Chapter 7
At his words, every cultivator present fell silent.
They all knew Qin Youzhou’s identity. As the personal disciple of a major sect, how could he casually kneel before someone?
Some looked at Dai Yang with contempt, while others inevitably began to waver.
But if his method truly worked, then sacrificing the dignity of a cultivator from another sect…
Qin Youzhou met Dai Yang’s gaze and saw absolute confidence and pride in his eyes.
In ancient times, the Qingqiu clan had served as ritual priests among the demon race. In the novel, Dai Yang also possessed astonishing talent in ritual arts.
He might truly know a solution.
It was as though an invisible hand were forcing Qin Youzhou into contact with Dai Yang, urging him to abandon his pride and bow his head.
But if he relied on Dai Yang, how could he ever escape the entanglement of fate?
Besides, even if he obeyed, Dai Yang might not keep his promise.
A taut string inside Qin Youzhou quietly loosened.
“Fine.”
His voice echoed through the silent room.
“But before that, I have something to say to you in private.”
“Oh?”
Dai Yang was somewhat afraid of him, but still blinked his large eyes curiously.
“What is it? Come over and tell me.”
After the other cultivators withdrew some distance, Qin Youzhou bent slightly and whispered into his ear.
“Qingqiu Nine-Tailed Fox.”
“…!”
Dai Yang’s pupils contracted sharply, and his fingers began trembling uncontrollably.
How did this man know the secret he had worked so hard to conceal?!
Threatening someone for the first time in his life, Qin Youzhou’s heart pounded wildly beyond his control.
Ignoring Dai Yang’s expression, he continued coldly, “What do you think they would do if they learned who you are?”
The Nine-Tailed Fox clan had slaughtered countless people.
The immortal sects had only sealed them away rather than exterminating them because they were great demons who had once rendered meritorious service by repairing the heavens in primordial times.
If anyone learned that a Nine-Tailed Fox had escaped, both Dai Yang and his clansmen would suffer.
No matter how selfish Dai Yang was, he would not dare take such an enormous gamble.
Discomfort wrapped tightly around Qin Youzhou’s heart, but he maintained his composure.
He emphasized each word.
“Tell me the truth. Otherwise, the one who should be afraid will not be me.”
“…”
Sweat slid down Dai Yang’s cheeks.
He bit his lower lip lightly.
A dark figure pushed open the half-closed door.
Ying Weiye had just finished setting up a formation to suppress the river, and his spiritual energy was weakened.
As he entered, he happened to see Qin Youzhou whispering with Dai Yang.
They were not standing particularly close, but Dai Yang’s face was flushed red. It was impossible to tell whether he was angry or embarrassed.
Qin Youzhou, meanwhile, looked as though he were forcing himself to remain calm.
Rainwater dripped steadily from Ying Weiye’s hair and the hem of his robes.
He could clearly have dried himself with a spell, but he made no move to do so.
His face was expressionless as he stared at Qin Youzhou, his pupils dark and murky.
His fist clenched and loosened.
Ying Weiye closed his eyes for a long time before his pupils finally returned to their round shape.
Dai Yang’s breathing was even more hurried than Qin Youzhou’s.
He opened his mouth but did not speak for a long while.
Qin Youzhou knew he had already made his decision.
“I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you…”
Dai Yang drew a deep breath and lowered his head as though he had been bullied, his voice trembling with tears.
“I heard it from the elders. Fire spiritual roots clash with dragons. As long as a cultivator without a fire spiritual root carries the offerings and plain wine before the deity, sincerely explains the wrongdoing, then drinks the entire cup, no harm will come to anyone else or to Yao City.”
Qin Youzhou asked, “What will happen to the person offering the wine?”
Dai Yang sniffled.
“If they explain it well, nothing will happen at all. If they don’t, at worst they’ll be struck by lightning and lose half their life. They won’t die.”
Once Qin Youzhou had threatened him the first time, everything that followed became much easier.
He said calmly, “Tell the person you humiliated earlier to stand up. Apologize and compensate him.”
“Oh…”
Frightened by Qin Youzhou’s manner, Dai Yang lowered his head aggrievedly and casually addressed the waiter whose forehead had been smashed into a bloody mess.
“Sorry. Y-You can get up now.”
“Is that your idea of an apology?”
Qin Youzhou’s expression cooled.
He had never forced anyone to kneel before and naturally could not say such things himself, but Dai Yang’s attitude was far too perfunctory.
Dai Yang’s face turned even redder.
Reluctantly using the chair for support, he stood and finally bent his back.
A pampered young master raised in luxury had never endured such humiliation.
He was so furious that his back trembled.
“It was my fault… I should not have treated you that way.”
He clenched his teeth in shame and anger.
“…Please forgive me.”
Qin Youzhou helped the trembling middle-aged man to his feet and placed a bottle of medicine in his hand.
“Go and rest.”
Apology showed on Qin Youzhou’s face.
“I’m sorry. You should never have been dragged into this.”
The manager had caused the problem.
The waiter had known nothing about it, and he had not severely punished Dai Yang either.
The situation was urgent, so this was not the time to force Dai Yang to kowtow in return.
But Qin Youzhou would remember this wrongdoing.
In the future, Dai Yang would receive the retribution he deserved.
“Yes. Thank you, Immortal.”
The man’s eyes reddened, and he bowed deeply to Qin Youzhou.
What false kindness.
Dai Yang sneered inwardly.
These mortals could not even live to a hundred.
Cultivators like them, who could casually live for thousands or tens of thousands of years, would never take such people seriously.
Who was this man pretending for?
“Can you guarantee that what you said is true? You should know the consequences of deceiving us.”
Qin Youzhou looked down at him.
The commanding presence cultivated in a major sect’s disciple since childhood flowed freely from him, pressing so heavily upon Dai Yang that he struggled to breathe.
“I heard it from others, so of course it’s true!”
Dai Yang refused to submit.
“If it isn’t true, may heaven strike me with lightning.”
“But the method is so simple.”
Qu Liao remained suspicious.
“I don’t dare believe it.”
“The method is real.”
Only then did Ying Weiye speak coldly from the doorway.
“It is a method used by the demon race. I know the general details as well.”
“See?”
Dai Yang snorted resentfully.
“Instead of standing here doubting me, you should hurry and choose someone. Your immortal sects are so powerful—this is exactly when someone ought to step forward…”
Ying Weiye strode over and pressed a finger against Dai Yang’s sleep acupoint.
A swollen purple bruise immediately appeared beneath his touch.
“Ah…”
Before Dai Yang could finish crying out, he lost consciousness.
“The water level has been suppressed, but it is only a temporary measure.”
Ying Weiye withdrew his hand and allowed Dai Yang to topple from the stool.
“His method is viable, and as he said, it carries considerable risk.”
“I can also teach all of you the procedure.”
Ying Weiye swept an indifferent gaze around the room.
“But whether anyone goes is entirely up to you.”
“I don’t want to go!”
The young cultivator presiding over the sacrifice was the first to cry out, shattering the oppressive silence.
He trembled as he shouted, “My innate aptitude is already poor. If the lightning knocks me down an entire cultivation realm, I’ll die young!”
“But you were the one assigned to preside over it. You should go.”
“That’s right. But if it really won’t work, Senior Brother has a high cultivation level. Why not send him?”
“Why don’t you go yourself? Who knows how dangerous it is?!”
The cultivators instantly descended into an argument.
Very few cultivators understood the ritual procedure to begin with.
Not a single one was willing to volunteer.
Outside, the rain had already become a torrential downpour.
The civilians had all fled back into their homes, while the river was nearly spilling over its banks.
Ying Weiye coldly ignored the farce and watched Qin Youzhou, who stood to one side in quiet thought.
Those with calm and benevolent hearts cultivated quickly.
That was precisely why Qin Youzhou had reached the Nascent Soul realm at only one hundred years old.
No one had the right to demand that he clean up this disaster.
But given his nature, he would probably find it difficult to stand aside.
Coincidentally, the cultivators chosen by the various sects to study ritual etiquette, divine supplication, and heavenly divination were always those with the finest appearances.
Therefore, Qin Youzhou also knew how to conduct a sacrifice.
“If this stalemate continues, Yao City will be flooded.”
As expected, Qin Youzhou thought for a moment and said to him, “If they truly cannot choose anyone, I can try.”
Had this merely been Changheng Sect’s private problem, he could have ignored it.
If the immortal sects failed to provide someone, at most the officials responsible today would be punished and expelled from their sect.
But the hundred thousand civilians of Yao City might lose their lives.
Moreover, the system had told him that because he and Dai Yang were protagonists, they could not casually die or lose cultivation due to the needs of the plot.
That meant the price they paid for taking action would be relatively small.
It made him particularly suited to perform tasks that were extremely dangerous for anyone else.
Ying Weiye looked at him.
The infant once wrapped in swaddling clothes had grown into a young man, becoming exactly the perfect person Ying Weiye had imagined and hoped for.
He ought to encourage him to do anything righteous, even when it was dangerous.
But the older Qin Youzhou became, the less Ying Weiye wanted him to be overly selfless.
For example, right now Qin Youzhou should return to the sect, drink ginger soup, and go to bed early.
He should not leave the mountain again for some time.
Even Ying Weiye could not understand the source of this strange and contradictory feeling.
Before he could speak, Qu Ran, who had overheard their conversation, hesitated for a long time before stepping forward.
“We have already troubled the two of you enough. It would be best if I handled the sacrifice.”
He tried to make his tone sound relaxed.
“I possess an earth spiritual root. Aside from having no ritual experience, I meet all the requirements. I can go as well.”
“It’s just…”
He paused.
“I believe that arrogant young man is not simple. I originally intended to ask whether he knows anything about the demon flesh.”
He looked at them sincerely.
“My junior brothers and sisters are unreliable. If I go to perform the heavenly sacrifice, could I trouble the two of you to question him for me?”
Qin Youzhou: …
That sounded even worse than presiding over the sacrifice himself.
Ying Weiye’s expression was equally difficult to interpret.
After a long while, he said to Qin Youzhou, “If you want to go, then go.”
As long as that troublesome thing did not interfere, Qin Youzhou would not come to harm with Ying Weiye protecting him.
…He simply did not know how much longer he would be able to protect him.
“Are you certain you’re willing to go?”
When the cultivators heard that Qin Youzhou was willing to help, they became so excited that they nearly kowtowed to him one by one.
Those who had earlier considered whether Qin Youzhou should kneel now lowered their heads guiltily, not daring to utter a word.
The Changheng Sect cultivators hurriedly brought over the white ceremonial robes embroidered with golden gauze and crowded around to help him put them on.
But no one served them on Xuanxing Peak.
Qin Youzhou was accustomed to being independent, so he only asked for a separate room and quickly changed by himself.
The cultivator originally meant to wear the robes was shorter than Qin Youzhou, so the white garment that should have trailed across the floor ended several inches too high on him.
He removed the glass lenses from the bridge of his nose, and the clear world immediately blurred into indistinct shapes.
Yet when he stepped from behind the folding screen, he could still distinguish Ying Weiye approaching among the clusters of blurry figures.
Ying Weiye extended a hand toward him.
His silhouette looked exactly as it had several decades ago.
…
“The little blind boy is here!”
Back then, some of the younger disciples would call him Junior Brother whenever the elders were present.
When the elders were absent, they looked at him with mocking eyes.
Qin Youzhou could not see them, but he could sense it.
He had been roughly the size of an eight- or nine-year-old human child, while those disciples, converted into mortal ages, were only eleven or twelve.
Xuanxing Peak was not valued within the sect, so their malice came openly and for no discernible reason.
Sometimes, relying on the fact that he could not see, they pretended to be blind as well and groped around aimlessly before pulling faces at him.
Other times, they called him “little blind boy” in muffled voices before suddenly bursting into laughter.
They were making fun of him.
Qin Youzhou had not felt sad or embarrassed.
Perhaps spirit beings were born missing a certain kind of sensitivity.
Holding a book in his arms, he tried to walk toward them.
Someone secretly sent a round pebble rolling into his path.
One more step and he would have fallen.
In truth, he could sense it and avoid it.
But in the next instant, a familiar figure blocked the way before him.
“Martial Uncle, it wasn’t me—ow! It wasn’t me, wahhh…!”
The slap rang out crisp and loud.
His master had not held back at all.
From the perspective of a medical cultivator, Qin Youzhou could guarantee that the senior brother whose name he still did not know had been struck hard enough to bleed from the mouth.
After that, Qin Youzhou never saw that outer disciple again.
“Why didn’t you tell Shizun that you were being bullied?”
That day, through the faint and blurry light, Qin Youzhou saw Ying Weiye extend a hand toward him.
“I didn’t want to trouble Shizun. Shizun is very busy too.”
Qin Youzhou held the book with one hand and took Ying Weiye’s hand with the other.
“You are not allowed to do this again.”
For once, Ying Weiye’s tone was not gentle.
“Then what should this disciple do?”
Qin Youzhou tilted his head and gazed at him with unfocused eyes, utterly confused.
His master had said that good children must not fight with others.
They could not curse people either.
He did not care about those disciples.
He only wanted to be Shizun’s good child.
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