Chapter 90 Part 1

From the moment Pang Yi rushed in, Zhou Yin had an ominous premonition. After hearing everything, his hands were itching to act.

However, the reason a poker face is called a poker face is that no matter what he thinks inside, he listens to Cao Hang's gossip and everyone's discussion and decision to return tomorrow from beginning to end with an expressionless face, unmoved like a mountain, and then gets up to leave with the others.

"Ah Yin!" Yun Zong called out to him.

"?" Zhou Yin turned to look at him.

Yun Zong paused for a moment, then said lightly: "...It's nothing."

With that, he walked out.

Just now when Zhou Yin stood up, his body naturally leaned forward, revealing the mottled purple and red marks on the back of his neck hidden under his collar.

Zhou Yin looked at his retreating figure, puzzled.

So it goes to show, sometimes a high IQ doesn't necessarily mean high EQ.

When Zhou Yin returned to the room, Zhou Chen had already come back.

He felt that he had already done something that could make up for his misdeeds, and was no longer afraid of being punished by his wife to kneel on the washboard, so he didn't return to human form. He just laid out the quilt, covering up the evidence, and fell into a deep sleep on top of it.

However, the moment Zhou Yin pushed open the door, he woke up and sat on the bed, spreading his fluffy wings.

"Come, wife, give me a hug!"

Zhou Yin ignored him, walked over and lifted the quilt.

The chicken feathers were still there, red as the setting sun.

Zhou Yin: "..."

Zhou Chen: "..."

Zhou Chen decided to strike first, pouncing over to firmly bite Zhou Yin's lapel, climbing up his body to nestle in his arms. Anyway, with his current small size, how could his dear wife bear to scold him for wanting affection.

Zhou Yin let him do as he pleased, not wanting to bother tidying up. In any case, they would be leaving tomorrow. Spending one night making do on a chair was fine. As for whether the people who came to clean the room later would think a chicken had once lived here or that the owner ate a live chicken, that was completely outside his consideration.

Zhou Yin said: "Qin Wuji went crazy?"

The furball's eyes flashed with sinister light as he whitewashed himself: "Wife, you misunderstand me. How could someone as kind as this Demon Beast Emperor possibly do such a thing? I merely temporarily confused his mind, he'll come to his senses by tomorrow."

With Qin Wuji's arrogance, waking up and realizing he had streaked naked in front of everyone would probably make him feel worse than being killed. This is the consequence of bullying my dear wife!

"You want to follow me to Shangxuan Sect?" Zhou Yin asked, while plucking the furball groping him out of his arms and placing him on his palm.

"The wife leads and the husband follows. Anyway, there are no major issues right now. If anything comes up, they'll notify me. Of course I have to stick by my wife's side to cultivate our relationship," Zhou Chen automatically found a comfortable spot on his palm and struck a pose waiting to be petted.

Zhou Yin used two fingers to lightly scratch under his chin. Zhou Chen contentedly narrowed his eyes and began to get complacent, completely forgetting his place. "To the left, a bit lower, scratch the right side too!"

Zhou Yin: "..."

The gentle, warm sunlight shone in through the window lattice, falling upon Zhou Chen's layer of soft, fluffy fur.

Zhou Yin said: "If you want to come along, then don't take human form."

Zhou Chen blinked at him, expressing a strong sense of why.

Zhou Yin said with a straight face: "They don't know you. Suddenly having an extra person would be too troublesome to explain. Also, it's more convenient to carry you this way."

What do you mean convenient to carry! Zhou Chen felt very aggrieved: "Ah Yin, you don't love me anymore!"

Zhou Yin pinched and squeezed his body. "Don't you think you look better like this compared to as a human or phoenix?"

"I want to openly stand by your side and slap to death anyone who has improper designs on you!" Zhou Chen declared righteously.

"Oh?" The phoenix eyes glanced over, carrying a hint of unintentional charm that Zhou Chen was dazed by, and couldn't help recalling the splendid passion of the previous night. His heart started racing and he could no longer muster any thoughts of fighting for his legal rights.

The next day, as Qingying's group departed, naturally Tianyan Sect sent people to see them off.

It was still Song Yi'an, only this time it wasn't just him, but also Fang Qingyang, the master of Tianyan Sect's Zhen Hall who now also held the position of elder, along with several Tianyan Sect disciples behind them.

He and Qingying were old acquaintances to begin with, and he didn't belong to Shangguan Han's trusted circle, so his speech and conduct were naturally much more amiable. Even Song Yi'an no longer had that faint hint of arrogance from their first meeting, and was thoroughly meek and respectful.

Fang Qingyang said: "Parting today, who knows when we'll meet again. I'm ashamed to say that our sect had this kind of incident occur. Our hospitality was lacking this time, I hope Daoist Qingying and everyone else won't take offense."

Qingying gave a faint smile: "I'm fine either way, but my junior martial nephew and young disciples did indeed suffer many grievances."

Contrary to her usual generous treatment of others, her words made Fang Qingyang a bit embarrassed. He signaled to Song Yi'an with his eyes.

Song Yi'an had the disciples behind him present three cases of varying lengths and opened them one by one.

Inside were the Angu Qin (zither), the Seven Kills Sword, and a case filled to the brim with high-grade spirit stones.

Fang Qingyang smiled: "These humble gifts are to express our apologies. I hope Daoist Qingying will accept them."

He then said to Zhou Yin: "I heard Daoist Zhou was originally from the Mirror Sea Sect. This Angu Qin was the relic of the Mirror Sea Sect's ancestor, Sword Immortal Xuan Ying, so it can be considered returning to its original owner."

Tianyan Sect's previous intentions were nothing more than to pressure Shangxuan Sect and command the cultivation world. But now with the incidents of the demon beasts and the dungeon, naturally they could no longer put on airs and offend Shangxuan Sect.

As for Fang Qingyang, with the major upheaval in the sect this time, Shangguan Han's control was not as strong as before, which instead gave others plenty of opportunities, including himself. So this generous gift was well worth giving.

These magic treasures and spirit stones were indeed quite precious, but with Qingying's status and position, she didn't really care for them. However, hearing Fang Qingyang mention Zhou Yin, she nodded: "In that case, you have our thanks."

Fang Qingyang lifted his chin and the three disciples presented the cases, which were received by the Shangxuan Sect disciples.

He exchanged a few more polite words before seeing Qingying's group off.

Because of the Angu Qin's history, Qingying wanted to give it to Zhou Yin, but Zhou Yin said: "This zither is of no use to me."

Yun Zong suddenly spoke up from the side: "Give the zither to me then."

Qingying said: "So be it. I don't have much use for these two magic treasures either. You can take the zither and Zhou Yin can have the Seven Kills Sword."

As for the remaining spirit stones, she had Cao Hang distribute them among the disciples below so everyone had a share.

With their current cultivation levels, they couldn't hope to master those two magic treasures anyway, while the high-grade spirit stones were the most practical benefit. The Shangxuan Sect members naturally all had smiles on their faces, thoroughly delighted.

Alas, what a pity, that zither was quite good, he could have played the tune "Phoenix Courting" for his wife.

Zhou Chen poked his head out from Zhou Yin's embrace, watching as Yun Zong stored the zither in his storage space.

The others had long noticed the pet on Zhou Yin's body. Those female disciples, upon seeing Zhou Chen's fluffy appearance, had wanted to pet him, but were deterred by Zhou Yin's cold expression.

When the group returned to Shangxuan Sect on their flying magic treasures, several hours had already passed.

Qingying had already sent a message back earlier, so there were quite a few people standing at the mountain gate of Shangxuan Sect to welcome them, led by Qingyan, the Peak Master of Tianji Peak.

Every blade of grass and tree in Shangxuan Sect looked the same as before, but since leaving this place, the group had experienced many things along the way. Now that they had finally returned, they couldn't help feeling a sense of excitement.

Qingying said, "How could we trouble Senior Brother Qingyan to personally come welcome us?"

Among the seven peaks, Qingyan had the weakest presence. Besides attending meetings, he rarely came out. Those high-profile matters were never graced by his presence, so Qingying was naturally a bit surprised to see him.

Qingyan smiled, "Junior Sister has worked hard on this journey, it's no trouble for me to come out and welcome you."

Seeing a hint of something unusual in his smile, Qingying hurriedly asked, "Nothing has happened in the sect recently, right?"

Qingyan shook his head, "Let's go up the mountain and talk."

Qingying saw that he was unwilling to say more, likely because it was inconvenient to speak in front of everyone, so she nodded and said to Yun Zong and the others, "Alright, you all go rest first, we'll talk later."

She then followed Qingyan and left first.

Yun Zong and Zhou Yin had no objections. They took a different mountain path up, as the two of them lived on Tianshu Peak where Qinghe resided, not the same way as Qingying and the others. The other disciples also dispersed.

On the way, they encountered quite a few people. Seeing Yun Zong and Zhou Yin, although not recognizing them, their cultivations were evident. They all stopped, respectfully saluted and called out "Senior Uncle", before continuing on their way after the two had passed.

This was the etiquette of lower-level disciples towards higher-level cultivators in Shangxuan Sect, completely different treatment from when Zhou Yin had first arrived here with the Mirror Sea Sect group. In the blink of an eye, the people from back then had likely changed many times over.

Yun Zong suddenly furrowed his brows slightly, "There seem to be fewer people."

Zhou Yin waited for him to continue.