Let Go of My Disciple

Ning Xiang crawled into her tent, poked her little head out, and said, "Good night."

Mingyuan: "..."

System: [Host, you're just going to sleep like that? Aren't you afraid the Demon Venerable will kill you?]

"Relax, relax. If he wanted to lay a hand on me, I couldn't escape death even if I fought with everything I had."

That made so much sense that the system was successfully convinced.

Mingyuan rested his head on his hands, listening to the girl's slow, even breathing from next door. She went straight to sleep? She really doesn't have a care in the world.

Although the girl's bandaging skills weren't much to speak of, she seemed to have used miraculous medicines on him. Mingyuan's wounds had almost healed. He reckoned he could head back up tomorrow.

Mm, I'll return to the Tai Bai Domain tomorrow and take the little girl along.

Having made up his mind, Mingyuan closed his eyes and went to sleep too.

Early the next morning, Ning Xiang woke, stretched, and cast a cleansing spell. As she crawled out of her tent, the tent next door opened as well.

Ning Xiang greeted him. "Morning, fellow cultivator. What would you like for breakfast?"

Before Mingyuan could speak, Ning Xiang had already decided for him. "Let's have flaky flatbread, with sausage and a fried egg."

Ning Xiang got straight to work, conjuring a frying pan, heating the oil, cooking the flatbread, frying an egg... Her movements flowed together seamlessly.

"Oh, right, what sauce do you want?"

No sooner had Ning Xiang spoken than the atmosphere around her changed dramatically, and the temperature plummeted.

So cold...

She looked at Mingyuan again. His expression was icy, and the blood-red brand between his brows had grown even more vivid and searing.

Before she could work out what had happened, a cool voice rang out overhead. "Demon Venerable, let go of my disciple. As the lord of the Demon Domain, isn't attacking a little girl beneath your dignity?"

Then a figure in brilliant white appeared before Ning Xiang.

His robes were whiter than snow, his dark hair cascading like a waterfall. Who else could it be but Lu Qingchen?

Ning Xiang froze.

[Good grief, how did Lu Qingchen get here so fast? At least let me finish breakfast!]

Lu Qingchen stiffened for a moment, then looked at his hopeless disciple. "Did the Demon Venerable abduct you and bring you down here?"

Ning Xiang: How was she supposed to explain this?

She widened her eyes in disbelief. "Master, I didn't know he was the Demon Venerable." Then she turned to Mingyuan and accused him, "Didn't you say you were my senior brother from the same sect?" She retreated two steps, as though she had suffered a devastating blow.

Lu Qingchen was about to comfort her when he heard-

[Haha, fight, fight! I'll take the opportunity to eat breakfast.]

Lu Qingchen silently swallowed the words he had been about to say.

Mingyuan gave Lu Qingchen a sympathetic look. How had an ice block so detached from worldly life managed to raise such an entertaining little disciple?

Their gazes met in midair. For some inexplicable reason, Ning Xiang felt that the atmosphere between the two men, who had been at daggers drawn a moment ago, had become considerably more peaceful.

Was it... just my imagination?

She ignored them and quietly reached for her flatbread. If she didn't eat it soon, it would burn.

Ning Xiang munched on her flatbread and thought-

[Ming Old Dog is still injured, so he definitely can't beat Iceberg Lu. But if Ming Old Dog dies here, won't the harem be down one male lead? Oh, right, Iceberg Lu should just kill him. Ming Old Dog has the Netherworld Flame, so I can seize the chance to subdue its flame seed.]

Mingyuan abruptly turned to Ning Xiang. Who exactly is she? How does she know I have the Netherworld Flame?

There were six kinds of flame in heaven and earth: stone flame, sky flame, sea flame, wood flame, mortal flame, and samadhi flame. Samadhi flame existed only in legends, while mortal flame could be found everywhere. Wood flame and stone flame were rare, but not impossible to find. Only sea flame and sky flame had long since vanished from the cultivation world. No cultivator had subdued either kind of flame seed in hundreds of years.

The Netherworld Flame was a type of sea flame.

No one had ever known Mingyuan's origins, much less that he possessed an extraordinary flame.

Lu Qingchen raised his sword, blocking Mingyuan's line of sight, then turned and asked Ning Xiang softly, "Can you get back up?"

Ning Xiang tried circulating her spiritual power, but it still didn't work.

That bastard author only gave the male leads cheats. They could ignore the bug at the bottom of Reflection Cliff, while a supporting female character like me didn't have a single cheat.

"Stand behind me and protect yourself." With that, Lu Qingchen ran his slender fingers along his blade, and the Canglang Sword gleamed with light as clear as autumn waters.

The man stood tall and graceful as jade, untouched by a speck of dust, white as snow upon the mountains, radiant as the moon among the clouds. The wind at the bottom of the cliff had stopped, yet his ink-black hair streamed like silk.

The system exclaimed excitedly: [Hooray! Host, you're so charming. Two male leads are fighting over you!]

Ning Xiang nodded and commented, "Mm, a man with his own built-in wind machine."

System: [...Host, you've completely ruined the mood by putting it that way.]

Provoked like this, how could a fight-loving boy like Mingyuan back down? He gave a cold laugh. "Perfect. I was careless the other day, and I've been wanting another fight with you!"

With that, Mingyuan grasped at the air, and an immensely heavy crescent-bladed halberd appeared in his hand.

Painted images of four ferocious beasts adorned its shaft. Each was savage beyond measure, with blood-red eyes, as though it might come alive at any moment. The halberd's tip was razor-sharp, wreathed in an aura of bloodthirsty slaughter.

Mingyuan's halberd also had an exceptionally domineering name: Soul-Rending.

[Wow! What an awesome weapon! I really want to touch it!]

Mingyuan couldn't help feeling pleased. Looking past Lu Qingchen at Ning Xiang, he called, "Little girl, once I'm done fighting, how about I let you touch Soul-Rending?"

Ning Xiang nodded excitedly.

Lu Qingchen sneered. "You've already lost to me. What right do you have to stand here boasting so shamelessly?"

Mingyuan raised his halberd and thrust upward at Lu Qingchen. Holding the Canglang Sword horizontally before him, Lu Qingchen pushed off the ground with his toes and leaped several dozen feet away from Ning Xiang.

His white robes fluttered like a shower of falling blossoms, his movements light and flowing.

[Excellent visual appeal.]

Mingyuan followed close behind. With the force of a thunderbolt, Soul-Rending pierced through the wind toward Lu Qingchen, wrapped in purple lightning and blue-green light. Though Soul-Rending was immensely heavy, Mingyuan wielded it as lightly as a feather, utterly at ease.

Lu Qingchen moved his fingertips, and blades of ice gathered into a formation, trapping Mingyuan inside like a cage.

The ice blades were sharp, gleaming with a cold light that made the heart quake. Only upon closer inspection could one see the runes inscribed on every blade.

Lu Qingchen channeled his spiritual power, and the runes flashed with ghostly blue light, linking together.

[Wow, impressive. One look at this ice formation tells you it's designed to counter Ming Old Dog.]

Ning Xiang took a bite of her flatbread.

Just as Ning Xiang had said, Lu Qingchen had spent fifty years developing this Ice Talisman Formation specifically to suppress Mingyuan.

Outwardly, Lu Qingchen remained as calm as a gentle breeze beneath light clouds, but a trace of pride stirred within him.

That's right. My disciple truly has the discerning eye to recognize a pearl.

Mingyuan remained unruffled. "Lu Qingchen, do you think this can trap me? You underestimate me far too much."

[Ha, Iceberg Lu is still too green compared with Ming Old Dog.]

Ning Xiang took another bite of her flatbread.

Lu Qingchen: ...Wait, why are you bolstering someone else's spirit while crushing your own side's morale?

Demonic Qi poured ceaselessly from Soul-Rending, gradually condensing in midair into a strange beast with a tiger's head, an ox's horns, and wings on its back. It looked ferocious, with sharp claws and fangs.

[Is that... a Qiongqi?]

Ning Xiang forgot to keep eating.

The Qiongqi spread its sharp claws and tore at the surrounding ice talismans, but Lu Qingchen's ice talismans seemed endless. No sooner had it ripped open a gap than the Ice Talisman Formation transformed again, forming a new array.