The next morning, Lou Yue opened her eyes and immediately spotted the glazed flower arrangement on the table.
The light of dawn fell softly upon it, making its colors shimmer with crystal clarity and filling it with a vibrant vitality. Just looking at it brightened her mood.
Hmm. It would make a lovely decoration for the room. Unlike real flowers in the modern world, it would never wither or decay, nor would it require any care.
As she gazed at it, a question suddenly flashed through her mind.
How had Qinglin known she was in Heyu City? She had only just arrived when it showed up right afterward. And the last letter had also reached her with uncanny accuracy.
The smile on Lou Yue’s lips froze.
She took out the jade carving of the Wujade and gathered spiritual energy at her fingertips, carefully examining it.
Sure enough, hidden beneath the carving was a small spell resembling a tracking function.
“…”
Xiao Rangchen, you really are devious.
Lou Yue raised her hand, intending to erase the spell, but stopped at the last moment.
Xiao Rangchen had no message butterfly. If she erased the tracking spell, he would no longer be able to find her.
Lou Yue withdrew her hand.
Fine. She would leave it for now, for the sake of the glazed flowers. She could deal with it after he finished surviving his tribulation.
According to the plot of the novel, the overpowered male protagonist obtained an inheritance, then killed Cangya Xun inside the ruins. With the help of the cheat artifact Yu Youchun, which he had acquired in Xuandu, he temporarily suppressed his cultivation and waited until he reached Mount Qiqing before triggering his Deity Transformation tribulation.
However, during the tribulation, he was still discovered by the Cangya clan. With their interference, the power of the final three bolts of heavenly lightning increased severalfold.
Although Long Aotian managed to survive the tribulation by the skin of his teeth, the spiritual energy in his body consequently ran rampant, leaving him on the verge of death. Hong Chou was the one who pulled him back from the gates of hell through dual cultivation.
But now, reality had deviated from the original plot.
Xiao Rangchen had not obtained the inheritance. Cangya Xun was dead, but at the same time, Xiao Rangchen was being relentlessly hunted by the Cangya clan.
Earlier, Cangya Lan’s people had reported that he had gone south. Mount Qiqing was in the south.
So the next part of the plot was probably his Deity Transformation tribulation at Mount Qiqing.
Unfortunately, although Mount Qiqing was not particularly tall, it stretched for tens of thousands of miles. Lou Yue had no idea where exactly he would undergo his tribulation. She only remembered that, in the novel, Hong Chou had encountered the dying Long Aotian in an abandoned underground temple near the coast.
To be honest, she was not certain whether Xiao Rangchen and Hong Chou would become involved as they had in the original plot—or whether, without Hong Chou, there would be someone else.
If Xiao Rangchen were conscious, she might still have some confidence. But in the novel, he had been half-conscious.
So when Liufeng Xin suggested going south to purchase some medicinal materials and the like, Lou Yue agreed.
She might not be able to prevent the danger he would face during his tribulation, but she could prepare pills to dispel the rampaging spiritual energy in advance and retrieve him in time after he was gravely wounded.
Xiao Rangchen was currently only at the mid-stage of the Void Insight realm. Even if his cultivation advanced quickly, he would still be at least a year away from undergoing his tribulation.
She had plenty of time to cultivate and improve her own strength while setting aside time to search for that abandoned temple.
Lou Yue lightly raised a finger and lazily poked the kneeling figure carved into the jade before her. A sly and brazen smile danced in her eyes.
Xiao Rangchen, meeting someone as wonderful as this young lady—you must have accumulated eight lifetimes’ worth of good fortune.
Suddenly, a soft knock came from outside.
“Yueyue, are you awake?” Liufeng Xin’s voice came through the door.
The door was still protected by a restriction, so she could not enter. Lou Yue went over and opened it.
Liufeng Xin slipped inside like a streak of smoke and hurriedly shut the door behind her.
“What are you doing, sneaking around like a thief?” Lou Yue asked with a laugh.
“I found out last night that there’s a black market in Heyu City, and it’s full of rare treasures. Come with me and let’s see what we can dig up.”
Liufeng Xin pushed her toward the window. “We’ll leave through the window. We absolutely cannot let Hong Chou follow us, or her bad luck will rub off on us and we won’t find a single treasure.”
Her sharp eyes immediately caught sight of the glazed flowers on the table. Her eyes lit up. “Huh? What’s that? It’s beautiful. When did you get it?”
Lou Yue waved a hand and stored the flowers in her storage ring. “You said we were in a hurry to leave, yet here you are dawdling.”
“So secretive.” Liufeng Xin shot her a glance, but she had more important matters on her mind, so she set the question aside.
However, despite taking every precaution, Liufeng Xin still failed to avoid Hong Chou. The moment the two of them jumped from the window, they ran into her returning from outside.
Hong Chou was radiant, her smile alluring, her voice languid and seductive. “Where are you two going?”
Liufeng Xin was about to snap back, but then she caught a peculiar fragrance coming from Hong Chou. She instinctively identified the medicinal scent within it. A moment later, her face filled with shock, and even her voice trembled.
“Y-You… what did you do last night?!”
Hong Chou knew that Liufeng Xin was skilled in alchemy and that she could not hide the scent of the aphrodisiac she had used. So she simply gave the two of them a flirtatious, alluring look.
“I found a man and cultivated with him all night.”
Liufeng Xin: “…”
Lou Yue: “…”
The two of them simultaneously remembered that Hong Chou cultivated a seductive art, particularly excelling in techniques involving dual cultivation between men and women.
Although the novel had never said so outright, Long Aotian was certainly not Hong Chou’s first man. Before cultivating with Long Aotian, she had been involved with many men. She was a genuine heartbreaker.
Liufeng Xin was speechless at first, but then something occurred to her, and she blurted out, “Xiao Rangchen?!”
Lou Yue: “…”
Hong Chou looked utterly perplexed. “His name is Xiao Rangchen?”
Liufeng Xin grew even more frantic. “You spent the entire night with a man and you don’t even know his name?!”
Hong Chou answered matter-of-factly, “I’ve slept with so many men. How am I supposed to remember all their names?”
Liufeng Xin could not be bothered to argue with her. She only wanted to confirm whether the man was Long Aotian. “The man from the ruins—the one who was with the four of us.”
Hong Chou looked at her as though she were either insane or had mistaken her own sanity. “How could it possibly be him?!”
Liufeng Xin let out a long sigh of relief. “At least you know better.”
Hong Chou: “…”
Because of this supposed “good sense,” Liufeng Xin magnanimously—and only reluctantly—agreed to let Hong Chou come along.
The three of them visited the black market together. It truly did contain many extraordinary treasures that were difficult to find elsewhere. Unfortunately, most of them were of uneven quality, with genuine goods mixed among the counterfeits. To find anything worthwhile, one needed both a discerning eye and good luck.
When the three of them returned on the first day, they had not even explored half the market, so they went again the next day.
Liufeng Xin was delighted after finding several rare medicinal herbs. Hong Chou, meanwhile, mysteriously handed her a tightly wrapped cloth bundle.
She said it was a gift and instructed Liufeng Xin to savor it carefully only after nightfall, when no one else was around. She even patted her chest and promised that everything inside had been carefully selected and was guaranteed to be authentic.
That night, Lou Yue noticed the cloth bundle lying on the bed and remembered it.
When she untied it, she found seven or eight books and three jade slips inside.
She casually picked up the book on top. Its cover read: The Yin-Yang Harmonization Manual.
What was this supposed to be?
She picked up the second book.
The Crimson Cloud Heartbinding Art.
Then she picked up the third and fourth.
The Phoenix-and-Luan Intertwining Manual.
The Bewitching Spirit Dual-Cultivation Scroll.
Lou Yue began to have an ominous feeling. Afraid she might be overthinking things, she hesitated for a moment before opening The Bewitching Spirit Dual-Cultivation Scroll in her hand.
There was not a single word in the book—only page after page of lifelike, vividly erotic illustrations.
After one glance, Lou Yue hurled the book away.
She had no intention of reading the books, nor did she want to examine the jade slips. But each of the three jade slips bore one unmistakable character:
Lou.
Gritting her teeth, Lou Yue eventually picked one up and extended her divine sense into it.
The next second, she wanted to poke her own eyes out.
What the jade slip recorded was no proper cultivation technique at all, but the Lou clan’s secret method of dual cultivation using a furnace cauldron. Worse still, the jade slip had been imbued with a spell that turned its contents into moving images, each scene unfolding with such vivid clarity that they were utterly indecent.
“Hong—Chou—!”
She ground out each word, as though she wanted to crush the name between her teeth.
While Lou Yue was both embarrassed and furious, in a southeastern valley thousands of li from Heye City—
Nine figures dressed in the lake-blue uniforms of the Cangya clan streaked through the mountain forest. Their breaths were taut, their eyes gleaming with murderous intent as they clung relentlessly to the solitary figure ahead.
The man turned his head slightly and glanced at the pursuers behind him. There was not the slightest trace of fear in his eyes, only cold, detached indifference.
Not until he had reached the depths of the valley did he suddenly plant his foot and come to a halt. The long spear in his hand spun outward, black-and-white flames coating its tip. With a single sweep, tremendous force surged across the valley.
The nine men leapt back, then swiftly closed in again, engaging him in battle.
A sharp blade skimmed past his cheek. Its thin edge sliced through his skin, and a fine, vivid line of blood slowly welled up. He tilted his head slightly, the hard contours of his profile growing even more severe beneath the glint of sword light.
Half an hour later, the twenty pursuers had been reduced to three.
Sword wounds split open his waist and abdomen. He countered with a backhanded thrust of his spear, killing two men outright.
The last man seized the opening and launched a sneak attack from a blind angle. Yet the instant a cold gleam appeared, the spearhead spun around and swept across his throat.
After confirming that every one of them was dead, the man sped away, vanishing from the valley in an instant.
Moonlight fell like frost, spilling over the figure in the lake.
His ink-black hair had come completely undone, hanging wetly over his shoulders. Several strands clung to the side of his neck, their ends still dripping beads of blood.
His bare upper body was sleek and powerfully built, strength coiled beneath the surface. Scars of varying depths covered his skin, while fresh sword wounds stretched across his well-defined abdomen and waist, still oozing blood. He looked dangerous, yet suffused with a cold, fractured beauty.
His eyes lowered to the emerald-green hairpin resting quietly in his palm.
Water slid along the line of his jaw, dripped into the hollow of his collarbone, then followed the line of his abdomen into the lake, stirring rings across the surface.
His gaze deepened. Slowly, his fingers tightened around the hairpin.
Suddenly, he looked to one side. Before long, Qinglin swept over from the distance.
Xiao Rangchen walked slowly ashore. Water streamed from his wet hair, shoulders, and waist, soaking through his clothes and clinging tightly to his skin, outlining his lean, powerful waist, abdomen, and long legs.
“Did you see her?”
“Wuwuwu.” [I did.]
“Does she like it?” he asked, a trace of anxiety hidden in his voice—anxiety he himself failed to notice.
Qinglin tilted his head and thought for a moment before replying, “Wuwuwu.” [She doesn’t.]
Xiao Rangchen’s steps faltered, and his voice grew heavier. “How do you know she doesn’t like it?”
“Wuwuwu… wuwu.” [She said, ‘I saw him running for his life quite happily. He still had the leisure to make something like this?’ And she told me not to go next time.]
“……”
The wind swept in from afar, carrying what felt like fine sand. It scraped across his face with a dull, biting chill.
His hand clenched in silence. He was about to ask another question when his gaze suddenly froze on the blue collar around Qinglin’s neck.
“She gave it to you?”
He reached out and stroked it. The pale-blue collar was delicate and small, decorated with light-gold patterns—the sort of design Lou Yue liked.
Qinglin let him touch it and happily hummed, “Wuwuwu.” [She said it was a gift for me.]
Xiao Rangchen’s fingers hovered in midair. After a moment, they slowly dropped.
She had never given him anything.
Even the hairpin in his palm was something he had secretly taken.
Yu Youchun noticed that he was unhappy and assumed it was because Lou Yue did not like the flowers he had sent.
“I told you this sort of thing was useless. She’s a boy, so why send flowers? Didn’t Qinglin’s last message say she had two handsome men by her side? Instead of wasting your energy on this, you’d be better off focusing on your cultivation. Once you reach the Deity Transformation stage, you can go and snatch her away properly.”
Xiao Rangchen lifted his eyes toward the cold crescent moon in the sky and said calmly, “Master, I don’t want her to forget me.”
It had taken him so much effort to draw close to her. He could neither accept nor bear the thought of falling back into the way things had been before.
Yu Youchun let out a soft sigh. “This past month has been arduous, but repeatedly walking along the edge of life and death has also caused your cultivation to advance by leaps and bounds. You’re now at the Grand Perfection of the Void Refinement stage, and you’ve already touched the threshold of Deity Transformation. Breaking through is just a matter of time. At this critical juncture, you cannot allow yourself to be distracted.”
“Escaping from Cangya Lan last time was already a stroke of luck. He’s currently entangled in clan affairs, but there’s no telling when he might come after you personally again. You should wipe out all the Cangya clan’s pursuers at once, then hide yourself and focus on cultivating before new forces arrive. That way, you can prepare for the Deity Transformation tribulation.”
Xiao Rangchen remained silent.
Yu Youchun assumed he had taken the words to heart and was about to offer a few more admonitions when, in the next moment, he heard an extremely low, barely audible murmur from his throat.
“Master… I want to go see her.”
Yu Youchun froze, then immediately shouted, “Have you gone mad?”
The Cangya clan’s people were still hunting him. Every city of any size along the way was filled with the clan’s informants. He actually wanted to go to a crowded place like that?
How was that any different from throwing himself into a trap?
Xiao Rangchen tightened his grip on the hairpin. “She’s in Heye City.”
If he traveled at full speed, he could see her in no more than a day and a half.
“No! You are not going!” Yu Youchun roared.
When Xiao Rangchen remained silent, Yu Youchun softened his tone and tried to reason with him.
“If you go looking for her, and the Cangya clan discovers you, won’t that bring trouble down on her as well?”
“Be patient. Trust your master. Within a month, you’ll surely sense the Deity Transformation tribulation. Once you’ve safely weathered it, you can go see her. Your master absolutely won’t stop you then.”
Xiao Rangchen slowly lowered his eyes. “I’ll only look at her from a distance.”
“What are you putting yourself through this for? You’re risking your life and traveling thousands of li just to take one look before leaving. What exactly are you hoping to gain?”
Xiao Rangchen fell silent.
He wanted nothing from her.
He simply wanted to see her.
Even if all he could do was stand in the shadows and gaze at her from afar.
Yu Youchun was completely at a loss. His disciple possessed unparalleled talent and an unyielding nature. When faced with danger, he was decisive and ruthless, never retreating even half a step.
Yet when it came to matters of the heart, he was stubborn to the point of being heartbreaking—and utterly impossible to persuade.
