Suddenly, a clap of thunder exploded outside the hall, making Luo Junmo's face flicker between light and shadow. He stared at the array patterns swirling on the fan, and finally relented: "I'll give you eighty days. If by then..."
"Why would it take so long?" Luo Tingjue closed his fan and bowed, a subtle curve on his lips. "The imperial family's marriage rituals are cumbersome, but to deal with a female cultivator..." The jade pendant at his waist suddenly glowed green, and his expression changed drastically. "How could that beast be here!"
Dark clouds surged on the mountain path, and a mastiff as large as a rhinoceros galloped, crushing bluestones as it sped. Luo Tingjue hastily crushed a Escape Sign , but still had half of his robe torn off, faintly revealing the dark gold soft armor he wore underneath.
Inside Yunhai Pavilion, a gilt Boshan censer emitted crane-shaped smoke. Yun Qingrao's fingertips traced the new claw marks on the book pages, listening to the Disciple reporting from below the steps, and suddenly closed the book with a heavy thud: "What a 'fair maiden, a gentleman's good match,' do you think Chen Ming Peak's mountain-protecting spirit beast is just for show?"
Luo Tingjue straightened up, enduring the pain, with traces of blood seeping from his unhealed wound on his back: "This Disciple indeed had selfish motives, but if Qin Yue enters Tianjue Peak, Qing Feng will become a rootless duckweed."
Before he finished speaking, the paperweight on the desk suddenly burst into brilliant golden light, illuminating his unhealed wound in minute detail.
"What a theory of duckweed." A crisp sound of jade objects clashing came from behind the screen. "A banquet will be held at Langya Water Pavilion in three days. This Master wants to see how many brocade carp your 'sincerity' can attract."
"Master, please understand, this Disciple is a Prince of Liang, and since my enlightenment, I have been personally taught Dao methods by the National Master. At fifteen, I was exceptionally admitted to the Yixian Palace."
Luo Tingjue smoothed the sleeve torn by sword qi, with beast claw marks still on his neck, "If it's about coveting beauty, I could have enjoyed all the glory when I rejected the Eldest Princess's marriage proposal back then. Why wait until today? This Disciple's proposal to the Heaven's Chosen of Chen Ming Peak is truly out of..."
A crisp sound of a teacup lightly tapping came from the jade steps, and Luo Tingjue wisely swallowed his unfinished words.
Luo Tingjue looked at the cold figure sitting on the cloud-patterned couch, his fingertips imperceptibly pinching his palm: "Beast Taming Sect has trapped my Palace's Disciples for three years, and now they are letting beasts injure people. If this marriage alliance can turn conflict into peace."
Before he finished speaking, the ancient zither on the desk played by itself without wind. Luo Tingjue only felt a thousand catties of pressure suddenly pour into his chest, and his dark brocade robe was instantly soaked with cold sweat.
By the time he reacted, he had already fallen heavily onto the bluestone outside the hall, a sweet, metallic taste churning in his throat.
"Dare to speak presumptuously about the matters of the two sects again, and this Master will shatter your spirit root." Yun Qingrao lightly waved her wide sleeve, and the seven-stringed zither suspended in mid-air returned to its place on the desk.
"This Disciple overstepped." Luo Tingjue supported himself with his sword to stand, concealing the dark glint in his eyes as he lowered his head.
As he stumbled around the corridor, Luo Qing, who had been hiding behind a pillar, finally appeared, her jade pendant and sword clashing rhythmically at her waist.
"Imperial family members are always good at judging the situation." The plain-clothed female cultivator gently stroked the zither pegs, glancing at the receding figure outside the window. "Five layers of calculation hidden in three sentences, even turning a marriage alliance into self-sacrifice."
Luo Qing leaned against the coiled dragon pillar and chuckled: "But he's not wrong. The thousand-year-old ice essence offered by Great Liang last year is enough to refine thirty high-grade spirit swords. I heard that the Young Sect Master of Beast Taming Sect..."
Suddenly, an arrow piercing the clouds whistled through the air, embedding itself in the vermillion pillar in front of the hall, vibrating with a hum.
The crimson gold talisman tied to the arrow's tail spontaneously combusted without fire, and Luo Tingjue's clear voice diffused into the hall with the blue smoke: "The beast was ignorant and offended the Immortal Sect. Qing Feng specially brings ten Ice Essence Pills, willing to heal the Immortal Maiden's Disciples."
Yun Qingrao's hand holding the scroll suddenly tightened, creasing the words "Nanhua Jing" on the yellowed pages.
After the sound transmission dissipated, she said faintly to the void: "Tell Young Sect Master Chu that Yixian Palace does not lack elixirs."
The copper bell on the eaves swayed lightly, then fell silent.
The female cultivator gazed in the direction where the talisman ash drifted, turned to a new page of the scripture, letting the setting sun cast fine speckles of light on the words "You are not a fish."
"You're not trying to avoid him, are you?" Luo Qing leaned against the carved window lattice, her fingertips unconsciously caressing the jade pendant at her waist, her gaze falling on Yun Qingrao's slightly trembling eyelashes.
The white-robed Immortal Maiden lightly strummed the zither, and the seven icy strings emitted a clear, ringing sound: "Aunt Luo is joking? I, a Spirit Transformation stage Music Cultivator, need to fear a lazy boy who oversleeps all day?"
She deliberately emphasized the last syllable, but the zither music went off by two beats, "It's just that I find it troublesome."
Luo Qing walked to the desk, her slender hand picking up a half-empty cup of cold tea: "If you really found it troublesome, you could have just sent a child to deliver the message. Why insist on using sound transmission to refuse..."
She suddenly leaned closer, catching the fleeting panic in the other's eyes, "Yao'er, you wouldn't be..."
"Absolutely not." Yun Qingrao's finger suddenly pressed down on the vibrating zither string, and the tea in the jade cup rippled, "It's just out of that bit of camaraderie from the tomb, that I..." She suddenly stopped speaking, her fingertips leaving crescent-shaped red marks on the zither's body.
"If there's no personal affection, why are you stopping Martial Nephew Tianjue from proposing?" Luo Qing lightly blew away the foam on the tea, "That girl from the Qin family is of similar age to Tianjue. If they become Dao Companions."
"How can one who has seen the vast ocean still long for a stream?" Yun Qingrao suddenly stood up, her waist bell clinking crisply.
Outside the window, bamboo shadows swayed, and vaguely, she saw that person dancing with a sword under the moon again. He was clearly only at the Golden Core cultivation, yet his sword qi had ripped apart the entire starry sky.
Luo Qing thoughtfully said: "Are you talking about Qing Feng?"
"I'm talking about some people who boast of being geniuses..." Yun Qingrao turned her back, her dark hair brushing the still-wet ink on the desk, "But they don't know that true fierce beasts wear sheep's clothing. When they tear off that gentle facade."
Her voice gradually lowered, as if remembering Qing Feng smilingly wiping blood from his sword tip during a Mystic Realm expedition.
The night wind swept through the hall, and Luo Qing's figure dispersed like fireflies: "Alright then, tomorrow, let Tianjue's Master..." Before she finished speaking, Yun Qingrao suddenly turned around, and three sound blades flew from her sleeve, embedding themselves into the door frame.
"If Yixian Palace interferes with this matter." Her fingertips condensed with frost, "That sleeping sword, I'm afraid, will taste blood and seal throats."
The bamboo leaves rustled, and Luo Qing's aura completely disappeared outside Xiao Yao Peak's barrier. Yun Qingrao lowered her gaze to the ice crystals in her palm, then suddenly chuckled softly. From the distant Chen Ming Peak's summit, a familiar sword cry faintly echoed.
"Children grow up, and they don't even share their innermost thoughts with their elders anymore!"
"Then investigate it yourself!"
This tone was truly peculiar. Although Fei Yao had high talent, she usually appeared cold as ice, but in reality, her thoughts were very simple.
If something truly went wrong, how could she explain it to Luo-shixiong? Yun Qingrao looked at the pear blossoms fluttering outside the window, her fingertips unconsciously tightening around the white silk handkerchief embroidered with silver threads.
"Is Luo-shixiong feeling better? Can he get up?" Qing Feng's clear voice, wrapped in morning dew, came, startling two thrushes from under the eaves.
Luo Tingjue bit his silver teeth behind the bamboo curtain, his palm leaving red marks, but a gentle smile appeared on his face as he stumbled out, leaning on his Martial Brother's arm.
He saw Qing Feng surrounded by the female cultivators of Yixian Palace, holding several golden-glowing Lanyang grasses in his hands.
Luo Tingjue's eyelid twitched slightly. This spiritual plant could be exchanged for half a city in the mortal world, but in his eyes, it was like a weed.
When did the direct Disciples of Beast Taming Sect ever lack these?
"Thanks to Martial Brother's protection, there's no major injury." He responded gently, his gaze sweeping over the cloud-patterned jade pendant hanging from Qing Feng's waist.