Chapter 122#

The Disciple’s Rebirth and Revenge#

After sweeping the courtyard for Xiao Nian for three consecutive days, Lin Xiaodong finally couldn’t take it anymore.

On the morning of the fourth day, he found the white-robed Immortal Venerable and requested, “Master, can you teach me some self-defense techniques?”

Xiao Nian snapped back to his senses. Lately, he seemed particularly fond of dazing off. Whether it was the floating clouds in the sky, the peach tree in the courtyard, or the distant mountain peaks, he could sit there quietly and watch all day long.

“Self-defense techniques?” Instead of agreeing or disagreeing, he asked back, “The Cloudsoaring Sect is very safe, why do you want to learn this?”

The blind youth respectfully lowered his head and said softly, “Master, please do not take offense. My life has been full of hardships. After my family fell into decline, I lost my sight and tasted all the coldness and warmth of the world. Therefore, I deeply feel that one cannot be without a mind to guard against others. Of course, with Master here, I am certainly not worried about this, but I’m afraid that if one day Master is not by my side and I know nothing, I might ruin your reputation.”

His words were very well-spoken, a model of moving someone with emotion and reasoning.

However, Xiao Nian just looked at him and said, “No.”

The youth was stunned for a moment: “What ’no’?”

“Reputation,” Xiao Nian said. “I don’t care about that.”

“…………”

Is that the point!?

But it was true, Xiao Nian really didn’t care about empty fame at all; otherwise, he wouldn’t have done something that would make people point fingers at his back.

“Looking” at this stubborn enemy before him, the youth’s expression was stiff. He moved his pale lips, seemingly wanting to say something, but in the end, he only squeezed out a forced smile: “Master is broad-minded.”

“However,” just when Lin Xiaodong thought there was no hope again, Xiao Nian suddenly changed the subject, “Do you want to learn swordplay from me?”

He nodded immediately: “I do!”

“Wait here,” Xiao Nian stood up. “I’ll go to the back courtyard to find a sword for you.”

The blind youth sat obediently on the stone stool waiting for him to return, but inside he was incredibly excited—this was a golden opportunity delivered right to his door!

For Xiao Nian to teach him swordplay, he would inevitably have to circulate his cultivation technique. When circulating his technique, given the man’s personality, he would definitely be fully focused. And even with the Path of Ruthlessness, before truly ascending, accidentally misdirecting his Qi would lead to injury, though it wouldn’t damage his foundation.

But as long as he could make Xiao Nian spit out a couple of mouthfuls of blood, it would be worth it even if he himself broke a leg.

The blind youth in his black disciple’s robe leaned against the stone table. At the thought of such a wonderful scene, a smile of longing couldn’t help but appear on his face.

—When Xiao Nian returned, this was the scene he saw.

He stared at the trace of a smile on the youth’s lips, and his footsteps couldn’t help but pause. But that split-second change in aura was enough for Lin Xiaodong to sense the man’s arrival.

He stood up immediately and greeted Xiao Nian respectfully: “Master.”

Xiao Nian acknowledged him and walked back as usual, placing a sword on the stone table.

“This sword is called Chuyun. Try it,” he said, but quickly added, “Do not use your demonic energy.”

After staying on Cold Maple Peak for so many years, Lin Xiaodong knew what treasures were in the back courtyard even better than Xiao Nian himself. He grumbled in his heart about how the man had the nerve to bring out a mere middle-grade spiritual weapon; don’t think he didn’t know that Xiao Nian had so many immortal weapons they could fill a whole cabinet.

But he still groped to pick up the hilt, only to have his brows furrowed involuntarily because of the faint spiritual energy lingering on the sword.

Places where spiritual veins are hidden will give birth to spiritual energy. Such places are blessed lands for the living, but he was essentially a dead man now. He was very indifferent, even somewhat averse, to this light and peaceful aura.

“Don’t like it?” Xiao Nian looked at his expression and brought out another sword. “Then try this one.”

This time he was even stingier—a low-grade spiritual weapon.

Lin Xiaodong almost couldn’t suppress the twitching of the corners of his mouth. He used all his strength to keep himself from glaring at Xiao Nian, even though he couldn’t see anything. Based on the principle that one must endure what ordinary people cannot to achieve great things, he pursed his lips tightly and picked up that low-grade spiritual weapon that he wouldn’t have spared a second glance at in the past.

“…Eh?” The youth weighed it with some surprise. “Why does it feel so light?”

“Because it only has a hilt,” Xiao Nian said. “You can infuse your demonic energy to act as the blade.”

He tentatively input a bit of demonic energy and found that, as expected, there was no discomfort at all.

So, this thing was basically something similar to a Star Wars lightsaber?

Lin Xiaodong toyed with the sword hilt with some curiosity. After a while, he looked up and asked Xiao Nian: “Master, what is its name?”

“Nameless,” Xiao Nian had already sat back on the stone stool, drinking his ten-thousand-year-unchanging peach blossom… water. “It’s a defective product from the Weapon Refinement Sect.”

Lin Xiaodong: “…………”

Holding that sword hilt, he for a moment didn’t know what to say.

Although he indeed came to Xiao Nian’s side with ill intent, the man’s current attitude was far too dismissive of him as a disciple, wasn’t it?

But perhaps seeing the youth’s expression as too jumbled, Xiao Nian suddenly chuckled softly, looked at him and said: “Don’t think too much. I only have you as a disciple; I won’t harm you.”

Lin Xiaodong had originally felt like complaining, but after hearing this sentence, his mood instantly plummeted to the bottom.

The blind youth lowered his head and gave a soft “Mhm.”

Xiao Nian opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something more, but in the end, the man just stood up silently, stood in the courtyard, and drew his sword.

Hearing the clear ring of the Lige Sword, the youth’s expression momentarily dazed. But he quickly focused his mind and began to openly use his spiritual sense to probe the flow of spiritual energy within Xiao Nian’s body.

The sword Qi kicked up the peach blossom petals throughout the courtyard. Xiao Nian deliberately slowed down his movements for him.

But actually, it wasn’t necessary at all, Lin Xiaodong thought.

The days of being imprisoned in the coffin were too hard to endure. Besides chatting with the system, he could only repeatedly look through the data of this world to pass the time.

So, if he wanted to, Lin Xiaodong could even go up right now and perform a set of sword moves identical to Xiao Nian’s.

The sound of wind breaking through the air whistled past, yet it softly brushed against his cheek like a gentle caress. The blind youth “looked” toward the man with hollow, sightless eyes, his expression focused as if he were seriously learning.

But in reality, his thoughts had long since drifted elsewhere.

In the dead of night, he had once personally touched every inch of the man’s skin, used his lips to leave kisses full of love on the Immortal Venerable who was unattainable during the day, reached out his arms, and smilingly hugged the other’s neck, whispering tender sentiments in his ear.

—Therefore, no one understood better than Lin Xiaodong just how resilient Xiao Nian’s body was.

It was a body tempered a thousand times over. Whether from the perspective of aesthetic proportions, hidden power, or cultivation, it could be called perfect.

“Master…” the blind youth’s thin lips trembled, and he suddenly let out a groan that sounded like pain.

For some reason, Xiao Nian’s sword moves suddenly paused. Had it been an ordinary person, or even one of those elders of the Cloudsoaring Sect, such a sudden cessation of movement would have caused some internal injury to the body. But the man seemed to feel nothing at all, still asking in his usual indifferent tone: “What’s wrong?”

Lin Xiaodong shook his head: “Nothing, I just feel that Master, you are too amazing, I’m afraid I won’t be able to learn it.”

Xiao Nian watched him quietly. In a corner where the youth couldn’t see, his expression softened slightly.

“I will teach you,” he said. “Come here.”

Lin Xiaodong held that defective sword hilt and stood up somewhat reluctantly.

“Did you see the sword moves clearly?” Xiao Nian asked.

Seeing him nod, Xiao Nian continued: “Then perform them once for me to see.”

Lin Xiaodong had no interest in learning any sword techniques. He only wanted to know if Xiao Nian had been injured because of the interruption just now, so he euphemistically reminded him: “Master, you hadn’t finished all the sword moves just now, had you?”

“It doesn’t matter, you can practice the first ten moves first.”

Facing an enemy who never acted according to common sense, Lin Xiaodong could only hold his nose and temporarily follow his words.

He certainly wouldn’t be so foolish as to show his familiarity with this set of sword techniques in front of Xiao Nian; after all, he was just a blind person who had just joined the Cloudsoaring Sect. So it was quite normal for his swordplay to be crooked and without system, wasn’t it?

But perhaps Lin Xiaodong’s performance was too much. He gave the feeling of a drunken blind man, holding half a tree branch and swaying aimlessly in the courtyard. This was a perfunctory attitude that would make any master fly into a rage; a hot-tempered one might even expel him from the sect on the spot.

Xiao Nian, however, just stood to the side, silently watching as he repeated this set of sword moves in a completely eyesore-inducing way, and then patiently pointed out his mistakes: “In the first move, keep your arm level; your center of gravity is too low. There’s a problem with the transition in the second move, and the third move…”

Lin Xiaodong was very surprised to find that Xiao Nian was actually seriously teaching him sword techniques!

He was a bit confused by the man’s inconsistent attitude.

But he still boldly said: “Master, I can’t see. Could you come a bit closer and help me adjust my angles?”

Xiao Nian’s voice paused: “…I can.”

He seemed completely oblivious to the surging malice in the youth’s heart. He walked over, his right hand lifting Lin Xiaodong’s forearm, while his other hand rested on the youth’s waist, signaling him to lower his body.

Feeling the heat source in close proximity, Lin Xiaodong’s heartbeat gradually accelerated, and even his eardrums rang with a thunderous roar.

No, he didn’t have a heartbeat at all now.

Lin Xiaodong suddenly reacted, and only then realized that what he had heard just now was actually Xiao Nian’s heartbeat?

But this shouldn’t be.

He was also very familiar with Xiao Nian’s heartbeat. The youth’s favorite thing to do was to press his cheek against his master’s chest, feeling that scorching temperature, and fall asleep to the man’s powerful heartbeat. At that time, he didn’t know Xiao Nian practiced the Path of Ruthlessness, but he still noticed that the man’s heartbeat always seemed to have only one frequency.

Stable, calm, with a power that soothed the heart.

Although looking back now, all that soothing the heart was bullshit, and Xiao Nian was essentially no different from those pretty boys who relied on their looks to climb up, Lin Xiaodong still found it strange. Could it be that the other party was nervous now?

What a joke, this was Xiao Nian.

He wanted to turn his head, but then remembered he couldn’t see anything now. Using spiritual sense too blatantly to scan a face would also be discovered. He could only guess wildly in his heart: could it be that this bastard discovered something?

“Don’t lose focus.”

Xiao Nian’s deep voice made the blind youth’s body tremble slightly. He immediately straightened his expression and apologized proactively: “Sorry, Master.”

Forget it, he thought. No matter what Xiao Nian’s intentions were, it didn’t matter.

He had already died once. Could he possibly die again?

The youth thought maliciously. He pretended not to have controlled the sword hilt well, and his originally calm demonic energy suddenly erupted, stabbing fiercely toward Xiao Nian’s eyes!

The distance between the two was already close, and this attack was even more unexpected. Lin Xiaodong didn’t believe Xiao Nian could remain unscathed like this!

But to his disappointment, watching the demonic energy coming straight for his eyes, Xiao Nian didn’t change his expression, but merely tilted his head and neatly dodged the sharpest part of the demonic energy. However, his cheek was still swept by the sharp wind, leaving a shallow scratch.

In the moment that trace of blood flowed from the wound, Lin Xiaodong failed to see that a blood-red light quickly flashed through his eyes.

Blood containing immortal Qi possessed a huge attraction for all the undead in this world. He couldn’t help but reach out his cold fingertips, gently brushing over the wound on Xiao Nian’s face, and subconsciously extended the tip of his tongue to lightly lick it away.

Xiao Nian’s gaze was fixed on him, his hand gripping the sword hilt turning white from excessive force.

His body was as tense as a fully drawn bowstring, his expression cold as frost, but he didn’t seem to be angry. Even just from the surface, he still looked like a cold stone statue without any emotion.

“You…”

The blind youth, however, raised his head and gave him a slightly dazed smile.

“Master,” he laughed, “it’s so sweet.”