Chapter 72
[In the end, Shen Lijun chose an ordinary cultivation cave and settled down in Room 536. Over the past three years, he'd practically turned the place into his own home-living like some carefree immortal.]
The moment those words landed, the eyes around the hall turned red with envy.
Three whole years.
Not three days. Not three months.
Three years of free cultivation inside the sect's spiritual vein.
Who wouldn't go insane with jealousy?
At that instant, even becoming a puppet didn't sound so terrible anymore.
After all, he could still turn back into a human.
If they'd known this would happen, they would've happily slept through the array malfunction too!
The tied-hair disciple in particular looked like his soul had left his body.
Because he had been one of the disciples ordered to evacuate the cultivation rooms back when the protective formation malfunctioned.
Now he couldn't stop thinking-what if he'd been asleep back then too?
Would he have gotten the same heaven-defying opportunity?
The more he thought about it, the sourer he became.
Still, after sneaking a glance at Elder Wei's increasingly ugly expression, he regained a bit of balance.
This whole thing had already been exposed. Shen Lijun definitely wasn't getting out of this alive.
...Well, figuratively.
At least emotionally.
The tied-hair disciple rubbed the side of his neck where Shen Lijun had chopped him earlier and glared viciously at the man lying on the floor.
If not for that sneak attack, he would've been the first person to discover the puppet and claim the cultivation room transfer rights.
Now who knew whose hands it would end up in?
Shen Lijun: "..."
Under the collective stares of the crowd, he genuinely felt like he was being roasted alive.
Si Nidie silently mourned for him.
The brighter your glory, the harder your downfall.
Ling Yunxiao, meanwhile, narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
Shen Lijun had hidden this secret flawlessly for three entire years.
So why had he suddenly slipped up today?
Almost immediately, Lou Yuqing's inner voice answered the question.
[Over time, Shen Lijun got too comfortable and gradually let his guard down. Last night, heartbroken, he drank a ridiculous amount of spirit wine, successfully got himself drunk, and passed out inside the cultivation room.]
Shen Lijun nearly bit through his teeth. They even know THAT?!
Ling Yunxiao glanced at him calmly.
Ordinary cultivators rarely got drunk unless the spirit wine was exceptionally potent-or unless they deliberately stopped circulating spiritual energy and chose to get drunk themselves.
Clearly, Shen Lijun belonged to the second category.
Si Nidie propped her chin up thoughtfully. So that's why nobody noticed anything strange.
[Honestly, Shen Lijun's luck is absurd. When the disciple renting the room entered and saw him lying there, he just assumed he was one of the puppets and thoughtfully moved him into the corner to stand properly.]
Lou Yuqing almost didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Si Nidie suddenly understood everything.
That actually made perfect sense.
Once Shen Lijun transformed, he looked exactly like the iron-sand puppets. No one would've suspected otherwise.
[After that, things became simple. Senior Sister and I entered Room 536 right after Shen Lijun woke up from his drunken stupor. His brain was still foggy, so he didn't have time to hide inside the formation.]
[Getting beaten wasn't the issue-he could still regenerate eventually. But he wasn't a real puppet. His head didn't have the activation slot puppets are supposed to have, so naturally Senior Sister and I discovered something was wrong.]
At that point, Lou Yuqing finally understood what she'd seen earlier.
Back then, after Si Nidie punched the puppet in the face, its mouth had twitched slightly.
She'd thought the wound was merely healing and assumed she'd imagined it.
Turns out-she hadn't imagined anything at all.
Even those faint groans she'd heard were real.
Looking at Shen Lijun now, Lou Yuqing couldn't help feeling a little impressed.
After all, she and Si Nidie had not held back in the slightest during their testing.
They'd beaten him with genuine enthusiasm.
Shen Lijun wanted to cry.
Did he want to endure that kind of torture?
Of course not!
But what choice did he have? The moment he got exposed, he'd immediately be dragged to the Enforcement Hall for punishment.
Even if he'd ultimately failed anyway... at least he'd struggled.
Thinking about how he'd endured the beating without daring to make a single sound, Shen Lijun was suddenly overwhelmed by grief.
His eyes grew hot.
Then-tears started leaking out uncontrollably.
The moment it happened, he realized things were bad.
Very bad.
Si Nidie immediately pointed at him and shouted, "The puppet is crying!"
Shen Lijun: Damn it all.
The hall instantly exploded into noise.
"How could a puppet cry? That thing is definitely not a puppet!"
Shen Lijun: You're the puppet!
"If it's not a puppet, then what is it? A disciple disguised as one?"
Shen Lijun: Damn it, right on the mark!
"Puppets are weak against lightning. Shock it again and see what happens."
Shen Lijun: Your heart is vicious!
Every sentence from the crowd stabbed directly into Shen Lijun's soul.
Internally, he cursed every single one of them.
Externally?
He still kept his eyes tightly shut, refusing to face reality.
If he pretended hard enough, maybe reality would also pretend with him.
Then suddenly, Lou Yuqing's eyes lit up.
[Wait, let me see what kind of heartbreak drove him to this point.]
[Holy crap. Shen Lijun is actually an ultra-max-level love-addled simp.]
Si Nidie's expression immediately turned strange.
She'd heard her junior sister use the word "simp" several times before and had roughly pieced together its meaning.
Someone who shamelessly devoted themselves to another person, giving endlessly without expecting anything in return.
In her eyes, there really wasn't much difference between a simp and a love-addled fool.
Well... actually, there was one difference.
At least a love-addled fool usually had someone.
A simp didn't.
Shen Lijun: "..."
It felt like he'd just been stabbed directly through the chest.
To clarify-he was a human being.
Not a dog.
Wei Houming glanced at the grief-stricken expression flickering across Shen Lijun's face and slowly smiled.
It was a very calm smile.
The kind that made people's backs turn cold.
He wondered how much longer Shen Lijun could keep pretending.
After all, puppet form or not, the man would eventually revert back to normal.
And Wei Houming had plenty of patience.
Besides, resisting arrest and obstructing enforcement had already been added to Shen Lijun's list of crimes.
At that point, no one could blame him for being ruthless later.
The colder Wei Houming's smile became, the more Shen Lijun trembled.
He knew he was burying his head in the sand. But he truly was terrified.
What would happen to her if he got caught?
Who would continue treating her gently? Who would keep watching over her moods, comforting her, encouraging her, caring for her so carefully...
[For over ten years, Shen Lijun has been hopelessly pursuing her alone. Unfortunately, his feelings were never returned. The person he loves already has someone else in her heart-and from beginning to end, she never once looked at him differently.]
[But somehow, even that never stopped him.]
The crowd: Yes, yes, we understand now. That's what being a simp means.
But Shen Lijun felt they understood nothing.
Falling for someone like her was completely natural.
If she and that man had lived happily together, Shen Lijun wouldn't have stubbornly clung to her all these years.
But-that man was dead.
Back during the sect tournament, she had stood alone on the arena stage, sword in hand, defeating challenger after challenger beneath countless flashing blades.
Her body had been covered in wounds. Yet her eyes never wavered once.
How could anyone not fall for a woman like that?
Even now, just remembering it made his heart pound painfully.
For all these years, all he'd wanted was for her to someday fall in love again.
But her heart still belonged to that man.
Ling Yunxiao glanced at Shen Lijun, only to discover the other man now looked like a completely wilted vegetable.
Honestly, he couldn't understand it.
Why chase someone who didn't love you back?
If it were him, he would never lower himself so pathetically just to gain another person's attention.
As the thought crossed his mind, Ling Yunxiao's gaze unconsciously shifted toward Lou Yuqing.
The girl was still happily eating gossip from the sidelines.
For some reason, just watching her made the corners of his lips curve upward slightly.
[Sigh. Honestly, you can't completely blame Shen Lijun.]
[Shao Qiuyan's beloved died too early-right during the period when she loved him most. The emotional buff got permanently locked at max level.]
[The living can never compete with the dead. Especially not a prematurely deceased white moonlight.]
[Shen Lijun was doomed from the start.]
The moment those words fell, Shen Lijun's heart sank heavily.
All this time, he'd deliberately avoided thinking about it.
Maybe Qiuyan truly would never spare him a single glance.
But now that the truth had been laid out so bluntly, he could no longer deceive himself.
Pain spread through his chest like something crushing it alive.
Lou Yuqing's voice rang out again.
[Honestly, if someone brought Shao Qiuyan here right now, Shen Lijun definitely wouldn't be able to keep pretending.]
Shen Lijun: !!!
That was too vicious!
That was worse than getting struck by heavenly lightning!
His eyes snapped open instantly as he scrambled upright in panic.
The metallic sheen covering his skin rapidly faded away, revealing normal flesh beneath.
If Qiuyan saw him looking this miserable and pathetic, he might as well die on the spot.
At the very least, he needed to preserve some dignity.
What if-just what if-Qiuyan suddenly started seeing him differently someday?
Sure, the chances were tiny.
But tiny wasn't zero.
[Why did he suddenly stand up?]
Lou Yuqing jumped slightly in surprise.
Around her, everyone else nearly twitched from fright too.
Only Wei Houming remained perfectly calm.
Leaning back slightly, he asked mildly, "Do you have anything you'd like to say?"
Even if everyone already knew the truth, formalities still had to be observed.
Confusion flashed across Shen Lijun's face.
He instinctively looked toward Lou Yuqing.
He recognized her voice.
She'd already exposed everything.
So why was the Enforcement Hall elder still asking him to explain?
"I..." Shen Lijun opened his mouth-and immediately froze.
An invisible restriction suddenly tightened around his throat, preventing him from speaking any further.
His eyes widened abruptly.
Only then did he finally realize something was deeply wrong.
No wonder everyone earlier had remained eerily silent except when mocking him.
It wasn't because they didn't want to speak.
They literally couldn't.
Wei Houming sighed lightly before transmitting his voice directly to Shen Lijun.
"What you heard earlier were Lou Yuqing's inner thoughts. Do not even think about spreading this matter. You've already seen the consequences."
Shen Lijun nodded frantically.
When he looked at Lou Yuqing again, his gaze carried lingering fear before he quickly looked away.
Every reckless thought he'd had previously vanished on the spot.
From now on, he only dared respect this person from a distance.
Any malicious intentions?
Absolutely impossible.
"Disciple Shen Lijun greets Elder," he said bitterly. "This matter was entirely my fault. I exploited the sect's cultivation rooms for three years. I accept whatever punishment the Elder sees fit. I have no complaints."
Wei Houming looked down at him expressionlessly.
"Defying sect authority. Illegally occupying sect resources." His voice was cold and steady. "Do you know what punishment that carries?"
Shen Lijun lowered his head silently.
Whatever happened next-he deserved it.
It had been his own choice from the beginning.
Lou Yuqing shook her head inwardly.
[If only he'd known sooner.]
[Who would've thought Shen Lijun was actually freeloading off the sect just to save money for plastic surgery-so he could become a substitute for Shao Qiuyan's dead white moonlight?]
Everyone: "..."