Yu Qingtang’s Adam’s apple bobbed, brushing against Ye Chenyan’s fingertip. His ears reddened, and his eyes grew wide and bright.
His instincts caught a distinctly dangerous note in the air.
He drew a deep breath, gave a loud “Ha!” to ruin the mood, and grabbed Ye Chenyan’s cheeks with a solemn expression.
“Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form!”
“Sit back down. I’ll hurry up and play the Heart-Cleansing Melody for you!”
“You can’t play it right now.” Ye Chenyan made no attempt to restrain his smile. He completely ignored the Dragon-Crane Zither stubbornly gnawing away at his spiritual power and merely hooked a finger around Yu Qingtang’s hand where it rested on the strings. “You said it yourself. A qin cultivator follows his heart.”
“The Heart-Cleansing Melody you played just now didn’t work, and it wasn’t only because this qin refused to cooperate...”
He raised his eyes and stared directly into Yu Qingtang’s.
“It was also because your heart wasn’t calm.”
“Non-nonsense.” Yu Qingtang looked away. “Everyone says a calm heart naturally keeps you cool. I’m practically freezing right now, so my heart must be extremely calm. It isn’t moving at all!”
Ye Chenyan raised an eyebrow and tugged him closer to listen to his heartbeat.
“Then let me hear it.”
“No!” Yu Qingtang covered his chest and dodged backward.
“You were the one who deliberately bullied me.” Ye Chenyan rubbed Yu Qingtang’s finger between his own. “After bullying me, shouldn’t you at least give me something sweet?”
“There are sweet things in the snacks I bought you,” Yu Qingtang muttered. “What else do you need?”
He poked Ye Chenyan with one finger.
“Don’t push your luck.”
Ye Chenyan caught that finger and brought it toward his lips.
Yu Qingtang shrieked, “You aren’t going to bite me again, are you? Ah—”
His cry stopped halfway.
Ye Chenyan had pressed a precious, careful kiss to his fingertip.
Ye Chenyan laughed softly. “You said I shouldn’t push my luck, so this will do for now.”
Yu Qingtang’s eyes went round. Heat crept steadily across his cheeks, and he remained frozen for quite some time.
Ye Chenyan waved a hand in front of his face.
“Hello?”
Yu Qingtang suddenly shot off the bed, fled the cottage, and sat down cross-legged outside to cultivate in a thoroughly disheveled state.
Ye Chenyan froze, then instinctively followed him out. When he saw karmic fire rising beneath Yu Qingtang’s backside, he burst into helpless laughter.
Leaning against the doorway, he said thoughtfully, “Judging by that... I suppose I do count as a violation of the lust precept.”
Yu Qingtang whipped his head around in disbelief. “Are you proud of that?”
Ye Chenyan chuckled and frightened him. “It’s spreading upward. Hurry and cultivate.”
Terrified, Yu Qingtang immediately closed his eyes and earnestly began circulating the Scripture of Awaiting Good Fortune.
...
Early the next morning, Senior Sister Tianxin came to collect Yu Qingtang and met Ye Chenyan from a distance.
This time, Ye Chenyan did not hide inside the cottage to “avoid suspicion.” He openly escorted Yu Qingtang over to her, cupped his hands, and bowed.
“It is rare for friends to gather. I’m afraid Qingtang will have to trouble you several more times over the next few days, Senior Sister.”
“It’s no trouble.” Tianxin appeared thoughtful before suddenly smiling. “Alternatively, should he wish to stay out and play for a few days, he may lodge at Starwatch Pavilion instead of returning here every night.”
Ye Chenyan fell silent.
He nearly lost the smile on his face. He turned toward Yu Qingtang, his gaze so deep it seemed ready to bore a hole through him.
Yu Qingtang blinked and guiltily rubbed his nose.
“I think I’ll just trouble Senior Sister a few more times.”
He slipped behind Tianxin, took hold of her wheelchair, and waved at Ye Chenyan.
“What are you so anxious about? I’m not that disloyal.”
Only after they had traveled some distance did Tianxin ask with faint amusement, “Have you decided who won? Are you done provoking him?”
“Not exactly,” Yu Qingtang muttered. “I only just won one round yesterday, so today I’ll temporarily... let him off.”
A gentle smile rested on Tianxin’s face. “How many times do you intend to defeat him?”
“Huh?” Yu Qingtang stared blankly. “Well... I haven’t really thought about that.”
Tianxin laughed quietly. “Then defeat him a few more times.”
“All right!” Yu Qingtang agreed with great vigor before curiously asking, “Why?”
Tianxin shook her head helplessly and lightly tapped his forehead.
“Because in the future, he will probably have you completely in his grasp. You should win as often as you can while you still have the chance.”
Yu Qingtang’s eyes widened, and he instinctively protested, “Impossible!”
“I’m...”
He attempted to prove that, as someone who had transmigrated into a book and consumed countless romantic literary works, there was no possibility of him losing to Ye Chenyan, who had spent his life with his head buried in cultivation.
Surely he can’t be a genius at this too!
After thinking for a moment, Yu Qingtang found a suitably convincing argument.
“Back at Biehe Sect, I accompanied my senior sister in reading every romance story in Jinzhou. I know all the romantic gossip from sects large and small. I’m definitely better at this than he is!”
He stubbornly added under his breath, “Besides, he and I haven’t even...”
Tianxin opened her mouth.
Yu Qingtang immediately pressed his palms together and begged for mercy.
“Please don’t expose me, Senior Sister.”
Tianxin closed her mouth in disappointment. “Very well.”
“You’re going to Great Wilderness Mountain’s sulfur springs with them today?”
A small brown mechanism bird flew from her hand. It looked almost alive as it spread its wings with a flutter and landed on Yu Qingtang’s shoulder.
“The factions there are chaotic. Should anything happen, send it to find me.”
Yu Qingtang quickly nodded, then casually asked, “Does it have a name?”
Tianxin paused, seeming somewhat embarrassed.
“It is called... Chatter.”
Yu Qingtang asked curiously, “Does that mean there’s another one called Chirp?”
“Ahem. There is.” A slight smile appeared on Tianxin’s face. “Star has it.”
“I have considerable experience with mechanism arts, but unfortunately, I cannot see. Even the simplest mechanism bird may possess all the proper functions while bearing little resemblance to the real thing.”
“Star knew it troubled me, so she found a tame little sparrow willing to sit patiently in my palm and let me feel it in detail. Only then was I able to construct a convincing mechanism bird.”
“That little sparrow was truly adorable. It chirped and chattered all day, so I made two birds. One is called Chirp, and the other Chatter...”
Yu Qingtang cradled Chatter in his hands and could not help chuckling.
Tianxin paused and cleared her throat.
“My apologies. Whenever mechanism arts come up, I tend to talk more than usual.”
“I have delayed you. They are waiting outside. You should go.”
She reminded him, “Even with Pretty Butterfly guiding you, do not lower your guard.”
“Pleasure Sect has no sect master. The demon race’s seventy-two divisions have governed themselves without a leader for many years. Some may not want a Demonic Sovereign to appear.”
“Candle Nine Yin has openly taken Ye Chenyan’s side, and many already regard him as a thorn in their flesh. Unfortunately for them, he has cultivated to the point of embodying a totem and has reached the pinnacle of the Flying Serpent path. His strength is formidable, but...”
Yu Qingtang understood at once. “If they can’t attack him directly, they’ll go after the people around him, like his wife and daughter!”
He nodded seriously.
“I understand. I’ll be careful.”
“And I’m very good at shouting for help whenever I can’t win!”
Outside the Immortal-Bewildering Forest, Chi Yantian and Scholar Xiao stood on either side of Monk Baoshan, subtly boxing him in between them.
The young monk remained innocently unaware of what was about to happen. He was simply happy to encounter familiar faces from the Golden Core Competition.
“I did not expect the two of you to come to Nanzhou.” Baoshan’s smile carried a slightly foolish innocence. “Even more surprisingly, prodigies ranked near the top of the Academy Golden Ranking Board still remember my name...”
Chi Yantian spoke with his usual bluntness. “Of course we remember. That copy of Amorous Secrets you had—”
Baoshan’s face flushed bright red. “It wasn’t me! No, that isn’t right. It—it was sort of mine, but...”
“Ahem.” Scholar Xiao hastily cleared his throat and changed the subject. “Brother Yu is here?”
Baoshan froze. “Brother Yu?”
“Oh.” Chi Yantian pointed toward Yu Qingtang as he emerged from the Immortal-Bewildering Forest. “There. Brother Yu, who dressed as a woman during the Golden Core Competition.”
Baoshan stared blankly for a moment. His voice began to tremble.
“M-Miss Yu?”
“No.” Chi Yantian corrected him. “Brother Yu.”
Yu Qingtang cooperatively thumped his chest and nodded with a righteous expression.
“Mhm. Good bro.”
Baoshan still seemed unable to believe it. He instinctively pressed, “The Miss Yu who inherited our Dharma Academy’s Lotus Realm...”
Without another word, Yu Qingtang sat down cross-legged and showed him the Lotus Realm, which had recently grown considerably larger.
That could not be faked.
Baoshan swayed for a moment, then turned away in disarray. Unable to think of anything to say, he instinctively recited two lines of scripture.
Chi Yantian widened his eyes in surprise. “Why is his reaction so extreme?”
“Hiss...” Scholar Xiao sensed something unusual. “Hard to say. Very hard to say.”
“Oh.” Chi Yantian did not pursue the matter. “Then let’s go. Pretty—”
Scholar Xiao clapped a hand over his mouth and smiled at Baoshan.
“Let us go. It is rare for us to meet, so we should spend some time together. Rest assured, we will order vegetarian food for you.”
Baoshan was still reeling from shock. Before he knew what was happening, they had dragged him along to Great Wilderness Mountain.
The instant they entered Great Wilderness Mountain’s territory, demonfolk with obvious animal characteristics became far more common. Many of the gazes studying them carried a trace of hostility.
Chi Yantian took the lead and swaggered toward the establishment Pretty Butterfly had selected. Sure enough, someone was already waiting there to receive them.
“Are you our honored guests?”
A waiter with the head of a yellow dog hurried forward and welcomed them enthusiastically.
Scholar Xiao waved his folding fan and said with a smile, “We are. From north of Great Wilderness Mountain, and from farther north still.”
That was the password they had arranged with Pretty Butterfly.
Baoshan knew nothing about it. He uneasily studied the building.
The demonfolk architecture of Great Wilderness Mountain was less intricate than that of the human race. Its style was rugged, and stone was used extensively. From the outside, this establishment looked as though it had been assembled from several oddly shaped boulders. There was no indication of what business took place inside.
Even its sign consisted only of several plum-blossom-shaped paw prints. Yu Qingtang had no idea what animal had left them, but they certainly were not human writing.
The yellow dog waiter let his tongue hang out as his tail wagged enthusiastically.
“Oh, you really are the honored guests. Please come in. Your rooms have already been reserved—one for each person.”
He turned, brought out a ring of keys, and selected them one at a time while quietly muttering, “One for the furless one, another for the furless one...”
He pretended to sneak glances at their heads, though his staring could not have been more obvious.
Yu Qingtang fell silent.
He covered his eyes helplessly, then pointed at Baoshan.
“This one too. This one.”
“Oh, oh!” The tail behind the dog’s head wagged furiously. “Thank you, thank you!”
Once the keys were distributed, he went ahead of them.
“I’ll show our honored guests the way!”
Chi Yantian looked around. “The fire element here is quite abundant. This should be a good place.”
“Naturally!” The yellow dog looked rather proud. “Our proprietor is good-tempered and likes humans. Some demonfolk dislike that and often come looking for trouble, but none of them can defeat our proprietor, so there’s nothing they can do about us!”
“You should all visit often. Oh, right! Our proprietor also likes pills. If you bring him any strange or unusual ones, he’ll pay a high price for them! You can even use the sulfur springs for free!”
The little dog demon was extremely enthusiastic. Yu Qingtang walked behind him the entire way and spent the entire journey being buffeted by the wind from his wagging tail.
When they finally reached the rooms, Monk Baoshan looked completely lost.
“Everyone, what exactly are we...”
“Taking a bath!” Chi Yantian clapped him on the shoulder. “We’ll soak and have a chat!”
“I... well...” Baoshan anxiously felt around his robes. “The spirit stones I have on me...”
Yu Qingtang was deeply moved.
After traveling for so long, Baoshan was the first cultivator he had met who worried about not carrying enough spirit stones!
How wonderfully familiar!
“Don’t worry. I brought you, so I’ll pay!” Chi Yantian clapped Baoshan’s shoulder again. “You don’t need to concern yourself with it!”
The young monk still tried to hesitate, but Chi Yantian had already pushed him toward the door of his room.
Chi Yantian turned and entered his own room. With a bold motion, he stripped off his upper garment, revealing a powerful, lean torso.
Scholar Xiao thoughtfully shut the door for him.
“Brother Chi, show a little restraint!”
Baoshan stole two glances at them. Only then did he hesitantly take out his key and open the door before him.
Mist filled the room like an earthly paradise.
With a splash, someone rose from the bathing tub and grabbed Baoshan, hauling him inside.
Yu Qingtang’s eyes widened.
Scholar Xiao’s eyes widened.
“Aah—!”
Baoshan screamed. His face blazing red, he scrambled and rolled his way back out.
“Inside—inside there...”
Chi Yantian threw open his door with a bang. Wearing nothing but a piece of cloth hastily tied around his waist, he strode over to investigate.
“What happened over there?”
“No, no, no!” Baoshan desperately blocked the doorway. “You can’t look! She—she...”
A hand covered in droplets of water reached through the doorway. Accompanied by a giggle, it tapped Baoshan’s bald head.
“Why are you panicking? It isn’t as though I’m not wearing clothes.”
Baoshan opened his mouth.
Two streams of blood slowly trickled from his nostrils.
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