Side Story 2

“My Master is the most powerful!” Unknowingly, this phrase had become Luo Wei’s catchphrase. Yin Ze had never doubted the loyalty of his disciples, but Luo Wei always boasted like that, as if she herself were the number one in the world. Moreover, whenever he was present when she said this, she would definitely give him shining, adoring eyes. She was so childish, never changing a bit. Since she had always been this way since she was a child, he never bothered to argue with her.

The Cangying Sect explicitly prohibited all disciples from falling in love, but there were always so many people who knowingly violated the rules. Especially those young girls in the prime of their youth, more or less would develop admiration for handsome senior brothers with extraordinary magical powers, and secretly discuss them in private. As long as they didn’t go too far, most masters would turn a blind eye. Of course, there were also some particularly strict masters who insisted on picking on their disciples’ faults; and there were also particularly nosy disciples who insisted on picking on their fellow disciples’ faults. With these people around, rumors spread particularly quickly. For a long time, the name Yin Ze heard most often was “Senior Brother Tian Heng”. Fu Chen Zhi inherited the beauty and strength of his parents, and there were too many girls who liked him, even the senior sisters couldn’t help but secretly admire him. Yin Ze had always thought of this as a bunch of children fooling around, but he never expected that one day these peach blossom rumors would be linked to himself. That day when he passed by the White Emperor Mountain, he heard several female disciples whispering:

“Junior Sister Luo Wei is so funny, her answers are always so unexpected.”

“How so, how so?”

“We were just discussing which senior brother is the best looking, you know, Senior Brother Tian Heng has become the center of attention again, but Junior Sister Luo Wei suddenly blurted out: ‘Haven’t you guys noticed who the best-looking man in our Cangying Sect is?’“

“Who was she talking about?”

After a moment of whispering, the female disciple exclaimed, “What?! She’s too bold, she dares to...”

“No, no, she also said she just thought the Divine Lord was handsome, saying that if her future husband could grow up to look like that, it would be great. She didn’t mean to offend the Divine Lord.”

Hearing this, Yin Ze fell into deep thought. Indeed, the women around him often complimented him on his beauty, but having lived for nearly eight thousand years, he had long since become numb to the appearance of his face and didn’t care at all. But in Wei’er’s eyes, was he considered handsome? For a moment, he felt a strange emotion. He only heard the two of them continue to whisper:

“I’ve seen the Divine Lord once, he is indeed exceptionally handsome, unlike any ordinary immortal. It’s just that, the Divine Lord is a god, I never thought of that... But Luo Wei is different, she spends every day with the Divine Lord, do you think she might have that kind of feeling for him?”

“Actually, to be honest...” The other female disciple also lowered her voice, “I’ve always felt that Luo Wei has a secret crush on Divine Lord Yin Ze.”

“You think so too? I think so too, she mentions Divine Lord Yin Ze way too often, it makes one have to wonder. And, she will often hold her face and daydream, mumbling things like ‘What is Master doing?’“

“Yes, yes, that’s not like a disciple’s feelings for a master...”

Yin Ze didn’t bother to believe these idle thoughts of a few adolescent girls. Even later, when he really saw the poem Luo Wei wrote, “My Beautiful Master,” he just thought it was a child being playful and didn’t take it to heart. However, when he saw this poem, Divine Lord Ling Yin happened to be present and exclaimed in surprise, “Divine Lord, this is really difficult to handle. Your disciple probably has more than a little thought about you.”

“What kind of thought?” He noticed that Luo Wei’s handwriting was quite neat, which was not consistent with her careless personality. After a long time without getting a reply from Divine Lord Ling Yin, he suddenly looked up and saw a teasing look in the other party’s eyes. He placed the paper on the table and said indifferently, “Don’t talk nonsense, she’s still young.”

“‘Dreaming of a fluttering green robe at night, your heart ripples like smoke.’ Whenever a poem mentions ‘when you see this person, you will do this and that,’ it often refers to the poet’s own feelings.” Divine Lord Ling Yin laughed and said in a girlish voice in imitation of Luo Wei, “Divine Lord, you are the supreme water god of the nine heavens, how can you not understand such a simple truth.”

“This has nothing to do with you.”

“Yes, I’ll shut up.”

Although he said so, Yin Ze was absent-minded all day. That night, he summoned Luo Wei for a talk. Luo Wei was still as quick as before, coming down the steps and kowtowing to him, apologizing very sincerely. Yin Ze played with the teacup lid, took a sip of tea, and for the first time ever, he didn’t punish her and easily let her go. At that time, the moon was cold in the long sky, the pillow and mat were slightly cool, and the courtyard was full of fragrant red flowers. The west window was filled with jade-like brilliance, and he didn’t know if it was because the night was too moving, but he didn’t want to argue with her.

She was overjoyed and jumped up happily, saying, “Thank you, Master!” But unexpectedly, this action suddenly shortened the distance between the two of them. Just as the evening wind blew casually, red flowers filled the table, and her youthful hair was blown up on both sides of her temples. Her skin was as white as fresh snow, and her large and clever eyes were filled with the clarity of water, as she looked at him cautiously. After meeting his gaze, she couldn’t hide the blush on her cheeks. He knew she was starting to feel shy again. But this time, her shyness was inexplicable - or perhaps... he didn’t dare to think about the reason. He only saw her playing with the corner of her clothes while whispering, “Thank you... thank you, Master. Master is so kind to me.”

The fragrance of apricot blossoms made him a little dizzy, and he suddenly found Luo Wei so beautiful at this moment, like someone who had walked out of a painting. He looked away as well, “Aren’t you leaving yet?”

“Ah, yes, yes, this disciple is leaving now...”

Her voice was soft and sticky, much gentler and more obedient than usual, and the steps she took as she turned to run out of the door became as light as a butterfly. He found that when Wei’er liked someone, she was no different from other girls. He had hundreds of ways to make a woman fall in love with him, and hundreds of ways to stop this emotion from growing. This was originally just a trivial matter.

But that night, he couldn’t sleep all night. The sweet smile that lingered on her face when she left kept haunting his mind.

Wei’er was his disciple. She could only live for three hundred years. She looked like Shang Yan, and his heart beating must be related to this. Yin Ze understood all these reasons. He would not be like a young man who had just begun to understand love, and because of a momentary infatuation, he would also mess up his life. He was still as calm as ever, doing whatever he should do, and was not affected at all. He just didn’t want to let Luo Wei notice his rejection too early.

However, Luo Wei always brought him many “surprises.” A few days later, she actually violated the sect rules and kissed Fu Chen Zhi in the Fahua Cherry Garden. Yin Ze was still very clear-headed, knowing that she had never had that kind of feeling for Chen Zhi, and this kiss must have been initiated by Chen Zhi, or she was playing a childish game out of boredom.

But there was still a fire of anger that could not be suppressed in his heart.

He originally thought that sending both of them to the Nine Zong Pool would make her act coquettish and clingy to him as usual, but he didn’t expect that he had underestimated her importance to Chen Zhi. From Chen Zhi’s reaction, it could be seen that he was the one who had caused the trouble, but she was willing to die to defend Chen Zhi, insisting that she was the one who kissed Chen Zhi first... Seeing her care so much about her brother, for a moment, Yin Ze wanted to take Chen Zhi’s life.

Walking out of the Nine Zong Pool, Yin Ze closed his eyes and calmed down for a long time, feeling that the situation was beyond his control and could not continue like this. Luo Wei and Chen Zhi grew up together as childhood sweethearts, and it would be perfect for them to get married after they left the sect. As an elder, how could he get entangled with a group of younger generations.

After interacting with the Qingwu Divine Maiden, he did notice Luo Wei’s loss. Every time he saw her look like she wanted to laugh but couldn’t, he would feel a little unbearable. It’s just that, to cut off the bud of this emotion, this is the best way.

For thousands of years, he has been able to control the overall situation for everything, including the love and hatred of the suffering beings. He also saw through Luo Wei’s personality very clearly. She was pampered since she was a child and did indeed suffer a little setback after coming out, and she would not let herself suffer. Her liking for him was just a naive longing of a young girl. Once she was rejected and learned a lesson, she would be sad for a few days and then give up, and then learn to be practical.

If there’s anything he hadn’t seen through, it was the depth of her affection for him. Luo Wei’s reaction was far more intense than he had anticipated. He never would have thought that she would actually fall under the spell of the snow snake and go to transform into a demon.