This is like a scatter shot, isn't it? It's like I got hit by it too, right?!

 

The chicken boy probably felt that his method of contact was not as cool as Junxiao's. So, he silently shrank his neck, brightened the screen, searched for the number, and then dialed.

Junxiao undoubtedly saw someone use such a modern thing as a phone for the first time. He stood with his arms crossed, looking expressionless, but his eyes carried a hint of curiosity.

They were not far apart, and they could vaguely hear the waiting "beep-beep" of the phone ringing. Junxiao thought for a moment, then his finger moved slightly, and his fingertip directly drew a line, reaching the chicken boy‘s phone.

Standing beside Junxiao, Ba Ke and Bai Zixu suddenly felt that the voice from the other end of the phone became extremely clear, transmitted to their ears through that transparent thread-like line, as clear as if they were listening directly through the receiver.

After ringing for four or five times, the call was answered. A somewhat lazy and arrogant voice came from the other end, sounding like someone who hadn't woken up properly: "Oh, Lin Jie, what's up?"

The three here looked at each other, and Bai Zixu whispered, "This little brat actually has a name?"

Lin Jie faintly heard it on the other end: "..." Damn, even though they're allies now, I still want to beat them up!

But the elder brother on the other end of the phone didn't hear it. He just felt that Lin Jie on this end was silent and impatiently said, "Hey, I'm resting. What's up? If there's nothing, just hang up."

Lin Jie quickly said, "Ah, wait, shixiong! Didn't you ask me to come out to find shixiong Jiang and shixiong Chen? I followed the traces of the charms they left behind and found a family’s house."

"Oh?" The senior brother on the phone seemed to be a little interested. "What happened? Where are those two?"

"They're gone, and after I looked around, I didn't find any new traces."

"Oh," the senior brother dragged out his tone, then covered the phone and whispered to someone, then put his hand back on the receiver and let go, saying, "Lin Jie, wait a moment, Master is here, I'll let him listen to the phone."

Lin Jie glanced at Junxiao and the others.

Junxiao raised his chin, indicating him to continue.

After a moment, the person speaking on the phone changed. Only the sound of the other person's voice was a bit hoarse, and he spoke softly, "Lin Jie, you didn't see those two shixiongs, did you?"

"No, I just followed the traces of their charms and found a family."

"Have you calculated whether the family has a person born in an inauspicious year, month, or hour? Xiao Chen and Xiao Jiang are not the kind of people who leave marks around ordinary residences. If they did, it's probably to lead us there."

Lin Jie rolled his eyes but respectfully agreed, "Yes, there is indeed a young man, about seventeen or eighteen years old, born in an inauspicious year, month, and hour, so I immediately called shixiong."

After he finished speaking, without waiting for the other side's master to speak, he added, "I also detected the traces of the two shixiongs' charms on him."

Jun Xiao, who was monitoring the phone, raised his eyes and glanced at Lin Jie, thinking to himself, this chicken boyis not as stupid as he seems at all.

When the master over there heard this, he was silent for a moment and said, "When did your senior brother find this house?"

Lin Jie replied, "I measured it and found that the spell time is about fourteen hours."

The master took a breath. After a pause, he hurriedly spoke: "Go and see if there are any special marks on the back of that boy's neck. Be smart and don't let others discover it."

Lin Jie accepted: "Okay." After speaking, he pretended to cover the microphone and stopped. for a moment.

Listening to this, Junxiao almost immediately reached out and grabbed Bai ke's shoulder, turned him around, and looked at the back of his neck.

Sure enough, in the lower left corner, there was an additional crimson mole.

Huo Junxiao frowned suddenly because he hadn't seen this mole when Bai Ke had just gotten up from the bedroom. How could it suddenly appear in just the time of two cups of tea?

Lin Jie, who was holding the microphone over there, glanced at the expressions of the three people here and knew the result without even looking.

He pulled away his hand and said into the receiver, following Junxiao's mouth movements: "Yes, there's a cinnabar mole."

"Are you sure it wasn't there before?" The other side was a bit worried.

"Sure," Lin Jie said firmly, "I saw him ten minutes ago, and there was no mole on his neck then."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a suppressed and excited voice from the other end, "Fourteen hours, cinnabar mole... It's done?!"

"Done?" Lin Jie was a bit confused about what he was talking about. "What do you mean by done?"

"Oh, nothing." The Master coughed and said extremely falsely, "This is prepared for your shixiongs. To let them choose a disciple and leave a mark on him. We will send someone to collect him, so as not to waste their time."

Lin Jie: "..." Do you think I have negative IQ? Can't I see through such obvious lies?

But he didn't say much, just continued to pretend to be foolish, "Oh, I see! Should I go back now, Master?"

"Don't, wait another hour. If the child doesn't seem uncomfortable by then, bring him back to the sect." After instructing this, the Master hurriedly hung up the phone, seeming to have urgent matters.

Putting away the phone, Lin Jie looked at Junxiao, then at Bai Ke, and shrugged, "If I ask too much, don't hit me!"

Junxiao seemed to find this expected, nodded, and then frowned as he continued to examine the crimson mole on the back of Bai Ke's neck. He couldn't help but comment, "The disciples of Hengtian sect are getting dumber year by year."

Lin Jie: "..." Damn, is this a blanket condemnation? Did I just get thrown into that curse too?!

After examining the red mole for a while, even Junxiao shook his head at Bai Ke, "No, using qi again will hurt you."

Bai Ke furrowed his brows, reached out and touched the crimson mole, recalling last night's scene—

When he threw Bai Zixu into the room and was about to follow, those two men and three beasts chased after him. Then Bai Ke vaguely felt like something pierced the skin on the back of his neck and wormed its way in. The burning sensation that surged along the entire nerve, flowing into the heart, was too unbearable. Even now, he could almost feel it again when he thought about it.

Later, before he fainted, he seemed to feel a sharp pain in the back of his neck, which made his head dizzy with pain. Even after he woke up again, there was always a burning sensation in the back of his neck. It wasn't until Junxiao's fingers touched it that he felt a little coolness.

At that time, Junxiao probably thought he was frowning because of the pain of the wound and didn't think much about it. He subconsciously brought coolness to his fingertips and then squeezed it into the small wound.

Touching the back of his neck, Bai Ke looked at Junxiao, "It seems they put something into this wound."

Lin Jie's scalp tingled at the thought of something being stuffed into the wound at the back of his neck and into his body?! It was terrifying.

Junxiao's eyes also flickered when he heard this, then he once again covered the crimson mole on Bai Ke's neck with his fingertips. However, this time, knowing the situation, he used a different method to guide the qi, and soon, he found something.

"That thing has traveled to your upper dantian."

"Upper dantian?" Bai Ke was a little confused about where that was.

"It's on this side of the forehead, close to the Spiritual Core." Huo Junxiao sighed and withdrew his hand. "This place is crucial and must not be acted upon rashly. Let's outsmart them." After saying this, he fell silent again, standing aside without saying another word.

He was extremely annoyed with himself, almost hating himself at this critical moment for being so timid, not at all like a man.

But what would happen if he didn't hesitate? If he acted impulsively, forcibly taking what was in the upper dantian, not to mention whether there were any deeper hidden dangers in that thing, just the strand of qi forcibly injected by Junxiao, to someone like Bai Ke who had no martial arts training, was far less safe than what was in the upper dantian. It was better to wait and see, and then handle it carefully.

So, what was the master's "wait another hour" for? Was it to consolidate the growth of whatever was in the upper dantian? Or was it to observe whether Bai Ke's condition was stable?

With these thoughts in mind, everyone endured another hour, which felt like an eternity. During this time, Junxiao continuously injected a cool breath into Bai Ke's increasingly burning neck and then stared at his face, fearing that he might faint again at any moment.

Finally, when the clock on the wall finally struck twelve and moved towards one, everyone instantly stood up straight.

*

Mini Theater

After each disciple of Yusheng Gate formally became apprentices, they were bestowed with a Daoist name by their master, which would accompany them throughout their life of cultivation.

While Wu Nan and Shen Han, two junior disciples, had already been bestowed with Daoist names, Junxiao's remained empty.

It wasn't until over a month after formally becoming a disciple under the sect leader that the returning Bai Lingchen stood with a sword on the peak of Yunfu, with a huge black divine stone by his side. Before him, the clouds surged, and behind him, snowflakes flew.

Junxiao, who was summoned, darted into this place that was usually restricted, like a monkey. He looked at Bai Lingchen's tall figure and was a little dazed.

Without looking back, Bai Lingchen swept his sleeve, and the thick snow on the divine stone dispersed, revealing the characters engraved on its surface—

"Gazing up to the heavens, Bowing down to hear the whispers of dust, In this dance of reverence, Clouds travel a thousand miles, Mountains and rivers endure through ten thousand years."

Junxiao looked at the majestic and magnificent lines of the characters and read them quietly.

Just as he finished reading, he heard Bai Lingchen say, "Haven't you been bestowed with a name yet? Then let's call you Yun Zheng." (NT: 云征 Yún zhēng, traveling clouds)

With such a casual remark, the two characters "Yun Zheng" accompanied Junxiao for more than five thousand years, becoming a well-known name.

At that time, thousands of years ago, Junxiao just looked at the characters on the stone surface and repeated them several times, feeling extremely satisfied.

He was so satisfied that he felt like he was ill—

For nearly half a month then, he had been blindly copying that passage on various pieces of paper. The more he copied, the more he felt his emotions surging, and the more he felt that pen and paper were not enough to express the turmoil in his heart.

Finally, one day, unable to restrain himself, Junxiao reached out his sinful claws to a thousand-year-old cold jade behind the Yunfu Palace. Holding his sword and his breath, he wrote down that passage on the jade with the fluidity of clouds and the elegance of a dragon and phoenix.

Just as he finished the last stroke, a jade shard fell to the ground, and as he admired his masterpiece, he heard a chilly voice behind him say, "It seems like the second floor of the library will have to make an exception and open for you."

Huo Junxiao, who had unknowingly destroyed Bai Lingchen's favorite cold jade, remained silent for a while, then looked up with puppy eyes, "Is it useful for your apprentice to cry while holding onto your pants, Master?"

Bai Lingchen expressionlessly reached out to pat his head, extending a finger, "Seven days, four bookshelves."

Junxiao rushed over and hugged Bai Lingchen's legs, howling, "I was wrong! I'm an idiot!"

Bai Lingchen added another finger, "Five shelves, keep howling."

The idiot rushed towards the library as if his butt was on fire.

 

Translator : DarNan