ARLQLCC chapter 31

On one side, Tu Yan was sighing in regret in his heart, while on the other side, Chef Lin was kicked in the chest and almost had his soul sent straight to the netherworld.

Yun Xicheng and Yun Che exchanged a glance and both could see that the Great Elder had truly been enraged.

The Great Elder protected his own people. If this incident had not touched the sect’s core interests, he would most likely have lightly punished his junior brother, the Second Elder, just to save face and let it pass.

But now, what Chef Lin—who was related to the Second Elder—had done was equivalent to pushing the Yunxian Sect’s foundational disciples into an abyss. The Great Elder’s protective bias was instantly thrown beyond the nine heavens by himself.

Sect Master Yun had been in seclusion for a hundred years, and the reason he could safely hand over the position of acting sect master to the Great Elder was because of his unwavering loyalty to the sect.

Chef Lin was merely an early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator. Taking a kick from a Mahayana cultivator—even without any spiritual energy—still caused him intense chest pain, and the sound of bones cracking seemed to ring out the moment he landed.

The Great Elder slammed his chopsticks onto the table. The rustling sounds in the dining hall immediately stopped, and hundreds of pairs of eyes stared silently, waiting to see how he would deal with this.

Chef Lin, who had originally been groaning on the ground, was suddenly lifted by a surge of spiritual energy and suspended in midair.

His forcibly straightened chest made a cracking sound. He had never endured such pain before, and immediately let out a miserable scream—but before the sound could even leave his throat, it seemed to be strangled by something, leaving only an expression of terror.

The Great Elder’s gaze grew darker and darker. Looking at Chef Lin’s face full of fat and flesh, he could tell that someone who could afford to make himself so obese must be deeply involved in embezzling spirit stones.

He said coldly: “Speak. Over all these years in the sect, how many spirit stones have you embezzled? Who gave you the courage to replace spirit plants?”

With every word he spoke, Chef Lin felt his throat tighten further. Afraid of being strangled to death in the Great Elder’s rage, he forced out: “Heh… heh… G-Great Elder, I…”

Just as he struggled to speak, the surrounding spiritual energy suddenly loosened. His fat body fell from the air, and another wave of tearing pain surged from his chest—but this time, he no longer dared to scream. He knelt on the ground and kept kowtowing, tears and snot covering his face.

“Great Elder, I… I really don’t know how many spirit stones I embezzled! Over… over all this time, half of the spirit stones I skimmed were given to the Second Elder! I… I really never kept count, Great Elder!”

“At first, I only downgraded the spirit plants by one grade, but after the Second Elder found out, he threatened me with handing over all the embezzled spirit stones. After a long time, he thought it was too little, so I… I had no choice but to keep lowering the quality! You… you must be magnanimous and spare me!”

By the end, he was crying bitterly and crawling to the Great Elder’s feet, trying to beg for mercy—but he was kicked again directly onto his injured spot. He collapsed on the ground and could no longer speak.

The Second Elder, who had been exposed, trembled. At some unknown point, he had already gathered a surge of spiritual energy in his hand, carrying killing intent as he struck toward Chef Lin’s face!

Although Chef Lin was barely breathing, he still had a trace of consciousness. Seeing the surging spiritual power coming closer and closer, his eyes widened in terror.

However, that spiritual energy was stopped just a few inches before it could reach him, blocked and extinguished by a strand of ink-black demon energy.

The sneak attack failed, and the Second Elder immediately went mad. He even threw away his whisk, summoned a spirit sword, and tried to rush forward to hack Chef Lin to death!

An elder losing control in public caused an uproar throughout the hall.

The Great Elder originally intended to question the Second Elder further, but seeing his current state, there was clearly no need anymore. He let out a deep sigh, as if he had aged ten years in an instant.

An invisible force bound the Second Elder. The Great Elder rubbed his brow, exhausted, and said: “The matter has been clarified today. The two of them colluded in crime, first murdering innocent disciples, then undermining the foundation of our Yunxian Sect. Together with those five Law Enforcement Hall disciples, hand them over to the Law Enforcement Elder and deal with everything according to sect rules.”

The disciples behind the Great Elder responded in unison, lifted the tear-streaked Chef Lin, and followed the Great Elder toward the Law Enforcement Hall.

On the first day of the Sword Trial Tournament, such a scandal broke out from the host sect—truly shocking.

After the Great Elder’s figure completely disappeared from the dining hall, the previously silent atmosphere instantly exploded, everyone starting to discuss in chaos.

Su Ji let out a sigh of relief. He had just been resisting the barrier earlier and had been holding his nerves tightly. Now that the dust had settled, he realized his body felt somewhat weak and couldn’t help but tremble slightly.

Yun Xicheng beside him hurried over to support him, and Yun Che and the others surrounded Su Ji, their voices full of concern.

“Su Ji, how are you?”

“Chef Su, are you alright?”

“Chef Su, I’m sorry… I couldn’t help at all…”

Yun Xicheng said regretfully: “Originally I just wanted to invite you here to relax and have fun. I didn’t expect it would almost put you in danger. If I had known…”

Su Ji raised his hand to interrupt him and comforted him: “It’s not your fault. No one expected them to be so bold. It’s already over, don’t blame yourselves anymore.”

Yue He wiped her tears and said firmly: “Chef Su, you should go back and rest quickly! We’ll help you sell the remaining ingredients!”

Yan Shao also felt guilty for not being able to help earlier and quickly agreed: “R-right, you’re too weak right now. Going back to rest is best. W-we’ll handle what’s left!”

Many disciples around them gathered and kept expressing concern.

Su Ji thanked everyone one by one and returned to the courtyard holding Chu Zhaoye.

Yun Xicheng and the others stopped at the stall. The disciples who had not yet eaten dinner lined up again, but the topic of their conversation had completely shifted to what had just happened with the Second Elder.

Xie Qinghuai and Yuan Chenxin escorted Su Ji all the way to his room. Before leaving, they even tried to give him a storage artifact filled with pills, telling him to take them whenever he felt unwell. After Su Ji repeatedly declined, they left the courtyard while frequently looking back.

After all acquaintances had left, Su Ji sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the masked demon in front of him, unable to see his expression. He asked in confusion: “This…? Is there something else?”

It seemed the look from earlier had left a deep impression on Su Ji. As he spoke, he tucked the kitten into his chest to block Tu Yan’s probing gaze.

Tu Yan: “……” It’s all a misunderstanding, I’m really not a creepy uncle.

Coughing, he made a gesture in empty space, and a pure silver medicine bottle appeared in his palm.

With a flick, the bottle appeared on Su Ji’s bed.

Su Ji asked: “What is this?”

Tu Yan said: “This is the Spirit-Replenishing Pill. You’ve exhausted too much spiritual energy tonight. After taking one pill, you must meditate for the night, and you’ll recover by tomorrow.”

Su Ji thought that this was their first meeting and they were basically strangers. During the earlier confrontation with the Second Elder, he had vaguely felt that Tu Yan seemed to be helping him. Now that he saw his weakness, he was even casually giving out an extremely valuable pill.

What abilities did he, Su Ji, have that would make a half-step Tribulation cultivator like this Demon Venerable treat him this way?

Confused, Su Ji directly asked: “Demon Venerable, we don’t seem to be very familiar. Why are you helping me tonight?”

As he finished speaking, a round cat head poked out from Su Ji’s chest, meeting Chu Zhaoye’s gaze. Tu Yan coughed again.

“This… I naturally have my reasons. When the time is right, you’ll know.”

Su Ji was speechless. Just as he was about to ask again, Tu Yan seemed to have his butt set on fire, quickly said goodbye, and hurriedly ran out the door in a panic.

He moved so fast it looked like a dog was chasing him from behind.

Su Ji: “……”

He pulled the kitten out and murmured in its ear: “This Demon Lord seems a bit not very smart.”

Chu Zhaoye: “……” Idiot Tu Yan.

……

Deep into the night, the bright moon hung high.

After taking the Spirit-Replenishing Pill, Su Ji entered meditation. Spiritual energy circulated around him, isolating him from the sounds of birds and insects.

On the bed, Chu Zhaoye, who had been pretending to sleep, opened his eyes in the darkness.

He quietly crawled to the bedside table and touched the silver medicine bottle reflecting moonlight with his paw.

The moment he touched it, several Spirit-Replenishing Pills flew out of the bottle and entered the kitten’s body in the blink of an eye.

Inside the bottle, the missing pills were automatically replenished, quietly returning to their original number, as if nothing had happened.

A Tribulation Transcendence cultivator could normally withstand at most five Spirit-Replenishing Pills at once, but Chu Zhaoye was stronger—his true form was an ancient beast, Mingxie, so he took ten.

Once the pills entered his body, they immediately transformed into surging spiritual energy, circulating and repairing his meridians.

Feeling the blazing spiritual energy inside him, he lightly climbed back onto his small pillow.

In the night, the young man beside him sat in cultivation with closed eyes, unaware.

You can read the full completed story here with instant full access. ✨