chapter 15

Wu Tianqi saw the situation and hurried to say: “The two of you, please hold on! Since you two have already come here, I should fulfill my responsibility of friendship as the lord of this area. My mansion has many guest rooms, if I may invite…”

He hadn’t finished talking when he was unceremoniously interrupted by Yun Xie: “No…(ack)…No problem, that, uh, Ah-Xun and I were just thinking to ask for School Master Wu’s hospitality, haha.”

He had originally wanted to refuse, but just after saying the first word, his waist suddenly hurt from Jiang Xunyi pinching him very very hard. Yun Xie caught on and hurriedly corrected himself.

Wu Tianqi was overjoyed and led the two of them away on the spot. In the back, Yun Xie gnashed his teeth and glared at Jiang Xunyi: “Were you trying to pinch me to death just now? You were the one who wanted to leave, then you wanted to stay, is there something wrong with your brain?”

Jiang Xunyi leisurely said: “The Heavenly Seal School is the largest cultivation sect in Yuele City, so they definitely must know some of what’s going on. I was just thinking we could go to Wu Tianqi’s place to inquire a little. And your skin is so thick, I was afraid that if I only used a little force, you wouldn’t feel anything. My bad~”

Yun Xie was about to refute back, but he tilted his head to see Jiang Xunyi’s eyes gently drifting over1, glancing at him with a hint of a smile. His sharp eyebrows were obliquely arched and his complexion as fine as jade, so indescribably beautiful that Yun Xie was momentarily bewildered to the point where he forgot how to speak.

Jiang Xunyi saw Yun Xie not cursing or arguing back, and instead lost interest. He shrugged his shoulders and moved ahead, leaving Yun Xie in the dust.

Behind him, Yun Xie breathed the slightest sigh of relief. He wiped his face once. When he looked up, he had resumed the appearance of a face full of smiles, and followed everyone else to enter the Heavenly Seal School.

The Heavenly Seal School of course could not compare to large sects like Hidden Spirit and Solar Envy. There weren’t many people, but their residence location was quite spacious. The courtyard was clean and tidy, and a bead curtain hung at the entrance of the main hall. Jiang Xunyi had always been somewhat of a neat freak, so he was satisfied at this sight.

Yun Xie had long since grown tired from walking, so he took long strides to squeeze in front of Jiang Xunyi and enter the main hall.

His hands behind his back, Jiang Xunyi followed behind Yun Xie. He lifted his leg to step inside, but who would have expected that after Yun Xie entered, he used force to swing the curtain out, making the hard beads pelt Jiang Xunyi’s face.

Jiang Xunyi was of course angry: “Bastard!” He kicked towards Yun Xie’s leg, making him roll into a somersault to dodge.

These past two years, both Yun Xie and Jiang Xunyi had reached their highest momentum yet. In addition, because of the enchantment surrounding Yuele City, the news of Jiang Xunyi killing his master had not yet arrived. As a result, all the disciples of the Heavenly Seal School had long since been waiting inside the hall to welcome these two experts. They had not expected that these two brothers reputed to have an extremely close relationship would actually start fighting right after entering the door. The disciples could not help but stand slack-jawed in shock.

Wu Tianqi had become acquainted with Yun Xie earlier, so he knew of Yun Xie’s arrogant disposition and extraordinary skill. Now seeing Jiang Xunyi kicking him into a battered mess, Wu Tianqi’s heart was in his throat——if these two honored gods started fighting here and one got injured, the Heavenly Seal School wouldn’t be able to take the consequences.

Fortunately, Yun Xie appeared to have an extraordinarily good temper towards his companion. After regaining his balance to stand firm again, he only looked back to smile at Jiang Xunyi: “If you want to lose your temper, you can do whatever you want once we go back to our rooms and close the door. We’re in public right now, what are you doing this for?” As he spoke, he even batted his eyelashes.

Jiang Xunyi did not have Yun Xie’s level of shamelessness, so he could only grind his teeth and pretend he didn’t hear that.

Wu Tianqi really could not understand the relationship between these two sirs. Seeing this situation, he hurriedly interrupted: “The two of you must be tired, I have already ordered meals and rooms to be prepared. Why don’t the two of you… first take a break?”

Jiang Xunyi looked back at Wu Tianqi with a slight smile on his face, and did not speak.

His smile looked beautiful and pleasing to the eye, but Wu Tianqi felt an inexplicable chill run up his back. He mustered up his courage to smile apologetically: “Young master Jiang, if you have any requests just say them, the Heavenly Seal School will help however we can without delay.”

Do whatever you want, just don’t smile, I’m begging you.

Jiang Xunyi’s gaze slowly swept a circle over the disciples in the hall. Wherever he looked, that person would invariably lower their head to avoid his eyes. Only after this did Jiang Xunyi speak: “What requests could I have? Wasn’t it School Master Wu who wishes to talk about something?”

Wu Tianqi had not expected him to be so astute and keen despite his young age, and was momentarily surprised. Just as he was thinking about how to answer, Yun Xie also spoke: “Given School Master Wu’s warm hospitality, it is your word that counts. If there is nothing to talk about, then forget it.”

Wu Tianqi understood Yun Xie better than Jiang Xunyi, so he could hear the true meaning of those words: if he did not say the truth now, Yun Xie and Jiang Xunyi would not listen to him in the future if he wanted to bring it up again. He hurried to dismiss all the disciples in the hall and invited the two men to sit down. Only then did he speak: “Young master Jiang truly has incredible foresight. Recently, some strange things have indeed been occurring in Yuele City. An enchantment was set around the city to restrict cultivators from entering and exiting. My spiritual power is low, so I was in the middle of trying to seek help from outside when I ran into the two of you nobility.”

Jiang Xunyi was concise and succinct: “Demon Sovereign Xuan Li?”

Wu Tianqi’s body trembled and his eyes showed deep fear: “You are correct——in the past few days, more than thirty cultivators have died in Yuele City, twenty one of which were disciples of my Heavenly Seal School. Their appearance upon death… their appearance upon death was exactly the same as the corpses left behind after Demon Sovereign Xuan Li took people’s lives back in the day!”

Yun Xie set down the teapot, and his expression turned serious: “I heard that after Demon Sovereign Xuan Li’s death back then, his soul was sealed away but his body was hidden inside an enchanted boundary called the ‘Heart Demon2 Sea’. Looking at it now, could it be that the seal has lost its effectiveness?”

Jiang Xunyi met Yun Xie’s eyes, and then turned his head: “If Demon Sovereign Xuan Li’s soul escaped, then the Heart Demon Sea should manifest in the world. May I ask School Master Wu, was Yuele City the location where Demon Sovereign Xuan Li’s soul was separated from his body back in the day?” Though he and Yun Xie held much higher statuses than Wu Tianqi, they were still young. A drama with a thousand killers was naught but subjective cheap gossip, so Wu Tianqi knew more than them regarding these old matters from long ago.

Wu Tianqi hesitated a moment before slowly nodding. He added: “It’s said that because Demon Sovereign Xuan Li’s body was sealed inside the enchantment, even if his soul did get out, it should look for another host to stay temporarily, entering and controlling that host’s mind. Completely eliminating Demon Sovereign Xuan Li requires not only finding the Heart Demon Sea and destroying his body, but also killing that new host.”

Yun Xie smiled faintly: “School Master Wu does not need to say so much. Since you so thoroughly understand this method of killing Demon Sovereign Xuan Li, go ahead and act! It’s just that if you delay a few more days, I’m afraid this Heavenly Seal School is going to be completely destroyed~”

Wu Tianqi was timid and afraid of getting involved, so he did not dare to take the initiative himself. He indeed had the idea of encouraging Yun Xie and Jiang Xunyi to act for him. Now upon being called out by Yun Xie, he immediately felt both guilty and vexed, yet did not dare to let these emotions out. He could only hold his anger back and laugh awkwardly: “Sect Master Yun has a good sense of humor, hahaha.”

Yun Xie said: “Oh, I don’t have a good sense of humor. I’m just not stupid.”

Wu Tianqi’s face and ears flushed red, and he couldn’t say anything more.

Jiang Xunyi saw Yun Xie was about done, so he interjected from the side: “School Master Wu, slaying demons and monsters is my generation’s responsibility. Yun Xie and I will not stand by and ignore your plight. It’s just that since School Master Wu has entrusted this matter to us, we will be the ones to decide what to do and how to go about doing it. We hope you that you will refrain from acting presumptuously.”

After these two men teamed up on him to “continuously withdraw funds”, Wu Tianqi no longer dared to have other thoughts and now agreed to everything in succession.

Jiang Xunyi nodded. He had just lifted his robes to rise from his seat, when the door to the hall slammed open. He reflexively pressed his hand on his sword hilt and turned to look. He saw the newcomer was a 17-year-old girl wearing a pink butterfly-patterned dress, her facial features quite beautiful.

Yun Xie immediately frowned upon seeing the girl. He had not yet said anything when she already raced over and said happily: “Yun-Gege, it was actually you who came! Long time no see, did you miss Hui-Er?”

Wu Tianqi shouted: “Hui-Er, how can you be so rude?!” It turned out this girl was Wu Tianqi’s daughter Wu Hui. She had already started to adore Yun Xie three years ago, so hearing that he had now come to the Heavenly Seal School was an extremely pleasant surprise to her. She had completely disregarded everything else going on to barge in as fast as she could.

Yun Xie took a step back, avoiding her hand trying to pull his sleeves. He raised his eyebrows: “This must be Miss Wu? Greetings.”

Wu Hui froze for a second before stamping her foot: “Yun-Gege, don’t joke around, how could you not recognize Hui-Er?”

The male protagonist’s harem was really everywhere, so irritating that even a god would get annoyed. Jiang Xunyi had waited for a while on the side, but by now he had lost his patience and indifferently said: “I’m going first.” He turned around to leave.

Yun Xie hurried to say: “Ah-Xun, I’m going too.”

Wu Hui’s eyes turned to look at Jiang Xunyi: “Who are you? What’s your relationship with Yun-Gege?”

Author’s Notes (translated): Miss Wu has lots of potential to become a Fujoshi3, I’ll be watching her well~

At that time, this pair of childhood friends had still protected their bond and relationship very well. To be honest, even though little Jiang said out loud that he wanted to complete his system-given mission to return home, on the inside he actually could never have imagined Yun Xie would kill him ╮(╯_╰)╭ . So in the end, what hidden secrets could have led to this….

Footnotes:

1. 眼波流转 lit. “eyes rippling, flowing, turning” is typically used to describe the gentle movement of a women’s eyes, filled with affection

2. It’s the return of our old friend 心魔 (xīn mó) lit. “heart demon/devil”, probably better thought of as Inner Demons. Rather than literal demons or devils, these are a practitioner’s negative emotions and other mental barriers which hinder their training/cultivation. Failure to adequately resist them may result in Qi Deviation. (Credits to https://immortalmountain.wordpress.com/glossary/wuxia-xianxia-xuanhuan-terms/)

3. 腐女 lit. “rotten girl/woman” is a term borrowed from the Japanese concept of “Fujoshi”, AKA a girl who likes to watch Boys’ Love.