The Ninth Elder was just about to leave when he paused upon hearing this. “There's no need to have too much contact with the Wen family anymore. They are different from other people. Besides, the current situation is worse than we thought. For now, just protect yourselves.”
With that, he deactivated the barrier and walked away quickly without looking back.
Now that he was gone and her task was complete, Song Yao unhurriedly turned around and walked toward the courtyard.
With a complicated expression, Jiang Jin hurriedly caught up with her. “When did Ye Chang'an tell you? How could he reveal this so easily? Doesn't he harbor a deep hostility toward our Nine Saints Hall? And Fourth Senior Brother—this is the Beiyao Sect, so how could he be here? Why didn't you tell me first...”
Up ahead, disciples from other sects were walking inside. Song Yao paused, turned to look at him, and frowned slightly. “Jiang Jin.”
Jiang Jin was taken aback. “What?”
Song Yao said, “You're so noisy.”
Jiang Jin was incredulous. “I—I'm noisy?”
Song Yao said, “If you spoke as little as Fourth Senior Brother, you'd probably be a bit more likable.”
Jiang Jin: “...”
Song Yao wrapped her cloak tighter around herself. Tilting up her fair, delicate face, she sighed softly. “Be good. If you don't want our sect's business to become public knowledge, then shut your mouth, okay?”
Staring into those clear, bright eyes, Jiang Jin felt strangely choked up. The words caught in his throat, and in the end, he only managed to squeeze out, “U-Understood.”
Only then did Song Yao curl her lips in satisfaction, showing a faint smile. “Let's go. Let's head inside.”
...
The courtyard was spacious, with cushions arranged along the waterside pavilion. Iced pudding, warm tea, and various small pastries were set out on the tables. A breeze blew through the hall, gently swaying the gauze curtains hanging under the corridor.
In the central open space, several disciples were performing a sword dance to liven things up. The sword light flowed with their movements, and the tassels fluttered, drawing waves of quiet cheers from the onlookers.
The disciples of the Nine Saints Hall were sitting by a stone table near the water, which was embedded with a chessboard carved with Big Dipper star patterns.
A crowd of disciples stood around them, watching intently and whispering in low discussion from time to time.
Song Yao walked over to take a look and recognized it.
This was a unique way of playing chess in the cultivation world.
Both sides had to place spirit stones on the board to form miniature arrays to counter each other, and the winner would get all the spirit stones on the board.
Formation cultivators were generally banned from participating in this game.
In her past life, Song Yao had played it a few times with her Eldest Senior Brother and Fifth Junior Sister. Both of them were formation cultivators, so they always defeated her.
Uncharacteristically, she hadn't thrown a tantrum. Instead, she quietly observed and learned from them. After a period of secret study, she went down the mountain, utterly crushed the other disciples, and made a massive fortune in spirit stones.
Because she won too excessively, the Nine Saints Hall banned its disciples from playing spirit stone formation chess for a period, claiming it was no different from running a gambling den.
Seeing it now, she was suddenly struck by a playful urge. She squeezed her way through the crowd and sat down primly at the stone table. “I want to play the next round too.”
Just as she finished speaking, the young woman sitting opposite pinched a thread of spiritual energy with her fingertips, letting a dot of white light land on a spirit stone.
The star lines suddenly lit up, winding like silver snakes to break through the trapping array set up by Chen He. The core of the array shattered instantly, and several spirit stones rolled onto the table.
Chen He cupped his hands and smiled. “Impressive, impressive. I lose.”
With that, he stepped aside to make room and waved to Song Yao. “Seventh Senior Sister, you play.”
Song Yao immediately squeezed into his seat. She pulled a handful of spirit stones from her spatial pouch, clattering them onto the table, and said eagerly to her opponent, “I'm ready.”
Seeing this, the young woman opposite couldn't help but smile. Just as she was about to agree, a sudden noise came from the entrance of the courtyard.
The disciples gathered around the stone table instinctively stopped talking and turned to look.
—A group from the Taiqing Pavilion was walking in slowly. At their head was Ye Chang'an, his face gloomy, with the Wen siblings following closely behind him on his left and right.
The disciples surrounding the stone table instinctively took half a step back, and even the noisy atmosphere in the courtyard quieted down a bit.
Everyone knew that Ye Chang'an found the Nine Saints Hall an eyesore, and no one wanted to invite trouble for no reason.
Even the smiling young woman opposite pulled back her expression. Her hand holding the spirit stones froze in midair, looking a bit hesitant.
Ye Chang'an's gaze swept across the courtyard, and as expected, it finally landed on the disciples of the Nine Saints Hall. He paused for a moment before walking straight toward them.
The surrounding atmosphere grew even more tense in an instant.
Chen He and the others curled their fingers, instinctively resting their hands on the swords at their waists. They stared warily at Ye Chang'an, fearing he would make trouble in public.
Only Song Yao sat in the middle, playing with her spirit stones. Annoyed at having her fun interrupted, she looked up with a frown. “Young Master Ye, how about a game?”
Chen He's pupils contracted slightly, and the onlookers around them swallowed hard.
As expected of the champion of this Myriad Bones Forest trial. She wasn't afraid of Ye Chang'an at all and even had the audacity to challenge him...
Everyone silently took another half-step back.
In the next instant, however, they saw Ye Chang'an also silently take half a step back, his expression slightly stiff. “I don't know how to play spirit stone formation chess. Why don't you play with Wushuang and Wumian instead?”
His tone wasn't particularly warm, but for someone as notoriously arrogant as Ye Chang'an, this was already the absolute height of politeness.
After a moment of silence, the crowd began to process this.
Had this Young Master Ye somehow reconciled with the Nine Saints Hall?
That shouldn't be. How long had it even been?
Or was he just keeping up appearances?
Could it be that out of respect for Chen Qingqiu, he had no choice but to show some respect to this trial's champion?
Speculations ran wild among the crowd, but regardless of the reason, everyone let out a sigh of relief.
As long as this young master didn't make trouble, it was the best possible news.
But no one expected that the one to make trouble would be someone else.
Song Yao's brow furrowed even deeper, and she rejected him with even greater displeasure. “Aren't they formation cultivators? Are they trying to swindle me of my spirit stones? Absolutely not.”
The crowd: “...”
This little pill cultivator is incredibly bold.
She had already provoked Ye Chang'an in public last time, and here she was doing it again.
She truly, truly, truly has a death wish.
Yet, Ye Chang'an's temper today was ridiculously good. He actually explained, “Wushuang indeed studies formations, but Wumian doesn't. Let Wumian play.”
Song Yao thought about it, regained a bit of interest, and nodded. “Fine. Let's do it.”
The connection between the Wen family and the Nine Saints Hall was deep as well, and the players were both outstanding talents. The disciples gathered around again to watch with great enthusiasm, and some even quietly placed bets with their own spirit stones.
Whenever she was in this kind of situation, Song Yao couldn't suppress her urge to show off. She raised her hand and said, “You go first.”
Wen Wumian had originally intended to go easy on this girl who looked much younger than him. Surprised by her words, he nodded and lightly raised his hand.
Five spirit stones on the table rose into the air at his command. They drifted slowly along the Big Dipper star patterns on the chessboard, settling onto five key star positions.
A few faint silver threads connected the spirit stones. As the light flowed, the rudimentary outline of a basic trapping array quietly spread across the large chessboard.
Ye Chang'an had someone bring over a chair and sat down behind Wen Wumian, his expression calm and a smile on his lips.
Although Wen Wumian was not a formation cultivator, he had learned some techniques. Very few in the Taiqing Pavilion could defeat him in this game.
Even if Ye Chang'an couldn't beat Song Yao in a fight and couldn't do anything to her for the moment, it would still be nice to knock her down a peg in public.
Rate on N.U.
