Chapter 33: 《033》

At this moment, with everyone’s attention focused on them, Lou Yue’s mind had wandered elsewhere.

Thank goodness she couldn’t lift one leg, she thought. Otherwise, she would have looked like a koala clinging to Xiao Rangchen, and that sight would have been even more unbearable than this.

Just thinking about it made her feel better.

She released the arm wrapped around the back of Xiao Rangchen’s neck and was just about to lower it when a fierce sword aura suddenly shot toward them from behind, its killing intent aimed directly at her heart.

Before she could make a move, Xiao Rangchen had already spun away with her in his arms.

Cangya Xun formed a sword seal with his fingers and sneered. “So it was a gutter rat hiding in the wilderness, too afraid to show its face.”

As soon as he finished speaking, sword energy tore through the air and chased after the two of them as they sped away.

Xiao Rangchen’s hand, which had been supporting Lou Yue’s back, slid down to her waist. He pushed her toward Big Brother Wei, and Lou Yue leaped in that direction. When she landed, however, her balance wavered slightly.

Liufeng Xin noticed and hurriedly asked, while carefully restraining her excitement, “What happened to your leg?”

“The kneecap was fractured.”

Lou Yue’s voice was calm, but her eyes remained fixed on the battle between Xiao Rangchen and Cangya Xun.

Cold light flashed back and forth. Sword energy and spear force refused to yield to each other. Cangya Xun’s sword techniques struck directly at vital points, while Xiao Rangchen’s spear tore through the air, its momentum flowing in one seamless motion. For a time, the two were evenly matched.

Fat Second stared in shock at the familiar figure amid the sword light, his voice trembling. “You’re Miss Yue... and he’s Brother Chen?”

“I knew Brother Chen was strong, but I never imagined... he could be this strong...” The Young Lord of Cangya was regarded by every great clan as the foremost genius of the younger generation.

Big Brother Wei replied stiffly, “I always thought he was at the Great Ascension stage, but now he’s fighting the Young Lord of Cangya, who entered the Deity Transformation stage several years ago, to this extent...”

“Boss...” Fat Second sounded dazed. “We didn’t offend Brother Chen earlier, did we?”

Big Brother Wei kept his eyes fixed on the two figures who repeatedly collided and then abruptly separated on the battlefield. “Probably... not.”

Liufeng Xin carefully supported Lou Yue as they slowly made their way to a stone block behind them. She crouched down and rolled up Lou Yue’s trouser leg. Spiritual power surged from both her hands as she began treating the fracture, but her mouth never stopped moving.

“Come on, tell me. Why did the two of you appear all tangled up in each other’s arms?”

Lou Yue shifted her gaze from the battling figures and answered in an indifferent tone, trying to make light of it. “An accident.”

Liufeng Xin gave her a sidelong glance. “That must have been quite an accident.”

“...”

“He recognized you?”

Lou Yue’s brows drew together slightly. After a moment’s hesitation, she lowered her voice. “Probably not. He suspects something. He’s tested me several times.”

Liufeng Xin recalled how Xiao Rangchen had shielded the head and back of the person in his arms when they landed, as though terrified that they might be hurt. If he merely suspected her identity, someone with his aloof nature and aversion to strangers would never have gone that far.

Seeing the confusion on Lou Yue’s face, she decided to set the doubt aside for now. With a teasing smile and a blink, she asked, “So, during those three days, you were together day and night, like a pair of blissful lovebirds? Nothing else happened? You know... anything exciting?”

Lou Yue ignored the latter half of her question and frowned. “We fell into the spatial rift less than a day ago. How did it become three days?”

“Huh? You’ve been gone for three days. Today is the fourth.” Liufeng Xin paused, then pointed toward the carvings in the distance, which radiated an aura of primordial antiquity. “Didn’t you notice that we’ve already reached the area outside the core zone?”

At the mention of this, Lou Yue’s expression immediately darkened. For once, a trace of severity entered her voice. “What exactly did I tell you when I sent that message? I told you not to come in. You’re only at the Core Formation stage. One careless mistake and you could have died. Did you think I was joking?!”

Knowing she was in the wrong, Liufeng Xin immediately hunched her shoulders and hurriedly changed the subject. “Hey, hey, aren’t you going to ask why everyone’s gathered here?”

Lou Yue knew exactly what she was trying to do. She shot her a look but said nothing.

“The four great clans occupied the entrance and refused to let rogue cultivators into the core zone. The rogue cultivators refused to accept that, so they started fighting.”

“Could they beat them?” In this cultivation world, resources had been monopolized by the four great clans for over a thousand years. Rogue cultivators had neither sects nor backing, neither treasures nor influence. How could they possibly contend with the deep foundations of the four great clans?

“Oh, sister, you’ve asked the key question! My sister is truly so clever!” Liufeng Xin seized the opportunity to shower her with praise, hoping Lou Yue would forget that she had ignored her warning.

Lou Yue glared at her. Liufeng Xin coughed lightly and continued, “Naturally, they couldn’t beat them. But who would have thought that the core zone would suddenly undergo a disturbance and eject everyone who had entered? Then a voice announced that the inheritance trial would begin in six hours, and that the entrants would first have to fight until only one hundred people remained. A platform even rose from beneath the ground.”

Liufeng Xin finished treating Lou Yue’s knee and pulled her trouser leg back down. With a teasing grin, she said, “But before anyone could even step onto the platform, you two came flying down from the sky, clinging to each other in a dazzling entrance. The whole scene went from a passionate battle straight into a romantic love story.”

Lou Yue: “...”

“What kind of accident could make you take the initiative to cling to him like that? Sister, something’s wrong with you.” Liufeng Xin stared at her suspiciously.

Unable to withstand Liufeng Xin’s persistent questioning, Lou Yue gave a brief explanation. “The passage was too narrow. A powerful beast was chasing us, and we had no other choice.”

“Oh?” Liufeng Xin raised a brow and deliberately pressed further. “What if it had been Big Brother Wei instead? Would you have held on to him like that too?”

Lou Yue fell silent.

“You wouldn’t have. If it had been someone else, you definitely would have told him to go first and found another way yourself. No matter what, you wouldn’t have clung to him so closely.” Liufeng Xin sounded certain.

Those words sent Lou Yue’s thoughts into turmoil. She abruptly stood up and forcibly ended the subject. “I haven’t even settled accounts with you yet, and you’re already interrogating me?”

Liufeng Xin scrunched up her features and wrapped her arms around Lou Yue’s waist, pleading coquettishly. “Please forgive me, sister. Look, I’m perfectly fine, aren’t I?”

Before Lou Yue could reply, a tremendous boom rang out from the front.

Xiao Rangchen and Cangya Xun were both blasted backward. One crashed into the rock wall behind him, while the other staggered back to the foot of the stone platform.

Blood spilled from the corner of Xiao Rangchen’s mouth. He casually wiped it away with his fingertip, his eyes cold enough to pierce bone as he glared at Cangya Xun in the distance.

Cangya Xun was in slightly better shape, though his breathing was also somewhat labored, and a vicious aura had surfaced between his brows.

The spiritual power surrounding both men surged once more. Just as they were about to charge at each other again, a pale-blue barrier suddenly rose over the black jade platform and repelled them both.

Immediately afterward, two beams of light descended onto Xiao Rangchen’s and Cangya Xun’s foreheads respectively. In the blink of an eye, they condensed into bright-red diamond-shaped marks.

Neither man paid the marks any attention. They gathered their strength and charged at each other, but in the next instant—

The red marks on their foreheads suddenly blazed. An irresistible force descended from nowhere and hurled them apart, churning their blood and qi.

An ancient, indifferent voice, devoid of even the slightest emotion, seemed to descend from the heavens above.

“Those who disobey will be erased.”

Only four words, yet they carried overwhelming pressure. Everyone’s knees trembled, and even breathing became difficult.

A moment later, the pressure dispersed, and the barrier over the platform vanished with it.

“You’re lucky to be alive,” Cangya Xun sneered before turning and stepping down from the black jade platform.

Lou Yue withdrew her gaze and looked once more at Liufeng Xin, who was still clinging to her waist and acting spoiled.

On the other side, Xiao Rangchen came down from the platform. Big Brother Wei immediately told him about the requirement to narrow the group down to one hundred people. Xiao Rangchen acknowledged it, then searched through the crowd for Lou Yue.

At last, his gaze settled on the tree in the distance.

A woman dressed in white had both arms wrapped around Lou Yue’s waist, her entire body pressed against her in an intimate, natural embrace without the slightest hesitation.

He knew without having to think that this woman was the one who had publicly confessed her feelings to Lou Yue in Xuandu—the Liufeng clan’s saintess, Liufeng Xin.

Lou Yue lowered her eyes, her lips moving as though she were scolding her in a low voice. Liufeng Xin immediately hugged her even tighter, rubbing her cheek against Lou Yue’s chest with a coquettish, pleading smile. She was practically hanging off her.

“Sis, I’m really sorry. I promise I won’t do it again. Please forgive me this once.” Liufeng Xin tipped up her face and admitted her fault.

Lou Yue snorted. “How many times have you said that? Don’t expect me to take you along again.”

Liufeng Xin immediately buried her head against her and rubbed even more enthusiastically. “Ahhh, I mean it this time! Fine, I swear—if I cause trouble again, I’ll be punished by not being allowed to touch alcohol for a whole month! Come on, forgive me already.”

Her hair tickled Lou Yue’s neck. Lou Yue pinched her at the waist, where she was especially ticklish, and scolded her with a laugh, “That’s enough! Stop using this trick all the time!”

Liufeng Xin dodged with a laugh. “Who can blame me when it works so well? Just tell me—do you forgive me or not?”

Lou Yue tried to pull her away, lest the woman keep acting like a cat and use her own hair to torment Lou Yue’s ticklish, sensitive neck. But Liufeng Xin immediately tightened her arms around her.

Lou Yue was helpless against her and sighed. Just as she was about to say something, Liufeng Xin had already thrown her head back and planted a loud, crisp kiss on Lou Yue’s cheek, leaving behind a faint lip print.

“I knew you were the best, Sis!”

After repeatedly failing to cure Liufeng Xin of her habit of kissing people whenever she pleased, Lou Yue had long since given up. She merely rolled her eyes at her helplessly. “Wipe it off yourself.”

With a giggle, Liufeng Xin reached out and wiped the rouge from Lou Yue’s face, her eyes gleaming with sly satisfaction.

Lou Yue sighed and shook her head. Then she casually glanced up—and froze.

At the edge of the crowd not far away, Xiao Rangchen stood quietly, and it was impossible to tell how long he had been watching them.

His figure was tall and solitary, the air around him cold and forbidding.

Just as her gaze was about to meet his eyes, he turned away indifferently, as though that earlier stare had never existed.

Lou Yue gave it no further thought. She simply pulled Liufeng Xin, who was still clinging to her, down from her body and earnestly warned her, “If you don’t make it into the top hundred, stay here obediently and wait for me to come out. Do you hear me?”

Liufeng Xin muttered, “I know.”

She knew her own abilities well. She was no good at fighting, and she had come to the ruins merely to broaden her horizons.

Yet an hour later, she touched the red mark on her forehead and murmured, “Sis, this is the first time I’ve felt... like I might have the protagonist’s halo.”

She ​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌​‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​‌​​​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​​‌​​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​​​​‍had gone up just moments ago intending to put on a token performance. Who could have expected that the person she was matched against would suffer a relapse of an old injury the moment he took up his stance, then promptly faint dead away? After that, the red diamond mark had appeared on her forehead.

Lou Yue found the result truly exasperating. If she had had her way, she would not have wanted Liufeng Xin to enter the core area. Although they knew the general nature of the trials, the actual process would still be fraught with unpredictable dangers. Liufeng Xin was not skilled in combat, and Lou Yue was afraid she would not be able to protect her at every moment.

Liufeng Xin herself was not worried in the slightest. Instead, she urged Lou Yue to hurry up and take the field before she lost her spot.

Pushed forward by Liufeng Xin, Lou Yue stepped onto the platform, and a figure descended on the opposite side.

It was a tall, strikingly beautiful woman dressed in daring, eye-catching clothes. A languid, seductive smile curved her lips as her gaze settled on Lou Yue.

“Little sister, when we fight later, be careful not to hurt me, all right?” she drawled flirtatiously.

Lou Yue’s eyes narrowed slightly. She was just about to make a move when Liufeng Xin suddenly let out a soft cry behind her.

“Hong Chou!”

Lou Yue paused.

Hong Chou—one of the women in the harem entourage.

If the Liufeng clan’s saintess was the white moonlight in Long Aotian’s heart, then Hong Chou was the thorny, soul-hooking red rose. In the novel, she was the first woman to engage in dual cultivation with Long Aotian—and the one who did so with him the most often.

She was Hong Chou?

Why had she appeared so much earlier than in the original plot?!