Hearing Ling Qingxue’s voice, Luo Yin turned his head and gave her a faint glance.
Without a word, he strode directly toward his room, completely ignoring her.
Ling Qingxue watched his retreating figure, her silver teeth grinding as she thought to herself that once she recovered her strength, she would make him pay!
Yet soon after, she let out a helpless sigh.
She knew her own body’s condition all too well.
A month ago, after entering the Heavenfall Abyss, she had inhaled the Immortal Fall Poison that permeated the place.
Once this poison flared up, it stripped away all cultivation, dooming even immortals to fall. There was no cure!
The best one could do was delay its outbreak.
Fortunately, she had found a few stalks of immortal herbs in the abyss, which had kept the toxin suppressed until now.
But the moment she returned to Heavenly Secrets Peak, the poison had activated.
Her cultivation plummeted from the Marquis Realm in an instant—dropping to a level even weaker than the Body Tempering Realm.
This kind of decline could not be reversed by starting cultivation over from scratch.
Moreover, if she didn’t purge the toxin soon, the suffering would be unbearable.
Unfortunately, she had used up all the edible immortal herbs. Now, she could only soak the other medicinal ingredients she had gathered in water and immerse her delicate body in it to keep the poison at bay.
There was only one way to completely eliminate the toxin from her system: within three days of its outbreak, have someone else help expel it!
She had been agonizing over whether to take that step when Luo Yin appeared.
In a way, he had made the choice for her—and helped her detoxify.
But at the same time, she had lost something precious.
Her emotions were a tangled mess right now.
She didn’t truly hate Luo Yin; she was just worried he might spread word of what had happened.
At that moment, Luo Yin emerged from his room, holding a mask made of some unknown material. He walked up to Ling Qingxue’s side.
Before she could react, he seized her hand and sliced a cut across her fingertip.
A drop of blood fell onto the mask.
Then, eyeing the still-bleeding wound, Luo Yin leaned in and took her finger into his mouth to staunch the flow.
“You!!! What are you doing?!”
Only then did Ling Qingxue snap out of her daze. She yanked her hand back.
The bleeding had stopped, but a chill ran through her. She rushed off to wash her hands, her pretty face flushing crimson.
Luo Yin chuckled.
Ling Qingxue had always been stern and aloof in front of the other disciples.
Who would have thought she was such a girly girl at heart?
It made sense, though. Before this, she had been an untouched maiden who had never even been close to a man.
Seeing Ling Qingxue standing there after washing her hands, glaring at him, Luo Yin gave a light laugh and said, “Put this mask on. It doesn’t require any spiritual power—just a thought, and it can alter your figure and appearance. No one below the Marquis Realm will see through it.”
Ling Qingxue took the mask in a daze. She naturally recognized it as the skin of a Jade-Faced Demon and felt a touch of surprise.
But she didn’t say much about it. Instead, she looked at Luo Yin and asked, “Why are you giving this to me now?”
“What else? Disguise yourself so I can take you back to your place! What, you want to stick around here? I’m not opposed—if you warm my bed, you can stay as long as you like.”
“Pah! You pervert!”
Ling Qingxue spat lightly. She slipped the mask onto her face, transforming into the appearance of a strange man. Even her figure shifted, and her signature highlighted hairstyle changed.
Luo Yin nodded in satisfaction. He stepped forward, grabbed her hand, and led her out of the wooden hut, afraid she might lag behind or try to run. Together, they headed toward Ling Qingxue’s residence.
This scene, however, was witnessed by Liu Qingchan, who was still outside comprehending Sword Intent.
When she saw her Senior Brother—the one she harbored feelings for—emerging from the hut hand-in-hand with a man, it struck her like a bolt from the blue. She froze in place.
Her mind went blank, a sharp pain twisting in her heart.
A shocking thought flashed through her mind.
Could it be that her Senior Brother…
liked men?!!
On the way, Luo Yin suddenly noticed that Liu Qingchan’s favorability toward him kept fluctuating.
Up by one, down by one.
She couldn’t figure out why, so he simply stopped paying it any mind.
He was confident he could handle a little girl like her.
The priority now was setting up the formation.
Ling Qingxue couldn’t stay with him forever.
In the future, when he swiped various opportunities and earned rewards, it might cause a commotion that would be hard to explain.
Meanwhile, as Luo Yin made his way to Ling Qingxue’s residence, word was spreading through the Holy Land.
The tales of defeating Liu Qingchan with a peach flower branch as a sword and crushing Sun Yangming with Sword Intent were gaining traction.
Nearly everyone now knew that the river of sword qi cascading from the ninth heaven had been Luo Yin’s handiwork.
For Taiyi Holy Land, producing a sword dao prodigy like Luo Yin was undoubtedly good news.
It meant the sect’s strength would rise.
But for some people, it was far from welcome.
With the Holy Land Grand Competition just half a month away—and this year’s event determining entry slots into the Profound Heaven Tower—it spelled trouble.
The Profound Heaven Tower stood in the capital of the Dayan Dynasty, a mortal empire in the Northern Spirit Realm. This divine pagoda had existed for countless years.
It opened once every five years.
At those times, the major holy lands and sects nearby received limited slots to enter and seize opportunities within.
This year marked exactly five years since the last opening.
In other words, Luo Yin’s emergence might snatch away one of those precious slots.
The sense of crisis deepened for many, sparking a frenzy of desperate cultivation across the Holy Land over the next few days.
Su Chen, however, paid it no mind.
Even if he wasn’t a match for Luo Yin, he could always grab a spot from someone else.
His cultivation level wasn’t the highest, but he had his trump cards.
Still, Su Chen wasn’t in a great mood right now.
The Shizun he had been eagerly awaiting for so long still hadn’t returned.
At noon that day, he had visited the Shizun’s residence, only to find it empty.
Feeling a hollow ache in his chest, he decided to take a stroll in the back mountains tonight, under the beautiful night sky filled with brilliant starlight.
