Chapter 676: I Held Dan Xue Down in the Water and Made Her Eat the Stinky Fish

Qing Lian looked at the snake. She didn’t know what it was thinking.

But she knew her own mind. As she saw it, saving the snake was all that mattered.

Whether it would repay her kindness or turn on her was unimportant.

She had saved it simply for the sake of saving it.

It was what she wanted to do. It didn’t trouble anyone, nor did it harm anyone.

‘But I feel like I’m being a little disobedient.’

Her Holy Sister had told her so many things. She knew her sister was probably right, but she just wouldn’t listen.

‘I’m so willful. Is this what they call a rebellious phase?’

Qing Lian didn’t understand, and maybe she would never have the chance to, because she was about to die.

However, just then, a Golden Light flared from Qing Lian’s body, and the snake was instantly thrown back.

A blade of wind followed, slicing the snake to bits.

Qing Lian froze. She turned and saw a fellow Daoist with disheveled hair.

‘He must have just been blown over by the wind.’

‘My hair was a mess when I got here, too.’

“Thank you for saving my life, Fellow Daoist,” Qing Lian said respectfully.

“Think nothing of it. But I must ask, Fairy, why didn’t you kill the snake yourself?”

The man finished straightening his hair and walked over.

When Qing Lian saw his face, she exclaimed in surprise, “Senior Blade Master Hai Bian?”

Indeed, the man who had been blown over was Blade Master Hai Bian. When he realized the person he had saved was Qing Lian, he was taken aback for a moment.

He couldn’t understand why someone from the Holy Land would be here.

‘No, wait. If Po Xiao is here, then it’s only natural for someone from the Holy Land to be here too.’

Blade Master Hai Bian said, “So it is Fairy Qing Lian. A pleasure to meet you.”

In truth, Blade Master Hai Bian had no desire to meet anyone from the Holy Land. It was fine if they remained strangers. But if they became acquainted, things would get awkward if he ran into Po Xiao and his wife.

Pretending not to know her would be impossible; he’d slip up eventually.

After all, who knew if this girl was acquainted with Po Xiao’s wife?

‘And what if Mo Yan was right? What if Po Xiao really was trying to sow his wild oats?’

‘Then again, that’s probably not it. There are so many beautiful Fairies in the group, and Po Xiao hasn’t shown the slightest interest in any of them.’

At that moment, Qing Lian said, “Actually, I was the one who saved that snake. I just didn’t expect it to turn on me.”

Blade Master Hai Bian chuckled dryly. “The Fairy is truly kind-hearted.”

‘Blade Master Hai Bian couldn’t understand how the Holy Land could let someone like this wander around unsupervised.’

Then, Qing Lian recounted the story of the fish. “Was I the one who got that fish killed?” she asked.

Blade Master Hai Bian didn’t have an answer for that. Instead, he pulled out his phone, tagged Mo Yan in the chat, and sent her Qing Lian’s exact question.

He phrased it as a hypothetical, though.

Fairy Mo Yan: “[Shocked Emoji] Well, well, Holy Mother Blade Master. But its struggles were all an act. You are not a fish; how can you know a fish’s joy? For all you know, it was celebrating. Maybe it was thinking, ‘Silly humans, you’ll never understand my joy! I’ll jump to show you!’ It’s just like how you all fail to grasp the benefits of being a Demon Cultivator, much less the might of me, Demon Cultivator Mo Yan.”

Blade Master Hai Bian relayed the first half of her message.

Qing Lian looked surprised. “Really? But then why did it get eaten? Especially when it was so happy.”

Blade Master Hai Bian sent this to Mo Yan as well.

Fairy Mo Yan: “Why don’t you try blasting music and dancing in your apartment? See if your neighbors upstairs and downstairs don’t come and kill you. Or go try it on your master’s grave. I actually did that once. I was about to start dancing in front of my mother’s Clothes Tomb, but before I could even begin, the grave exploded and nearly buried me. Luckily, my master arrived just in time.”

Blade Master Hai Bian: “…”

Chi Xue Child: “…”

Liuyue Xue: “…”

The others: “…”

Again, Blade Master Hai Bian relayed only the first part of the message.

Qing Lian was silent for a moment before asking, “What is… ‘partying’?”

Blade Master Hai Bian wasn’t surprised. “It means celebrating by making a huge racket, so loud that it disturbs others.”

Qing Lian understood. “So… it was punished? But what if that’s not it?”

Blade Master Hai Bian relayed the question.

Fairy Mo Yan: “What if? What if the fish wanted to die? It was probably hoping to dry out and become fish jerky, but now it’s just mush. Speaking of which, I remember one time when Witch Dan Xue was taking a bath, I made a special delivery of half a pool’s worth of stinky fish. Later… Oh, gotta go, I’m busy.”

Liuyue Xue looked over at Mo Yan, then typed into the group chat, “What happened later?”

Mo Yan looked at Liuyue Xue with a proud expression, then typed her reply: “Later? Later, I shoved Witch Dan Xue down into the water and made her eat every last one of those stinky fish. That’s how I, Demon Cultivator Mo Yan, made my name.”

Liuyue Xue: “…”

The others: “…”

Blade Master Hai Bian, as before, only told Qing Lian the first part.

Qing Lian said, “Then does that mean I prevented it from fulfilling its wish?”

Blade Master Hai Bian said, “Perhaps it preferred the second way of dying? It certainly seemed happy enough while jumping.”

Qing Lian nodded, then bowed her head. “Thank you for your guidance, Senior.”

Blade Master Hai Bian shook his head. “Don’t mention it. And you don’t need to call me Senior. I’m not that much older than you.”

Qing Lian said, “But I’m only eighteen.”

Blade Master Hai Bian: “…”

‘Is she saying I’m old?’

‘Okay, I am a lot older than eighteen.’

‘Still, for him to reach Tier Four at his age, especially as a Loose Cultivator… It wasn’t because of his innate talent, but because of a fortuitous encounter he had as a child.’

‘How could anyone start Cultivation without a lucky break?’

After a moment, Blade Master Hai Bian explained, “I only came to that conclusion after asking a fellow Daoist, so you don’t need to thank me.”

‘He didn’t dare say who it was. Mo Yan was a Demon Cultivator, and there was no telling how Qing Lian would react to that.’

‘Besides, Mo Yan’s theories were pretty absurd.’

‘It was best to just let the matter drop.’

Qing Lian nodded and then smiled. “Fellow Daoist Hai Bian, you really are a good person.”

Blade Master Hai Bian: “…”

‘He was only doing this for Po Xiao’s sake.’

After a moment, Blade Master Hai Bian said, “If you don’t mind, Fairy, we could travel together. The dangers here are far from simple. I’ve heard many powerful entities are still slumbering in this place.”

Qing Lian nodded. Her strength was indeed on the weaker side, so she was very happy to have someone to travel with.

Blade Master Hai Bian, however, was apprehensive. He didn’t know what kind of person Qing Lian truly was. He was worried she would try to save every creature they came across or stop him from killing monsters. That would be incredibly annoying.

‘People like that were better off locked away in the Holy Land for their entire lives. It would be better for everyone.’

To his surprise, however, that didn’t happen. Along their path, he killed many minor beasts—some of them even cute.

But she never said a word, much less tried to stop him.

Finally, Blade Master Hai Bian asked out of curiosity, “Fairy, you don’t have a problem with me killing those small creatures, do you?”

Qing Lian shook her head. “Fellow Daoist Hai Bian, please don’t mind me. I personally wish to save them, but I would never force others to spare a creature, nor ask them to save one. One cannot impose such things on others. Besides, I don’t want to bring trouble to the Daoist who saved my life. So please, do as you see fit. You don’t need to worry about me at all.”

‘Blade Master Hai Bian was baffled. What kind of person was she?’

‘Or rather, what kind of philosophy was this?’

‘Are all the people from the Holy Land this strange?’

‘No, the Saintess seems perfectly normal.’