qi Xianqing had made a beautiful white sword sheath.
The new sheath gave off a pleasant woody fragrance as it turned over in Qi Xianqing’s hands.
After thinking for a moment, Qi Xianqing carved a pattern into it.
She carved an orchid onto the new sheath, and the corners of her lips curved with quiet satisfaction.
A faint line of fish-belly white began to brighten on the horizon, standing out brilliantly against the pitch-black sky.
Dawn was almost here.
Qi Xianqing intended to seize this safest of times to catch a bit of sleep, so she headed into the cave.
The moment she stepped inside, she saw Yan Jue lying on the ground, curled into a ball.
Yan Jue lay in the dark with a slight frown, looking as if she were cold.
She really was cold; her body was weak at this time, and she simply could not withstand the wind.
Qi Xianqing looked down at Yan Jue for a long time, and a strange impulse suddenly rose in her heart. She glanced around, then slowly bent down and reached out to pull Yan Jue into her arms.
Yan Jue’s brows relaxed in her sleep.
Qi Xianqing’s body was soft, and the fragrance of an Immortal Spirit Physique was especially pleasant.
Yan Jue instinctively grabbed onto Qi Xianqing’s collar.
Leaning lazily against the rock wall, Qi Xianqing held Yan Jue as if she were cradling a little baby, lifting a hand to tuck the girl’s loose hair behind her ear.
Then Qi Xianqing noticed something, and her movements froze.
Jiang Mengchu, who had clearly still been asleep just now, had somehow woken up and was staring blankly at them with wide eyes.
Qi Xianqing’s mind went buzzing. A rush of red instantly crept up to the roots of her ears, and her lips pressed together unconsciously.
Jiang Mengchu stretched, rubbing her sleepy eyes as she looked at them dumbly. “Senior Sister, why are you holding Sister Yan Jue?”
Qi Xianqing: “Because Sister Yan Jue is a little cold.”
That was just how seaside weather was; it was hot during the day, but cold at night.
Jiang Mengchu: “I’m a little cold too.”
Then she crawled over, leaned against Qi Xianqing, and fell asleep again.
Qi Xianqing: “...”
-
It quickly grew light.
Yan Jue woke up, and when she did, her body was somehow already sitting properly against the wall.
Qi Xianqing was seated beside her, slowly eating a lingzhu fruit.
Lingzhu fruit was a fire-attributed spirit fruit; it had a faint spicy taste when eaten. Qi Xianqing’s lips were very red, which only made her skin look even fairer by contrast.
Yan Jue looked at Qi Xianqing.
She did not know if it was just her imagination, but Qi Xianqing seemed like a little wife, guarding her side the whole time.
Jiang Mengchu was still asleep, and the sound of Qi Xianqing peeling the fruit skin came clearly into her ears.
Qi Xianqing ate the lingzhu fruit unhurriedly, then suddenly asked, “After what happened yesterday, what does Junior Sister Yan plan to do next?”
Yan Jue blinked, then reacted and could not help but laugh.
Qi Xianqing really had the Senior Sister habit through and through; no matter the time, she never forgot to teach her.
Yan Jue straightened up and also took a lingzhu fruit from her Qiankun bag, biting straight into it. “I think we should go back to the Yuxu Sea shore. Maybe yesterday the merman was out and didn’t hear the conch shell? Let’s try again later.”
Qi Xianqing nodded.
After the two of them finished breakfast and washed up by the stream outside the cave, they returned to the cave; Jiang Mengchu was still sleeping.
There were times when Yan Jue truly envied her.
Although the Taishang Spirit Body was born to suffer Heavenly Dao backlash, at least from what could be seen now, Jiang Mengchu seemed to have no worries at all. That was nice.
Yan Jue and Qi Xianqing walked out of the cave together.
It was early morning; the green mountains were lush, and birds were chirping across the slopes.
Qi Xianqing suddenly stopped and handed something over.
Yan Jue was slightly taken aback.
It was a snow-white sword sheath. Bathed in sunlight, it gave off a soft sheen, and simple orchid patterns had been carved across it.
Qi Xianqing looked up at her and hesitated before saying, “You don’t seem to have a sword sheath yet. I had nothing to do outside just now, so I made one.”
“See if it fits.”
Yan Jue came back to herself, and warmth immediately spread through her heart. She quickly took the sword sheath from Qi Xianqing and smiled. “Thank you, Senior Sister.”
Yan Jue took the sheath from her and summoned the immortal sword Drifting Ice from her Qiankun bag, sliding it in at once.
She looked at the sheath, eyes bright. “It fits perfectly, and the color is beautiful too. Thank you, Senior Sister.”
A trace of barely perceptible amusement flashed in Qi Xianqing’s eyes.
She nodded. “Let’s go; first to the seaside.”
-
Yan Jue and Qi Xianqing arrived at the shore together.
The sky was clear, with not a single cloud in sight; the sea shimmered gold under the sun.
Qi Xianqing once again took out the conch shell from her Qiankun bag, infused it with a thread of Divine Sense, and blew into it.
The melodious sound of the conch echoed over the golden sea.
The two waited a long time, but still no merfolk appeared.
Yan Jue frowned slightly.
...
Qi Xianqing said she wanted to stay by the sea a while longer.
Yan Jue then slowly made her way back alone.
Today she was wearing a Silencing Cloak; the huge black cape draped over her body and revealed the young girl’s clean, handsome features.
Before Qi Xianqing left the mountain, this Silencing Cloak had once been taken to the Refining Hall for modifications, greatly improving its concealment effect.
Although it still fell far short of the Cloudvoid Umbrella, it was already enough to completely restrain her aura.
On the way, she ran into several village men, but because Yan Jue kept close to the mountain wall, no one noticed her.
Before she knew it, Yan Jue had arrived at the village entrance.
Then she noticed something and froze slightly.
Ahead, at the village gate, a small figure suddenly darted into view.
The little figure ran forward quickly, glancing back from time to time with a guilty, sneaky look.
Yan Jue recognized it at once; it was the little girl from yesterday, the one who had been standing on the mountain path waiting for her mother!
The little girl seemed afraid of being stopped by adults, and she hurried along at top speed until she finally stopped on yesterday’s remote mountain path.
Suddenly, footsteps sounded behind her.
The girl turned back in alarm, then froze again; there was clearly no one behind her...
For a moment, she didn’t even realize who had approached her.
Then a voice came from beside her. “Hello, little sister.”
The girl’s eyes widened, and only then did she see that at some point, a girl in a cloak had appeared beside her.
Yan Jue’s fair face peeked out from beneath the Silencing Cloak as she greeted the little girl warmly. “Are you waiting for your mother again?”
The girl looked at Yan Jue timidly for a while before nodding.
Yan Jue sat cross-legged right beside her and asked earnestly, “Little sister, do you really not know where your mother is?”
The girl said softly, “My father says Mother is in a very faraway place, and that one day she’ll come back.”
...
Time slowly passed.
The girl waited there, and Yan Jue stayed beside her.
The sun was strong, and the girl grew dry-mouthed from waiting.
Yan Jue’s heart stirred, and she took a lingzhu fruit from her Qiankun bag and handed it to her.
No girl could refuse a lingzhu fruit.
Sure enough, the little girl looked at Yan Jue, her eyes lighting up, then cupped the lingzhu fruit and began eating eagerly.
Yan Jue took the chance to chat with her. “What kind of person is your father usually?”
The girl: “Father is usually very good to us, but every time he talks about Mother, he gets angry.”
Yan Jue’s gaze shifted as she asked, “When you woke up this morning, did you see anything strange in the main room of your house?”
The little girl blinked, then shook her head. “No...”
Yan Jue was slightly taken aback.
How strange.
She clearly remembered last night that she had knocked out those men.
With the help of the immortal sword Drifting Ice, those men should not have woken up so quickly.
At the very least, they should have lain there until noon today.
Could it be that they had exceptionally strong constitutions?
Yan Jue: “Then what was your father doing this morning?”
The little girl slowly ate the lingzhu fruit.
This should have been the most delicious fruit she had ever eaten in her life.
It was juicy, sweet and sour, a little like lemon, but there was also a roasted-meat flavor to it.
The girl: “Father left very early this morning to work. He said the village head wanted him to go to his house tonight, and told us to be good at home. He was going to discuss important matters with the village head.”
Yan Jue leaned against a large tree and could not help frowning.
“..."
Yan Jue talked with the little girl for a long time, but she could no longer coax out any useful information.
Before she knew it, the sky had gradually darkened.
Yan Jue escorted the little girl back to the village gate, watching her tiny figure disappear into the distance, but she did not hurry back.
Slowly, she took out the green oil-paper umbrella from her Qiankun bag.
The setting sun scattered across the oil-paper umbrella, giving the gorgeous pattern on it a layer of resplendent, eerie color.
This was the Cloudvoid Umbrella, a treasure of the Demonic Cult.
As soon as Yan Jue opened the oil-paper umbrella, a faint current of spiritual power leaked from within.
That day, in order to catch up to the male lead’s conversation with the Demon Lord, Yan Jue had already used the Cloudvoid Umbrella once.
Aside from concealing one’s tracks, this umbrella could also increase one’s speed. It was an extremely rare magic tool; no wonder it later became one of the male lead’s signature artifacts. It was incredibly useful.
Yan Jue held the oil-paper umbrella and leapt.
As she sprang upward, the umbrella canopy above her began to spin rapidly, like a seductive flower blooming in her hand.
Light as a swallow, Yan Jue used the umbrella’s assistance to fly straight from the ground to the eaves of a nearby house.
Clutching the oil-paper umbrella tightly, she leapt again.
The green canopy spun in the wind, and Yan Jue’s body, like a bird in flight, landed once more on the roof of another house.
People moved below in the streets.
But no one noticed Yan Jue’s existence.
Before long, Yan Jue reached the roof of the tallest residence in the entire village.
Just now, Yan Jue had already asked the girl which house belonged to the village head, so she found it quickly.
It was dusk, and the blood-red afterglow of the setting sun covered the sky.
Carefully, Yan Jue lifted a roof tile. In that instant, a pair of black, ink-dark fox ears rose above her head; they fluttered left and right in the wind, doing their utmost to catch the sounds below.
-
Inside the village head’s house stood seven or eight men.
They were all dressed in coarse linen clothes, and their skin had turned a deep bronze from years of being exposed to the sun.
Seeing the sweat on their faces, Yan Jue finally let out a breath of relief.
It looked like they had still gone to the seaside early in the morning, and only came to the village head’s house after finishing work to discuss important matters.
So she had not missed anything yet.
Just as Yan Jue was thinking that, one man suddenly stepped forward and began speaking. “Immortal, my son is now... already past his weak crown years, and he wants to take a wife.”
Another man stepped out as well. “Immortal, my son has wanted a wife since three years ago, but still...”
Yan Jue’s gaze fell on the man standing in the very center.
He was wearing a thick cloak, and his face could not be seen.
Yan Jue knew that cloak might be a concealment robe, something similar to the Silencing Cloak she was wearing now; it was just that her own cloak was only the most basic type, meant to hide one’s appearance and aura.
If it were a higher-grade concealment set, it could do far more than simply hide a face.
It could also change a voice.
The man in the black cloak spoke in an ancient, rasping voice. “The merfolk are already not enough!”
“You people dislike women in ordinary times; during that year of famine, none of the village women escaped your poisonous hands! Now you can’t even find a wife to marry! You’ve already caught so many merfolk, you should be able to wait another five or six years.”
The man lowered his eyes and frowned. “But, but my son has really wanted to marry a wife lately; he even started eyeing the merfolk raised by the neighboring Sun family!”
Yan Jue’s pupils contracted sharply.
What merfolk?
She and Qi Xianqing had desperately tried to summon merfolk by the sea, and now this had something to do with the men in this village?
A white-bearded man stepped forward with a flattering smile. “Immortal, they’re just too anxious...”
This person must be the village head.
The black-clad man said indifferently, “You must always bear responsibility for what you’ve done. Don’t bring this up in front of me again!”
“Wait until the merfolk race recovers its population five years from now; then come and say such things to me!”
After the people gathered in the center of the hall finished speaking, they began discussing some unimportant matters.
Yan Jue found it a little irritating to listen, so she raised the Cloudvoid Umbrella, leapt out, and slowly flew to the back courtyard wall of a nearby house.
Looking into the courtyard, Yan Jue discovered that there was actually a huge pond in the back!
Yan Jue frowned at once.
She had thought that, since the men were discussing catching merfolk, they would at least keep them in the courtyard.
But the pond in the back yard was empty, with nothing in it at all.
-
When Yan Jue returned to the cave, Qi Xianqing still had not come back.
Jiang Mengchu had already built a fire and was holding a branch with a lingzhu fruit skewered on it, roasting it over the flames.
Yan Jue blinked, not expecting lingzhu fruit to be eaten this way too.
The bright red fruit, roasted slightly golden by the fire, actually gave off a roasted-meat fragrance.
Yan Jue laughed. “You’re hungry?”
Jiang Mengchu: “I slept in the cave all day, so I’m a little hungry.”
Yan Jue: “..."
Qi Xianqing still had not returned, so Yan Jue drew out the immortal sword Drifting Ice, cut the lingzhu fruit into small pieces, skewered them on sticks, and placed them over the fire to roast.
Inside the cave, the aroma of roasted food grew richer and richer.
Yan Jue tried a bite of the roasted lingzhu fruit and found that it really was delicious.
...
When Qi Xianqing returned, it was already completely dark.
Yan Jue went over to her and told her everything she had learned in the village that day.
Yan Jue: “There’s something wrong with this village.”
“So I noticed too,” Qi Xianqing said thoughtfully. “Remember when we stayed at that man’s house on the first day? He told us that there were livestock in the back courtyard and not to go there. We didn’t pay much attention at the time.”
The two of them fell silent for a moment.
Seeing that Qi Xianqing looked a little tired, Yan Jue handed over the roasted lingzhu fruit.
Qi Xianqing took a bite; a faint roasted flavor and a trace of spice spread across her tongue, and she closed her eyes, suddenly feeling as if she wanted to cry.
Perhaps this was the sort of emotional surge every normal person felt when eating delicious food.
When Qi Xianqing was alone, she also sometimes prepared good food for herself.
No one knew this hobby of hers.
Yan Jue was still nervously watching her from the side. “I wasn’t sure if you’d like this taste; I also have some flower tea here.”
“Is it good?”
Qi Xianqing: “It’s all right. Barely acceptable.”
Yan Jue: “...”
This female lead really was stubborn to the very end; would it kill her to honestly praise something as tasty?
Qi Xianqing silently finished eating, then drank some of the flower tea Yan Jue had brewed. The expression on her face finally eased a little.
She stood up and said, “In that case, tonight we’ll make another personal trip to the fishing village.”