89. The Danger Behind Gentleness

After years of close association, Ye Fang had gradually fallen into Xie Wuji’s hands. But his conscience would not allow him to go that far, and he had no wish to pluck the red pearl of a girl in her bloom, so Xie Wuji declined her request in a tactful manner.

“If you want to join the Azure Dawn Sect, come to the capital and register. Private contact like this is still going a little too far.”

“No, no... I just want to join the Azure Dawn Sect. Everyone knows how hard it is to get into one of the Ten Major Sects. Since you’re an inner disciple of the Azure Dawn Sect, please, help me...” Ye Fang clung to Xie Wuji’s arm, rubbing against it, which made him all the more troubled.

Her body was fragrant, and now that she was pressed so close to him, such intimacy could easily make a man lose himself.

Xie Wuji thought to himself that it was no wonder so many disciples could not hold the line. If there were a few enchantresses like Ye Fang around, who could possibly resist?

But Xie Wuji was a down-and-out young man from the twenty-first century. He knew perfectly well what he was worth. If he had not possessed this status, who would have bothered to come near him? Or perhaps not even a ghost would have.

He coughed and said, “How about this: at most I can teach you some methods of cultivation. You can practice them and see. If your cultivation rises and you reach a certain level, perhaps you can enter the outer sect smoothly.”

Xie Wuji had already spoken with good intentions, but to his surprise Ye Fang rose onto her toes and leaned toward him. Pouting, she tried to kiss him, and even took his hand and drew it toward her waist, wanting him to stroke her there.

If Xie Wuji’s hand truly rested on her waist, then once it was on, it would be hard to take it off; and once it was off, it would be hard to put it back.

At that moment, Xie Wuji would have been lying if he said he was not shaken. He was shaken indeed, but his conscience held a little more weight, or rather, the old wound in his heart was still more real.

Back then, Xie Wuji had loved Zhu Feifei with all his heart, only to be brutally betrayed in the end. Such a wound could not possibly heal so easily, and so he instinctively pushed Ye Fang away.

This drew Ye Fang’s furious rebuke. “Are you ill? I’ve been so forward, and you still act like this? Am I really not good enough for you?”

“Enough, stop fooling around, Ye Fang. You and I both know that if I weren’t this inner disciple, you probably wouldn’t even look at me once,” Xie Wuji said.

“Then... fine...” A dangerous gleam flickered in Ye Fang’s eyes. She licked her lips, seemed to want to say more, but in the end she still returned to the village with Xie Wuji.

Xie Wuji did not go straight back to the dao hall, even though Old Master Chu had already prepared a guest room for him.

He felt that Ye Fang’s purpose was far too obvious. He wanted to see what kind of scheme this woman was hiding.

So Xie Wuji followed carefully behind her. For tracking, a shut-in like him had plenty of experience, because he had once achieved a perfect clear in a game about a stalking wolf. Thus, when it came to tracking, Xie Wuji knew the tricks of the trade all too well.

Tracking was a delicate craft: one could not stay too close, nor too far. Too close, and one would be discovered; too far, and the target would be lost.

The key was to keep the proper distance, and another crucial point was to study the surroundings carefully. At a glance, one had to find a place to hide, some spot of concealment. That was the very heart of the matter.

Xie Wuji discovered that Ye Fang did not return directly home, but instead took a winding route and arrived at the small wooden shack by the dock at the edge of the village.

That shack was generally used to store odds and ends, so it was essentially a storeroom.

But why had Ye Fang come to such a place?

Xie Wuji followed her and clung to the dock’s edge, half his body submerged in water, his upper body pressed against the wooden posts of the pier.

“How is it?” came a hoarse voice from inside the shack.

“Father, I hinted at him so obviously, but he doesn’t seem moved at all. Is it because your daughter lacks the charm to attract people?” Ye Fang said.

Xie Wuji quietly lifted half his head and saw that Ye Fang was speaking with a shaman. That shaman was the blind old man who had danced at the dockside rite earlier.

It seemed that, just as Old Master Chu had said, this shaman was Li Qiufeng.

However, since Li Qiufeng possessed abilities on the level of an elder, his cultivation must surely be at the Nascent Soul stage. A Golden Core cultivator like Xie Wuji going to test the patience of a Nascent Soul expert would only be asking for humiliation.

The blind old man said, “Very well. If he is unwilling, then we cannot be blamed. Come in first... We have already found the pregnant woman.”

“Yes, Father!” Ye Fang went inside.

Taking advantage of the moment, Xie Wuji climbed onto the roof. There happened to be a tiny worm-eaten hole there, and through it he looked inside.

“Please, I beg you, spare my wife. She is heavy with child and about to give birth,” cried a bruised and battered man, bound to a wooden post, tears streaming down his face.

In the distance stood a wooden cage, bound so tightly it could not be moved. Inside was a ragged woman, her belly round and swollen; at a glance, one could tell she was pregnant.

The blind old man groped around, and after confirming the pregnant woman’s position, he took up a small bowl and dipped his finger in the blood within it, then began drawing strange talismans upon the woman’s belly.

Xie Wuji could tell that these markings were similar to the blood-sacrifice formation he had once seen in the Hall of Yama.

The blind old man, Li Qiufeng, said, “Everyone in the caravan is dead. You were supposed to be buried with them, but I have allowed you to live a little longer. Consider that mercy. I want the eyes of the child in your wife’s womb. Once I regain my sight, I will let you go.”

“No!” The man wept bitterly. “If you want to dig out eyes, take mine... My wife has truly suffered so much. Her body is weak, yet even at the cost of her life she still wanted to bear me a child. Such loyal devotion—does it not move you at all? I beg you, spare her...”

No matter how the man pleaded, the blind old man remained cold and expressionless, as though dealing with livestock.

Ye Fang beside him was likewise full of indifference, and this greatly surprised Xie Wuji. She actually felt no compassion at all?

“Enough. Tonight happens to be the night of the full moon, so we shall carry out the Mother-and-Child Mandrake Technique at once. Once your father regains his sight, he will use the Heart-Swaying Secret Art passed down by the Demon Palace to capture this Xie Wuji and turn him into your puppet. Then I will introduce you into the Azure Dawn Sect. So long as you enter the sect, with your fine looks and clean background, no one will suspect a thing. By then, every move of the Azure Dawn Sect will be reported to our Demon Palace.”

“Though your father left the Demon Palace long ago, I still very much hope that one day I may recover my sight and return to the position of elder in the Demon Palace!”

The blind old man’s lips curled slightly upward, and his mouth full of black teeth sent a chill through anyone who saw him.

“But Father, I heard that among the seven elders of the Azure Dawn Sect, we already have eyes and ears from the Demon Palace. Isn’t what we’re doing... just gilding the lily?”

“No. That elder is merely using our Demon Palace as well. He is like a bony rib of chicken—tasteless to eat, yet too regrettable to throw away. The intelligence he provides is all trivial, but whenever he is pressed for the Azure Dawn Sect’s true core secrets, he often makes excessive demands,” said the blind old man.

Xie Wuji was secretly startled upon hearing this, and by then he had already taken out his phone and recorded every word of their conversation.

“I understand. Though the Demon Palace is also a major sect in the Clouded Sun Kingdom now, in the end it still cannot compare to the Azure Dawn Sect in status. If we can find a chance to grasp the Azure Dawn Sect’s weakness, perhaps the Demon Palace can rise and completely suppress the Azure Dawn Sect, becoming the number one sect in the Clouded Sun Kingdom,” Ye Fang said.

“So long as we accomplish this feat, we will make a great splash within the Demon Palace! Heh heh heh... then, daughter, it will be a tremendous achievement for you. Back then, those damned old fossils drove your father out of the Demon Palace simply because I was blind—but they never stopped to think carefully about why I went blind in the first place, and for what!” The blind old man’s expression shifted constantly, now pleased, now angry, impossible to read.

“Father, please calm your anger. I believe that after this matter is done, Father will certainly reclaim the position that rightfully belongs to him!” Ye Fang said.