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There were not many people in the inn in the early morning. Qi Shu found a quiet seat on the second floor and leaned on the table, his cheeks still burning.
The Heavily Venerable Immortal was indeed a master who had lived for a long time. Even this morning, the expression on his face never changed. He just calmly removed Qi Shu from his arms and got out of bed to dress, saying that he would go to the nearby area to investigate and let Qi Shu rest for a while.
He didn’t mention what happened at all, which gave Qi Shu enough face.
How embarrassing1!
Qi Shu buried his face in his arms.
Why couldn’t you control yourself today? Is Shizun someone who you can treat frivolously? Qi Shu thought this in his heart angrily.
“Not feeling well?” A cold voice suddenly sounded in his ears. Qi Shu sat up, not knowing when his Shizun had come to him. and did not know when Shizun had come to him.
“No, no,” said Qi Shu.
Qi Shu: “No, no.”
Gu Hanjiang bent down and touched Qi Shu’s forehead with the back of his hand.
When he moved closer, Qi Shu felt the lingering moisture on his body.
Qi Shu asked, “Shizun went to the mountain stream?”
Gu Hanjiang paused, then withdrew his hand. “I went to the waterfall.”
Qi Shu let out an “oh,” thinking that the waterfall was some distance from the town. For him to have gone back and forth in such a short time, he must have used his sword.
He suddenly felt a little guilty.
This was a task assigned to him by the Sect Master, but now his Shizun was working hard to investigate it.
Qi Shu said earnestly, “The disciple knows his mistake. I shouldn’t have let Shizun go alone. Next time, the disciple won’t be lazy.”
“I didn’t…” Gu Hanjiang hesitated for a moment, gazing at Qi Shu with a complicated look.
Qi Shu: “?”
“…It’s nothing,” said Gu Hanjiang.
He took out an oiled paper bag from his sleeve and said, “I bought you some snacks on the way, eat them while it’s hot.”
Inside the oiled paper is a soft, glutinous, and delicious white sugar cake, shaped into a bunny shape, exquisite and cute.
Qi Shu loved sugar cakes when he was a child, and he pestered Gu Hanjiang to buy them for him whenever he could.
After so many years, he actually didn’t like eating this food so much, not to mention that he had cultivated the art of inedia long ago, and he could not eat or drink.
But Qi Shu didn’t say anything. Instead, he picked up a piece and took a bite: “It’s so sweet.”
After taking a few bites, he remembered something: “Did Shizun carry any silver with him?”
Gu Hanjiang replied, “No.”
“Then what about these…”
Gu Hanjiang calmly explained, “I paid for it with a bag of top-grade spirit stones.”
“-Cough, cough, cough!”
The bag of snacks was worth only a few copper plates at most, but the top-grade spirit stones were worth much more. Even a disciple of the inner sect of Kunlun would only be able to receive five of them in a month.
Qi Shu had a complex expression, but Gu Hanjiang took no notice of it. He poured Qi Shu a cup of water and said, “Take your time eating, and if you need more, we can buy more.”
“No, no, this is enough,” Qi Shu quickly said, not wanting to trouble his Shizun any further. If the extravagance of their meal were to be discovered by Qing Lan Xian Zun, who knows how much heartache it would cause.
The master and disciple ate their snacks for a while, and the inn gradually became bustling with activity. Several merchant caravans had arrived.
The inn was located on an official road, a major transportation route, and there were often many caravans passing through. A group of people entered the inn’s lobby, calling out to the innkeeper for tea and water.
This was what Qi Shu had been waiting for.
“Are you all headed to Lingyang City?” One of the merchants started chatting after a while. “But don’t go there, it’s better to take a detour.”
“What’s wrong with Lingyang City?”
“Don’t you know? There have been strange occurrences in Lingyang City recently, with over ten women going missing. The government has put the city on lockdown, and for us merchant caravans, it’s a huge hassle to enter and exit the city.”
Several of the caravans in the lobby had just come from Lingyang City, and when one of them brought up the topic, many others chimed in.
“Yeah, we just came from Lingyang City too. Our caravan was supposed to stay for three days, but because of all the chaos, we were stuck in the city for five days, delaying all sorts of things.”
“Don’t even mention it. They’ve been searching the city for so long, and they still haven’t found anything. I heard they even invited an immortal cultivator to help.”
“It won’t do any good. I heard this morning that the government invited that immortal cultivator to set up a trap with a sword formation last night to catch the evil spirit, but you’ll never guess what happened: three more women went missing last night, and they all lived close to the sword formation. It’s a complete embarrassment.”
Qi Shu couldn’t hold back a snort at this point.
Gu Hanjiang glanced at him.
“I apologize, Shizun, it was not intentional,” Qi Shu said, suppressing his laughter as he poured Gu Hanjiang a cup of tea. “Shizun, what do you think about the person the government invited? Isn’t it the same as being slapped in the face twice?”
Gu Hanjiang said in a low voice, “That evil spirit has been practicing for a hundred years, and its cultivation is not low.”
“That may be true, but it’s still embarrassing,” Qi Shu said. “That so-called ‘immortal cultivator’ is probably just a mediocre practitioner from some unknown sect. If it were me, I would have left the sect immediately to avoid bringing shame to my master and my sect.”
Gu Hanjiang said, “Don’t talk nonsense.”
Qi Shu fell silent, just as someone downstairs asked about the sect of the immortal cultivator.
The man who had first brought up the topic scratched his chin and said, “I heard… it’s called something like the Kunlun Sword Sect.”
Qi Shu’s hand paused as he was drinking his tea.
“These sects all think they’re the only legitimate ones, but the disciples they teach aren’t very good, and they can’t even exorcise evil spirits.”
Qi Shu slammed his cup of tea down on the table.
Just then, a gust of wind blew into the inn. The wind was so strong that people could barely open their eyes. When they recovered, they saw that the man who had been talking was being held at the neck by an unsheathed sword, pressed face-down onto the table.
Standing in front of him was a young man wearing the uniform of a Kunlun disciple.
The young man looked to be in his early twenties, with long hair tied into a ponytail, looking quite handsome.
He kicked over a bench and stood on it, holding his sword in one hand and speaking in a cold voice: “It was my own incompetence that caused me to fail yesterday, but if you continue to insult my sect, be careful or I’ll cut out your tongue.”
The entire lobby had been lively with noise, but at this scene, everyone fell silent and didn’t dare to breathe.
The man who was being held down by the young man was so scared that he turned pale and stammered, “No, no, no, I wouldn’t dare, immortal cultivator, please spare me, immortal cultivator!”
“Easy, A-Yuan. Don’t scare people.” A clear voice rang out as a young man slowly walked down the staircase. He looked to be in his twenties, with his long hair tied into a ponytail, exuding a sense of elegance.
Qi Shu, with a smile on his face, walked over to the young man and gently pushed his sword away. He then helped the terrified merchant to his feet, “Don’t be alarmed. My shidi2 was just joking with you.”
“You, you guys…”
The merchant was so scared that he could not speak clearly. Qi Shu gathered a bit of qi in his palm and helped him calm down. His expression and tone remained kind and gentle: “I am Qi Shu, a disciple of the Kunlun Sword Sect. I have come down the mountain on orders from the sect leader to investigate the situation in Lingyang City. If you have any questions about Kunlun, please feel free to visit me there. I will surely give you an answer3. As for now…”
“The demon is probably still nearby, so please leave as soon as possible to avoid being affected. If you just suffer a slight injury and lose some possessions, it’s no big deal. But if your life is in danger…”
“I’m going, I’m leaving right now!”
After the person left, Qi Shu turned around and sighed leisurely: “I say, Second Brother, how many years has it been, and you still don’t know how to control your temper?”
The person in front of him was named Lu Chengyuan, a disciple of the Clear and Serene Immortal Lord, and ranked second among the disciples of the Kunlun Sword Sect.
In fact, Lu Chengyuan was one year older than Qi Shu, and his background was much better than Qi Shu’s.
Lu Chengyuan’s parents were both seniors in the cultivation world, and he practiced with them until he was sent to Kunlun to worship a teacher.
It is said that he originally wanted to worship Heavenly Venerable Immortal as a teacher, but Gu Hanjiang would not accept another disciple no matter what, and after much negotiation, he finally worshiped under the Clear and Serene Immortal Lord. And because he entered the door a few months later than Qi Shu, he could only rank second in the sect.
His parents pampered Lu Chengyuan since he was a child, and had a youthful temperament. He was not willing to be inferior to Qi Shu, and had conflicts with him several times.
The most serious one was when the two of them agreed to fight in the back mountain.
Lu Chengyuan, who had practiced sword since he was a child, lost to Qi Shu, who had entered the door halfway.
Although after that competition, Lu Chengyuan was punished by Heavenly Venerable Immortal and locked up for half a year, from then on, his attitude towards Qi Shu was finally better.
“How did you end up here?” Lu Chengyuan asked him.
Qi Shu: “I was wondering the same thing about you. How are your parents?”
Lu Chengyuan has not been on Kunlun Mountain for a while. It is said that his mother’s health has not been good recently, and she misses her only son. Lu Chengyuan asked the sect for permission to visit his parents.
When mentioning this matter, Lu Chengyuan seemed a little unhappy: “My father doesn’t want me to interfere with his and my mother’s private time, so he kicked me out.”
Qi Shu: “…”
Lu Chengyuan: “You’re laughing at me.”
“No, no, I’m not laughing.” Qi Shu put an arm around his shoulder and asked again, “Then why didn’t you go back to Kunlun, why did you come here, and why did the government ask you to exorcise demons?”
Qi Shu was considerate and didn’t mention his failure in the sword formation and the face-slapping by the demon.
“The prefect of Lingyang City and my parents have a little connection. After something happened, I wrote to him for help, and my father threw it directly at me.”
Qi Shu nodded thoughtfully: “So did you fight with that demon or not?”
“Of course I did!” Lu Chengyuan said unhappily. “I fought with the demon for an hour, but…”
“But he ran away and took three innocent girls with him,” Qi Shu continued.
“Qi Shu!”
Lu Chengyuan could never chat calmly with this person, and just wanted to raise his sword and fight, but footsteps came from behind.
“Heavenly Venerable Immortal?” Lu Chengyuan was shocked and quickly knelt on one knee. “Disciple greets the Venerable Immortal!”
Gu Hanjiang stood in front of the two of them, coldly saying “get up,” and looking at Qi Shu again: “What are you talking about?”
His expression was obviously unhappy.
Qi Shu blinked and thought that his master must have heard someone badmouthing their sect.
“We were just discussing the demon extermination with my fellow disciple,” he said. “Shizun, please rest assured. Lu and I will investigate and make sure to kill the demon, preserving the reputation of our sect.”
Gu Hanjiang’s expression remained unchanged. “Then, your Master…”
“You can stay at the inn and rest, Shizun. My shidi and I will handle this,” Zhu Shu said.
Gu Hanjiang said nothing, and Lu Chengyuan shivered where he knelt.
********
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Reika’s Notes:
- This chapter is by Reika (me).
- I’m sorry for the erratic release schedule. I have an ongoing family emergency.
- Please let me know if there are any errors. Thanks for reading!