The Cultivation World.

Qian Prefecture, Louzhou, Wanxuan Academy.

The tea fragrance carried rich spiritual power, slowly spreading through the quiet room.

“……So you’re saying that Pei Heguang not only knew about your previous plans, but also told everything directly to Ning Chengfeng in front of everyone?” Hao Zheng’s expression switched between schadenfreude and sympathy several times, finally settling on schadenfreude.

Chu Jun made an affirmative sound.

“That kid didn’t come to settle accounts with you?” Hao Zheng stroked his beard. “Didn’t take his precious sword to chop you up?”

Chu Jun shook his head and said, “He hasn’t mentioned this matter again since then.”

Hao Zheng said puzzledly, “That doesn’t seem like his usual way of doing things.”

Chu Jun unhurriedly rubbed the teacup in his hands. “He’s holding it in.”

When he had just awakened, he seemed not to have figured things out yet, but in these two days since returning to the Seventeen States, the way he looked at him had gradually begun to seem wrong.

“I was wondering why you had the leisure to come hang around my place.” Hao Zheng laughed with schadenfreude. “You deserve it.”

Chu Jun narrowed his eyes slightly.

“I kindly gave you advice, so don’t you dare scheme against me.” Hao Zheng picked up his teacup and took a sip. “Worthy of being spiritual tea grown on Ruogu Peak.”

“Help me, and I’ll give you both packages.” Chu Jun said.

Hao Zheng raised his eyebrows, tucked his sleeves and said teasingly, “I remember that over five hundred years ago, a certain Head Teacher Chu swore to me that he would die breaking through the fate tribulation, being cold and ruthless… scheming and calculating, going to great lengths and not hesitating to expand the sea and reshape bones for a little kid——“

Chu Jun sat calmly drinking his tea.

“Tsk, ‘At least this way he can live more than ten years longer, I don’t owe him any karma,'” Hao Zheng clicked his tongue. “My memory isn’t good, who said that again?”

Chu Jun continued drinking his tea.

Hao Zheng reached out and pressed down on his cup. “Is this tea really meant for me or not? How come you keep drinking it endlessly?”

Chu Jun had no choice but to put down his teacup.

“If he were angry and furious now, that would be fine, I have ways to deal with it,” Chu Jun lowered his eyes and said. “But now he’s being neither cold nor warm, refusing to mention this matter at all……”

“So now you’re left hanging here,” Hao Zheng shook his head and laughed heartily. “You have your day too!”

Chu Jun lowered his eyes without answering, looking as if he was lost in thought.

Hao Zheng mocked him to his heart’s content, and only then restrained his laughter and said seriously, “Ever since the battle at Xingluo Cliff, that Pei Heguang has repeatedly used old matters to provoke Ning Chengfeng, probably with the intention of making him reshape his Way of Ruthlessness heart. Afraid that people wouldn’t take the bait, he deliberately used the Ning family’s old affairs and the Suzaku Broken KNife to lure him… But if it was just to possess Ning Chengfeng’s body in the end, this seems a bit inexplicable.”

“He originally wanted to seize Chengfeng’s spiritual root, and then try to possess his body when Chengfeng’s dao heart was unstable.” Chu Jun frowned slightly. “But it looks more like some kind of test.”

Hao Zheng stroked his beard. “In the past half year, the instability of the Eight Trigrams Great Formation has become known to everyone, and now everyone knows that Ning Xiu is transformed from the Linglong Bone. Not only the Chongzheng Alliance, but the Ten Sects and Eight Great Families are all watching Ning Chengfeng, not to mention how many people are fishing in troubled waters. Things have developed so rapidly, it’s hard to guarantee that it’s not that Pei Heguang causing trouble.”

Chu Jun slowly tapped on the table.

“How do you view the matter of the Eight Trigrams Great Formation?” Hao Zheng suddenly asked him.

Chu Jun glanced at him indifferently.

“If… repairing the Eight Trigrams Great Formation can only use the Linglong Bone, and Chu Linyuan and the others really found a way to preserve Ning Xiu’s life, what do you and Ning Chengfeng plan to do?” Hao Zheng said.

“Why repair the Eight Trigrams Formation?” Chu Jun’s tone sounded somewhat cold.

“Once the Eight Trigrams Formation is destroyed, the spiritual power of the Seventeen States will completely disperse, and I’m afraid it will be even more hopeless for cultivators to ascend in the future.” Hao Zheng sighed.

“Even when it wasn’t destroyed, there weren’t many who could ascend.” Chu Jun sneered lightly. “What they’re really planning, they know in their own hearts.”

“Hey you——” Hao Zheng hadn’t heard him speak in this tone for hundreds of years, and was somewhat surprised for a moment. “You haven’t lifted the prohibition on the Way of Killing, have you?”

Chu Jun silently stared at the white mist curling upward.

“You have the nerve to call others stubborn, you’re the most twisted one.” Hao Zheng looked at him helplessly. “If Zhuozhi Zhenren were still here, he’d definitely beat you, you stubborn mule!”

Chu Jun said, “I have already changed my dao path, so even if I lift it, it doesn’t matter.”

“Heh, you said the same thing when you swore you would die breaking through the fate tribulation.” Hao Zheng snorted coldly. “And what happened? You’ve got a whole basket of kids with someone, and now you’re running here asking me to help you coax people.”

Venerable Jinghe, who was drinking tea, choked.

****

Ning Xiu hugged a small ball and ran forward with great interest under the corridor, while Ning Buwei slowly followed behind him, leisurely appreciating the long-missed scenery.

Having not returned for a long time, Wanxuan Academy was still the same as before——extremely boring.

A branch of wintersweet was blooming splendidly. Ning Buwei reached out to break it off, when a stone imbued with spiritual power flew menacingly toward his hand. He caught it in his palm.

He looked in the direction of the sound and saw Shang Nuanwei standing at the doorway, glaring at him with an unfriendly expression. “What kind of scoundrel are you, daring to randomly touch the flowers in my courtyard?”

Ning Buwei properly bowed to her, but his tone was very perfunctory. “Vice Dean Shang.”

Shang Nuanwei and the other two elders were vice deans of Wanxuan Academy, but after all, the word “vice” didn’t sound very good, so everyone tacitly agreed to call her Dean Shang, and rarely did anyone who was tired of living call her Vice Dean.

Shang Nuanwei was about to scold him when Ning Xiu hugged her leg. “Pretty auntie~”

“Xiao Xiu?” Shang Nuanwei looked at him in surprise, reached out and hugged him into her arms, laughing. “Auntie hasn’t seen you for so long. You’ve been running around with those two unreliable fathers of yours all the time, you’ve gotten so thin. Let auntie give you a kiss——“

Ning Xiu happily made a “da” sound, pointing at the flowers and saying, “Auntie, want flowers~”

“Alright, auntie will pick the biggest one for you.” Shang Nuanwei kissed him hard again and broke off a large, most vibrant branch for him to hold and play with.

Ning Buwei walked to the doorway with his hands behind his back, swaying leisurely, and inconspicuously looked inside.

“What are you sneaking around looking at!” Shang Nuanwei said irritably.

Ning Buwei said with a humble face, “It wouldn’t be very polite to go in without the host’s permission.”

“You used to climb through windows every day and I never saw you being polite.” Shang Nuanwei snorted coldly.

“Didn’t Vice Dean Shang say she didn’t recognize me?” Ning Buwei said leisurely with his hands behind his back.

Shang Nuanwei lifted her foot to kick him, but he dodged it with ease and naturally entered the door.

Ning Xiu looked down at the wintersweet in his arms, secretly licked it, didn’t taste anything, and had his mouth pinched by Shang Nuanwei. “How are you just like your father, putting everything in your mouth?”

“Da~” Ning Xiu smacked his little mouth. “Not sweet.”

“Of course it’s not sweet.” Ning Buwei kept one hand behind his back, bent down to look at the bottles and jars on the table. “Vice Dean Shang hates it most when people eat sweet things. Vice Dean, may I touch them?”

Shang Nuanwei said, “Touch whatever you want. If you break anything, I’ll go find Chu Jun for compensation.”

Ning Buwei guiltily touched his nose. “How could I be so presumptuous.”

Shang Nuanwei sat down in a chair holding Ning Xiu. “Do whatever you need to do quickly, stop putting on airs with me here. I won’t charge you for jade spirit pills, just let me borrow your son to play with for two days.”

Ning Buwei nodded very generously. “Deal.”

Ning Xiu, who was busy gnawing on flowers: “??”

Although they hadn’t seen each other for hundreds of years, Shang Nuanwei’s room was still the same as before. There were all kinds of strange spiritual plants, spirit beast and beast cores, and not only that, almost all the talismans and formations in the world could find originals or rubbings here. Ning Buwei had been a regular visitor here when he studied at Wanxuan Academy. Shang Nuanwei had more than once mentioned wanting to take him as her final disciple, but Ning Buwei never agreed because he was playful, which greatly displeased Vice Dean Shang.

But displeasure aside, the restrictions in this room remained ineffective against him. In these five hundred years, he had secretly slipped in many times without being discovered——

Perhaps Hao Zheng and Shang Nuanwei had already discovered him when he first landed on the island, but they all tacitly turned a blind eye and pretended not to see.

Ning Buwei worked on talismans and formations all afternoon. Ning Xiu called “father” several times, and he responded perfunctorily and carelessly each time, without even bothering to lift his head.

After finishing the last stroke, he finally moved his neck and looked up at Ning Xiu. “Come on, father will take you to——Chu Jun?”

Chu Jun finished the last sip of tea in his cup and said calmly, “Finished drawing?”

“Yeah, finished.” Ning Buwei put down the brush in his hand. “How did you come here?”

“Ning Xiu should eat dinner.” Chu Jun said, “Let’s go.”

It was currently winter break. Except for the special islands used for head teachers and disciples who didn’t go home to stay overnight, there were basically no people in other places. They were now living in the room that Chu Jun had used when he was a head teacher here. It wasn’t too big, but it was barely sufficient.

Feng Zizhang and a few others went with other staying disciples to the Fuluo Secret Realm for training, led by the head teachers. They were said to return in a couple of days. Big Yellow and Little Black were taken along, so Ning Xiu was somewhat lonely by himself.

He sat at the table and obediently finished his meal, then had his mouth and little hands cleaned by Chu Jun, and rubbed his round little belly, feeling a bit gloomy.

Chu Jun touched his little head. “They’ll be back soon.”

“Da~” Ning Xiu leaned against his arm. “Father~ where did he go?”

Chu Jun looked up, and sure enough, Ning Buwei had disappeared again.

After playing the “find father” game with Ning Xiu for a while, and after confirming for the seventh time that Ning Buwei hadn’t hidden himself in the vases on the antique shelf, Ning Xiu finally gave a little yawn.

“Mother~ sleepy~” Ning Xiu drowsily leaned against his embrace, like a soft little cotton ball.

Chu Jun touched his little ear. “Sleep then.”

Ning Xiu fell asleep in his arms after a short while, and seemed to be having some beautiful dream, grinning happily.

Chu Jun tucked him into his little blanket, and the door behind him was pushed open.

“Asleep?” Ning Buwei leaned against the door frame and asked him.

“Mm.” Chu Jun turned to look at him, then his gaze paused.

Ning Buwei had wet hair and was wearing clothes with the front wide open. His originally somewhat sharp eyebrows and eyes had softened considerably in the water vapor, but the expression on his face was not very friendly.

The great demon pointed to a small crimson mole at his collarbone, his voice seeming to carry ice shards. “You explain to me what the hell this thing is?”