94 6.18

While Chen Yu was musing in his room, Ning Taio left Puppet Warrior Peak after demanding that Duangan Pang somehow convince that demonic cultivator, who was his acquaintance after all, to wait another month for the qi-infused blood. During this time, he would then find a new way to add Golden Honey Flower juice into Ning He's diet. Although dissatisfied that the other man refused to simply force his son into taking a month's worth of the extract immediately, Duangan Pang had little choice, he could only cooperate since he didn't have any means to personally administer the dosage yet.

Watching Ning Taio stride away, Duangan Pang brooded, what reason would that demonic cultivator accept? Could he still transform Ning He's blood in time if he approached him now? No, perhaps he would just arouse suspicion...What a bother, if only he hadn't been seduced by the chance to transplant a dantian back then, he wouldn't have to waste his energy worrying about his reputation at all.

Right as he was brooding over whether he should simply get rid of these distractions, however, one of his puppet sentries sent back notice of an anonymous delivery that rather excited the peak master: the guard had found a defaced corpse at the bottom of the peak. Uncaring of any dangers that might have been hidden around this lure, Duangan Pang rushed down to take a look for himself.

Despite its significantly damaged sections, the body was both structurally attractive and still had lingering spiritual energy, its parts could be reconstructed into a wonderful puppet. Of course, it wasn't completely acceptable among Righteous Path cultivators to refine real human carcasses into tools, but neither was it strictly prohibited, meaning that this was a very beneficial present. The question was, who had granted such a precious resource to him?

Curious and delighted, Duangan Pang didn't spare any more thought for the troubles that Ning Taio had brought to him, instead focusing entirely on dissecting the corpse and putting aside the salvageable parts for examination. It was during this process that the mystery was solved, he came across a jade slip that had been shoved through the wound in the body's stomach.

According to the information stored inside the item, this was the corpse of Wenren ShiShi, a formerly admired star among Heavenly Saber Sect's disciples. More importantly, the report continued, it was a gift, obviously well received if Duangan Pang had found something buried so deeply inside of it, sent by a member of Golden Lion Valley. In exchange, the boy was demanding that he be taken out of his shifu's custody.

Without hesitation, Duangan Pang motioned for a puppet to carry out these instructions—upon inspection, this Wenren ShiShi had been quite talented, making the fact that he'd obtained her parts very much worth bearing this small inconvenience.

Later that same day, You Daolin was quickly transferred from Golden Lion Valley to Puppet Warrior Peak.

---

Following that terrible incident in Liu An City, You Daolin had been locked into his room at the inn until several of his shixiong had impatiently dragged him out to accompany their pursuit of the Moqi leaders—while they were unwilling to be near this scum, they didn't dare to risk that he would escape by leaving him alone in a mundane building which wouldn't last even a few blows if he attempted to flee, lest they be blamed of conspiring with him.

Thus, he'd been present near Shadow Abyss several days later, when Moqi Baihui had announced Wenren ShiShi's punishment and when the other teenagers around him had fallen into a frenzy collecting demonic beast cores. And, as someone unable to join in the fun, he'd also been the only one from the crowd who'd noticed when that pretentious Ning He dropped an oddly crumpled talisman while walking away with the Moqi leaders.

Once he'd confirmed that the disciples who'd brought him over had been too engrossed in their greed to pay attention to him, he'd snuck over and picked it up, but due to his lack of interest in talismans, he hadn't been able to decipher what its purpose was, it'd just appeared to be complex runes covered with bloodstains. Having been drawn by a kind of morbid fascination, he'd tried squeezing out a bead of his own blood onto the script, only to be sucked down the precipice before he could react and slowly dropped in front of a dead body.

Quite a while later, he'd figured out that this mess was what remained of the fairy of Ten Stems Hall whom he'd barely known and, eventually, swept up the corpse into his storage space, hoping that there would be some use for it. Then, he'd returned to the crowd, since even if he'd managed to escape, from the vicious way the Moqi brothers had destroyed the girl's body, he'd sensed that they would have tenaciously chased after him merely for his conflict with that Ning He.

Yes, as soon as Chen Yu had realized that Zhuo Biming was a relatively unemotional protagonist, he'd caught sight of the abundantly emotional You Daolin and searched out the seal he'd tossed away into his storage space to adjust the script slightly using what he remembered of spells in past cultivation worlds he'd lived in. With this change, instead of transporting the bearer to the coordinates that Wenren ShiShi had set before, the talisman would take whoever had last spilled his blood on it to the original person who'd first marked it, which happened to be that girl. It didn't particularly matter what You Daolin chose to do with the body, Chen Yu had simply provided it free of charge to You Daolin because stimulating the child seemed to be the most effective way to progress in his mission for the moment. Besides, he'd been interested in what the brat would do.

In any case, You Daolin had thereby acquired Wenren ShiShi's corpse, and when he'd returned to Heavenly Saber Sect to the chilly anger of his usually approving shifu, he'd started considering how to get away by exploiting it. Ultimately, recalling the vague rumors he'd heard, he'd chosen the master of Puppet Warrior Peak, believing that he was the sole powerful individual nearby that would be receptive to such a gift.

Actually, the peak leader of Golden Lion Valley hadn't been as upset with his disciple as he'd appeared. Whatever crimes the child was guilty of, it was clear that he'd more than paid for them; due to his delayed treatment, he would not only have to live on as a gruesomely burned mute, he'd also have to learn to fight with one arm, unless he could receive the help of a master physician.

Nonetheless, based on the reports of the other teenagers who'd gone on the trip, the Moqi leaders were infatuated with that Ning He and probably would punish Daolin themselves if they judged that he'd been too lenient. Aware that he wasn't strong enough to defend against one of them let alone both of those peak masters, he'd therefore feigned disappointment and anger to protect the youth.

But the instant he received Duangan Pang's message which stated that You Daolin had requested a transfer to Puppet Warrior Peak, his displeasure became genuine, so that, frustrated with a crippled disciple who didn't even know to be grateful for being allowed to remain under his powerful wings, he agreed and threw him out. Anyway, the boy probably wouldn't have survived long here, he was now better suited to being with the sect's weakest members.

Shortly afterwards, Chen Yu was apprised of the situation despite the fact that he hadn't particularly cared to track You Daolin's movements, because his paranoid lovers helpfully rushed into his room to warn him.

When Chen Yu had flown away with Ning Taio earlier, the brothers had unusually agreed to stay near each other because neither could give up watching their shizhi through the Celestial Perception Mirror. So, they'd been sitting side by side, in the midst of laughing along with the mysteriously amused boy and each pretending that the other didn't exist, when they'd been interrupted simultaneously by a communication from the leader of Golden Lion Valley, notifying them of You Daolin's transfer.

Between the lines, the peak master seemed to be hinting that if they wished to take action against the brat, they were welcome to do so, suggesting that master and disciple hadn't parted on good terms. On top of that, the group that had accepted You Daolin was Puppet Warrior Peak, meaning that for some reason, that indifferent Duangan Pang had permitted a complete novice at anything but martial arts to degrade his 'elite' team.With all these hints, even if the reasons for the reassignment weren't explained, it wasn't difficult to guess that something dubious must have taken place behind the scenes.

But actually, at that moment, both of the twins had been unbearably torn by another issue entirely: should they use Ning He's gift to indicate their appreciation and, if so, which one of them should sacrifice a bead from his bracelet? Or could they keep their first love tokens from the youth as their treasures without implying that they weren't functional gifts?

In the end, however, combined with the benefit of preserving the bracelet, the temptation of reuniting with their shizhi soon won, and both men flew over to Jade Sword Mountain with clear consciences. Of course, the second prior to landing, they adjusted their expressions from anticipation to concern, but that was just to ensure that their demeanor appropriately conveyed how much they cared about Ning He.

Having sat up from his bed in surprise at the sudden invasion, Chen Yu also didn't bother to comment on how they'd broken all protocol by bursting into another peak's inner halls without permission or how their eyes were shining too brightly to fake anxiety, he simply lay back down and gazed at the two figures pacing in front of him. There was no point in hurrying them along; since they apparently couldn't bear to be apart from him, they would certainly dig up some other excuse to return if he drove them out, whereas they also wouldn't be able to withhold whatever news they'd picked up for long if he stayed silent.

Indeed, once he'd taken the edge off of his hunger by enjoying Ning He's intense focus on him for several beats, Moqi Baihui spilled everything they had uncovered about You Daolin and repeatedly urged him to be careful of the teenager, emphasizing that he was holding onto a grudge and, as someone who didn't have anything to lose, was highly volatile.

Naturally, Chen Yu agreed, but while ignoring the not so subtle requests that he move into one of their peaks, what he was inwardly wondering was, would You Daolin attack him or Zhuo Biming first? And...if it was the former, would the protagonist join in?