Chapter 15
Chapter 15: Don’t Go Bewitching Me
Jiang Li Sheng watched the doorway where Hall Master Ying had disappeared and swallowed.
So she couldn’t leave now.
Did she really have to stay here in the Medical Hall and wait?
An Ru Xu, curiosity getting the better of him, looked at Wei Qing Lan. “Junior Brother Wei… can you tell us how your spiritual palace was destroyed like that?”
Wei Qing Lan nodded. “I can.”
He spoke evenly, as if reciting something ordinary. “After I returned to the sect, my master ordered me to kill two demon snakes that escaped the demon-suppressing tower. They were late Nascent Soul Stage.”
An Ru Xu inhaled sharply. Late Golden Core Stage, killing two late Nascent Soul Stage enemies—across realms, and doubled. Surviving at all was already absurd.
Half a spiritual palace destroyed suddenly sounded less like tragedy and more like proof of how far he’d pushed.
An Ru Xu dropped into a seat, awed. “Junior Brother Wei… you’re terrifying.”
Wei Qing Lan’s mouth curved faintly.
Jiang Li Sheng jolted at the sight.
Wei Qing Lan could smile?
Her surprise must have been obvious, because his eyes shifted to her. She straightened at once, hands obediently clasped, as if caught misbehaving.
Wei Qing Lan looked at her proper posture and said calmly, “Junior Sister Jiang, don’t listen to Hall Master Ying. You can go back. I don’t need you.”
Jiang Li Sheng hesitated, then spoke softly. “Senior Brother Wei, you saved my life. I haven’t repaid you. If there’s a chance, please let me repay that debt.”
She didn’t want to owe anyone—but owing Wei Qing Lan felt especially unbearable.
Wei Qing Lan gave a quiet laugh. “Since you say so… fine.”
Jiang Li Sheng looked up—and caught the full shape of that smile.
It was light as a spring breeze, gentle as swaying willows, bright as peach blossoms in their prime. For a moment it didn’t seem real, like something too clean and beautiful to exist in the same room as blood and injury.
Her breath caught. She lowered her head so quickly it was almost a bow.
An Ru Xu was staring too, stunned out of speech. Then he blurted, half-strangled, “Junior Brother Wei… don’t smile like that. Don’t go bewitching me.”
Wei Qing Lan paused, the smile fading back into his usual calm. He turned to An Ru Xu. “Senior Brother An, you came to buy Heavenly Fragrance Pills?”
An Ru Xu nodded. “Yes.”
Wei Qing Lan reached into a cabinet, took out a bottle, and offered it. “Fifty top-grade spirit stones. One bottle?”
An Ru Xu nodded a beat late, still recovering. “I’ll buy it.”
He produced the spirit stones. As he handed them over, he turned to Jiang Li Sheng. “Junior Sister Jiang, I’ll return three Heavenly Fragrance Pills to you, plus one extra as compensation for your sword. Then we don’t have to go to the Sword Hall again.”
A single Heavenly Fragrance Pill in exchange for the two ordinary swords he’d promised was more than fair.
Jiang Li Sheng answered quickly, grateful. “All right. Thank you, Senior Brother An.”
An Ru Xu took the bottle—ten pills. He poured out four and handed them to Jiang Li Sheng.
She opened her own bottle and slipped them inside.
An Ru Xu winced, thinking about the cost. “I lost five Heavenly Fragrance Pills today. Tomorrow we have the trial. If Instructor He beats me again, will this bottle only last me one meal?”
“You should go back and regulate your breath,” Jiang Li Sheng said at once. “Once you’re stable, practice that move. Tomorrow you have to hold on.”
An Ru Xu shook his head. “I came with you. I’m not leaving you here alone. I’ll sit here and regulate my breath while we wait for Hall Master Ying to come back.”
He looked at Wei Qing Lan. “Junior Brother Wei, you don’t mind one extra person?”
“I don’t mind,” Wei Qing Lan said.
An Ru Xu settled cross-legged in a corner and began to circulate his breath.
Jiang Li Sheng had been thinking about going down the mountain to buy talisman paper, brushes, and refining materials. Now she couldn’t even move, and the plan died on the spot.
Wei Qing Lan asked her, “Do you have anything you need to do today?”
Jiang Li Sheng shook her head decisively. “No.”
Wei Qing Lan’s gaze lingered, faintly amused. “Junior Sister Jiang, has anyone ever told you your thoughts are easy to read? They’re written all over your face.”
Jiang Li Sheng gave a sheepish laugh. “H-have they?”
“Say what you want,” Wei Qing Lan said, waving a hand.
She hesitated, then admitted in a small voice, “I wanted to go down the mountain to buy talisman paper, brushes, and materials for refining tools. I left in a hurry and didn’t bring any.”
Wei Qing Lan asked, “Do you want to go down the mountain, or do you want the supplies?”
Jiang Li Sheng blinked. “Down the mountain to buy the supplies.”
“If it’s just supplies,” Wei Qing Lan said, “Senior Brother Yun happens to be down the mountain today. I can have him bring them back. That way you don’t need to go.”
He added, almost casually, “Besides, anyone in the Discipline Hall isn’t allowed to go down the mountain before leaving the Discipline Hall. It’s a sect rule.”
Jiang Li Sheng scratched her head. “There’s a rule like that too?”
She’d memorized only a tiny fraction of Kun Lun Sect’s endless rules. She hadn’t known this one—and she’d nearly stepped straight over it.
She nodded quickly. “Then yes. Please have Senior Brother Yun bring them.”
She pulled out spirit stones. “I don’t need anything fancy. Ordinary talisman paper, an ordinary brush, ordinary refining tools and materials.”
After a brief thought she added ten more top-grade spirit stones. “And a bagua disk too. Ordinary is fine.”
She sighed, feeling the weight of poverty. One hundred top-grade spirit stones didn’t last at all.
Wei Qing Lan accepted the sixty top-grade spirit stones. “All right. I’ll hold them for Senior Brother Yun and pass the message on.”
“Thank you, Senior Brother Wei,” Jiang Li Sheng said softly.
Wei Qing Lan didn’t answer. He lowered his head and tapped his message token, sending a message to Yun Duan.
The token blinked with each touch, cold light pulsing at his fingertips.
Jiang Li Sheng watched, then gathered her courage again, cheeks warming. “Um… could Senior Brother Yun also buy me some snacks? The kind commoners make down the mountain—candied fruit, nuts, rice sticks, dried meat… things like that.”
The words came out in a rush, and she turned even redder. “Yesterday, when I came out of the Forbidden Grounds, I ran into a Tu Lou. That thing was vicious. It chased me and ate all my snacks.”
She pouted, miserable. “I have nothing left. Not even a bite.”
Wei Qing Lan’s fingers paused. He glanced at her once, then looked away and nodded slowly. “All right.”
Relief loosened Jiang Li Sheng’s shoulders. She hurriedly pushed another ten top-grade spirit stones toward him. “And… a storage pouch. My low-grade one won’t hold much.”
Wei Qing Lan took it without comment. “All right.”
He tapped the message token again, then set it down.
A moment later, the token lit up with a reply. Wei Qing Lan glanced at it, his expression tightening for an instant. Then he let out a soundless, amused breath and pushed it aside, ignoring it.
On the other end, Yun Duan stared at the message, stunned.
Junior Brother Wei was asking him to buy what?
A mountain of odds and ends—and then, at the bottom, an entire list of snacks.
For a moment he genuinely wondered if his message token was broken.
Then he looked closer.
Oh. It was for Qing Xu Sect’s Junior Sister Jiang.
Still—since when had Junior Sister Jiang gotten this close to Junior Brother Wei?
When Yun Duan had returned to Kun Lun Sect that day and seen them meet, Wei Qing Lan hadn’t even seemed interested. He’d barely spoken, asked nothing, and walked away without a second glance.