Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Chapter 14 – Xuanmen Righteous Sect’s Da Shixiong

Translator: THISBRO

Editor: Mimishijie

Proofreader: Happy Bubbles

The mutated fox Yun Ce had probably sacrificed his intelligence in exchange for stellar cultivation talent. When he spoke, it was whatever was on his mind. To He Ku, it was like talking to his friends after class, extremely light and carefree.

However, after thinking about it more closely, although he doesn’t remember anything, he was still someone who possessed all the talents He Huan’s body was blessed with. It didn’t matter if his intelligence really did end up being on Yun Ce’s level, but if even his cultivation was inferior to Yun Ce’s, he really wouldn’t be able to bear it.

And thus, his desire to become stronger suddenly erupted. Even if his intelligence could only slowly correct itself, at the very least, he needed to improve his combat prowess. If worst came to worst, then He Huan could be in charge of all the elaborate schemes and intrigue, while he would be in charge of fighting and brawling.

Just as they were busy happily chatting away, they suddenly noticed the two disciples they were supposed to be guarding were resting their brooms and angrily pointing towards the floor littered with seed shells. “Are you done yet?! We just swept there!”

It was only then that He Ku realized what he’d done and silently mourned for his moral character. Yun Ce, on the other hand, directly dragged him over to the other side while holding a small stool and raised his eyebrows. “You guys continue, we’ll snack over here.”

The Xuanmen disciple had endured the humiliation of doing something as brainless as sweeping the floor, and just when he was about to reach the end of the tunnel, who knew that this pair of demonic cultivators would actually come and purposely sabotage them! Never had he experienced such injustice, he immediately wanted to rush over and fight. Rather, it was the Heaven’s Library Pavilion disciple that held him back and tried to placate him, “In the enemy’s territory, one must bow their heads. Brother Lin, just bear it for a bit.”

“Fine. I’ll sweep.”

Just thinking of the scene where he was surrounded by a bunch of ugly men, in the end, he was able to restrain his temper. Angrily, he raised his broom to a horizontal before using it like a sword and twirled on the spot, attacking the problem speedily. Although he didn’t have any spiritual energy, by using a high-quality sword technique, he was able to collect all the litter into a single pile within the span of a few minutes. Though if one were to look at his fierce gaze, he was clearly substituting the two onlookers as the ground.

So this was how these two moves were connected!

Seeing his demonstration, He Ku’s eyes brightened. How come this boy’s sword technique was so similar to the one he was learning?

After watching it once, he faintly felt some understanding, thus the next moment he said, “Hey, you sweep quite nicely, do it again.”

With He Huan’s identity at the forefront, who would have thought that he was here to secretly learn basic sword techniques? The Xuanmen disciple only thought that he was purposely making things difficult for him and immediately shouted, “You shameless bastard——”

“If the Master says to sweep, then you sweep. If you can’t clean this area, then I will send you to live in the latrine.” Yun Ce was already impatient with these two because of that enforcer business; seeing this backtalk, he naturally transformed into the model tyrant’s cannon fodder lackey. He executed a palm technique towards the pile of shells and once again scattered them across the floor. This let He Ku stare at him for a while, silently thinking that this fellow really had the potential to be a delinquent.

Though, to be honest, his only request towards the Palace of Bliss was to not commit any atrocities that offended the heavens. As for being idle enough to bully righteous sect disciples a bit… wasn’t that a demonic cultivator’s daily mission?

That Heaven’s Library disciple was called Li Ze and was originally stationed here as a spy to gauge He Huan’s Calamity Crossing situation. It was only under the numerous positions the Heaven’s Library Pavilion held within the Palace that they were able to find its weakness. They borrowed the Li Clan’s network and one by one started to plant spies within the Palace of Bliss by having them escorted inside by the passing rogues; from the janitors, these spies slowly started to spread. Finally, after several decades, they’d planted someone into every department.

This task was supposed to have been carried out by a more specialized disciple, but who could have expected that at the critical moment, this Xuanmen disciple would just happen to travel here. Moreover, once he caught wind that they were going to infiltrate into the Palace of Bliss, he actually even fucking followed them! This completely messed up their earlier arrangements.

If he were only an ordinary Xuanmen disciple, then that would have been fine, but this Lin Xuan’s background was also not something to laugh at. Not only was his family powerful, but he was also the disciple of the Xuanmen Righteous Sect’s Da Shixiong, Yao JianKe. No one was able to dissuade him and so they could only change their plan at the last moment, sending the outer disciple Li Ze to accompany him as they infiltrated the Palace.

Though to be fair, to be implicated to this degree, this Li Ze’s luck truly was rotten. It was just, if he were to wait until those from the righteous side came to rescue them, he must first stabilize the ticking time bomb named Lin Xuan beside him. Seeing the other was about to become angry again, he hurried to calm him, “Brother Lin, we are currently in the enemy camp, let’s be a little more lowkey, okay?”

“So what if I don’t do it? Don’t tell me that demon dares to touch me?”

Although his reply was one of anger, Lin Xuan’s expression was still unsure. Seeing him like this, Li Ze just sighed, “Do you really believe that he doesn’t dare to?”

Usually, any demonic cultivator with even the slightest bit of sense wouldn’t dare to endanger themselves after hearing who he was. Any demonic cultivator, that is, except for He Huan, who knows how furious he’d be after hearing ‘Xuanmen Righteous Sect’.

This was the only reason as to why he kept his identity a secret for so long, if that demon were to find out who his shifu was, he couldn’t imagine the torment he’d face.

It was just… that day when he saw He Huan decisively deal with that villain, he had thought that this person, although he’d fallen onto the demonic path, his allegiance was still ambiguous. At the very least, he could still properly give respect to his previous identity. It was only after seeing his following actions did that idea dissolve into wisps of smoke. Sure enough, He Huan, this person, was exactly how the others described him—a shameless villain!

The more he thought, the more he became angry. Scolding as he swept the floor, “Despicable, you failure! Scum! The shame of Xuanmen!”

Li Ze had also heard a bit about the grudge between Xuanmen and He Huan. However, unlike Lin Xuan, the gears in his head began to turn after remembering what Qian Ren had said at the Main Hall. He looked back at He Ku, who was still happily chewing seeds after Lin Xuan cursed him and leaned over to whisper, “Brother Lin, say, do you think He Huan really had a qi-deviation which regressed his age to eighteen?”

This time, Lin Xuan wasn’t able to understand the meaning Li Ze was hinting at; instead, he continued to steep in his indignance. “How would I know? Either way, it doesn’t matter what he turns into, he’s still scum!”

Knowing that he still didn’t understand, Li Ze immediately reminded him, “I agree with you that He Huan is a scum, but Brother Lin, you can’t forget that when he was 18 years old, he hadn’t become He Huan yet.”

The moment Lin Xuan heard him say this, he finally remembered his shifu’s regretful expression whenever He Huan was brought up in discussion. He hesitated before asking, “So you’re saying that he has yet to betray his sect?”

He finally understood.

This chapter is scrapped from readlightnovel.org

It was only then that Li Ze was able to let out a sigh of relief. This was because, while Lin Xuan had someone who was willing to save him, as a nobody outer disciple, he had to save himself. The Heaven’s Library Pavilion wouldn’t risk sending someone in just to extract him, so his first course of action had to be finding the right opportunity to escape. Thinking of this, he deliberately softened his tone, “I understand the hate Brother Lin has towards traitors, but for the sake of being able to leave this place, perhaps… you could tolerate having a bit of patience.”

Hearing his words, Lin Xuan’s heart was also in tangles. Sure, He Huan was despicable and shameless, but them Xuanmen disciples were all extremely righteous gentlemen. If this was indeed the 18-year-old He Huan…

Although this person was still hateful even after the qi-deviation, he was nowhere near as frightening now as when he dragged them out. Lin Xuan was only worried about the possibility of the Demon Lord suddenly recovering. Would that day’s situation once again perform itself? He, the revered disciple to the current Xuanmen Da Shixiong, would he end up..?

He looked at the person dressed in a well-fitted white robe, seemingly upright as could be, and couldn’t help but see that he indeed had a similar bearing to those shixiongs in his sect. So even though he had to swallow his pride, he still forced himself to raise his head and look towards He Ku, loudly asking, “Bu QingYun, are you certain you want to mix with these evil-doers?”

It was only a pity that even after all their calculations, they still miscalculated. After all, He Huan didn’t leave any memories of his Xuanmen Righteous Sect days to He Ku. So after randomly hearing this remark, He Ku was at a loss. Looking left then right, in the end he settled on elbowing the only person who had a ‘Yun’ character in their name, Yun Ce. “They’re calling you.”

“No, that is Palace Master’s previous name. However, our second enforcer warned us that if we dared to call you by that name, we should prepare to be live butchered by you.”

Yun Ce was someone who didn’t understand what taboos were, so even after the three enforcers’ repeated warnings and orders to the disciples not to bring it up, he still opened his big mouth and said it anyways. To finish it off, he even sincerely added a line, “Do you want me to go fetch you a butcher’s knife?”

Never could he have imagined that He Huan had such a past. He Ku blanked but didn’t actually get Yun Ce to bring him a knife, only lamenting, “Does he really need to go so far? This name sounds much better than He Huan, just hearing it sounds particularly righteous.”

Hearing him say it like this, Yun Ce instantly replied, “After all, you were the Xuanmen Da Shixiong, how can it not be righteous? I heard that since you went travelling at 16, the number of demonic cultivators you cut down were more than the ones I’ve seen. In fact, just yesterday, the third enforcer warned all the disciples to stay as far away from you as possible. All in fear that you would accidentally start killing your own people.”

“Hah? Xuanmen Da Shixiong? Me?”

Pointing at himself, this time He Ku was truly surprised. He Huan didn’t mention too much about the Xuanmen Righteous Sect to him. Other than mentioning that they were a bunch of cultivation junkies and their Sect Head was someone he still couldn’t beat, he didn’t say anything. All of it was incredibly boring and so it didn’t matter if he knew or not. But seeing apparently, He Huan’s blasé attitude was clearly because he didn’t want to think about it and so had intentionally omitted the information.

The voices they used to discuss this weren’t quiet. Li Ze heard them and instantly knew they were screwed. This He Huan had actually lost all of his memories after that qi-deviation, so it was likely that they won’t be able to count on him anymore. Moreover, Lin Xuan was becoming visibly increasingly angry, so he went up to block him, “Brother Lin, let it be, let it be.”

And yet, this time, he wasn’t able to hold him back. Lin Xuan was already humiliated from having to ask a traitor for help, but seeing now that this bastard didn’t even recognize his identity as a former Xuanmen disciple, finally crossed the line. “Shut your mouth! You heartless traitor, you don’t even recognize your sect, what face do you have to proclaim yourself as Xuanmen’s Da Shixiong?! You even dare to wear our sect uniform, you simply have no shame!”

These were actually Xuanmen Righteous Sect’s clothes? Then the sword technique that he was learning being similar to this youth’s, perhaps it wasn’t a coincidence? For He Huan to still keep his old techniques and clothes from so long ago, what was his motive?

He Ku remembered He Huan’s expression when teaching him this technique and suddenly felt a little regretful. From everyone in the Palace of Bliss’ reactions, this ‘Xuanmen Righteous Sect’ was clearly a thorn in He Huan’s heart. Normally, he wouldn’t even allow people to bring it up, meanwhile, he actually wore these clothes constantly flashing in front of him. He even asked him to teach him Xuanmen’s cultivation techniques! It was no wonder He Huan’s mood these past few days was so strange.

Honestly, this He Huan, why didn’t he tell him anything? He doesn’t remember anything, so if no one had told him, then how would he have been able to know which matters could not be mentioned?

Although he knew that someone famous from a large cultivation sect couldn’t be easily swayed, based on He Huan’s nature of being handsy towards pretty disciples, it seemed fairly possible. But once he thought back to their day-to-day interaction, He Ku subconsciously believed that, in this situation, He Huan was wrongfully accused. He asked doubtfully, “Having a slight lapse in properness is enough to be kicked out of a sect? Since when were righteous sect’s moral standards so high?”

“This, I wouldn’t know. At that time, I had just been born.”

Yun Ce shook his head to show he wasn’t able to answer, his expression was also slightly odd. “I heard my Xiao Shishu say that at the time, it had already been determined that Palace Master would be the next Sect Head. So even if you did break some rules, there was no need to be so cruel as to destroy your cultivation and expel you from your sect, right?”

“Bu QingYun… Bu QingYun… Bu QingYun?”

Hearing this, He Ku became more and more suspicious. He seemed to have faintly recalled something. He muttered this extremely familiar name before he was no longer able to sit still and stood up, heading towards the exit.

“I need to return to QingYun Hall!”