Spectating the Angsty Romance of the Master and Disciple from the Sect Next Door Chapter 99

If the trip to Ziye Town was indeed an accident, then could this time still be an accident?
How could it be such a coincidence that all accidents befell Qi Lingzi and the other two?
Don’t say that, it really is possible. If Qi Lingzi and the others truly had rising luck, the probability of encountering both danger and opportunities would greatly increase, just like the protagonists in storybooks. Their experiences are always so full of twists and turns, grand and spectacular; what happens in a single day might be more exciting than an ordinary person’s entire lifetime.
But not everything could be attributed to luck.
Li Jin’an herself was a person of great luck. After all, reaching this status without being killed by someone was enough to prove that she was blessed with luck.
Not just her; Xie Huaixue, Jiang Fengmian, Jie Yunjin… which of them wasn’t a person of great luck? Perhaps they weren’t bestowed with immense luck at birth like the three monstrous disciples, but through relentless self-improvement and defying fate, they had long since changed from their past selves.
How come they didn’t have so many shenanigans? Of course, it could also be that the biggest shenanigans they encountered was Li Jin’an herself; she alone was equivalent to the trials and crises of a thousand armies and ten thousand horses.
One moment, Qi Lingzi turned defeat into victory on the arena, completely defeating Lan Ci, and Li Jin’an and Xie Huaixue became dao companions and held their bonding ceremony. The next moment, Qi Lingzi went missing on the road from the Sword Sect to the Dao Sect?
Doesn’t Lan Ci feel there’s something wrong?
But then again, in the Heavenly Tome, those monstrous disciples, only at the Nascent Soul Stage, dared to scheme against Jiang Fengmian, who was at perfected Void Refinement. When it came to audacity, who could compare to those three monstrous disciples?
Li Jin’an became so angry she laughed instead. If Chixin Sword Lord hadn’t promptly sent a message paper crane, informing her that Qi Lingzi and the other two’s life tokens were normal, with no cracks at all and still as bright as ever, she truly would have disregarded the Heavenly Dao’s obstruction and hunted Lan Ci throughout the cultivation world. If she didn’t run Lan Ci through with her sword, she wouldn’t be able to quell her hatred.
Xie Huaixue put on her outer robe, her ink-black hair cascaded over her shoulders. Her eyes gleamed brightly as she softly asked, “Do you want me to send a message to recall Lan Ci?”
It was obvious, even for Xie Huaixue, her first reaction was to suspect Lan Ci.
Compared to their master, who made enemies everywhere, Qi Lingzi, Tan Yanyi, and Lingqiu had quite good relationships in both Sword Sect and Dao Sect. Aside from delivering devastating blows to disciples of both sects during the Solitary Mountain Secret Realm, they could blend in with others, foolishly happy every day, completely without the arrogance of a Sword Sovereign’s disciple. The only enemies whose names they could recall were Lan Ci and Ning Zhufeng.
The answer was right before them.
So if not Lan Ci, who else could be suspected?
Could she really drag her feet and investigate thoroughly? She wasn’t a county magistrate solving cases; why bother with so much trouble?
For Li Jin’an, once suspicion was established, the guilt was confirmed; logic was entirely unnecessary.
She looked up and smirked at Xie Huaixue, her chin held high. “No need. I placed a wisp of my dormant spiritual sense on them.”
Having long known what kind of filthy things those monstrous disciples were, how could she not be on guard against them? Especially since the three little fools from Jijin Peak were so carefree, believing anything said to them and easily reeled in with a little coaxing, she naturally had to take protective measures.
Better safe than sorry, and now they’ve come in handy!
The reason the spiritual sense was dormant and not awakened was also for the sake of their master-disciple relationship and trust. If the spiritual sense were awake and saw Qi Lingzi and Lingqiu being intimate, and Tan Yanyi spinelessly chasing after pretty young disciples… how embarrassing would that be? It would make it seem as if Li Jin’an was overly controlling of her disciples, having to spy on them.
Heaven knows, Li Jin’an absolutely didn’t want to see her disciples being worthless and embarrassing.
No matter how close master and disciples were, they still needed boundaries.
Xie Huaixue’s fingertips moved. She obediently stroked Li Jin’an’s wrist and praised, “Your Honor is truly far-sighted and prepared for a rainy day. Qingxiao feels inferior.”
Li Jin’an’s mouth puffed out slightly, her eyes sparkling. She said insincerely, “I stopped falling for that trick long ago. Who praises their dao companion with methods used to coax children?”
Moreover, she felt something was off. Xie Huaixue’s hand directly encircled her wrist, rubbing back and forth on her pulse points. There was an inexplicable sense of dominance and playfulness.
However, Xie Huaixue had done this before too, as if she had a special fondness for Li Jin’an’s wrist.
Li Jin’an didn’t think much of it. She said with a smile, “You seem to really like my hands.”
Knuckles distinct, slender and fair, with a thin layer of calluses on the fingertips—indeed beautiful.
Xie Huaixue’s eyes flickered. Remaining composed, she continued to leisurely hook Li Jin’an’s wrist. She sighed, “This is also a way of praising you. However, your most beautiful moments are when you wield your sword, and when you are in front of me.”
In front of what? Dual cultivation?
How could this person say such things with such a pure, cold and indifferent face!
All the words themselves were proper, but put together, they were strange, making one unable to help but think crooked thoughts.
Li Jin’an clasped her hand in return.
Xie Huaixue, seemingly puzzled, looked up at her.
Li Jin’an, with a somewhat dazed tone of realization, said, “I finally understand what you meant by ‘falling for me first’. When I was still an idiot, how many times did you subtly toy with me?”
Love and desire were originally born together. After Li Jin’an realized her love for Xie Huaixue, what followed was an overwhelming tide of desire, fierce and irresistible. She surrendered to her desires without struggle.
Then what about Xie Huaixue? What about Xie Huaixue, who had long harbored a hazy affection for Li Jin’an over the past thousand years?
Immortal Venerable Qingxiao could sit upon a divine altar, emotionless, but Xie Huaixue could not. The Dao of Emotionlessness wasn’t about extinguishing human desires; she too was flesh and blood, possessing joy, anger, sorrow, and delight. In those moments when her heart couldn’t help but stir, what was she thinking? Would she resent her untimely feelings?
Perhaps the Xie Huaixue just now was intentionally revealing herself, subtly yet directly confessing her desires for Li Jin’an.
Otherwise, expecting Li Jin’an to discover such subtle and fleeting emotions would truly be asking too much of her.
Li Jin’an was both angry and amused. She was angry that Immortal Venerable Qingxiao was truly the most enduring person under heaven—as long as Li Jin’an remained clueless, Xie Huaixue could continue to endure. The amusing part was that they were indeed a match made in heaven; they were each other’s greatest desires.
In short, they both craved each other.
Xie Huaixue couldn’t stop chuckling. “What are you saying? It’s not as… strange as you make it sound.”
Li Jin’an originally wanted to discuss with her whether it was strange or not, but as the words reached her lips, she suddenly startled. She looked blankly at Xie Huaixue. “The spiritual sense I placed on Qi Lingzi and the others isn’t waking up. That place is somewhat peculiar; it suppresses the primordial spirits of high-level cultivators.”
Her first reaction was annoyance. She had just smugly shown off her foresight to Xie Huaixue, and Xie Huaixue had praised her for being prepared for a rainy day. Wasn’t this slapping her own face now?!
Originally, she had been carefree, precisely because she thought Lan Ci was merely a cornered beast fighting back and couldn’t cause much trouble. Who knew that she hadn’t even been smug for long before a problem arose?
Only then did she recall the content from the later parts of the Heavenly Tome: Ning Zhufeng attempted to imprison Xie Huaixue here, while Lan Ci and Zhong Fei teamed up against Ning Zhufeng. Benefiting from this, and taking advantage of the three monstrous disciples’ infighting, Xie Huaixue sent out a message, contacting the former Sect Master of Dao Sect. Only then did she escape the clutches of the three monstrous disciples.
Jingting Dao Lord, who appeared in the book, heavily injured yet still managed to turn the tide, not only had her name unmentioned, but even her Daoist title wasn’t written out, only the lonely five characters: “former Sect Master of Dao Sect”. The first time Li Jin’an read it, she didn’t even realize this unnamed heroine was Jingting Dao Lord.
Who would have thought that merely revealing this former Sect Master’s Daoist title would be enough to scare the demon race and Yao race into retreating three paces?
It was this time that the Heavenly Tome mentioned Li Jin’an: [Jijin Sword Sovereign was also considered a hero of her generation, but unfortunately perished midway, leaving Immortal Venerable Qingxiao with no old friends.]
It was also this time that the monstrous disciples questioned Xie Huaixue about who she truly thought of in her heart.
Li Jin’an completely broke down, instantly transforming from an onlooker to a deranged madwoman. If not for the Heavenly Dao’s interference, she would have been so disgusted that she would have immediately snuck into Qingxiao Peak and slaughtered the three monstrous disciples; she wouldn’t even have let them survive the night.
Because the memory was too vivid, Li Jin’an directly remembered the location where Xie Huaixue was imprisoned—
“Fuxian Lake.”
“Fuxian Lake.”
Simultaneously, Xie Huaixue’s voice, tinged with coldness, rang out.
“That place was once an ancient battlefield. It’s rumored to be where ancient deities fell. From March to September each year, space-time turbulences form there. Whether intentional or accidental entrants, there’s no escape from death; none survive. There was an elder from the Lingjing Sect who was swept into the turbulence; his life token shattered on the spot. And from October to February, the higher the cultivation of the cultivator who enters, the greater the restrictions they face. If cultivators like us enter, our strength will be less than one percent.”
It was shattered, not extinguished. More precisely, the life token exploded on the spot, and his spiritual soul was instantly annihilated.
A true and utter demise without a burial place.
In such a natural phenomenon, almost divine in power, any cultivator was like duckweed, without anything to rely on, completely without the ability to resist.
Li Jin’an didn’t have much feeling about this. Such things were too common in the cultivation world; life and death are fated. She merely sighed, “That unlucky fellow probably got attracted by some new excitement and ended up unable to escape.”
The reason she didn’t say that this elder from the Lingjing Sect didn’t voluntarily go to Fuxian Valley was because the Lingjing Sect was a bunch of pleasure-seekers, but also experts at self-preservation and escape, a bunch of tricksters. By the time others detected danger, they would have already fled eight hundred miles away.
That a space-time turbulence could catch even a Lingjing Sect elder off guard showed its power.
And now it was early spring, February.
There was less than a month until the space-time turbulence began. If they were a step too late, they might not see Qi Lingzi, Tan Yanyi, and Lingqiu until next year.
Lan Ci indeed chose an excellent location. If they, as elders, hadn’t been so sensitive, they might have realized something was wrong only when it was already too late.
“Call my master; the three of us will go.” Li Jin’an said very steadily, “Oh, right, also greet Dao Lord.”