Chapter 57 Youthful Spring Robes (Part 3)
Two days later.
At the Yanghua Sect's mountain gate, the disciples who came to greet them and those who returned from the Xiyuan Secret Realm rushed up to embrace each other and weep. Even Ruan Keji had a group of junior disciples rush up to him and call out "Master, Master!"
"Zhiyan—" Wei Feng howled and pounced on him.
"Wei Feng!" Xuan Zhiyan stretched out his arms and hugged him tightly.
The two embraced each other, reluctant to part. Ever since Wei Feng stopped shedding tears, he cried without restraint, holding Xuan Zhiyan and crying as if his parents had died. Xuan Zhiyan cried even more intensely.
"Young Master." Xia Ling originally wanted to step forward and persuade him.
Wei Feng raised his head and his lips trembled. Xia Ling's eyes immediately reddened, and she burst into tears, "Young Master, you're finally back! Waaaaah, I thought I'd never see you again!"
And so the three of them ended up hugging each other and crying.
"..." Jiang Gu found it all too noisy.
Upon seeing this, Jie Fuxue, who had led the group, explained, "We received news the day before yesterday that the Xiyuan Secret Realm had collapsed and been destroyed, and most of the cultivators who entered perished. We thought..."
Xie Fuxue paused for a moment and then smiled, "Fortunately, Elder Jiang was there and managed to bring these children out safely."
"Elder Jiang truly lives up to his reputation as a disciple nurtured by the Jiang family." After calming down his disciples, Ruan Keji chimed in, "Moreover, Elder Jiang must have encountered a great opportunity this time, breaking through to the Great Perfection of the Nascent Soul stage in one fell swoop, and is now a cultivator in the Void Refinement stage."
Jie Fuxue looked at Jiang Gu in surprise, then exclaimed with delight, "This is truly... First of all, congratulations Elder Jiang on your breakthrough!"
She cupped her hands in congratulations, and Jiang Gu naturally returned the gesture. Jie Fuxue asked, "Has the good news of Elder Jiang's breakthrough been conveyed to the Jiang family?"
"Not yet," Jiang Gu said. "It's not worth mentioning."
It's nothing to him, but it might be a different story for the Yanghua Sect. They've been eagerly waiting to get rid of this big shot. Now that Jiang Gu has reached the Refinement stage with his four spiritual roots, the Jiang family will definitely pay more attention to him. They might even invite him back, which would allow them to get rid of this big trouble and find a way to regain control of Wei Feng.
Moreover, the strongest person in Yanghua Sect right now is only at the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm, so Jiang Gu is practically a sword hanging over their head.
However, these things couldn't be said openly. Ruan Keji smiled and said, "Elder Jiang is too modest. This is fantastic news."
Shen Yuxin, who had been silent all along, spoke up at the opportune moment, "Let these children go back first."
Wei Feng was overjoyed to see Xuan Zhiyan and Xia Ling. He turned to Jiang Gu and asked expectantly, "Master, can I stay with Zhiyan and the others for a while?"
Jiang Gu nodded.
So he happily put his arm around Xuan Zhiyan's shoulder and left with Xia Ling.
"Elder Jiang, Elder Ruan," Xie Fuxue said, gesturing towards the main peak after they had arranged for their disciples. "The sect leader invites you."
Wu Hezhi was even thinner than when Jiang Gu last saw him.
He coughed for a long time, covering his mouth, before standing up and bowing to Jiang Gu and Ruan Keji, weakly saying, "On behalf of all the disciples, I thank you both for this training in Xiyuan."
"Sect Master, you're too kind. This is what we should do," Ruan Keji said with a smile, then turned to look at Jiang Gu.
Because of Wei Feng's matter, Jiang Gu didn't have a good impression of Wu Hezhi, but he still politely returned the greeting and sat down next to Ruan Keji.
Jie Fuxue and Shen Yuxin sat on the other side.
Wu Hezhi covered his mouth with a handkerchief and coughed for a while. The junior disciple next to him hurriedly served him tea. He took a sip of tea to moisten his throat before slowly saying, "The reason I invited you two here today is to inquire about the emergence of the divine artifact in the Xiyuan Secret Realm."
He turned his gaze to Jiang Gu, "I wonder if the two elders have seen the Ancient God Temple in the Xiyuan Secret Realm?"
Jiang Gu broke through the Nascent Soul stage and entered the Void Refinement stage in one fell swoop, which was almost impossible. Anyone could guess that he must have obtained a great opportunity.
"Of course I haven't," Ruan Keji said with a smile, looking at Jiang Gu. "I just wonder if Elder Jiang has seen him?"
“I heard it from Wei Feng.” Jiang Gu said without changing his expression, “He volunteered to be bait in order to lure away Lu Zhenyi and others from the Linglong Sect. Later, he fell into danger. When I rescued him, he said that Lu Zhenyi led people into the Ancient God Temple.”
He spoke half-truthfully, but his tone was confident and self-assured.
Upon hearing this, Wu Hezhi exchanged a glance with Xie Fuxue.
"Indeed, the news from the Xiyuan Secret Realm is that Lu Zhenyi obtained a divine artifact. All the disciples who entered the Ancient God Temple with him were at the Nascent Soul stage or above, but none of them survived and all perished." Jie Fuxue said, "Zhou Ningjiang, the Holy Maiden of the Zhou family, fought with him in the secret realm, but in the end, he still managed to escape."
Ruan Keji said, "No wonder, we ran into two Mahayana stage cultivators fighting when we escaped."
"I heard Elder Ruan say that Sect Master Wenwu and Qu Fengyu, the wife of Lu Zhenyi, were engaged?" Jiang Gu suddenly spoke up: "If it weren't for protecting the disciples of Yanghua Sect, he wouldn't have fallen into danger. If it weren't for his low cultivation level preventing him from entering the Ancient God Palace, I wouldn't have had the chance to rescue him."
With a single sentence, he completely absolved himself and Wei Feng of any responsibility, making it clear that neither he nor Wei Feng were present when Lu Zhenyi entered the ancient temple. He also conveniently implicated the talkative Ruan Keji and turned around to criticize Wu Hezhi. For a moment, the other four people in the hall had different expressions.
When Wu Hezhi heard Qu Fengyu's name, he was momentarily stunned. After a long silence, he slowly said, "Those are all old stories, they don't count."
Shen Yuxin looked up at him and clenched his sleeves.
Jiang Gu, always eager for a good show, said, "I'd like to hear the details."
Wu Hezhi covered his mouth and coughed violently. Seeing this, Xie Fuxue quickly got up and said, "Quickly, help the sect leader back to rest!"
Wu Hezhi waved his hand, but then vomited a mouthful of foul blood, clearly having been reminded of a painful memory. He nearly collapsed, and the hall erupted into chaos. Servants and disciples rushed to help him, while Xie Fuxue busied herself calling for medicine and pills to be prepared. Shen Yuxin's face was filled with a gloomy glee, and Ruan Keji feigned concern as he approached to inquire...
Jiang Gu watched the spectacle with a leisurely air.
He had cultivated the Path of Ruthlessness with great ease and simply couldn't understand these fools who were willing to die for love and affection. Besides, in the end, it was Wu Hezhi who caused this trouble with Lu Zhenyi. Although he obtained the divine artifact by chance, it was because he had the ability himself, and he still had to take revenge.
Given that Wu Hezhi was coughing up blood and nearly dying, and that everyone else was also in a bad state, he leisurely went to the back mountain of Yanghua Sect.
Then he took out a tattered spirit pet bag.
He only remembered that Lu Ziming's spirit pet pouch was locked up when a lightning bolt struck it. He hurriedly threw it halfway through the tribulation and only picked it up again after the tribulation was over. He didn't even let it breathe or feed it. However, Lu Ziming had already reached the Foundation Establishment stage and had stopped eating grains, so he shouldn't be as delicate and difficult to raise as Wei Feng.
The boy who was thrown out was on the verge of death, his clothes were tattered, and he looked dazed and confused. He didn't seem to be much better than Wei Feng before.
Lu Ziming glanced at him mechanically and murmured, "I need my brother, brother... brother, save me... I'll never run away again, brother, please come quickly..."
As expected, humans are harder to raise than spirit pets.
He fed the other person a few calming pills, and the person barely regained consciousness, immediately exclaiming in shock, "It's you again!?"
Jiang Gu did not want to reveal his identity to Lu Zhenyi too early, so he deliberately transformed into Zhou Huaiming. When he saw that Lu Zhenyi had regained consciousness, he got straight to the point: "Lu Zhenyi will come to redeem you in three months. Until then, stay here obediently."
"My brother will definitely kill you!" Lu Ziming angrily drew his sword and charged at him.
Jiang Gu slapped the man away, and Lu Ziming crashed heavily into the mountain wall, clutching his chest and spitting out a mouthful of blood. After convulsing a couple of times, the sword in his hand turned to dust.
He was neither a love tribulation nor a disciple, and Jiang Gu had no patience for him whatsoever. "Although your death would cause some trouble, I don't mind."
Lu Ziming looked up at him in fear, "Who exactly are you? What grudge do you have against my brother?"
Jiang Gu recalled the ambush in the Three-Headed Serpent Cave and the Temple in the secret realm, and sneered: "Wasn't it enough that your brother stole my Zhou family's divine artifact?"
Lu Zhenyi knew too much, so he didn't intend to let her continue living. However, he couldn't use Jiang Gu's identity, so it would be much easier to do things under the Zhou family's name.
“You’re from the Zhou family…” Lu Ziming glared at him angrily.
However, all that answered him were layers upon layers of magic array cages and a cold, indifferent back view.
Wei Feng, who was hiding in the shadows, held his breath.
*
Fifteen minutes ago, on the back hill.
Xuan Zhiyan turned around and glanced at Xia Ling, who was guarding the entrance, and grabbed Wei Feng, who was walking forward. "Wait, why did you drag me here?"
“Other places aren’t safe; walls have ears.” Wei Feng pulled him deeper into the forest. The surroundings became increasingly secluded. He frowned and said, “I have something very important to tell you.”
Xuan Zhiyan curiously hooked his arm around his neck. "Oh? Did you really have a strange encounter in the Xiyuan Secret Realm? I wish I had gone too!"
"You're lucky you didn't go," Wei Feng said in a deep voice. "I'm incredibly lucky to have survived."
Xuan Zhiyan tilted his head and looked at his expression, then stopped joking with him. "What happened? I've never seen you look like the sky is falling."
Wei Feng's eyes reddened. He turned to look at Xuan Zhiyan, opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know where to begin. His mind was in turmoil.
Xuan Zhiyan patted his back hard, "Don't beat around the bush, just say it. I'll stand by you if anything happens."
"Actually, I..." Wei Feng had been driven crazy these past few days. He desperately wanted to find someone to confide in, but when he saw Xuan Zhiyan's familiar face, he swallowed back the words he was about to say.
No, we can't let Xuan Zhiyan get involved.
“Actually, you—” Xuan Zhiyan frowned, waiting for him to continue.
"Actually, I was thinking about how to celebrate my birthday tomorrow," Wei Feng sighed.
Xuan Zhiyan, who had been tense for half a day, suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, clenched his fist and punched him, "Wei Feng, are you sick?! You scared me so much, suddenly dragging me here and making it all mysterious, I thought something serious had happened."
Wei Feng rubbed his shoulder in pain and grinned at him, "Isn't it quiet here? If we went elsewhere, that tagalong Liu Xian would definitely follow us again."
“He is indeed a bit too clingy,” Xuan Zhiyan said seriously. “But he is kind-hearted and not a bad person at heart.”
"You think everyone is inherently good." Wei Feng shrugged.
"Hey, I knew you were bad by nature!" Xuan Zhiyan pretended to kick him.
Wei Feng nimbly dodged, and the two exchanged blows, punching and kicking each other, until they were both exhausted and collapsed on the ground, panting heavily.
"Wow, you're something else, Wei Feng. I can't even beat you." Xuan Zhiyan looked up at the leaves above his head and nudged him. "Elder Jiang is really good at teaching disciples. Why don't you ask him to teach me sometime?"
"Let's just forget it, you can't handle this kind of hardship." Wei Feng's face turned green just thinking about it.
"Don't look down on me!" Xuan Zhiyan was about to kick him again.
Wei Feng dodged with a somersault, laughing arrogantly, "Come on, I'll let you two have your way—"
His smile suddenly froze on his face.
He smelled a very familiar, faint fragrance. Although it was extremely faint and far away, he could instantly identify the other party.
"What's wrong?" Xuan Zhiyan kicked him while lying on the ground.
“I suddenly remembered that I have something to discuss with Master.” Wei Feng pulled him up. “You take Xia Ling back to Lianyun Peak first, and I will go back to find you later.”
"What's the rush?" Xuan Zhiyan asked, turning his head after being pushed by him.
"It's a secret." Wei Feng grinned. "Hurry, hurry, let's go. I'm going to Qingping Peak."
"Alright, you'd better come back quickly, or I'll drink all the wine you hid." Xuan Zhiyan jumped onto his flying sword and waved at him.
Wei Feng waved him off dismissively and silently followed the familiar, subtle fragrance.
Then they saw Zhou Huaiming's figure, and his pupils contracted when he saw Lu Ziming being poured out of the spirit pet bag.
He was nearly possessed inside the ancient temple, and being blind, he couldn't hold on until the end. Naturally, he didn't hear Zhou Huaiming's threat to Lu Zhenyi using Lu Ziming.
But there is no doubt that Lu Ziming was abducted by him in the ancient temple.
*
Wei Feng couldn't hear their conversation inside the cave, so he only dared to watch from a distance, holding his breath. The moment Zhou Huaiming came out, he immediately pressed himself against the tree trunk without making a sound.
He wasn't sure if Zhou Huaiming would find out about him.
Even though he had a vague suspicion in his heart, seeing Zhou Huaiming again still evoked a deep sense of fear and horror, and he even had the urge to run away.
When he saw his master, he only thought of getting closer to him.
How could two such completely different people...?
He clenched his fists tightly, feeling an urge to run away at all costs. After all, his master would never hurt him, and it was all just a coincidence.
As Wei Feng thought this, he slowly raised his hand and reached for the storage bag, pinching the ebony token. Before he could even recite the incantation, a sharp palm wind rushed straight at him, grabbing his neck before he could react, twisting his neck backward and pressing him against the tree.
Jiang Gu stopped twisting his neck just before it snapped, and frowned, asking, "Wei Feng?"
He had only come over after hearing a slight rustling sound of fabric, and his divine sense, which had been spread out before, had not detected any movement of living things.
Wei Feng was only at the Foundation Establishment stage, yet he didn't notice at all.
"How long have you been here?" Jiang Gu asked coldly.
Wei Feng was pressed firmly against the tree trunk, his cheeks stinging from the rough bark. Hearing the other person's hoarse, fierce voice and emotionless questions, his eyes suddenly reddened. Even though his arm was about to be broken, he didn't utter a sound.
Jiang Gu had limited patience. He grabbed the man by the collar and turned him over. He reached out and touched the man's neck. Sure enough, it was ice cold and there was no movement. There were faint black lines on the man's neck. Jiang Gu reached out to tear open the man's shirt to find out what was going on.
But a cold hand suddenly grabbed her wrist.
Jiang Gu narrowed his eyes at him with displeasure. "Let go."
He didn't expect Wei Feng to dare to resist. After all, he should have been tamed by now.
Wei Feng sniffed at him, his bright black eyes instantly turning into eerie white eyes, and he bared his teeth at him with a ferocious expression.
A deep hatred surged from his chest, and the doubts, fears, resentment, and unbridled desires that had been suppressed before seemed to be magnified countless times, making him wish he could devour the person in front of him, tear him to pieces.
Jiang Gu looked at the black ghostly markings that were rapidly spreading to his chin and the white pupils that had reappeared. He curiously pinched his chin and turned it from side to side, asking with amusement, "What is this now?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the soaring resentment, accompanied by black mist, suddenly transformed into a sharp arrow and pierced his chest.
He didn't even realize it.
Jiang Gu lowered his head in surprise, glanced at his intact clothes, and then quickly mobilized his spiritual power to check his dantian meridians and primordial spirit sea, but found nothing unusual.
But he wasn't going to let his guard down. He grabbed Wei Feng by the neck and asked coldly, "What did you do?"
Wei Feng gave a sinister smile, then stuck out his long, thin red tongue and wrapped it around Jiang Gu's fair wrist. The wet, soft touch seemed to penetrate deep into his flesh, sending a chill down Jiang Gu's spine. He lost his aim and choked the man unconscious.
Undeterred, Jiang Gu searched his body again, but still couldn't find any trace of the black energy. He coldly looked at the boy lying on the ground, found a piece of cloth, and wiped the sticky, cold water stains off his wrist.
It really is a dirty thing.
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