Chapter 46

The two men were none other than Long Aotian and Chu Mojin. Unlike Chu Mojin's carefree, unrestrained manner, Long Aotian gave outsiders the impression of absolute uprightness.

A man like him kept even every strand of his beard meticulously groomed.

Looking at the young girl ahead, Long Aotian remarked, "You dared leave this little girl in the Outer Gate to temper herself. You certainly seem at ease about it."

But Chu Mojin shook his head. "If I were truly at ease, I wouldn't be standing here now."

Meanwhile.

Since they had agreed to compete in swordsmanship alone, Su Jiu naturally would not use any other means against him.

Su Jiu used Lightfoot Step and charged at Jin Chen. Unwilling to be outdone, Jin Chen raised his heavy sword and charged straight at her.

They exchanged several rounds head-on, and Jin Chen found that he could not gain the slightest advantage.

Long Aotian first watched Su Jiu's footwork for a while.

Stroking his beard, he smiled. "She reached the sixth Qi Refining layer in a year, yet her Cultivation Level shows no trace of instability. She must have perfected Lightfoot Step, too. A pity that it's only suitable for Qi Refining cultivators."

Then he noticed her sword moves, which struck him as vaguely familiar. "I feel as though I've seen this sword style before. Still, it's no small feat for a Qi Refining cultivator to wield it with such fierce momentum."

Before long, however, the admiration on his face slowly gave way to a complicated expression. "Hmm? Is she going easy on Jin Chen?"

From the moment Chu Mojin saw Su Jiu refrain from using sword qi, he had known she was deliberately going easy on the boy.

"Say, Jin, if Hen doesn't like this little girl, she could always come to Golden Guard Peak."

Chu Mojin raised an eyebrow at Long Aotian. "If you have the guts, go say that to Hen."

Long Aotian choked on his words and put his little scheme aside, returning to his taciturn, sternly upright demeanor.

In the end, Jin Chen's defeat at Su Jiu's hands was inevitable. He looked so shaken that Su Jiu felt a little sorry for him.

"I'm already at the sixth Qi Refining layer, while you're only at the Fourth Qi Refining Layer. Even without competing in Cultivation Level, I still had an advantage. If our Cultivation Levels were equal, I definitely wouldn't be as strong as you," Su Jiu said consolingly.

Although Jin Chen felt somewhat dejected, he refused to surrender his pride. Stiffening his neck defiantly, he said, "You don't have to tell me that."

Su Jiu felt she had worried for nothing.

But Jin Chen soon changed his attitude again. Looking at Su Jiu quite earnestly, he said, "Still, you really are impressive. You're qualified to be my opponent."

Seeing Jin Chen's expression, Su Jiu had a feeling that her life might not be peaceful for a while.

Her four companions admired Su Jiu for daring to go toe-to-toe with a personal disciple of the sect.

They feared personal disciples with powerful backing more than anyone else. When facing such people, neither winning nor losing was a good option. Someone good-natured like Jin Chen was not much of a problem; it was the petty ones they feared.

If they actually won and the other party felt wronged and complained to their master, even the slightest hint passed down by that master could make their lives miserable for a long time.

The Outer Gate, in particular, was a place where people flattered the high and trampled the low. Even if they reported it to an Outer Gate steward, the steward would never offend a peak master for their sake.

Shu Bai did not know whether the Azure Tide Sect was such a place, but when he was young, his older sister had told him that her sect was indeed like that. Although he had spent over a decade in the Azure Tide Sect without encountering such sordid affairs, it was always wise to remain vigilant in the cultivation world.

Shu Bai and the other three already regarded Su Jiu as a companion, so they took the trouble to warn her.

Su Jiu was grateful. She could not help remembering Senior Sister Han, whom she had met when she first joined the sect and who had given her the same warning. She did not know when her mindset had changed. Perhaps she was not the only one changing.

Seven days passed in the blink of an eye. Just as their group was preparing to return to the sect, a signal flare rose near Stone Forest Peak.

Su Jiu paused, remembering that the area seemed to be assigned to Bai Su's team and one other team.

But none of the previous three patrols had found any demonic cultivators. Could they really find one now that it was their turn?

She thought back over the book's contents. There did not seem to be any mention of this mountain patrol in it.

Su Jiu kept feeling that something was quietly slipping off the path laid out in that book. Thinking it over carefully, however, her rebirth had indeed caused certain things to change little by little.

The most obvious was the jade pendant Su Jiu had smashed, followed by Bai Su's Cultivation Level. In the book, Bai Su should only have been at the third level of Qi Refining at this point, but now she had already reached the fifth Qi Refining layer.

As Su Jiu pondered the book, she hurried to the scene with her companions.

By the time they arrived, people from the Enforcement Hall had already reached the scene.

However, Su Jiu did not recognize any of the Enforcement Hall disciples who had come this time.

Several Enforcement Hall disciples and four Outer Gate disciples were gathered around an enormous black hole, discussing something. Those four belonged to Bai Su's team, but Bai Su herself was missing.

The disciple leading the Enforcement Hall group frowned slightly. "You're saying this black hole appeared suddenly, and Bai Su was directly above it when it appeared?"

Lu Tianqi nodded anxiously. "Yes. Bai Su was walking at the very front when the hole suddenly appeared. We heard her scream, and then she was gone."

The Enforcement Hall disciples tried probing it with their divine sense, only to find that the hole seemed impervious to it. The area they could examine was extremely limited.

Su Jiu's face paled slightly. If this were an event from the novel, it would undoubtedly mean Bai Su had found another treasure. As for Bai Su's life being in danger? That was impossible, because the Heavenly Dao would not allow it.

"Tianqi! Ran Chao! I'm over here!" Lu Tianqi and Ran Chao could not have been more familiar with the voice coming from afar.

Before long, Bai Su appeared before them. She had been running rather urgently, and her face was still flushed from the exertion.

Everyone's attention immediately shifted to Bai Su.

Only Su Jiu noticed that as Bai Su approached, the pitch-black hole grew smaller and smaller until it closed completely.

Su Jiu's pupils contracted, and she pressed her lips together slightly. So it really was Bai Su's fortuitous opportunity?

Because I shattered one of Bai Su's jade pendants, the Heavenly Dao gave her something here to make up for it? Just the thought of that possibility filled Su Jiu with indescribable agitation.

Seeing that Bai Su had returned unharmed, the Enforcement Hall disciples cast hostile looks at her four companions.

One of them was already thoroughly impatient. "Is it fun to make fools of us in the Enforcement Hall? If this happens again, you'll receive a disciplinary demerit, and all your mission points will be deducted."

Lu Tianqi said urgently, "We really did see Bai Su fall into this black hole."

"Huh? Where's the hole?" Only then did everyone realize that the black hole had disappeared without anyone noticing.

The Enforcement Hall disciples gathered around the spot where the black hole had appeared, stamped on it a few times, and examined it again with their divine sense. Everything was perfectly normal. It was as though the hole had appeared out of thin air, then vanished into thin air again.

The Enforcement Hall disciples suspected Lu Tianqi and the others had used some strange magical treasure to toy with them, and their expressions darkened further.

Only their leader stared thoughtfully at Bai Su.

His stare made Bai Su uneasy, and she unconsciously retreated a few steps. She had indeed gained some benefits inside that black hole, but this was her own fortuitous opportunity. Why would she tell outsiders about it?

"If you really fell through that strange opening, as your companions say, then how did you end up here?"

Seeing that he was not asking what she had seen down below, Bai Su quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Then she assumed a bewildered air. "I don't know. When I woke up, I was leaning against a tree not far from here."

Seeing that Bai Su did not appear to be lying, the leader asked no further questions. Instead, he took the other Enforcement Hall members back to the sect.