"Come in, you two outside!"
Shen Qing and Li Xian stood outside the door, looking at each other in surprise. Then they heard Yu Xuzi's voice coming from inside.
Shen Qing calmed the shock in her heart, then respectfully pushed the door open and walked in.
Yu Xuzi and Master Honghua were sitting face - to - face on the couch. There was a small tea table in the middle with a small teapot on it. Steam was rising from the teapot, and the fragrance of tea filled the air.
The two were still in the posture of cracking sunflower seeds. One leg was bent on the couch while the other was on the ground. They looked just like two old men chatting about gossips in the mortal world.
"Come on, have some."
Yu Xuzi effortlessly used his spiritual power to move two stools over and placed them beside the couch.
Then he hooked his finger. Shen Qing and Li Xian felt a gentle spiritual power pushing them, and they sat on the stools.
Yu Xuzi motioned for them to hold out their hands, and then gave each of them a handful of sunflower seeds.
"Come on, eat quickly."
Shen Qing sat beside Master Honghua, feeling extremely uncomfortable. She looked at Master Honghua nervously, then at Yu Xuzi.
In contrast, Li Xian was much calmer.
He picked up the sunflower seeds in his hand and naturally started cracking them. However, the red tips of his ears betrayed his nervousness.
Master Honghua asked, "What did you hear just now?"
Shen Qing averted her eyes, not knowing how to answer.
It was inappropriate to eavesdrop in the first place. Although it was an accident, she still felt embarrassed. Moreover, the content of that conversation made her extremely flustered, leaving her at a loss.
After hesitating for a while, she still asked, "Why did the Sect Master make such a decision?"
Master Honghua looked at Li Xian, then at Shen Qing, his precious disciple who had just advanced to the Nascent Soul stage. He thought the two were well - matched in appearance and cultivation. Everything about them seemed perfect together.
"Senior Yu Xuzi and I think you two have feelings for each other. Making an engagement for you two first. Isn't that a good thing?"
Shen Qing instantly panicked. She glanced at Li Xian, only to see him bowing his head in silence. A sense of disappointment welled up in her heart.
"Sect Master, you've misunderstood. We're not..."
"We're just friends."
Shen Qing quickly explained.
Li Xian's hand paused for a moment, but he still pretended to be nonchalant and continued cracking sunflower seeds.
Yu Xuzi glanced at his pretentious disciple and decided to add fuel to the fire.
"Oh? It seems I've misjudged. It's true that my disciple is not very talented and is rather plain - looking. How could he be worthy of you?"
As Yu Xuzi said this, he shook his head in disgust.
"Honghua, perhaps we should just drop this matter?"
As Yu Xuzi said this, he saw Li Xian's bowed head tilt slightly. His gloomy eyes seemed to shoot out sharp arrows.
Shen Qing didn't notice the little interaction between the master and the disciple. She was just panicking and explaining.
"No, no, no. Li Xian is very good. It's just that we haven't met each other many times. How could this be so sudden..."
"So you like my disciple then?"
Hearing this, Shen Qing's face immediately flushed: "Well... not really..."
"Then you don't like my disciple."
"That's not... either..."
Shen Qing was so flustered that she didn't know where to put her hands and feet. She wished she had ten or eight mouths to explain.
Yu Xuzi looked at Shen Qing with an amused expression on his face. He was extremely satisfied in his heart.
Master Honghua saw his precious disciple being teased like this and glared at Yu Xuzi fiercely.
"Senior, that's enough. Don't scare my disciple."
Li Xian also chimed in, "Master, don't go too far."
Yu Xuzi snorted softly, "Young people these days... are so easy to tease."
Shen Qing let out a sigh of relief and realized that she had been led into a trap by Yu Xuzi.
She looked up at Li Xian, only to see him still bowing his head. She thought he probably didn't like Yu Xuzi making such jokes.
Indeed, who would like others joking about their marriage?
Especially for them, the cultivators. If they wanted to become Taoist companions, things would be even more complicated.
She had experienced life and death and been reborn. She had no such thoughts at all. She guessed that it was because she had been through too many things recently and was a bit tired, which gave rise to all these thoughts.
After clearing the miscellaneous thoughts from her mind, Shen Qing slowly realized.
Yu Xuzi and Master Honghua were not such idle people. Suddenly bringing up this matter, there must be a bigger reason behind it.
"I wonder what advice the Sect Master and Senior Yu Xuzi have? Is this matter related to the Main Divine Hall?"
Hearing Shen Qing mention the Main Divine Hall, a flash of surprise passed through Yu Xuzi's eyes.
"Your Sect Master and I haven't mentioned the Main Divine Hall. Why do you think so?"
Shen Qing explained, "Only a very small number of people in the cultivation world still know about the existence of the Main Divine Hall. For ten thousand years, the Main Divine Hall has seemed to be游离 from the Nine Wastelands Continent. Now it suddenly appears and causes such a big stir in the Azure Cloud Sword Sect. It's hard not to make people think deeply."
"Moreover, judging from the attitudes of the elders and you, Senior Yu Xuzi, it seems that you're not very welcoming to the people from the Main Divine Hall..."
Shen Qing's tone was extremely humble. As she spoke, she observed the expressions of Yu Xuzi and Master Honghua.
Seeing that their expressions were normal, she slowly voiced her thoughts.
Master Honghua stroked his beard and nodded.
"Sure enough, you're my precious... an inner - sect disciple of our Azure Cloud Sword Sect. You're so smart."
Master Honghua praised Shen Qing and couldn't help but look at Yu Xuzi proudly.
Yu Xuzi couldn't help but smile. He looked at Li Xian, this silent gourd, and shook his head helplessly.
"You're right in your speculation. Our relationship with the Main Divine Hall before was indeed very complicated, and we don't like some of their actions."
"There are several immortals in the Main Divine Hall. They are all powerful old monsters who survived ten thousand years ago. A thousand years ago, they searched for extremely talented disciples in various sects and took them away under the pretext of sealing the Demon Abyss. As a result, they were nowhere to be found, neither alive nor dead..."
Shen Qing was shocked and looked at Master Honghua in surprise.
Master Honghua nodded and sighed, "The disciple taken away from our sect was named Ling Zhou."
Shen Qing fell silent. As expected, this was the case.
"May I ask... about their life - tokens..."
Master Honghua and Yu Xuzi looked at each other and said helplessly, "This is the strange thing. Their life - tokens didn't break, but we couldn't find them..."
"The Main Divine Hall only said that all the disciples died when sealing the Demon Abyss..."
Master Honghua seemed to recall something sad and bowed his head in silence.
Before Ling Zhou's accident, he had received a voice message from Ling Zhou.
It was only a short sentence, "Spiritual bones were taken. Be careful..."
The message was cut off before it was finished...
Master Honghua sent his disciples out to investigate, but still couldn't find any trace of Ling Zhou.
Until now, he only knew that Ling Zhou's spiritual bones had been taken away before the accident, but he didn't know who took them or where they were taken.
This incident had become a thorn in his heart. It had been deeply buried for a thousand years, but he still couldn't pull it out.
So when Immortal Huiyan proposed to take Shen Qing away, the whole sect was so excited. That girl Yaoyue must have recalled Ling Zhou's incident and stubbornly blocked in front of Shen Qing.
Yu Xuzi said, "The Main Divine Hall was respected by the sects ten thousand years ago, but I've noticed that something is wrong with them..."
"So you two make an engagement first. I have great use for it."