After The Aloof Long Aotian Became Jealous Of Me - Chapter 11

The hidden chamber suddenly fell silent.

The ancient remnant soul nearby had nearly been frightened senseless. It immediately spilled everything it knew in a panicked rush.

Although it had once been a powerful figure in ancient times, it was not the owner of the pattern. It had merely encountered the design by chance on a fragment from the distant past.

According to legend, the fragment had been left behind after the ancient war between immortals and demons and concealed an enormous secret.

Anyone who gathered all the fragments and assembled the complete design would discover the location of the greatest treasure beneath the heavens.

For that reason, the remnant soul had spent its entire life searching for the remaining pieces.

Unfortunately, the portion in its possession had been incomplete, and it had failed to find the others before its death.

Rong Zhenlü, however, possessed the complete pattern. He could merge the design with the treasure-seeking bell and use it to sense the locations of the remaining fragments.

After revealing everything, the remnant soul could no longer maintain its form and gradually began to dissipate.

The place where it had been hiding was finally exposed.

A dull, dust-covered bell lay there.

Rong Zhenlü reached out with his long, jade-white hand to pick it up.

However, the instant he noticed the dust coating its surface, his hand stopped in disgust.

Spiritual energy could not be used here, so naturally, he could not clean the bell without touching it.

Bai Yi had repeatedly been protected by Long Aotian and was still immersed in gratitude. At that moment, his awareness as an underling finally awakened as well.

He hurried forward, picked up the bell, and diligently wiped it with one of the hidden chamber’s curtains until it was barely clean.

Rong Zhenlü frowned.

His gaze fell upon Bai Yi’s slender, pale fingers, now dirtied with dust. They were so white and soft, and the pressure of the bell had already left them faintly red.

“I’ll do it.”

He reached over, apparently intending to take the filthy bell himself.

Bai Yi felt helpless.

Had he not read the original novel, he might genuinely have believed this false politeness.

In the original story, Rong Zhenlü had been so unwilling to touch the dust that he had left the chamber, dragged a villain in from outside, and forced him to clean the bell.

Afterward, he had even killed the man to silence him.

There was no possibility that Rong Zhenlü genuinely wanted to clean it personally now.

Bai Yi shook his head and wiped even more vigorously.

He was about to say something flattering to please the obsessively clean Immortal Lord when a wisp of white smoke suddenly emerged from the bell.

What was happening?

This had never occurred in the original novel!

Bai Yi jumped in fright, afraid he had wiped too hard and damaged the ancient artifact.

Then a smug voice came from within.

“Hahahaha! I’ve finally been born—ow!”

The white smoke was still laughing when Rong Zhenlü struck it with the hilt of his sword.

The smoke immediately gathered into the vague shape of a person clutching its head.

“How dare you hit me, the bell’s artifact spirit!”

The bell had an artifact spirit?

Bai Yi froze upon hearing this.

Then he gradually understood.

No wonder this had never happened in the original novel.

They had arrived an entire day later than in the book.

That single day of difference had apparently allowed the artifact spirit, which had previously lacked only a little time, to be born normally.

In the original story, Rong Zhenlü had removed the bell from the Immortal-Prohibited Land too early, preventing its intelligence from fully forming.

But what use did the artifact spirit serve?

Once the bell merged with the complete pattern, it could function perfectly well on its own.

There seemed to be no need for an additional weak artifact spirit.

Bai Yi watched curiously.

Rong Zhenlü kept his sword in hand, his presence sharp and dangerous.

“Give me one reason to keep you.”

The thin figure formed from white smoke floated unsteadily through the air and smiled with its eyes closed.

“I was born already possessing knowledge of everything beneath the heavens. I am destined to become the greatest genius in the world and Immortal Lord Zhenlü’s most capable assistant.”

Bai Yi had not expected it to possess genuine ability.

He became somewhat interested and was about to ask whether it knew anything else when the artifact spirit abruptly opened its eyes.

Two yellow beams of light passed directly over Rong Zhenlü and fixed upon Bai Yi.

Bai Yi’s brow twitched.

A terrible premonition immediately arose within him.

Before he could stop it, the artifact spirit flew excitedly toward his embrace.

“You must be Immortal Lord Zhenlü! You’re so handsome and beautiful that no one in the world can compare with your magnificence. You look exactly like the rumors described!”

“Immortal Lord, I’m your Little Lingling!”

Ah!

Stop talking nonsense!

Had Bai Yi possessed fur, every strand would have stood on end.

His rosy face instantly turned deathly pale.

What could possibly offend Long Aotian more than having Long Aotian’s own treasure mistake Bai Yi for him?

He bitterly regretted being so meddlesome and stepping forward to clean the bell.

The more diligent a person was, the more misfortune they encountered.

Wouldn’t it have been better to remain obediently hidden behind Long Aotian?

Now he had thoroughly offended him.

This artifact spirit was far too stupid.

No wonder the original novel had refused to let it be born.

Bai Yi dodged repeatedly, terrified that it might genuinely fly into his arms, while loudly explaining over and over again.

“I’m not!”

From the corner of his eye, he looked toward Long Aotian in panic.

As expected, even Long Aotian, who was normally an expert at concealing his emotions, could no longer maintain his composure.

His handsome face had become terrifyingly dark.

The hilt of his sword swept toward the artifact spirit with murderous intent, blocking its path.

The hidden chamber instantly became blindingly bright.

Sharp sword intent intercepted the spirit and forcibly scattered more than half the white smoke forming its body.

At last, it realized it had mistaken the wrong person.

Its yellow eyes spun.

Little Lingling did not panic in the slightest.

A smile reappeared on its face.

This time, it did not attempt to throw itself into Bai Yi’s arms, but its words became unbearably sweet.

“Hahaha! So you’re our beautiful and gracious Immortal Lord’s wife! No wonder you carry his aura. You’re already one body, after all.”

Bai Yi nearly fainted on the spot.

D-don’t make such baseless accusations!

He felt as though he had fallen into an icy abyss.

Yet the freezing temperature inside the room gradually began to rise.

The murderous intent vanished in an instant, replaced by an entirely different, scorching heat.

Amid the silence, Rong Zhenlü’s handsome face became alarmingly hot.

Even his naturally cold, pale skin burned red, yet he did not utter a single word of denial.

He pressed his lips together and looked at Bai Yi for a long time.

Then, without saying anything, he threw every spirit stone in the hidden chamber toward the artifact spirit at once.

The clattering roar of falling spirit stones concealed the Immortal Lord’s excessively rapid heartbeat.

Not a single stone remained.

The delighted Little Lingling devoured every spirit stone in the room.

Its dim form immediately regained its brilliance.

The entire chamber filled with Little Lingling’s voice wishing the two of them ten thousand years of marital harmony.

Bai Yi entered the darkest moment of his life.

This time, he genuinely felt ready to faint.

They returned to Zhaoye Peak that same day.

Bai Yi rested his chin in one hand and stared out the window, his beautiful eyes filled with listless exhaustion.

How miserable.

Could anyone possibly be more miserable than him?

He had traveled an enormous distance and worked hard for several days, only to offend Long Aotian beyond repair and fail to obtain even a single spirit stone.

He reached behind himself and pulled a newly formed high-grade spirit stone from the patterns of the Immortal Thread Robe.

Only its clear, glittering light could temporarily comfort his heart.

After carefully tucking the precious high-grade spirit stone into his robes, Bai Yi began considering whether he should leave immediately.

Perhaps two spirit stones were almost enough.

One high-grade spirit stone was equivalent to one hundred mid-grade spirit stones, or ten thousand low-grade spirit stones.

He currently possessed savings worth twenty thousand low-grade spirit stones.

That would be enough to settle down in an immortal city.

However, it would only allow him to settle down.

He was still a considerable distance from his life goal of becoming wealthy.

More importantly, even if he remained longer and used the Immortal Thread Robe to save additional spirit stones, Long Aotian now disliked him so much that, if Bai Yi left Zhaoye Peak, Rong Zhenlü might deliberately reclaim every treasure on his body.

What if he refused to leave Bai Yi even a single spirit stone?

Considering how petty Long Aotian could be, Bai Yi felt this was entirely possible.

At that point, all his efforts would have been wasted.

As a fraudulent third-level Qi Refining cultivator, his only hope of survival would be accepting dangerous assignments or exhausting jobs that paid almost nothing.

His most urgent priority was obtaining a storage ring that belonged exclusively to him.

Then he could secretly earn spirit stones Long Aotian knew nothing about and hide them inside.

After all, Long Aotian had never said Bai Yi was forbidden from earning money on the side.

But where could he secretly earn spirit stones?

Every job outside was exhausting and miserable.

A fresh breeze blew through the window and brushed Bai Yi’s face.

He felt that his life was hopeless and collapsed limply against the windowsill.

Forget it.

He would remain in the Gongxian Sect and pass the time for now.

At the very least, he possessed an inner-sect disciple identity token and would never lack food or shelter.

After an unknown period, a wisp of white smoke carrying two yellow eyes floated toward him.

Along the way, it praised the immortal crane’s handsome wings and the Old Tree Spirit’s thick trunk, flattering them until they were both delighted.

Then it flew directly toward Bai Yi.

“Oh my, what a beautiful little immortal.”

The white smoke landed on the windowsill and copied Bai Yi’s posture as it gazed at the scenery.

“Little Immortal, you look rather troubled. With a face like yours, what could you possibly have to worry about?”

Bai Yi sighed.

He was suffering precisely because he was handsome enough to make Long Aotian jealous.

Furthermore, none of this would have happened had this idiotic artifact spirit not mistaken him for someone else and then stubbornly spouted nonsense to cover its mistake.

Bai Yi weakly lifted his eyes and glanced at it.

Still unwilling to surrender completely, he asked, “Did you truly eat all those spirit stones?”

Little Lingling paused and coughed twice in embarrassment.

“I was starving. Naturally, I ate everything available. I didn’t leave even the smallest crumb.”

The light in Bai Yi’s eyes completely died.

He sighed and continued lying there.

At last, Little Lingling understood.

It stared in astonishment at the extravagantly dressed young man before it.

Its gaze traveled from the dazzling Violet Jade Crown to the noble Immortal Thread Robe.

Every item was an exceptionally rare treasure within the cultivation world.

And yet…

Little Lingling could hardly believe it.

“Little Bai Yi, are you short of money?”

Seeing embarrassment appear on Bai Yi’s face, Little Lingling scratched its head in confusion.

“That can’t be right. What’s so good about those spirit stones? They can only purchase ordinary material goods. With your current status, you have no need for such worthless scraps.”

It curled its lips disdainfully.

“If my bell body hadn’t been asleep for so long and required spirit stones to nourish it, I wouldn’t have bothered eating them either. If you like those things, just ask the Immortal Lord for some. He owns plenty of spirit-stone mines.”

Bai Yi had never expected that existing at too high a level could also become a problem.

When everyone around him possessed impossibly lofty standards, the spirit stones he treasured most became things no one thought to give him.

As for directly asking Long Aotian…

Hahaha.

Thanks to this artifact spirit, Bai Yi was now too afraid to even speak with Rong Zhenlü.

He weakly reached into the storage space and lovingly stroked his only two spirit stones.

“Don’t you claim to know everything beneath the heavens? Then do you know somewhere I can earn spirit stones?”

“Of course!”

Little Lingling struck its chest proudly.

Bai Yi’s eyes brightened.

He hurriedly added his conditions.

“Uh, it has to be simple and not too exhausting. It must be safe and absolutely not too dangerous. Also, it definitely can’t involve breaking the law. Ahem, preferably something respectable that won’t embarrass Zhaoye Peak.”

“Of course, the most important requirement is that it must be discreet. The Immortal Lord absolutely cannot find out.”

After finishing everything in a single breath, he looked expectantly toward Little Lingling.

His conditions were not particularly unreasonable, were they?

Especially the final one.

Long Aotian should currently be occupied with merging the complete pattern and the bell’s physical body.

He would have no time to pay attention to Bai Yi, much less come looking for him.

Like a computer freezing, Little Lingling’s expression went blank for a moment.

After a long while, it rubbed its chin, and its eyes brightened.

“I actually do know an excellent place.”

“Of course, I can’t guarantee that you’ll successfully hide it from the Immortal Lord.”

“But I can promise that even if he discovers it, he won’t become angry.”

“In fact, he’ll be extremely happy!”