Chapter 166: Among Them Are True Fools in Love

At these words, Tong Dai’s face instantly drained of all color, and she hurriedly stammered, "Junior Sister, stop talking nonsense! What water-attribute-root Senior Brother?!"

Hong Jian gave her a reproachful yet amused look. "Saying one thing and meaning another. You were clearly the one who said it yourself: 'Senior Brother, for eight long years I have yearned for you day and night, just hoping to enter the mystic realm once more to speak a few words with you. Who would have thought that during the last sect mystic realm trial, your Chiyun Peak sent nine people in total, yet you weren't among them.' And 'Senior Brother, although your successful formation of the golden elixir is a joyous occasion, I will never again have the chance to see you in the mystic realm. What am I to do?'"

As Hong Jian rattled all of this off in a single breath, panic surfaced in Tong Dai’s eyes. She reached out to cover Hong Jian’s mouth, her voice trembling. "You're making things up! When on earth did I ever say such a thing? You—you—Xiao Xiao, this is not something to joke about!"

Perhaps struck by the terrifying consequences of these words spreading, Tong Dai’s unpainted face turned as ghostly pale as Hong Jian's.

Avoiding Tong Dai’s hand, Hong Jian chuckled. "Where is the fun in that? If you like him so much, you should just go and tell him openly. It’s nothing shameful, yet you act like a petty thief. Fine, I won’t tease you anymore. It was you who fell asleep the other day and talked in your sleep for me to hear. What, even in your dreams it's all about him, and yet you still want to put on an act in front of me?"

Talked in her sleep... Tong Dai instantly recalled how, a few mornings ago, the moment she opened her eyes, she found Xiao Xiao sitting right beside her bed—an incident that had given her quite a fright.

That day, however, it was she herself who had taken the initiative to accompany Xiao Xiao out for a stroll. When Xiao Xiao didn't shun or ignore her, she had actually breathed a sigh of relief, merely feeling a secret pang of self-deprecation over the gap in cultivation between herself and her junior sister.

Who would have thought that she had actually spilled the secrets of her heart in her dream? Lacking any reason to doubt it, Tong Dai immediately believed Hong Jian's words.

Remembering that her junior sister was a newcomer to the Danya Sect, possessed a water attribute root, and was likely entirely ignorant of the deep-seated rift between the sect's water and wood factions—not to mention possessing such an unruly and lawless temperament—Tong Dai feared that if her curiosity remained unsatisfied, there was no telling what sort of trouble she might stir up.

Tears welled up in Tong Dai’s eyes, though she did not release Hong Jian’s hand. After hesitating for a long moment, she let out a long sigh and began to recount her hidden sorrows in a soft, gentle whisper.

In truth, Hong Jian had long since probed her mind thoroughly with the *Great Tribulation Scripture*. What Tong Dai regarded as a matter heavier than the heavens was, in Hong Jian's eyes, nothing more than a trivial affair.

Tong Dai hailed from a cultivation family, and her senior family members were the ones truly acquainted with Fei Chengji. By the time she entered discipleship, Tong Dai was already at the mid-stage of foundation establishment, and her choice to join the Danya Sect was largely driven by the allure of its inner mystic realm.

Calculating the timeline, Hong Jian realized that Tong Dai’s first entry into the sect's mystic realm had coincided precisely with the fourth year of her own imprisonment in the Demon-Suppressing Prison.

Inside the realm, Tong Dai had encountered a formidable, peer-level demonic beast that was not only ferocious but utterly repulsive in appearance. As fate would have it, Wei Yilian—a disciple of the late Chiyun Peak Nascent Soul elder Wen Chuanyang—happened to pass by and extended a helping hand.

That fleeting half-day encounter had felt like a dream to Tong Dai, and once she emerged from the mystic realm, she found herself utterly unable to forget that water-attribute-root senior brother.

At that time, relations between the Xiangji and Chiyun peaks were exceptionally tense. Being of low status and meager influence, for Tong Dai to speak with Wei Yilian again was as difficult as ascending to the heavens; her only hope lay in the sect mystic realm, which opened once every four years.

Yet Wei Yilian was already at the peak of foundation establishment and could form his golden elixir at any moment. Tong Dai endured eight agonizing years through two successive mystic realms without a single glimpse of him, until five years ago, when Wei Yilian successfully forged his golden elixir, shattering Tong Dai's hopes once and for all.

Over the years, the total number of times Tong Dai had caught even a distant glimpse of Wei Yilian did not exceed a dozen. Under the watchful eyes of others, she could not even utter a single word to him. The more restricted she was, the more deeply engraved into her soul the obsession became, until she was completely trapped beyond redemption.

When Tong Dai finished her tale, her face was streaked with tears. She drew out a handkerchief to wipe them away, and with reddened eyes, pleaded, "Xiao Xiao, I should have let this matter rot away in the depths of my heart. Now that I’ve told you, you must never speak of it to anyone else. Senior Brother Wei does not have an easy time of it; if he were to suffer any fallout because of me, my death a ten thousand times over would not absolve me."

Hong Jian blinked her eyes and said, "You’ve never even spoken to him, let alone visited him on Chiyun Peak—how do you know he’s having a hard time? Come on, let's go take a look right now."

Left with no choice, Tong Dai had to recount the entire history of the conflict between the sect's water and wood factions from beginning to end for Hong Jian. By the time she finished, sorrow naturally painted her features, and she pleaded, "Good Xiao Xiao, let's go somewhere else. With cultivation like ours, we'll be discovered before we even set foot on Chiyun Peak. If Master finds out, punishment would be one thing, but I'm terrified he'll send my family to drag me back home."

"It's fine, I'm here," Hong Jian declared grandly, taking full responsibility. Seeing how timid Tong Dai was, she tempted her further, "Rest assured, if we're discovered, we'll just say I wanted to go. I've never seen what the Huanhua Hall looks like up close anyway. Besides, we're just going to take a peek from afar; how could we possibly be that unlucky? Senior Sister Tong, don't you want to know what Senior Brother Wei is doing right now? Who knows, maybe he's thinking of you too."

At these words, an uncontrollable blush flushed Tong Dai's cheeks. Had it been left to her own devices, she would never have dared to entertain such an audacious notion, but with Hong Jian constantly buzzing in her ear and egging her on, she truly lost control of her own feet. Overwhelmed and at a loss, she was pulled along by Hong Jian toward Chiyun Peak.

Chiyun Peak soared a thousand feet straight up, piercing the clouds.

The southern face of the mountain was sunny, featuring a ten-thousand-step jade stairway stretching from the mid-mountain viewing platform all the way to the Huanhua Hall at the summit, offering an entirely unobstructed view. The northern slope faced the vast sea, where several large immortal caves for cultivators had been hewn into the jagged rocks amidst lush forests, housing nearly two hundred water-attribute-root cultivators.

Tong Dai had visited the area in front of Huanhua Hall a few times, but she had never once set foot on this northern slope of Chiyun Peak.

The turbulent roar of the Endless Sea drifted faintly from not far away. As the sea breeze swept through, the surrounding trees rustled noisily, making it feel as though they were exposed to the gazes of countless people. Thinking along these lines, Tong Dai could not help her heart from trembling and her legs from turning to jelly.

Perhaps sensing this immense pressure, the usually resourceful Junior Sister Xiao had also grown unusually quiet. Feeling a twinge of regret, Tong Dai halted in her tracks and said, "We'll be discovered, Xiao Xiao. Let's hurry back."

Having come this far, Hong Jian was hardly going to let her shrink back now. "Don't be like that! We've already walked halfway. Senior Sister, if you miss this chance, who knows when you'll ever get another opportunity to see Senior Brother Wei."

The vegetation on the back of Chiyun Peak was so dense that it was exceptionally suited for concealing one's tracks. All the way here, she had kept hold of Tong Dai's hand while circulating her true essence to activate the "Immortal Fairy's Rosy Glow" technique. Unaware that even if a Nascent Soul expert were to sweep the entire Chiyun Peak with their divine sense at this moment, they would still fail to detect the two of them, Tong Dai could only follow behind Hong Jian like a frightened little rabbit, trembling with every step.

In truth, Hong Jian was far more familiar with the back of Chiyun Peak than Tong Dai was. To a cultivator, a span of twenty-odd years was merely a brief chapter in life; though the layout of the dwellings on the sect's main peak had undergone some changes, it was by no means unrecognizable. As she walked halfway, Hong Jian gradually picked up the threads of her past memories.

The rear hall of Huanhua Hall originally led straight to the immortal caves of past sect leaders. However, since the demise of Lingxuzhi, the current sect leader, Mu Fengshan, was a wood-attribute anomaly who stubbornly remained on his own Xiangji Peak rather than moving to Chiyun, leaving those caves perpetually vacant.

Qi Tianbao, an elder of the Futu Sect who lingered shamelessly on Chiyun Peak and refused to leave, had ultimately not dared to brave universal condemnation by moving into the rear hall. Instead, using earth-attribute arts, he had newly constructed a dwelling right next to Lingxuzhi’s former cave.

This circumstance led Hong Jian to silently surmise that Dai Mingchi and the others had already pinpointed the approximate location of the ancient spiritual spring, yet remained stymied by a lack of a method to commune with it. Driven to utter desperation, they had no choice but to station Qi Tianbao here to keep watch.

Lately, however, Qi Tianbao evidently grew somewhat lax in his duties, frequently wandering off toward Sihan Peak.

At the root of it all was the strange illness afflicting Shiqing Xiang, which had piqued Qi Tianbao's interest in alchemy.

Hong Jian had already learned from Zhang Yu that Shiqing Xiang’s condition had been severe upon his return from the Demon Realm, and his arrival at the Danya Sect had been extremely hurried. Having no special demands for his dwelling other than quiet, he had taken up residence in Jing Li’s former quarters.

Jing Li had been executed by Hong Jian right inside Huanhua Hall, where his wicked deeds had also been exposed to the public. Although that sensational case shaking the Taoist cultivation world had been swept under the rug by throwing Hong Jian into the Demon-Suppressing Prison, many merely harbored secret misgivings toward Dai Mingchi; while saying nothing aloud, in their hearts they felt that if a newly foundation-established female cultivator was driven to such drastic measures of revenge, there must have been truth to the accusations.

Influenced by this, most of Jing Li’s disciples had taken pretext of undergoing experiential training to flee far away, avoiding the awkwardness of running into fellow sect members. Those who remained on Chiyun Peak could be counted on one's fingers.

Thus, it was clear that Jing Li’s former abode was quiet enough to thoroughly satisfy Shiqing Xiang's requirements.

Bringing Tong Dai here today was not because Hong Jian was in any rush to test Shiqing Xiang's true strength, nor was it to cure Senior Sister Tong's lovesickness.

The situation on Chiyun Peak could not be judged solely by Zhang Yu's accounts, nor could it rely exclusively on skimming the memories of those around her via the *Great Tribulation Scripture*. She had to see it with her own eyes—and ideally, find a breakthrough point to gain a deeper understanding.

Cultivators generally spent far more of their daily lives meditating and cultivating inside their dwellings than anywhere else. Dragging Tong Dai along, Hong Jian practically toured half of the back mountain, yet encountered only a few Qi-condensation stage disciples tasked with sweeping and cleaning.

Crouching down, Hong Jian paused amidst a thicket of trees and whispered softly, "Senior Sister, the dwellings of Senior Brother Wen's disciples should be right around here."

Tong Dai’s pert, upturned nose was beaded with fine sweat. Having felt dizzy in the head for the past half-day, she had simply believed whatever Hong Jian said without even asking how she knew. Staring blankly at the scattered array of immortal caves, she sighed desolately after a moment. "Let's go back. Knowing the kind of place Senior Brother lives in is enough for me; whenever I think of him in the future, I won't have to blindly guess anymore."

Hearing such infatuated words, Hong Jian inwardly let out a couple of *tsks*, thinking to herself, *I truly have no idea what this Senior Brother Wei looks like. Who knows, perhaps when we meet I'll even recognize him. To make a young lady fall this deeply in love, I must seize the chance to take a good look at him when I can.*

Unmoved by the plea, she urged, "Don't rush, we haven't even seen anyone yet. Let's wait and see."

Worried, Tong Dai said, "What if Elder Hong catches us?" During the catastrophe twenty years ago, the talents among the Danya Sect's water cultivators had withered away, leaving only two Nascent Soul elders: Hong Nightai of Chiyun Peak and Huo Chuanxing of Wanchao Peak. After Mu Fengshan assumed the position of sect leader, both had gone into seclusion simultaneously.

Before her voice had even faded, a dark shadow came flying through the air from the direction of the Endless Sea, drawing closer and closer as if intending to land precisely in this area.

Someone was coming!