DLOBML CHAPTER 14

Chapter 14 — Infuriate the Demonic Master to Death (5) | Today, the male lead took a -100,000,000 critical hit.

Luo Xiaozhan unexpectedly discovered he was related to Ye Zhenzhen. Although the shock and heartbreak nearly made him unravel, the boy had no choice but to accept reality.

What, you say he has no backbone?

What do you expect him to do, pick a fight with his own grandfather?

Never mind getting beaten half to death, the eighteen aunties at home would skin him, strip his tendons, and boil him for soup. And do you think the third uncles, fourth uncles, fifth aunts, sixth aunts, and all the seventh great-aunties and eighth grand-uncles are soft persimmons? You think it ends there? Please. His parents would absolutely double-team him with three hundred sixty-five unique combos, no repeats for a year.

This young master would rather be a turtle and keep his head down, thanks.

Compared to Luo Xiaozhan’s wise surrender, Ye Zhenzhen also slipped into her role as an elder of the Luo clan, taking good care of him, enough that even Wei Yu started to get jealous.

Another ten years flickered by. Ye Zhenzhen formed her Foundation, while Luo Xiaozhan made modest progress and reached fifth level of Qi Refining, a little tough cookie.

One day the Xiaoyao Sect opened its mountain gates. A young man and woman came down the steep path, steps light, clearly skilled.

Luo Xiaozhan walked backward, grinning at Ye Zhenzhen. “Sister Zhenzhen, what gift should I buy for them? Maybe… a clockwork mouse?”

Ye Zhenzhen laughed. “Sounds like you want to frighten them.”

He snickered. With Ye Zhenzhen’s protection he had lived like a fish in water at the Xiaoyao Sect. His temperament stayed impish. Nearly twenty-six now, he still played like a child.

They chatted and joked all the way back to Clearwater Town.

Father and Mother Ye had the news and waited early at the pier. Little Brother Ye had married, and came with his bride to greet them.

By late morning, the sun lifted the mist. As the Ye family murmured among themselves, the boatman let out several startled cries.

Far across the water, two faint figures had appeared, walking across the surface as if on solid ground.

Fengming Town had cultivators, but precious few. Why else would the Luo family reign alone? Folks who lived on the water had never seen such a sight and thought immortals had descended.

Mother Ye waved both hands. “Xiao Zhen! Over here, over here!”

Even after another ten years, Ye Zhenzhen’s face seemed frozen at her most beautiful moment. Mother Ye recognized her at once.

But Little Brother’s wife was so startled she went blank. People in Clearwater always said the eldest sister-in-law was devastatingly beautiful, youth everlasting. She had assumed it was a joke.

Seeing the real person, she realized they had not exaggerated.

The new bride felt crushed by the pressure. She glanced anxiously at her husband. Her looks were middling at best, barely a “beauty.” She could not hold a candle to her sister-in-law.

Little Brother Ye sensed her worry and turned with a reassuring smile.

Only then did she relax and study the sister-in-law she had never met.

Perhaps it was the difference between cultivators and ordinary folk. Every gesture carried an airy grace that delighted the eye and, at the same time, drew a subtle line between worlds.

Ye Linshi shrank a little, but that immortal-like woman smiled at her. “You must be my sister-in-law. I am sorry I could not make it to your wedding the other year.”

She had not expected the voice to be so gentle.

Ye Linshi opened her heart, waving her hands. “S-sister, you had your duties. It is nothing, truly.”

Ye Zhenzhen’s smile deepened. “Do not worry. I came prepared this time. I have a surprise for you when we get home.”

That coaxing, big-sister tone was impossible to resist. Ye Linshi flushed and murmured, “Thank you, Sister.”

Little Brother Ye grumbled, “Sister, do you not plan to dote on me?”

Ye Zhenzhen arched a brow. “You have a wife to dote on you. Why would you need me?”

Both newlyweds turned bright red.

Father Ye chuckled. “Xiao Zhen has it right. That boy has been spoiled rotten.”

While cheer warmed one side, the other was in hot water.

Mother Ye’s stare made Luo Xiaozhan’s scalp tingle. He forced a few laughs. He tried stepping to the left; her gaze slid left right along with him.

The old lady narrowed her eyes, dragged Ye Zhenzhen close, pinched her arm lightly, and lowered her voice. “Xiao Zhen, tell me honestly. Have you… fallen for that boy?”

Ye Zhenzhen blinked.

Luo Xiaozhan looked terrified.

Dear ancestors, spare me. Even if you lent me ten courage pills, I would not dare covet Grandfather’s woman. I still want to live in one piece!

“Xiao Zhen, how could you be so muddled?” Mother Ye tapped her daughter’s forehead. “Your husband may be older, but in the cultivation world he is just stepping into youth. And he truly treats you well. Every holiday he sends people to check on us. What is there to complain about?”

She jabbed again, vexed. “Look at that boy, slick and sly, clearly no good. Always grinning like a fox. I bet he is all sweet talk and useless inside. Do not let him fool you.”

Eavesdropping, Father Ye nodded vigorously in agreement.

Luo Xiaozhan: why did his knees suddenly ache… Also, Auntie, could you badmouth him a little quieter? Do you not see the girls walking by pointing and whispering?

For some reason he felt his chances of becoming a lifelong bachelor skyrocketing…

Ye Zhenzhen could only laugh and cry. “Mother, you misunderstood. He… is Lord Luo’s grandson.”

Now it was Father and Mother Ye’s turn to go slack.

Luo Xiaozhan: exactly, it is a misunderstanding. I am just the grandson. Please treat me like a breeze and let me pass.

Luckily Little Brother was quick. “Do not stand here gawking. Breakfast is ready at home. We can talk while we eat.”

The boy who had narrowly survived patted the sweat at his hairline. Thus ended the little “

Someone is mistakenly thought
to be romantically
involved with someone else. peach-blossom incident

.”

Ye Zhenzhen stayed in Clearwater for a while, living happily with her family. Hearing that Luo Geng was still traveling and had not returned, she clenched her heart for him. The worry left her dim. She went back to the Xiaoyao Sect dispirited.

This time, she immediately sensed the sect’s strange atmosphere.

Her master Li Jiutian had been vanishing like a ghost. Even Senior Brother Wei Yu was nowhere to be seen. Though Ye Zhenzhen was First Disciple of Seventh-Ring Peak, she had not been in that seat long, so the sect’s secrets were still beyond her reach.

Danger scented the air.

She threw herself into training like someone haunted.

After dying miserably in her last life, she trusted nothing in her environment. The slightest stir pressed on her like a matter of life and death.

Under that pressure, she broke through the Foundation bottleneck within ten years and became a young leader of her generation.

The time came again for the Xiaoyao Sect to open its mountain gate. Unlike before, the gate stayed shut.

Ye Zhenzhen practiced in the back mountain. The cold, serpentine light of her sword could not conceal her growing beauty. It only made her seem more ethereal.

“Zhenzhen.”

Someone had appeared without her noticing. He wore purple robes and looked like a god. Ye Zhenzhen showed not a trace of infatuation. She sheathed her sword with swift efficiency and bowed. “Master, what are your orders?”

He had heard that distant tone for thirty years. He believed he had not treated her poorly. Why could she not open her heart even a little? Li Jiutian rubbed his brow, then could not help one more try. “Zhenzhen, do you have no hopes for me at all?”

Ye Zhenzhen was startled.

She had seen countless faces on him before, demonic charm, lofty pride, elegant poise, but never this quiet desolation.

A leaf whirled down and settled at her feet.

Her voice was cool and soft, yet firm. “Master, this disciple already has someone she loves.”

The purple-robed beauty’s pupils contracted. Questioning ice flashed in his eyes. “You say you love him and belong to him, yet he has never appeared. What kind of husband is that?”

Ye Zhenzhen bit her lip. “He is… merely busy.”

Li Jiutian let out a mocking laugh. “More likely he died out there.”

Steel sang. Her sword flashed free. Her eyes were winter-cold. “Even if you are my master, I will not allow you to speak of him like that!”

Even if she never saw him again, she would always pray he lived safely somewhere out of sight.

“You would kill me? For him?” Li Jiutian’s fury surged.

And when it subsided, sorrow washed through him. So this was what it felt like to love and be unable to have, pain down to the bone.

His eyes were a deep, frozen night, threaded with despair. “Ye Zhenzhen, I truly doubt whether you have a heart.”

Her sword hand was steady. She was no longer the panicked, helpless girl who needed protection. She was strong and clear-headed. Sometimes even her words carried a clean, cutting edge, cruel as they were to Li Jiutian.

“Master, not everyone is obliged to accept another person’s affection. That would be faithless to love. That would be defilement. Do not force your devotion on me. After all, I have never liked you, so why should I be responsible for your feelings?”

She slid the blade back into its sheath. Standing in the wind, dressed in plain white, she could not hide her radiance. “I love him. That is all.”

Holy sh*t! Critical hit!

Li Jiutian clutched his chest. His character HP bar went “pew” and dropped: -100,000,000.

So much for the promised teacher-disciple tragic romance.

So much for three lifetimes and ten miles of peach blossoms.

So much for training together and flooding the cultivation world with dog food.

Ye Zhenzhen, think this through. Keep going like this and you’ll lose this ‘precious one’.”

The male lead drew a long breath. No. As a debonair, high-class, demonic master, he could not lose his composure.

Anyone working in the high-risk profession of “male protagonist” must understand one deep truth:

Stay low-key, don't be reckless, stay steady and we can win!

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