When the Spring Rain sword arrived, Xi Jianlan’s first reaction wasn’t to go welcome it, but to nervously rush back to his inner chamber, rummaging through boxes and chests for a complete set of new clothes. He made himself look presentable and even braided his black hair and pinned it up with a jade crown.
—He’d never put this much effort in even when seeing Sheng Jiao.
Shang Yuan had opened the water path to welcome Liu Changxing into Xiezhi Sect. She looked curiously at the longsword in his hands that had almost identical patterns to the Winter Snow sword, asking: “Is this the Spring Rain sword?”
She’d only heard that Winter Snow really hated being overshadowed by Spring Rain, and would only be happy when fighting if he heard praise like ‘that Spring Rain fellow definitely isn’t as good as you, Master Winter Snow.”
The Winter Snow sword’s scabbard had patterns like mottled scorch marks left by passing lava, while the Spring Rain sword’s hilt bore snow-white crack patterns frozen on winter rivers, looking chilling just to see.
She didn’t know how it got the name “Spring Rain.”
Liu Changxing said nothing, only nodding, probably still maintaining that “avoiding women” cultivation from Red Dust Recognition Pavilion, keeping his eyes straight ahead like a pillar the entire time.
Shang Yuan stared eagerly at the Spring Rain sword, looking like she really wanted to touch it.
Qingche Zhu was right in front of them. Xi Jianlan was already waiting expectantly at the door. Seeing Liu Changxing’s tall figure gradually approaching, his eyes curved as he bounced up and waved.
“Gege!”
Liu Changxing strode forward and tossed the Spring Rain sword with one hand.
Xi Jianlan reached out to catch it, unexpectedly shivering from the frost on the Spring Rain sword. He keenly sensed that the spiritual consciousness in the spirit sword seemed still to be sleeping: “What’s wrong with him?”
“When you were captured by Xiezhi Sect years ago, the Spring Rain sword was nearly broken. Since then it’s been severely injured, sleeping daily at Sword Sect to nourish its spirit and consciousness.”
Xi Jianlan’s eyes moved slightly, seeming extremely moved as he murmured quietly: “Is he truly sleeping?”
Liu Changxing nodded: “Mm.”
“Hehe!” Xi Jianlan immediately dropped his previously tense posture with straight back, casually gripping the sword hilt and playing with it a few times, saying happily: “Good, good. I thought I was going to get scolded. Sleeping is good, sleeping is great—sleep more.”
Liu Changxing: “…”
Were these human words?
Xi Jianlan had just played with the sword twice when a sound of ice slowly cracking came from the void.
The little swindler’s ears weren’t working, so he didn’t hear it at all and was still there enjoying himself.
The next instant, a chill emanated from the scabbard’s gaps. White mist hissed a few times, instantly enveloping Xi Jianlan from head to toe, and his slender frame was instantly covered in a thin layer of ice.
Xi Jianlan: “…”
The sword fell to the ground with a thud as Spring Rain slowly condensed into a human form cold as frost.
His snow-patterned plain robes moved slightly, frost falling in rustles, and the ground quickly froze in a circle of white frost.
Spring Rain’s brows and eyes were even colder than Sheng Jiao’s. His white clothes and white hair were like an ice sculpture, and his eyes had no pupils but rather crack-like small circles of ice blue—handsome and cold, not resembling a living person.
He looked coldly at Xi Jianlan.
Xi Jianlan shivered and bounced, shaking off the layer of ice on his body with a clattering sound.
He pretended joy, emotion, and deep feeling, like a skilled actor on stage who could instantly burst into tears without preparation, crying: “Spring Rain! Spring Rain, you’re finally awake! I was so worried about you!”
Spring Rain: “…”
Liu Changxing was moved to tears by this reunion scene.
Xi Jianlan rushed forward crying to embrace Spring Rain, but as soon as he hugged him, he discovered that after six years, Spring Rain had grown considerably taller. His fake crying finally carried some genuine emotion as he sobbed.
“I always wanted to bring you back, but who told me I’m no longer the pampered Young Immortal of old… wu, you’re so tall… Following me would surely mean hardship and suffering.” Xi Jianlan wept. “A few days ago I went to the Southern Territory and originally wanted to go to Sword Sect to find you… you’re really so tall… but that bastard Sheng Jiao forced me onto the traveling boat. Being controlled by others, life is worse than death… wuwu, why are you so tall? Spring Rain, my Spring Rain, I missed you so much.”
Spring Rain: “…”
After six years apart, this person had become even more chattering.
Spring Rain wore a sword tassel on his right earlobe. His jade-white fingers lightly tapped the scabbard in his palm.
Xi Jianlan instantly became alert.
When Spring Rain tapped his scabbard, it meant he was annoyed enough to hit someone.
Xi Jianlan bounced off Spring Rain like a grasshopper, covering his mouth with his paws. He instantly changed expressions—tears still wet on his face as he smiled obediently: “I won’t talk anymore.”
Spring Rain looked at him coldly.
Just then, Winter Snow’s voice came: “Spring Rain?!”
Spring Rain frowned.
Another even more chattering one had arrived.
Xi Jianlan turned his head and saw Sheng Jiao had returned.
Having escaped Spring Rain’s wrath, Xi Jianlan had dodged disaster. He curved his eyes in welcome for Sect Master Sheng’s return home.
Sheng Jiao’s face was impassive, and the wound on his tiger’s mouth had reopened directly from the Spring Rain sword, blood filling the gaps between his fingers. He’d casually wrapped it twice with black cloth, roughly stopping the bleeding.
“Spring Rain!” Winter Snow excitedly rushed over, circling Spring Rain several times and mischievously flicking the sword tassel on Spring Rain’s ear. “Haven’t seen you in so many years! Your sword tassel has faded—I’ll send you a new one in a few days. Hey, hey! Why the cold face again? Who provoked you? Has your swordplay improved? Let’s fight and see! If you lose, you have to call me big brother.”
Spring Rain: “…”
Spring Rain tapped his scabbard with his fingers.
Xi Jianlan quietly hid behind Sheng Jiao. The next moment, as expected, he heard Winter Snow’s wails.
Just upon meeting, Spring Rain had beaten up Winter Snow, who shared the same origin.
Xi Jianlan silently breathed a sigh of relief, looking down at Sheng Jiao’s hand hanging at his side.
Still bleeding.
Xi Jianlan had racked his brains for many days but still had no memory of this wound. Thinking it over, it was probably the Spring Rain sword that had done it.
For a sword spirit to injure Sheng Jiao with his “Worthy of Heavenly Dao” without a master wielding the sword was quite unprecedented.
Whether it was Xi Jianlan’s imagination or not, he felt Sheng Jiao’s gaze when looking at him this time was somewhat strange.
Xi Jianlan smiled shamelessly and said quietly: “What, after just half a day apart, does Sect Master Sheng miss me already?”
Sheng Jiao’s eyes were indifferent: “I encountered an old friend of yours on the road.”
“Who?”
“Yu Tuishan.”
Xi Jianlan: “…”
Xi Jianlan laughed dryly: “How am I old friends with him?”
“Xi Jianlan.” Seeing his guilty appearance, Sheng Jiao lightly brushed the red mole at the corner of his eye with his finger, saying coldly: “Don’t you really have anything you want to tell me?”
Xi Jianlan gripped his wrist affectionately: “My heart is not cold stone—I yearn for Sheng Wuzhuo.”
Sheng Jiao: “………..”
Liu Changxing, Juan Xunfang, Spring Rain, Winter Snow: “…?”
Liu Changxing’s face turned green as he advised: “A-Jue, such joking words were fine to say in youth, but now that we’ve all been adults for years, don’t keep saying such things and causing misunderstandings.”
As soon as he said this, the other five cast indescribable looks at him.
Liu Changxing: “Huh? What I said was reasonable—it’s exactly right. We’re all twenty-six, not children anymore.”
Everyone: “………..”
Xi Jianlan said quietly: “Gege, gege, do you have other business? If not, I won’t keep you for dinner.”
Liu Changxing immediately said sadly: “It’s fine if Sword Sect doesn’t want me, but even Xiezhi Sect won’t let me stay half a day? Am I really so annoying? Fine, I’ll leave—I won’t stay here disturbing you all.”
Xi Jianlan rubbed his temples with a headache.
Just as Liu Changxing was about to leave, he suddenly remembered the proper business his master had instructed. With tears on his face, he turned around, wiped his eyes, and was once again a resolute sword cultivator.
“Oh right, there’s still proper business I haven’t mentioned.” Liu Changxing took out a communication device that looked like a black iron compass from his robes: “Wuzhuo, my master wants to talk with you.”
Xi Jianlan’s heart skipped a beat.
The Sword Sect Master?
Why would he want to talk with Sheng Jiao?
Xi Jianlan’s eyes rolled as he was about to joke around and mix in to eavesdrop, but Sheng Jiao had long anticipated his methods. He lifted him and tossed him into the inner chamber, had Winter Snow guard the place to prevent eavesdropping, then left with a flick of his sleeves.
Xi Jianlan: “…”
In Xiezhi Sect’s main hall.
Liu Changxing placed the device on the desk and slightly adjusted the mechanisms and formations above. After several crisp clicking sounds, spiritual power rose from nowhere and silently formed a phantom figure.
Sword Sect Master Liu Kongyan was a great cultivator several hundred years old. Having formed his core early, he looked quite young, but his eyes held the cold vicissitudes of one who had seen through the red dust.
Sheng Jiao and Liu Changxing bowed slightly in greeting.
“Sect Master Sheng.” Liu Kongyan didn’t even exchange pleasantries, going straight to the point, his brows full of coldness rarely seen: “Are the memories extracted by Xun Niang’s ‘Bone-Gazing Mirror’ truly abnormal?”
Sheng Jiao was concise: “Yes.”
Liu Kongyan said indifferently: “We Southern Territory people have no right to interfere in Central State affairs. I only offer Sect Master Sheng one piece of advice—excessive rigidity leads to breaking. Avoid the Xi family matter as much as possible to prevent being used by others and adding karmic consequences.”
Sheng Jiao’s eyes moved slightly as he suddenly said: “Were you involved in the twelfth xiangwen matter back then?”
Even though it was only a spiritual projection, Sheng Jiao keenly noticed Liu Kongyan’s ancient-well-calm pupils contract for an instant.
Liu Kongyan said coldly: “You know?”
Sheng Jiao remained silent.
Liu Changxing looked completely bewildered but didn’t dare interrupt the elders’ conversation, only waiting anxiously.
“In Central State, aside from the Medicine Sect, all were probably involved in this matter. Our Sword Sect disdains consorting with such rabble.” Liu Kongyan sneered. “—Sect Master Sheng, your Sheng family also participated. It’s just that Sheng Zhongfeng was too stupid—what the Xi family revealed to him was probably only superficial.”
And whether Sheng Zhongfeng understood even those superficialities was unknown.
Sheng Jiao stared at him unblinkingly.
Worthy of an old fox who had lived hundreds of years—his words were watertight, not revealing half a word of the key points.
Fortunately, Sheng Jiao had learned some fragmentary clues.
The reason those Central State people had been so fawning and ingratiating toward the Xi family back then was because of Yu Tuishan, the twelfth xiangwen “Kan Tianyan,” and perhaps they had secretly done something dirty that violated the Heavenly Dao to him.
That Yu Tuishan wanting to join forces with Wen Gubai to slaughter the Xi family also had justification.
Liu Kongyan stared coldly at Sheng Jiao, seeming to know there was nothing to say to someone with such a stubborn temperament. With a dark expression, he cut off the spiritual projection on the communication device.
Only after his master disappeared did Liu Changxing exhale and ask in confusion: “What were you talking about? The twelfth xiangwen? Do you know what A-Jue’s xiangwen is?”
Sheng Jiao said coldly: “That’s not Xi Jue’s xiangwen.”
Liu Changxing was even more bewildered, but before he could ask more, Sheng Jiao had already strode away.
Liu Changxing: “…”
He truly wasn’t welcome anywhere—better to leave early.
***
Qingche Zhu.
Xi Jianlan was carefully sidling up to Spring Rain, saying quietly: “Spring Rain.”
Spring Rain sat on a meditation cushion, having quite the imposing aura of Sheng Jiao. This made Xi Jianlan both intimidated and wanting to tease him into talking.
“That wound on Sect Master Sheng’s hand…” Xi Jianlan smiled obediently. “How do you draw out sword intent?”
Winter Snow, cast in bronze and iron with his face beaten up, still smiled as he leaned against the windowsill, poking his head inside: “Right, exactly! My master has been tormented by that wound for so many years—it heals then breaks open, breaks open then heals. I’m worried he’ll die from blood loss.”
Spring Rain was annoyed by the double chatter, his fingers constantly tapping the scabbard on his knee, seeming to want to fight both of them and beat them until their teeth were knocked out to see how they’d talk then.
Xi Jianlan: “Spring Rain.”
Winter Snow said: “Spring Rain.”
Spring Rain suddenly stood up, grabbed Xi Jianlan’s paw, and raised the scabbard to strike.
“Help!” Xi Jianlan struggled desperately. Before the scabbard even touched his palm, he was already screaming as if his paw had been severed, his voice even cracking: “Spring Rain, Spring Rain, calm down! I just wanted to ask this one question. After I ask, I promise to be quietly mute.”
Spring Rain had probably long gotten used to Xi Jianlan’s chatter. He looked at him coldly for a while before raising his hand to send a sword technique into Xi Jianlan’s brow, teaching him how to draw out sword intent.
Xi Jianlan was satisfied and happily sat there to actually become mute.
But making someone with Xi Jianlan’s troublemaking nature behave was harder than ascending to heaven.
Not even a quarter-hour into his good behavior, Xi Jianlan suddenly moved close to Spring Rain, who had just entered meditation, and said very quietly: “Let me ask one more—why did you cut Sheng Jiao back then? Was it because of me?—Ah! I won’t talk anymore! I really won’t talk anymore—!”
Sheng Jiao had just returned to Qingche Zhu when Xi Jianlan came wailing and bouncing down the steps several at a time, nearly crashing into his embrace.
Spring Rain chased out with a dark expression, looking ready to kill.
Sheng Jiao met his cold gaze, and both looked away simultaneously.
Their eyes were full of mutual disgust.
Xi Jianlan’s paw had just been struck by the scabbard, already showing a red mark.
Sheng Jiao gave Winter Snow a look.
Afraid the two would fight again, Winter Snow hurried over and somehow managed to persuade and drag Spring Rain away.
Having been separated from Spring Rain for six years, Xi Jianlan couldn’t help being mouthy for a moment and got his hand struck. He’d been grinning cheekily, but seeing Sheng Jiao look down at him, he immediately acted like his paw was trembling with pain, puffing his cheeks and blowing on it.
“Look, it’s all red.”
Sheng Jiao watched him act with cold eyes.
Xi Jianlan dejectedly lowered his hand and snuck over to quietly ask: “Hey, what did Sect Master Liu say to you?”
Sheng Jiao walked into the room without a word.
Xi Jianlan hurried to follow: “Sheng Jiao, Sect Master Sheng, don’t be so petty. Tell me.”
Sheng Jiao sat in a chair, looking down to treat the wound on his tiger’s mouth, saying indifferently: “Do you want to use that promise I gave you?”
Xi Jianlan shook his head like a rattle drum: “Of course not—that would be such a loss.”
Sheng Jiao: “Mm, then don’t ask.”
Xi Jianlan: “…”
Xi Jianlan was dumbfounded, feeling that Sect Master Sheng was getting harder to fool each day, growing eight hundred schemes specifically to deal with him.
“How about this.” Xi Jianlan felt his brain was a bit sharper than Sheng Jiao’s, smiling as he propped his chin and watched him treat the wound. “I’ll help you draw out the Spring Rain sword intent, and you tell me what Sect Master Liu said to you.”
Sheng Jiao looked up at him.
Xi Jianlan seized the opportunity to smile at him: “How about it? Good deal, right?”
Sheng Jiao said indifferently: “No need.”
Xi Jianlan threatened him: “The Spring Rain sword isn’t like other sword intents. Do you still want your sword hand? Be careful or it’ll be completely ruined.”
Sheng Jiao remained silent, taking out several pieces of osmanthus cake wrapped in a handkerchief from his sleeve and stuffing them into Xi Jianlan’s hands, indicating “eat these instead.”
The osmanthus cakes had been very fragrant and sweet when fresh from the oven, but Sheng Jiao had been delayed quite a while by Yu Tuishan on his return. The cake edges had crumbled into bits that scattered when bitten.
Xi Jianlan held the osmanthus cake and looked at it for a long while, seeming to finally find an excuse. He said happily: “Well, seeing how thoughtfully Sheng Wuzhuo prepared my favorite pastries, this immortal will reluctantly draw out the sword intent for you. No need to thank me—no need for thanks.”
Sheng Jiao stared at him intently.
Xi Jianlan hooked his finger at him: “Come, give me your hand.”
Sheng Jiao looked at him suspiciously for a long time, carefully confirming there was no trap and he wouldn’t be fooled. He even reached into Xi Jianlan’s mouth to feel around his teeth, finding no poison pills before reassuredly extending his hand.
Xi Jianlan: “…”
That was overly cautious, Lord of Heavenly Dao.
Xi Jianlan formed hand seals, using the sword intent Spring Rain had given him to gradually probe into Sheng Jiao’s wound.
Suddenly, Sheng Jiao said: “Your words and actions are very similar to Yu Tuishan’s.”
Xi Jianlan still had half a piece of osmanthus cake in his mouth. Caught off guard, he gasped, choking on cake crumbs that went down his windpipe. His fingertip spiritual power immediately scattered as he clutched his throat and coughed heart-wrenchingly.
***
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152