With a trace of anger, Li Luoning struck the stone table with his palm.
To his surprise, the table shattered beneath his hand with a sharp crack.
"What is happening to me? Where did that surge of resentment just come from?"
Staring at the pale blue glow of power flickering in his hand, Li Luoning was filled with doubt.
"What did you do just now? Is he trying to smash the whole cave apart?" Jiagu Qing asked.
" It is just that I did not finish memorizing the heart method Master assigned me this morning," Mie Xingzhe said.
"Oh, it is only a heart method. Was there really any need for him to be this angry? Was your Master always like this back at Jingyun Residence?"
"In the past... Master was not like this before. But back then, Qingyi-ge was always there to protect me. Now, it feels like everything has changed." Mie Xingzhe lowered his head as he spoke. The grievance in his voice and the guilt in his eyes made him look pitiful. Ever since Qingyi-ge died, everything really had become different.
After returning to Liao Yin Immortal Realm, Ou Shinan walked unsteadily into his room as though his soul had left him. He waved a hand to shut the door behind him and collapsed beside the bed.
With tears in his eyes, he took the hibiscus jade bracelet from his robe. His mind was filled with memories of Hua Ruoying. The look of dislike on her face when she saw him, the excitement in her eyes when she saw a whole room full of herbs, even the way she looked when she was angry. Every moment was still as vivid as if it had happened yesterday. Yet now all of it had dissolved with Hua Ruoying's passing, drifting away on the wind like an empty illusion. Only the bracelet in his hand remained.
His eyes were hollow with grief. He slowly tightened his fingers around the bracelet. After lowering his eyes and thinking for a moment, a dark, seductive smile appeared on his face.
"Since all of you are in such a hurry, then I will send every one of you down to the underworld to keep her company sooner."
Ou Shinan's voice came through clenched teeth, each word carrying hatred.
Early the next morning, just as the eastern hills were beginning to pale with first light,
Li Luoning walked out of the cave expressionlessly, as if he were still angry about what had happened the day before.
"Where are you going so early?" Jiagu Qing asked sleepily.
"Hunting," Li Luoning answered coldly with only two words, and walked down the mountain without looking back.
Just then, Mie Xingzhe came out of the cave as well, stretching lazily.
"Good morning, Senior Jiagu."
"Do you feel like something is a little off?" Jiagu Qing whispered into Mie Xingzhe's ear, clearly having noticed something.
" Has Master not always looked like someone who keeps everyone at a distance?" Mie Xingzhe had not noticed anything unusual.
"Hurry up."
Li Luoning, who had already walked some distance away, suddenly spoke.
"Oh, oh, I am coming. Senior, I am heading out first. I will bring you wine when I come back," Mie Xingzhe tossed out quickly and hurried after Li Luoning.
"Hey, little golden core, you..." Jiagu Qing had not even had time to finish before Mie Xingzhe disappeared around the turn in the rock wall.
Left standing there, Jiagu Qing thought it over again and again, and the more he thought, the more wrong it felt.
" Something is wrong with the little medicine fool. But that should not be possible. I have never heard of the Cleansing Heart Dustless Cauldron causing any aftereffects. I need to go ask."
After muttering a few words to himself, Jiagu Qing headed off in another direction.
Inside Situ Fanzhi's sleeping palace in Liao Yin Immortal Realm,
Ou Shinan pushed open the door and entered, carrying a gilded Myriad Beasts Cup in his hands.
Seeing that Situ Fanzhi was still sitting with his eyes closed, cultivating, Ou Shinan lifted his sleeve and drew back the black-ringed toad nearby. By now the creature had already turned completely golden-red and no longer looked like it originally had.
"Immortal Lord, the time is just right," Ou Shinan said softly near Situ Fanzhi's ear.
Hearing the voice, Situ Fanzhi withdrew his power and slowly opened his eyes. The clear and upright aura that used to rest between his brows had now darkened into something shadowed and sinister. After exhaling slowly, he could feel a deep, burning power rising inside him, and he nodded in satisfaction.
"These past days, I have troubled Physician Ou to guard me."
"How could Immortal Lord say such a thing? Serving you is already my duty. You have worked tirelessly for Liao Yin Immortal Realm. If a small immortal like me can offer even a little help, then I can only count it as an honor. How could it be called trouble?" Ou Shinan's gentle voice was steady and convincing, carrying a kind of power that made it easy to trust him.
He slowly offered the gilded Myriad Beasts Cup to Situ Fanzhi.
"You have been in seclusion for many days, Immortal Lord. This is a nourishing medicinal soup specially prepared for you," he said, presenting the cup respectfully.
Situ Fanzhi took it and turned it in his hands as he examined it.
"This gilded Myriad Beasts Cup was a congratulatory gift that Immortal Master Kuangyi once gave to me. And you are using it to hold soup?"
His tone was teasing.
"This cup can distinguish all substances and detect poison. I used it to hold the medicine only so that Immortal Lord would feel at ease drinking it." Ou Shinan smiled faintly.
"You have already helped me obtain the Chixi Dan. One should not doubt the people one uses. Do you really think I still do not trust you?"
As he spoke, Situ Fanzhi lifted the cup and drank all the medicinal soup in one swallow, not noticing the flash of wicked triumph in Ou Shinan's eyes.
In Xueling,
Mie Xingzhe followed Li Luoning for a very long distance, yet they had not seen even the shadow of a single animal.
From last night until this morning, Li Luoning had not spoken a complete sentence to him. Mie Xingzhe had thought that finally getting out of that dull cave would be a relief, yet there was not even an animal in sight along the way.
His feet were numb from walking, but Master did not seem to have any intention of stopping to rest.
"M-Master."
Mie Xingzhe was truly too tired, so he tried calling out in the smallest voice.
Li Luoning had naturally heard him. He stopped abruptly. Mie Xingzhe almost ran straight into him before managing to halt.
"What is it?"
"Master, Xueling is full of rocks everywhere. Where exactly are we going to hunt?" Mie Xingzhe asked, looking around at the bare stone cliffs.
"Kunlun Hill."
Li Luoning replied coldly with only those words, then kept walking forward.
"Kunlun Hill? You mean that place from the legends, where so many fierce beasts are imprisoned?"
Mie Xingzhe's eyes widened as he rushed ahead of Li Luoning to ask.
Li Luoning ignored him and simply walked past him.
Not long after, Master and disciple arrived at the southeastern corner of Kunlun Hill. Rustling sounds came from an ancient tree across from them. Mie Xingzhe poked his head out to look and saw a giant bird, at least eight feet tall, standing on a branch and preening its feathers.
"It is so huge. Master, how long would it take to finish eating something that big?" crouching in the grass, Mie Xingzhe looked up at Li Luoning standing beside him and asked with difficulty.
Li Luoning said nothing. With one hand, he struck out with a palm and shattered the tree branch. With the other, he grabbed Mie Xingzhe off the ground and threw him out.
Before Mie Xingzhe could even react, his feet were suddenly hanging in the air. In the next instant, he was sprawled right beside the giant bird's claw.
Forcing himself to stay calm, Mie Xingzhe slowly climbed up from the ground. He was afraid that even the slightest movement would startle the huge bird before him. He kept his eyes fixed on the "prey" and still did not forget to ask in a low voice,
"Master, what kind of bird is this, and how am I supposed to catch it?"
"An e-bird. Its beak is like an eagle's, its wings like a hawk's, and its claws like a tiger's. Black markings, a white head, a red beak, and golden feathers. It is a warrior among birds and beasts, just right for you to practice on."
At some point Li Luoning had already moved to the tree behind Mie Xingzhe. He now sat there leisurely, watching the show.
"Practice? Did we not come here to hunt?"
Mie Xingzhe had just started to ask when a ray of light shot out from behind him and struck the e-bird's wing. The bird flew into a rage at once. The gust from its flapping wings sent Mie Xingzhe tumbling head over heels into the tree trunk behind him.
The e-bird flew up and came at him with its taut tiger claws.
Mie Xingzhe dodged to one side and rolled away, narrowly escaping the claws. The tree trunk the claws scraped past instantly lost half its wood.
"Master, it is so huge. How could I possibly beat it?" Mie Xingzhe cried toward Li Luoning in the tree as he dodged frantically.
Li Luoning seemed not to hear him at all. He paid no attention to the fight below and simply admired the shatang fruit in his hand.
Seeing that Li Luoning had no intention of helping, Mie Xingzhe could only grit his teeth and keep fighting. Though he suffered a few light scrapes, he managed to avoid all the attacks. Realizing this could not continue, he began glancing around in search of a useful weapon. But in that brief moment of distraction, the e-bird's red-gold hooked beak lunged straight at him.
"Floating light leaps into gold, golden seal blazing bright, appear!"
In panic, Mie Xingzhe remembered the incantation. Crossing his hands before his chest, he moved them through the spell. As the final word left his mouth, a golden shield appeared in front of him at exactly the right moment and blocked the e-bird's strike.
Hearing Mie Xingzhe recite the incantation, Li Luoning finally paid real attention. Seeing that he had successfully summoned the Floating Light Golden Seal for protection, he at last jumped down from the tree.
"That is enough."
Li Luoning spoke lightly. From behind the e-bird, he cast out a streak of power and seized one of its wings. Instantly, blue energy wrapped around half the wing. Li Luoning's hand turned into a clawing grip. With a single shriek from the bird, he tore half the wing off alive. The creature's enormous body crashed to the ground so hard that the earth shook.
Mie Xingzhe was still pouring all his strength into holding off the e-bird and had not realized anything had changed. When he finally reacted, a spray of warm crimson had splashed across his face. Only then did he release the Floating Light Golden Seal and carefully wipe his cheek.
"Master, this..."
Mie Xingzhe glanced at the e-bird on the ground, troubled, then looked up at Li Luoning in disbelief.
He could not believe that Master had torn apart such a huge creature so easily right in front of him.
In Mie Xingzhe's memory, Master had always been a warm and refined healer. But the Master he had just seen felt strangely unfamiliar.
"Are you hurt?" Li Luoning asked softly, lifting his sleeve as if he wanted to wipe the blood from Mie Xingzhe's face.
Mie Xingzhe instinctively stepped back, not wanting Li Luoning to touch him. Beneath his faintly furrowed brows, his eyes held confusion and fear.
"Nian Nian, what is wrong?" Li Luoning asked with a smile, seeming once again like the Master he used to know.
"N-nothing. Master, let's go back."
Mie Xingzhe avoided his gaze, raised a hand to wipe away the blood on his face, and with it wiped away the cold sweat that fright had brought to his brow.
"All right." Li Luoning agreed with a smile.
Back in Liao Yin Immortal Realm, Situ Fanzhi finished the medicinal soup Ou Shinan had brought him in one gulp.
The moment it went down, he felt a clear coolness flowing smoothly down his throat, and it was quite soothing. He had just been about to praise the medicinal soup when he felt the spiritual power inside him turn colder and colder. Frost began to appear visibly across his hands.
"You!"
Only then did Situ Fanzhi realize something was wrong. He turned with fury in his eyes, about to speak, when Ou Shinan rushed forward and sealed his acupoints, rendering him unable to move as the cold spread through his body.
"There is no need for such excitement, Immortal Lord. This is only a grand gift I prepared for you to celebrate your emergence from seclusion. After all, your life still has great use to me. Oh, no, I should say, great use to Gu."
Ou Shinan's expression was no longer the gentle and cultivated one from before. His gaze was greedy as he lifted Situ Fanzhi's chin with his fan and forced him to meet his eyes.
Situ Fanzhi had his acupoints sealed. He could not move, nor could he make a sound. He could only let Ou Shinan handle him however he wished.
"The truth is, Immortal Lord, I already know all of your secrets. Except..."
Slowly and deliberately, Ou Shinan drew a strand of power from Situ Fanzhi's crown. Once it floated into his hand, it turned into a scroll. Unhurriedly, he read the words reflected within it.
"So this is the reason you wiped out the Li family back then? Just because of a heavenly book whose meaning was not even certain?"
Ou Shinan looked at the scroll with amusement, his arrogant gaze making it seem as if he were the true ruler of Liao Yin Immortal Realm.
Situ Fanzhi could only glare with helpless fury, frozen where he stood.
"Tell me, if Li Luoning were to learn that you were the true mastermind behind everything back then, what do you think he would do?"
Ou Shinan's romantic peach-blossom eyes glittered with a cold chill as he leaned his pale red lips near Situ Fanzhi's ear.
"If not for you, those twin brothers of the Li family would never have turned against each other. And perhaps Li Luoning would never have come to Liao Yin Immortal Realm to become some healer, nor taken in a disciple with a golden core. In the end, all of this really does come down to you, the Immortal Lord."
With a humiliating familiarity, Ou Shinan patted Situ Fanzhi's face. Then he suddenly leaned even closer, his eyes bright with a playful wickedness. His high nose was nearly touching Situ Fanzhi's face, and his slender fingers brushed lightly over Situ Fanzhi's darkened purple-black lips.
"You are so clever, Immortal Lord. How could you possibly fail to guess my intent? It seems those rumors that say the Immortal Lord is unworthy of his throne were not groundless after all."
Situ Fanzhi could only shut his eyes tightly in helplessness, refusing to look at the treacherous and poisonous man before him. Even so, he still tried in vain to move the power in his body and break through the sealed acupoints.
"I would advise you not to waste your effort. This Crystal Frost Poison was chosen especially for you by me. Cold poison matched with frost. This Crystal Frost Poison and your dual-element inner core truly suit each other perfectly. Would you not agree, Si...Tu...Shuang?"