Chapter 466 – My Master Is Not Human – Only the Ever-Burning Lamp Remained Lit (13)
“Time to get up, little lazy squirrel~” Pei Boyi said gently when he saw it was about time. He woke Tang Tang softly and even brought him a warm cup of pine nut milk.
Bai Tang twitched his nose, the rich milky scent tempting him awake.
“Mmn~” The little squirrel wriggled around in the blankets, defenselessly lazing in bed, making Pei Boyi smile at him fondly.
“If you don’t get up now, there won’t be any pine nut milk left.”
The ultimate weapon worked instantly. Bai Tang shot upright from the bed with a swish. “Don’t drink mine.” His food-protecting instincts were in full force.
After tidying themselves up a little, the two of them walked out of the stone cave hand in hand. The disciples waiting outside gradually regained clarity in their unfocused eyes when they saw them emerge.
“Junior Brother Pei, when did you arrive?” The two were not particularly surprised to see Pei Boyi appear, since he was also participating in this Da Ji Secret Realm expedition. What puzzled them, however, was that they had never seen him enter the cave—so how had he come out from inside?
Pei Boyi replied calmly, “Last night. The senior brothers were already resting.”
So he had arrived after they went to sleep last night. That made sense.
The two then turned their attention to a different question: why were they outside the stone cave instead of asleep? Pei Boyi’s answer was simple: “You two were sleepwalking.”
The pair were horrified. Since when did they sleepwalk? Could it be that they even recognized beds and had trouble sleeping elsewhere?
Seeing the two honestly fall into self-doubt, Pei Boyi offered no further explanation. Sometimes, explaining everything too clearly only made people more suspicious.
In just a single day, the group of two became a group of three, and eventually a group of four.
As they wandered aimlessly, the two disciples witnessed scenes that completely shattered their understanding of both their master and their little junior brother. They even felt as though their eyes were being blinded.
Back at Medicine Peak, they had already known that their master and little junior brother were extremely close. The relationships among the Medicine Peak disciples had always been good. But seeing things like carrying him when he was tired, fetching water for him when he was thirsty, and picking fruit or roasting meat for him when he was hungry—it was both enviable and jealousy-inducing.
If one insisted it was merely a disciple showing filial devotion to his master, it could barely pass as reasonable.
But feeding each other mouth-to-mouth—what kind of operation was that?
Pei Boyi did not care what they thought. So what if Bai Tang was nominally his master right now? They had already agreed that once they left the secret realm, they would become cultivation partners.
The two disciples watched the interactions between Bai Tang and Pei Boyi with widened eyes. The more they watched, the more embarrassed the little squirrel became. He frequently buried himself in Pei Boyi’s arms and refused to lift his head, allowing Pei Boyi to enjoy the situation to the fullest.
Eventually, Bai Tang’s unusual behavior made the two disciples realize that something was wrong. Their master seemed far too shy, and up until now, he had not even called them by name.
The news of Bai Tang’s memory loss could no longer be concealed. The two disciples were so moved that tears welled up in their eyes. Cultivators who entered a secret realm without meeting the requirements would face punishment—at best, a loss of cultivation, and at worst… no one knew the outcome.
Yet for their sake, their master had willingly risked losing his cultivation just to enter the realm and protect them, even losing his memories because of it.
Bai Tang: “…”
These two kids seemed to have imagined something outrageous yet again.
Pei Boyi was the strongest among them. The two disciples actually felt reassured having him protect their master, who currently understood nothing. Even without Bai Tang guiding him, Pei Boyi still managed to find the opportunity that originally belonged to him in the plot, relying on the protagonist’s luck.
Beside a deep, secluded pool, Pei Boyi accidentally activated the stone monument standing nearby. The water in the bottomless pool split apart from the center, revealing a hidden cave dwelling beneath.
Another cave dwelling? Do all opportunities nowadays love hiding inside cave dwellings? Bai Tang complained inwardly. Wait… why did he think “another” just now?
This time, Pei Boyi had no intention of leaving Bai Tang outside. Even if danger awaited within, at worst they would simply die together.
If Qiu’er were still here, he would definitely have noticed that his master’s thoughts had become increasingly extreme under the influence of demonic energy. Unfortunately, the only one here now was Bai Tang, who remembered nothing, and no one yet knew where the ending of this story would ultimately lead.
The two disciples had spent a long time inside the secret realm. Aside from discovering a few precious medicinal herbs recorded in ancient texts, legendary cave-dwelling opportunities had always seemed unrelated to them. So when they saw the enormous curtain of water part to reveal a cave mansion piled high with gold, silver, and jewels, “shocking” was the only word that could describe it.
The four walked through the cave dwelling. Bai Tang only glanced around a couple of times before losing interest. He had no particular feelings toward gold or jewels. In his opinion, pine nuts were far more appealing.
As for Pei Boyi, he had been an emperor several times before, so he was long accustomed to such displays and remained completely unfazed.
The other two disciples, however, were different. They were used to tending spiritual herbs and medicinal plants, living simple and modest lives. A cave dwelling as extravagant as an imperial palace naturally left them utterly amazed.
“Cultivators are supposed to distance themselves from worldly matters while pursuing the Dao. I wonder which mighty senior decided to do the exact opposite and became fond of gold and worldly treasures,” the two disciples walking behind Bai Tang muttered quietly to each other.
None of them noticed that after they passed through the corridor, a lizard crawled out from behind one of the pillars. Watching the backs of the four disappear at the end of the hallway, it turned and crawled off in the opposite direction.
The deeper the four of them ventured inside, the more uncomfortable the atmosphere became. Only then did they realize that this truly was the cave dwelling of a mighty cultivator—but not the righteous senior they had initially imagined.
It belonged to a demonic cultivator.
Seeing the scattered white bones everywhere, everyone except Pei Boyi immediately changed expression and hurriedly tried to retreat the way they had come.
But it was already too late.
When they returned to the fork in the path, an enormous stone wall blocked their way.
None of them knew when the wall had appeared. The distance from where they had decided to turn back was not very far, so if such a massive wall had fallen into place, they should have heard something. Yet it had appeared completely silently.
“A-Yi~” Bai Tang nervously gripped Pei Boyi’s hand. “We can’t get out.” Did such horrifying and bizarre things happen so often in the cultivation world? It was terrifying.
“Don’t be afraid.” Pei Boyi tightened his hold on Bai Tang’s hand before turning to the other two. “The only option now is to keep moving forward.”
Behind them was a dead end. Only by continuing ahead might they find a way out.
Outside the cave dwelling, a gray haze suddenly rose throughout the secret realm. Any cultivator who inhaled it instantly lost control and viciously attacked the people beside them with their weapons.
Screams echoed endlessly throughout the realm. As the smell of blood spread, the gray mist gradually deepened in color.
The pain briefly restored some clarity to the cultivators’ minds. Those who were only lightly injured hurriedly crushed their jade tokens to teleport themselves out of the secret realm.
The disciples of Medicine Peak had protective pills distributed by Bai Tang. After crushing their jade tokens, they quickly swallowed the spirit pills. Once teleported back to the sect, aside from lingering fear, they suffered no external injuries, and their cultivation levels remained intact.
Many others had not been fortunate enough to protect themselves in time. Although they managed to escape with their lives, some were crippled, while others suffered severe losses to their cultivation. Worse still, many had missed the best time for treatment and would never be able to advance further in cultivation again.
Their paths as cultivators were effectively ruined.
Meanwhile, the cultivators who had safely escaped thanks to Bai Tang’s life-saving pills all felt immensely relieved. Though there was perhaps a trace of schadenfreude involved, being unharmed and still able to continue cultivating was already an incredibly fortunate outcome.
Rows of ever-burning lamps gave no one time to react before they began extinguishing one after another.
Very quickly, more than half had gone dark.
Everyone understood what that meant.
Those cultivators who had failed to escape in time were already dead, their bodies and souls destroyed.
The Sect Master stared anxiously at the exit. The disaster he had feared most had still come to pass. The Da Ji Secret Realm was repeating the tragedy from several hundred years ago.
The only difference was that back then, not a single person had survived, while this time there were still survivors lucky enough to continue cultivating.
The Sect Master ordered people to remove the ever-burning lamps belonging to disciples who had either died or already exited the secret realm.
In the end, only three lamps remained lit.
They belonged to Pei Boyi and the two disciples traveling with him.
Medicine Peak?!
The elders from the other sects who had accompanied their disciples to the Le An Immortal Sect each had their own thoughts. Among them, one elder from a sect that had suffered complete annihilation could no longer hold back and demanded angrily:
“The Da Ji Secret Realm encountered a disaster, so why are your sect’s disciples still safe and sound? At a glance, almost all the survivors are disciples of the Le An Immortal Sect, and the only ones completely unharmed are the disciples from Medicine Peak!”
Following the elder’s accusation, everyone looked over carefully. Sure enough, the only people still able to stand were the Medicine Peak disciples.
It suddenly seemed as though the Le An Immortal Sect knew some hidden truth but had deliberately kept it from them in order to secure its position as the number one cultivation sect.
The crowd turned questioning and suspicious gazes toward the Sect Master. If he could not provide a reasonable explanation, then with so many disciples lost today, they had every reason to suspect that the Le An Immortal Sect had harbored malicious intentions and used others as pawns to kill.
The Sect Master cleared his throat, his expression calm and fearless.
“Dao Lord He Yi is the foremost among the five peak masters and cultivates through alchemy and medicine. What is strange about that?”
After hearing this, the questioning elder and the crowd he had stirred up paused to think.
It actually made sense.
For a medical cultivator to possess life-saving items was perfectly normal. Since the disciples were entering the dangerous Da Ji Secret Realm, there was no way Dao Lord He Yi would simply ignore them. It was also entirely possible that disciples from the other peaks of the Le An Immortal Sect had benefited as well.
“Besides, the Le An Immortal Sect also suffered losses. If we truly intended harm, why would we sacrifice our own disciples?”
Most of the disciples from the other sects had already been crippled anyway. If the Le An Immortal Sect truly harbored ill intentions, there would have been no need to waste the lives of their own disciples—they could simply seize control of the survivors directly.
As for the three disciples who still had not emerged, perhaps they had encountered some great opportunity and escaped disaster, or maybe they possessed life-saving treasures given by Dao Lord He Yi.
“You should blame your own incompetence, and the fact that you don’t have a master as capable and caring toward his disciples as Dao Lord He Yi,” Fu Maiwen snapped.
The moment he heard that elder questioning the Le An Immortal Sect, pressuring the Sect Master, and indirectly mocking his junior brother, Fu Maiwen had already become irritated.
The elder’s face alternated between pale and green from Fu Maiwen’s blunt ridicule. Furious and humiliated, he retorted:
“You clearly knew the Da Ji Secret Realm was dangerous and had ways to deal with it, yet you refused to make it public. Who knows what kind of intentions you were hiding…”
The argument was weak and unreasonable, but after being publicly humiliated by Fu Maiwen, the elder had to keep up appearances somehow.
“What sophistry.”
A cold female voice rang out alongside the sharp hum of a drawn sword. A flash of icy light swept past, and a lock of the elder’s hair drifted gently to the ground.
The elder turned deathly pale with shock.
Meanwhile, Wen Leng had already sheathed her sword and returned to her original position as though nothing had happened.
Everyone who knew the Frostcold Fairy understood one thing: She rarely lost her temper.
But once angered, someone would either die or be gravely injured.
Her sword had already left its sheath just now. Had that elder uttered even a few more reckless words, blood would certainly have been spilled.