Chapter 22: Old flame

Of course, Jun Lin’s beauty was beyond question.

However, Chu Fan had completely misjudged her.

Initially, upon hearing her name and seeing her beauty, which was as ethereal as a snow lotus on an iceberg, Chu Fan assumed she would be a cold, aloof beauty.

But with such a cold, regal face, she was doing something so shameless just to stay alive.

Even Chu Fan didn’t know how to deal with her.

“Is Brother Chu hungry? The food at the foot of the mountain certainly isn’t as good as home cooking, is it? How about this little sister makes a portion for you~?”

Jun Lin’s large eyes blinked repeatedly, hooking Chu Fan with a gaze that seemed to sparkle like starlight.

“Get out!”

“Sure thing, Brother~”

Jun Lin scurried away in an instant.

She didn’t even glance at the elder’s corpse on the ground or the absolute mess of the sect’s main hall.

Seeing this, Chu Fan crouched down and began to scavenge through the corpses littering the floor.

As he searched, his hand accidentally brushed against another jade-like hand.

Lifting his head, Chu Fan’s gaze met Shen Yuying’s.

She gave him a slight smile.

“I’m feeling a bit nostalgic. Back when I only had Master to rely on, we had a scavenging session every single day.”

“Heh.”

Chu Fan smiled as well.

“Isn’t it better now than it was back then? At least we don’t have to sleep out in the elements every day.”

Hearing this, Shen Yuying pouted her pink lips with slight dissatisfaction.

“Who knows?”

Suddenly, Chu Fan pulled a porcelain bottle from the elder he had decapitated.

Opening the stopper, a wave of fresh floral fragrance wafted out.

“This is…”

Chu Fan poured the contents into his hand.

It was a bunch of golden celestial grass radiating a dense aura of life.

“Solar Essence Flower? To think I’d encounter one in a place like this.”

Chu Fan smiled slightly.

“Master, is that something good?”

“It isn’t much on its own, but if it’s refined together with its pair, Moonlight Grass, it can be used as the lining for defensive artifacts. It provides the wearer with a certain degree of healing ability.”

“But Master, Moonlight Grass is a celestial herb that only grows during a full moon, right? It should be much rarer than the Solar Essence Flower. Besides, the amount of Moonlight Grass needed for one bunch of Solar Essence Flowers should be about a ratio of one to 100. Where are we going to find such a large amount of Moonlight Grass…”

Hearing this, Chu Fan fell silent for a moment.

He looked at the Solar Essence Flower in his hand, and his smile gradually vanished.

Instead, his pupils began to tremble slightly.

He said with some hesitation: “…It’s fine. I know where to find it.”

In the room, Su Xiaotang was eating while Chen Qianchi sat at the table, leaning his face on one hand and tapping the table with the fingertips of the other.

A moment later, the door was pushed open, but only two people entered.

“Eh? Stupid fox, where’s Master?”

The moment Chen Qianchi asked the question, he noticed that Shen Yuying’s expression was incredibly gloomy, as if she were in a terrible mood.

Seeing this, Su Xiaotang leaned toward Lin Anlan and whispered, “Hey, Junior Sister, what’s wrong with Senior Sister?”

Lin Anlan shook her head blankly.

“I don’t know. She’s been like this since Master left.”

“Master left? Where did he go?”

“He said… he was going to a place called… Wangyou Valley?”

“Huh!?!?”

Su Xiaotang’s jaw hit the floor instantly, her eyes widening more than lightbulbs.

“Hey! Say that again, where did Master go!?”

Chen Qianchi asked again in disbelief.

“Wang… Wangyou Valley… Is something wrong, Second Senior Sister?”

As soon as she said this, Chen Qianchi rushed in front of Shen Yuying in a fit of rage, grabbing her collar with both hands.

He was more furious than ever before.

“Hey! You dead fox! Why didn’t you stop him!? Don’t you know who’s there!?”

“Are you truly stupid or just acting? How could I not have tried to stop him?”

Shen Yuying said, her heart appearing as cold as ash.

“Then…”

“Master said that by doing this, he could make a perfect set of armor for me. How could I possibly stop him? Even if I flatly refused, he still…”

Watching this scene, Lin Anlan grew more and more confused the more she thought about it.

After hearing the name of the place from Chu Fan, she had gone to look it up.

She discovered that Wangyou Valley didn’t seem to be some den of ultimate evil; instead, it was quite peaceful and serene.

There was even an unwritten rule in the cultivation world regarding it.

No power or sect was allowed to attack Wangyou Valley.

If anyone violated this agreement, they would certainly be attacked by everyone else.

“Um… Third Senior Sister, I remember that Wangyou Valley… is just an apothecary shop, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Su Xiaotang said casually.

“Then why is everyone…”

Hearing this, Su Xiaotang glanced left and right, then leaned into Lin Anlan’s ear, covering her mouth as she whispered, “Because in that place, there’s a widow…”

“A widow? What about it?”

Lin Anlan asked, puzzled.

“Sigh, whose widow do you think she is?”

“Whose… ah!? Could it be!?”

Lin Anlan suddenly realized.

“Yeah…” Su Xiaotang sighed.

“That person is Master’s old flame.”

“And when our dear Master sees her, he becomes just like me.”

“Like you?”

“To the point where… he even forgets the incantations for generating pill fire…”

“Huh!?”

In an orderly room, the air was filled with the fresh fragrance of flowers and herbs.

In the very center of the room, the woman sitting in the main seat had a cold expression but gentle eyes.

She had long, straight, dark green hair that looked like a mountain range of flora, with a teardrop beauty mark adorning the corner of her eye.

At this moment, she was busy painting something, stroke by stroke, with a brush.

A moment later, the door opened, and a young girl walked in with a serious expression, followed by a guard carrying a pile of books.

“Valley Master, this is the list of medicinal herbs mined from the back mountain this month. Please look it over.”

“Mhm. Leave it here. Thank you for your hard work, Mei.”

Hearing this, the girl smiled.

“It isn’t hard work for this subordinate. It doesn’t compare to even a fraction of the Valley Master’s efforts.”

Afterward, the girl left the room.

The woman stopped her painting, opened the mountain-like pile of lists, and began her day-to-day work.

But a moment later, the door was opened again.

A man dressed simply and holding a spear, appearing to be a guard, walked in and knelt on one knee with great respect.

“Valley Master, a man is requesting an audience.”

“A man?”

The woman looked up slightly.

“Yes.”

“If he’s seeking medical treatment, he should go to the Hall of Wellness. If he’s looking for medicine, he should go to the Spirit Essence Pavilion. Why come to me?”

“This… this subordinate does not know either.”

“Tell him that the valley is closed to guests this month. Tell him to come back next month.”

“Yes.”

The guard left the room, and the woman continued her work.

At the entrance of the valley, Chu Fan stood waiting.

When the guard returned, he received a piece of bad news.

“Young Master, the Valley Master said the valley is closed to guests this month. Please come back next month.”

Chu Fan blinked his eyes in confusion.

He clearly hadn’t expected to be turned away.

“Um, Brother Guard, my name is Chu Fan. I’m an old friend of your Valley Master. How about you go back in and announce me one more time?”

“It’s useless, useless. Many people say that when they come here. Just go back and return next month. Don’t make me drive you away.”

“This…”

Just as Chu Fan was speechless and didn’t know what to say next, the familiar young girl slowly approached from behind the guard.

“What is all this noise about?”

When the girl reached the guard and saw who the visitor was, her eyes widened suddenly, and she drew the precious sword at her waist.

“Chu Fan! You bastard, you actually dare to come to the valley!”

“Mei?”

Chu Fan raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t call me that!”

With a loud shout, Yu Mei gripped her sword and charged at Chu Fan, her eyes bloodshot.

Chu Fan’s movement technique was eerie.

With a few shifts and turns, he appeared behind Yu Mei and smiled slightly.

“Your swordsmanship seems to have improved a bit, but not much. Have you been slacking off?”

“Bastard!”

Yu Mei turned and swung her sword again, but it undoubtedly missed as well.

Chu Fan stood in the distance, holding both hands up in a gesture of surrender.

“Why so angry? Do I have a blood feud with your father or something?”

“It’s a hundred times worse than that!”

“Then you’re being a bit unfilial, kid. Oh, sorry, I forgot. You don’t have a father.”

“Go to hell!!!”

Yu Mei lunged at Chu Fan with a full-force strike, but Chu Fan easily caught the blade between two fingers.

Then…

Crack

With a slight application of pressure from his fingers, the blade shattered into pieces.

Chu Fan reached out with a pulling force, dragging Yu Mei right in front of him.

Chu Fan grabbed her by the neck, lifting her high into the air.

He turned to the guard with a fierce expression and said, “I’ll say it one more time. I want to see Liang Yixue.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll go report it right now.”

The guard scrambled away, but Yu Mei, who was being held by the throat, was still screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Don’t go… damn it… don’t go!”

However, she was held firmly by Chu Fan.

While she wasn’t suffocating or in much pain, she simply couldn’t move.

“Chu Fan, the Valley Master treated you well. If you have even a shred of conscience left and care for old times, let me go right now!”

“Shut up. Is she your mother? What does how she treated me have to do with you?”

“You… bastard!”

In the room, Liang Yixue had already finished her work and was watering the plants.

The guard who burst into the room froze at the sight.

First, he was shocked by her efficiency, and then he was dazed by the dreamlike scene before him.

“What is it now?”

As she spoke, Liang Yixue didn’t look away, continuing to water the plants.

“Valley… Valley Master, Lady Yu Mei is fighting with someone.”

“Is that so?”

Liang Yixue’s voice remained indifferent.

“No, that’s not it, Valley Master! She can’t beat him at all! That man said if you don’t come out to see him, he’ll beat Lady Yu Mei to death!”

“Look,” Liang Yixue said, smiling at a small blade of grass in front of her.

“Look… look at what?”

“This Forget-Me-Not Grass. Although it can be found everywhere in Wangyou Valley, once you leave this place, it can’t be seen anywhere else, no matter where you go.”

Liang Yixue looked on with eyes full of affection, stroking the small grass with a dazed, scattered gaze.

“Valley Master! Lady Yu Mei is going to die!”

The guard was worried to death.

He couldn’t understand at all why his master could remain so calm when her right-hand woman was about to die.

He couldn’t even tell if this was calmness or just a total lack of tension.

Where did this exaggerated sense of relaxation come from?

Or was it that she simply didn’t care whether Yu Mei lived or died?