Heng Yudu fell into silence.
Feng Yu stopped studying the Binding Silk and excitedly reached into his sleeve, apparently planning to take out some pine nuts to crack while watching the show.
Heaven above!
Yesterday wasn’t it that Sheng Jiao couldn’t have him and love turned to hate? How did this guy develop feelings over time after reuniting with Sheng Jiao for just half a day?
Feelings developed in half a day?
Feng Yu thought this entertainment was quite exciting.
This was the first time Heng Yudu didn’t get what he wanted using “Exchange for Bright Moon.” He remained silent, probably stunned by this statement.
After a long while, he gently spoke: “Such, such private matters don’t need to be widely announced—I was asking about your Xiangwen.”
Xi Jianlan expressionlessly raised his hand to gesture rapidly.
“Stop asking, I can’t answer anything right now.”
Heng Yudu glanced sideways at Sheng Jiao in the cage, seeming to understand something.
Sheng Jiao’s cultivation was unfathomably deep. Everyone said he was still in the Void Return realm, but Heng Yudu vaguely felt his cultivation seemed to have reached a barrier.
…He was probably only a step away from the Great Ascension realm.
Seeing Heng Yudu put away the jade slips, Xi Jianlan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Too embarrassing.
Xi Jianlan wished he could beat up Heng Yudu.
But this wasn’t the time for shame. Xi Jianlan turned to ask Feng Yu: “What about Xi Qingfeng’s Xiangwen?”
“Take it.” Having watched a good show, Feng Yu was delighted and generously took out the painting to casually toss to him, completely unconcerned about the hundreds of thousands of spirit stones. “I have no impression of Xi Qingfeng at all. I really can’t see what’s special about this Xiangwen.”
Xi Jianlan quickly unrolled the painting.
The Xiangwen had been peeled alive from a person’s body. The eerie painting was extremely sinister. Looking at those “tree roots” that seemed to be wriggling and breathing, Xi Jianlan imperceptibly shuddered.
He raised his hand wanting to touch the Xiangwen, but Feng Yu stopped him: “Don’t touch randomly. Who knows how this Xiangwen was preserved? You have no spiritual power now—be careful not to lose your life.”
Xi Jianlan cherished his life greatly, but with the Xiangwen painting in his hands, he urgently wanted to know its origins and was hesitating.
Suddenly, it was as if thunder struck from above.
“Boom—”
Xi Jianlan’s whole body froze, rarely stunned.
Feng Yu saw his pupils instantly scatter and reacted quickly, forming a seal with his five fingers and slapping hard at his forehead.
“Soul Stabilization!”
The spiritual power was cold, causing even the scattered hair on Xi Jianlan’s forehead to frost over with white.
In just an instant, Xi Jianlan seemed to have walked through a desolate dream. After awakening, his face was full of confusion: “My, my heart…?”
[What happened?]
“Don’t be scared, it wasn’t thunder.” Seeing him still dazed, Feng Yu cast another soul stabilization spell and pointed.
Xi Jianlan looked in that direction.
Heng Yudu’s glazed cage…
Had actually been shattered by someone’s sword?
The glazed jade slips of “Exchange for Bright Moon” should have been the hardest things between heaven and earth, yet now they seemed like real glass, shattering one after another under the overwhelming sword intent.
Like the crisp sound of dozens of porcelain pieces cracking in a kiln simultaneously.
Heng Yudu raised an eyebrow slightly, though he had long expected that “birdcage” couldn’t contain Sheng Jiao. He raised his hand and beckoned to Xi Jianlan.
Xi Jianlan was caught off guard and stumbled down the steps, nearly prostrating himself in a grand bow to Heng Yudu. He hurriedly braced his hands on the wheelchair armrests to barely steady himself.
Heng Yudu grasped his wrist, his snow-like fingertips playfully hooking the semi-transparent Binding Silk hanging from his little finger.
The bird of “Exchange for Bright Moon” shrieked and suddenly crashed into that red rope, the crystal glass reflecting sunlight onto Xi Jianlan’s face.
Earlier when Feng Yu had chopped at Xi Jianlan with his blade, there was no reaction, but just being lightly bumped by the glass bird made Xi Jianlan’s heart shake wildly, nearly unable to stand steady.
Heng Yudu: “Ah…”
He seemed to understand something.
Sheng Jiao had already split open the cage and put away his Winter Snow sword, walking over step by step with a dark expression.
Heng Yudu suddenly said: “Don’t move.”
Xi Jianlan didn’t understand.
The next moment, the jade slips around Heng Yudu suddenly transformed into cold glass swords, pressing against Xi Jianlan’s slender white neck with a “clang.”
Heng Yudu said to Sheng Jiao: “Don’t come closer, or I’ll kill him.”
Xi Jianlan: “…”
Heng Yudu’s temperament was too gentle. Even while threatening someone, his every movement was still like a blue orchid swaying in the rain, elegant and unhurried.
Feng Yu began cracking pine nuts again, even sharing some with Shang Yuan.
Sheng Jiao remained unmoved, his steps not stopping at all.
But Heng Yudu pressed the glass sword down, and a line of blood slowly seeped from Xi Jianlan’s neck, the bright red contrasting with snow white, extremely glaring.
Fragile glass ground into a sharp blade could still take a life.
Sheng Jiao’s steps paused.
Heng Yudu said: “I really will kill him—do you dare to gamble?”
Sheng Jiao: “…”
Xi Jianlan gasped lightly from the pain, weakly raising his hand and gesturing with a pale face: [Brother, I don’t dare gamble.]
No one paid attention to him.
Heng Yudu said softly: “Xiezhi Sect capturing Xi Jue is nothing more than seeking clues about the Xi family’s disaster six years ago, but now with Xi Qingfeng’s Xiangwen painting…”
As he spoke, he snatched the painting from Xi Jianlan’s hand and tossed it to Sheng Jiao.
Sheng Jiao frowned and caught it.
“Here.” Heng Yudu said, “With your Xiezhi Sect’s methods, you’ll probably soon know who sold the painting and find the real culprit from back then.”
“…” Xi Jianlan belatedly realized the Xiangwen painting in his hands was gone and glared angrily at Heng Yudu. “I…”
He gestured: [That’s my painting!]
Xi Jianlan wanted to know who the real culprit behind the Xi family massacre six years ago was more urgently than anyone present.
Feng Yu, who was watching the show, couldn’t hold back anymore and said faintly: “Everyone, I’m still barely alive here. I bought this painting at great expense. Could you ask me before making decisions?”
No one paid attention to him either.
Heng Yudu said lightly: “How about it?”
Sheng Jiao finally spoke coldly: “Not happening.”
Heng Yudu smiled, the jade slips suddenly condensing into a circle surrounding the wheelchair.
Sheng Jiao’s pupils contracted as he immediately moved forward.
“This sir, the Binding… Silk you put on Xi Jue probably has distance limitations.” Heng Yudu didn’t expose Sheng Jiao’s identity, saying gently, “Tell me, if I directly use an array to take him ten thousand li away, would he be torn apart soul and all by the Binding Silk?”
Sheng Jiao could no longer maintain the coldness on his face, saying harshly: “You…!”
Heng Yudu added: “…Do you dare gamble?”
The glass circle enclosed Heng Yudu and Xi Jianlan, constantly rotating like it was activating a teleportation array.
Seeing Heng Yudu using him as a bargaining chip, Xi Jianlan hurriedly gestured: [When immortals fight, could you not involve the innocent? I don’t dare gamble—I’ve had terrible luck since childhood and lose every bet. Help, spare me.]
He really couldn’t understand why Heng Yudu would use him to threaten Xiezhi Sect people.
They weren’t affected at all and wished he would die sooner.
Heng Yudu stared at Sheng Jiao without blinking, as if certain of his answer.
Sheng Jiao’s gaze had never been so cold, as if facing not a classmate he’d known for years, but an enemy who had stolen his most precious possession.
The Tianyan pearls moved without wind, as if brewing purple-silver heavenly thunder that could strike down at any moment.
Feng Yu was still babbling: “You two, you two? My painting?”
Xi Jianlan was also gesturing: [You two, you two? My little life?]
“Whoosh—”
The jade slips finally began activating, bringing fierce winds that made Heng Yudu and Xi Jianlan’s long hair and robes flutter wildly. The complex array beneath their feet flickered with scattered points of light, seemingly locating a position.
Sheng Jiao instinctively stepped forward half a pace, wanting to snatch the person back.
In the array’s fierce wind, the Heart-Binding Silk connecting Xi Jianlan and Sheng
Jiao’s souls was blown about chaotically, as if it might break at any moment.
Just as the array was about to fully activate, Sheng Jiao gently closed his eyes.
His little finger suddenly flashed, and the weak pull at his soul was like a small boat in a storm.
Towering waves swept and crashed down.
The small boat capsized.
The Heart-Binding Silk was severed.
Heng Yudu had planned everything, already expecting Sheng Jiao would sever the Heart-Binding Silk. He smiled as he completely disappeared from the spot with Xi Jianlan.
Only a small whirlwind remained on the ground, lingering for a long time.
Sheng Jiao’s expression was dark, his withered eyes revealing unfathomably sinister coldness.
He stared at the small whirlwind spinning on the bluestone slabs. The Tianyan pearls suddenly flashed with thunder patterns, illuminating his profile deathly pale.
“—!”
A purple-silver heavenly thunder silently struck down from the cloudless sky, heavily falling on the whirlwind spot, directly splitting the moss-covered stone slabs into inch-by-inch shattered powder and scorch marks.
“Oh ho.” Feng Yu was long accustomed to Sheng Jiao’s silent thunder. He cracked a bad pine nut, spat a few times, and said to Shang Yuan beside him, “Kid, look at your Sect Master—doesn’t he look like someone stole his wife?”
Shang Yuan held pine nuts like a little hamster, cracking away, nodding like a pecking chicken: “He does!”
Sheng Jiao slightly closed his eyes, forcibly suppressing the violence surging in his heart, then turned and quickly walked toward the abbot’s residence.
Despite such a commotion outside, the Guchangsi Temple abbot hadn’t come out to look even once.
Sheng Jiao strode to the meditation room and heavily slapped the door open.
The meditation room was silent. The Guchangsi Temple abbot in monk robes sat facing the wall, a beam of light shining through the window onto his golden kasaya.
He looked too old, his back hunched, white beard hanging to his chin, eyes slightly closed as if he had no strength to open them.
Beside the abbot was a broken glass bird.
—Heng Yudu had been here and had used “Exchange for Bright Moon” on him too.
Sheng Jiao quickly scanned the room, frowning tightly.
Another silent thunder lit up, striking directly at the abbot’s forehead.
Feng Yu strolled over and saw Sheng Jiao coldly and ruthlessly using “Worthy of Heavenly Dao” to strike someone. He hurriedly said: “Sheng Wuzhuo! He’s the Guchangsi Temple abbot, how could you…”
Before he finished speaking, the Guchangsi Temple abbot’s body was directly split into pieces by the strike, igniting with ghostly thunder fire.
Feng Yu was so frightened by this person’s strike-first-ask-later behavior that he almost instinctively backed away, but looking closely, he discovered the abbot was actually a wooden puppet.
Sheng Jiao’s eyes were heavy as he picked up a severed palm from his feet, slightly turning it to reveal a faint character mark on the palm.
—”Ying.”
Feng Yu gasped.
“Qiao’er?!”
For some reason, Sheng Jiao’s expression was unprecedentedly ugly.
Ying Zhuo, courtesy name Qiao’er.
He had been a prominent figure at Tianyan Academy back then, with a pair of divine hands for carving puppets, skilled at making all kinds of extremely refined magical devices.
Although from different halls and different years, Feng Yu and Sheng Jiao were very repulsed by this person for some reason. Even the entire Zhuxing Zhai, including the most good-tempered Rang Chen and Heng Yudu, showed no good face when they saw this person.
“Ah…” Feng Yu said faintly, “This Xiangwen painting couldn’t have been put out by Ying Qiao’er to lure Xi Jue, could it? After all these years, he still hasn’t given up on Xi Jue?”
‘Was Xi Jue a fish? Everyone wanted to hook him?’
Sheng Jiao looked at him coldly, his lips not moving: “Rhinoceros horn lamp.”
Feng Yu frowned: “Where’s yours?”
He regretted asking as soon as he said it.
Sheng Jiao’s rhinoceros horn lamp had been stolen by Xi Jue for flirting at Tianyan Academy—probably because too many lies were told, it was sealed within two days.
…He didn’t know how many years it had been sealed.
Feng Yu had to hand over his rhinoceros horn lamp.
Without asking, Sheng Jiao skillfully formed a Ghost Binding seal to open Feng Yu’s rhinoceros lamp, seemingly searching for something.
Soon, Sheng Jiao moved his five fingers, carelessly tossing the rhinoceros horn lamp back and turning to leave.
Feng Yu still wanted to dig up some clues for Xi Jianlan and quickly followed: “Where are you going?”
“Wuyin City.”
Feng Yu was startled, thinking this person was going back to catch Xi Jue again, and was about to babble a few words.
But he saw Sheng Jiao walking away without looking back. Several blue thunder patterns crackled chaotically around him, and his tall, pine-like figure instantly disappeared from the spot.
Only his voice remained.
“…Evil Qi Road, Hezhou City. Ying Zhuo is there.”
Xi Qingfeng’s Xiangwen must be connected to Ying Zhuo.
***
Xi Jianlan shuttled chaotically through the void turbulence. The teleportation array always made him, who had no spiritual power, extremely uncomfortable.
He didn’t know how long it lasted—perhaps half a day, perhaps just an instant—but his held breath suddenly became smooth, and his legs could finally stand on solid ground.
Xi Jianlan staggered and knelt down supporting himself on the wheelchair armrest, almost vomiting.
Heng Yudu gently helped him regulate his breathing: “Uncomfortable?”
Xi Jianlan nodded weakly, gasping for a while before recovering.
He had thought Heng Yudu would directly take him back to Tianyan Academy, but unexpectedly, when he looked around, he found they were actually outside Wuyin City.
Xi Jianlan’s face was pale, unable to hide his surprise: “You’re not going back to Central State?”
Only after speaking did he realize he could talk normally again.
“I came to the northern border of Chang River to recruit students.” Heng Yudu took out water from his storage ring and handed it to him, saying lightly.
Xi Jianlan drank a sip of water, barely standing up and listlessly sitting on Heng Yudu’s wheelchair armrest: “I thought you couldn’t wait for me to go see Rang Chen and apologize with my death.”
Heng Yudu laughed: “What nonsense are you saying? I won’t hurt you…”
Xi Jianlan hummed and tilted his head, showing him the still-wet blood mark on his neck.
Heng Yudu: “…”
Heng Yudu choked, raising his hand to gently wipe the wound, and only then did the bleeding stop.
“…I just want to know what happened back then.”
This disguised face of Xi Jianlan’s seemed naturally to carry three parts of a smile. Even when acting so pitifully, his eyebrows, eyes, and lips always held flamboyant joy.
But as soon as this light remark was spoken, his gorgeous face instantly became dejected and lonely, even the red mole at the corner of his eye seemed to dim.
Heng Yudu stared at him intently.
Xi Jianlan only lost composure for an instant before skillfully putting on a smile, propping his elbow on Heng Yudu’s shoulder with a playful grin as usual: “Don’t you all already know? Do you want me to repeat it again?”
Heng Yudu said gently: “I want to hear the truth.”
Xi Jianlan lazily hooked a strand of hair around his index finger, winding it carelessly back and forth, his tone casual as if telling a story.
“I’ve always been telling the truth. If you want to hear it, I can say it again.
“Six years ago, the Xi family probably did too many evil deeds and finally got their retribution, having the entire clan slaughtered on my coming-of-age day, each dying without intact corpses.
“I was at the Tianyan spiritual vein waiting for Tianyan’s blessing at the time and didn’t know. When I returned, there were no survivors in the Xi family.”
After finishing, he added with an “ah”: “My cousin’s Xiangwen was even peeled off alive to make a painting for sale…”
Heng Yudu had been listening expressionlessly, but finally couldn’t help it and said in a low voice: “Xi Shi’er!”
Xi Jianlan’s smile froze on his face.
Young Xi Jue used to boast to others at Tianyan Academy that he was the twelfth Xiangwen in the Thirteen States, earning the nickname “Xi Shi’er” from Feng Yu and the others.
Since the Xi family’s disaster and Xi Jianlan’s complete loss of cultivation, no one had called him by this name.
Hearing it now felt like a lifetime ago.
“Shi’er?” Xi Jianlan continued smiling. “I can’t be called that anymore.”
He disguised himself too perfectly, as if he hadn’t experienced these years of suffering, and what he lost wasn’t some Spiritual level Xiangwen.
Heng Yudu slightly lowered his eyes, seeing Xi Jianlan’s fingertips hidden in his sleeves trembling finely.
He had never seen this person look sad or vulnerable.
Heng Yudu’s heart suddenly softened.
He asked gently: “Jianlan, what exactly is your Xiangwen?”
—This time, Heng Yudu didn’t use “Exchange for Bright Moon” to force him to speak.
Xi Jianlan stretched lazily, his lips curved as he gazed at the lotus flowers blooming on the distant Chang River bank.
“It’s all gone. Is there any point in asking?”
Heng Yudu: “I want to know.”
Xi Jianlan suddenly said uncontrollably: “Even if saying it would kill me, you still want to know?”
Heng Yudu frowned.
What kind of Xiangwen would kill someone just by speaking of it?
After saying this, Xi Jianlan regretted it. As if annoyed by his loss of control, he got up from Heng Yudu’s wheelchair armrest, staggered a few quick steps, and turned his back to him.
He faced the endless Chang River in silence for a long time, finally murmuring in a low voice: “Do you dare to gamble?”
Heng Yudu: “…”
Earlier he had used this phrase to corner Sheng Jiao twice, but now Xi Jianlan had turned it back on him.
“As long as you dare to gamble, then use ‘Exchange for Bright Moon’ on me.”
Xi Jianlan turned slightly sideways. This face was too gorgeous and beautiful, with the setting sun over Chang River making him seem like he could melt into the burning clouds.
Heng Yudu was stunned.
Xi Jianlan’s smile was as flamboyant and unrestrained as always, almost giving Heng Yudu the illusion that they were still at Tianyan Academy, carefree and joking around.
“I’m just a waste now. As long as you ask, I’ll answer.”
Heng Yudu’s lips parted but made no sound.
Xi Jianlan’s crimson clothes made his figure appear even more slender. He turned to continue looking at Chang River, seemingly wanting to hide his dejection and decline.
The wide sleeves filled with warm wind, making his waist—which seemed like it would break with one fold—appear even thinner and more alluring.
Even fallen to this state, he still seemed like the renowned young immortal lord that everyone in Central State admired.
Heng Yudu silently sighed, thinking: ‘Forget it.’
He’d find other ways.
A black mist silently appeared from Xi Jianlan’s shoulder, instantly transforming into a black cat that jumped onto the stone railing opposite him.
Despite Heng Yudu’s overwhelming spiritual power, he seemed completely unable to see it.
The black cat licked its paw, meowed once, and said with a strange expression: “You really do speak differently to different people. Is this your new swindling routine?”
Xi Jianlan’s eyes were deep and melancholy, staring vacantly at the magnificent sunset over Chang River.
He lightly parted his lips and said a silent word.
“Hush!”
——————–
Author’s Note:
Heng Yudu’s anti-fraud app didn’t install the latest update package.
##
