Chapter 7: An officially licensed, first-release novel of unknown origin...
Unlike omegas who are obsessed with sucking on pillows, Yu Xiao quickly finished breakfast and left home, driving his self-driving car from the garage to go to work.
The sun climbed higher and higher, its warmth making one feel drowsy.
To stay alert, Yu Xiao turned on the car radio and tuned to a random channel. It was an unknown male voice reading an audiobook.
Coincidentally, it was a story about the protagonist, him, and Ling Yue who shared the same name.
The midday sun shone through the sparse clouds, scorching the roads of Wenjian City, as if to cook everything. As a result, very few shops were open for business, and there were few pedestrians on the road.
Ling Yue was one of the pedestrians.
He walked with light steps and a straight back, avoiding all the places exposed to the scorching sun, and the huge sword box he carried still exuded a cold aura.
This extraordinary young cultivator, instead of going to shops catering to cultivators in Sword Inquiry City, turned to the bustling commercial street in the mortal district.
As Ling Yue got closer to a shop without a signboard, the smile on his face became more and more unconcealed, until he heard the sounds of men and women laughing and joking coming from inside the shop, and he suddenly stopped and was about to push open the door.
Ling Yue frowned slightly, but the people in the room were completely oblivious, continuing to joke with each other.
"Mr. Yu has such a sweet tongue, he made my heart flutter!"
"Little genius, hurry up! I can't let you delay today, I have to make sure you finish the order! And you have to include my brother's share too!"
"Ah! Junior brother! You're so disloyal! Come in and save me!"
Yu Xiao, however, was quick to notice. Ling Yue sighed and rubbed his face to make his smile look more natural before pushing the door open and entering.
The furnishings here are simple, with only framed calligraphy and paintings covering the walls, and neatly stacked Xuan paper and ink blocks on the floor. Several people are sitting around a very large mahogany table, without any distinction of rank.
Although the young man from Qianyuan had ordinary features, the aura he exuded was extremely pleasant. He was witty and eloquent, making the guests' hearts flutter. Yet, his brushstrokes were steady and skillful, creating flowers more beautiful than human faces, demonstrating his ability to multitask.
As for the few Kunzes who took advantage of Yu Xiao, Ling Yue guessed that they were customers who had placed orders with Yu Xiao before, but this lazy bum had been running away with the orders for too long, so they simply came to the shop to wait for him.
The Kunzes were chattering away like three lively sparrows, but when they saw a new figure enter, their eyes lit up, and they immediately let go of Yu Xiao, who was sweating profusely, and surrounded Ling Yue.
"You're so beautiful and tall, are you also a Qian Yuan...?"
These ordinary wealthy merchants, pampered and rarely seeing outsiders, would become bolder when they met the handsome Qian Yuan.
Not only did they ask Ling Yue a lot of questions that gave him a headache, but the male member Kun Ze went even further, using his delicate fingers to hook Ling Yue's palm like a bee collecting nectar, subtly hinting at an ambiguous relationship.
Ling Yue's smile became somewhat uncontrollable.
The disciples of the Lone Star Sword lineage are mostly not good at speaking, but his master and mistress gave birth to Yu Xiao, an outlier, which only made Ling Yue seem more dull and naive.
Ling Yue remained silent, then grabbed the two larger ones by the back of their necks and placed them outside the threshold.
The remaining girls were terrified. Before Ling Yue could chase them away, they immediately ran out crying.
Ling Yue tossed the unfamiliar parasols outside the shop in a row, neatly bolted the door, and completely shut out the Kunzes' accusations against him.
When Ling Yue turned around, he found that the young man who had been working hard at his desk was gone, replaced by a small, adorable white fish that was scaleless and as pure as snow.
It lay lazily on the table, its tiny fins still gripping the paper and pen, busily working away.
When the little white fish realized Ling Yue was looking at it, it waved its fin holding the calligraphy brush at him. "Stop thinking about Kunze, come over here."
Even Yu Xiao, whose heart had long been as cold as a withered tree, couldn't help but feel tenderness and pity for the three Kunzes, which improved her mood considerably.
But my junior brother is like a block of wood, how strange!
Meanwhile, Ling Yue stopped in his tracks, seemingly seriously analyzing whether Yu Xiao's joke made sense. "It's not that you can't think of it that way."
The little white fish blew a bubble, then popped it, as if to complain about Ling Yue's honesty and dullness. Then it patted the table and said, "Junior brother, come and sit down."
"I heard you." Ling Yue pushed the chairs that the three Kunze had been sitting on to the wall, clapped his hands, pulled over a new chair, still carrying the sword box on his back, and sat down leisurely. His expression was much gentler. "Junior Brother."
Yu Xiao cried out, "Not again! I've raised you for over ten years, and it's so hard for you to call me 'Senior Brother' properly?"
“You and I share the same birth date and time. Also, it wasn’t you who raised me, but my master, my mistress, and my mothers back in my hometown.”
"talent……"
Ling Yue knew that if he continued to argue, Yu Xiao might make a scene again, so he placed his hand on the smooth fish's back and rubbed it repeatedly. "Tell me first, how did you offend those Kunzes?"
Upon hearing this, Yu Xiao dared not remain paralyzed like a fish any longer. She slapped her side fins together, instantly transforming back into human form and sitting up straight.
Ling Yue found it amusing. "I'm not interrogating you."
Yu Xiao remained serious, "Those two sisters are the daughters of one of my regular customers. The man is supposedly their cousin. They came to urge the progress on behalf of their elders. They have no personal relationship with me whatsoever."
"He had his burly men knock on the door earlier, but I ignored them. Then today, that old fox sent three incredibly young and delicate men out in the blazing sun. They're frail, and I couldn't let them get heatstroke in the sun, could I? And then..."
Ling Yue finally understood what had happened, and glanced at Yu Xiao sideways, "Serves you right."
Yu Xiao grabbed Ling Yue's hand, feigning surprise, "But I have the best brother in the world to save me, so it seems I'm not destined to die!"
Ling Yue didn't pull his hand back, but turned his head away slightly. "Yes, we're all brothers."
Silence reigned in the nameless shop.
Yu Xiao thought to herself, "Oh no."
His junior brother seems straightforward, but he often suffers from inexplicable depression in private, and his thoughts are even more unpredictable than Kunze's. He doesn't know how he offended him again.
Yu Xiao had a sudden inspiration. She pitifully complained to Ling Yue, then begged for mercy, "You have no idea, I've been surrounded by them all day long! My back and waist are so sore, Yueyue, please massage them for me..."
Ling Yue sighed, "Alright."
He finally untied the black sword case, which was wider than his shoulders, and stood behind Yu Xiao. After a while, he carefully rubbed the acupoint, and then asked softly, "Like this?"
In front of others, Ling Yue, a sword cultivator, is always low-key yet assertive. However, in front of Yu Xiao, Ling Yue is always quiet and obedient, carrying out all the orders Yu Xiao gives him properly, like a perfect jade doll.
Yu Xiao felt very comfortable being massaged, and exclaimed, "Great! As expected of Yueyue..."
Ling Yue knew Yu Xiao was about to do something awkward again, so he quickly interrupted, "Junior Brother, be normal."
Yu Xiao knew Ling Yue wasn't really angry, so she decided to stop while she was ahead. "Alright, let's talk about normal things—why did you suddenly decide to come here today?"
But then Ling Yue sighed and began to recount what had happened before he temporarily left the Wuji Sword Sect, "Because my master's wife suddenly decided to refine the Spirit Cultivation Pill..."
When Yu Xiao learned that his mother, Yu Xuan'er, was a renowned alchemist, she had accidentally blown up the alchemy furnace while refining the Qi-Nourishing Pill, he once again realized that something was wrong with this world.
The Spirit Cultivation Pill is a basic medicine that must be refined during the first-grade alchemist assessment of the Alchemist Association. It is impossible for Yu Xuan'er, a ninth-grade alchemist, to make such a mistake.
Moreover, after Yu Xuan'er failed to refine the pills, instead of cleaning up the scene and refining another batch, she pouted, squinted her eyes, and started to cry.
This scene was noticed by Yu Xiao's father, Wen Hongke, who was 800 miles away. He immediately abandoned his meeting with the elders of the Central Gate and rushed to Yu Xuan'er's side on a cloud. He domineeringly embraced his beloved wife and let her pour out her trivial grievances.
In the end, Ling Yue, the third wheel, was kicked out after all their sweet nothings.
After listening, Yu Xiao concluded, "Terrible."
Ling Yue applied slight pressure to his hand. "It's not terrible."
Then Yu Xiao started howling and immediately began cosplaying a dead fish.
It wasn't that Yu Xiao was being delicate; he really did feel some pain from Ling Yue's pinch.
Yu Xiao's physique is very special. Although he has spiritual roots, he is destined to be unrelated to cultivation. He is a complete novice and naturally cannot withstand even a single move from Ling Yue using only a fraction of his strength. This also means that almost all medicines are ineffective against him, and he can only endure the pain.
Ling Yue knew things were going wrong. He lowered his head and kept apologizing repeatedly, like a helpless child, "I was wrong..."
So Yu Xiao had to suppress her pain and take the time to settle Ling Yue down. "It's getting dark and not so hot anymore. Go and set up the window so it can get some fresh air!"
Ling Yue agreed, then darted to the window facing the street and fiddled with it several times, but the window and frame remained firmly in place, unmoving. Only then did he ask, "I can't open it. Did you set up some kind of mechanism?"
Yu Xiao: "What organization? There isn't one..."
Immediately, Yu Xiao felt a wave of dizziness.
It was Ling Yue who, carrying him and the huge sword box, smashed through the shop wall. The two rolled on the ground, covered in blood and dust.
The blood was only Ling Yue's; Yu Xiao was well protected, but she felt a little dizzy when looking at things.
When Yu Xiao finally recovered and sat up, her heart sank.
Yu Xiao remembered clearly that Ling Yue had led him towards the main road, but after they broke through the wall, they did not appear on the commercial street, but in the backyard of a shop, an inner courtyard with a clear pond and a few trees.
Ling Yue had already planted the sword box in the ground, held the sword in his hand, and threw several fish teeth next to Yu Xiao, forming a temporary protective array.
Seeing Ling Yue's body trembling, Yu Xiao knew that he might be seriously injured, but with his cultivation level of one stage, he should not have suffered such damage from merely breaking through the wall.
Unless a cultivator sets up a restriction in the shop!
As if in response to Yu Xiao's conjecture, the air in the corner of the courtyard distorted, and an uninvited guest tore through space and teleported in.
"Fellow Daoist Cheng, Young Master Xiao." The newcomer was a familiar face, none other than Kunze, the male who had been pestering Yu Xiao earlier. His voice was soft and sweet. "I've come to ask you two for something."
Ling Yue held his sword horizontally in front of his chest. "No."
This person may be sweet, but he's here to take their lives, so Ling Yue naturally won't give him his life.
The male Kunze was surprised, "Oh my, it's rare to see a Qian Yuan as boring as you. We've had 'intimate contact' before, after all. You two are about to die, shouldn't you say something more?"
Ling Yue did not answer.
Misfortune should not extend to ordinary people; this is a rule that even demonic cultivators understand.
If one acts recklessly, one will incur the wrath of Heaven and find it extremely difficult to survive the Heavenly Tribulation. However, it seems that the other side intends to kill Yu Xiao as well, clearly indicating that they are ruthless and fearless desperados who will stop at nothing to avoid death!
play hard……
Ling Yue remembered something and immediately turned his palm over to look at his hand.
A grotesque, purplish-red line of blood started from his palm and extended upwards along his pulse point, about to crawl across his entire forearm!
The male Kunze poisoned Yu Xiao during a brief contact when Ling Yue was seeing off a guest, causing Ling Yue to lose control of his strength and nearly strangle Yu Xiao to death.
The other party poisoned them with the intention of killing them both.
I wonder how much of my strength I can still unleash now?
Even though Ling Yue himself was in danger, as he gripped his sword tightly, he had only one thought in mind: to protect Yu Xiao.
Ling Yue's left hand was poisoned. Without hesitation, he summoned a ball of dark blue flames to envelop his forearm, instantly burning the contaminated flesh to ashes. The cut surface of the wound was scorched black by the flames, but no blood was drawn.
"Are you here for me, for my master and mistress, or for the Wuji Sword Sect?" Ling Yue tried to communicate with the assassins. "I'll fight you and let Yu Xiao go. If we kill a mortal like him, aren't we afraid of incurring karmic retribution in the Heavenly Dao?"
The male Kunze looked at Ling Yue approvingly, still standing awkwardly, "If you hadn't been with Young Master Yu today, you could have been spared death, but alas."
"Besides, Young Master Yu is hardly an ordinary person... Even if he were, do you think we would care?"
The remaining assassins drew their weapons, displaying cultivation levels ranging from first to second level, and began to surround Ling Yue.
That means there's no room for negotiation.
"I'll leave it to you." The male Kunze calmly walked around the chaotic crowd, playing with a hidden weapon in his hand. "I'll have a go with Young Master Yu."
Having just severed his own arm, Ling Yue was exhausted and unable to catch up with the male Kun Ze. Instead, due to insufficient defense, his collar was slashed by a weapon from a man in black, nearly injuring the glands in his neck.
The stinging pain forced Ling Yue to tilt his head and turn to the side to avoid it, and out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Yu Xiao and the male Kunze seemed to be talking.
Ling Yue couldn't hear what was being said, but he noticed that Yu Xiao made a rather strange gesture in secret.
The index finger and thumb form a circle, while the other three fingers are half-bent and half-straight.
This was a secret code between the two brothers, signifying that Yu Xiao believed he could solve the current problem.
Ling Yue turned around decisively, focusing on his own battle, his determination even stronger. "I believe in you."
If you die, I will avenge you before I die.
Blood soaked through the young man's tattered collar.
One of the men in black fighting Ling Yue noticed something amiss and suddenly screamed, "This scent... you are...!"
Before he could finish speaking, Ling Yue shoved the sword into his mouth, twisting his tongue. The two exchanged blows, creating a temporary stalemate.
Let's look at Yu Xiao again.
“Ling Yue is already overwhelmed with his own problems.” The male Kunze smiled, his eyes narrowing. “Are you scared?”
Yu Xiao remained calm, her hands hidden in her sleeves, and did not respond.
Ignoring it is the greatest form of contempt.
"Everyone says the young master of the Yu family is approachable, gentle, and polite, but I don't think that's entirely true." The male Kunze felt he wasn't being taken seriously by the mortal Qian Yuan before him, and, both angry and annoyed, he tried to pull Yu Xiao's chin down. "I'm afraid it's this cold, apathetic one who doesn't even respect cultivators—"
Yu Xiao finally moved.
His hand speed was extremely fast, almost turning into a blur, and he ruthlessly slapped all the fish teeth that Ling Yue had thrown at him onto the male Kunze's face.
The tiny fish teeth touched the human skin and instantly turned into a large patch of dark blue flames, like maggots clinging to the bone and unable to be extinguished, leaving the male Kunze in a sorry state, struggling to defend himself. "Yu Xuan'er really loves her child, giving you all the Yin Flame refined in her dantian!"
Yu Xiao ignored him, rolled and pounced on the ground, and jumped into the pond.
He was self-aware enough that the life-saving gadgets his mother had given him were enough to hold off the male Kunze for a moment, which was already extremely lucky. Mortals had no right to participate in the life-and-death battles of cultivators. The most important thing was to quickly escape and ask his mother, father, or other fellow disciples of the Wuji Sword Sect to come to Ling Yue's rescue.
The male Kunze had been burned into a human torch, his skin and flesh beginning to melt, but one could still vaguely sense his madness. "A piece of trash is a piece of trash. Even if he is the son of a saint, he is still too blind to see things clearly. This pond is only a few feet deep. We cultivators only need a thought to capture him."
"Tsk." It was Ling Yue who scoffed, "These days, can even an idiot become an assassin?"
Ling Yue fought against multiple opponents without feeling strained, but he wasn't good at arguing. In an attempt to disturb the male Kunze's mind, he used all his skills to provoke him, going so far as to turn his ears red.
The male Kunze glared at Ling Yue, raised his hand to grab in front of him, but failed to catch the disheveled Yu Xiao as expected. Then he suddenly realized, "The pool is connected to the outside waterway!"
Fish are born knowing how to swim, just as humans are born knowing how to drink milk.
Although Yu Xiao was just an ordinary fish that couldn't even conjure a fireball, the brief respite that Ling Yue had given him was enough for him to transform into his original form and swim far away, disappearing into the underground river beneath Wenjian City!
"Very well, very well indeed." The male Kunze squeezed out a voice filled with extreme anger through clenched teeth, "That kid is simply a devil, he figured out that I didn't dare to go into the water because I had Yin Flame on me!"
Yinran Fire is the innate divine power of the clan of the saint Yu Xuan'er. It is like fire and water. It feels cold to the touch but can ruthlessly burn everything. When it comes into contact with water, it will burn even faster until the enemy is burned to the point of being completely destroyed!
Kunze, the man, was on the verge of madness when he realized that Ling Yue was no longer paying attention to him, clearly treating him like a clown on a stage. He sneered and started walking towards the pond.
Ling Yue was shocked. He hadn't expected this man to have gone mad, daring to go into the water with his body stained with Yin Flame. He quickly summoned another sword from the box, and then felt a sweet taste in his throat. He barely managed to swallow the blood in his mouth.
A cultivator at the first stage of cultivation only has one Qi Sea in their dantian to maintain the circulation of spiritual energy. Holding a single sword in hand is already the limit of sword control. Moreover, Ling Yue had just lost an arm and was deficient in Qi and blood, which caused his flying sword, which he tried his best to send out, to ultimately miss.
The male Kunze, who had been burned alive, had also entered the pond, clearly determined to hunt down Yu Xiao.
The thread that held something in Ling Yue's mind snapped.
Then all he could see was crimson, and he could see nothing at all.
...
A note from the author:
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This is some foreshadowing for the "Immortal Clan's Child Bride" arc! End of Chapter 3. The above content will not be repeated in the main text.
Second Editor: I've decided not to write "The Child Bride" for the second world, I'll write "The Binding Rope" first ovo
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