Chapter 51: Lies and Loyalty

The sky over Floating Cloud Valley was clear and without a single cloud. Vast herb fields stretched across the landscape, and wild herbs carpeted the mountains, many of them spirit medicines worth a thousand gold.

Zora bid farewell to Ning Chi and walked out of the house. The mission location was on the outskirts of Floating Cloud Valley, and Vane followed her as they walked a circle. Returning by the original path, Zora discovered that the entrance was blocked, so she turned around and retraced her steps with an expressionless face.

Vane opened his mouth as if to speak, but hesitated: "..."

The surrounding medicine disciples were nowhere to be found, and Zora still had no concept of "asking for directions." She took out a compass to check the orientation, then solemnly walked toward the direction where the wind was blowing. Since she hadn't spoken, Vane generally wouldn't take the initiative to make a decision; moreover, the area was sparsely populated, and there was no one around to ask.

Time was like flowing water to a cultivator, impossible to measure. His emotions were stable, without any impatience, as he followed Zora along the small paths of Floating Cloud Valley.

Zora stopped on a small hill. Aside from the two of them, there was no one else in sight. The golden needle of the compass kept spinning, unable to find a fix. She shook the compass repeatedly, nearly shaking the needle loose. When she leveled it again, the needle trembled for a while before slowly stopping to the right.

Mhm...

Zora waited, and seeing the needle didn't change, she headed right. Vane looked around; his excellent memory allowed him to easily memorize the route they had taken.

It was half an hour later when Huang Ying, carrying a medicine basket on her back, spotted them.

Eh? Isn't this the Zora who beat her black and blue at the Great Competition?

Huang Ying’s eyes lit up, and she swung her sickle around: "Hey—Fellow Daoist Zora!"

Zora stopped and turned her head. Vane cast a light, fleeting glance at Huang Ying.

Huang Ying ran over at a "slow" speed—slow in the eyes of the two sword cultivators, though she was actually exerting her full effort. She arrived before Zora with slightly messy hair and a beaming smile: "Long time no see! Are you at Floating Cloud Valley to find a medicine cultivator to treat an illness? Coming here usually means incurable diseases or severe injuries. Why not try my Golden Hall? Since you gave me a beating, I’ll give you a fifty percent discount. I won’t take advantage of you."

Huang Ying occasionally spoke without thinking for the sake of business, which had resulted in several eye-rolls from others. Fortunately, the girl before her had a completely unusual way of thinking and didn't feel cursed.

Fifty percent discount?

Zora turned her head and asked Vane: "Do you have any injuries?"

Indeed, she was entirely ignorant of her servant’s physical condition, only knowing he was alive. Generally, it was always Vane who sought her out; as for Vane's life while doing missions alone, she was unaware and had never thought to find out. Vane was the opposite; he had mastered Zora’s daily routine. Even when he was away alone, he could look at the sun to judge the time and guess her whereabouts with high accuracy.

When Zora asked, Huang Ying also looked at him expectantly, as if he were already covered in bandages.

Vane shook his head: "No."

Huang Ying turned back in disappointment.

Zora: "Any lingering illnesses?"

Huang Ying turned her head again, full of expectation.

"None."

Huang Ying squeezed her thin coin purse and sighed. Zora didn't notice the gesture at all and asked again: "Any physical discomfort, insomnia, or headaches?"

Huang Ying’s eyes lit up once more as she stared. Vane ignored her gaze. He looked at Zora and shook his head as usual: "None." He paused and added, "My body has no discomfort whatsoever."

Huang Ying: "Sigh... then do you need health-preserving pills? Pills to stabilize your realm? Pills to clear the mind and calm the heart? Or poison?"

Zora thought about it and felt that the most powerful poison was the Aphrodisiac; even the male lead couldn't resist it, and he was the Sword Sovereign who was supposed to be immune to ten thousand poisons. This proved that the Aphrodisiac was invincible in the original work.

The more Zora thought about it, the more logical it seemed. In case she couldn't defeat an enemy in the future, she might use it.

"Do you have Aphrodisiacs?"

"..." Vane, standing still with his arms crossed, lowered his eyes to glance at her.

Huang Ying was shocked: "I don't sell that kind of stuff here! That’s the business of the He Sect... well, if there's enough money, I could try to get some."

She led the two to the Golden Hall. It was still early for the mission, so Zora followed her inside, and Vane naturally did as well. The Golden Hall was located in a remote corner. Zora stared at the dilapidated thatched hut in front of her.

It looks like it would be easily destroyed,

she thought.

Huang Ying went inside to rummage around. Zora looked toward a stone table not far away. An androgynous youth was sitting there, writing something. He looked a bit familiar, but she didn't know him. Zora remained expressionless.

Chi Ting was writing when he suddenly sensed a gaze. He looked up and realized the owner of the gaze was the sword cultivator he had met on the Ningcan Grassland during the competition.

"...!"

He instantly remembered the dangerous sensation of that cold, snowy sword resting against his neck, demanding he speak louder. He trembled.

Huang Ying walked out, sweating, holding several pill bottles to hand to Zora: "Here, these are the pills you wanted."

Vane stepped forward at the right time, paid the money, and accepted the pills, acting entirely as one who did things for Zora. This caused Huang Ying to steal a few more glances at him.

Then, she followed Zora’s gaze and said, "Ah, that is Senior Uncle Chi Ting of our Floating Cloud Valley. He is a merman. He’s quite old; he might have been here since the time of the first Valley Master."

The very old Chi Ting kept his head low, his forehead almost touching the paper. Under Zora’s gaze, he was like a quail, shivering in fear.

Zora: Spacing out.

Seeing Zora had no intention of speaking, Vane opened his mouth: "I recall he was a handyman at the Zen Meditation Temple?"

"Oh, that..." Huang Ying’s lip twitched. "He is the author of that very popular 'Immortal Tuwang' storybook. Likely because of that, Floating Cloud Valley disciples often used to come with the books in hand, filled with indignation and wanting to fight him. He got scared and hid at the Zen Meditation Temple."

Vane raised a brow. A Senior Uncle going to be a handyman at another sect, and the Valley Master of Floating Cloud Valley being so indulgent—even not interfering with his books—it seemed to be tacitly permitted.

Huang Ying didn't think that far, nor did she realize the youth beside Zora wasn't as polite as he appeared; he was full of schemes. She glanced at the bamboo slips under Chi Ting’s hand. As for why the disciples hated the book yet kept buying it... wasn't it a case of cursing while reading, unable to stop? Even if the plot was cliché, they just wanted to keep going...

Ahem.

Huang Ying cleared her throat and said solemnly: "In any case, the first Valley Master of our Floating Cloud Valley was absolutely nothing like that Immortal Tuwang in the book! That is fictional!"

Zora snapped out of it at her shout: "Leaving."

Huang Ying: "Eh? Leaving already? Alright, alright, come back next time!"

Chi Ting only lifted his head once the girl had left. He only had time to gaze at Zora’s back. He had only watched for a few breaths when the black-clad youth behind Zora turned his head slightly and accurately captured his gaze.

As a merman, Chi Ting was very sensitive to human emotions. His face turned deathly pale. The youth’s expression didn't change; he even gave a friendly smile. Anyone would think he was a polite and spirited young cultivator. But the malice that swept over Chi Ting was like a thick, hideous swamp—inescapable and impossible to tear away.

Chi Ting had encountered countless instances of malice, but never any as dense and dark as Vane’s, as if it were innate and naturally formed. The girl with the calm expression was the exact opposite; in her presence, he felt only a water-like cleanliness, devoid of any emotion. It was likely that Chi Ting as a person had never even registered in her mind.

Chi Ting pursed his lips and lowered his eyes to avoid Vane’s gaze, looking at the black ink stain blooming on the paper where his brush had stopped.

...A strange pair. Are these the cultivators of the December Sect?

After they left, the merman stared in the direction they had gone for a long time without snapping out of it.

The mission to exorcise the monster wasn't difficult; the difficulty lay in the fact that the monster held a hostage. The woman restrained by the monster was trembling, her face covered in tears: "Save me... please save me..."

The monster was a mutated wolf. It let out a howl to the sky, its sharp claws about to tear through the woman's internal organs. To its surprise, the two cultivators opposite just watched quietly.

"..." The woman’s cries stopped for a subtle moment before she continued wailing. Her clothes had somehow slipped down, revealing a shoulder—a truly pitiful sight.

Her eyes, full of pleading, looked toward the youth holding the spear, only to meet exceptionally cold dark eyes. The woman froze. Vane had already turned his calm gaze toward Zora.

Zora was puzzled because she had never encountered a mission where the target held a hostage. She didn't quite know how to handle it. She thought about Zhou Shijin’s teachings—mhm, her master hadn't taught this.

Zora: "What is our mission?"

Vane: "Eradicate the monster." He paused and added, "If she dies, no one will likely find out."

As someone from the Demon Realm, he was very familiar with the ways of his kind. There was a type of gemstone in the Demon Realm that could maximize the suppression of demonic aura. He had seen it in the houses of some demon cultivators. Right now, that gemstone should be embedded in the woman’s flesh. However, the gemstone must be damaged; a sliver of demonic aura drifted out from the flesh of the woman’s arm before quickly dissipating.

It was only for an instant. Only because Vane had been in contact with demonic aura and knew exactly what it was could he capture it so quickly.

Zora made the final decision: "Complete the mission first."

Since they had accepted the mission, keeping the promise was the most important thing. Zora was exceptionally serious about fulfilling every commitment.

Tears still hung at the corners of the woman's eyes, looking delicate and pitiful. She opened her lips to call for help again, only to see the sword-cultivator’s River Snow sword unsheathe. She struck without any regard for the hostage’s safety.

"...No!"

The sword edge whistled past the woman's cheek, nearly slicing her face. The monster was struck and let out a roar. The long spear followed immediately. The red-tasseled spear was incredibly fast; the whistling wind followed its movements as it became a blur in the youth’s hand. When he struck, the tassel pierced through the monster’s body, and the River Snow sword pierced through the monster’s head from top to bottom.

Clang!

The tip of the sword met the spear handle inside the monster’s body. The silhouettes of the two and their blood-stained weapons were vivid under the sunlight. The woman hurriedly hid to the side.

Zora cut off the monster’s head and put it into her storage bag. She glanced at the woman curled in a ball: "You handle her."

With that, Zora walked toward the distant stream.

"...Yes." Vane watched her leave, only turning to the woman once Zora’s silhouette was out of sight.

The woman immediately lunged toward him, kneeling at his feet. By now, her clothes had fallen to her arms, baring her shoulders.

"Please save me... benefactor, do you... do you know Vane of the December Sect? Can you take me to find him? I have truly reached the end of my rope... please have pity on a weak woman like me..."

She wept, intentionally pressing close to him. Vane stepped back, and the woman’s movement missed its mark. He located the scar on her arm, and just as he was about to gouge out the gemstone, he heard his own name. He smiled: "You know him?"

At the same time, he set up a barrier to prevent sound from leaking. Even if someone with a higher cultivation passed by, they would only see a barrier here.

Woman: "Yes..."

"But I don't know you."

The woman froze. She looked into the youth’s smiling dark eyes, her expression dazed: "Vane... you are Vane?"

Vane smiled and said nothing.

The woman shivered for a while, then suddenly went into a frenzy, her face contorting: "You...! You must return! The Demon Realm has been silent for too long. If it is you, you can surely revitalize the Demon Realm!"

"I am just an ordinary cultivator. I don't know what you're talking about."

Even so, Vane did not admit it verbally.

"That person said you could, so you definitely can!"

Vane questioned her a few more times and discovered that this thing wearing a woman's skin didn't know "that person's" name, nor did it know why that person so firmly concluded he could revitalize the Demon Realm.

He suddenly felt bored. His spear shot out, brutally tearing through the skin. The woman was still indignantly speaking of the injustices suffered by the Demon Realm when the spear tip ripped her skin open. She screamed. The moment the skin fell away, the "woman" turned into a thin, small man. He was covered in blood—a vivid red without skin. The screaming was deafeningly shrill.

The blood-soaked gemstone fell from the flesh of the man's arm. Vane destroyed it. The screaming gradually weakened and then vanished completely. The man's limbs were twisted, his bulging eyes staring at him: "Wh... why..."

"I also wanted to ask why," Vane’s smile vanished, his face full of indifference. "What does the business of the Demon Realm have to do with me?"

What injustices? What did the tragedies of strangers have to do with him? Besides, pitying those of the Demon Realm? Who was that stupid? If one truly pitied the Demon Realm, they wouldn't even know how they died or how they were eaten in the end. Moreover—where did it look like he had any sense of responsibility or righteousness toward the Demon Realm?

"I'm not falling into the demonic path."

Otherwise, I would be standing against her.

The corpse hit the ground. The youth used corpse-dissolving liquid to melt it. The body turned into a thick liquid and flowed into the soil.

...

Zora propped up her chin, sitting in a tree and watching him kill.

The Oracle felt lingering fear: [My god, the plot almost happened early. Fortunately, it was just a minion who didn't know the villain was a Demon Seed.]

Zora: "Maybe that person really is coming to find him? Isn't there a Demon Realm entrance here?"

Oracle: [The original book didn't say which entrance he came out from. It only said he suddenly appeared at the Black Suspended Sea to take the villain into the Demon Realm. That timeline is still far off, so we shouldn't run into him this time.]

Zora gave an indifferent hum of acknowledgment. Anyway, she had no intention of using her brain to avoid that plot point. This time, she just happened to see a Demon Realm entrance and decided to test her luck.

She was far away. While Vane was killing, he looked in her direction. Zora had already raised an invisibility barrier. Their cultivations were evenly matched; he couldn't discover Zora's barrier in a short time, so naturally, he didn't realize someone was there. And his barrier was set right behind her.

Oracle: [...Good thing the villain didn't find out you were peeking.]

The Oracle thought silently:

But the villain understands Zora so well... fortunately, he doesn't know Zora already knows his background. That's why he judged incorrectly, thinking she wouldn't peek.

Zora’s expression was relaxed, her toes swinging a few times in the air: "That's why I can't be weaker than him." Vane was extremely sharp; she had to hide from his eyes.

But nothing happened,

Zora thought. That was fine; she was actually quite happy because the original plot was the part she was prepared for.

The sound-locking barrier vanished. Zora also removed her barrier and flipped down from the tree. Vane seemed to sense something and looked toward the distant tree trunk again, but there was only a beautiful bird hopping on the branch, which then fluttered its wings and flew away.

...

He walked to the stream. Zora was looking at the fish in the water.

"You, grill the fish," Zora said, pointing at the stream.

Vane acknowledged. His spear had been cleaned by a spell, but he still used a tree branch, flicking it into the water and easily pulling out a fish. He ought to report on the task Zora had given him.

"That woman has already left."

Vane spoke without a change in expression. He must never let her discover his identity as a member of the Demon Realm. Vane watched the fish swaying in the clear stream. At the end of the lie, he didn't realize the reason had already shifted from "establishing a foothold in the cultivation world" to "not wanting her to be wary."

Zora gave an "oh," sitting on a stone by the stream with her chin propped in her hand, staring at him curiously. The youth was focused on selecting fish from the stream. His long ponytail looked sharp, and his entire being was exceptionally refreshed, without any sudden pain.

The Master-Servant Covenant hadn't activated.

...Truly strange.

Zora’s fingertip tapped her cheek. She had forgotten if Vane had told similar lies before to hide his Demon Realm identity—after all, Zora had never paid attention to Vane’s words. This was the first time she had observed him through his language, and she was somewhat confused.

He had clearly lied to her, yet it didn't trigger the Master-Servant Covenant. He remained a good servant with no intent to harm her or damage her interests.

Loyalty and lies—could they actually coexist?