Spectating the Angsty Romance of the Master and Disciple from the Sect Next Door Chapter 72

Regardless of Jiang Fengmian’s utterly shocked state, she ultimately relayed the message to Xie Huaixue in front of Li Jin’an and Jie Yunjin.
The moment she finished speaking, Jiang Fengmian felt her entire being, inside and out, had become dirty and dark. She had ultimately become a tool for these two to flirt.
It was hard to say whether being a tool for their flirting was more uncomfortable, or babysitting Jijin was. One could only say both were the kind of pain akin to gorging oneself on thousands of Xingxing Grass.
Xingxing Grass, a spiritual herb unique to the cultivation world, can be eaten raw. Its effect is to calm the mind and soothe nerves, aiding sleep. However, its taste is indescribably foul. Generally, fainting from the stench is also considered a way to calm oneself.
Jie Yunjin, who was very experienced, half-heartedly consoled her, “Think of it this way: even when they fought relentlessly in their youth, you had to mediate. So, while the content of your message has changed, your role hasn’t, has it?”
It was hard to say if this was comfort or sprinkling salt on a wound.
She’s not a good person… not a good snake.
Anyone who could hang out with Li Jin’an, what good could they be?
Jiang Fengmian looked at her with dead fish eyes, too mentally exhausted to even roll them. She turned and walked away.
Jie Yunjin watched her fly away in a whoosh, shaking her head and clicking her tongue in wonder. She turned and said, “Look at the trouble you two cause! You’ve driven the cultivation world’s famous good-natured person to this state.”
“Didn’t you go find a place to live in seclusion? How are you still so familiar with the cultivation world? Tell me, are you trying to lead your snake descendants to attack the cultivation world?”
Jie Yunjin’s first reaction upon hearing this was to look up at the sky. Good, no white light descended. The Dao Sect currently didn’t plan to kill the snake to silence it, but if Li Jin’an kept spouting nonsense like this, it might not remain so.
The most poisonous herb on Lancang Continent wasn’t as toxic as Li Jin’an’s mouth. Every word was flawless, every case a wrongful accusation.
Being friends with Li Jin’an was the most unjust thing that had ever happened in her life, or even her snake life.
She also successfully received a pair of dead fish eyes (from Li Jin’an), and said tiredly, “If you keep this up, when you two have your Dao Companion ceremony, I’ll give you nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine snake descendants as a congratulatory gift!”
Li Jin’an shrugged and shamelessly leaned against Xie Huaixue’s shoulder. “Anyway, I have no objections, and my Dao Companion certainly won’t either. It just depends on how you gather nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine snake descendants. I’m actually quite curious.”
Xie Huaixue stood tall and straight, her face calm and composed, allowing Li Jin’an to lean on her motionless. She had already reached a point of having no bottom line for Li Jin’an; what objections could she possibly have?
Jie Yunjin, also an uneducated and dissolute slacker, immediately had many words surface in her mind: colluding, wallowing in the mire together, officials shielding each other, birds of a feather, acting in collusion, cat and mouse sleeping together…
She finally understood: in the large family of Jijin Peak and Qingxiao Peak, Xie Huaixue’s words held the most sway, but she simply didn’t speak. She listened to Li Jin’an speak and resolutely upheld whatever Li Jin’an said.
These two were completely wrapped around each other’s fingers.
Jie Yunjin, speechless, looked up at the sky, sniffed, and said with a world-weary tone, “Send me out! I want to go home!”
She wanted to leave this heartbreaking place that made a snake instantly age a hundred years. Even the snakes she feared the most were much cuter than these two!
Li Jin’an felt it was a pity. She had planned to invite Jie Yunjin to visit Qingxiao Peak, mainly to let Jie Yunjin see the traces she had left behind on Qingxiao Peak.
Because Li Jin’an didn’t consider herself an outsider at all, Qingxiao Peak had undergone a massive transformation. Even the spiritual herb garden was now cultivating spiritual plants and herbs she liked to eat, and Xie Huaixue’s immortal’s cave was even more so, filled with many glaringly red objects. She even planned to replace the bed; the original one was too hard, making her uncomfortable.
One could say that Qingxiao Peak had now become a second Jijin Peak.
That was why Lan Ci became even more determined to go out for training. Compared to Li Jin’an, who was like a fish in water, Lan Ci, who had lived on Qingxiao Peak for centuries, had clearly realized that she was just an eyesore of an outsider.
The reality was so cruel. Even if Lan Ci had many more obsessions for her master, she had no choice but to lie low and temporarily avoid the limelight.
As for Ning Zhufeng, she was also considering the cost-effectiveness of her mission to seduce Immortal Venerable Qingxiao as a demon spy. But to make her give up and return to square one overnight, she was ultimately unwilling.
They wanted to stay on Qingxiao Peak but couldn’t, while Jie Yunjin was resolute in not going to Qingxiao Peak.
Jie Yunjin said, feeling uncomfortable all over, “The matter is resolved. If there’s nothing else, just let me go quickly. You two are going to your old spot tomorrow, aren’t you? You don’t need me to come along, do you?”
As a snake demon wandering around the human race’s top immortal sect, she felt not a shred of security, terrified that she might be caught and stewed for soup by some mighty figure if she wasn’t careful.
As a sacred land in the hearts of cultivators, the Dao Sect was rumored outside to be miraculous: Void Refinement cultivators were everywhere, and Nascent Soul cultivators were as common as dogs. Every collapsing force added glory to the Dao Sect.
Cultivators who joined the Dao Sect naturally boasted about how powerful it was. Those who couldn’t enter would also say that it was normal for the Dao Sect, as the top immortal sect, to have high requirements, just to save face.
When Jie Yunjin was still a mortal, she had yearned for the grandeur of the Dao Sect. Now that she was truly here, she only wanted to transform into her original form, wrap herself around Li Jin’an and Xie Huaixue’s necks, and pretend to be a dead snake.
Perhaps because they hadn’t seen an outside snake before, Jie Yunjin constantly felt spiritual senses sweeping over her. She dared not speak out in anger, nor dared to look back.
She called Li Jin’an because she was afraid that if she were alone, she wouldn’t be able to leave and would end up in someone’s pot.
Li Jin’an and Xie Huaixue escorted her to the town at the foot of the mountain. In the time it took for them to turn around, they saw Jie Yunjin dart into a restaurant.
The two didn’t mind her. They walked side by side on the cobblestone path, enjoying a rare moment of tranquility.
Li Jin’an let out a breath, saying with much emotion, “The last time you and I walked together was… the last time we went to Ziye Town.”
Mentioning Ziye Town inevitably brought to mind everything that happened in the illusion, and the black butterfly, which they weren’t sure if they should consider their matchmaker.
She suddenly thought of a question: had Xie Huaixue developed feelings for her before the illusion or after?
Xie Huaixue also remembered, and softly asked, “Do you want Big Sister to buy you candy?”
And an address with the same power as ‘Qingxiao’ had appeared.
Li Jin’an hadn’t fully thought through the question. Hearing Xie Huaixue’s words, her raised foot paused mid-air, then slowly lowered.
“What’s wrong?” Xie Huaixue looked at her, seemingly puzzled, and continued to ask with eyes curved in a smile, “Our Jin’an has grown up, doesn’t like candy anymore?”
She paused, lowered her voice, and spoke softly into Li Jin’an’s ear, “Surely it’s not because you dislike Big Sister, is it?”
Immortal Venerable Qingxiao’s voice, like her name and person, usually carried a frost-kissed, snow-like chill, keeping people at a thousand miles’ distance. But at this moment, the glacier gradually melted, her clear voice softened and gentled, with a slight upward lilt at the end, inexplicably tender, and carrying a hint of almost bewitching coaxing.
Li Jin’an seemed unable to process it. She blinked blankly, her cheeks rapidly turning crimson as if a beat too slow, her face flushed, and her earlobes tinged with scarlet.
One might have thought her crimson brocade robes had faded and dyed her cheeks and ears.
Xie Huaixue tilted her head, watching her blink.
Mortals and cultivators passing by on the street walked past them without looking sideways, completely oblivious to the undercurrents between the flawless pair.
All questions vanished from Li Jin’an’s mind. She had only one thought: How could Xie Huaixue be so wicked, chasing after someone to ‘kill’ them like this?
Doesn’t she know what it means to stop before it’s too much?!
Xie Huaixue didn’t understand. She was about to say something else when Li Jin’an quickly interrupted, “Wait, wait!”
She was living perfectly fine right now; there was no need for dose after dose of strong medicine.
Even mortals knew to let the donkey grinding flour rest and catch its breath. Was she not allowed to breathe?!
Even a Sword Sovereign at the Integration stage couldn’t withstand such teasing from her Dao Companion. What was the difference between her and a lump of dough arbitrarily kneaded in Xie Huaixue’s hands?
“Xie Huaixue, Master Xie, Big Sister Xie, please spare me!”
Li Jin’an’s spiritual energy churned, but she forcibly suppressed it, patting her chest with lingering fear.
She was already such a powerful Sword Sovereign. If she still couldn’t control her spiritual energy like a junior disciple who had just entered cultivation, and her energy rampaged on the street, she would probably suffer a huge loss of face before the entire cultivation world. Chixin Sword Lord would also have to drag her back and make her go into seclusion for re-cultivation.
Xie Huaixue lowered her gaze and pursed her lips, faintly smiling.
The harsh winter had just passed, and tender sprouts had yet to emerge. The lingering cold of spring brought a chilly spring rain, moistening the earth, bringing forth new vitality, quietly awaiting spring’s full bloom, never failing each other year after year.
Li Jin’an froze. A violent heartbeat pounded in her ears. She blankly covered her passionately pounding heart, suddenly realizing something—Xie Huaixue didn’t need words or actions; merely standing there was premeditated murder to her.
A fatal blow.
“So, do you still want Big Sister to buy you candy?”
“Yes!” Li Jin’an said incredibly sincerely.
To this day, although her mind was no longer acting erratically, her tough mouth had utterly lost, unable to be tough anymore.
Li Jin’an laboriously chewed the sticky malt candy, holding a maltose candy in one hand and candied haws in the other, her expression slightly contorted. After finally swallowing, she casually asked Xie Huaixue.
“When did you realize you harbored ill intentions towards me? Was it before going to Ziye Town or after?”
Even if her mouth was no longer tough, she was still that uneducated self, fond of using a mess of idioms.
Xie Huaixue lowered her eyelids and said straightforwardly, “Before.”
Li Jin’an mechanically put the candied haws into her mouth, chewed them whole, and swallowed. Her cheeks rapidly heated up again, and amidst a flush of crimson, she calmly said:
“Given This Venerable’s special situation, could you wait until we go to our old spot tomorrow to tell me exactly when you started having impure intentions towards me?”
Harboring ill intentions, impure intentions… Li Jin’an’s wording made it seem as though their relationship was disgraceful, needing to be hidden.
Xie Huaixue couldn’t help but laugh, and responded, “Okay.”
She’d even referred to herself as ‘This Venerable,’ how could she refuse her?
Li Jin’an nodded, then continued to gnaw on the candied haws, moving stiffly. She couldn’t taste anything at all.
She tried hard to change the subject. “What’s wrong with Jiang Xuanyu? She only helped me deliver the message, but didn’t bother to relay your reply back to me. How could such an important step be omitted?”
Jiang Fengmian, who had been developed for various uses, had no idea that she had played a huge role even when she wasn’t present. She didn’t want to know either.
Actually, when Xie Huaixue agreed to tomorrow’s invitation, Jiang Fengmian didn’t speak, but she did glance at Li Jin’an, so the step wasn’t omitted.
Xie Huaixue didn’t pick up her words, only saying, “Tomorrow, we’ll meet without fail.”