Chapter 21

“Since you still remember things from before, there shouldn’t be any problems.” After examining her, Zhu Yin said with a smile, “Spend more time talking with Li Qing recently, and you’ll gradually get better.” Dong Xia looked up at Zhu Yin, then at Chu Ling, and finally at Li Qing, smiling: “Alright.” Even if there was something wrong, Zhu Yin probably wouldn’t say it.

These three were a family, she was the outsider.

After checking Dong Xia’s physical condition, Zhu Yin got up to leave, gently calling Li Qing out to talk before leaving.

Chu Ling stayed in the room, looking somewhat hesitant.

Dong Xia asked considerately: “Does Sister Chu Ling have something she wants to ask me?” Chu Ling shook her head, then unconsciously bit her lip.

Even when frowning, the beauty looked twice as good as others, Dong Xia thought with a sigh, and urged again: “Just say it.” — How strange, Li Qing was also beautiful, and exactly her type, yet why didn’t she feel any softness towards Li Qing?

After hesitating for a moment, under Dong Xia’s sincere gaze, Chu Ling showed a trace of guilt.

Dong Xia took note of this slight emotion, her eyebrows twitching slightly.

What did Chu Ling have to feel guilty about towards her?

In the end, Chu Ling still didn’t voice the question in her heart, silently shaking her head again. After confirming that Dong Xia had no pain throughout her body, she said she had something to do and hurriedly left.

“…I’ll bring you the white sugar osmanthus cake from down the mountain next time.” She promised Dong Xia as she left.

Dong Xia waved goodbye to Chu Ling, then sat idly in the room for a while, her smile fading as she rested her chin on her hand.

— Of course something was wrong.

Rather, everything since she woke up was wrong.

Li Qing was not right, Chu Ling was not right, Zhu Yin seemed the most normal among them, but Dong Xia instinctively suspected this master-aunt of Li Qing and Chu Ling as well.

The memories in her mind were crystal clear, and the joy upon seeing Chu Ling was heartfelt, but Dong Xia could always keenly sense a hint of dissonance from the seemingly peaceful atmosphere.

— Just the self in her memories surprised Dong Xia.

She always felt that she wasn’t such a sweetie.

So the more Dong Xia delved into it, the more this sense of dissonance rang like an alarm bell in her mind.

Dong Xia felt that anyone in Wen Tian Gate could kill her with one sword, let alone Li Qing.

Yet when she was almost aggressively pushing Li Qing’s boundaries, Dong Xia didn’t feel a bit of fear in her heart.

Either she didn’t think Li Qing would harm her, or she felt she was equal to Li Qing in strength.

Looking down at her soft, pale palms, Dong Xia let out a light sneer.

She had tried probing earlier, and clearly Li Qing wouldn’t let her leave Wen Tian Gate. It was even more impossible for her to leave forcefully — this cave dwelling was on the mountain peak, could she just jump down?

Although Zhu Yin’s words were gentle, the meaning was clear — she wanted her to stay in Wen Tian Gate and spend more time with Li Qing.

Even if she had friends or family… they probably couldn’t break into a behemoth like Wen Tian Gate.

At this thought, a name suddenly popped into Dong Xia’s mind.

Yin Fu Guang?

Dong Xia wrinkled her nose and pushed this name down too, feeling for some reason that this person couldn’t be relied upon.

After eating two more candies, Dong Xia still hadn’t seen Li Qing return, so she simply closed the door and lay down on the bed.

After rolling over on the bed, Dong Xia stared blankly at the wall facing the inside of the bed.

She seemed to… have some impression of this wall.

Dong Xia suddenly sat up cross-legged, pondered facing the wall for a moment, then reached her hand into the gaps between the bed, pillow, and wall, trying to feel around for a while. Her fingertips seemed to touch something.

But before she could pull that thing out, she heard a knock on the door and quickly withdrew her hand.

“Dong Xia, are you hungry?” It was Li Qing’s voice.

Dong Xia… Dong Xia was indeed a bit hungry.

Eating was more important than anything, so Dong Xia had to move the pillow back to its original position before lazily getting out of bed to open the door for Li Qing.

She didn’t immediately move aside, but interestingly blocked Li Qing’s way at the door, asking him: “Isn’t this your cave dwelling? Are you waiting for me to open the door for you?” Li Qing just said: “Because you closed the door.”

He indeed just stood there, properly blocked by Dong Xia without moving.

Dong Xia smiled, reached out to take the food from Li Qing’s hands, and lifted her foot to close the door with her knee.

Li Qing instinctively reached out to stop the door. With just this light touch, Dong Xia felt like her force had hit a mountain, instantly dissipating into nothingness.

“I’m going to eat now,” Dong Xia raised her eyebrows, “Don’t you not need to eat?” As she expected, trying to be tough with Li Qing was no different than an ant trying to shake a tree or a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

But to return all the inexplicable frustration in her body to Li Qing, there were more than enough ways.

Dong Xia didn’t know why, but she felt she should be very good at being passive-aggressive.

Li Qing’s movements indeed paused, a trace of gloom flashing across his clear and cold features.

He slowly released the force in his hand, and only then did Dong Xia notice the door loosening.

“The sect has something to announce, I’ll go over for a while,” Li Qing said, “If you need to find me, just call…” “Immortal Master, save me?” Dong Xia reflexively finished, then frowned again.

“…Just call out ‘Li Qing’ and I’ll come back immediately.” Li Qing’s gaze swept over Dong Xia’s face.

Dong Xia could read what that look meant.

He wanted to get close to her, to touch her.

But Dong Xia unhesitatingly stepped on the door to close it firmly, shutting Li Qing outside, before carrying her meal to the table.

There was a bowl of fish soup on the plate. One look told Dong Xia that someone had carefully picked out all the fish bones.

And among all the dishes, there wasn’t a single one that Dong Xia disliked.

Dong Xia raised an eyebrow, feeling increasingly surprised by this meticulous care from Li Qing.

There must be something special about her to make Li Qing so concerned.

After slowly eating half a tender lake fish, Dong Xia put down her chopsticks and got up, tiptoeing to the door to listen for a while. Feeling that there was no one outside, she opened it to take a look.

Li Qing was indeed not outside, apparently really tied up with affairs.

Dong Xia raised her eyebrows and closed the door, quickly pouncing back onto the bed, feeling for the thing hidden in the gap she had touched earlier.

It was a folded piece of paper, which by the marks had not been hidden for long.

Curiously, Dong Xia unfolded the paper in a few moves, drawn in by the casually sketched mask image on it.

The drawing was only outlined in black, but Dong Xia felt at first glance that this mask should be gold inlaid with red.

In one corner of the drawing hung a few scrawled words: Demon woman? Me? Demon realm?

Dong Xia stared at it for a long time, feeling that two words were stuck firmly on the tip of her tongue, but she just couldn’t say them, instantly feeling so uncomfortable that all her internal organs felt empty.

Immortals and demons were opposed, there shouldn’t be things from the demon realm hidden in Li Qing’s cave dwelling, so this could only have been left by her in the past.

Dong Xia hurriedly got off the bed and dipped the table tea, writing the same five words as on the paper in flowing calligraphy on the table, discovering that it was indeed her own handwriting.

— But she had no memory at all of ever seeing such a mask, drawing it down, and deliberately hiding it in such a gap!

This could only mean one thing: she was hiding something from Li Qing, and Li Qing was also hiding something from her.

Dong Xia snorted with laughter, refolded the drawing, originally intending to stuff it back into its place, but just as she stuffed it in she pulled it out again, pacing around the room.

She should have burned it, but she couldn’t find anything to start a fire with in the room.

Dong Xia dissatisfiedly clicked her tongue, finally having to pour a cup of tea and soak the drawing in it until the ink blurred and the content could no longer be seen clearly, before tearing it into tiny pieces.

This still wasn’t completely destroying the evidence, as wet scraps remained on the table.

Dong Xia looked around, casting her gaze towards the spirit plant on top of the cabinet in the corner of the room.

Hmm, she’d bury it there. It had almost snapped at her head just now.

When she stood on tiptoe to take the flower pot down from the top of the cabinet, Dong Xia’s hands were frozen with a shiver.

— Why was it so cold?

Dong Xia suspiciously eyed the frost-covered spirit plant, just assuming it was some precious medicinal herb, too lazy to bother about it further. After burying the drawing scraps in the soil, she carefully put it back.

After doing all this, she hummed a little tune as she went to wash her hands, then sat down at the table to continue eating.

Only this time her mood was much better than before.

No matter how much Li Qing and the people of Wen Tian Gate refused to admit it, hadn’t she still caught the fox’s tail?

*

Li Qing only left a trace of his divine sense on Dong Xia, to prevent her from encountering danger, leaving, and so on, without monitoring too much.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to.

Rather, his heart demon was using all its strength to incite him to turn Dong Xia into a true golden bird with no wings and no feet.

But Li Qing struggled to restrain this monstrous evil desire.

Moreover, Li Qing had to pay attention to another matter that Wen Tian Gate was about to announce.

“…There have been three signs of the demon realm seal opening.” An elder said in a deep voice, “The first two times the disturbance was not big, at most allowing one or two people to enter and exit, so the disciples stationed nearby did not report it; but this third time was on a grand scale, with almost half of the demon realm moving out in full force. There must be someone leading and plotting. We should unite with the various sects of the immortal realm to exterminate the demons, killing the demon cultivators so they don’t dare to raise their heads again before they can stir up trouble!”

Sun Zhuo Er, sitting in the sect leader’s position, nodded with a grave expression: “Wen Tian Gate naturally cannot sit idly by. We should inform the other immortal sects to be on guard together.”

Another elder said: “Without the demon woman, the demon realm has long been greatly weakened. With the Immortal Master sitting in our sect, we don’t need to make such a big fuss confronting them, losing face for the number one sect. I think we might as well let me and Fu Tu take some juniors to practice.”

Yue Fu Tu was lounging in his chair drinking wine, only raising an eyelid indifferently when he heard his name.

Sun Zhuo Er pondered for a moment, then nodded again: “But disciples are precious. It would be safer to send a few more elders to accompany them.”

“After the demon realm was defeated, their demon qi density has long been compressed who knows how many times. They probably don’t even have enough to heal, let alone be a match for the immortal realm!” Someone else sneered disdainfully, “Making such a big fuss, won’t other sects think Wen Tian Gate is too wary of the demon realm?”

Yu Shishu spoke up gently: “Have you all forgotten about the two demon cultivators who appeared in Wen Tian Gate one after another not long ago? Two people, right in our Wen Tian Gate, and we didn’t catch or kill either of them. Even if it’s just being overly cautious, as the sect leader said, our disciples are precious. Losing even one would be heartbreaking, so we should be more careful.”

As the saying goes, offend anyone but not the doctor. The same goes for cultivators.

As soon as Yu Shishu spoke, the two who were so arrogant before immediately backed down.

Sun Zhuo Er agreed with Yu Shishu’s words again: “Well said. Let’s select five elders to lead their personal disciples, along with some elite disciples and inner sect disciples for training.”

After everyone agreed, Sun Zhuo Er looked at Li Qing.

“Li Qing, are you going or not?” Sun Zhuo Er asked.

Although Sun Zhuo Er was Li Qing’s master, he couldn’t treat him with the attitude of an ordinary disciple.

— Everyone in the hall had watched Li Qing grow up, but faced with the extraordinarily talented Li Qing, most of them now could only bow their heads and call him “Immortal Master.”

Li Qing shook his head: “Dong Xia has just woken up, it’s not suitable for her to travel.”

Sun Zhuo Er paused: “That’s fine too. With you guarding the sect, we don’t have to worry about cunning demon cultivators feinting to sneak into Wen Tian Gate again.”

After selecting five sect elders to lead the demon extermination, everyone left one by one to gather disciples. Yue Fu Tu lazily walked last, but was called by Li Qing: “Uncle Master.”

Yue Fu Tu, swaying with a wine jug in hand, stopped and turned his head to look at Li Qing: “Why do you look so lost? Things not going as you expected?”

Li Qing only said: “The pain you spoke of, I understand it now.”

Yue Fu Tu’s movements paused, and he turned around this time.

He sighed, as if regretful yet also exasperated: “It took you hundreds of years to figure it out, no wonder you’re stuck in this place. So, are you ready to turn back now?”

“No,” Li Qing answered very decisively, “I can’t turn back.”

Not only could he not turn back, he couldn’t even take one step back.

Even if he was in a dilemma, at least the path ahead had a glimmer of light and hope compared to the path behind.

Yue Fu Tu irritably scratched his hair: “Then you—”

“I want to ask Uncle Master, will this pain ever stop?” Li Qing lowered his eyes and pressed his hand to his heart, “Or as long as I live for one day, will I suffer a thousand arrows piercing my heart for one day?”

He spoke of “a thousand arrows piercing his heart,” yet his expression was extraordinarily calm.

If Yue Fu Tu didn’t know Li Qing well enough, he would have thought he was joking.

But Yue Fu Tu had watched Li Qing grow up and was his second master, so he knew this sentence was the gentlest expression Li Qing could utter.

Yue Fu Tu was speechless. He tilted his head back and took two sips of wine before mumbling, “I told you, you’ve gone astray.”

Li Qing understood.

He lowered his hand and said calmly, “Thank you, Uncle Master. I understand.”

“Even so—” Yue Fu Tu couldn’t help but ask him, “You still refuse to turn back?”

Li Qing unconsciously turned his head to look in the direction where Dong Xia was.

He only pondered for a very short moment before softly answering Yue Fu Tu’s question: “I only have one life, so I’ll use this life to gamble on the path ahead.”

Hearing these words, Yue Fu Tu knew he could no longer persuade him.

If he kept trying, he would only end up opposing Li Qing.

“I hope you get what you wish for,” Yue Fu Tu could only half-jokingly pat Li Qing’s shoulder, “Although the demon realm has lost a demon woman, the immortal realm can’t afford to lose an Immortal Master right after.”

Li Qing didn’t respond, but he had indeed seriously contemplated his and Dong Xia’s fate.

Either Dong Xia would wake up and kill him, or Dong Xia would be trapped in the web for life, unable to wake up.

In any case, Dong Xia would live.

*

“Demon cultivators are mobilizing?” Dong Xia asked in surprise, “Is Sister Chu Ling also going to meet them in battle? How long will it be before she returns?”

“Who can say for sure? The last great battle between immortals and demons lasted a full ten days or more,” a female disciple of Wen Tian Gate said, “Not to mention Aunt Chu is one of the outstanding young talents in our sect, quite a few people from our courtyard are going along too.”

Dong Xia rested her chin on her hand, watching the female disciples in front of her maintain their long swords. Her bright eyes rolled around, and she asked, “Then what kind of people are qualified to go?”

“Those whose cultivation is passable will be taken along for training. The disciples going this time are about my level, or like Aunt Chu who will be an elder of the sect in the future,” the female disciples explained in great detail, having no wariness towards Dong Xia.

Dong Xia blinked and said enviously, “I want to go too.”

The female disciples laughed: “Dong Xia is just a mortal, just stay in the sect and recuperate well. We’ll handle those demon cultivators.”

“Although I’m a mortal, going with so many people from Wen Tian Gate shouldn’t be dangerous,” Dong Xia said nonchalantly, sucking on a candy.

The female disciples didn’t take Dong Xia’s words to heart, teasing her a few times before lowering their heads to busy themselves with their own affairs, only chatting casually with Dong Xia while multitasking.

A female disciple was practicing sword techniques nearby, her movements seeming somewhat clumsy, pausing from time to time before continuing.

Dong Xia watched her for a while and asked curiously, “Don’t you ever change swords?”

“Change swords? Unless we get a better quality sword, or our current sword is destroyed, we sword cultivators don’t casually change,” the sword-practicing female disciple stopped to wipe away some sweat, smiling as she answered Dong Xia’s question.

“But this sword doesn’t suit you,” Dong Xia said puzzled, “You’ve been practicing for so long, haven’t you ever noticed why your sword techniques aren’t smooth and fluid?”

The sword-practicing female disciple laughed. She came forward and poked Dong Xia’s cheek where the hard candy was: “What does that have to do with the sword?”

“You should use a sword half an inch longer and one finger thinner, then that set of sword techniques could easily be completed,” Dong Xia said with certainty, looking around and pointing to another female disciple, “A sword shape like that would be about right.”

In the time it took to have this short exchange, the others had already stopped what they were doing and were curiously examining the two swords.

“I’ve been using this sword since I entered the sect. The person controls the sword, an Immortal Master can split a mountain peak with one sword energy, how could the mere sword body influence that? It must be that I haven’t practiced enough or diligently enough,” the sword-practicing female disciple didn’t take it seriously, took a sip of water and prepared to continue practicing.

However, the other female disciple whom Dong Xia had pointed to handed over her long sword, saying curiously, “Let’s give it a try, there’s no harm in it, right?”

“Yeah, you’ve been practicing this sword technique for over half a year and still haven’t mastered it, I’m tired just watching you.”

Urged on by her fellow disciples, the sword-practicing female disciple had no choice but to reluctantly take the long sword that didn’t belong to her. Feeling uncertain in her heart, she twirled the sword once, just intending to humor Dong Xia, and stepped away to skillfully execute the first move.

— She immediately perked up.

The subtle difference in sword shape brought about an adjustment that was almost like an epiphany.

Without even thinking, the sword-practicing female disciple flicked her wrist, flowing through the second move like a swimming dragon or flying phoenix, without any of the usual stickiness.

Then came the third move, the fourth move… until the entire set of sword techniques was completed, she actually didn’t encounter any of the previous stagnation that always made her feel like something was “a bit off” halfway through.

As she finished the sequence, panting lightly, the sword-practicing female disciple was stunned herself. She looked at the sword in her hand in bewilderment and shock, then looked at Dong Xia, stammering: “Little Dong Xia, you might… be a born sword cultivator?”

Her incisive evaluation could only have come from an intuition within her bloodline.

Dong Xia bit the hard candy indifferently: “Then why haven’t I been cultivating all this time?”

Everyone who had been doing their own things was quite shaken by this, and they all enthusiastically gathered around Dong Xia. Regardless of whether she was powerless or not, they half-jokingly asked her for advice on many cultivation problems.

Dong Xia looked at one after another, and indeed answered them all smoothly, with a vague thought of “Is that all?” in her heart.

Most of the female disciples were just joining in the fun, and after chattering and asking a bunch of questions, they dispersed.

Only a few of them who had received Dong Xia’s guidance were now pondering silently with their heads lowered.

The initial sword-practicing female disciple said happily: “Practicing this set of sword techniques, I feel much more confident about going to exterminate demons. Before setting out, I must re-refine my flying sword and reforge its shape.”

Hearing the words “exterminate demons”, Dong Xia raised her eyebrows and asked seemingly casually: “I’ve never seen a demon cultivator before, I’m a bit curious. Do they look different from you? Do they have horns on their heads and blue faces with fangs?”

The female disciples who had just quieted down for a moment were immediately sent into fits of laughter again.

“Demon cultivators are people too, how could they have blue faces and fangs? Demon cultivators look similar to us, some even look like gentlemen when they’re not using their powers.”

“Oh~ You actually think that demon cultivator surnamed Bai is good-looking, be careful not to let the master hear you or you’ll be punished to sweep the grounds!”

“Strange, I didn’t even say which demon cultivator it was, how did you know the person’s surname is Bai? You’re the one who should be careful not to be punished to air out books!”

Dong Xia listened to them laugh and banter for a while, then followed her curiosity and asked: “Which demon cultivator surnamed Bai? Is he very good-looking?”

The female disciples looked at each other, then burst into laughter again.

“That demon cultivator is also a prominent figure in the demon realm, one of the top experts. Aunt Chu fought him once and still wasn’t his match.”

“Although he’s good-looking, I heard he’s the demon woman’s male favorite, tsk tsk.”

“Is he better looking than Li Qing?” Dong Xia blinked her eyes, not ashamed to ask.

The air in the courtyard was silent for a moment, and the expressions of the female disciples became somewhat distorted.

“Little Dong Xia,” someone tried to explain ambiguously, “The Immortal Master… is incomparable.”

“So he’s not as good-looking as Li Qing,” Dong Xia then concluded.

The female disciples obviously didn’t expect the topic to go in this direction. They looked at each other, and no one dared to immediately respond.

Who would dare to so easily judge Li Qing, who had already been deified?

There was no one in this spirit world who could look down from above and comment on Li Qing anymore. All living beings were just people looking up at him from under his feet.

After an unknown period of silence, someone suddenly said in an extremely soft voice: “But I’ve heard that the demon woman once praised the Immortal Master for his immortal bearing and invited him to join her in the clouds of Wu Mountain.”

Everyone widened their eyes and looked at the speaker.

Even Dong Xia became one of those staring in disbelief. For a moment, there were only four words in her mind.

— Utter nonsense!

“Have you packed your things?” Chu Ling’s cold voice interrupted this conversation.

The female disciples immediately got up with guilty exclamations and scattered back to their own rooms.

There was a trace of fatigue on Chu Ling’s face. She reached out to Dong Xia: “Come, I’ll take you back.”

Dong Xia stood up, hugging a pile of little trinkets and snacks that the female disciples had just given her today: “Is Sister Chu Ling also going to exterminate demons?”

“Yes, it might take some time,” Chu Ling said worriedly, “I’ll leave a paper butterfly for you. If you have anything to say to me, use the paper butterfly to send me a message.”

Dong Xia stepped onto Chu Ling’s flying sword and asked, “Is Li Qing going?”

“Senior Brother is guarding the sect, there’s no need for him to take action this time,” Chu Ling looked at Dong Xia with a complicated expression, knowing that this was the reason Li Qing was unwilling to leave.

Dong Xia pondered for a moment, then looked up and said, “He will probably still go.”

“Why?” Chu Ling was surprised.

“Because I’m going,” Dong Xia smiled with interest, “He will definitely follow.”

She had just discovered her connection to the demon realm and even the demon woman, and now the demon realm, which had been quiet for three years, suddenly had a big movement?

Dong Xia almost felt that this was a signal from the demon cultivators to her, so of course she had to go.

If she missed this chance to contact the demon realm, who knows when the next opportunity would come?