Page 15

He did have a son in the mortal world, and he had visited the boy when he was five or six.

But after that, he had devoted himself to cultivation. A dozen years had passed in the snap of a finger, and he truly had not given the child another thought.

He had not expected...

"Sect Master Chen, what did you just say? What can you hear?"

While he was still thinking, the Spirit Sword Sect Master across from him suddenly spoke with a knowing smile.

The Hehuan Sect Master abruptly looked up.

He met the other man's eyes, blazing with a hunger for gossip, and found himself at a loss for words.

Everyone else turned curious gazes on him too.

Was what that voice had said true?

If the Hehuan Sect Master lost his composure on the spot, would that not prove the voice was telling the truth?

Then they had stumbled onto real gossip!

Some were already itching to stop by the mortal world on their way back that night and take a look at the Sect Master's statue.

Perhaps they could even learn a thing or two and put up a few statues in their own Sects to show their devotion to their Sect Masters.

Holding his breath, the Hehuan Sect Master forced the words on the tip of his tongue back down.

If he lost his composure, he would be tearing away his own fig leaf.

"Nothing. Our Sect will offer two fifth-grade pills as compensation. No more!"

The Spirit Sword Sect Master refused to give up. "Sect Master Chen, as a man, you should know how deeply our Second Elder has been hurt. Don't you have a woman you care for? Don't you have children? Can two fifth-grade pills soothe the harm our Second Elder has suffered?"

Everyone's eyes went round.

Did he? Did he? Did he have a child?

The probing, both open and veiled, made veins bulge on the Hehuan Sect Master's forehead.

What does it matter to you old gossips whether I have a child?

But he could not say that aloud, and keeping it bottled up was maddening.

The Hehuan Sect Master's face turned an even darker shade of green. He clenched his fists and was about to rise.

Li Zi complained to the system, [Martial Uncle sounded so heartfelt just now. Has he been cheated on too?]

The Spirit Sword Sect Master nearly spat out the tea he had just drunk.

How had the topic shifted to him?

He had only wanted to find out whether the Hehuan Sect Master really had a son left behind in the mortal world!

The Hehuan Sect Master felt better now.

If he had to die of embarrassment, he would drag someone else down with him.

Suddenly, that voice did not seem quite so irritating.

Before the system could speak, Li Zi gave a puzzled hum in her mind.

[The Hehuan Sect Master looks pretty upset. Has he been cheated on too?]

The Hehuan Sect Master and the Spirit Sword Sect Master exchanged a glance.

As their eyes met, each saw the other's gloating curiosity.

[Host, neither of them has been cheated on, but they were both nearly forced upon by the same Spider Demon.]

Everyone else in the room: Now this is juicy!

Forced upon by a Spider Demon?

These two were both at the peak of Spirit Transformation.

They were only one step away from the Void Refining Stage.

Once they entered Void Refining, they could even attain a half-immortal body.

And such supreme experts had nearly fallen prey to a spirit beast?

[They used to be fellow disciples. They even took part in some trials together and got along really well.]

Nostalgia stirred in both Sect Masters' eyes.

But a moment later, the Spirit Sword Sect Master shot the other man a look of disgust.

That traitor!

I must have been blind back then!

[The two of them once went to the Ancient War God's Fallen Immortal Mansion and accidentally fell into a Heart-Cutting Poison-Thread Spider's cave. The spider took a fancy to the Hehuan Sect Master first. Just as she knocked him out and was about to force herself on him, your martial uncle charged in with a group and saved him in the nick of time. But then the Heart-Cutting Poison-Thread Spider trapped your martial uncle instead. In the end, the Second Elder and Third Elder rescued him, so he got away with nothing worse than a fright.]

Li Zi was surprised. [They were fellow disciples who went through life and death together. Why do they act like strangers now?]

[The bad blood between the Spirit Sword Sect and the Hehuan Sect goes back many years. It's hard to explain all at once. But if you count it up, the Hehuan Sect Master saved your martial uncle four times, and your martial uncle saved the Hehuan Sect Master more than ten times. The two of them are basically]

[lovers and enemies]

[all at once.]

The Spirit Sword Sect Master's face turned livid, and he shot to his feet.

"Three medium-grade spirit herbs for Marrow Cleansing and two fifth-grade pills. Leave them here, then get out!"

If that ungrateful wretch had not stolen something and fled their Sect, their master would not have died.

Lovers and enemies?

It had taken every scrap of self-control he possessed to treat that brat like a stranger all these years.

There was only hate. Where was the love?

The Hehuan Sect Master, meanwhile, had yet to recover from Li Zi's thoughts.

In his memory, his senior martial brother had always despised him.

Back then, not long after he had joined the Sect, he had gone down the mountain with his senior martial brother to gain experience. Along the way, they had encountered a powerful spirit beast.

His life had hung by a thread, yet his senior martial brother had merely stood there and watched, as though he enjoyed seeing him fight on the edge of death.

From then on, he had avoided his senior martial brother.

His senior martial brother had saved him more than ten times?

How was that possible?

"Senior... Sect Master Jiang, this..."

The Spirit Sword Sect Master raised a hand and pointed toward the door, his voice icy.

"Don't bargain with me. Leave the items and get out, now!"

The Hehuan Sect Master sounded desperate. "Sect Master Jiang, can we speak alone?"

More than ten times!

Had his senior martial brother been protecting him in secret all along?

He truly had had no choice back then, but his senior martial brother had never listened to his explanation.

It was not that he did not want to return the fragment of the Primordial Sage Secret Art. He truly could not!

"Chen Cangheng, I've put up with you long enough. Do you want me to tell everyone here about the filthy things you did back then? You still had the nerve to bring people to the Spirit Sword Sect and cause trouble today. How shameless can you be? Talk alone? What, are you going to return what you took? If not, get out! Never set foot in the Sect again for the rest of your life! Otherwise, I'll cut you down with my sword!"