Gu Yi's original destination had been a small sect called the Shenxing Sect.
It was said that all its disciples knew escape techniques and could flee exceptionally fast.
Gu Yi had originally belonged to the Demonic Cult and practiced a wide assortment of spells. Now that he needed to conceal his identity, he certainly could not use the Demonic Cult's techniques anymore.
Ever since the system error that day, the system had never appeared again.
Gu Yi figured it had probably thought he was doomed, so it had unbound itself from him and would never return.
He still had a few years left to live. He planned to find some miraculous pills or medicines to extend his life if he had the chance. If not, he would find a sect where he could spend his remaining years in peace.
He had spent four years inside the book. For the first three, he had neglected food and sleep to cultivate and complete missions. Then he had been locked inside a barrier, serving as Lin Yuan's "blow-up doll" for an entire year.
He did not seem to have ever properly enjoyed life. Since all that effort still had not gotten him home, he might as well give up and coast...
He rubbed the space between his brows. Yet now, through a twist of fate, he had ended up in the Tianmu Sect.
"The Tianmu Sect..." It was a medium-sized sect. Its disciples seemed to use the Tianmu Cultivation Technique as their foundation, cultivating both internally and externally.
It seemed pretty decent, too...
In the blink of an eye, Gu Yi had been staying there for half a month. During that time, besides Xie Wenyun, he had gradually met several other disciples.
His newfound master seemed to have gone away, and no one knew when he would return.
Through his everyday interactions with Xie Wenyun, Gu Yi had also learned quite a bit about the Tianmu Sect.
For instance, the Tianmu Sect's sect master was named Song He Ci, and his cultivation was at the peak of the body integration stage.
Their master was named Wen Daochen, and his cultivation was at the peak of the deification stage.
Xie Wenyun had been his disciple for almost ten years. Now at the early Golden Core stage, he already counted as exceptionally gifted.
Aside from the sect master and his own master, the sect actually had no other elders. Gu Yi's mouth twitched. It really was a small sect.
Still, that was a good thing. More people meant more prying eyes. With only a handful of people, they ought to be easy enough to fool.
When Xie Wenyun asked Gu Yi his name, he casually gave the name Ye Yiyi.
That was because no one knew the name of the Ye Family's only daughter. They only knew that her father was named Ye Jingshan. Luckily, with this jadeite bracelet as proof, no one in the sect suspected his identity.
"Junior Sister, although it is a little presumptuous of me to ask, I still don't know how old you are this year." The moment Xie Wenyun finished speaking, his face turned red again.
Gu Yi's expression stiffened. Yezi had said in her letter that she was sixteen this year.
Since he was taking her place, he naturally had to say, "Ahem, Senior Brother Xie, I'm sixteen."
"I-I'm nineteen this year..." Xie Wenyun stole a glance at Gu Yi.
Gu Yi gave an awkward smile. How could he fail to recognize that look?
It was nothing more than a young boy who had barely ever seen any female disciples.
He was experiencing his first stirrings of love and thought Gu Yi was pretty.
Still, Gu Yi paid it no mind. He could simply find a chance to turn him down later.
Just like that, Gu Yi successfully stayed in the Tianmu Sect under Ye Yiyi's identity.
He became Wen Daochen's second disciple.
After joining the Tianmu Sect, Gu Yi spent his entire first year receiving treatment from the sect.
Wen Daochen returned not long after Gu Yi arrived. He seemed to be on good terms with Ye Jingshan, so he took especially good care of Gu Yi. Seeing how frail and sickly he was, he hurried to find someone to treat him.
Gu Yi explained away his shattered meridians by saying that he had once been careless during cultivation and suffered qi deviation.
Gu Yi was gentle and good-looking, and he soon became the sect's "goddess."
Three years after joining the sect, his body had more or less recovered through treatment. Apart from occasional aches all over when it was overcast or rainy, and a sensitivity to the cold in autumn and winter, he was largely fine.
His lifespan had also increased slightly, though Wen Daochen told him that extending his life could not be rushed.
But one thing frustrated him terribly: his cultivation. He did not know whether it was because he had self-detonated, but no matter how he cultivated, he could not retain any spiritual energy. Ever since leaving the barrier, he had remained at the foundation establishment stage without making the slightest progress!
He had tried many methods, all with the same result. Wen Daochen said it was because his meridians were damaged and his body was frail and sickly, and told him not to worry.
But Gu Yi knew that if he wanted to make any progress, he would probably have to rely on dual cultivation...
Whenever he thought of dual cultivation, Lin Yuan's handsome face would involuntarily surface in his mind.
Three years had passed. He wondered how Lin Yuan was doing now, whether he had already met the female lead and fallen in love with her. Perhaps he had long since forgotten him.
"Junior Sister?" Xie Wenyun's voice arrived before he did.
"Senior Brother Xie." Gu Yi smiled at Xie Wenyun, who had always taken especially good care of him over the past few years.
Yet he had always treated him with courtesy and never overstepped.
Three years had passed, and the somewhat bashful boy from back then had grown into a gentle, refined young man.
"Junior Sister, Junior Brother Jiang from the Taichu Sect has arrived with a message. Master wants us to go over together!"
The Tianmu Sect and the Taichu Sect had always been on friendly terms, so Gu Yi had met this Junior Brother Jiang from the Taichu Sect a few times.
The moment Gu Yi heard "Junior Brother Jiang," his brows furrowed. "Me? Do I absolutely have to go?"
"Junior Sister, I know you don't like him, but our sect doesn't have..."
"All right, all right, I'll go."
Gu Yi sighed. Why had that little tyrant come again? "Forget it. You don't need to worry. I'll deal with that little terror."
Hearing Gu Yi's words, Xie Wenyun also gave a helpless smile.
Gu Yi's impression of Jiang Lingzhou could be summed up in two words: "annoying pest."
Jiang Lingzhou was the Taichu Sect's little tyrant, the sort who would kick his way through a nursing home and punch his way through a kindergarten. His father was Jiang Hu, the Taichu Sect's sect master, whose strength had already reached the Mahayana stage.
Precisely because of this, the Taichu Sect was stronger than the Tianmu Sect.
Although the two sects were on friendly terms, the Taichu Sect still held the upper hand over the Tianmu Sect.
The reason Gu Yi disliked him was that, when he had visited the Tianmu Sect two years earlier, he had happened to see Gu Yi in the Scripture Repository.
After that, he had fallen hopelessly in love at first sight and pestered Gu Yi every day. Gu Yi would hide whenever he saw him. Jiang Lingzhou seemed to realize that Gu Yi was avoiding him and hurriedly left.
Gu Yi had thought he would finally have some peace, but to his surprise, before long, Jiang Lingzhou actually sent his father to the Tianmu Sect to propose a marriage.
He specifically named Gu Yi as the one he wanted to marry. Gu Yi immediately became a topic of conversation throughout the sect, and even throughout the entire Cultivation Realm.
All sorts of rumors kept circulating.
The Taichu Sect's young master was so infatuated with the Tianmu Sect's junior sister that he could neither eat nor drink...
The Tianmu Sect's junior sister shot up to second place in the Beauty Rankings, and many portraits of him circulated outside the sect.
Only when Wen Daochen stepped in, producing a marriage contract and falsely claiming that the Ye Family's daughter was already betrothed, was the matter dropped.
Even then, Jiang Lingzhou still made a scene in the Tianmu Sect for a while.
He said he would marry no one but Senior Sister Yiyi in this life.
Every time Gu Yi thought about it, he felt utterly mortified.
Who would have thought that, after so little time, Jiang Lingzhou would actually come again!
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