Seeing that Bai Xiaochun had been placated, imposter Nightcrypt was both howling in frustration, and at the same time, sighing in relief. Even still, his terror regarding Bai Xiaochun only continued to grow.
What worried him most was that he had no idea what things might happen in the future....
Sighing in contentment, Bai Xiaochun put the copper mirror away, then organized the love letters and slowly put them away into his bag of holding. By this point, he was completely determined to show the love letters to his descendants so that they too could bask in his glory.
Feeling wonderful, Bai Xiaochun went on to cultivate the Frigid School Will Evolving Incantation, and then work on his big toe with the Undying Tendons. Glancing outside, he realized that it wasn’t dawn yet, and he got a bit irritated.
“What’s taking the sun so long to rise?!” he muttered. Having nothing else to do, he decided to ponder the issue of the River-Defying Pill again.
Time slipped by, and soon it was the fourth watch. Outside, everything was quiet. Suddenly Bai Xiaochun’s face sank as a cold sensation washed over him, and ripples began to spread out on the floor beneath him. In the blink of an eye, they had filled the entire immortal's cave.
Although no one on the outside could hear anything, inside the immortal's cave, some powerful force seemed to be trying to cut the immortal's cave away from the world around it. At the same time, the sealed mask in his bag of holding erupted with brilliant red light.
Apparently, the mysterious group behind the mask were paying a huge price to try to break the seals and try to communicate with Bai Xiaochun.
The mask flew out of his bag of holding, and the ancient voice began to speak urgently.
“Listen to what I--”
This time the voice managed to speak a bit more than the previous time, leaving Bai Xiaochun petrified. Screaming, he waved his right hand viciously through the air, sending a huge stack of paper talismans slamming into the mask. At the same time, he sent cultivation base power surging out, completely suppressing it.
Despite all of that, the mask was still struggling, and the ancient voice was still speaking. However, despite how viciously the voice struggled, it wasn’t possible to tell what it was saying.
“You're forcing me to do this!” Bai Xiaochun said, his eyes bright red, his heart pulsing with fear. After using all of the paper talismans he had at his disposal, he raced out of his immortal's cave, heading at top speed toward the Heavenspan River at the bottom of Mount River Defiance.
Upon his arrival, he sent a fist strike in the direction of the river, causing a huge wave to roll out across its surface, then scooped up a bunch of the water into a large jade bucket.
He had originally intended to use that bucket to collect water for cultivation purposes, but things were different now. After racing back to his immortal's cave, he saw the mask, still struggling, a muffled voice echoing out from inside of it. This time, the words were more coherent.
“You... don’t... need… to refuse--”
“I refuse, dumbass!” Bai Xiaochun roared, shoving the mask down into the bucket of Heavenspan River water.
In that instant, the conversation ended, and everything went silent.
After looking cautiously at the bucket for a moment, Bai Xiaochun finally breathed a sigh of relief, then gave a slight harrumph.
“Did you really think Lord Bai wouldn't be able to come up with a solution? Now, let’s see how you act up this time!” Sighing proudly, Bai Xiaochun sealed the bucket of Heavenspan River water and then put it in his bag of holding.
If the mask had been submerged in Heavenspan River water with imposter Nightcrypt inside, then his soul would have been negatively affected. That was why Bai Xiaochun had chosen to move imposter Nightcrypt into the copper mirror.
Now that the incident with the mask was over, Bai Xiaochun felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Not only did he wish to avoid officially offending the mysterious organization, he also wanted to avoid dragging the River-Defying Sect into the matter.
After all, the entire situation was his doing, so unless he was left with absolutely no other options, he didn’t want to hand the mask over to the sect to handle. At this moment, he was almost weak with relief that the situation had been resolved.
In the following days, he continued to go out every morning to receive love letters.
Eventually, Big Fatty Zhang and Xu Baocai came to Bai Xiaochun and expressed their desire to accompany him during his daily excursions to receive love letters. Bai Xiaochun was naturally unable to refuse them.
When they personally witnessed the female disciples rushing over to give Bai Xiaochun love letters, their eyes went wide with open envy....
“Ninth Fatty, I’ve lost a lot of weight, haven’t I? Why don’t any of the girls give me a love letter?!” Big Fatty Zhang was a bit depressed. The truth was that despite having lost so much weight, he still had a bit of a belly.
Xu Baocai was equally downtrodden. Of course, he had already recorded the details of the legendary love letter incident into his little notebook. At the moment, he felt like he had ants crawling around in his heart....
In response to Big Fatty Zhang’s question, Bai Xiaochun stuck his chin up and cleared his throat.
“To be honest, it takes skill. There’s no need for you two to get anxious. Just be patient, and I’ll explain everything....” Even as Bai Xiaochun was preparing to dazzle them with his insights, he noticed that Xu Baocai’s eyes had gone wide, and that Big Fatty Zhang was staring at something behind him.
Bai Xiaochun’s jaw dropped as he realized that it wasn’t just Big Fatty Zhang and Xu Baocai who were acting in such a way. He quickly looked over his shoulder and saw a young woman gliding up the path toward him.
She appeared to be about eighteen or nineteen years of age, with large black eyes and plump rosy-red lips. She was charming and graceful as she swayed toward him, refined and beautiful in a way that defied description.
Her garments were simple yet elegant, and covered her slender frame in just the right way. Her skin was as pure as a lotus, and she had long legs that looked like they had been carved by a master craftsman. Her face was so beautiful it was like a work of art. She was clearly a peerless beauty among women.
She was none other than Chen Manyao!
Xu Baocai gasped. “The number one hottest girl in all of the River-Defying Sect!”
Actually, he was the one who had proclaimed her to be the so-called number one hottest girl. Not only had he officially recorded it in his notebook, he had also spread word about the matter personally. He had even dreamed about her on more than one occasion. As soon as he laid eyes on her, he subconsciously puffed his chest out and stood straighter. In the past, he had often come off a bit awkward in front of pretty girls, but as of this moment, he actually seemed a bit heroic.
Big Fatty Zhang subconsciously sucked in his stomach, and his eyes began to sparkle.
Bai Xiaochun heard all of the gasps around him, and noted the reactions of Xu Baocai and Big Fatty Zhang. “You must be exaggerating,” he said. With that, he proceeded to look Chen Manyao up and down. Although he had to admit that she was pretty, he didn’t think that she was so shockingly good-looking as to leave one dumbstruck.
“Hmph,” he thought. “She's definitely not received as many love letters as I have!” Sticking his chin up, he couldn’t help but muse to himself that this Chen Manyao was far too pretentious.
Just when he was about to stalk off impatiently, Chen Manyao suddenly spoke in a voice that sounded like a hundred spirit creatures singing in a choir.
“Elder Brother Bai, please wait a moment.”