Chapter 10: A loving family, a merry clan, chickens fly and dogs go mad, graves go bang as part of the plan

TN: Yeah… I had ChatGPT help me come up with a creative rhyme. The original title was shorter but also rhymed.

Although Lin Xi also possessed a wood spiritual root, in front of someone who was a full two realms higher than him, that little bit of spiritual power he had was hardly any different from having none at all.

So his task now was not only running away, it also included jumping, dodging, cutting through vines with his immortal sword, and making sure he didn’t get stuck by the Phoenix-Immortal Golden Stamen threads flying all over the sky.

This kind of escape was anything but easy.

He was completely on the verge of collapse.

His state of mind had turned hazy, unfocused, and utterly aimless.

Those three clusters of Phoenix-Immortal Golden Stamen threads chased after him like they’d gone mad, coordinating from inside and out, wearing Lin Xi down until he was half dead. In the end, he simply lay flat on the ground and gave up.

Who would have thought that those things were still just as frenzied, lunging straight at his face. With that momentum, they really could have trampled him to death.

From afar, a certain figure smiled faintly and said, “It seems you don’t like Phoenix-Immortal Golden Stamen threads very much.”

Lin Xi wailed inwardly, ‘You finally noticed?!’

Gui Ying continued, “Then how about switching to manjusaka?”

Lin Xi: …Why don’t you just tell me outright that you want to kill me?

And so, next came a full-on encirclement and suppression of Lin Xi by manjusaka plants. This stuff really could really poison a person to death!

The nearby vines also seemed especially delighted, hopping all over Lin Xi’s face and blocking half his vision. What Lin Xi saw now was basically a pair of green and red things dancing wildly, whilst he was the unfortunate victim.

As time went on, he truly felt like he was being pushed to the brink.

He couldn’t shake them off, and couldn’t just lie there and give up either—what exactly did they still want from him? Looking at his leisurely, carefree senior brother villain, he finally snapped.

You’re drinking tea pretty happily over there, aren’t you?!

Lin Xi suddenly sprinted straight toward Gui Ying. Behind him, a whole swarm of manjusaka continued to chase relentlessly, and Lin Xi was very satisfied with this effect.

Yes, chase me. Go on, keep chasing!

It wasn’t until he lunged toward at Gui Ying, planning to perish together with his dear senior brother, that he seemed to suddenly realize something.

Lin Xi made a sharp turn mid-run, trying to slip past Gui Ying.

But he saw a trace of encouragement on the other’s face.

Then his vision blurred for a moment, and he suddenly slammed into someone.

That person didn’t budge at all, while Lin Xi toppled backward, and the manjusaka flower cluster had already reached above his head.

Gui Ying reacted swiftly, reaching out to catch him and giving a light flick with his other hand. A soft wave of spiritual light swept out. In an instant, clusters of red manjusaka shattered into thousands upon thousands of pieces, drifting down slowly like roses.

The gradually dimming glow of spiritual light signified that these once-sentient spiritual plants had already lost their lives, their poison completely dissipated.

In the end, not a single one of those thousands of flowers, alive or poisonous, managed to stick to Lin Xi’s body.

Instead, they fell in a gentle patter like a rain of petals, forming an oddly beautiful scene.

Silence fell for a brief moment. Then, Gui Ying sighed softly: “Tired?”

Lin Xi nodded dazedly, feeling that this posture was rather subtle. Seeing the teacup Gui Ying handed him, he took a sip without thinking.

Immediately, his vision began to blur. Only then did he finally realize—how could a big villain possibly be kind enough to offer him tea?

Gui Ying’s gaze was calm, his smile even brighter. “I never said it was over.”

“So careless—this will cost you dearly in the future,” he said, his voice sounding somewhat indistinct.

Lin Xi could barely hear him now.

In the cup, Phoenix-Immortal Golden Stamen threads floated quietly.

Lin Xi vaguely recalled that this seemed to be the second time he’d fallen to this thing…

---

When he finally woke up, he discovered that his good neighbor, Xue Mufeng, was staring at him as if he were some kind of monster.

Lin Xi: ? What’s wrong with you?

Xue Mufeng’s expression remained calm, but inwardly he was in a frenzy of shock.

At least as far as he knew, this terrifying, two-faced being known as Gui Ying had never done anything as absurd as what happened today.

When he brought Lin Xi back earlier, it seemed he had used a posture called… a princess carry?

That was even more shocking than the fact that Yue Chuyin had buried himself alive at the beginning of the month.

After recovering, Lin Xi suddenly grew nervous. “Young Master Feng, was the antidote from you again this time?”

He really didn’t want to keep paying back debts. This time the poisoning had gone deep—he’d definitely need a large dose of antidote, and the price would definitely not be low, especially when it came from Xue Mufeng.

“No,” Xue Mufeng said indifferently. “It was the Sect Master.”

As if seeing through Lin Xi’s thoughts, he added, “He said there’s no need to repay it.”

Listening to Xue Mufeng, Lin Xi felt as though something had just clicked in his mind.

And he finally realized what had been so strange about that posture.

An arm around the waist, spinning in a circle, petals scattering—wasn’t this something straight out of certain novels…

Enough. He didn’t care. And surely the kind-hearted big villain senior brother wouldn’t care about such trivial details.

Several more days passed like this. Lin Xi was chased until he was almost numb; his running speed grew even faster, and he could even manage to swing his chaotic sword techniques into something vaguely presentable.

Gui Ying was quite pleased with his progress, though that didn’t stop Lin Xi from being poisoned unconscious at least once every single day.

He just couldn’t understand why the Sect Master Shixiong insisted on treating things like Phoenix-Immortal Golden Stamens and majusaka as toys. With a top-grade wood spiritual root, wouldn’t playing with vines be much better?

Why insist on using a whole bunch of poisonous flowers and grasses? Wasn’t that just harming others without benefiting oneself?

No—this was harming others to benefit oneself.

Today, he finally found some free time and went to take a look at Silver Moon Sect. Just when he reached the mountain ridge, he saw a group of disciples wailing loudly, their buck teeth sticking out.

“Sect Master Yue, you died such a miserable death!”

“Who? Who died?” Lin Xi was completely confused. He hadn’t been out recently and had no idea what had happened.

More importantly, how could Yue Chuyin possibly be dead?

“Right here!” one disciple cried out miserably. “Sect Master Yue buries himself alive every day—every single day! He’s been buried in there for three days already!”

Lin Xi: Forgive me for laughing at such an inopportune time.

With Yue Chuyin at the Nascent Soul stage, even being buried for five days wouldn’t kill him. Still, burying yourself alive every day was… more than a little abnormal. It gave people the impression that he had suicidal tendencies.

Lin Xi put on a face full of grief and gave a moment of silence, “Senior Brother Yue! Senior Brother Yue, you died such a tragic death! I’ll definitely burn lots of paper money for you—hahahaha!”

The grave remained completely motionless.

As if Yue Chuyin were truly dead.

“Senior Brother Yue, Xuan Hou is here!” Lin Xi called out again.

The grave still did not move.

Lin Xi froze. No way, he’s still not coming out? Don’t tell me something actually happened?

He glanced around again, only to find that the disciples who had been standing nearby earlier had already vanished without a trace.

They’d heard that the Spirit King’s newly-accepted disciple was terrifying beyond belief, and someone who would eat children. None of them dared to linger.

Instead, a certain figure was drawn over by his piercing shouts.

Watching Gui Ying stroll by as if he were just passing through, Lin Xi: …

“I heard Yue Chuyin buried himself alive?” Gui Ying asked, sounding rather intrigued.

Lin Xi replied, “What, are you worried about him?”

Gui Ying answered, “I was thinking just how truly tragic that is.”

Lin Xi: Oh ho, as expected, it was one big loving family.

“But there’s been no movement for three days,” Lin Xi said, still feeling that Yue Chuyin might actually be in trouble.

Gui Ying, however, smiled leisurely. “I can be sure he’s listening down there.”

As for why… Gui Ying directly pulled out a talisman and slapped it onto the grave. Then the grave began to shake, before finally exploding apart.

What was just as evident was that the grave hadn’t fallen apart because of the explosion—it had been forced open from below.

Watching Yue Chuyin shoot up into the sky like a human cannonball, Lin Xi felt that his big villain senior brother had once again overturned his understanding of the world.

“This is a talisman I researched myself. I hadn’t tested its effects yet,” Gui Ying “thoughtfully” explained.

“After seeing it, I think I’ll call it the Soaring Straight to the Heavens Talisman.”

It truly was soaring straight to the heavens. It even brought along a pile of ash-gray soil, spiritual plants ripped from the ground, and fragments of the talisman itself.

Somehow, it looked a bit like a rebirth from nirvana. Quite beautiful, actually. Though who knew how Yue Chuyin felt about it.

Watching Yue Chuyin continue to rise without losing momentum, Lin Xi’s lips twitched as he struggled not to laugh. “Sect Master Shixiong… isn’t this maybe a bit much?”

“Huh? What’s wrong with it?” Gui Ying looked utterly innocent, as if it had nothing to do with him. “Yue Chuyin has always helped me test talismans.”

Lin Xi: This time I’ll be a good person. Silently mock—I mean—mourning Senior Brother Yue for a second.

At this time, Yue Chuyin began to fall back down, landing perfectly. As expected of someone at the Nascent Soul stage, rolling once and managing to stand back up.

Oh, what a miracle~

Lin Xi turned to look, only to find that Gui Ying had already disappeared. He had clearly run away long ago.

Leaving him to stand in the wind alone.

Right, he almost forgot. The big villain senior brother screwed over everyone indiscriminately.

So, the furious Yue Chuyin used his cultivation of a Nascent Soul to chase down his junior brother.

While running for his life, Lin Xi didn’t forget to mock him, saying that as the Second Shixiong, his speed was actually worse than the flowers controlled by the Third Shixiong…

In the end, Lin Xi directly went to hide out at Secluded Snowfall Pavilion.

Yue Chuyin and Xue Mufeng had never gotten along. After hearing that his neighbor was being hunted down by Yue Chuyin, Xue Mufeng reluctantly took the neighbor in.

While panting heavily, Lin Xi was already thinking about how he might repay the deep “affection” his second and third senior brothers had shown him in the future.

Third Shixiong was truly someone he couldn’t afford to provoke—but Yue Chuyin, that “big genius”, seemed pretty easy to fool…

For a period of time after that, the sect was in constant chaos, with chickens flying and dogs jumping.

The small canteen Lin Xi had created was still being run by the “roommates” who had already mastered the techniques. Business was booming, and Lin Xi often came by to work, acting like both the boss and head chef.

Not only did disciples from Silver Moon Sect come running, even disciples from the neighboring Green Apricot Sect rushed over in droves. For a time, Lin Xi’s financial strength finally caught up, and he would no longer be troubled by money in the future.

The only things that made him sad were the Sect Master Shixiong’s collection of bizarre talismans and his strange obsession with playing with poisonous flowers and grasses.

And that gentle, exceedingly deceptive smile of his.

Although Gui Ying treated him quite well, this person was like a time bomb. You never knew when he might dig a pit for you.

On the other hand, Yue Chuyin was truly living miserably. He was so poor he could practically go sell scrap, and thus wished more than anything to get rid of his junior brother and shut down the canteen.

Shu Ling would occasionally appear. Looking at the sect in utter chaos, she would sigh, marveling at how energetic young people were.

Youth really was wonderful.

---

TN: Heyyy, sorry for not posting last week! Was busy with Lunar New Year. Hoping that everyone had a happy celebration!!