Page 15

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

But afterward, he devoted himself to cultivation. More than a decade passed in the flick of a finger, and he truly hadn't given the child another thought.

He hadn't expected...

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

As he pondered, the Spirit Sword Sect Master across from him suddenly spoke with a beaming smile.

The Hehuan Sect Master snapped his gaze up.

Meeting the other man's eyes, which blazed with a hunger for gossip, he found himself at a loss for words.

Everyone else around them looked over curiously, too.

Was what that voice said true or not?

If the Hehuan Sect Master lost his composure on the spot, wouldn't that prove the voice was telling the truth?

Then they'd have gotten their hands on some real gossip!

Some were already itching to visit the Mortal World on their way back that evening and see the Sect Master's statue.

Maybe they could even take a leaf out of someone's book 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 at the tip of his tongue back down.

If he lost his composure, wouldn't he be tearing away his own fig leaf?

"Nothing. Our Sect will offer two fifth-grade Medicinal Pills as compensation. Not a pill more!"

The Spirit Sword Sect Master refused to let it go. "Sect Master Chen, as a man, you should know how much this has hurt our Second Elder. Don't you have a beloved woman? Don't you have children? Can two fifth-grade Medicinal Pills soothe the pain our Second Elder has suffered?"

Everyone's eyes went round.

Did he? Did he? Did he have children?

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

What did it matter to this pack of old gossips whether he had children?

But he couldn't say that aloud, and keeping it bottled up was maddening.

The Hehuan Sect Master's face darkened further. He clenched his fists and was about to rise.

Li Zi complained to the system, [Senior Uncle sounds so heartfelt. Has someone cheated on him too?]

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

How had the conversation turned to him?

All he'd wanted was to find out whether the Hehuan Sect Master really had a son stranded in the Mortal World.

The Hehuan Sect Master felt better now.

If he was going to be publicly humiliated, he'd drag someone down with him.

Suddenly, he didn't find that voice quite so annoying.

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

[The Hehuan Sect Master looks pretty upset. Has someone cheated on him too?]

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

Their eyes met, and each saw the other watching with undisguised glee.

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

Everyone else in the room: Oh, this was good!

A Spider Demon had nearly forced herself on them?

Both men were powerhouses at the peak of the Spirit Transformation Stage.

They were only one step from the Void Refining Stage.

Entering the Void Refining Stage could even grant them the body of a Half-Immortal.

And yet, such supreme experts had nearly fallen into the hands of a Spirit Beast?

[They used to be fellow disciples. They even took part in Trials together, and they were pretty close.]

A trace of nostalgia rose in both Sect Masters' eyes.

But the Spirit Sword Sect Master soon shot the other man a look of disgust.

That traitor!

He 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 the Heart-Cutting Poison-Thread Spider's lair. The spider took a fancy to the Hehuan Sect Master first. She knocked him out and was about to force herself on him when your senior uncle burst in with a group and rescued him just in time. But then the Heart-Cutting Poison-Thread Spider trapped your senior uncle instead. Luckily, the Second Elder and Third Elder saved him, and he came through unscathed.]

Li Zi was a little 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 quickly. Actually, the Hehuan Sect Master has saved your senior uncle four times, and your senior uncle has saved the Hehuan Sect Master more than ten times. You could say they have a]

[love-hate]

[relationship.]

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

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

If that ungrateful wretch hadn't stolen something and betrayed the Sect, Master would never have died.

A love-hate relationship?

It had taken all the self-control he possessed to treat the brat as a stranger all these years.

There's only hate. Where's the love?

The Hehuan Sect Master, meanwhile, still hadn't recovered from hearing Li Zi's thoughts.

In his memory, his senior brother had always detested him.

Back then, not long after he had joined the Sect, he went down the mountain with his senior brother to gain experience. Along the way, they encountered a powerful Spirit Beast.

His life hung by a thread, but his senior brother 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 brother.

His senior brother had saved him more than ten times?

How could that be possible?

"Senior Bro... 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 things here and get out. Now!"

The Hehuan Sect Master sounded anxious. "Sect Master Jiang, can we talk alone?"

He saved me more than ten times!

Had Senior Brother been protecting me in secret all along?

He really had been forced into what happened back then, but his senior brother had never listened to his explanation.

It wasn't that he didn't want to return the fragment of the "Primordial Sage Secret Art." He truly couldn't.

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