PID Chapter 72

This mass update thanks to Pixi!
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After the formation broke, Xiao Mo noticed Chu Jinglan’s face was a bit pale and was about to ask, but Yue Ming’s shout interrupted him.

 

Yue Ming was too surprised, his voice very loud, sounding like thunder to the still dizzy people.

 

When trapped by the formation, the others had prioritized protecting those with the weakest cultivation. Otherwise, with Yan Chun, Chu Xia, Mo Zhi, and Su Baimo’s cultivation levels, they likely would have fainted immediately, let alone come out conscious.

 

Although they didn’t faint on the spot, some of their strength had been taken. They were all floating, and faced with this shocking fact, they wondered if they had already passed out and were dreaming.

 

The three children were dumbfounded: What, the master and senior brother were actually dao companions!

 

Not blood brothers or close friends, but dao companions!

 

They were very shocked, but quickly came to their senses, because thinking about it, it seemed quite reasonable: In their impression, the two were always inseparable. The master seemed cold and indifferent to others, but was helpless against senior brother, doing whatever he said.

 

Senior brother was also very good to the master. Even for birthdays the master didn’t care about, senior brother would remember for him.

 

Moreover, they thought of a more important point—

 

They slept together at night!

 

When there was a room, they slept in the same room; when camping outdoors, they slept in the same tent or rested close together. Even close friends wouldn’t be so intimate all the time.

 

But if they were dao companions, it made sense!

 

Although the master and senior brother hadn’t told them their true relationship, it was fine. They must have their reasons for doing so.

 

The three children easily accepted this setting.

 

But compared to their easy acceptance, some people weren’t so calm, like Su Baimo.

 

He looked incredulously at the two standing together, handsome and beautiful, a perfect pair standing in the same place.

 

But the more perfect they looked, the more it stung his eyes.

 

How long had it been, and Chu Jinglan already had a dao companion?!

 

He was almost eighteen when he left the Chu family, meaning Chu Jinglan had met and known this Mo Lan for just over a year, yet had already committed his life and become dao companions.

 

He and Chu Jinglan were engaged at ten, knew each other for seven years, yet couldn’t compare to someone who appeared halfway.

 

Moreover, Chu Jinglan was now recognized as a genius in the upper realm, infinitely glorious, more eye-catching than in the lower realm. Being able to stand beside him in a close relationship should be such a proud thing.

 

But the person by Chu Jinglan’s side was no longer him.

 

Su Baimo felt his heart ache terribly. He was gripping something in his hand, unconsciously squeezing it tightly, making his bones crackle.

 

This sound drew Jun Bushu’s attention. He saw something black in Su Baimo’s hand: “What’s that in your hand?”

 

Su Baimo, who had been staring resentfully at Xiao Mo and Chu Jinglan, was startled and almost dropped the thing in his hand. This was something he had intended to hide, but now that it was discovered, Su Baimo pressed his lips together and had no choice but to open his palm for Jun Bushu to see.

 

Jun Bushu took the object and examined it carefully. The demonic energy formation that had trapped them should have contained consciousness. This black stone had condensed the power of consciousness, making it an excellent supplement.

 

When the formation shattered, Su Baimo had grabbed it by chance.

 

This thing falling into Su Baimo’s hands should, by rights, be considered his fate. But he hadn’t broken the formation, and outside of secret realms, there was another set of unwritten rules for dividing spoils of battle. Jun Bushu thought for a moment: “I’ll keep it for now. We’ll ask them later how to divide it.”

 

Su Baimo had nothing to say.

 

Xiao Mo had almost forgotten about the dao companion marks showing in public. After all, when it was just him and Chu Jinglan acting together, they had long been used to doing whatever was convenient. Now that the dao companion marks were out, facing everyone’s gaze, there was really no way to explain it clearly. Even if he insisted now that he and Chu Jinglan were just good friends, absolutely no one would believe it.

 

Xiao Mo felt a bit frustrated: Damn, I was so focused on solving the puzzle to break the formation, I forgot about this biggest drawback of the solution.

 

Disciples from both Yingyue Sect and Lingxiao Sect were here, which meant that soon the entire cultivation world would be buzzing with news of Chu Jinglan having a dao companion. He could fake his death and change his identity, but wouldn’t that just cause trouble for Chu Jinglan?

 

Before figuring out what to say, Xiao Mo employed the great art of topic diversion: “Let’s not talk about this now, we still haven’t dealt with those three demon cultivators.”

 

Mentioning the demon cultivators, Yue Ming’s expression immediately became serious: “Right, where are the demon cultivators?”

 

Xiao Mo pointed at the light wall: “In there.”

 

“For some reason, they didn’t trap me in the formation earlier. Maybe this formation doesn’t work well on demons? Chu Jinglan has given me many things, I used them to trap them. Breaking the formation just now was also all Chu Jinglan’s merit.”

 

Xiao Mo’s few words roughly explained why he alone was outside, but there were holes in his story. After all, he was only at Foundation Establishment. Even with heaven-grade magical tools, he couldn’t bring out their full effect. What kind of treasure would it take to trap three Nascent Soul cultivators?

 

However, those who noticed the holes tactfully didn’t ask. Many people have their own secrets, and as long as it doesn’t conflict with oneself, not asking is often the smarter choice.

 

Yue Ming gripped his sword, taking a stance: “So do we go in to fight, or let them out?”

 

Xiao Mo: “Actually, I can barely hold them anymore. They’ll be out soon, everyone be careful.”

 

As Xiao Mo said this, raising his hand, he finally had a chance to ask Chu Jinglan without interruption: “Are you hurt?”

 

There was no smell of blood, but his complexion was indeed off.

 

Chu Jinglan gripped Daybreak, saying softly: “My spiritual power is somewhat depleted, but I can still fight.”

 

Xiao Mo: “Don’t push yourself.”

 

Chu Jinglan: “Mm.”

 

If Xiao Mo could kill, he would have dealt with those three demon cultivators already. Chu Jinglan stepped forward, still with him and Yue Ming, the two sword cultivators, taking the lead, and Jun Bushu, the talisman cultivator, behind. Xiao Mo alerted them to the timing: “Open!”

 

The moment the light wall was withdrawn, Jun Bushu swiftly drew a formation in the air with spiritual light and slapped it forward. Over a dozen talismans shot out. The three demon cultivators inside, confused by the Phantom Moon Heart’s secret realm, hadn’t yet come to their senses and were disoriented. Their reaction abilities were still there; sensing a change, they immediately crashed outwards.

 

One slammed into Jun Bushu’s formation barrier, while another’s shoulder directly collided with Chu Jinglan’s sword, instantly being run through.

 

Without the ghost face anomaly formation, they were no match for Chu Jinglan and the others. They were quickly cornered and slain under the swords.

 

The Linan Academy disciple who had been trapped in their formation earlier was also there. He had been confined for too long, his spiritual energy exhausted and his spiritual sense on the brink of collapse. Fortunately, he was rescued before losing all his power and being made into a puppet. After Chu Xia checked his pulse, their worried hearts relaxed. Knowing their senior brother was safe, Yan Chun and Mo Zhi finally felt at ease and watched the battle intently.

 

Jun Bushu’s talisman formations, Chu Jinglan and Yue Ming’s sword techniques, all inspired them greatly. They watched with surging emotions, wishing they could be that powerful too.

 

After the demon cultivators died, Yue Ming’s sword poked out their storage devices. Xi Tie took out a bottle and threw out a flame, burning the demon cultivators’ bodies clean, both environmentally friendly and hygienic.

 

Yue Ming erased the spiritual sense imprints on the storage devices and poured out all their contents. He nodded towards Jun Bushu in the distance: “Come over to divide the spoils.”

 

Jun Bushu dragged his feet over and took out the black pearl: “There’s also this, which Junior Brother Su picked up when the formation shattered.”

 

Su Baimo picked it up?

 

Hearing this, Chu Jinglan took it and looked: “This is very suitable for those who cultivate spiritual sense techniques. The power inside can be absorbed. I’ll take this.”

 

Jun Bushu had no objections. He pointed at the demon cultivators’ things on the ground, picking out a pile: “The Lingxiao Sect will take these.”

 

Yue Ming: “Fine, then you take those to divide. We’ll split the rest.”

 

Jun Bushu took that pile of things and called the Golden Core disciple and Su Baimo over. In the Lingxiao Sect, Jun Bushu had contributed the most, so naturally got the largest share. Su Baimo had grabbed that black crystal, which was also lucky, so Jun Bushu reasonably gave him some things too.

 

But Su Baimo was still thinking about that black crystal and quietly asked Jun Bushu: “Senior Brother, what is that crystal used for?”

 

“It’s good for spiritual sense, but not useful for you right now,” he paused, seeming to see something, and added, “Overall, it’s not a particularly rare treasure. Among the things I’ve given you, there are items to help you form your golden core. You shouldn’t feel shortchanged.”

 

Su Baimo’s eyes flickered, and he hurriedly said: “I wouldn’t dare, I certainly trust Senior Brother.”

 

The Golden Core disciple even gave a lot of his share to Su Baimo. Su Baimo’s mood improved slightly, but when he looked up, he saw Chu Jinglan give the black crystal to Xiao Mo.

 

Su Baimo’s just-improved mood instantly plummeted again.

 

What kind of methods did that person use to make Chu Jinglan treat him so well!

 

After Chu Jinglan gave the black crystal to Xiao Mo, his body swayed slightly. Xiao Mo quickly raised his hand to support his arm: “Are you really alright?”

 

Yue Ming said: “When we were trapped in the formation, most of the mental attacks went for him first. And when breaking the formation, the backlash was even worse. I hope his spiritual sense wasn’t injured.”

 

Xiao Mo pretended to check Chu Jinglan’s pulse, but in reality, he didn’t need to take his pulse to examine Chu Jinglan’s spiritual sense condition. After probing, he confirmed that Chu Jinglan was only overly exhausted, not injured, and sighed in relief.

 

Xiao Mo let go of his hand: “It’s fine, he’s not injured, but he still needs to rest.”

 

Depleted spiritual energy can be replenished with pills, but mental power is different. Mostly others help replenish a bit, and the rest recovers slowly on its own.

 

Besides Chu Jinglan, everyone actually needed to rest. Fortunately, Yan Chun and the others said some townspeople were willing to lend them their houses before leaving. So the group divided into rooms to rest briefly in Rainbow Butterfly Town.

 

Of course, Xiao Mo and Chu Jinglan shared a room.

 

Yue Ming and Xi Tie’s gazes as they watched the two enter the room were meaningful. Xiao Mo was speechless, wanting to say something, but felt that anything he said would only make things worse, so he said nothing.

 

Closing the door, Xiao Mo sighed: “This is bad, now they’ve all misunderstood.”

 

Chu Jinglan sat in a meditation posture on the couch, not speaking.

 

Xiao Mo was genuinely worried: “What should we do? Your reputation will be affected.”

 

Chu Jinglan finally spoke: “Having a dao companion isn’t considered a stain on one’s reputation.”

 

“That’s not what I meant,” Xiao Mo said. “But we’re not really, you know. You were a perfectly single sword cultivator, and now your purity is gone just like that.”

 

Chu Jinglan understood what Xiao Mo was worried about and glanced at him lightly: “It’s fine.”

 

“I never thought I’d become dao companions with anyone in this life. If this spreads, it might actually bring me some peace.”

 

It would prevent people from trying to form connections or propose marriages.

 

Chu Jinglan noticed that Xiao Mo showed no aversion or concern about their dao companion marks being exposed, but was purely worried. He didn’t know whether to be relieved that Xiao Mo was used to any identity with him, or disappointed at Xiao Mo’s denseness in this aspect.

 

Xiao Mo thought about it and felt it made sense. If Chu Jinglan would never fall in love with anyone in this life, their “dao companion status” would just be a small episode, no big deal. If Chu Jinglan ever had someone he loved in the future, given his personality, he would surely explain everything clearly to that person. There was indeed no need for him to worry.

 

Alright then, let others spread whatever they want. After all, they were both pure and innocent, and Chu Jinglan’s future dao companion would certainly believe him.

 

Chu Jinglan’s mental power was indeed too depleted. In this short time, he had closed his eyes. Rather than meditating, it was more like he had passed out, slowly repairing his mental power.

 

Xiao Mo took out his flute and first played a tune for him. An hour later, Xiao Mo checked Chu Jinglan’s spiritual sense condition and found that his mental power was recovering very slowly.

 

He thought for a moment, put a barrier on the room so he would know if anyone approached, then returned to Chu Jinglan’s body, easily making his way to the inner chamber.

 

The white snow ball was quietly resting in the inner chamber, seemingly completely unconscious, showing no movement or reaction.

 

The little black mist ball Xiao Mo stopped at a safe distance, then separated some of his own mental power. Wisps of mist-like threads seeped out, floating towards the white snow ball.

 

When the mist-like mental power wrapped around it, the white snow ball trembled slightly. However, replenishing mental power was a comfortable process, and the white snow ball quickly calmed down again.

 

Chu Jinglan remained unconscious, and the ball’s movements were all unconscious.

 

Seeing the good effect, Xiao Mo sent over even more mental power. His spiritual sense was strong, and he had more mental power to spare.

 

Perhaps the white snow ball found the source of comfort, because as the mental power infused, it unconsciously moved closer to the black mist ball.

 

Seeing this, Xiao Mo was startled and quickly retreated. He hadn’t forgotten the life-threatening feeling from just a light touch before!

 

As the black mist ball retreated, the white snow ball followed. The two balls moved bit by bit. The inner chamber was only so big, and soon there was nowhere left to retreat. Xiao Mo anxiously shouted: “Chu Jinglan, don’t move!”

 

Chu Jinglan was still unconscious, but the white snow ball actually stopped.

 

Even Xiao Mo was stunned. He had just instinctively called out in his panic, but it actually worked?

 

The white snow ball was now just a thin notebook’s distance away from him.

 

Xiao Mo sighed in relief. He continued sending over mental power, thinking he’d stop after a bit more and go out to rest before coming back.

 

He was just feeling satisfied with the white snow ball’s obedience when he realized his satisfaction was premature.

 

Because the quiet, obedient white snow ball suddenly shook and then, without warning, crashed into him!

 

The distance was too close, and there was nowhere to dodge. The Xiao Mo ball was hit head-on.

 

Xiao Mo had no time to panic because an intense electric sensation instantly swept through his entire body. The black mist ball violently trembled and let out a high-pitched moan, panicked and helpless, melodious and alluring.

 

Xiao Mo didn’t even know he could make such a sound.

 

But now he couldn’t even grit his teeth.

 

The black mist ball nearly melted from this tremor.

 

“Wait, Chu Jinglan… Ah!”

 

The white snow ball also shook violently, but instead of retreating, it suddenly expanded after the stimulation. Like a cotton ball stretching its body, it desperately wrapped around the black mist, as if wanting to turn its body into a blanket to completely absorb the black mist into itself.

 

Xiao Mo was dizzy. He had nowhere to retreat, pressed against the corner by the white snow ball. His previously clear consciousness became blurry. One moment he felt like he was walking on clouds, ethereal; the next, a numbing current flowed through his entire body. It felt good, but it was too much, too much.

 

So comfortable it made him want to cry. He couldn’t take it anymore.

 

“Chu… uh, Chu…”

 

Xiao Mo’s voice carried a soft, crying tone. The black mist ball was truly being melted, squeezed and kneaded by the white snow ball. Apart from trembling and making unconscious sounds, he could hardly do anything.

 

The intense stimulation caused mental confusion, to the point where Xiao Mo momentarily forgot how to leave the inner chamber. He allowed the white snow ball to entwine with him, unconsciously offering himself up in the melting sensation. The two balls merged inseparably.

 

Until the previously quiet white snow ball let out a muffled groan.

 

The extra sound finally allowed Xiao Mo to regain a bit of self-awareness from the chaos. The moment he became lucid, he immediately spun out of the inner chamber, leaving Chu Jinglan’s body, his form suddenly appearing on the bed.

 

Xiao Mo’s limbs were weak and powerless. He lay prone on the bed. An inner demon’s eyes couldn’t produce tears, but they were clearly rippling with waves, a scene of spring. Xiao Mo’s whole body was still trembling non-stop. He tilted his head back slightly, panting incessantly.

 

The contact between spiritual senses was too…

 

“Mmph!”

 

Chu Jinglan’s meditating body fell over, landing squarely on top of Xiao Mo. Xiao Mo was still in shock and after a muffled groan, gritted his teeth: “Chu Jinglan!”

 

Chu Jinglan hadn’t woken up, but the consequences of the spiritual sense contact were clearly affecting him too. His eyes were closed, but his cheeks were flushed, and his body was unconsciously trembling. At this moment, pressed against Xiao Mo, the warm human and the cool inner demon spirit body were both about to melt.

 

Xiao Mo had no strength in his limbs. With great effort, he only managed to turn over, but he quickly regretted it—because after turning, Chu Jinglan ended up face-down on top of him, with Chu Jinglan’s head resting near his neck.

 

The hot breath was very noticeable.

 

Xiao Mo wanted to push him away, but it turned into his fingers softly resting on Chu Jinglan’s shoulder, hard to say if he was pushing or holding on.

 

Xiao Mo thought desperately that if a demon cultivator came now, they could easily take them both out.

 

He simply gave up, lying flat waiting for his strength to return. As his body kept shaking, the trembling gradually lessened. Fortunately, Chu Jinglan finally slowly opened his eyes and woke up.

 

Xiao Mo couldn’t see him open his eyes, but he could feel Chu Jinglan’s aura change. Xiao Mo numbly stared at the ceiling beams, and after a moment, said faintly: “…Awake?”

 

Chu Jinglan: “…Mm.”

 

Xiao Mo gritted his teeth: “Get off.”

 

Chu Jinglan: “…Alright.”

 

Chu Jinglan propped himself up on his arms, but both he and Xiao Mo had misjudged Chu Jinglan’s current strength. After all, the spiritual sense contact had affected both of them. Chu Jinglan had barely lifted himself a bit when his hand slipped uncontrollably to the side, and his upper body crashed down again.

 

Xiao Mo: “!”

 

Chu Jinglan: “!”

 

Their eyes met. In this critical moment, Xiao Mo reacted very quickly, swiftly turning his head to the side, avoiding a face-to-face collision as Chu Jinglan fell.

 

Please, if they had really collided, their high, straight noses would have crashed into each other. Just thinking about it is painful!

 

But this fall made both of them groan again. This time, neither dared to move for a moment.

 

Just then, someone knocked on the door outside.

 

“Mo Lan, how is Chu Jinglan recovering? If it’s not good, we should find a medical cultivator first.”

 

Although the little girl Chu Xia was skilled in medicine, her cultivation level was too low to do much about spiritual sense problems for now.

 

Neither of the two inside the room responded immediately.

 

Yue Ming knocked on the door again: “Mo Lan?”

 

Chu Jinglan finally spoke after a moment, but his voice was hoarse in a way never heard before. As soon as he spoke, anyone could tell something was off.

 

“I’m fine.”

 

Just these three words, and the tone made even Chu Jinglan himself widen his eyes slightly.

 

The knocking outside suddenly stopped, and Yue Ming’s voice immediately became strange: “Haha, well, sorry to disturb you, my apologies…”

 

Accompanied by the sound of hurried footsteps leaving, it became quiet outside the door.

 

Xiao Mo closed his eyes, feeling utterly hopeless.

 

Great, now Chu Jinglan couldn’t clear his name even if he jumped into the Yellow River.

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T/N: Sit tight because we’re not done here guysss!! There will be more updates soon~

This translator working overtime again (ㆆ ᴗ ㆆ)

1 Kofi = 1 Extra Chapter