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The Xiaochong Mountain Secret Realm was about to open, and disciples from many sects were diligently studying its rules.

Some had spent a fortune buying intelligence about the secret realm, and were now cramming around the clock, with the same ominous air as a storm gathering before final exams.

Xu Ye looked around, then eventually came to the guest rooms of the Xuanxu Sword Sect.

The first few rooms were perfectly normal. The disciples inside were either practicing swordsmanship and reading, or simply killing time. But when he reached one particular room, the young man's eyes suddenly widened in shock.

The window was slightly ajar. Through a tiny crack, he saw the profile of a man.

The man had a pair of dragon horns and handsome, gentle features. He was speaking quietly to someone in front of him, his tone thoroughly bashful. "Miss, my name is Lin Xun, and I'm a disciple of the Xuanxu Sword Sect. May I ask your name?"

No one answered him.

Yet he seemed to have received a reply. He lowered his head, blushed, and smiled. "Really? What a lovely name. Miss, what brings you here?"

Then came a long silence.

And yet the dragon named Lin Xun looked as if he were listening intently, nodding from time to time in agreement.

Perplexed, Xu Ye changed his angle, and happened to get a clear view of the person across from him.

The sight made his scalp go numb.

H-he, he, he—

The person he was talking to wasn't human at all. It was a scarecrow, one with a human face simply drawn on!

That was terrifying! Why would anyone talk to a scarecrow, and carry on a whole conversation with it? Was this fellow okay in the head? Would it really be all right for him to enter the secret realm like this?

But that wasn't the end of it.

Lin Xun frowned. "No... this won't do."

Xu Ye would never know that the scarecrow was just a tool Ning Ning had prepared specifically to help her junior apprentice practice conversation.

Nor would he know that Lin Xun simply felt that talking to the air was too unreal to be of any use. To make the practice more effective, he had decided to imitate the other person's actions himself.

The only thing he knew was that the mentally unstable dragon had done it again, repeating that nightmare-inducing line: "Miss, my name is Lin Xun, and I'm a disciple of the Xuanxu Sword Sect. May I ask your name?"

Then Xu Ye watched him pause and turn around.

He followed with a bashful smile and a soft, gentle voice. "This humble lady is called Xiao Hua. May I ask what brings you here, young master?"

The scene was more bizarre than he could have imagined.

Xu Ye rolled his eyes and nearly threw up from fright.

He heard a cold laugh come from inside the room.

Lin Xun's face twisted. Before he could change his expression, he cackled with a crooked nose and slanted mouth. "I came here to exterminate demons."

Xu Ye: Fuck.

Xu Ye: Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!!!

This guy's condition was getting worse and worse! He'd started talking to himself! Bro, please act normal. He was just a kid, and he was really scared!

What was this! What was going on!

There was no demonic aura in the room. The only explanation was that this guy had something wrong with his head.

Terrified, Xu Ye fled in a panic and hurried to the next room.

After that heart-stopping scene, everywhere he looked seemed friendly. Everywhere felt like home.

The window to his new home was wide open, making it effortless to see inside. Eager to cleanse his eyes with something normal, Xu Ye looked up without hesitation—

And his expression froze completely.

There were four people in the room, two men and two women.

A strange smell unlike anything he had ever encountered wafted out of the room. A white-clad young man held a pair of chopsticks and lifted an unidentifiable object out of the Alchemy Furnace.

—No, Xu Ye could more or less guess what it was.

A cylinder, dark brown, radiating an eerie aura.

How could anyone put that thing in an Alchemy Furnace?

His young heart was hit by a powerful shock.

Ning Ning shook her head in amazement. "Truly, it dazzles the ages and captivates all living beings. With looks like these, it deserves to be the number-one delicacy in the cultivation world."

He Zhizhou fought back his revulsion. "It doesn't look like food. It looks like that thing you get after digesting food—Have you seen Return to Youth? It was never young; it came out of the womb already an old man. Just like this thing."

Qin Shu's expression remained unchanged as she backed away one step, blurting out in a panic, "Amitabha."

Even she, unshakable as she was, couldn't withstand such a visual assault.

Pei Ji: "..."

"Maybe we cooked it too long, so the color got a little dark."

Ning Ning patted He Zhizhou on the shoulder. "The taste will definitely be fine. We're the first people in the entire cultivation world to make this, so it's normal for there to be a few little mistakes."

Then you really were the first people to make this thing.

Xu Ye trembled. He really wanted to ask, "Big brother, big sister, what are you doing this for?"

"I don't understand the point of going to all this trouble."

Qin Shu said, "What's the difference between this and just eating it? Like this, it's completely unappetizing."

Damn.

As if eating it straight would make it appetizing?

You people from the Xuanxu Sword Sect really are invincible.

After that, the young man saw a scene that would be engraved in his mind for the rest of his life.

The white-clad Sword Cultivator from the Xuanxu Sword Sect picked up the cylindrical object, his face full of hesitation, and ate it in one bite.

Xu Ye watched as his expression slowly softened, shifting from initial disgust and revulsion to a faint smile, and finally to an incomparable look of bliss.

That was right. He was actually enjoying it.

"To be honest, I thought no one would eat this thing."

He Zhizhou slowly gave a thumbs-up. "It may be ugly, but it's beautiful on the inside!"

This was way beyond a question of being ugly, okay? There was something wrong with it at its very core. Something wrong!

Who could have guessed?