Chapter 491: I Was Tricked...

Lie Rufeng felt rather guilty about hiding things from Lu Sangjiu and tricking her into meeting his master.

So on the way, he made a point of telling her about his master’s personality and how to get on his good side.

So before she even met Li Huo Sword Venerable, she had already pictured an old man in her mind: gentle most of the time, occasionally proud and aloof, but a real softy who was easy to humor.

But when she finally saw him, she realized that while she didn’t know his true age, Li Huo Sword Venerable actually looked like a young man.

He was quite handsome, but… for some reason, Lu Sangjiu had a nagging feeling that he looked familiar.

‘Could it be I’ve seen him somewhere before?’

Since she was here to meet Li Huo Sword Venerable, Lu Sangjiu naturally had to show him respect, so she was using her true appearance.

So after she entered, Li Huo Sword Venerable’s gaze remained fixed on her face… ‘Yes, that’s the face from my memories.’

Back then, though, she had been incredibly brazen. She and that little brat had infuriated him to no end. Now, she looked so prim and proper.

Lu Sangjiu was indeed on her best behavior. She bowed to Li Huo Sword Venerable and said, “This junior, Lu Sangjiu, pays her respects to the Li Huo Sword Venerable.”

Seeing her act so respectfully, Li Huo Sword Venerable felt a bit disconcerted. His expression grew complicated.

“You… don’t remember me?”

Lu Sangjiu froze. His words completely threw her off. She could only stare at him blankly. “Huh? I… Have we met before, Sword Venerable?”

Li Huo Sword Venerable: “…”

‘Even though I was a stone statue back then, Cultivators usually have excellent memories. She couldn’t have forgotten me this quickly, could she?!’

‘Or… was that whole experience completely insignificant to her?’

He was actually right. Considering all the life-and-death situations Lu Sangjiu had been through, the events in that Secret Realm were merely the beginning. Compared to what came after, it truly wasn’t a big deal.

This, however, did not please Li Huo Sword Venerable. His face hardened. “You really don’t remember!”

Lu Sangjiu: “…”

‘Great. It seems I’ve offended him right off the bat.’

‘But I really don’t remember! If I pretend to, it’ll probably just make things worse.’

So she had no choice but to bite the bullet and say, “My memory has never been the best. I also suffered a grievous injury once and was in a coma for several years… so, could you perhaps give me a hint, Sword Venerable?”

Li Huo Sword Venerable paused, then glanced at Lie Rufeng beside him. “Ru Feng, you may leave us.”

Lie Rufeng was taken aback and hesitated.

‘I was the one who brought her here; I have to guarantee her safety. If I leave now, what if Master gets angry and actually attacks her?’

As if sensing his thoughts, Li Huo Sword Venerable said impatiently, “What, am I going to eat her? Relax. Your master isn’t so petty as to pick on a junior.”

Lie Rufeng glanced at Lu Sangjiu again before nodding. “Then… this disciple will wait outside.”

He paused, then added to Lu Sangjiu, “If you need anything, just call for me.”

Lu Sangjiu thought that if an Immortal King truly wanted to give her a hard time, he wouldn’t give her the chance to call for Lie Rufeng, but she appreciated the sentiment.

She nodded gratefully at Lie Rufeng. “Thank you, Mr. Lie.”

‘I have to admit, Lie Rufeng really is a good guy.’

Once Lie Rufeng had left, Li Huo Sword Venerable turned back to Lu Sangjiu with a strange expression. “Since you don’t remember, let me remind you of something.”

He tapped his fingers lightly on the desktop and said slowly, “In the Qingyu Secret Realm, I once told you that if you ever ascended to the Upper Realm, I would be sure to settle our accounts.”

Lu Sangjiu froze. A distant memory suddenly flooded her mind, and her expression stiffened. She finally connected the man before her with the statue from that secret chamber.

‘Holy shit?! Li Huo Sword Venerable is the Sword Immortal from the Qingyu Secret Realm? The one whose storage ring I stole and who I pissed off completely?!’

Lu Sangjiu nearly had a heart attack. ‘No way, no way! He said we had some history, but the history is a fucking grudge?!’

‘Lie Rufeng, you bastard, get back here! He totally tricked me! I take back everything I said about him being a good guy. The man is a heartless schemer!’

In her mind, she cursed Lie Rufeng up and down, but she still had to face the situation at hand.

Taking a deep breath, Lu Sangjiu forced her expression into a somewhat stiff smile. “Senior… you’re the Sword Immortal who passed the Divine Fire Sword Technique to my third martial brother?”

Li Huo Sword Venerable watched her colorful expression with great satisfaction, gloating inwardly.

‘Yes, that’s it. Finally, you know what it is to be afraid!’

As Lu Sangjiu’s expression grew more and more uneasy, he waited a long moment before slowly nodding. “The very same.”

The last shred of hope in Lu Sangjiu’s heart vanished. She was utterly miserable. ‘Damn it! What is this? Did I just walk right into the lion’s den?’

‘No, I have to stay calm!’

She carefully recalled Lie Rufeng’s description of Li Huo Sword Venerable. The more she thought, the more she felt it didn’t line up with the nasty-tempered Sword Immortal from the Secret Realm.

‘Although Lie Rufeng tricked me into coming here, he didn’t have to tell me about his master’s personality. The fact that he did probably means he wasn’t lying about that part.’

So she said with a hint of doubt, “Sword Venerable… you wouldn’t be pulling my leg, would you? That senior Sword Immortal in the Secret Realm had a vile personality, nothing like your calm demeanor.”

“Back then, just because we didn’t immediately do as he wished, he deliberately tried to pit fellow disciples against each other and even wanted to have us all buried with him!”

“If my third martial brother’s Divine Fire Sword Technique hadn’t been so powerful, I would have suspected that Sword Immortal was an Evil Cultivator… You, Li Huo Sword Venerable, are clearly a respected and virtuous senior. How could you possibly be him?”

Li Huo Sword Venerable’s expression instantly stiffened.

He… felt a little guilty.

He, too, felt that the wisp of Divine Thought he’d left behind had been seriously messed up. Its actions had been truly dishonorable.

Now that Lu Sangjiu had called him out so bluntly, he couldn’t help but feel ashamed, even embarrassed to admit it was him.

But he had already said what he said. He could only clear his throat and try to defend himself.

“The Divine Thought separated by my Secret Technique does have certain flaws. Its personality can differ from my own…”

“But at the end of the day, it was you lot trying to steal my things that angered it. For you to paint yourself as the sole victim, little friend, is hardly fair, is it?”

Li Huo Sword Venerable took the bait, but not entirely.

Lu Sangjiu cleared her throat and quickly stood to apologize. “It was indeed a moment of youthful recklessness. But most of the items in your Storage Ring, Sword Venerable, were given to my third martial brother. I hope you can forgive me.”

‘Back then, if I hadn’t been worried that Ye Zhiyao would suddenly pop out and try to steal everything, I wouldn’t have had to snatch the storage ring ahead of time, would I?’

But that was a long story and too troublesome to explain, so she just decided to admit fault.

Li Huo Sword Venerable snorted. “Do you think this is something that can be brushed aside with a simple ‘youthful recklessness’?”