Xi Jianlan was very impatient.
Three years ago, he’d done nothing—just stood there with this face and was immediately called “darling” and “sweetheart” by Hongchen, directly crowned as courtesan. Though no one could “enjoy” him, he’d still earned quite a few spirit stones for Hongchen Tower.
This year was different—there actually had to be a competition.
What competition.
The high pavilion was empty, but the moment “Lan Jiaojiao” appeared, screams and clamor erupted from below.
Countless cloud lanterns throughout Nine Heavens City were lit brighter and brighter, even extending all the way to the clouds.
The noisy, chaotic crowd below was vaguely shouting “Lan Jiaojiao.”
Xi Jianlan wished he could remove his earring. With a dark face, he turned half a circle, not knowing how Hongchen had arranged things, but he couldn’t even catch sight of Xun Niang.
“Foolish man.”
Xi Jianlan included himself in the curse, looking down coldly at the nearly frenzied crowd from his high position.
No matter how beautiful the appearance, how gifted the spiritual roots, how supreme the family background—in the end, they were no more lasting than a handful of yellow earth.
Clearly unattainable, yet still obsessed.
What exactly were they pursuing?
Xi Jianlan didn’t understand.
Xi Jue had been the center of attention since childhood, seeing countless people fawn and flatter him, but he only felt annoyed, even resentful.
“Since you want to look…” Xi Jianlan stepped to the edge of the high platform, looking down at the people below, thinking coldly, “Then look your fill, anyway…”
Before he could finish his harsh words, Xi Jianlan inadvertently glanced and immediately froze.
Sheng Jiao stood cold as frost in the crowd, Tianyan pearls spinning chaotically around him, slightly raising his eyes to meet Xi Jianlan’s gaze without expression.
Lan Jiaojiao: “……”
Xi Jianlan almost blurted out “damn it,” abandoning his previous pretentious air of seeing through worldly affairs. He hurriedly grabbed his layered gorgeous skirts and retreated toward the pavilion in near-panic, planning to find somewhere to hide.
Why was Sheng Jiao down there?!
Liu Changxing had clearly said he was still waiting in the second-floor central hall.
Embarrassment and shame surged up together. Xi Jianlan had thought his heart had become still as water and his consciousness dried up over these six years, but since reuniting with Sheng Jiao, the truth buried under his disguise seemed to slowly break through the soil.
Xi Jianlan didn’t like this feeling of losing control.
The beauty’s shy retreat was even more intoxicating than his previous arrogant demeanor, and the crowd lit even more cloud lanterns.
“Lan Jiaojiao!”
“Hongchen Shijun Tower truly lives up to its reputation!”
“Cloud lanterns! Buy! Light!”
Xi Jianlan walked quickly toward the pavilion with a cold expression. The ethereal white gauze around him was blown by the wind, and his elaborately styled hair with too many ornaments accidentally caught the white gauze, causing him to stumble.
Nothing was going right.
Xi Jianlan expressionlessly reached to untangle the white gauze caught on some hairpin, his ear tips already red as if about to drip blood.
“Just kill Sheng Wuzhuo,” Xi Jianlan thought coldly while randomly untangling the white gauze. “Kill him later. I shouldn’t have been soft-hearted on the riverboat.”
Kill Sheng Jiao, and he wouldn’t have to lose face.
Two birds with one stone.
Xi Jianlan was extremely thick-skinned. Even if he had to wear a dancing girl’s thin clothes and dance on the pavilion for entertainment, he probably wouldn’t blush. Years of hardship had made him abandon everything he could abandon.
As long as he could live, he could do anything.
But just thinking that Sheng Jiao was watching from below, the shameless Xi Jianlan suddenly felt inexplicably ashamed.
Unprecedented embarrassment enveloped him. The white gauze was tangled in his hair ornaments and wouldn’t come loose no matter how he tried. Xi Jianlan’s fingertips were actually trembling finely.
Just then, a golden pattern flashed through Xi Jianlan’s pupils.
He became completely impatient, roughly yanking the white gauze downward. His eyes watered from pain, but he gritted his teeth and cursed quietly: “Shut up! Stop meddling in my affairs.”
Xi Jianlan was in a bad mood. He randomly tucked a strand of disheveled black hair behind his ear, then suddenly paused, frowning: “…What?”
He pushed aside the white gauze and returned to the edge of the high building, looking down.
From the height, he could see Sheng Jiao’s Tianyan pearls scattered out, extinguishing cloud lanterns that flickered with purple light and smashing them to powder.
Those were cloud lanterns mixed with “Abandoned Immortal Bone.”
Yu Tuishan had spent lavishly for the courtesan Lan Jiaojiao—nearly half the cloud lanterns on Pleasure House Street were lit by him, numbering in the tens of thousands.
Sheng Jiao couldn’t instantly extinguish all the cloud lanterns in Nine Heavens City, but over a hundred Tianyan pearls moved extremely fast, able to extinguish hundreds in a single breath.
Xi Jianlan frowned as he looked down.
Sheng Jiao controlled the Tianyan pearls to extinguish lanterns while slightly lowering his eyes to look at a cloud lantern in his palm with “Lan Jiaojiao” written on it.
—That was the one the vendor had forced him to buy.
Xi Jianlan’s eyelid twitched slightly.
Suddenly, Sheng Jiao flicked his fingers.
“Hiss.”
The cloud lantern’s wick was finally lit.
Xi Jianlan: “…………”
Had Sheng Jiao finally gone mad?!
Xi Jianlan was incredulous, his eyes fixed only on that small, weak lantern, his mind full of…
“What is that unromantic blockhead doing?”
“Lighting a cloud lantern?”
“For me?”
Xi Jianlan was utterly dazed. In the empty pavilion, a gentle breeze suddenly arose, softly caressing Xi Jianlan’s back.
Suddenly, the wind became like a pair of invisible hands, forcefully pushing Xi Jianlan’s slender back.
A feeling of weightlessness hit him.
Xi Jianlan was stunned, belatedly realizing he was falling toward the bottom of the high platform.
The frenzied crowd below instantly erupted in screams!
“Watch out!”
“Save her—”
Sheng Jiao’s pupils contracted sharply.
Over a hundred Tianyan pearls were instantly recalled from all directions. Under his control, they condensed into spider-web-like lightning spiritual power, catching the falling Xi Jianlan completely.
As the intense feeling of weightlessness struck, Xi Jianlan didn’t care about landing safely but slightly turned to look up at the empty high platform.
He ground his teeth slightly and cursed something under his breath.
Then, the Tianyan pearls caught Xi Jianlan securely, as if he were supported by a gentle air current, landing amid the crowd’s cheers and screams.
The large peony clusters embroidered with gold thread on Xi Jianlan’s body bloomed gorgeously like flowers in the sky, blown wildly by the wind. His entire slender figure fell silently into someone’s arms like a bird with broken wings.
Sheng Jiao expressionlessly caught him in his arms.
Xi Jianlan: “…………”
It would have been better to just let me fall to death.
But Xi Jianlan was skilled at acting. Since things had come to this, he couldn’t deceive himself. He simply smiled openly at Sheng Jiao, deliberately softening his voice: “Thank you for saving me, immortal lord.”
The onlookers immediately glared at Sheng Jiao with jealousy.
Sheng Jiao remained unmoved and was about to put down the Xi Jianlan in his arms.
But Xi Jianlan hugged his neck tightly, unwilling to get down, pretending to be delicate as he whispered: “I’m so frightened, my legs are weak and I can’t walk. Please trouble the immortal lord to send me back.”
Sheng Jiao: “……”
Starting to act again.
Xi Jianlan’s legs were weak but his hands were strong. He lightly touched Sheng Jiao’s chest, saying meaningfully: “The immortal lord saved my life. I have no way to repay you, so I can only offer myself. I wonder if the immortal lord is satisfied?”
Sheng Jiao: “…………”
The men nearby had never seen such a beautiful woman. Hearing this, their eyes went straight, and they were even more jealous and resentful of Sheng Jiao’s good fortune in gaining such favor from a beauty.
Sheng Jiao was used to Xi Jianlan’s flirtatious words and was about to coldly and ruthlessly throw him down when the crowd couldn’t help but rush forward, eagerly offering their services.
“If you don’t mind, let me carry Fairy Lan back!”
“Nonsense! With your small frame, you’ll drop the beauty! Fairy Lan, I’m Golden Core stage—I guarantee I won’t tire your legs.”
“I’m better—I’m Spirit Transformation realm!”
“Get lost! You’re a several-hundred-year-old monster—how dare you covet a beauty?”
Just as they were about to fight, Xi Jianlan smiled and pointed to the Spirit Transformation cultivator: “Then I’ll… mmph.”
Before he could finish, Sheng Jiao suddenly held him tighter and walked away with a dark face, saying nothing.
The crowd immediately sighed in disappointment.
After a moment of surprise, Xi Jianlan burst out laughing.
The courtesan outfit was caked with nearly a pound of rouge and powder, the fragrance overwhelming and making Sheng Jiao frown.
“You trust me so much?” Xi Jianlan lay on his shoulder laughing. “Aren’t you afraid I deliberately fell to get your attention?”
Sheng Jiao walked silently into Hongchen Shijun Tower.
For no reason, Xi Jianlan suddenly leaned close to Sheng Jiao’s ear and whispered: “Sheng Wuzhuo, I’m about to start lying again.”
Sheng Jiao turned his head.
Because of his movement, Xi Jianlan’s lips brushed against his cheek, leaving a faint red mark from lip rouge.
Xi Jianlan touched his lips with his finger, his pupils dark as if empty and without light, saying with a playful smile: “Don’t believe me.”
Sheng Jiao stopped walking, his gaze heavy as he met Xi Jianlan’s eyes.
Xi Jianlan winked slyly at him.
Just then, a faint light flickered nearby.
Xi Jianlan and Sheng Jiao looked toward the sound.
Ying Zhuo had appeared at some point, standing there expressionlessly with a memory jade tablet in his hand. His expression was cold and disgusted, completely unlike his obedient and sensible demeanor in front of Xi Jianlan.
“I never expected Sect Master Sheng to be such a lustful person! I’ve already recorded what just happened. I’ll show it to shixiong later—let’s see if you still have the face to appear before him!”
Sheng Jiao: “……”
Xi Jianlan: “……”
This child might be an idiot.
The commotion outside was so great that the frightened Hongchen hurried over. Seeing Xi Jianlan safe and sound, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“Dear, you scared me to death.”
This was a money tree delivered to her door—if something had happened, today’s courtesan competition would have been ruined.
Xi Jianlan said: “I’m fine.”
Only then did Hongchen realize her “money tree” was being held by some stinking man. Her expression froze, and she instinctively tried to pull Xi Jianlan out of Sheng Jiao’s arms.
But when her gaze fell on Sheng Jiao’s face, she seemed to remember something and suddenly smiled ambiguously, drawing out her voice: “Oh.”
Xi Jianlan didn’t know what she was “oh-ing” about. He pushed Sheng Jiao’s shoulder and got down from his arms, saying gently: “I didn’t see Sister Xun Niang on the pavilion. Did she have some urgent matter that delayed the competition?”
Hongchen was still staring straight at Sheng Jiao. Hearing this, she shook her head: “Not at all. You went up to the pavilion together, but there were formations separating you so you couldn’t see each other.”
Xi Jianlan: “……”
How clever.
Hongchen added: “…It just so happens that Xun Niang wanted to see you earlier, saying she had important matters to discuss.”
Xi Jianlan’s eyes lit up slightly. He pretended to be dignified, supporting his hair ornaments as he went upstairs with captivating grace.
Sheng Jiao frowned as he watched the back of that peony-robed figure and followed.
Normally, ordinary people wouldn’t be allowed on the third floor, especially near the courtesan’s quarters. Sheng Jiao had prepared for another fight, but he saw Hongchen, who was walking ahead, turn back to smile at him and wink slightly.
Sheng Jiao: “?”
Hongchen didn’t stop him but instead let Sheng Jiao move around freely.
Another flash of light.
Ying Zhuo held the jade tablet and watched Sheng Jiao warily: “Go on, hurry up and chase your beauty. I need to keep evidence to show shixiong—don’t say I’m slandering you later.”
He was insanely jealous of Sheng Jiao. Now that he’d finally caught an opportunity to make Xi Jianlan abandon this lustful scoundrel who forgot righteousness at the sight of beauty, he naturally put all his effort into gathering evidence.
Sheng Jiao didn’t even look at him, his face dark as still water as he went up to the third floor.
Outside the pleasure house, cloud lanterns continued to be lit one after another. Tianyan pearls shot out, silently crushing the “Abandoned Immortal Bone” lanterns bit by bit.
On a distant tall building, Yu Tuishan sat on the edge of the eaves, his legs dangling and kicking alternately as he looked down at the cloud lanterns being shattered by countless lightning patterns below.
The fierce wind blew his slender figure askew, as if it could blow him down at any moment.
“Tsk.” Yu Tuishan popped a piece of donkey roll cake into his mouth, lazily propping his chin as he smiled: “‘Worthy of Heaven’s Way’ is really too troublesome. It needs to be eliminated as soon as possible.”
A swallow silently landed on Yu Tuishan’s shoulder and chirped softly.
Yu Tuishan tilted his head, slightly adjusting his mask to reveal half of his handsome profile.
His snow-white lashes blinked slightly as Yu Tuishan chuckled: “…Pin everything on him? Do you think he’s the type to stupidly wait for you to frame him?”
The “swallow” laughed: “Then what? Do you think you or I could withstand the heavenly punishment thunder of ‘Worthy of Heaven’s Way’?”
“Shh.” Yu Tuishan took small bites of his pastry, saying absentmindedly: “I could, but you couldn’t, right?”
The “swallow” was silent for a long time before its voice turned cold: “You and I are on the same boat.”
Yu Tuishan hummed: “Who can say for sure?”
His fingers slipped, and the donkey roll cake rolled around on his freshly changed snow-white clothes, leaving a trail of soybean powder.
Yu Tuishan: “……”
Yu Tuishan spaced out for a while, then suddenly got angry, coldly throwing down the small package of unfinished donkey roll cake.
Not eating anymore.
The swallow on his shoulder chuckled softly, spread its wings and flew down from the height, passing through the countless crowds below and the dense, uncountable cloud lanterns, silently flying into Hongchen Shijun Tower.
Xun Niang slightly raised her hand.
The palm-sized swallow landed on her snow-white fingertip.
With Lan Jiaojiao’s arrival, what had originally been a three-person courtesan selection became two people. The competition had already ended, and the people of Hongchen Shijun Tower were counting the cloud lanterns.
But with Lan Jiaojiao’s face, the outcome had been decided the moment she appeared.
The door opened with a “creak.”
Xun Niang looked up.
Xi Jianlan’s hair arrangement was too elaborate. Hongchen had hastily fixed it for him on the way, but several strands of black hair were still unbound, falling softly on his slender neck.
Even though Xun Niang was confident in her own beauty, she was still amazed by the sight.
Xi Jianlan stepped around the screen and entered the inner room.
He had too many hairpins and ornaments, not daring to make large movements lest he twist his neck.
The room was filled with fragrance, incense smoke curling upward.
Xun Niang wore white clothes without makeup, holding a pipe and puffing smoke. Her features were like a melancholy painting. Without any pleasantries, she said directly and coldly: “Where is Xi Minghuai?”
Finally meeting the legendary Xun Niang, Xi Jianlan smiled lightly: “Sister-in-law needn’t worry too much. My brother is currently at the Medicine Sect and is temporarily safe, just mentally confused for now.”
Xun Niang was probably shocked by the shameless “sister-in-law.” She held the pipe stem in her red lips for a while before biting down hard and saying coldly: “Give him back.”
Xi Jianlan nodded: “Of course, of course. When brother gets better, I’ll naturally send him back.”
These gentle words sounded like a threat.
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
