What secrets did the original owner really have?

The next day, when Feng Shu and Feng Yi saw Lin Qingyang come out of his room, their jaws dropped in shock. Feng Yi nearly dropped the chicken drumstick in his hand. If not for his clothes, the two of them would hardly have recognized their own master.

Lin Qingyang looked his two disciples over. Since the original owner had left him two workers, he certainly would not stand on ceremony. He put them to work cleaning the room, washing clothes, and cooking.

"Once you've wiped the windows, sort out those books too. Those pots of flowers have lost all their leaves. Replace them with some new ones." Lin Qingyang lounged lazily on a cushioned couch, sipping tea as he directed them.

As he set down his teacup, he spotted Qi Mo outside, standing at the entrance and peering through the half-open door. The instant their eyes met, Qi Mo hurriedly averted his gaze and walked away.

Sipping his tea, Lin Qingyang remembered something else and called to Feng Shu and Feng Yi, "Once you two are done, take Qi Mo to Elder Xue for another checkup."

"Actually, I think Master was pretty good the way he used to be," Feng Yi muttered, rubbing his aching lower back. Feng Shu shot him a speechless glance.

After lunch, the two took Qi Mo to Cold Moon Residence. Xue Lanyuan treated him again, and by now his wrist had almost completely recovered.

But the disciples coming and going around them all looked over with strange expressions. After all, it was bizarre enough that Qi Mo, a suspect in the poisoning of the sect leader, could still stroll around freely outside. And Lin Qingyang, who never concerned himself with sect affairs, had repeatedly vouched for him. It was truly baffling.

Though the Nine Skies Sect was a place for cultivating immortality, it had no shortage of gossip. Rumors about the pair's relationship ran rampant, and even as the three walked past, they could hear disciples whispering.

"That Demon Slave seems to be wearing Elder Lin's clothes!"

"I heard they even sleep in the same room at night. That Demon Slave looks just like a little seducer."

"Elder Lin always looks so free of worldly desires. To think he'd do something like this."

Feng Shu turned and glared at the gossiping disciples. They fell silent, but once the three had gone farther away, the chatter started again.

Feng Yi kept looking curiously at Qi Mo beside him along the way. Once they reached somewhere with few people, he finally could not resist asking.

"You and Master..."

"Feng Yi!" Feng Shu sharply cut him off, frowning. "Don't talk nonsense."

"I'm only asking! Aren't you curious?" Feng Yi said with a pout.

"Master naturally has his reasons for whatever he does," Feng Shu said.

Then he looked at Qi Mo, his tone warning. "Master only let you stay in Clear Wind Pavilion out of kindness. You'd better know your place. If you dare try to harm Master again, I won't let you off."

Qi Mo said nothing. He merely raised his eyes to look at him, his expression as cold as ever.

"What are you looking at?" Feng Shu demanded with a frown. He did not like Qi Mo. He was different from other demon slaves. Forget hurting anyone-the demon slaves he had seen before would not even dare look someone straight in the eye like this. More importantly, ever since Master had met him, his entire temperament had changed. Though Feng Shu stopped Feng Yi from talking nonsense, deep down, he did indeed feel that this Demon Slave had bewitched Master.

Seeing the tense atmosphere between them, Feng Yi was just about to say something when a commotion came from the distance. Disciples from Ink Cloud Hall were dragging Lei Guang out.

"What right do you have to throw me out? I'm Ink Cloud Hall's head disciple! You crippled me for an animal! What gives you the right? Master! Master! Let go of me!" Lei Guang's face was deathly pale, and large bloodstains covered the front of his clothes. He was weak and powerless, yet he still struggled and shouted, his face full of resentment.

The group passed in front of the three. The moment Lei Guang saw Qi Mo, his eyes nearly split with rage, and he shrieked, "You bastard! It's all your fault! I'll kill you!"

As he spoke, Lei Guang struggled to lunge at Qi Mo, glaring at him hatefully and shouting, "I'll kill you!"

The disciples dragged him away again. Qi Mo merely watched him coldly without speaking.

The disciples dragged him off, but their gazes toward Qi Mo were equally hostile. As fellow disciples, they naturally felt that Lei Guang had been wronged. Although slandering Lin Qingyang was a major reason for Lei Guang's punishment, no one would blame an elder, so all that resentment and indignation would only be directed at Qi Mo.

"They really did cripple his cultivation!" Feng Yi sighed, a hint of regret in his expression.

Lei Guang's cultivation was the fruit of more than a decade of bitter training. Though his spiritual root remained and he could start all over again, now that he had been expelled from the Nine Skies Sect, probably none of the Immortal Sects would accept a disciple with such a stain on his record. And if he continued cultivating as an independent cultivator, reaching his current realm again would be almost impossible. Watching the regret on their faces, a trace of mockery flashed through Qi Mo's eyes.

"Let's go back," Feng Shu urged. With Qi Mo's status, he really was not suited to wandering around outside.

They turned toward Clear Wind Pavilion. Qi Mo glanced back at Lei Guang, whose figure was almost out of sight, and a chill rose in his amber eyes.

Amid the bamboo of the Back Mountain, shrouded in mist, Lin Qingyang lay quietly in a hot spring, his eyes half-closed as he enjoyed the relaxation of his body slowly sinking into the water.

"This feels amazing!" Lin Qingyang sighed. He had discovered this pool in the Bamboo Grove behind Clear Wind Pavilion yesterday. Having sent the others out, he could now enjoy a comfortable soak.

"It certainly does," Lin Yao's voice came from beside him. The blade of the Windflower Sword was soaking in the water too.

As a sword spirit, Lin Yao depended on his spiritual power to manifest. Lin Qingyang had taken medicine yesterday and spent a day regulating his energy before recovering a little spiritual power.

"Won't you rust like that?" Lin Qingyang asked, puzzled.

"You must be joking. I'm forged from heavenly meteoric iron. You'd rust before I did," Lin Yao said.

"What the hell is that?" Lin Qingyang asked.

"How would I know? I just wrote whatever. Probably something like a meteorite," Lin Yao said, turning the entire sword sideways to float leisurely on the water.

Lin Qingyang rubbed his body as he soaked, only to discover several scars of varying depths on his arm. They looked as though someone had deliberately cut him with a knife.

"Was the original owner abused before?" Lin Qingyang asked, puzzled.

"I don't think so. I don't remember writing that," Lin Yao said, thinking back.

Lin Qingyang frowned in thought, then asked, "Then why was the original owner so obsessed with the Sect Leader Position? Why was he willing to kill to seize it?"

"I actually did plan that out. Lin Qingyang and the sect leader, Shi Ruobai, were fellow disciples under the same master. They originally had a very good relationship. Later, at the Immortal Alliance Ceremony, Lin Qingyang defeated Shi Ruobai and became the Nine Skies Sect's strongest cultivator. Throughout the sect's history, the Sect Leader Position had always been understood to pass to its strongest cultivator. But before their master, Perfected One Tianyi, died, he said Lin Qingyang's character was impure and he wasn't suited to being sect leader. So he passed the Sect Leader Position to Shi Ruobai and even gave him the sect's magical treasure, forcibly boosting Shi Ruobai's cultivation by an entire realm, surpassing the original owner."

"So the original owner felt wronged?" Lin Qingyang asked.

"Yes. After feeling that way for so long, it became an obsession. He was determined to wrest the Sect Leader Position back from Shi Ruobai," Lin Yao said.

Lin Qingyang considered this. "Then why did the original owner's master say his character was impure?"

"Well... he's a villain, so of course his character is impure," Lin Yao said, a little embarrassed.

"What kind of reasoning is that? That's way too half-assed." Lin Qingyang was rather speechless.

"He only had two lines of plot. Who would plan it out in that much detail?" Lin Yao said.

Lin Qingyang frowned. So the original owner really had poisoned him for the Sect Leader Position, but what was that sorrow he had felt upon seeing Shi Ruobai? He kept feeling that things were not so simple. As he pondered this, he suddenly felt something cold and slick pressed against the back of his neck.

Lin Qingyang frowned and looked back. The moment he turned his head, he met a pair of icy snake eyes. A snake's head the size of a sandbag was almost pressed against his face, its scarlet forked tongue flicking out with a faint, rank smell.