Chapter 58: Keeping One’s Word
“Kong Hou!” Seeing the young girl in the water, Huan Zhong flew down to the surface and bent down to carry her out without even thinking .
The young girl was icy all over . Huan Zhong’s hand trembled as he held her hand, his face pale as he spat out a mouthful of blood . He wiped away the blood at the corner of his mouth and took her pulse with trembling fingers .
“Huan Zhong…” The blow which had made her fall from the sky into the pond was too great . Kong Hou had fainted after entering the pond . In a daze, she felt something warm come close to her . She opened her eyes and saw a paper-white Huan Zhong holding her . His usually neat hair was in disarray . However… this did not harm Huan Zhong’s beauty but made him even more beautiful instead .
Seeing Kong Hou open her eyes, Huan Zhong discovered that his heart which had been in the air all this time finally landed . “How are you?” His hoarse voice trembled .
“I am fine . ” Kong Hou sat up in Huan Zhong’s embrace and pulled off the damaged seals off her body . “So many seals, all ruined . ”
Lin Hu and the Auspicious Pavilion disciples who had hurried over saw the pile of seal paper by Kong Hou’s feet . “…”
“You are all fine, this is wonderful!” Kong Hou saw them standing unharmed in front of her and sighed in relief . “Huan Zhong, did you defeat that evil cultivator?”
“Evil cannot triumph over good . ” Huan Zhong took out a cloak from his storage ring and put it over Kong Hou . “You are mostly fine, but your inner energy is not stable . Rest here for a few hours . We will resume travel once your inner energies stabilize . ”
He threw out the golden palace which transformed into a magnificent palace . With a wave of his sleeve, the gates to the golden palace opened . Huan Zhong looked down and tied the cloak . “Go in, wash up and change . ”
Kong Hou looked at Huan Zhong’s almost transparent face . “Huan Zhong, is your spirit platform all right?”
“It is fine . ” Huan Zhong wanted to touch the young girl’s face but he only twitched his fingers . He felt his action was slightly strange . Regardless of how much he liked this young girl, and even wanted her as his apprentice, he should not have such improper thoughts .
He took out a handkerchief to wipe away the water in her hair . Huan Zhong used a spell to dry Kong Hou’s clothing . “Let’s enter first . ”
“That evil cultivator is dead?” Kong Hou walked at the front and did not look back at Huan Zhong’s expression . “The storybooks have protagonists who let the villains go, then the villains caused even more calamities—that is causing trouble for oneself . ”
Lin Hu turned to glance at Huan Zhong . Huan Zhong said expressionlessly, “You are correct . ”
Now, even the Auspicious Pavilion disciples turned to look at Huan Zhong .
“I just knew you would not do something like this . ” Kong Hou had used too much spirit energy and had not recovered . She walked into the courtyard she previously resided in and said to the group, “I will go meditate . ”
“Rest well,” Huan Zhong said . “Put the incense ball I gave you last time beside you . It can help you recover sooner . ”
“Yes . ” Kong Hou nodded . She walked a few steps and saw Huan Zhong still standing at the entrance to the courtyard and looking at her . She gave him a big smile .
Huan Zhong saw the young girl’s smile and curved his lips . “Go sleep . ”
“Oh . ” Kong Hou ran to Huan Zhong and put a bottle of pills that Qing Yuan Shishu had made into Huan Zhong’s hands before running back in a good mood to her room . After closing the door, she felt some regret . Since Huan Zhong was able to kill such a powerful evil cultivator, his swordsmanship must be strong . What a pity she hadn’t been able to admire it just now .
Huan Zhong looked at the pill bottle in his hand . He poured out two pills . The pill patterns on the pills were distinct, and were in the shape of lucky clouds . This was an extremely high quality energy returning pill . Less than ten people in the cultivation world could make such a thing . Peak Master Qing Yuan of Splendid Cloud Sect was one of them .
He put the pills into his mouth . Then, Huan Zhong summoned the Dragon Roar sword again .
“Master?” Lin Hu saw Huan Zhong take his sword out again . “What are you doing with your sword?”
“Killing someone . ” Huan Zhong returned two short words before he turned into a stream of golden light and disappeared from the golden palace . Lin Hu took two steps and then gave up on stopping Master . He turned to look at the five Auspicious Pavilion disciples and said calmly, “My master usually has a good personality but dislikes people talking about his private matters . ”
“Juniors will not say a word of what happened,” the young shidi hurriedly said . “Elder, do not worry . ”
Ge Jin covered her shidi‘s mouth and laughed . “Did something just happen? Us juniors have low cultivation and did not see anything . ”
Lin Hu did not argue with them . He nodded minutely . “Come with me . I will take you to a place to rest . ”
After watching the battle between Spirit Master Huan Zhong and Old Man Wu Ku, the disciples of Auspicious Pavilion had a clearer understanding of Spirit Master Huan Zhong’s cultivation . The powerful Old Man Wu Ku wasn’t able to fight back at all against Spirit Master Huan Zhong . Each of his sword moves was able to shake the earth and upturn the ocean .
In front of a true power, the smartest method was to be docile and silent . Moreover, the aforementioned true power had just told a minor white lie . An expert with a shortcoming was more human . They understood, they really could understand .
In any case… if they did not understand, they would not dare to speak of it .
Old Man Wu Ku was heavily wounded but he did not dare to return to the evil cultivators’ world . He also did not dare to appear where there were many cultivators . He disguised himself and rapidly moved east . He prepared to find a remote village to hide in .
The sky was near dark and he did not encounter any cultivators on his way . Old Man Wu Ku sighed in relief . He had managed to preserve his life . He shoved a few pills into his mouth . Wu Ku prepared to land and borrow a residence from the village below . He suddenly heard a dragon’s roar behind him .
He changed expression, hurriedly summoning his lifebond talisman . When he turned around, Huan Zhong was pursuing him as expected . His expression was black . A few hours ago, this demon had ignored him . Why had he come chasing after him again?
This feeling of having hope and then becoming hopeless caused Wu Ku’s mental state to almost destabilize .
“I really had not expected to have the honor of being chased by you . ” Wu Ku summoned a soul summoning banner . He said viciously, “While my cultivation cannot compare to yours, since you will not allow me to live, I will fight you to the death . ”
Huan Zhong ignored him, only lifting his sword and thrusting . In just twenty moves, Wu Ku was in retreat, several more holes in his body . The Soul Summoning Banner in his hand had been cut in half .
“Ah!” As an evil sage of the evil cultivator world, Wu Ku had not been humiliated like this for a long time . He knew he had no hope left . He threw out the lifebond talisman to block Huan Zhong’s fatal attack . He then hit where his spirit platform was and forced out his mind manifestation .
Even if he died, he would not let this demon go so easily .
When Hong Zhong saw Wu Ku prepare to have his mind manifestation explode, his movements became as quick as lightning . Before Wu Ku could explode his own mind manifestation, his sword cut off Wu Ku’s arm and then his backhand blow destroyed Wu Ku’s spirit platform .
He looked down at the trembling mind manifestation . Huan Zhong forced a thread of his consciousness into the mind manifestation and it turned into dust . On the ground, Wu Ku wailed . His skin started to turn wrinkled and old, the wrinkles climbing onto his face, and his hair fell off in bunches .
“Argh, argh…” Wu Ku’s muddy eyes stared at Huan Zhong as though he was asking why .
“I do not like lying to other people, especially juniors . ” Huan Zhong stabbed through Wu Ku’s throat with a single move and watched as the corpse turned to shrivelled bone . He said expressionlessly, “I have to do what I said to the junior . ”
He drew out a wisp of essential fire and destroyed the storage items Wu Ku had left behind . Then, Huan Zhong turned and left .
Soon, the dried bones on the ground turned to dust . The night wind rose, and the dust dissipated in the woods .
When Huan Zhong walked out of the forest, he supported himself on the tree trunk and coughed ferociously . He looked at the crescent moon in the sky . Swallowing one of the pills Old Man Nameless had made, he jumped onto his flying sword and quickly made his way back to the golden palace .
“Master . ” Lin Hu stood at the gates of the golden palace . Seeing Huan Zhong return, his gaze swept across the other’s face . “You should not have gone today . ”
“I am a sword cultivator . ” Huan Zhong moved up the steps to the gates of the golden palace . He did not turn his head . “What is a sword cultivator who cannot use a sword?”
“What was Master unable to put down today—the sword or Miss Kong Hou?” Lin Hu asked . “Does Master truly understand?”
Huan Zhong turned to look at Lin Hu, his eyes expressionless .
Under his gaze, Lin Hu started to sweat .
Huan Zhong turned his gaze away and said, his face lowered, “If Kong Hou had not joined Splendid Cloud Sect already, I would have taken her as my first apprentice . ” In this lifetime, this was the only young person he had met who suited his tastes so well . Even though she was already a disciple of Splendid Cloud Sect, he did not bear for her to be slighted in any way .
When he thought of her beautiful eyes showing disappointment or sorrow, he couldn’t help but desire to satisfy all of her wishes . Pity… pity… he could not have her as an apprentice . Otherwise, he would make her the disciple with the highest status among the younger generation of the cultivation world .
Lin Hu looked at Master’s serious expression . His brow twitched slightly . “Master, Wu Ku is dead?”
“He was already killed during our battle today . ” Huan Zhong turned around and said, “After today, the evil cultivator world will no longer have this person . ”
Lin Hu: “…”
The highest level of lying was to make other people suspect their memory was wrong .
After interacting for a long time with a beautiful young girl, Master finally became a man that easily lied abundantly .
The next morning, Kong Hou sat up from her couch . Yesterday, she had been meditating and she didn’t know when she fell asleep . After she slept for a night, her meridians had recovered . However, the side-effects of overusing her spirit energy had not completely faded . Other than her hair and fingernails, all parts of her body ached .
Lazily lying back onto the couch, Kong Hou summoned the blanket from the bed with a wave of her hand . She wanted to turn herself into a ball . This way, she could curl up and not move .
Very soft footsteps sounded outside the door . They stopped outside her door and then moved away .
Kong Hou managed to open her eyes and said to the door, “Is it Huan Zhong?”
Huan Zhong, who had been leaving, heard Kong Hou’s voice and stopped . “You are awake?”
The door opened . The young girl dressed in loose robes and with her hair down leaned against the doorframe . “We are going to Auspicious Pavilion right now?”
Huan Zhong looked at Kong Hou’s exposed neck and collarbone . Hearing footsteps outside the courtyard, he went forward, pulling her into the room, and closed the door .
Hong Ling, who had walked to the courtyard entrance: “…”
Just now, the man who went into Celestial Kong Hou’s room was… Spirit Master Huan Zhong?