After Refusing Marriage to the Dao of Slaughter Patriarch (19)

'I know your whole sect is full of upright gentlemen with no ulterior motives toward me... except perhaps Yun Shu.'

Ji Zhaixing thought.

If he had known that this group of cultivators before him actually came from the Mingling Sword Sect, Ji Zhaixing would probably have chosen to avoid them early on, rather than deliberately approaching them to extract information related to the mystic realm.

After all, if this group of cultivators recognized that he was the nameless sword cultivator who had almost become their Patriarch's Dao Companion, the situation would truly be somewhat awkward.

Although the incident had passed several months ago, his actions that day would likely still be fresh in the minds of these disciples. It was only because the demonic fog was too heavy, preventing them from seeing his full appearance, that they were being so warm and friendly.

As Ji Zhaixing turned these thoughts over in his mind a few times, he appeared even more aloof when facing Lu Dengming's invitation.

"Thank you, Daoist, but I can manage on my own."

This time, it wasn't a tactical retreat to advance, but rather a very sincere refusal.

However, his refusal did not have any effect.

The cultivator named Fang Jian, who had a lively and erratic personality, was already grumbling under his breath: if word of this got out, people would inevitably say that the Mingling Sword Sect had hearts of iron, watching a fellow cultivator die without helping.

Even Lu Dengming, despite his gentle attitude, revealed a hint of stubbornness. He silently guarded Ji Zhaixing's side, dense mist settling upon his shoulders.

Ji Zhaixing sighed silently.

A lone cultivator with only an early-stage Golden Core cultivation appearing in the extremely dangerous Spirit Domain was already unusual enough. And even if he had a solitary personality, he shouldn't joke around with a matter of life and death by refusing the help of fellow cultivators and giving up what currently seemed to be his only viable path of survival.

Ji Zhaixing's deep red lips pressed tightly together as his scattered black hair slipped from his shoulder. Finally, he slightly lowered his eyes and replied extremely softly, "Thank you."

Hearing those words, an uncontrollable softness welled up in Lu Dengming's heart.

As the group walked out of the eerie and deep dense forest, Lu Dengming turned his head back several times. He seemingly wanted to support the stumbling white-robed cultivator, but was politely yet coldly rejected every time.

Therefore, he deliberately slowed his pace so that the person wouldn't have such a hard time walking.

Along the way, Lu Dengming's voice was low, as if carefully approaching a freshly weaned kitten: "What is your name?"

Ji Zhaixing paused slightly. "...Ji Xing."

Fang Jian and Fang You followed behind their senior brother in utter boredom, thinking to themselves that they hadn't really heard of this name before.

One must know that although there were many Golden Core cultivators in the Great World, such a young Golden Core Master wouldn't be completely unknown among the masses. Thus, they asked another question: "Which sect are you from?"

Ji Zhaixing went through the sects invited to his Dao Companion ceremony in his memory and quickly selected one, saying in a low voice, "A disciple of the Wujing Sect."

The Fang brothers came from the number one sect, the Mingling Sword Sect, so they had naturally heard of the Wujing Sect. However, they didn't know much about this sect, only that it was a sect that passed down inheritances through bloodlines and expanded its disciples through marriage alliances. They never accepted outsiders into the sect and were extremely mysterious. Thinking of it this way, it was quite normal for them to be hiding a few young Golden Core cultivators whose names they didn't know.

As the demonic fog gradually thinned out and they were about to walk out of this dense forest, Ji Zhaixing paused slightly and silently cast the Appearance Concealment Spell on himself.

That breathtakingly beautiful face immediately transformed into an unremarkable, ordinary yet neat appearance that would blend into the crowd of the cultivation world.

This Appearance Concealment Spell was one tier higher than the Illusion Transformation Spell, belonging to the fourth-tier exotic arts. Although it couldn't change one's physique like the Illusion Transformation Spell could, its advantage was that unless an onlooker was two realms higher than the caster, they would never be able to spot any flaws in the disguise.

This was also an obscure spell Ji Zhaixing had learned in the Scripture Pavilion, and he had only used it once when escaping from the Mingling Sword Sect to return to the small world.

When the branches and leaves were finally pushed aside, the rare, warm sunlight of the Spirit Domain fell upon their backs. Lu Dengming's heart skipped a beat, and he subconsciously turned his head to look at the Golden Core cultivator following behind him.

—He held a long sword with a black scabbard, his skin and bones almost as white as snow under the morning sun, his figure tall and slender, yet his face...

Was indeed unremarkable.

In the cultivation world, where everyone was beautiful, he could even be considered ugly.

'He's... somewhat different from what I imagined,' Lu Dengming thought.

Even when he couldn't see clearly in the dense fog, Lu Dengming had secretly outlined the youth's features. The image he had pictured was extremely moving, yet the youth before him was ordinary. However, those eyes were very, very...

Lu Dengming and Ji Zhaixing accidentally locked eyes. He only felt that those eyes seemed to exude a soul-stealing charm, making him feel that they were actually quite beautiful. They were even slightly more captivating than those of his Martial Uncle Yun Liu, who was renowned for his beauty and strength.

'I must be crazy.'

Lu Dengming forced himself to toss out the distracting thoughts in his mind and smiled gently at Ji Zhaixing.

The quota for Mingling Sword Sect disciples to enter the Spirit Domain was not small, but they all learned from different main peaks, resulting in quite significant factional differences. For example, Lu Dengming was a disciple of the Sect Master, so the disciples following him in this lineage were all under Xuanhua Peak.

Among the disciples commanded by Lu Dengming, probably very few wanted to bring along an outsider from another sect whose background was unknown. But since Senior Brother Lu had spoken, they wouldn't object either, simply letting the person tag along.

The subsequent journey was extremely strange.

Most of the demonic beasts at the edge of the Spirit Domain were at the Golden Core stage, reaching no higher than the Golden Core peak. Even if a Nascent Soul stage demonic beast appeared, Lu Dengming's cultivation could subdue it. Therefore, with such a mighty group of cultivators like theirs, any demonic beasts that had cultivated a modicum of sentience should have actively avoided them.

And that had indeed been the case before.

However, ever since they set up a formation and hunted down that Mirage Demon, the demonic beasts seemed to be in a period of agitation, frequently initiating attacks and becoming merits under their magical artifacts. The disciples went from carefully skinning the demonic beasts and preserving every drop of blood at the beginning, to exhaustedly and numbly only digging out the inner cores and taking a few special body parts before discarding the beast corpses in the later stages—this transformation took no more than two days.

Although they didn't have to worry about tracking down demonic beasts, these frequent attacks were simply too much to bear.

Since when did the demonic creatures in the Spirit Domain become so numerous?

This was Ji Zhaixing's first time entering the Spirit Domain, so he didn't realize just how abnormal this frequency of encountering demonic beasts was.

Lu Dengming roughly considered Ji Zhaixing to be an injured person. Every time before a demonic beast attacked, he would stand by his side, protecting him flawlessly.

"Daoist Ji, beware of that Jade Ice Bee's attack. Stand further inside."

"During the Demon Spirit Flower's blooming period, its overflowing pollen is toxic. Just cover yourself with this wet handkerchief, Daoist Ji."

"Daoist Ji, please stand behind me. This flood dragon-like snake is difficult to deal with."

He could be called the epitome of patience and meticulousness, making the disciples of the Mingling Sword Sect sigh with emotion. For Senior Brother Lu to be so considerate and polite to an outsider, he was indeed worthy of being one of the candidates for the next Sect Master. Such a bearing was different from ordinary people.

If one were to ask why their thoughts didn't go astray, it was truly because "Ji Xing's" face looked far too safe. Their Senior Brother Lu wasn't blind; how could he possibly take a liking to such an unremarkable disciple?

At certain times, Ji Zhaixing's temper was exceptionally good. He did almost whatever Lu Dengming told him to do. When killing demonic beasts, if Lu Dengming didn't need him to make a move, he simply wouldn't, standing obediently at the back.

Moreover, Ji Zhaixing was just tagging along with these Mingling disciples and didn't fight them for resources. If there were any rare spiritual herbs or demonic beast essence blood, he would only watch from the sidelines as they gathered them, occasionally helping out when they were too busy. After getting along like this, even the few Mingling disciples who couldn't stand the fact that he couldn't even kill a single demonic beast felt that "Ji Xing" had a genuinely good temper and found it hard to continue targeting him.

Lu Dengming actually felt a bit apologetic, his heart aching at how overly sensible and understanding he was. Thus, he forcefully stuffed some heavenly treasures into Ji Zhaixing's hands.

When refused, he would laugh and say, "If you go back empty-handed, how will you explain yourself to your sect?"

Only after a slight hesitation did Ji Zhaixing accept them, softly replying with a "Thank you."

......

The sun and moon rotated extremely fast in the Spirit Domain; six shichen made up a full day and night.

Although the cultivators all had Golden Core cultivations and didn't need to sleep at night, they had, after all, lived as mortals for over a decade and still retained the habit of stopping to rest at night.

Lu Dengming looked up at the two eerie moons in the sky, calculated the time and direction, and knew it was the time when the Buddha's Whisper Flower would bloom. He hesitated about whether to go and pick it—the Buddha's Whisper Flower was near the center of the Spirit Domain. The other disciples' cultivations were insufficient; only he, with a Nascent Soul cultivation, could go and return quickly. However, during the time they were separated, if an accident occurred, he wouldn't be able to look after them in time.

Fang Jian sneaked a drink from his water skin, which he had swapped from spiritual fruit juice to wine, and urged his senior brother to quickly go pick the Buddha's Whisper Flower. He was used to acting without restraint, and seeing Lu Dengming's gaze fleetingly land on "Ji Xing," he laughed, "Haha, Senior Brother, there's no need to worry about Daoist Ji. I'll help you protect him for a while."

He was just saying it casually, but Lu Dengming's heart gave a slight jolt, and his face flushed in a way that seemed to try and hide his true feelings.

Ji Zhaixing seemed not to have heard Fang Jian's teasing clearly. He remained sitting by the campfire, poking at the spiritual fire. His sitting posture was extremely proper, his back perfectly straight. The ambiguous firelight illuminated that unremarkable face, making his features appear handsome and refined.

Lu Dengming coughed lightly and left first.

As soon as his senior brother left, Fang Jian couldn't be bothered to pretend to be serious anymore. When he opened the water skin, a rich aroma of wine wafted out.

His older brother Fang You shot him a glance and sneered, "When Senior Brother Lu comes back and smells the alcohol on your breath, let's see if he doesn't scold you."

Fang Jian immediately restrained himself significantly. Sitting by the warm spiritual fire again, he let out a bored sigh.

Ji Zhaixing was sitting right across from him.

From Fang Jian's angle, he could see the dancing firelight casting flickering shadows on Ji Zhaixing's face. He began to feel that this plain and reticent Daoist cultivator's raven-wing-like eyelashes curled up very nicely, and he was actually quite good-looking, not as ugly as he usually seemed.

For a moment, he was somewhat entranced.

When stopping to rest at night, the Mingling Sect disciples would set up formations to conceal their spiritual energy and scatter medicinal powder that demonic beasts detested all around. Therefore, whenever this time came, they were all very relaxed.

Thus, no one expected a demonic beast's silhouette to emerge from the concealed darkness.

It was so enormous, yet its movements were completely silent. In almost an instant, it shifted behind Fang Jian, widely opening giant teeth capable of swallowing a person whole.

In the face of this sudden, explosive crisis from a dormant threat, an instant of shocked terror replaced all the cultivators' reactions. Fang Jian merely smelled a foul, bloody wind blowing over. As he slightly tilted his head back, he met that bizarre, elongated and twisted neck, attached to a pair of bright yellow beastly pupils.

Fang Jian froze.

Or rather, he was completely paralyzed.

Some kind of force dominated him, leaving him unable to move.

His older brother Fang You, who usually loved to bicker with Fang Jian, reacted extremely quickly. He tried to stand up and cast the Wood Defense Art, only to find his body weighed down by a heavy force, rendering him completely unable to cast any spells.

In that split second, all they saw was Ji Zhaixing stand up.

The snow-white sword blade was unsheathed, like a shooting star tearing through the night sky, or a glint of cold light at the crack of dawn. In almost an instant, it slit the demonic beast's throat. The enormous head rolled off, and a mist of blood splashed all over the still-bewildered Fang Jian, yet not a single drop stained the corner of Ji Zhaixing's robe.

His posture was actually remarkably beautiful. Even if the sword movement seemed like the most ordinary sword technique possible, that strike was extraordinarily clean and sharp. After slaying the demonic beast, Ji Zhaixing sheathed his sword as if nothing had happened. His ink-black hair draped obediently over his shoulders as he sat back down, maintaining the same proper posture as before.

The roaring firelight danced.

Fang Jian: "..."

The Mingling disciples: "..."

What did they just see?

Sure enough... a disciple with a Golden Core cultivation who could survive for so long in the Spirit Domain was absolutely no ordinary cultivator!