After Refusing Marriage to the Dao of Slaughter Patriarch (6)

The sweeping disciples on Chuyun Peak that day all sensed the Patriarch's anger. The spiritual pressure felt like a boulder crushing down on their heads, causing their legs to tremble, and they dared not speak a word.

Although Patriarch Yun Shu was a Patriarch of the Soul Splitting Realm, in their memories, there were very few instances where his anger showed on his face. He was always so tolerant toward his personal disciples that it made others envious, whether it was Yun Liu or Tang Huaimeng.

Yet, this was also the first time he had ordered a punishment for his disciple.

"For disrespecting your master, go to the Discipline Hall yourself and receive thirty lashes."

Tang Huaimeng half-knelt on the ground. The palm print on his chest was still burning hot, swollen, and aching endlessly. However, he knew clearly that with only this minor injury, given his master's cultivation, mercy had already been shown. Otherwise, his Golden Core would have been shattered long ago, and he wouldn't even have the chance to receive punishment.

He smiled bitterly and said, "Yes."

Just as Tang Huaimeng was leaving, the Patriarch, who appeared exceptionally cold and ruthless, uncharacteristically spoke a few more words.

"Did you think you were helping him?"

"How many cultivators wanted to profane him and play with him in the palms of their hands that day? Why don't you take a guess."

Tang Huaimeng's thoughts at times were truly so naive that it was laughable.

Almost as soon as he heard Yun Shu's words, all the color drained from his face. Obviously, he had also realized that for someone like Ji Zhaixing, being coveted was only too normal.

He should have at least protected Ji Zhaixing until his injuries were healed.

This realization threw Tang Huaimeng's mind into chaos. In his panic, Tang Huaimeng urgently pleaded, "Then Master, please let me..."

"There is no need." Yun Shu's eyes were truly like forged ice and snow. His gaze landed on Tang Huaimeng, appearing like a high and mighty, emotionless immortal, as he said with extreme coldness.

"Since you were unwilling to bring him back, then you never need to approach him again."

......

Meanwhile, the general affairs registrar of Chuyun Peak, who had been waiting outside for a long time, also guessed that Yun Shu was in a bad mood. Asking for an audience at this very moment made him truly tremble with fear.

By the time he met with Patriarch Yun Shu, a cold sweat had already soaked through his outer robe. As soon as the registrar entered, he swept his robes aside, half-knelt, opened the treasure box in his hands, and presented it before Yun Shu.

Inside lay a Storage Ring inlaid with translucent spiritual jade.

Yun Shu's expression was indifferent.

The registrar did not dare remain silent any longer and quickly spoke up, "When the sweeping disciples were cleaning Daoist Ji... Ji's residence, they found this Storage Ring. It should have been left behind by Daoist Ji. The sweeping disciples didn't dare to secretly keep or touch it, so they entrusted me to deliver it to the Patriarch."

Something left behind by Ji Zhaixing?

Had it been any other day, Yun Shu would probably have just carelessly rewarded it to the sweeping disciples. But for some reason, at this moment, he reached out and took the Storage Ring as if possessed—

The moment it fell into his hand, Yun Shu paused slightly. The oppressive aura around him suddenly leaked out terrifyingly, and the Storage Ring was crushed into two halves, leaking a trace of spiritual energy. Although the registrar had the cultivation of a Nascent Soul, he absolutely could not withstand this unintentional, overwhelming spiritual power. With his teeth chattering, he pleaded, "Patriarch!"

Only then did Yun Shu realize his loss of composure. He simply paused, and the aura around him calmly receded. Pressing his lips tightly together, he said, "Step down—distribute the items inside to the disciples at the foot of the peak."

The registrar fearfully took back the nearly destroyed Storage Ring, not daring to utter a word in response. In his heart, he even faintly knew why Patriarch Yun Shu was so furious—

There were no restrictions on the Storage Ring, so the moment the registrar touched it, he had subconsciously swept it with his spiritual sense. The quantity of spiritual herbs, pills, and magical artifacts inside was staggering to the point of leaving one speechless, almost comparable to the entire wealth of a small sect.

Among them, the registrar was familiar with several spiritual items, as he had personally delivered them from the Patriarch to Ji Zhaixing's residence. These clearly hadn't been saved up overnight, but rather, it seemed that Ji Zhaixing had never touched any of the Patriarch's rewards from the very beginning.

To remain so calmly self-disciplined even when receiving immense favor, no wonder he could abandon the position of the Patriarch's Dao Companion and break things off so ruthlessly.

......

One of the Lower Three Thousand Worlds.

Recently, an anecdote emerged in the cultivation world. Ji Zhaixing, who had followed an "Immortal Lord" to leave the lower world and go to the Upper Three Thousand Great Worlds, had returned.

Ji Zhaixing had only been gone for a few months. Such an unusual change was clearly not a glorious, triumphant return. Thus, the cultivators spreading this anecdote inevitably carried a hint of schadenfreude in their conversations.

They had thought Young Sect Master Ji of the Yushui Sect possessed some heaven-defying talent, soaring into the sky in a single bound. But looking at it now, he was only outstanding in their lower world. Once he truly arrived at those legendary great sects, even if he wasn't considered mud under their shoes, he would still fade into obscurity among the masses.

Only the ignorant people of the Yushui Sect would have daily dreams about Ji Zhaixing cultivating into a Patriarch of a region and returning to bring glory to the sect.

Some speculated that Ji Zhaixing was expelled from the great sect because of dull comprehension and an inability to advance his cultivation. Some mocked that he thought too highly of himself, suffered a blow, and willingly degenerated, fleeing back to this desolate lower world. The more malicious ones claimed that Ji Zhaixing caught a Patriarch's eye and was taken as a cauldron, then kicked away once they got tired of playing with him.

The Yushui Sect was considered a massive sect in this lower world. The reason they didn't deal with these foul-mouthed cultivators was simply that they had focused all their energy on healing Ji Zhaixing's injuries.

To this day, Ji Zhaixing's masters and elders could still recall the soul-shattering terror, the lingering fear, and the almost uncontrollable rage they felt upon discovering the wounds on his body that day.

The black-haired sword cultivator had indeed looked miserable at that time.

Half his body was stained with blood, and his entire body was covered in wounds. He was half-kneeling in front of the sect's stone stele, supporting his body with a single saber.

His hair was scattered like splashed ink, obscuring half of his snow-white cheeks.

Ji Zhaixing kept his eyes closed, like a traveler frozen stiff in ice and snow, already in a semi-unconscious state. The one who happened to stumble upon him was his junior sect brother who was preparing to go out for experiential learning. After recognizing him at a glance, he almost staggered over to him to check his breathing.

In the plot, during the eighteen years Ji Zhaixing spent in the Yushui Sect, even if it couldn't be said that he was spoiled lawless, he had received boundless favoritism. When had he ever suffered such severe injuries?

After Ji Zhaixing regained his consciousness, he had stayed in the Yushui Sect for a period of time. Only after extracting his Dao Bone himself and breaking away from his original destined trajectory, did he choose to recuperate in this lower world.

To some extent, he had indeed avoided certain troubles.

Because probably no one would expect that Ji Zhaixing would return to his original lower world.

The disparity between the lower world and the great world was simply too massive.

Even a single spiritual root genius born in the lower world would be invisibly restricted. Limited by the scarcity of spiritual energy and the unfairness of the Heavenly Dao, the number of people who could break through to the Golden Core before their death was vanishingly few.

In the great world, where Golden Cores were everywhere and Foundation Establishment cultivators were as common as grass, almost no cultivator could imagine what a small world was like where a Foundation Establishment cultivator could become a sect elder, and a ninth-level Qi Condensation cultivator was considered a heaven's pride expert.

Because of this, let alone a cultivator who had seen the great world, even a cultivator who had been to the middle world would absolutely never return to the barren lower three thousand small worlds.

At the very least, in the middle world, there were sects from the great world that would descend to widely recruit disciples, meaning there was still hope on the Great Dao. But the small worlds were places completely forsaken by the mainstream cultivation world.

Going from the upper realm to the lower realm wasn't difficult—otherwise, Ji Zhaixing wouldn't have been able to return to the Yushui Sect while severely injured. However, ascending from the lower realm to the upper realm was unattainable for anyone below the Nascent Soul Patriarch level. Once someone returned to the lower world, they were voluntarily giving up their path of cultivation, becoming limited by a lifespan of only a few hundred years, and losing all possibility of ever seeking the Great Dao.

Yet, Ji Zhaixing simply didn't care.

Therefore, he returned to the Yushui Sect.

It was just that Ji Zhaixing was truly injured far too heavily.

To heal his injuries, the Yushui Sect Master naturally didn't spare the sect's inner treasury. He even risked his life venturing to the bitterly cold extreme lands to search for spiritual herbs, and after a bitter struggle with the demonic beasts guarding the herbs, he sustained some internal injuries.

After being treated with the spiritual herbs for a few days, Ji Zhaixing finally woke up.

At the hour of Yin, the sky was deep blue, hanging with a crescent silver moon.

He was still in his former residence in the Yushui Sect. The room was tranquil, with only a bright pearl placed at the head of the bed, covered with gauze and flickering with a faint glow.

Ji Zhaixing glanced at the youth guarding the bedside, propping up his cheek, dozing off on the verge of sleep. Recalling that this was his little junior brother—just about to turn sixteen, right at the age when one easily gets sleepy—he half-propped himself up, cleared a space on the bed, and tried using the Wind-Shifting Spell to move his little junior brother onto it.

Unexpectedly, this youth was alert and woke up at once. Looking at Ji Zhaixing, his eyes almost welled up with tears.

"Senior Brother Ji, you're finally awake. I'll go call Master and Master's Wife—"

Having been unconscious for several days, Ji Zhaixing's throat was somewhat hoarse. His voice at this moment was so soft and weak that it sounded almost like a kitten: "It's late in the night. Don't disturb Master and the elders."

The voice was so weak that even Ji Zhaixing paused for a moment. He adjusted for a bit before gently saying to his little junior brother, "Little junior brother, thank you for taking the trouble to look after me."

"Clang—"

The little junior brother stood up abruptly, moving so wildly that he knocked over the candlestick beside him.

Logically speaking, he had grown up under Senior Brother Ji's watch, so he should have been accustomed to Ji Zhaixing's appearance. But he hadn't expected that after only a few months, Senior Brother Ji seemed to have grown even more, more beautiful. That smiling expression, moreover, made one's heart sway and mind flutter.

"I—I'm sorry, Senior Brother Ji!" He apologized in a panic. "You rest well. I'll go guard outside. Just call me if you need anything."

Ji Zhaixing chuckled, "The wind is strong outside. You can sleep here with me."

The little junior brother's face grew so hot he could barely speak clearly: "No, I wouldn't dare. I'm afraid Master would break my legs." His mind was in such a mess he hardly knew what he was saying.

Ji Zhaixing felt he was exaggerating. Even if he was an injured patient, there was no need to yield like this, and their master wouldn't be so unkind.

He instead comforted him, "I already have the cultivation of a Golden Core. I can just go to the outer room to cultivate. By the time the hour of Mao arrives, it will be the perfect time to pay respects to the masters."

The little junior brother was first disappointed: So they weren't sleeping together? Then he immediately reacted and said in surprise, "Senior Brother Ji, you've already cultivated to the Golden Core realm?"

Seeing Ji Zhaixing covered in wounds and looking completely wretched, he had even vaguely guessed that his senior brother's cultivation realm had dropped. He thought it was best not to bring up this sad topic. Never did he expect that his senior brother was already a Golden Core Daoist Master, almost the pinnacle of Daoist cultivation in this small world!

"Naturally."

In his little junior brother's eyes, Ji Zhaixing didn't display the slightest bit of arrogance typical of a Golden Core Patriarch.

He then saw his senior brother stand up. His crumpled inner robes revealed a hint of his lustrous white collarbones. Ji Zhaixing slightly lowered his head, his thick eyelashes drooping, and very lightly tapped the little junior brother's forehead. "Alright, go to sleep. Be careful not to stunt your growth for the future."

......

With Ji Zhaixing's return, the people of the Yushui Sect were probably both worried and happy, but there were exceptions.

A dancer with a layer of thin gauze wrapped around her snow-white arms swayed gracefully, holding a wine cup in her hand. In a few steps, she leaned into the arms of a few guests, offering them fine wine while displaying her graceful waist, making it hard to tell whether the beauty smelled sweeter or the wine tasted more mellow.

It was just a pity that the host this time had no tender feelings for women and violently shoved the beauty away.

His several fair-weather friends looked at each other in dismay. One of them paused slightly and tentatively asked with an apologetic smile, "Young Sect Master Tan, why are you in such a foul mood today?"

Tan Lang's complexion darkened slightly again as he said gloomily, "Young Sect Master? Now that he's back, what kind of Young Sect Master am I?"

Those friends all knew about the grudge between Tan Lang and Ji Zhaixing, so they immediately didn't dare speak or make jokes.

Tan Lang was the only son of the Yushui Sect Master and his wife. However, perhaps all Patriarchs had eccentric temperaments, as the Yushui Sect Master set aside his own biological son and passed the position of Young Sect Master down to a disciple under his tutelage.

It was only a few months ago, when Ji Zhaixing followed a Patriarch to the upper realm, that the title of Young Sect Master finally landed on Tan Lang. Who could have known that through such a twist of fate, Ji Zhaixing would return not long after.

Tan Lang coldly took a sip of wine, generally knowing that it wasn't good to say too much in front of outsiders.

But a crazy thought occasionally flashed through his mind.

Why didn't Ji Zhaixing just die? He always had to fight with him over everything.