Chapter 73
Plastic surgery. A substitute.
The two phrases crashed into the crowd like thunder.
Everyone stared at Shen Lijun in utter disbelief. No wonder Junior Sister Lou kept calling him a hopeless simp.
At this point, there was no arguing against it. This man had truly thrown away every shred of dignity.
Shen Lijun covered his face.
So even this had been exposed too?
Part of the reason he had confessed so quickly earlier was because he'd hoped that once the matter was settled and punishment handed down, Lou Yuqing's terrifying inner voice would finally stop.
Clearly, that wish had failed miserably.
He tilted his head slightly and shot Lou Yuqing a resentful glance, bitterness written all over his face.
They were fellow disciples from the same sect. Couldn't she at least leave him a little dignity?
Even if he ended up getting expelled and dragged off for punishment, he still wanted some face left afterward.
Most importantly—if news of this reached Qiu Yan, then everything would truly be over.
He had wanted to alter his appearance to resemble that person, but if the plan was exposed beforehand, there would be no chance left at all.
Ling Yunxiao remained silent.
A strange confusion lingered in his heart.
Could love really twist a person into this state?
He genuinely didn't know whether it was something miraculous... or simply absurd.
Wei Houming pinched the bridge of his nose. What a ridiculous motive.
At first, he'd assumed Shen Lijun had freeloaded in the cultivation rooms for three years out of greed for resources.
Who would've thought the spirit stones were being saved up for plastic surgery?
And not even for himself—but to become someone else's substitute?
Wei Houming looked at Shen Lijun with profound disappointment.
The sect's education had clearly gone terribly wrong somewhere.
Meanwhile, Shen Lijun lowered his head and continued pretending to be dead.
Si Nidie noticed his defeated posture and immediately laughed.
"When I first heard it, I was already shocked," she said, eyes wide. "But I never imagined you'd go this far. You're really willing to wear someone else's face just to please your sweetheart?"
She paused, then frowned thoughtfully. "Also... is this so-called plastic surgery even reliable?"
Cultivators were constantly nourished by spiritual energy. Even if someone wasn't particularly attractive, they would never be outright ugly. Cultivators naturally carried an aura ordinary mortals couldn't compare to.
Because of that, most cultivators didn't care much about appearance unless they had a very specific obsession with beauty.
As a result, the overwhelming majority of cultivation techniques in the immortal world focused on improving cultivation realms.
Si Nidie herself had once impulsively searched for beauty-enhancing techniques.
She had found some.
Unfortunately, they were either painfully slow to cultivate or practically useless when it came to actual strength improvement.
In the end, she gave up. After all, she wasn't ugly to begin with.
As for plastic surgery techniques...
From what she knew, they were even less reliable.
Altering one's appearance meant altering bone structure, and once bones shifted, there was no guarantee the body's internal meridians would remain unaffected.
As the saying went: move one hair, and the whole body follows.
Who knew what unforeseen consequences would appear after changing one's face?
Of course, Si Nidie knew there were secret arts capable of temporary disguise.
But permanent transformation?
She'd never heard of such a thing.
Still, the cultivation world never lacked geniuses. Perhaps someone had developed such a technique before, only for it to never spread publicly.
She guessed Shen Lijun had stumbled across such an opportunity by chance.
As for side effects...
Judging from the complete lack of regret on Shen Lijun's face, even if there were consequences, he'd probably accept them willingly.
Lou Yuqing, meanwhile, remained blissfully unaware of the complicated looks being exchanged around her.
Her attention stayed fixed entirely on the gossip panel.
[Why would Shen Lijun even think about becoming a substitute?]
[Because after the death of her beloved, Shao Qiuyan fell into heartbreak and consciously—or unconsciously—began searching for substitutes, using them as emotional support to survive those difficult years.]
[While pursuing Shao Qiuyan, Shen Lijun was rejected over and over again. Watching her choose substitutes over him planted a thought deep in his mind:
If he had that person's face... would Shao Qiuyan finally look at him? Accept him? Fall in love with him?]
[And once that thought appeared, it became impossible to stop.]
[Shen Lijun searched through the sect library and eventually found a secret technique capable of altering one's appearance.]
[He first found a way to drive away the substitute by Shao Qiuyan's side, then appeared before her wearing a face extremely similar to her beloved's.]
[And successfully attracted her attention.]
Si Nidie glanced sideways at Shen Lijun.
So he'd already attempted this long ago.
Unfortunately... it sounded like it hadn't worked.
A flicker of joy appeared briefly in Shen Lijun's eyes before fading into bitterness.
If he'd had any other choice, would he willingly become someone else's replacement?
For countless nights, he had tossed and turned in agony, finally arriving at one conclusion: Perhaps Qiu Yan simply disliked his face.
After all, he and that person had never truly resembled each other.
It wasn't that Shen Lijun looked bad.
Their temperaments were simply completely different.
That person had been a white-robed swordsman—spirited, sharp, dazzling like moonlight.
Shen Lijun, meanwhile, was merely a straightforward, dull body cultivator.
He had tried practicing swordsmanship once.
Unfortunately, talent wasn't something effort alone could replace.
After several years, he'd barely mastered the basics.
True mastery was impossible.
It wasn't until he saw how warmly Qiu Yan treated that somewhat similar substitute that he finally crossed his own bottom line.
If wearing that person's face could win even a little of Qiu Yan's affection—then he was willing.
Cruelly enough, although Qiu Yan had initially welcomed him kindly, she soon sensed something wrong and exposed his identity as Shen Lijun almost immediately.
At the time, Shen Lijun had felt both sorrow and joy.
Sorrow because he seemed farther away from her than ever.
Joy because she understood him well enough to recognize him so quickly.
[Unfortunately, the good times didn't last.]
[Shen Lijun's identity was exposed soon afterward.]
[What he didn't know was that from the very beginning, Shao Qiuyan never believed the identity he fabricated.]
[Although she couldn't forget her white moonlight, she understood perfectly well that two unrelated people could never resemble each other so closely.]
[After speaking with him for a while, Shao Qiuyan quickly focused on Shen Lijun himself—because some of his tiny habits and unconscious movements were far too familiar.]
Shen Lijun silently murmured in his heart: So that's how it was.
He really had left traces of himself inside Qiuyan's heart.
Unfortunately, after that incident, Qiuyan began avoiding him more and more.
Whenever she saw him, she immediately turned away.
Later, whenever they accidentally crossed paths, Shen Lijun himself learned to instinctively avoid her too.
He couldn't allow Qiuyan to interfere with his "work."
Even so, he still secretly paid attention to her.
Whenever her swordsmanship improved, he felt happy for her.
Whenever she won competitions, he celebrated quietly from afar.
Even when she visited that person's grave every year, he would grieve alongside her.
If that person hadn't died... Qiuyan would definitely be far happier than she was now.
But that person had died.
Shen Lijun clenched his fists tightly.
Since he'd already abandoned Qiuyan by dying early, then he shouldn't continue occupying her heart forever.
Ling Yunxiao sensed the thick resentment radiating from Shen Lijun and shook his head helplessly.
He truly couldn't understand people like him.
If loving someone only brought pain, then wouldn't it be better to let go early?
That would at least spare suffering for both sides.
At that moment, Lou Yuqing's expression suddenly shifted as she looked at the gossip panel below.
[Oh-ho. Looks like a huge liar just showed up.]
Shen Lijun blinked blankly.
A liar?
Who?
Then he noticed Lou Yuqing glancing toward him, her gaze carrying unmistakable pity.
[After repeatedly facing Shao Qiuyan's coldness, Shen Lijun was on the verge of giving up.]
[And then... he met a cultivator calling himself Elder Chunfeng.]
Shen Lijun instinctively nodded in agreement.
That was true.
Back then, he'd been devastated and accepted a mission outside the sect to clear his head.
During that mission, he met Elder Chunfeng, who offered him guidance and helped him successfully complete the task.
That was how they became acquainted.
Of course, Shen Lijun wasn't stupid enough to trust someone blindly.
He had secretly investigated Elder Chunfeng afterward and found nothing suspicious.
In fact, the results had shocked him.
Elder Chunfeng was supposedly a famous physician in the southern regions—someone respected far and wide for healing the sick and even paying for poor patients out of his own pocket.
A truly benevolent doctor.
According to the stories, Elder Chunfeng had left home this time because he felt his medical skills had stagnated and wished to travel in search of further improvement.
One drunken night, while drowning his sorrows, Shen Lijun revealed his deepest secret.
Not only did Elder Chunfeng refrain from mocking him—he actually praised Shen Lijun as someone courageous and sincere.
Later, Elder Chunfeng told him he had researched a flawless appearance-altering method capable of transforming him into that person perfectly.
The only problem was that it required an enormous amount of spirit stones.
And Shen Lijun had agreed immediately.
...Wait.
Lou Yuqing had just called him a liar.
Could she mean—Elder Chunfeng?!
Shen Lijun's pupils contracted violently as he stared at Lou Yuqing in disbelief.
[Old Man Chunfeng is a famous physician in the south, highly respected and skilled at treating all kinds of internal injuries.]
[But he has absolutely no expertise in plastic surgery. Most importantly—he's never even come here before.]
[Poor child. You got scammed.]
[That's just some swindler stealing Old Man Chunfeng's name!]
Lou Yuqing's inner voice echoed through the hall with devastating clarity.
Everyone: "!!!"
Shen Lijun: "..."
Elder Chunfeng... was fake?
No.
Even the name was fake.
For a moment, Shen Lijun felt like his entire worldview had collapsed.
Back when he'd been heartbroken and miserable, it was "Elder Chunfeng" who had listened patiently to his pain, comforted him, encouraged him, and helped him pull himself back together.
Was all of that fake?
Just to scam him out of spirit stones, that bastard had gone to such lengths?!
Shen Lijun had never experienced heartbreak from romance before.
But right now, he suddenly felt like he'd just been abandoned.
Resentment.
Sadness.
Unwillingness.
Hope.
A chaotic flood of emotions surged upward all at once.
His eyes reddened as tears slowly gathered.
[Wait a minute.]
Lou Yuqing abruptly changed directions.
[This scammer originally approached Shen Lijun because he wanted to swindle all his money.]
[But after hearing about Shen Lijun's emotional suffering... he actually softened. Because he, too, once had someone he could never have.]
[So he ended up empathizing with Shen Lijun.]
Even Lou Yuqing herself looked baffled by what she was reading next.
[So... when he talked about plastic surgery, was he actually just making it up to comfort Shen Lijun after seeing how miserable he looked?]
[And that absurdly expensive spirit stone requirement?]
[Did he only mention it casually so Shen Lijun would have a goal to work toward... without ever intending to actually take his money?]
The plot twist hit everyone so hard their expressions twisted.
Several disciples' lips twitched uncontrollably.
Meanwhile, Shen Lijun silently sucked his tears back in.