Li Lingjiang was held by Yin Wu for a very long time. The sunlight outside seemed to have shifted out of place, and none of it fell on her. It was a little cold.
She listened to Yin Wu’s steady heartbeat. Even her thoughts felt hollow, drifting for a long while without returning to order. Yin Wu was hiding something from her. She knew that clearly.
But now she could no longer ask. She had blocked off every path of retreat for herself and was trapped in this small space, able only to wait for Yin Wu to dig her out little by little. Everyone had things they kept hidden, but Li Lingjiang felt this matter was related to her.
As for what it involved, Li Lingjiang had no idea. It was like being unable to find a rope to climb upward, and also like losing the courage to escape alive. The feeling of powerlessness came late. She listened to Yin Wu’s restrained breathing and raised a hand to pat the young immortal’s back.
What else could she do?
Li Lingjiang still wanted to be with Yin Wu.
She pulled some distance between them, then moved closer to look at the emotion on Yin Wu’s face. Unfortunately, she seemed to have missed it. But it did not matter. There was no hurry. They still had time.
“Yin Wu.” She leaned a little closer. “It is time to change and go out.”
Yin Wu’s gaze rested on her for a long while. In the end, she could not help laughing. “All right. I happen to be hungry too.”
Listening to her tone, Li Lingjiang only felt a stifling tightness in her chest. Even below her heart, there was a nauseating sensation, dense and tangled with things she could not name. She stepped back a few paces. A rare leftover warmth still clung to her body. “I am going to change. Hurry up.”
Yin Wu did not give Li Lingjiang any chance to argue and changed first. The outfit had a black base, with red trimming the sleeves and collar. She was actually very suited to black. It made her look far sharper than any other color did. Li Lingjiang’s beast ears drooped. She tried for a while before she understood what it meant for a body to refuse to obey. She fiddled with them twice, and only then did the beast ears regain a little spirit.
“My Lord.” After Yin Wu finished changing, she saw this scene at once. She was instantly amused, and a soft place in her heart seemed to cave in. “What are you doing?”
Li Lingjiang turned back to look at her and withdrew her hand. Her gaze shifted half an inch away. “Maybe they are not listening.”
After saying it, even she could not hold back a smile. Her hand was taken by Yin Wu, and the young immortal led her outside, her mouth never stopping. She gave an approving little sound. “You should smile more. It is beautiful.”
And it made people like her.
“Is that so?” Li Lingjiang replied. She followed Yin Wu’s movements. The two of them had just reached the doorway, and it should have been time for lunch. Before they could do anything, a gust of wind stirred around them and tugged at the corners of their clothes. Thousands of people surged forward, avoiding them with perfect accuracy. Everyone wore a grave, earnest expression, and every brow showed determination.
Li Lingjiang had not finished speaking. She stood in place and watched the crowd leave the Fa Sect in only a few seconds. After she reacted, she asked uncertainly, “Are they going to eat?”
Yin Wu had never seen such a grand scene either. She pressed her lips together and thought for a moment. “Probably… yes.”
Why did every one of them look like a starving ghost reincarnated, impatient beyond reason?
She brought Li Lingjiang along after them. “Let us look first.”
Everyone sat in the same dining hall. As soon as Li Lingjiang stepped inside, she felt how unusual the atmosphere was. The disciples were all silent. They only kept eating, without even pausing midway. Their bodies were upright, as if they had been set into fixed motions, tacitly obeying unspoken rules.
Those who arrived later were stunned by the strange atmosphere and did not dare keep walking inside for a long while. In the end, Wuzhi went over and looked around for a long time before clicking his tongue. “Where do we sit?”
The limited tables and chairs meant many people were crouching silently by the wall while eating. Not a single person dared walk out. The cramped space was filled with the smell of food, making it suffocating.
Li Lingjiang raised her eyes. Without showing anything, she turned her shoulder aside and looked heavily at Duan Wuxiu, who was standing behind her. She lowered her eyes slightly and bowed. “Master.”
Duan Wuxiu smiled. He seemed even easier to approach as he looked at the crowd. “I told you to move faster. Next time, fight for a seat. The Immortal-Entering Sect is only bad in this one way. Certain group activities cannot be missed. The dishes are not especially heavy with meat, but twice a month, there will be a proper feast. If you feel hungry, you may ask the kitchen to make something extra at any time. We will turn a blind eye.”
A burst of discussion broke out among the crowd.
He continued, “Now hurry and eat. There, you can only crouch over there.”
Yin Wu followed his gaze and found an empty corner. It seemed just large enough to stuff their entire group inside.
She gave a cold sneer and said nothing. She only pulled Li Lingjiang closer to her side. How could she fail to see Duan Wuxiu’s action just now?
Duan Wuxiu’s gaze landed on Li Lingjiang, and for some reason it softened a great deal. “I see that you are injured. Why not sit with me?”
Li Lingjiang lifted her eyes to look at him. She suddenly laughed lightly and answered with neither servility nor arrogance, “Thank you for your kindness, Master. My injury is not serious, so there is no need to trouble yourself.”
After saying that, she turned her back. The crowd finally began to move inside. She tightened her grip on Yin Wu’s hand, turned her head slightly, and frowned, revealing a trace of disgust. Duan Wuxiu’s aggressiveness was strong enough to make her uncomfortable.
Li Lingjiang raised a hand and covered her lower abdomen. Her brows drew together. After a hoarse pause, she forced down the discomfort in her body. Her lower abdomen could not stop spasming, tightening and twitching outward. She took a deep breath and could not help touching the string of copper coins hanging at her side.
Yin Wu let go of her hand and did not notice anything unusual. Looking at the food before them, she simply asked for two bowls of congee. Her hand naturally brushed the large pot of congee. She wiped her fingers over it as if testing the temperature. “We will have this. Two bowls.”
The bowls were not small and had some weight in her hands. She had no free hand to hold Li Lingjiang’s, so she could only study Li Lingjiang’s expression. “My Lord…”
Li Lingjiang raised her eyes to search for her. The moment their gazes met, Yin Wu fell silent. Li Lingjiang’s sleeves were tied tight, so she could not make her usual movement. Left with no choice, she rubbed the copper coins instead. She led the young immortal through the crowd and stopped in a spot deeper inside.
No one spoke in the dining hall. There was only the sound of chewing. Li Lingjiang accepted the congee and ate it in small mouthfuls. Like everyone else, she crouched down. Sugar had been added to the congee, giving it a sweet, cloying taste. Her tongue quickly licked the moisture on her lips. Suddenly, her hand paused.
Li Lingjiang looked over. It was a nearby female cultivator lowering her eyes to look at her. The woman said nothing and only shifted inward, making a little space for her. It was possible to sit there, but it would not be comfortable.
Li Lingjiang was just about to shake her head and refuse when Yin Wu tapped her from beside her. She turned her head and happened to meet a pair of resentful eyes.
Yin Wu could not understand how anyone had the nerve to offer such a tiny space. Was that not just squeezing against each other? To put it nicely, there was no choice. To put it bluntly, it was taking advantage of Li Lingjiang’s kindness. How could Yin Wu possibly bear to let her go over?
So she immediately took action. She stretched one leg outward just a little, then patted her own thigh with a firm gaze. There was no need to explain what she meant.
Li Lingjiang was stunned for a few seconds. She silently turned her head away and tried to pretend she had not seen it. She was still holding congee in her mouth, but her mind inevitably replayed Yin Wu’s action just now. She connected it to the way the black dragon had looked when it first learned to walk. She could not hold back and choked, then buried her head in the crook of her arm, her shoulders trembling nonstop.
Yin Wu: “…”
She called softly, “My Lord.”
Li Lingjiang did not look at her. In a muffled, low voice, she said, “Do not talk to me. It is a little embarrassing.”
It made even her earlobes burn.
.
Just like that, three days passed step by step. Duan Wuxiu’s answer was that they had to wait until everyone had come out before starting together. It also meant this was the last group to be recruited. Everything seemed to line up too coincidentally.
Li Lingjiang stood at the exit, waiting for the people still undergoing the trial. Yin Wu stood beside her, seeming to hang limply against her, though in truth she did not dare use any strength at all. Ever since they had arrived at the Immortal-Entering Sect, Li Lingjiang had felt that the young immortal was very nervous and very tense. But no matter how many times she asked, the answer was always that nothing was wrong.
A sense of powerlessness rose in an instant. After asking several times, Li Lingjiang stopped speaking. They could all sense that the atmosphere lately had become somewhat strained and tense. Even the dragon no longer made trouble and only stayed silently beside them.
But there was no way around it. Li Lingjiang could not pry open the mouth of someone who truly wanted to hide the truth. She could only keep thinking, repeatedly turning over where the problem might be. An inexplicable knot formed in her heart, causing her low fever to start again. All day long, she could not summon much interest in anything. Yet Duan Wuxiu liked to come find her. He did not say much, only that he admired her. Every time this happened, Yin Wu would become subtly vigilant.
Whether Duan Wuxiu and Yin Wu knew each other, Li Lingjiang did not know. Trying to infer it from the little information she had was too exhausting. Even Ling Xin came to ask whether they had quarreled.
In truth, there was nothing to quarrel about. Li Lingjiang had a very quiet temperament. She could sit in the same position for an entire day, but Yin Wu could not. Once even the normally lively person fell silent, it seemed as if they truly had nothing to say to each other.
This made Li Lingjiang afraid. More afraid than she had ever been before. The bizarre dreams flashed past every time, and she could not catch any information from them. Instead, they nearly broke down her body. Once, Yin Wu was so angry that she cried, muffling her voice as she wept without blaming her.
Yet that struck Li Lingjiang until she went completely weak.
“They are out!”
“Look, it is a woman?”
“The competition this time was so fierce. Hardly anyone survived. The elders really were ruthless.”
“I heard Elder Fa personally acted…”
“Shh, be quiet.”
“…”
Li Lingjiang’s beast ears twitched. Her gaze moved over. It was someone familiar to her: Ada Danni.
But she was completely different from before. Both her gaze and aura had changed drastically. Thick blood dripped from beneath her robes, leaving a bloody footprint with each step, and the two men who had followed her before were not among the people who came out after her.
Qi San walked to Li Lingjiang’s side and bent down slightly. “The resentment on the first female cultivator is very heavy. There is the blood scent of people close to her on her body.”
Li Lingjiang lifted her brow slightly and did not reveal much emotion. She turned her gaze again, and without the slightest deviation, met Ada Danni’s eyes.
Unlike the way Ada Danni had looked at Yin Wu, this time her gaze carried a crazed possessiveness and interest.
Little by little, it wanted to dissect Li Lingjiang and take her away.
