Chapter 3: 3: Walking on the Frontlines of Gossip—Never Pick Up Wild Men by the Roadside
Chapter 3: 3: Walking on the Frontlines of Gossip—Never Pick Up Wild Men by the Roadside
Chu Yunmian had not made her choice at random. Back in the modern world, she had occasionally visited archery ranges to practice her draw. While her marksmanship was thoroughly mediocre, having some foundation was leagues better than stumbling forward in the dark.
As a father utterly devoted to his daughter, Chu Anhuai naturally had no intention of objecting. Whatever Mianmian wanted, she would have. With a swift flick of his sleeve, half a dozen spiritual armaments hanging along the weapon racks were drawn into his palm. In the next breath, he sealed them neatly into an exquisite storage talisman fashioned into a delicate white jade hairpin. Handing it to her, Chu Anhuai said warmly, "Take these to play with for now. Once you have formally chosen your path, I will summon your mother back to forge a tailor-made set just for you."
Chu Yunmian’s mouth practically watered in sheer disbelief. *I’m a wealthy woman now! These are the very treasures early-stage webnovel protagonists have to bleed and crawl through perilous ruins to acquire! Praise the starry cosmos! Praise my glorious father! Even if being a spirit stone in this life is utterly bizarre, I have struck absolute gold!*
Watching his daughter—whose face remained placid and blank while an unmistakable spark of delight danced across her eyes—Chu Anhuai could not help but let out a low chuckle. *Does she truly adore these trinkets so much? In that case, I shall shower her with plenty more in the days to come.*
Standing nearby, Yan Jiuge felt a sudden pang of distress. Mianmian actually loved spiritual tools! Alas, she herself was entirely impoverished. In the cultivation world, sword cultivators were perpetually broke as a matter of universal law, and blade cultivators fared no better. Only alchemists and master artifact refiners possessed boundless wealth. Whenever she needed to temper her own saber, she had to calculate every single gram of spiritual ore down to the dust. Where on earth was she supposed to find decent spiritual tools for her precious junior sister?
Before Yan Jiuge could spiral further into self-reproach, a sect steward hurried into the hall from outside. "Sect Master, a demonic cultivator has arrived outside the mountain gates. He carries Fairy Jiuge’s jade pendant and claims he has come seeking her."
Yan Jiuge’s heart skipped a beat. *Oh no!*
Chu Anhuai narrowed his eyes, his voice dipping into a dangerous register. "A demonic cultivator?"
[Oho, busted! Completely exposed!]
Under her master’s profoundly meaningful stare, Yan Jiuge felt her scalp tingle with dread. "Master, it is all a misunderstanding! The man was gravely injured, and I simply happened to cross paths with him and tended to his wounds. Nothing more!"
Chu Yunmian sighed inwardly with theatrical gravity. [Never pick up stray wild men on the roadside, Senior Sister. A woman’s misfortune always begins the moment she starts pitying a man.]
Chu Anhuai remained silent, his lips pressing into a thin line. "..."
[Fortunately, in my eighteen years of life, I have never tasted the bitter sorrow wrought by men. Heh, blessed and single.]
*Mianmian’s soul is only eighteen years old?* Chu Anhuai thought, his gaze softening. That was far too tender an age. To a two-hundred-year-old patriarch like himself, she was practically a newborn fledgling. A sudden surge of fierce paternal protectiveness welled up within him. Casting a cool, measured glance at the nervous Yan Jiuge, he spoke with an inscrutable tone: "Although the Mystic Moon Demonic Sect does not walk the wicked paths of butcherous slaughter, their cultivation methods diverge fundamentally from ours. Go down and send him away at once."
Yan Jiuge bowed respectfully. "Understood, Master."
She looked toward Chu Yunmian, reaching out to gently clasp the girl’s hand with a soft smile. "Come accompany me for a stroll, Mianmian."
Intending to deal with the pressing matter of the Second Elder, Chu Anhuai nodded toward his daughter. "Accompany your Senior Sister. If there is anything you desire along the way, simply tell your father upon your return."
Chu Yunmian was deeply moved. *Old Dad is truly magnificent.*
In the very next breath, an electric rush of pure excitement flooded her veins. She was heading straight to the frontlines to feast upon the freshest gossip imaginable! She had to see for herself what this legendary scumbag Qian Heyan looked like in the flesh.
Without further ado, she allowed Yan Jiuge to pull her out of the pavilion. Watching their retreating backs fade into the distance, Chu Anhuai let his indulgent smile vanish entirely. A cold stillness settled over his sharp features. Turning to the waiting steward, he spoke with icy composure: "Summon the Second Elder to my chambers."
"Understood, Sect Master," the steward replied, bowing deeply before departing.
Afternoon light poured through the carved lattice windows, draping over the solitary sect master. Gripping the hilt of his natal sword, Chu Anhuai’s eyes darkened with simmering resolve.
* * *
Once again, Yan Jiuge carried her junior sister upon her flying saber, cutting through the high winds above the misty mountain peaks.
Feeling the warm, soft embrace cushioning her back, Chu Yunmian’s ancient soul flushed with mild embarrassment. *Tsk, that scumbag Qian certainly has all the luck in the world.*
[Senior Sister, if you truly wish to reach the pinnacle of the Great Dao, you must never allow a man to sway your heart. In my humble opinion, you should simply slay your husband to attain enlightenment! Though unorthodox, the Path of the Unfeeling is hardly unprecedented... Besides, heartless scumbags do not deserve a shred of mercy anyway.]
The flying saber beneath their feet jerked violently, nearly pitching them headlong from the sea of clouds.
Yan Jiuge was so thoroughly startled by Chu Yunmian’s casual internal remark that her spiritual energy nearly destabilized. *Slay her husband to attain enlightenment?!* Mianmian’s train of thought was truly... wild beyond belief.
Steadily reigning in her saber, she cleared her throat and asked softly, "Senior Sister was distracted for a moment. Mianmian wasn't frightened, were you?"
The young girl, whose nascent beauty was already captivating, merely blinked her wide eyes and offered an innocent shake of her head.
[Oh ho, that felt just like bungee jumping! What a thrill! If we fly even higher and dive straight down, the rush will be incredible! Once I learn to ride a spiritual bow in the future, I am definitely trying that!]
Yan Jiuge: "..."
Outside the mountain gates of the Qingfeng Sword Sect, Qian Heyan had been pacing impatiently. As he caught sight of the figures descending gracefully from the heavens, an alluring, wicked smile curved his lips. "Jiuge."
He wore robes of deep imperial purple bound by a golden coronet, possessing a face that was devastatingly handsome. His amorous, phoenix-tail eyes curved into an effortless half-smile, and the corners of his lips bore a permanent hint of flirtatious charm. In that single gaze, there was three parts calculated coldness, three parts affected apathy, and four parts profound, burning devotion.
Chu Yunmian was utterly astounded. *Good heavens, someone has actually manifested an emotional pie chart in real life!*
[Still calling her Jiuge? Are the two of you even that well-acquainted, scumbag Qian? You're only seducing my Senior Sister because you covet our Qingfeng Sword Sect's exclusive Marrow-Cleansing Elixir! Who are you performing this deeply devoted act for, exactly?]
Yan Jiuge, who had felt a faint, lingering flutter in her chest just moments before, felt the warmth drain entirely from her blood. Her spine straightened, her expression freezing into aloof detachment. "Young Sect Master."
Qian Heyan’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. Sensing her sudden chill, his gaze flashed with confusion and subtle displeasure. "I believed that after all we shared, Jiuge and I were already close companions. There is no need for such cold formalities."
Yan Jiuge remained impassive. "Our cultivation paths differ, and propriety demands distance between men and women. Addressing me as Fellow Daoist will suffice."
Qian Heyan’s fingers paused on his sash before a charming smile blossomed across his face once more. He smoothly shifted his gaze toward Chu Yunmian. "And who might this little fairy be?"
"She is my junior sister," Yan Jiuge said curtly, deliberately cutting off the conversation to shield Mianmian from his perilous charm.
Remembering his true purpose and secretly gritting his teeth at Yan Jiuge’s sudden aloofness, Qian Heyan decided to pivot. Courting favor through the junior sister was always an effective angle. "Ah, could this be Mianmian? Jiuge spoke of having a darling junior sister during our time together. It is an honor to meet you."
Every syllable was dripping with intimate familiarity, deliberately hinting that he and Yan Jiuge shared secrets in the dark. *What a treacherous, calculating dog!*
Chu Yunmian kept her face completely blank, giving him a flat, glassy stare. After all, the entire sect believed she was intellectually simple. A simple-minded girl was entitled to act entirely unimpressed.
[It’s an honor to meet you too—mostly because we're already standing here, and being miserable about it won't change the scenery anyway.]
Yan Jiuge let out a sudden, muffled snort: "Pfft."
Seeing Yan Jiuge crack a smile, Qian Heyan assumed his charm was working. His tense brow relaxed, and he began tracing the jade pendant hanging from his waist, adopting an expression of tortured devotion. "Ever since that fateful parting, Jiuge—"
Chu Yunmian’s internal voice chimed in with flawless synchronization: [I have yearned for you day and night. As the mortals say, a single day apart feels like three grueling autumns; trapped within the Demonic Sect, it felt as though a hundred bitter years had slipped away.]
Qian Heyan declared with theatrical passion: "—I have yearned for you day and night. As the mortals say, a single day apart feels like three grueling autumns; trapped within the Demonic Sect, it felt as though a hundred bitter years had slipped away."
[Pah! What utter, unadulterated garbage! What an absolute scumbag!]
Yan Jiuge stared in sheer, paralyzed horror: "............"
Mianmian could truly divine the future word for word! In that case, the tragic fate her junior sister had foretold for her own life...
Qian Heyan looked at Yan Jiuge, entirely baffled by the strange cocktail of mortification, disgust, and suppressed fury warring across her face. "?"
He then looked down at Chu Yunmian, who was currently rolling her eyes into the back of her head so hard her eyelids fluttered. "What ails this child? Why is her face twitching like that?"
The corner of Yan Jiuge’s mouth spasmed. "Ahem... It is nothing."
Chu Yunmian’s stomach turned in revulsion.
[Scumbag Qian, do you only own a single script? You recite these exact lines to my Senior Sister this year, and next year you’ll vomit the same poetic nonsense to another naive maiden! Mark my words, the day will come when I draw my bow and shoot down every single sweet-talking stray dog under the heavens!]
Oblivious to the internal storm, Qian Heyan noticed that Yan Jiuge was no longer looking at him with outright hostility, and an ambitious glint flickered in his eyes. Reaching into his robes, he produced a heavy, shimmering pouch of Superior Spirit Stones and presented it to Chu Yunmian with an ingratiating smile. "I was unaware Mianmian would be accompanying you, and I have arrived unprepared. Please accept these spirit stones as a humble greeting gift; you may play with them to pass the time when you are bored."
Yan Jiuge thought to herself: *Mianmian despises him down to her bones; she will surely cast his gift to the ground. I must think of an excuse to salvage the situation...*
Before she could intervene, she watched in stunned silence as the blank-faced girl paused for half a heartbeat, calmly reached out her tiny hands, and cleanly swept the pouch into her embrace.
Yan Jiuge: "?"
Clutching the heavy sack of Superior Spirit Stones, Chu Yunmian shuffled over to a flat boulder a few paces away. She sat down, casually tossing the pouch up and down in her hands while maintaining the glassy, vacant expression of an innocent fool.
[Ah! While scumbag Qian brings terrible fortune, innocent spirit stones have committed no crime! Didn't Senior Sister expend countless precious spirit medicines to drag your half-dead corpse out of the ditch? Consider this your medical bill, old lecher!]
[Senior Sister, do not forget to take back your jade pendant!]
Yan Jiuge: "..."
[Or better yet, Senior Sister, you should simply turn toward the Path of the Unfeeling right here! Since he insists on romancing you, play along and slay your husband to attain enlightenment! Two birds with one clean slice!]
The girl’s lively, cheerful inner monologue chimed like celebratory bells in Yan Jiuge’s mind.
Seizing what he perceived as a moment of softened tension, Qian Heyan took a smooth step forward. The crisp, clean scent of mountain cedar wafted from his broad sleeves, wrapping around Yan Jiuge in a calculated haze of intimacy. He stared into her eyes with boundless, fathomless longing, his voice dropping to a seductive whisper. "Jiuge, what are you thinking about?"
Having been utterly inundated and brainwashed by Chu Yunmian’s relentless inner commentary, Yan Jiuge’s mind slipped into a total daze. Looking straight into his handsome, expectant face, she subconsciously murmured aloud:
"Slay... slay my husband to attain enlightenment..."
Qian Heyan: "?"