Chapter 024

Zhaoxue didn’t even react at first.

Wait… is this guy actually trying to snatch something from her?

“Xiao He, although that’s true, this little girl did come first this afternoon,” the stall owner said, “And you, what kind of person are you, fighting with a little girl over something?”

The young man argued, “Grandma, you know I’ve always bought from you, right? I’ve been to Yuxian Town many times, and every time you’ve saved the good new stock for me, haven’t you? So why is it different this time?”

Zhaoxue: “…”

She finally caught on.

Although Zhaoxue usually tried to avoid conflicts, this time was different.

This was something for her big sister.

And… this guy just seemed really slimy.

“Even if it’s first come, first served—”

She raised her voice, cutting off their conversation and slowly turning her gaze away from the young man to the stall owner.

“I was the first to come, and you arrived later. Just making a verbal reservation—anyone can do that. Are you trying to say that’s the rule for business?”

The young man finally quieted down.

He lowered his head and could only see half of the girl’s cheek. She barely spared him a glance, seemingly speaking to the stall owner, but her words were clearly meant for him.

Every sentence was reasonable, yet sharp and pointed.

“Too bad,”

He shook his head and smiled, showing his tiger tooth, “The rules of business really aren’t like that, but Grandma here isn’t running a stall in Yuxian Town’s busy market for profit. A few copper coins — they only make jade look cheap and tacky.”

The stall owner paused and sighed, “I really run this stall just for fun. But…”

“Doing things for fun, of course you don’t have to follow whatever rules you’re talking about,”

The young man smiled cheekily, bending down with one hand supporting his chin as he looked at Zhaoxue’s profile, making a clicking sound with his tongue, “If you’re still thinking about outbidding me later, kid, you might as well save yourself the trouble, okay?”

…Tsk.

Zhaoxue couldn’t help clenching her fist.

It was obvious the stall owner wanted to sell the jade to her, but maybe because of some kind of favor or relationship, she couldn’t make that call.

She needed to give her a way out.

What a pain—this awful, clueless guy.

Zhaoxue rolled her eyes, then adjusted her mood and slowly said, “Since you want it so much, how about we split it in half? How does that sound?”

The young man was stunned for a moment.

What?

“Half each, okay?”

Zhaoxue slowly turned to look him in the eyes. She smiled gently, her disguise gone, revealing her true face under the reddish glow of the dusk sky. Her cheeks were a soft orange-pink, made translucent and lovely by the sunset clouds, her eyes curved with light, and her eyelashes dusted with faint daylight.

It was almost impossible to refuse her request.

Just in that brief hesitation, the girl happily turned away and quickly paid the stall owner, “Thank you for your generosity! Grandma, please carve the character ‘昭’ (Zhao) for me!”

Only then did Lu Zhaohe react. He covered his face, belatedly lowered his head, and irritably clicked his tongue.

Fine, he’d take the loss.

He also took out some money. “Carve the character ‘照’ (Zhao) on mine.”

Unexpectedly…

The girl turned her head with a puzzled look: “Which piece is yours? I paid for the whole piece of jade.”

Lu Zhaohe: “…?”

He widened his eyes and looked at the stall owner.

The kindly old woman also looked over regretfully, but her carving didn’t stop:

“Ah, Xiao He, sorry, I thought you agreed to give this piece of jade to this young lady just now, so I already started working on the whole jade piece. Really sorry about that. Why don’t you look for something else?”

Lu Zhaohe: “???”

Lu Zhaohe clenched his hand on the stall edge, a vein bulging on his forehead: “You…!”

Zhaoxue quickly put away the carved jade pendant, then gave him a regretful smile: “Sorry about that. I hope you find a piece of jade that suits your taste better next time.”

Watching the girl’s figure run farther and farther away, Lu Zhaohe’s anger had yet to subside.

The stall owner smiled warmly: “Xiao He, why hold a grudge against this young lady?”

She then said, “Ah—it’s been so long, your older brother is already here.”

A tall young man in white clothes approached holding a sword, his brow furrowed:

“If we don’t leave soon, we’ll miss the secret realm opening.”

Lu Zhaohe clicked his tongue: “It’s all because of that damn kid…”

He clenched the talisman in his hand, recalling her smile nearly melting into the dusk, and muttered under his breath:

“…Little liar.”

Lu Zhaoshuang caught a glimpse of the spiritual power just dissipated from his palm, closed her eyes helplessly, shook her head, and her soft voice floated into the crowd:

“Childish.”

The good news was that Zhaoxue gave the sword tassel to Zhaoyang, and she really liked it. Although she didn’t say anything, she immediately hung it up.

The two of them successfully eased their relationship.

The bad news was that when Zhaoxue went out to play in the afternoon, she seemed to have caught a cold and kept sneezing nonstop.

“Ah-choo—”

“Ah-choo!!”

Sneezes kept coming one after another.

Fang Lian asked Chen Ying worriedly, “What’s going on? When we came back, Sister Zhaoxue was fine, but less than half an hour later…”

Chen Ying: “Did you give her medicine?”

Fang Lian shook her head: “Zhaoyang was checking her pulse…”

Chen Ying: “I can check pulses too. I’ll go take a look.”

Fang Lian was very concerned: “You’ve only checked spiritual beasts before, are you sure you can do it?”

While the two of them were chatting at the doorway, Jiang Lingfeng walked over.

“Ah, Senior Brother!”

“Senior Brother.”

Jiang Lingfeng nodded, “I’ll go take a look.”

Fang Lian widened her eyes, “I heard Zhaoyang learned some pharmacology from her alchemist friends, but I didn’t expect the Sword Sovereign to know it too?”

Chen Ying sighed heavily and opened the book in his hand:

“Don’t say any more, the sea of learning has no bounds—just study hard.”

—

Jiang Lingfeng saw the girl who was sneezing nonstop as soon as he entered the room.

Her nose was red and her eyes were filled with tears, reddened like a little rabbit.

“How is she?”

Zhaoyang shook her head, “No cold, no allergies, no poisoning.”

Jiang Lingfeng sat down beside Zhaoxue and watched her for a moment.

Zhaoxue felt so embarrassed she just wanted to crawl into a hole.

…Such a huge loss of face!!

But now she was sneezing so much that she couldn’t even speak or stand steadily.

She sadly collapsed into Zhaoyang’s arms.

Jiang Lingfeng’s calm voice came from behind.

“Stand up.”

Not only Zhaoxue, but Zhaoyang was also momentarily stunned.

She quickly reacted, patted Zhaoxue’s back to comfort her, and said, “Stand up first, Zhaoxue. Senior Brother might have found something.”

Zhaoxue slowly stood up, turning her back to him.

Golden spiritual energy gathered at Jiang Lingfeng’s fingertips. Using this energy, he pressed his fingertips on Zhaoxue’s back and scanned down along her thin spine.

Zhaoxue shivered.

Soon, Jiang Lingfeng discovered something.

Under the golden spiritual energy, a thin piece of paper quickly appeared.

Zhaoyang exchanged a glance with him.

Jiang Lingfeng gently tore the paper talisman off Zhaoxue’s back.

Suddenly, Zhaoxue felt a lightness on her body.

She rubbed her nose and counted silently in her mind for ten seconds.

—The sneezing actually stopped!

She happily turned around and saw the yellow talisman paper in Jiang Lingfeng’s hand.

He probed the spiritual energy on the paper and asked her, “Have you offended anyone from the Lu family?”

Zhaoxue was confused, “The Lu family?”

Zhaoyang explained to her, “The Lu family from Xuecheng. The biggest formation clan in Nine Provinces. Their talisman techniques are also very powerful. Formation and talisman arts go hand in hand. Senior Brother, you mean…?”

Jiang Lingfeng handed her the talisman paper. “It was made by someone from the Lu family.”

Zhaoyang looked at the talisman and said, “…It really matches the style of the second son of their family.”

Zhaoxue recalled that young man with the unpleasant smile.

Her fists clenched tightly!!

Seeing her expression, Zhaoyang asked knowingly, “Did something happen?”

Zhaoxue couldn’t hide it anymore, so she gave a brief, vague account of what had happened.

Zhaoyang chuckled a little.

“Looks like that kind of person really could do such a thing.”

Zhaoxue was a bit puzzled. “Big sister, are you very familiar with him?”

Zhaoyang shook her head, “Not really, just met a few times. But… the ‘bad guy’ you mentioned actually once saved your life.”

Zhaoxue widened her eyes.

Zhaoyang smiled and glanced at Jiang Lingfeng: “Senior Brother knows the Lu family twins better than I do.”

“Wait—”

In just a few breaths, Zhaoxue realized:

“Could it be…”

“Exactly,” Jiang Lingfeng responded.

Zhaoxue: “…”

It was actually the Lu family members who once broke the demon lair formation in Yucheng!!

“That formation was indeed broken by Lu Zhaohe, the second son of the Lu family,” Jiang Lingfeng said calmly. “When I went to their team to explain my purpose and make a request, they didn’t make things difficult. The aristocratic families always prioritize their own interests, but because of that, you can also see their true character is not bad.”

“…”

Zhaoyang smiled, stroking her hair: “We also owe them a favor. Since that’s the case, Zhaoxue, just let this matter go, alright?”

“…Okay.”

At this moment, the anger in Zhaoxue’s heart was like a balloon with nowhere to vent, just as it was about to burst, someone poked a hole in it with a needle, and the air slowly escaped.

Frustrating.

“Then come downstairs to eat. You refused to come out for lunch, so you must be hungry, and Martial Aunt Fang and Martial Uncle Chen will be leaving tonight, so it’s a good chance to say goodbye.”

Zhaoyang said as she stood up.

Zhaoxue was about to follow immediately but suddenly remembered something. She turned to look at Jiang Lingfeng and, a bit embarrassed, avoided his gaze:

“Um… thank you, Martial Uncle…”

“Hm.”

Jiang Lingfeng just nodded lightly, then stood up as well, passing by her.

Zhaoxue watched the dark-colored hem of the clothes flutter past her eyes. Somehow, her heart stirred slightly.

She lowered her voice and said:

“—I’m sorry too.”

Jiang Lingfeng paused in his steps.

Before he could speak, Zhaoxue quickly and straightforwardly said:

“I’m sorry for doubting you this afternoon.”

It had been almost instinctive, Zhaoxue suspected Jiang Lingfeng had betrayed her by informing others.

“I once said I would trust you, but I ended up having those thoughts… I’m sorry.”

Zhaoxue lowered her head, not daring to look or even imagine Jiang Lingfeng’s expression now.

She nervously clutched the corner of her clothes, standing there like a child who had made a mistake, waiting for a disappointed or stern reprimand from an elder.

But there was none.

Jiang Lingfeng slightly tilted his head and could see Zhaoxue’s long eyelashes trembling as she looked down, and her fingers twisting the folds of her clothes. Her head bowed, revealing a delicate, porcelain-white neck, black hair falling beside it. She pulled her shoulders in and stood obediently as if she would stay there forever if he said nothing.

Perhaps he himself didn’t realize the faint curve at the corner of his lips.

After a long moment, just as Zhaoxue’s heart remained uneasy, two words floated down gently, landing right before her.

“It’s nothing.”

His voice was low and calm.

Zhaoxue was stunned and raised her head.

The man was already turning away, but as if to reassure her, the next sentence followed closely into her ear.

“Zhaoxue, you don’t need to worry.”

Zhaoxue widened her eyes.

By the time she reacted, he had already left the door, and the dark hem of his clothes disappeared from sight.

—

At dinner, Fang Lian was very pleased to see Zhaoxue sitting obediently by the table waiting.

“Zhaoxue, are you feeling better? No more sneezing!”

Zhaoyang briefly explained the situation to her, and Fang Lian frowned.

“No matter what, the way the Lu family people acted was just too unruly. Zhaoxue is just a mortal, and it’s unreasonable for cultivators to target mortals, especially over such a trivial matter… It’s way too arrogant.”

Jiang Lingfeng said, “That talisman only lasts for one hour. After one hour, even if we don’t detect the talisman, it will automatically fall off and become ineffective.”

Fang Lian’s anger lessened somewhat, but she still slammed the table unhappily, “That’s still not acceptable! How can anyone do something like that to a sweet girl? Look at poor Zhaoxue, her nose is so red. Don’t they have any mercy?”

Zhaoxue: “…”

She had almost stopped being angry, but hearing that made her feel a vague irritation again.

She rubbed her nose.

“It’s okay, not that red.”

Zhaoyang smiled helplessly at her.

Zhaoxue slowly withdrew her hand.

The group then resumed talking about the upcoming farewells.

Fang Lian and Chen Ying had completed their mission and were heading back to the Hidden Sword Sect first. Zhaoyang and the others had to rush to the Qingyang Secret Realm, where the formation would soon open.

“Qingyang Secret Realm?” Zhaoxue had never heard of this term before.

“There are countless secret realms of various sizes all over the Nine Provinces. Most were formed by powerful ancestors after ascending to immortality, using their cultivation power and remains. The secret realms are rich in spiritual energy and nurture many heavenly spiritual treasures. Some smaller secret realms are divided into sect or family territories and become their property, but some realms outside those boundaries, or high-level secret realms that span multiple territories, are jointly managed by sects and families, who set the rules for entry and opening times.”

Zhaoyang carefully explained to her, “The Qingyang Secret Realm is located at the border area of several major family powers. Its origin is unknown, but it generally opens once every ten years for sect disciples, family members, and independent cultivators to enter and explore the treasures on their own.”

“So that’s how it is.”

Zhaoxue had never heard of these things before when she was with her family, so everything was very new to her.

“What is Big Sister going to do in the Qingyang Secret Realm?”

“I need to find some rare medicinal herbs.”

Zhaoyang only said this and didn’t go into further explanation, and Zhaoxue didn’t ask more.

Anyway, Big Sister must have her reasons, and if she needs medicinal herbs, it’s definitely for something important.

“Am I going with Big Sister?”

“Yes.”

Zhaoyang let out a light breath. “I originally planned to have you return to the sect first. But since I’m not going back yet, and it’s not settled over there for now, plus I worry about what others might gossip about, after considering everything, I decided it’s better for you to stay with us.”

Zhaoxue immediately said, “I promise I won’t cause Big Sister any trouble.”

“Mm.”

She smiled and gently touched Zhaoxue’s hair.

“Is Martial Uncle also coming with us?”

Zhaoxue looked at Jiang Lingfeng.

He was drinking tea.

Zhaoxue had heard before that once cultivators reach the state of “fasting without needing food”, they don’t need to eat. But these past days everyone had three meals, though the dishes were all her favorites, and Big Sister and Jiang Lingfeng barely touched their chopsticks.

…They must be doing this to accommodate her.

“Yes. There’s no one else left on Liuguang Peak. Your Martial Uncle has nothing important to do back there, so I asked him to accompany us.”

Zhaoyang smiled, “I heard that when your Martial Uncle was young, he loved traveling and exploring mountains and rivers, but as he got older, he didn’t like going out much. This demon-sweeping trip is a rare outing for him.”

Zhaoxue bit her chopsticks, surprised as she looked at Jiang Lingfeng.

Someone like him—he really was a nature lover when he was young? She really couldn’t tell.

She wondered what kind of person her Martial Uncle was back then.

“Zhaoxue, little sister, Chen Ying and I are leaving tonight. Do you have any parting words for us?”

Fang Lian’s words broke her train of thought.

Zhaoxue turned to look at the two of them.

Chen Ying, even at this moment, was still flipping through a book, while Fang Lian rested her chin on her hand, smiling brightly at her, blinking, waiting for her farewell words.

Zhaoyang thought for a moment before finally saying a few words, “Thank you for taking care of me.”

“Zhaoxue is a child who doesn’t like farewells. When we were in Yucheng, she told us, ‘It’s not like we’ll never see each other again, so what’s the point of saying goodbye?'”

Zhaoyang explained helplessly.

“That’s true,”

Fang Lian paused, then smiled brightly, “Anyway, we’ll see Zhaoxue again soon, so instead of farewells, let’s think about where Zhaoxue will go to explore after returning to the sect.”

She held Zhaoxue’s hand, “When the time comes, you’re welcome to visit our Ruoxu Peak. Although we’re poor, the sisters there are great at big-sword performances! I heard from Zhaoyang that you like watching sword dances—oh, you’ll definitely love watching the big sword shows even more!”

Zhaoxue nodded in agreement.

Fang Lian then patted Chen Ying on the back, “Don’t just stare at your book—say something to show you care!”

Chen Ying reluctantly put down his book and thought for a while before slowly saying,

“You’re welcome to come to Lingjiu Peak when the time comes. I’ll take you there…”

Zhaoxue continued, “Are we going to see the spirit beasts nursing their newborns?”

Fang Lian choked again, vigorously patting Chen Ying’s back to ease her coughing.

Chen Ying: “…”

She still held a grudge.

He gritted his teeth and slowly said, word by word, “I’ll take you to touch the newborn little spirit rabbits.”

Only then did Zhaoxue’s eyes widen.

…Little spirit rabbits.

“There really are some,” Zhaoyang said from beside them, “When I went to Lingjiu Peak before, I saw their little spirit rabbits—born in litters, all kinds of colors.”

“…”

Wow!

Seeing Zhaoxue’s expression, Chen Ying felt a bit proud inside.

He lifted his chin and slowly said, “If you really like them, you can pick one to take with you then.”

A sparkle appeared in the girl’s eyes.

…She really is still just a child.

—

After nightfall, Fang Lian and Chen Ying said their goodbyes.

At their level of cultivation, they could already fly on swords.

In the blink of an eye, the two figures vanished into the vast clouds and were gone.

Zhaoxue stood at the doorway.

After a while, Zhaoyang came over. She said something to Jiang Lingfeng, then walked up to Zhaoxue with a serious and apologetic expression.

She gently stroked Zhaoxue’s hair. “We just received news that the Qingyang Secret Realm will open earlier than originally planned. So your martial uncle and I have decided to change our plans and depart immediately. We originally wanted to take a carriage, but because of the time, we decided to fly on swords instead… Zhaoxue, when you’re on the sword later, hold onto me tightly, close your eyes, and don’t look down, okay?”

Zhaoxue obediently nodded.

Inside, she felt more excitement than fear.

After all, this was sword flying!!

She was going to experience it even earlier than Zhaolan!

Zhaoyang was still worried: “If you feel dizzy, just tell me.”

Just before stepping onto the swaying sword, the system announced an even more important message to Zhaoxue.

【The Qingyang Secret Realm is part of the main storyline,】

The system was very excited, sounding even more eager than her,

【The third male lead will appear in the storyline of this Secret Realm!!】