Spectating the Angsty Romance of the Master and Disciple from the Sect Next Door Chapter 171

Perhaps she used all her strength, for when Li Jin’an’s lips landed on Xie Huaixue’s cheek, it made a particularly loud smacking sound.
After she left, Qingxiao Peak was utterly silent, so quiet that a pin drop could be heard. The atmosphere fell into an eerie stillness.
Xie Wushen and Liu Xinshu exchanged glances, then snapped their heads around, precisely locating the culprit—Chixin Sword Lord.
They couldn’t argue with a junior, mainly because they couldn’t argue with her right now… but they could go after the one who taught Li Jin’an to be like this!
If the disciple is not taught, it is the master’s fault.
They would never admit this was an act of displaced anger, a combination of new grudges and old hatreds.
Chixin Sword Lord not only personally entered the fray to vie with them for their dear friend, but she also taught Li Jin’an, this disciple, to vie with them for their daughter!
This sword cultivator master and disciple pair had a clear division of labor, leaving neither of them for the couple. It was truly abominable.
Why don’t they go vie for the Sect Master? Do they not like her?!
Sometimes, people quickly become familiar with each other not through goodwill, but through a life-or-death struggle for favor.
Previously, Xie Wushen, Liu Xinshu, and Chixin Sword Lord only knew of each other by name and had met in passing. Chixin Sword Lord did know that these two were Yinyue Monarch’s only two close friends, but because their romantic relationship had to remain buried, there was no opportunity for them to truly get acquainted.
Now, things were different. Even with Yinyue Monarch mediating, coaxing one after another, their relationship rapidly deteriorated at a visible pace. They regarded each other with hostility.
The only ones who could go head-to-head and be evenly matched with simpletons were the super idiots among sword cultivators.
Not only did Xie Wushen and Liu Xinshu feel that Chixin Sword Lord had monopolized their dear friend, but Chixin Sword Lord also felt that these two, having nothing better to do, liked to vie with her for Yinyue Monarch, lacking discernment and meddling in their hard-won dao companion life.
Both sides believed they were in the right and the other was being unreasonable, so Yinyue Monarch often had to mediate and settle disputes.
It was the same now.
Xie Wushen was the first to speak indignantly, “If the upper beam is not straight, the lower ones will be crooked! Both master and disciple are shameless!”
Liu Xinshu was slow-witted, but she stood beside her wife, nodding vigorously, which also served to boost their side’s morale.
The disciple’s offense was Li Jin’an’s stunt just now. As for the master, it was because when they went to see their dear friend, they found her being kissed by Chixin Sword Lord in a corner… but that was clearly when Gong Yu had agreed to spend time with them!
Moreover, they had just left Xie Huaixue, bonding with her, when Li Jin’an had been glaring at them from the side, watching them like a tiger eyeing its prey. Her reason for driving them away was also perfectly valid and sufficient: she said she was about to depart to completely eradicate the antagonist protagonists and the Heavenly Tome, and she was tired and exhausted. How could they still bear to vie with her for Xie Huaixue?
Chixin Sword Lord felt no shame, but rather pride, and had her own logic. She retorted, “Why can’t I kiss? It would be strange not to kiss one’s own dao companion, but to kiss someone else, wouldn’t it? My disciple and I aren’t hooligans.”
“You and Gong Yu haven’t formed a dao pact yet. Strictly speaking, you’re not dao companions!”
“Neither have you two.”
“Gong Yu.” Xie Wushen couldn’t out-argue Chixin Sword Lord, so she resorted to acting spoiled with Yinyue Monarch.
Yinyue Monarch looked at her with a smile. “Hmm?”
In truth, genuine dao pacts witnessed by the Heavenly Dao Ancestor were rare in the cultivation world. After all, not everyone was willing to lay themselves bare to another, and if one party betrayed the other, the Heavenly Dao would strike down with divine thunder to punish the disloyal one. Cultivators had long lifespans; who could guarantee they would never fall for someone else?
Some would see this as a restraint, while others would naturally see it as a tremendous blessing, granting them a recognized status.
Yinyue Monarch raised her gaze, her eyes lightly sweeping over Chixin Sword Lord.
Chixin Sword Lord’s originally slouching posture instantly straightened, her face filled with righteous indignation.
Jingting Dao Lord, watching silently from the side, shook her head. Oh dear, oh dear. That scoundrel Tan Yu, Tan Chixin, actually knows how to play tricks in front of Yinyue Monarch now.
Sure enough, the one provoked immediately took the bait.
“What do you say about Liu Xinshu and I forming a dao pact as dao companions?”
Liu Xinshu, like Xie Wushen, gazed eagerly at Yinyue Monarch.
Chixin Sword Lord also joined in, saying a fair word, “That’s quite good. Everyone forms their own pacts; it doesn’t concern others.”
Everyone find their own dao companion, no snatching others’ dao companions!
Before Yinyue Monarch could speak, Jingting Dao Lord eagerly offered her suggestion. “Actually, I have an even better idea, which is—”
Everyone looked over curiously.
“Everyone go back to your own homes!”
“Currently, this place is Huaixue’s Qingxiao Peak. Jin’an living here is understandable, but it’s a bit inappropriate for you elders to still be loitering around here. It just so happens that you three have returned, so new peaks should be allocated to you as your cultivation grounds.”
“My Dao Sect has nothing but plenty of land. Each of you having a mountain peak is completely not a problem.”
Everyone swiftly turned their heads back, deciding it was pointless to listen to her nonsense.
“Once Jin’an returns, I will form a dao pact with you as dao companions.” Yinyue Monarch looked at Chixin Sword Lord, her gaze serious as she spoke.
Chixin Sword Lord clutched her chest, closed her eyes, and collapsed directly onto Yinyue Monarch.
Xie Wushen and Liu Xinshu huffed in exasperation. In the end, she still got her way.
Jingting Dao Lord also clicked her tongue meaningfully from the side.
Xie Huaixue sat reading under the bamboo forest. Hearing Li Jin’an’s name, her hand paused, and she didn’t turn the page for a long time, a faint smile unconsciously gracing her lips.
She got along very well with her parents and master, whom she hadn’t met in person for a long time. It didn’t matter that her personality was cold and she spoke little; the elders would only dote on her and indulge her, never bearing to force her to change herself.
Therefore, the war among the elders wouldn’t involve her. Out of love for her, they would also give Li Jin’an some face, allowing Li Jin’an to arrogantly monopolize Xie Huaixue.
Everything was fine, but at certain moments, she would particularly miss Li Jin’an.
…
Li Jin’an didn’t know what happened after she left. She had already arrived in the cultivation world of over a hundred years ago, squatting in a crack in time and space, contemplating life.
Unlike bringing back the spiritual bodies of Yinyue Monarch, Xie Wushen, and Liu Xinshu, the three beasts, as protagonists of the Heavenly Tome, had peculiar fates. They were not linked to the Lancang Continent, did not follow the laws of time and space, and were not bound by rules. At the same time, they were naturally not protected by laws.
In short, the three beasts’ names were not on the Book of Life and Death; they were beyond the Three Realms and not within the Five Elements. Otherwise, why would the Heavenly Dao place all its hopes and chips on people like Li Jin’an, Xie Huaixue, and Yinyue Monarch?
This meant Li Jin’an could use her true body to forcefully kill the beasts, severing their karmic master-disciple bond with Xie Huaixue from the very beginning. Naturally, there would be no further interactions later.
The most important plot of the Heavenly Tome was the various ‘scheming and plundering’ of the three beasts as disciples towards their master. Everything unfolded based on the forbidden relationship between disciple and master. Setting that aside, the remaining content of the two-million-word Heavenly Tome would likely be less than one percent.
But what if those three beasts were no longer Xie Huaixue’s disciples?
—The very meaning of the Heavenly Tome’s existence would be fundamentally negated.
Just as the first line of small text written after opening the Heavenly Tome stated: To pull the high-mountain flower from her pedestal…
Heh.
Sorry, but Li Jin’an wouldn’t give them a chance to even see the high-mountain flower!
To cut weeds, one must remove the roots, lest they burn but never die, and revive with the spring breeze!
The only thing to note was that one timeline couldn’t accommodate two Li Jin’ans. She had to act swiftly and decisively, killing the beasts before their strange and twisted destiny could react. Otherwise, no matter how much the Heavenly Dao sided with her, it would still have to forcefully kick her out.
Of course, it wasn’t a major issue; at worst, she’d do it again. It would just be quite taxing on Xie Huaixue and Jingting Dao Lord, as sub-formation plates capable of crossing time and space were not easy to inscribe.
If it weren’t for the overt and covert help from the Dao Venerable both before and after her cultivation became one with the Dao, let alone five sub-formation plates for returning to the present world, they probably wouldn’t even have one.
With Jijin Sword Sovereign’s arrogance, her demand for herself was, naturally, only success, no failure.
Losing to her own dao companion was acceptable; after all, ‘charity begins at home.’ But losing to a beast was unacceptable
Long before departing, Li Jin’an had already figured out the optimal time to eliminate Lan Ci.
Outside.
An unnamed small town.
The rain was fierce, pouring down in torrents, blurring the distinction between heaven and earth. Rainwater heavily slammed onto the ground and bounced back up, splashing in waves.
An unwarranted chill and grim atmosphere settled in.
Perhaps sensing the impending storm, the city’s residents had long since closed their doors and extinguished their lights. The entire city was as silent as a ghost town.
A team of black-clad figures walked openly down the street, their faces cold and merciless. They stepped into puddles, moving swiftly towards the most luxurious mansion in the eastern city.
Li Jin’an, who was distorted and grimacing from being squeezed by the crack in time and space, fixed her gaze. She raised an eyebrow, a little surprised but not overly so.
Oh, an old acquaintance.
The leader was none other than Grand Elder Ming Xuan of Futu Valley.
First, he killed Lan Ci’s entire family, then he defected to serve Lan Ci like a dog. What a double-faced individual.
This was Lan Ci’s most loyal subordinate, as described in the Heavenly Tome? No wonder Lan Ci couldn’t avenge her blood feud. The protagonists sure knew how to play their game.
Li Jin’an clicked her tongue in wonder. Even a major villain like her couldn’t come up with such a humiliating method.
After dealing with the demon race, Xie Huaixue and Jingting Dao Lord had mentioned in casual conversation that Futu Valley’s Cui Guangling and Ming Xuan were likely also pawns of the demon race. There were always plenty of pawns; if one was discarded, there was always another.
Perhaps Wu Zhaoxing sent Lan Ci to Dao Sect because she had sensed something. She wouldn’t need to fear the demon race’s interrogation; excuses were easy to find. Disobedience, rebellion, and eliminating dissenters could all be spun as twisted madness caused by unrequited love for one’s master.
A bloody slaughter was about to erupt below.
A massacre began.
The family sitting together in the main house, warming themselves by the fire and chatting cheerfully, unexpectedly met with utter disaster. Like chickens and ducks targeted by a butcher, they were powerless to resist, their throats slit in an instant, without even time to tell Lan Ci to run.
Even the servants in the courtyard couldn’t escape their fate, dying tragically one by one before Lan Ci’s eyes.
Li Jin’an first frowned, then relaxed, her expression somewhat indifferent. Lan Ci’s family’s destruction was not caused by Xie Huaixue; on the contrary, Xie Huaixue was the one who gave Lan Ci the ability to seek revenge. It was a pity that Lan Ci was an ungrateful and vicious person who repaid kindness with malice.
Even if Lan Ci had similarly annihilated the entire Futu Valley, from the cultivation world’s universal perspective, no one could find fault with Lan Ci.
Of course, if Lan Ci had been able to exact her revenge, she wouldn’t have been led by the nose by the demon race step by step, and everything would have been for naught.
The masked black-clad figures stepped through blood and rain, walking towards the sole survivor. They found with interest that Lan Ci seemed terrified into idiocy, but in reality, her eyes held a cold ruthlessness.
“Interesting.”
Lan Ci was about to speak and negotiate with the black-clad figures when she was knocked unconscious by Ming Xuan, who then added something to her mind and spiritual body.
A body for soul possession was best nurtured from birth, but it wasn’t too late now.
Li Jin’an, in the crack, let out a sneer, then grandly leaped out. “Not interesting enough.”
The drama of ‘the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind’ is truly interesting.