[Huh? So there was a reason Martial Uncle Ye Sheng liked wearing women's clothes and putting on makeup in front of the mirror? It was all to remember his late true love, Su Ningzhen?]
[Those women's robes were actually all in Su Ningzhen's favorite styles and colors. No wonder.]
Li Rong raised an eyebrow and looked at Ye Sheng, whose expression had suddenly turned grief-stricken.
He was utterly curious.
His late true love, Su Ningzhen?
He still remembered that day fifty years ago clearly.
Old Ye had returned to the sect after traveling to gain experience. Upon his return, he had been utterly despondent, consumed by profound despair and sorrow.
Later, he had nearly killed himself in his room.
Fortunately, their senior brother, the Sect Leader, had discovered him in time. Furious, he had given Old Ye a thorough beating, knocking some sense straight into the man who had wanted to abandon them and the Ten Thousand Swords Sect.
Could Old Ye's suicide attempt back then have had something to do with Su Ningzhen?
Jiang Mei, Xu You, and the others who also remembered those events exchanged looks of shock.
Their fellow disciple Ye had never mentioned anything about Su Ningzhen to them.
Unlike the Peak Masters, whose feelings were complicated,
Dong Yi narrowed his eyes upon learning the reason behind his master's tastes, a hint of coldness seeping into his dark gaze.
Ha! True love?!
He sneered inwardly, squeezing the teacup in his hand.
A crisp crack rang out. Beside him, Yuan Bao kept his eyes fixed on the competition, not even daring to breathe too loudly.
[After Su Ningzhen died back then, Martial Uncle Ye buried her and returned to the sect. Later, he nearly killed himself for her. Who knew Martial Uncle Ye was such a champion of true love?]
Another crack reached Yuan Bao's ears distinctly.
Yuan Bao couldn't help glancing at the teacup in his senior brother's hand.
Sure enough, just as he had suspected, his outwardly innocent but secretly sinister senior brother had crushed that low-grade enchanted teacup with his bare hand!
Holy crap!! Senior brother was angry! Danger! Danger!
Yuan Bao's little heart skipped a beat. Swallowing hard, he scooted farther away.
A cold smile curled Dong Yi's lips. He ignored Yuan Bao's glance and all his little movements.
He clenched the shattered remains of the teacup, not caring that the porcelain fragments stabbed painfully into his palm.
His dark eyes flicked discreetly toward Ye Sheng's wrists, then his neck and chest. The corners of Dong Yi's eyes abruptly reddened.
Jealousy drove him mad!
Wasn't it just some woman? Was she really that wonderful? Wonderful enough for master to willingly kill himself for her, even wear women's clothes to remember her?
Still, one thing Dong Yi found relatively satisfying was that the other person was long dead.
From now on, master could only belong to him!!
Having finished feasting on that gossip, Tang Yan's inner voice abruptly fell silent.
The first group of disciples on the stage had finished their matches.
Xiao Jixue rose to his feet. Seeing this, Tang Yan asked, "Senior brother, you entered this competition too?"
"Yes. I had nothing else to do, and the prize for first place happens to be decent."
Tang Yan nodded and offered him encouragement with a bright smile.
"Good luck, senior brother. I've got faith in you."
[That's my eldest senior brother for you. Not only is he exceptionally gifted, he's also proficient in all four cultivation arts. Talismans and alchemy are his absolute specialties, and he's never lost before. If he doesn't take first place, who will? Hmph~]
Pride suffused Tang Yan's expression. His inward, haughty little huff made Xiao Jixue's thin lips curl involuntarily.
Warmth suffused his eyes, and his voice was just as gentle.
"Watch from down here, A-Yan. I'm heading up."
Xiao Jixue's spirits soared.
[Ding—Xiao Jixue's affection +5. Total affection: 8]
Watching his eldest senior brother walk away, Tang Yan suddenly had a question.
*[System, you told me before to win Xiao Jixue over, but afterward, all the affection I earned from him was converted into points.*
*Without a clear benchmark anymore, how do you determine whether I've completed the mission?]*
System: [Mission completion does not depend on the affection the host earns. This system will periodically assess how important the host is to the mission target, Xiao Jixue. Once that importance score reaches the required threshold, the host's mission will be deemed complete.]
Tang Yan understood. [Then can you show me how high my importance score with Xiao Jixue is right now?]
System: [Certainly. The host's current importance score with Xiao Jixue is 300 points.] [You are still a long way from completing the mission. Please keep up your efforts.]
Even 300 points was still a long way off. It seemed this mission wouldn't be so easy to complete.
Tang Yan sighed. [Mm, got it.]
Meanwhile, throughout his conversation with the system, everyone else had been beside themselves with anxiety.
What had sounded in their ears just now wasn't the familiar clear male voice, but a strange "Bzzzt, bzzzt, bzzzt..."
Only when they heard that "Mm, got it" did their anxious hearts finally settle.
Feng Sheng took a sip of tea to soothe her agitation.
She had thought something terrible had happened to Xi Tong, the supreme treasure her junior brother carried. She had been so worried that her heart was still pounding erratically.
Her gossip patch! Nothing, absolutely nothing, could happen to it!
She never wanted to return to that dull, tedious life of cultivation. She would get depressed!
In truth, this was all the system's doing.
Whenever the host spoke with the system about its missions, what reached everyone else's ears became the "Bzzzt, bzzzt, bzzzt" of a faulty connection.
Tang Yan looked toward the competition area. Xiao Jixue occupied the first station.
The exquisitely handsome young man sat elegantly at his table, his posture languid, his bearing naturally refined.
His long, well-defined hand held a jade Qilin Brush.
At that moment, the young man was leisurely using the Qilin Brush to draw sweeping, spirited seal patterns on talisman paper.
Sunlight streamed in from outside, falling across Xiao Jixue's incomparably handsome face.
In that instant, his face—his entire being—seemed to glow, dazzling and radiant.
Tang Yan's gaze remained fixed on the little mole beneath Xiao Jixue's right eye, which lent him an air of mysterious, aloof beauty.
Gradually bewitched by that beauty, he marveled inwardly in a daze.
[Eldest senior brother's face, those proportions—broad shoulders, narrow waist, long legs—are truly second to none in the immortal realm.]
The female cultivators, equally bewitched by Xiao Jixue's beauty, nodded vigorously. Exactly, exactly!
Then they turned to glance at Tang Yan, thinking to themselves.
Junior brother Tang was exceptionally handsome too. So beautiful it ought to be against the rules, so beautiful they wanted to bully him in all sorts of ways~~ Hehehe~
Feng Sheng's eyes shone brilliantly, her cheeks flushing with excitement. She was even more thrilled than when she had heard that juicy gossip about her martial uncle.
Aaaah! The way junior brother looked at eldest senior brother!! There was absolutely, absolutely nothing innocent about it!
She swore on her twenty-odd years of experience reading a certain kind of fiction!
Over at his station, Xiao Jixue's brush paused ever so slightly.
A faint flicker of amusement passed through the depths of his lowered eyes.
He had always disliked people praising his appearance, and he disliked people staring at his face.
Yet when it was A-Yan doing those things,
they somehow stirred a little happiness in his heart.
How utterly absurd.
[Ding—Xiao Jixue's affection +20. Total affection: 28]
Tang Yan's eyes widened in surprise.
After a long while, a thought drifted through his mind. [A man's heart is a needle at the bottom of the sea.]
Before you continue