Notorious Fame Spreads Far and Wide

After seeing off Feng Rugu and the others, Lu Yujiu returned to the valley.

When he pushed open the door of the main hall, Jing Sanchai and Lord Yingxu were divided on opposite sides of a sandalwood table in the center of the room, glaring at each other like two cats arching their backs in warning.

Lu Yujiu sighed lightly, inserted himself between the two, poured a cup of tea, blocking their line of sight while pondering what to say to ease the atmosphere.

In the end, he still betrayed Feng Rugu: "Rugu just came by."

Hearing the name of his old friend's disciple, Lord Yingxu finally shifted his glaring gaze away from his own disciple: "Rugu? Is there anything urgent?"

Lu Yujiu said, "Nothing major, just gathering some information."

Lord Yingxu had a heroic appearance. At his current age, if he let the years pass, grew a long beard and cultivated his mind and body, he would surely have the dignified appearance of a Daoist master. But he really liked how he looked when he was young, and there were people who always indulged his bad temper. As a result, to this day, from body to heart, he was still a mischievous and unstable young master.

He asked curiously, "He left the mountain? Why didn't he call me to go out?"

Lu Yujiu glanced at him sideways, "Weren't you two busy arguing?"

Lord Yingxu rubbed the back of his head and smiled brightly at Lu Yujiu.

Lu Yujiu couldn't stay angry at his smile and handed him the prepared tea.

Lord Yingxu cupped the tea in his palms and sighed, "Xingzhi asked me to take good care of him before ascending. But I haven't seen him for more than three years."

For a long time, Feng Rugu had not seen anyone.

He had half a scroll of achievements, yet he sat alone in the wind and snow of a thousand mountains.

"Still Water Runs Deep" had become an unapproachable island. He was in the midst of the secluded bamboo, no one knew whether he was content or lonely and desolate.

Jing Sanchai interjected from the side with his arms crossed, "His fiancée was cut in two by that Tang saber swordsman. If he's still shutting himself in at Fengling, those minor sects will probably attack Fengling demanding an explanation."

Lord Yingxu looked at him with disdain.

Jing Sanchai was easily angered by this look, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Lord Yingxu snorted lightly, "Always picking at the faults of the sects, how can you still be so childish at this age."

Jing Sanchai suddenly raised his voice, "I'm childish? Yes, I'm always childish in front of you!"

"Where does all your resentment towards the sects come from?" Lord Yingxu also raised his voice. "It was the demon sect that captured you back then. Now you'd rather do business with the demons than come back to the sect?"

Seeing this, Lu Yujiu knew that another argument was inevitable. Forgoing the gesture of rubbing his forehead, he simply poured two more cups of tea and sat down at the table to avoid being caught in the crossfire.

"...You don't understand!" At the mention of the past, Jing Sanchai became a trapped beast, pacing back and forth in the room, his footsteps heavy. "You don't understand anything!"

After coming out of the Forgotten World, Jing Sanchai refused to say anything about what happened there, keeping everything pent up inside, but he was always on the verge of uncontrollable rage.

Lord Yingxu had long known about this problem of his. Every time he saw it, he still got angry, feeling a sense of helplessness at not knowing how to help him, "What are you going crazy about again?"

Over the years, Lord Yingxu had coldly observed the reactions of those involved, repeatedly speculating about what had happened in the Forgotten World back then.

But speculation was still speculation, and no one was willing to give him a definite answer.

His disciple was like this, those victimized disciples were like this, and even Feng Rugu was like this.

The gates of the Forgotten World opened and closed, and countless hearts slammed shut.

Lord Yingxu couldn't control others, but he tried his best to open his disciple's heart, constantly yelling and pounding from the outside, but no matter what tricks he used, he couldn't open it even a crack.

In some ways, his anxiety was no less than Jing Sanchai's.

Jing Sanchai roared angrily, "What does what happened back then have to do with you?!"

"Nearly killing Xingzhi's beloved disciple, injuring the foundation of Danyang Peak, taking away my only disciple..." Lord Yingxu said angrily, "You say what does it have to do with me?"

Jing Sanchai was momentarily at a loss for words. Zhou Beinan also didn't expect himself to say something so sappy. Master and disciple both blushed.

Seeing the two at an impasse, Lu Yujiu looked straight ahead and handed out two cups of tea in two directions, indicating that they could take a break.

Jing Sanchai had confronted his master more than once, but had never learned how to refuse his master's wife.

He obediently took the teacup, cradling it in his palm, and muttered, "You haven't seen... that kind of bloody mess, that kind of human filth... I'll never forget it for the rest of my life."

Lord Yingxu looked at his own teacup, which did not reflect his own image.

He said in a flat tone, "...I have seen it."

Only then did Jing Sanchai suddenly remember everything his master had experienced after the sect was destroyed.

He had only spent three months in exile in the Forgotten World, while his master had spent a full thirteen years.

This made him hate his own - as his master said - childishness even more.

Because all he did was run away.

Ten years ago, he ran away from the sect. Ten years later, to cover up his childishness, he fought against his master with even more inexplicable anger, "Why are you always bickering with me?!"

With that, he slammed the door and left, as if he had won a victory.

As soon as Jing Sanchai left, Lord Yingxu's anger also faded. He brought the teacup to his lips and muttered, "...Silly boy."

Lu Yujiu secretly sighed that this master and disciple were truly a pair of natural enemies. He comforted Lord Yingxu, "His anger is not directed at you."

Lord Yingxu said, "I know, he just can't get over that hurdle."

...Including Jing Sanchai leaving the sect ten years ago, it was not because he had a falling out with him, but because he couldn't face it all.

Lu Yujiu deliberately changed the subject, "Sanchai didn't come all this way just to argue, did he?"

Lord Yingxu put down his teacup, plopped down on the table, put his feet on the edge of the stool where Lu Yujiu was sitting, and kicked down. Before Lu Yujiu could lose his balance and fall over, he propped him up with his knee against his back, "He came to ask for the Purifying Heart Stone."

Lu Yujiu, who had nearly toppled over, was furious. He glared at him hard, but his eyes were round when he glared, making Lord Yingxu laugh.

Purifying Heart stone is a specialty of Qingliang Valley, nothing particularly rare, but upon hearing the quantity of Purifying Heart stones that Jing Sanchai requested, Lu Yujiu was still genuinely shocked: "What does he want so many Purifying Heart stones for?"

Lord Yingxu scratched the side of his ear and slowly rubbed Lu Yujiu's back with his knee: "Don't know, he said that Boning came to him a few days ago and personally asked him for as many as possible, and he doesn't know what Boning wants to use these Purifying Heart stones for either."

Others may not have known, but Lu Yujiu, who was well-versed in array formations, knew very well.

The so-called Purifying Heart stone just has an elegant name. Its nature is yin and cold, with fierce medicinal toxicity. Even when used to refine Purifying Heart pills, only a small piece needs to be ground to produce a whole furnace of good elixir.

Ten crushed Purifying Heart stones mixed with water, the medicinal properties are enough to poison an ox to death.

Lu Yujiu pondered: "Since eight or nine years ago, did Boning start requesting Purifying Heart stones from the valley?"

Lord Yingxu can be said to have reached the pinnacle in spear techniques, but has insufficient talent in array formations, only learning some superficial knowledge from Lu Yujiu.

He doesn't understand how great the toxicity of Purifying Heart stones is, and tilted his head slightly: "So? Can't people use it to refine elixirs, or to repair the mountain-sealing grand formation?"

"That's right, it's also possible to be for the mountain-sealing grand formation..." This explanation makes sense, and Lu Yujiu breathed a slight sigh of relief, "Perhaps I overthought, as long as it's not the Seven Flowers Seal."

Lord Yingxu was curious: "What is the Seven Flowers Seal?"

"You don't remember anything!" Lu Yujiu reproachfully slapped Lord Yingxu, "Back when Boning came to the valley to play, after learning the effects of Purifying Heart stones, he had a sudden whim and created an array formation..."

The main material used in the Seven Flowers Seal is Purifying Heart stone, relying on the fierce cold toxicity of Purifying Heart stone to seal spiritual power. If one wants to break through, the cold poison needs to circulate through the twelve meridians, enduring great pain.

But because this array formation is laborious and time-consuming, it's more akin to a cruel punishment.

After figuring out the effects of the Seven Flowers Seal, Chang Boning treated this array formation as an uninspired invention and casually put it aside, no longer mentioning it.

With this doubt dispelled, Lu Yujiu also felt that he was worrying unnecessarily. He simply told Lord Yingxu about his wild thoughts: "When I saw Rugu today, he had slimmed down a lot, his complexion was also very pale, and his body exuded a cold yin aura. Hearing that Boning wanted so many Purifying Heart stones, and had started requesting them since eight or nine years ago, I thought..."

Lord Yingxu laughed: "You really are worrying blindly. Rugu's Guixu sword technique belongs to water, inherently biased towards yin and softness. What's so strange about his body constitution being yin and cold? Besides, not to mention anything else, if he had the Seven Flowers Seal on him, would he still dare to come out so brazenly? Is he crazy?"

After being ridiculed by Lord Yingxu, Lu Yujiu snorted and no longer dwelled on it. Just as he was about to get up to handle miscellaneous matters in the valley, Lord Yingxu leaned over and picked him up by the waist, hugging him like catching a cat, and walked towards the bed.

"That kid is going to anger me to death." Lord Yingxu walked while burying his face in the crook of Lu Yujiu's shoulder, declaring gloomily, "You have to compensate me."

Lu Yujiu thought left and right but couldn't figure out the relationship between these two sentences. He simply hugged Lord Yingxu's head tightly, nestling into his embrace, and cursed him in a soft voice: "...Scoundrel."

Lord Yingxu's scoundrel behavior always has a pattern.

Every time after seeing Jing Sanchai, he would feel depressed, and only by holding Lu Yujiu and replenishing his essence for a while could he recover.

That incident ten years ago seemingly didn't cause too much damage to the Dao Sect, with the biggest loss being no more than losing a Han Jing.

But it indeed changed too many people.

When placed on the bed by Lord Yingxu, Lu Yujiu's mind wandered, thinking, what was the name of that culprit who committed countless crimes?

...

Inside a deep mountain cave in Qinggang, a person wearing a dark purple robe seemed to have heard some news that made him extremely excited or panicked. With his hand pressed on the armrest of the throne, he couldn't help but tremble slightly: "...You didn't see wrong?"

"This subordinate definitely didn't see wrong. Even if this subordinate reincarnates, I will never forget the face of that one surnamed Feng!"

A small demon cultivator who had lost his left arm panted heavily, but didn't have much excitement of encountering an enemy and eagerly seeking revenge. On the contrary, his face was mixed with horror and helplessness: "He brought a pair of brats and a pair of bald donkeys, and entered Qinggang City early this morning!"

The seated person fell silent.

That small demon cultivator stroked his empty left sleeve that was tied in a knot in the middle, stammering: "Elder Ding, are we still staying here?"

Ding You, the culprit who had once plotted the "Forgotten World" chaos, also didn't have much joy from encountering his past enemy.

On the contrary, his hands trembled even more severely.

The color of his left eye was clearly different from his right eye, the left eye almost devoid of light, already blind by eighty percent.

He neurotically caressed his left eyelid, his voice also quivering: "Wasn't that madman spending his remaining years in Fengling Mountain? When did they let him out again?"

However, Ding You was still Ding You after all. He quickly calmed down and forced a laugh: "Since he's here, let him come. I heard that someone recently killed a disciple of the Dao Sect in Qinggang, he most likely came for this matter and isn't targeting us... Back then in Forgotten World, he was lucky. Now if we set up an ambush and fight while rested, we're not afraid of him, are we?"

Author's Note:

Dao Sect: Holy crap, that madman Feng Rugu is here.

Ding You: Holy crap, how did this madman get out.