AVL Chapter 50.1

Though Xi Jianlan had lost all his cultivation, his divine soul had ultimately reached Spirit Transformation realm.

 

Xun Niang had only extracted one segment of his memory, but her spiritual power was instantly exhausted. She covered her chest with a pale face, gasping as she leaned on the table.

 

Xi Jianlan held the Tianyan pearls and smiled at Sheng Jiao.

 

This face was too exquisitely beautiful—Sheng Jiao even suspected this was his real appearance, not a disguised facade.

 

Sheng Jiao’s fingers moved slightly.

 

Xi Jianlan played with the Tianyan pearls like prayer beads. Though his ears couldn’t hear, the pleasure of finally turning the tables on Sheng Jiao continued—he missed those youthful days when no matter what he said, Sheng Jiao would foolishly believe him.

 

“Sect Master Sheng should be cautious,” Xi Jianlan said lightly. “You are favored by Heaven’s Way, destined to achieve enlightenment and ascension as a child of destiny. If you forcibly break through ‘Exchange for Bright Moon’ and damage your xiangwen or regress in cultivation, the loss wouldn’t be worth the gain.”

 

Those fifty Tianyan pearls had completely frozen the relationship they’d barely managed to ease, shattering the false harmony and sweetness of recent days into pitiful fragments.

 

Xi Jianlan had started sarcastically calling him Sect Master again—soon he’d probably call him “Lord Heaven’s Way” too.

 

Sure enough.

 

Sheng Jiao said coldly: “You don’t trust me.”

 

Xi Jianlan laughed quietly with indifference: “Doesn’t Lord Heaven’s Way also never trust me?”

 

Sheng Jiao frowned at the lusterless Tianyan pearls, his eyes cold and heavy.

 

Xi Jianlan grew bored of playing with the pearls after a while. Without caring about Sheng Jiao’s reaction, he casually tossed them aside.

 

Over a hundred pearls clattered to the ground, scattering in all directions.

 

Xi Jianlan walked to Xun Niang’s side and continued matter-of-factly: “Sister, you’ve seen my memories. Can you tell me who the real culprit is in Xi Minghuai’s memories?”

 

Xun Niang’s lips seeped blood as she sneered: “Isn’t it you?”

 

Xi Jianlan methodically drew circles on the table with his finger, laughing: “I lived in luxury at the Xi family as the Twelfth Young Immortal Lord with prestigious status. I even dared to point at Sect Master Sheng’s scumbag father’s nose and curse him bloody. With such a glorious and prominent position, why would I actively destroy my protection and reduce myself to my current state of barely surviving, where anyone can frame me at will?”

 

Xun Niang frowned: “Yan Ling…”

 

Xi Jianlan interrupted: “If I really were Yan Ling, and the Xi family killed my parents, making me hate them enough to massacre the entire family, why would I leave Xi Minghuai alone?”

 

Xun Niang was stunned.

 

“So sister…” Xi Jianlan said gently, “who exactly is that person?”

 

Xun Niang pressed her lips together in silence for a long while. Finally understanding something, her lips parted: “He is…”

 

After trying for a while, Xun Niang was shocked to discover she’d somehow been placed under a silence spell and couldn’t reveal any information about that name.

 

Xi Jianlan said: “Give me the memory of when you saw Xi Minghuai’s memories.”

 

But Xun Niang shook her head.

 

“Bone-Gazing Mirror” was only mystic-grade and quite useless—it couldn’t extract one’s own memories.

 

Xi Jianlan frowned.

 

Xun Niang’s face was pale. After a long silence, she murmured: “Will you… truly protect Xi Minghuai and me?”

 

Xi Jianlan was startled, realizing that such a clever woman as Xun Niang would definitely have backup plans. He immediately said with deep emotion: “I promise.”

 

Xun Niang didn’t know the character of this little liar Xi Jianlan. She bit her lip slightly and was about to speak when the swallow that had been quietly perched on the windowsill suddenly transformed into a purple jiu bird, flying toward her with devastating force.

 

The jiu bird was completely poisonous—even touching a single drop would be beyond divine salvation.

 

Though Xi Jianlan’s frame was frail, he moved extremely fast. He shielded Xun Niang beneath him, his hand striking like wind to grab the spreading wings of the jiu bird, using all his strength to pin it firmly to the table.

 

“Hiss—”

 

The jiu bird’s wings merely touching the table began corroding it like molten lava with hissing sounds. Xi Jianlan’s palm felt a burning sensation, black-purple poison filling his finger gaps without harming him at all.

 

Sheng Jiao summoned Winter Snow sword, its cold light whistling forth.

 

A wisp of black mist emerged from the back of Xi Jianlan’s neck, transforming on the spot into a youth whose face closely resembled Xi Jue’s.

 

“Endless Period” bared its teeth fiercely, gripping the jiu bird tightly and biting down hard with two small fangs like eating a meat pie.

 

The jiu bird screamed and instantly turned into a wisp of poisonous mist, swallowed by the black cat.

 

Xi Jianlan suddenly called: “Liu Changxing—!”

 

“Bang!”

 

The room suddenly shook violently. In a flash, the door was brutally broken open as Liu Changxing entered with overwhelming sword intent, his long sword unsheathing in an instant.

 

Clang—

 

The crisp sound of spiritual power colliding with blade rang out.

 

Xun Niang turned back in shock to see Liu Changxing’s sword frozen in mid-air, seemingly opposed by an invisible force, while a sharp killing intent silently pierced through the outer robe behind her heart.

 

Just one inch more and it would penetrate her heart.

 

Sheng Jiao’s face was dark as still water as he gripped Xun Niang’s hand and flung her backward. Her snow-white robes bloomed like a flower as she tumbled into a corner.

 

Winter Snow sword flashed with cold light. Though lacking spiritual power, its sword intent was grim as it struck down on the table.

 

Xi Jianlan didn’t even look, extending his tongue to lick the poison from his fingertips clean, walking toward the shaken Xun Niang in the corner with a smile in his eyes.

 

A fierce look appeared in Xun Niang’s eyes as she finally made her complete decision.

 

Since that person wanted to kill her, they might as well die together.

 

Xun Niang’s lips trembled: “Xi Minghuai’s memories…”

 

Xi Jianlan knelt on one knee beside her. Having just licked the poison from the jiu feather, his bright red lips had a dark purple tint that, contrasted with his dark eyes, appeared strangely sinister.

 

“What?”

 

Behind Xun Niang hung a hollow peach blossom painting on the wall. She gripped the embedded painting with force, gritting her teeth: “It’s here.”

 

Xi Jianlan was slightly stunned.

 

The next instant, Xun Niang somehow found the strength to suddenly grab Xi Jianlan’s wrist, her sharp nail polish scratching a vicious bloody mark on his inner forearm.

 

Xi Jianlan didn’t dodge, staring intently at her.

 

At this point, besides trusting him, Xun Niang had no other path.

 

Xun Niang barely managed to channel spiritual power into the peach blossom painting, immediately coughing up blood. The wall surface bloomed with red light as a peach blossom branch suddenly emerged from the painting.

 

The branch rapidly grew into a towering tree, pink petals flying throughout the narrow room.

 

Xi Jianlan’s pupils slowly contracted as he felt his body being pulled by an invisible force toward the illusion woven by peach branches and blossoms.

 

The intense feeling of weightlessness swept through his entire body again, as if he were falling from ten thousand zhang in the sky.

 

The room continued to shake violently.

 

In the chaos, Sheng Jiao appeared at Xi Jianlan’s side at some point, gripping his wrist tightly.

 

The peach petals suddenly burst into countless pink fragments of light, falling from mid-air like scattered snow.

 

By the wooden carved peach blossom painting on the wall, Xi Jianlan and Sheng Jiao had vanished without a trace.

 

It felt like a dream.

 

Morning sunlight fell through the ruyi-patterned lattice window into Jiusi Courtyard. Paper, ink, brushes, inkstones, scrolls, and cultivation manuals were scattered messily on the desk. Xi Jue buried his head and slept soundly among a pile of books.

 

He seemed very sleep-deprived. Even after sleeping through morning class, he was still drowsy and remained sleepy during Master Wen’s Tianyan lesson.

 

Wen Gubai held a scroll, reading the dry and obscure text in a gentle tone that made Xi Jue sleep even more deeply.

 

The other young students were also drowsy.

 

Feng Yu secretly wrote a few lines, crumpled them into a ball, and threw it at Xi Jue.

 

Xi Jue was hit on the head, mumbling as he hugged the back of his head with both hands and continued sleeping like a cat.

 

Feng Yu was really too bored, so he wrote another note and threw it to Heng Yudu.

 

Heng Yudu sat properly, seriously dipping vermillion ink to make annotations in his book. When Feng Yu’s paper ball hit him, it knocked his brush askew.

 

Anyone else would have fought Feng Yu to the death, but Heng Yudu was too gentle-tempered. He sighed silently, put down his brush, and unfolded the paper ball.

 

“Who are you teaming up with for tomorrow’s expedition?”

 

Below was a scrawled signature with a drawing of a fierce ghost.

 

Heng Yudu picked up another brush, wrote a few words, and threw it back.

 

Feng Yu unfolded it to read.

 

“My legs are disabled, making me a burden. I won’t go on the expedition to avoid causing trouble—Yu.”

 

Feng Yu wrote another note and tossed it to Lezheng Jiu.

 

Lezheng Jiu was still suffering from his hands being covered in red marks from earlier punishment. When the paper suddenly hit his hand, he hissed in pain, his eyes under the hood glaring at Feng Yu like a vicious beast.

 

Feng Yu: “……”

 

Feng Yu immediately cowered, carefully crawling over to pick up the paper ball and throwing it to Liu Changxing instead.

 

Several young students passed notes right under the headmaster’s nose.

 

Xi Jue was extremely sleepy and was vaguely awakened by commotion. Rubbing his eyes as he sat up, he saw several students led by Feng Yu standing pitifully in the bright sun as punishment.

 

—Heng Yudu wasn’t standing in punishment, but was made to sit properly while picking up a stack of crumpled papers and reading aloud what was written on them with difficulty.

 

Xi Jue didn’t understand what was happening and thought Heng Yudu was reading from a book, but then he heard him…

 

“Ha, ha, ha, Sheng Jiao is a blockhead. No one wants to team up with him for the expedition. Yudu isn’t going, so we can pair up in twos—the numbers work out perfectly.”

 

Heng Yudu read expressionlessly, then moved that paper to the bottom and continued reading the next one.

 

“Xi Jue is a troublemaker who’ll get himself killed sooner or later.”

 

“Hahaha.”

 

“What should we eat for lunch?”

 

“Little crispy fish, little crispy fish. Let Rang Chen treat me to little crispy fish.”

 

The others looked as if they were in mourning, wishing they could burn that stack of papers.

 

Xi Jue: “…………”

 

Wen Gubai sat in the sunlight, smiling as he watched everyone stand in punishment and read notes aloud.

 

In the vast Jiusi Courtyard, only Xi Jue and Sheng Jiao remained.

 

Sheng Jiao acted as if nothing was happening, sitting properly at Xi Jue’s seat with lowered eyes making annotations, as if everything around him had nothing to do with him.

 

Xi Jue shivered and became slightly more awake.

 

Wen Gubai stopped teaching. Xi Jue stretched his numb legs and lazily crawled to Sheng Jiao’s desk, sprawling boneless among the neatly stacked scrolls.

 

Little Xi Jue sat across from Sheng Jiao, mumbling: “Blockhead, they’re isolating and bullying you.”

 

Sheng Jiao didn’t acknowledge him and continued writing.

 

Xi Jue’s eyes were full of sleepiness as he smiled drowsily: “I don’t mind you. How about tomorrow’s expedition—want to team up with me?”

 

Sheng Jiao’s hand holding the brush paused slightly.

 

Xi Jue was really too sleepy. After speaking without getting an answer, his head plopped down onto the pile of scrolls and he fell asleep again.

 

Sheng Jiao’s brush tip hesitated without falling. The ink that had gathered dripped onto the white paper with a plop.

 

He slightly raised his vacant dark eyes, gazing at the youth’s sleeping face.

 

He remained motionless for a long time.

 

But the next day, Xi Jue had completely forgotten what he’d promised in his drowsy state. After entering the secret realm with Wen Gubai, he cheered and ran off chattering with Feng Yu.

 

Sheng Jiao stood alone in place.

 

He watched the direction little Xi Jue had run off in, then after a long while chose the opposite direction and left indifferently.

 

It was just a secret realm for training a group of twelve or thirteen-year-old children, so naturally there wouldn’t be any high-grade fierce beasts—at most it could be considered a small world of beautiful mountains and clear waters.

 

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T/N: apologies for the delay

 (advanced chapters available on kofi)