The so-called Ancient Sage Inheritance mentioned in the records actually boils down to one thing: whoever can claim the Inheritance Fruit at the mountain peak walks away with the prize.
The path to the summit is lined with all kinds of peril. Only by pushing through every layer of danger and seizing that fruit can one obtain the ancient cultivation techniques and carry on the legacy of the Ancient Sage.
The moment they stepped through the gate leading to the core zone, the trial officially began.
Lou Yue had assumed that by bringing Qiao Qiniang and the others in with her, they would at least end up in the same spot. Much to her surprise, they were still separated.
She had no idea if it was the overpowered buffs from Long Aotian and the two heroines, or if the heavens were deliberately messing with them, but the people who should never have been grouped together ended up thrown into the same space.
If they had to force mismatched pairs together, why did she have to get dragged into it too? She could not wrap her head around it.
"Hey, what a nice surprise~" Hong Chou greeted them with a bright smile.
Lou Yue kept her face completely impassive.
Liufeng Xin looked utterly disgusted.
Xiao Rangchen did not even spare her a glance.
Hong Chou's smile froze on her face: "..."
They were standing on a single, isolated brown reef, surrounded by a dead, black lake. The surface of the water was perfectly still, as dark as thick ink, and neither spiritual sense nor spiritual power could penetrate it. Leaning against the edge of the reef were two old, worn wooden boats, their hulls mottled and weathered.
Several towering ancient trees jutted straight up from the inky lake, their twisted, gnarled branches pointing straight toward the crimson sky. Their leaves were dull, curled, and completely devoid of life.
Pale gray mist drifted across the lake, blurring their sight. Far off at the edge of the horizon, a towering mountain loomed, its entire body wrapped in flickering, ghostly blue flames.
"Let's go." Lou Yue walked toward the edge of the reef, preparing to board one of the boats.
Liufeng Xin grabbed her arm, her face full of worry. "This boat looks so rickety. What if it sinks halfway? Should we do something to add some protection first?"
Even though she knew the real danger lay in that distant mountain, the sight of the inky black water made her skin crawl, and she kept fearing some horrifying creature would leap out of the depths at any second.
Lou Yue patted the back of her hand gently, motioning for her to stay put while she went to check the boats. But the man beside her stepped past her and climbed onto one of the boats first.
He leaned down, brushing his fingers over the mottled hull, then reached one hand down into the water. Moments later, he lifted his eyes to the others. "This lake blocks both spiritual power and spiritual sense. We can't use our cultivation to reinforce the boats at all."
"Well then, that just leaves us praying for good luck, doesn't it?" Hong Chou trilled with a coquettish laugh, her eyes flicking between the two small boats. "There's only two boats here, and each can carry at most two people. How do we split up?"
"Fine, I guess I'll be the gracious one and share a boat with him." With that, she lifted her foot, ready to step onto the same boat Xiao Rangchen was standing on.
"No!" Liufeng Xin blurted out in a panic, stammering for a moment before she found her words. "I, I... I want to share a boat with you! We can catch up and bond!"
Liufeng Xin shoved Lou Yue unceremoniously onto the boat where Xiao Rangchen stood, then dragged Hong Chou onto the second boat, her heart heavy with a noble, bitter resolve. For the sake of her best friend's future, she would have to make this sacrifice herself.
"Who wants to bond with you? I'm getting on that other boat!" Hong Chou struggled, refusing to sit down.
Liufeng Xin held her firmly in place. "No way, you have to stay on this boat with me!"
"Let go of me! I don't want to be stuck with you!"
The two of them tussled back and forth on the tiny boat, making it rock more and more violently, until it looked ready to tip over any second.
Lou Yue watched them, her brows twitching in irritation. She lifted her foot to step back onto the reef, figuring it did not matter to her who she rode with anyway.
But the moment she took a step, her wrist was caught in a firm grip.
Lou Yue turned her head, arching an eyebrow as she waited for him to explain.
Xiao Rangchen said not a single word. He just stared at her, his fingers tightening around her wrist to stop her from leaving.
Over on the other boat, Hong Chou finally gave up with a sigh. "Alright, alright, fine, you win." She sat down casually and pulled out a tortoiseshell. "Let me do a divination to see which boat has the better luck."
"..." Liufeng Xin didn't bother to reply to her, and walked straight to the other end of the boat before sweeping the oar hard to steer the wooden skiff away with a splash.
"Hey, what are you doing? I haven't finished my divination yet, don't you know how important this is!"
"Splash--" The oar sounded again, and the skiff drifted further off.
Liufeng Xin even turned back to call out to the others, "Hurry up and catch up!"
Now that the other boat had already left, there was no way for Lou Yue to switch vessels. She glanced down at her own wrist, then lifted her eyes and said, "Still not letting go?"
Xiao Rangchen loosened his fingers.
Lou Yue walked over to the bow, sat down facing away from him, and said in a matter-of-fact tone, "You row."
Xiao Rangchen had never intended to let her do the work in the first place. Seeing her settled, he took up the wooden oar, gave it a gentle push, and steered the skiff out onto the Ink Lake.
Lou Yue rested her cheek in her palm, watching Liufeng Xin and Hong Chou up ahead, who were soon nearly hidden by the mist, and spoke slowly, "You don't want to be with Hong Chou?"
"No," he replied coldly, without the slightest hesitation.
"Why?" Hong Chou was supposed to be his Red Rose, she refused to believe he had no interest in her at all.
"No reason."
Lou Yue pursed her lips. She couldn't say she was satisfied with that answer, but she also couldn't tell exactly what it was she had expected to hear.
For a moment, the lake fell quiet, with nothing but the soft sound of the wooden oar cutting through the dark water.
"Why were you upset earlier?"
Lou Yue turned her head back, a flicker of surprise crossing her eyes, "You've been to the stone statue site before?"
"Mm."
Lou Yue propped her palm on the cool wooden planks, her fingertips tapping lightly, then the corners of her eyes lifted, sharp with a faint, teasing smirk, "Don't you think you're being a little too enthusiastic toward someone you've only known for a short time?"
"You said the person you like is named Lou Yue, so what are you getting all affectionate for with me?"
She curled her lip into a smirk, "You know what they call that behavior of yours, keeping one foot in each camp? A scumbag."
"And scumbags are the very last thing I can stand."
Xiao Rangchen stopped moving the oar. The skiff lost its momentum and drifted aimlessly with the current.
Lou Yue met his gaze, which had turned suddenly hard and icy, and said every word clearly and deliberately, "So from now on, you stay far away from me."
The second she finished speaking, she stood up to snatch the wooden oar from his hand. She had no interest in being stranded in the middle of the lake alone with him.
But she tugged and tugged, and the oar did not budge an inch.
Irritation flared up in Lou Yue. She even channeled her spiritual power to yank hard backward, but just at that moment, Xiao Rangchen let go. Her momentum went completely off balance, and her body toppled backward.
The next second, a hand shot out to clamp tight around her arm, yanking her forcefully back.
Lou Yue, still off balance, crashed straight into his chest.
"You're out of your mind--" She lifted her head to snap at him, only for her words to die in her throat the moment her eyes met his, barely an arm's length away.
Xiao Rangchen looked down at her, breathing in the sweet, warm floral scent drifting faintly off Lou Yue's body. His gaze settled on this unfamiliar face of hers, and his voice dropped, low and slow:
"I've been telling myself all this time to hold back."
"This isn't the right moment."
"At least not until I've killed Cangya Xun."
"But Lou Yue," his voice turned hoarse at the edge, his gaze pinning her down heavily, "you just keep pushing my patience to the limit."
Lou Yue froze.
"You don't have to pretend you don't know. I found out it was you all the way back when we fell into that crack."
Lou Yue: "..." So he'd been messing with her this whole time after that?
"Lou Yue, I know you have feelings for Liufeng Xin right now," Xiao Rangchen said, slowly brushing his gaze over her slightly pursed lips, his voice carrying an almost obsessive edge, "I can wait."
"Wait until you don't like her anymore, then turn around and look at me."
Lou Yue's heart skipped a beat, a sharp sense of unease washing over her.
Wait a minute... He recognized her as Lou Yue, but still assumed she had a crush on Liufeng Xin? A sudden possibility dawned on her.
Xiao Rangchen gazed at her intently, a flicker of unspoken unease hiding deep in his eyes, one he had not even noticed himself. He was half eager for her to speak, half terrified that she would say something that would break his heart.
"I'm a man." Lou Yue deliberately lowered her voice, throwing out the line to test the waters. "Two men can't be together."
Xiao Rangchen's eyelashes drooped, his voice tight and dry. "I know."
"But I... I just can't control—"
"You actually like men?" Lou Yue cut him off with a look of utter bewilderment, her tone laced with clear disbelief. She paused for a moment, seeming to hesitate before she added, "I never thought... you'd turn out to be a man who loves men..."
Xiao Rangchen: "..."
Lou Yue's mind was completely occupied by the seven words "Long Aotian likes men". No wonder he showed no interest in Liufeng Xin or Hong Chou at all. It wasn't that the original plot had gone wrong at all. It was that he was gay, and had no attraction to women.
He had recognized her as Lou Yue, but was fully convinced that she was a man disguised as a woman.
He liked men, and she, being a man in his eyes, was quite "good-looking" among men. It was hardly strange that he had developed feelings for her.
Lou Yue: "..." Everything seemed to fit perfectly into place.
Seeing her brows knitted tightly, Xiao Rangchen assumed she was disgusted and repulsed by his confession. His hand holding hers tightened unconsciously. "I know this is not tolerated by the common customs. I just want... to stay by your side..."
But she was not a man at all.
The Lou Yue he had fallen for was nothing but a false identity.
Lou Yue's expression grew more and more tangled.
She could have ended this whole mess right away by simply telling him she was a woman, but if she did that, he would learn that she was the special furnace cauldron, a secret she had never wanted anyone else to know.
"Actually... women are better than men..."
"They are understanding, soft, and so comfortable to hold."
Lou Yue slowed down her tone on purpose, trying to gently guide him back to a "normal" preference. "They are also gentle and thoughtful. Why do you have to fixate on me, a man?"
Xiao Rangchen looked at her, emotions surging in his eyes. His voice came out hoarse as he spoke from the back of his throat. "Are you rejecting me?"
Lou Yue opened her mouth, but had no idea what to say next.
She had never felt so utterly at a loss for words in her entire life.
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Today's update is a short one
