Chapter 72: Senior Brother Must Trust Me

Boom!

The moment the two of them escaped the mine, the entire mountain behind them collapsed with a deafening roar. They finally found a place to hide after breaking free from the avalanche of rolling rocks.

“The whole mountain range has been overturned,” Qi Miancheng remarked.

Behind them, the landscape had been utterly reshaped by the devastation. It was almost impossible to tell what the mountain had originally looked like.

So that was the power of a cultivator at the Great Ascension realm?

Qi Miancheng found a stable spot and set Ning Mingmei down.

The moment his feet touched solid ground, Ning Mingmei clutched his chest and finally coughed up a mouthful of crimson blood.

Behind him, Qi Miancheng stood with two swords strapped to his back, one empty sheath, and the Osmanthus Tree in his arms, something Ning Mingmei had insisted he bring before they left the mine.

Ning Mingmei braced himself against the ground, his vision going dark. His sight flickered like a television screen with poor signal, flashing between clarity and static.

“Go to sleep,” someone told him.

Ning Mingmei murmured, “But…”

“I saw a few of your disciples on the way here. They said the others were escaping with a group of mortals. They had come back to look for you. I stopped them and told them not to interfere. By now, they should be on their way to the Lian family’s residence,” Qi Miancheng said. “You can rest easy now.”

Unlike his usual warm and refined tone, Qi Miancheng’s voice carried a cold edge, likely from exhaustion.

Ning Mingmei mumbled, “My tree…”

With that, he curled up on the stone slab and closed his eyes.

The evening light barely reached into the valley, casting a narrow beam. It illuminated half of Qi Miancheng’s face and left the other half in shadow.

Ning Mingmei’s shoulder wound was still bleeding. Qi Miancheng took a pill for himself first, then placed his fingers over Ning Mingmei’s injury for a moment before pulling out medicinal powder from his spatial storage bag and sprinkling it on the wound.

Then, he took off Ning Mingmei’s glasses.

Qi Miancheng remained silent, gazing at his unconscious face. His expression was odd, like someone forcibly pulled out of a familiar scene and was left in unfamiliar stillness.

He stared for a while before muttering, “I almost forgot.”

Carefully, he wiped Ning Mingmei’s glasses with a handkerchief and placed them back on his face.

As he pushed the glasses up the bridge of Ning Mingmei’s nose, his fingers brushed against his skin, cool, soft, and incredibly smooth.

Qi Miancheng’s expression flickered strangely once more.

He lowered his head, pinched his fingers together, and made a light motion as if grasping the other’s skin.

It was as if he was trying to imprint that sensation onto his fingertips once more.

After that, he hoisted the Osmanthus Tree onto his shoulder and stared at it for a long time, frowning slightly.

***

Ning Mingmei didn’t sleep well.

In his dream, it was as if a group of clueless graduate students were jumping around a laboratory, hosting a social gathering while cooking a hot pot on an induction stove. The moment they dropped fatty beef into the pot, the lab’s electrical circuits tripped.

A loud noise jolted him awake.

Before he even opened his eyes, he heard a bubbling sound near his ear. Turning his head, he was met with the sight of a pot…

Ning Mingmei: “Medicine?”

“It’s not medicine. It’s osmanthus,” someone replied. |32|

…The joke that Gui Ruoxue never got to say actually came true in a bizarre way with Qi Miancheng.

…Wait a minute. That loud noise before he regained consciousness was from behind him?

And his dirt-streaked glasses seemed to have been wiped clean.

Ning Mingmei propped himself up on his elbows, trying to sit up. The movement tugged at his wound and he let out a sharp hiss.

Seeing this, the other person frowned. “Why are you trying to sit up when you’re still injured?”

With that, he reached out to support him.

Ning Mingmei: “What exactly are you doing?”

Qi Miancheng: “Just wait a moment, Junior Brother. Once I turn you around, you’ll understand.”

Qi Miancheng actually used his uninjured arm to grip Ning Mingmei’s sides and flip him over.

What kind of cat-lifting posture was this?

As soon as he turned around, Ning Mingmei fell silent at the sight before him.

There was a very deep hole.

Qi Miancheng said, “As you can see, while you were unconscious, I dug a hole.”

Ning Mingmei’s gaze drifted over. “With your sword?”

Qi Miancheng replied, “I used the sword sheath that was no longer useful. We are sword cultivators and our swords are our souls. How could I use my own soul to dig a hole?”

…You sure have a lot of ‘souls,’ though. Three, to be exact.

Qi Miancheng said, “Junior Brother, I said that on purpose. See? You finally smiled just now. A cheerful mood is beneficial for recovery.”

Ning Mingmei suspiciously touched his face with his left hand. “Did I?”

Qi Miancheng: “Not really.”

Back at the Supreme Clarity Sect, Qi Miancheng had always carried the composed air of a hypocritical gentleman. But outside the sect, why did he suddenly act like a ChatGPT?

Ning Mingmei’s mouth twitched.

Qi Miancheng: “Alright, I thought speaking this way would help relax your mind and make you ignore your physical pain. Actually, I didn’t use the sword sheath. I used my true Qi to dig the hole. I lost control for a moment and ended up blowing it too deep.”

Ning Mingmei: “…So why did you dig a hole?”

Qi Miancheng pointed at the drooping Osmanthus Tree lying nearby. “Because you were thinking about it before you passed out.”

As expected of a sacred tree, even after getting blasted by a Great Ascension cultivator, it was still alive.

…But he could have just said, ‘I was planting the Moon Palace’s Osmanthus Tree for you.’

As he spoke, Qi Miancheng tapped his fingertip, using true Qi to lower the Osmanthus Tree into the deep hole.

The tree was so small that once inside, it completely disappeared from view.

Qi Miancheng said, “This isn’t a problem. A deep hole is better than a shallow one. I’ll use some true Qi to push down a few handfuls of soil to cover its roots. Since it was able to grow on Fiend Lord Jiang Duo’s body, it should survive here as well. If it doesn’t, we can move it somewhere else before it dies.”

Ning Mingmei stared at Qi Miancheng. For the first time, he found it incredibly difficult to say the words, ‘Thank you, Senior Brother.’

At that point, not only was speaking difficult but moving was too, especially the place on his shoulder where he had been pierced by a sword. Even with medicine applied, the pain was still sharp.

That Fiend Lord, who kept saying Ning Mingmei looked like his adopted sister, really hadn’t gone easy on him at all.

Wait. Medicine?

Qi Miancheng: “Now that you’re awake, let’s drink this pot of medicine.”

Ning Mingmei glanced again at the pot on the ground…

Never mind how Qi Miancheng managed to bring a ceramic pot out with him. What exactly was in that soup?

“What’s in this?”

Qi Miancheng said, “Some medicinal herbs, along with the osmanthus flowers and some leaves from that thousand-year-old Osmanthus Tree. Junior Brother, you should drink it first.”

…No wonder that sacred tree looked so bare now.

Ning Mingmei: “No, no, Senior Brother has already troubled himself to take care of me. I would feel too guilty. How could I drink first and disrupt the order of seniority? Of course, Senior Brother should go first.”

Of course, he was actually just afraid Qi Miancheng had poisoned it.

Qi Miancheng: “Mingmei, you’ve really grown up.”

After making that remark meant to convey warmth but sounding strangely ambiguous given the context, Qi Miancheng picked up the medicine pot and drank a quarter of its contents as Ning Mingmei watched closely.

After drinking, Qi Miancheng maintained a composed expression and asked, “Shall I feed it to you?”

Ning Mingmei: “I’ll do it myself.”

Using his uninjured left hand, he picked up the pot and drank. What the hell is this taste?

Ning Mingmei mentally commented to the system, [This flavor is on par with the spiced Indian coffee I once had at school.]

It was spicy, sour, and had a tobacco-like aftertaste. On top of that, the creamy topping gave it an unsettling sweetness. How could such a coffee exist in the world?

But Qi Miancheng hadn’t lied to him. As expected of a thousand-year-old Osmanthus Tree, the medicine was indeed effective. The moment it settled in his stomach, Ning Mingmei felt his spiritual energy replenishing.

Seeing that he had drunk the medicine, Qi Miancheng smiled and said, “Now that Junior Brother has taken the medicine, I can rest assured. Despite being seriously injured, you were still thinking of showing humility. I am truly moved.”

…The way you say that makes it sound like the medicine was poisoned.

Ning Mingmei glanced at Qi Miancheng sitting opposite him and said, “Senior Brother, you seem to be in good health.”

Qi Miancheng replied, “Actually, I have been hiding my pain so as not to worry you.”

As he spoke, a trickle of blood slipped from the corner of his mouth.

What the hell?!

At that moment, if he didn’t push up his glasses, it would be impossible to stay calm. Ignoring the pain in his shoulder, Ning Mingmei reached out and adjusted his glasses.

Qi Miancheng said, “It’s nothing. Seeing Junior Brother so flustered out of concern for me warms my heart.”

…Ning Mingmei had no words. He could only say, “Senior Brother, wipe your mouth.”

The two of them were inside a cave. After the battle with the Fiend Lord, both were seriously injured. Even making it out had taken all their strength.

If they didn’t heal properly, moving forward would be nearly impossible.

Now, without their disciples and with no idea where they were, only Qi Miancheng remained by his side. Ning Mingmei reached for his waist and found his spatial storage bag holding millions of spirit stones still intact, giving him a sense of relief.

Sitting across from each other, they began meditating to recover their depleted energy. Before long, Ning Mingmei felt a surge of warmth rising from his abdomen.

It was probably the Osmanthus Tree taking effect.

The injuries inflicted by the Fiend Lord on his limbs and body began to heal slowly. His meridians cleared and the flow of true Qi within them felt comforting.

Ning Mingmei opened his eyes and looked at Qi Miancheng sitting opposite him.

Unlike the purple ceremonial robes he usually wore as the sect master, Qi Miancheng was now dressed in simple white, probably for ease of travel. His dark hair was tied back with a jade crown and his closed eyes, paired with his striking features, gave him an air of steadfastness, like a towering mountain.

He still carried the poised elegance of a noble sect master.

Since they were already meditating, Ning Mingmei decided to ask, “Senior Brother, you called that Fiend Lord Jiang Duo. Do you know him?”

Qi Miancheng said, “The name Jiang Duo has been famous for centuries. I heard of him even as a child.”

Ning Mingmei said, “Senior Brother, we have time to spare. Why don’t you tell me about him?”

Time to hear some gossip about the academician.

Qi Miancheng said, “Hundreds of years ago, Jiang Duo was a dominant figure. The Heavenly Order Sect is the most powerful force in the fiend realm and he was the son of its leader.”

Unlike the cultivation realm, where many sects thrived side by side, the fiend realm followed the law of the jungle. All factions submitted to the strongest and the Heavenly Order Sect ruled over them all.

“The leader of the Heavenly Order Sect had many children but only one could inherit the position of the heir. Jiang Duo, as the second son, far surpassed his siblings in strength, especially his eldest brother and even his own father. Rumors circulated in the fiend realm that Jiang Duo would one day kill his father to seize the throne. He was incredibly powerful. Back then, in the Supreme Clarity Sect, only our master, Spirit Master Inaction, was able to fight him as an equal.”

Qi Miancheng continued, “Later, during the chaos in the fiend realm, Jiang Duo did exactly that.”

It had been a long time since Ning Mingmei had heard their master’s name. He almost didn’t recognize it.

“The wars between humans and fiends were endless. As a fiend lord, Jiang Duo committed countless crimes, including attacking immortal cities, besieging the Embracing Simplicity Temple, slaughtering the Ice Quenching Pavilion in the wastelands, and even assaulting the mortal imperial capital… But then, one day, he suddenly vanished. His elder brother took the throne as the new ruler of the fiend realm instead.”

Qi Miancheng added, “I never expect to find him sealed here.”

Ning Mingmei asked the question that had been on his mind, “How many sisters did Jiang Duo have?”

“Many. The leader of the Heavenly Order Sect had numerous children, both biological and adopted. Every generation, the leader gathered many offspring and watched them fight among themselves. Only the strongest would become the next ruler of the fiend realm.”

Qi Miancheng continued, “However, he had two particularly famous adopted sisters.”

Ning Mingmei felt something stir within him. “Who were they?”

“One was the demon concubine from four hundred years ago. The other was her twin sister, the saintess of the Joyous Pair Sect, the most ruthless demoness in history.”

Qi Miancheng said, “After the demon concubine died, her sister disappeared. Some say she took the demon concubine’s twin children with her. The demon concubine’s name was Jiang Heng and her twin sister’s name was Jiang Wu.”

Jiang Heng, Jiang Wu.

Ning Mingmei said, “Senior Brother, you are remarkably well-informed to even know the names of those two women.”

Qi Miancheng replied, “Because my mother, Lian Tingyu, was once friends with the demoness Jiang Wu.”

…The moment he said that, the entire cave seemed to turn ice-cold.

That was not something one should casually admit. The demon concubine’s rebellion was still a forbidden topic in the immortal realm, something everyone avoided.

Qi Miancheng was now the sect master of the Supreme Clarity Sect, a beacon of righteousness. The Qi family was one of the most prominent noble families in the immortal realm. His father, the old patriarch, was widely respected.

And yet, there he was, openly stating that his mother had been close friends with one of history’s most infamous demonesses. That kind of revelation would be shocking to anyone.

Ning Mingmei said, “Senior Brother must trust me a lot.”

Qi Miancheng: “Of course. Why shouldn’t I say it? Others might consider this unspeakable but I don’t.”

Ning Mingmei: “Senior Brother truly has an open mind.”

Qi Miancheng said, “Jiang Heng and Jiang Wu were both exceptionally talented, as was my mother. Strong individuals tend to have connections. What’s wrong with that?”

“…”

Qi Miancheng’s expression as he spoke was utterly casual and nonchalant. So much so that, if one didn’t scrutinize it, it would still appear to others as his usual warmth, composure, and quiet steadiness.

Ning Mingmei said, “Yes, Senior Brother is right.”

Qi Miancheng smiled.

“Junior Brother, you’re so wonderful,” he said softly.

The tone of that sentence did not sound like the Qi Miancheng he knew.

It was more like a snake, emerging from a shadowy jungle where flowers gleamed like gemstones, finally flicking out its crimson tongue.

And that tongue was aimed at something beautiful, something fixed within the depths of its serpentine gaze.

Qi Miancheng closed his eyes and continued meditating. There was an expression on his face that even Ning Mingmei couldn’t quite decipher; some sort of quiet satisfaction.

…There was no one else in the cave. Ning Mingmei and Qi Miancheng sat facing each other in meditation. The atmosphere between just the two of them felt strangely unsettling.

Perhaps it was because of the relentless rain outside and the air was thick with humidity but Ning Mingmei felt damp and sticky all over.

It was as if his clothes were clinging tightly to his skin.

“Senior Brother,” Ning Mingmei finally asked his last question, “Why were you there in the first place?”