Chapter 35: The Truth Is Revealed
“Suddenly thought of something, I realized that it was me being humble: “ Zhong Liqian smiled modestly and said: “I was worried that my mood would be affected by Miss Baili and I would lose my mind, so I forced myself to suppress my emotions. In fact, it’s not that I am stronger than you, it’s just that miss Baili is more considerate.
When both of us were affected by each other, you didn’t deliberately change your emotions which is more considerate. When both of us were affected by each other, you didn’t deliberately change your emotions to suppress mine, instead you went along with me to prevent both of us from losing control of our minds because of a fight for supremacy and thus going crazy.”
Baili Qingmiao was a little embarrassed, waved her hand and said: “It’s not that, I just think it’s not good to always feel sorry for yourself, lord Zhong helped me a lot.”
“Let’s make a deal,” Zhong Liqian said: “Before we think of a way to lift the compulsion Gu no matter who is too emotional the other person must help them to calm down. We should only be calm and think twice before acting.”
“That’s very good!” Baili Qingmiao clasped her hands and said: “It is really better to see than hear. When I was in the Shangqing sect I often heard rumors about the Zhong family. It’s a shame to say but most sects choose to stay in seclusion and are slightly prejudiced against cultivation families entering the world of mortals to cultivate. Some people even say that cultivation families are all fame seekers. Today, when I met lord Zhong I understood that you are noble and virtuous.”
“You are too kind, this is not easy.” Zhong Liqian said lightly: “Liqian can’t hide his feelings from you Miss Baili, so it’s better to be frank. I would rather be a madman who drinks wine and rides horses that doesn’t need to force himself to save people he doesn’t even like for the sake of this reputation and prosperity.”
Responsibility for Zhong Liqian is both a merit and a restriction. He himself was not even sure if it was better to put it down or carry it.
The two of them went around the Underworld Fire Altar and encountered several ghost cultivators who had come to scare them at orders of Wen Renhe who had not yet given up on the idea of “falling in love during difficult times.” and hoped that sparks would spark between them.
Unfortunately, the more they get along the more they become like brother and sister rather than lovers. Spark did not come out but only made Zhong Liqian more vigilant.
They repelled another wave of attacking ghost cultivators, Zhong Liqian stood in place, holding the book in his hand, looking up at the stars in the sky, the star of enlightenment shining brightly. The dawn was coming.
He tapped his palm with the book and said with confidence: “I see.”
“What does lord Zhong understand?” Baili Qingmiao asked with her head tilted.
Zhong Liqian put away the book and said aloud to the empty space: “Lord Wen Renhe, I have no intention to fall in love with miss Baili. It is a waste of time to spend more time on it, how about showing yourself?”
Wen Renhe froze, it was not difficult for Zhong Liqian to guess that everything was at his command, but how did he guess that he wanted him to fall in love with Baili Qingmiao?
He appeared in front of the two of them with Yin Hanjiang and said in a cold voice: “How did young lord Zheng find out?”
“Ah! Senior Wen Renhe, you are fine! It’s wonderful!” Baili Qingmiao said with a surprised expression: “I thought that you were harmed by that ghost-faced person because of all this turmoil in Xuanyuan Sect!”
“No one can harm the Venerable.” Yin Hanjiang said coldly.
“Of course the ghost-faced man wouldn’t harm lord Wen Renhe, that’s because protector Yin is the ghost-faced man.” Zhong Liqian said.
Only at this moment did Wen Renhe look at Zhong Liqian directly, this man was smarter than he thought. This wisdom makes one wonder how Zhong Liqian could have fallen in love with Baili Qingmiao in the original book?
Zhong Liqian was able to guess that Wen Renhe wanted to match him with Baili Qingmiao very simple. When he was looking for a way out with Baili Qingmiao, he inquired about Baili Qingmiao encounter with Wen Renhe in details and learned about Wanli ice fields, death of miss Shu and treasure taken from the golden coast cliff. Baili Qingmiao was not very suspicious person, in addition she already trusted in Zhong Liqian at this time so she told him everything in details. The cultivators have good memory so under Zhong Liqian’s questioning, she basically restored all events up to now.
Through Baili Qingmiao’s description, Zhong Liqian initially determined that this miss Shu was definitely the right protector Shu Yanyan who he had one-sided encounter with before. He Wenchao was one of cultivators of Absolute Spiritual Array. Wen Renhe had ordered his right protector to seduce He Wenchao years ago to easily break Absolute Spiritual Array. But he delayed breaking it for ten years until all the cultivators involved in the war were unable to use spiritual energy for heaven and earth for at least ten years.
“What lord Wen Renhe has done for the common people, Zhong Liqian admires very much. It is really difficult to maliciously speculate on lord Wen Renhe’s intentions so I only thought of the most reasonable direction.” Zhong Liqian did not avoid Baili Qingmiao as he said his guess in front of the four of them.
Baili Qingmiao froze like a wooden chicken, her whole person experienced a huge blow from inside to outside.
“Senior Wen Renhe, is miss Shu really the right protector of the Xuanyuan Sect? She really did not die?” Baili Qingmiao involuntarily grabbed Wen Renhe sleeve and looked at him with her only remaining right eye.
“This venerable can ask her to come to see you.” Wen Renhe said.
Suddenly a dazzling line of sight fell on the hands of Baili Qingmiao, Wen Renhe did not look at the source of the line of sight, but inadvertently pulled out his sleeve. Sure enough, after avoiding the touch of Baili Qingmiao the intense gaze from Yin Hanjiang’s direction disappeared.
Was Yin Hanjiang hostile to Baili Qingmiao? No, before this, he already told Yin Hanjiang part of the plot of 《Abusive Love Affair》and told him that he and Baili Qingmiao had a teacher student relationship. The reason for this division between himself and Baili Qingmiao was so Yin Hanjiang would not misunderstand like in the book so why would he show his hostility at this time?
Wen Renhe couldn’t think clearly for a while, and didn’t want to expose it in front of Zhong Liqian so he had to put his doubts aside for the time being, and summon Shu Yanyan, ordering her to come to Underworld Fire Altar as soon as possible.
“Lord Wen Renhe has a three-sided relationship with miss Baili, although his method is a little rough it shows the intention of refining. Miss Baili has excellent qualifications, so I guess Lord Wen Renhe has the intention to teach her. However, miss Baili have only He Wenchao in her heart who successively had a relationship with Miss Shu and material sister Liu while repeatedly saying that he loves miss Baili deeply.” Zhong Liqian smiled and said: “Coupled with the fact that lord Wen used compulsion Gu used by Miaojiang women to maintain the relationship with their husbands it not difficult to see with these above points that lord Wen Renhe hoped to help miss Baili get rid of her love toward him through me.”
The three people present were impressed by his words, Zhong Liqian was an outsider and all his knowledge of the matter came from the not-so-sober Baili Qingmiao. With such limited information, he was able to guess the truth that Shu Yanyan and other Xuanyuan Sect insiders did not see through, it was really remarkable.
“How could you tell I was the ghost-faced person?” Yin Hanjiang took out his ghost mask and put it on his face. Baili Qingmiao seeing the mask shivered a fear from the bottom of her heart made her fear this mask.
Zhong Liqian reassured Baili Qingmiao: “Don’t be afraid, Patriarch Yin was well disguised, only saying one sentence. He said we are not worthy to have Lord Wen Renhe token, these words could only be spoken by a person who had great respect for Lord Wen Renhe, making our previous speculation that the Ghost Faced Man assassinated lord Wen Renhe no longer exist.”
“Similarly, since the ghost-faced man respects lord Wen Renhe so much if he was killed, the ghost-faced man would never be in the mood to pay attention to us, so lord Wen Renhe must be safe and sound. The only person who met this condition was Patriarch Yin, so I boldly guessed it and was lucky to guess correctly.”
The star of enlightenment flashed above Zhong Liqian’s head, like the only ray of light in the night sky. He smiled modestly, which was like a spring breeze just like the saying goes ‘if a gentleman is like a jade, he has no equal in the world.
“Clap”, “clap”, “clap!” Wen Renhe clapped three times in a row before saying admiringly: “Zhong Liqian is worthy of being known as talented.”
It was not in vain that the author set Zhong Liqian as an important male lead, someone like him was really worthy of being male lead no.3 just below the second male lead Wen Renhe.
“Lord Wen Renhe is too kind.” Zhong Liqian said humbly: “The only thing I don’t understand is why you thought I could have a relationship with Miss Baili? Miss Baili is a pure and good person, which I admire in my heart, but to fall in love with her just for that wouldn’t it be too childish?”
“This matter, this Venerable doesn’t understand, and will need to ask young master Zhong for an explanation.” Wen Renhe said.
Zhong Liqian raised his eyebrows, his doubts had almost penetrated the blindfolded cloth as he waited for Wen Renhe answer.
Wen Renhe pondered for a moment, deliberated on the wording before saying: “This venerable peeped into the heavenly opportunities, young master Zhong may have a destiny with Baili Qingmiao.”
“Can you be more detailed, Liqian also wants to know under what circumstances he will be moved?” Zhong Liqian asked.
As they spoke, Baili Qingmiao looked at Wen Renhe one moment and at Zhong Liqian in the next, her mind turning into a jumbled mess. These two people were obviously talking about her but they were extremely cautious with their words. Taking into account her as the person in question and not trying to embarrass her at all.
Baili Qingmiao stared at Zhong Liqian thinking, how could lord Zhong fall in love? He was such a selfless person he would certainly not be as brain dead as her…
Before she could think about it, she was knocked unconscious by Wen Renhe. The revised version of 《Abusive Love Affair》 was told from the perspective of Baili Qingmiao, Wen Renhe did not want the original plot of the book to appear in the revised version so he roughly knocked out Baili Qingmiao.
“According to the fate of heaven, you will meet Baili Qingmiao, who is imprisoned in the back mountain of Shangqing sect on the day of He Wenchao wedding, taking pity on her, you help her escape. After meeting her again you saw the depth of her love as she could not escape from it. You once again help her and then fall in love with her. You also promised her to give up the Zhong family for her and wander the world with her. This Venerable also wants to know why?” Wen Renhe asked.
Zhong Liqian had never heard of anyone who could tell the fate of heaven in such detail as if he had seen it with his own eyes. If it was anyone else who told him this, he would definitely not believe it. But Wen Renhe was not someone who would say such absurd things so when Zhong Liqian saw that he was speaking seriously, he thought deeply about it himself.
He was thinking for a long time, even the star of enlightenment disappeared and the weak sunlight shone into the ghost mountain when Zhong Liqian suddenly said: “After all it did not happen so it’s hard to guess what I was thinking at that time. I have thought about it for a long time and imagine that there seems to be only one explanation for what lord Wen Renhe said: empathy. “
“How so?”
Zhong Liqian smiled miserably for a moment. “To say a treacherous word, He Wenchao is to Baili Qingmiao what the Zhong family is to Liqian, it’s the shackle. Liqian is burdened with the Zhong family prosperity, so he must follow the family rules in every word and deed, and can never be sloppy. Liqian is bound by his family rules when miss Baili is bound by her love.”
“If the fate that the lord says is true, there is only one reason why Liqian would give up the family cultivation and leave the family, not because he admires miss Baili but because he hopes to draw courage from her. If she can let go of her feelings, can’t Liqian obey his heart for once?”
“So that’s how it is.” Wen Renhe understood.
In the book, Zhong Liqian had never confessed his love to Baili Qingmiao, but what he said and did made the reader misunderstand. This was after all a romance novel, he was willing to take such a good care of the heroine and willing to give up on becoming the family hair so readers would naturally think it was because of love.
It was the same as Wen Renhe paying his karma debt, the reason for Zhong Liqian’s feelings was also due to reason.
Baili Qingmiao was really bitter; she was entangled with so many men, but none of them truly loved her.
“I wish I could have a heart so I could never leave you. Baili Qingmiao, your one heart, never existed.” Wen Renhe said to the unconscious Baili Qingmiao.
Unfortunately, this passage could not be heard by the unconscious her.
“Even if you guessed it, this Venerable will not untie the compulsion Gu and spell for you.” Wen Renhe said domineeringly to Zhong Liqian.” Even if you don’t want to follow Baili Qingmiao so she stops loving He Wenchao, you can still help this Venerable.”
Zhong Liqian was not angry, his words actually carried a hint of relief: “The Zhong family will not let a person who can’t see with both eyes and has been infected with the compulsion Gu be the heir. What venerable has done gives Liqian a chance.”
“The Zhong family’s prestige and Qi can make you a Soul combination realm cultivator exert strength beyond the Mahayana realm, do you want to give it up?” Wen Renhe asked.
“Mahayana stage, in future I can cultivate it by myself.” Zhong Liqian said: “Liqian intends to go home to relieve himself of his duties and travel the world together with Miss Baili. After a few decades Liqian may be able to break the way of heaven.”
Just as he said, Wen Renhe actions opened the whole new path for Zhong Liqian who was willing to walk into it.
“After you reach the Mahayana realm, you can fight with this venerable!”
Zhong Liqian said’ “Liqian will first thank venerable for his appreciation.”
While they spoke, Shu Yanyan already rushed to ghost mountain with an unhappy expression, landing next to Wen Renhe she said: “It stinks. Qiu Congxue even asked me to bring a piece of ownerless bones from Ghost Mountain. I really want to beat her to death! It’s a pity that I can’t beat her….”
“Protector Shu.” Zhong Liqian greeted Shu Yanyan.
“Your eyes ……” Shu Yanyan said with a pained expression: “How come your eyes can’t see? Did Venerable gouge your eyes?”
“No…”
Before Zhong Liqian could finish, Shu Yanyan already turned to Wen Renhe and said: “Venerable, why didn’t you let this subordinate gouge his eyes?! If this subordinate could do it, just the thought that the last thing he saw with his eyes before he died was this subordinate’s face, I …… I would be very happy!”
When Baili Qingmiao woke up, she not only saw Miss Shu’s face at first sight but also heard hers words. She was so surprised that she almost fainted again.
“Miss Shu, are you still alive?” Baili Qingmiao stood up and asked.
“It’s you, little fool.” Seeing that there were other women present, Shu Yanyan immediately assumed her Demon Sect Protector stance and said calmly and with vigor: “What’s wrong with me being alive? You and your brother are happy that I cheated you? Not happy? That is alright this Protector loves to see others unhappy~”
“No, happy.” From Baili Qingmiao’s right eye slowly flowed a line of tears, “It’s great that you’re alive.”
Even if she was deceived, at this moment she did not think of how she had been deceived and only thought that she did not kill anyone. She also never thought that demonic path cultivators were despicable and shameless, deceiving the feelings of their righteous people.
Shu Yanyan, who was also made somewhat uncomfortable by Baili Qingmiao’s words: “It’s alright to be happy” She said with a straight face. “you should also thank this protector for helping you recognize the true face of He Wenchao in advance.”
Shu Yanyan raised her hand to wipe away her tears and said softly: “I’ll only say this once to make up for the fact that I lied to you. I have seen a lot of men like He Wenchao. He voluntarily had a relationship with me and later said I seduced him. He lusts after beauty, but says he only has you in his heart, putting all the blame on women. What kind of man is he?”
“That kind of man doesn’t deserve you, silly girl.”
Edited by: Ninja
Proofread by: Nio