NEBM Chapter 55: Restriction

Yan Shen has always known that his qualifications were mediocre. He was just an ordinary person with the good fortune to enter Qingyun Sect.

This good luck was due to Song Ming.

When Song Ming saw him, he looked at him for a long time. Then, he said indifferently, “Your qualifications are very ordinary. But, as long as you work hard, it is not impossible.”

This sentence ignited a fire in Yan Shen’s heart.

If he had been an ordinary person, perhaps he wouldn’t think so much. But, Song Ming brought him back to Qingyun Sect and paved a path for him that seemed magnanimous and wide. It made him greedy, made him unwilling to return to obscurity.

Perhaps, Song Ming settled on him because he could sense that Yan Shen had a temperament that made him want to strive for success, by fair means or foul.

Song Ming took a chance and pretended to inadvertently introduce him to Shen Zhixian. At the time, Shen Zhixian had already accepted Yan Jin as his disciple. When he saw Yan Shen, he only let out a snort that hinted at his disagreement, but he did not refuse outright.

Yan Shen worshiped this kind of master. He originally thought that this was the beginning of a bright and glorious future. But, he later discovered himself in a deep hole. His aptitude for cultivation was not good, but as a common-borned person, he quickly thought of countermeasures.

He vaguely speculated that Song Ming might not feel so friendly toward Shen Zhixian under the surface. And, due to his heart ailment, Shen Zhixian’s temperament was uncertain. Moreover, his relationship with his disciple, Yan Jin, was extremely bad.

Yan Shen secretly figured out these relationships. He didn’t care what Song Ming thought about Shen Zhixian. He was more concerned about his current status. His goal was to become Shen Zhixian’s most dependable disciple.

This was actually what Song Ming had vaguely hinted to him. And, though he answered in affirmation on the surface, he actually had his own secret intentions in his heart. Although Shen Zhixian lost the position of sect leader of Qingyun Sect, he was still highly respected due his close relationship with the former sect leader. As long as Yan Shen became Shen Zhixian’s most valued disciple, his position within Qingyun Sect would…

Be tall and lofty, and not low.

Unfortunately, in front of him stood a talented Yan Jin, blocking his way.

Fortunately, Shen Zhixian didn’t seem to like Yan Jin one bit. One could say that he even loathe him. With a deep and great joy, Yan Shen tried hard to cultivate, wanting to make a name for himself in front of Shen Zhixian and gain his attention.

Everything was slowly moving forward in the direction he’d anticipated. But, he didn’t know why, after the Hidden Sword Pavilion incident, Shen Zhixian’s attitude toward Yan Jin suddenly changed. Instead of punishing him, he moved Yan Jin up to the peak and began to personally teach him.

Suddenly, Yan Shen was given the cold shoulder and was left alone in a corner. His fellow disciples observed for a while and began to quickly leave him one by one. Everyone kept a distance from him. A fire of jealousy and unwillingness burst uncontrollably to life in his heart. He began to make various plans in an attempt to pull Yan Jin down.

As he schemed, he began to discover more secrets. He’d always thought that Yan Jin entered Qingyun Sect by relying on his strength to become Shen Zhixian’s disciple. He didn’t expect that Yan Jin would turn out to be…

Someone that Song Ming had brought back from that place.

Currently, immortal cultivators opposed devil cultivators and the devil race. It was reported that, a long time ago, immortal cultivators united together and used various enchantments to seal and confine devil fiends to the wasteland, not allowing them to see the light of day.

When Song Ming brought Yan Jin back from the edge of the wasteland, it was said that he looked more devil than human. It required a lot of time and efforts on Song Ming’s part to dispel the devil qi from Yan Jin’s body.

When Yan Shen stumbled upon this secret, he’d first felt shocked, which was quickly followed by great ecstasy. From then on, it was impossible for him to believe that Yan Jin was clean. He immediately began to scheme and to devote every effort to attract and instigate devil cultivators into harming people at the Sword Competition.

Under everyone eyes, he intended to expose Yan Jin as a devil, making it so that Yan Jin could never extricate himself. Once Yan Jin was out of the way, Shen Zhixian would have no choice but to rely on him in the future.

Just to be on the safe side, Yan Shen expended great efforts to capture a strand of devil qi and sneaked it into Yan Jin’s body.

He thought his plan was foolproof. But, he never imagined that Shen Zhixian would unhesitatingly trust and protect Yan Jin, nor did he expect that the strand of devil qi he’d planted inside Yan Jin’s body would suddenly disappear without a trace. Instead, through his contacts with the devil cultivator, he’d instead been contaminated. It was him who was identified by Frost Return as a devil cultivator and him whose spirit root was severed.

“But, you don’t know. Yan Jin, he is just a–”

He was just a lowly person that Song Ming had picked up from the edge of the wasteland. There might even be the blood of devil fiends running through his veins!

They both came from the same humble origin. Why could Shen Zhixian care about Yan Jin so much?! While he, he’d worked so hard but, in the end, all he got was wasted efforts.

Yan Jin’s identity will be exposed sooner or later. When that time came, Shen Zhixian will be implicated and suffer a complete fall from grace.

But, Yan Shen wasn’t able to say any of these words. His eyes snapped open, the sound of ice breaking resounding loudly in his ears. Agonizing pain crashed through him.

A piercing sword ray punctured through the pit of Yan Shen’s stomach. Yan Jin retracted his sword, while, on Yan Shen’s body, the frozen blood did not gush out. Instead, it shattered with a sharp, crisp sound.

The powerful sword qi threw Yan Shen’s internal state into disorder, making his body seem like a bag of skin leaking mud. Yan Shen’s bloodshot eyes screamed his hatred and unwillingness. Because he’d lost the ability to speak, he could only gasp loudly and angrily, even as his body swelled like a balloon.

Yan Jin grabbed Shen Zhixian’s waist and, in a natural movement, pulled him back some ten steps. With a stroke of his sword, a strong barrier enclosed them, blocking them from the dirty things that rained from Yan Shen’s body as he exploded.

Countless dark qi spread out and dispersed. Shen Zhixian coldly looked on and, when everything had calmed, he lightly said, “Why did you kill him…?”

Yan Jin carefully looked at his face. His hand tightened on Shen Zhixian’s waist as he faintly said, “I…”

When he’d thought about what Yan Shen might say, he instinctively chose to destroy his mouth. But now that he was dead, Yan Jin didn’t know how to face Shen Zhixian. Shen Zhixian probably lost many of his past memories. Although Yan Jin missed the warmth of the past, he was even more afraid that Shen Zhixian would discover the truth.

He would know Yan Jin’s origin, know all the dark and dirty things he’d done in the past.

Shen Zhixian sighed and patted his hand, saying, “Killing that guy…is just dirtying your hand.”

He only said this sentence. Deciding not to care too much about Yan Jin’s unfinished words, he switched the topic over to the issue regarding the Qiongyu Sect. “Yan Shen was coming from Qiongyu Sect’s direction. He probably went there to make trouble for you.”

“I originally wanted to use him to clear up your name. But, now I’ll have to think of other methods. Speaking of which, Yan Jin’s spirit root was already severed, and he was imprisoned by Song Ming. I thought he’d died. But, who knew that he’d become a devil cultivator and come out to commit crimes.”

Shen Zhixian closed his eyes a little as he connected the dots. After escaping from Qingyun Sect and becoming a devil cultivator, Yan Shen must have used puppet woods to create several fake Yan Jins. He then used these Yan Jin puppets to harm people, with the intent of framing Yan Jin.

However, puppet wood was extremely difficult to find. Only puppet woods that had matured for more than 100 years can create real puppets. Previously, Shen Zhixian had to expend a lot of effort to find puppet woods and had used the last bit to create a puppet of himself, which he’d left behind in Qingyun Sect.

In such a short period of time, how could Yan Shen be so lucky as to find another piece of puppet wood? No. Shen Zhixian was more inclined to believe that Yan Shen had discovered the puppet he’d left behind in Qingyun Sect. Afterward, he’d probably mixed in dark qi and used secret methods to create many new puppets.

The A’lin who’d murdered someone in front their eyes definitely wasn’t the real A’lin. In fact, the real A’lin had probably died long ago. Later, when they’d found A’lin again, it was probably Yan Shen posing as him. This allowed him to easily mix into Qiongyu Sect and release them from the forbidden room.

After Yan Shen became a devil cultivator, his ability was simply too awesome. One could only imagine how much worse he would be if he’d actually became a fiend.

Shen Zhixian rubbed his eyebrows. “Before I left Qingyun Sect, I used puppet wood to create a dummy to act as myself in retreat. It was probably exposed now.”

Who’d discovered it?

Naturally, it was Song Ming.

The relationship between Yan Shen and Song Ming wasn’t hard to guess. The fact that Yan Shen could successfully escape from Qingyun Sect would absolutely require Song Ming’s approval. Even in this series of events, Song Ming was probably the hand behind the scenes.

After all, in Qingyun Sect, it was only Song Ming who would have this ability.

The current situation inside Qingyun Sect was unknown. It was very likely that Yan Shen’s action was done at Song Ming’s command, thus forcing him to appear before them now…

Shen Zhixian’s thoughts sped as he pondered the issue. The good news was that now that Yan Shen was dead, there would be no new victims. The bad news was that he’d left behind a big mess for them to clean up. Shen Zhixian was afraid that the problem could only be resolved using other methods.

He wanted to ask Yan Jin what he thought. But, when he tilted his head up, he saw that Yan Jin wore a tight expression. His mouth was pinched tightly, as if he’d encountered a big problem.

At first Shen Zhixian thought that he was struggling with this serious matter and comforted him with great care. “It doesn’t matter. If you don’t kill him, he’ll just kill you. Yan Shen had already become a devil cultivator and would only be a scourge if he lives. Even if he didn’t die today, I would have thought of a way to get rid of him.”

Shen Zhixian was afraid that Yan Jin thought he’d blamed him for killing Yan Shen. Unexpectedly, after he’d finished speaking, Yan Jin’s expression only became worse.

“If …” Yan Jin said with difficulty, not even daring to say the name Sui Xian. “…I also become a person like him, will Master renounce our relationship?”

Shen Zhixian was somewhat surprised.

As we all know, “if” and “I have a friend” are very subtle sentences. Often, when using these words, the reality was that the situation or the friends were the speakers themselves.

Shen Zhixian looked at him for a long time and calmly said, “What are you hiding from me?”

Yan Jin didn’t speak. He didn’t dare speak. His chest felt as if it was filled with a pot of hot oil, making his internal organs felt as if they were being cooked by said oil, causing him repeated torment.

After leaving the secret realm, he’d regained some of his memories, enough to know that he’d not been so clean in his previous life. In his previous life, after his spirit root was severed, he…he’d likely entered the devil’s path.

Since then, he’d gradually became aware that something was wrong with him. Ever since the red spirit pellet inside the secret realm was destroyed, something in his body had quietly awakened.

He was afraid of this change in him and was too anxious to move one step. In the end, he could only doubtfully and quietly tried to probe Shen Zhixian’s bottom line. All the while, from being to end, he didn’t dare open his mouth to tell him.

He was afraid.

He was afraid that once Shen Zhixan found out, he would look at him differently, looking at him in much the same way he’d looked at Yan Shen, with dislike and disgust. As if he was merely a foul piece of trash.

He couldn’t bear for Shen Zhixian to look at him that way.

But, he also couldn’t continue to deceive he.

When Shen Zhixian saw that he wasn’t saying anything, he grabbed his hand and indiscriminately passed a strand of spiritual power into his body. He carefully examined every inch of Yan Jin’s veins.

Finally, within Yan Jin’s secret depths, Shen Zhixian sensed a strand of devil qi.

The strand of devil qi was very weak. The tendril swam like a naughty fish through Yan Jin’s meridian. Shen Zhixian exerted his own spiritual power and ran after it.

After running for a long time, the devil qi was probably tired. It stopped running and, instead, turned around to coil around Shen Zhixian’s strand of spiritual power before making an abrupt turn.

It swam for a bit before increasing its speed, seeming very happy as it moved on.

Shen Zhixian almost laughed at it. But soon he discovered something–why did he sense a familiar breath within this strand of devil qi?

With a trace of doubt, he stealthily moved closer to the devil qi. The devil qi probably felt his approach. It trembled happily for a moment before leading Shen Zhixian’s strand of spiritual force toward Yan Jin’s spiritual sea.

The closer he got to Yan Jin’s spiritual sea, the heavier that familiar breath became. Shen Zhixian thought it was the contract, but he soon realized that he was mistaken. It was as if there was a restriction placed there…

Shen Zhixian’s spiritual force stopped before entering Yan Jin’s spiritual sea. After a moment, the strand of devil qi circled back, seeming quite pleased with itself as it greeted Shen Zhixian.
Then, it slowly returned.

—Why was there a restriction placed in Yan Jin’s spiritual sea?

—Why was the restriction so…familiar, as if it’d been he himself who’d set it?

Shen Zhixian slowly raised his gaze and looked into Yan Jin’s eyes.

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Xixi: If you’re confused by the interchangeability between fiend and devil, just think of them as the same thing (which they probably are?). Sometimes the author uses the character for “devil” and sometimes she would use the ones that directly translates as “devil creature/thing,” to which I translated as fiend.

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