Zhao Yunxiao: “...”

Who was perfectly fine with being naked yesterday?!

Definitely not him, that’s for sure!

If not because he had no other choice, he would definitely want to be clothed at all times!

But even as he was thinking that, Zhao Yunxiao tried not to let his feelings show on his face.

After he finished saying everything that Cha had told him to say, he quickly turned around and made his way back to his station while putting up a confident front.

All this time, most of those present had their gazes darting continuously between him and Chen Pingxi, trying to figure out what just happened.

It was then that a loud voice sounded out from the end of the room, instantly drawing over everyone’s attention.

“That’s right! That’s right, indeed!” Dan Juexing slapped his armrest in exclamation. “If ice wants to gain the fluidity of water, it cannot remain frozen! Hahaha! It’s such a simple concept, so how could I not have thought of that before?”

He Luoxuan who was just about to apologise for Zhao Yunxiao’s transgression felt his words being stuck in his throat.

Dan Juexing’s reaction was definitely not what he was expecting.

“Hahaha! Thank you, little brother!” Dan Juexing suddenly stood up and clasped his fists towards Zhao Yunxiao. “Thanks to those words, I believe I finally have an idea on how to help her moving forward! What are you waiting for, Pingxi?”

“T-Thank you, litt- young sir!” Chen Pingxi immediately understood her master’s instructions and did a deep bow towards Zhao Yunxiao.

She did not know Zhao Yunxiao’s name, but she could not possibly follow her master to call him a little brother considering that they were of the same generation and this was their first meeting.

Therefore, she could only refer to Zhao Yunxiao as young sir instead.

He Luoxuan’s mouth fell open.

Not just him, but Hu Nan, Song Xiaoqiao, and even Zhao Yunxiao himself reacted in the same manner.

Zhao Yunxiao had been wondering what on earth Cha was trying to make him say, and eventually assumed that they were just words to console the other party.

Who knew that it would actually be cultivation advice specifically catered for her instead?

That crazy sea serpent actually made him, an outer disciple of one sect, give guidance to the prime disciple of another sect, and in front of her master to boot?

Zhao Yunxiao felt his head hurt.

Thankfully, Dan Juexing seemed to be taking it well right now.

But even so, this was still considered a huge act of transgression, a showing of great disrespect towards Dan Juexing!

After all, to give unsolicited advice to a disciple in front of their master was as good as undermining the teachings of the master.

There was no way that He Luoxuan would let him off the hook for such improper behaviour!

“It’s nothing like that, Sect Leader Dan,” He Luoxuan hurriedly denied. “Yunxiao probably just felt soft hearted after seeing Pingxi being reprimanded for her mistake and wanted to calm her down a little. His words are definitely not intended as guidance or anything of the sort. Yunxiao!”

“Y-Yes, Elder He!” Zhao Yunxiao hurriedly stepped forward.

“Who are you to interfere when Sect Leader Dan is lecturing his disciple?” He Luoxuan berated. “What are you waiting for? Why aren’t you apologising to Sect Leader Dan?”

“My sincerest apologies to Sect Leader Dan! Yunxiao is willing to accept any punishment!” Zhao Yunxiao immediately made a deep bow towards Dan Juexing.

“Tch! Bunch of kids acting all inflexible and old fashioned. Even I am more receptive to modern conventions!” Cha commented unhappily.

Zhao Yunxiao: “...”

Perhaps you are the one who is a little too modern for this world!

“Elder He is taking this too seriously,” Dan Juexing answered with a smile. “Is your name Yunxiao? Please rise, there is no blame to be given here. In fact, I should thank you instead. It must have been hard to deliver the message in front of everyone here. I hope our presence didn’t scare you.”

Hmm?

Zhao Yunxiao looked up at Dan Juexing in surprise.

Deliver the message?

Did Dan Juexing already realise what was going on?

When their gazes matched and Dan Juexing saw the look of surprise in Zhao Yunxiao’s eyes, he became even more convinced of his conjecture.

“Don’t worry, Elder He. We have all gathered here today to looking forward to receiving guidance from you,” Dan Juexing said. “This is a problem that she and I have been trying to fix for a while now, but all our efforts have been in vain. But as expected, you were able to instantly see through the issues that our Pingxi has been facing with regards to her cultivation. I know it is purely out of kindness that you are giving guidance to Pingxi, so I naturally won’t be offended. In fact, I believe it is our fortune to have you point the way for us today!”

The moment those words left Dan Juexing’s mouth, everyone in the main hall finally realised what was going on.

So He Luoxuan saw through the issues with Chen Pingxi’s cultivation, and gave her some guidance under the guise of Zhao Yunxiao’s seemingly improper act of transgression!

Now things made a lot more sense.

After all, as a mere disciple, there was no way for Zhao Yunxiao to be able to figure out and correct Chen Pingxi’s cultivation issues with a single glance, especially since even her master Dan Juexing had been having trouble with it for a while now.

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The fact that he was able to do something like that meant that it had to be He Luoxuan instructing him to do so!

Even Hu Nan and Song Xiaoqiao started to smile in understanding.

Zhao Yunxiao awkwardly turned around to look at He Luoxuan, and could only smile bitterly once he saw the latter staring right back at him.

He Luoxuan: “...”

No matter what the others believed, how could he not know the truth?

And the truth was that he had never told Zhao Yunxiao to do anything like that!

He Luoxuan was truly at a loss for what to do right now.

If he were to deny that he was responsible for what happened, wouldn’t that be akin to saying that an outer disciple of his Black Tortoise Sect was able to instantly fix a problem that Sect Leader Dan Juexing could not?

That could be seen as being dismissive of the entire Origin Lake Sect!

But on the other hand, was it really all right for him to claim credit for something that he did not do?

“Yunxiao is willing to accept the punishment, Elder He!” Zhao Yunxiao turned towards He Luoxuan and shouted loudly.

The atmosphere turned awkward immediately as all eyes turned towards He Luoxuan.

That was right.

Even though Dan Juexing agreed to pardon Zhao Yunxiao, the latter was still a disciple under He Luoxuan.

In the end, the Black Tortoise Sect elder had the final say when it came to whether Zhao Yunxiao should be punished or not.

But unlike the others, He Luoxuan revealed a look of surprise because he somehow understood what Zhao Yunxiao was trying to do right now.

Zhao Yunxiao was changing the subject so that He Luoxuan would no longer have to directly acknowledge what Dan Juexing just said.

That way, he would not have to face the dilemma of having to choose between agreeing or disagreeing with what Dan Juexing said.

It was just that at the same time, Zhao Yunxiao was also trying to make He Luoxuan pardon him in front of everyone.

How sneaky.

He Luoxuan would not have acceded to such schemes under normal circumstances, but he decided to make an exception this time since what Zhao Yunxiao did eventually resulted in something good for Dan Juexing and Chen Pingxi.

“Since Sect Leader Dan has been magnanimous enough to pardon you, I won’t pursue this any further either,” He Luoxuan nodded. “Return to your station.”

“Thank you, Elder He!” Zhao Yunxiao did not need to be told twice.

He quickly returned to his place behind He Luoxuan’s seat and straightened his expression as though nothing had happened earlier.

Yet however calm he appeared right now, his heart was actually beating extremely fast.

This Cha was really making things difficult for him just because of its whims.

It was a great relief that he had managed to tide things over, but that was too close for comfort!

Unfortunately, Zhao Yunxiao’s relief was doomed to be short-lived.

“Pardon my transgression, but since we are on the subject, can this junior also humbly ask if Elder He has any advice for me?” Zhou Qin stood up and bowed deeply towards He Luoxuan.

Seeing his actions, the elder seated in front of him could only sigh helplessly.

Zhou Qin was known to be the greatest cultivation maniac among the disciples of the Origin Lake Sect, and his master knew this just as well.

Now that there was such a rare opportunity in front of him, it was not surprising that he would risk coming across as rude to try and ask for any sort of useful advice.

Perhaps the more surprising thing was that no one spoke up to stop him either.

Instead, everyone turned towards He Luoxuan with eyes full of expectations.

Since he had graced Chen Pingxi with cultivation advice specially catered to her, they wanted to see if he was feeling generous enough to do the same for others as well.

If he was willing to do so, then things could not be better for all the disciples gathered here!

“Your master Elder Xie is an accomplished individual who even I have to learn from, so I’m sure Elder Xie has his plans laid out for you,” He Luoxuan said with a smile. “As an outsider who doesn’t understand the situation well, I shall not say anything lest I mess things up instead.”

“Master, is it all right if I receive some pointers from Elder He?” Zhou Qin immediately turned towards his master Xie Gun, refusing to give up just like that.

“Elder He is too humble,” Xie Gun said while stroking his long white beard. “What grand plans can my old bones have for our Qin’er? I will be more than grateful if you can offer any advice to him in my place, so please don’t stand on ceremony.”

He Luoxuan : “...”

In fact, it was not difficult for He Luoxuan to offer some simple words of advice to Zhou Qin, and he was more than willing to do so as well considering how promising the latter was.

The problem was that the youngster was obviously not asking for some generic advice that would apply to everyone in general!

How could it be so easy to offer specific advice to someone whom he did not even know all that well?

At the same time, if he were to suddenly start asking Zhou Qin about his cultivation now, would that not expose the fact that he did not come up with the advice for Chen Pingxi earlier?

He Luoxuan felt the corner of his lips twitch as he could not help but shoot a glare towards Zhao Yunxiao.

This outer disciple had truly given him quite the problem!

What He Luoxuan did not expect was that Zhao Yunxiao was too preoccupied right now to even notice his glare.

“Say it! You had no issues saying it earlier so why are you hesitating now?” Cha’s voice sounded in his head. “All you have to do is repeat what I said!”

What do you mean I had no issues saying it earlier?

Not only did I have plenty of issues with it, but it gave me plenty of issues to handle after that as well!

“Come on, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to help out your comrades. Don’t you see how eager he is right now? Are you going to just leave him in the lurch?”

I would rather do that than suffer in their stead!

“Are you really going to do this? Are you not afraid that I will...”

Tear-!

The split on Zhao Yunxiao’s robe sleeves expanded.

But this time, he gritted his teeth and stood firm.

Even if he might regret doing so, he could not just let this sea serpent continue using the same thing to threaten him into doing all sorts of things.

Otherwise, the stream of demands might never end!

“Sigh, looks like I have no other choice then...”

Zhao Yunxiao’s eyes lit up in surprise upon hearing that.

Did the sea serpent finally give up?

At the same time, he could not help but let out a sigh of relief.

He had stood his ground against the sea serpent, but that did not mean he was not worried.

In his head, Zhao Yunxiao had been running through various scenarios to decide what he should do if Cha really chose to strip him naked right here and now. But of course, the best scenario would still be if he did not have to resort to any of them!

Just as he was thinking this, Zhao Yunxiao felt a surge of energy wrapping around his body. It was an extremely familiar feeling, almost like the casing of water that had kidnapped him last night...

Oh shit...

The next thing he knew, his body had started moving on its own.