Chapter 75: The Seventy-Fifth Day of Slacking
Wen Ying was filled with regret.
She never should have given that drawing to Xu Mofeng just to get rid of some trash.
Who would have thought Xu Mofeng had the heart of a sappy idol drama fan?
But because of that, at least Xu Mofeng didn’t press the matter further. With a blush still lingering on his old face, he waved his hand and dismissed the five of them.
“That’s weird. What did Senior Sister Wen give the Sect Master just now? Why did he seem to be blushing?” After leaving, Feng Sixuan muttered in confusion.
“Could it be, some spriā” Lan Xiaoming quickly clamped a hand over his own mouth. “No, impossible. It can’t be.”
Hearing their conversation, Lu Xiaojie couldn’t help but sidle up to Wen Ying and whisper in her ear, “Senior Sister Wen, did you really give the elder one of those… spring palace pictures?”
Wen Ying turned her head and nodded with the utmost seriousness. “That’s right, that’s exactly what it was.”
It was a perfectly reasonable assumption.
Far more reasonable than Xu Mofeng’s own deluded belief that she had a crush on him.
Hearing Wen Ying’s confirmation, Lu Xiaojie’s jaw dropped, and it took him a long moment to close it.
So that’s what Senior Sister Wen is into…
Then again, he’d heard rumors before about Senior Sister Wen and her male concubine getting up to all sorts of wild things in the sect. This time, on the trip to Ping’an Town, she had even brought along a new one.
Some people are greedy for money, some are lustful. It’s just a preference, Lu Xiaojie could understand.
He even began to wonder, since Senior Sister Wen liked this sort of thing, if he should try to find some for her to show his gratitude. After all, she had saved him so many times.
Now that the inner-sect trials were over, there were still a day or two to wait before the other sects arrived.
Although the Trial of Immortals was organized by the five major sects, they weren’t the only ones participating. Any sect with a name in the cultivation world was welcome to join.
Having been through this so many times, Wen Ying would never forget the lively scene. It was almost too lively, nearly resembling a wet marketāthat’s right, most disciples from smaller sects weren’t there to compete anyway, since they knew the winner wouldn’t be one of them. Their purpose in coming was to sell things to supplement their sect’s income.
And during this one- or two-day lull, the Xun Xian Sect was not at peace.
It had nothing to do with Wen Ying’s missions. It was likely the transition period between two plot points, so she hadn’t received any counterattack missions for the past two days. The real heavy hitters were all waiting for her in the latter half of the Trial of Immortals.
Wen Ying, of course, couldn’t care less about those garbage missions, but she was quite interested in Xu Mofeng. Not only because of his connection to the truth, but also becauseā¦ it was about time for his fifty-second death.
However, the trouble in the Xun Xian Sect happened to befall Xu Mofeng himself.
On the first night, his room was burglarized. The thief turned his room upside down and, in the end, only stole a single paintingāthe one Wen Ying had given him.
On the second night, his room caught fire. It was a small, localized fire that didn’t spread, contained to the area around his bed. It only managed to burn off all his hair, eyebrows, and beard.
While Xu Mofeng’s cultivation wasn’t the highest, to cause such a commotion without him noticing at all meant the perpetrator’s cultivation level was certainly not low. Looking at the entire Xun Xian Sect, besides Wen Ying, there was probably no one else with such skill.
Of course, Wen Ying wasn’t the one who did it.
Why would she go through the risk of wanting to vomit just to get back the trash she had finally managed to get Xu Mofeng to deal with? But the hair-burning incident was something she was very happy to see.
Happy as she was, the true culprit made Wen Ying suspicious.
The only person she had seen in the Xun Xian Sect who might have this kind of strengthā¦ was Da Hei.
Could Da Hei have returned to the Xun Xian Sect? But why would he do this? What was his motive? Surely he hadn’t heard what Hua Pi and her husband had said, found out that the root of all their problems was Xu Mofeng, and was now getting revenge for them?
Taking advantage of the two-day break, Wen Ying continued to sort through the few clues she had. She had left in a hurry before, and she hadn’t had time to thoroughly investigate either the things the donkey had heard or the Great Strength Pills. In her previous reincarnations, Wen Ying thought the fake Xu Mofeng had only committed one crime, but now it seemed there was much more to it.
Two days later, the various cultivation sects had all arrived.
The true Trial of Immortals officially began.
Since there were no wig shops in this era, Xu Mofeng could only wear a very comical-looking crown to make a reluctant appearance.
Howeverā¦ it’s unclear whether it was because Xu Mofeng’s head was too big or the wind was too strong that day, but just as he was halfway through exchanging pleasantries with the Sect Master Abbess of Kunlun Dong, the crown was blown off by the wind.
The Sect Master Abbess stared at Xu Mofeng’s shiny bald head, stunned for a good long while.
“Sect Master Xu, are you… preparing to join our Buddhist cultivation?” the Abbess finally managed to ask.
Xu Mofeng: “…”
If a hole could have opened up in the ground right then, he would have jumped right in.
“This… no, it’s just that, as the saying goes, three thousand strands of worldly cares. I intend to sever all my troubles,” Xu Mofeng forced out an excuse.
“What troubles does Sect Master Xu have?” the Abbess asked kindly.
Xu Mofeng fell silent again.
He certainly had troubles. But his troubles were things he could never speak of to others…
The competition was set to begin on the second day of the Trial of Immortals. The first day was ostensibly for the disciples of the major sects to get to know each other, but in reality, the first day was the tacitly agreed-upon market day for all the disciplesāit was like a grand gathering of local specialties from all over. For disciples who rarely left their sects, it was an undeniable surprise.
Wherever there was a crowd, there was Wen Ying.
She had missed out on such a lively market before because of her missions, a true tragedy. Wen Ying shook her head in regret as she flicked away the mission box.
The box clearly stated: ćThe Second Female Lead in the Farming Novel & the No-CP Disguise Novel & the True Daughter Novel & the White Moonlight Novel Mission: Under no circumstances should you participate on the first day of the Trial of Immortals!ć
Wen Ying had never quite understood this mission.
So, what was so special about this market?
If she missed it again this time, it would be an even greater loss.
Just as Wen Ying was about to set off, she suddenly saw Shen Linfeng, who was obediently squatting on the ground, tidying up his bedding.
That’s right, for this period, Shen Linfeng and Wen Ying had been sleeping in the same disciple’s room. He slept on the floor while Wen Ying slept on the bed, with a screen kindly placed between them by Wen Ying.
Ever since she took in Shen Linfeng as a “male concubine,” rumors had spread throughout the entire Xun Xian Sect. But since the sect didn’t explicitly forbid relationshipsāafter all, even marriage was allowedāand Shen Linfeng had previously been a cleaner within the sect, it didn’t count as bringing an outsider in. So, although Wen Ying’s actions were scandalous, it was mostly just gossip, and the elders couldn’t do anything to her.
Wen Ying didn’t care one bit.
It wasn’t like she and Shen Linfeng were alone; Xiao Hei was there too. Back when it was just her and Xiao Hei in the cave, that was what you’d call being alone. This was, at most, a threesome.
Besides, Wen Ying rarely actually slept in the disciple’s room. After the plot point was over, she would usually pretend to go to bed and then teleport back to her cave. The bed there was the only one she was used to sleeping in. It was the one she had moved from Lin Yu’s courtyard.
Speaking of Lin Yu…
Wen Ying couldn’t help but take out the Bone-Changing Mirror from her sleeve. For the past few days, she had been using spirit stones to repair it. Now, the cracks were barely visible, and it could even reflect her face. Although it was a beauty filter, Wen Ying’s appearance in the mirror didn’t change much. That’s probably what you call natural beauty.
As Wen Ying was looking at her reflection in the mirror, she suddenly felt a gaze from behind her.
She whipped her head around and saw Shen Linfeng standing not far behind her. The bedroll was already neatly packed away. He was just standing there with a shy smile, quietly watching her.
“What are you looking at?” Wen Ying asked.
Ever since returning from Ping’an Town… this seemingly ordinary young man, the secrets behind him seemed to be anything but ordinary. If he really was a cultivator, he had to be an extremely high-level one.
Thinking about it… could he have been the one who burned the hair?
As for stealing the painting… could it be that after he came out that day, he overheard her and Lu Xiaojie whispering, went to steal the spring palace picture in the middle of the night, only to find it was a stupid portrait, and then set fire to Xu Mofeng’s hair, eyebrows, and beard the next night out of revenge? Thinking about it this way, it seemed even more logical than Da Hei being the culprit.
True or not, Wen Ying just wanted to say one thingā
Good job!
Shen Linfeng wrote quickly: “I’m looking at the mirror.”
The mirror…
Could it be that Shen Linfeng knew about this Bone-Changing Mirror?
“What did you see?” Wen Ying continued to ask.
“I saw you,” Shen Linfeng wrote. “Very pretty.”
His gaze was pure and sincere, like a genuine compliment from the bottom of his heart. No one dislikes a compliment, man or woman. Being praised for one’s appearance is never a bad thing. Wen Ying was no exception.
“Thanks.” Wen Ying felt a little embarrassed.
“I heard that the Trial of Immortals today is very lively. Can you take me with you?” Shen Linfeng sincerely handed over another note.
Hah.
Wen Ying knew it. Why would he flatter her for no reason? So that was the goal.
He who eats from others’ hands is soft-mouthed, and he who takes from others’ hands is short-handed. Being praised… makes one’s ears soft.
“You can,” Wen Ying nodded, then simply turned and called out to the sleeping Xiao Hei, “Xiao Hei, there’s a lively market later. If you want to see it, come along.”
The moment Xiao Hei heard that, his sleepiness vanished. With a swoosh, he stood up, quickly ran to Wen Ying’s side, rubbed against her leg, and gave a docile “meow.”
Perfect.
Wen Ying glanced sideways at Shen Linfeng.
More contact with him meant more opportunities to test his identity.
The market at the Trial of Immortals was, as expected, incredibly lively.
Even though Wen Ying hadn’t arrived late, the market was already packed with people. One spot, in particular, was surrounded by three layers of people inside and three layers outside.
People are creatures who love a crowd, especially Wen Ying, who was here specifically for that purpose. Such a bustling scene was something she certainly couldn’t miss!
As Wen Ying squeezed into the crowd, she vaguely heard the surrounding people exclaiming in praiseā
“As expected of the most handsome man in the cultivation world, his looks are truly… otherworldly!”
“Not only is he handsome, but his talent is exceptional. He’s the youngest Xianzun in Tianjian Ge!”
“To be able to see such a legendary figure from a distance today is an immense honor…”
Could it be, this was some male lead? A Xianzun from Tianjian Geā¦ that’s odd, she’d never heard of him.
While Wen Ying was pondering, she had successfully squeezed into the center of the crowd.
She looked up and saw the “legendary figure.”
“Little brother?” Wen Ying blurted out.
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