Chapter 085

Chapter 85: Please Senior Brother Instruct Me

“Second senior sister!” Ye Wan Wan went still. She never thought it would be second senior sister. Her whole body went rigid.

Shen Nan Zhou said, voice flat but light: “After the slaughter, eldest senior brother brought back her body. Her spiritual root, heart, lungs, and even her bones had been dug out. Eldest senior brother spent a very long time and gathered many materials to piece her back together.”

Ye Wan Wan’s eyes turned red. She could hardly imagine that gentle, innocent girl dying so cruelly. Everything was taken. Not even bone was left.

“At that time, when eldest senior brother returned with the body, the sect master uncle took one look at her and flew into such a rage that he spat blood on the spot,” Shen Nan Zhou said. “From then on, his mind was wounded and his strength dropped sharply.”

“And because of the slaughter, all the sects declared eldest senior brother wanted. But the senior uncles of Heavenly One Sect stood up to protect him alone, so all the sects targeted Heavenly One Sect. After that, Heavenly One Sect went downhill. The senior uncles fell one by one, until the Mountain Guarding Grand Array was destroyed and everyone died.”

He looked at Ye Wan Wan. “That’s all I know.”

Ye Wan Wan curled her fingers. The angrier she got, the clearer her mind became. “Do we have suspects?”

Shen Nan Zhou gave a bitter smile: “Isn’t it laughable? My friend lived for hundreds of years and still found nothing. He didn’t even learn who killed second senior sister. When eldest senior brother came back, he was already badly wounded. After second senior sister died, he carried her body back, then tried to take the blame upon himself. But before he could even step beyond the mountain gate, he collapsed. Grand senior uncle used spiritual power to keep him alive, but it didn’t last.”

“Because he already wanted to die.”

“In the end, grand senior uncle buried him together with second senior sister.”

Ye Wan Wan stayed silent for a long time, mind racing. With her personality, Bai Jian wouldn’t offend people lightly. And the way her spiritual root, heart, lungs, and bones were removed was not normal revenge at all. It felt more like…

Someone wanted something from her.

And they were afraid that taking only one part would be too obvious, so they took everything.

Names and faces spun through Ye Wan Wan’s head until she fixed on one person.

Ye Yi Ran.

She asked, “In your last life, did you ever see someone named Ye Yi Ran around second senior sister?”

Shen Nan Zhou corrected her, stubborn to the end: “It was my friend, not me.”

“Fine,” Ye Wan Wan said, adjusting without missing a beat. “Did your friend see Ye Yi Ran around second senior sister? Did he meet him in the Dream Realm?”

Shen Nan Zhou frowned. “He didn’t pay much attention. He was a loner and never went down the mountain.”

Ye Wan Wan snorted, “That really is lonely.”

“This person has a problem?” Shen Nan Zhou asked.

Ye Wan Wan remembered the greed in Ye Yi Ran’s eyes, the same look Ye Qian had when she stared at Ye Wan Wan’s Golden Core. She trusted her gut: “Yes.”

They looked at each other.

Unspoken agreement fell into place.

Go after him.

The two talked inside for a long time. Outside, three people were getting antsy. Fang He An paced and muttered, “Why is there no sound at all?”

“Did they start fighting?” Li Wan Zhi asked.

“If they were fighting, there would be noise,” Fang He An said, itching to rush over. “Junior sister told us not to follow. We already followed. Pushing in now would be wrong.”

Bai Jian frowned, thought for a moment, then strode up and kicked.

“Senior sister-” the two men cried, too late.

The door crashed down.

Inside, two voices overlapped smoothly: “Senior brother, I understand the question now.”

“Junior sister, you’re so quick. You pick it up at once.”

As the door opened, both turned and asked in the same breath, “What is it, second senior sister?”

Bai Jian: “…”

At the threshold, Fang He An and Li Wan Zhi looked the pair up and down and felt something was off. Way off. One called senior brother, the other called junior sister. This friendly, polite harmony? Not realistic.

Seeing their faces, Shen Nan Zhou put a little distance between himself and Ye Wan Wan, cooled his expression, and changed his tone: “Senior sister had questions about the secret realm and came to challenge me. I told her the truth.”

“What questions?” Fang He An asked.

“At Sheep’s Head Valley, someone was following her. She asked if it was me,” Shen Nan Zhou said.

Fang He An and Bai Jian snapped their eyes to him. “And?”

“It was me.”

The two thought as one: of course it was the junior brother who messed up.

Ye Wan Wan said with a teasing curl of her lip, “It was a misunderstanding. Junior brother says he got teleported to the same spot as me. He saw me enter the valley and followed.”

The three nodded in relief. This made sense. One calls senior brother and junior brother, the other calls junior sister and senior sister. Roles reversed earlier, sure, but this was their usual push and pull.

Fang He An and Li Wan Zhi relaxed.

Bai Jian relaxed too.

The three traded looks, suddenly cheerful.

Ye Wan Wan and Shen Nan Zhou rubbed their brows at the same time. [We’ll have to be more careful from now on.]

After Ye Wan Wan broke through Foundation Establishment, she returned to her cave dwelling to tell Pei Xuan, then went back to Disciples’ Peak to give gifts to Bai Jian and the others. All four received presents, and each one was overjoyed.

When Shen Nan Zhou took his, his fingers curled, a bit uneasy.

Li Wan Zhi’s eyes spun. He sidled over and said, “Junior brother, if you don’t like these two flowers, then…”

Shen Nan Zhou tucked them away at once, face blank.

Li Wan Zhi: “…”

Ye Wan Wan also gave each of them ten thousand spirit stones, and gave Bai Jian twenty thousand.

“A fortune, junior sister, this is a fortune,” Fang He An gasped. “So many spirit stones!”

Ye Wan Wan smiled and said, “Not just money. I want to invite senior brother and senior sisters to go down the mountain with me for a feast.”

She and Shen Nan Zhou exchanged a look. [Instead of waiting to be hit, strike first.]

Li Wan Zhi whooped around the yard, “Junior sister, my good junior sister!”

Fang He An dragged the monkey back and asked, “When are we going down the mountain?”

“On the fifteenth of this month,” Ye Wan Wan said.

“Good!”

Ye Wan Wan turned to Bai Jian and said with a smile, “Senior sister, I just broke through Foundation Establishment and my realm isn’t steady yet. Master told me not to rush training and to give it time to settle. For the next ten days, I’ll come train Body Refining with you.”

Bai Jian’s eyes lit up. “Great!”

For the next ten days, Ye Wan Wan often came down from Snow Mountain to practice Body Refining with Bai Jian. Among their generation in Heavenly One Sect, aside from the eldest senior brother who wasn’t in the sect, only Ye Wan Wan could take Bai Jian’s moves. Ye Wan Wan also used their bouts to temper her own body.

The sound of the two senior sisters sparring often became the whistle of the training grounds, like a signal to all. Every time he saw it, Li Wan Zhi went tense from head to toe. “Too scary, way too scary. Are they not afraid of smashing each other to bits?”

Fang He An rolled his eyes: “You think junior sister is you? She’s smart. When she can’t take senior sister’s strike head on, she redirects the force. Unlike you, charging straight in.”

Clutching his dislocated arm, Li Wan Zhi said, “Then…”

“Then what? Keep going,” Fang He An said, standing up. “No slacking.”

Li Wan Zhi’s eyes turned again. He glanced at Shen Nan Zhou standing to the side and called out, “Senior brother, you’ve been working hard too. How about I go a few rounds with junior brother?”

Shen Nan Zhou paused mid sip, corked his water bottle, and said, “All right.”

Watching him walk over, Li Wan Zhi felt doom crawl up his spine. [Bad idea. Very bad idea.]

“Wait, senior brother-”

Shen Nan Zhou cupped his fist and said with cool politeness, “Please instruct me, fourth senior brother.”

Li Wan Zhi: “…”