Cheng Xueyi’s silver bell at her waist was plain and simple in design, an ornament of the most ordinary sort.
Yet its ring was crisp and ethereal, far more soul-seizing than any bell Shen Nanyin had ever heard.
The rhythm of its chimes, the length of its tones—there seemed to be some pattern to it, one that drew his heart, a heart even Peach Blossom Intoxication couldn’t fully conquer, gradually lost within the sound of the bell.
The Eldest Senior Brother of Qiantian Sect was a lone, aloof cloud, a free and unfettered wind. No one had ever seen him in such a wretched state, yielding, his heart in turmoil.
Now Cheng Xueyi had seen it.
Every time the man bound in iron chains reached the critical edge, she would stop, wait for it all to pass, and then continue.
Round and round it went, watching him tormented back and forth between clarity and drowning—it truly counted as a punishment dealt without mercy.
She humiliated Shen Nanyin until he wished for death, until he suffered beyond bearing.
He was utterly in her grasp, every inch of him baptized by her, until there was nowhere left unmarked, no privacy remaining.
She stayed dressed neat and proper throughout, a smile on her face, her large eyes fixed on him without so much as a blink, unwilling to miss a single moment of him straining to hold back only to break and spill over.
It really was a beautiful sight.
Cheng Xueyi got a little carried away, her hands gradually losing restraint, and he was even injured there because of it.
Shen Nanyin was drenched in sweat, struggling in the dark cave to keep his eyes on hers. Even so, he still remembered his plan, his mission, and forced himself with everything he had to keep his voice more or less steady.
“If you’ve vented enough anger, then let me go.”
Shen Nanyin spoke slowly, word by word, with great effort. “Once dawn comes, it’ll be too late.”
Cheng Xueyi more or less guessed what he was still preoccupied with even now.
She had run into a demon—and not just any demon, but one rampaging freely within Qiantian Sect, clearly not one of those demon-kind kept as enslaved labor.
However they’d gotten into Qiantian Sect, there were only two outcomes.
Either killed, or locked away in the Demon-Suppressing Tower.
Thinking of the reason she’d lain low in Qiantian Sect for five years, Cheng Xueyi gradually regained her senses. Outside the cave, light was beginning to spread across the sky. Some things were best left at a certain point—it was time to end this.
If she pushed things too far, even if her identity wasn’t found out, she probably wouldn’t be able to stay safely in Qiantian Sect any longer.
“So, even now, you’re still going to say you don’t know me?”
Cheng Xueyi slowly leaned closer. In truth, she wasn’t all that torn over the question anymore.
There had been a bit of real feeling in it, but not much, and she’d already vented enough.
Once the venting was done, she remembered that small doubt she’d had before she’d gotten carried away.
She studied him up close, reaching out to brush over the wound above his brow. With her discernment, she couldn’t detect any trace of disguise on this face—it really was the original, unaltered.
She had examined this face carefully, but she’d never looked all that closely at the face of the man she’d spent her nights with.
The face beneath her hand was so good-looking, it was a shame it had been hurt—though it didn’t matter much, just a minor flesh wound; once his spiritual power returned, it would heal in no time. Black Lotus Novel Chapters | Black Lotus Novel
Her gaze dropped to his eyes. The instant their eyes met, Cheng Xueyi sensed something different.
The eyes.
These eyes were not ordinary.
Compared to the him she’d seen at night, though the pupils and lashes showed no difference she could point to, the look in them was not the same.
The sun at noon must decline, the moon at its fullest must wane—all things under heaven rise and fall.
The look in his eyes was one of calm acceptance, the kind that could remain composed even as a prisoner, even while being toyed with and humiliated like this, watched and played with—calm enough not to truly drown in shame and rage to the point of wanting to die.
He could still find his way to where he was meant to go, to what he was meant to become.
That took no small amount of the pleasure out of the torment she’d worked so hard to inflict.
It really was a pity she couldn’t become his nightmare.
But—
Cheng Xueyi straightened up and covered Shen Nanyin’s eyes with her hand.
The silver bell at her waist gave a soft chime, and she felt him shudder faintly at the sound.
Was he afraid?
That cheered her up again.
Cheng Xueyi laughed silently, her eyes bright as she said, “Remember this well, Eldest Senior Brother.”
“My name is Cheng Xueyi.”
“Don’t you dare forget it again.”
……
“Senior Brother!”
Someone tapped his shoulder gently, and Shen Nanyin snapped back to himself, his vision sharpening from a blur, and he saw Fu Jinghua’s worried expression.
Looking past her, he saw countless disciples gathered before the Demon-Suppressing Tower—elders, junior brothers and sisters, all of them there.
Shen Nanyin looked down at his own hands, his palms covered in wounds, all left from subduing the demons.
He finally reeled back his drifting thoughts and turned his gaze up toward his master atop the Demon-Suppressing Tower.
White-haired, white-robed Jingci Fazong was the final formation eye. After the two exchanged a glance, Shen Nanyin walked into the Demon-Suppressing Tower, and together with his master, finished repairing the formation array in full.
The process was slow, slower even than subduing the demons had been.
Shen Nanyin didn’t remember much of how he’d left the cave. He’d heard Cheng Xueyi’s name and blacked out; when he woke again, he was lying in the forest behind the mountain, his clothes neat and proper, not a thing out of place, even the way his hair was bound in its coronet exactly as he always did it himself.
He’d been unconscious—he couldn’t have done any of that. It wasn’t hard to guess who had.
By then his spiritual power had recovered to about seventy percent, his body clean and fresh, none of the mud and wretchedness of the darkness the night before—as if it had all just been a dream. But he knew it hadn’t been.
His wounds were still there.
The gash across his brow had already closed and scabbed over. His body’s recovery ability was remarkable; once his spiritual power returned, healing away such a minor surface wound without a trace would have been effortless. But he didn’t do it.
Whether it was the wound at his brow, clawed open by fingernails, or the ones in a place no third person had ever seen, he had no time to spare for any of it.
He had to use what little time remained to recapture all the great demons. black lotus novel Novel Chapter · Black Lotus Novel
Fortunately, though it was difficult, he managed to get it done.
Standing inside the Demon-Suppressing Tower, filthy curses from the great demons echoing in his ears, Shen Nanyin paid none of it any mind.
Once the formation was repaired and he turned to leave, the face-changing demon, who had stayed silent at the head of the group of demons the whole time, suddenly gave a mocking laugh.
“Shen Nanyin, however formidable your power, however extraordinary your gifts, that a mere hundred years of cultivation could capture us—well, we can’t say we’ve lost out so badly, either.”
At the words “lost out,” Shen Nanyin’s steps faltered. It was the second time today his mind had wandered.
He thought of how, not long ago, he’d used those very same words with someone else.
The number of times his mind had drifted today was more than a little unusual—it went entirely against his habits, against a self-discipline that bordered on strict.
Shen Nanyin’s brow drew tight, and his face, always mild and calm with its faint smile, was for once filled with a cold edge—which only delighted the face-changing demon more.
“You sealed off Qiantian Sect in secret, afraid we’d flee and be harder to recapture—and that did protect the weak ones outside the mountain, sure enough. But those disciples of yours weren’t so lucky.”
“Shen Nanyin, you truly are a man as pure as the breeze and bright as the moon, renowned across the world—but that was before.”
The face-changing demon spoke with malicious glee. “This one’s left you a little surprise. You’ll receive it soon enough, once you’re out.”
Shen Nanyin was sharp enough that, hearing this from the face-changing demon, and putting together just what kind of creature it was, he already understood what it might have done.
He thought again of Cheng Xueyi’s accusations, her retaliation—it seemed this couldn’t be unrelated to this demon.
Just as he turned to demand a clear answer, his master had already sealed shut the door of the Demon-Suppressing Tower.
Shen Nanyin stood before the door, catching only a glimpse of the face-changing demon’s expression—resentful, spiteful, unwilling to yield.
“Nanyin, what did that face-changing demon say to you?”
Su Chenmeng saw that something was off in his expression and came over, concerned.
Shen Nanyin bowed before answering. “Elder Su, it’s nothing to worry about. He didn’t say anything of note.”
Su Chenmeng nodded. “Whatever he said, don’t take it to heart—it’s nothing but a demon’s lies meant to stir trouble.”
Studying him for a moment longer, she went on, “Your injuries are serious. Come back with me directly, and I’ll treat them.”
Su Chenmeng was an elder of the Bishui Palace, the only great power within Qiantian Sect who practiced the medical way.
She took few disciples, being extremely particular—when choosing them, she looked not at spiritual roots or talent, but at temperament, and whether the spirit plants took a liking to them.
Shen Nanyin had indeed been injured while subduing the demons, and the injuries were not light. Had he let Su Chenmeng treat him personally, he would likely have healed within days. But he refused.
“It’s only a minor injury, I can see to it myself. Elder, you’ve been laboring for days already, and the medicinal plants in your hall must be unattended without you. This breach of the Demon-Suppressing Tower was my failing—how could I trouble you further, Elder?” He bowed and stepped back. “My thanks for your kindness, Elder. Nanyin takes his leave.”
Though he had cultivated to the rank of Daoist Lord, and need not bow to any elder, Shen Nanyin had always held himself to strict propriety, never growing arrogant or complacent over his own cultivation. Throughout Qiantian Sect, high and low, senior and junior alike, no one could speak a single word against him.
Everyone knew he was the chosen successor to lead Qiantian Sect. Aside from his one direct junior martial brother, who loved nothing more than competing with him at every turn, no one felt he was unworthy of that position.
Yu Buran watched Shen Nanyin’s retreating back coldly. He had finally seized a chance to outdo his Eldest Senior Brother, even pull him down off his pedestal—and now, just like that, it had come to nothing.
Shen Nanyin kept insisting the breach of the Demon-Suppressing Tower was his own responsibility, taking the blame onto himself, when strictly speaking, the matter had nothing to do with him at all.
It was Yu Buran’s own disciples who had been responsible for inspecting the tower’s formation array this time.
Shen Nanyin was essentially covering for him.
By standing in front, he ensured no one would come after Yu Buran—but Yu Buran wanted none of it.
“Eldest Senior Brother, don’t think that just because you’ve done this, I’ll be grateful to you.”
As Shen Nanyin passed him, Yu Buran said, low and clipped, “I’ll only hate you more for it. You’ve been handed another chance to shine, and it’s really you who should be thanking me.”
Shen Nanyin was already exhausted, but there was no trace of weariness on his brow.
He always carried himself this way—calm and even, moving forward with steady steps, giving people a strong sense of security. · Black Lotus Novel Chapter | BLACK LOTUS NOVEL
He stopped and looked at Yu Buran, and the wound across his brow made Yu Buran’s frown deepen slightly.
“Junior Brother.” Shen Nanyin spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear. “You and I grew up together. We may not have spent every day in each other’s company, but we understand each other well enough. What you’ve done—others may not know, but I know quite well.”
Yu Buran’s breath caught.
“You arranged for your disciples to deliberately overlook flaws in the formation, giving the great demons a chance to escape, then recaptured them yourself to show off your strength, and afterward dealt with the ‘guilty’ disciples. At worst, you’d be blamed for lax discipline—no real loss to you. It was far too reckless a plan.”
“You want to make a name for yourself, to have Master and your fellow disciples take notice of you. But you went about it the wrong way.”
“Of those so-called demon-trapping arrays you prepared in advance, no more than three were of any real use.”
Shen Nanyin said gently, “If I had truly stood back and done nothing, you would likely be dead at their hands today.”
Yu Buran’s eyes looked ready to split with rage, but Shen Nanyin remained as unhurried as ever.
“I didn’t do it for your sake. I simply didn’t want anything truly irreversible to happen. The Demon-Suppressing Tower was built by our forebears. As your senior brother, as the foremost disciple of Qiantian Sect, it’s my duty to see it protected. Before Master went into seclusion, she entrusted its safekeeping to me as well. If something goes wrong with the tower, even if it was your deliberate negligence, the primary responsibility still falls to me. It’s only right that I take the blame. You need not thank me for it—and it makes no difference to me if you hate me for it.”
“If you want to prove you’re better than me, you don’t have to go about it in such an extreme way.”
Shen Nanyin looked at Yu Buran and said slowly, “Since you believe you’re capable, next month, for the spirit-summoning at Heart-Devouring Valley, I’ll persuade Master to send you.”
Yu Buran’s eyes went wide, staring at him in disbelief.
Shen Nanyin gave a faint smile and turned to leave. Whether the other believed him or not, once he’d decided something, he always saw it through.
The only thing left was how to persuade Master to send someone else to handle something as important as the “spirit-summoning”—that would take some thought.
Perhaps the heavens didn’t want him worn so thin, because a reason presented itself soon enough.
The surprise the face-changing demon had promised him arrived.
News of the breach at the Demon-Suppressing Tower had been sealed off tightly; no one below the rank of elder knew of it.
With everything now settled, there was no need to let it spread further and stir needless panic.
Then Shen Nanyin found himself surrounded by countless female cultivators.
He’d been injured and was staying at the training ground to recuperate for the time being, seeing no one, going nowhere, only handling a few matters of hall business.
No one had expected he’d ever see a day where women came to accuse him, resentful, demanding an explanation.
Shen Nanyin’s ears filled with accusations, one voice after another crying “I misjudged you,” one after another in tears—the True Martial Training Ground had never been this lively.
He offered no explanation, because in truth there was no chance to offer one.
The women spoke over one another, united in shared outrage; even if this heartless man was the Eldest Senior Brother, they were determined to have an answer.
With his jade coronet and white robes, cool as the breeze and bright as the moon, Shen Nanyin looked nothing like a man who’d be so fickle and reckless, stringing people along only to abandon them.
They all kept saying you can know a face but never a heart. Shen Nanyin’s lips moved slightly; thinking of Cheng Xueyi’s face, and everything that had happened in the cave that night, he slowly closed his eyes.
In the end, it was Jingci Fazong who appeared to resolve things, bringing the farce to a close.
Once he had sorted the matter out, he announced publicly that the Demon-Suppressing Tower had been breached, and that the face-changing demon had impersonated Shen Nanyin to commit its outrages.
Fortunately, the women had only had their spiritual energy drained, with no further harm done. Elder Su stepped in to refine some qi-replenishing pills for them, and things settled soon enough.
Everything calmed down eventually, but the matter still ended up affecting Shen Nanyin somewhat—after careful consideration, Jingci Fazong handed the spirit-summoning at Heart-Devouring Valley over to Yu Buran.
The affair caused such a stir that even Cheng Xueyi, a menial disciple of the Taixuan Palace, caught wind of it.
Her mood swung along with the unfolding events.
At first she was stunned that Shen Nanyin had apparently cast such a wide net—that in one sea, there were so many other fish besides her. Then, once the truth came out, she was left dumbfounded all over again.
So the reason Shen Nanyin had endured all that torment without ever admitting to their “relationship” was because of this.
A thousand-year-old face-changing demon?
Now that really was something.
She’d suppressed her own spiritual meridians to avoid revealing her identity, and in her weakened state, she’d apparently fallen for its trick too.
No wonder she’d been feeling drained of energy these past few days—turned out the great demon had been siphoning off her light. Black Lotus novel Translation — BLACK LOTUS NOVEL
After all that, it turned out she’d mistaken the wrong man for him.
Cheng Xueyi: )
