Wenren È was an unfeeling man. The book's description of him was that he had no eyes for anyone on earth except Baili Qingmiao. He would take the moon and the stars from the heavens for Baili Qingmiao. A character like that attracted hordes of fans, and every time there was a scene in which he was alone with her, the readers would all be engrossed and cheering them on.
One of their typical interactions was: The night Hè Wenzhao was to be married to the Violet Spirit Pavilion Master, Baili Qingmiao was injured and accompanied by Wenren È as she gazed at the night sky filled with stars. She pointed at the stars of the Cowherd and Weaver Girl separated by the Milky Way and said, "Such a happy couple, why did they need to be torn apart?"
A single tear slid down her pale face. The bright-eyed and smiling young girl from the beginning had long since vanished. Even though cultivators almost never aged after Foundation Establishment and she still looked the same age of eighteen, her heart had grown much older.
Wenren È raised a hand and covered Baili Qingmiao's eyes. "Before I become a god, don't look at the stars."
"Why?" Baili Qingmiao said in confusion.
"It's said that when a cultivator ascends to godhood, they can change the stars and galaxies to their liking. I will bring the Cowherd's star to the other side of the Milky Way."
Baili Qingmiao was amused and nodded. "Okay. Until you become a god, I won't look at the night sky again."
In the end Wenren È died without being able to ascend to godhood, but he fulfilled his promise to Baili Qingmiao nonetheless. Baili Qingmiao was able to regain her divine essence thanks to the arrangements Wenren È had made prior to his death. In the moment she merged with the divine essence, the heavens trembled and stars shifted, and the Cowherd and Weaver Girl were brought to each other's sides. The power unleashed by the changing stars instantly turned a continent into an ocean.
This was the power of a primordial god. The moment the goddess of calamities reclaimed her place, chaos was unleashed across the world.
When Baili Qingmiao came back to her senses and saw that she had destroyed an entire continent, she thought back to her shixiong's teachings and the words of that ascended god in her past life. She didn't want to be a god, to disrupt the stars so casually, so she abandoned her divinity.
The Cowherd and Weaver Girl didn't return to their original places, though. They were finally together, like the two protagonists in the end.
Regarding this plotline, the readers discussed like crazy that it was Wenren È's love for the female lead even after his own death, saying that if this man wanted to pamper someone, he would really go to any lengths, he wouldn't let her suffer any grievance—even if he died, he would be there for her until the end.
Wenren È had no reaction when he read this part and the discussion about it, because he knew how fickle he really was.
Xuanyuan Sect had countless subordinates who would wholeheartedly dedicate themselves to him, but Wenren È never paid them any mind. He knew this dedication was built on the power he possessed that could crush all opposition. If someone else had the same power, those people would show the same kind of devotion. The target of this devotion wasn't Wenren È, it was the strength of a Mahayana stage cultivator.
As for familial bonds, Wenren È had already set them aside when he entered the Dao. Three hundred years had passed, and there was no one with his bloodline left on the earth.
What he had with Baili Qingmiao was the workings of karma and heavenly law, and couldn't be counted as love.
He was alone in this world, and there was nothing in the world that would tie him to it after he left.
Just that after reading that book, an odd feeling had grown inside him toward Yin Hanjiang.
Yin Hanjiang had toward him a debt of life, of being raised by him, and of being taught by him. After his death, whether Yin Hanjiang sought vengeance for him or carried out his final wishes, it was all what he naturally ought to do. Even if his body was broken and his bones were shattered for Wenren È, it would be reasonable.
But Yin Hanjiang had to choose such a wretched way to show his devotion. While reading, Wenren È had never taken Yin Hanjiang to be the Ghost Mask, and when the truth was revealed, at the moment the female lead saw the mask in Yin Hanjiang's bundle, it wasn't just Baili Qingmiao who was shocked. Wenren È was also shaken by it.
At one point in the book, one of the female villains got a magic item that could change one's appearance in a way undetectable to others. She took Baili Qingmiao's appearance to trick Hè Wenzhao, but got captured by Yin Hanjiang instead. Without a protagonist's plot armor, she naturally got refined into lamp oil. Yin Hanjiang had taken off the ghost mask and come to Wenren È's cenotaph. Lighting the everburning lamp, he entered the tomb and, clutching Wenren È's black robe covered with dark gold patterns, peacefully closed his eyes.
That sentence sent a chill through Wenren È. It seemed as though the next moment Yin Hanjiang would, while hugging Wenren È's robe, self-destruct his Nascent Soul to kill himself.
However, at that point, the tracking device that Yin Hanjiang had placed on the female lead lit up. He saw that she was still alive and had run into trouble again.
Yin Hanjiang stared at the image of her that was displayed in the air before him, tilting his head slightly, then he rubbed his cheek along Wenren È's robe, folded it, and replaced it neatly in the tomb.
He quietly walked out of the tomb. Without using spiritual energy to protect his hand, he smothered the everburning lamp with his palm. Next, with a sweep of his arm, it shattered against a nearby boulder, shards scattering across the ground, lamp oil slowly spilling into the dirt.
"Hahahahahaha!"
Yin Hanjiang looked at his singed palm and suddenly burst into laughter. As the laughter went on, he placed a hand over his mouth, making painful, muffled noises, as if it was taking all the strength he had to restrain his emotions.
He bowed his head, staying that way until Venus rose in the sky. At the darkest moment before daybreak, Yin Hanjiang lifted his head and placed the ghost mask on his face. From behind the mask came words through gritted teeth. "Bai. Li. Qing. Miao."
This whole section made readers' hairs stand on end. Wenren È, as one of the story's protagonists, felt an indescribable emotion.
He could accept Yin Hanjiang dying for him, but he was unable to understand Yin Hanjiang going mad because of him
To go from perfect calm to extreme mania, what kind of suffering did he go through?
When Yin Hanjiang rubbed his cheek against Wenren È's robe, it was like against his heart. Wenren È, looking up from the book to Yin Hanjiang himself, felt like he was properly seeing this subordinate of his for the first time. He felt like what he had done for Yin Hanjiang wasn't worth such heartfelt repayment, so he ought to treat Yin Hanjiang a little better.
Shu Yanyan wasn't planning to suck Hè Wenzhao into an empty husk this time around and was even going to use her techniques to help him improve in cultivation, so he wouldn't need the Snow Flame. It was a perfect chance to use it for Yin Hanjiang.
Wenren È had been the Xuanyuan Sect Master for many years and had obtained quite a large collection. He dug around in his Qiankun sleeve and gave Baili Qingmiao some materials, pills, and magic items that were suitable for her cultivation stage, and a Flame Feather Cloak to protect her from the cold air of the Ice Plains, so the protagonist didn't freeze to death.
"This... I can't take all this!" Baili Qingmiao looked at the items that were rapidly piling into a small mound, her face reddening as she waved her hands.
Wenren È also took out a simple hairpin, which was a storage item suitable for holding the things he had provided. Giving Baili Qingmiao no opportunity to refuse the gifts, he grabbed Yin Hanjiang and left.
Baili Qingmiao held the hairpin in her hand and spaced out for a bit, staring at the sky in the direction Wenren È had disappeared. With a stamp of her foot, she said, "Shixiong! Miss Shu!"
She quickly stored all the gifts in the jade hairpin, placed it inside her robe, and flew at a slow pace toward Shangqing Sect.
Disciples leaving Shangqing Sect all took with them an emergency talisman. If they shattered the jade talisman, nearby disciples would be alerted to come and save them. Baili Qingmiao could've used this method to call for help, but these talismans were meant to be used in matters of life and death, not whenever one wanted. If she really broke one and called over a pack of disciples only for it to turn out to be no urgent matter, she would earn the disapproval of her seniors. After Nascent Soul stage, she would be able to create her own communication talismans, but Baili Qingmiao hadn't reached that stage yet, so she had to go up the mountain herself.
Meanwhile, Shu Yanyan slept on a straw bed, her face rosy and one of her shoulders bared. Hè Wenzhao, standing next to the bed with his shirt open, spaced out for a moment, then pulled a simple blanket over Shu Yanyan. His action woke her.
Shu Yanyan opened her eyes, and when meeting Hè Wenzhao's eyes, her face reddened and she grabbed her clothes and pulled them over herself carelessly. She wrung her hands and said in a soft voice, "Young Master Hè, you don't need to worry. I know you have feelings for Miss Baili. This was unintentional. I had been injured, so Young Master Hè was just helping me recover."
Hè Wenzhao was perfectly clear whether or not it had been to help her recover. He stared at Shu Yanyan, simultaneously wondering how he could've done something like this, and reminiscing over how it had felt as he had bedded her. There was even a bit of tenderness in his eyes as he looked toward her.
"I— I'll help you buy a house. This place is too run-down, it's not a suitable place to live," Hè Wenzhao said dully.
Shu Yanyan cursed men out in her mind a few times, but shook her head with a slight smile. "Young Master Hè, are you treating me as a prostitute? If I had wanted to sell my body, why would I wait until now?"
Hè Wenzhao stared dumbly for a few more moments.
"I am a lowly woman, and I do not mind how others see me. But Young Master Hè is such a noble character. How could he be a man who pays for pleasure?" Shu Yanyan said, turning the subject around as she looked sadly at Hè Wenzhao.
She wouldn't accept the money not only because of her own morals, but out of concern for Hè Wenzhao. Such a thoughtful and considerate person!
"But... I truly have disrespected you, miss." Hè Wenzhao reached out and brushed a strand of Shu Yanyan's hair back behind her ear. He accidentally touched her blushing cheek and his heart skipped a beat.
Shu Yanyan smiled warmly. "Isn't it often mentioned in stories that one should give oneself to repay a life debt? Young Master Hè is a noble hero. I am honored to be with you."
Her words gradually smoothed away Hè Wenzhao's regrets. He thought about all the times he'd helped Miss Shu. This woman didn't have many capabilities, and could probably only use this method to repay him. Besides, back then, with her warm and supple body in his lap, and her wholehearted trust in him, what man would be able to hold back? And it's not like she was a woman from a brothel. They both had feelings for each other, so wasn't it a good thing?
The only problem was Baili Qingmiao. What should he do about her?
But wasn't the fact that the situation had progressed this far because of Baili Qingmiao taking her sweet time? If she came back earlier, he wouldn't have had to forego propriety with a woman in order to save her!
The more Hè Wenzhao thought, the more he felt that he didn't do anything wrong. He just didn't know how he would explain it to his beloved shimei.
He really did like Baili Qingmiao. They were childhood friends, and Hè Wenzhao had taken care of her since she was just a seven or eight year old child. He had watched her grow from a little girl plump with baby fat to a beautiful young woman. Shu Yanyan couldn't come between such deep feelings.
Shu Yanyan didn't want to get between them either. She placed a soft hand on Hè Wenzhao's shoulder and said understandingly, "Worry not, Young Master. This matter stays between you and me. No one else will hear of it."
Right! Wasn't it fine as long as no one else knew? Miss Shu was a smart girl, she got it.
Hè Wenzhao, his inner conflict now resolved, embraced Shu Yanyan.
Shu Yanyan, after arranging her clothes properly, fell asleep again, acting like she'd been put through too much and was exhausted.
Hè Wenzhao, looking at her sleeping face, in the end still felt his heart move for her.
After staring for a moment, Hè Wenzhao remembered he had violated his body of true yang. His teacher always reminded them that they should avoid dual cultivating with anyone until they reached Nascent Soul stage, or they could easily harm their cultivation. Hè Wenzhao hurriedly checked himself over and found that his cultivation had not weakened and instead risen significantly, from the seventh level of Core Formation stage right to the ninth!
Shu Yanyan had cultivated to the sixth level of Void Boundary though this method. Raising a Core Formation stage junior's level was as easy as breathing for her. She had also absorbed the lightning energy from inside Hè Wenzhao's body and that mysterious power he possessed, so she benefitted quite a lot herself. She was just waiting for Hè Wenzhao to go so she could cultivate.
Why would his cultivation increase? Hè Wenzhao was very confused.
He looked at Shu Yanyan and thought back to a book he had read in the sect library on dual cultivation. At the time, he'd discovered he was in love with his shimei, so went looking for methods of dual cultivating. That book had also said that one should not dual cultivate before Nascent Soul stage, but with two exceptions—those with a nine yang body, and a nine yin body.
If a woman with a nine yin body were to dual cultivate with a man, even if she was just an ordinary person, she could still raise their cultivation and provide many benefits. Could Miss Shu have a nine yin body?
While Hè Wenzhao was letting his thoughts wander, Baili Qingmiao finally arrived with Yao-shixiong. "Sorry I was late, shixiong," she said, out of breath.
Hè Wenzhao patted her head and said, "No worries, shimei. Miss Shu is already okay. As it turned out, Yao-shixiong made this trip for no reason."
Seeing Shu Yanyan sleeping on the bed with a rosy complexion, Yao-shixiong felt suspicious and said, "How did she recover?"
Hè Wenzhao didn't want him to check Shu Yanyan and said in a low voice, "We shouldn't talk here, let's go outside first."
They left the thatch hut, and Hè Wenzhao explained that the situation had been urgent and Miss Shu had been coughing up blood and near death, so he helped her take some medicine of the kind cultivators used. He even took out his pill bottle to show that it was missing one pill.
"Can an ordinary person endure that kind of medicine?" Yao-shixiong sniffed at the pill bottle. "These pills are for Foundation Establishment cultivators. An ordinary person's meridians wouldn't be able to bear such strong spiritual energy. Their meridians would rupture and they'd die."
"I used my spiritual essence to help her absorb it," Hè Wenzhao said, putting it simply.
"But..." Yao Wendan thought about the procedure to help someone absorb medicine. He mainly studied refining medicinal elixirs and knew clearly that this procedure required skin to skin contact.
"But what?" Baili Qingmiao said innocently. She was young, and she hadn't learned about this yet.
Hè Wenzhao fixed his gaze on Yao Wendan. Yao Wendan got his intent and said, "Well, I was just worried shixiong didn't understand enough about medicine and hadn't treated her properly. But I see now that Miss Shu is completely healed, so that's clearly not the case."
Baili Qingmiao relaxed at that and wanted to go see Miss Shu. Hè Wenzhao had said that any danger was past, and an unmarried man and woman shouldn't be together alone, so let Baili Qingmiao go in on her own.
Once she entered the house, Yao Wendan raised an eyebrow and elbowed Hè Wenzhao. He said with a smirk, "Shixiong, have you done something improper?"
"The situation was urgent, so I had to do something on the spot. I covered my eyes at the time," Hè Wenzhao said.
He acted exceedingly righteous. Yao Wendan said, with some lingering doubt, "Then why didn't you tell shimei earlier?"
Hè Wenzhao sighed and shook his head. "It's not like you don't know shimei's attitude. She even raised a fuss when Liu-shimei came to me to ask about a technique. I'm everyone's senior, it's my duty to help my juniors with their cultivation. When our master is busy with other stuff, I have to guide them by hand. I even taught you your first techniques. Why wouldn't I help Liu-shimei?"
"That's all true," Yao Wendan said. "Baili Qingmiao is good in so many aspects, just that she gets jealous too easily."
"That's right. And it wouldn't be right to Miss Shu to tell people, so let's just shut it down here. A human life is invaluable. What I did is still a good deed."
Yao Wendan bought Hè Wenzhao's words. After Baili Qingmiao confirmed that Shu Yanyan was fine and left the hut completely oblivious, they returned to Shangqing Sect.
After they left, Shu Yanyan got up, rubbed at her skin, and kicked the straw bed, exclaiming, "This straw is too prickly! How can anyone sleep?"
"Just now, why didn't you tell Baili Qingmiao what you and Hè Wenzhao did?" a voice spoke in the thatch hut.
Shu Yanyan looked up and saw that the Venerable and Protector Yin had appeared in the hut at some point. She chuckled and said, "Venerable, you're a hard-hearted man, you don't know anything about women. How could you understand how those self-important false gentlemen think? Those men, in bed they'll say all the sweet words for free, but after they put their clothes back on they'll act like they don't know you. If I'd said it, the next day Hè Wenzhao would've said that I'd bewitched him and blamed me for everything."
Wenren È thought about it. It really did happen like that in the book. Hè Wenzhao clung to the story that Shu Yanyan had abducted him, and there was no way he could fight off the Right Protector of a demonic sect.
"Then when will you tell her?" Wenren È asked.
He wanted Baili Qingmiao to hurry up and see Hè Wenzhao's true face, so as to more quickly lead her to cultivate the Path of Indifference and ascend. After she successfully merged with the divine essence, Wenren È could consider his debt repaid.
"We need to wait a while," Shu Yanyan said, leaning against a wall. "After Hè Wenzhao leaves, it'll only be a few days before he comes looking for me again. After getting a taste, what man wouldn't want a second? And I can even help his cultivation improve. As time passes and things develop, he really won't be able to get me out of his head. And one time might have been coercion, but could a second and third also be coercion? In the future, even if he tries to make excuses, he wouldn't be able to gloss over all of that."
She frowned. "Though, didn't the Venerable want me to win over Hè Wenzhao and play the long game, to get intel for the Great Sect War?"
"Mm." Wenren È nodded. "That's also necessary. But when it comes to Baili Qingmiao, it's better to have her sooner lose hope, leave her sect, and switch to cultivating the Path of Indifference."
"Huh?" Shu Yanyan didn't get it. What did the Venerable mean by that? If he was interested in Baili Qingmiao, he ought to get her to betray her sect and go down the demonic path, then find some way to make her his. Why the Path of Indifference?
"Just do what you're supposed to," Wenren È said.
"Then I need a few subordinates for luring away Baili Qingmiao to give Hè Wenzhao more chances. Every time they leave the mountain they're joined at the hip. It's way too hard to find an opportunity."
"No need. I'll keep Baili Qingmiao away for a few days," Wenren È said.
"You—you personally, again?" Shu Yanyan's expression stiffened.
Wenren È raised an eyebrow. "Is there a problem?"
"Not at all," Shu Yanyan said with a weak laugh.
Yin Hanjiang saw that she didn't trust Wenren È and said unhappily, "The Venerable sent Baili Qingmiao to retrieve the Snow Flame. We'll be able to obtain a treasure, and make it easy for you to seduce Hè Wenzhao at the same time. It's two birds with one stone."
"So that's it!" Shu Yanyan's respect grew and she knelt on one knee. "Brilliant plan, Venerable."
"Mm." Wenren È nodded expressionlessly.