Chapter 56#

Immortal Chu Han had ascended to the position of Immortal at a young age. Born during the era of the Immortal Calamity, his sword had been stained with untold blood.

During the most perilous times, he had fought several great demons of the Snow Demon Clan alone in the wind and snow, descended into the ten-thousand-foot water abyss of Beiming to slay great demons, and ventured deep into the heart of the demonic territories in the extreme northern border to slaughter evil spirits and seal ten thousand miles of turbid qi.

He had stood on the line between life and death countless times.

He had never been afraid.

In his youth, he never thought he would possess an emotion like fear.

Now, however, he was so afraid that he didn’t even dare to speak.

Afraid that some slip in his words would be noticed by his Senior Brother, afraid that he truly possessed nothing that could convince his Senior Brother to stay.

Regarding his Senior Brother’s return, Xie Zhefeng actually saw it clearly; there must be many doubts involved.

But he didn’t dare ask.

He was terrified.

In the end, he only said softly, “The matters in Beiming are not yet settled; this should be… discussed later.”

An Wuxue was used to Xie Zhefeng’s difficult-to-negotiate manner and nodded absently, “Mm.”

It wasn’t that he actually needed Xie Zhefeng’s agreement to leave.

If the puppet technique was resolved, he would naturally leave on his own.

He spoke no more, and Xie Zhefeng also fell silent. The two watched the past events flow before them. In the past that Zhao Duan had been told about, time skipped forward to the moment Madame Qiao was about to give birth.

Immortal cultivators were, after all, different from mortals; the day of delivery could be slightly controlled.

Zhao Qiuran deliberately chose the same day as Madame Qiao for delivery and intentionally created some commotion with demonic cultivators outside the city, forcing Qiao Gou to rush out of the city.

She and Madame Qiao both gave birth to a boy.

With Qiao Gou not in the City Lord’s Mansion, and Zhao Qiuran being a Tribulation Transcendence cultivator, no one in the mansion had a cultivation level comparable to hers, so they naturally couldn’t discover her tracks.

She directly took her own child and used an illusion to confuse the cultivator holding the children, swapping the two infants. She also swapped their life tablets, so unless Qiao Gou himself became suspicious, checking the life tablets alone would reveal nothing.

After doing this, she left with Qiao Gou’s son.

She thought that the child of Qiao Gou and that mortal woman would eventually have to call her “mother.”

As for the child she took away, she publicly declared him to be her own son. The Zhao family named him Zhao Duan—literally “upright and honorable gentleman.”

And Qiao Ting was, of course, the child who had been swapped.

From then on, the subsequent memories were of Zhao Duan’s personal experiences, and the memory images began to gradually clear up.

When Zhao Qiuran took Zhao Duan away, she thought he would be like Qiao Yin, a child born with excellent skeletal structure.

Unexpectedly, Qiao Yin seemed to have used up all the luck; Zhao Duan’s talent was ordinary—not bad, but certainly not that of a genius.

In contrast, Qiao Ting gradually grew into an elegant young man and showed considerable comprehension in the sword path. Although he was younger than Qiao Yin, he was on the verge of catching up to his sister.

And Zhao Duan?

He had grown into a profligate son of a wealthy family.

His nominal mother was one of only two Tribulation Transcendence masters in the twenty-seventh city. Except for his “mother,” no one dared to discipline him.

Moreover, Zhao Qiuran knew he was the child of that mortal woman and found him truly tiresome to look at. She simply ignored him, giving him whatever he wanted and letting him play however he wished. Gradually, he lost all restraint.

Thus passed a hundred years. The mortal woman grew very old, her lifespan reached its end, and she died in Qiao Gou’s arms.

At this point, Zhao Qiuran actually saw through her obsession.

After all, a hundred years had passed in the blink of an eye.

She was no longer obsessed with Qiao Gou, but the children had been swapped for a hundred years, and the deed was done, so she simply let it be.

She hadn’t watched Qiao Ting grow up and felt little connection to the blood bond. Previously, she had found Zhao Duan annoying, but now, looking at Qiao Ting, who had been raised by that mortal woman, she started to feel that he wasn’t as pleasing to the eye as the Zhao Duan she had brought back herself.

However, since Qiao Ting was after all her biological son, to ease her conscience, she frequently sent him things under various pretexts.

After Qiao Ting reached the Great Completion stage and gained insight into the Dao, he was as agile as a startled rabbit and as serene as a virgin. His sword cultivation, appearance, and conduct were all top-tier. Even though he didn’t intend it, as children of fellow Tribulation Transcendence cultivators born on the same day, Zhao Duan was inevitably compared to him.

He and Zhao Duan were constantly compared. When people mentioned that useless Zhao Duan, they would say, “Look how clever Young Master Qiao is.” When mentioning Qiao Ting, they would say, “Why doesn’t Young Master Zhao learn properly from Young Master Qiao?”

Qiao Ting felt this was not good and naturally didn’t want to accept Zhao Qiuran’s favors.

He found Immortal Master Zhao exceptionally strange.

She showed neither the parental love of an elder nor the mutual appreciation of a fellow cultivator. She gave him items for no apparent reason, not as if she wanted to give him something, but rather as if she herself wanted some kind of comfort.

He couldn’t understand it, so every time Zhao Qiuran sent something, he would privately return it to Zhao Duan.

But from Zhao Duan’s perspective, things were completely different.

Zhao Qiuran felt she owed Zhao Duan a great deal and was even more indulgent toward him.

Zhao Duan didn’t like to cultivate, so she sought out spiritual medicines with no side effects to boost his cultivation. Zhao Duan liked to linger in wine and smoke alleys, and she turned a blind eye, sometimes even giving him spiritual stones to squander.

Zhao Duan only felt that he had everything and that his mother’s kindness was only right—in those first hundred years, it was as if he didn’t exist in Zhao Qiuran’s eyes. Wasn’t it only natural for her to compensate him now?

The only person who truly annoyed him was that Qiao Ting.

Compared to him in every way, and better than him in every way!

Wasn’t it just because he was the child of the number one master?

Wasn’t it just because he had been raised by the cultivators of the City Lord’s Mansion since childhood?

Watching Qiao Ting standing at his door returning the spiritual treasure Zhao Qiuran had sent, Zhao Duan raised his hand and directly knocked the treasure away.

“Hypocrite!”

The treasure rolled several times on the ground.

Qiao Ting rolled his eyes. “Can’t you show some courtesy? Immortal Master Zhao gave this to me, and I only came to return it because it’s not right for me to keep it. What part of that is hypocritical?”

“Aren’t you just here to flaunt that my mother likes you?”

Qiao Ting: “…”

Finding no common ground, Qiao Ting didn’t pick up the treasure and turned to leave.

Zhao Duan curled his lip and stared at the treasure on the ground for a while. Once Qiao Ting was gone, he picked it up himself.

And so it went.

Until one day, Zhao Duan began to feel unsatisfied with everything he currently had.

He felt the beauties who rushed to fawn over him were uninteresting. If he were to marry, he would marry the best female cultivator in the twenty-seventh city!

Wasn’t that Qiao Yin?

He didn’t like Qiao Yin at all; he just wanted to have the best things.

Most importantly, he wanted to see the look of rage and frustration on Qiao Ting’s face.

If Qiao Yin joined him as a Dao companion, wouldn’t he have won over Qiao Ting?

So he declared he would marry no one but Qiao Yin.

Qiao Yin was Zhao Duan’s biological sister; how could things truly be so absurd?

Zhao Qiuran was helpless and finally revealed the events of that year.

In a fit of rage, Qiao Gou wanted to kill Zhao Qiuran, but she was also a Tribulation Transcendence cultivator and had the entire Zhao clan’s cultivators behind her. Qiao Gou had too many constraints; after beating her to a state of serious injury, he had to leave it at that.

But the commotion of their battle was too great, and the news spread from mouth to mouth until the entire twenty-seventh city of Beiming knew.

The whole city was shocked—that ignorant and useless profligate was actually the City Lord’s son!

After Qiao Ting learned of this, he stood to one side for a long time, silent.

Zhao Duan, however, grew even more resentful.

He walked up to Qiao Ting and spat. “As expected, you were the one who snatched everything of mine!”

This time, Qiao Ting didn’t talk back.

He said, “I’m sorry.”

Qiao Ting had, after all, grown up in the City Lord’s Mansion. Qiao Gou had always considered him his own son, and Qiao Yin had always considered him her own brother.

Now that the mistake had been made, they simply let both children be young masters of the mansion, addressing each other as brothers.

Since Zhao Qiuran had done this herself, she felt even more guilty toward Zhao Duan and became increasingly indulgent toward him thereafter.

Qiao Gou hadn’t expected his and his wife’s biological son to have been taken away by Zhao Qiuran for so long without his knowing. His wife’s lifespan was already an insurmountable regret in his heart, and Zhao Duan carried that regret.

Both Qiao Gou and Qiao Yin treated Zhao Duan with exceptional care.

After comparing himself to Qiao Ting for so long, Zhao Duan finally, at this moment, completely surpassed him.

Thereafter, Qiao Ting yielded to Zhao Duan in many ways.

He even gave his spiritual pouch to Zhao Duan, handing over all his spiritual treasures and pills.

But Zhao Duan still felt it wasn’t enough.

Because Qiao Ting had cultivated to the peak of the Great Completion stage and was on the verge of Tribulation Transcendence.

Meanwhile, he was still in the late-stage of Great Completion, unable to make any progress.

Even though their identities had been swapped back, and even though Qiao Ting could no longer compare to him, why could this person still reach a higher level?

He wanted to see Qiao Ting fallen from grace, he wanted to see Qiao Ting’s humiliated appearance.

But everything Qiao Ting did was too perfectly in accordance with the rules; one couldn’t find any fault with him. Not only that, but Qiao Ting was approachable, and the cultivators of the City Lord’s Mansion all liked talking to him, still whispering privately that Zhao Duan was useless.

Zhao Duan became increasingly dissatisfied and hit upon a plan.

Enduring the pain, he used one of the spirit swords Qiao Ting had returned to him to slash his own hand. Then he went stumbling to Qiao Gou, saying Qiao Ting couldn’t stand him and had intentionally injured him.

The wound was very superficial, clearly not something caused by Qiao Ting’s sword techniques.

Qiao Ting said directly, “You slashed yourself to frame me, didn’t you? Father,” he still called Qiao Gou that, “I have never harmed Zhao Duan in the slightest.”

How could Qiao Gou not see through it?

But his deceased mortal wife was the love of his life, more important than anything else. Thinking that his wife had regarded Qiao Ting as her own son until her death and had never recognized Zhao Duan, he felt guilty toward Zhao Duan.

He said to Qiao Ting, “Go receive three rounds of lightning punishment yourself, and don’t bully Duan’er again next time.”

Qiao Yin wanted to say something, but in the end, she remained silent.

Qiao Ting was stunned.

Zhao Duan smiled triumphantly and then deliberately covered his wound and began to groan.

After a long while, Qiao Ting’s eyes gradually turned red, but he said nothing, turning away to receive the punishment.

Zhao Duan was present to watch the punishment, looking with satisfaction at the wounded Qiao Ting. He threw down some spiritual medicine, letting the porcelain bottle roll in front of Qiao Ting. “Bastard, a reward for you.”

Qiao Ting was in such pain that his gaze was dazed, and he didn’t respond.

Zhao Duan laughed. “You’re not happy? If you’re not happy, go cry to Father and Mother and see if City Lord Qiao cares about you or if Immortal Master Zhao bothers with you.”

Qiao Ting gradually regained his senses. Looking at the spiritual medicine on the ground, he picked it up after all.

Everything of his had been returned to Zhao Duan; he had nothing left.

This medicine was indeed worth swallowing his pride for.

Seeing him pick it up, Zhao Duan laughed even more heartily.

Holding the spiritual medicine, Qiao Ting returned to his bedroom with the help of a mansion cultivator.

After his wounds healed, he went alone to the Ancient Starry Path. Braving the astral winds that were strong enough to strip a person’s skin and show their bones, he picked many Star Grasses that could store spiritual energy.

Returning to the City Lord’s Mansion, in front of Zhao Duan and Qiao Yin, he knelt before Qiao Gou, forced all the spiritual energy in his body into the Star Grasses, and broke his own Dao.

Qiao Gou hadn’t expected him to do this and said in shock, “What are you doing?”

“This spiritual energy and cultivation were obtained in the City Lord’s Mansion. If Father and Sister both feel that I’ve snatched everything from this dog named Zhao—”

“Hey, who are you calling a dog?”

Qiao Ting ignored him and continued, “I am no longer Father’s son, nor am I Sister’s brother. Henceforth, the City Lord’s Mansion has nothing to do with me, and Immortal Master Zhao also has no relation to me.”

“Qiao Ting will only be a rogue cultivator of Beiming.”

His cultivation dropped to the Fasting stage. With a pale face, he walked out of the City Lord’s Mansion. Qiao Yin chased after him. “Brother…”

Qiao Ting left.

Without looking back.