Chapter 355: 207. Junior Brother Xu, come back with me, let’s return to the Flying Feather Immortal Palace and remodel it_3
Ruan Baimei, the Pride of Heaven from the Ruan Family, one of the Nine Mountain Great Halls of the Flying Feather Immortal Palace! He had once ranked sixth on the Human Rankings. He had subsequently ranked seventeenth, fifteenth, eleventh, eighth, third, and then second on the Earth List. Now, he was thirty-first on the Heaven List.
"Since you married Junior Brother Xu... you can also be considered a member of the Flying Feather Immortal Palace. There’s no need for such excessive courtesy." Ruan Baimei shook his head.
Huge Mastiff Island was not under the jurisdiction of the Flying Feather Immortal Palace. If he hadn’t seen that the Sea Bandits were attacking Saintess Wu Miao of the Starfall Sect, he likely would have chosen to leave and not intervened. Although the Flying Feather Immortal Palace was a righteous sect, it hadn’t reached the point of excessive altruism.
After a few polite words, Ruan Baimei cupped his fists, preparing to depart.
However, after taking only a few steps, his brows furrowed, and a hint of chill entered his gaze as he looked at Wu Miao. "You’ve lost your virginity?"
"You proclaimed you would marry a True Lineage disciple of my Flying Feather Immortal Palace, yet now you’ve lost your virginity.
"Saintess Wu, are you trying to humiliate my Sect? Do you think the Flying Feather Immortal Palace is so easily bullied?"
He stopped and drew a Flying Sword from his sleeve. This Flying Sword pierced through the Spirit Talisman swirling before Wu Miao, coming to rest against her snow-white neck. It seemed that in the next moment, Wu Miao’s head would fall.
He possessed a Taibai Immortal Body and was a realm higher than Wu Miao; he could tell at a glance whether she had lost her virginity. The pure Yin Element within her body had vanished. There was only one explanation: she had lost her virginity.
"Give me a satisfactory explanation!" Ruan Baimei’s eyes were cold.
"Senior Brother Ruan..." Wu Miao’s face turned pale with fright, and she hurriedly said, "There might be some misunderstanding here."
Ruan Baimei’s earlier words when saving her had been very clear: he was saving her life solely because she was the wife of a Flying Feather Immortal Palace True Lineage disciple. If her answer now was wrong, if her words led Ruan Baimei to misunderstand, then her head—her very life—would be forfeit.
But... how could she explain all this?
Although the Flying Feather Immortal Palace hadn’t openly pursued or issued a warrant for Xu Xing’s capture, anyone with discerning eyes knew that the relationship between the Flying Feather Immortal Palace and Xu Xing had become extremely ambiguous after the ’Heavenly Change.’ That was why Xu Xing was currently concealing his identity.
Ruan Baimei had just saved her to uphold the honor of the Flying Feather Immortal Palace. If he were to kill her now, it would also be to uphold the honor of the Flying Feather Immortal Palace. It was for the sake of public duty... not due to any private friendship with Xu Xing.
"Cultivators who tarnish my Immortal Sect..." Ruan Baimei saw Wu Miao’s evasiveness and had already guessed the answer. His gaze was cold, as if looking at a dead person. "There is only one end for them—death!"
So what if Wu Miao was the Saintess of the Starfall Sect? So what if she was about to inherit the position of Sect Master? In the eyes of the Ten Major Sects, the Starfall Sect was merely a minor sect. Moreover, the Starfall Sect was in the North Wilderness, an immense distance from the Flying Feather Immortal Palace, which was in the south. One north, one south. The Hundred Treasures Pavilion did not fear the Starfall Sect, and the Flying Feather Immortal Palace feared them even less.
Just as Ruan Baimei prepared to kill Wu Miao with a single strike of his sword, Xu Xing, who had arrived recently and had been hiding nearby, voluntarily revealed himself and called out to Ruan Baimei, "Wu Miao’s loss of virginity... it’s related to me, your Junior Brother. It was not an act of unfaithfulness.
"I implore Senior Brother Ruan to show mercy..."
After his breakthrough to the Life Determining Ghost Immortal realm, in terms of Divine Sense range, he was now far stronger than an Immortal Path Dao Pill Cultivator.
Originally, upon seeing several Sea Bandits besieging Wu Miao, he had prepared to intervene immediately. However, he then spotted Ruan Baimei rushing towards their location. Thus, he had no choice but to conceal his aura and hide at the bottom of the sea, intending to wait for Ruan Baimei to leave before making any further plans. Before the Sea Bandits had used their Heavenly Thunder Orb, Wu Miao, though at a disadvantage against them, still possessed the strength to resist. He hadn’t expected Ruan Baimei to intervene instead of standing idly by; Ruan Baimei had directly acted, killing the Sea Bandits who were blocking Wu Miao’s path.
"Indeed..." Ruan Baimei withdrew the long sword from Wu Miao’s neck. He glanced at Xu Xing, whose aura felt similar to his own. "That aura I sensed just now, it was yours, Junior Brother. Junior Brother Xu, you left the Immortal Palace to venture alone. Without the Sect’s resources to support you, you still managed to break through to the Dao Pill Realm. It seems... your fortuitous encounters have been quite profound."
After saying this, a smile touched Ruan Baimei’s lips. "Saintess Wu, there’s no need to thank me for saving your life. If I hadn’t acted just now, Junior Brother Xu would have."
At the instant the Heavenly Thunder Orb exploded, a trace of aura had manifested from the seabed. But it had quickly vanished, becoming undetectable even to his senses. For a moment, he had even thought it was an illusion. Therefore, Ruan Baimei didn’t consider himself the one who had saved Wu Miao. Had he not been passing by, Xu Xing would have intervened. He wouldn’t deign to claim credit for such a small favor.
"The Taibai Immortal Body... truly lives up to its reputation." Xu Xing put an arm around Wu Miao’s slender waist and moved about a hundred paces away from Ruan Baimei, guarding against any sudden attack.
The Flying Feather Immortal Palace was indeed a righteous sect. But righteous sects were not necessarily pedantic fools, especially when dealing with potential enemies. As a First-Class True Lineage Disciple of the Flying Feather Immortal Palace, he had been taught combat techniques by the instructors in the Pan Palace. Catching the enemy off guard and anticipating their moves... these were common sense. Being a nation of etiquette and employing Sun Tzu’s Art of War were not mutually exclusive.
"Junior Brother Xu," Ruan Baimei said, his expression calm as he looked directly at Xu Xing. "As long as you agree to return to the Sect with me and don’t marry a woman from the Aristocratic Families, you can still enjoy the same treatment you had before."
He sighed. "The Immortal Palace is suffering such a great tribulation. As a disciple of the Sect, you shouldn’t be thinking of abandoning it, but of improving it. When the Sect is ailing, should it simply be abandoned, left to die?
"Come back, Junior Brother Xu." Ruan Baimei extended a hand towards Xu Xing, his tone amicable.
Upon leaving the Hangu Mountain Secret Realm and returning to the Ruan Family, a family elder had told him that he could compete with Xu Xing, but he must not become his enemy. Not all members of the Aristocratic Families solely supported their own Family Line. He chose to support the Sect!
"Senior Brother Ruan," Xu Xing began, frowning as he shook his head, "I bear a heavy responsibility and cannot return to the Sect with you."
From Ruan Baimei’s tone, he could guess that Ruan Baimei—or perhaps most of the high-ranking members and disciples of the Family Line—was unaware that Sect Master Ren Yuanrui had left him a secret decree.
"The Aristocratic Families are already deeply entrenched within the Sect," Xu Xing said gravely.
"To eradicate them...
"That is an impossible task!"
Even if he believed Ruan Baimei might not be entirely aligned with the Family Line, what could he accomplish by returning to the Flying Feather Immortal Palace? During his first deduction in the Returning Core Realm, he knew the Aristocratic Families had treated him well. Gong Yuzhen had married him as his spouse, and Nascent Soul Daoist Lord Gong Ze had even personally escorted the White Tiger Gang Ying for him, all to help him condense his Dao Pill... But... circumstances were beyond one’s control.
Xu Xing once again voiced those four words: "Circumstances are beyond one’s control."