Cheng Qian was the kind of person who worked day and night and did not dare to slack off for even a minute. He had not slept for many years and had a very long dream. In the dream, he was not a monk who could make the world go round and round and be struck by thunder and lightning, but just a down-and-out scholar from a poor family. The rice paper got damp, but he was reluctant to throw it away, so he spread it out to dry, and sucked open the dry nib. The remaining ink had a bitter taste and a sense of embarrassed ease.

Yes, he should have a wife who was dressed in plain clothes and had a simple hairstyle. She would either complain about him throwing things around or complain about him not changing his clothes often enough. That person leaned against the door without any style, picked up his teacup and scolded him, "You are such a poor tea-drinker."

Cheng Qian replied without even looking up: "Isn't it just right for a shrew like you who's leaning against the door frame?"

"Shrew?" The man chuckled, "Why don't you look at who I am?"

Cheng Qian raised his head in a daze, and the flamboyant young man in white caught his eye. He looked at him with a half-smile, his peach blossom eyes filled with unspeakable temptation.

Cheng Qian's heart skipped a beat and he woke up suddenly, feeling a little disoriented.

He opened his eyes and was stunned for a long while, seeing the clear moonlight outside the window and the distant stars. There was a chill of autumn frost in the room. He didn't know when someone put a thin blanket on his body. For a moment, he had the illusion that he was back in the mortal world.

Yan Zhengming sat lazily at the door with his back to him, holding a bamboo leaf in his hand and playing an off-tune tune so as not to disturb others.

Cheng Qian was in a state of confusion and silence for a whole incense stick of time. He was so mesmerized by the sound of his senior brother's flute that he almost wanted to pick up the incense burner and smash it on the back of his head. The throbbing in his dream disappeared. He couldn't bear it any longer and coughed dryly, saying, "Can you go back to your side and play it?"

Yan Zhengming's frantic leaf flute sound suddenly stopped. He did not turn around, but said in a very calm tone: "I have been playing here for three days. The insects in the bamboo forest were so scared that they ran away with their families. Only you turned a deaf ear..."

As he spoke, he turned around, his face was as gloomy as water, his eyes were like deep wells filled with the night, and his voice was full of anger: "Let alone a spiritual cultivator, even a mortal can't sleep so soundly. What's so strange about that wooden sword?"

Cheng Qian said calmly, "There is sword intent in it."

The corner of Yan Zhengming's eye twitched: "Stop talking nonsense, do you think I can't detect it? There is clearly spiritual consciousness in that wooden sword!"

Cheng Qian woke up, still a little dazed, but after hearing these words, he was suddenly frightened awake.

The sword intent in the wooden sword is part of his soul. Has it been discovered? But he has been sleeping for the past few days, and his consciousness should not move casually. Is the eldest brother so perceptive?

He stared at Yan Zhengming for a moment without blinking, not knowing whether the other party was trying to trick him, so he frowned calmly and said, "Of course the wooden sword has spiritual consciousness. The sword intent of the Fuyao wooden sword is like a living thing."

This time Cheng Qian was right, Yan Zhengming was indeed deceiving him.

Soon, Yan Zhengming realized that he could not get any truth out of Cheng Qian, so he turned around angrily, pressed Cheng Qian's shoulders, and pinched his chin with one hand - Cheng Qian's lips were pale, and he still looked tired after sleeping for three days, which clearly showed that he had internal injuries.

Yan Zhengming sneered: "If you don't tell me, won't I be able to see it myself?"

Before he finished speaking, Cheng Qian felt a line of true energy flowing through his Jianjing acupoint and into his meridians. His soul was damaged, and all of his true energy automatically gathered in his inner palace to heal his wounds. He was caught off guard and was completely unable to resist.

The line of true energy rushed straight into Cheng Qian, and he suddenly had an idea. He snorted softly, then bent over in pretending pain... He had never been so smart in his life.

People like Cheng Qian would not even blink an eye even if the sky fell and the earth collapsed. He has been a ruthless person who would swallow blood even if his front teeth were knocked out since he was a child. Therefore, when he occasionally showed a little pain, he seemed particularly convincing. Although his performance was a bit stiff and many parts were not in place, Yan Zhengming was good at scaring himself.

Sect Leader Yan forgot that he was interrogating someone by torture. He was so frightened that his face turned pale. He immediately dispersed his remaining energy, sat on the couch and embraced Cheng Qian, asking incoherently, "What? Did I use too much force? That... I..."

Cheng Qian accidentally developed a new trick to deal with his senior brother, and the effect was beyond his expectations. It seemed that although the self-torture trick was not suitable for frequent use, it was still quite useful to scare people at critical moments. So he simply frowned and shook his head silently.

Yan Zhengming stood up suddenly: "I'll pour you a glass of water."

Cheng Qian opened his eyes a little, waited for the right moment, and said in a voice that was suppressed in his throat, "Actually, I went to Wangyou Valley and saw the remaining soul that Master left there."

Yan Zhengming was stunned.

"My master told me how to use a wooden sword to carry the sword's will." Cheng Qian said without any responsibility. After all, his master was dead and there was no evidence. "It was not my own decision."

Yan Zhengming was almost drowned by his own guilt and did not dare to look at Cheng Qian's face. At this moment, even if his junior brother said that the moon was square, he had to believe it against his will.

The majesty of the head of the sect almost swept the entire yard of Xiaoqing'anju clean.

Cheng Qian heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that he had sent his senior brother away with just a few words. He felt that all the resourcefulness he had accumulated in his life was about to be used up at once.

Yan Zhengming wiped the teacups on the table clean one by one with white silk and was about to pour water into them. Cheng Qian looked at his profile and suddenly something moved in his heart.

Is there any connection between his severed soul fragments and his own consciousness?

As his mind moved, his consciousness suddenly connected with a strange consciousness. Cheng Qian's eyes blurred, and the whole person seemed to be divided into two. One was motionless on the small couch, and the other seemed to be lingering in the Fuyao wooden sword. Through the neutral and peaceful sword wind, he could see a faint black gas lingering not far away...

At this moment, the cup in Yan Zhengming's hand fell to the ground with a "bang". As a cultivator, he was extremely sensitive and could sense when others looked at him for a second longer, not to mention that his inner palace was being spied on by divine consciousness. He just didn't figure out the source at the moment.

Cheng Qian immediately realized that he had become too complacent, and quickly cut off this strange connection and put on an expression as if nothing had happened.

Yan Zhengming frowned, waved his hand to clean up the debris on the ground, looked around suspiciously, didn't see anything suspicious, and thought that he was too nervous and had hallucinations.

He poured another glass of water for Cheng Qian and placed it beside the couch. After thinking for a while, he said, "Don't make people worry."

Cheng Qian looked up at him, wondering in his heart when he would find out the details of his inner demon that he refused to talk about. When Yan Zhengming met his eyes, his throat suddenly tightened and he felt his mind instantly in turmoil.

He quickly coughed dryly, and said, "You are the one who worries me the most. If something happens...how can I explain to Master in my grave?"

Cheng Qianxin thought: "Do I need you to explain?"

He felt inexplicably unhappy, but before he could show it, he heard Yan Zhengming sigh softly, and Cheng Qian silently swallowed back the words that were about to come out of his throat.

Yan Zhengming put one hand behind his back and tapped his thumb with several fingers in turn. The awkward feeling still lingered. He felt that he and Cheng Qian should not be so unfamiliar with each other, but if he was asked to touch or touch each other with a clear conscience, he really couldn't do it. He could only cough dryly and said, "Take good care of your breathing. I will protect you."

After saying that, he sat down at the door, absentmindedly picked up the leaf he had just thrown on the ground, and forgot about the dirtiness, and immediately put it to his mouth - but even if he forgot about his mysophobia, Cheng Qian could not forget his "celestial sound". He felt that if he listened to it a few more times, he would go crazy and explode to death, so he quickly protested: "Don't blow it at my door!"

Yan Zhengming: “…”

A black-shelled insect slowly crawled over the leaf.

Just then, footsteps were heard not far away. Yan Zhengming was startled. He looked up and saw Tang Zhen walking towards him carrying a small porcelain bottle.

"Brother Tang." Yan Zhengming threw the leaves down and stood up.

"Young friend Cheng, are you awake?" Tang Zhen said, handing over the porcelain bottle. "My body can't hold on for much longer, and I'll have to leave tomorrow. I'm very grateful for your hospitality these days. This bottle of elixir is very effective in treating internal injuries, so keep it for you."

Yan Zhengming thanked him quickly, but Tang Zhen didn't say much. He glanced at Cheng Qian in the room from a distance, nodded indifferently, and turned away.

Liu Lang was waiting at the end of the bamboo forest with a lantern. Tang Zhen took the lantern from him and sighed, "In addition to powerful people and demons, the Fuyao Sect is also prone to producing romantic people."

Liu Lang remained silent, and Tang Zhen chuckled softly, folded his long sleeves, put one hand behind his back, and said, "But it's true, cultivation is so boring. If we don't get emotional, what are they going to do?"

As he spoke, he coughed twice. Liu Lang reminded him, "Senior Tang, the look of death on your face is getting heavier."

"Well," Tang Zhen wiped the corner of his mouth, "People like you and me don't need to be infatuated with anyone. It's good enough to survive. I heard that fellow Daoist Nian wants to stay and persuade Master Yan to join the Fuyao Sect. Don't you have this idea? I'm either in seclusion or traveling to prepare for the next seclusion. I'm afraid I don't have the energy to teach you any skills."

Liu Lang's face was expressionless, and naturally he had no expression. He was born without showing his emotions, and he calmly replied, "I will follow Senior Tang."

Tang Zhen waved his hand and said no more. It seemed that it made no difference to him whether Liu Lang followed or not. He was just a mayfly between heaven and earth, coming and going with the flow of water. As they talked, the two of them moved vaguely. In a blink of an eye, they had reached the outskirts of Fuyao Villa. After a few rises and falls, they disappeared like two ghosts.

The next morning, Yan Zhengming was covered in dew. He opened his eyes as if he had sensed something, and looked back at Cheng Qian. Seeing that he was still safe, he waved his hand towards the small bamboo forest on the side and summoned a solemn-looking second martial brother: "What are you doing?"

Li Yun: "The people from Tianyan are here again. You didn't wake up last time, so they asked me to push you away. I guess they never left. They came again when they saw you break through."

"Tianyan?" Yan Zhengming frowned and said without thinking, "Xiao Qian said, fight him out."

Li Yun said sarcastically, "What if Xiao Qian asked you to marry him?"

Yan Zhengming: “…”

Li Yun sighed: "Master Brother, I didn't realize you were so confused..."

Before the word "Jun" came out of his mouth, Yan Zhengming had already quickly popped out a sealing spell to block Li Yun's mouth.

Li Yun couldn't utter a word, so he could only make faces in frustration. He felt that his life under the command of his "later senior brother" was even more miserable than that orphan in reed clothes, like a cabbage rotting in the field with no one to take care of it.

Li Yun thought angrily, "I should run away from home with Shuikeng and wander around the world begging for food!"

Upon hearing this, Cheng Qian opened his eyes and said, "Big Brother, it was you who was in danger last time, and I was planning to practice swordsmanship in seclusion, so I drove them away without explanation. Since they have been waiting for so long, I think we should meet... Um, what's wrong with you, Second Brother?"

Yan Zhengming untied Li Yun's restraint with a flick of his finger. Li Yun coughed until his face turned red and his neck became thick, but he seemed to have found the confidence and shouted to Yan Zhengming: "Did you hear that? Did you hear that!"

Yan Zhengming: "I get angry when I hear the three words 'Tian Yan Chu'. Why do you want to meet?"

Cheng Qian paused, and briefly recounted his encounter with Tong Ru and Mu Chun Zhenren in Wangyou Valley. Finally, he said, "Master said that the one who seduced him into the Three Lives Secret Realm was 'the one who suffered retribution'. Although he didn't point it out, I always feel that he was talking about Tianyanchu. The foundation of Tianyanchu should be much deeper than it seems."

After hearing the whole story, Li Yun couldn't help but frown: "One million lives... Is that what the Grandmaster said?"

Cheng Qian: "What?"

"You have been in seclusion these years, so you may not know much about what is happening outside," Li Yun said, "but as far as I know, there have been no particularly major natural disasters or man-made disasters in the past two hundred years. Even the rebellion of Prince An a few years ago was just a lot of noise but little action, and it was definitely not to the point of bloodshed... How do you explain these millions of lives? Could it be..."

Cheng Qian's eyes darkened. "The only remaining soul of our master is still serving his sentence, and the closure order of Fuyao Mountain has not been lifted. If the wish our master made to the stone was for the revival of the sect, then it has not been fulfilled yet. In other words... the so-called price of one million lives has not been paid yet. Will it be Han..."

Before he could finish his words, the clear sky outside suddenly turned cloudy, and dark clouds came from all directions like a big rag, with thunder rumbling faintly in the air.

Yan Zhengming raised a finger at Cheng Qian and said, "Speak less and don't talk nonsense about the secrets of heaven."

Cheng Qian's eyes darkened slightly, which just meant that he was right.

Yan Zhengming pondered for a moment and stood up: "Go out and meet them."

"Big Brother," Li Yun suddenly called him, "If... it really happened to Han Yuan..."

A bolt of lightning struck outside, making Li Yun's face appear snow-white.

Li Yun: "How do you deal with it?"

Would you protect him despite the wrath of the world? Or would you ignore the brotherhood you shared when you were young and punish him according to the sect rules that are so old and almost demonic?

Yan Zhengming paused and remained silent for a long while. The wind that came from nowhere blew up his sleeves. When he was showing off, being unreasonable, or losing his temper, he didn't look like a leader at all. Only at this moment, his expression was as solemn as that of the ancestors on Fuyao Mountain for thousands of years.

Yan Zhengming did not answer, but just shook his head, turned around and walked into the sky where a storm was about to come.

To show his sincerity, Wu Changtian left all his men outside the villa and only brought You Liang in. He was very humble, poured the tea and placed it in front of the two of them, said "Please wait a moment, sir", and said no more. He stepped aside and devoted himself to being a wallflower.

Although she didn't say anything, Wu Changtian was looking at her. Wu Changtian could certainly see that this girl was not a pure person and her cultivation was not very high. But with his experience and cultivation, he could vaguely feel that there was some kind of powerful and terrifying power in her, which was firmly suppressed by something.

Wu Changtian could not help but lower his head to look at his neatly trimmed nails, thinking that the bloodline of the Fuyao sect was once cut off and there had been no sound for a hundred years, but the inheritance was like a hair hanging by a thread, and although it was in danger, it had never been broken. On the contrary, Tianyan seemed to be growing unprecedentedly, but its core was already rotten and could no longer be sustained.

Who is more pathetic?

At this moment, a sound of footsteps that were deliberately slowed down was heard. You Liang's hand holding the sword suddenly tightened, and he raised his head and stared at the sword cultivator from the Sword God Realm in front of him.

Yan Zhengming's eyes swept across his face indifferently, almost without stopping, and walked slowly to the host's seat. He did not take the initiative to greet him, but just lowered his head to adjust his snow-white and dust-free cuffs. Then, without saying a word, he looked up at Shuikeng. Shuikeng was well-trained and immediately received the instructions. He took small steps to hold the tea and placed the teacup on a tray engraved with a talisman on the table. With a light "ding" sound, the cup of tea suddenly cooled down when it touched the talisman, and a fine layer of water vapor formed on the outer wall of the cup.

Yan Zhengming then took a sip, tapping the wooden table next to him with the fan in his hand, and said in a somewhat indifferent tone: "Tian Yan has never been our friend. You two have come all the way here, which is like a weasel paying a New Year's greeting to a chicken. What good intentions do you have? Tell us what you think."