Spectating the Angsty Romance of the Master and Disciple from the Sect Next Door Chapter 42

The three disciples of Jijin Peak immediately quieted down, huddling together. Their postures and expressions were more obedient than the last, because they noticed their master had started narrowing her eyes at people, clearly on the verge of erupting. Once she erupted, anyone in front of her at that moment could become an unlucky victim. How foolish would they have to be to approach their master and invite punishment? Oh, there really was a fool.
Ning Zhufeng stepped forward, bowing respectfully to Li Jin’an as a junior. Her tone was so deferential it was flawless, filled with apology as she said, “I heard the illusion master say that this junior’s struggle to break free from the illusion caused too much commotion, inadvertently reaching the illusion’s weakest point. The illusion master thought I was trying to breach it, so it came to restrain me, but who knew it would implicate you and Master? This junior feels deeply remorseful. May I ask if you and Master sustained any injuries?”
As the leader of the three ‘troublemakers,’ Ning Zhufeng’s mind was the most cunning and malicious. Her words were naturally not out of genuine concern for whether Li Jin’an was injured, but rather to test if Li Jin’an and Xie Huaixue had done anything in the illusion to break past their sworn enemy relationship. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe in the authenticity of Li Jin’an and Xie Huaixue’s sworn enemy relationship, but rather that the illusion master here had no bottom line. A perfectly good spirit creature was even better at matchmaking than a matchmaker. Other illusions were for cultivating the heart, but this one was, well, for them to pass a trial of love.
In truth, Ning Zhufeng hadn’t been sober at first. Her Master, who normally never showed her a good face, was gentle, charming, and exceedingly tender in the illusion. Even though she subconsciously knew it was all false, she couldn’t help but be immersed in it. However, Ning Zhufeng later forced herself to wake up because she coveted Immortal Venerable Qingxiao not just for her beauty, but for everything Immortal Venerable Qingxiao represented. As long as she broke Immortal Venerable’s Emotionless Dao, dealing a heavy blow to the righteous path of cultivation, her father would value her upon returning to the demon realm, rather than her hopelessly foolish brother. Therefore, Ning Zhufeng didn’t want anything to happen between Li Jin’an and Xie Huaixue in the illusion. Moreover, she knew that Master and Jijin Sword Sovereign entering the illusion this time was indeed her fault. Instead of waiting for the ill-tempered Jijin Sword Sovereign to lash out, it was better for her to proactively admit her mistake. Even if Jijin Sword Sovereign wanted to argue with a junior, she would have to consider Master’s face… right?
Li Jin’an’s gaze did not fall on Ning Zhufeng, who appeared genuinely fearful, but rather on the dazed expressions of Lan Ci and Zhong Fei. One look was enough to tell that they were still deeply immersed in the illusion, unable to extricate themselves.
…Were they fantasizing about Xie Huaixue? Right, troublemakers like them were always the most disgusting. Heh. Clueless and courting death.
She lifted her eyelids, and amidst her extreme fury, she actually let out a soundless laugh. Her phoenix eyes glimmered with scattered amusement, but this mirth didn’t reach her eyes, which held a hint of indifference.
Qi Lingzi, Tan Yanyi, and Ling Qiu all shivered at the sight of that smile, retreating several steps in quick succession. They secretly thought that once the Immortal Venerable’s disciples were punished, their master wouldn’t be able to punish them anymore.
Li Jin’an did not fly into a furious rage. With a flick of her wrist, she directly dragged the three wretches over, using spiritual energy as invisible ropes to choke their necks, suspending them in mid-air.
The three wretches’ faces turned blue and purple from holding their breath. They clawed at the spiritual energy ropes around their necks, desperate for a breath.
They couldn’t even speak, let alone call for help, only letting out rough gurgling sounds.
This scene truly looked like a great demonic cultivator draining the life essence of innocent cultivators. It seemed not only bizarre but utterly inhumane.
The three from Jijin Peak silently closed their eyes.
Ancestral Master above, Master has truly gone mad with anger.
Their venerable master was so enraged she turned into a maniac. Let her have this one. Anyway, she wouldn’t really kill the Immortal Venerable’s disciples. Just endure it and it’ll pass.
They were all perplexed. Qingxiao Immortal Venerable was exquisitely unparalleled, with profound cultivation, and her conduct was beyond reproach, truly a pillar of humanity. Besides their master, no one ever spoke ill of her. So how could her disciples be so peculiar?
This peculiarity did not refer to their appearance but to their inner qualities and the impression they gave.
Tan Yanyi and Ling Qiu were still alright, foolish and not thinking too much.
However, Qi Lingzi genuinely felt that they were unworthy of being Immortal Venerable’s disciples. Since they often had to fight with the Qingxiao lineage, there were inevitably times they had to interact, and it was easy to discover that these three had two completely different faces in front of the Immortal Venerable and away from her.
Thus, even the most stable eldest disciple chose to turn a blind eye to her master’s tyrannical actions.
But Li Jin’an did not find pleasure in tormenting the three wretches; she found it dirty work. However, she was indeed not that benevolent. She directly used her vast divine sense to rampage into the three wretches’ seas of consciousness, regardless of whether they would be turned into idiots by an Integration Stage cultivator’s immense divine sense. Swiftly, accurately, and ruthlessly, she erased all their memories from the illusion.
If a Golden Core stage cultivator’s sea of consciousness was a trickling stream, then an Integration Stage cultivator’s sea of consciousness was a turbulent ocean. A single wave could engulf the streams and rivers caught within, leaving them no power to resist.
If Li Jin’an wished, she could use the impact of her divine sense to wantonly obliterate the consciousness of Golden Core cultivators, altering their memories, their thoughts… Li Jin’an preferred to solve problems like a sword cultivator. If not for the three wretches being truly disgusting, she wouldn’t have resorted to such a method.
If I really turn the three wretches into idiots, I’d accept being struck by heavenly lightning every day.
Unfortunately, the Heavenly Dao did not allow such a profitable, no-capital-needed venture to occur. Fortunately, when Li Jin’an made her move, the Heavenly Dao did not leap out to freeze time and forbid her from harming the three wretches. Otherwise, Li Jin’an would have been so enraged she’d flip Ziye Town upside down.
Even so, the three wretches immediately fell unconscious. When they woke up, they would find that they had uniquely lost their memories from the illusion. They would know Li Jin’an had done it deliberately, and consequently, suspect whether their memories had been tampered with by Li Jin’an, causing them to fear and resent Li Jin’an, wishing to get rid of her as soon as possible.
But what did it matter? If not for the Heavenly Dao’s interference, the three wretches would have died eight hundred times over.
Li Jin’an was indeed doing it on purpose. There were countless people who hated her; what were these three wretches? They didn’t even rank.
She wanted to see what methods these three Heavenly Tome protagonists could use to scheme against her. She would eagerly await it.
Her remaining anger had not subsided, making everything an eyesore.
Li Jin’an was already in a foul mood, having accumulated a bellyful of anger from Xie Huaixue. Even after brutally erasing the wretches’ unpleasant memories, she was still furious. So she beckoned to her own disciples.
The three quails dared not resist. Led by Qi Lingzi, they lined up and walked over in small, hurried steps.
Li Jin’an crossed her arms and glared sideways at them. The snide, sarcastic tone in her voice was impossible to hide.
“Oh, look, aren’t these the three divine ones of our Sword Sect? You annoyed your Grandmaster to the point she wished to expel herself from the sect for some peace and quiet, and then you went out to gather Purple Leaf Needles. Well done! Not only were you all caught in one swoop, but you even dragged Qingxiao and me into an illusion. Who wouldn’t praise you as divine ones, huh!”
This was truly divine.
The last time Jijin Sword Sovereign and Qingxiao Immortal Venerable suffered such a huge setback was the last time, but then it was at Jingting Dao Lord’s hands, so they couldn’t resist and could only passively endure.
Now, these three divine ones could be mentioned in the same breath as a Dao Lord.
The three divine ones of Jijin Peak looked at each other, cautiously glancing at Li Jin’an from the corner of their eyes. They couldn’t empathize with their master’s distress at all, as they hadn’t expected the consequences of this string of interconnected events to be so severe.
Looking at the three unfazed old hands, Li Jin’an began to admire her own sharp eye. “I’m pretty divine too; I picked the three of you out of a crowd in an instant. Honestly, you aren’t sent by the Heavenly Dao to torment me, are you?”
It’s not enough for the Heavenly Dao to send three wretches, they also have to let these three divine ones torment me too, right!
I shouldn’t have laughed at Xie Huaixue for turning Qingxiao Peak into a pigsty for wretches; my Jijin Peak isn’t much better. It’s full of unworthy disciples who’d infuriate their master without suffering any repercussions.
How truly malicious.
Ling Qiu, who was very familiar with her master’s and Eldest Senior Sister’s deeds, weakly retorted, “Master, Eldest Senior Sister was raised by you since childhood; you didn’t choose her.”
Qi Lingzi was picked up by Li Jin’an, and her name was given by Li Jin’an, so there was no choosing involved. However, Tan Yanyi and Ling Qiu were disciples Li Jin’an took in with a grand wave of her hand when the Sword Sect opened its gates.
“Don’t tell me I didn’t know; do I need you to remind me?” Li Jin’an took a deep breath, deeply feeling that her troublesome disciples acted up because they were too idle. She grinned menacingly, “It seems you can’t settle down to practice sword cultivation. Very well then, after you return, you will undertake escort missions for the Divine Mechanism Sect and Spring Rejuvenation Valley. Let’s see if you can still fall into illusions then!?”
If it happens again, then I’ll truly be impressed.
Tan Yanyi and Ling Qiu both let out a collective “Ah,” filled with deep resentment.
Qi Lingzi tugged at their sleeves, to prevent their master’s rage from burning even fiercer, adding insult to injury and causing their meager escort fees to be withheld.
Their reaction was understandable. The escort missions from the Divine Mechanism Sect and Spring Rejuvenation Valley posted to the Sword Sect were simply too exploitative. Li Jin’an herself had been exploited by them when she was a junior sword cultivator.
Just like the Sword Sect loved to default on payments, the pot calling the kettle black, the Divine Mechanism Sect and Spring Rejuvenation Valley were not good people either. Not only did they hire sword cultivators at extremely low prices, but they also made them brave mountains of blades and seas of fire to escort them while they gathered spiritual plants and excavated minerals. Sometimes, they were even tricked into doing extra work, and most importantly, they didn’t even give spirit stones!
Typically, those who posted such missions were alchemists, artifact forgers, and formation masters at the Nascent Soul stage and below, who were not skilled in combat. This was because master-level cultivators could afford high prices to hire veteran sword cultivators who had grown wary of being exploited.
Coincidentally, they also exploited novice sword cultivators. However, cunning veteran sword cultivators were quite happy to see overconfident junior sword cultivators suffer setbacks, so such missions were passed down through generations, exploiting one generation of sword cultivators after another.
Tan Yanyi was unwilling to take on such arduous, thankless missions that left them dusty and disheveled with barely any spirit stones. She immediately pounced at Li Jin’an’s leg, squatting down ungracefully to act spoiled, “Master! We’ve already completed three escort missions for the Divine Mechanism Sect! We’ve even memorized their tricks for deceiving sword cultivators. We truly don’t want to see their hateful faces again!”
Qi Lingzi and Ling Qiu silently mourned for her in their hearts. Past experience showed that their master would only increase the punishment, not lighten it.
Sure enough.
Li Jin’an sneered, “Perfect. You can go complete three more escort missions for Spring Rejuvenation Valley disciples, so our Sword Sect doesn’t appear to be showing partiality.”
She couldn’t stand anyone acting spoiled right now!
Tan Yanyi dejectedly got up, becoming completely docile.
“What kind of sword cultivators are you, whining and whimpering like this? Where is your sword cultivator spirit! A sword cultivator should rather break than bend, be unyielding and sharp. From now on, you are not allowed to act cute or fawn in front of your master, the time limit is forever, understand?”
The three from Jijin Peak exchanged thoughtful glances and nodded in unison, “Understood!”
Master even called herself ‘your master’; what else could they do?
Either Master acted spoiled towards the Immortal Venerable in the illusion, or the Immortal Venerable acted spoiled towards Master, making Master utterly mortified. There was absolutely no third possibility, because only Qingxiao Immortal Venerable could cause such intense emotional fluctuations in Jijin Sword Sovereign. With the Sword Sovereign’s arrogance, others couldn’t catch her eye, and naturally wouldn’t break her composure like that.
Based on their experience, it should be the former, and the kind of acting spoiled that lacked any dignity. After all, everyone in their lineage, old and young, was quite adept at acting spoiled. There were rumors that their Grandmaster also loved to act spoiled towards Yinyue Monarch, so it could be considered a continuous lineage.
“Juniors greet Immortal Venerable.” The three from Jijin Peak collectively paid their respects to Xie Huaixue.
Li Jin’an, her back to Xie Huaixue, silently bristled and gritted her teeth. She hadn’t detected Xie Huaixue’s sudden appearance at all!
It wasn’t because she had relaxed her vigilance, but because ever since waking up from the illusion, that damned subconscious hadn’t treated Xie Huaixue as an outsider!
Damn that illusion!
Li Jin’an stood with her hands behind her back, fully displaying the profound and unfathomable demeanor of a Sword Sovereign. “When did you arrive?”