Ling Luo frowned and said, “Give me your hand.”

Yue Liangze looked at her once, then straightforwardly offered his hand again.

As usual, he didn’t ask anything, showing no sign of anything suspicious.

Ling Luo held his hand and examined his spiritual veins once more. They were weak as if the abundant spiritual power she had felt earlier was just an illusion.

Perhaps it was an illusion.

Ling Luo released his hand doubtfully, narrowing her eyes to scrutinize the person before her.

Knowing that Yue Liangze would become the number one swordsman in the future, even if it was just a very brief moment of spiritual power eruption, Ling Luo didn’t believe it was an illusion.

“If there’s nothing else, I’ll head back first,” Yue Liangze said softly.

Ling Luo gave a light snort and walked forward. After a few steps, she turned back to look at him: “Tomorrow, if anyone asks you about Senior Brother Xiu Man’s cheating, just tell them what you know. Don’t have any reservations.”

Yue Liangze looked at her with a calm expression.

“Senior Brother Hong Mao, Senior Brother Yin Wen, don’t let any of them escape,” Ling Luo said. “You just need to tell the truth, or even make things up. As long as the cheating is proven real, according to sect rules, they will all be expelled from Tianji.”

Yue Liangze asked for the first time on his initiative: “Did you go to Hall Master Fan?”

“You don’t need to know,” Ling Luo raised her hand to press down her hair that had been lifted by the night wind, then turned around and said, “Just don’t ruin my plan.”

She had offended Hong Mao and the others, and based on their temperament, they would certainly harbor a grudge against her, waiting to take revenge later. Ling Luo wouldn’t give them that opportunity, and she needed a reason to see Yun Shouxi anyway.

Watching Ling Luo’s departing figure, Yue Liangze pressed his lips together and lowered his eyes.

The two parted ways.

Yue Liangze walked toward the back mountain of the medicinal chamber, coming to a small path that was quiet all around, with only the sound of crickets rising and falling in the night.

Ling Luo didn’t return to the dormitory but quietly followed behind Yue Liangze.

She was still concerned about that momentary abnormality in his spiritual power.

Yue Liangze returned to his small courtyard, first drawing water from the well to wash his face, then returning to the kitchen with a plate to wash vegetables.

The cake Ling Luo had stuffed into his mouth, he had only bitten but not eaten; the rice cake and tea that the medicinal chamber’s Senior Sister had given, he hadn’t touched.

Yue Liangze only ate food he prepared himself.

From her hiding place, Ling Luo saw this scene in the courtyard and mentally snorted coldly.

She recalled the days at Tianzhao Mountain when Yue Liangze mixed in the kitchen every day. At mealtime, the aroma wafted far away, attracting spiritual demons from all over the mountain who would sneak over to peek.

They whispered and howled: “This fragrance is comparable to the demon fragrance stone, it smells damnably good!”

“Take a sniff, take more sniffs, after sniffing today your cultivation will increase threefold.”

“Really? Don’t deceive me!”

“Try it yourself and you’ll know!”

“Sniff—it’s true!”

“Everyone move aside and let me have a turn!”

Fist-sized black spheres with tiny white dot eyes crowded at the kitchen door and on the eaves, staring at Yue Liangze and rolling around.

Yue Liangze wore light, simple outer garments, no longer the black and white gold-adorned robes of the Sacred Sword Sect, thus lacking some elegance, yet appearing like an immortal among men.

His black hair was tied high, his features refined, and his serious demeanor made one reluctant to disturb him.

Yue Liangze prepared a bowl of fresh soup and said to the spiritual demons at the door, “Go call her to come eat.”

Hearing this, the spiritual demons began jumping and howling.

“Going now, going now!”

“How bold! You dare think of dining with our master! Unless you stir-fry another dish of meat!”

“Report! Master says she won’t eat!”

So Yue Liangze would go to call her personally.

Ling Luo was being deliberately difficult. Each time she would say she wouldn’t go, wouldn’t eat, and then wait for Yue Liangze to come invite her. She would then mock and ridicule this strongest swordsman of the immortal sects, the number one person among immortal gates, who was trapped in her formation.

Yet Yue Liangze never got annoyed. He would quietly listen to the end, and finally ask one question: “Will you eat?”

Ling Luo would angrily reply: “No! Don’t think that because I don’t want to kill you now, you can take liberties. I’m keeping you alive to deal with your master.”

Yue Liangze would say: “My master won’t come.”

“You’re his most beloved disciple, how could he not come?” Ling Luo didn’t believe it.

But Yue Liangze would only calmly repeat: “He won’t come.”

At first, Ling Luo didn’t believe it, but later she did.

Because until Tianzhao Mountain was destroyed by the various immortal sects, Yue Liangze’s master, that oddly kind old man, never came.

Even now, Ling Luo couldn’t understand why, when Yue Liangze was trapped by her on Tianzhao Mountain for nearly two months—she who was on a killing spree then, having fallen into demonhood out of rage—not a single person from the Sacred Sword Sect came to save him.

Even if they believed Yue Liangze was already dead, they should have come to avenge their fellow disciple.

Unfortunately, she had no chance to ask before her death.

Because on that day, she didn’t see Yue Liangze, and her heart was set on battling the Heavenly Dao. Even though she briefly thought about going back to find him, it was just for a moment.

But he couldn’t have come to any harm.

The various immortal sects wanted to kill her; if Yue Liangze had encountered them, they wouldn’t have turned their swords against him, but would have rejoiced and exclaimed loudly that the Sword Saint was still alive!

Thinking of this, Ling Luo couldn’t help but purse her lips. Her eyes reflected the young man picking vegetables in the courtyard, and she thought somewhat maliciously that those who revered Yue Liangze as a banished immortal, believing him to be untainted and lofty, the Sword Saint, were now rolling in the mud, trampled underfoot, beaten and cursed at will.

So weak that even she couldn’t bear to watch.

Yue Liangze made himself two dishes and a soup. Although he was always bullied, he didn’t mistreat himself when it came to food.

From her hiding place, Ling Luo smelled the fragrance of the food, and her stomach gave an undignified growl.

She looked down at it irritably.

After eating his fill, Yue Liangze cleaned up the bowls and chopsticks, then drew heated water and returned to his room to take a bath.

Ling Luo watched, growing bored, and lazily yawned, thinking he would go to sleep now, and she should also go back.

Just as she was about to leave, she saw Yue Liangze change out of his sect clothing and come out wearing another set of clean clothes.

The tips of his hair were still dripping water, but he didn’t mind. Holding a wooden sword, he stood under the eaves and twirled the sword with one hand.

Ling Luo looked back, the corners of her eyes slightly curved, with a half-smile.

Oh, practicing sword in the middle of the night?

Yue Liangze was practicing the most basic sword moves, persisting with hundreds of horizontal slashes and vertical cuts.

He was doing all the fundamentals.

Not just outer sect disciples, but even those who had just started learning swordsmanship would practice these.

Yet he had been in East Island Tianji for two years already.

Ling Luo lazily lay on a tall flowering tree, watching.

Yue Liangze didn’t seem to be practicing techniques. The few basic moves he was performing were of no use for cultivation; to her, it seemed more like he was familiarizing himself with the wooden sword in his hand.

After practicing the basics, he sat cross-legged in the corridor beside the house, making sword incantation gestures with one hand.

But for some reason, though he was practicing incantations, he wasn’t mobilizing any spiritual power. So even though his hand gestures were correct, no effect could be seen.

The essence of incantations lay in the mobilization and control of one’s spiritual power.

Yet Yue Liangze’s focus was on the hand gestures of the incantations.

He formed seals repeatedly.

As long as Yue Liangze practiced, Ling Luo watched.

Only after his dripping hair had dried did he put away his sword and return to his room to rest.

Ling Luo also yawned, silently departing in the night.

Though there were issues with his spiritual power, Yue Liangze hadn’t given up on cultivation.

Ling Luo recalled that when he was practicing incantations earlier, he had performed the same technique she had used to close the medicinal chamber’s gate. She couldn’t help but snort lightly.

You did learn it.