As a signature genius disciple of Zhaohan Sect, Lingbo had considerable attainment in the way of the sword. Having entered the sect for only a few decades, she had already reached Core Formation stage cultivation. Her cultivation speed had drawn the envy and flattery of countless cultivators, until Yunhua Sect produced Kong Hou, who had achieved Foundation Establishment in just four years. The genius aura surrounding Lingbo instantly dimmed by more than half.
Accustomed to being praised by countless people, Lingbo felt somewhat displeased, especially when she discovered that Kong Hou’s appearance was even comparable to her own. Her feelings became even more mixed. There was no helping it—not only male cultivators had competitive spirits; female cultivators were the same.
After being transported into the secret realm, she discovered she had been separated from her senior and junior brothers. She hadn’t walked far when she saw a female disciple from Yuanji Sect fall into a canyon, and she casually pulled the person out. If she’d rescued a handsome man, that would have been fine, but what was the point of rescuing a delicate female cultivator?
Dragging this burden along, fighting and slaying illusion demons all the way—fortunately, the burden knew which shops made exquisite hairpins and where the finest face powder could be found, which allowed her to endure until now.
But at this moment, as large numbers of illusion demons besieged them, she discovered the burden had actually stepped on her newest style skirt, leaving a large, dark, muddy footprint that she could hardly tolerate. With the skirt no longer beautiful, she didn’t even feel like swinging her sword anymore.
She had to cast a few Cleansing Techniques first.
“At a time like this, you’re still worried about your skirt?” Kong Hou flew over, raising the Shuishuang Sword to block the attacking illusion demons, kicking away a white-furred, blue-faced monkey.
“Why are you here?” Lingbo came to her senses and flew to Kong Hou’s back, cutting down an illusion demon attempting to sneak attack Kong Hou from behind. “Your swordsmanship seems to be Yunhua Sect’s basic introductory sword technique?”
Ha, was she mocking her poor swordsmanship?
Kong Hou struck down with her palm from midair. Spiritual energy penetrated through the illusion demon’s chest, and it instantly disappeared. “The fairy makes me laugh. The way of the sword is only my secondary path. I mainly cultivate the way of music and wouldn’t dare claim to be as fearless in battle as the fairy.”
This little yellow-haired girl was actually implying she wasn’t serious in battle. She looked obedient and sweet, but had quite a scheming mind.
Both wielded their swords together, repelling the attacking illusion demons. Lingbo said: “Cover me while I use two Cleansing Techniques first.”
Kong Hou: “…”
Wasn’t it said that sword cultivators weren’t easily affected by external things? A genius disciple of the grand Zhaohan Sect was like this?
After Lingbo said this, she didn’t wait for Kong Hou’s answer and immediately lowered her head to cast Cleansing Techniques on her skirt. Kong Hou struck back several swords at the encroaching illusion demons and turned to glare at Lingbo. “Are you done yet?”
“Done.” Lingbo said, “Today I’ll let you see what real swordsmanship is.” She flew up, and the sword in her hand emitted brilliant silver light. The illusion demons screamed in agony, already more than half destroyed.
“Did you see?” Lingbo landed and looked askance at Kong Hou. “This is real swordsmanship.”
Kong Hou turned her head to the side. “Huan Zong.”
Lingbo: “…”
If she’d known Huan Zong from Liuguang Sect was here, why would she show off her swordsmanship? Wasn’t this just embarrassing herself?
“How do you feel?” Huan Zong had stood to the side without taking action in order to increase Kong Hou’s practical combat experience.
“Not bad.” Kong Hou put away her sword and walked toward Huan Zong. Seeing her approach, Huan Zong spread his palm toward her. “You did very well just now, but you only paid attention to the enemies in front and neglected your back. If you encounter danger alone in the future, this situation would be very dangerous.”
Placing her hand in Huan Zong’s palm, the warm sensation surrounded her again. She smiled at Huan Zong with narrowed eyes. “I’ll definitely pay attention next time.” Just now, because Lingbo and Huan Zong were present, she had subconsciously neglected her own protection.
Huan Zong had also guessed this. He smiled helplessly, yet couldn’t bear for her to truly face danger alone, so he could only say: “After we leave the secret realm, practice more with Lin Hu.”
Listening to their whispered conversation, Lingbo’s gaze fell on the two of them. Was this really pure friendship between a man and woman? Had she made too few friends to understand social interactions well enough?
Jin Ling, standing silently behind her, had long since recognized Huan Zong and Kong Hou. She hadn’t expected these two to actually be disciples of major sects. Thinking about how she had embarrassed herself so badly in front of them before, Jin Ling wished she could immediately disappear from their presence.
However, the secret realm was too dangerous; she didn’t dare run around randomly.
Previously, relying on her senior brothers in the sect all doting on her, she hadn’t been very dedicated to cultivation. Only after entering the dense forest did she realize the importance of cultivation level. Whether it was Lingbo from Zhaohan Sect or Kong Hou from Yunhua Sect, their cultivation levels were both higher than hers. She had become the bottom one among the three women.
Face completely lost, and owing a great debt—to someone she had disliked for over a decade, Lingbo no less.
Life truly was full of turning points everywhere. The turning points in her life were somewhat too dramatic; she could barely keep up. In this remote, uninhabited dense forest, without senior brothers to show her courtesy, when she fell into a canyon losing all her spiritual energy and unable to climb out, many thoughts flashed through her mind.
She always wanted to rely on others, but there were always times when they couldn’t be relied upon. Was this way of thinking truly not wrong at all?
Seeing Kong Hou and Lingbo freely wielding their swords in battle while she could only hide to the side, Jin Ling suddenly felt ashamed. This feeling was truly unbearable. She hung her head in embarrassment, unable to speak for quite some time.
As for Huan Zong, this good-looking man who couldn’t manage daily life, he no longer aroused even half her interest.
Among the four people, an indescribable silence fell.
Before long, thick fog suddenly filled the air, and the entire dense forest fell into heavy mist.
“The formation positions have changed.” Huan Zong gripped Kong Hou’s hand tightly. “Remember, you absolutely must not let go.”
“Huan Zong…”
Huan Zong heard Kong Hou’s voice sound weak, even trembling. He turned his head to look. Kong Hou’s face was covered in blood; even the flesh on her body had begun falling off. Huan Zong’s pupils dilated for an instant, then he released “Kong Hou’s” hand. “Confusion Monkey Beast?”
There was a type of monkey that could imitate human appearance, creating illusions that made people feel fear and panic. These negative emotions were the food that made them powerful.
“Squeak squeak squeak squeak.” Discovering it had been exposed, the Confusion Monkey Beast hastily fled. Huan Zong raised his sword, about to strike it down with one blow, when he saw a small Confusion Monkey only palm-sized hiding behind a tree trunk.
The small monkey’s face was dry and thin, its dark eyes staring at the fleeing Confusion Monkey Beast as it stretched out its furry little arms.
“I’ll spare you this once today. If there’s a next time, I’ll separate your heads from your bodies.” His sharp sword returned to its sheath. Huan Zong calculated the formation positions and began searching for Kong Hou’s whereabouts.
The Confusion Monkey Beast rushed behind the tree trunk, clutching the small monkey to its chest. It stuck its head out from behind the trunk, secretly watching Huan Zong’s figure disappear into the mist.
“Huan Zong, why have your hands become so rough?” Kong Hou vaguely felt something was wrong. Huan Zong’s palm was warm, soft, and solid—how could it be as dry as old tree bark?
“Because my… hand… broke off.” The halting voice came through. Kong Hou turned back to look. What she was holding wasn’t Huan Zong, but rather an arm. Huan Zong stood two or three steps away from her, looking at her with dark eyes.
Kong Hou stopped walking, silently threw away the arm in her hand, pulled the Shuishuang Sword from her hair, and chased after this “Huan Zong” to strike him down. “What kind of messy thing dares to impersonate Huan Zong?!”
The Huan Zong in her heart was so perfect, so handsome, so elegant and graceful—what was this thing supposed to be?
“Just look at those short legs of yours, look at that hunched back and bent waist—where is even half of Huan Zong’s grace?!”
“Huan Zong’s” movements were quick. Chased by Kong Hou, it squeaked chaotically, yet Kong Hou only managed to injure a few of its hairs. Kong Hou, frustrated, pulled out a magical artifact and threw it. The artifact transformed into a golden net in the air, trapping “Huan Zong” within.
“Still want to run?” Kong Hou approached the golden net and lifted it up, finally seeing clearly that the monster impersonating Huan Zong was an extremely ugly monkey.
“Squeak.” The monkey caught by Kong Hou pressed its hands together, its round eyes staring directly at Kong Hou, seemingly begging for mercy.
“Now you know to beg for mercy?” Kong Hou smelled the foul stench on the monkey’s body—this was the smell left from living in caves year-round without bathing. Holding the monkey monster in one hand and placing her other hand on her hip, she deliberately frightened it: “I’ve never eaten monkey meat before. I wonder how it tastes.”
The monkey monster, which had just been pressing its hands together in supplication, rolled its eyelids and fainted.
“Fainted already?” Kong Hou poked the monkey’s furry head. “Your courage was quite big just now, coming to scare me, and now you’re playing dead?”
Kong Hou hadn’t detected any malicious aura or bloody smell from this monkey, which was why she hadn’t stabbed it to death with one sword earlier.
“Alright, stop pretending.” Kong Hou opened the golden net. “If you don’t leave, I really will eat monkey.”
The monkey monster, which had been unconscious, heard this and instantly scrambled up, using all four limbs to tumble and crawl out of Kong Hou’s sight. Kong Hou found it somewhat strange. Besides being able to disguise itself as others, this monkey had no other abilities, so what had it relied on to separate her from Huan Zong without her noticing at all?
Taking out a fan used for fanning spiritual fire when refining artifacts, Kong Hou fanned at the surrounding mist to see the road beneath her feet more clearly. But she didn’t dare walk too far, afraid Huan Zong wouldn’t be able to find her later.
“Huan Zong, are you nearby?”
“Huan Zong?”
There was no answering sound around. In the mist, aside from her calling voice, there was no other sound. No wind, no other creatures, nothing at all. Kong Hou removed the phoenix-head hairpin and gripped it in her hand, vigilantly watching her surroundings.
Click, clack.
Footsteps came. These footsteps were neither hurried nor slow, with each step covering exactly the same distance.
A breeze rose, and Huan Zong in white robes and jade crown appeared not far away. He beckoned to Kong Hou. “Kong Hou, come here quickly.”
Hum.
Kong Hou’s fingers rested on the strings of the phoenix head, her voice stern: “Get lost!”
The mist was full of dangers. Huan Zong would never stand in one place waiting for her to walk over to him. Ordinarily, Huan Zong’s walking pace was indeed neither hurried nor slow, each step as if measured, but it was definitely not like this all the time.
That day in Yan City, when she was attacked by the evil cultivator, Huan Zong’s pace had been urgent and chaotic. No one could remain exactly the same as usual when someone close to them encountered danger.
The phoenix head’s melody rang out. The Huan Zong in the distance indeed transformed into a mass of thick fog and disappeared without a trace.
Kong Hou’s hand covered the strings. The melody stopped, the fog thickened, and the surroundings quieted again. The next moment, footsteps came from the mist again, along with a light cough.
“Huan Zong?” Kong Hou looked toward where the sound came from, but her hand didn’t leave the phoenix head strings.
The Huan Zong who walked out from the thick fog wore brilliant red robes he had never worn before. Layer upon layer of magical light shone on the red robes, like a lit red lantern.
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Author’s Note: Huan Zong: Can you tell which is the real me?