To be honest, telling the truth might feel like a slap in the face.

 

It was Bai Ke's first time seeing what Junxiao's room looked like. It was so simple that it couldn't be any simpler, even less furnished than Lin Jie’s place. There was only a basic stone bed, a stone table of an unknown age, and a few stone stools.

"You’ve always lived in a place like this?" Bai Ke asked instinctively, only to realize that his question might have been a bit rude.

If he were dealing with others, Bai Ke would never be so tactless. But when it came to these peculiar cultivators, he didn't feel the need to be so careful.

He had initially felt a bit uneasy around Junxiao, but ever since encountering that version of "Huo Junxiao" at the Sanqing Pool yesterday, some complicated shift had taken place in Bai Ke’s mind. He inexplicably started finding Junxiao more approachable. Even that usually expressionless face seemed to have subtle expressions upon closer inspection.

Unconsciously, he began to act more freely.

However, Junxiao didn’t seem to notice this subtle change. In any case, no matter what Bai Ke did or said, he wouldn’t mind. To be precise, just looking at Bai Ke or hearing his voice filled Huo Junxiao’s heart with a sense of regained contentment and joy. It’s just that after so many years of not interacting with people, he was a bit out of practice in expressing it.

"It's just a place to rest, nothing to be concerned about," Junxiao explained as he followed Bai Ke's gaze, glancing around his house. "The place I lived in as a child was quite good, but as I gradually advanced in my cultivation, I went out to establish my own cave dwelling. Initially, it was just a corner of the mountains, enough for meditation. Later, as I achieved more, I didn’t want to bother with it, so I simply enclosed this area and built these two rooms. Compared to the original cave dwelling, this is already quite good. But these are all external things—whether it’s round or square, stone or wood, it doesn’t make much difference."

"This is your own secret realm?" Bai Ke asked curiously, "Then why build two rooms?"

Junxiao's lips curved slightly as he pointed to Yu Xian and said, "Although it's my own secret realm, my master often comes here to supervise me. Sometimes the Grandmaster and my junior brother also come along. While they could make do in the forest, having two rooms is more convenient."

At the mention of "forest," Yu Xian gave his unfilial disciple a displeased glance.

"You have a junior brother?" Whether it was due to some understanding he gained yesterday, or just the fact that he had a rare good night's sleep, Bai Ke was unusually interested in Junxiao's past life today. "Are there just the two of you in the sect?"

Junxiao paused for a moment, then lowered his eyes and nodded slightly after a brief hesitation, "My master had three direct disciples back then—my junior brother, myself, and a little junior sister."

"And what about them—" For some reason, hearing Junxiao talk about this filled Bai Ke’s heart with warmth, as if something in his subconscious was being stirred.

"They—" Junxiao’s gaze briefly and seemingly unintentionally swept over Bai Ke before it shifted to the window.

The long bamboo leaves outside the window layered and intertwined, partially obscuring the back window, resembling the view outside the back window of the side hall of Yunfu Palace where they once lived.

"They each have their own lives now," Junxiao said faintly.

Bai Ke found himself feeling increasingly odd. After hearing Junxiao's words, his heart inexplicably gave a heavy thud, as if, without realizing it, he had been anxiously awaiting some kind of answer, and once the answer was revealed, his heart abruptly settled back into place.

Actually, if it were just Junxiao alone mistaking him for his former master, Bai Ke might have thought that Junxiao had probably gone mad during his cultivation journey, his mind confused and misaligned, leading him to mistakenly identify someone after all these years.

But when Yu Xian also chimed in and called him "stupid disciple" the moment they met, Bai Ke's subconscious began to falter.

One person might be crazy, but could two people really have both gone mad at the same time and made the same mistake?

Couple that with his occasional inexplicable emotional swings and the frequent sense of déjà vu, and Bai Ke found himself increasingly inclined to believe what Junxiao and Yu Xian were saying.

However, believing is one thing, while accepting is another.

Even if he really was the person they spoke of, that was in a past life, events that happened thousands of years ago, likely forgotten long ago with a bowl of Meng Po's soup at the bridge to the afterlife. So, he continued to pretend that he didn't believe it at all.

But ever since he returned from the "Ice Soul" yesterday and had a solid sleep, he stopped being so conflicted. If it was true, so be it; if not, so be it. He decided to let things take their natural course. He wouldn't deliberately dig up the past that happened to him, but he also wouldn't deliberately avoid it anymore.

Once he decided to approach the matter with this mindset, Bai Ke found that the awkwardness he had felt when interacting with these two powerful figures completely vanished.

However, that didn’t mean it had no impact at all. For instance, right now, hearing Junxiao mention his junior brother and sister, Bai Ke found his emotions inexplicably fluctuating.

Even after his heart settled back into place," he still felt some lingering unease.

He probably let this feeling show on his face, as Junxiao and Yu Xian seemed to notice it right away. Yu Xian coughed and loudly said, "Ah, speaking of which, I heard you got tricked by the Hengtian Sect's head into their so-called Sanqing Pool yesterday. How was it?"

Junxiao added, "We had some urgent matters to attend to last night, and I noticed that Peanut seemed to have stayed within the secret realm the entire time, so I assume you didn't summon it. Did anything happen?"

"Eh—" Yu Xian waved his hand dismissively and said, "Although that Hengtian Sect isn't anything great, every sect has one or two sacred pools. Usually, they're either for cleansing disciples when they first enter the sect or for boosting cultivation and refreshing the mind. I've heard of the Sanqing Pool of Hengtian Sect a few times; it's said to be rich in spiritual energy and very beneficial for their disciples. It shouldn't pose any major problems. If the head said that to you, he probably wasn't lying. His cultivation level is much higher than yours, so there's no need for him to scheme against you. The only concern is that some of his underlings might try to trip you up out of self-importance."

Bai Ke: "..." Telling the truth might feel like a slap in the face.

But not telling the truth... He knew he wasn't capable of handling those situations on his own. Toughing it out would be pure arrogance, a sure way to get himself killed.

So, he decided to take a middle ground and started by picking out a few key points: "It wasn't too bad."

Yu Xian and Junxiao nodded.

"But at first, I was tossed so hard,that I nearly died there."

Yu Xian's hand, which was stroking his beard, trembled, almost pulling out a handful of it.

Junxiao suddenly grabbed Bai Ke's wrist.

"But I was saved in time."

Yu Xian let out a sigh of relief, but Junxiao still didn’t let go of his wrist. Just as he was about to ask something, Bai Ke dropped another bombshell: "The person who saved me looked exactly like you."

Yu Xian finally did pull out a tuft of his beard, crying out in pain, "Ouch! Ah, that hurts—!"

Junxiao tightened his grip on Bai Ke’s wrist: "Exactly like me?"

"Yes." Bai Ke nodded. "I thought it was you who came to save me, but when I asked him if he was you, he denied it."

"Exactly alike... Could it be..." Yu Xian muttered, exchanging a glance with Junxiao, a hint of speculation in their eyes.

"Oh, and that Sanqing Pool isn't some sacred spring at all, but a huge piece of something resembling jade, or maybe ice. It glows faintly, and when you get close, it feels icy cold."

Yu Xian, who had been sitting and fiddling with a cup, suddenly stood up, slamming the cup onto the table with such force and an expression of excitement that it was as if he were on an adrenaline rush. He shouted at Junxiao, "I knew it! I knew it had to be him who took it! I just didn't expect he'd hide it in the Hengtian Sect. Looks like he used all his strength to set a seal on it; otherwise, we wouldn't have spent all these years searching in vain."

"There is indeed a mountain gate outside the Sanqing Pool, and it's sealed," Bai Ke added, then looked at Junxiao in confusion. "Back at the Hengtian Sect’s building, you easily broke the seal set by their sect master and elders. Why is it that this Sanqing Pool is sealed, but you couldn't find it? Can't you break it?"

Junxiao shook his head and said, "The seal under the Hengtian Sect building was merely set by the sect master and elders, so I could come and go freely without restriction. But the seal on the Sanqing Pool is not like that."

"Who set that seal?" Bai Ke was somewhat surprised. "Even you two can't break it?"

To his knowledge, Junxiao and Yu Xian were the most profoundly skilled among the cultivators he had encountered. Although he knew his understanding was limited, based on the reliable and unreliable texts Lin Jie had read, even if you extended this to the entire cultivation world, they would undoubtedly be considered top experts.

If even they couldn’t deal with this person, what level must that individual be?

"That person has a unique expertise in seals. Whether setting or breaking them, he's above me... If it were before—" Junxiao started to say, then suddenly paused, as if swallowing back some words before continuing, "Perhaps my master or my salty old ancestor could have broken it, but now..."

He gave a bitter smile and shook his head.

"But since that thing is sealed in one secluded place, if we can't break it, no one else can either. As long as no one uses that troublesome thing to stir up trouble, we might as well leave it be for now," Yu Xian sighed, sounding resigned to the situation.

"Right." Junxiao then turned to Bai Ke and added, "But from now on, you shouldn’t go there during the late hours of the night."

 

Translator : DarNan