What the hell! Yunzheng?!

“Is it not... What happened to you all that your expressions are like you're going to a grave while just having a meal?” Yu Xian asked, bewildered.

As a result, Lin Jie simply looked up and greeted him heavily, “Hello, Ancestor,” before lowering his head again, mechanically shoveling rice into his mouth with a blank expression.

Bai Ke nodded towards Yu Xian. He still didn’t know how to properly address Yu Xian. Calling him “Ancestor” would make Yu Xian and Junxiao jump up in protest; calling him “Master” felt awkward to him. After hesitating for a moment, he finally settled on a middle ground and said, “Elder, you’re back.” After saying this, he glanced at Lin Jie, hesitated again, but ultimately didn’t explain anything.

Upon hearing this address, Yu Xian’s expression turned pained.

Bai Zixu, in a daze, finally noticed their conversation and turned to Yu Xian, asking, “Elder Yu, are you hungry? Would you like something to eat?”

Yu Xian waved his hand. “I haven’t eaten in years; you all go ahead. Is Junxiao not back yet?”

“Nope. Aren’t you two together?” Bai Ke asked.

“No,” Yu Xian shook his head. “I went to scout Wangtian Cliff, and he went to that Peach Blossom place you mentioned, saying he’d check if there were any situations nearby. After all, Hengtian Sect has ulterior motives this time; anyone who gets targeted is bound to suffer. If I can help out, I will.”

As he spoke, he leaned against Peanut, using the giant beast's fur as a natural cushion. He didn’t know where he pulled out a jade flask from, took a sip, smacked his lips, and raised it towards Bai Zixu. “This wine is quite rare; want a sip?”

Bai Zixu waved his hand. “No, no. I can’t handle alcohol; one cup and I’m done.”

Yu Xian was taken aback for a moment, then put the wine flask away and smiled. “Why are you so weak against alcohol, just like that dull guy? Tsk tsk.” After that, he started drinking by himself, glancing at Bai Zixu from time to time.

Perhaps because they had been together for a while, Yu Xian was not sensitive to the changes in Bai Zixu's soul qi. He just felt that Bai Zixu’s spirit was a bit unstable, which made him seem a little crazy, but it didn’t seem too serious.

However, now that they hadn’t seen each other for two days and returned here, Yu Xian felt that Bai Zixu’s soul qi had changed quite a bit. Previously, it hardly leaked out; it was so weak that it was nearly imperceptible. Now, it would occasionally flare up and then vanish again just as someone sensed it.

Although it was still hard to capture, Yu Xian felt a familiar essence in this soul qi—it was strikingly similar to Bai Lingchen’s.

But Bai Zixu was Bai Ke's father, and generally, it was normal for family members to have similar soul energies. This was also why, when Yu Xian and Junxiao first encountered Bai Zixu, his extremely weak soul qi did not arouse any suspicion.

The soul is the essence of a person. Aside from soul-searching techniques that would not cause unnecessary effects on the soul and required strict guidelines and limitations, many spells and formations that could influence the soul were forbidden arts. No matter how high one’s cultivation, one could not casually pry into someone’s soul structure or extract or insert parts of a soul without causing chaos, as that would violate the heavenly order.

So when Bai Zixu fell into a coma, Yu Xian only briefly probed and found that this person had all three souls and six spirits intact, albeit unstable. He assisted him in stabilizing his soul and nurturing it a bit before taking no further action.

Looking back, if during reincarnation, Bai Lingchen's wandering soul happened to encounter another fragmented soul, it wouldn’t be entirely impossible...

Just as he was thinking this, he heard Bai Ke ask, “Have you figured out the current location of Wangtian Cliff?”

Yu Xian shook the jade flask. “I followed the Hengtian Sect's leader around, and I got the location down. That layer of restriction outside is likely set by those Hengtian Sect masters and elders; breaking it isn’t too difficult. However, there’s a second layer of restriction inside, which should be set by the people on the cliff. It’s similar to the restrictions in our secret realm, and breaking it would be troublesome. The leader of the Hengtian Sect has a talisman from the people on the cliff, so entering there isn't a problem.”

“What should we do then?” Bai Ke asked.

“It’s not hard to deal with. If we really need to go to Wangtian Cliff one day, it’d be easiest to borrow the Hengtian Sect leader's talisman.”

Just as Lin Jie finished his meal, he finally showed some expression, his face twitching as he silently glanced at Yu Xian: “……” It was surprisingly the most convenient method to get something from a master like the sect leader. This ancestor really was... leaving people speechless.

“However—” Yu Xian changed his tone and continued towards Bai Ke, “Going to Wangtian Cliff isn’t our goal. The real task is to convince that kid to come down from Wangtian Cliff, help him regain his senses, and free him from his entanglement with Hengtian Sect. But that’s where you—”

Before he could finish his sentence, a shadow flashed nearby, and Junxiao landed on the ground.

However, he was not alone; three other disheveled figures landed with him.

They seemed to have just escaped from a fight, and in their haste, two of them even stumbled as they landed. The stronger one bumped into a smaller person, and they both fell to the ground. Only a plump middle-aged woman managed to stand relatively steadily, though her hair was a mess, and a yellow talisman had been placed on her shoulder by someone. She had a scratch on her face that was slowly oozing blood.

When Bai Ke saw the three of them, he stood up with a “whoosh,” rushing over to help the person on the ground while saying, “aunt Pang?! Uncle Zongzi?! Uncle Iron Fan?! What happened to you—”

“Ah! What happened to you all?” Bai Zixu followed him over, helping one of them up while casually removing the talisman from aunt Pang’s shoulder. As soon as he touched the talisman, he froze in place as if he had turned to stone.

Bai Ke: “……” He didn’t even know what that talisman was about and just went ahead to pull it off. This guy really has never made things easy for others.

“……” Junxiao rubbed his forehead, casually tapped a few times on Bai Zixu's spiritual point, then reached out and removed the talisman. The yellow talisman with vermilion characters turned into dust and scattered in the wind.

Now free from the restriction, Bai Zixu swayed a bit and grunted, “Oh, I feel a bit dizzy.”

Bai Ke: “……”

With such a chaotic scene, in the past, aunt Pang and the others would have rushed over to check if there was something wrong with Bai Zixu. But this time, the three of them stood there, unusually dazed.

“What’s wrong with them?” Bai Ke asked, a bit worried.

Junxiao pointed at Zongzi and Iron Fan, saying, “Those two were just affected by some spell and haven’t recovered yet.” Then he pointed at aunt Pang, adding, “As for her, she probably mistook me for some old acquaintance.”

As soon as he finished speaking, aunt Pang, who had been staring at him in a daze, murmured, “You, you really aren’t Kong—”

“No,” Junxiao shook his head, seeming to confirm his words. He then pointed at Yu Xian, who was leaning against Peanut. “This is my master ancestor. We have a proper sect, and although my cultivation isn’t high, I haven’t ascended, so I’m not the person you mentioned.”

Following Junxiao’s finger, aunt Pang saw Yu Xian and froze again.

Yu Xian stroked his beard and, pretending to be serious, said to aunt Pang, “Ah, little girl, hello! I’m Yu Shixuan, nice to meet you.”

Just as he finished speaking, Zongzi, who had finally come back to his senses, asked with a puzzled expression, “Yu Shixuan? Hey? Wait, old man, I’ve seen Yu Shixuan! Isn’t he the elegant young man who always carries a folding fan? He looks like he’s in his twenties, and you…”

Yu Xian: “……” After tricking people for thousands of years, he finally stepped on his own foot.

He waved his hands repeatedly to salvage the situation. “No, no, no, young man, you don’t understand. When going out, one should present themselves with different ages and appearances to adapt to the world—”

Before he could finish this nonsense, aunt Pang, who had been staring in shock for a while, exclaimed, “Old man, you aren’t the Yu Xian from Yusheng Sect, are you?!”

Yu Xian: “……”

Hearing aunt Pang's words, Zongzi was dumbfounded: “What the hell! Yu Xian?!”

Iron Fan followed suit, jaw dropped: “What the hell! Yu Xian?!”

Lin Jie, who had been sitting there like a dead fish for two days, dropped his chopsticks on the table: “What the hell! Yu Xian???!!!”

Yu Xian: “……” At this point, is pretending to be profound even useful?!

Junxiao: “……” Serves you right!

Bai Ke: “……” What’s going on here?

Bai Zixu looked confused: “…… Did you all eat something bad?”

“Wait!!” Lin Jie mechanically turned his face to Junxiao, swallowed hard, and asked with difficulty, “Yu Xian is the master ancestor, and Master, your last name is Huo… You can’t be Yunzheng, can you?!!”

Zongzi continued to be dumbfounded: “What the hell! Yunzheng?!”

Iron Fan: “What the hell! Yunzheng?!”

a-Aunt Pang looked uncertain, her expression dazed: “Yunzheng’s last name is Huo?”

Lin Jie still had a wooden expression: “I’ve read a similar historical novel, and it said that Yunzheng’s original last name was Huo. After entering Yusheng Sect, he was given the title Yunzheng…”

Aunt Pang: “……Who wrote that novel? Is it reliable? I’ve never heard of it.”

Lin Jie: “I think the author’s name was something like Shen… oh right! It’s Shen Han!”

Yu Xian: “I didn’t expect that girl to have such an interest.”

Huo Junxiao: “………………………………………………” What’s wrong with all these people in the sect, all liking to write such things?

 

Translator : DarNan