Spectating the Angsty Romance of the Master and Disciple from the Sect Next Door Chapter 24

The disheveled Li Jin’an blinked at Xie Huaixue. Before she could say anything, in that moment of daze, dozens of figures appeared on Qingxiao Peak.
With such a huge commotion, it wasn’t as if people were dead asleep. Half of Dao Sect, whether meditating or sleeping, were awakened.
The newcomers silently and shockingly looked in their direction, as well as at the disciple residences behind them, which had turned to ashes.
Cultivators only attracted heavenly lightning when breaking through major realms. For example, Jiang Fengmian didn’t have the confidence to overcome the six-nine thunder tribulation when breaking through from Void Refinement to Integration. Otherwise, it meant they had done something unforgivable by heaven and earth. The latter was generally hard for ordinary people to achieve, but they never expected to actually witness it today!
They only knew Jijin Sword Sovereign hated Immortal Venerable Qingxiao to no avail, but no one said it was this kind of hate!
Before, she just harmed Qingxiao Peak’s plants and flowers. Now she’s even attracting heavenly lightning?
What normal sword cultivator would run onto Dao Sect’s territory and gift a heavenly lightning bolt to their sworn enemy?
The intensity of this heavenly lightning bolt was comparable to three heavenly lightning bolts when an ordinary cultivator broke through a realm.
A certain abnormal sword cultivator must have done something that angered both heaven and man.
“When children are quiet, they must be up to mischief.” This saying also applied to Jijin Sword Sovereign. She had been quiet for the past few days, not bullying juniors, and what was the result? She pulled off something huge!
She might as well have continued bullying the Immortal Venerable’s disciples!
Jijin Sword Sovereign’s destructive power had not diminished with age.
No one asked out loud, but their collective gazes already expressed their questions.
Even Jingting Dao Lord and the Young Sect Master of Dao Sect were no exception; their gazes towards Li Jin’an carried a hint of admiration.
“I did something the Heavenly Dao doesn’t allow, but I like it,” Li Jin’an didn’t conceal, telling the truth as it was.
“…”
Although everyone said “my fate is up to me, not heaven” and “defy the heavens,” wasn’t it a bit too reckless for you to say it so brazenly?
One should know that the heavenly lightning’s lingering power hadn’t dispersed yet. Just standing far away, they could smell the strong scent of wood charred by heavenly lightning.
They didn’t suspect Jijin Sword Sovereign had gone astray and was practicing some evil art. It was laughable, as if Jijin Sword Sovereign would even understand such things!
Moreover, Immortal Venerable Qingxiao was still standing there. Since she didn’t stop whatever Jijin Sword Sovereign did, it meant she allowed it.
Jingting Dao Lord looked at Li Jin’an, then at Xie Huaixue, who was inseparable, and finally realized what was wrong—
“Qingxiao, where are your disciples!?”
The place struck by heavenly lightning just now couldn’t be where Qingxiao’s disciples lived, could it?
Jiang Fengmian, who had followed, was busy contemplating the Dao of Thunder. Hearing this, he quickly went to the disciple residences to help retrieve the people.
Li Jin’an wasn’t worried about the three troublesome disciples at all. She figured the Heavenly Dao wouldn’t bear to strike down its own daughters, and three at once at that.
If it could directly strike down the three troublesome disciples, she would immediately beat gongs and drums to celebrate this great good fortune.
Xie Huaixue released her spiritual consciousness to glance at the disciple residences, and said calmly, “They are fine, just fainted from being affected by the heavenly lightning. No major injuries.”
The others looked at each other, sighing inwardly. As expected of Immortal Venerable Qingxiao, her composure was extraordinary. Ordinary matters wouldn’t cause her a single ripple of emotion; she remained calm and self-possessed.
They then looked at Jijin Sword Sovereign next to Immortal Venerable Qingxiao. Well, there was no need to be too calm when dealing with this one.
They all understood why Immortal Venerable Qingxiao didn’t go check on her disciples but instead stuck close to Jijin Sword Sovereign. If she weren’t, it wasn’t impossible for a second heavenly lightning bolt to suddenly appear.
Since they had already come, Jingting Dao Lord and the other Dao Sect elders were in no hurry to leave. They chatted casually for a few moments, and even had the steward bring miscellaneous disciples to clean up and construct a new disciple residence.
The original site of the disciple residences could only be abandoned. That large area was permeated with the power of thunder and completely uninhabitable, though it could serve as a place for cultivators specializing in the Dao of Thunder to come and comprehend.
None of them asked why the heavenly lightning struck the disciple residences instead of the guest quarters. They all tacitly left the question for Immortal Venerable Qingxiao.
Li Jin’an grinned, her robes fluttering without wind. Her clean white teeth were strikingly visible in the dark night. “Satisfying!”
She had indeed probed out something.
The moment the formation took shape, Li Jin’an’s eyes seemed to have been imbued with a special technique, allowing her to easily see through everyone’s luck. In that extremely limited time, she first looked towards the immortal cave at the mountain peak, then towards the disciple residences.
The three troublesome disciples’ luck looked flourishing, so red it was almost purple. In reality, a considerable portion was solidified “death energy,” which didn’t look like their innate possession. It was externally imposed, used to pad their numbers.
This showed how much extraneous content was in the three troublesome disciples’ protagonist identities.
It seemed the protagonists’ fates were not so indestructible.
Slowly and steadily changing the Heavenly Tome’s plot, wearing away that flowing luck, and in the end, all the protagonist treatment that shouldn’t have belonged to the three troublesome disciples would have to be returned.
However, Li Jin’an didn’t like such slow methods. She preferred to solve problems her own way.
Ask why such a great Sword Sovereign would do this?
Li Jin’an understood the principle of “a noble person does not take risks,” but she was just happy, just willing, just unhappy with this feeling of everyone being treated as characters in a book, arbitrarily trampled upon.
If she wasn’t happy, the Heavenly Dao would also have to suffer along.
The Heavenly Dao wished her to change the Heavenly Tome’s plot; there was no doubt about that. But the Heavenly Dao also seemed restricted by certain rules, unable to act directly, and still had to preserve the troublesome disciples’ lives when necessary, which was why it chose her.
For now, it seemed the Heavenly Dao’s tolerance for her, this chess piece, was quite high. That heavenly lightning bolt looked fierce and could clearly have struck her, but in the end, it still spared her.
Unfortunately, the Heavenly Dao still had many reservations and couldn’t directly strike down the three troublesome disciples.
Pulling off such a stunt in the middle of the night, Li Jin’an was very satisfied.
She had probed out the Heavenly Dao’s bottom line and the troublesome disciples’ luck situation, knocked out the troublesome disciples, and most importantly, she was happy.
It was simply a triple win; she alone won three times!
By this time, Jingting Dao Lord and the others had finished their pleasantries with Xie Huaixue and had all teleported away. Good-natured Jiang Fengmian even helped settle the three troublesome disciples in an uninhabited guest courtyard, feeding each of them a medicinal pill. Before leaving, he even quietly gave Li Jin’an a thumbs-up, expressing his admiration.
Li Jin’an curled her lip, thinking they were still making too much fuss. This was just the beginning.
Turning her head, she met Xie Huaixue’s clear, sharp eyes.
From the moment the incident occurred until now, this person hadn’t said a single word, merely standing quietly by her side, gazing at her. Her presence was even less noticeable than the hastily departed Jiang Fengmian.
Under such an inescapable gaze, Li Jin’an felt extremely uncomfortable and guilty.
After all, the disciple residences had exploded. She truly didn’t know how to twist facts, so she could only let her gaze wander, softly saying, “Ask whatever you want to ask.”
Take advantage of the time now while she’s still guilty and lacking confidence to ask. Once she feels justified and confident later, there’ll be no chance to ask.
Xie Huaixue didn’t ask. After a long while, she finally brought herself to shift her gaze from Li Jin’an, only saying, “Remember not to act so recklessly.”
“…?”
Li Jin’an froze.
Xie Huaixue, whose house had been blown up, didn’t blame her, nor did she ask what heaven-angering act she had committed that even implicated Lan Ci and the others. She merely told her not to act so recklessly again.
Li Jin’an felt even more inexplicably uncomfortable than before, making many small movements: gazing into the distance, then touching her ears and nose, she quietly responded, “Oh.”
Xie Huaixue seemed to let out a long sigh, “I hope you have truly remembered.”
If Xie Huaixue had stood from Qingxiao Peak’s perspective and criticized her, Li Jin’an would definitely have bristled and stomped, sticking her neck out and arguing with Xie Huaixue. But Xie Huaixue didn’t mention it at all and was so concerned about her, her sworn enemy, which instead left her somewhat at a loss.
Even if she didn’t know the true faces of Lan Ci, Zhong Fei, and Ning Zhufeng, these three troublesome disciples, Immortal Venerable Qingxiao’s first choice would still only be Jijin Sword Sovereign.
Really not asking? But I want to tell!
Li Jin’an rarely reflected on whether she had been too excessive towards Xie Huaixue. In a surge of emotion, she blurted out, “I actually deliberately guided the heavenly lightning towards the disciple residences. Your three disciples aren’t good people. In fact, Zhong Fei and Ning Zhufeng aren’t even human; one is a half-yao, and the other is a succubus-demon…”
Even though her speaking speed was extremely fast, she still couldn’t tell Xie Huaixue all the information she wanted to. The Heavenly Dao descended once again.
Time stood still.
Compared to the last time, Li Jin’an could observe more details this time. Distant plants swayed with the wind, birds chirped, and Xie Huaixue in front of her was like a statue, her gaze still fixed on Li Jin’an.
She didn’t know if it was her illusion, but she always felt that the Heavenly Dao now had a hint of exasperation.
Li Jin’an rolled her eyes. She clearly hadn’t even mentioned the Heavenly Tome’s existence, yet it rushed out so eagerly to punish her.
The next instant, the time that had been erased out of thin air returned to normal.
Li Jin’an blinked, looked at the normal-faced Xie Huaixue, and tentatively asked, “Did you hear what I said?”
Xie Huaixue nodded, “You said you deliberately guided the heavenly lightning towards the disciple residences.”
“And then?”
“Nothing else.”
“…”
Was this the legendary out-of-context quote? The illiterate Sword Sovereign wondered sincerely.
Heavenly Dao! This Venerable and you are irreconcilable!
“You heard wrong, there was nothing of the sort,” Li Jin’an insisted, speaking lies with open eyes.
Xie Huaixue was silent for a moment, then raised her eyes to look at her, “…Mm.”
Li Jin’an couldn’t stand Xie Huaixue’s gaze, so she feigned a cough, “It’s getting late. Get some rest. See you.”
After saying that, she vanished.
Back in the guest courtyard, Li Jin’an sat cross-legged on the bed, recalling at what point things had gone awry. Logically, the formation for the luck borrowing art shouldn’t have been so powerful!
Or perhaps, the Heavenly Dao was just looking for an opportunity to strike her down?
Li Jin’an pulled out the jade slip and compared it, bit by bit, to the formation lines she had inscribed.
She rarely felt so eager for knowledge, completely unable to understand why a mere luck borrowing art would attract heavenly lightning.
She fumbled around for half the night until the faint morning light appeared, the morning dew rose, and the sunlight spilled onto Li Jin’an’s face. Only then did she find the answer.
It was indeed drawn in one continuous stroke without any interruptions, but several critical turning points and nodes were drawn incorrectly. What should have turned didn’t, and nodes that shouldn’t have been connected were…
And for the formation to still take shape and operate like that, Li Jin’an felt she was truly a formation genius!
The Divine Mechanism Sect elders’ perspectives were still too narrow, and their prejudice against sword cultivators too deep. If they had properly taught her back then, she would have been a formation master long ago.
She still successfully pried a tiny bit of luck from Lan Ci. Not much, she didn’t feel any difference anyway.
This showed that the Heavenly Dao was still too petty, not understanding the principle of sharing at all.
Li Jin’an pointed fingers in her mind, then suddenly remembered that when she looked towards the immortal cave, Xie Huaixue’s head was shrouded in a thick mist. Her mood became gloomy.
Ordinary people’s luck was at most white, unlucky people at most had black. But there was never a misty color. Did it mean Xie Huaixue’s path ahead was uncertain, her fate unknown, still shrouded by a pall of gloom?
Just as Li Jin’an was pondering, a paper crane flew into her palm.