Chapter 21: It’s Over! How Embarrassing!

Qi Yan stood stiffly. After a long while, he turned his face away. "Who said that? You should just go already."

"You aren't going to ask me to stay?" Yun Zhao asked, feigning sadness. "Then, am I leaving?"

Qi Yan remained silent.

Yinxue, lying at his feet, was so anxious that it kept clawing at his pant leg.

The tent flap was lifted and then lowered. Yinxue let out a huff and burrowed into the sword without hesitation.

"So you're just leaving," Qi Yan muttered, head bowed. "Leave if you want, I..."

"Qi Yan," a small head suddenly poked into the tent. The girl smiled like a blooming flower. "Goodnight~"

Qi Yan was stunned.

Long after Yun Zhao had left, he finally pressed a hand to his chest.

*Why are you pounding like this? Stop it!*

Yinxue emerged from the sword, lying flat against the blade, its eyes darting around as it watched him.

Qi Yan slowly lay down on the bed and extinguished the spirit lamp.

"...Goodnight."

*I don't want to.*

*I don't want you to leave.*

...

"Why are you back? Did you forget something?"

"Mhm," Yun Zhao said vaguely. "I left something behind."

Mu Qianqian nodded and pulled Yun Zhao into the tent to talk.

"Zhao-zhao," Mu Qianqian said earnestly, "Senior Sister needs to tell you something. From now on, don't spend time alone in a room with Qi Yan anymore."

"It's not that I'm worried about your reputation—we cultivators don't care about such things—but I am worried about your life."

Mu Qianqian looked deeply concerned. "Although Qi Yan has become your father's disciple, that man..."

She paused, glanced around, and whispered, "His background is unknown. I always feel like he's not a good person. I always feel... he has an aura of a demonic cultivator."

As it turned out, Mu Qianqian’s guess was spot on.

In the original story, Qi Yan slaughtered his way through everything, single-handedly plunging the cultivation world into a bloodbath. He was truly a demonic cultivator among demonic cultivators!

Yun Zhao didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Senior Sister, Qi Yan just doesn't like to talk much. It's not that serious, is it?"

Mu Qianqian stood by her opinion and decided to be more cautious of Qi Yan in the future.

Of course, she was also acting on the instructions of her master, True Immortal Hanyue.

True Immortal Hanyue’s exact words were: "Your Senior Brother only has one daughter; she must not be easily whisked away by some wild boy."

Mu Qianqian glanced in the direction of Qi Yan's tent. *I will watch you forever, forever...*

*Don't even think about running off with my Junior Sister!*

"By the way, Senior Sister," Yun Zhao said, resting her chin in her hands, "we used to fight every time we met. I didn't realize we were actually quite close when we were young, and we even did good deeds together."

Mu Qianqian replied casually, "We were the best of friends when we were little and went through so much together. It was only later, when you were bewitched by Song Zhiyuan, that our relationship soured."

Come to think of it, Qi Yan did have one redeeming quality: he had cured her blind junior sister's eyes.

That barely counted as a merit.

Mu "The Protective Family" Qianqian thought to herself.

"Let's not talk about that," Yun Zhao changed the subject. "Senior Sister, tell me about the Sect Grand Competition?"

Mu Qianqian reminisced and explained it to her:

The rules of the Sect Grand Competition were simple: any disciple from any sect who met the requirements could participate.

The secret realm they were entering was called the Hidden Dragon Realm. Before entering, every participating disciple would receive a jade token.

If they encountered danger in the realm, crushing the jade token would teleport them out.

In the end, whichever sect's disciple was the last to emerge before the realm closed would be declared the winner.

The corner of Yun Zhao's mouth twitched. "That's so childish? What if someone just hides and doesn't show their face until the very end?"

Mu Qianqian shrugged. "Nothing to be done about that. Luck is part of one's strength, after all."

"It used to be that the sect which gathered the most spiritual plants and hunted the most demonic beasts won. Later, some sects started killing other participants to secure the top spot, so the evaluation method was changed."

Mu Qianqian cautioned, "Zhao-zhao, we are entering the realm primarily for training and treasure hunting. You must not kill others for the sake of a spiritual plant; that is a major taboo for cultivators."

"You haven't been out for training much, so you probably didn't know this."

"Of course," Mu Qianqian added, "if someone provokes you, there's no need to be polite. Just fight them!"

Yun Zhao nodded. "I understand, Senior Sister."

She asked curiously, "Then what is the prize for first place that makes them fight so hard for it?"

Mu Qianqian curled her lips. "You get to be the first to enter the next secret realm, and the top four sects get to keep the four keys that open the realm. It's just an empty title, nothing worth fighting over."

Smart people spent their time training and grabbing treasures.

Meanwhile, the sect masters and elders of every sect were giving the same advice to their disciples.

Rankings didn't matter; what mattered was the experience.

...

The next day, once all the sects had arrived, the masters of the four great sects took out the keys they kept and opened the entrance to the realm.

The entrance was in the middle of a small lake. Everyone gathered around, jumping into the water one by one in order.

Yun Zhao stood in line, feeling a sudden urge to laugh.

How was this like... dumping dumplings into a pot?

"What are you laughing at?"

Qi Yan's voice sounded. Yun Zhao held back her laughter and told him her thought. Qi Yan couldn't help it, and a trace of a smile escaped the corners of his mouth.

But soon, Yun Zhao couldn't laugh anymore, because...

As Mu Qianqian tied the ropes around them, she explained, "The seniors who have participated before said that the teleportation splits people up. If we tie ourselves together, we should be able to teleport to the same place."

Someone nearby exclaimed, "Look! They look like a string of dumplings stuck together."

Well, so much for laughing at others—now they were the dumplings.

Qi Yan calmly added another rope around his and Yun Zhao's waists. "It does look like it. Hmm, so what kind of filling are you?"

Yun Zhao retorted, "Pork and scallion!"

Qi Yan muttered softly, "Clearly, you're spirit fruit filling."

"Senior Brother," Xue Huirui said nervously, "will we get separated?"

Song Zhiyuan looked away, tightening his grip on Mu Qianqian's hand. He said gently, "Don't worry, I'm holding onto you. We won't be separated."

Finally, it was their turn. The six of them jumped into the lake hand-in-hand, truly a striking sight to behold.

Hu Guichen, Master of the Heavenly Sword Sect, laughed out loud. "Sect Master Song, I thought that among the younger generation, only young friend Zhiyuan stood out from the crowd. I didn't expect to see such geniuses; your Azure Cloud Sect truly has an endless supply of talent!"

"Not at all, not at all," True Immortal Guiyuan laughed. "Your Heavenly Sword Sect is the truly impressive one."

"It's not just them; all four of our great sects have promising successors!"

While they were laughing and chatting, Yun Zhao was being tossed by a whirlpool, feeling like life wasn't worth living.

She had thought they would jump into a lake, but that wasn't the case; they had entered a whirlpool that separated the water.

After finally surviving the death-defying whirlpool, Yun Zhao's feet touched solid ground, and she almost cried out loud.

The feeling of solid ground—it was so, so wonderful!

She took a moment to steady herself and looked up.

There were people on the left, and people on the right, but...

The numbers were wrong!

"Oh no!"

Yun Zhao slapped her forehead. "Senior Sister, we've lost someone!"