Chapter 625: Ch 625 - Sweet Potatoes Aren’t Eaten Like That

"Amazing news, amazing news"

"This year’s Immortal Alliance Tournament saw the rise of a dark horse no one expected!"

"That young man surnamed He, only eighteen years old, was written off by everyone. Yet in the end he first thrashed the demoness of the Divine Abyss Gate until she fled in disgrace, then carried off the holy maiden Nangong Xi of the Frost Palace right in front of the whole crowd!"

On the bustling streets of the Imperial Capital, a newsboy pushed his little cart along and called out his wares with no small measure of excitement.

He hawked his papers from door to door until he came to a stop before a courtyard whose gate bore the two carved name "Divine Abyss."

"Heh heh, young miss, care to buy a fresh paper? Curious to see what that legendary young master really looks like?"

The newsboy sized up the girl in the black dress and tossed her a playful wink.

Wen Ruzhi stood quietly at the gate, irritation flickering in her eyes.

She said nothing and turned to step over the threshold.

But the newsboy caught the flicker of interest on her face and hurried forward to press his pitch.

"Eh, eh, eh, young miss, just buy one! Our paper doesn’t only carry the tournament headlines. The last few pages are packed with insider gossip too!"

"..."

The girl in the black dress glanced back without a word.

Seeing he had her on the hook, the newsboy dug a paper out of his cart and held it out.

"Look here. Word is, young master He Yino isn’t just close with lady Mo Yuyan of the Wuji Sect. During the tournament he was constantly slipping behind the curtains at the Jianlan Sect’s section, getting up to who knows what with Lady Pei!"

"And that’s not all! Before the tournament even began, people saw young master betting on Lady Pei Zhihan’s disciple, Lin Che!"

"After the tournament ended, plenty of folks saw Lady Pei going to collect her winnings. They say she’d staked every coin she had on Yino taking the championship!"

"When the little demoness of the Divine Abyss Gate lost, Lady Pei made a fortune. When the divine maiden of the Frost Palace lost, Lady Pei raked in even more!"

The newsboy chattered on, eagerly serving up his exclusive gossip.

Wen Ruzhi listened in silence, her purple pupils sweeping coldly over the illustrations and text on the paper.

"Give me three."

Her brow lifted slightly, and at last she spoke in a cold voice.

The newsboy’s face lit up at once.

"Right away, boss! Nine copper coins in total!"

"Keep the change."

She fished a silver ingot from her sleeve, took the papers without looking back, and stepped through the gate, pulling it shut behind her.

The newsboy stood frozen, the silver cradled in his palm.

Wen Ruzhi held the papers and read through them at startling speed as she walked deeper into the courtyard.

She came to a stop before a hall sealed by a barrier. Lifting her gaze, she swallowed silently, drew a deep breath, and tucked the papers into her Void Storage Ring.

"Ruzhi, you’ve come."

The hall doors opened, and a man in black and gold robes spoke in a flat tone. His features were delicate and refined.

Wen Ruzhi nodded and followed him inside.

The hall stood within the courtyard, modest from the outside, but past the doors it opened into another world entirely. At its far end stood a statue, dragon-headed and buddha-bodied, the ancient abyssal aura of a forgotten age drifting around it.

"Go on. The Ninth Elder has been waiting."

Wen Ruxiu stopped before the statue and stepped aside, watching his sister go forward alone.

Wen Ruzhi gave no answer. She walked quietly up to the statue, knelt on both knees, and bowed her head.

"This disciple reports to the elder. Ruzhi failed to win the Tournament Champion."

Her voice was hollow and drained of feeling, a plain recitation.

From the side of the statue emerged a hunched old woman in black divination robes.

"A dignified bearer of the ancient dual pupils, the reincarnated spirit embryo of the Dragon Sovereign, and you lost to some unknown brat who came out of nowhere!"

Granny Si’s face darkened with fury, and her voice turned biting as she seized a vine in her hand and lashed it hard across Wen Ruzhi.

Wen Ruzhi let out a muffled gasp of pain. Her Purple Dual Pupils stayed hollow and resigned, betraying nothing else.

"It seems your cultivation is still lacking, and the karma you bear too thin. When you return to the Eastern Sea, you’ll need more high-grade souls to temper your dual pupils and dragon blood..."

The old woman spoke in a low voice as the vine cracked again and again, sharp and clean. The lashes and the girl’s muffled gasps echoed through the hall in an ugly rhythm.

Wen Ruxiu stood off to the side with his fists clenched, unable to bring himself to watch.

The vine whip would leave no scars on the girl, but the raw pain it inflicted was beyond what any ordinary person could bear.

At last the whipping ended.

The girl in the black dress finally lifted her head. Her face remained blank, untouched by any sign of remorse or suffering.

"Elder, I’d like two days’ leave. To stay in the Imperial Capital and try a different form of cultivation..."

A flicker of hesitation passed through her eyes as she spoke.

Yino’s face surfaced in her mind, along with the words the young man in white had once murmured against her ear in the Dual Pupil World.

"A different form of cultivation?"

Granny Si raised a brow, openly skeptical.

Wen Ruzhi hesitated, then tried to put it into words. "I want... to walk the streets of the Imperial Capital, clear my head, feel the so-called mortal world’s vitality, and use that to adjust my dao heart..."

"Nonsense!"

Before she could finish, Granny Si cut her off with a shrill bark.

Wen Ruzhi flinched, the fragile spark of hope that had just kindled in her eyes swallowed back into darkness.

"Wen Ruzhi, you lost the tournament and squandered all the effort your clan poured into you. And now you have the gall to want to play in the streets!"

"You aren’t even human. What mortal world’s vitality is there for you to feel?"

"Wen Ruzhi, you are a bearer of the ancient dual pupils, the spirit embryo of the Dragon Sovereign, a supreme prodigy who appears once in a thousand years! You are destined to stand atop the heads of countless living beings as an Immortal. What progress could you possibly gain from rubbing shoulders with ignorant, insignificant mortals in the streets?"

The old woman droned on with her lecture.

But this time, as her words faded, a glimmer of weary resolve surfaced in the girl’s purple pupils.

"It’s always the same tired words..."

"How tiresome..."

Her voice was very low.

But in the silence of the hall, the black-robed old woman heard every word of her grumbling.

"Wen Ruzhi, you dare rebel!"

The old woman’s face twisted with rage, and she raised the vine whip, ready to deliver another harsh lesson.

But before the whip could fall, the girl in the black dress lifted her head and met the old woman’s eyes from where she knelt before the statue.

"Cultivation, cultivation, cultivation, cultivation..."

"Since every last one of you is so eager to plan my future for me, then today I’ll start with you, you old hag, as the foundation stone of my path to immortality!"

The girl’s roar was shrill and unhinged. A sickly, cold smile curled at the corner of her lips, and her Purple Dual Pupils blazed with boundless monstrous light.

In an instant the hunched old woman found herself bathed in the dread weight of the abyss, terror spreading across her face.

She tried to turn and flee, but the abyss had already wrapped around Wen Ruzhi, and her dual pupil eye had already torn through the void to form an abyssal black hole that devoured all things.

"No!"

The old woman clutched at the statue’s dragon tail and screamed, but in the end she could not escape the devouring eye. Body and soul alike were twisted into ribbons of light and drawn into Wen Ruzhi’s dual pupil eye.

As the monstrous light flared, even Wen Ruxiu broke into a cold sweat from where he stood and swallowed without thinking.

The hall fell so silent that only the violent pounding of their two hearts could be heard.

The silence stretched on.

Blood seeped from the corner of Wen Ruzhi’s eye, but her lips still curved in a small, released smile. She wiped the blood away with the back of her hand, then leaned heavily on the statue and pushed herself up, breathing in deep ragged gasps.

"There. The next three days of cultivation are done ahead of schedule."

She spoke as if to herself.

At some point Wen Ruzhi turned her head, her bloodshot dual pupils meeting Wen Ruxiu’s gaze.

The tension drained from her, replaced by something faintly wicked and coy.

"Brother, you’ll stand up for your little sister, won’t you..."

"It was the Ninth Elder who went too far. She was the one who whipped me half to death first. I only struck back to save myself..."

Wen Ruzhi spoke softly, helpless. Even her cold purple pupils now held a pleading depth that lingered.

Wen Ruxiu’s face was pale, but he pressed his lips into a smile and nodded.

"Of, of course."

"You’re my dear little sister. Naturally your brother takes your side..."

"Good."

The moment she got the answer she wanted, the soft, coaxing look on her face vanished into blankness.

She gave Wen Ruxiu a cold glance, then turned and walked away without looking back.

"Go back and tell the clan elders I’ll be staying in the Imperial Capital for a few days to explore a new path of cultivation. Once I’ve reached enlightenment, I’ll return on my own..."

Her voice was ice cold, no longer pleading. It carried the edge of a threat now, the rebellious lilt of a girl done with obedience.

Wen Ruxiu stood frozen, watching her go. He felt the chill of being brushed aside, but after a moment’s thought he could only sigh with a bitter smile tugging at his mouth.

"Understood..."

He rolled up his sleeves and summoned abyssal demonic qi to sweep away the blood and claw marks from the battle.

"What can I do, I’m her brother. Back in the day we caught who knows how many ancient spirit beasts to feed her spirit embryo. Letting her swallow one Elder is hardly worth fussing over..."