IVYSCP - Chapter 31
Chapter 31
Ling Qingyue gave the medicinal pills and the bag of money to Lin Zhao.
Lin Zhao refused to take them, so Ling Qingyue said she was entrusting her to look after the little courtyard she shared with Pei Si, that they would come back to stay again someday.
Lin Zhao accepted, gazing at Ling Qingyue for a moment before asking, "Will you really... come back?"
Would they truly return to this remote little town that had nothing, after going to the Immortal Realm?
Ling Qingyue smiled. "Of course. I've stayed here for quite a long time too, haven't I?"
Lin Zhao's eyes reddened a little, but hearing this, she smiled as well. "Alright. I'll look after your courtyard and wait for you to come back."
After saying goodbye, Ling Qingyue went back to the wooden house in the little courtyard and took several good pieces of wood and a set of carving knives, stowing them all into the Qiankun Pouch she had obtained from the Piaomiao Sect cultivator.
"What are you bringing these for?" Pei Si asked.
Ling Qingyue glanced at her and pressed her lips together in a smile. "To make wood carvings."
Pei Si remembered their earlier promise and smiled too. A wood carving every day.
Before leaving the little courtyard, Pei Si raised her hand and set down a formation.
Ling Qingyue lowered her head and stifled a laugh. Knowing full well this was the Mortal Realm, yet still using a formation to protect it. Didn't that mean Pei Si really liked this place too, and wanted to come back here with her someday?
The two of them went to meet up with Nie Wenxiao and the others. When they reached the town entrance, Ling Qingyue caught a glimpse from the corner of her eye of a sneaky head peeking out from an alleyway.
Thinking about what she was going to do next, Ling Qingyue tilted her head toward Pei Si, her eyes curving as she smiled.
Pei Si looked at her, thinking she now resembled a little fox whose ears had perked up, ready to do something mischievous.
"Go ahead."
Ling Qingyue froze, heat rushing to her face. She felt both a little embarrassed at being seen through and shy at hearing Pei Si's rather doting words.
Ling Qingyue let go of her hand, slipped quietly through another alley, and silently came up behind that figure.
"Aiya, isn't this Eldest Miss Xue? What are you hiding here for?"
"Aiya" had been called out rather loudly, and Xue Zizai was startled into a tremble. She turned around with a terrified look, the bell on her head jingling with the movement.
Seeing who it was, the Eldest Miss was both embarrassed and angry, her fair face instantly flushing bright red. She ground her teeth. "Who's hiding! I was just tired and stopped to rest here for a moment. Is that not allowed?!"
"Allowed, allowed." Ling Qingyue nodded along with her words, then cast a casual glance toward the Piaomiao Sect down the mountain and offhandedly remarked, "They'll be leaving soon."
The Eldest Miss panicked, just as expected. "Leaving? Then!"
Then what about her? Would Senior Sister Lu Yao take her along?
Seeing her words cut off abruptly, Ling Qingyue deliberately pressed, "Then? Then what?"
Xue Zizai glared at her. "None of your business!"
So fierce. Just a couple of words and she was already bristling and baring her teeth.
Ling Qingyue laughed until her eyes narrowed. "I hear that Piaomiao Sect's Bi Luo fruit is sweet and sour."
Xue Zizai looked at her with puzzled eyes.
Why bring this up out of nowhere?
"I don't really like sour things. I wonder if I'll be able to get used to the food when I go there."
Xue Zizai: "..."
Ling Qingyue heard the sound of knuckles cracking, quite crisp and clear.
She couldn't help laughing out loud. Facing Eldest Miss Xue's murderous gaze, Ling Qingyue asked sincerely, "You really want to go to Piaomiao Sect, don't you? I heard an elder there has taken a liking to you, but with all the trouble at Piaomiao Sect lately, they probably haven't had the time for you. How about you take me as your master? I'll bring you along."
She knew this Eldest Miss would never agree.
Sure enough, Eldest Miss Xue was so furious her eyes went red. She turned aside and took a deep breath, then put on her usual look of looking down on everyone and sneered, "In your dreams. My master, Xue Zizai, will definitely be a peerless genius like Ling Qingyue, a thousand times better than you."
Ling Qingyue raised her eyebrows.
Oh, a peerless genius like myself.
Xue Zizai cast one last glance down the mountain, spun on her heel to leave. After two steps, as though still unable to swallow her anger, she came back and stood in front of Ling Qingyue, pointed a finger at her and said viciously, "The day we meet again in the Immortal Realm, I'll definitely beat you up hard."
Ling Qingyue laughed very happily. "Sure, I'll be waiting."
The Eldest Miss glared at her, making sure to remember her.
Ling Qingyue came out of the alley in a cheerful mood and walked up to Pei Si.
Seeing her smiling so brightly that her eyes curved, Pei Si asked softly, "What did you talk about?"
Ling Qingyue raised a hand and pressed the corner of her mouth, trying not to let her grin get too out of control, but she couldn't hide it in her voice. "She said Ling Qingyue is a peerless genius, that she wants to take a peerless genius as her master, and then she's going to beat me up."
A soft laugh sounded beside her ear, like a light breeze, cool and very pleasant to hear.
Ling Qingyue touched her own ear and turned to look at Pei Si, whose face had lit up with a smile.
Pei Si's pupils were very light, a beautiful amber. When she looked at people, she was cool and distant, but when she truly smiled, the corners of her eyes curved gently, the depths of her gaze shimmering with flecks of light. The coolness was gone, the distance was gone, replaced by a tenderness that made one's heart stir helplessly.
Ling Qingyue watched as those beautiful amber eyes drew closer and closer, stopping right before her.
"Is there something on my face?"
"No, no." Ling Qingyue snapped back to her senses, her gaze shifting aside, then shifting back. In a small voice, she said, "Your smile is really beautiful. Smile more for me, okay?"
Pei Si pursed her lips slightly, lowered her gaze and straightened up, letting out a soft sigh. "That depends on you."
Ling Qingyue thought to herself, truly a senior figure, someone who even needs coaxing and doting over to smile at others.
But then again, she was pretty good at coaxing people. It wouldn't be hard.
Ling Qingyue quickened her pace a little, then turned around and walked backward facing Pei Si. She clasped her hands behind her back, her tone light and breezy. "Then how about this: I'll trade you wood carvings for smiles. Every day I give you a wood carving, and you smile at me."
Pei Si considered it, looking at Ling Qingyue as she negotiated this little deal, and smiled again. "Alright."
The two of them talked as they reached the foot of the mountain, where they saw the Piaomiao Sect cultivators gathered together, with Nie Wenxiao in front of them.
Nie Wenxiao had used magic to change Liu Qingtang into a set of ritual robes and had put away her saber. She had also wanted to heal Liu Qingtang's injuries and reattach her severed limbs, but discovered that a formation was firmly anchored inside her body. She couldn't break through it, nor could she treat Liu Qingtang's wounds.
A pale golden spiritual energy sustained the formation's operation, overbearing and domineering. Nie Wenxiao's eyes showed surprise.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the two figures, and she couldn't help but begin to speculate about their identities.
Lu Yao had said this Ah Xi was from Shangtianqiong and had extraordinary swordsmanship. She had never experienced her sword skills firsthand, so she would set that aside for now. But if she was a Shangtianqiong cultivator, why did she act that way toward Cui Heng? And Pei Si, who was she, to be able to set a formation inside a person's body? When had such a formidable array cultivator ever appeared in the Immortal Realm?
Pei Si...
As if something had occurred to her, Nie Wenxiao suddenly lifted her eyes, only to meet a pair of cold, clear eyes.
Almost in an instant, Nie Wenxiao was certain.
The one before her was that Immortal Venerable from Cangshan.
Decades ago, when the Hundred Immortal Sects were being ranked again and Piaomiao Sect broke into the Seventy-Two Sects, Nie Wenxiao had gone to the Immortal Alliance's main hall to submit her sect insignia and had seen that Immortal Venerable once. Her eyes were cold and detached, looking at people without a shred of emotion. It was said she had switched to cultivating the Supreme Detachment Path.
Shouldn't the Immortal Venerable be in secluded cultivation at Cangshan? What was she doing here?
Just as she was thinking this, an icy voice suddenly sounded in her mind: "Do not reveal this."
Nie Wenxiao drew a deep breath and agreed, "Understood."
The Immortal Venerable's actions were always according to her own reasons.
"Sect Leader Nie, shall we go?" Ling Qingyue saw that they seemed to be ready.
Nie Wenxiao nodded. Taking Liu Qingtang with her, she was the first to leap into the air. The other Piaomiao Sect cultivators followed. Even Lu Yao stepped onto her sword and soared upward.
Ling Qingyue pressed her lips together, then opened them.
With her current cultivation, she couldn't fly, but she couldn't bring herself to say something so embarrassing.
Nie Wenxiao noticed that the two of them still hadn't moved and shifted her gaze slightly.
"Skyship." Another sentence came in her mind.
Nie Wenxiao: "..."
Using a skyship in the Immortal Realm was one thing, with its plentiful spiritual energy the spirit stone cost was negligible. But at present, they were in the Mortal Realm. Deploying a skyship here was somewhat extravagant and wasteful. Besides, they weren't all that far from the Heavenly Gate. Flying through the air for half an incense stick's time would get them there.
"Piaomiao Sect's grand sect formation."
In the next instant, Nie Wenxiao swept her long sleeve outward, and an enormous skyship soared into the air. Ignoring the shocked expressions of her sect's cultivators, she smiled at the two below and said, "You two are honored guests of Piaomiao Sect. You must not be treated with any slight."
A formation made by the Immortal Venerable of Cangshan—that was something you couldn't even beg for! If Piaomiao Sect could obtain the Immortal Venerable's array, they wouldn't even fear Shangtianqiong attacking!
Ling Qingyue quietly exclaimed, "Has Piaomiao Sect become this wealthy now?"
Judging by the skyship's scale and layout, it wasn't quite up to Shangtianqiong's standards, but it was only a little below Lingxu Immortal Palace's.
But how was she supposed to get up there?
As she was considering this, a hand suddenly wrapped around her waist. A figure flickered, and the two of them were already standing on the skyship, getting aboard even faster than the Piaomiao Sect members, as though they were the owners of the skyship.
At this moment, Nie Wenxiao was so excited she wished she could just gift the whole skyship to them outright.
Everyone boarded the skyship, and the green mountains rapidly swept past below.
Nie Wenxiao invited the two into the main chamber inside the skyship and personally poured two cups of tea.
"Regarding the matter at Linshui Town, I have generally learned the details from Feng Jian and the others."
Ling Qingyue took a sip of tea and asked, "Sect Leader Nie came here because you received a message from your disciple Yu Ting?"
Nie Wenxiao's brows held a trace of anger. "I did receive a message, but it was not from Yu Ting. At the moment of crisis, Yu Ting abandoned her fellow sect members. She is unworthy of being a Piaomiao Sect disciple, nor of being my disciple any longer. Once we return to the sect, I will issue an arrest warrant and capture the traitor Yu Ting."
Ling Qingyue had already guessed it wouldn't be Yu Ting who sent the message. She had a reinforcement summons arrow, and even if she hadn't, if she had wanted to return to the Immortal Realm for help, she wouldn't have set up another restriction on the barrier, trapping her fellow sect members together with the rotting corpses.
"Then who did send word to Sect Leader Nie?"
Nie Wenxiao shook her head. "Unknown. The message concealed its spiritual signature. It only said that Qingtang was not dead and was in the Mortal Realm. I thus tracked her down."
Then where had the Immortal Alliance side gotten their news? And how coincidental it was that the Immortal Alliance's people had arrived to take Liu Qingtang away just as Nie Wenxiao showed up.
Ling Qingyue narrowed her eyes.
It seemed she had forgotten someone.
Ah Xi. Herself.
She had become Ah Xi, raised and watched over by someone in Linshui Town. Before her consciousness as Ling Qingyue had awakened, that person had vanished and had erased the memories all the townspeople had of her.
That person... could she have been the one who sent the message to Nie Wenxiao? Had she known her identity all along, and had she also known all along that Liu Qingtang was at the back mountain?
...
A cold sweat suddenly broke out on her back.
Ling Qingyue had an inexplicable feeling that a pair of eyes in the shadows was watching her.
"What's wrong?" Pei Si sensed her unease and reached out to cover her hand.
Nie Wenxiao drank her tea without any change in expression, her gaze flicking over the two's entwined hands.
Lu Yao had said that they were Dao companions who had already completed the bonding ceremony.
Ling Qingyue pressed her lips together. "No, nothing."
She still couldn't reveal her identity yet.
"Sect Leader Nie, how did Liu Qingtang die back then?"
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