The young junior brother appeared.

The next morning, when Ji Guanqi woke, he still saw Xiao Tangqing standing outside. He did not know whether the man had stood there through the entire night, but a trace of cold clung to him from head to toe.

After glancing at Xiao Tangqing, Ji Guanqi turned and walked away. Xiao Tangqing, who had already been about to speak, froze for a moment, then quickly followed once he recovered.

“In two days, it will be the grand sect ceremony,” Xiao Tangqing said from behind him. “As for what happened last night, will you report it, or shall I?”

“You do it,” Ji Guanqi replied carelessly, not even looking back as he headed down the mountain.

As Xiao Tangqing had said, the grand ceremony of the sect was only two days away, and the protective formation around the sect had already been activated. Everyone was guessing whether the trial phase had begun early.

The cultivators’ lodgings were not up here but at the foot of the mountain. All of them kept to themselves obediently, not daring to behave recklessly before Xuantian Sect, known throughout the world as the foremost sect under heaven.

“I heard that Venerated Immortal Zhennan came out of seclusion yesterday, but soon entered seclusion again. I have never heard of such a thing before.”

“Who knows? Maybe it’s just a rumor.”

“That came from an inner disciple of Xuantian Sect. How could it be a rumor? Tell me, with this grand sect ceremony, do you think Venerated Immortal Zhennan will take a fourth and final disciple?”

“The Immortal has long said he will only ever accept three in his lifetime.”

...

A crowd of outside cultivators gathered together, curiously taking in every blade of grass and every tree of Xuantian Sect. At that moment, Ji Guanqi sat on a rooftop watching them. He found the whole affair rather tiresome. In the past, because of his title as senior disciple, he had no choice but to shoulder these tedious matters. Now that he was preparing to throw off that burden entirely, who would still care for such things?

He was not here for anything else, mostly to see how that junior brother from years ago, Xi Yao, had displayed such dazzling brilliance that he astonished the world, to the point that even his master, long shut away in seclusion, broke his own vow and took another disciple.

“After the sect ceremony that year came the training journey down the mountain,” Ji Guanqi murmured as he sorted through the events of his former life in his mind. He held the Gentleman Sword in one hand and sat loosely on the roof. “Something went wrong on that journey. Luo County was invaded by demonic cultivators and sought protection from Xuantian Sect. It was also then that Xi Yao was abducted by them. When he returned, he was grievously injured, while other junior brothers were killed or wounded as well. As the leader, the eldest disciple failed to protect his juniors, and so he was punished.”

Ten lashings of the disciplinary whip, each stroke to the bone, until he lay in bed for half a month, unable to rise or walk.

Unconsciously, he lifted a hand to his shoulder, as though he could still feel the scars left there by that time.

A little later, Xiao Tangqing’s voice sounded again. “I thought you had gone off to cultivate, but instead you came here.”

Ji Guanqi was not surprised when he heard it. He had already sensed the other man’s approach. He had only thought Xiao Tangqing had come to find Xi Yao, and had not expected him to come for him instead.

“Have you gone dumb?” Xiao Tangqing said after several attempts to start conversation were met with Ji Guanqi’s indifferent silence. His brows drew together slightly. He had never been treated with such coolness before, and displeasure rose in him at once. “You used to chatter endlessly. Now you’ve learned silence.”

“Didn’t you tell me to speak less?” Ji Guanqi said suddenly.

That shut Xiao Tangqing up for quite a while.

Then a commotion broke out below. Ji Guanqi was drawn to it and looked over, only to see two people arguing over a medicinal pill. Since conflict was forbidden here, and violators would be expelled from Xuantian Sect, the two outside cultivators did not dare to come to blows for now. Their dispute remained only a quarrel of words.

Ji Guanqi watched for a couple of moments and found it dull. He was just about to get up and leave when he suddenly heard a familiar voice say, “Both of you fellow daoists have come to Xuantian Sect for the selection. If conflict breaks out and the outer sect enforcers are summoned, it will only delay matters. Why not each step back a little and make peace?”

“But there is only one pill. Are we supposed to split it in half?” one of them said in dissatisfaction.

“Xi Yao...” Ji Guanqi’s pupils contracted sharply, and he fixed his gaze on the person before him. The other wore a white robe and seemed quite young, likely not long past adulthood, with a somewhat immature face.

That gentle and benevolent appearance overlapped with the aggrieved, hard-pressed look he had worn when framing Ji Guanqi in the past. Ji Guanqi only felt the flow of spiritual energy within him beginning to turn slightly erratic. At once he became vigilant and steadied his mind.

He instinctively glanced at Xiao Tangqing beside him, only to see that the other man’s attention had long since been captured by Xi Yao. It seemed that from the moment Xi Yao appeared, all of his focus had fallen upon him.

Ji Guanqi sneered inwardly, yet also felt that this was only natural. Such a thing had already happened once in his former life; it was nothing more than going through it all over again. What was there to find strange in that?

“Um... how about this? I have some spirit stones here, enough to buy another pill,” Xi Yao said, looking somewhat troubled. He took out his cosmos pouch and drew out a bag of spirit stones. “Why don’t you two discuss it? One takes the stones, the other takes the pill. Each of you yields a little...”

“Who wants your spirit stones?” The other man shoved Xi Yao aside at once and said with a cold laugh, “We’re all here for the selection of new disciples. Who doesn’t know that spirit pills are the most important thing right now?”

“This...” Xi Yao staggered from the push, then was steadied by someone. That person took the only pill into his hand, gave it a casual glance, and said softly, “A low-grade pill.”

“You! What are you doing!”

The two cultivators could only watch as Xiao Tangqing directly crushed that pill to dust. They were just about to rush forward when they were forcefully suppressed by overwhelming spiritual power, and their faces changed with alarm.

“Now the pill is gone, and there is no need for you two to fight over it. If this happens again, you will be expelled from Xuantian Sect without delay.” Xiao Tangqing had never held ordinary cultivators in high regard. His eyes were cold as he said, “Get lost.”

Someone immediately recognized him and hurriedly held back the cultivator who was still trying to demand an explanation. In a low voice, he said, “Don’t go. That’s Xiao Tangqing, the second disciple under Venerated Immortal Zhennan.”

At those words, silence fell at once. Then everyone took a step back. Xiao Tangqing had long since anticipated this kind of reaction and did not find it strange. Behind him, Xi Yao murmured, “Many thanks, Second Senior Brother... no, many thanks, fellow daoist...”

Xiao Tangqing answered softly, and when he raised his head to look for Ji Guanqi, he paused slightly, only to find that the place where Ji Guanqi had been sitting was already empty. He did not know when the man had left.

His mood sank at once. He could not quite say what displeased him, only that he felt inexplicably uneasy.

At this moment, Ji Guanqi was sitting in a tree drinking wine. Crowded places were always noisier; it was better in the woods, where things were quiet. Most importantly, it let him avoid Xiao Tangqing. But then he thought of the truly troublesome one, not Xiao Tangqing but the third junior brother, Qiao You, and he immediately developed a headache. That one had always looked down on him. Xiao Tangqing was at least only cold, whereas Qiao You had a venomous tongue.

“How did I endure it in my last life?” Thinking of his former experience, Ji Guanqi only felt that his own patience had been astonishing. He let out a long sigh.

This place was not far from where Venerated Immortal Zhennan was in seclusion, but Ji Guanqi was not looking there. He was looking at Ten-Thousand-Fathom Cliff.

That place where he had died and vanished from the world: now the cliff wall was still whole and unharmed, not yet pierced through by the halberd. He subconsciously raised a hand to his chest, drew in a faint breath of cold air, then quickly gripped the wine jug and took a hard gulp, muttering, “Venerated Immortal Zhennan... Wu Xingbai.”

He suddenly turned sharply. The wine jug in his hand flew into the tree trunk behind him and shattered at once, fragments scattering everywhere. He seized the hilt of his sword and barked, “Who is it?”

There was nothing behind him, only silence. But there had clearly just been a slight fluctuation of spiritual energy.

That feeling was exactly the same as what he had sensed in the little wooden hut the night before. Ji Guanqi’s expression darkened immediately. It seemed this person’s cultivation was far above his own; if the other had not happened to fluctuate just now, he might not have noticed even if the person had come to stand directly behind him.

At the thought of that, cold sweat broke out across Ji Guanqi’s back.