Today, The Villain Couple is Settling Scores Again

The night passed, and the sky began to lighten with the pale hues of dawn. A cold blue morning light spilled through the window, falling on the pages of the book resting on Jian Huan's lap.

Jian Huan leaned against the windowsill, yawning sleepily as she gradually slowed her pace of flipping through the pages.

Cultivators could endure sleepless nights better than ordinary people and wouldn’t drop dead from exhaustion. But staying up too long still made them tired and drowsy.

Nearby, Yang Ye and Wen Jiu were curled up against the wall. Unable to stay awake any longer, they had been asleep for half an hour.

Yin Yusheng, his handsome face slightly pale, glanced at the sky. Following the instructions Yang Ye and Wen Jiu had given before they fell asleep, he got up and gently woke them.

Wen Jiu rubbed her eyes, still half-asleep, and murmured, “Is it morning already…?”

It felt like she had just closed her eyes.

Hearing this, Yin Yusheng smiled. “You went to sleep quite late. If you’re still tired, you can rest a little longer.”

Wen Jiu shook her head, feeling a bit embarrassed. She got up, holding her large black sword. “I’ll go practice my sword techniques first.”

Once her body was warmed up and the drowsiness was gone, she would return to continue reading.

Yang Ye was also woken up. He placed his hands behind his back, his face expressionless as he stared at the ceiling.

It had been half a month since they entered this secret realm, and he hadn’t had a good night's sleep.

Meanwhile, the pig beside him was sound asleep, a small puddle of drool on the ground.

He had worked tirelessly to buy high-quality spirit pig feed for this creature, and here it was, sleeping without a care in the world.

Yang Ye snorted inwardly, reaching out to rub the pig from head to tail.

The pig woke up with a series of grunts, its little hooves slapping Yang Ye’s hand as it bared its teeth in a threatening manner.

Yang Ye pulled his hand back with a dark expression.

“Oink, oink, oink.” The spirit pig got up, shook itself, and trotted over to the mural in the room. It rubbed itself against the wall from left to right and back again, leaving a trail of drool.

Jian Huan’s gaze followed the pig.

The mural in the room depicted a spring scene in a forest. The four of them were certain there was something hidden within it.

But they hadn’t found any clues to open the wall. Using spiritual energy to attack it was useless. Even the delicate vases in the hall were firmly fixed to their stands, unmovable no matter how hard they were struck.

The only things that could be moved in the entire hall were the books.

After all, the hall’s owner had said—‘Books are priceless. Read more.’

Jian Huan reached the end of the book in her hands but found nothing of use.

She closed it with a snap, tossed it onto the pile of books she had already read, and walked over to the mural.

Crossing her arms, she tilted her head back and gazed at it thoughtfully. Then she turned and asked, “Why is it that only the books in this room contain clues?”

Yin Yusheng and Yang Ye approached, stopping beside Jian Huan.

Wen Jiu, who had returned after warming up with a few sword moves in the hall, also gathered around.

Yin Yusheng continued Jian Huan’s train of thought. “Could that itself be a hint?”

Yang Ye stroked his chin, his eyes gleaming. “I have a feeling there’s something extraordinary behind this wall.”

Wen Jiu thought for a moment but didn’t say anything. Instead, she stepped forward and swung her black sword.

Having found the *Lotus Heart Sword Manual* in the hall, she had practiced a few moves from it earlier that morning. Now, she was using the *Lotus Heart Sword* technique.

Most inner disciples of the Jade Clarity Sect had learned the *Lotus Heart Sword* to some extent. Wen Jiu had known it since her early years and greatly admired the Lotus Heart Elder from a thousand years ago, though she rarely used it.

The *Lotus Heart Sword* was subtle yet sharp, a stark contrast to Wen Jiu’s usual sword style, which was more along the lines of ‘a single sword chilling fourteen provinces.’

Even though Wen Jiu had learned the *Lotus Heart Sword*, she could only execute the moves without truly understanding its essence. Her true mastery lay in the Frostpeak’s Frostpeak Sword.

At this moment, she was simply swinging the sword on a whim. She had struck the wall before, but nothing had happened.

To everyone’s surprise, as soon as Wen Jiu’s sword struck the wall, the mural flickered with a faint light.

Startled, they all moved closer and noticed that the flower buds in the painting had become more vibrant, and even the spring in the image seemed brighter.

Yin Yusheng looked at Wen Jiu. “What sword technique did you just use? I’ve never seen you use it before.”

Wen Jiu was also stunned. Under the gaze of the other three, she replied, “The *Lotus Heart Sword*.”

“The *Lotus Heart Sword*…” Yin Yusheng repeated, his expression thoughtful.

Jian Huan narrowed her eyes, remembering something. “Do you remember which town this secret realm is near?”

The four of them looked at each other and said in unison, “Lotus Square Town!”

“The ‘Lotus’ from Lotus Heart, and the ‘Square’ from Fang Quan,” Jian Huan said, her eyes sparkling with curiosity. “Could it be that the Lotus Heart Elder and Fang Quan were a couple a thousand years ago?”

“No,” Wen Jiu shook her head, frowning slightly as she recalled. “The Lotus Heart Elder was devoted to the sword and never had a partner. I’ve also never heard of Fang Quan.”

The Lotus Heart Elder was well-known across the Nine Provinces Continent. A thousand years ago, during the great demon uprising, she was one of the main forces in the battle and ultimately fell in that war.

After that, the Nine Provinces enjoyed nearly a thousand years of peace until the demons returned a century ago.

In the world, yin and yang coexist. As long as people exist, some hearts will inevitably turn to evil, and demons will never be completely eradicated. But the righteous path has never lacked heroes.

The Lotus Heart Elder was one such hero. Her portrait hung in the Jade Clarity Sect’s library, and Jian Huan had seen it.

The current master of Lotus Heart Peak was the grand-disciple of the Lotus Heart Elder, and her legacy had continued uninterrupted in the Jade Clarity Sect and the Nine Provinces.

But Fang Quan was a nobody. If they hadn’t entered Fang Quan’s Treasure Hall, they wouldn’t have known that a thousand years ago, there was a scholar who loved books.

“Yang Ye, do you know the origin of Lotus Square Town?” Jian Huan asked.

When they were still outside, they had divided tasks among themselves, and Yang Ye had been responsible for gathering information.

Yang Ye thought carefully. “I did hear a storyteller mention it in a teahouse. He said that although Lotus Square Town is small, it has a long history, dating back a thousand years. Back then, it was called Fang Family Village, but for some reason, it was later renamed Lotus Square Town.”

“Probably changed by Fang Quan,” Jian Huan speculated. “Fang Quan likely admired the Lotus Heart Elder.”

When it came to the Lotus Heart Elder, Wen Jiu had more to say. “Many people admired the Lotus Heart Elder.”

Fang Quan was just one of them.

“In that case, why don’t you try the *Lotus Heart Sword* again, Wen Jiu, and see if it has any other effects,” Yin Yusheng suggested.

Hearing this, Jian Huan and the others stepped back, and Wen Jiu moved forward once more.

But after Wen Jiu finished practicing a set of *Lotus Heart Sword* techniques in front of the mural, nothing extraordinary happened except for the flowers becoming more colorful.

Wen Jiu was panting. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and stepped back, shaking her head. “It’s not working anymore.”

“Strange, but how did Shen Jizhi manage to get in?” Jian Huan wondered. After a moment of thought, she stepped forward, unwilling to give up. “Let me try.”

Jian Huan summoned her green bamboo stick, levitated slightly, and began testing the mural’s password.

From left to right? No.

From right to left? No.

Top left to bottom right? No.

Spirit iron password? No.

…

Jian Huan: “…”

She landed, breathing slightly heavily, and shook her head at the others. “Still nothing.”

Yin Yusheng said, “It’s alright. Let’s keep reading the books. There should be something in them.”

Wen Jiu and Yang Ye nodded, and the four of them returned to the pile of books.

Jian Huan picked up a book but didn’t open it.

She felt like she was missing something.

She remained still, lowering her head and closing her eyes as she began to retrace their steps from the day they entered the secret realm.

First, they rescued three people from the wolves, then teamed up to deceive the three brothers, went to the Wolf King’s Den, and then dug a tunnel…

Digging the tunnel.

That was it.

Why did they dig the tunnel? Because she had seen those hidden compartments with intricate mechanisms.

She had read about that kind of formation in a treasure-hunting book in the library. That book was so old that it would fall apart if not handled carefully. Perhaps Fang Quan had also read it and used the treasure-hiding formation from it.

Once the formation was activated, they entered Fang Quan’s Treasure Hall.

In the hall, only the books in this room contained clues.

Why were there clues only in this room?

Because this room likely hid the second door. Hopefully, Fang Quan’s Treasure Hall used the same key for all its doors.

Jian Huan opened her eyes, her gaze as bright as stars. She stood up decisively. “I’ll try one more time!”

She returned to the mural, holding her green bamboo stick. Her pink skirt fluttered in front of the spring scene painting, glowing in the rising sun.

Yin Yusheng and the others exchanged glances and followed her.

After tapping the last flower, Jian Huan landed.

The massive wall in front of them, like a heavy stone giant, awakened from its slumber at Jian Huan’s call, slowly twisted its waist, revealing a passageway leading forward.

While the four were still marveling, the spirit pig had already transformed into a small whirlwind and dashed into the narrow path.

Yang Ye’s eyelids twitched fiercely, and he immediately gave chase: “Don’t you dare run off! Yang Piggy! Wait for me!”

The passage wasn’t long, just a dozen or so steps, and at its end was a simple residential courtyard.

The courtyard gate had already been knocked open by Yang Piggy. The first thing that caught their eyes was a garden. To the right was a small rockery pond, and to the left were several rows of densely packed spirit grass, with a stone table and four stone stools nearby.

By the time the four hurried over, Yang Piggy had already rooted up the ground, a few stalks of spirit grass dangling from its mouth.

Yang Ye grabbed the pig with one hand and pinched its snout with the other, trying to pull out the half-eaten grass, his face as dark as the bottom of a pot: “Can you just eat anything here?”

The spirit pig snorted angrily: “Oink oink oink!”

Yin Yusheng hurried over to take a look and said, “It’s fine. No wonder your pig always circles this room. These spirit grasses are the main ingredients for making spirit beast feed.”

Hearing this, Yang Ye breathed a sigh of relief.

There was still plenty of spirit grass in the ground, and Yang Ye wasted no time. After worrying about the pig’s reckless eating, he began to consider how to divide the treasures here.

He directly discussed with Jian Huan and the others: “I’ll take these spirit grasses.” He pointed to the bedroom behind them, “I won’t go in there, how about that?”

Jian Huan and the other two had no objections.

In fact, they had to thank Yang Ye’s spirit pig. If it hadn’t been for the pig’s gluttony, sniffing out the scent of pig grass through the incredibly sturdy wall, they wouldn’t have discovered the secret of this room so quickly.

After deciding on the division, Jian Huan and the other two began searching the main courtyard.

The main courtyard had exactly three rooms, one for each of them. They would search one room and then switch, and what they found would depend entirely on their own skills and luck.

Unfortunately, the rooms didn’t contain many valuable items.

It seemed that Fang Quan had simply hidden his living quarters behind this wall.

Fang Quan’s life wasn’t much different from that of an ordinary person. His desk and bed were all ordinary items, and as he himself had said, the most valuable things in the room were the various books scattered everywhere.

Jian Huan lifted the blanket to take a look but found nothing, so she folded it back neatly.

The group had an unspoken understanding, unwilling to disturb the arrangements of the place.

Finding nothing on the bed, Jian Huan moved to the dressing table.

On the dressing table were various styles of futou hats. In the current Nine Provinces Continent, men mostly tied their hair, and wearing futou hats was a fashion from a thousand years ago.

She sat down at the dressing table and rummaged around.

On one side stood several books. Jian Huan casually picked them up and flipped through them.

When she reached the third book, she found an orange talisman paper tucked inside.

The front of the talisman paper didn’t have any symbols but instead bore a few small characters:

【To my dear friend Lotus Heart, from me】

The last stroke of the character “me” lingered for a long time, leaving a trace of accumulated ink.

On some long-ago night, the master of the house sat at the dressing table, gazing out at the small garden, seemingly hesitating for a long time before ultimately not writing further.

He sighed softly and tucked the talisman paper into one of his favorite books.

No one knows what he wanted to write at that time, and perhaps no one ever will.

The mostly blank talisman paper lay there, faintly revealing the symbols on the other side.

Jian Huan blinked lightly and turned the talisman paper over.

The pattern of the symbols was familiar to her—it was a teleportation talisman, but a few strokes were different from the ones she knew.

Jian Huan frowned, about to examine it more closely, when the orange talisman paper in her fingers triggered something and activated on its own.

A tremendous force pulled her in, and Jian Huan, caught off guard, vanished from the dressing table.

The world within the mural was always a spring day with falling peach blossoms.

Shen Jizhi had been here for a month, but how much time had passed in the real world? He couldn’t be sure.

Day after day, he followed Fang Quan in learning swordsmanship. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about leaving, especially since Jian Huan and the others were still outside. But he couldn’t find a way to leave.

The spring scenery was splendid, and the place where master and disciple practiced their swords daily was breathtakingly beautiful.

Surrounded by towering green mountains, behind them stretched a ten-mile expanse of peach blossoms, and in front lay a serene lake.

The pink peach trees reflected in the clear lake, and as the spring breeze blew, it stirred ripples across the surface.

The peach blossoms in the forest fell like rain, one wave after another, under the swordplay of the master and disciple.

Suddenly, Fang Quan, with his beard, sheathed his sword and landed on the ground.

Shen Jizhi followed suit, though he was puzzled as to why Fang Quan had suddenly stopped. But he didn’t ask, knowing Fang Quan would explain himself.

Fang Quan turned to look at the disciple he had taken in a month ago.

Shen Jizhi calmly returned his gaze: “?”

Fang Quan stroked his beard, his tone tinged with regret: “…Master has been quite lonely here all by himself. When you came and became my disciple, I was quite happy, thinking things would get livelier. But why does it feel even quieter now than when I was alone?”

Shen Jizhi reminded him: “You didn’t say you wanted a talkative disciple when you took me in.”

Fang Quan shook his head and stroked his beard: “Fine, fine, fine. You’ve said it all, what else can I say?”

Fang Quan picked up the futou hat he had taken off and stood by the lake, using the water’s surface to adjust it as he instructed, “It seems someone has arrived outside the forest. Go and take a look, disciple.”

Shen Jizhi was momentarily stunned.

In the month he had been here, no one had come.

Was it a figment of Fang Quan’s memories, or was it Jian Huan and the others?

Shen Jizhi bowed to Fang Quan and, without another word, disappeared into the depths of the peach forest.

At the entrance of the peach forest, Jian Huan spat out the petals and dirt from her mouth and pushed herself up from the ground.

She held her sore arm and looked around, her head tilted upward.

The peach blossoms were in full bloom everywhere, their fragrance filling the air.

Had she… entered the mural as well?

Jian Huan thought uncertainly.

She took out her bamboo staff, her expression cautious, and slowly walked deeper into the peach forest.

The vibrant peach blossoms carpeted the ground, soft underfoot.

Ahead, the peach trees grew densely, their intertwined branches blocking the path forward.

Jian Huan reached out, brushing the branches aside, and bent slightly to step through. But as she looked up, she paused.

From among the peach trees, a black-clad, ponytailed youth walked out, a snow-white sword in his hand.

The youth’s features were naturally flawless, as if the peach blossoms in the forest had come to life.

When his amber-brown eyes met Jian Huan’s, a subtle ripple passed through them. The corner of his lips lifted slightly, but he quickly smoothed it back into his usual expressionless demeanor.

His stunning looks and cool demeanor created a strange yet harmonious balance.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Jian Huan was momentarily stunned, unsure for a moment. She instinctively tightened her grip on the bamboo staff and tentatively asked, “Shen Jizhi?”

Shen Jizhi: “…”

Shen Jizhi: “Has it been a long time outside?”

Ten years? A hundred years? Why else would she sound so doubtful?

Hearing his question, Jian Huan relaxed slightly.

If he knew about the outside world and was asking how much time had passed, it must be him.

“No, just a day,” she replied. “How long have you been here?”

Shen Jizhi: “A month.”

“Let’s go.” Shen Jizhi didn’t waste any more time. As he led the way, he told her about his discoveries over the past month: “Fang Quan’s cultivation is incredibly high. He’s not just a swordsman but also a talisman master. This place is a fragment of his memories, containing his legacy.”

Great cultivators often possessed such abilities, extracting a part of their memories that contained their legacy and placing it somewhere, hoping to meet a fated descendant.

“I had a feeling,” Jian Huan followed Shen Jizhi, her steps light. “Fang Quan’s use of formations is exceptional.”

Shen Jizhi: “Mm.”

After a moment, he added two more words: “Indeed.”

The two of them hurried through the peach forest in silence for a while.

Jian Huan thought of last night’s events and chuckled: “Shen Jizhi, I didn’t expect you to have such thoughts.”

Shen Jizhi’s steps faltered, slowing down. Jian Huan walked a few steps ahead before turning back to wait for him, asking, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Shen Jizhi collected himself, quickly catching up to Jian Huan. His fingers curled slightly into fists inside his sleeves, but his expression remained calm. “What do you mean by that?”

“Still pretending,” Jian Huan pouted. “I knew it last night when you stayed in that room. You must have discovered something, but you lied and said you were just thinking.”

Shen Jizhi unclenched his fist: “No, I only found out after you left.”

Jian Huan was skeptical. "Then why did you stay for so long?"

Shen Jizhi furrowed his brows. "I told you, I was thinking about some things."

Jian Huan still didn’t believe him and fired off a pointed question. "What could possibly be more important than earning spirit stones? Couldn’t you think about it later?"

Shen Jizhi paused, then admitted, "Well, you’re not wrong."

He quickly came up with a plausible excuse. "I was thinking about something related to making money."

Hearing this, Jian Huan’s eyes lit up, and she leaned in closer, curiosity piqued. "Care to elaborate?"

Shen Jizhi turned his head to look at her and stopped walking altogether.

Jian Huan stopped as well.

A gentle breeze swept through, and the peach blossoms from the surrounding trees fluttered down, scattering like snow and landing on their shoulders.

Shen Jizhi lowered his gaze and asked, "Do you really want to know?"

Jian Huan adopted a listening posture. "Of course I do! Spit it out."

How could she not be curious about something related to making money?

Shen Jizhi’s eyes flickered, landing on a peach blossom caught in her hair. He pursed his lips slightly. "But I can’t tell you right now."

Jian Huan felt a surge of frustration, her breath catching in her chest. "If you didn’t want to tell me, why did you even mention it?"

Shen Jizhi replied matter-of-factly, "Because you asked me."

Jian Huan was momentarily speechless.

"Once I’ve paid off my debts," Shen Jizhi said, tilting his head to gaze at the clear blue sky and the white clouds drifting by, "I’ll tell you."

With that, he stepped deeper into the peach forest, leaving Jian Huan to follow.