The Transmigrated Male Lead Confessed to Me - Chapter 26 (Part 1)

This guy actually said it out loud.

Su Zhen stared at him in disbelief. What kind of Saint realm cultivator in this world would call someone not even a fraction of their age “Master”?

What’s more, this was the most powerful among the Saint-level cultivators in terms of martial strength.

Xiao Yu didn’t seem to care at all. He still looked at her with a smile, as if waiting for her answer.

Su Zhen silently nudged the arm resting beside her. Through the thin fabric, her fingertips touched the strong, muscular arm beneath, which still seemed to radiate a burning heat.

“Get up.”

She said calmly, “If you want to go, then go.”

Xiao Yu got up obediently and turned his head to look at the group of demon cultivators behind him. He didn’t offer any formal greeting, just nodded slightly.

The demon cultivators looked at him strangely.

Logically speaking, this guy should be much more respectful toward them. After all, his cultivation level was so low that any one of them could kill him easily.

But this master must have deeply hidden her strength. She had even managed to drive off a Blood God Priest of that level. If her disciple was a bit proud, it made sense.

The demon cultivators didn’t dwell on it.

Their gazes flicked between the two of them, silently speculating that the relationship between this master and disciple probably extended beyond mere teaching and guidance.

But that wasn’t anything unusual. Not to mention the demonic sects, even in righteous cultivation sects, as long as both parties consented, no one cared much.

The leading demon cultivator smiled and asked, “Senior, would you like to look around some more?”

Su Zhen was still holding a jar of lamb stew and a bundle of pastries. Hearing this, she shook her head and packed the items away. “No, let’s go.”

* * *

The underground street was very dim. The sparse mineral fragments in the stone lamps burned hot, casting a dim yellow glow.

Between the uneven and low buildings, the walls stood crowded and layered. Shabby wooden houses, crooked stone huts, and makeshift stalls were wedged into narrow gaps. Everything felt cramped and stifling.

People on the street hurried past. Many pushed carts or carried baskets. Numerous people bid farewell to children at their doorsteps and then left in a rush.

Dirty snowmelt from above trickled down into the street gutters, splashing muddy water onto pedestrians’ pants and shoes, yet they seemed not to notice.

…Not too different from two or three hundred years later.

It was just that there had been more people then, and the streets were more orderly too.

Su Zhen thought absentmindedly, heading straight to Thousand Chariots Sect’s secret base.

The demon cultivators walked beside her. Seeing that she needed no guidance to head in the right direction and that she showed no reaction upon seeing the filthy, chaotic courtyard at the entrance, they were unsurprised.

Su Zhen walked right in.

The scene changed the moment she stepped through the gate.

The narrow courtyard was suddenly renewed. Flat stone pavement, fragrant flowers, and trees appeared. The shabby buildings had vanished, replaced by elegant pavilions and winding corridors.

Under the corridor, water flowed gently. Inside the building, aromatic mist curled. A group of young demon cultivators lifted the curtain and came out, bowing respectfully and calling her “Senior.”

Su Zhen nodded slightly and continued forward without stopping. After entering the main building, she skillfully made her way deeper inside, passing through a corridor lined with shelves full of books, until she found the staircase leading downward.

The demon cultivators had stopped following her, bowing as she walked further in.

The staircase connected to a downward passageway, the surroundings dimly lit. On the walls, lantern brackets held small pieces of blue stone, which were now glowing faintly.

She walked down several dozen steps before stopping in front of a heavy bronze door.

The door gleamed with dark golden luster, and at the slightest touch, countless intricate and mysterious runes lit up.

“…They’re not even following you?”

Xiao Yu slowly descended the stairs behind her.

He communicated with her directly through sound transmission, not worried about others overhearing.

Su Zhen shook her head. “Because someone else is coming.”

She reached out and touched one of the runes, then counted five runes to the side and tapped twice more.

Golden light flared.

The bronze door slowly opened to both sides, revealing a vortex composed of black and violet light. The surrounding space twisted inward as if pulled by some force.

Su Zhen turned to glance back. “Senior, are you sure you want to go?”

Xiao Yu lowered his head and looked at her. “Do you mind me coming along?”

Su Zhen let out a sigh. “If I truly minded, I wouldn’t have asked that Senior to send me here. I’m just afraid you’ll find it boring since I’m not even going to fight. Though there’s always a chance someone might stir up trouble.”

“I won’t.”

Xiao Yu didn’t say anything else. “As long as it doesn’t trouble you, I want to go.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

Su Zhen pointed to the boundary gate in front of them. “The others are almost here. I don’t want to greet them again.”

Xiao Yu glanced back thoughtfully. His gaze seemed to pierce through the layers of walls and barriers, landing on the group of demon cultivators currently being welcomed into the courtyard.

He descended two steps and stepped into the black-violet vortex.

Su Zhen entered first. Darkness fell before her eyes, followed by a wave of dizziness, and then a tearing sensation spread through her body.

It was all normal.

Cultivators of the Lower Seven Realms had not yet refined their Immortal Bodies, and their physical forms lacked the required durability.

Within some boundary gates, especially those leading to the Demon Realm, the complex spiritual web inside the Mystic Path could cause damage, and in the worst cases, completely destroy the body.

However, the primordial spirit, being a different medium from the physical body, could pass through these turbulent streams of spiritual power unscathed.

In the worst-case scenario, the primordial spirit would enter the Demon Realm, and the body would simply be reconstructed.

Of course, injuries were also possible.

The Demon Realm was vast, with different rules in each region, and the structure of the Mystic Path varied accordingly, so experiences differed case by case.

—In her previous life, when she was already in the Heavenly Immortal realm, she had been a demon cultivator. But even when she was still in the Lower Seven Realms, she had traveled across various planes and was quite familiar with these processes.

Wait a moment.

Su Zhen suddenly sensed that something was off.

The tearing sensation should have intensified until her physical body was shredded and dispersed in the vortex of spiritual webs, leaving only the primordial spirit.

But none of that happened. Even the pain only appeared briefly before vanishing.

Once her mind calmed, she could even feel a strand of spiritual power, seemingly weak but actually tenacious, encircling her.

The Mystic Path, interwoven with black and purple streaks, shattered before their eyes.

She was standing on solid ground once again.

Clearly, the brief journey had ended. They had arrived at the other side of the boundary gate.

The two of them stood inside an incredibly vast palace hall.

Hundreds of bronze shelves were arranged in orderly rows around them, filled with various texts such as books, bamboo slips, and scrolls.

Crystal chandeliers hung from the dome, casting a strong light that illuminated every corner with brilliant clarity.

Everything was silent. Su Zhen looked up at the solemn hall.

The scene before her was exactly as it had been in her previous life.

She even remembered her first time coming here. When she saw the endless sea of texts and the forbidden arcane techniques available for casual perusal, every trace of fear and hesitation within her had completely vanished.

She had only regretted not discovering it sooner.

She also regretted having once been influenced by those fools. She had feared the demonic sects like venomous snakes, not even daring to approach and see for herself.

If only she had come earlier—

“The others are almost here.”

Xiao Yu stood beside her and calmly asked, “Are you still going to hide?”

“Then let’s stand a bit farther away.”

Su Zhen came back to her senses. “I wouldn’t say I’m hiding… Well, alright, I am hiding. Those few are chatty and troublesome. I can’t be bothered with them.”

The place where they landed was at the center of the hall, a circular open space surrounded by a ring of low bronze cabinets.

She walked to one of the cabinets, pulled open the top drawer, and took out an intricately carved wooden box with green patterns.

Su Zhen opened the box and took out a milky-white jade stone from inside. The stone glimmered faintly with green lines, which slowly drifted along its smooth surface.

“Senior, do you recognize this?”

She spoke as she walked toward a nearby bookshelf.

Xiao Yu gave it a glance. “Bone-Regrowth Jade Crystal.”

“Mhm. It accelerates the reconstruction of the physical body, prepared specifically for situations like this.”

At her current cultivation level, if unaided, even she would take several hours to rebuild her body. Other cultivators at the Soul Transformation realm could take days, even longer.

But with Bone-Regrowth Jade, Su Zhen was confident she could shorten the process to just a quarter of an hour.

However, the item was no longer needed.

Because Xiao Yu, through some unknown technique, had forcibly preserved her physical body. She had arrived fully intact, with no need to spend time regenerating flesh and blood.

They wandered between rows of tall bronze bookshelves. Hanging on the sides of the cabinets were numerous plaques, each inscribed with either single or grouped incantations.

Most of the spell marks were highly obscure; those with limited knowledge would likely struggle to recognize them.

Su Zhen swept her gaze over the rare and obscure runes without pause, then continued inward and stopped before a standing cabinet at the back.

She raised her hands, fingers interlocked, then split them left and right.

The shelf in front of her slowly opened, silently extending outward to reveal a section that had been folded and hidden.

On those shelves, over a dozen tomes of varying shapes and thicknesses were scattered. A few emitted a strong scent of blood, while others had billowing black mist swirling around their edges.

Su Zhen carefully raised her hand and pulled out the book emitting black mist.

Xiao Yu, standing silently beside her, extended his hand at this moment, clearly aware of what was about to happen.

Su Zhen had intended to place the book on the ground, but seeing this, she paused and instead placed the spine of the book into his palm, then slowly opened it.