Villainous Junior Chapter 22
Translated by Sylver (ko-fi)
Chapter 22: Xuanjue
It had been raining for several days in autumn, drizzling and misty, enveloping the entire Taixuan Sect in a layer of water vapor.
After the rain, the weather gradually turned cooler.
Xue Lang had a strong constitution. He had been able to bounce around even after receiving thirty lashes before. Now, his few scratches healed in just a couple of days, and the bruises on his neck gradually faded. At first, he was still on guard against Pei Yuze coming after him again, but later he found out that Pei Yuze had left the sect on the second day after that night. It was said that he had been given an important task and sent down the mountain by the sect leader.
Xue Lang didn't know if this was a coincidence or if Meng Chen had done something behind the scenes.
Thinking of Meng Chen, he couldn't help feeling depressed. That night, he had truly lost his temper at Meng Chen, but in reality, most of that anger was directed at himself - he hated himself for being useless, not only unable to protect that person but becoming a burden to him instead. He hated his own incompetence, feeling like no matter what he did, it was wrong.
A young person's self-esteem is both delicate and stubborn, let alone exposing one's weakness and incompetence in front of a loved one. In his shame and embarrassment, he had angrily said things like "I never want to see you again." But over these past few days, as Xue Lang calmed down, he had already realized that Meng Chen "sending" him away wasn't because he thought Xue Lang was a burden, but to prevent him from getting hurt again.
This feeling... he completely understood.
So he regretted it, spending his days agonizing over how to apologize. A hundred times his foot had crossed the threshold, only to immediately retreat the next instant.
"Like this, you should go in my place." Xue Lang placed Blue Fatty on the table, carefully tying an "apology letter" to its back with thin string. He earnestly instructed, "Fly straight out of the courtyard. The house with plantain trees planted in front is the one. Then find a very handsome person and give him this letter. If you can act cute and make him smile, that would be even better - after you succeed, you can eat whatever snacks you want, got it!?"
At the mention of food, Blue Fatty's eyes immediately lit up. It raised its wing and puffed out its chest, making two triumphant "chirp chirp" sounds before fluttering its wings and taking flight.
"Wait." Xue Lang remembered something and ran to the courtyard to pick two light purple wildflowers. He carefully pinned them to the apology letter and patted Blue Fatty's wings. "Go on now."
—
After the chubby little bird left, Xue Lang sat restlessly in the room.
Will Meng Chen read the letter?
If he reads it, will he stop being angry?
After he stops being angry, will he forgive me?
He asked a thousand "whys" in his mind, anxiously pacing around the room several times before realizing that half an hour had passed, and Blue Fatty had given no news at all!
By this time, forget flying, even walking on two legs should have gotten there. Could that stupid bird have gone to the wrong place?!
Thinking of this possibility, Xue Lang's face turned green. He immediately rushed to Qixue Residence. As soon as he entered the courtyard, he saw Blue Fatty's figure. Besides Blue Fatty, there was also a pure white crane in the yard.
The crane was drinking water by the spring, occasionally raising its long neck to elegantly groom its clean, smooth feathers. Blue Fatty watched it with eyes full of admiration and envy, waddling its chubby body to the spring's edge, trying to imitate the crane's posture to drink water. But it was so fat it barely had a neck, and its body was too heavy. When it lowered its head, it nearly fell into the water headfirst, frantically flapping its wings to avoid the fate of becoming a drenched bird.
Xue Lang: "..."
It was unbearable to watch.
The white crane also seemed to find this bird extremely stupid, revealing slight disdain in its gaze as it stepped away from Blue Fatty. Completely unaware of the other's contempt, Blue Fatty immediately waddled after it. Halfway through the chase, it suddenly remembered something, shook its feathers, dislodging the small purple flowers from its back. It lowered its head to pick them up in its beak, then happily continued the pursuit.
Xue Lang: "..."
Damn, it had learned to use flowers to court the crane!!
Is this how I meant for you to use those flowers?!
He couldn't bear to watch anymore and walked over to grab Blue Fatty. "Where's the person I told you to find!?"
Blue Fatty froze with the flower in its beak. It had forgotten all about finding someone the moment it saw the beautiful crane upon entering.
Xue Lang darkened his face as he picked up the bird. Since he was already here, he might as well take the letter off and, steeling himself, walked to the door and knocked. "Um... are you there?"
There was no response. Xue Lang mustered his courage and continued, "Please open the door. I have something to say to you. I'll leave after I say it."
Still no movement from inside. After hesitating for a while, Xue Lang screwed up his courage and boldly pushed the door open.
This was his first time entering Meng Chen's room. It was much as he had imagined - the room's furnishings were clean and elegant, with bookshelves full of books in front of the walls. By the window was a long table, on which sat not only writing implements but also a small earthen pot.
In the pot was a frost-white flower, its delicate and crystalline petals unfurled, fully bloomed.
Xue Lang stared at the flower, holding his breath, a warm current surging in his heart as a silly smile spread across his face. He rubbed his slightly reddened ears and continued walking in nonchalantly, but still didn't see any sign of Meng Chen.
Had he gone out?
Feeling a bit disappointed, he decided to come back another time. Just then, he saw Blue Fatty suddenly fly up and land on the bookshelf in the corner of the wall. It curiously twisted its head left and right, pecking at the bookshelf with its pointed beak.
"What are you doing? That's not edible..." Xue Lang had barely spoken when he felt the ground tremble slightly. The bookshelf slowly split open from the middle, revealing a hidden wall behind it.
Xue Lang: "..."
"Not bad," he murmured, rubbing Blue Fatty's head twice. "I'll personally help you chase that white crane later."
As he spoke, he carefully examined the hidden wall. Actually, mechanisms like hidden walls and secret rooms weren't rare in the cultivation world, but its appearance in Meng Chen's room was somewhat unusual.
After all, for someone with Meng Chen's icy disposition, it was hard to imagine what he would need a secret room for.
Xue Lang pressed his palm against the wall and infused it with spiritual energy. Gradually, complex patterns appeared on the wall. Upon closer inspection, Xue Lang saw it was a Nine Stars Eight Trigrams Array.
He felt somewhat disappointed. The Nine Stars Eight Trigrams Array was extremely complex and could produce over ten thousand array diagrams. It was impossible to solve based on guesswork alone. Still, he didn't give up. With a "blind cat catching dead mice" mentality, he randomly connected a few lines on the array diagram, then immediately backed up three steps with his head covered, prepared for an attack from the array.
Unexpectedly, after a moment of silence, the patterns on the array lit up. With a soft "click", the hidden wall slowly parted from the middle.
Xue Lang stared in disbelief at the open wall, unable to believe what he was seeing.
What incredible luck he had!!
Although it wasn't right to intrude without permission, the existence of this secret room was truly suspicious. Xue Lang felt vaguely uneasy. After much internal struggle, he steeled himself and walked in.
The hidden wall slowly closed behind him. He lightened his footsteps and cautiously walked forward.
After a few steps in the dim, narrow passage, his view suddenly opened up. The space inside was spacious, with oil lamps hanging on the walls, providing decent light. As Xue Lang entered, he first noticed a faint sweet scent in the air.
He sniffed, feeling the smell was familiar.
Where had he smelled this before? As he unconsciously tried to recall, he continued walking in. Soon, he saw Meng Chen sitting cross-legged with closed eyes on a stone platform.
Xue Lang felt slightly relieved. If it was just cultivation and meditation, that was fine. It seemed he had been overly suspicious. Many cultivators enter a closed, quiet place when cultivating to avoid disturbances from the outside world. Meng Chen was probably doing the same.
But he quickly noticed something was wrong — Meng Chen's expression wasn't calm and peaceful like someone in meditation. On the contrary, his lips were slightly pale, his brows tightly furrowed, and his forehead was covered in a layer of cold sweat. He looked as if he was suffering some kind of torment!
Xue Lang was suddenly alarmed. He wanted to wake Meng Chen immediately but feared that a sudden sound might make Meng Chen's condition even more dangerous. As he hesitated, his gaze fell on something placed beside Meng Chen.
It was an incense burner with a half-burned incense stick emitting a sweet fragrance.
Xue Lang finally remembered where he had smelled this scent before —
It was the "Bone-Melting Heart-Devouring Incense" he had used to punish the county magistrate when he went down the mountain to deal with the ghost marriage incident!!
Meng Chen had given him this incense, saying it was confiscated from a demonic cultivator. Xue Lang hadn't been suspicious at the time, but now he saw that Meng Chen was using it on himself!
Moreover, judging by the accumulated ash in the incense burner, this wasn't the first time he had done this!
It felt as if a giant hammer had struck Xue Lang's temple. His mind buzzed, his heart trembled and ached. In the blank confusion of his mind, his unfocused gaze fell on another object placed beside the incense burner.
It was a fragmentary scroll. On its peeling pages, he could faintly make out three black characters. "Xuan Jue Jing".
The Xuanjue technique was rumored to be a top-tier cultivation method that could make one's cultivation speed increase a thousandfold in a day. Legend had it that one could form a Golden Core in three years, reach the Nascent Soul stage in five years, and achieve Deity Transformation in ten years.
Of course, if someone with exceptional talent cultivated this technique, the speed could be even faster, potentially shortening the cultivation time by several hundred years compared to ordinary cultivators.
However, those who cultivated the Xuanjue technique never died of old age.
Cultivating beyond one's level was going against the heavens, and there was inevitably a price to pay - this technique would backlash against the cultivator. The higher the realm and the more profound the inner power, the greater the damage to the cultivator. Day by day, month by month, the damage would accumulate. Often, before reaching the ideal realm, the cultivator's meridians would reach their limit, resulting in a violent bodily destruction.
Xue Lang finally understood why Meng Chen had been able to kill that Nascent Soul fifth-layer demonic cultivator so easily that day.
Just as he felt his vision darkening and the world spinning, Meng Chen's body trembled slightly, and he suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood. Xue Lang immediately rushed forward, catching his powerless falling body in his arms.
Meng Chen never imagined someone would sneak into his secret room. Startled, he was about to strike out with his palm when he was met with the youth's reddened eyes. He was even more shocked. "...Why are you here?"
Xue Lang stared intently at his pale face and blood-stained lips. His eyes grew redder, his chest heaving violently. "What are you doing?"
Meng Chen's gaze flickered slightly, slowly falling on the extinguished incense. He remained silent.
"I'm asking you, what are you doing?!" Xue Lang suddenly exploded, veins bulging on his arms. Like an enraged lion, he wanted to pounce on Meng Chen and bite him to death. "Cultivating this kind of technique, do you not want to live?! And this Bone-Melting Heart-Devouring Incense, why are you—"
Meng Chen lowered his eyelashes and reached out to push Xue Lang away.
He coughed lightly twice, another trace of blood seeping from his lips. But even so, the young man didn't appear disheveled. His tired, pale face revealed a heart-stirring, fragile beauty.
It made one want to cherish and protect him, to hide him in one's arms, but it also easily aroused a violent desire to completely destroy him.
He raised his hand to wipe away the blood from his lips and said coolly, "Didn't you say you never wanted to see me again?"
Xue Lang never expected him to bring this up at such a time. His anger burned even hotter. Just as he was about to say something, Meng Chen interrupted him and continued, "As it happens, I feel the same. You and I have no connection. I won't look after you anymore, and you shouldn't concern yourself with me either."
"From now on, we'll go our separate ways, with no more to do with each other."
Xue Lang looked at him in disbelief, feeling as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. He froze in place, a chill spreading from his heart to his fingertips.
Meng Chen didn't look at him again. He slowly stood up, walked down the steps, and left without looking back.
He left the young man standing there for a long time, gradually clenching his fist, crushing the "apology letter" in his palm that he had spent a day and a night carefully crafting, weighing each word.
—
After the morning lesson that day, the Taixuan Sect Leader announced news to all the disciples:
The Taixu Secret Realm, which opened once every ten years, was about to open again.
The Taixu Secret Realm was left behind by the founding Sect Leader of Taixuan. The first Sect Leader had long since ascended, but the secret realm he left behind continued to thrive. It contained countless celestial materials, treasures, and rare beasts. It automatically opened once every ten years, allowing disciples to enter and explore, seeking opportunities.
Of course, the secret realm was not a trial array. It was fraught with dangers, and injuries or even deaths within the realm were common occurrences. Therefore, the Sect Leader had established a rule that only disciples at Foundation Establishment fifth layer or above could enter to explore the secrets.
The disciples had long been looking forward to the Taixuan Secret Realm. Upon hearing the news, everyone was excited and thrilled. The Sect Leader waved for them to disperse, but kept Meng Chen behind.
"You look a bit off," the Sect Leader said, somewhat surprised at the young man's complexion. "I know you're usually diligent, but you must also take care of your health. Don't push yourself too hard."
"I will heed the Sect Leader's advice," Meng Chen bowed his head and said, "Does the Sect Leader have important matters to instruct?"
"Oh, nothing major, just to tell you some good news," the Sect Leader said. "I just received a message that your master has finished his closed-door cultivation."
Meng Chen paused, slowly raising his head.
"You haven't seen him in a long time, right?" The Sect Leader stroked his beard, smiling, "In about five or six days, Immortal Lord Zhongli will return to Taixuan Sect."
