Page 22

Bian Chunchou:...

"Can you handle it?"

"Don't worry. I won't die."

Wen Xu silently handed over the Wind-Treasure Gourd. "I've tried it. This gourd's offensive power isn't very high, but its material is extremely hard. Perhaps it can be of some use."

Chen Zui readily reached out to take it. "Thank you, Wen Xu."

As he spoke, he took the gourd and was about to rush down the mountain with his blade when Wen Xu unexpectedly drew out his folding fan and fanned Chen Zui away with a single sweep, sending him flying dozens of meters.

"Wen Xu, what are you doing?!" Bian Chunchou immediately turned stern and sharp.

Wen Xu turned and gave Bian Chunchou beside him a fan-sweep as well. "Who are you? Disguising yourselves as my friends and approaching me—what are you after?"

"What are you talking about? I don't understand. Wen Xu, why are you attacking us?"

Wen Xu thought these two were putting on an utterly perfunctory act. "First, Bian Chunchou would never call me by my full name. He prefers using reduplicated nicknames for his friends. Second, Chen Zui isn't someone with a brain."

The great figures watching from around the Shadow Wall: ...There was no need to understand your friends quite that well.

"Furthermore, if Outer Sect disciples of Yonglu Mountain truly wanted to call for help, there were plenty of quick ways to notify the sect through talismans or magical artifacts. Why would they need us to personally climb the mountain and seek aid?"

Wen Xu's expression remained calm, but he was somewhat anxious inside. When they had encountered the Yonglu Mountain Outer Sect disciples earlier, he had been certain that the ones at his side were his teammates, Bian Chunchou and Chen Zui. Yet in the blink of an eye, both had vanished. What kind of unfathomable, ghostly method was this? Faced with such an opponent, Wen Xu knew he had no power to resist.

Since that was the case, he might as well expose them directly and gamble for a way out.

"Most importantly, this is Yonglu Mountain. The villagers beneath the mountain live simple, peaceful lives under Yonglu Mountain's protection. How could a Red-Clad Vengeful Ghost have been born here for no reason?"

Upon hearing this, "Bian Chunchou" and "Chen Zui" let out sinister cackles, then dissolved into the wind. The Outer Sect disciples on the ground vanished along with them.

The empty wilderness was silent, leaving Wen Xu alone.

This was the first time Wen Xu had been alone since arriving in the Cultivation Realm. He was somewhat unaccustomed to it and subconsciously touched his eyes, yet did not remove the cloth strip over them.

Bian Chunchou had said that the mountain examination and the third Mind-Question Trial were tested together. Perhaps, at some moment unknown to him, he had already entered the Mind-Question Gate.

So how was he supposed to pass this trial?

Wen Xu had no clue at all. In the end, he simply knew too little about the Cultivation Realm. At that moment, he suddenly missed the imperial examinations of his former life. Though studying was not as interesting as cultivation, the content of examinations never strayed far from their core. It was nothing like now, where he stood in the examination hall yet had no idea where to begin.

Wen Xu steadied himself and keenly realized that his attention was not as focused as usual. Given his personality, how could he possibly let his mind wander to the imperial examinations at such a critical moment?

This was very wrong. It did not seem like him at all.

Wen Xu decided to go down the mountain and take a look. He descended all the way and soon arrived at the village where he had once borrowed a cloak. The village was tranquil and peaceful, just as it had been four days ago.

Before long, he encountered an old man returning home with firewood. By coincidence, this was the very villager who had lent him the cloak.

"Immortal Master, are you borrowing a cloak again today?"

Wen Xu shook his head. "Not today."

"Why not? Does Immortal Master look down on us mortals?"

The old man's eyes suddenly turned vicious, and even his voice became savage. Throwing down the firewood on his shoulder, he lunged straight at Wen Xu. "Immortal Master, give me your Immortal Bone, all right? I'm so old I'm nearly in the grave, but I don't want to die! I want to cultivate too! Every day, I watch Immortal Masters ride the wind past my door, and my heart fills with jealousy! Immortal Master, pity this old man and give me your Immortal Bone, all right?"

Of course that was not all right. The old man was merely an ordinary mortal, how could he—

Wen Xu twisted aside, then suddenly discovered that his cultivation had vanished. The Qi Sea in his Dantian was gone. Even the folding fan and gourd in his hands had disappeared. His hands were empty, and even...

It hurt.

Wen Xu covered the wound on his body, then lowered his head to look. His arm was bent outward at an unnatural angle, blood dripping onto the dry earth and instantly rolling into bead after bead of blood-red mud.

The wind atop the cliff was cold, and in an instant, it pulled his mind back.

Wen Xu panted heavily and looked up at the three assassins pursuing him. The pain in his body nearly made him unable to think. In that instant, he wondered whether everything in the Cultivation Realm had merely been a dream before his death.

The sensation of pain nearly drowned all his consciousness. Wen Xu's heart filled with fury. He did not understand—why? Why was his fate so miserable? Why did everything he did go against his wishes?

He had been a beggar from birth. To survive, he had struggled to beg along the streets, yet every winter remained so brutally cold.

To stay alive, he had truly tried his hardest. But why was Heaven still unwilling to spare him? Why could he not remember people's faces? Why, after studying so hard and traveling to the capital for the examinations, had he been inexplicably hunted down to this place? Why, at the moment he had been happiest, had his foster father's life been taken away?

Why give him hope of life, only to cruelly snatch it away again?

Wen Xu's heart brimmed with resentment and rage. His entire life seemed to have been a battle against fate, yet he was always the loser, always toyed with by destiny.

Looking at the gleaming Blade Peak before him, Wen Xu thought, To hell with fate!

How could I possibly die at the hands of these three? Even if I jump off the cliff and kill myself, I will never meekly grant others their wish! I—

In that instant, Wen Xu's reason returned.

Though the overwhelming pain still blanketed his mind, he was clearer than ever, because—

At the moment he had looked up just now, he had actually "seen" the faces of those three people clearly. Or rather, he thought he had seen three different faces.