Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

Chapter 3.2: So That’s What It Was

Before Yin Hanjiang could finish speaking, he was interrupted by a woman, who was wearing a thin white dress, with a lute in her arms, walking up to the second floor while singing and playing the lute.

Wen Renhe: “…”

Yin Hanjiang: “…”

This woman was actually Shu Yanyan. They were used to her wearing revealing clothing and just couldn’t get used to this new woeful look, as if she was a little white lotus trembling in the wind.

There were quite a number of guests sitting on the second floor. Shu Yanyan was a singer at the tea house and began selling flowers once she finished a song.

She had taken the path of being self-reliant and independent. She did not charge for singing, but she would start selling flowers after her performance. The income from selling flowers would still be split between her and the owner of the teahouse, whereby seventy percent would go to the owner of the teahouse and the remaining thirty would go to her. It was indeed very pitiful.

Ren Wenhe held twelve silver taels between his fingers and casually them into the flower basket that was right in front of Shu Yanyan. With her basket in hand, she walked slowly to Wen Renhe and whispered, “This guest, this little lady doesn’t sing for a living, but does sell flowers. A basket of flowers only costs ten copper coins. You don’t need to spend so much money.”

There were ten baskets of flowers at her feet. After selling all of them and passing the boss his share, she would only be left with 30 copper coins for herself. She would only be able to have some meat to eat after saving up for half a month, whereas for the rest of the days, she would have to spend them eating only steamed buns.

Wen Renhe did not turn to look at Shu Yanyan, but he squinted his eyes at Yin Hanjiang and whispered, “Call me big brother.”

Yin Hanjiang looked dazed like he was still dreaming. Following the script given to him by Wen Renhe, he recited the lines emotionlessly, “My L…. My big brother told you to accept it, so you’ll accept it. Don’t be so unappreciative of others!”

The moment the words “big brother” came out of Yin Hanjing’s mouth, his ears became all red.

“Thank you both for your kindness, but I shouldn’t take your money. This little lady won’t accept it.” Shu Yanyan extended her long, cold fingers to take out the silver from her flower basket, placed it on the table and then politely bid them goodbye.

Technically, Wen Renhe could have thrown the silver back into Shu Yanyan’s lapel saying, “If you dare to take the taels out in front of everyone, I will take it back,” and make her cry helplessly at the tea house. However, this was not his forte and Yin Hanjiang was not interested in doing so. Hence, they could only drink tea in silence, ignoring Shu Yanyan.

When Shu Yanyan saw that they did not react, she became a little anxious. If they were not going to bully her, then how was she supposed to continue acting? She had already made arrangements for her subordinates to act out this play. Who would have thought that her Lord had come to watch the show, so she ordered her subordinates to wait for her orders and passed the highlight of the show to her Lord to perform.

She thought that men were scoundrels by nature. To act in such a show, wasn’t it pleasurable for them? Who would have thought that her Lord was not like that at all and had no interest in bullying the weak.

Weren’t they practising the devil path? Wasn’t it good to do something that the devil path should do?

Shu Yanyan noticed that both He Wenchao and Baili Qingmiao had arrived at the teahouse. Even the audience had arrived, yet the stage had not been set up. This would not do. She was so anxious that she blinked crazily at her Lord, to the extent that her wonderful eyes became glassy.

“You go for it,” Wen Renhe secretly transmitted a message to Yin Hanjiang.

He decided to give more orders to Yin Hanjiang in the future, so as to prevent him from feeling that “the Lord doesn’t need me anymore, so I can just die”.

Yin Hanjiang recalled the script given by Shu Yanyan and upon hearing his Lord’s command, he looked blankly at the beautiful Shu Yanyan. He…. had to pull apart Shu Yanyan’s clothes and shove the silver taels to her chest? And do it in front of his Lord?

He was in a very difficult position, but this was his Lord’s command!

“You can decide for yourself. You don’t have to care about Shu Yanyan’s plan,” Wen Renhe transmitted his instructions when he noticed Yin Hanjiang’s distress.

With Wen Renhe’s permission, Yin Hanjiang’s expression relaxed immediately and he said coldly, “Since you don’t know how to be grateful, then don’t blame me for being rude.”

With that, he picked up Shu Yanyan with one hand and threw her from the second floor, right in front of He Wenchao and Baili Qingmiao.

Shu Yanyan: “…”

He Wenchao noticed a figure falling from the sky and wanted to help, but Baili Qingmiao was right by his side. He had just quarrelled with Baili Qingmiao about the incident with junior martial sister Liu from Shangqing Sect, so he didn’t want to make her angry again. Hence, even if he noticed that the figure was a woman whose face he couldn’t see, he still didn’t make a move.

Instead, it was Baili Qingmiao who flew forward to save the person, when she saw someone falling from the second floor. Shu Yanyan’s plan went to pieces, but no matter what, she could not let Baili Qingmiao rescue her. If a rescuing was to take place, it should be He Wenchao embracing other women right in front of Baili Qingmiao!

As a result, Shu Yanyan made up her mind and used her Qi to speed up. She had to forcefully make herself fall before Baili Qingmiao could even touch the edge of her clothes. She had also deliberately used her Qi to hurt herself, pretending to have been seriously injured from her fall.

Baili Qingmiao could only catch a piece of white cloth before she noticed that the weak woman had already fallen heavily on the ground, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

She landed down, half knelt in front of the woman to help her up, and said worriedly, “Lady, are you alright?”

When she turned her face around, it unexpectedly turned out to be an acquaintance. Baili QingMiao gasped, “Lady Shu?”

He Wenchao arrived late and saw that poor lady who had been saved just several days ago. He still had a soft spot for her and regretted in his heart that he hadn’t been able to save her in time.

Using the alias name of Shu Lian, Shu Yanyan was pulled into a half hug by Baili Qingmiao. She shed a tear in her heart. It shouldn’t be like this!

According to her script, she should be bullied by the guests, so that He Wenchao would not be able to stand by and watch. Then, he would come forward to help her and remove his robe to place it on the weak Shu Yanyan, whose clothes were disheveled. When Baili Qingmiao saw that she was wearing her sweetheart’s clothes, she would be blinded by jealousy and start an argument with He Wenchao. This would push He Wenchao to her side and he would then send her home. When he saw her shedding tears, he would hug her in order to comfort her. One thing would then lead to another and wouldn’t it be as easy as that? Men, ah!

Why did it turn out like this?

Baili Qingmiao took out a healing pill and gently opened her jaw to feed it to the dying Shu Yanyan. Ordinary people usually found it difficult to tolerate the effect of spiritual medicine, so Baili Qingmiao could only give Shu Yanyan some medicine to protect her heart meridian and internal organs. As for her external injuries and bone fractures, they would have to heal on their own.

After taking the medicine, Shu Yanyan’s pale complexion improved a lot, so she could no longer pretend to be dizzy. She opened her eyes in despair and continued to put up a facade.

She then looked at Baili Qingmiao with tears in her eyes and said, “Thank you very much, Lady Baili.”

As she was falling down, Shu Yanyan had specifically protected her face. She only allowed herself to hit her forehead to have a bleeding wound, in order to maintain the image of a frail beauty.

Coupled with her expression, she would look all the more lovable. Unfortunately, this expression was wasted on Baili Qingmiao, so He Wenchao, who was standing behind Baili Qingmiao, couldn’t see it.

Baili Qingmiao grew up in Shangqing Sect and was taught to fight against the strong and help the weak. On a regular day, she would throw a tantrum at He Wenchao. Previously, she had an argument with him because he had been too attentive to Shu Yanyan. However, when it came to the issues of right and wrong, there were absolutely no discrepancies.

When a weak woman was hurt in front of her, Baili Qingmiao simply would not let it be!

She placed one of her arms around Shu Yanyan’s waist and flew up to the second floor. She then placed Shu Yanyan on a chair and glared at Wen Renhe and Yin Hanjiang. “Was it both of you who threw her down?”

Shu Yanyan no longer dared to look at her Lord. So, she turned her head and pretended to cry.

Wen Renhe placed down his cup and looked at Baili Qingmiao.

In the book, he had first met Baili Qingmiao, when he had encountered an issue with his cultivation and also come across the previous leader of Shangqing Sect leading the other sects to attack Xuanyuan Sect. He attempted to forcefully fight against them but was gravely injured and fainted at the river. He was then rescued by Baili Qingmiao, who had been ostracized by another female cultivator. She didn’t know Wen Renhe, so she thought he was just a like-minded cultivator from another sect who had been injured. Hence, she took good care of him.

When Wen Renhe woke up, he saw a ray of light shining on Baili Qingmiao’s face. Her body seemed to be shrouded in a layer of divine light. She was just so beautiful and mysterious! His heart immediately caved in and from then on, he would take care of this kind-hearted woman.

Now, Wen Renhe wanted to see how it would turn out when he met up with Baili Qingmiao again under normal circumstances, without the factor of being injured, mentally unstable and the gratitude of having his life saved.

Baili Qingmiao was so furious that her long hair started floating due to the Qi she had released. Wen Renhe studied her and saw that she was shrouded with faint divine light.

Huh?

Wen Renhe blinked his eyes and used his soul force to check it, but he could still see that divine light.

Each time the book described Baili Qingmiao based on Wen Renhe’s perspective, words such as “goddess” and “sacred” would be used.

Wen Renhe only regarded them as rhetorical, but who would have known that it was not just a description, but actual divine light!

He then looked at Yin Hanjiang and Shu Yanyan from the corner of his eyes, but he could not see any light.

The wheels in Wen Renhe’s head started turning. He suddenly thought that the cultivation method he had been practising was Path of Slaughter. He had entered the devil path 300 years ago and it had been due to a war.

What were Baili Qingmiao’s responsibilities in her previous life?

She was in charge of adversity, where she was responsible for the release of diseases, wars and death in the mortal world. Baili Qingmiao was eighteen years old this year, so this would mean that the divine world’s heavenly tribulation happened eighteen years ago.

In that case, the war that had caused Wen Renhe to enter the devil path 300 years ago, was led by Baili Qingmiao in her previous life.

That would be equivalent to the fact that Baili Qingmiao was involved in Wen Renhe’s enlightenment, so would that mean that she could be considered his half master?

With this kind of karma, there would be no need for Wen Renhe to repay Baili Qingmiao if she did not reincarnate before Wen Renhe ascended to the divine realm. However, she just had to reincarnate and even come across Wen Renhe. He was inexorably doomed to repay the gratitude for her guidance, in order to survive the heavenly tribulation.

So that’s what it was.

The author has something to say:

Shu Yanyan: “Has any of you ever taken my feelings into account??!!!”

Wen Renhe: “Never.”

Yin Hanjiang: “Never.”

Shu Yanyan: “Men are no good!!”

Edited by : Rose

Proofreader: Taalia