Chapter 78

She could be called a second Huang Rong.

Thus, at the very first moment Jiang Sishui stood close and met her gaze, his heart involuntarily skipped a beat.

Facing Sister Sister Azhu's deliberate provocation, Jiang Sishui appeared quite helpless: "If I don't look, you say my eyes are empty and that I ignore you, 'Two-Eight-Three'."

"If I do look, with a mischievous girl like you, you would surely call me rude and accuse me of harboring ulterior motives."

"Alas, looking is wrong, not looking is wrong; you have truly posed a difficult riddle for me, leaving me at a loss for what to do."

Jiang Sishui spoke with such grievance that the women present could not help but smile.

At the same time, they thought secretly: "Aren't you harboring ulterior motives? You certainly are! If we couldn't read your thoughts through the diary, we would have been fooled by your words."

Watching from the side, Zhao Zhao Zhao Qiying felt a tinge of sourness in her heart.

However, thinking that these few would likely become her sisters in the future, she did not choose this moment to overturn her jar of vinegar, lest future interactions between them be marred by estrangement.

Sister Sister Azhu sighed, as if blaming herself: "Judging by Young Master Jiang's words, it seems this little maid is the one being unreasonable. Alas, so be it; I will change in the future."

Jiang Sishui: "..."

Wait, is this Sister Sister Azhu from Swallow's Isle? Are you sure she isn't from Grand View Garden?

Why does she speak with such a Daiyu-like air, every sentence feeling strangely familiar?

He immediately changed the subject: "May I ask for your name, Miss?"

Seeing this, the playful glint in Sister Sister Azhu's eyes grew stronger, and she said: "My name is Sister Sister Azhu; it is ordinary and plain, certainly not as pleasant as the Young Master's."

Jiang Sishui: "..."

This mischievous little sprite is truly too naughty; someone must be found to keep her in check!

Subconsciously, the figure of Huang Rong floated into his mind.

"Just you wait; I'll find you an opponent soon!" Jiang Sishui vowed silently.

As the thought arose, a plan suddenly formed in his mind; he looked toward Sister Sister Abi nearby and asked, pretending ignorance: "So you are Miss Sister Sister Azhu. I wonder, what is the relationship between Miss Sister Sister Azhu and Sister Sister Abi..."

Sister Sister Azhu and Sister Sister Abi exchanged a glance, and the former smiled: "I am her older sister."

"A biological older sister?"

"Not a biological sister, but closer than one."

Feigning sudden realization, Jiang Sishui said: "I see. Since Miss Sister Sister Azhu and Sister Sister Abi are like sisters, and Sister Sister Abi calls me Great-Grandmaster Uncle, then we are all family from now on. Excellent! Excellent!"

Sister Sister Azhu: "..."

Seeing the usually sharp-tongued Sister Sister Azhu bested, both Wang Wang Wang Yuyan and Sister Sister Abi could not help but cover their mouths and giggle softly.

Sister Sister Azhu shot Sister Sister Abi an angry glare.

It was all this girl's fault; she insisted on taking that Kang Kang Guangling as her master. Otherwise, how could she have indirectly ended up two generations junior to Jiang Sishui?

Truly detestable!

In this round, Sister Sister Azhu was thoroughly unconvinced by her defeat.

Shortly after, Jiang Sishui turned to Sister Sister Abi and said: "I dislike excessive formalities, so do not perform grand bows to me in the future. And stop calling me 'Great-Grandmaster Uncle'; it makes me sound old."

Hearing this, Sister Sister Abi agreed without hesitation: "Yes, Young Master Jiang."

While the few of them became more acquainted, the disciples of the Deaf-Mute Sect also descended the mountain one by one to purchase necessary supplies.

In the afternoon, under Su Su Su Xinghe's arrangement, everyone held a funeral for Wu Wu Ya Zi.

When a person dies, it is like a lamp extinguished; as Wu Wu Ya Zi's coffin was buried in the earth, the grudges and grievances of the past were also half-resolved.

As for the other half, that was no longer up to him to decide.

After the funeral concluded, Su Su Su Xinghe pulled Jiang Sishui aside; seeing that no one was around, he drew a booklet from his sleeve and handed it to him.

Already intrigued by Su Su Su Xinghe's mysterious demeanor, Jiang Sishui took it and glanced over, his sword-like eyebrows rising in surprise.

Su Su Su Xinghe explained from the side: "This is precisely the Spirit-Sealing Array created by Master. He entrusted it to my safekeeping, and now, following Master's dying instructions, I hand it over to you, the Sect Master."

Hearing this, Jiang Sishui accepted it with pleasure.

The Great Spirit-Sealing Array could "sever the connection between heaven and man," and he was deeply curious about it, eager to explore its secrets.

By the time matters were settled, the sun was nearly setting.

Taking advantage of the women busying themselves with dinner preparations, Jiang Sishui took out his diary and began to write.

[Last night I went up to Leigu Mountain, only to discover a 'Zhenlong Illusion Array' there, which truly caught me off guard.]

[After all, this thing never appeared in the original story.]

[Moreover, this 'Zhenlong Illusion Array' was no ordinary formation; it boasted the distinguished record of having trapped and killed a heavenly being!]

[Such crucial information, I not only overlooked but also inexplicably stepped right into it.]

[Fortunately, after writing in my diary yesterday, I received the protective dharma treasure 'Sun-Shade Golden Wheel', which allowed me to remain unaffected by the illusion's power, pass through the array smoothly, and find Wu Wu Ya Zi.]

"Ah, Brother Jiang didn't know about the 'Zhenlong Illusion Array'?"

Zhao Zhao Zhao Qiying was also bewildered; she had assumed that when Jiang Sishui went to the Central Plains Escort Agency to arrange the shipment, he must have gathered all information beforehand, which was why he hadn't mentioned it...

Now hearing that Jiang Sishui had blundered into the array in confusion, she too felt a wave of lingering fear in her heart.

"Sun-Shade Golden Wheel? A protective dharma treasure?"

Learning that Jiang Sishui had relied on this item to pass through the illusion array, all the women realized it must be an extraordinary treasure.

At the same time, the words "protective" sparked associations in some of their minds.

Could the function of this 'Sun-Shade Golden Wheel' be similar to that layer of light shield that protected them?

[Fortunately, the bad luck was only temporary; what followed went much more smoothly than I had imagined.]

[The moment Wu Wu Ya Zi saw me, he spoke barely two sentences before designating me as his successor, and then immediately sought to transmit his cultivation to me.]

[As a result, by the time I inherited his entire lifetime of cultivation, I had not used a single word of the carefully prepared speech I had rehearsed.]

[This left me puzzled for a while.]

But upon further reflection, I felt relieved.

I estimate Wu Wu Ya Zi had long given up hope of anyone solving the "Zhenlong Chess Game," and his body could simply no longer hold out; seeing that my conditions were quite favorable, he selected me immediately.

Yet Wu Wu Ya Zi was over ninety years old, yet he was merely a Grand Master.

After all, the Xiaoyao Sect lacked no divine arts, and Wu Wu Ya Zi possessed brilliant talent; having lived so long, he should have broken through to the Heavenly Man realm through sheer accumulation of time.

Could it be that Ding Chunqiu's sneak attack blocked his path to becoming a Heavenly Man?

That makes sense; if Wu Wu Ya Zi had been a Heavenly Man, even crippled, killing Ding Chunqiu would have been effortless, and Su Su Su Xinghe would not have needed to endure humiliation for so many years.

"Wu Wu Ya Zi was only a Grand Master?"

Seeing the contents of the diary, all the women could not help but feel astonished.

The "Zhenlong Chess Game" was quite famous, and the "Zhenlong Illusion Array" could cause even Heavenly Men to meet their doom; by any measure, the mastermind behind all this should have been a major figure.

Who would have expected him to be merely a Grand Master!

It was like a cat tripping an elephant, something hard to believe.

Having received Wu Wu Ya Zi's lifetime of cultivation, I broke through directly to the late stage of the Grand Master realm; well, to be precise, to the eighth layer of the Grand Master.

Wu Wu Ya Zi must have been at the ninth layer of the Grand Master; some loss likely occurred during the transmission of his power.

But it does not matter; with the "Northern Dark Divine Art," I can simply find some people to absorb from in the future, and I will reach it.

Unfortunately, becoming a Heavenly Man cannot be achieved by absorbing cultivation alone; one must also comprehend the 'Unity of Heaven and Man'.

Fortunately, given my current talent, this is not difficult; at most, it will just take a bit more time.

"The eighth layer of the Grand Master..."

Seeing this, all the women felt envious.

A realm that ninety-nine percent of martial artists could never achieve in their entire lives, Jiang Sishui attained in a single night.

Moreover, Jiang Sishui's talent rivaled that of Lang Lang Fanyun; with the latter's spirit of "learning from heaven and earth," the "Unity of Heaven and Man" would pose no difficulty for him.

In other words, the gate to the Martial Dao Golden Core had already opened wide for Jiang Sishui.

[Becoming Wu Wu Ya Zi's disciple brought three enormous benefits.]

[The first was naturally his Grand Master cultivation, allowing me to ascend to the heavens in a single step.]

[The second was the "Northern Dark Divine Art" and the "Lingbo Micro-step".]

[The most prominent feature of the "Northern Dark Divine Art" is absorbing others' true essence for one's own use, making others' years of hard work serve only to tailor a robe for oneself.]

[As long as one's meridians can withstand it, theoretically one can absorb and refine endlessly without any hidden dangers; it can be called a cultivation cheat device.]

[However, when I read the book back then, I always had a question: could the internal energy absorbed by the "Northern Dark Divine Art" ever be recovered afterward?]

[The book was rather muddled on this point.]

[During the chaotic battle in the underground tunnels of the Wanjie Valley, Duan Yu absorbed the internal energy of a group of people in one breath, including the three great evildoers aside from Duan Duan Yanqing.]