Chapter 41 The person who actually started the fight
Three square boulders rose from the ground within the sect's territory. The stone surfaces were smooth, yet rippled, with the hard surfaces spreading out in concentric circles like water.
A passing disciple noticed something amiss: "Hmm? What's going on?"
"They're fighting! They're fighting! Another group of disciples are fighting!" another disciple, who recognized the stone face, shouted excitedly.
Within the Dingsheng Sect, all battles that occur within the sect are simultaneously reflected in the sect's spiritual stones, leaving evidence for future accountability.
On the two giant rocks, two exquisitely carved, adorable baby faces first appeared.
"Why is it them again?" Someone recognized the person on the boulder. "Which unlucky fellow has been targeted by this little devil again?" He tugged at his companion's sleeve. "Quickly notify the Disciplinary Hall."
"No need. This is a challenge, look." The disciple beside him pointed to the symbol of two swords facing each other that had emerged from the boulder.
The dual swords facing each other signify that one side has initiated a challenge, and the other has accepted it. In this situation, except for one side sending a request for help to the sect's ancient spirit stone, the sect's peaks cannot intervene. As for the party that initiates the challenge, they do not receive this treatment, since the one who starts the fight will perish, and they have no one to blame but themselves.
"Who is so bold as to accept their challenge? Could it be a senior sister or brother who has reached the Foundation Establishment stage? Or perhaps a senior uncle or aunt?"
"Could it be that the Golden Child is launching a challenge beyond his level? What has he set his sights on this time? Gold, silver, jade, or even fingernails, eyelashes, or hair?"
Amidst the murmurs, the ripples on the remaining stone surface trembled violently, revealing the girl's fair face, round eyes, delicate nose, and a pair of slightly upturned eyes above her dark circles, sparkling with a smile.
"Who is this? I don't think I've seen him before." Four or five disciples surrounding the boulder whispered among themselves.
Someone took a deep breath: "I...I saw her during the sect competition projection."
"Isn't this Grandmaster Luanfeng? She just finished her purification course. What is she doing here?" Chao Yingyue, a newly recruited disciple of Yaofeng who came to watch the challenge after receiving the news, recognized the person whose image was projected onto the remaining boulder at a glance.
"She's the little darling?"
"She's learned purification techniques?!" a disciple of Kuangfeng exclaimed in surprise. "She hasn't even mastered such a basic technique?"
"She's only at the Qi Refining stage, so it's normal that she doesn't understand."
"Speechless. Someone who has only just reached the Qi Refining stage is actually our sect's ancestor. If word gets out, people will laugh at us."
"They're just lucky."
"Oh dear, how could I have been so lucky as to run into such a scoundrel?"
"She's only at the Qi Refining stage, she's finished."
In the reflection of the stone surface, within the dense forest of the spring peak, Ji Mingran lifted his eyelids and quietly gazed at the twins ten meters away.
After a year apart, the twins have become even more chubby and adorable. Their round, rosy faces are framed by bright, dark eyes, and they look incredibly endearing. Dressed in blue and red robes with gold trim respectively, they stand hand in hand, looking like a pair of lucky dolls.
Jin Yu covered her mouth and smiled sweetly, as if she were coquettishly talking to her long-lost sister, saying, "Sister is so kind, she's actually willing to fight us. Now it won't be easy for the people from the Punishment Hall to take us back."
Jinlu scratched the back of her head and said with a simple smile, "Thank you, sister."
The brother and sister escaped from the Disciplinary Hall and should have been captured by the disciples of Yaofeng Disciplinary Hall, but as long as the battle continues, the Disciplinary Hall cannot arrest the escaped disciples.
Ji Mingran said, "What's meant to happen will happen, won't it? It's better for everyone to settle this sooner rather than later." The Jin siblings are still entangled; this fight should have been put to rest a year ago.
"Sister is right, we should go back soon." Jinlu gently nudged her younger sister's shoulder. "After all, we still have to go to the spiritual cultivation competition." Disciples who escape will have their imprisonment time doubled after being caught by the Disciplinary Hall.
"I know, I know." Jin Yu was a little impatient, pointing at Ji Mingran: "It's just Qi cultivation, how much time can it take?" Her tone became sweet and soft again: "However, if you can give it to me yourself, it won't take any time. You're a kind person, you might be willing."
Ji Mingran blinked: "I don't want to."
Jin Yu looked at Ji Mingran with a hint of infatuation: "Now that those annoying bangs are gone, your eyes are even more beautiful." She opened her palm to Ji Mingran and said matter-of-factly, "Sister, give me your eyes."
"Sister." Jinlu gave Ji Mingran a simple and honest smile, then lowered her head and scratched the back of her head shyly, saying, "Quickly give your eyes to your little sister."
As they spoke, a fierce wind arose within a hundred miles of the three people, causing branches and leaves to dance wildly and making the dappled sunlight on the grass flicker and dazzle.
"I remember, I remember, they faced off during the sect entrance competition, and Jin Yu said he wanted the little ancestor's eyeballs!"
“Our ancestor isn’t stupid. Look at her, she doesn’t even lift her eyelids, she’s not flustered at all. She’s the one who’s taking the test. If anything happens to her, the spirit stone will sense it, and the Disciplinary Hall will be able to take action and arrest her.”
This disciple wasn't the only one who thought of this; Jin Yu over there did too. A sweet, cloying voice came from the stone's reflection: "Sister thinks that if the spirit stone can sense you, the sect can save you." She laughed: "Sister really thinks that you've improved a lot since entering the sect to become a Qi Refiner?"
The gale grew stronger and stronger, threatening to destroy everything in its path, but Jinlu's voice could still be heard clearly: "I'm afraid that my sister won't be able to send out a distress signal in time."
“That’s right!” the disciples watching the video said. “Disciples who are willing to fight each other are naturally of similar cultivation levels. Her realm is vastly different from theirs. Her distress signal might have been killed by them before it was even detected by the spirit stone!”
While tying her hair up, she patiently explained to the twins, "Without my eyes, I won't be able to see. Being blind will increase the risk of death."
"My sister volunteered to compete with us, so you can't blame us for gouging out your eyes." Jin Yu looked innocent and naive. "Besides, what does my sister's life or death have to do with me?"
Upon hearing Jin Yu's reply, Ji Mingran did not respond immediately; she was intently working on her hair. The strong wind had blown her loosely tied, shoulder-length hair into a chaotic mess, even covering her entire head, so she had to gather her wildly flying hair back together.
“Generally speaking, the person who wants me dead will die before me.” Ji Mingran finally managed to tie her disheveled hair tightly. Recalling her past life, she shook her head regretfully: “But an accident only happens once.”
Jinlu's kind and gentle smile had vanished, replaced by a dark and brooding look: "Don't deliberately stall for time. In short, will you give it to me, or not?"
With his gaze fixed on the twins' faces, which had become sinister and ghostly, Ji Mingran felt that he still had to fulfill his duty as a senior disciple of the sect one last time.
With her long hair tied up high, the ends falling down her back and swaying in the wind, she said leisurely, "I advise you not to court death."
The strong winds stopped.
Ji Mingran disappeared from the spot at the same time.
In the next instant, she appeared a hundred meters away from her original location, her hands forming a hand seal, and her mouth rapidly chanting an incantation.
"Too slow," Jinlu's voice rang out. "Wind Blade."
The vanished gale gathered around Ji Mingran like lightning, condensing into invisible blades that rushed towards him. Ji Mingran's plain disciple robes were instantly torn to shreds, and his face, neck, and hands, which were exposed, were ripped open with deep, bone-revealing bloodstains.
"That's more like the sister who was a beggar back then." Jin Yu's voice was close to my ear.
Ji Mingran was punched hard in the stomach, her body arched up like a shrimp and she was sent flying into the air. However, before she had gone half a meter, she was kicked hard in the side, and she was kicked dozens of meters away, crashing into the giant tree with a loud bang.
Before she could react, the wind blades followed closely behind, and tattered strips of her clothes fluttered and danced in the air, leaving her face and neck covered in cuts and blood.
Jin Yu and Jin Lü studied at Yaofeng and Kuangfeng respectively. One learned physical skills and the other learned magic. The two cooperated seamlessly, and their close and long-range combat was perfectly coordinated, making it difficult to find an opportunity to counterattack.
Just as Ji Mingran was about to climb out of the deep pit created by the giant tree she had knocked out, her old wound on her left foot was stepped on. Jin Yu looked into her eyes and said, "I remember, this is where Sister Slope is."
Jin Yu stomped down heavily, and the intense pain from his old injury made Ji Mingran's breath catch in his throat.
"Too slow." The voice had barely been uttered when a heavy blow struck the back of his head. His left cheek, which he tried to dodge but was a fraction too slow, was followed by another punch. His tattered, gray figure landed heavily on the ground, scattering gravel everywhere.
He pressed a pair of fingers against her eyes and slowly lowered them: "They're mine, sister, don't blame me."
Jin Yu wanted to gouge out her eyes.
"My god, that was a slap in the face! That little brat was so arrogant, I thought she had some secret weapon! Her face is swollen from being slapped!"
"Is Grandmaster Uncle unable to send out a distress signal?"
"She was too slow. She was being attacked by Jin Yu and Jin Lü in succession. How could she have time to send out her spiritual sense?"
"That's not right. She clearly escaped just now, how could she not have sent out a call for help in time?"
Amidst the disciples' commotion, a plump disciple in a sky-blue robe produced a jade token, covered his mouth and nose, and whispered, "Grandmaster Uncle Wangzhen, Grandmaster Uncle Mingran is entangled by the twin demons and cannot escape. What should we do?"
The jade tablet dimmed and then lit up again, the message coming back extremely quickly. The plump disciple in the azure robe held the jade tablet to his ear and heard Guan Wangzhen's light laugh, as if he didn't want to miss out on trouble, coming from the jade tablet: "Someone's going to beg for mercy."
The one who delivered the message was Yang Jingjing, a disciple of Kuangfeng. He was stunned, not understanding Guan Wangzhen's meaning, but he heard soft exclamations around him.
"That's not right! I remember that at the crucial moment, the challenger would be protected by a spirit stone, and the duel would end automatically."
"But why isn't the duel over yet?"
“I don’t think this will end.” Chao Yingyue frowned. Yaofeng disciples are warlike and most familiar with the rules of sect duels. “She had the opportunity but didn’t send out a plea for help. She’s at a critical juncture, and the sect’s spirit stones still haven’t reacted. There’s only one reason.”
The disciples, realizing the meaning behind her words, fell silent one by one.
Could it be that the little ancestor who is now being beaten to a pulp is the one who initiated the challenge?
Just then, a soft laugh came from the reflection in the stone face.
"I don't blame you."
Ji Mingran, who was pinned under Jin Yu, grabbed Jin Yu by the neck, leaped up, and slammed her against the stone wall in front of him, pinning her against it.
The golden threads behind him were already poised to rush forward. Ji Mingran raised his other hand behind him, palms facing each other. A hazy golden light silently rose up around him, blocking his path.
One on each side, grab them!
Author's Note: The Kim siblings' first appearance and first sight will be in chapter twenty-two.
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