Chapter 58

Chapter 58: Playing Deaf and Blind

Hu Qing lounged in the soft chair and waved a hand like she was shooing flies. “Senior Brother, let them go.”

Then she added, a little sour, “I didn’t know ahead of time either. But Qiao Yu and the others are with them.”

Yu Liu Ya understood immediately. The kids had made their own decisions again.

He shot Hu Qing a sharp look. After everything that happened, you’re still not going to rein them in?

Hu Qing spread her hands in helpless surrender. I can’t control them.

Shi Bai Zhou didn’t even step through Zhaohua Sect’s gates. He left in a hurry, already thinking about how to persuade his Father-in-law Jun Bo that childhood sweethearts were the best thing in the world.

Two soft chairs were carried into the inner hall by disciples. Hu Qing was surrounded by a chorus of “Aunt! Aunt! Aunt!” It was loud enough to make her both happy and irritated, so she rummaged through her storage and tossed out small gifts as she was carried along.

Shui Xin’s side was much quieter. The disciples carrying him kept their mouths clamped shut, too afraid to speak.

So many blisters. Is that really Hu Nuan’s uncle? We didn’t recognize the wrong person, did we?

Shui Xin was numb. He couldn’t understand why something as simple as blisters refused to heal. Now, with so many people seeing him like this, he wanted to murder the world—and knew he couldn’t.

Once they were inside the hall, Yu Liu Ya shooed everyone out. A crowd of disciples lingered at the doorway, reluctant to leave Hu Qing.

“Aunt, if anything happens again, just shout!” someone said. “Even if we can’t help, we can at least back you up!”

Hu Qing was genuinely touched. “I’ll remember. Cultivate well. Your aunt is waiting for the day you can come support me.”

Another disciple asked, “Aunt, should we tell Brother Zhuo? Does he know you’re back?”

Hu Qing made an exaggerated groan. “Sure. Help me tell him. Once things in the sect are settled, I’ll go home.”

The disciples finally filed out, chattering happily. Yu Liu Ya watched them go and felt, once again, completely ignored.

The remaining Nascent Soul Stage Perfected exchanged a glance and quietly left as well. In the end, only Hu Qing, Shui Xin, Yu Liu Ya, and the Integration Stage and Divine Transformation Stage ancestors remained.

Everyone moved at once. Light flashed again and again as barrier after barrier was layered over the hall.

Yu Liu Ya even activated the Grand Array.

More than a hundred layers later, they still didn’t feel safe. Who knew if it could stop an immortal from eavesdropping?

Hu Qing sighed. “Can’t we just place a curse? Whoever dares to peek gets a stye.”

A stye was obvious. One look and you’d know who’d been spying.

Qin Yang snapped, “Enough. Tell us what happened.”

Shui Xin pushed himself upright. “Wait. I’ll check first. In case someone slipped in.”

Everyone looked uneasy. Surely an immortal wouldn’t be that shameless.

Shui Xin checked. No one was hiding. He set up another formation on top of the barriers. “Now it’s safe.”

Outside, in a narrow spatial fissure, the hidden listener cursed silently. Are they guarding against thieves? Damn it—now I really can’t hear anything.

Shui Xin spoke before Hu Qing could. “We were ambushed on the way. Zhe Liu injured us badly. We almost died.”

“We don’t know what happened after that. When we woke up, we were lying out in the wilderness.”

Hu Qing closed her mouth and nodded along.

Yu Liu Ya stared at the two of them. Believe it or not didn’t matter. What mattered was the answer.

“Junior Sister,” he asked slowly, “do you think Zhe Liu is still alive?”

Hu Qing glanced at Shui Xin. “How would I know? I don’t know anything.”

Shui Xin nodded. “How could we know?”

The elders exchanged glances.

Fine. If this was the story they wanted to tell, then this was the story.

Then Shui Xin pulled out a large bundle—ordinary cloth, the kind commonly used for treasure robes. He thumped it onto the floor, untied the knot, and spread it open.

He looked at Hu Qing, signaling her to speak.

Hu Qing cleared her throat. “Well… Senior Zhe Liu still remembered the sect’s old kindness. He left us a little keepsake.”

The elders stared in silence at the “keepsake.” Their tolerance had its limits. To pretend they believed this, they’d have to gouge out their own eyes first.

Chan Ming was famously upright. Had he accepted a daughter like Hu Qing because she shared his love of justice… or because they were both equally talented at causing trouble?

“Senior Brother,” Hu Qing urged, “what are you staring at? Hurry and see what’s in there.”

Yu Liu Ya looked at the pile of fine sand for a long moment, then shot the ancestors a pleading look. Digging through someone’s ashes—should a junior really be doing that?

Every ancestor in the hall returned a calm, unified gaze: you’re the youngest. You do it.

Yu Liu Ya sighed. On the spot, he coaxed a small tree to sprout, snapped off two branches, stripped them clean, and turned them into long chopsticks.

He started stirring through the sand.

Hu Qing held her breath, terrified that heaven’s punishment had reduced Zhe Liu to nothing.

But luck held.

The man was gone. His robes were gone. His sword was gone.

Yet two or three immortal artifacts remained.

All of them were storage-type artifacts. There was even a spirit pet ring.

They were ownerless now. Yu Liu Ya tested them with his divine sense and met no resistance. He opened them and dumped everything onto the floor.

The hall instantly filled, piled high with items.

Immortals truly did have frightening accumulations. Maybe in Immortal Realm these things were ordinary, but to cultivators they were priceless.

Then everyone noticed the two enormous skeletons at the center of the pile, and the hall fell silent again.

Those had been Zhe Liu’s spirit pets—one fierce beast and one fierce bird. With Zhe Liu dead, they had died too. In such a short time, only bone remained.

The skeletons were massive. You could imagine how terrifying they must have been in life. Perhaps they had even been close to taking human form.

The thought made Hu Qing uneasy.

That was why she hated master-servant contracts. Holding someone’s life in your hand was like tasting an addictive poison. One side had absolute power; the other had absolute despair.

It could corrupt good people. It could make bad people even more dangerous.

She made a quiet note to herself. Later, she’d ask Juan Bu and Xuan Yao whether those contracts could be undone. If she ever died, she’d want them to live well.

Yu Liu Ya broke the silence. “There are other bone fragments too. They probably weren’t as strong as these two.”

An ancestor said calmly, “See if they can be used for forging or for formations. If not, destroy them completely.”

There was no point thinking about alchemy. There was no vitality left at all.

Shui Xin was the first to start rummaging through the pile. He picked up an item, checked it, tossed it aside. Picked up another, checked it, tossed it.

“What are you doing?” someone asked.

“I’m looking for anything from the unrighteous path,” Shui Xin said. “If I find it, we destroy it. When we fought, his methods felt a little like a Devil cultivator.”

Everyone stiffened.

Hu Qing bit back a snort. Coming from you?

But no one laughed. They immediately divided up the work and began sorting the mountain of treasures. Every small item was inspected, then inspected again. Even spirit crystals were checked.

“Wait—oh no!” Hu Qing yelped, flipping through books and jade slips.

Every head snapped toward her.

Hu Qing clutched her chest and wailed, “If I’d known, we should’ve soul-searched first and then—” She slapped a hand over her mouth.

Shui Xin’s expression twisted with disgust. What a mouth. She couldn’t keep anything secret.

The elders went numb. Fine. They were already pretending to be blind. Now they could pretend to be deaf too.

They lowered their heads and kept working as if they hadn’t heard a thing.

Yu Liu Ya rubbed his forehead. “Read more books.”

Hu Qing suddenly remembered something. “Right. Immortal Realm script isn’t quite the same as ours. We should have the disciples start learning it as soon as possible.”

Yu Liu Ya stared at her. “Didn’t Ancient Palace City already have a translated comparison of Immortal Realm writing?”

“You never learned it?”

Hu Qing went silent.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Juan Bu’s voice dripped with scorn: Heh. Slacker.