The sun sank in the west.
Qi Yan had thought Luo Chaoge might bring him dinner, and he could speak to her then, but she never came.
He did not dwell on it, throwing himself into memorizing his family's texts with drums beating and gongs sounding.
Qi Yan knew perfectly well that if something happened, it would not wait until his agreed three days were up. It could erupt at any moment. Before that, he had to memorize his family's texts. This was the greatest benefit he could gain from the cooperation he had agreed to with Luo Chaoge.
All that talk of joining the Heavenly Evolution Sect was only a hope; the first stroke of the character had yet to be written. For the vast majority of people in the world, a cultivation method was the scarcest of resources, something countless people sought without even a door to knock on. Yet his Qi Clan already had one. He did not need to risk his life desperately searching like those other miserable rogue cultivators. This would be the foundation on which he built his life for a long time to come.
The Qi Clan did not have much. Their ancestor had passed down only three books: a fundamental cultivation method simply called the "Qi Family Cultivation Method," a book of techniques—which he now knew should actually be curses—and a book on restrictions. That was all.
They did have works on formations, alchemy, artifact refining, and such, but these were not their ancestor's own teachings. He had collected them, and they did not belong to his system. That was normal enough. Even great cultivators studied selectively; few mastered everything.
Later generations had also collected many other works to fill out the collection. Together with successive generations' notes on their own texts, cultivation insights, anecdotes, and observations, they amounted to enough to fill a scripture library.
With time pressing, Qi Yan abandoned everything else and chose to doggedly work through and memorize his ancestor's three books.
The books were not thick. The real difficulty was that he did not recognize many of the characters or understand many of the sentences. It became pure rote memorization, fiendishly difficult. Simply forcing himself to remember the shapes of those characters made his brain ache.
Jiang Jinyue leaned against a nearby pillar, smiling as she read the anecdotes and observations. Splitting her attention between several things, she followed Luo Chaoge with her spiritual sense, listening to the responses as she asked people whether they had seen that jade pendant and the character "Yan," while also watching Qi Yan's little figure memorizing books with cold sweat covering his head.
She certainly would not tell Qi Yan that she had scanned everything with her spiritual sense first thing and already memorized it all.
You want to join the Heavenly Evolution Sect... heehee. Once you really become my little junior brother, your big sister will teach you everything. If you don't, you can go die wherever you please.
Do you really think your great-aunt here is sixteen? Your great-aunt is sixteen sixty-year cycles old.
Speaking of which... the "Yan" in Qi Yan's name was no point in his favor when it came to joining the Heavenly Evolution Sect. That pronunciation often led the elders and stewards responsible for assessments at every level to investigate a candidate's ancestors for a hundred generations. They either had a stress reaction to that character or harbored a little rebellious streak themselves. Still, it did not have much effect overall. In any case, this Qi Yan was not annoying, and Jiang Jinyue felt a little anticipation about whether he could join the Heavenly Evolution Sect, rather like following a serialized drama.
Besides, Jiang Jinyue was deeply dissatisfied with the Qi Clan ancestor's records of his experiences. For some reason, even in writings meant for his own descendants, the Qi Clan ancestor had employed the Spring and Autumn style of veiled omission. He had only said that the continent had fallen into ruin and he had come to this rural place for refuge. He had said almost nothing else, as though afraid of leaving some undesirable trace that might bring trouble upon his descendants.
The more he did this, the more Jiang Jinyue felt the Qi Clan really might have something she was looking for. Unfortunately, she seemed to have hit a wall. With no further clues, she had nowhere to begin.
As the night deepened, Qi Yan had worked his way to the final book, the one on restrictions. His finger seemed to trace something on the floor unconsciously, following the diagrams.
Even blood flowed unconsciously along his fingertip, seeping into the wooden boards and slowly forming a blood restriction before him.
Jiang Jinyue narrowed her eyes.
Voices seemed to come from some distance outside the building. Quiet though they were, they sounded rather noisy in the still night.
Jiang Jinyue glanced at Qi Yan. He was still reading, but he asked, "Has Luo Chaoge been asking about those things?"
Jiang Jinyue said, "Yes."
"Has she found anything?"
"No."
"Even if she hasn't found anything, Luo Chaoge has still done you a favor."
"Mm."
Qi Yan completed the final stroke and at last looked up. "If someone from the Luo Household comes to kill me, and Luo Chaoge tries to save me, her attention will be focused on me at that moment. With the scene in chaos too, it might be a good opportunity for someone else to assassinate her."
Jiang Jinyue found this very interesting. "What are you getting at?"
"I mean, at a time like that, I won't be able to warn her beforehand. Could you lend her a hand?"
"I won't tell her you asked me to help, you know. I'll only earn a favor for myself. You won't get any gratitude for being the hero who saves the beauty."
"That doesn't matter."
"Without my protection, you could very well die. You're putting yourself in danger without getting any gratitude. What are you after?"
"For that meal."
His words had barely fallen when the door was pushed open, and several people carrying sabers and swords walked in.
Qi Yan turned to look. At some point, Jiang Jinyue had already vanished.
Qi Yan put down the book and smiled faintly. "Everyone... what brings you here?"
The middle-aged man in the lead said nothing. He signaled to either side with his eyes, and the others lunged without another word, their weapons going straight for Qi Yan's vital points. Fire also bloomed in the middle-aged man's palm, seemingly gathering into a fire technique.
Qi Yan darted backward. At the same time, Luo Chaoge's sharp shout rang out from afar. "All of you, stop!"
Luo Chaoge flew urgently toward them, but she was clearly too late. Before the last sound of "stop" had even faded, the person closest to Qi Yan had already stepped into the restriction he had drawn on the floor.
The next instant, the scripture library exploded with a thunderous roar.
Using the few characters Little Crybaby had deciphered as his foundation, Qi Yan had managed to learn and immediately use just one restriction. With his own blood as the catalyst, it stirred the spiritual energy that had accumulated in the scripture library over the years, dispersed by clansmen cultivating there, setting it vibrating in resonance and thereby causing an explosion.
Its power was mediocre, enough at most to blow apart the little room on the top floor of this small wooden building. But it was sufficient to catch people unawares and create confusion.
Smoke billowed and wood splinters flew, accompanied by the screams of those who had stepped into the heart of the explosion. Amid the chaos, only a few of the stronger people could see Qi Yan's figure shoot backward, prepared in advance. He planted one foot on a tree behind the scripture library, pushed off again, and vanished behind the pavilions and buildings beyond, disappearing from sight in an instant.
This was the Qi Clan estate. How could these Luo Household members know the terrain as well as Qi Yan?
The middle-aged man who had been gathering the fire technique scrambled out of the explosion. Just as he was about to pursue, another explosive crack of colliding energies sounded behind him.
The middle-aged man turned in astonishment. Luo Chaoge had been rapidly approaching, but a gleam of sword light abruptly appeared behind her. Taking advantage of her attention being drawn entirely to the explosion, it struck straight for her heart!
Luo Chaoge's heart gave a sudden jolt. She wanted to dodge, but she was in midair and the attack had come without warning. How could she adjust in time?
The sword qi had already pierced her clothes, and her skin could already feel its sharp sting.
Luo Chaoge could only twist slightly in midair, trying to keep it from her vital points, but the sword qi suddenly stopped.
A dainty figure appeared beside her, two slender, jade-like fingers lightly pinching the tip of the incoming sword.
The ambusher froze for a moment too, then decisively abandoned the sword, turned, and fled into the darkness, disappearing.
Jiang Jinyue clearly would not help Luo Chaoge pursue the enemy. Only just recovering from her fright, Luo Chaoge had no time to give chase either. Those who had been trying to kill Qi Yan also stopped, all staring blankly at this turn of events. Everything fell silent, as though someone had pressed a pause button.
Luo Chaoge drew a deep breath and bowed to Jiang Jinyue. "Thank you for your help, miss. Words cannot express my gratitude for such a great kindness."
Jiang Jinyue was utterly unreceptive, her expression as sour as though someone owed her tens of thousands of spirit stones. "That bastard was planning to use this chance to shake me off too."
Luo Chaoge blinked. "Qi Yan?"
She turned to look. Everyone stood rooted to the spot, with only the flames blazing atop the scripture library left behind. Where was there any sign of Qi Yan?
Jiang Jinyue flashed over to the burning area, glanced at the corpses deep in the center of the explosion, then sensed the flow of spiritual energy. She scoffed. "Blood-Chaos Curse, Divine Movement Instruction. He doesn't know much, but he has plenty of tricks."
Luo Chaoge could see it too. The instant Qi Yan triggered the restriction, he had used a curse that disrupted blood against the enemies before him. It had happened to collide and mingle with the restriction's spiritual energy. Now all manner of chaotic blood energy filled the entire space, mixing in Qi Yan's aura until it could no longer be distinguished. Tracking him by his aura had become very difficult.
Yet none of this was much use...
Qi Yan could not comprehend how powerful Jiang Jinyue was. Even exhausting every scheme could not withstand her spreading her spiritual sense to search a hundred miles.
Jiang Jinyue had never been played like this in her entire life...
Then she discovered that she really had lost Qi Yan's trail. Her spiritual sense could not find him.
"How is that possible..." Jiang Jinyue murmured incredulously. "He couldn't possibly have escaped the range of my spiritual sense in this little time. How did he do it?"
Qi Yan had done nothing... What actually concealed him was that jade pendant. It was extremely unusual. Others could hardly divine anything about it, much less detect its existence directly with spiritual sense alone. And so, in passing, it also concealed Qi Yan, who possessed it.
Seeing Jiang Jinyue muttering strangely to herself at the side, Luo Chaoge could not help asking, "Did Qi Yan ask you to help me while he took advantage of the chaos to escape?"
"Uh..." Jiang Jinyue came to her senses and realized that she had inadvertently handed the credit for "saving the beauty" back to Qi Yan. Her expression soured further. "I'm the one who saved you!"
Luo Chaoge bowed again. "Thank you, miss."
"..." Jiang Jinyue suddenly felt she had nothing to say, and an awkward silence settled for a moment.
Luo Chaoge said, "Aren't you going to look for Qi Yan? From what I can see of your cultivation, catching him should be as easy as turning over your hand."
"It's not as though I have anything to do with him. I have my own business. What would I be doing running around looking for him? Who cares where he goes?" Jiang Jinyue said stiffly. "If you want to thank me, get more people helping me find someone... right, those questions Qi Yan had you ask were for me."
For some reason, Luo Chaoge found her puffed-up, angry look very cute. She teased, "Have you ever considered that, with that object's design and the pronunciation of 'Yan,' the person you're looking for might be Qi Yan?"
Jiang Jinyue's eyes widened. "If the person I'm looking for is still alive, they're at least ten thousand years old. Qi Yan isn't even as old as you! Would you listen to what you're saying?"