Chapter 37
As the voice fell silent, the beggar outside swayed and looked up toward Li Zi.
Beneath the grime on his face, the sharp contours of his handsome features were still faintly visible.
Straggling long hair covered most of his cheeks, but his dark, cold eyes stood out.
The system said, [Yes, Huo Fei really had no feelings for Wen Yun. But Wen Yun's men and women caused her no end of trouble. Huo Fei was a little princess who'd been pampered since childhood. She wasn't scheming, so she kept falling for their plots. Over time, those schemes ruined her reputation. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore and returned to Flame Hall in a fury.]
Li Zi pursed her lips and muttered inwardly, [So far, I don't think Senior Huo Fei did anything wrong. Even if she married the wrong person, she was a powerful cultivator in her own right, and the head of a sect.]
[Host, let me finish. After Huo Fei returned to her sect and went into seclusion, Wen Yun often came calling. Before long, word spread that Immortal Lord Wen Yun was deeply devoted to Fairy Huo Fei. Later, when he still couldn't win her over, he sent people to capture that sword cultivator disciple and used him as leverage.]
[That time, Huo Fei forced her way out of seclusion and nearly suffered qi deviation. But it made Wen Yun think he had found a hold over her. After that, he often threatened her into doing things, and she did them one by one. Many of the deeds attributed to her across the martial world were actually done under duress. She's bearing the karmic burden now. Every day, she endures the pain of ten thousand insects gnawing at her bones, wearing that burden away bit by bit.]
Li Zi fell silent for a long time, then let out a long sigh in her heart.
[Never let love make you lose your head.]
Huo Fei was a powerful cultivator who had already reached the Integration stage.
Yet for the man she loved, she had done one unconscionable thing after another.
Now she had to endure the pain of ten thousand insects gnawing at her bones every day.
How much pain must she be in?
The system agreed wholeheartedly. [Exactly. Huo Fei actually had a chance to pass her tribulation and become an immortal centuries ago. It's a shame she let it slip away with her own hands. From beginning to end, she loved that man. What a waste.]
Li Zi asked, [Where is that man now? Does he know how well Senior Huo Fei treated him?]
The system flipped through its book. [Oh, him? He vanished without a trace. The book doesn't say where he went. Maybe he found somewhere to cultivate in seclusion. He escaped from Wen Yun on his own when he got the chance.]
Li Zi ground her teeth in anger.
[What about Wen Yun?]
[Immortal Wen Yun was badly wounded in the war between immortals and demons and still hasn't recovered. But he's cultivating at Painting Residence, with a beauty to keep him company. He's living quite comfortably.]
Li Zi gritted her teeth.
[So never let love make you lose your head.]
In the end, Huo Fei was the only one left to suffer.
She had given so much for that man, and he had gone off to find a place to cultivate in peace.
Wen Yun, the culprit behind it all, was doing just fine too.
It was too unfair!
The sect master looked Li Zi over again and again, as though he wanted to say something but held back.
There were details about Huo Fei he wanted to ask her about.
If Huo Fei had another reason for not intervening back then, the implications were enormous.
He had been fortunate enough to survive that battlefield.
The situation had been dire. The armies of the immortal and demon realms had clashed on the mountainside, and the battle was so fierce that, in the end, no one had seen where the Demon Scion came from.
But he had caught a vague glimpse of something.
The Demon Scion had emerged from the middle of the battlefield.
In other words, even if Huo Fei had not led Flame Hall to set the fires, the Demon Scion would still have appeared.
Had the Demon Scion been hiding at the site of the battle all along?
He had kept that discovery buried in his heart, never daring to discuss it with anyone. Now the thought rose again.
[Host, is your martial uncle constipated? Why does he look so awful? A little Cinnabar Dragon Dew could help his digestion.]
Li Zi turned to look at the sect master.
His face did look bad—dark and gloomy.
[Constipated? Can people in the cultivation world get constipated? Didn't you say cultivators don't eat or drink?]
Just like that, Li Zi stopped caring about Huo Fei's gossip and began discussing with the system whether cultivators could get constipated.
The other powerful cultivators nearby covered their faces and chuckled.
Hearing Li Zi's ridiculous question, the sect master decided not to ask her anything for the time being.
He set down his teacup. "Have you rested enough? We're heading back right now."
As the group left the teahouse, the sect master paused and glanced at the spot where the beggar had been sitting.
It was empty now.
The sect master frowned. He was probably overthinking it.
When Li Zi returned to the sect, Fu Chaoqing made her take a Marrow-Cleansing Pill and go into secluded cultivation.
The hope was that, during her month in seclusion, she could awaken her Divine Bone of Ten Thousand Flowers.
Li Zi obediently went into seclusion to cultivate.
During that month,
two major events shook the cultivation world.
The Sect Master of the Hall of Samsara hung the corpse of the ruler of the Black Crane Kingdom on the city wall, exposing it to the sun for three days and three nights.
The other was the sudden emergence of a young sword cultivator.
His sword cleaved the heavens.
One strike cut through the dust of the mortal world.
With only himself and his sword, he went from sect to sect challenging their strongest cultivators.
The great cultivators of those sects all fell before that single strike.
He cultivated neither spiritual energy nor his body, only the purest sword intent in the world.
One sword could hold back an army of a million.
Even cultivators at the Great Ascension stage fell to that strike.
Yet although this sword cultivator challenged sect after sect, he never came to the Spirit Sword Sect.
Some speculated that he was the Spirit Sword Sect master's illegitimate son, trained specifically to slap the cultivation world's strongest cultivators in the face.
The Spirit Sword Sect master did not respond to the rumor.
He said that if he really had a son that formidable, he would have told the whole world long ago. Why would he keep it a secret?
On the day Li Zi emerged from seclusion, the Spirit Sword Sect master and the Joyous Union Sect master were drinking together in the small courtyard.