Chapter 301: Chapter 301

Zuowang Peak is so high and wide it could practically count as its own world. Forget someone like Ying Ning… even Shan Zhi, who’s only halfway competent on a good day, would struggle to walk the whole thing in one go.

So the next morning, before they climbed the peak, Li Xun decided to show off a bit. He brought out the cloud carriage he had made the other day for Ying Ning, gave it a few quick adjustments, and carried the five of them drifting east and west. They floated through the mountain paths like rolling clouds, rising and falling with an effortless, almost fairy-like grace.

So the next morning, before they started climbing the peak, Li Xun decided to show off a little. He took out the cloud carriage he’d originally made just for Ying Ning that day, gave it a quick touch-up, and then loaded all five of them on board. The thing drifted east and west like mountain mist.

But right now, Li Xun was carrying some heavy shit on his mind. Even when he tried to have fun, he just couldn’t get into it. Everything felt half-hearted and flat. Luckily, his only job was pointing out where the slabs were buried, while Qi Bi and the others were still buzzing with excitement. So somehow, the mood stayed decent overall.

Powered by cloud-riding techniques, the cloud carriage wasn’t slow at all. By noon the next day, Li Xun dug up the final stack of tablets from the last spot. Everyone, including Qi Bi, burst into cheers and whoops. The air was buzzing with excitement.

Li Xun glanced at them and shrugged. He picked out three slabs that seemed to still have some value and handed them to Ying Ning.

The girl didn’t care in the slightest that they were still covered in dirt. She took them carefully, beaming. “I’m going to go wash them!”

Qi Bi gently stroked the girl’s hair, her voice soft and full of affection. “Looks like there’s a small lake over to the east. Want me to go with you?”

Ying Ning happily agreed, and in the next moment, Qi Bi took her up on the sword and the two of them flew off.

Li Xun clapped his hands and laughed, saying “All done.” To his surprise, nobody responded. Puzzled, he turned around and saw Shan Zhi staring blankly in the direction Qi Bi had left, completely lost in thought. Ling Ji, meanwhile, seemed to picked up on something. He glanced at Shan Zhi, then at the sword light fading in the sky, looking deep in thought.

The whole scene was just… frustrating to watch. And the tangled mess of relationships underneath it all? That made you want to rub your temples and groan.

Li Xun cursed under his breath: “Fucking idiots, don’t know what’s good for them.” Then he clapped his hands loudly to snap the two dazed companions out of it. “Time’s getting on. We might be able to go without food for a while, but Ying Ning is still growing. We need to get something to eat.”

Nobody objected to that.

“I’ll go catch some fish!” Shan Zhi immediately volunteered, took the job, and flew off on his sword. Judging by the direction he headed, it was clearly the same way Qi Bi had gone. No subtlety whatsoever.

Li Xun could only shake his head at that. He turned to Ling Ji. “Then you and I will go hunt some game. Zuowang Peak is full of strange birds and beasts, but if you want the tasty ones, you need to ask the local expert. Which means me.”

His teasing didn’t land at all. Ling Ji was laughing too, but it looked forced. Li Xun knew exactly what was up, but he played dumb anyway, putting on a puzzled face. “What’s wrong?”

Ling Ji stared toward the direction where Shan Zhi disappeared in a flash of sword light. He stayed silent for a long moment before finally turning back to Li Xun. “Brother Xun, isn’t Brother Shan acting a little… off?”

Right after saying it, he frowned, feeling like he hadn’t worded it well. He tried again, “I mean, he has been really diligent lately, but something about him feels, well, how do I put it… overly excited. And I’ve also noticed that he keeps sneaking looks at…”

Ling Ji was honest to a fault. He had already pushed himself this far, and the rest of the sentence got stuck in his throat. No matter how hard he tried, the words refused to come out. His face turned bright red.

Seeing him like that, Li Xun felt a little guilty for playing dumb. He let out a breath and finished the sentence for him, “He’s been looking at Senior Sister Qi Bi, right?”

Ling Ji’s eyes widened. He froze for a long second before blurting out, “So it really is that… You knew this the whole time? Then why didn’t you talk to him?”

“Talk to him?” Li Xun threw an arm over Ling Ji’s shoulder and gave a helpless smile. “How about you go tell him instead? Tell him that Senior Sister Qi is already married, and that not just acting on those thoughts but even having them is a demonic obstruction. Tell him he should clear his mind, cultivate hard, ascend in the end, and so on. Go on, give it a try.”

Ling Ji might have been honest, but he wasn’t stupid. Just from Li Xun’s tone, he realized he had been way too naive. He quickly bowed his head in apology, then scratched it and said, “So what do we do then? From what I can see, Brother Shan’s situation is getting serious. We should do something, right?”

Li Xun had always liked this kind-hearted senior brother of his. Not wanting him to worry, he patted his shoulder and thought for a moment. “Honestly, the most effective way is to have Senior Sister Qi tell him herself so he’ll let go. But he’s probably already twisted himself into a corner…

“Senior Sister Qi still has no idea any of this is happening. And lately she and our eldest senior brother have had some problems of their own. If we go bother her now and it goes badly, we might not even be on good terms as fellow disciples anymore. That would be a mess.”

Ling Ji winced at that. After a long stretch he finally said, “Then… would it work to direct his feelings somewhere else? There are plenty of other senior sisters and junior sisters on the mountain…”

Under Li Xun’s gaze, his voice trailed off until it could barely be heard.

Li Xun tried hard to hold it in, but in the end he couldn’t and burst out laughing. He quickly turned his face away. Ling Ji had already been struggling just to get the words out, and now he wanted nothing more than for the ground to swallow him whole. His face was as dark as a slab of liver.

Not wanting to embarrass him too much, Li Xun forced the laughter down and shook his head. “That is a possible solution. But you know what Brother Shan used to be like. There’s no hiding that. And most disciples of the sect care more about the Dao than anything else. Someone like Senior Sister Qi is one in a dozen, maybe rarer. With that in mind, who exactly are you expecting to find?”

Ling Ji had no answer. He fell silent.

Li Xun sighed. There was something he kept to himself. That Guiding Ghostlight’s been buried deep in his heart for years, fanned by all sorts of twisted desires that feed off each other like front and back of the same coin. Trying to dig it out now… how could it possibly be that easy?”

Ling Ji couldn’t come up with any good cure for Shan Zhi’s problem, and it was clearly getting to him. He trudged off to go hunting, all listless and half-hearted. Li Xun deliberately sent him after a particularly crafty species of flying fox, hoping the chase would at least distract him and pull him out of his funk.

Li Xun, on the other hand, found a shady, wind-sheltered spot and set up a simple cookfire. He was used to living outdoors, so it took him no time at all. After a moment of thought, he climbed up to a higher point and looked toward Qi Bi’s direction.

Winter had stripped the trees and grass bare, leaving the view wide open and clear. It didn’t take long for Li Xun to spot them. Down by a stream a few miles off, Shan Zhi was using wildly exaggerated gestures to try to make Qi Bi laugh. It seemed to be working too, which only made him more excited. Even from here, Li Xun could hear his unrestrained laughter.

Li Xun sat down cross-legged, eyes cold as he stared at the distant scene. This whole mess was pretty much his own handiwork. Yet watching it play out now brought him no sense of accomplishment.

If you look at it through Yin Wanderer’s “wolf and dog” lens. A real wolf would never get tempted by some little dog’s chew toys. It would just stand there genuinely confused, not understanding why the poor little thing gets so obsessed with a bunch of meaningless trinkets.

Li Xun must have been in that kind of mood right then. He stood off at a distance, watching the man and woman he had once fucked with chat and laugh together. He could not bring himself to care. After staring for a while, he even started to feel bored and annoyed… Might as well just crush them and be done with it!

The thought flashed through his mind. And it vanished just as quickly. Even Li Xun wasn’t sure if he’d actually thought it. He let out a long, heavy sigh, and his gaze slid sideways to the girl standing nearby.

Ying Ning… Right. Besides having a Primordial Embryo Dao Body, she also goes by the name Ruyi Jade Infant. That title must mean she is incredibly rare and valuable. If I really guide her into cultivation, I wonder if there are any taboos I should know about.

Thinking of that made Li Xun painfully aware once again of the gap between himself and the long-established True Person cultivators. At least when it came to knowledge, he was not just a little behind, he was leagues behind. Thankfully, he had a tool that was basically a living encyclopedia of the Tongxuan World.

Sensing his intent, space itself rippled and Yin Wanderer in a plain Daoist robe stepped out of the void. She appeared openly behind Li Xun, clear breeze stirring her dust whisk and her flowing sleeves so that she looked like a true immortal.

Li Xun shot her a look and frowned. “Are you trying to get me in trouble? There are still people around.”

“Ah, sorry. The night before last, I thought you’d changed your attitude. I was a bit reckless.”

Yin Wanderer dipped her head slightly. There was obedience and grace in her expression, but her words were still cutting. Talking like that did her no favors, but that was how she protected the last bit of dignity she had left.

“The night before last?”

“Wasn’t it? When your Martial Aunt Ming Ji questioned you, what did you say again? The Heavenly Demon Sword Sect’s Xu Kang, right?”

“Xu Kang?”

He rolled the name around on his tongue twice before he finally remembered. There really had been an episode like that the night before last. Ming Ji had pushed him too far and, with no other choice, he had dragged this person out to take the heat for him. What did that have to do with any so-called change in attitude?

“How does it not matter? You tossed out the name Xu Kang. Did you ever stop to think about how you are going to explain that lie later?”

Li Xun’s eyebrow twitched. From the way Yin Wanderer emphasized her words, it was obvious the real point was not about “how to cover up the lie” but about “whether he had even thought that far.”

It was an interesting question. Li Xun thought back carefully and realized that when he threw out the name Xu Kang, he really had not considered what might happen later. You could call it careless. Even so, after being reminded, he did not feel any regret.

He was not stupid. He quickly understood that this was her response to his earlier “are you trying to get me in trouble” and at the same time a subtle critique of his mindset as a cultivator.

He nodded to her as a way of acknowledging the favor and did not bring up “trouble” again. Instead, he steered the conversation back to the original topic: “Take a look for me. How exactly should that girl be cultivated? Your niece said she’s a ‘Ruyi Jade Infant.’ What does that even mean?”

Yin Wanderer did not answer right away. She watched from afar with unusual seriousness, then finally nodded. “She really is a Ruyi Jade Infant. Wanru does have a good eye. But that said, are you sure you want to cultivate her?”