SQLJBFDTW Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Knock, knock. Little bunny, please open the door.

Countless tiny fragments of mountain rock smashed into him, making his head spin and disorienting him.

With great difficulty, he finally stopped falling, landing on a protruding rock face on the cliff wall. Chao Jianxue used it for leverage, preventing himself from being smashed to pieces.

He sat on the rock face, gazing up at the chasm. The person who ambushed him didn’t pursue.

Who on earth has so much free time?

The place where he was standing was still some distance from the bottom of the cliff. Chao Jianxue didn’t dare to look down.

His palm had been inadvertently grazed while trying to gain purchase. Now, it throbbed with pain. He twisted his wrist and stood up, observing his surroundings for a way to climb back up.

If his spiritual energy had been sufficient, he should have been able to spring upwards like a rocket from parched earth. However, he had just used Thousand Miles Clear Mind, expending all his strength. He was afraid he would carelessly fall from the sky.

He wondered where Yu Wei had gone in pursuit of that demon. Chao Jianxue suspected the demon’s appearance was a diversion.

He slowly moved along the stone wall, leaning against it. He hadn’t taken more than a few steps when a profound and mysterious ball of light appeared in front of him, glowing eerily like a will-o’-the-wisp, even gradually moving in his direction.

The more Chao Jianxue looked at the light, the more familiar it seemed. He stood still, without moving.

The halo approached, and a pair of pure white antlers emerged from the light. Its moist eyes stared at him innocently and benevolently.

Chao Jianxue murmured in a low voice, “It’s you… You’re not dead?”

The white deer lowered its head. He heard a childish voice, speaking with a slightly strange accent, but the meaning was barely understandable.

It said it was a demon from the mountains, and thanked him for stalling for time, allowing it to escape.

Chao Jianxue felt a sense of kinship towards it and asked, “You cultivate in the mountains?”

“My master says that if I continuously do nine hundred and ninety-nine good deeds, I can become an immortal,” the deer demon said.

Leaving aside how harsh those conditions were, this kind of obvious lie was only enough to fool a little demon who looked like it hadn’t seen the world. Chao Jianxue asked, “Who is your master?”

The white deer tilted its head, not answering. Perhaps it didn’t know the answer itself.

“So, you were there just now to save that rabbit?”

The deer demon nodded.

So well-behaved. Chao Jianxue couldn’t help but reach out and touch its antlers, which were wet, as if it had been out in the snow.

“You come up,” the deer demon said.

Chao Jianxue immediately understood, “You’re going to take me up?”

He grabbed its antlers and flipped himself onto the deer’s back.

The white deer rose into the air, stepping on mystical light, as if it had footing in the sky, joyfully leaping upwards.

A gentle breeze brushed across Chao Jianxue’s face. In the blink of an eye, he rode the deer back to the mountain path. A ray of the setting sun, red as blood, illuminated the snowy surface.

The deer demon seemed very lighthearted, because it knew this counted as another good deed, and it could draw two more strokes in its cave when it got back.

It nodded its head at Chao Jianxue and turned to step into the light.

Seeing it about to leave, Chao Jianxue couldn’t help but call out to it. Looking into the deer demon’s dark eyes, he said, “In the future, hide from people when doing good deeds.”

The deer demon walked into the ball of light, puzzled.

Chao Jianxue slowly walked along the mountain path. Before long, he met Yu Wei face to face.

Yu Wei walked up quickly. Seeing the marks on his clothes from being scraped by the rocks, he frowned and asked, “What happened, Senior Brother?”

Chao Jianxue asked, “Did you catch that demon?”

Yu Wei shook his head, “No.”

Chao Jianxue said, “As expected.” He told Yu Wei about being ambushed earlier. Yu Wei was very nervous and said, “This matter should be reported to the sect.”

“But I don’t even know what that person looks like. What’s the use of reporting it to the sect?” Chao Jianxue sighed.

He rolled up his sleeve, revealing the palm of his hand, which was oozing blood.

“Damn it, why does it always seem to be me who gets hurt?”

“What to do?”

Chao Jianxue held out his hand to Yu Wei.

He deliberately adopted a weak posture, saying, “Let’s go back, let’s go back. It hurts too much.”

He needed to quickly get Yu Wei away. He was afraid that if he continued to search, he would find the deer demon again.

Yu Wei stared at the hand, stained with dust and blood, and softened somewhat, “But… we haven’t finished patrolling…”

Chao Jianxue clutched his chest, “I used too much spiritual energy just now. I’m not feeling well.”

Yu Wei calmly considered for a moment and said, “Senior Brother, wait here for me.”

He tapped his toes and quickly disappeared from Chao Jianxue’s sight. Chao Jianxue squatted down, grabbed some snow in his palm, and wiped it across his hand, removing the dirt and grime. The wound stung even more.

This body of his was delicate. Even a little scratch was enough to make him hiss and gasp.

In just a short while, Yu Wei hurried back from the other side, his breathing no longer as steady as usual, “Okay, let’s go.”

Chao Jianxue was surprised. Had he really finished inspecting the entire mountainside in such a short time?

While congratulating himself that Yu Wei hadn’t searched the mountain carefully, he tried to act even more seriously injured, limping along with Yu Wei.

Yu Wei was somewhat puzzled, “Senior Brother’s leg?”

Chao Jianxue said matter-of-factly, “I fell just now.”

“But when I met Senior Brother just now, it seemed to be fine?”

Chao Jianxue paused, frowned, and said, “It suddenly started hurting, hiss…” He grimaced.

He sent a voice transmission to Nan Shan and Qiu Shui, and the two of them passed through the entrance and returned to the sect first.

Chao Jianxue took off his clothes and realized that he was covered in bruises. Too easily injured. His master had gone into seclusion again. Yu Wei went to report to the sect leader, mentioning the ambush on his behalf.

Yu Wei asked him to go with him, but Chao Jianxue really didn’t want to face that old codger of a sect leader. So, he pretended to be in pain and lay on the couch, unwilling to move. He found a few bottles of pills for treating injuries and bruises, filled with spiritual energy, and ate them like candy.

As he was eating, he suddenly felt a pain in his teeth, and something hard fell out, almost breaking his tooth.

Chao Jianxue’s heart skipped a beat. He jumped up and opened his mouth in front of the water mirror. What had fallen out was a tooth. But the gap where his canine tooth should have been had already been filled. His new tooth was sharper than the old one, like a canine tooth of some small beast.

His heart pounded, and he realized why his teeth had been hurting so much.

Whether he wanted it or not, the demonic half of him seemed to be gradually manifesting.

The fear of his own non-humanity washed over him. Chao Jianxue slapped his face hard to calm himself down.

He circulated all the spiritual energy in his body, but still couldn’t find the demonic part. Only then did he hide the tooth and lie back down.

About an hour later, footsteps sounded outside Qingxue House.

Chao Jianxue was a little nervous, afraid that Yu Wei would see something amiss. But then he thought, his face was unchanged, what could he see? He sat up, still wrapped in his blanket, and greeted Yu Wei.

“What did the sect leader say—”

Seeing what Yu Wei was holding, Chao Jianxue’s throat felt like it was being strangled. He stared at him wide-eyed.

The basket of red, fig-like fruits was exactly what Yu Wei had given him when he woke up, the unbearably bad-tasting medicinal fruit.

He immediately said decisively, “I’m not eating it!”

Yu Wei put down the medicinal fruit, “The sect leader already knows and said he will send someone to investigate. This medicinal fruit was freshly picked at Wenyao Hall. Why won’t Senior Brother eat it?”

Nonsense, it’s terribly disgusting. Eating one requires drinking half a year’s worth of water.

But he couldn’t say that in front of Yu Wei. Chao Jianxue changed his tone, “Little Junior Brother, you eat it first. You worked harder. Eating more medicinal fruit is good for your body. I’m much better now, really.”

He huddled in the blanket, more serious than usual, and possessed the virtue of deferring to juniors. Chao Jianxue was very satisfied with his excuse.

Yu Wei looked at him, then suddenly turned around, took a porcelain bowl from the cabinet, washed it, put the fruit on a plate, and placed it neatly beside his couch.

Then, he picked up one to eat, the corners of his lips slightly raised, adding a touch of genuine gentleness to his usually cold face, “Thank you for your concern, Senior Brother.”

Chao Jianxue said casually, “What’s with the politeness!”

He watched Yu Wei’s expression. He didn’t seem to taste the overwhelmingly sweet flavor at all. He hesitated and said, “Is it good?”

Yu Wei said, “Not bad.”

“Really?” Chao Jianxue didn’t believe it and tentatively took one. This time, it really didn’t have the same taste as last time. On the contrary, it was very sweet.

He said, “The basket you brought last time doesn’t taste the same as this one.”

Yu Wei suddenly realized, “I picked the basket of Qingxing last time before I went to eliminate demons with Master. It’s been a few days. It should be sweeter.”

So, it had gone bad.

Chao Jianxue looked at him with a complicated expression. He found it hard to imagine that Little Junior Brother Yu seemed to be a natural airhead at heart.

He looked ethereal and reserved, but in some ways, he was actually quite cute.

The basket of medicinal fruit was soon empty, and the snow in front of Qingxue House melted quite a bit. Yu Wei hadn’t been seen all day. After the evening lesson, Chao Jianxue asked Nan Shan about Yu Wei’s whereabouts.

Nan Shan didn’t find it strange and said, “Little Junior Brother usually doesn’t appear for a day or two. He must be in his secluded cave cultivating.”

Chao Jianxue slapped his thigh.

He couldn’t let Yu Wei keep cultivating. He couldn’t just watch Yu Wei break through to the Nascent Soul stage, enter the Transformation God stage, head to the Great Ascension stage, fly into the Tribulation Transcension stage, and then “pop” ascend, only to be corrupted and destroy the world for some unknown reason.

Yu Wei’s cultivation cave was next to Qingya Residence.

At this moment, the cave door was tightly closed, without even a crack for ventilation. Chao Jianxue pried at the door for a while, cleared his throat, and shouted, “Little Junior Brother! Little Junior Brother, open the door!”

At first, there was no response. He picked up a stone and smashed the door, making a loud banging noise, causing a lot of the snow on top to fall down.

Some unaware outer disciples passed by, thinking he was trying to cause trouble for Yu Wei, and quickly hurried past. In fact, from a certain point of view, he was indeed causing trouble for Yu Wei at this moment.

Disturbing someone’s cultivation was the most hateful thing to do.

Finally, after Chao Jianxue had smashed for a while, he heard Yu Wei’s voice from inside the cave, “I can’t come out right now. Senior Brother, please leave.”

He listened carefully and detected something strange. Yu Wei’s voice wasn’t usually so weak. He seemed to be trying his best to endure something and was very afraid of him coming in.

Chao Jianxue’s curiosity was piqued. He squatted at the door and said, “Little Junior Brother, are you alright? Do you want me to come in and take a look?”

“No!” Yu Wei answered this time decisively, even a little anxiously.

Chao Jianxue continued, “Then I won’t come in. Should I call Second Senior Brother and the others over?”

“No.”

The more he said no, the more curious he became!

Chao Jianxue was just like a wicked big bad wolf, “But you don’t seem to be doing well? I’ll go call Lord Shen Du…”

Before he could finish speaking, the cave door suddenly opened, and an undeniable force pulled Chao Jianxue in. He had asked for trouble and fell to the ground.

The cave door was closed in an instant, as dark as if his sight had been taken away.

Chao Jianxue didn’t adapt to the change in light for a moment and groped around blindly in the darkness.

“Little Junior Brother? Where are you?”

A hand grabbed his arm, alarmingly hot, like touching a piece of red-hot iron in the winter wind.

Chao Jianxue was so frightened that he blinked laboriously, trying to see the situation in front of him.

Gradually, in the blurry vision he was getting, that clear and cold face of an immortal was frighteningly dangerous, his eyes full of irrepressible desire, as if an immortal had turned into a beast, a human into a demon, staring desperately at the only prey in front of him.