Chapter Seven: The Terrifying Power of Rumors

A month ago, I ventured up the mountain alone, hoping to participate in the Jade Gate’s new disciple trial. Along the way, I happened upon Senior Ling Xiaozi and the maiden of the Water Dragon. Seeing their intimate manners and gentle laughter, I assumed I had encountered a pair of harmonious immortals, bound together in love,” Chi Xiaoxiao replied earnestly, her gaze wavering as she glanced at Mingshuang.

The uncle with a garland atop his head turned to Mingshuang and asked, “Is this true?”

“I’ve lost my memory…” Mingshuang replied, somewhat guilty. “Ignorance is no crime.”

Chi Xiaoxiao, seeing her goal achieved, beamed with sunlight and slipped away of her own accord.

Now Mingshuang faced a silent Pikachu, and silence often precedes the storm; he wondered if it was too late to kneel and beg for mercy.

The uncle, seeing Chi Xiaoxiao depart, said to Mingshuang, “You should be careful.”

Mingshuang’s ears interpreted the uncle’s calm words as: “You’d better watch yourself. If you dare attract attention again, I’ll break your legs.” This dangerous flight of imagination sent a cold sweat down Er Gouzi’s back, and he hastily replied, “Yes, yes, I promise never to flirt again and will be devoted to you alone.”

“What are you talking about? I told you to be careful of that child. Without a disciple to lead the way, it’s impossible to ascend Jade Gate Mountain. That child claimed to have come alone, which is highly suspicious.”

So, the uncle was so clear-headed in matters of principle. Mingshuang breathed a sigh of relief. He’d thought the uncle was just a jealous friend, unable to tolerate mischief. It seemed he’d been too shallow, rashly judging his character—how shameful.

As Mingshuang was busy with self-reflection, the uncle coughed twice, then took off his garland and placed it upon Mingshuang’s head, saying with kindly affection, “But since you’ve made a promise, I hope you will be ‘devoted’ from now on.”

Now transformed into the second little flower sprite, Mingshuang was speechless, inwardly lamenting that sometimes subjective assumptions are quite accurate.

Returning to the courtyard, Mingshuang’s sharp eyes noticed a small tree beneath the wall, laden with tiny blue fruits. The tree was so scrawny it resembled a hunched old man, and the blue fruits were barely the size of a fingernail—hardly enough even for a blueberry snack.

“Don’t bother looking; there’s not enough to fill the gap between your teeth.”

Mingshuang, gazing longingly at the blue fruits, was mercilessly dragged inside by the uncle, who stuffed him with a pile of cultivation mantras to recite, insisting that enhancing his strength was a hundred times more effective than eating fruit. Mingshuang could not refute this.

While Er Gou obediently recited, the uncle quietly slipped outside, tending to the old man tree. After careful observation, he summoned the gate boy to dig up the tree, intent on transplanting it into the courtyard for proper care.

While the two brothers enjoyed their leisurely retirement on Kongming Peak, turmoil brewed at the sect’s main mountain, the cause originating in the new disciples’ compound.

Chi Xiaoxiao had confirmed the intelligence about Ling Xiaozi’s sudden change in temperament and whistled happily as she returned home, only to find Ling Qiqi sitting inside, sipping tea, with Cheng Yu frozen beside her.

A feud was about to erupt. Learning from past experience, Ling Qiqi gave Chi Xiaoxiao no chance to dodge—she grabbed a brick and launched a relentless assault.

Chi Xiaoxiao, unaccustomed to such wild ferocity, lost his composure, fleeing across the mountain as Ling Qiqi pursued him with her brick. He wanted to break the brick with his bare hands, but feared that as a new disciple, using too much force might raise suspicion. With so many concerns, he was restricted, allowing Ling Qiqi to gain the upper hand in this straightforward chase.

A disciple, seeing their antics as improper, stepped between them to intervene, but before he could speak, Chi Xiaoxiao pushed him right into the path of the pursuing brick.

Ling Qiqi, unable to stop, watched as the interloper crashed headlong into the brick, blood streaming as he collapsed. She screamed, dropped her weapon in terror, and Chi Xiaoxiao seized the chance to escape.

The gathering disciples, seeing blood spilled, realized things had gotten out of hand, hurriedly carried the injured back to the room, and summoned a healer.

There were few healers in Jade Gate, and lately, they’d been worked to exhaustion, unsure what mischief the new disciples had been up to. Just days before, they’d treated a batch of seriously injured children, and now word spread of a mass brawl with someone’s head cracked open.

Cultivation among immortals values self-cultivation; even sparring stops short of real harm. Such an incident was unexpected.

The disciples took the matter as gossip, but as it spread, the story changed. The sad tale of a brick to the head became a saga of two disciples risking everything for love, fighting to the death, with one losing half his head.

By the time Master Pingxu Daoist heard the news, it had become an attempted love-murder among sect disciples. At first, the sect leader dismissed such rumors, but with healers frequently visiting and disciples whispering, he began to doubt his own judgment.

After much thought, he decided it was unseemly for an elder to meddle in the youngsters’ affairs, so he summoned Ling Xiaozi, instructing him to visit the injured disciples and discreetly investigate the truth behind the alleged love-murder.

When the sect leader’s secret message arrived, Mingshuang was reciting cultivation mantras and suddenly felt a string of words in his mind—it was miraculous.

“Why are you daydreaming again?” Yun Ting tapped Mingshuang’s head with his encyclopedia of immortal fruit cultivation.

Mingshuang replied, stunned, “Just now, I heard our master’s voice in my head. It seemed he wanted me to deal with a romantic rival.”

Both were bewildered.

“Are you sure?” Yun Ting doubted the sect leader could have a romantic rival.

“I might, maybe, possibly… not be sure,” Mingshuang doubted his own mind.

In the end, the uncle decided to check things out first, so he grabbed Mingshuang and flew to the main mountain. Upon landing, they met Yun Ting’s familiar healer, who greeted them and complained about the troublesome new disciples.

After the healer left, Mingshuang tugged the uncle’s sleeve and asked, “Who was that? He looked familiar.”

“Healer Lin He—he’s the one who patched up your belly. When no one was around, Yun Ting patted the dog’s head and said, ‘At the time, Lin He told me that even difficult childbirths don’t bleed as much as you did. He begged me to deliver a beast’s inner pellet for you, or you’d be a goner.’”

Now Mingshuang understood why the original Ling Xiaozi survived near disembowelment—it was thanks to this quietly supportive brother. Sadly, such details in the book were glossed over by the protagonist’s halo and never mentioned the uncle’s midnight medicine delivery.

True affection moves heaven and earth, saving an old life. True affection is not the whining heroine, but the uncle living outside the story.

“Brother, you’ve worked hard. I’ll treat you well from now on.” Mingshuang sighed and patted the uncle’s shoulder.

Yun Ting found this remark odd, but it wasn’t really a problem—Er Gou hadn’t been normal since his injury.

“Just now, Lin He said someone got their head smashed while chasing a girl. I think it’s likely our master’s romantic rival,” Mingshuang speculated.

The uncle saw several disciples approaching and instantly donned his idol persona, nodded coldly, and led Mingshuang to the new disciples’ compound.

Along the way, many greeted them. Mingshuang adopted the demeanor of a gentleman, smiling and greeting the junior sisters and brothers. The uncle remained aloof and silent, occasionally nodding in acknowledgment.

At the newcomers’ side, the injured was still unconscious. The senior sister in charge scolded all the onlookers and assigned Ling Qiqi and Chi Xiaoxiao to tend the patient.

“No way! What if this person tries to kill me again? Sister, you have to assign someone to protect me,” Chi Xiaoxiao, caught fleeing the scene, cried plaintively.

The senior sister found the child adorable and believed his nonsense without thinking, randomly picked a bystander as supervisor to prevent further fighting.

Among the crowd, Cheng Yu, who’d been pointed at by the senior sister’s slender finger, was internally resistant.

The mischievous little demon, delighted, launched another round of chatter at Cheng Yu: “Brother Cheng Yu, you must protect me well. My family treasures me. If I get hurt, a whole army of sisters will avenge me, turning the place into a bloodbath—what an eyesore.”

“How are you still alive after all that, you little rascal?” Cheng Yu tugged Chi Xiaoxiao’s cheeks, trying to maintain a smile.

Thus, the trio formed their nursing squad. The senior sister pushed them into the patient’s room, instructed them on changing bandages, and left.

Ling Qiqi, aware of her fault, gloomily guarded the bedside, waiting for the unlucky soul to wake. Seeing him unconscious, she couldn’t help but recall Senior Brother Ling Xiaozi, who had suffered for her.

“Ah, it’s all my fault,” the girl lamented, without even a whimper—just endless sighs.

Chi Xiaoxiao, ever eager for drama, replied, “Ah, it’s all your fault. If you hadn’t met Ling Xiaozi, you wouldn’t have gone up the mountain. If you hadn’t gone up, no one would have gotten hurt. Without injuries, I wouldn’t have had to defeat you for justice. If you hadn’t lost, you wouldn’t have chased me in revenge. If you hadn’t chased me, the innocent wouldn’t have gotten their head smashed. So yes, it’s all your fault.”

“Are you deliberately causing trouble? Don’t think I don’t know you secretly swapped lots just to embarrass me in front of Senior Brother Ling Xiaozi!” Ling Qiqi’s intelligence surfaced for two seconds, guessing half the truth.

“If you’re so clever, why haven’t you noticed that your Senior Brother Ling Xiaozi doesn’t like you? Didn’t you see he moved away to live with Kongmingzi? Probably because he thinks you’re too wild and doesn’t want to deal with you, but you still chase after him—so shameless, so annoying. How could such a rude girl exist? If I were Ling Xiaozi, I wouldn’t like you either.” Chi Xiaoxiao’s nonsense was unparalleled, and his quarrelling skills were masterful.

Stung by these words, Ling Qiqi’s face turned red with anger. She pointed at Chi Xiaoxiao and declared, “You—you are shameless!”

“Sister, you’re so hateful. In my hometown, no woman ever vents her anger on children when she can’t win a man. If not for this senior’s intervention, I might have died under your brick!” Chi Xiaoxiao shed two tears, trembling as he pointed to the life-saving senior lying in bed, head wrapped in gauze.

Witnessing Chi Xiaoxiao’s effortless tears, Cheng Yu realized this was no mere chatterbox—he was a true little demon.