Crush's Cold Senior Sister is Actually Childhood Sweetheart - Chapter 36

Chapter 37: Habit is a Truly Terrifying Thing.

The newcomer nodded slightly towards Divine Sovereign Chongguang. Divine Sovereign Chongguang, who had been resting with her eyes closed, suddenly opened them upon hearing the footsteps and, breaking her usual aloofness, nodded back in greeting, her attitude noticeably gentler than usual.

The person then turned to Ling Qi, skipping all pleasantries and getting straight to the point: “Do you want to kill Shen Tianmo, or do you want the Qing Yuan Sword?”

Ling Qi lifted her head from An Jin’s shoulder, raising an eyebrow in genuine surprise. “What do you mean?”

“If you want to kill Shen Tianmo, I can’t help you. If you want the Qing Yuan Sword, I can give it a try,” Ying Baicang said flatly, her tone as calm as if she were discussing what to have for lunch.

The senior sister who had previously been drawn against Ying Baicang, who had sat up straight, slumped back down onto the table after hearing this.

Forget it, I really shouldn’t have had such high hopes for this tournament.

“…Don’t bother. Just take it easy, and use less divine power,” Ling Qi’s original intention was to tell Ying Baicang not to push herself too hard. After all, her old injuries had not healed, and her health had not been good for so many years. Even if she could win in the end, fighting round after round would be very draining.

But these words, when heard by the people of the Chongguang Palace, were interpreted as Ling Qi advising Ying Baicang to show mercy and not be too heavy-handed.

A few fellow disciples exchanged glances and nodded in agreement.

Senior Sister Ling’s words make a lot of sense. She should take it easy and not actually cause a death.

“It’s not yet at the point where you need to risk your life, really.”

Ling Qi picked up the teacup on the table, took a sip, and gave her a cryptic wink. “Besides, I still have a backup plan.”

“You’re going on stage?” Ying Baicang frowned, sizing Ling Qi up from head to toe, her gaze sweeping from her bl00d-stained face to her clothes that were so soaked in bl00d that their original color was unrecognizable. She narrowed her eyes, ready to knock Ling Qi unconscious and drag her back to Jiu Yang Palace if she dared to nod.

“Who said I was going on?” Ling Qi said with an air of nonchalance. She turned her head, her gaze falling on An Jin, who was sitting in the same chair.

Ying Baicang and the other disciples in the room followed her gaze. “?”

An Jin was propping her chin up, cracking sunflower seeds, and enjoying the spectacle. She suddenly felt the surroundings become quiet. She looked around and realized that everyone’s eyes were on her.

She blinked twice, her eyelashes fluttering, her eyes filled with a clear confusion:

“Why are you all looking at me?”

“You want her to go get the Qing Yuan Sword?!” Ying Baicang’s finger, pointing at An Jin, trembled, and the last word was a squeak.

An Jin finally realized what was happening, and the sunflower seed in her hand froze in mid-air. She widened her eyes and pointed at herself: “Me???”

Ling Qi patted her on the shoulder and said lightly, “Just fight casually. It’s great if you can win, but if you feel something is wrong, just concede directly. It’s no big deal.”

Everyone present: “…”

Although it was a round-robin format, losing one or two matches didn’t affect entering the next round. However, to win in the end, the hurdle of Shen Tianmo was unavoidable.

Just as Divine Sovereign Chongguang was about to speak, Cen Xiyao, who had been listening all this time, couldn’t hold back anymore. “Do you two know what you’re doing?”

Her voice was cold, filled with a controlled anger.

“It’s customary for a newcomer’s first match to be a gentle one. You’re sending a newcomer to fight for her life against a Divine Sovereign? What will the other sects think of our Chongguang Palace?”

Cen Xiyao took a deep breath, forcing down the anger in her heart. She looked at An Jin and softened her tone: “I know you’re very talented. You might have an easy time with the first few matches, even winning several in a row, until you run into a truly difficult opponent—”

“Then, with a ‘bang’.” Cen Xiyao suddenly leaned in, her voice low and eerie. “Before you can even react, your leg is already broken.”

…

“…After you arrive at the North Sea, you’ll travel around for a long, long time, but you won’t even be able to manage the most basic thing of getting a full stomach, let alone find time to cultivate. In the end, while begging on the street…”

As she spoke excitedly, Cen Xiyao was even more engrossed than she was during a class at the academy.

“Wait a minute.” An Jin was listening with great interest and even raised her hand to ask questions from time to time. “How did I get kicked out of the Chongguang Palace again?”

“Because your leg was broken and you knew you couldn’t beat Shen Tianmo, so you chose to cheat in the final match, which caused Chongguang Palace to lose all face.”

An Jin nodded in understanding.

The logic is sound, no problems there.

The fellow disciples around her twitched their mouths and exchanged glances.

How did the story turn into An Jin being expelled from the sect?!

“No one is going to ruin the reputation of your Chongguang Palace,” it was Ling Qi who finally interrupted Cen Xiyao with a deadpan expression, ending the farce.

She gave everyone a faint look. “Besides, Shen Tianmo won’t even fight until the end.”

Before anyone could ask what she meant, the list for the third round of matches lit up on the screen in the sky. An Jin’s opponent was Ying Baicang’s youngest junior sister, who had entered the sect most recently. The other girl was already waiting by the arena downstairs, wearing a purple outfit, a very typical appearance for the You Han Palace.

An Jin stood up, took the stairs two at a time, and drew her sword from her waist as she went. She finally stopped not far from her opponent.

“Please go easy on me,” she said with a smile, cupping her hands as Ling Qi had done earlier.

The purple-clad woman exuded coldness all over. She didn’t reply to the words but simply nodded silently, indicating that she had heard.

In the private room, Cen Xiyao frowned and pressed on: “What did you mean when you said Shen Tianmo wouldn’t fight until the end?”

“A dignified Divine Sovereign winning a tournament against a group of Upper Immortals and taking the championship, do you think that’s an honor or a joke?” Ling Qi gave a small, light laugh. “If it were you, would you give people that kind of gossip?”

“Are you saying she’ll deliberately lose?” Cen Xiyao waited for a long time without a response. She turned her head and found that Ling Qi was completely focused on the match on the stage and wasn’t listening to her at all.

When the fight got intense, she even subconsciously turned her face away and closed her eyes.

That look, wanting to watch but not daring to, made Cen Xiyao find her particularly strange.

This was the fastest match to end since the tournament began.

An Jin was already much stronger than her opponent. She also didn’t like to toy with her rivals; she found an opening and landed a decisive sword strike, cleanly knocking her opponent off the arena.

The purple-clad woman rolled to her feet upon landing, steadied herself, then nodded slightly at An Jin and turned to leave without another word.

She left An Jin standing there dumbfounded, her sword not yet returned to its sheath.

“That was really efficient…”

After the match, An Jin returned to the private room to wait for the next round. The round-robin format was slow. They had to wait for everyone to finish a round before the immortal attendants would bring a new list of matchups.

There wasn’t even a soft couch to rest on in the private room, so An Jin had to push two chairs together and curl up, using Ling Qi’s lap as a pillow to sleep. Ling Qi used one hand to block the glaring sunlight streaming through the window and the other to gently run her fingers through An Jin’s hair, letting the strands slip through her fingers.

She slowly closed her eyes, trying to sort out her jumbled thoughts. When she opened them again, she was startled to discover that at some point, two crooked braids had appeared on An Jin’s head.

She coughed awkwardly, and before An Jin woke up, she hurriedly undid the braids completely.

Habit is a truly terrifying thing.

Not far away, Ren Qingwen’s gaze drifted towards them from time to time. When Ling Qi looked over, the other girl pretended to be nonchalant and looked away.

With Ling Qi dropping out due to injury and Yang Anping being eliminated after losing three consecutive matches, the recently initiated An Jin unexpectedly became the Chongguang Palace’s last hope.

Divine Sovereign Chongguang had been silent since Yang Anping’s elimination. Cen Xiyao leaned quietly against the wall behind her, lost in thought. The few junior sisters who usually loved to liven up the atmosphere exchanged glances and silently retreated to the back, not daring to speak.

The tension in the private room grew, with only the sounds of combat from outside the window. Only An Jin, with her head resting securely on Ling Qi’s lap, was sleeping soundly.

As Ling Qi had predicted, Shen Tianmo very calmly lost to a disciple from her own sect. Although everyone knew she was deliberately holding back, the disciple did indeed show considerable strength. The scattered immortals watching whispered to each other, all remarking that the younger generation was formidable and that she was indeed worthy of being taught by Divine Sovereign Tianmo.

Amidst the cheers, Shen Tianmo waved her sleeve and gracefully descended the stage, her posture as if she were the one who had won.

Although, in reality, there was no difference.

An Jin was still sleeping soundly. Ling Qi’s legs were numb from being a pillow, but she didn’t dare to move. She watched the scene on the stage quietly, her expression thoughtful.

Shen Tianmo cared about her reputation just like Yang Chongguang did, but the reasons behind it were completely different. Yang Chongguang’s greatest desire was for power; she longed to build her own kingdom and make all those who had once looked down on her bow down.

Shen Tianmo was different.

The way she looked at people was like looking at a tool… Everyone, in her eyes, was just a bargaining chip to manipulate hearts. Reputation was merely a means to satisfy her desire for control. She disregarded life and didn’t care about what others thought, only reveling in the pleasure of having everyone in the palm of her hand.

How could Emperor Qing Yuan have fallen for a person like that?

Ling Qi pursed her lips.

So, the kissing by the hot spring… it must have been forced, right?

The deafening cheers from the stage were so loud that they woke up the sleeping An Jin. She sat up groggily, rubbed her eyes, and was about to prepare for the next round when Ling Qi reached out and, with a natural movement, gathered her loose long hair and used her own hair tie to re-tie it.

An Jin’s hand, which was rubbing her eyes, stopped in mid-air. She touched the hair tie and then got up to walk downstairs.

To everyone’s surprise, An Jin smoothly made it into the elimination rounds. She didn’t break her leg as Cen Xiyao had predicted; instead, she even ran into Ying Baicang in the first round of the elimination matches. The two of them exchanged only a few symbolic moves before the other woman conceded cleanly, so quickly that even Divine Sovereign You Han didn’t have time to ring the bell.

The surrounding crowd was once again full of praise, all complimenting Ying Baicang for being from the academy and knowing how to nurture the younger generation.

Only An Jin noticed that her face was frighteningly pale. She instinctively wanted to go over and help, but stopped when the other woman shook her head slightly. Despite only a few simple moves, Ying Baicang’s condition was extremely poor, and the back of her clothes was soaked with sweat.

The final match was An Jin versus the Upper Immortal who had just defeated Shen Tianmo.

It was expected to be a tough fight, but to everyone’s surprise, after fewer than a hundred moves, the opponent stumbled and fell off the arena very suddenly.

An Jin won just like that, inexplicably.

The once-lively area around the arena fell silent in an instant. The various private rooms on the second floor were also filled with an eerie quiet. People looked at each other, unsure if they should go up and offer congratulations.

An Jin looked up at the second floor, a little lost, and saw that Ling Qi was standing in the viewing area with a frown, clearly not having expected this outcome either.

“Congratulations to this Upper Immortal.” On the high platform, Shen Tianmo leaned leisurely against the back of her chair, her smile full of deeper meaning. “To have achieved so much so soon after arriving in the Upper Realm, you surely have… a great and limitless future ahead of you.”

The words “so soon after arriving in the Upper Realm” were like a stone dropped into a calm pond, instantly causing a wave of murmuring throughout the crowd.

Seeing the discussions breaking out, Ling Qi, from the second-floor viewing area, suddenly spoke. Her voice was not loud, but it clearly carried throughout the arena: “Thank you for your kind words, Divine Sovereign. My junior sister naturally has a limitless future.”

With that title, the voices questioning the fairness of the match immediately quieted down. Seeing that her goal hadn’t been achieved, Shen Tianmo wasn’t annoyed.

She smiled and asked again: “Then, I wonder when Ling Upper Immortal’s junior sister plans to come to my Tianmo Palace to retrieve the Qing Yuan Sword?”