Brother, how come you're a witch?

Su Yan had gotten used to Li Changsheng's frequent lack of response to messages.

After all, this True Lord of the White Day volunteered to sacrifice his life for righteousness, using his body with four spiritual roots to travel through time, thus suffering serious injuries and being in a dormant state, making it difficult for him to keep an eye on the communication jade tablet at all times.

But when Su Yan and Liu Baishuang first encountered such an important situation, they weren't even online. This was incredibly unprofessional for saving the world.

Su Yan felt bored and lost the will to chat. He put the communication jade token away, intending to wait for Li Changsheng's reply before discussing the events that had occurred on Xiaozhu Peak that night.

The appearance of hordes of demons on Xiaozhu Peak, located deep within the Xuanqing Sect's territory, was already quite unusual.

What's more, the little demon girl Liu Baishuang happened to be cultivating there, which made Su Yan feel even more that it was deliberate, as if an invisible hand was controlling things.

The monsters' strange behavior, such as retreating without a fight and slapping Jingqiu with a fan leaf, further suggests that someone must be directing them.

Who can command monsters?

A Heavenly Demon? Could it be that the Xuanqing Sect is hiding a Heavenly Demon?

Su Yan frowned.

In the original history, the reason why Liu Baishuang sided with the Heavenly Demon is unknown, and the time of her first contact with the Heavenly Demon is also unknown. The mainstream view in the academic community is that she was most likely bewitched by the Heavenly Demon and fell into demonic possession when she was traveling to the border of the demon race in the late Nascent Soul stage.

However, Liu Baishuang is only at the Foundation Establishment stage, yet a Heavenly Demon may have already appeared by her side. Perhaps her true fall into demonic possession should have happened sooner, or even tonight.

After all, the monster that approached her from the shadows could have been trying to attack her, or it could have been acting on someone's orders to kidnap her.

The thought of this possibility made Su Yan unable to help but give himself and Li Changsheng a thumbs up in his heart.

Who knows, they might have already saved the cultivation world from the ground up in tonight's operation!

Next, all that is needed is to investigate where the demon came from, find out the demon hiding behind it, and take good care of and teach Liu Baishuang, eliminating all possibilities of her falling into demonic ways. Then the cultivation world will be free from worry forever.

The flying sword streaked silently through the night.

Liu Baishuang's sword control skills were excellent, with almost no excess spiritual energy leaking out. She carried Su Yan and landed unnoticed on a hillside not far from the outer disciples' residence.

After all, she was a highly regarded inner sect genius, and unlike Ye Jingqiu, she was an exchange student from the outer sect and therefore had no teachers to supervise her. So it was inconvenient for her to appear too close to Su Yan in front of others, and she had no choice but to put the latter aside here.

Both had their own thoughts, but they knew that things should be done slowly and not be rushed, so they didn't say anything more and simply said goodbye to each other.

Lost in thought, Su Yan greeted the old man guarding the entrance to his residence and returned to his room.

Upon entering the house, fatigue immediately set in.

He quickly took out two porcelain bottles from the cabinet, poured out the pills inside and swallowed them, only then did he feel slightly better.

The consumption of essence and blood tonight has been excessive. There are not many good ways to replenish this during the Qi Refining stage, so I will probably be depleted for a while. I should avoid intense battles as much as possible.

Su Yan changed his clothes and went to bed. Leaning against the pillow, he felt dizzy and lightheaded. He wanted to review what had happened that night, but he couldn't concentrate at all.

"Ugh."

It's still because there's not enough essence and blood, so it doesn't last long enough.

He sighed softly, took out the communication jade token and glanced at it again. Li Changsheng still hadn't replied, so he ignored it and went back to bed to sleep.

This was the first time he had slept at night instead of cultivating since returning from time travel. The long-awaited dream, coupled with exhaustion, made him sleep exceptionally soundly.

He only slowly regained consciousness after the bell on Sichen Peak had rung ten times.

Oh no, it seems I skipped my morning class.

Before Su Yan even opened his eyes, he inwardly cried out in alarm. Then he remembered that he had already established a preliminary friendship with Liu Baishuang last night, so he no longer needed to attend every class to leave a good impression on the little vixen. Moreover, the little vixen knew what he had experienced last night, so she probably wouldn't have any objections to him skipping class this time.

Thinking this, Su Yan calmed down and was about to get up when he suddenly heard a heavy breathing sound coming from beside the bed.

"Hoo~ Sniff, sniff."

Ok?

Su Yan thought he had misheard, but after a nap, he regained much of his energy and listened carefully.

"Hmph~ Sizzle, sizzle~"

Wow, it really exists!

He suddenly opened his eyes, sat up in bed, and his gaze met that of a figure with black hair and dark eyes, half-squatting beside his bed.

"...Ye Jingqiu?"

Su Yan's lips trembled slightly.

For a moment, he felt like he was hallucinating from exhaustion. Didn't Little Sword Ancestor get angry last night? Shouldn't he have distanced himself from him, giving him some peace and quiet, and making room for the execution of the plan to save the world? Why was he in his room so early this morning?

Ye Jingqiu appeared solemn, her head slightly lowered, her delicate nose twitching occasionally as she moved her gaze from side to side along with the sword Su Yan had placed beside the bed. She seemed to be seriously appreciating a delicacy, completely focused, and even Su Yan's awakening did not distract her.

"What are you doing?"

"Comprehend your sword intent."

"I'd find it hard to believe you if you didn't wipe the drool from the corner of your mouth."

"This is an innate ability of mine."

Ye Jingqiu finally raised her eyes and met Su Yan's gaze, her expression as if nothing had happened the night before:

"I am very sensitive to smells. Everything has its own unique smell in my perception, especially the intent and energy of swords. By smelling and tasting it, I can understand a thing or two."

"you......"

Su Yan's eyes twitched. He wanted to say that no one learns swordsmanship by smelling it, but he was afraid that Ye Jingqiu would pull out his thesis to refute him, just like before.

And thinking back, Ye Jingqiu really did say something like his sword energy was fragrant and rich last night... Perhaps extraordinary people do have extraordinary qualities. Ye Jingqiu's ability to become a sword ancestor is related to her somewhat strange ability.

"I couldn't taste it last night, so I'm only here this morning to savor its lingering fragrance."

Ye Jingqiu took out a handkerchief and wiped the glistening tears from the corner of his mouth:

"There wasn't much of a lingering scent on the sword, but after a thorough examination, I became even more convinced of one thing."

"What?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Su Yan noticed a small, glistening liquid on the blade of his longsword, which had been partially pulled from its sheath at some point. Without any hesitation, he snatched Ye Jingqiu's handkerchief and disgustedly wiped his precious sword as well.

Ye Jingqiu didn't care that his handkerchief had been snatched, and continued earnestly:

"Your sword intent is at a higher level than my master's, and it is even close to the realm of a true immortal."

It's actually the realm of a true immortal...

Su Yan looked at Ye Jingqiu with a hint of pity. He knew the child's master, a very kind old woman from the Sword Ruins. She had already reached the strength to break through to the True Immortal realm, but because she lacked seniority and connections, she had to endure for several hundred years in the Earth Immortal realm before finally gaining the resources to advance.

Sword Ruins has a very closed and strict mentor system. The elders compete fiercely and never guide disciples who are not under their tutelage. Therefore, even though Ye Jingqiu is exceptionally talented, he has never seen a sword of the True Immortal level because he followed the wrong mentor when he entered Sword Ruins.

As a genius of Sword Ruins, Ye Jingqiu came to Xuanqing Sect, a rival sect, for exchange studies. Part of the reason was the competition among elders within Sword Ruins. Several old guys who were waiting to ascend to True Immortal were unwilling to see Ye Jingqiu's master produce a genius disciple and achieve results, so they squeezed Ye Jingqiu out to Xuanqing Sect.