CHAPTER 27 Regardless of whether you fail or succeed, please don’t hit girls again.

Qin Yan was somewhat taken aback. He didn’t guess that Jiang Yebai would have asked this question.

In reality, he and Jiang Yebai had drifted apart for a very long time.

He recalled that on the night when he first met Jiang Yebai, he was only four years old. Famine had spread across the realm of mortals. Out of desperation, his mother chose to pursue a group of people on a small boat who came to seek an immortal. They sailed across the seas in search of the abode of Immortals mentioned in the legends. Afterwards, their ship overturned and his mother pushed him onto a piece of broken wood from the ship at the last moment before she perished in the depths of the waters.

He floated on the sea for a long time. He originally thought that he would die, but finally, when he opened his eyes again he saw a young man wearing cyan robes kneeling in front of him, looking at him sternly.

He lunged at him, grabbing onto his sleeve like he was insane, “Save me.”

Qin Yan begged him, his voice hoarse, “I beg you to save me. Save me and my life is yours.”

“If I save you...” The young man smiled. “Your life is mine?”

“It’s yours,” Qin Yan urgently squeaked. “Everything is yours.”

“Then what do you know? Do you know how to cook? Do you know… How to make this…” The young man tugged at the disheveled and tattered robes on his body. “Make this clean? Do you know…”

Before he could finish, Qin Yan had already passed out.

When Qin Yan woke up again, the other person was stuffing a mantou into his hand. “You’re awake?”

The other person nervously said, “You haven’t answered me. Do you know how to cook…”

“I do.” Qin Yan stuffed the mantou into his mouth and nodded with all his might. “I know everything.”

And so he stayed behind.

After that, he and Jiang Yebai lived through their lives depending on each other. Other than the sword, Jiang Yebai knew nothing else. Additionally, Qin Yan was only a child. The both of them knew nothing about worldly matters and it was at the same time that Jiang Yebai had done something as absurd as challenging a hundred sects with the sword.

A young man, who wasn’t from any sect or clan, had brought a child just like that as he fought his way across the entirety of Yunze for three months. Finally, when the Heavenly Palace of Hongmeng wanted to search for a new Palace Lord, the Sword Sect had requested him to be their representative for battle, and he became the Palace Lord of the Heavenly Palace of Hongmeng.

When he had just succeeded in the position, he was quite happy.

He often carried Qin Yan as they ran around the Heavenly Palace of Hongmeng. After that, some elders came to lecture him about his conduct being inappropriate. That he wasn’t suitable, wasn’t proper, and didn’t correspond to his identity.

Slowly, Jiang Yebai grew quieter. He turned colder. And as days passed, Qin Yan grew up and it was unknown how he had turned into the person he was now.

They seldom spoke. Jiang Yebai seldom asked Qin Yan about his personal affairs. The most he’d do was to give him a sword spell before he left and greet him after his return. Presently, Qin Yan couldn’t help feeling strange when he asked him about the Coaxial Heart Spell.

But he still answered in all seriousness, “It’s one of our own. He’s afraid I would kill him.”

“Someone from the Daoist Sect?”

“No.” Qin Yan shook his head. “A member of the Fu Clan.”

“Oh,” Jiang Yebai answered. “A member of the Fu Clan. He is your new friend then?”

“A passerby.”

Jiang Yebai nodded his head and said nothing more. Qin Yan went to fetch some water and after he returned, Jiang Yebai had already got to his feet and sat next to the table.

He poured himself a cup of tea, waiting for Qin Yan. He was very elegant and strict in the way he sat. Simply by sitting, there was a distant aloofness about him. Qin Yan sat down on his opposite. Both shifu and disciple appeared to have similar ways of things.

“Speak about it.”

Jiang Yebai seemed to know what Qin Yan wanted to say and was forthright with this question. Qin Yan adjusted himself properly and then told him everything he’d encountered in the Shangguan Manor and the Hidden Realm of Xuanji from start to finish.

“After the seal was resealed, it was very likely the comeback of the demonic cultivators from the war of the Immortals and Demons back in those years. Back in those days, they were sealed up in that place by the Venerate Sword Ye, due to their uncanny practices. If Shangguan Hong’s techniques had been one of theirs, then even if the numbers of them in Yunze at this moment are little, it’s feared that Yunze cannot avoid the inevitable.”

Qin Yan furrowed his eyebrows. “We need to take defensive measures in advance.”

“According to you, how do you think those defense measures need to be prepared?”

Jiang Yebai took a sip from his tea. There was a calm expression on his face. After Qin Yan gave it a moment of thought, he finally said what Fu Changling had told him, “Back in that year, the Venerate Sword Ye’s seal was placed in five different locations. Four of them are sub-seals used to strengthen the main seal. In order to unleash the main seal, one must first open the other four. The Hidden Realm of Xuanji was the first. Now that a makeshift seal has been placed over it, what we need to do is to find the other seals and strengthen them with powers from an ascension cultivator. After that, we should investigate the person behind all of this.”

“How do you plan to investigate?” Jiang Yebai continued to ask.

Hearing Jiang Yebai’s manner of speech, Qin Yan finally discovered something was amiss. After some time of pondering, he slowly said, “What does shifu think of it?”

“How did you come to know all of these things?”

Jiang Yebai had asked so calmly, but Qin Yan’s heart squeezed. “Is shifu suspicious of me?”

“I am not.” Jiang Yebai lifted his gaze and coldly stated, “But do you understand that in which you speak? How long ago was the ancient war between the Immortals and Demons? It was three thousand years ago; there were no thorough descriptions as to how these events had taken place. Presently, with how you’ve shown how clear you are about those events, even if I hadn’t asked you, someone else would. From where did you gather all this information?”

Qin Yan pursed his lips and Jiang Yebai continued, “If you want to investigate, it’s not a decision I alone could make. Once you speak these aloud, when someone questions you, how are you planning to give your answer?”

Qin Yan said nothing. Jiang Yebai’s gaze lowered. “You wouldn’t know how to answer them, Yanming.” He heard his name. That name was, from a very long time ago, his name in the mortal realm. “Three months ago, your cultivation in the Path of Lovelessness abruptly improved. How did you manage to do it? I would not ask. But if you were to meet your elders in such a state, I fear you cannot escape being suspect of possession.”

“I didn’t…”

“I know you didn’t.”

Jiang Yebai was feeling somewhat tired. “But it doesn’t matter whether I believe you or not.”

Qin Yan understood Jiang Yebai’s attitude. After a long moment of silence, he finally said, “What does shifu have in mind?”

“I will announce to the others about the things you’ve seen in the Hidden Realm of Xuanji and assign some task force to investigate them. I will attempt my best to help you monitor the entire matter.” Speaking, Jiang Yebai lifted his gaze at him, “But the elders might not consent to it.”

“I understand.”

Qin Yan nodded his head and then both of them fell into silence. After a long time, Jiang Yebai said, “Did you finish using the Sword Spells?”

“En.”

“I will prepare a few more for you.”

“There is no need…”

“Return.” Jiang Yebai seemed unwilling to listen to his rejection. He lifted his cup. “Rest well and there is no need to go out these days. The Heavenly Palace of Hongmeng is recruiting new disciples. Yuqing never liked to meddle in these affairs and I don’t trust Yun Yu on them, so you, take a look.”

“Yes.”

Qin Yan placed both hands in front of him and bowed, then he retreated.

After walking towards the door, he stopped. He looked at the cold and icy courtyard and suddenly, a distant memory reeled into his mind.

In his previous life, when he was hurrying back from the Bridge of Reincarnation, it was this icy courtyard blanketed in snow that greeted him, and then it was that person lying on the bed, no longer getting up.

His back was faced against Jiang Yebai, and after a long time, he suddenly spoke, “Shifu.”

“Hm?” Jiang Yebai lifted his tea. Qin Yan turned back around. “Tomorrow, I will come over to your courtyard and plant you some flowers.”

Jiang Yebai was caught by surprise. A smile slowly spread itself across Qin Yan’s face—he seldom smiled but when he did, it seemed capable of melting the ice, flaunting the gentle elegance in his features.

“In the past, I’ve never really taken good care of you, it was my fault. Tomorrow, I will plant some fruit trees and flowers in your courtyard. When you drink, you can drink in their shade.”

“I'm already a grown adult.” Jiang Yebai couldn’t help smiling when he heard it. “How would I still need to take care of myself? In fact, you’re already doing a good job of it. You have your own matters to take care of.”

“I’m sorry,” Qin Yan spoke, his voice rough. Jiang Yebai was taken aback listening to it, but Qin Yan didn’t explain himself before bowing and taking his leave.

After he left, Jiang Yebai looked at the cup of tea in front of him for a very long time. Then he smiled to himself and finished it in a single gulp.

Qin Yan’s movements were very quick. He had already begun working on the second day.

While he was busy planting in the courtyard, the Heavenly Palace of Hongmeng began their recruitment according to the date as planned. Fu Yushu gathered all its information and placed it in front of Fu Changling and looked at his reflection in the mirror.

The young man in the mirror had a set of handsome features. He didn’t stand out from the crowd, but he wouldn’t be wholly unnoticed either. He had a pair of curved smiling eyes that was quite contagious to onlookers.

“Is this face not handsome enough?” A little nervous, Fu Changling examined his face in all seriousness.

“I think they’re just right.” Fu Yushu observed him up and down. “Being too handsome would draw trouble to you. Having looks like this are the best; it makes others comfortable when they look at you. In the past, you were too dashingly handsome that you might easily be mistaken for a shameless flirt. It’s too easy for people to be wary about you.”

“Does that even make sense?” Fu Changling shockingly turned and Fu Yushu nodded his head. Afterwards, he said, “I’ve managed to bring you the recommended criteria of their recruitment. The Heavenly Palace of Hongmeng does not recruit cultivators in their core formation stage or above it. Thankfully, your golden core is done for, so Uncle Shen has made a few specialized medicinal pellets for you.” Speaking, Fu Changling placed the medicine on the table, “One pellet a month and just pretend that your golden core does not exist.”

“Alright.”

“Your identity documents have already been made. Memorize your background. You are the son of a wealthy merchant in the Fledgling Phoenix County. Since you were young, you dreamed of cultivating the path of immortals and managed to make it to your foundation establishment stage through sheer diligence. However, your parents didn’t allow you to cultivate, and now that both your parents are gone, you swiftly came to enroll yourself. This is the reason why you, the son of a wealthy family with a heavenly spiritual root[8], joined cultivation at the age of seventeen.”

“Understood.”

“Since my daughter-in-law is a sword cultivator, in order to make it easier for you to get closer to her, you must join the Heavenly Palace of Hongmeng as a sword cultivator. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be good if you were sent to the daoist cultivator sector. So Uncle Shen made you another bottle of medicinal pellets. These pellets could conceal all your previous cultivations. I will teach you the basics of sword cultivation and from today onwards, you are a sword cultivator.”

Fu Yushu inhaled a breath and placed both his hands on his son’s shoulder. “Now there is a final question left.”

“Say it.”

“Promise me.” Fu Yushu looked at Fu Changling in the mirror and said in all seriousness, “Whether you fail or succeed, in the future, don’t hit girls anymore. You never know, no girl would ever marry someone who's hit them before.”

Fu Changling: “...”