ARLQLCC chapter 48

Time flew by in the blink of an eye, and half a month passed.

During this half month, Su Ji almost taught all the home-style cooking methods he was familiar with to the apprentice disciples of Yunxian Sect’s dining hall.

Due to time reasons, he could not continue supervising them, but during the learning process they gradually began to understand things from different angles; even without Su Ji constantly watching over them, they could still do quite well.

Su Ji took the cookbook his master gave him and made nineteen copies of it, giving them to this group of apprentice disciples as a graduation gift, and left the dining hall amid their reluctance.

Since Tu Yan learned that eating Su Ji’s food could eliminate inner demons, he came to the courtyard almost every day to mooch meals. After a long time, he discovered that although Su Ji was young, he saw things very clearly on the path of cultivation.

From famous ancient legends to strange tales and miscellaneous writings, he could talk freely about them. In addition, Tu Yan’s inner demon had already been completely eradicated, and by accident the other party became his lifesaver, so Tu Yan felt they had met too late. If not for Chu Zhaoye’s cold warning gaze, he would probably have secretly dragged Su Ji to become sworn brothers.

And as the Trial Sword Tournament was about to come to an end, only two people remained in each realm, waiting for the final day to determine first place.

Yun Xicheng was one of the finalists in the Golden Core realm. His final opponent was Tao Yue’s second disciple, Tao Ming, the sect master of Mingxia Sect.

Both were at the Golden Core Great Perfection stage. In previous matches they had never been matched against each other, always in a “king does not meet king” situation. Now that the finals were approaching, they finally met.

The finals would be held in order from lower to higher realms. Starting from the Foundation Establishment realm, they would first go on the central arena to compete and determine first place.

After that it would move to the Golden Core realm, and so on. The Soul Transformation realm would be the finale, and it was also the most eye-catching match of the entire Trial Sword Tournament.

The two most outstanding disciples in the Soul Transformation realm this year were one, Xie Yao from Kunlun Divine Palace’s Sect Master Xie Daoqi’s personal disciple, and the other, Yuan Chenxin, the personal disciple of the Sword Peak Peak Master of Chenxin Sect.

The former had always been a leader among his peers, with extraordinary talent since childhood. After being taken in as Xie Daoqi’s personal disciple, his strength improved even more rapidly. He did not have many matches in the Trial Sword Tournament, but as long as he went on stage, he could defeat his opponent within ten moves.

The latter was a rising star. Although he was the Sword Venerable’s personal disciple, at the beginning he was not very noticeable, and only in the past ten years did he gradually enter the public eye. In this Trial Sword Tournament he showed his brilliance; his sword moves were full of killing intent but always stopped at the last moment, not losing the reputation of the Sword Venerable’s successor.

Now that the two were matched together, the outcome was still unknown, but the level of excitement was clearly evident.

Su Ji did not need to teach cooking every day anymore, and planned to relax on the last day, going there in person to cheer for Yun Xicheng.

……

On the day of the finals, before dawn, there was already commotion among many disciples on Lianshuo Peak.

Even those who usually took time to sleep in had gotten up early today, dressed properly, and went to the spectator stands to occupy good positions.

After half a month, Chu Zhaoye’s spiritual energy disorder period had passed. Usually he still followed Su Ji in human form, but today was a special day—almost all sect masters and elders would be present at the finals.

He had an outstanding temperament and a tall build, making him memorable at a glance. Many elders in this group had seen Chu Zhaoye before, and even fought alongside him during the devil race wars. Su Ji was worried his identity would be exposed, so he made him return to cat form.

Chu Zhaoye knew very well that Su Ji had no resistance to cute things, and the main reason he had been taken in was that he had been incredibly adorable as a cub.

After turning back into a cat, he even actively infused spiritual energy into his fur to maintain it. The whole cat became even rounder than when Su Ji first met him, making Su Ji absolutely delighted, even forgetting he was an adult man and kissing him several times while holding him.

Tu Yan watched from the side, dumbfounded, realizing for the first time how scheming his boss could be when chasing love.

Although Chu Zhaoye slept in the same bed with Su Ji every night in human form, and Su Ji was already used to waking up in his arms, a hug was still just a hug. Su Ji wouldn’t kiss him anymore when he wasn’t in cat form.

Now that he finally succeeded, his tail almost shot into the sky. After returning to his familiar position against Su Ji’s chest, Chu Zhaoye felt that being a cat occasionally was not bad.

Being human meant he could hug Su Ji, being a cat meant he could be kissed by Su Ji.

Life was complete.

With a cat cub tucked in his arms, Su Ji, together with Yan Shao, met Yue He at the entrance and went to the martial arena together.

Yun Che had already left with Yun Xicheng. Although he lost his last match, he had luckily touched the bottleneck of the mid–Golden Core stage. After returning and going into seclusion for seven days, he successfully broke through, and these days he was so happy he even ate two extra bowls of rice.

Today he also got up the earliest along with Yun Xicheng, who was about to enter the finals. Yun Xicheng went to the preparation area, while he took on the job of helping Su Ji and the others reserve seats.

Su Ji and the others found Yun Che at the center of the arena. He had secured the best viewing position and even reserved a seat for Tu Yan.

Logically, as a senior, Tu Yan should have stood on the high platform with the sect masters and elders, but recently he had gotten used to chatting with Su Ji. If he wasn’t talking, he felt uncomfortable, so after refusing the Great Elder’s invitation, he happily ran to the spectator stands and sat next to Su Ji.

The other disciples had already gone from initial shock to numbness in just half a month.

Tu Yan would randomly appear on Lianshuo Peak whenever he was free. The disciples of various sects lived in constant shock, but over time they all came to understand that the Demon Venerable did not come for anything else—he came just to mooch a meal from Chef Su.

Even the Demon Venerable had fallen under Chef Su’s apron; it seemed the Linggu Mountain Cafeteria could consider expanding its business to the demon race.

Su Ji was not surprised by Tu Yan’s arrival at all, not even lifting his eyelids.

After half a month together, Su Ji discovered that his personality was very talkative—he spoke a lot and very densely. In the demon race, he either faced sarcastic lords or was silenced by Chu Zhaoye’s cold remarks, and even his Dao companion sometimes got annoyed with him.

Plus, externally he maintained the image of the decisive Demon Venerable, so he was either acting deep or on the way to acting deep. After holding it in for hundreds of years, he finally found someone who would talk with him without finding him annoying, and in these half months he almost tried to say everything he had held in for centuries.

Su Ji had no friends in his sect before, so he did not expect to meet so many friends after leaving it, and he was very tolerant of Tu Yan’s chatter.

As soon as Tu Yan arrived, Su Ji gave him a handful of melon seeds. After setting up a soundproof barrier, the two began their daily chatting.

Tu Yan pointed at Yun Xicheng in the Golden Core preparation area, cracking melon seeds loudly: “He’s fighting Tao Ming today. He’ll definitely win.”

“How do you know?” Su Ji asked, pulling Chu Zhaoye out from his chest and placing him on his lap, taking out two spicy dried fish strips from his storage artifact to feed him.

Tu Yan also asked for two to nibble on. Chu Zhaoye glared at him, but Tu Yan ignored it.

Since being with Su Ji, Chu Zhaoye had become much more human-like, so Tu Yan was no longer afraid to joke with him.

Many people said Yun Xicheng and Tao Ming were “king does not meet king” in the Golden Core realm, but Tu Yan scoffed at that.

While eating melon seeds and dried fish, he analyzed: “Yun Xicheng has solid fundamentals. I’ve seen him practice sword a few times and even taught him a few moves—he absorbed them well. In terms of strength, he’s already at half-step Nascent Soul, just missing a breakthrough.”

“On the other hand, Tao Ming—I’ve also watched a few of his matches. Against weaker opponents he relies on spiritual power, and against equal opponents he tends to use tricks. Him reaching the finals is mostly luck, plus his master gave him many magical artifacts. Otherwise, it’s hard to say if he’d even be here.”

Su Ji could also see this, but he had no time to watch matches, so this was his first time seeing Tao Ming.

He could tell the man’s spiritual energy was unstable. Although he was at Golden Core Great Perfection, his foundation was weak. His true strength was likely only at late Golden Core, and his “great perfection” was inflated by pills.

It was a pity that betting was not allowed in the finals, otherwise Su Ji could have made another profit.

Chu Zhaoye finished his dried fish, and Su Ji, worried he was thirsty, asked if he wanted some water.

With the soundproof barrier up, Chu Zhaoye shook his head and, for the first time in cat form, spoke to Su Ji—he said he was not thirsty.

The barrier fell silent for a moment.

Su Ji held back, then failed to hold it in and buried his face in Chu Zhaoye’s back, laughing for a long time.

When he was a cat, Chu Zhaoye was very cute.

When human, he was tall, handsome, and had a low, pleasant voice.

All of that was fine.

But when he was a cat and still spoke in such a low voice, the scene became somewhat comical.

Last time Tu Yan held it in.

This time, with Su Ji leading the laughter, he couldn’t hold it in either.

Amid their laughter and Chu Zhaoye’s murderous expression, the bell rang.

The Trial Sword Tournament finals opened under the attention of all.

Author’s note:

The Trial Sword Tournament arc is almost over. Face-slapping won’t be far away (excited)

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