Going astray

Shen Lan led Chang Wan and a crowd of disciples, marching imposingly toward the back mountain.

However, the mute youth seemed to have other matters and did not come.

The back mountain of the Qingfeng Sect was generally deserted, deep with trees and quite desolate.

Under Shen Lan’s lead, as they passed through the overlapping woods, she saw a youth in tattered black clothes, holding a white deer and kissing its eyes.

It actually looked quite normal.

Chang Wan paused, while Shen Lan beside her burst into tears, as if mourning the dead, “Senior Brother!! How did you end up like this!!”

The disciples also looked at each other in dismay.

The youth in black seemed startled, suddenly letting out a hoarse sound, looking panicked and fearful, and collapsed straight onto the ground like a three-year-old child, “Scared, scared—die, die…”

Dribbling at the corners of his mouth, he truly looked like a fool.

Shen Lan masked the triumph and malice in her eyes, turning back with a look of grief, “If you hadn’t spoken nonsense in class! How could my Senior Brother have become like this!”

The surrounding disciples whispered to one another, sizing Chang Wan up with their gazes.

Chang Wan remained calm, stepping forward toward the youth.

As she reached out, the youth flinched, looking at her with wide, wet eyes. This face was indeed the same Shen Cong who had bowed to her so respectfully before.

“Don’t be afraid.” Chang Wan soothed him softly.

The youth looked at her, silent, and after watching her for a long time, suddenly gave another silly, foolish smile.

Chang Wan pressed his wrist, her true essence entering his body, but she suddenly froze.

His inner energy was chaotic, yet there was no trace of an inner demon. Upon probing, she felt a hollow, empty sensation.

She possessed the system skill [In-Devil]; logically, even a madman would have some thoughts, yet…

Why was there nothing?

Was this person not mad, but mentally handicapped?

“This matter will not end here! Our Fire Red Sect will definitely come to you to demand an explanation!!” Shen Lan’s voice rose slightly, completely losing the dignity of a young lady from a prestigious family. She looked at Chang Wan with nothing but hatred. A heaven-blessed genius? In her eyes, just a woman who had caught a bit of luck and was now acting haughty, using a bit of her looks to seduce Sect Leader Qi! Regardless of whether Shen Cong was truly mad or feigning it, she was determined to drag this woman down!

Chang Wan looked at the surrounding disciples, and after a moment, said, “You say he suffered Qi deviation because I gave the wrong method to counter inner demons?”

Shen Lan sneered: “When we were learning at the Fire Red Sect, we never showed signs of Qi deviation. Why is it that as soon as he came to you, my Senior Brother suffered Qi deviation?”

“This is very strange to me.” Chang Wan’s voice was steady, “I only taught simple methods to cope with inner demons; how to practice is up to the individual. I never said that doing so would easily overcome inner demons. Moreover, this Senior Brother of yours…”

She paused: “He doesn’t look like he’s possessed by inner demons; it looks more like he took a wrong turn while practicing his cultivation technique, resulting in Qi deviation.”

Shen Lan’s heart seethed with hatred, but she sneered, “Stop trying to shirk responsibility! My Senior Brother has always been cautious; how could he suffer Qi deviation! It must be you, you bit—”

However, the moment that slander was about to be uttered, the foolish youth who was still crying about death and fear on the ground suddenly leaped up, lunged forward in one bound, and slammed the woman onto the ground!

Chang Wan and the surrounding people hadn’t even reacted yet.

Sharp pain struck, and only then did Shen Lan widen her eyes, looking at the Senior Brother who had once loved her. He truly looked like he had water in his brain, able to throw the goddess he once obsessed over and climbed the mountain to seek justice for as if she were a toy. It was truly foolish enough to make witnesses sad and listeners weep.

“……You…”

Shen Lan met the youth’s eyes, and in an instant, her voice jammed as if stuck, unable to utter a single word.

Those were not Senior Brother’s eyes.

Pitch-black and cold, like a wild beast from the abyss, cruel and terrifying.

“Die…”

He whispered lowly.

It so happened that it had rained the day before, and the ground in the back mountain was a mess of mud and water. The observing cultivators all had “dust-repelling” functions, but the people acting in this play could not avoid the mundane world.

Shen Lan’s fire-red dress was stained with filthy mud, her hair bun was soaked in muck, and combined with her dumbfounded expression, it was quite a sight.

The youth, however, didn’t feel he had done anything wrong. Having done his bad deed, he laughed and giggled, making as if to throw this beauty into the air again for another free-fall.

Shen Lan screamed in terror. Even if Shen Cong was suffering from Qi deviation, he possessed the highest-stage cultivation of the Heart Movement stage, just a step away from Spirit Solitude; she, who had just stepped into the Heart Movement stage, was no match for him. She got up screaming and ran down the mountain.

Before leaving, even with ten thousand grievances, she could only glare hatefully at Chang Wan.

However, she saw the young girl in a white dress, the green leaves behind her swaying slightly, her light chestnut almond eyes looking at her, brows slightly furrowed, but her expression completely void of ripples.

Truly like an exiled immortal from heaven; calm and composed, yet breathtakingly beautiful, contrasted with her own gaudy, mundane appearance—one was in the heavens, the other on the ground.

Seeing this, Shen Lan was so frustrated she felt like coughing up blood.

If she didn’t avenge this, she, Shen Lan, would be unworthy of being a member of the Shen family!!

But that Senior Brother of hers who was feigning stupidity—it must be to deceive everyone that he was acting like this!!!

Regardless, Chang Wan would definitely not escape the crime of negligence!

Shen Lan instinctively refused to believe in any other possibility.

Refused to believe that those dark, cold eyes no longer belonged to the Senior Brother who would go through fire and water for her at a single word.

= =

Shen Lan had exited the stage, but the matter here was not yet over.

The youth had thrown his little Junior Sister Shen Lan around like a toy; although he had blocked her wild words, it only further confirmed his idiocy.

Chang Wan couldn’t think of any solution for a moment.

Although everyone wanted to watch the show, they were afraid of Chang Wan’s authority, fearing she would make life difficult for them, and quietly dispersed.

Even if Chang Wan had truly taught incorrectly, no one dared to say anything. After all, Heart Movement stage cultivators in Qingzhou were as common as hair on an ox, but Spirit Solitude masters were rare. In an environment where strength was supreme, this matter would at most add another note to Chang Wan’s terrifying prestige.

It was just that Shen Lan was of humble origins, having just been pushed into being a proper young lady by the Shen family before joining the Fire Red Sect. Now that she had come to the Qingfeng Sect as an exchange disciple for the sake of her sweetheart, she lacked experience. She thought it was a massive stain on her reputation, but in reality, among cultivators, it was just a light drizzle.

So, everyone just treated it as watching a good show; once the show was over, they scattered like birds and beasts.

Chang Wan didn’t leave. She looked at the confused, foolish youth who was now missing his beauty, and fell into deep thought.

Her skill [In-Devil] hadn’t worked, meaning there was no inner demon at all. She had read the jade slip—those who suffered Qi deviation due to inner demons and hadn’t self-detonated would be trapped within their inner demons for life, unable to be freed. According to the system’s explanation of the skill, her In-Devil should certainly be able to enter this person’s inner demon and pull him back.

But it didn’t.

That could only mean it was because of his cultivation technique, having taken a wrong turn, that he ended up like this.

This was truly difficult to handle.

Chang Wan had also heard people say that those two disciples from the Fire Red Sect were quite precious—one was the eldest daughter of the Shen family, and the other was a genius with a pure spirit root. Now that one had inexplicably withered, she figured the Fire Red Sect wouldn’t let her off easily.

While Chang Wan had a headache over how to resolve this, she didn’t notice the strange look in the youth’s eyes as he watched her.

When she finally turned back to look, she only saw the youth’s eyes, as pure as a white deer, innocent and clean, and even a bit silly.

Clearly, he was six feet tall, yet those eyes were like those of a small child.

For some reason, Chang Wan thought of the scene she witnessed when she first arrived, where the youth kissed the eyes of the white deer.

Clean and pure, innocent and naive.

Plus, seeing the youth suddenly lunge forward when Shen Lan tried to curse her—even if it might have been an unconscious act—Chang Wan couldn’t help but feel three points more affection for him.

Chang Wan said thank you, and heard the system say: “Fools don’t understand, you should touch his head and say thank you to him.”

Chang Wan: “…”

The youth looked at her and blinked.

Perhaps she really had become a fool herself, listening to the system’s suggestion. Chang Wan, as if possessed, reached out, but because of the height difference, she had to tiptoe hard to pat his head.

He was a fool anyway, and there was no one here; breaking persona a little bit didn’t matter.

A smile touched her lips, and she said earnestly, “Thank you.”

The youth’s body stiffened slightly.

Chang Wan didn’t notice his oddity. She wanted to lead him away from the back mountain, but who knew, the youth sensed her intent and, like a bird startled by the mere twang of a bow, dodged away and disappeared into the woods.

= =

The youth suddenly opened his eyes, a pair of pitch-black peach blossom eyes flashing with cold blood-red light for an instant.

His forehead had a light sheen of sweat, yet the feeling of the young girl’s soft, fair hands brushing over his head still lingered.

In the dim secret room, the blue-covered book with bloodied pages, the flames burning in his heart grew ever more intense.

He gripped his Double Fish Pendant tightly, taking a long while to return to his senses.