Chapter 92: Disciple Conference (Part 4)

The golden crow of time flew down from the purple mist, signaling each half-hour.
In the early morning arena, only the Dan Xiu (alchemy) and tool-making disciples were still watching the furnace. Some sat while others leaned against the furnace, fanning themselves. The orange light from the furnace illuminated the sky, and from time to time, someone opened the furnace, sending creamy white steam soaring into the air.

Xu Qianyu wandered in the smoke for a long time before spotting Yu Chu, who was fanning herself with dark circles under her eyes. Yu Chu was battling a disciple of Elder Yi, and according to Ruan Zhuqing, the opponent had used a divine artifact as a base. Divine artifacts were rare and worth a fortune, so Yu Chu was undoubtedly going to lose this match.

Xu Qianyu glanced over at her opponent, a female cultivator who had already felt she had accomplished her goal and was now sleeping, leaving only the furnace behind. Yu Chu hung her head and frantically waved her fan, saying, “It’s fine; getting second place is still pretty good.”
“Why are you so lacking in ambition?” Xu Qianyu pulled out the translucent divine whip from her sleeve and said, “You can use this for your artifact crafting.”

Yu Chu looked annoyed. “But that’s your divine artifact! You worked so hard to refine it. What if it gets destroyed?”
“Well, you refined it in the first place. If it’s lost, then it’s lost.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Yu Chu firmly refused. She glanced at Xu Qianyu, and the originally gentle light in her eyes flickered with fire, revealing a bright and resolute smile. “Don’t mind me; I have my ways.”

Xu Qianyu didn’t want to disrupt her control of the fire, so she stood outside the arena, watching the dazzling golden light, but her heart remained unsettled.
The blue-purple night and the golden-red furnace light fell, illuminating the wispy hair around her neck.

The dream shadow tube hanging at Xu Qianyu’s waist swayed and bumped against her, reminding her that Shen Suwei was approaching from behind. However, the force was too strong, and the dream shadow tube slipped out, rolling far away.
Xu Qianyu felt the tube and turned back to see a distinctly boned hand picking it up. The person was dressed in a jade crown and snow-white robe, their side profile becoming even more beautiful in the hazy light, but their face showed no expression, creating a sense of distance.

Shen Suwei lowered his gaze and looked at the dream shadow tube, then directly tucked it into his own sleeve.
Xu Qianyu was taken aback and hurried after him. “Give me back the dream shadow tube.”
Shen Suwei didn’t reply and simply turned to leave.

His steps seemed slow, but no matter how Xu Qianyu tried to chase from the left to the right, she always lagged half a step behind. Thus, she followed him all the way back to Zhaoyue Palace. Suddenly, she caught sight of new flowers inserted into a vase on her dressing table: unlike the usual choice of small, plain flowers, today they were large, dewy roses and strikingly bright red.

She stared at them for a while, feeling inexplicably strange. However, when she turned to look at her senior brother’s expression, she could not discern anything and felt increasingly anxious, starting to ask for the dream shadow tube again.

Wuzhen had said that his matters needed to be kept secret from others for the time being.
Shen Suwei said, “I’ll give it to you later.”
He had originally been holding a comb, but seeing Xu Qianyu comb her hair by herself, he didn’t plan to help her undo and redo it.

“Senior Brother, why did you send me a blank letter?” After a moment of silence, Xu Qianyu turned to look at him. “I thought you were in some kind of danger.”
Shen Suwei met her gaze calmly, neither flinching nor avoiding it, and said lightly, “I was afraid you’d forget your homework. Did I disturb your fun?”
Xu Qianyu knew this was probably not the case, so she deliberately stared at him and responded with a noncommittal “Hmm.”

Shen Suwei lowered his eyes and asked, “Can you recite Chapter Six?”
He suddenly started to quiz her on her studies.

Xu Qianyu:…
She had indeed memorized it, having done so in the early hours of the morning. However, seeing her senior brother act so composed, she felt a twinge of frustration and didn’t want to be so obedient anymore. After thinking for a moment, she deliberately said, “I was too busy last night and didn’t memorize it.”

The air fell silent for a moment.
Shen Suwei was usually gentle in temperament, but when he stared at her with a chilling intensity, it was incredibly oppressive: “Did I not say that if you couldn’t recite half a page, I would punish you?”

In her past life, Xu Qianyu was most afraid of her senior brother getting angry, but now she resisted that pressure and said, “Punish me then. How do you plan to punish me?”
Her bright eyes darted around his face.

She was trying to provoke him further, wanting to irritate him. After feeling anxious all night, she needed an outlet for her feelings and thought it was fair to stir up the emotions of others as well.
This caught Shen Suwei off guard.
Though he usually kept his word, he had never really thought about what methods he could use to punish Xu Qianyu. After all, she was relatively diligent and conscientious, not yet at the point where she needed to be urged.

However, Xu Qianyu’s provocative words were like pouring gasoline on a fire, igniting his long-suppressed anger.
He was not a pushover and took a quick glance at his sword sheath.
In the past, when outer sect disciples were reprimanded, the master often used the sword sheath to hit the disciple’s back so as not to damage their spiritual pool.
He also knew many ways that wouldn’t harm a disciple’s body but would leave them in pain and help them remember their lessons—enough to discipline Xu Qianyu; he was well aware that as her senior brother, if he didn’t enforce clear rewards and punishments, he wouldn’t be able to control her in the future. But he hesitated for a moment.

Human hearts have their biases. Xu Qianyu had always been rebellious, and now it seemed she didn’t care much about this side of things, especially without a strong backing.
If he punished her, would it only push her further away?
After a moment, Shen Suwei said in a neutral tone, “Come out.”
Xu Qianyu called for him to lead the way and descended to the sword mound where they had practiced before.

Though the aura here was rich, it was eerily silent. As they walked deeper, there was no light. Xu Qianyu thought to herself that this was actually a punishment.
However, this really got to her: she had been at Penglai for a long time and had never been locked in a small dark room. The moment the daylight disappeared and the vast darkness swallowed her up was indeed a bit frightening.
Shen Suwei lit a stick of incense in his hand, placing it in a recess of the stone wall.
He looked at the incense and said, “You have the time of one stick of incense to memorize it. If you can recite it, I’ll take you out.”
Xu Qianyu stared at him in a daze.

With light and someone accompanying her, this hardly felt like a punishment—it didn’t even count as confinement.
Shen Suwei asked, “Do you have any questions?”
Xu Qianyu replied, “If you’re watching me, I can’t recite it.”
Shen Suwei silently observed her for a moment, then turned and walked to a spot a little farther away.

Xu Qianyu flipped through the pages, pretending to memorize the content. Facing the wall, she peeled away the various feelings he had stirred within her.
After swimming in the water and drinking wine, it seemed she had spent the night with disciples from the same magical palace.

Last night’s overthinking turned out to be completely unfounded. But he didn’t show any joy on his face; a hint of self-loathing flashed in his eyes, which suddenly seemed darker and shinier.
He still couldn’t hold back.
Over the years, he had become used to restraining himself and wasn’t pleased with losing control.

At that moment, Shen Suwei’s wooden token trembled.
Xu Qianyu heard a buzzing sound and keenly turned her head. “Senior Brother, are you going to the arena?”

Shen Suwei took off the wooden token. “Yes.”
“Then you’re leaving?”

Upon hearing a hint of excitement in her voice, he coldly shattered her fantasy: “I will return to test you within the time of one stick of incense. The sword mound is locked; you can’t get out.”
After saying this, he turned to leave. Xu Qianyu suddenly grabbed his sleeve, seemingly reluctant to be left alone here, but only for a moment before letting go.
A punishment is still a punishment. Shen Suwei paused slightly but continued to walk out.
Taking advantage of this pull, Xu Qianyu stealthily attached a tracking talisman to his sleeve. As soon as he left, she immediately burned another talisman with the incense, curious if he would really seal the sword mound.

What expression would her senior brother have when sealing the sword mound? Anger? Disappointment? Or would he be as indifferent and expressionless as usual? If he showed no expression, she might feel a bit disappointed.
She was simply too curious about his reaction.
Since childhood, Xu Qianyu had been spoiled; whenever she was curious about something, she would pursue it directly without much moral burden.

She watched Shen Suwei walk to the exit of the sword mound and silently take out her dream shadow tube, placing it on the stone platform.
Just as he was about to leave, he turned back and took a candy person out from “the realm,” sticking it beside the dream shadow tube.
Afterward, he left without setting a seal.

Xu Qianyu was stunned for a moment, a smile curling at the corners of her mouth. She quickly dashed to the stone platform, popped the candy person into her mouth, and hung the dream shadow tube back up.
Then she exited the sword mound. There was no competition today, so she hid at the exit of the sword mound, waiting for her senior brother to return.

---

A quarter of an hour later, Shen Suwei stood in the darkness, looking at the empty stone platform, sheathing his sword.
His face showed no expression.

Xu Qianyu would definitely run away; he had anticipated this long ago. She was not the kind of person to follow rules and had never been one to play it safe. Even if he had locked the sword mound, she would have found a way to escape; moreover, with no seal in place, the exit was wide open.
As he quietly walked in, his gaze deepened.
The dream shadow tube was taken, and the candy person was also gone.

In a sense, Xu Qianyu was like a spoiled child. She was very adept at “taking”; whatever you gave her, she would take it all without a hint of modesty, let alone considering the feelings of others. She wouldn’t let herself suffer even the slightest loss.

Shen Suwei walked to the spot where the two had previously spoken, looking at the incense that had burned halfway down. Suddenly, he extinguished the flame, enveloping himself in darkness. He abruptly sat down and began to meditate, beads of fine sweat forming on his forehead.
His junior sister was inherently innocent yet cruel; he was clearly aware of this but couldn’t understand why his mind was still so unsettled.

Was it because Xu Qianyu had taken his candy and cruelly removed the Dream Shadow Tube, completely disregarding his feelings and still wanting to leave?
Or was it because Xu Qianyu’s waiting for him didn’t even last half a stick of incense?

*
With Shen Suwei’s cultivation level, he sensed instantly upon exiting that he was no longer inside. Xu Qianyu initially thought he would immediately turn around to look for her, so she decided to follow him and tease him a bit.

However, she waited a long time at the exit’s teleportation array, and when her senior brother didn’t return, she felt a bit uneasy.
Could it be that there was another exit from the sword tomb?
Xu Qianyu hesitated for a moment, concealed her presence with talismans, and stealthily sneaked in.

If it wasn’t for leaving through another exit, she wanted to see what was so special about staying in the darkness of the Sword Tomb.
Making a fire would be too obvious, so Xu Qianyu only placed a perspective talisman on her forehead to see in the dark.

With the perspective talisman, the stone walls and corridors of the Sword Tomb appeared a luminous green in her vision. The holes and sword marks on the walls were also clearly visible. Xu Qianyu smoothly made her way back to the spot where she had been confined earlier, noticing her senior brother meditating there. Confused, she quietly lifted her skirts and sat beside him.

Shen Suwei should have been in a deep meditative state, his expression calm, his robes spreading out like flowing clouds, unaffected by the world around him.
Xu Qianyu stared at him for a while, feeling a bit disappointed. Why had he started cultivating instead of looking for her halfway? Did she not matter to him as much as his cultivation?
Seeing her senior brother working so hard, Xu Qianyu also gathered her energy and sat in meditation for a while. After some time, when she opened her eyes, he was still not awake.

Cultivators can enter a meditative state for a brief moment or last several days and nights, with no important matters to disturb them.
It was too dark and quiet here. Xu Qianyu lost patience and began to play with the little bugs crawling on the ground while training her consciousness.

She didn’t know how much time had passed when her vision began to distort, becoming both blurry and extremely clear at the same time.
Months of training her consciousness had yielded results, and when combined with the perspective talisman, a marvel appeared.

The abundant spiritual energy flowed like willow catkins swirling into Shen Suwei’s back, surging like flowing clouds and starry seas.
The spiritual energy poured into his spiritual pool from his shoulders.
Xu Qianyu’s eyes widened; she could see directly through his clothes, gazing at the bones of the cultivator.

Shen Suwei’s figure concealed beneath his robe was clearly visible. His back was straight, and there were countless scars from weapons on his back, crisscrossing and overlapping, which, after years of cleansing and refining, had become long and short red lines, resembling shattered jade. His waist was narrow and strong, tapering down to a subtle indentation that faded away.

The male body was different from her own—strange and novel. Xu Qianyu couldn’t help but stare for a while. Then she realized who she was looking at and hurriedly removed the perspective talisman, not daring to move a thin layer of sweat formed in her palms.
What she had glimpsed was something she should not have seen, which felt like a transgression.

Xu Qianyu began to torment the bugs on the ground again.
After a moment, she suddenly thought that if her senior brother’s consciousness could probe into her spiritual pool, then her consciousness should also be able to enter his spiritual pool.
She projected her consciousness out, having trained with bugs, fish, and birds before, but she had never explored a cultivator’s spiritual pool, not knowing what kind of realm it contained or what it would feel like.

Today, she finally understood the uncontrollable curiosity that Hualiangyu had experienced that day: when the consciousness becomes strong, it cannot help but desire to peek at and tame all things.
With that thought, her consciousness, like a little turtle, sprang out and collided with Shen Suwei’s spiritual root.
Who knew Shen Suwei would suddenly move? Xu Qianyu had no time to react; a gust of wind rushed by her ears as he directly grabbed her hands and pressed her against the stone wall. Her back hit the wall heavily, and in a mix of shock and fear, her consciousness was jolted back, waking her from her meditation.

The change had happened too quickly. Overwhelmed, she felt no pain, just her heart racing wildly in her throat and her limbs going weak.
Without needing to speak, the chilling sword energy penetrated her bones, revealing the other party’s shock and anger.

Shen Suwei’s dark eyes stared at her, and after a long moment, he spoke, seemingly wanting to clarify what she was thinking: “Are you insane?”