Chapter 165: Love Rival

Chapter 165: Love Rival

Having confirmed that Pei Shou was truly trapped, and having secured him under the Purification Bell, Shang Yunduo plopped down onto the ground and began to digest all the information he had heard today.

His brain, never too sharp, was completely fried.

Pei Jie's cultivation had already fallen back to the Mid Foundation Establishment stage, and could easily drop further to early Foundation Establishment. Yet, he barely took a moment to regulate his breath, relying on pills to maintain his cultivation, and continued to ask, "Where is his Golden Core?"

Pei Shou's voice sounded muffled through the Purification Bell, but his laughter dripped with arrogance. "Take a guess! I'm not telling you."

Pei Jie picked up the stone token that had fallen from Pei Shou—the one he'd used to block the Seven Baleful Fire—and infused it with spiritual power before slamming it heavily against the Purification Bell.

DONG!

Even Shang Yunduo couldn't help but cover his ears.

From inside the bell, Pei Shou yelled, "Pei Jie! Sooner or later, I'll cut you and that little bastard into a thousand pieces, grind your bones to dust, and refine you into a pill!"

Pei Jie: "Where is the Golden Core?"

Pei Shou: "The master was right; you are the cruelest among us. Compared to you, I'm nothing. Go ahead and kill me if you dare! After all, it's not like you haven't killed your father and master before—ah—Pei Jie—you beast, you'll die a miserable death... Ah... Senior Brother... stop hitting the bell, I'm dying!"

Shang Yunduo stared blankly, covering his ears. By now, he had roughly figured out that the original "Shang Yunduo" was probably a disciple of this madman, but whether that was true was still questionable, since this guy's words were hardly ever trustworthy.

What was more credible, however, was that Pei Jie and he were indeed from the same sect. Their master had wanted to seize Pei Jie's body, and the target of that seizure was Pei Jie...

Shang Yunduo scratched his aching head, trying to untangle the mess in his mind. He asked, "Senior, were you a disciple of the Taiyuan Sect? Was he too?"

He felt so foolish.

He had thought that Pei Jie wanted revenge on the Taiyuan Sect because they had destroyed his sect, never considering that he might have been a disciple himself.

He had thought all of Pei Jie's fellow disciples were dead, but then Pei Shou had popped up, alive and kicking, and it seemed that not all of the other fellow disciples had died either. It seemed more like Pei Jie had been kicked out himself. Pei Shou didn't act at all like a normal junior brother should toward his senior; in fact, he seemed to gloat over Pei Jie's misfortunes.

And it was their master who had wanted to seize Pei Jie's body, so it was obvious who Pei Jie's enemy was.

Shang Yunduo took a deep breath. The seven peaks of the Taiyuan Sect were named after the Big Dipper, and King Hundun had already called Pei Jie by his title ages ago—how had he never put two and two together!

Pei Jie didn't speak, but Pei Shou laughed from under the bell: "Didn't you sneak into the Taiyuan Sect just to spy on him?"

Shang Yunduo: "???"

Pei Jie: "He's lying. Don't believe him."

Shang Yunduo was speechless.

Pei Shou: "Tell me, how did you worm your way into Second Senior Brother's good graces? What did you do to make him protect you with the Frost Sword and even give you the Purification Bell... No, no, both of you can use the Purification Bell!"

His voice suddenly changed, as if he'd made a shocking discovery. He got excited: "The Frost Sword can also borrow his spiritual power! Hahahaha, I get it! Pei Jie! Have you been doing Dual Cultivation with him? Is that it? Are you two dual cultivating?!"

Shang Yunduo: "..."

Pei Shou's laughter grew more and more hysterical: "Hahaha, Pei Jie, so that's your type! A useless piece of trash!"

Shang Yunduo thought to himself: And you're a pervert!

Pei Jie said nothing and struck the bell hard again.

Pei Shou screamed in pain while laughing maniacally: "You rejected me, but you accepted him! Hahaha, do you know that he will never be able to achieve Core Formation? You two are truly a perfect match! Hahaha! I'm going to tell Grand Senior Brother! I'll go back to the Taiyuan Sect myself and tell him! Let's see if his Heartless Dao can still be cultivated!"

Shang Yunduo: "?"

Heartless Dao?

Senior Brother?

He stared in shock, eyes wide.

Pei Shou: "Kiddo, do you know who your love rival is? The current Supreme Grand Elder of Taiyuan Sect—he was dumped like a dog, and in order to stop loving him, he switched to the Heartless Dao! Hahaha!"

"..." Shang Yunduo's already slow brain completely froze up again.

The Supreme Grand Elder of Taiyuan Sect, who stays at the bottom of the lake, is Pei Jie's senior brother?!

"Senior Brother, do you know? Senior Brother spends day and night at the bottom of the lake guarding your clone while cultivating the Heartless Dao—he's guarding your clone and cultivating the Heartless Dao!" Pei Shou let out a laugh, slapping the inside of the bell. "Hahaha, tell me, does he actually want to succeed, or is he still unable to forget the past and doesn't really want to succeed?"

Shang Yunduo frowned at this gossip and couldn't help looking at Pei Jie. Pei Jie: "Don't believe his crap."

Shang Yunduo nodded.

"Bullshit? Senior Brother, you promised to become his dao partner. If you hadn't gone back on your word and abandoned him, why would he cultivate the Heartless Dao? You have no idea how desperately Senior Brother was infatuated with you back then, do you?"

Shang Yunduo's eyes went wide as he looked at Pei Jie again.

Pei Jie: "..."

He glared back at Shang Yunduo and actually explained: "I did agree to cultivate together with him, but that's where it stopped."

Shang Yunduo lowered his head guiltily under the glare, thinking: Of course he can't compare to some Deity Transformation stage Supreme Grand Elder senior brother. The reason he could be a dao partner was originally because his Pure Yang Constitution could help Pei Jie train—he had known that from the start... Jealousy began to flood from his heart, souring his whole body. He was born so much younger than Pei Jie—how could he compare to someone who had been Pei Jie's fellow disciple over a thousand years ago? But upon hearing Pei Jie's explanation, he suddenly realized something was off.

Dao partner? Cultivate together? How to cultivate together? Together... cultivate?!

He seemed to finally understand that weird reaction Pei Jie had when they first talked about dao partners and dual cultivation!

Shang Yunduo jumped up: "So they tricked you! Dual cultivation just means cultivating together, and a dao partner is just a cultivation buddy?!"

Pei Jie: "..."

Pei Shou under the bell: "..."

Shang Yunduo slammed the bell in anger: "You're just stirring the pot—not a single word of truth! If cultivating together makes someone a dao partner, then I've had hundreds of dao partners since I was a kid!"

Dozens in kindergarten, dozens in elementary school, dozens in middle and high school. Then in college, when he took large lectures, there were two to three hundred people in a single auditorium, and he had even joined group chats with five hundred people.

Pei Jie: "..."

Pei Shou: "..."

Bullshitting—anyone can do that.

Shang Yunduo yelled at the Purification Bell: "First you said my senior turned you down, then you said my senior led your Senior Brother on and dumped him—from your tone, it sounds like you're standing up for your Senior Brother! Who do you actually care about? So you never actually wanted to be dao partners with my senior, did you? You did it on purpose! You definitely did it on purpose! You heard that Senior Brother liked him, so you deliberately went to ask him to be your dao partner, right? Oh~ I get it! You're actually in love with your Senior Brother! But your Senior Brother had a crush on my senior, so you got all jealous and bitter, deliberately stuck yourself between them—how shameless! But when you found out my senior didn't return the feelings, you freaked out! After over a thousand years, you still blame my senior over such a small thing—geez, my senior was cursed to run into you and your sect brothers, oh right, and your master—what trash, pfft! Don't think you can make me jealous and drive us apart. Who hasn't met a few jerks when they were young? I don't care!"

Pei Jie: "..."

Pei Shou: "..."

The air suddenly fell silent, even the Purification Bell had no sound.

Pei Jie stared at Shang Yunduo in disbelief.

After a good long while, Pei Shou asked, "Elder Brother, did you eat one of your own pills and lose your mind, to discard the Grand Elder and choose to dual cultivate with him instead?"

Shang Yunduo: "..."

"Heh," Pei Shou laughed again, curious. "Good disciple, what kind of bewitching soup did you feed your master-uncle?"

Shang Yunduo: "It's not someone else who drank the bewitching soup; it's you who needs a sobering soup!"

Pei Shou: "Elder Brother, what did you feed my good disciple to make him this cheeky?"

Pei Jie: "Let's get down to business. Tell me where his Golden Core is and I'll let you go."

Pei Shou: "First give me the Frost Sword."

Pei Jie: "Didn't you already know the Frost was here all along? You never took it in all these years, and now you suddenly want it?"

Shang Yunduo was taken aback, staring at Pei Jie in shock.

Pei Shou: "Knew it all along? I had no idea."

Pei Jie: "Then how did you track us down so fast? And how do you explain the body your Split Soul took over?"

Shang Yunduo looked at the corpse still stuck in the cliff wall, and the more he looked, the more familiar that outfit became. Huh? Wasn't this one of those archers from earlier?

Pei Shou chuckled: "Oh, then shouldn't you be thanking me for keeping an eye on the Frost Sword? If Grand Elder found out the Frost was here, you'd never get it back."

Pei Jie: "Keep an eye? You can only get around by possessing bodies with your split soul now, and you don't even dare to set foot in the Forbidden Spirit Land. Where is your real body? Isn't the Frost worth coming in person for? Or are you afraid?"

Pei Shou: "Take a guess?"

Pei Jie: "Quit stalling. You forced me to break through to Golden Core just so the Taiyuan Sect would notice me, right? Pei Ke won't leave the Taiyuan Sect, and no one else is fast enough to come."

Pei Shou: "How do you know he won't come? Brother, the Grand Elder is so in love with you, he almost went into qi deviation."

Pei Jie said coolly, "Oh? Even if Pei Ke showed up himself, I have ways to keep him from finding me."

Pei Shou: "..."

Pei Jie: "You think you know me and Pei Ke, but we know you just as well. You want to use me to lure him out, but your real aim is to sneak down to the lake bottom and steal my clone and the White Rainbow Sword."

Shang Yunduo: "?!"

Pei Jie: "Go ahead, I won't stop you. If you've really got the guts to take the White Rainbow, it's yours."

But the moment Pei Jie said that, Pei Shou—who had stayed pretty calm even after being knocked out of his body and pinned under the Purification Bell—suddenly flew into a rage: "Pei Jie!"

Inside, he banged the Purification Bell so hard that the Sealing Array on the ground flickered.

Shang Yunduo was startled, not getting what nerve he'd hit.

Noticing his confusion, Pei Jie seemed to explain to no one in particular, "After all these years, you haven't changed. When things don't go your way, you sulk; when they do, you still sulk."

Shang Yunduo still didn't understand and whispered, "What does that mean?"

Pei Shou roared angrily: "He's insulting me! Don't you get it?! He's saying that with Pei Ke gone, his clone at the bottom of the lake doesn't even need to bother with me!"

Pei Jie: "Pei Ke's always been a lot harder to handle than you. Otherwise, why would you need to use me to lure him out? If you can get down there, my clone can escape too."

Shang Yunduo: "Uh..."

Pei Shou: "Pei Jie! You just wait! One day I'll grind you all to dust!"

Shang Yunduo: "..."

Even though the guy's words were annoying, there was no need to start cussing.

Pei Jie still calmly poured fuel on the fire: "Say that when you get the nerve to come for me or Pei Ke in your real body."

As he spoke, the Frost Sword was once again in his hand, and the Purification Bell was slowly lifted.

Shang Yunduo quickly readied his flames to back him up.

"Wait! Don't you want to know where his Golden Core's hidden?" Pei Shou, unwilling to come out from under the bell, immediately changed his tune. "I'll tell you, I swear. Let me go, Senior Brother? We can work together—I'll go save your clone."

Pei Jie: "No need."

The two of them struck at each other with deadly moves at the same time.

Shang Yunduo charged in with the Seven Baleful Fire, but he was a step too slow.

A string of Buddhist beads covered Pei Shou's remnant soul, and Pei Jie's ring raised a spiritual barrier to block the hidden weapon's sneak attack.

In an instant, victory and defeat were decided.

"Pei Jie, you'll die a horrible death! Kid! If you want your Golden Core back, come find me by yourself."

With that rushed remark, Pei Shou's remnant soul faded in the beads' soft glow, and his aura vanished entirely.

Shang Yunduo: "..."

What kind of person does that! He just had to stir the pot even as he was dying, didn't he?!

He scorched the Purification Bell inside and out, making sure Pei Shou's split soul was completely destroyed.

"He's deliberately trying to stir things up!"

Pei Jie sheathed his sword. "Mm, I know."

He probably saw the Purification Bell on Shang Yunduo and even the Frost Sword protecting him, so he made that up on the spot.

"And I wasn't sent by him to get close to you either!" Shang Yunduo tucked away the Purification Bell and followed Pei Jie, explaining as he went: "Going for the Midnight Lotus was my own call. Running into you there was pure coincidence. But I don't know why I went to the Taiyuan Sect before that—whether that raving liar sent me or not, I have no clue."

Pei Jie gave a slight smile. "No."

Shang Yunduo: "Why not?"

Pei Jie: "Because..."

He flicked his sword and sent Shang Yunduo's storage pouch flying. The contents scattered all over the ground. He struck the Purification Bell again, grabbed Shang Yunduo's hand, and said, "Fire."

Shang Yunduo immediately let out his most powerful flame.

A wisp of black smoke rose from within the bell, accompanied by a miserable scream, and then all was still.

Pei Jie continued: "Because the things you were carrying were stolen from him."

Shang Yunduo was still staring in shock at where the black smoke had dissipated. He suddenly froze. "Stolen things? You mean the whip, the clay bell, and that box?"

No wonder they all were so dark and creepy!

Pei Jie nodded: "Yes. I gave him that whip, and the clay bell was something we found together in a secret realm."

Shang Yunduo: "..."

These things were way too easy to recognize.

He recognized them—and so did Pei Ke. Pei Shou would never have given such things to his disciple—they could only have been stolen.

Pei Jie couldn't help but let out a long sigh. For a while, he said nothing.

"But what Pei Shou valued most was this." He took out the wooden box—covered in talisman seals—that he had taken from Shang Yunduo. "This was what he wanted to snatch back in the end."

Author's note:

Pei Shou: Blah blah, blah blah...

Senior only grabbed the key points, while Yunduo only caught the keywords—What? A rival in love?!

Also, has none of my little angels ever suspected that Senior might be from the Taiyuan Sect? [Dog head] Successfully led off track by Yunduo [Dog head holding a rose]

Come on, let's figure out the seniority issue—

Version 2.0: Surprise! The Dao companion is actually the senior uncle!

Version 3.0: Surprise! The Dao companion's senior brother is the former Supreme Grand Elder of the sect. What should I call him?