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As they approached the pavilion, the woman in court attire and the female cultivator in the daoist robe simultaneously looked at Xu Qing. When they realized that the two of them were sharing an umbrella, their expressions turned slightly more curious. Looking Xu Qing up and down, their expressions flickered a bit, and they smiled.

Xu Qing remained silent as he sensed the cultivation base pressure coming from Yao Yunhui and the two other women.

Those two were similar to Arch-Immortal Plumdark. Each one had a thousand streams of starlight in their eyes, indicating they were in the first stage of Void Returning.

As Xu Qing took in his surroundings, Arch-Immortal Plumdark stepped into the pavilion and smiled.

“Long time no see, Big Sis Feihe, Little Sis Shitao.”

The two women smiled in response. As for the woman in court attire, she’d shifted her attention back to Arch-Immortal Plumdark, while the woman in the daoist robe was still looking at Xu Qing, her cheeks a bit flush.

“Big Sis Plum, who is this child?” asked the woman in the daoist robe.

“He’s Xu Qing, whom I’ve fallen in love with.” [1]

Arch-Immortal Plumdark’s extremely bold words left Xu Qing at something of a loss. He had never imagined that she would be so direct with her wording. For the moment, he had no idea what to do. He wasn’t the only one to be surprised. The woman in the court attire and the woman in the daoist robe were both visibly surprised. Then their eyes lit up.

Only Yao Yunhui seemed to lose spirit.

Arch-Immortal Plumdark’s eyes shifted away from her best friends. Indicating that he should sit, she gestured at the woman in the daoist robe and said, “Xu Qing, this is Li Shitao, your Big Sis Li. She’s one of the honor guards in the Administration Palace. And this is Yao Feihe, your Big Sis Yao. She’s the younger sister of Marquis Yao.” [2]

During the entire time, Arch-Immortal Plumdark hadn’t spared a single glance for Yao Yunhui. She seemed to be completely ignoring her.

Xu Qing felt very out of sorts, but he kept his expression somber as he clasped hands formally in greeting.

Li Shitao blinked and covered her mouth as she laughed softly. “So, you’re Xu Qing,” she said playfully. “Did you know that you’re the first person Big Sis Plumdark has ever introduced to me like this? Now, you just have to tell us how you managed to get her so worked up about you!”

Yao Feihe in her court attire was obviously a much more serious-minded person than Li Shitao. Instead of joking around with Xu Qing, she gently said, “We heard that an outstanding chosen disciple had appeared in Big Sis Plumdark’s sect. But seeing you in person is much better than simply hearing about you.”

Arch-Immortal Plumdark’s straightforward manner of introducing Xu Qing ensured that these two women were very interested in him. Instead of acting like high-level cultivators, they seemed more like people his age. Because of that, a bit of joking around was inevitable.

“We’ve been trying to meet up with Big Sis Plumdark for days now, but she kept putting us off. Now we know the reason. She had a little surprise in store for us.”

“And now it makes sense why she asked us about imperial-class techniques and heavenly palaces last month. She must have been getting ready for you, Xu Qing!”

Xu Qing nodded seriously. There was simply no way he could relax in a situation like this, and was sitting there on pins and needles.

Plumdark herself made him nervous, but now she was with her best friends and they were all bantering. To Xu Qing, who wasn’t a wordy person, and had never done anything like this, it was simply too much to handle. However, the more he acted like that, the more Li Shitao wanted to tease him.

“What gives, Little Bro? Why so silent? Aiya, Big Sis Plumdark. This Xu Qing of yours is so shy!”

Seeing that Xu Qing was at a loss for words, Arch-Immortal Plumdark smoothly turned the conversation topic around on her friends.

“How have things been the past few years? How are things going with you and Elder Brother Chen from the Supreme Ancient Lightning Order?”

“Don’t even mention him!” Li Shitao said, sighing. She looked back at Xu Qing. “Little Bro, do you happen to have any friends you could introduce me to?”

Xu Qing thought for a moment then nodded. “I have an Elder Brother....”

When Arch-Immortal Plumdark heard that, she cleared her throat to change the conversation topic. Looking at Yao Yunhui, she said, “Who might this be?”

Under normal circumstances, Yao Yunhui wouldn’t have been so quiet. But today her aunt had forced her to come along for some reason. Truth be told, she’d had no idea that her aunt, whom even her father had to treat respectfully, would actually turn out to be a close friend of Arch-Immortal Plumdark. [3]

Sighing inwardly, and suppressing her mixed emotions, she rose to her feet and gave a curtseying bow to Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

“I’m Yunhui. Well met, Arch-Immortal Plumdark.”

Arch-Immortal Plumdark nodded slightly then looked at Yao Feihe. “What exactly is going on here, Big Sis Yao?”

“Yunhui tends to be a bit rash. She made some mistakes in the past, so I brought her here with me so she could apologize to you and Xu Qing.”

It wasn’t lost on Yao Feihe that Arch-Immortal Plumdark had addressed her differently than before, which went to show how displeased she was. [4]

Yao Feihe had originally simply planned to have her niece apologize to Plumdark. But after being introduced to Xu Qing, she realized what was really going on, and therefore she added him into the apology explanation. Yao Feihe was very different from Li Shitao. Li Shitao was energetic and playful, and would make friends with just about anybody, regardless of their social standing. But as the younger sister of Marquis Yao, things were different for Yao Feihe. She was very choosy about who she befriended.

For example, Plumdark was from a distant sect that wasn’t considered very powerful. But in terms of intelligence and aptitude, Plumdark was among the best of the best. You never knew where people like that might end up, and most definitely should not look down on them because they had humble beginnings. In fact, people like that could, seemingly in the blink of an eye, rise to much higher heights than her.

What was more, Yao Feihe was one of the few people who knew the sacrifice her older brother was making on behalf of Sea-Sealing County. And thus, she knew more than anyone that though the Yao Clan seemed like an incredibly powerful clan, it was really in a very precarious position. Of course, she couldn’t reveal the truth to anyone. Because of that, she didn’t want the Yao Clan making any more enemies than necessary. That was why she wanted to turn weapons of war into gifts of jade and silk.

Her assessment of Xu Qing was similar. That said, he had a long way to go before he grew up, and she planned to keep a close eye on him going forward. After giving her explanation, she turned and looked sharply at Yao Yunhui.

Yao Yunhui bowed her head and clasped hands to Plumdark and Xu Qing.

“Yunhui has had a rough life,” Yao Feihe said softly. “Her husband passed away young, and being a single mother isn’t easy.”

Arch-Immortal Plumdark’s facial expression didn’t change, making it impossible to see if she agreed with Yao Feihe’s assessment or not. Instead, she just started chatting with her two friends. Before long, the three of them were laughing merrily.

Yao Yunhui continued to follow her aunt’s previous instructions, and went back to playing the zither. As the music mixed with the sound of the wind and rain, it created a very pleasant atmosphere.

For the entire time, Xu Qing didn’t say a single thing. Now that he knew Arch-Immortal Plumdark and Marquis Yao’s sister had a close friendship, he didn’t feel comfortable reacting at all to what just happened. Besides, whether or not the apology was real didn’t have any bearing on his choices. He still planned to find an opportunity to put that mother-and-son team down for good. As the saying went, death solves all problems.

With such thoughts on his mind, his cold eyes shifted to look at Yao Yunhui. As it happened, she had just looked up at him. Their eyes locked briefly, then Yao Yunhui instinctively looked away. At the same time, her zither twanged.

Frowning in surprise, Xu Qing made sure to keep his guard fully up. He was convinced that Yao Yunhui was plotting against him, which caused killing intent to fill his heart. However, he kept it under control so it didn’t show in his eyes.

Thus, time passed. When evening fell, Arch-Immortal Plumdark said her goodbyes to her two best friends.

Just before leaving, Li Shitao laughed softly and poked fun at Xu Qing a bit more. “Little Bro, don’t forget about that Elder Brother you said you’d introduce.”

Xu Qing looked back at her and nodded earnestly.

Feeling very pleased, Li Shitao waved goodbye to Arch-Immortal Plumdark and then walked away.

The rain had stopped. Arch-Immortal Plumdark and Xu Qing walked side by side back toward the subsidiary sect.

“Those two are good friends of mine here in the county capital. Li Shitao seems a bit frivolous, but the truth is that she’s a very profound schemer. That said, she’s a responsible person, so when things get tricky, you know you can trust her. As for Yao Feihe, she has grand ambitions that reach far beyond Sea-Sealing County. Unfortunately, she has few friends. Although she’s cold and calculating, she lives by principle. For example, no one asked her to bring Yao Yunhui out to apologize. By the way, don’t change your plans about Yao Yunhui based on that. Do what you believe needs to be done.”

Xu Qing nodded thoughtfully.

Arch-Immortal Plumdark didn’t say anything further. She led the way back, clearly in a very good mood.

Xu Qing walked with her beneath the moon. By the time they reached the subsidiary sect, the wind had picked up.

It carried the chill of winter with it.

“Winter is on the way. The autumn rains will pass soon....” Arch-Immortal Plumdark turned to Xu Qing, and as the moon glittered in her eyes, she looked unusually beautiful. Reaching out, she gently adjusted his garment. As he stiffened, she smiled warmly.

“Xu Qing,” she said softly, “can you speed up your cultivation...?”

Giving him a deep look, she turned and entered the subsidiary sect. Her handmaidens curtseyed to Xu Qing and followed her. Soon, she and her plum-colored gown were nowhere to be seen, but the smell of her perfume remained.

Xu Qing stood at the entrance of the subsidiary sect for a while, thinking about what she’d just said. Finally he nodded, clasped hands and bowed. Then he turned and left.

Back at his sword pavilion, he found some new missions to earn military credits.

In the following days, he worked nonstop to get military credits. Most of the missions he accepted involved tracking down and arresting criminals. Because of that, he became familiar with the criminals in the city. That was especially true of one criminal who left a deep impression on him.

That criminal had the same nickname as he did. He was called the Kid.

Seven days later when he had enough military credit built up, Xu Qing went to Level 9 in the Corrections Division. There, he spent a lot of military credits to apply for the D-001 guard assessment.

Taking that test was the only way a jailer from Unit D could get promoted to Unit C.

The test was to quell a prison riot in D-001. Doing so would qualify the applicant to be promoted to Unit C, and earn the qualification to visit the levels below Level 89.

As far as the Corrections Division was concerned, Unit D and Unit C were completely different. The latter was very profound and mysterious, and the jailers there were brutal. They were all Nascent Soul cultivators, and any single one of them had a status that vastly surpassed any of the Unit D jailers. That was why all Unit D jailers dreamed of eventually being promoted to Unit C.

The fact that Xu Qing was applying to take the test raised the notice of all the Unit D jailers. As they gathered to watch, Xu Qing stepped into D-001 on Level 88!

Two hours later, the D-001 door opened and a figure staggered out, dripping blood. It was none other than Xu Qing. He was gasping for breath and was lame in one leg. Every step he took left behind a trail of blood. His arm was dislocated, and he had numerous grievous injuries all over him. Many of them went down to the bone. He had a wound on his back that went from the top of his head down to his waist. It was absolutely ghastly looking. What was more, he had a gash that went from his forehead to his right cheek, a wound so horrid the flesh hung down and it dripped blood.

The prisoners in D-001 were from a variety of species, but all of them had nine-palace battle prowess.

Their years of imprisonment had weakened them, but all were outstanding chosen from their respective species. Xu Qing had even used his taboo poison to defeat them, and still had paid a very high price to do so.

The moment he stepped out, he coughed up a mouthful of chunky blood. Then he looked up at the jailers and smiled.

“All dead,” he said. Behind him, D-001 was a lake of blood. There wasn’t a single corpse visible.

His taboo poison core had melted every single one of them. He could hardly have looked more ghastly.

1. To forestall any questions about this passage, I want to state right here that the words spoken by Arch-Immortal Plumdark are as I’ve translated. She very directly says that she’s in love with Xu Qing. The wording is slightly more fancy and romantic than the common Chinese term ‘fall in love with,’ but the meaning could not be more clearly stated. While there are many alternative ways to say “fall in love with” in English, they all carry varying nuances, implications, and alternative meanings that I felt distract from the point. I wanted something that very simply conveys the meaning. As you can see from the way the others in the scene react to her words, it’s borderline shocking that she would say something like this so directly. ☜

2. Li Shitao: Li is listed #2 on the 100 common surnames. Shi means “poem, poetry” and Tao means “peach.” Don’t forget about that “peach” part…. Incidentally, the “shi” is not pronounced “shee,” but rather, almost exactly like the English word “sure.” Madam Deathblade says this name sounds romantic and poetic. Yao Feihe: This is the Yao from the Yao Clan. Fei means “fly, flying,” and He means “lotus.” The “He” is not pronounced like the English word “he” but rather like “huh.” Madam Deathblade says this name sounds like a somewhat antiquated name for someone in the older generation. ☜

3. Just pointing out that the familial forms of address all coincide with the information we’ve been given in previous chapters. Specifically, the word for “paternal aunt” is used, indicating that Yao Feihe is the sister of Yao Yunhui’s father. Back in 396 we learned that Yao Yunhui is the daughter of Marquis Yao, who appeared two chapters ago. ☜

4. Upon greeting Yao Feihe, Arch-Immortal Plumdark addressed her as Big Sis Feihe (using her given name). Just now, she switched to Big Sis Yao (using her surname). Using the given name is a sign of familiarity and intimacy, whereas using the surname makes things a bit more formal and distant. ☜