Chapter 1051: Free of Feelings
Yan Xuehen’s white clothes fluttered. Her expression was cold, but unlike Chu Chuyan’s cold eyes, there was an awe-imposing and dignified aura emanating from her expression. It was likely the prestige she had gained from managing a top level sect for so long.
The temperature of the entire room dropped many degrees with her arrival. Zu An’s first reaction was to think that Chu Chuyan had been pretty cold back then too, but her insides had been quite warm. He wondered if it was the same for this woman.
That thought scared even Zu An himself. He quickly gathered his thoughts. He was thankful that there were no mind reading skills in this world. Otherwise, he would already be dead if the other party knew what he was thinking.
“There is something wrong with your expression.” Yan Xuehen gave Zu An an unhappy frown.
“Ahem, please pardon my current appearance, as I am still injured. I cannot get up to greet Sect Master Yan.” Zu An could only pretend to be weak to change the topic.
The other party was visiting him in the dead of night. There was no way she was there to talk about romance with him. If she really had come to finish him off, his weak act would throw her off, and he would see if he could find a chance to get away.
“Sect Master Yan?” Yan Xuehen harrumphed. “Considering your relationship with Chuyan, is it not a bit inappropriate to call me Sect Master Yan?”
Zu An felt his scalp go numb. It seemed he had been found out after all… He could only test the waters and exclaim, “Master?”
Yan Xuehen was speechless. She retorted, “Who the hell is your master? Stop trying to worm your way in!”
Zu An said with a wronged expression, “You are Chuyan’s master. Chuyan and I are husband and wife, so what else would I call you if not master? I do not want to be someone who disrespects my master and betrays my ancestors!”
Yan Xuehen frowned slightly. She felt the phrase ‘disrespects my master and betrays my ancestors’ sounded a bit strange, but she just treated it as her own misunderstanding. She didn’t pursue the matter further. She asked, “Since you have this level of a relationship with Chuyan, why are you so intimate with that Devil Sect witch?”[1]
Zu An felt the situation was a huge pain in the ass. He had anticipated instances where he would be caught between the grudges of his girls, but never had he ever expected to be in such a hellish situation with his lovers’ seniors.
He could only say, “I was captured by the court in the past and encountered a lot of danger. It was thanks to Lady Qiu who saved me with no regard for her life that I survived. That is something Chu Chuyan knows about as well.”
What he was implying was, Even my wife knows about my relationship with Qiu Honglei, so what is a master like you interfering for?
Yan Xuehen was a bit unhappy. “You can completely repay the life-saving gratitudes of others through other means; did you need to give her your heart? Is it not only because she is pretty that your lustful desires were stirred?”
Zu An replied with an upright expression, “How can feelings between lovers be called lustful desires?”
Yan Xuehen said indifferently, “Look at how well you are twisting my words. I do not feel like arguing with you about these things. Either way, you and Chuyan have already divorced each other, so there will be no relationship between the two of you in the future. You can be with that Devil Sect witch if you want, or if you want to, you can be with other women. None of it has anything to do with her anymore.”
Zu An began to panic. He said, “The only reason we had to divorce was because that was the only way to protect the Chu clan! It was not because we no longer loved each other; our feelings still remain…”
“Oh?” Yan Xuehen cut him off before he even finished his sentence. She asked, “In that case, who would you choose between Chuyan and that Devil Sect witch?”
“Uh…” Zu An hesitated. He replied, “Can I have them both?” Even though he could say some pretty nonsense to get by, it would only hurt them if news of this reached Qiu Honglei and Yun Jianyue’s ears.
Furthermore, judging from how Yan Xuehen and Yun Jianyue didn’t seem to get along, probably… No, she’d definitely pass on his words to piss the other party off.
Yan Xuehen was stunned.
You have successfully trolled Yan Xuehen for +444 +444 +444…
How can this brat be so shameless? He dares to say something so disgraceful in front of my face?
Her expression grew grim. She said, “I never planned to let you two stay together anyway. That is why it does not matter even if you end up with that Devil Sect witch.”
Zu An said with a frown, “This is a personal matter between me and Chuyan. It is not something you as her master should be interfering with, right?”
“Of course I should,” Yan Xuehen said indifferently. “I cultivate the daoist art of clear-mindedness. If she wants to reach the higher levels, she must let go of her worldly emotions. In that case, there will be less pain overall if she stops sooner rather than later. If you really want the best thing for her, then you should let her go. True love should consider the bigger picture, and not your own selfish intentions.”
Zu An was completely speechless. What the hell is going on? Why does the Devil Sect’s Heavenly Devil Temptation need the cultivator to remain chaste, and why does White Jade Sect need their cultivators to let go of all of their emotions?! They should all just cultivate the eunuchs’ sunflower secret manual or something.
He calmly looked at the other party and asked, “Has Sect Master Yan ever experienced romance before?”
Yan Xuehen was stunned. Her eyes swept over Zu An and she said, “Of course not.” Her voice was completely calm, as if she were saying something she didn’t care about at all.
“Then if you have never experienced love, how can you say that you understand it?” Zu An sighed. “Is the sect master’s explanation not a bit too presumptuous? Things like ‘love means letting go’, ‘think about the other person’, those are all just fabricated words of endearment that fictional novels churned out to deceive young ladies.”
A slight blush appeared on Yan Xuehen’s fair cheeks. What she said really had come from one of those romance books.
Her sect’s technique needed her to let go of all emotions. However, she didn’t know anything about feelings, let alone experiencing love! But she saw all men in the world as nothing. There was no way she would experience love with any of them by her own initiative.
As such, she had thought of a different method. She had secretly purchased most of the romance novels on the market to research the love affairs of those other stupid men and women. Afterward, she thought that she could already understand what love was, and that she could now reach that indifferent ultimate state more easily.
Among those stories, the one she had liked the most was ‘Sweet Pampered Wife: Dominating Sword Immortal’s Ninety-Nine Days of Searching For Love’. She had even lent it to Chu Chuyan for her to study and read during her leisure.
But she obviously couldn't admit to such things! She was so embarrassed from Zu An’s inadvertent exposure that she really wanted to run away and hide in shame.
Yet in the end, she was a grandmaster after all, so she quickly recovered her composure. “I’m not in the mood to discuss these things with you. I won’t pursue the matter of you plotting against me earlier because of Chuyan.”
Zu An replied with a laugh, “Didn’t make a proper agreement? What do you mean plotting against you? There were so many people who were witnesses back there!”
Yan Xuehen sneered. “Do you think I’m stupid? Even though I’m not as frivolous as that monster Yun Jianyue, I wouldn’t be so inflexible as to be held back by a few words. Who would know I acted against you if I took your life right here? It’s obviously because of Chuyan that I’m holding back. You should know your place.”
Zu An frowned. However he knew that he couldn't convince the other party, so he could only change the topic. He said, “Right, I heard that White Jade Sect has always been an upright sect who considers themselves righteous. Why would you collude with the fiend races and help them smuggle military goods? Hasn’t this harmed the lives of countless humans?”
Yan Xuehen frowned slightly and said, “Nonsense. When has our sect ever participated in these matters?”
“Isn’t that little junior brother of yours doing this? He colluded with Cloudcenter Commandery’s Magistrate Zuo Su and turned the entire Cloudcenter court into their own hub of benefits, colluding with the fiend races for their interests,” Zu An said coldly. “Don’t tell me you didn't know about any of this?”
Yan Xuehen remained silent for a long time. Then, she slowly said, “I rarely involve myself in matters of the world. I do not know too much about this matter. I will look into it when I return.”
Zu An couldn't help but sigh with relief when he learned that their sect wasn’t the real mastermind behind the matter. After all, this was a glorious grandmaster who could take his life at a moment’s notice. The fact that she had held herself back and explained that much was already quite a good result.
“Then I will have to trouble the sect master for that.” Zu An suddenly thought of something. He took out a set of makeup products he had bought from Rouge Spice earlier, saying, “Please help me deliver these goods, sect master.”
Yan Xuehen gave them a look and shook her head, replying, “I do not use these things. There is no need for you to give me gifts to try to get on my good side.”
Zu An was speechless. After some hesitation, he still said, “I am hoping that the sect master can pass these onto Chuyan for me.”
Yan Xuehen was shocked. Her expression sank. “Just now, I already told you that Chuyan would have nothing to do with you anymore in the future, to not disturb her pursuit of the dao!”
You have successfully trolled Yan Xuehen for +233 +233 +233…
She turned around and left with a huff after saying that. Only the faint fragrance that remained proved that she had been just a moment ago.
Zu An wanted to cry when he saw the dazzling lineup of makeup products on the table. Should I have given her two sets instead? Maybe she would’ve taken them then?
Sigh, this Rouge Spice stuff really is unlucky. I tried to give it out as gifts to several people, but all of them refused me.
…
The next morning, an Embroidered Envoy came to report, “Sir Zu, I’ve already finished investigating the things you asked me to look into yesterday.”
“What’s the result?” Zu An, who had been meditating on his bed, opened his eyes.
“It was indeed as Sir Zu suspected,” the Embroidered Envoy replied.
“You’ve worked hard.” Zu An had the Embroidered Envoy withdraw after speaking a few words of encouragement. He released a deep sigh and muttered, “Turns out it was like this…”
Then, he told the others at the temporary residence that he was going into seclusion, and to not bother him if it wasn’t important. He had Daji dress up as him, while he himself changed into different clothes and left secretly.
1. “Disrespects my master and betrays my ancestors” here is actually a four character idiom. Zu An swapped out the word that means ‘bully/disrespect’ for a word that means ‘ride’, basically saying he isn’t someone to f*ck his master and betray his ancestors. ☜