Chapter 253:

Qiu Wuji gazed absentmindedly into the void for a while before giving a smile, dismissing it as inconsequential.

When she was trying to defy the heaven, who knows where this person was. Speaking of which, now she didn’t even know whether it was her going against the heaven or the naughty disciple going against the master….

Whether we’re defying each other or not, and in what manner we defy, what’s it got to do someone else?

She turned her attention to the servant who had accompanied Lu Shaotong. The servant was utterly bewildered, sitting on the ground and staring blankly at his young master’s lifeless body, his mind completely empty.

Qiu Wuji examined him for a moment and calmly said, “You’re the one who spread the rumors about my sect, right?”

The servant snapped out of his daze, knelt down in fear, and begged, “Sect Master, spare me! I was just following orders. It really had nothing to do with me…”

“Does my sect need to trouble itself with a mere servant like you?” Qiu Wuji sighed, “Take your master’s body back to the Lu family, and report everything that happened here truthfully.”

The servant hesitated for a moment, “But…”

“You should know that your master harbored ill intentions towards me from the beginning,” Qiu Wuji continued, “Are you aware that he liked using such underhanded tactics? Was he always fond of these convoluted schemes?”

“No, it’s not like that. In the past, the young master was a simple scholar, slow in his cultivation… I don’t know when it started, but he suddenly made rapid progress in his cultivation, and his personality became strange.” The servant couldn’t help but criticize his own master, “He started to enjoy playing around with weird plots and schemes… In my opinion, many of his ‘schemes’ were just like pulling down his pants and farting.”

“It’s not that he enjoys convoluted schemes, but when you want to evade the will of heaven, it’s natural to take more detours,” Qiu Wuji asked, “Around when did he start changing?”

The servant thought for a while, uncertain, and said, “About two or three years ago? I can’t remember the exact time. He often told us that he had a benefactor who was assisting him. Now it seems that he had already been invaded by sorcery and turned into a puppet during that time…”

Qiu Wuji glanced at Chu Ge, deep in thought.

The timeline in the book and reality didn’t quite match up. Two or three years ago in this world would roughly correspond to when Qiu Wuji had just emerged from the book. At that time, she had sensed the “will of heaven” and uncovered the “illusion.” It appeared that around the same period, someone else had also discovered this and was taking certain actions.

This person was no ordinary individual; they had awakened to this truth even earlier than Yan Qianli, but their approach was not as direct.

Seeing that the servant seemed at a loss, Qiu Wuji realized that questioning him further wouldn’t yield much value. She said, “You can go now; I’ll send you part of the way.”

With a gentle flick of her sleeve, the servant felt disoriented, and when he regained his senses, he found himself in a town miles away from the mountain, exactly where he had been outside the tavern the previous night.

With a single flick of her sleeve, she had instantly moved him hundreds of miles away.

Chu Ge asked, “Are you sure he’s not a problem?”

“No, this person’s cultivation is extremely low. If there were any issues, it wouldn’t escape my perception,” Qiu Wuji replied in a low voice. She then asked, “What do you think?”

“I’m wondering if this Lu Shaotong initially believed he had the protagonist’s luck, complete with an old man accompanying him, only to end up as a puppet host,” Chu Ge mused.

“…He probably hasn’t read webnovels,” Qiu Wuji retorted with a chuckle. “But maybe his mindset is similar?”

Chu Ge sighed, “Pie from the sky isn’t always delicious. If I ever get a system in the future, I’m not sure if I’d dare to use it.”

Qiu Wuji reminded him, “Don’t talk about that now. Can you guess who this person is? I don’t remember any evil cultivator of such great power.”

Chu Ge shook his head, “I was initially thinking that this Lu Shaotong isn’t a character I’ve written about before. Maybe he’s from someone else’s fanfiction, and somehow, it affected this place, granting him some ‘divine luck’ attributes… But upon second thought, it’s definitely not the case.”

Qiu Wuji knew it wasn’t the case, but she found this idea intriguing and asked, “Why not? Because others don’t have your manifestation ability?”

“Exactly, because fanfictions come in many forms, and multiple people are performing completely opposite actions. For instance, someone kills Chu Tiange, and someone else becomes sworn brothers with him. Or you love person A one moment and person B the next, and so on… They all conflict with each other, so they can’t possibly affect reality. If there’s any influence, it should only be from fanfictions that I acknowledge, which essentially means they have my consent.”

Qiu Wuji breathed a sigh of relief, “That’s good. Even if it’s not this time, I was worried that such a situation might occur in the future.”

“Of course, only I can write my dear Qiuqiu’s little essays!”

Qiu Wuji was furious, “You’re not allowed to!”

“Uh…” Chu Ge grinned, “As for this powerful individual who uses evil techniques… he might not have originally used such methods.”

“What do you mean?”

“He was ‘opposing the will of heaven,’ a monumental task. He was afraid of detection, so he used all sorts of convoluted methods, going round and round, even making simple tasks like connecting with you overly complicated. Even his own servants complained about it. So, imagine how he approached practicing a technique that challenges the authority of the heavens. He clearly didn’t dare to practice it openly, fearing mistakes or detection by the Dao. That’s why he practiced this puppetry technique, allowing these cauldrons to cultivate for him.”

Qiu Wuji pondered for a moment and nodded, “That seems to be the case. At the very least, this kind of possession shouldn’t be his signature technique.”

“If my judgment is correct, he should have more than one puppet like this. By observing the progress of different cultivators, he can identify areas where he’s lacking and accumulate experience. At the same time, he hopes to create suspicion, making it difficult for me to find the real person. If things leak out in the end, he can mislead me into searching for an evil cultivator.”

Qiu Wuji agreed with Chu Ge’s analysis, “But if that’s the case, haven’t we lost our lead?”

Chu Ge looked at her sideways for a long while, leaving Qiu Wuji perplexed until he suddenly smiled and said, “In theory, you and this person are allies.”

Qiu Wuji was not pleased, “I betrayed our alliance?”

Chu Ge grinned, “Our lead hasn’t been lost.”

“Why?”

“This person came to you with ill intentions, but there is some sincerity in his actions. He wanted to team up with cultivators of your level, but he didn’t trust you or perhaps his desire for control was too strong. So, he wanted to use a method to subdue you.”

“He can’t do that,” Qiu Wuji scoffed. “His approach requires close contact and a lot of time, but I would have detected it long ago. Although I might not recognize this power, I would most likely mistake it for soul control and simply cut him down.”

Chu Ge explained, “I’m not talking about that. I mean, since this person came to your sect, he would naturally seek out other eligible ‘allies,’ such as Yan Qianli. What I had Yan Qianli do initially was precisely for this day, right?”

Qiu Wuji went over the details in her mind, remained silent for a while, and then sighed, “Why do I feel like you’re becoming more and more like the antagonist, and I’m just an unwitting accomplice…”

“You’re the Empress!”

Qiu Wuji raised an eyebrow and grabbed Chu Ge’s ear, “You’re feeling itchy again, huh?”

“No, no, no,” Chu Ge winced in pain and grinned, “Who’s the antagonist is still up for debate. Someone like this, who relies on possession and takeover, can’t possibly be on the same side as you. Even if both are trying to defy the heavens, everyone has a different way of doing things.”

Qiu Wuji coldly asked, “Then what’s my way?”

“He wants to defy, and you want to bully, isn’t it all about bullying in the end…”

Qiu Wuji laughed, “So today, I’m going to bully heaven!”

Poor ‘Heaven’ was pitifully tugged at its ear by the rebellious woman, and with a sword under her control, they descended from the mountain.

“So, where are we heading now?” Qiu Wuji sat cross-legged on the sword, pondering, “We talked about roaming the martial world, but we’ve been hovering around the vicinity of the Cloud Horizon Sect for a whole day.”

“Our current destination is quite clear… we’re going to find the Little Flame; there’s no other option.”

“Then hold on tight.”

The sword’s light, as swift as lightning, immediately shot off into the distance.

“It’s… it’s too high, too fast, I can’t hold on,” Chu Ge’s voice could be faintly heard from high in the sky.

“So what?”

Chu Ge grumbled, “When someone sits on the back of an electric bike, she usually holds onto the driver’s waist…”

Qiu Wuji fell silent.

The rebellious woman, caught up in the moment of joy from tugging on ‘Heaven’s’ ear, had forgotten that Chu Ge was actually a spiritual entity and didn’t have the issue of stability… In fact, he felt that the experiences from the real world and this world had been reversed, which was quite nice…

Chu Ge tentatively reached around and hugged her, causing Qiu Wuji to stiffen briefly but not reject the gesture.

Chu Ge smiled.

High above in the sky, the shadow of the divine sword darted through the clouds. Qiu Wuji sat cross-legged at the front of the sword with a stoic expression. The naughty disciple was behind her, his arms wrapped lightly around his master’s waist, gently inhaling the fragrance of her hair, grinning like a fox that had stolen something.

“I read in the comments that pedal-powered flying swords are good,” Qiu Wuji said with a straight face. “Looking at it now, it does seem much better with this sword flying technique.”

Chu Ge didn’t even bother to respond.

Regardless of how good the sword-flying technique was, how handsome or cool it appeared… amidst countless spells and boundless paths, only one thing matters– hugging my master!