Chapter 125#
The Disciple’s Rebirth and Revenge#
When the messenger disciple rushed to Cold Maple Peak, Xiao Nian was not in the courtyard.
In his anxiety, seeing no protective arrays on the room, he pushed the door open directly: “Immortal Venerable Xiao, the Sect Master told me to find—”
He cut himself off mid-sentence. Xiao Nian quickly closed the wardrobe and slapped a sealing array onto the door, then turned around nonchalantly and asked, “What is it?”
The disciple stared blankly toward the wardrobe.
Just now, did he see a second Immortal Venerable inside?
A-an illusion, right?
“The Sect Master sent me to find you,” he swallowed hard, forcing himself to forget the scene he had just witnessed. How could Immortal Venerable Xiao hide another version of himself in the wardrobe? It must be a puppet!
“Your disciple is currently fighting Senior Sister Bai Yue on the square. The Sect Master is worried an accident might happen and hopes you can show up.”
Xiao Nian gave a noncommittal nod.
“Lead the way,” he said.
“Oh… oh!” The disciple finally reacted and quickly made way. “This way, Immortal Venerable.”
It definitely was an illusion.
When Xiao Nian arrived at the square, the crowd surrounding Lin Xiaodong and Bai Yue was already several layers deep.
“Go, Senior Sister!” “Don’t lose to that blind man!”
Bai Yue was, after all, the prestigious daughter of the Sect Master in the hearts of the disciples. Naturally, more people were cheering for her than for Lin Xiaodong, whom almost no one knew and who carried an aura of demonic energy. However, when the first cheering disciple accidentally caught a glimpse of Xiao Nian descending from the flying boat out of the corner of his eye, his neck shrunk, and he went silent.
As more and more people noticed Xiao Nian’s arrival, a wordless silence quickly spread across the square.
Even a few new disciples who hadn’t seen Xiao Nian and were still immersed in the exciting match on stage, wanting to continue cheering for Bai Yue, had their mouths covered by older disciples beside them.
“Shh, Immortal Venerable Xiao is here!”
Wherever the white-robed Immortal Venerable went, everyone feared him, and everyone kept a respectful distance.
Although the impression Xiao Nian left on Cloudsoaring Sect back then was also that of an unattainable drifting cloud, no one knew he practiced the Path of Ruthlessness, which severs all emotions. Everyone only saw that after his eldest disciple died, the elders’ attitude toward Xiao Nian immediately underwent a 180-degree turn.
And as disciples, they naturally followed their masters, which led to the current situation.
Due to Xiao Nian’s arrival, Lin Xiaodong and Bai Yue on the stage naturally stopped their movements. Bai Yue’s breathing was somewhat unstable, and the look she gave Lin Xiaodong was very strange, even carrying a trace of doubt.
No matter how much she changed, she was still the pearl of Cloudsoaring Sect who hadn’t suffered much and grew up being pampered. Therefore, she didn’t think too much and asked directly: “Your master hasn’t taught you anything; how did you learn all this?”
Xiao Nian’s footsteps paused, and he also looked at Lin Xiaodong.
Clearly, he also wanted to hear how the youth would spin this lie.
Being heard by the person involved while speaking ill of them, the blind youth still smiled with ease. He tucked his hands into his pockets, putting on a gentle and humble appearance: “Although Master hasn’t specifically guided me, his teaching by example has been enough for me to comprehend a lot.”
Bullshit!
At this moment, not only the disciples below the stage but even Bai Yue stared at him with a look of “what kind of nonsense are you talking?”
“Forget it,” she sneered, “if you don’t want to say, then don’t. But Immortal Venerable, this disciple of yours is indeed a ‘remarkable’ figure.”
Xiao Nian nodded slightly: “I know.”
He tilted his head slightly and beckoned to Lin Xiaodong: “Let’s go.”
Lin Xiaodong didn’t want to leave yet.
He had just had a fight with Bai Yue and hadn’t found out anything. Xiao Nian was making him go back now; how could he be willing?
However, probably seeing the youth’s silent protest, and to prevent him from saying more flowery words, Xiao Nian flew directly to his side. Ignoring Lin Xiaodong’s suddenly stiff body, he placed a hand on his shoulder.
“I’m taking him away.”
“Who—” agreed to go with you?
Just as Lin Xiaodong was about to coldly snap this sentence, Xiao Nian stepped forward half a pace, his thin lips moving slightly at a position only inches away from his left ear: “If you come back with me, I’ll tell you a secret.”
The blind youth was slightly stunned, but he had already missed the best time to refuse.
“Get on the flying boat.”
“…………”
In the end, he silently returned to the small courtyard on Cold Maple Peak with Xiao Nian.
“What secret were you talking about?” As soon as they got off the flying boat, Lin Xiaodong asked immediately.
He didn’t believe Xiao Nian would really reveal any secret to him, but for some reason, Lin Xiaodong still followed him back.
“The room you’re living in,” Xiao Nian raised his hand to put away the flying boat. He didn’t look in the youth’s direction but just stared at the red silk prayer ribbons hanging on the peach tree branches, saying indifferently, “someone once lived there.”
The blind youth’s smile was ironic: “Is that so? So the ‘secret’ you wanted to tell me is this, Master?”
His tone was cold. At this moment, he completely tore off his usual veil of warmth. Although he called him “Master,” the smile on his face was as terrifying as a pale malevolent ghost crawling back from hell.
“Since he left, I haven’t let anyone else inside,” Xiao Nian seemed not to see his mocking expression but just continued, “except for you.”
“Should I feel honored by this?”
Xiao Nian withdrew his gaze and looked at him fixedly for a moment with a look that Lin Xiaodong couldn’t quite understand yet.
“I’ve told you the secret I wanted to tell,” he said, “as for the rest, I can’t say more.”
“If you want to discover it, go find it yourself.”
After saying that, he went into his room.
Lin Xiaodong: “…What on earth does this man mean?”
He knew that those seeking the Dao liked to talk in enigmas, but Xiao Nian, who practiced the Path of Ruthlessness, why was he playing this game too?
System: “Maybe he just wanted to find an excuse to trick you back?”
Lin Xiaodong: “Damn it!”
But that night, lying in his room, tossing and turning, his mind was full of the expression Xiao Nian had when he stood in the courtyard and said those words to him.
The man said he “had already told the secret,” but Lin Xiaodong thought over their conversation several times and still didn’t know what on earth Xiao Nian had told him.
“He told me to find it myself,” he whispered, “but what on earth should I find? I know the origin of every decoration in this room; what secret could there be?”
Because he couldn’t sleep, Lin Xiaodong simply flipped over and sat up.
He used his spiritual sense to “look” around the room’s display but found nothing wrong.
“Could it be…” Lin Xiaodong suddenly guessed a possibility, “System, is there anything in this world that can block spiritual sense but can be observed with the naked eye?”
The system searched and replied: “Yes.”
His spirits lifted: “What is it?”
“In common terms, it should be a type of sealing technique,” the system said. “I just did a simple scan with the energy meter. There’s one in your room, right under the bed, but there are two more in Xiao Nian’s room.”
Lin Xiaodong immediately jumped out of bed. Without using his spiritual sense, he just reached underneath to grope around, and sure enough, he dragged out a dusty wooden box.
“The secret Xiao Nian mentioned is this thing?”
In the youth’s memory, he indeed didn’t remember when this thing had appeared in his room.
The wooden box wasn’t large, only about the width of an adult’s forearm. When Lin Xiaodong used his spiritual sense to scan it, he would doubt there was anything in front of him; but the heavy weight in his hand told him that this thing indeed existed.
“How magical.” He marvelled, “System, how do you break the seal?”
System: “Just tear off the sealing strip directly.”
So Lin Xiaodong tentatively lifted a corner of the sealing strip attached to it.
Nothing happened.
But after the seal loosened, he could “see” the shape of the wooden box with his spiritual sense. Lin Xiaodong had just let the system play a series of female ghost revenge horror movies last night to find inspiration, and now his head was full of the terrifying idea that a human head might pop out after opening the box.
He pursed his lips tightly. Seeing that there was no movement next door, he estimated that Xiao Nian was aware of the contents of this wooden box.
Although the man was not to be trusted, this was Cold Maple Peak, after all.
He took a deep breath and opened the wooden box in one go.
“…………”
After an unknown amount of time, Lin Xiaodong finally asked slowly in a voice like he was dreaming, “System, tell me, why are these things here?”
The system was also stunned: “I-I-I don’t know either!”
The items in the wooden box were simple, only three:
A piece of black jade pendant broken in two, with the character “Lin” carved on it; a small section of an adult male’s severed finger, still wearing a ring engraved in silver; and a… SpongeBob SquarePants carved from yellow Hetian jade.
Presumably, SpongeBob never thought he could have such an illustrious day.
The first item could barely be considered a relic left by the youth. The second, although a bit horrifying, the immortal realm didn’t have a “Criminal Law” for protection; let alone cutting off a finger, as long as one was strong enough, killing was fine.
But SpongeBob appearing in this world was a bit too ridiculous, wasn’t it!?
“I think your headquarters should give me an explanation,” Lin Xiaodong revealed a “kind” smile, “Is the one next door Gu Xi again?”
The system said guiltily: “P-perhaps?”
“Are you kidding me!” Lin Xiaodong suppressed the anger in his heart and roared in a low voice, “Don’t you know how deep the resentment buried in this body is? The original host is dead, so where did Xiao Nian go?”
And if the current Xiao Nian really was Gu Xi, why wouldn’t he tell him anything!?
He put down the wooden box, wanting to go next door to ask clearly on the spot, but the system immediately stopped him: “No! If Xiao Nian isn’t Gu Xi, you rashly revealing information about the headquarters to people in the small world would be judged as a mission failure!”
Lin Xiaodong stopped his footsteps and asked back: “Then tell me, what should I do?”
“…………” The system couldn’t answer either.
“Forget it,” the youth said with a dark face, taking a deep breath, “let me be quiet for a bit.”
He had to think carefully about what on earth was going on.
Lin Xiaodong sat by the bed with his head bowed, carefully recalling his experiences since the first day he came to this world. He had already sensed the special nature of this world when he crossed over. Previously, no matter how tragic the host’s life and encounter were, their residual emotions wouldn’t stay in the body for that long; basically, they would dissipate completely within a few hours.
Only this time, even until now, seeing Xiao Nian’s face, a reasonless urge to cut open the other’s heart and stomach would still rise in his heart.
Hatred and anger had almost made him lose his reason several times in front of Xiao Nian.
This feeling was practically like, practically like…
—It was like those desperate and dark encounters of being betrayed by a beloved one were something he had experienced personally.