Spectating the Angsty Romance of the Master and Disciple from the Sect Next Door Chapter 101

Li Jin’an was no longer the lawless, reckless fool who would just charge forward with her sword. Having witnessed the Heavenly Tome and the beast’s strangeness, she was very careful and cautious in matters related to Xie Huaixue.
She thought for a moment, then forcefully gave a spatial pouch to Chixin Sword Lord. She didn’t dare say it belonged to Jingting Dao Lord, for fear that Chixin Sword Lord, in a fit of stubbornness, would throw the spatial pouch away.
“We mustn’t separate.”
Li Jin’an said very seriously.
Xie Huaixue stepped forward and hooked her hand, interlocking their fingers as her response.
Li Jin’an smiled brightly, her mood becoming cheerful. She thought with immense pride that even if Lan Ci was a mutated beast corrupted by the Heavenly Tome, what of it? Her Blazing Radiance Sword would still cut her down without fail.
All evil would have nowhere to hide before her Blazing Radiance Sword.
“Take out your Gleaming Radiance Sword.”
At Li Jin’an’s urging, Xie Huaixue could only hold her life-bound sword like her, her expression stern.
After following the footprints on the ground for a few steps, they completely lost sight of Chixin Sword Lord and Qi Lingzi. In their spiritual perception, there was only boundless thick mist.
About half an hour later, the footprints of varying depths on the ground completely disappeared. Li Jin’an became even more cautious, and continued forward side by side with Xie Huaixue.
Ever since becoming Jijin Sword Sovereign and Qingxiao Immortal Venerable, they hadn’t experienced such trepidation. But this beast had to be killed, to prevent it from stirring up countless more troubles.
In a forbidden place like Immortal Soothing Pool, the power of the Heavenly Dao would be weakened, making it the perfect time to kill Lan Ci.
Even if the Heavenly Dao didn’t allow her to kill, there was still Xie Huaixue.
After the incident with Zhong Fei, Li Jin’an understood one thing: that even the Heavenly Tome’s protagonist could die in the face of insurmountable force.
After an unknown amount of time, the scene before them finally broadened slightly.
It was roughly the center of the small island in the pool, where a circle of stone pillars stood. In the very center, Lan Ci was supporting her body with her sword, kneeling on one knee, her head hanging low, hair disheveled, and her body covered in mottled wounds, her life or death unknown.
Li Jin’an stopped, squinted to look, and said uncertainly, “Judging by the wounds, it looks like a technique from the Tan family of Jinggu.”
When direct disciples of cultivation families traveled the cultivation world, they would either carry ultimate treasures and be accompanied by Dao Protectors, or they would have a full-power strike from an elder of their family to defend themselves.
Although Tan Yanyi was very unconventional and liked chasing after pretty young disciples, she was indeed a direct descendant of the Tan family of Jinggu, the kind with the qualifications to compete for the next family head. Her mother was the current family head of the Tan family of Jinggu, and her father was an exceedingly beautiful imperial male from a mortal dynasty. Although it was called a political marriage, he was actually given to the Tan family as a gift of submission. But due to his beauty and cunning, he quickly established a firm foothold in the Tan family and became the principal husband.
With Tan Yanyi, the Tan family head feared her personality would be spoiled or that she would be incited to favor her paternal clan, so she took her in and personally raised her. Even with other children, Tan Yanyi was still the most favored. She even dared to bang on the table with the Tan family head and discuss what kind of Dao Companion she should find. They were less like mother and daughter and more like sisters. This was why she specifically sent a letter discussing gossip about Tan Yanyi’s master and mistress, only to be caught red-handed by the two people involved.
After that, Tan Yanyi became a personal disciple under a Sword Sovereign, and her status in the Tan family only continued to rise.
One can imagine how many defensive treasures Tan Yanyi carried. The Tan family was showing restraint by not arming her to the teeth.
If Lan Ci, being arrogant, sought out Tan Yanyi, she would certainly suffer a great loss.
Xie Huaixue calmly and indifferently looked at her eldest disciple on the ground, her eyes aloof and devoid of ripples.
Li Jin’an tentatively raised her hand and swung a sword. The sword energy swept over the kneeling Lan Ci, causing her to crash heavily to the ground without even a grunt.
She didn’t even unleash a tenth of her strength, yet the consumption was dozens of times greater. There was also a strong sense of obstruction, as if heaven and earth were hindering her sword swings. However, it was all worth it, as long as the beast could be eradicated.
Perhaps sensing danger, Lan Ci, who was lying on the ground, suddenly opened her eyes. The dullness in her eyes faded, and she violently spat out a mouthful of black blood. She looked up directly at Xie Huaixue, shakily supported herself to stand, and demanded incredulously, “Master, why are you here?”
This question was truly unreasonable.
It was Lan Ci who had caused trouble and intended to kill Qi Lingzi first, yet now it seemed as if Xie Huaixue had greatly betrayed her.
Li Jin’an was so angry she laughed, wanting to make Lan Ci shut up for good.
Xie Huaixue stopped her and instantly decided Lan Ci’s fate. “I am no longer your master. You deliberately attacked the disciple of Jijin Sword Sovereign, your intentions are malicious. Now I will seal your spiritual power and escort you back to the Dao Sect for interrogation.”
This was not a question, but a verdict.
“This disciple is setting things right!” Lan Ci shrieked with all her might, coughing up bloody foam again. Her eyes bloodshot, she stared fixedly at Li Jin’an behind Xie Huaixue, articulating the truth she firmly believed. “This disciple did nothing wrong! Some people who shouldn’t exist should die immediately! This disciple is helping you! Why can’t you understand this disciple’s painstaking efforts? You will understand this disciple’s painstaking efforts…”
Her appearance, as if she had offered her true feelings only for them to be trampled upon and her heart ripped open, was truly disgusting.
Li Jin’an could no longer tolerate it. Just as she was about to lift her foot, the surrounding stone pillars blazed with light, the radiance seemingly piercing through the thick mist. Intricate patterns with engravings emerged from the ground, centered around Lan Ci, rapidly spinning and transforming.
Xie Huaixue blocked in front of Li Jin’an, raised her hand and swung her sword, scattering the attack that instantly assailed Li Jin’an.
Lan Ci changed her expression, her gaze now filled with a victor’s condescension, as she looked at Xie Huaixue. “Master, it’s useless. How could this disciple not have foreseen you coming? It’s just that Master, you shouldn’t have come! They all deserve to die! Only I am your true disciple!”
“Jijin Peak is our enemy! How could you form a pact with Jijin Sword Sovereign and become their Senior Aunt?!”
“It doesn’t matter. As long as everyone from Jijin Peak dies, everything can return to normal, and you will still be this disciple’s flawless Master.”
Lan Ci’s mind was already controlled by inner demons; her malice and cruelty were infinitely magnified.
Originally, she only intended to bring Qi Lingzi, Tan Yanyi, and Ling Qiu to Immortal Soothing Pool, kill them, and then quickly leave. But Tan Yanyi had too many treasures on her, and there was also a full-power strike from a Unity stage mighty figure. She barely managed to evade it, expending most of her resources during this period to survive. If these three hadn’t been so foolish, she wouldn’t even have been able to trick them into coming to the Central Imperial Domain.
At that moment, she knew she couldn’t kill Qi Lingzi. Inner demons formed, and malicious intent surged, driving her to execute an incredibly insane plan—
Kill the four master and disciples of Jijin Peak, and imprison her Master.
Lan Ci’s intuition told her that Jijin Sword Sovereign and Master would definitely come.
This time, with no Zhong Fei or Ning Zhufeng interfering, the Immortal Soothing Pool’s unique environment, which greatly suppressed high-level cultivators, and her ability to set traps in advance—all the favorable conditions were in her hands. So why shouldn’t she get what she wanted?
The future scenes Lan Ci and Ning Zhufeng saw didn’t completely overlap. Lan Ci exchanged her own secret for the secret of Immortal Soothing Pool, modified the natural array formation on the small island, prematurely activating the spatial-space-time turbulence of Immortal Soothing Pool, and killing everyone except herself and her Master.
After one strike missed, Lan Ci wasn’t discouraged; she just laughed. “Master, do you still have spiritual power within you?”
Li Jin’an scoffed coldly, “A frog in a well.”
She stopped wasting words on the beast. Without using a trace of spiritual power, she simply used a few basic, resolute stances, and the fiery, violent Jijin Sword Intent, tempered with sparks, surged forth, swiftly piercing through the thick mist and overwhelming Lan Ci.
When the Heavenly Dao forced her to read the Heavenly Tome, making her stay in a completely spiritual energy-suppressed space, she still wasn’t unable to fight.
As long as a sword cultivator lives, their sword intent endures.
Lan Ci clumsily dodged by relying on the array formation, spitting blood repeatedly, and furiously injected more Soul Return Bones into the array formation, forcefully activating it.
The secret of Immortal Soothing Pool was that its bottom was an ancient battlefield, where a deity full of hatred for cultivators had died. Their divine body was buried at the bottom of the pool, forming a unique domain, which was a natural array formation that trapped cultivators.
The deity had died, but their hatred for cultivators was endless. One only needed to embed soul bones containing cultivators’ divine souls into the stone pillars to stir up fluctuations in the deity’s lingering will, forcefully trapping everyone on the island, disrupting space and time, and prematurely activating spatial-space-time turbulence.
As for where the Soul Return Bones came from, Lan Ci had raided the evil cultivators’ stronghold and seized all their assets. It was a case of villains being dealt with by other villains.
Lan Ci, meanwhile, used a demonic artifact obtained from Ning Zhufeng to protect herself, avoiding the array formation’s hostility towards her. However, this method came at a great cost to herself; the feeling of being contaminated by demonic energy was not pleasant, and only stimulated her inner demons.
The sky seemed to overturn and crash down on Li Jin’an. She felt a slight shortness of breath, and fine beads of sweat trickled down her forehead onto her prominent nose. One hand held her sword, the other gripped Xie Huaixue’s hand, and her brow was solemn, as it had never been before.
“A mere beast dares to spout nonsense in front of this Venerable?”
Li Jin’an and Xie Huaixue, two Human Venerables, swung their swords together in perfect harmony. Their sword intents hummed, one fiery, one icy, merging together with exceptional harmony. The world-burning candlelight and the vast, bitter cold ice and snow blended perfectly, each containing a part of the other, inadvertently carrying an immense, resplendent aura capable of creating worlds.
Under heaven, there would be no two people more in sync than them.
They had met when they were still babes, before they could even open their eyes; childhood sweethearts who ate, drank, and played together; luxuriously spending a thousand years fighting; dual cultivation and bonding that touched the depths of their souls… Their understanding of each other was carved into their hearts, lungs, bones, and blood; it was already an instinct.
Without words, they could instantly understand each other’s intentions.
As the sword intent swept in, forming a towering and formidable sword momentum, Lan Ci, facing this overwhelming might, had only one word in her mind: Run!
This was absolutely beyond human power to contend with. She would die by this sword! Her body utterly crushed, her divine soul annihilated.
Li Jin’an looked with extreme satisfaction at the combined sword strike of her and Xie Huaixue, her wife, triumphantly thinking that there would be no one more perfectly matched than them under heaven.
Suddenly.
A pair of hands tore open the space in front of them, and before Li Jin’an’s astonished gaze, directly grabbed Lan Ci by her collar, pulled her into the void, and instantly vanished without a trace.
How was such a dense and chaotic space torn apart? No, this person was hidden in the void of Immortal Soothing Pool’s island from the very beginning!
But clearly, now was not the time to consider this matter.
It was one thing for this person to take Lan Ci; at most, they could kill her next time, it wasn’t a big deal. The serious thing was that Immortal Soothing Pool, already on the verge of space-time turbulence due to Lan Ci forcefully intensifying the array formation, would now have the turbulence accelerate with the tearing of space!
Li Jin’an gripped Xie Huaixue’s hand tightly and quickly said, “We mustn’t separate.”