Chapter 2765 Follow Your Lead

What kind of situation was this?! Lin Xun stood utterly dumbfounded, frozen in place, eyes blankly fixed on Cheng Yu. Seeing that he hadn’t spoken for a long time, Cheng Yu stole a glance at his stiff expression, worry rising in her heart.

Could it be...the blow was too much for Junior Brother?

She blurted out nervously, “Junior Brother, are you...alright? It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have said something like that right after we met. I...I apologize...”

Her fair and delicate face was full of guilt and unease.

Lin Xun finally snapped out of it and hurriedly said, “Senior Sister, wait...listen to me, what exactly did you mean just now?”

Cheng Yu’s worry only deepened.

Junior Brother must have been struck too hard to accept reality. What should I do?

Biting her rosy lips, she whispered, “Junior Brother, calm down. I wasn’t rejecting you. I just...I’m afraid I’m not as good as you think I am. I don’t want to let down your feelings. I don’t know what to say. It’s just that...I need time to think. I can’t accept you right away. Do...do you understand?”

Lin Xun’s face grew stranger by the moment, his thoughts a tangled mess. After a long silence, he rubbed at his stiff cheeks and muttered, “Senior Sister...there must be some kind of misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding?” Cheng Yu’s clear eyes widened in surprise.

“Yes.” Lin Xun nodded firmly. “Senior Sister, may I ask about what you just said...who told you that...?”

“Wasn’t it you?” Cheng Yu blinked, equally confused.

Lin Xun gave a wry smile, “Since arriving in the Seventh Heaven Domain, I’ve been cultivating in the Origin Sect. I never knew...anything about this.”

Cheng Yu froze and said, “But Junior Sister Jun Huan sent a message saying that you’ve admired me for a long time, that you’ve been suffering from unrequited love, and if you don’t pour out your heart, it could harm your dao heart and even affect your immortal path. So you entrusted her to pass along your words and deliver me a letter of confession.”

Hearing this, Lin Xun’s face turned darker than the bottom of a pot, his teeth grinding in fury.

So it was all Senior Sister Jun Huan’s doing! Admiration? Unrequited love? Pour out my heart? Letter of confession? None of it came from me! This was definitely her work! No wonder Senior Sister Cheng Yu was so shy when we met. She thought I was confessing my feelings to her!

At last, Lin Xun understood everything. If Jun Huan was here, he would drag her over and teach her a lesson. Wasn’t this just matchmaking nonsense?!

Cheng Yu asked with a puzzled look, “Junior Brother, is there something wrong with that?”

Lin Xun gave a wry smile, chose his words with care and finally explained his speculation. After hearing him out, Cheng Yu’s pretty face flushed crimson. Remembering what she had just said earlier, she wanted nothing more than to crawl into the ground. How mortifying!

“Junior Sister Jun Huan is...so hateful.” Cheng Yu muttered, flustered. “When I see her again, I’ll have Third Senior Sister give her a proper lesson.”

“Yes, she must be taught a lesson!” Lin Xun ground his teeth, still seething.

He and Cheng Yu just stared at one another, wide-eyed and speechless... Then, after a long silence, they suddenly burst into helpless laughter, rocking back and forth uncontrollably. The subtle awkwardness lifted, giving way to a light and cheerful atmosphere.

Cheng Yu finally felt completely at ease. Lin Xun finally understood why his senior sister Cheng Yu had been so shy. The truth had come to light and with it came relief.

Many years later, when Jun Huan learned of this, she let out a long sigh.

My little junior brother is really a hopeless case!

“Senior Sister, can you tell me what life has been like in the Spirit Sect Ancestral Court all these years?” Lin Xun changed the subject.

Cheng Yu nodded gently, tucking a strand of short black hair behind her ears. She spoke in a soft voice. The awkwardness from before had dissipated, and their conversation flowed with an easy harmony. Time slipped by unnoticed.

Later, Lin Xun brought out a few dishes he had prepared and opened a jar of fine wine to share with her. As for the Nine Peaks Dao Contest raging outside, he gave it no thought at all.

What he did not expect was that the gentle, reserved Cheng Yu turned out to have an astonishing tolerance for alcohol. Cup after cup disappeared into her without the slightest change in her expression. She was no weaker than any man.

At their level of cultivation, drinking was purely for pleasure. Neither of them bothered to suppress or dissolve the effects with their powers, and so they drank freely. Lin Xun soon noticed that the more Cheng Yu drank, the brighter her starry eyes shone, and the livelier her demeanor became. Her porcelain skin took on a rosy glow, making her look all the more charming and endearing.

In contrast, he himself was beginning to feel a little tipsy.

“Senior Sister, I never imagined you were such a good drinker,” Lin Xun said in surprise. The wine he had collected was all aged and rare, brewed with divine ingredients. For ordinary cultivators, drinking it without suppressing its effects would have meant instant drunkenness.

However, Cheng Yu seemed only more spirited the more she drank!

“Junior Brother, I grew up alongside Eldest Senior Brother, who loved wine more than anything. I’ve been drinking with him since I was young. Master scolded him countless times for turning me into a drunkard, but I’ve always thought drinking is one of the greatest pleasures for cultivators. Later on, among all our disciples, aside from Eldest Senior Brother, no one could outdrink me.”

Cheng Yu lifted her cup with a bright smile and said proudly, “I still remember, back then Master Kong Jue loved drinking with me too. Each time he saw me, he’d challenge me to a drinking contest. But in the end, it was always him who collapsed drunk.”

Lin Xun was in awe, as though gazing up at a lofty peak. “Senior Sister is remarkable.”

Cheng Yu giggled, lively and adorable, so much so that one could hardly believe she was a Spirit Noble of the Spirit Sect Ancestral Court, and an Immortal powerhouse.

Just then, the restriction outside Lin Xun’s abode rippled, immediately drawing his attention. With a thought, he withdrew it and Tao Leng’s anxious voice rang out, “Lin Xun, Deputy Pavilion Master Xuan is summoning you. Come with me at once!”

Lin Xun and Cheng Yu exchanged a glance, and in that instant, the drunken haze vanished from their eyes.

“Did something happen?” Lin Xun asked as he stepped outside. Outside, he immediately noticed the trace of anger and anxiety clouding Tao Leng’s face.

Tao Leng swiftly explained the situation. It turned out that the Nine Peaks Dao Contest had gone on for eight hours before finally drawing to a close. Afterward, a grand banquet was meant to follow. It was to celebrate the core disciple who ranked at the top, and to honor the guests who had come from afar.

However, just as the Nine Peaks Dao Contest concluded, an unexpected disturbance erupted. Xing Jun, a Great Shaman of the Shaman Sect strode into the Heavenly Enlightenment Dao Arena and publicly declared that he wished to challenge Lin Xun.

The entire audience was shaken. A Great Shaman of the Shaman Sect held a status equivalent to a deacon or a deputy deacon of the Origin Sect’s three pavilions, their cultivation typically ranging between the Heavenly Longevity and the Nirvana Spirit Stages.

Xing Jun was no ordinary figure. He had only recently ascended to this rank, but his strength was already considered exceptional. Even so, he was a guest. To outright refuse his challenge would seem discourteous. Unfortunately, Lin Xun was absent at the time.

Faced with the challenge, the three pavilions of the Origin Sect naturally would not allow their prestige to be trampled. Before long, a deputy deacon from the Origin Clarity Pavilion stepped forward to fight in Lin Xun’s place.

This deputy deacon’s name was Xie Wumian, who had reached the pinnacle of the Heavenly Longevity Realm, far beyond Xing Jun’s cultivation of the advanced Heavenly Longevity Stage. He also possessed vast combat experience.

In fact, there were no ordinary figures within the Origin Sect. Every one of them was a prodigy, a monstrous genius. Even so, as one of the four great ancestral courts, the Shaman Sect naturally produced formidable disciples of its own. Furthermore, Xing Jun was one of its most dazzling and tyrannical figures.

At first, Xie Wumian held back, thinking it beneath him to unleash his full strength against a lower cultivation level opponent. Winning that way would be neither glorious nor honorable, and might even tarnish the Origin Sect’s reputation.

However, who would have thought that the moment the battle began, Xie Wumian was thrown into peril. Even when fought with all his might, he was still crushed, unable to even lift his head.

In less than thirty breaths, he was grievously wounded by Xing Jun, his body shattered with a single punch. If a high-ranking figure had not intervened in time, Xie Wumian would have been annihilated on the spot. Such a disastrous defeat turned the faces of everyone in the Origin Sect dark.

Worst of all, Xing Jun stood tall in the Heavenly Enlightenment Dao Arena, his aura wild and domineering, making no attempt to hide his disdain as he openly demanded Lin Xun step forward. The Shaman Sect had always been a den of demons and fiends, caring nothing for etiquette and law. Xing Jun embodied that in full.

At that moment, the Heavenly Enlightenment Dao Arena was surrounded by powerhouses from the Spirit Sect, Zen Sect, and the Ten Immortal Giants. Faced with Xing Jun’s provocation, how could the Origin Sect possibly back down? So Ruo Yunheng, a deputy deacon of the Origin Sky Pavilion, stepped forward.

Unfortunately, even he was defeated, his body shattering under a single punch from Xing Jun. The humiliating sight left the high-ranking figures of the Origin Sect unable to hold up their heads.

The Nine Peaks Dao Contest was a grand event for the Origin Sect, but it had become a stage for the Shaman Sect to flaunt its power. If this continued, how could the Origin Sect still hold its head high in the Eternal True Realm?

However, no one could deny Xing Jun’s terrifying foundation. His strength far surpassed his peers. He could be called a heaven-defying genius among geniuses. The fact that he brazenly challenged the Origin Sect on its soil indicated that he was no ordinary figure, but a trump card deliberately prepared by the Shaman Sect.

At this point, Tao Leng hurried away to summon Lin Xun. Upon hearing this, Lin Xun raised an eyebrow. “There are seventy-two deputy deacons across the three pavilions. Don’t tell me not one of them can stand against Xing Jun?”

Tao Leng let out a long sigh, “Don’t you see? The Shaman Sect came prepared. Xing Jun was clearly arranged to provoke us at this exact moment. In other words, he’s their trump card. Under such circumstances, if you don’t appear, he will never leave the Heavenly Enlightenment Dao Arena.”

His expression hardened. “We’ve already lost twice. We cannot afford a third defeat! Nor can we allow Xing Jun to run rampant any longer!”

With that, he clapped Lin Xun on the shoulder. “Lin Xun, this is a great opportunity for you. If you can win, you’ll win the hearts of many in the Origin Sect, and the benefits to your future will be beyond measure.”

Lin Xun asked, “Aren’t you worried that I’ll lose?”

Tao Leng almost rolled his eyes. “If you can’t win, I’ll dig your eyes out.”

Lin Xun laughed. Then he turned to Cheng Yu and said, “Senior Sister, Shall we go and see for ourselves what this Great Shaman Xing Jun is truly capable of?”

Cheng Yu replied in a gentle voice, “I’ll follow your lead.”