One didn’t visit a temple without a cause, especially when Lin Xuanzhi was practicing his swordsmanship. Zhan Fengting’s appearance right this moment meant that he must have something important to say.
Sure enough, Zhan Fengting notified him, “Bei Cangmo of Broken Sword Peak just put in a visit notice and has already arrived outside your courtyard. I happened to pass by and see him, so I came to inform you.”
Lin Xuanzhi’s eyes lit up slightly. “Many thanks to Eldest Martial Brother. I’ll be right there.”
“However, he did not come alone.”
Lin Xuanzhi paused in his steps. “Who else is there?”
“Your former junior martial brother, Jing Luo.”
Lin Xuanzhi hadn’t heard people mention this youth for a long time, but it wasn’t to the point where he forgot Jing Luo’s identity.
When Lin Xuanzhi was on Broken Sword Peak, he was ranked fourth. There was only one junior martial brother below him — Jing Luo.
Speaking of Jing Luo, this had a little to do with Lin Xuanzhi– no, not just a little.
It wasn’t Broken Sword Peak’s style to accept disciples who were not from any distinguished families. However, Jing Luo was an exception, because he was picked up by Lin Xuanzhi when he was outside training and gaining experience.
When Lin Xuanzhi met Jing Luo for the first time, he was already near death. Not to mention his serious injuries, he even had a highly toxic poison inside his body. If it wasn’t for Jing Luo’s great fortune in meeting a cultivator, even his bones would have already become ashes by now.
Lin Xuanzhi took him back to Profound Sky Sect and personally taught him how to hold the sword and practice swordsmanship. His consideration for Jing Luo could be said to be vivid and thorough. At that time, Jing Luo was still young and had a cute appearance. He ran behind Lin Xuanzhi with two short legs day in and day out, as though Lin Xuanzhi had a tail.
Because of this, there were even people on Broken Sword Peak who teased Lin Xuanzhi, saying that he got himself a child bride when he went out for a trip.
If he had to say, Lin Xuanzhi held some sympathy and some pity towards Jing Luo. In addition, because this child was saved by him and raised by him, he could be considered Lin Xuanzhi’s half-brother and half-disciple, so he always held a degree of indulgence and concern for Jing Luo.
Before, Lin Xuanzhi also thought that this lovely jade youth was a gentle and harmless small white rabbit, but he didn’t expect that, from beginning to end, he had never seen through the true nature of this youth.
In the previous life, Lin Xuanzhi knew that Jing Luo had always been looking for him, but he held no extra feelings for this young man then, so he avoided him from beginning to end. Later Lin Xuanzhi died. By then, Jing Luo was no longer called this name but had instead become a person ruling above others, one who could lay waste to millions of corpses and make blood flow for thousands of miles in rage.
The last time he saw Jing Luo was after his violent death.
In order to condense his soul, which was about to scatter, Jing Luo’s head of fine black hair turned as white as snow in an instant. Only through Jing Luo’s efforts was Lin Xuanzhi able to survive in soul form until Bai Yichen came with the soul plate, which gave him a chance of survival.
However, ever since then, the karma between him and Jing Luo had already been severed.
Lin Xuanzhi snapped out of his memories and came to his Catching Star Pavilion. He saw Bei Cangmo and Jing Luo, who had already been invited into the courtyard by Jian Yunxi.
When he saw Lin Xuanzhi, Jian Yunxi informed him, “They both have visit notices on them. Senior Martial Brother Zhan asked me to entertain them first.”
Lin Xuanzhi nodded, “Where is Liu Zhaoyue?”
Jian Yunxi expressionlessly answered, “Chasing after beauties.”
Lin Xuanzhi nodded quietly. “I got it.”
After Jian Yunxi tattled on Liu Zhaoyue behind his back, he contentedly went back to practice the sword. These days, he found that following Lin Xuanzhi as a page wasn’t all bad. At least he could see Lin Xuanzhi practice the sword every day and discover his own shortcomings. Thus, he faintly felt that his swordsmanship and sword attainments were about to break through the bottleneck.
On the other hand, Liu Zhaoyue’s mind had not been here for a long time. If it weren’t for the Liu family elder’s explicit orders forcing him to come to Profound Sky Sect to train and gain experience, he probably would have run to some unknown place by now.
Liu Zhaoyue had been the little overlord in his family ever since he was young. Above him, he had an elder brother spoiling him like the pearl of his eyes. No matter what he did, no one dared to rein him in and would even clean up after him instead. Therefore, Young Master Liu was extremely attached to the unfathomable world of mortals and couldn’t stand such a dull and dry life on the mountain at all.
Only a few days had passed, but his true nature was completely exposed.
Lin Xuanzhi didn’t try to rein him in either after he learned about it and let him indulge freely and completely.
After all, this was not his disciple, and he had no responsibility to teach him.
Moreover, one could also tell from Liu Mengchen’s laissez-faire attitude towards Liu Zhaoyue. This was the large families’ usual attitude towards the pampered main branch son of the first wife — in any case, the family was big and its foundations were strong, and there was also a capable main branch elder brother above him. Therefore, the requirements for the younger brother were extremely low. It was enough if the younger brother could live a free and easy life; he had an elder brother to prop up all other matters.
Lin Xuanzhi originally intended to also treat Yan Tianhen this way, but things turned out contrary to one’s wishes. Yan Tianhen’s identity doomed him to never have this opportunity.
“Third Junior Martial Brother.” When Bei Cangmo saw Lin Xuanzhi, his always serious expression relaxed a bit.
Lin Xuanzhi smiled faintly, “I’ve long wanted to see Senior Martial Brother, but I’ve been busy recently and was delayed for a while.”
While speaking, Lin Xuanzhi’s eyes swept over Jing Luo, who was standing beside Bei Cangmo while holding a teacup in his hand, his expression clearly nervous.
His memory of Jing Luo still remained at the final moments of his last life.
At that time, Jing Luo had already climbed to a very high position, and the round and immature little face in his memories had become sharp and angular. His smiling face was full of awe-inspiring solemnity and desolate loneliness. He had a kind of imposing manner befitting of someone with a high status that deterred others from approaching him. But after Jing Luo learned that Lin Xuanzhi had died, he fell down and cried bitterly, like a child who hadn’t grown up yet.
When Lin Xuanzhi saw this somewhat pale-faced teenager again, he couldn’t help feeling that time and space were in disorder. At the same time, he felt very clearly — he had truly returned to the past.
Bei Cangmo looked at Jing Luo. “When he learned that I was coming to visit you, Jing Luo was determined to come with me. You two should have a lot to talk about.”
Lin Xuanzhi was silent.
Jing Luo’s face was pale and he could hardly stand on his feet. He tightly clutched the sleeve of Bei Cangmo with one hand and whispered, “Senior Martial Brother, I came to see you.”
Lin Xuanzhi’s eyes grew cold. “Came to see if I’m still alive?”
Jing Luo’s breathing was a little sluggish. He looked at Lin Xuanzhi’s pair of eyes that couldn’t be seen through, “Senior Martial Brother, I’m sorry.”
Lin Xuanzhi said flatly, “You did indeed wrong me, but now I have no intention of pursuing this with you.”
Bei Cangmo paused slightly, some consternation appearing on his face. No matter how slow he was, at this moment, even he could see that there was something strange between these two people. If he connected this back to how Lin Xuanzhi still treated Jing Luo with a gentle and kind attitude before he suffered that serious injury and had to leave Profound Sky Peak, he couldn’t help but start associating Jing Luo’s abnormal reaction with the events that happened in Yunqi Grotto Heaven.
Bei Cangmo’s expression darkened. Frowning, he asked Jing Luo, “Xuanzhi getting seriously injured actually had something to do with you?”
Jing Luo was flustered and at a loss, but after being exposed, he quickly calmed down and fought back his tears, “It’s because I was muddled for a while and nearly killed Senior Martial Brother. I already knew it was wrong. I’m sorry, Senior Martial Brother. It’s all my fault.”
Lin Xuanzhi stared at Jing Luo, “Man seeks his way up just as water seeks its way down. There is nothing wrong with this, but I am a little curious about exactly what benefits Du Qiying had promised you.”
Big drops of tears had already fallen from Jing Luo’s face. He sobbed heavily, “I didn’t get any benefits from him. I overheard their conversation about scheming against you and was discovered. They put a Gu worm in me and threatened that they would have the Gu worm bite me to death if I told you. I was afraid of death and didn’t dare to tell Senior Martial Brother…waahhh, I really regret it, I’m so sorry…”
Bei Cangmo’s expression was so dark that you could make ink with it. He shook off Jing Luo’s hand bitterly, hating how this lump of unrefined iron couldn’t become steel faster, “Is your brain useless? How can you do such a stupid thing? Du Qiying conspired to stab his fellow disciple in the back, but you actually pretended not to know! Can’t you see how Xuanzhi treats you every day?”
Jing Luo cried even harder and became out of breath, looking very pitiful.
Lin Xuanzhi, however, had no compassion and only responded with, “It seems that in your eyes, my credibility, in the end, still can’t compare with a threat.”
Jing Luo uttered countless “I was wrong”s, dearly wishing that he could slam his head into a pillar and die. At first, Bei Cangmo was angry, but then he got a splitting headache from all the crying, so he raised his hand and directly knocked Jing Luo out.
“I didn’t know he was involved.” Bei Cangmo placed Jing Luo on the couch beside him as he spoke apologetically to Lin Xuanzhi, “When you left the sect back then, Jing Luo lost his mind and wanted to go down the mountain to find you again and again. It’s just that Master locked him in the back mountain and forced him into closed-door cultivation, only releasing him after two years. I thought that the matter of Yunqi Grotto Heaven had nothing to do with him.”
Lin Xuanzhi naturally knew that Bei Cangmo absolutely did not do it on purpose. When he saw Jing Luo, he also didn’t feel his emotions being stirred up much but just felt that it was a pity.
Lin Xuanzhi nodded and expressed his understanding, “He did not wrong me too much. He merely failed to inform me of Du Qiying’s plan in advance and stood by at the critical moment instead of courting death together with me.”
Bei Cangmo asked flatly, “Don’t tell me that those aren’t much?”
Lin Xuanzhi recalled how in the previous life, Jing Luo had almost destroyed his entire cultivation in order to protect the last wisp of Lin Xuanzhi’s soul body and couldn’t help sighing, “Due karma will always cycle back. The debt will always be paid.”
Bei Cangmo shook his head, “I never knew that Jing Luo was actually this afraid of death, nor did I think that he would actually betray you when you treated him like your own younger brother.”
“Everyone’s attachment is different; we can’t generalize and lump things together. Jing Luo stopped at nothing to survive. His goal hasn’t yet been achieved. Naturally, he will not stand to be interrupted by anything halfway.”
Jing Luo was a person with a strong purpose. His talent on the cultivation path was not so good, but he worked harder than anyone else.
On his way to becoming powerful, no one could get in his way. Otherwise, he would kick that person away.
Lin Xuanzhi simply accidentally obstructed his way and nearly endangered Jing Luo’s life.
“Jing Luo…” Bei Cangmo hesitated for a moment, “What exactly is his identity?”
“He is the prince of a secular dynasty. When I saw him, he had already succumbed to a highly toxic poison and was only one step away from death.”
Bei Cangmo nodded in understanding, “So he’s the child of an imperial family in the mortal world. That’s why I thought he looked different.”
For cultivators, the mortal world’s imperial families were the kinds of existence that they should respect from a distance.
It was hard to fathom a person’s mind.
Lin Xuanzhi glanced at Jing Luo, then spoke to Bei Cangmo, “I want to ask you about someone.”
“I know who you want to ask about.”
Lin Xuanzhi calmly stared at him.
Bei Cangmo answered, “Bei Shitian is the young master of my Bei Family.”
Lin Xuanzhi frowned slightly, “I have never heard of a Bei family in the Five Continents.”
Bei Cangmo raised his hand and pointed to the sky, “The Bei family is not in this world but the Nine Lands above. The Bei family was originally a vassal family of the North Lands in the Nine Lands. However, more than ten years ago, it was brutally destroyed. My younger brother and I followed the life token’s guidance and fled all the way to the Five Continents, but then we couldn’t get out anymore.”
Lin Xuanzhi couldn’t help being surprised in his heart. He never could have imagined that Bei Shitian and Bei Cangmo would also come from the Nine Lands beyond the Five Continents.
He had never heard of the Bei family’s name when he was in the Nine Lands before, but that made sense now that he thought about it. There were tens of thousands of vassal families, many of which he had never heard of.
“Then who is Wan Yitong?” Lin Xuanzhi asked.
Bei Cangmo sighed imperceptibly. “Wan Yitong is the heir of the North Sovereign’s clan that my Bei family has sworn loyalty to for generations. He and Xiaotian have known each other since childhood and have always had a good relationship.”
