Chapter 155: I Am Really Good at Hiding People

"Is your Senior First Brother truly so utterly unremarkable?"
"I have amnesia."
Qu Xiu said, "I suspect you're lying to me. You always used to say that whenever you didn't want to fight me."
"Say what?"
"You'd only ever say one thing: that you wouldn't fight. And the moment I actually lowered my guard, you'd beat me black and blue. When my master handed this position over to me, he told me that while all my senior brothers and sisters were exceptionally talented, I was the one who had taken the most beatings from you. He said that since I'd already tasted such hardship, I'd at least be able to survive."
"What does that have to do with me?"
"I'd like to know that myself!" Qu Xiu groaned in frustration. "Otherwise, did you really think I harbored ulterior motives? Do you have any idea how easy it is to keep watch over you people from the Xuanyun Sect ever since the days on Mount Hongxing?"
"Hard work."
"I'm starting to remember some things."
Lu Wei's face had shifted back to his original appearance. Compared to when they had first found the crystal coffin, he looked even more fragile, and the oppressive aura around him was far less fierce. When Wen Jingge first laid eyes on him, she hadn't fully recognized that this was Lu Wei.
"Since you're trying to recover your memories too, you might as well listen to this first!" He looked at Wen Jingge's mind, where that small wisp of white mist had emerged once more. "Is something going to happen again?"
"Yes."
"What's happening?" Qu Xiu stood up vigilantly from the roof, but before he could even steady himself, the two of them yanked him back down together. "Who on earth is he?"
"A demon from the God-Demon War of ten thousand years ago. Stop interrupting my gossip. If there's a next time and you don't cooperate, we won't take you along anymore."
"As if I cared." He gave a cold snort, only to watch the master of the Taluo Sect—who was acting just like a professional storyteller—produce a clapper from somewhere unknown. "I remember now, the Taluo Sect declined ages ago."
"So?" Lu Wei gave him a bewildered look, failing to see what was so astonishing about that.
The people down below were human beings through and through, a bunch of profound masters with a bit of cultivation, not some sort of malevolent spirits or demons. With his current physical senses, he was certain he hadn't mistaken them.
"He really is a storyteller."
Wen Jingge fell silent for a moment. "Stories originate from life."
"What if that stuff is fake?"
"Nine times out of ten it's true. Spreading rumors on Mount Qinghe—unless he has a death wish." A silent Lu Wei spoke to a stranger for the very first time.
"That actually makes sense!"

Qu Xiu was fundamentally a comedic buffoon who never learned his lesson from past beatings. Yet, due to his status as mountain lord, he usually had to put on a facade of stern dignity. Now, encountering Wen Jingge, he felt free to release his true self, acting just like an immature child.
"Word has it that this Mount Hongxing wasn't such an easygoing character back in the day either. Before our Immortal Wen entered the sect, the entire Xuanyun Sect groomed him as their future successor. The Diviner himself held this disciple in high regard, which led to him having no other ambitions in life besides cultivation."
"Isn't that a good thing?" someone asked.
"A good thing, my foot! Didn't Immortal Wen end up going up the mountain anyway? He must have been utterly crushed. When my master was still alive, he said that Immortal Wen was the one most likely to oppose the Demon Lord in the future."
"Precisely!" the master of the Taluo Sect chuckled. "You guessed right. Let's take this story step by step. Mount Hongxing used to be ranked as the number one swordsman in the world. Do you know how he earned that title?
Newborn calves are not afraid of tigers; those demons in the west were simply beaten into submission by him, which is why they haven't dared to trouble us for the past century. It's only those reckless holy maidens of the Northern Demonic Domain who lack any sense of proportion, daring to stir up such a massive commotion nowadays, without even pausing to consider what kind of formidable figure Mount Hongxing used to be."
"Why..."
"What are you rushing for? I already said we'd take it slow."
"Yes, yes, yes..."
"I've noticed a problem," Wen Jingge murmured, smacking her lips before suddenly speaking up. "Why do they call Fan Zifan a pharmacist, and Mount Hongxing by his name, but when it comes to me, I'm suddenly 'Immortal Wen'? Was I really that popular in the past?"
Qu Xiu carefully weighed his phrasing. There was no way he could tell her that she had terrorized countless sects in the past!
Back then, anyone who dared to challenge Wen Jingge would invariably end up having their weapons looted, running home in tears to look for their masters.
The psychological terror forged back then practically shaped how everyone viewed her for nearly a hundred years:
A female fiend—too terrifying to provoke, so you'd better just stay out of her way!
"It means you hold a very substantial weight in their hearts."
"Oh." Wen Jingge nodded.
Lu Wei nodded along thoughtfully, his mind still shrouded in chaos. There were countless fragments in his memory, yet he could sort neither their timeline nor the intricate details.
When he first woke up yesterday, he didn't even know where he was. Seeing so many people here and failing to understand what was happening, pure instinct had made him slip away.
Later, he had wandered unknowingly into the Pingchuan Valley. The scenery there—he had clearly watched a simulation of it alongside Wen Jingge—yet when the genuine scene materialized before his eyes, a profound discomfort still stirred deep within his chest.
He couldn't remember when he had lost consciousness. In his haze, it felt as though someone was calling his name.
Someone fed him medicinal soup, telling him that a good sleep would make everything better. That woman bore a familiar face, resembling the archer who had once entrusted her eyes to him, yet she also resembled Wen Jingge.
A voice deep inside his heart told him to go find Wen Jingge, and so he had returned.

"What color were your eyes in the past?"
"I have no idea." Wen Jingge looked at him strangely, assuming he was experiencing some bizarre side effect from fusing with the body. "Your forehead isn't hot. Why are you asking me such a weird question?"
"It seems you gave me a pair of eyes, and told me that someone would eventually come looking for me to take them back."
"Me?" Wen Jingge pointed at herself. "Are you sure it was me? Wasn't it the one up in the heavens?"
"Up in the heavens..." Lu Wei clutched his head. "Heavens, earth... ever since the severance between gods and mortals, I can't remember..."
"If you can't remember, don't think about it. Watch the show." Wen Jingge covered his ears, pulled him into her embrace, and patted his shoulder. "If you're uncomfortable, go take a sleep. Go to the spirit carriage; consider it as you coming out too early."
"Spirit carriage? Carriage?" Lu Wei shook his head, a wave of dizziness washing over him, and he actually drifted off to sleep right beside Wen Jingge.
Qu Xiu stared at him as if he had just seen a ghost, then glanced back at Wen Jingge, asking in utter astonishment, "Your man?"
Wen Jingge gave him a blank look, slowly letting out a stifled breath—she had almost choked to death on her own saliva just now. "Which eye of yours saw that?"
"Otherwise, why would you two be, well, like this?"
"He's too weak to be my man!" Wen Jingge let out a long sigh, brushing a lock of hair from her forehead. "What on earth made you come to such a misconception?"
"It's just that—suddenly, someone who's never gentle becomes gentle, and it's quite terrifying." Qu Xiu rubbed his face vigorously, as if trying to peel off a layer of skin. "It seems... it's real."
Wen Jingge: ...
Why was listening to a simple piece of gossip turning out to be so impossibly difficult for her?
"Tell me, you don't actually like him, do you? He... he seems to be a demon!"
"I'm well aware of that."
"So..." He looked at her with a profound gaze, uttering a sentence completely out of tune with the moment. "Do you need me to help you hide him? I'm exceptionally good at hiding people."
"How on earth did you manage to become a mountain lord?"
"My master took all the senior brothers and sisters who were qualified to be sect leader and committed suicide together. I was the only one left!"
Wen Jingge: ...