Chapter 79: The Gate (Part 2)

After Xu Qianyu fell asleep, Shen Suwei ignited a talisman above the candle flame. “Master.”
Xu Binglai’s voice came through clearly, cutting through the quiet of the night. “There’s a troublesome matter I’m entrusting to you.”

He recounted the incident involving Hua Qingyu wanting Xu Qianyu. “With so many details to manage, I didn’t expect that Hua Qingyu to also take a liking to that wild girl.”
“The sect rules state that the winners from each group have the priority to be chosen by elders who have no disciples. If Hua Qingyu clings to this point, it would make things quite difficult for me.”

Shen Suwei paused for a moment. “Didn’t Xu Qianyu say she wanted to be your disciple?”
“That’s what she said, but if Hua Qingyu becomes aggressive, can she really refuse?” Xu Binglai considered Xu Qianyu’s temperament and realized it was possible she could indeed offend the elder. Changing his tone, he added, “Even if she does refuse, it would humiliate the elder, and in the future, it would be her who suffers for it.”

Shen Suwei thought to himself that as the sect leader, Xu Binglai should act with virtue and be respectful. He already had three disciples; if he competed with the elder for the winners, it would tarnish his reputation as a domineering figure.
The master believed Xu Qianyu was getting too much attention and wanted to suppress her a bit to balance the group’s overall strengths and weaknesses, which would eliminate some obvious conflicts.
Shen Suwei remarked, “She has already obtained the Soul Lock.”

“She obtained it, and you don’t want to think of a way to take it back?” Xu Binglai said with a wry smile. “If you lack this kind of ability, then you shouldn’t be called Shen Suwei.”
“What’s wrong? Are you in a difficult situation again?” Xu Binglai noticed Shen Suwei was silent for a while and said irritably, “Can’t you think flexibly? This move is still for her benefit in entering the inner sect. She has already made a name for herself in front of the elders. Even if she isn’t the winner, she has still made an impressive impression.”

Shen Suwei replied, “Xu Qianyu might care about it.”
The Soul-Restraining Lock was something Xu Qianyu had worked hard to obtain. It wouldn’t feel good to have her efforts wasted. He had experienced the bitterness of prioritizing the greater good a few times and understood that feeling well.

He could endure it because he wanted to remain hidden, but that girl was as bright as the morning sun, very serious about everything, and couldn’t tolerate even a hint of darkness; she might not be able to handle this kind of loss.
With such a temperament, like a candle flame in the wind, once she entered the inner sect, where matters related to sect interests would be more prevalent, if no one protected her, it would be hard for her to navigate.

However, he had long understood that one shouldn’t judge others by oneself. Each person is unique, and Xu Qianyu, in particular, was his opposite, yet she was also someone he admired and wished to protect.
If he were to take away the Soul Lock, it would be a minor matter if Xu Qianyu held a grudge against him. But if he extinguished this flame of hers, that would be something he never wanted to see.

“If she cares, just have her come find me later. I’ll explain it to her myself. It’s just a trial; there will be plenty of opportunities to shine in the future,” Xu Binglai said, taking a sip of tea with a smile. “What’s this? She hasn’t even entered the sect, and now she won’t even listen to your master?”

As the talisman burned out, Shen Suwei sat in the dark for a moment before walking into the inner chamber and lifting the curtain.
Xu Qianyu was asleep on her side, fully clothed, with her curled lashes casting two shadows on her cheek.
Shen Suwei knelt beside the bed, gently tracing her collarbone with two fingers, and indeed found the Soul Lock beneath her clothes.
Xu Qianyu began to break out in a cold sweat.

After obtaining the Soul Lock, she was so excited that her drunkenness wore off in the latter half of the night, and she began to half-dream and half-awake, fantasizing about what life in the inner sect would be like:

She would be living in the Zhaoyue Palace, which was much larger than the outer sect dormitories, with a back door leading to a platform extending over the water. During the day, she could practice swordplay there, and at night, she could see the shimmering reflections of the moon, beautiful and enchanting, hence the name “Zhaoyue.”

Lost in thought, she heard Xu Binglai’s voice from outside. Although she couldn’t make out the specifics, she perked up when she heard him casually mention “Soul Lock,” her heart growing wary.

She caught a whiff of the pure, calming fragrance, and the moment Shen Suwei touched her, she was fully awake.
Without purpose, Shen Suwei wouldn’t casually touch her.
“You were right not to let me tell anyone. Just now, I heard the master speaking; did he ask my senior brother to take my soul lock away?” She felt as if cold water had been poured over her, becoming a bit confused. “Why?”

The system didn’t hear anything and could only say, “Not necessarily; let’s wait and see.”
Xu Qianyu tried her best to maintain a steady and long breath, but her hands and feet were cold, and her mind began to wander. She thought about how, if Shen Suwei really did snatch the soul lock, she would need to spring into action and what moves she could use to subdue him the quickest.

Shen Suwei lowered his eyelashes but didn’t touch the soul lock; instead, his fingertips moved slightly to the right, and his consciousness resolutely penetrated.
In Xu Qianyu’s lungs, the six spirits appeared as floating, colorful auras before him, representing joy, anger, sorrow, fear, aversion, and desire, but indeed only the six spirits were present.
The love spirit was missing.

He looked again at Xu Qianyu’s face, unsure if she hadn’t slept well, as her eyelashes fluttered slightly.
He recalled what Fu Lingsha had said: Xu Qianyu’s missing spirit was “related to you, related to the sword.” Since he entered the sect, he had never been apart from his sword. What situation could cause someone to be born missing a spirit? Could it be that in another life before this one, they had called each other senior brother and sister?

Did he kill Xu Qianyu?
A sword through the lungs, shattering a spirit.
It wasn’t impossible.
After all, in the illusion of his heart demon, he had said he would kill her. He understood himself; he had always been cautious with his words, and there was no reason to threaten without action. After all, he had been indifferent for a long time, but at the moment of breaking through, hatred condensed in his heart.
That level of hatred could indeed kill.

Thus, in this life, seeing a wooden sword caused him heartache, and seeing Xu Qianyu brought him guilt.
It was because he owed her a life.
Shen Suwei felt a bit heavy-hearted.
He slowly helped her adjust the quilt that had been crumpled in his arms, his movements very gentle, and then gazed at her face.
Xu Qianyu couldn’t be woken up; otherwise, she would curse. He had learned that from their first meeting, which led him to unconsciously hold his breath now.
Though she was arrogant, her nature was simple. He had indeed killed countless people, but there was always a reason for killing; he had never killed without cause. A junior sister in her teens, what deep hatred could warrant him killing her?

Xu Qianyu felt Shen Suwei helping her tuck in the quilt and was still unsure of his intentions: “What does he really want?”
Then Shen Suwei grasped her wrist and, without hesitation, pressed her hand on the Penglai light imprint.

Xu Qianyu watched as her score decreased by three hundred points, initially furious enough to nearly jump up. Fortunately, she soon realized that these were points he had fed her while he was exterminating ghosts, and they were never rightfully hers to begin with.
Perhaps her useless father warned him, and he took them back.
Observing and treating disciples equally should be expected, and maintaining fairness is certainly understandable.

But Xu Qianyu was still a bit displeased, feeling restless in her chest, not at all comfortable.
However, he didn’t leave; instead, he took out a brocade box, retrieved something from inside, and gently pinned it to her collar, adjusting its position for a while to make it slightly tilt, matching the crimson embroidered floral patterns on her skirt.

As the senior brother pinched her collar, he didn’t touch her at all, yet the rustling was more excruciating than touching her. Xu Qianyu couldn’t help but send the system out to see what it was.
“Ah, it’s the horned butterfly you caught! Made into a collar clasp, with jade beads and silver tassels hanging below. It can flap its wings and light up; it’s beautiful.”
That horned butterfly had been taken by the building lord; Xu Qianyu originally thought she would never see it again, but suddenly receiving it filled her with joy.

Moreover, Xu Qianyu loved beautiful things the most, and as it was described by Keyun, she yearned to get up and see them immediately. However, she couldn’t move or laugh, feeling as if there were cat claws scratching at her heart.
Then the light imprint appeared, adding another three hundred points.
Points from slaying the earth demon.
After hanging the butterfly tassel, Shen Suwei was prepared to leave. But he suddenly thought, having consumed fine wine and delicacies for several days, he wondered if Xu Qianyu’s spiritual pool had completely dispelled the dark energy. He hesitated for a moment and leaned over.

Xu Qianyu suddenly felt that calming fragrance approaching her, enveloping her head, bringing an overwhelming, dizzying effect. Shen Suwei’s hand moved down her spine, and she knew he was about to probe with his consciousness again. After a brief pause, she quietly sank into the spiritual pool.
Shen Suwei’s consciousness circled around the ice shell, observing, and saw the consciousness floating around Xu Qianyu’s spiritual pool was indeed larger and brighter than before.
The master said it had initially taken shape of the Yuan Ying, but in reality, it was still far from complete, merely growing a few small horns.

That consciousness light ball moved like a little turtle, using all its limbs, and was much faster than before, quickly swimming to the forefront.
When his consciousness turned left, she floated left; when he turned right, she floated right, as if peering curiously at the foreign object through the ice ball.
The moment his consciousness stopped, Xu Qianyu’s consciousness light ball suddenly burst out of the ice shell, crashing toward him.

Shen Suwei immediately withdrew his consciousness.
Now that Xu Qianyu’s consciousness was stronger, his long fingers tightened around the edge of the bed, closing his eyes to steady his breath and attempting to calm his racing heart.
Because both of them deliberately held their breaths, the air became so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.
With his eyes closed, Shen Suwei thought that if Xu Qianyu always acted so recklessly in his previous life, being in the heartless path, given his nature, it would not be surprising if he killed her.
But he also knew that it wasn’t like that.

They had likely always maintained a distance because Xu Qianyu had never crossed the line. In the illusion of his heart demon, when she took what she wanted from him, it seemed to pierce the serene surface.
That’s why he felt that way.
Both horrifying and tremulous.
At this moment, Xu Qianyu was too scared to speak.
She played with her consciousness and those two strands of spiritual awareness, suddenly recalling the scene from last time. In a moment of impulsiveness, she wanted to try brushing past him.

However, she hadn’t expected that her consciousness would be so swift now. She merely had a slight thought, and it dashed out directly. Regretting too late, it had already broken through the mountainside, unleashing a flood that was impossible to contain.

Xu Qianyu felt a twinge of unease amidst the shock, afraid of angering her senior brother. However, fortunately, she was “drunk,” so if he scolded her, she could just say she was dreaming. After all, dreams are not something one can control, so it wasn’t really her intention.
With this thought, she continued to pretend to be asleep.
In the moonlight and snowy surroundings, Shen Suwei coldly observed her face.
Xu Qianyu’s eyelashes fluttered, and she couldn’t help but blush.
After a moment, she felt Shen Suwei’s icy fingers touch her cheek and then apply slight pressure as if he wanted to pinch her cheek, which startled her. But after a while, she realized he was just wiping the rouge off her face.

This rouge had been given to her by Linglong, Xuanji that day; after all, it was meant for romantic occasions and contained the fragrance of dew lily, which could easily disturb the heart, something she was unaware of.
Shen Suwei carefully wiped the rouge off her face, his mood already calm, as if this incident had never happened.

She was young, and being drunk made her confusion understandable. Without the love spirit, her actions held no ulterior meaning, just like last time; they could only be considered an accident.
He drew the curtain and did not linger.

However, the tips of his fingers curled slightly within his sleeve, still carrying a trace of dew-lily fragrance, fresh yet lingering with ambiguity.

*
The next day, Yu Chu finally found Ruan Zhuqing at a breakfast stall on the street.
She was sitting on a stool, pleading with the girl eating steamed buns, “Please help me.”
That day, Xu Qianyu had ordered her to score four points each day. After Xu Qianyu left for ten days, Yu Chu had spent the first few days in a daze, sleeping until the sun was high. In the following days, she felt it was no good and had to get up to catch up, making up more than thirty points in one go.
But she still had five points.

Having heard that Xu Qianyu had returned, Yu Chu was afraid she would check her progress. Not daring to go back to the Guo residence, she had to wander outside with a lotus flower, hoping to find some “snacks” floating around to eat.
After several days of searching, she found nothing and could only turn to Ruan Zhuqing for help.
Ruan Zhuqing stuffed the last bite of her bun into her mouth and said, “Why are you so afraid of her?”

Yu Chu whispered in response, “Aren’t you afraid of her?”
“You have a point.” Ruan Zhuqing nodded. “Zhao Mingtang has a kind of magical power; when you’re with her, you just want to please her.”
Yu Chu nodded vigorously, “Yes, yes.”
Ruan Zhuqing added, “When she gets a stern face, you feel your heart jump, and you want to kneel down right away.”
Yu Chu practically regarded her as a confidante, “Yes, yes, yes.”
Ruan Zhuqing pulled a rope, bringing the cage covered in talismans closer. Inside, an evil spirit roared and bumped against the cage. Without hesitation, Ruan Zhuqing threw a talisman at it, frowning, “Where do you think our fairy sister went? She left me the dog and just left. I waited for her for a long time, and she never returned.”

Yu Chu clasped her hands together, pleading, “Please, just let me hit it once.”
“Good thing you came up with this scoring method.” Ruan Zhuqing said, “It’s not that I don’t let you attack this evil spirit. It was affected by the spying curse before, and although it’s much better now, it can still backfire.”
“Let it backfire, then,” Yu Chu said quietly. “After all, it’s just five snacks.”
“How about this: you use the talisman to attack it.” Ruan Zhuqing pulled out a few talismans. “These are the ones I drew, so the backlash counts as mine.”
Yu Chu was taken aback: “Isn’t that bad?”

“Nothing bad about it.” Ruan Zhuqing waved her hand. “I’m much stronger than you. This little backlash means nothing to me, but for your little frame, it might not be so good.”
Yu Chu took the talismans, and Ruan Zhuqing peeled off the talismans covering the cage. The evil spirit glared at her with only its white eyes peeking through the gaps of the cage, making her feel a bit nervous: “But my talisman class didn’t pass. How about I use the crow Pot instead? I’m more familiar with fire control.”
“You don’t need to draw talismans; just stick them!” Ruan Zhuqing whispered the incantation to her.

Yu Chu bit her lip and launched three talismans with a “pop, pop, pop.”
The talismans shone with golden light as they hit the cage. The evil spirit was knocked back by the fierce wind, growling as it retreated.
“That’s three snacks!” Yu Chu exclaimed joyfully and threw two more.
However, the two talismans stuck together, misaligned, and in mid-air, they suddenly caught fire, burning a hole in the plum blossom branch cage.
At that moment, one of the evil spirit’s hands reached through the hole, its fingers clawing as it aimed for Ruan Zhuqing’s face.

Ruan Zhuqing leaned back to dodge, while Yu Chu turned pale with fear and grabbed the crow Pot to spray. The evil spirit’s pale fingers shrank back in fear of fire, but it snagged a sparrow from below a tree and dragged it into the cage.
Having not eaten for several days, the starving spirit swiftly peered through the sparrow before it could even cry out. Ruan Zhuqing hit the cage from behind, forcing it to spit the bird out.
Ruan Zhuqing moved like lightning, quickly throwing three talismans in succession to seal the hole, allowing both of them to breathe a sigh of relief.
The sparrow lay on the ground, bleeding.
Yu Chu hurriedly apologized to Ruan Zhuqing, who waved her hand dismissively, “It’s fine, it’s fine.”

She stood up again as two of her senior brothers, Yun Chu and Yun Lan from Penglai, approached. Both were disciples of the inner sect elder Yi. They wore white robes and carried snow-white whiskers, being quite adept in the art of capturing demons and also studying evil spirits.
The four greeted each other.
Yun Chu said, “I heard that Senior Brother Shen mentioned there were evil spirits here; we came to take over.”
Ruan Zhuqing flipped her hair, reproaching, “I’ve been waiting for you guys for ages; you finally made it.”
Yun Lan, youthful and lively, chuckled, revealing sharp tiger teeth, “It’s hard for you, Junior Brother Ruan, to have looked after it for so long.”

At that moment, Yun Chu’s expression changed, and he waved his whisk as he frowned, “Watch out behind you!”
Ruan Zhuqing and Yu Chu turned around, only to see that the place where the sparrow had lain was now just a bloodstain, with no sign of the body.
A small dark shadow filled with yin energy surged towards the group but was forcefully swept away by Yun Chu’s whisk, dissipating into smoke.

“What’s going on?”
Yu Chu felt a lingering fear: “That sparrow… it was bitten by the evil spirit.”
Yun Chu and Yun Lan exchanged glances and examined the evil spirit for a moment. Yun Chu said, “Indeed, there is a spying curse, and this thing is very evil; it might even have a transmission curse.”

“What is a spell of enhnacement?” Ruan Zhuqing said, “Is it that whatever it bites will… also become like it?”

“You could say that,” Yun Lan replied, suppressing her smile. “Don’t worry, ordinary purification talismans are effective against it. Once we return, we’ll take it to Elder Yi for handling.”

After the two left, Ruan Zhuqing seemed to remember something and suddenly set down her spoon, saying, “This is bad.”

Yu Chu asked, “What’s wrong?”

Ruan Zhuqing looked at her and said, “That day at the Zhao family, Zhao Fukun was also bitten by a dog.”