Chapter 60: Azure Cloud (38)

A Heart-Clearing Charm struck between his brows. Xiangli Lingze slowly opened his eyes. Looking at the two people squatting in front of him, he frowned. “He Tingtong, Zhang Duixue? Why are you two here?”

He stood up from the ground. The moment he regained clarity, the illusions imposed on him completely dissipated. The Third Young Master of the Xiangli Clan, dressed in sleeping robes, touched his chest, then suddenly widened his eyes. Looking at his two old acquaintances, he rubbed his forehead and revealed a loose, cynical smile. “I seemed to have had a nightmare just now.”

He Tingtong smiled at him. “Maybe it wasn’t a nightmare.”

Xiangli Lingze wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. “Why do I have an ominous premonition?”

Zhang Duixue walked over and patted his shoulder. “It doesn’t matter. Everyone is the same, arranged by the storybooks. Can’t be helped.”

Xiangli Lingze breathed a sigh of relief. Then he heard Zhang Duixue change his tone, staring with wide, dark eyes, curiously saying, “However, Third Young Master, your relationship with your elder brother is really good. Not at all like the tit-for-tat shown normally.”

Xiangli Lingze stiffened all over. He Tingtong’s head popped out from the other side, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Yeah, he was crying loudly while carrying you just now. But after waking up, whether from shyness or something else, he’s already run away.”

Hearing this, Xiangli Lingze moved slightly, then forcibly restrained himself. He scratched his head, smiling yet not smiling. “You saw everything just now?”

“Saw it.” He Tingtong and Zhang Duixue nodded in unison. Xiangli Lingze, locked in the middle, had an uncertain expression. He probed, “Not surprised?”

“Not surprised. Isn’t it all caused by the storybooks?” Zhang Duixue whispered with a smile, then changed his tone. “I see there’s no one around, very secluded. Third Young Master, presumably you don’t want others to know about the relationship between you and the Second Young Master, right?”

Xiangli Lingze: “…?”

“Sigh, Brother Zhang, we have been classmates with the Third Young Master after all, and have the friendship of breaking arrays together. We’ve drunk so many times together; how can you threaten him like this?” He Tingtong waved his hand. “That’s immoral.”

Xiangli Lingze, sweating profusely beside them, felt slightly relieved hearing He Tingtong speak up. Just as he was about to thank him, He Tingtong changed the subject. “Although the Third Young Master is a Music Cultivator and can’t beat you, what if he wants to kill us to keep the secret? Wouldn’t that damage the beautiful friendship between classmates?”

Xiangli Lingze: “…”

Two insidious faces leaned close from left and right. He Tingtong smiled. “Third Young Master, what do you say?”

Xiangli Lingze couldn’t take it anymore and broke down. “What exactly do you two want?”

He Tingtong followed the flow naturally. “Help find people.”

Zhang Duixue raised a hand pointing ahead. “See that big crowd of people?”

“Sep-a-rate them all!”

“Why didn’t you say so earlier!” Xiangli Lingze breathed a sigh of relief. “Dismantle, dismantle them all!”

The mandarin duck-beating squad added another member, adding wings to tigers. They marched forward aggressively; not even the birds on the branches could dream of staying in pairs.

---

Yue Qianxun sat on a throne made of piled skulls. Blood aura surged around him, the mist tinged red. He wore overlapping robes of red and black, his eyes crimson. A patch of pale green scales on his cheek added to his ferocity. His vertical pupils were blood-red, glinting coldly. Crossing his legs, he leaned back in the chair with extreme devilish charm, looking down at the young man half-kneeling below.

The other party was bound by iron chains, looking utterly wretched. His long hair was messy, slumped in the pitch-black hall like a blooming water lily.

“Master, did you ever think you would end up like this one day?” Yue Qianxun tilted his head back and smiled, revealing sharp canine teeth that glinted chillingly in the candlelight. “When you pushed me off the cliff back then, you didn’t expect your disciple to have a day of comeback, did you?”

Amidst the clinking sounds, the chains tightened. The young man was instantly pulled by a huge force, landing in Yue Qianxun’s arms, his fragile neck gripped.

“Let me go!” The other struggled, long hair scattered, clothes disheveled.

“Master, don’t move.” Yue Qianxun’s voice was low and perverted. “For every struggle, I will kill one person. If you continue to move, why not calculate how many lives in the sect are enough for your struggles?”

“You rebellious disciple, deceiving masters and destroying ancestors, what a disgrace!” The young man was resentful, tears filling his eyes and slowly sliding down his cheeks.

“Crying counts as time too.” Yue Qianxun blew air, smiling devilishly, sticky and sweet. “Otherwise, let’s make a deal. Master pleases this Seat once, and I release one senior brother. How about it?”

“You… you… you bastard!”

The Demon Lord enjoyed being scolded. Reaching out, he pulled off his belt, took out a “Complete Collection of Array Maps” from his chest, and shoved it in front of “Master.” His eyes were red, full of interest. “Come, Master, tell me how to solve this trapping array? I’ll give you the time it takes to drink a cup of tea to write out the solution.”

His voice was husky, leaning closer. “If you can’t write it, I’ll kill all your disciples!”

The young man lying in Yue Qianxun’s arms trembled all over. Looking at the dense, fly-head small characters and the annotations above, his vision went black. He vaguely felt something was wrong but didn’t know exactly what. As a sword cultivator, he had never seen such a complex array in his life. His eyes felt hot, and he closed them in despair, two lines of long tears falling. “I won’t do it! Just kill me!”

“You think you can choose not to do it?” Yue Qianxun sneered and snapped his fingers. “Drag them up.”

Moments later, two black shadows dragged three people up. Chains clanked. He Tingtong, Zhang Duixue, and Xiangli Lingze were strung together, crowded and pushed into the hall. Space was limited; Xiangli Lingze was unfortunately stepped on, gasping in cold air, face turning green, hopping around on one leg.

Yue Qianxun leaned on the seat, the bound beauty lying in his arms. He glanced up and sneered, “These are your disciples? Each one crooked and cracked, amounting to nothing.”

“Men, drag that hopping one down and slaughter him!”

The young man immediately struggled, voice hoarse. “No!”

Face covered in tears, like broken porcelain, his chest heaved violently several times before even his breathing quieted down. “I’ll do it… I’ll do it…”

“Holy crap, the plot here is so intense? What do the masters usually watch?” Xiangli Lingze quickly turned his head, blocking He Tingtong’s head. “You’re young, don’t look.”

Zhang Duixue’s earlobes turned red. Thinking for a moment, he resolutely blocked in front of He Tingtong. “Master-disciple incest is indeed offensive to public morals.”

He Tingtong: “…”

He held his forehead, patted both their shoulders, and pointed to the one at the top. “He’s only fifteen; that’s the one who really shouldn’t be watching. And, two dear brothers, you aren’t much older than me.”

Zhang Duixue blocked firmly. “One year older is still older.”

Xiangli Lingze looked back and winked. “That’s right, Little Immortal He, call me Elder Brother.”

He Tingtong: “…”

He looked at Xiangli Lingze, dressed in red robes, tail almost wagging to the sky, happily teasing him. Lowering his eyes, he called out gently and obediently, “Brother Xiaoyu, help me beat him awake.”

Xiangli Lingze staggered, eyes blank. “How do you know…”

In the moment of his distraction, He Tingtong had already strode forward. “Heard it from the Second Young Master.”

Xiangli Lingze was somewhat dazed.

Lingze was the new name given by his noble immortal parents after he was brought back.

As for his name in the mortal world, the one called for fourteen years, which his parents found rustic after his return to the clan—no one had called him that for a long time.

Xiaoyu.

Chen Xiaoyu.

Messy, old, harsh, and mean noises, the smell of cheap powder surged up. Xiangli Lingze lowered his eyes, temporarily casting aside distracting thoughts. He conjured his ancient qin, broke free from the chains that were practically decoration, and plucked the strings for cover. The three attacked Yue Qianxun on the high seat, beating him up.

The arrogant and devilish Demon Lord could still laugh at first. But he forgot he was now an Array Cultivator. Without setting traps in advance, facing a Sword Cultivator, a Music Cultivator, and one who cultivated everything… it was simply asking for a beating.

The moment Zhang Duixue broke through the barrier with one sword strike and rushed toward the throne, Yue Qianxun let go with a clack, allowing the “Master” in his arms to roll onto the ground.

“Wait, how is the disciple more powerful than the master?” Yue Qianxun couldn’t figure it out.

Then, a bright silver sword light carrying the momentum of wind and thunder slashed before his eyes in an instant. The young Demon Lord’s pupils constricted. He rolled quickly off the chair, waving his sleeves to stack several array talismans for defense.

After all, he had the home-field advantage, and the small immortal seals increased in power. In the air, sword qi collided with spiritual energy. Having learned for so long, Yue Qianxun had some foundation. He resisted for the time it took to drink a cup of tea before being caught by the arm and pinned to the ground by Zhang Duixue in two or three moves.

The Demon Lord was arrogant by nature, naturally preferring death to submission. Eyes red, watching Zhang Duixue pulling out ties to bind him, he sneered, “You think you can win by outnumbering me? Dream on!”

He looked hatefully at the “Master” who just sat up in the corner, eyes splitting with rage. “Master, I hate you!”

“This Seat would rather be a broken jade than an intact tile!” After speaking, Yue Qianxun was about to detonate his Spiritual Altar to commit suicide.

“No! Stop!” Over there, the young man screamed miserably, stumbling and running over, falling down weakly after two steps, crawling forward slowly.

The scene was momentarily extremely tragic.

He Tingtong rolled his eyes upon hearing this, shaking his arm, thinking about how to quickly wake the person up. Or maybe just knock him out with a hammer blow?

After thinking it over, a plan formed. He leaned close to Yue Qianxun’s ear and whispered. Just as he uttered the word “Qin,” Yue Qianxun, crawling on the ground ji-ji, shook all over.

But before he could wake up completely, the entire hall suddenly trembled. A crack spread from the darkness to here. Then, a large swath of black mist surged like a tide. He Tingtong’s eyelid twitched. Barely retreating, he dragged Yue Qianxun intending to run, but another dark figure was faster than him. Pale fingers gripped his wrist forcefully, a pair of dark red eyes hiding mockery. The next second, demonic aura surged, like a giant mouth descending from the sky, swallowing directly toward He Tingtong’s head!

The surging demonic aura this time wasn’t like Yue Qianxun’s petty play; it was genuine demonic energy.

Shen Xiyuan.

He found his way here.

Outside the Marriage Mirror, the faces of all the masters changed in unison. They stood up from their spectator seats.

They opened the Marriage Mirror to investigate He Tingtong’s identity, to see if he was a possessing evil cultivator. The masters knew clearly in their hearts that He Tingtong didn’t have major issues, so this act was treated as a fight between Qin Tan and Master Lu—neither the Sword Sect nor Yuanchen Palace could be offended easily, so they just let them fight it out themselves.

It was also to give the academy students a wake-up call not to relax just because they were in school. Of course, they could also test their homework along the way.

But who could have imagined that among this year’s students, there was truly a possessor, and a demon at that.

How did he dare?

Qin Tan stood up abruptly, pressing on his long sword. “Open the array, execute the demon.”

Master Hong sat beside him, looking at his bronze mirror on the table, face stiff. “Can’t open it. The Marriage Mirror is only so big. It can hold so many people now relying on the Spirit Rain as a medium, expanding all the storybooks in the mirror into independent small worlds. But to return their primordial spirits, the small worlds must be compressed… that would be equivalent to sending all the students’ primordial spirits into this demon’s mouth.”

Master Hong wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. “A bunch of low-realm cubs; this is no different from taking their lives!”

“Then open the array to send us in.”

“Can’t open it for now.” Master Hong sweated like rain, lips trembling. “It holds too many people inside; the switch isn’t that casual! Moreover, we are all cultivators above the Eighth Realm; our primordial spirits can’t enter at all! The interior of the Marriage Mirror is actually extremely fragile. If we fight directly, it might crack. Who knows where it would break and which child’s primordial spirit would be affected?”

Master Lu’s fleshy face turned iron-green instantly. He pointed at Qin Tan’s nose. “If you hadn’t forced the Young Master to enter, it wouldn’t be this situation now!”

“If you hadn’t shielded your student and spread the Spirit Wandering Mirror to the whole academy, it wouldn’t have led the sheep into the tiger’s mouth! If you had listened to me earlier and split a wisp of his soul for verification, there wouldn’t be today’s disaster!”

“He Tingtong’s soul is normal; he isn’t a possessor. Why should he suffer the pain of soul splitting? If your Young Palace Master hadn’t listened to slander, plotted evil, and slandered a classmate, it wouldn’t be this situation now.” Facing Master Lu’s accusation, Qin Tan didn’t retreat half a step. He just sneered, “Even if I’m entirely at fault, your Yuanchen Palace must take half the blame. Don’t be noisy over there. If you have time, go modify the array and think of a way to rescue everyone intact. Barking madly only shows your incompetence.”

Dean Xu immediately stood up to mediate. “Stop arguing. The situation isn’t out of control yet. Old Lu, you go find a way to expand the array.”

“Little Qin, you rest a bit.”

Qin Tan, carrying his sword, had already turned and left directly.

In the Sea of Consciousness, Su Tan shook the little light ball. “System, check quickly! How to save people!”

“Your protagonist is still trapped inside! Do you still want the mission? Do you still want points?”

Amidst the sizzling sound of countless data streams, the system’s trembling voice sounded, “Stop shaking! I did find that there is a Soul-Bridging Secret Technique that might save people…”

…

Inside the small realm, just a slight touch by the demonic aura caused black scars to appear on Zhang Duixue’s primordial spirit. He frowned silently, using his sword to cut away the infected part. Primordial spirit damage wouldn’t bleed, but injuries directly on the soul were extremely hard to recover.

He raised his hand, conjuring thousands of sword shadows. One hand grabbed He Tingtong’s shoulder, the other slashed directly at He Tingtong’s grabbed arm. “Sacrifice the rook to save the king, endure it!”

He Tingtong’s entire forearm was already pitch black. He raised his eyes slightly, looking at the evilly smiling Shen Xiyuan opposite, and smiled along with him. Only his eyes were too cold, indiscernible of joy or anger. “Brother Zhang, step back.”

He Tingtong rarely used a commanding tone with them. Speaking now, it was like he became a different person.

Zhang Duixue: “?”

Before he could react, a gust of wind blew, and Zhang Duixue was instantly swept away, rushing out of the demonic aura’s range.

Within the heavy demonic barriers, He Tingtong formed a seal with one hand, chanting under his breath. His aura changed instantly. Around his primordial spirit, overly dense spiritual energy gathered, tangible as substance, even manifesting as wave-like shaking phantoms.

Shen Xiyuan frowned. He sensed the aura was wrong. A small Third Realm cultivator couldn’t possibly condense his primordial spirit to this extent. Did he have some hidden ultimate skill?

Secretly vigilant, just as he wanted to devour the person with full force, he saw the spiritual light around He Tingtong suddenly dim as if stuck. He Tingtong’s face changed slightly, looking like he suffered a setback.

Fu Fengyan’s voice sounded in He Tingtong’s mind, gentle and soft like a spring breeze. “Don’t use that, it hurts the body. Let me.”

The next second, a brilliant dark purple imprint appeared in He Tingtong’s pitch-black right eye. White spiritual flames suddenly leaped up, burning fiercely, spreading along He Tingtong’s grabbed arm.

Shen Xiyuan’s face changed drastically. The fear of primordial spirit annihilation struck again. Looking at the back of his hand that was already ignited, he decisively severed his arm, wrapped up the unconscious Yue Qianxun on the ground, and fled rapidly.