About to Be Exposed

Seeing Yao Chen's phantom appear again, seemingly a little more solid than before, Xiao Yan's heart skipped a beat. He touched the talisman on his forehead, then watched Xiao Yi point the Peachwood Sword at the old man's phantom and demand answers. Only then did he feel a little reassured.

"Old man! You still haven't answered my questions!" Seeing that Yao Chen was too busy complaining and staring blankly to pay any attention to his interrogation, Xiao Yi raised his voice and thrust the Wooden Sword a little farther forward, almost poking Yao Chen's insubstantial nose.

"Who exactly are you?! Why were you sneaking around inside the ring? And the Dou Qi that mysteriously vanished from my brother Xiao Yan and me-did you suck it away?!"

With the Wooden Sword pointed at him like that, Yao Chen's phantom brows knitted together. In his heyday, what a glorious figure he had been-the Venerable Yao renowned across the continent! When had he ever suffered such treatment? And from a greenhorn pointing such a ridiculous thing at him, no less.

Trying to salvage his dignity, Yao Chen straightened his phantom back a little, attempting to assume the bearing of a distinguished elder. He even reached up to stroke a nonexistent beard and spoke slowly, making his tone as unfathomable as possible. "Hmph, ignorant junior! I am Yao Chen! A supreme alchemist whose name resounds throughout the Dou Qi Continent! Back in my day..."

Yao Chen? An alchemist? Xiao Yi exchanged a glance with Xiao Yan, who stood behind him, and each saw the same bewilderment and confusion in the other's eyes. "Yao Chen? Never heard of you." They spoke almost in unison, their voices flat, as though uttering the most ordinary name imaginable.

"Pfft-!" Yao Chen nearly spat out a mouthful of "old blood," and the lofty bearing he had struggled to maintain crumbled in an instant. His eyes widened as he stared incredulously at the two puzzled boys before him.

"N-never heard of me?! What forgotten nook did you two little brats crawl out of?! You've never even heard the illustrious name of Yao Chen?! Are young people these days all so woefully ignorant? Don't you study the history of the Dou Qi Continent?!" He was so angry that even his phantom form grew unstable, and his finger trembled as he pointed at them.

"History? Who studies that stuff?" Xiao Yi curled his lip, as though it were only natural. "Besides, we're different from you. We're no little kids."

Suddenly, Xiao Yi leaned closer with an air of mystery, lowered his voice, and spoke in what he considered a very cool tone. "To tell you the truth, old man, the two of us are transmigrators!" Afterward, he raised his chin smugly, as though he had revealed some earth-shattering secret.

"Huh? Transmigrators? What's that?" Yao Chen looked even more bewildered. The term was clearly beyond anything he knew.

Standing to one side, Xiao Yan grew frantic when he heard Xiao Yi spouting nonsense again-and dragging him into it, too. He hurriedly stepped back and waved his hands vigorously, distancing himself. "Hey! Stop talking nonsense! Who says I'm a transmigrator like you?! I'm the Third Young Master of Wutan City's Xiao Clan, born and raised!"

Hearing Xiao Yan rush to distance himself, Xiao Yi pointed the Peachwood Sword, with its talisman still stuck to it, at Xiao Yan and then at himself, declaring with complete confidence, "Hey! Still refusing to admit it! If you're not a transmigrator, how can you understand what I'm saying? I'm pretty sure the common language of the Dou Qi Continent doesn't include a course called 'Mandarin,' does it?"

The question left Xiao Yan speechless. The talisman stuck to his forehead nearly slipped off as panic spread across his face. His gaze darted around, and his mind raced as he tried to find a reasonable explanation.

"Th-that was all from my past life! Who doesn't have a few memories of a previous life? I... I probably didn't drink enough Meng Po Soup when I crossed the Bridge of Helplessness, so a few impressions stayed with me! That's different from what you are!"

"Oho! Meng Po Soup! The Bridge of Helplessness!" Xiao Yi's eyes lit up as though he had discovered a new continent. He clapped his hands sharply and pointed excitedly at Xiao Yan.

"See? See?! You even know about Meng Po and the Bridge of Helplessness! Those are standard features of the mythology back where we're from! And you still dare say you're not a transmigrator? Also! When I took out the Cross earlier, you clearly recognized it! And now you've even learned to use this talisman like you know what you're doing!" As he spoke, Xiao Yi lightly tapped the crooked talisman on Xiao Yan's forehead with the hilt of the Peachwood Sword.

"I... remembering doesn't mean I am one!" Xiao Yan flushed under Xiao Yi's barrage of "accusations." He stiffened his neck, still putting up a final struggle. "Maybe I saw all those things in my past life? Who says remembering a past life makes you a transmigrator?!"

Meanwhile, listening to the two boys go back and forth, constantly tossing out terms he had never heard before—"Meng Po Soup," "the Bridge of Helplessness," "transmigrators," and "Cross"—Yao Chen felt as though his head had swollen to twice its size. His phantom brows furrowed tightly, and he felt his understanding of the world suffer an unprecedented assault.

He looked at Xiao Yi, then at Xiao Yan, and finally could not resist interrupting their argument. "I say... could you two little fellows stop for a moment? You've been arguing all this time, but can either of you explain to me... just what exactly is this 'transmigrator' thing?!"

Xiao Yi completely ignored Yao Chen's question about "transmigrators." Instead, he swung the Peachwood Sword around, pointed it at Yao Chen's phantom figure, and shouted to Xiao Yan.

"Forget about transmigrators! This is what matters! See him? This is the Qi-Sucking Ghost hiding in your ring! He's the reason you suddenly became a good-for-nothing! He stole your Dou Qi! And this morning, he stole mine, too!"

"A Qi-Sucking Ghost? Stealing Dou Qi?"

Xiao Yan froze. Xiao Yi's words struck his mind like a bolt of lightning. He involuntarily recalled the painful experience of his Dou Qi mysteriously vanishing, his cultivation regressing instead of advancing. He remembered the disappointed looks in his father's and clansmen's eyes, the humiliation of falling from a genius to a useless failure... then connected all of it to Yao Chen's furious expression when he had been beaten out of the ring earlier.

Could it be... could all of this really have been no accident, but the work of this old fellow hiding in the ring? The more Xiao Yan thought about it, the more likely it seemed. His gaze toward Yao Chen gradually shifted from curiosity and wariness to suspicion and anger. Even the talisman on his forehead seemed to tremble with the surge of emotion.

"Utter nonsense! I am the illustrious Venerable Yao! How could I possibly be some 'ghost' as you claim?!"

The name "Qi-Sucking Ghost" made Yao Chen bristle and glare. He hurriedly struggled to preserve what little dignity he had left, retorting sharply, "I reside here in soul form! I am no ghost!"

Hearing that, Xiao Yi swiftly changed his wording. "Who cares whether you're a ghost? Either way, you're a thief! A thief who steals people's Dou Qi! You old thief! Hurry up and give back the Dou Qi you sucked away!"

"You! You ignorant junior! You've insulted me time and again! Do you really think I'm made of clay?!" Yao Chen was thoroughly enraged. His soul form rippled with anger, and even the surrounding air seemed to grow a little stagnant. After so many years roaming unrivaled across the continent, a junior was pointing straight at his nose and calling him a "thief"! This was a first in his entire life!