Chapter 56: I’m so angry!

“Damn it! I’m so mad I could die!”

At dusk, as the sun set, a furious curse echoed across Zhuihe Mountain.

It was soon followed by the sound of more ruined walls collapsing into rubble.

Halfway up the mountain, Li Changyi stood with a bamboo stick raised in his right hand, slashing wildly at an already-abandoned building in front of him, his face twisted with anger.

Not far away, Shangguan Xunyi, who had just finished refining her power, hurried over when she heard the commotion.

She’d thought some other demon must have suddenly achieved a breakthrough, reached some sort of Seven-Turn Pinnacle, and, in a fit of excitement, come to smash up Li Changyi’s place.

After all, every demon dreams of becoming that high and mighty Bai Yao Elder.

But when she rushed to the foot of the mountain, what she saw was a scene extremely rare indeed.

Normally, though Li Changyi liked to curse, he rarely lost his temper like this.

Seeing him so out of sorts left the young woman frozen in place, at a loss for what to do.

[Hey, Xunyi, do you think that old man… is sick or something? Why’s he suddenly acting crazy?]

[Uh… Sha Qianmo, in some sense, he’s basically your master too. You should show some respect, right?]

[Respect, right, right, I’ll be respectful. Respect for teachers is a traditional virtue… You say it so often my ears are getting calluses.]

[That’s because you never respect him.]

[He can’t hear me anyway.]

[But I can.]

The topic of respecting one’s teacher was an old one between the two of them.

After a few words, Sha Qianmo started to lose patience.

She had spent a lot of effort during the refining just now and was already running low on energy.

[Alright, alright, I’ll be careful next time. I’m going to rest first. I refined nearly a third of it this half-day, I’m exhausted.]

Her voice carried a hint of helplessness, sounding weak and ill.

[Ever since Yun Mu came, you’ve been acting crazy. Anyway, I’m going to rest.]

With that, she fell silent.

Shangguan Xunyi didn’t argue—Sha Qianmo wasn’t wrong.

The amount of blood she refined today was more than the last few days combined.

If Sha Qianmo hadn’t been there, her body would probably have gone out of control, maybe even exploded from the pressure.

“The portion of power I drew from Xiao Mu isn’t taking up much space inside me, but it’s all condensed star power—so concentrated, it even surpasses some lower-ranked cultivators.”

“I absolutely can’t let anyone else take Xiao Mu away again, or there’ll definitely be trouble.”

Feeling the girl had already fallen asleep, she sighed softly.

“Sharp tongue, soft heart.”

Only then did she walk forward and greet the now somewhat calmer Li Changyi:

“Master, what’s wrong? What got you so worked up? Did some demon provoke you?”

“Provoke? Provoke, nothing! They just treated me like a fool, absolutely infuriating!”

Li Changyi, who had just stopped, blew out his beard and glared, as if ignited anew.

He struck down again, harder this time, utterly overturning his usual gentle, refined demeanor.

***

“Treated you like a fool? With your status among the demon race, who’d dare treat you that way?”

Images of little demons bowing and scraping before him flashed through her mind.

Suddenly, she thought of something and asked carefully, “Could it have been Senior Zhan Lixue?”

“All of them! And Tushan Yunxi, and that brat Eleven—those little punks, they’ve driven me mad!”

“Hm? Xiao Mu…?”

The people he mentioned completely surprised her.

She’d thought Zhan Lixue had confronted her master because she’d sensed the tree demon’s aura opposing his while she was sneaking away.

But at the time, her mind had been occupied with Yun Mu, and she’d already handed over control of her body to Sha Qianmo, so she hadn’t looked back at all.

But how could the Empress and Eleven have provoked the old man?

She was utterly baffled.

Counting the time, after Xiao Mu left, I chatted with Senior Eleven for a while.

That shouldn’t have given Eleven enough time to stir up trouble with Master, right?

It must be some misunderstanding.

“Master, weren’t you planning to test Xiao Mu? When I snuck away, uh…”

She faltered, her voice guilty.

“I actually went to Senior Eleven’s place.”

“And then? Did Eleven detain your Xiao Mu there?”

“No, he let him go very quickly.”

“No? Impossible!”

“Really, Master, look. After that, Eleven threw me back to Zhuihe Mountain to cultivate, and my star power got a lot stronger.”

Though, truth be told, Xiao Mu played no small part in that.

Hearing this, Li Changyi finally put down his stick, turning to look at the girl whose aura had grown stronger.

His eyes lit up.

“Xunyi, did you advance again?”

“Not exactly. I just touched the edge of the Three-Turn Threshold, but my realm hasn’t truly risen.”

“So you’re at the bottleneck of the Two-Stage Pinnacle? Good, good, you truly are my fine disciple. When you break through, I’ll protect you!”

He couldn’t help but burst into laughter, clearly in a much better mood, but then he frowned again.

“All that aside, why did I wait so long and still not see Yun Mu? Strange. He should’ve reached my spot soon after, shouldn’t he…?”

“And, uh, Master, where were you sitting?”

“Right at the pavilion a few dozen meters from the foot of Qingqiu Mountain’s main peak. I drank tea there all night, and not a soul showed up.”

“Huh? Senior Eleven only sent him back to mid-mountain. Maybe… Xiao Mu went somewhere else?”

“Impossible. There’s only one road up the south slope, built by those damned humans a few thousand years ago. The boy’s blind—he might sense his surroundings, but there’s no way he’d take a different path.”

As he spoke, Li Changyi seemed to lose interest in talking, and resumed smashing the building before him.

“Damn it, those little brats must’ve teamed up to mess with me, thinking I’m old and easy to fool!”

“Um, if it really bothers you, why not just ask them? It’s only a sentence or two.”

“Not going. If you want, you go!”

Clearly, Li Changyi understood it’d be easy to ask and clear things up, but sometimes, people—or demons—are just strange that way.

He’d rather stew in his own anger, gritting his teeth to protect his pride, even around those closest to him.

The younger generation’s full of such types, and the old even more so.

Shangguan Xunyi could only sigh inwardly.

Actually, she could still sense that Yun Mu was somewhere within a hundred miles.

She’d left a trace of her own star power in the boy’s body earlier, and it still hadn’t faded.

She couldn’t pinpoint his exact location, but the faint sense was there.

That was why she’d said Yun Mu might’ve gone elsewhere—her intuition told her so.

“I’ll ask for you in a few days. For now, I’m going to train.”

“Back to training? Didn’t you just finish? Don’t you ever rest?”

The old man stopped his actions in surprise and turned to look at her.

“And weren’t you sneaking off to see him before? Why aren’t you in a hurry now?”

“Haste makes waste, Master.”

She turned and left.

“Were you Possessed?”

“Can’t you wish me something good? How do I look like I’ve been Possessed?”

“You look Possessed all over.”

“Well… whatever makes you happy.”

As she walked farther and farther away, Li Changyi was left with a head full of questions.

“How odd. Since when did these youngsters all start talking in riddles?”

“None of them speak as plainly as this old man.”

With that, he started brooding alone again, whacking the bamboo stick even harder.

But it didn’t bother him much.

After all, these buildings weren’t built by him—they were left behind by invaders years ago.