Chapter 338 (1/2)

One didn’t visit a temple without a cause, especially when Lin Xuanzhi was practicing his swordsmanship. Zhan Fengting’s appearance right this moment meant that he must have something important to say.

Sure enough, Zhan Fengting notified him, “Bei Cangmo of Broken Sword Peak just put in a visit notice and has already arrived outside your courtyard. I happened to pass by and see him, so I came to inform you.”

Lin Xuanzhi’s eyes lit up slightly. “Many thanks to Eldest Martial Brother. I’ll be right there.”

“However, he did not come alone.”

Lin Xuanzhi paused in his steps. “Who else is there?”

“Your former junior martial brother, Jing Luo.”

Lin Xuanzhi hadn’t heard people mention this youth for a long time, but it wasn’t to the point where he forgot Jing Luo’s identity.

When Lin Xuanzhi was on Broken Sword Peak, he was ranked fourth. There was only one junior martial brother below him — Jing Luo.

Speaking of Jing Luo, this had a little to do with Lin Xuanzhi– no, not just a little.

It wasn’t Broken Sword Peak’s style to accept disciples who were not from any distinguished families. However, Jing Luo was an exception, because he was picked up by Lin Xuanzhi when he was outside training and gaining experience.

When Lin Xuanzhi met Jing Luo for the first time, he was already near death. Not to mention his serious injuries, he even had a highly toxic poison inside his body. If it wasn’t for Jing Luo’s great fortune in meeting a cultivator, even his bones would have already become ashes by now.

Lin Xuanzhi took him back to Profound Sky Sect and personally taught him how to hold the sword and practice swordsmanship. His consideration for Jing Luo could be said to be vivid and thorough. At that time, Jing Luo was still young and had a cute appearance. He ran behind Lin Xuanzhi with two short legs day in and day out, as though Lin Xuanzhi had a tail.

Because of this, there were even people on Broken Sword Peak who teased Lin Xuanzhi, saying that he got himself a child bride when he went out for a trip.

If he had to say, Lin Xuanzhi held some sympathy and some pity towards Jing Luo. In addition, because this child was saved by him and raised by him, he could be considered Lin Xuanzhi’s half-brother and half-disciple, so he always held a degree of indulgence and concern for Jing Luo.

Before, Lin Xuanzhi also thought that this lovely jade youth was a gentle and harmless small white rabbit, but he didn’t expect that, from beginning to end, he had never seen through the true nature of this youth.

In the previous life, Lin Xuanzhi knew that Jing Luo had always been looking for him, but he held no extra feelings for this young man then, so he avoided him from beginning to end. Later Lin Xuanzhi died. By then, Jing Luo was no longer called this name but had instead become a person ruling above others, one who could lay waste to millions of corpses and make blood flow for thousands of miles in rage.

The last time he saw Jing Luo was after his violent death.

In order to condense his soul, which was about to scatter, Jing Luo’s head of fine black hair turned as white as snow in an instant. Only through Jing Luo’s efforts was Lin Xuanzhi able to survive in soul form until Bai Yichen came with the soul plate, which gave him a chance of survival.

However, ever since then, the karma between him and Jing Luo had already been severed.

Lin Xuanzhi snapped out of his memories and came to his Catching Star Pavilion. He saw Bei  Cangmo and Jing Luo, who had already been invited into the courtyard by Jian Yunxi.

When he saw Lin Xuanzhi, Jian Yunxi informed him, “They both have visit notices on them. Senior Martial Brother Zhan asked me to entertain them first.”

Lin Xuanzhi nodded, “Where is Liu Zhaoyue?”

Jian Yunxi expressionlessly answered, “Chasing after beauties.”

Lin Xuanzhi nodded quietly. “I got it.”

After Jian Yunxi tattled on Liu Zhaoyue behind his back, he contentedly went back to practice the sword. These days, he found that following Lin Xuanzhi as a page wasn’t all bad. At least he could see Lin Xuanzhi practice the sword every day and discover his own shortcomings. Thus, he faintly felt that his swordsmanship and sword attainments were about to break through the bottleneck.

On the other hand, Liu Zhaoyue’s mind had not been here for a long time. If it weren’t for the Liu family elder’s explicit orders forcing him to come to Profound Sky Sect to train and gain experience, he probably would have run to some unknown place by now.

Liu Zhaoyue had been the little overlord in his family ever since he was young. Above him, he had an elder brother spoiling him like the pearl of his eyes. No matter what he did, no one dared to rein him in and would even clean up after him instead. Therefore, Young Master Liu was extremely attached to the unfathomable world of mortals and couldn’t stand such a dull and dry life on the mountain at all.

Only a few days had passed, but his true nature was completely exposed.

Lin Xuanzhi didn’t try to rein him in either after he learned about it and let him indulge freely and completely.

After all, this was not his disciple, and he had no responsibility to teach him.

Moreover, one could also tell from Liu Mengchen’s laissez-faire attitude towards Liu Zhaoyue. This was the large families’ usual attitude towards the pampered main branch son of the first wife — in any case, the family was big and its foundations were strong, and there was also a capable main branch elder brother above him. Therefore, the requirements for the younger brother were extremely low. It was enough if the younger brother could live a free and easy life; he had an elder brother to prop up all other matters.

Lin Xuanzhi originally intended to also treat Yan Tianhen this way, but things turned out contrary to one’s wishes. Yan Tianhen’s identity doomed him to never have this opportunity.

“Third Junior Martial Brother.” When Bei Cangmo saw Lin Xuanzhi, his always serious expression relaxed a bit.

Lin Xuanzhi smiled faintly, “I’ve long wanted to see Senior Martial Brother, but I’ve been busy recently and was delayed for a while.”

While speaking, Lin Xuanzhi’s eyes swept over Jing Luo, who was standing beside Bei Cangmo while holding a teacup in his hand, his expression clearly nervous.

His memory of Jing Luo still remained at the final moments of his last life.

At that time, Jing Luo had already climbed to a very high position, and the round and immature little face in his memories had become sharp and angular. His smiling face was full of awe-inspiring solemnity and desolate loneliness. He had a kind of imposing manner befitting of someone with a high status that deterred others from approaching him. But after Jing Luo learned that Lin Xuanzhi had died, he fell down and cried bitterly, like a child who hadn’t grown up yet.

When Lin Xuanzhi saw this somewhat pale-faced teenager again, he couldn’t help feeling that time and space were in disorder. At the same time, he felt very clearly — he had truly returned to the past.

Bei Cangmo looked at Jing Luo. “When he learned that I was coming to visit you, Jing Luo was determined to come with me. You two should have a lot to talk about.”