Bai Ke: "..." What does that have to do with me?

Bai Ke felt like a quail with shrunken feet for the first time, just standing there dumbfounded, listening to Yu Xian and Huo Junxiao talk at length, his mind filled with confusion.

The more they talked, the more questions arose in Bai Ke's mind.

For example, they casually mentioned a Junior Brother and Junior Sister; they seemed to be searching for some scattered souls, and besides that, they appeared to be dealing with some rather tricky matters; and then, what exactly was the "Ice Soul"? Who was that person who looked exactly like Junxiao, and... who was the "he" that they mentioned, the one who set the restrictions and trapped the "Ice Soul"?

These two ancient beings, who had lived for perhaps thousands of years, rarely interacted with others besides those they were familiar with. Because of their high level of cultivation, they seldom bothered with schemes or negotiations, doing whatever pleased them. It was one thing for them to speak in half-truths, but it was obvious they were holding back—almost as if they had "I'm hiding something from you, what are you going to do about it?" written on their faces—making Bai Ke feel awkward about asking questions.

A more curious person might have been restless for days, but Bai Ke had a rather indifferent personality. He could be curious and would ask a few questions related to the topic, but he rarely pursued answers. If they wanted to talk, they would; if not, he wouldn't press them.

Until he heard Junxiao's last sentence.

"Not going to the Sanqing Pool?" Bai Ke asked, looking up.

Although it was phrased as a question, he understood Junxiao's reasoning.

Considering the excruciating torment he had endured in the Sanqing Pool, even if he were invited with three kneelings and nine bows (NT: extremely formal and respectful gesture) on an eight-carrier sedan chair, he wouldn't want to go through it again. Yet, what happened afterward changed things.

Rationality told him that the place was far from the simple training ground the Sect Master of Hengtian had described. Given his abilities, if he wanted to stay alive, he shouldn't set foot there again.

But there was a hint of rebelliousness in him that resisted this.

"That thing is extremely evil and dangerous. The last time it was released, countless powerful cultivators perished in the ensuing chaos, and innocent civilians' bodies piled up like mountains," Junxiao said, his expression unchanged, though his brow furrowed. Bai Ke sensed deep sorrow in his eyes, sorrow that spanned thousands of years. "The farther you stay from such an evil thing, the better."

Bodies piled up like mountains?

Bai Ke couldn't help but recall the layers upon layers of figures he had seen floating around the "Ice Soul" the previous night—faces blurred, expressions numb, eyes hollow, yet faintly revealing a trace of madness...

Could all those be the souls of the cultivators and civilians who perished in that disaster?!

If they were all souls trapped beneath the "Ice Soul," then could that shadowy figure who looked exactly like Junxiao be...

An absurd idea popped into Bai Ke's mind, but at this moment, it seemed to have some basis.

"Were you also..." Bai Ke finally couldn't help but blurt out, his voice low, stopping halfway through.

Junxiao gave him a long, deep look, but said nothing for a long time.

Bai Ke couldn't decipher the meaning in his gaze. He instinctively glanced to the side and saw that Yu Xian was also looking down, staring at the stone table, lost in thought.

He also felt that his question was abrupt and reckless, perhaps even offensive. He almost regretted asking as soon as the words left his mouth, but there was no taking it back.

Just as he was about to change the subject to break the suddenly tense atmosphere in the room, Junxiao spoke heavily, "I was fine back then."

Bai Ke, who had been contemplating a new topic, suddenly looked up, puzzled. "Fine? Then the person in the Ice Soul—"

"That was indeed me, but it was a part of my soul that got trapped there later," Junxiao said, his tone casual, as if he were talking about someone else entirely.

Bai Ke: "..."

He realized that for a long time, he probably wouldn't be able to understand how cultivators could talk about losing a part of their soul as casually as losing a coin of loose change.

Previously, in his understanding, the soul was a complete entity, something that couldn't be broken apart, let alone lost while the person still lived on for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Even though Junxiao spoke of it so nonchalantly, it was still a part of his soul. Losing a part of one's soul must have involved a great deal of violence and turmoil. But Bai Ke didn't want to dig deeper into the matter, fearing he might offend him even more and lead to an even longer silence.

He recalled what Junxiao had said earlier: "If it were before, perhaps Master Xian and I could have broken this restriction, but now..."

The difference between "before" and "now" was likely due to that missing part of his soul.

But if neither Junxiao nor Yu Xian could break the restriction and enter, then would that part of Junxiao's soul have to continue drifting inside?

Bai Ke looked at Junxiao, who always seemed so indifferent when talking about his own experiences, and then thought of the figure he had seen in the "Ice Soul" last night. Something seemed to tug at his heart.

Before he could shake off this uncomfortable feeling, Junxiao suddenly spoke: "Did you finish catching it?" There was a hint of surprise in his tone.

"Hmm?" Bai Ke was momentarily confused, staring blankly at Junxiao as he spoke and turned around.

Bai Ke followed his gaze, and as they faced the doorway, they saw a paw just gripping the doorframe. Then, a thoroughly exhausted Lin Jie poked his head in, panting so hard it looked like he might collapse right there and then.

Although Lin Jie had been struggling within the Hengtian Sect, he had still trained for ten years. Despite his shortcomings, he had a decent foundation in basic martial arts. To be so tired yet enter so silently, Bai Ke wouldn't have noticed there was someone else in the courtyard if Junxiao hadn't spoken up.

It seemed that Yu Xian, like Bai Ke, had only just noticed Lin Jie's arrival. He raised his head, hands tucked into his sleeves, and called out, "Well, well! Not bad, kid! You caught this Peanut so quickly? No way, how could you have done it in such a short time?" He glanced out the window at the sun and scratched his chin, looking skeptical.

Bai Ke suddenly realized what had been bothering him when he entered the room earlier—

He had seen Yu Xian and Huo Junxiao fighting earlier, and Yu Xian hadn’t seemed at a disadvantage at all, even appearing quite at ease. This didn’t necessarily mean his cultivation was higher than Junxiao’s, but they were probably close. For experts of their level, sensing even the slightest movement or presence around them should have been no surprise, just like earlier when Junxiao detected Lin Jie before he even entered the room.

However, Bai Ke noticed that Yu Xian, like himself, a regular person, didn't seem to react to Lin Jie's arrival at all.

Then he recalled that before Junxiao and Bai Ke had entered the room, all of Yu Xian's words inside had been directed solely at Junxiao. Or rather, Yu Xian might have only heard a slight noise, unaware of how many people were outside, and had just subconsciously assumed that only Huo Junxiao had returned. It wasn't until the two of them stepped into the small room that Yu Xian saw Bai Ke and abruptly changed the subject.

Didn't that seem a bit strange?

As he was lost in thought, he heard Lin Jie, who had finally caught his breath, shuffle into the room like a zombie, his arms hanging limply at his sides. Without hesitation, he grabbed the edge of the stone table, plopped down on the stone stool, his face pale, and drawled, "Of—course—I—did—not—catch—it—"

"I knew it couldn’t have been that quick!" Yu Xian glanced at Junxiao, snorted, and said, "If I remember correctly, when you were a kid, it took you almost half a day to catch that Peanut, right?"

"It took you half a day?!" Lin Jie looked utterly defeated.

Junxiao: "..." He didn’t find it something worth bragging about at all.

"Wait, I got that wrong—what I should be saying is, wait, Master, you were punished by having to catch that Peanut too?!" Lin Jie rewound and replayed his reaction.

Bai Ke: "..." Is this guy possessed by some kind of snake spirit?

Junxiao twitched his lips. "Who said I was punished?"

"Not a punishment? Then why did you catch it?"

"It looked interesting, so I wanted to catch it to amuse my Master," Junxiao replied.

Wait, so you did that voluntarily? Lin Jie stared at Junxiao with a look of disbelief, as if saying, "It’s not me who’s crazy—it must be you," and asked in horror, "Second Master, how old were you when you did something that mindless? And it was a fatty too—didn’t you think it might be too expensive to keep?"

A sudden earth-shattering roar came from outside, causing Lin Jie to shudder.

Peanut, now grown big, sleek, and shiny, suddenly appeared at the door, its enormous face nearly bursting through the doorframe. After briefly showing its face to express its outrage at Lin Jie's earlier words, it quickly disappeared again.

Lin Jie: "..."

Bai Ke, crossing his arms, pointed outside. "Not going to chase it?"

Lin Jie shook his head, utterly defeated. "Let me rest a bit. Even if I chase it now, I won’t catch it."

Yu Xian clicked his tongue twice after hearing this and shook his head. "Looks like we've finally got someone a bit more normal in our sect."

Lin Jie: "...Are you sure that wasn't sarcasm?"

"It wasn't," Yu Xian replied firmly, shaking his head. "Xiao—forget it, I'll just call you Xiao Lin. The difference in seniority is too big and calling you anything else would require doing the math. It's too much trouble!"

Lin Jie had no objections. "You can call me whatever you like, Old Ancestor."

Yu Xian winced a bit at the title of "Old Ancestor," then pointed a finger at Junxiao and said to Lin Jie, "Take your master, for instance. How old was he when he caught that Peanut... hmm, around seven or eight years old, I think."

Lin Jie: "..."

"Yeah, just seven or eight years old! A tiny little thing, already sucking up to his master, clinging to his leg every day and refusing to let go!"

"Wait, wait, wait—" Lin Jie looked like he'd just been struck by lightning. He glanced at Junxiao's stern face, then at Yu Xian, his eyes wide in disbelief. "Old Ancestor, are you sure you're talking about my master?"

Bai Ke was also surprised. He hadn't expected someone so quiet and reserved to have been like that as a child.

"Yep, it's this troublemaker! Don’t look at me like that. I'm not losing my mind, Xiao Lin. Don’t be fooled by how lifeless and deadpan he looks now. This guy was never one to sit still! His master—oh, that's my taciturn disciple—he was another weirdo," Yu Xian said, clearly having spent enough time among mortals to pick up some colorful language. As he spoke, he even shot a sideways glance at Bai Ke.

Bai Ke, who suddenly found himself brought into the conversation, looked innocent: "..."

"Appears all serious and formal, but deep down, he's not a good guy. From a young age, he seemed obedient and well-behaved—aside from being a bit quiet, there was nothing to criticize. But he was actually a hidden powder jar. He might seem like a rule-follower, but when he did break the rules, he did it to the sky. You know what they say, when someone who usually follows the rules finally breaks them, they break them in a big way." Yu Xian spoke of his disciples with a tone of deep frustration, as if he wasn't raising disciples but debt collectors.

When Yu Xian mentioned Bai Lingchen, Junxiao, who had previously been sitting there with an expression of numb resignation as Yu Xian rambled, suddenly started paying close attention. Even though he'd heard this all before, he didn't mind hearing Yu Xian complain a few more times.

"My taciturn disciple didn't have many hobbies. Most of the time, he looked pretty impressive, full of that immortal aura. You could parade him around to fool kind-hearted folks, and they’d all be kneeling before him in no time. But that unfortunate kid had one quirk—he loved bringing things home, especially kids. For example—" Yu Xian jerked his chin toward Junxiao, "—except for this rascal here, who I brought back, all my other grand-disciples, including many kids from the sect back in the day, were picked up by my taciturn disciple. And I mean picked up—he’d see a pitiful child on the side of the road, gather them up, and bring them back. Fortunately, those kids were all orphans or had no living relatives, or else their families would have stormed the mountain for revenge. And it wasn’t just kids—he’d pick up all sorts of strange things!"

"Strange things?" Lin Jie blinked his wide eyes, finding his Master’s Master very intriguing.

"Yeah," Yu Xian's mouth twitched as he recalled, his expression filled with memories he'd rather forget. "When he was young, he once brought back a baby mountain monkey. I saw it was injured when he brought it home, so I figured the kid was going to nurse it back to health and then release it. But when I asked him about it, he pointed at the monkey and told me, 'This is the disciple I've taken in for you.' I nearly spat blood all over that ungrateful brat's face."

Whenever Yu Xian talked about Bai Lingchen's youth, Junxiao always had a smile on his lips, and he would become more talkative. "I remember he mentioned it to me once. At that time, I hadn't yet been formally accepted as a direct disciple. Apparently, that little monkey never fully transformed, but under his guidance, it lived to be around 400 years old before it died of natural causes. When you asked my master why he suddenly accepted three direct disciples, I even joked that it was because my little junior sister resembled the monkey."

Lin Jie: "..." How tactless do you have to be to compare a girl to a monkey? That's just cruel!

Bai Ke's expression remained complicated: "..."

"That's right," Yu Xian continued, drawing out the words, clearly irritated. "That poor girl cried her heart out. As they say, you can tell a person's nature from a young age. Even as a child, she was an expert at crying. She's not as tearful now that she's older, but whenever she does cry, it's like the heavens are falling apart."

"Yeah," Junxiao nodded with a smile, but then both he and Yu Xian fell silent. The smiles gradually faded from their faces, replaced by a mix of nostalgia and melancholy.

Bai Ke, possibly influenced by their change in mood, or perhaps for some other reason, began to feel a deep, inexplicable sadness. It weighed heavily on his heart, like dark clouds suddenly rolling in and smothering him with a sense of oppressive gloom.

"Shen—" he started to say, the name slipping out unconsciously, as if he was about to mention someone. But he only got as far as the surname before realizing he had no idea who he was talking about. Searching his memory, he couldn't think of anyone close to him with that name.

Yu Xian and Junxiao were snapped out of their thoughts by his sudden outburst. They turned to look at him, unsure of what he was trying to say, so they quickly masked their emotions and waited for him to continue.

"Nothing," Bai Ke shook his head, unsure how to cover up his slip, so he turned to Lin Jie and said, "You still haven't caught Peanut, so why are you sitting here? Aren't you afraid you won't get any food today?"

Lin Jie, who felt like he had some sort of magnet for bad luck, was just sitting there minding his own business, only to suddenly find himself the target of their conversation.

"I... I just came to get a drink of water," Lin Jie replied, suddenly remembering why he had come back. He grabbed the teapot on the table, holding the handle with one hand and the lid with the other, and hurriedly poured himself four cups of tea. He quickly downed each one in a single gulp.

After slamming the last cup down on the table with a resounding "thud," he stood up, wearing the determined expression of someone about to storm a fortress, and slowly walked towards the door. At the threshold, he paused and glanced back at Junxiao and Yu Xian, hoping one of them might take pity on him and say something like, "Have something to eat before you continue." But as he stepped over the threshold, both still had the same expression that clearly said, "Hurry up."

Lin Jie stepped back inside, unable to resist asking, "Master, Old Ancestor, don't you have anything to say to me?"

Yu Xian replied, "You're not very talented, so managing to catch it within two days would be quite an achievement."

Lin Jie: "..." Another knife to the heart.

Junxiao added, "Your Salted fish Ancestor speaks the truth."

Lin Jie: "..." And another one.

Bai Ke chimed in, "Safe travel, we won't see you off."

Lin Jie: "..." sobs~qaq

With a final huff, Lin Jie dashed out of the door angrily and vanished, continuing his pursuit of Peanut.

"That kid’s a long way from fasting; he's seventeen or eighteen, still in his growing years. Don't let him starve to death," Yu Xian said, showing a tiny bit of conscience.

"True," Bai Ke agreed casually, "Going two or three days without food is tough for an ordinary person."

Junxiao, looking at the old man and the younger one with a blank expression, coldly remarked, "When you threw me into the Mirror of Clarity and left me starving for half a month, I didn't see either of you worrying like this."

Yu Xian immediately shifted the blame, pointing accusingly at Bai Ke. "Exactly! Why didn't we worry?"

Bai Ke: "..." What does that have to do with me?

With Lin Jie, the comic relief, gone, Bai Ke started to regret it. While he was around, the conversation stayed light, but now that he had left to chase Peanut, the atmosphere in the room grew serious again.

Finally, Bai Ke was able to bring up the issue he had noticed earlier. "Senior Shixuan."

Yu Xian winced at the formal address, feeling a bit uncomfortable. "Ugh—what is it? Don’t call me that; it gives me the creeps."

"Your health—" Bai Ke ignored Yu Xian’s grumbling and looked at him with concern.

He hadn't paid much attention before, but now Bai Ke noticed that although Yu Xian still had his usual playful demeanor, he looked more fatigued when he wasn't speaking. He seemed more worn out and aged compared to when Bai Ke had first seen him the day before.

Yu Xian was taken aback, surprised that Bai Ke had noticed something was wrong. He waved it off. "No big issues, just a minor thing."

Bai Ke, understanding that those who practice the Dao could extend their lifespans or even achieve immortality, assumed they would be in excellent health and not suffer from ordinary ailments. He wondered what kind of 'minor thing' Yu Xian was referring to.

The next second, Yu Xian couldn't help but reveal the truth. "It's just that my Nascent soul is a bit scattered."

Bai Ke: "..."

"Only halfway."

Bai Ke: "..." People who take dramatic pauses like that should be dragged out and beaten.

Finding Bai Ke’s reaction amusing, Yu Xian stroked his beard with a smile. "I was injured a long time ago, and now whenever I run into some tricky situations, this happens from time to time."

"Will it recover?"

"Of course! Otherwise, this elder would have kicked the bucket ages ago, and there would be grass growing over my grave by now. It’ll take anywhere from three to ten days, maybe a little longer."

 

Translator : DarNan