Chapter 78 An old ox eating young grass—as expected, Shen Zhengyuan just wanted to…
He had long noticed that the old man's gaze towards Li Chenjin was strange, as if he had ill intentions, not the look of someone who simply looked at a friend. Now, seeing it, he was right; the old man wanted to take advantage of a young woman!
He jumped up abruptly, and without thinking, rushed between the two men, slapped Shen Zhengyuan's hand away, and then tore their clasped hands apart.
Li Chenjin was surprised to see the person suddenly rush over and block his way. Just as he was about to pull the person away, he heard him shout at Shen Zhengyuan, "I knew you had designs on Li Chenjin! You old man who's hundreds of years old, do you even deserve her?! Although she's not a good person either, if she has a Daoist partner, it definitely shouldn't be someone like you!"
Li Chenjin: "..."
Li Chenjin: "...?"
Is this actually defending her, or is it indirectly criticizing her?
Wait, no, the most important thing now is to separate them. We can't let them face each other like this, or that silly boy Han Shannan will be in danger!
Before she could react, Shen Zhengyuan had already gotten up.
The moment he stood up, the air in the room seemed to freeze and compress into a heavy, invisible mountain, which crashed down on Han Shannan, freezing him in place and making him unable to move. His legs began to tremble uncontrollably due to the increasing force.
Shen Zhengyuan just stared at him quietly, with an indifference as if he were examining an ant, and the ruthlessness that came from years of holding the power of life and death, as if his life or death was now just a matter of his will.
The instant their eyes met, a chill ran down Han Shannan's spine and up to the top of his head, causing his anger to dissipate like a punctured skin. Only his heartbeat quickened, pounding like a drum, causing him sharp pain in his chest.
Shen Zhengyuan did not speak immediately. Instead, he looked him up and down in his disheveled state with his unfathomable eyes before slowly saying, "If it weren't for Li Chenjin, you wouldn't even be qualified to appear in front of me."
As he slowly uttered his words, the invisible mountain pressing down on Han Shannan grew heavier and heavier, until he could no longer support himself and had to lower his head and bend over.
Even his knees began to bend uncontrollably, and his bones made cracking noises. He wanted to speak, but no sound came out. He could only clench his teeth until he tasted blood.
Even so, he was still unconvinced.
People in the cultivation world have always only ever resorted to sneaky tricks to harm others. If you're so capable, then fight him in a real battle. He doesn't believe that Shen Zhengyuan can defeat him with swords!
Just as his knees were about to touch the ground, Li Chenjin suddenly reached out, grabbed his arm, and lifted him up.
In that instant, the invisible mountain vanished, but as he felt a sudden lightness in his body, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck, followed by a blackout, and he instantly lost consciousness.
After throwing the man onto the bed, Li Chen glanced at Han Shannan, then at the two men by the table who had fainted from the sudden surge of spiritual energy in the room. He sighed softly and said, "A Yuan, why bother arguing with a child?"
As she spoke, she walked to the table, stuck the talismans on the foreheads of the two men, and then took out silver needles from her storage bag. "Look, there are two young ladies here. You should at least know how to be gentle with women, shouldn't you?"
Shen Zhengyuan didn't respond to her question, but suddenly asked, "Do you think I'm old?"
"Not much," Li Chenjin said casually. "When we met hundreds of years ago, you were much younger than me."
Shen Zhengyuan: "..."
As they were talking, the two Biyun Pavilion disciples who had fainted at some point slowly woke up, their eyes gradually regaining their clarity, but their faces still showed a hint of confusion. "What...what happened to us?"
"Oh, is that so?" Li Chen touched his nose, feeling a little guilty, but said without changing his expression, "You two suddenly had a terrible headache and then fainted. I remember you were talking about something like five, seven, and that your master has a total of eight disciples, and then you fainted."
Those memories, which had only been forgotten for a moment, surged back. Although their headaches had subsided, they suddenly covered their faces and began to sob softly.
Li Chen sighed and gently comforted them, "You two don't need to be so afraid. Now that you've come here, we will naturally find a way to protect you."
Li Chenjin's attempts to comfort them were clearly ineffective; the two continued to sob uncontrollably, "Why...why did this happen...what...what kind of hellish place is this..."
"Sixth Junior Sister and Eighth Junior Sister are missing... It must be Liu Yan, it must be... She... She's here to get revenge on us... She's here to get revenge on us..."
"I want to go home... I want to go back to Biyun Pavilion... I don't want to stay here... I want to go home..."
Li Chen sighed again, "Ladies, whatever evil spirits lurk here, you can cry now, but once you get out, it's best to pretend you know nothing. Otherwise, you might be the next ones to get into trouble."
Hearing Li Chenjin's words, they felt as if they had fallen into an ice cave, and a chill ran down their spines, as if something in the shadows was watching them, ready to drag them into an abyss full of evil spirits at any moment.
"Can we stay here? These gold bars are yours, all of them! Please... don't let us leave... please..."
Li Chen sighed again, "Gentlemen, it's not that I'm unwilling, but all the guests in the pavilion know that we had a dispute yesterday, and it wasn't pleasant. If we were to suddenly share a room today, it would be too conspicuous."
"What should we do... what should we do..."
Their faces were ashen, and despair filled their eyes. "I...I don't want to die...I'm so young...I don't want to die...I don't want to disappear...I don't want to disappear...Save me, please save me, save me..."
"Layman, please forgive our petty transgressions, please be magnanimous and save us! Save us! I don't want to die, I don't want to become like Senior Sister and Second Senior Sister, I don't want to... I don't want to..."
Li Chen pondered for a moment and said, "Then how about this? If you two are really scared, I will lend you my attendant for the night. If anyone asks, just say that he is doing chores and taking care of you to make up for the fright he caused you last night."
As she spoke, her gaze, along with that of the other two, fell upon the person still fast asleep on the bed.
Seeing the two men looking at the unconscious Han Shannan with puzzled expressions, clearly not understanding why he had suddenly fallen into a deep sleep.
She took out another silver needle, walked to the bedside, and while thinking about where to insert the needle to hurt the most, she inserted the needle and said apologetically, "Young man, I was too sleepy. Please forgive me for making you two laugh."
The moment she stabbed him, Han Shannan suddenly opened his eyes, screamed, and almost jumped off the bed in pain.
But when his angry gaze fell on Li Chenjin, he saw her looking completely innocent and harmless, as if she wasn't the one who had just stabbed him. She even looked at him with concern, as if she was very worried about him. This made him swallow back the question that was about to come out of his mouth.
At this moment, he remembered what had happened earlier. He no longer cared about how he had fainted or why Li Chenjin had stabbed him so painfully. He just wanted to get up immediately and compete with Shen Zhengyuan!
Li Chenjin seemed to have seen through his thoughts, and before he could get up, he quickly told him the decision he had just made.
Sure enough, he immediately forgot about settling scores with Shen Zhengyuan and roared in fury, "Why should I?! I've already served you enough, and now you want to treat me like an object and give me away to someone else?!"
"Li Chenjin, do you really think I'm your slave?!"
Li Chen let out his fourth sigh of the night and beckoned to Han Shannan with his finger.
Han Shannan, still seething with anger, glared at her fiercely, but still leaned closer. "What are you doing? Let me tell you, this cultivator will not do anything like being a slave!"
Li Chen sighed again and said, "You're too hot-tempered. Your voice is almost enough to lift the roof off. Are you afraid that others won't know we're discussing something?"
Han Shannan: "..."
He realized this at that moment, and immediately lowered his voice, asking in a low voice, "What is it? Anyway, anything about being a slave or servant is out of the question..."
Li Chen leaned close to his ear and whispered, "The senior sister of Biyun Pavilion is in a bad situation right now and needs to be investigated. But if you rashly go upstairs to investigate, you might repeat the same mistake as last night. So the best way is for you to go upstairs with those two girls under the pretense of serving them to make amends. This way, you won't arouse suspicion and it will be easier for you to investigate their senior sister."
"Furthermore, if their senior sister makes any unusual moves tonight, you'll be able to notice them in time since you're nearby. Who knows, you might even be able to find out where the missing people are."
Han Shannan suddenly realized, "So that's what you were planning! Alright then, this cultivator will reluctantly take on this job! It's just being a slave, right? I've served you for so long, adding two more people won't matter."
"Just you wait, this time I'm going to investigate and uncover all the secrets of the Weeping Dew Pavilion!"
Li Chen readily praised, "Cultivator Han is truly skilled and daring, I admire him greatly! We entrust the safety of these two young ladies to Cultivator Han, and we will wait here for your good news. When you return, I will definitely cook you something delicious to reward you."
"Don't worry, I'm determined to avenge this defeat!" Han Shannan said with high spirits, but then muttered, "But forget about the food. Your cooking is worse than what you make with sweet fermented rice balls..."
Li Chenjin: "..."
She clicked her tongue and muttered, "They really don't know what they're talking about. My cooking skills aren't that bad at all. They're clearly much better than sweet fermented rice balls..."
Although the two men still had some complaints about Han Shannan, their survival was more important at the moment. So they didn't care about anything else and directly regarded Han Shannan as their lifeline. They grabbed him from both sides and hurriedly left the room.
After Han Shannan left, the room fell silent once again.
Hundreds of years ago, Shen Zhengyuan was always silent, often staying alone to one side, lost in thought. Unexpectedly, hundreds of years have passed, and he is still the same.
Boring, utterly boring.
Looks like I need to think of something interesting to do...
Author's Note: On Three Things You Should Know
Xiao Han: I knew you had ulterior motives all along!
Xiao Shen: I knew you deserved to die!
Xiao Li: I knew you two would start arguing...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
