Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

Chapter 67 – New techniques

Baili Qingmiao said she was going to change, but Yin Hanjiang ended up waiting outside her door for three days!

After waiting for an hour, Yin Hanjiang started to lose patience, pacing back and forth outside. He wanted to throw the door open, but was concerned Baili Qingmiao wouldn’t be dressed and he would see something.

Yin Hanjiang originally didn’t care about accidentally seeing a female body. It was just a skin to him. Forget about bodies without clothes, he had seen plenty of bodies without flesh in his life. Of the two Xuanyuan Sect Protectors, one dressed skimpily and one found having flesh distasteful. After knowing these two for so long, it was hard for Yin Hanjiang to have any sense of modesty toward the opposite sex.

Just when he was about to kick the door open, Shu Yanyan, who had been lazing around wherever for the past few days, rushed up and blocked Yin Hanjiang’s kick with a smile, standing in front of the door.

“Don’t be so impatient, Sect Leader,” she said. “How can you barge in as you like on a girl changing?” She looked unruffled on the surface, but on the inside, she was cursing.

Wenren È had just sent her a message, saying that Baili Qingmiao had entered meditation, and since Zhongli Qian was too busy and he really didn’t want to bother him anymore, he needed her to come stop Yin Hanjiang from barging in. If Baili Qingmiao was disturbed, the Path of Indifference that she had finally enlightened to would be broken.

Wenren È wanted to go outside and explain himself, but Yin Hanjiang would suffer internal injuries if he saw him. Plus, even the perpetually oblivious Wenren È had learned to be a bit more considerate after causing his lover to cough up blood and nearly die upon confessing to him, and realized that if he emerged from Baili Qingmiao’s room, Yin Hanjiang might be affected by the original plot’s events and his thoughts might go to wild places.

So he had asked Shu Yanyan, who was closest to Qiu Congxue’s rooms, to come help him. As for why it wasn’t Qiu Congxue, who was even closer… did that warrant explanation?

When Shu Yanyan visited Zhongli Qian a few days earlier and picked up a strand of his hair from the floor, she had known Wenren È was back and had left Yin Hanjiang still in charge of the sect. Wenren È’s presence itself had the ability to keep Xuanyuan Sect in line, so she instantly realized she now had two bosses instead of one, feeling a hint of dismay in her heart.

Most importantly, this time Wenren È specified that Shu Yanyan couldn’t mention this was on his orders, so Shu Yanyan was in an even more difficult position. She was starting to understand how Zhongli Qian, as a Mahayana cultivator, could be losing hair.

Brushing a hand over her head of luxuriant black hair, Shu Yanyan smiled at him, saying softly, “Ah, Sect Leader Yin, you may be strong, but your understanding of what men like and what they think about is rather lacking.”

She walked near, leaning toward his ear and whispering, “If you barge in and see Baili Qingmiao improperly dressed, do you think the Venerable will be happy?”

Shu Yanyan thought Yin Hanjiang would realize, but he gave the door a disdainful glance and, raising his head, said haughtily, “The Venerable doesn’t like Baili Qingmiao.”

Shu Yanyan: …

She was realizing that she had overestimated Yin Hanjiang. Seeing him glance at her smugly and turn to kick the door again, she hurried to stop him. Though gritted teeth, she transmitted, “Of course I know who the Venerable likes, but the problem isn’t you seeing Baili Qingmiao changing, it’s you seeing anyone besides Wenren È changing, whether male or female!”

Yin Hanjiang’s foot was already against the door, prepared to bring down the whole room, but when he heard Shu Yanyan’s words, his face immediately turned red. Very slowly, he drew back his foot. Stiffening his face and raising his chin, he looked down on her as he transmitted. “Protector Shu, as one of this sect’s pillars, what… do you say I should do in this situation?”

Shu Yanyan rolled her eyes inwardly, but she was outwardly respectful as she spoke. “Why don’t I go in and take a look, and ask Baili Qingmiao to hurry up? That’s what a subordinate should be for, right?”

“Yeah.” Yin Hanjiang put his hands behind his back, turning calmly so Shu Yanyan could act.

Shu Yanyan entered, turned in a circle, and came back out. “Baili Qingmiao has entered a trance.”

” …She can enter a trance by changing clothes?” Yin Hanjiang said.

“How would I know? If you just barge in, she might have a qi deviation. If Sect Leader is impatient…”

She thought back to her meeting with Wenren È in his room. Wenren È wanted her to talk Yin Hanjiang around and ask him not to be impatient, but she mustn’t provoke him, in case he had another qi deviation.

Shu Yanyan finally understood why someone like Zhongli Qian, who was usually as unfettered as a breeze, had been looking more haggard recently. She originally thought there wasn’t anything that could stump someone so smart as Zhongli Qian. But facing this dilemma, she realized there truly was.

They were pressured by two tyrants. Wenren È wanted her to talk around Yin Hanjiang, but also wanted her to be careful, use a delicate touch, not aggravate him. He was only considerate toward Yin Hanjiang. He didn’t think about whether, when Sect Leader Yin disciplined her, he used a delicate touch!

Good thing she was Shu Yanyan, having once served the old Sect Master, then Wenren È, and now Yin Hanjiang. Seeing Yin Hanjiang’s expression was growing darker, she smiled even more sweetly and transmitted, “If Sect Leader Yin is impatient, why don’t you use this time to learn some new techniques?”

“This Lord has already passed his tribulation, so what technique of the cultivation world could be of use to me?” Yin Hanjiang said coldly.

“Don’t be so sure. How about…” Shu Yanyan leaned closer to Yin Hanjiang and made a very recognizable shape with her mouth.

Yin Hanjiang’s skin was pale and his emotions showed easily on his face. His blush which had just faded reappeared instantly. He turned with a flap of his sleeve, hiding his face, and when Shu Yanyan could next see it clearly, he was wearing a mask.

“This Lord may already be powerful, but there’s nothing wrong with learning a few more techniques,” he said. Underneath the mask, his voice was steady. “Baili Qingmiao needs to meditate alone for a while anyway, so this Lord might as well see if he can pass the time with your techniques.”

Shu Yanyan: …

Keep pretending! This Protector has so many techniques you won’t be able to learn them in a year! I won’t just teach them to you, I’ll teach them to Wenren È, and after you seclude yourselves together for thirty or fifty years, Xuanyuan Sect will belong to me!

After cussing him out mentally, Shu Yanyan, her expression still perfectly deferent, invited Yin Hanjiang to her cultivation grounds where she instructed him in her techniques for three full days.

Baili Qingmiao had already laid down the foundations of the Path of Indifference. She was just taken advantage of by the divine nature every time she underwent a tribulation, having the principles she’d just enlightened to suppressed. With the help of the divine blood, as well as Wenren È, Yin Hanjiang, Qiu Congxue, and Zhongli Qian, she comprehended everything in a flash. She enlightened to great principles after three days, and signs of her enlightenment remained in her eyes after she left her trance. She had advanced directly to Void Boundary stage, just one step away from Mahayana.

“Looking at you, it seems the tribulation to advance from Body Unity to Void Boundary had no effect on you,” Wenren È said, pleased.

“Thanks to Senior Wenren’s guidance, my heart is now as still water,” Baili Qingmiao said calmly.

“Then this Venerable has another favor to ask,” Wenren È said. “While you go to Shangqing Sect, this Venerable wishes to borrow your body to enter along with you.”

Yin Hanjiang was afflicted by inner demons. He might be powerful, but the Shangqing Sect had their Moon Pool Bell and the Blood Demon, so Wenren È was afraid complications might arise somewhere along the way. He wasn’t at ease with Yin Hanjiang going alone, yet if they were face to face, Yin Hanjiang would be tormented by being unable to tell him apart from the illusions. With all that in mind, the best way was possessing Baili Qingmiao’s body to follow Yin Hanjiang. If anything went wrong, he could help out secretly.

In the past, Baili Qingmiao would’ve never agreed. It was hard enough for her to act against Hè Wenzhao, let alone allow Wenren È to use her body.

Her thoughts were different now, however. Hè Wenzhao was an obstacle in the way of her Path of Indifference. After so much trouble, she’d finally enlightened to this path, so it would be bad if she saw him again and slipped into old mistakes. With this plan, Senior Wenren could be reassured and she could keep her heart from being shaken, so it was the perfect method.

“There’s naturally no issue. In fact, I should thank my senior.”

Wenren È’s possession technique no longer worked the same way as a blood cultivator’s. He had already taken advantage of the Blood Demon’s attack to escape the body of a blood cultivator, and now his soul was composed of chaos energy. The primordial chaos was the only force in the universe before the separation of heaven and earth, so all material things originated from it. He could meld with anything without a trace, undetectable to a degree the Blood Demon wasn’t capable of.

Thus the one who walked out of the room wasn’t Baili Qingmiao, but Wenren È wearing her body. He knew Yin Hanjiang still bore a grudge about the events of the original plot, so decided not to tell him that he was possessing Baili Qingmiao. They would just take a trip to Shangqing Sect and come back, so he didn’t need to reveal himself.

Yin Hanjiang had already returned after completing Shu Yanyan’s tutelage. With great effort, he suppressed the blush on his face with his spiritual energy and took off his mask, saying coldly to Baili Qingmiao, “You sure have wasted this Lord’s time and made him wait for you. Hurry up and get going. The faster we get there, the faster we’re back.”

He put on Yao Jiaping’s skin and flew off without another word to Baili Qingmiao.

Wenren È wasn’t good at impersonating other people in the first place, so seeing that Yin Hanjiang didn’t need an answer, followed in silence.

Yin Hanjiang could bring Baili Qingmiao along as he flew, but after learning Shu Yanyan’s techniques, he had some aversion to touching others’ skin. For example, when Yin Hanjiang used to kill people, he had no problem with grabbing their necks or ripping out their hearts with his bare hands, but after knowing about some of these techniques, when Yin Hanjiang attacked people in the future, he might wrap ropes around their necks or stab them in the heart with a weapon, preferring to have a barrier.

If you wanted to take someone along in a light flash, you would wrap them in your body, or in sword flight, Baili Qingmiao would have to sit on the Army Crushing Spike, and Yin Hanjiang didn’t want either. He could only go on ahead and wait for Baili Qingmiao to slowly catch up.

Wenren È’s light flash was quick, but if he was pretending to be Baili Qingmiao, he couldn’t go at those kinds of speeds. At Void Boundary, it would take her half a day to get from Xuanyuan Sect to Shangqing Sect, and he couldn’t bring out the Iridescent Blood Flame Silk that she had refined from the divine blood either, because the divine blood would cause Wenren È to gain a material form and be unable to possess her.

He could only fly slowly, curbing his speed. Seeing Yin Hanjiang disappear into the distance, he thought this wasn’t the way he had wanted to accompany him.

After flying for about two hours, he saw Yin Hanjiang, in the shape of Yao Jiaping, come flying back. Furiously, he said, “You’re too slow! This Lord has waited at the teahouse for an hour!”

Wenren È was trying to think of an explanation, when he saw Yin Hanjiang remove from his silver storage belt a heavenly silk rope. It could change length at will and was used for capturing people in Xuanyuan Sect. Yin Hanjiang had previously dragged back the dozen or so scum of the righteous sects, all wrapped up in this rope.

“Hold—” Baili Qingmiao had just opened her mouth when Yin Hanjiang wrapped her into a bundle so that no skin showed. He lifted her over his shoulders, heading back to Shangqing Sect.

After they arrived, Yin Hanjiang retrieved the rope with a cold huff and dropped Baili Qingmiao.

Wenren È turned cleanly in midair and managed not to faceplant. After landing solidly on both feet, he said to Yin Hanjiang, “You could’ve just taken me on your sword. What was the need for that?”

“This Lord shouldn’t have close contact with you.” Yin Hanjiang gave Baili Qingmiao a cold look. “Don’t expect this Lord to embrace you the whole way.”

“You—” Wenren È wanted to speak, but remembered how in the original story, he was always described as carrying Baili Qingmiao in his embrace the whole way as he flew—that was a direct quote.

Yin Hanjiang seemed to still have problems with the original story.

Wenren È thought Yin Hanjiang didn’t like how he loved Baili Qingmiao in the original book, so treated her poorly, but he didn’t know that Yin Hanjiang was furious about something different. His Venerable had treated Baili Qingmiao so well, yet all she’d thought about was Hè Wenzhao. She was worthless!

The person his heart was devoted to had been discarded like an old shoe, so how could he not be furious?

So now, even though those events had never happened, and could never possibly happen, Yin Hanjiang still felt… an indescribable distaste toward Baili Qingmiao.

With a cold huff, he used a cleaning spell on his hands, then grabbed Baili Qingmiao’s sleeve to wipe them.

Wenren È: …

After they reached Shangqing Sect, Yin Hanjiang restrained himself a bit. After all, he was supposed to be Yao Jiaping.

Before Yao Jiaping departed, Hè Wenzhao had given him a messaging talisman. After he rescued Baili Qingmiao and returned to Shangqing Sect, all Yao Jiaping needed to do was snap it, and Hè Wenzhao would open the wards and welcome them in.

Yin Hanjiang snapped the talisman. Hè Wenzhao, upon seeing it really was Yao Jiaping and Baili Qingmiao outside the wards, opened it enthusiastically and invited them in. After thanking Yao Jiaping, he threw his arms around Baili Qingmiao, saying, “Shimei, I didn’t want to hurt you…”

Before he could finish, Yao Jiaping kicked him off.

After kicking him, Yin Hanjiang shot a look at Baili Qingmiao, thinking, after you rejected my Venerable, you let this thing hug you?

Wenren È: …