The Immortal Lord and the Demon Venerable Are Both My Vests - Chapter 6

When Yin Lang arrived at Huayuan Hall, most people were already there.

He nodded to several familiar hall masters one by one. Only after sitting in his own seat did he discover that the rightful owner of the perennially vacant spot beside him had actually arrived.

He was slightly surprised. “Just a Jihe Alliance, and it’s actually alarmed even you?”

Although Sect Master Lin was at the Integration stage and the Jihe Alliance he supported was ranked as a fourth-rank sect, when placed within Taihua Immortal Sect—this foremost immortal sect where Integration stage cultivators were everywhere—it truly couldn’t stir up even the slightest ripple. The grand display was for the sake of the immortal sect’s reputation, not for the life or death of a mere Jihe Alliance.

The person he addressed was dressed garishly, with an outermost robe of gaudy purple draped over him, his belt tied loose and sloppy. At first glance, one might mistake him for some wealthy dandy from the mortal realm.

Lu Li said, “Hey, hey, hey, what kind of attitude is that? Am I not part of Taihua Immortal Sect? Why can’t I come?”

Yin Lang pretended to ponder, then said, “Probably because your aesthetic sense is too much of an eyesore.” After saying this, he laughed.

Lu Li glared at him, then couldn’t help laughing himself. “Fine, fine, I won’t quibble with you, youngster.”

He glanced at the Tianji Sword hanging at Yin Lang’s waist and said enviously, “Golden and gleaming, really beautiful. If this thing hadn’t refused to acknowledge me no matter what, I’d definitely get myself one too. Hey, speaking of which, why didn’t Gu Fuxuan come? Isn’t he also a sword master?”

Yin Lang said, “Senior Brother’s health isn’t good. For this kind of formality, there’s no need for him to come.”

They chatted in low voices for a while longer. After everyone had arrived, the Sect Leader announced the matter.

Although basically everyone who should know already knew, the performance still had to be carried out.

****

“What are you all making such a racket here for!”

Just as Lin Xinqiao was about to strike, a woman in tight-fitting clothes suddenly emerged from behind the forest and shouted coldly to stop them.

Ji Chang’an sighed inwardly—on one hand despising her own soft heart, and on the other hand, as someone in the know, feeling sympathy for Miss Lin.

Looking at this girl’s appearance, she probably still didn’t know that even her backer’s family members were already gone.

Thinking this way, she couldn’t bring herself to be angry at Lin Xinqiao, and her tone softened considerably. “Which peak are you disciples from, and why are you causing trouble here?”

Lin Xinqiao hadn’t eaten pork but had seen pigs run. She could tell at a glance that Ji Chang’an’s cultivation realm far exceeded theirs, so she immediately lowered her attitude and said sweetly, “Senior Sister, we weren’t deliberately causing trouble.”

She pointed at Xu Rong. “I saw this boy refusing to leave from in front of Tianji Daojun’s door, trying to force the Daojun to take him as a disciple. I really couldn’t stand it, so I couldn’t help but take action to drive him away.”

Ji Chang’an frowned. She didn’t quite believe what this young miss said, but the words indeed had no problem.

Thinking of the task the villain had given her, she pondered and said to Xu Rong, “Stop kneeling here. The Daojun said years ago that he would only take Senior Brother Feng as his sole disciple in this lifetime. By kneeling here and refusing to leave, are you exploiting the Daojun’s kind heart, trying to use your own life to coerce the Daojun?”

The words made even herself feel disgusted, but she still had to persist with the act. “I know you’re one of the three disciples from this batch who passed seven trials. Many seniors would be willing to take you as a disciple. Your talent is quite good too. Why do you insist on joining the Daojun’s tutelage?”

She was hinting for Xu Rong to go find Li Baisu. After all, why suffer by giving up such a beautiful female lead to insist on butting heads with the villain?

Unfortunately, if the male lead could listen to advice, he wouldn’t be the male lead.

“Thank you, Senior Sister.” That frail body looked like a butterfly in the wind, yet stubbornly knelt without falling. “But I just want to enter the Daojun’s tutelage.”

Listening to this gave Ji Chang’an a toothache. This won’t work, so let’s try the other one first. She hinted. “You shouldn’t linger here either. A young lady like you—if you’re out too long, your family will worry. Go back first. I’ll watch over him.”

Young miss, stop pestering the male lead. Hurry up and care about your family’s situation—there might still be one or two survivors.

Lin Xinqiao’s expression clearly showed she was very unwilling. She dawdled, then asked again, “This Senior Sister… may I ask, when does the Daojun usually… come down the mountain?”

Before she finished asking, her face had already turned red.

Ji Chang’an didn’t react at first and said blankly, “How would I know? I’m not the Daojun’s disciple.”

She quickly understood, followed by embarrassment.

Ah, this… the male lead’s harem member has taken a fancy to the villain?

While she was at a loss here, the white-robed person in question had already returned from afar.

“Oh, Xiao Chang’an, why are you standing here?” The newcomer greeted Ji Chang’an familiarly, as if he weren’t the very person who had left her to handle the male lead, causing her to be trapped here unable to escape.

Ji Chang’an could only ask after him through gritted teeth with helpless resignation, then reported the general situation. She ended with, “Martial Uncle, you’ve finished your business?”

“The problem isn’t too big… Mm, the young lady from Jihe Alliance?”

Hearing that he still remembered her, Lin Xinqiao’s joy overflowed on her face. She nodded vigorously, barely controlling herself from bouncing over.

The Daojun reached out and patted her head. The movement was very gentle, leaving Lin Xinqiao dazed. However, her mind was entirely on the intimate contact with her admired one, so she didn’t notice this slight abnormality at all.

When he withdrew his hand, Lin Xinqiao felt a sense of loss and called out softly, “Daojun…”

Today, however, the Daojun was different from on the Heavenly Ascension Path. His speech was unexpectedly gentle. “Go back, good girl. Follow your master and cultivate well. Don’t think too much about anything else.”

Lin Xinqiao left in a daze.

Still no good.

Yin Lang looked at his right hand, his long lashes concealing the cold and irritable emotions in his eyes.

Why couldn’t he retrieve the Heaven-Concealing Stone?

The blood connection was still severed. Even when he made physical contact with Lin Xinqiao and used forbidden techniques, he still couldn’t sense even the slightest trace of its aura.

“Let’s go back.” He called to Ji Chang’an.

Passing by the kneeling Xu Rong, the white-robed Daojun held his folding fan, quite at a loss. After thinking, he repeated again, “This lord truly won’t take disciples anymore. Stop kneeling.”

With a flick of the folding fan, a spiritual energy vortex lifted the youth’s legs.

Probably because he’d been kneeling too long, the moment his feet touched the ground, Xu Rong staggered and nearly knelt down again.

Warm and mighty spiritual energy flowed through the meridians in his legs, helping ease the pain in his meridians.

When he looked up again, both the man and woman had already disappeared.

Xu Rong furrowed his brow, extremely puzzled.

This shouldn’t be right.

Although Shen Muxuan was quite mischievous and liked to toy with people, he was essentially someone who protected his own and was soft-hearted. In the previous life, when a Mahayana stage demonic cultivator harmed an inner disciple of Taihua Immortal Sect, he pursued that person with the Tianji Sword for a full thirty years, traveling across more than half the continent before finally striking him down.

Could it be that he hadn’t seen through this person even after a hundred years?

Ji Chang’an carefully asked about the results of the discussion.

“In the end, Elder Lu Li handled it.” The other party said.

After all, to put it bluntly, it wasn’t such a huge matter. Having Lu Li step in was already considered quite significant.

Besides Yuan Daozhu who was in perpetual seclusion, Taihua Immortal Sect had three Tribulation stage elders: Sword-Weilding Elder Feng Jiangcheng, Enforcement Elder Li Baisu, and Lu Li who managed the Hundred Beast Garden and didn’t side with either faction.

Gu Fuxuan and Shen Muxuan were Feng Jiangcheng’s two personal disciples.

Shen Muxuan’s mother had a very good relationship with Lu Li, and by extension, Shen Muxuan also got along quite well with him.

Ji Chang’an didn’t dare ask more.

On one hand, she really didn’t want to communicate much with Yin Lang. On the other hand, she privately suspected that the destruction of Jihe Alliance this time was still connected to Yin Lang.

She thought for a moment and probed. “Is Senior Brother Feng coming back soon?”

Once the little demon returned, could she please be relieved of duty as soon as possible? She’d only been here one day and had already encountered both the protagonist’s “defection” and the original novel’s family extermination event timeline being moved up. Even if this wasn’t a demon’s den, Ji Chang’an could barely sit still.

Yin Lang looked at her with a half-smile, as if seeing through her thoughts. This startled Ji Chang’an into quickly lowering her head, not daring to meet his gaze again.

A blood-red curse mark lit up in places covered by clothing, lasting less than a second before concealing itself again.

After roughly explaining the matters that needed Ji Chang’an to handle and casually mentioning places she couldn’t go, Yin Lang went back to rest.

He trusted that his convenient martial nephew had a good sense of propriety and knew what could and couldn’t be touched.

Cultivators rarely dreamed. Once a cultivator entered the Golden Core stage, they could completely replace sleep with meditation. After Yin Lang achieved the Spirit Transformation stage several hundred years ago, he had rarely fallen into true deep sleep, let alone dreaming.

This was a pitch-black space. Yin Lang had tried flying in one direction at Tribulation stage speed for half an hour, yet still couldn’t touch the existence of any boundary.

There was nothing in the space—no water, no food, no living beings. All light would be devoured, and spells were the same.

This wasn’t his dream. His dreams could never possess such tranquility.

Yin Lang swept his robe sleeves and sat down cross-legged on the spot.

Meet change with constancy.

Those who could unknowingly drag him into such a strange space—counting across the entire continent, there wouldn’t be more than ten.

He sat in meditation in this space with closed eyes for three years.

Though it was said to be three years, he never felt the passage of time. Until one day, brilliant light suddenly appeared on the horizon, like a rising fierce sun that in just an instant spread light across the earth.

Yin Lang opened his eyes.

He was certain that there had been no living creatures within a thousand meters around him the moment before, yet standing before him was indeed and truly a vague, ethereal humanoid figure. Hazy and indistinct, like light smoke that would scatter with one breath.

Looking down, he saw red robes, silver spear, and black flames swirling around. Without needing a mirror, he knew his appearance must have also been changed to that of the Seventh Demon Venerable.

“You are the Heavenly Dao.” Yin Lang stated with certainty.

“You are Yin Lang.” The ‘fog person’ also said.

‘Its’ voice was very strange, or rather, it couldn’t be interpreted or judged using humanity’s definition of sound.

‘It’ was calmer than stagnant water, more indifferent than stubborn stone.

“Was it you who placed the Heaven-Concealing Stone on Lin Xinqiao?”

The confusion and puzzlement from before found answers the instant the Heavenly Dao appeared. Aside from the Heavenly Dao that controlled the world’s balance and stability, who would know about his two completely unrelated identities, and who could unknowingly take away the Heaven-Concealing Stone that he valued most yet had an extremely weak presence?

“Yes.” The ‘fog person’ was calm and waveless.

“Why?” Yin Lang questioned coolly.

Having cultivated as a demon for several hundred years, he could say with confidence that he hadn’t done things like refining living people into pills or massacring cities without reason—things that needed to be “greeted” by the Nine Skies Heavy Thunder. He was more “rule-abiding” than ninety percent of demonic cultivators, and in any case shouldn’t warrant the Heavenly Dao personally coming to find trouble.

A fingernail-sized fragment of pure white jade materialized and slowly descended into Yin Lang’s outstretched palm.

The ‘fog person’ said, “The fragment of Primordial Jade you want.”

Yin Lang’s dark eyes focused. After pausing for half a second, he flicked his fingers and sent the jade fragment back along its original path. “First tell me what you need me to do, then I’ll consider whether to accept the payment or not.”

The ‘fog person’ tilted its head in a humanlike manner. “Why refuse? Your heart is clearly clamoring to obtain this.”

“……”

Being left speechless by another ‘person’ for the first time, Yin Lang suddenly realized that for the Heavenly Dao, no one could hide secrets from it.

‘It’ could read minds.