Xiao Lingxin, an inner disciple of the Fleeting Mist Sect, could still recall the horror he and his fellow disciples felt when the pillar of light appeared. The air in the sect had been tense from the undercurrents plaguing the northern regions.
Every day, more and more of the Elders were being sent out to maintain the status quo. Even the disciples had been mobilized to maintain the situation. Xiao Lingxin was already twenty, but his cultivation was at the tenth stage of the Qi Gathering Realm, a talented seed by the Fleeting Mist Sect’s standards. In fact, he was one of the disciples with the highest cultivation base within the sect at the moment.
This wasn’t because he was exceptional, but rather because most of the disciples at the higher stages had already left the sect to guard the Fleeting Mist Sect’s interest. News had already returned of a few disciples dying.
Xiao Lingxin feared that he would be among the corpses, should he be dispatched.
When the pillar of light descended, he had thought that the Five Poison Sect and Sky Whale Sect had started to assault the Fleeting Mist Sect. But after listening to the explanation, the horror turned into joy.
An Immortal had descended to aid them. No news was as worthy of celebration as this.
Xiao Lingxin and several of his fellow disciples, and even some Elders, crowded outside the Sect Master’s immortal abode. All of them wishing to be inside to hear the immortal speak, but feared angering the immortal.
Inside, Yun Wangfeng wasn’t as joyful as the Fleeting Mist Sect members imagined him to be. The seat of power at the center felt like a hot stovetop under his rear.
Sect Master Yun had offered the seat to Xi Mengfei when they entered, but she had declined and casually sat down on a random chair. The normally, lofty Core Formation Master delegated themselves as servants and served tea. When not spoken to, they melded into the background and left everything to Sect Master Yun.
Damn traitors. Sect Master grumbled internally. He cast a glance at his beloved disciple, who was standing stiffly next to him. Each movement of hers lacked any of her usual grace, and her limbs seemed to have been made of stone instead. He didn’t even dare to glare at Elder Shan, who pretended to elegantly sip the tea that was served to him.
Sect Master Yun was clear that Elder Shan was immensely enjoying his apprehensiveness. Don’t think that he couldn’t see the slight curl at the corner of his lips!
“Empress Xi, I did not imagine that my call for aid would have great Immortal coming to my humble sect.” Sect Master Yun said, diplomatically.
“Your sect isn’t bad. Although your cultivation talent is subpar, your leadership allowed your sect to rise in a short time. Among the Buzhou Immortal Sect, the number of Outer Elders comparable to you are few in number.” Mengfei said.
Sect Master Yun’s face switched between joy and distress. What did she mean? Was she praising him or mocking him? To a cultivator, their talent should be held high above all else. “Many thanks?”
Mengfei nodded, feeling quite proud for being able to praise a useless cultivator that had to rely on a pill to ascend to the Nascent Soul Realm.
“Snrk!”
Sect Master Yun whipped his head towards Elder Shan, who was still sipping his tea elegantly. “Stubborn Shan, don’t you think bringing the great Immortal to his place is a bit too much?”
Elder Shan elegantly placed his teacup down before gently smiling at Sect Master Yun, his usual attitude gone. “Grand Elder Xi had some business for your sect. It concerns the lightning seas.”
Sect Master Yun straightened his back. “What could the lightning seas contain to acquire the attention of the great Immortal?”
Tianyi sat by the side and waved at Pan Lanyue, who stiffly waved back. Elder Shan is blowing this out of proportions. Although I wonder why mother came to this place, a treasure of extreme yin shouldn’t be enough to entice her to come here. The situation of the northern region is probably more complicated than I thought.
“Senior brother, who is that?” Daoyi asked, using voice transmission.
“She’s Sect Master Yun’s disciple. She’s a princess of the Pan Kingdom, who was talented and caught Sect Master Yun’s eyes.” Tianyi replied, his impression of Pan Lanyue was already faint. She was ultimately just a passerby in his life.
“I heard that the Fleeting Mist Sect was the first place you traveled to outside of the Buzhou Immortal Sect. For you to remember this big sister, is she your first crush?”
Tianyi nearly choked on the tea he was drinking when he heard Daoyi’s words. Thankfully he was a Nascent Soul Grandmaster and forcibly controlled his body’s actions and prevented anything unsightly. “Rather than the person, a particular event significantly impacted me during my time here.”
“Event? What happened.” Daoyi asked.
“Ah,” Tianyi slightly cringed as he recalled the events of that day. He summarized the happenings of that day to Daoyi.
“Pft! Haha!” Sect Master Yun and the other people of the room turned their heads towards Daoyi at her outburst. “My apologies, I just heard something funny. Please excuse my rudeness.”
The Core Formation Elders were discontent towards Daoyi at shifting the attention away during the vital discussion. But they could only hide it as she was Mengfei’s personal disciple.
“Senior brother, that’s…that’s… I didn’t think such things happened in real life. And you got blamed while just standing there!” Daoyi giggled. “Talking about getting shot while lying down.”
“It gets even worse. After we left the Yan Residence, we participated in the auction hosted by the Yi Auction House. The auction itself wasn’t anything special, although I learned the existence of pills that help you transcend your realm. The second most memorable event of that day was an assassin. He tried to kill me.” Tianyi said, his voice low.
“Oh. Assassins kill people, that’s their job after all.” Daoyi lightly said.
“Oh? That’s it. Someone tried to kill me when I was ten!” Tianyi felt his lips twitch at Daoyi’s noncommital response.
“I couldn’t tell. People who undergo assassination usually undergo trauma. But senior brother doesn’t seem to have any trauma at all. Also, you’re alive now, aren’t you? The assassination obviously failed.” Tianyi was struck speechless by Daoyi’s words.
Tianyi fiddled with the jade ring on his left middle finger. It was an artifact his mother had gifted him to protect against soul techniques. He glanced at his junior sister. Speaking of which, he had yet to mention anything concerning Lei Jingye at all to Daoyi.
“Hey, junior sister, have you heard of Lei Jingye before?” Tianyi asked. His voice was light as if it was not an important matter, but the strength gripping his ring increased.
“Lei Jingye?” Daoyi said, “Lei Jingye…” She said once more as if accustoming the name to her tongue.
“I remember!” Tianyi’s grip strengthened even further. “I couldn’t recall because soon after because master visited the capital. Soon after, I was accepted as master’s disciple, so I forgot about the matter.”
“How did he meet you?” Tianyi asked after a moment of silence.
Daoyi showed an irritated expression. “He broke into my room!” There was a slight grievance in her voice. “An unknown man broke into my room! He said his name was Lei Jingye and that soon he would rescue me from the Duke’s estate.”
Daoyi huffed as she recalled those memories. “If the Duke discovered it, I would have been married off to prevent a scandal from forming and prevent me from being a laughing stock! He has no consideration for my circumstances at all!”
Tianyi paused. His impression of the event should be different. “Weren’t you moved? He told you he was going to rescue you from the Duke’s estate.” In his experience, shouldn’t Daoyi be happy that someone came to rescue her? Although Tianyi never asked, her days in the Duke’s estate shouldn’t have been good.
“Senior brother, I’d appreciate it if you don’t question my intelligence.” Daoyi sighed. “Why would I trust a total stranger’s words. I’d have to be braindead to suspect that nothing is going.”
…that makes way too much sense. Tianyi recalled all those romance returner novels he read where the male lead barged into the female’s room, proclaiming their love and to rescue them. As for the fact that he read such novels, he would never admit it to anyone.
“I can see the other concubine born noble ladies being overjoyed and falling in love in such a circumstance, though,” Daoyi added as an afterthought.
“So, how did you plan to escape the Duke’s control?” Tianyi asked.
“I was going to acquire a body cultivation manual at the very least before I find a chance to leave. I haven’t shown any overt signs of any rebellious thoughts, so the Duke and the Madame shouldn’t be prepared for my eventual escape. Of course, I didn’t suddenly expect for master to want me to become your woman.” Daoyi said with a teasing smile.
Tianyi felt his lips twitch. He really wanted to Daoyi to forget that particular meeting. “If I accepted, what would you have done?”
“I guess I would try to make you rely on me. Since senior brother was so young at the time, I could probably carve a place in senior brother’s heart. Even if you found another woman and grown tired of me, I would have already reaped plenty of benefits by then. At the very least, I should be a Foundation Establishment Disciple, even if I returned to the Xi Dynasty, my position would be unshakeable.”
Tianyi found himself speechless at Daoyi’s thought process. For women of the boudoir to treat the matter with such a logical mindsight was abnormal. “Even when I was young, I don’t think I’d be so easily deceived or seduced.”
Daoyi nodded. “You’re right. Senior brother is surprisingly mature back then.”
“Wait…what do you mean back then?” Tianyi asked.
“Well, you put up a lofty front, but you are surprisingly petty and childish. Didn’t you come here just to witness the duel?” Daoyi asked.
“That’s…” Okay, Tianyi had no words of rebuttal. “Speaking of other matters…”
Daoyi quirked an eyebrow at Tianyi’s attempt to alter the matter of discussion, but she complied nonetheless. “Then how did senior brother know that I met this Lei Jingye before?”
“Earlier, I told you someone tried to assassinate me…” Tianyi started.
Daoyi nodded, but after a moment, she blinked. “Don’t tell me the assassin was… Lei Jingye?”
Tianyi nodded.
Daoyi held her hands in her lap. “Don’t tell me he approached me to get at you? No, that wouldn’t make sense. I hadn’t even met you back then, and he should not have known I would become your junior sister. If so, why did he approach me?”
Tianyi rested his cheek in his palm and looked at Daoyi. “Maybe, love at first sight?”
Daoyi just gave Tianyi a looked that said, “Are you stupid?”
Tianyi felt his lips twitch.
“Senior brother, you shouldn’t be so naive. There is no such thing as love at first sight. If there was, then it would be lust for my appearance. Although, I wasn’t even of age back then. What kind of pedophile would lust after me? He must have something wrong with his head.”
Tianyi lit a candle for Lei Jingye in his heart. He knew why Lei Jingye’s heart was set on Daoyi, but no one else did. He diverted some attention to listen to the conversation between Sect Master Yun and Elder Shan.
It seemed that the northern region wasn’t the only place where the various sects had conflicts. All the outer regions of the Heaven Continent were experiencing some turmoil. Nothing had spilled into the interior regions yet. But the Buzhou Immortal Sect was concerned and sent some Elders to investigate.
“It has only been ten years, yet little friend Tianyi has improved…a lot?” Sect Master Yun had directed his attention back to Tianyi. It was only today that he had found out the Tianyi’s parent Elder Shan had spoken up was an Immortal and the famed Sword Empress Xi at that! Never in his wildest imagination had he thought that Tianyi would have been that her son. He didn’t even know she had a child!
There was no one that didn’t know of the famed Sword Empress on Heaven Continent. But because of Tianyi’s existence, Sect Master Yun, along with many other people, asked, “Who was Tianyi’s father?”
Earlier, Sect Master Yun had been too shocked by Mengfei to properly assess Tianyi. But now upon closer inspection, he discovered that Tianyi was in the same realm as him! Not only that, the density of Tianyi’s aura and qi surpassed his own.
“Little friend…Tianyi, you’ve reached the Nascent Soul Realm?” Sect Master Yun’s voice was shaking, still half in disbelief. Something he spent over three hundred years to achieve, Tianyi accomplished in twenty.
Even Pan Lanyue standing by the side, upon hearing this, fell into a stupor. She recalled that her master said that Tianyi could likely enter the Core Formation Realm in ten years, and that would still make him stand out among prodigies.
“Haha, I was lucky. With some fortuitous encounters and treasures, I was able to ascend into the Nascent Soul Realm recently.” Tianyi said, his voice humble, but Daoyi could discern the pride in his voice.
She smiled helplessly at her vain senior brother.