“Kong Hou!” Seeing the young girl in the pool water, Huan Zong didn’t think twice before flying to the water’s surface and embracing her by the waist, pulling her from the water.
The young girl’s entire body was ice-cold, cold as a block of ice. Huan Zong’s hand holding her couldn’t control its trembling. His face deathly pale, he coughed up several mouthfuls of blood. He wiped away the blood traces at the corner of his mouth and with trembling fingers placed them on her pulse point.
“Huan Zong…” The impact force from falling into the water pool from the air was too great. After Kong Hou dropped into the pool, she had fainted. Hazily, she felt something very warm approaching her. She opened her eyes to see the paper-white Huan Zong holding her. His hair, usually combed neat and tidy, had several strands scattered by his temples. However… this didn’t damage Huan Zong’s beauty at all—rather, it made him look even more beautiful.
Seeing Kong Hou open her eyes, only then did Huan Zong realize that his heart had been tightly clenched since just now, only now slowly relaxing. “How are you?” His voice was hoarse and trembling, very unpleasant to hear.
“I’m fine.” Kong Hou sat up from Huan Zong’s embrace and pulled off over a dozen ruined talismans from her body. “So many talismans—all wasted.”
Lin Hu and the Jixiang Pavilion disciples who rushed over hurriedly saw the ground at Kong Hou’s feet covered with talisman papers: “…”
“You’re all fine—that’s wonderful!” Seeing them standing intact before her, Kong Hou breathed a great sigh of relief. “Huan Zong, did you defeat that evil cultivator?”
“Evil cannot triumph over righteousness.” Huan Zong took out a cloak from his storage ring and draped it over Kong Hou. “Though you have no major issues, your inner breath is still somewhat unstable. Rest here for a few hours first. After your inner breath stabilizes, we’ll continue our journey.”
He threw out the golden palace. The golden palace landed and transformed into a magnificent palace. With a wave of his sleeve, he opened the golden palace’s main gate. Huan Zong lowered his head to tie Kong Hou’s cloak straps. “Go inside to wash up and change clothes.”
Kong Hou looked at Huan Zong’s face that was white to the point of near-transparency. “Huan Zong, is your spiritual platform still well?”
“No problem.” Huan Zong wanted to reach out and touch the young girl’s tender, white face, but only moved his fingertips. He felt this action of his was somewhat strange. Even though he liked this young girl so much, even wished she could be his disciple, he still shouldn’t have such undignified thoughts.
Taking out a handkerchief to wipe away the water droplets from the tips of her hair, Huan Zong used a technique to dry the clothes on Kong Hou’s body. “Let’s go inside first.”
“That evil cultivator has already been executed?” Walking in front, Kong Hou didn’t turn back to look at Huan Zong’s expression. “Story books always have protagonists letting villains go, allowing the villains to cause even bigger troubles. Isn’t that just asking for problems?”
Lin Hu turned his head to glance at Huan Zong. Huan Zong said expressionlessly, “You’re right.”
This time even the Jixiang Pavilion disciples turned to look at Huan Zong.
“I knew you wouldn’t do that kind of thing, Huan Zong.” Kong Hou had overused her spiritual power and her spirit hadn’t yet recovered. She walked into the courtyard she had stayed in before and said to everyone, “I’m going to meditate for a while first.”
“Rest well.” Huan Zong said, “Place the incense ball I gave you last time beside you—it can help you recover sooner.”
“Mm.” Kong Hou nodded. After walking a few steps, she turned back to see Huan Zong still standing at the courtyard gate watching her. She showed him a big, bright smile.
Huan Zong looked at the brilliant smile on the young girl’s face and curved the corners of his mouth. “Go to sleep quickly.”
“Oh.” Kong Hou ran before Huan Zong and stuffed a bottle of pills personally refined by Master Uncle Qingyuan into Huan Zong’s hands before running into the room in an excellent mood. After closing the door, she felt a vague sense of regret in her heart. Huan Zong could even slay such a powerful evil cultivator—his sword techniques must be very formidable. What a pity she hadn’t had the opportunity to properly appreciate them just now.
Huan Zong looked at the medicine bottle in his hand and poured out two of the pills inside. The pill markings on the pills were clear, shaped like auspicious clouds. This was a supreme-grade Return to Origin Pill. In the entire cultivation world, fewer than ten people could refine this kind of pill, and Yunhua Sect’s Peak Master Qingyuan was one of them.
Placing the Return to Origin Pill in his mouth, Huan Zong summoned the Longyin Sword once more.
“Young Master?” Seeing Huan Zong take up his sword again, Lin Hu asked, “What are you taking your sword for?”
“To kill.” Huan Zong replied with these two brief words, then transformed into a flowing light and disappeared from the golden palace. Lin Hu chased two steps, then gave up the idea of stopping Young Master. He turned to look at the five Jixiang Pavilion disciples and said with a calm expression, “Our Young Master has always had a very good temperament—he just slightly dislikes others discussing his private affairs.”
“We juniors absolutely won’t speak half a word about what happened just now.” The young junior brother hastily said, “Please set your mind at ease, Senior.”
Ge Jin covered her junior brother’s mouth and said with an ingratiating smile, “Did something happen just now? We juniors have low cultivation and saw nothing at all.”
Lin Hu didn’t argue with them, nodding slightly. “Follow me. I’ll take you to where you’ll rest.”
Having witnessed the battle between Daoist Huan Zong and the Painless Old Man just now, the Jixiang Pavilion disciples had gained a clearer understanding of Daoist Huan Zong’s cultivation level. That formidable Painless Old Man had no power to fight back whatsoever under Daoist Huan Zong’s sword. Every sword strike carried mountain-toppling, sea-overturning momentum that made even heaven and earth tremble.
Before a true expert, obediently maintaining silence was the clever approach. Moreover, the expert had only told a harmless little lie. An expert with flaws was more human—they understood, they could truly understand.
In any case… even if they couldn’t understand, they didn’t dare say it out loud.
The Painless Old Man was seriously injured, but didn’t dare return to the evil cultivation world, much less appear in places with many cultivators. He concealed his identity all along the way, hurrying westward, preparing to find some remote small village to hide in.
The sky was turning dark. He hadn’t encountered any cultivators along the way, and the Painless Old Man breathed a sigh of relief. He should be able to keep this life of his. Stuffing several pills into his mouth, the Painless Old Man was preparing to descend from the clouds and find an excuse to lodge in the village below the mountain when suddenly a dragon’s cry came from behind him.
His complexion changed drastically. He hastily summoned his life-bound magical treasure and gripped it in his hand, turning to look behind him. Sure enough, Huan Zong had pursued him. His face turned iron-blue. A few hours ago, hadn’t this killing god already had no mind to deal with him? Why had he pursued him again?
This feeling of having hope only to become desperate again made Painless almost unable to maintain his mental state.
“I truly didn’t expect I would have the honor of being hunted by you.” Painless brought out a soul-summoning banner and said viciously, “Though my cultivation isn’t equal to yours, since you won’t give me a way to live, I’ll fight you to mutual destruction.”
Huan Zong ignored him and raised his sword to strike. In no more than twenty-some moves, Painless was beaten into successive retreats. The bloody holes on his body increased by several more, and the soul-summoning banner in his hand was also cut in half.
“Ah!” A堂堂 dignified Evil Venerable of the evil cultivation world, Painless hadn’t been humiliated like this by anyone in a very long time. He knew he already had no way to survive. He threw out the life-bound magical tool in his hand to block Huan Zong’s fatal strike, raised his palm and fiercely struck his own spiritual platform, forcing out his Nascent Soul from within his body.
Even if he died, he wouldn’t easily let this killing god off.
Seeing Painless preparing to self-detonate his Nascent Soul, Huan Zong’s movements were as fast as lightning. Before Painless had time to crush his own Nascent Soul, his sword had already severed Painless’s arm, and with a backhand sword strike destroyed Painless’s spiritual platform.
Lowering his head to pick up Painless’s trembling Nascent Soul, Huan Zong inserted a thread of divine consciousness into the Nascent Soul’s body. The Nascent Soul instantly scattered like smoke and ashes. Painless, collapsed on the ground, let out a wailing cry. The skin on his body began to become increasingly aged, wrinkles crawling all over his cheeks, and his hair falling out in great clumps.
“Keh keh…” Painless’s clouded eyes stared at Huan Zong, as if asking him why.
“I don’t like lying to people, especially to juniors.” Huan Zong pierced Painless’s throat with one sword strike. Watching his corpse transform into withered bones, he said expressionlessly, “Words said to juniors must be fulfilled.”
Drawing out a wisp of pure fire, he destroyed the storage ring, storage bag, and other items Painless had left behind. Huan Zong turned and walked away.
Before long, the withered bones on the ground turned to ash. As the night wind rose, the dust and ash vanished into nothingness among the mountain forest.
Huan Zong walked out of this dense forest, supported himself against a tree trunk and coughed violently. Raising his head to look at the crescent moon on the horizon, he took out a pill configured by the Nameless Old Man and swallowed it, then jumped on his flying sword to hurry back to the golden palace.
“Young Master.” Lin Hu stood at the golden palace gate. Seeing Huan Zong return, his gaze swept over his pale face. “You shouldn’t have gone today.”
“I am a sword cultivator.” Huan Zong stepped onto the stairs and walked into the golden palace gate without turning back. “A sword cultivator who cannot use his sword—how is that different from death?”
“What Young Master did today—is it because you can’t let go of the sword, or because you can’t let go of Miss Kong Hou?” Lin Hu asked in return. “Does Young Master’s heart truly understand?”
Huan Zong turned to look at Lin Hu. There was no emotion whatsoever in his eyes.
Under his gaze, fine sweat broke out on Lin Hu’s forehead.
Huan Zong withdrew his gaze and lowered his eyelids. “If not for Kong Hou having already joined Yunhua Sect, I would take her as my first formal disciple.” In this lifetime, he had only encountered this one young person who suited his heart in every way. Even though she was already a Yunhua Sect disciple, he still couldn’t bear for her to suffer any grievance.
Just thinking about those bright eyes possibly showing disappointment or sadness, he couldn’t help but want to fulfill all her wishes. What a pity… what a pity… in this lifetime he couldn’t take her as a disciple. Otherwise, he would make her the disciple with the highest status among the entire cultivation world’s younger generation.
Lin Hu looked at Young Master’s serious expression, his eyebrows moving slightly. “Young Master, has Painless already been executed?”
“Today when I battled him, he was already executed.” Huan Zong turned around. “From now on, this person no longer exists in the evil cultivation world.”
Lin Hu: “…”
The highest realm of lying was probably making other people doubt whether they themselves had remembered incorrectly.
After spending time with pretty young girls, Young Master had ultimately still become a man full of lies.
The next morning, Kong Hou got up from the soft cushion. Last night she had clearly been meditating—she didn’t know when she had fallen asleep. Having slept through the night, the meridians in her body had long since recovered to normal. However, the ill effects of overusing spiritual power hadn’t completely dissipated yet. Now from head to toe, except for her hair and fingernails not hurting, there wasn’t a single place that was comfortable.
Lazily sprawling back onto the soft cushion, Kong Hou waved her hand to bring the quilt from the bed over to cover herself, wishing she could transform into a ball so she could curl up into a sphere and not have to move.
Very light footsteps sounded outside the door, standing outside her door for a moment before turning to leave.
Kong Hou reluctantly opened her eyes and called toward outside the door, “Is that Huan Zong?”
Huan Zong, who had already started walking back, heard Kong Hou’s voice and stopped. “You’re awake?”
The room door opened. The young girl with loose, scattered hair, her body wrapped in a wide outer robe, leaned against the doorway. “Are we going to Jixiang Pavilion now?”
Huan Zong looked at Kong Hou’s neck exposed outside and her faintly visible collarbones. Hearing footsteps coming from outside the courtyard, he strode forward, pulled her into the room, and closed the door.
Hong Ling, who had just walked to the courtyard gate: “…”
The man who had just dashed into Xianzi Kong Hou’s room was… Daoist Huan Zong?