This woman was none other than Jue Ying.
Jue Ying possessed profound cultivation techniques and directly located the place where Hua Yuting had been killed.
Shui Miao did not even bother to sense Jue Ying’s cultivation level. The moment he saw her appearance, his heart was instantly shocked. According to Hua Yuting’s memories, Jue Ying was extremely mysterious and formidable. She was a supreme expert from the Yuxu Sect, only a small step away from becoming a Celestial Emperor. Moreover, she shared an unusually close relationship with Hong Xu Zhenren.
Instantly, Shui Miao immediately accelerated the activation speed of his protective treasure.
Meanwhile, Hui De also sensed something unusual from behind.
Hui De quickly turned around and saw Jue Ying.
His mind trembled as he instantly speculated that this might be a powerful enemy of Shui Miao. Considering that Shui Miao was in the middle of activating his treasure, Hui De decided to buy him some time and promptly distracted Jue Ying by saying, “Friend, you must have come here because you heard the explosion, right? I’m just a passerby who doesn’t even know what happened here. If you…”
“Xiu!”
Jue Ying merely glanced at Hui De before instantly teleporting directly in front of Shui Miao!
With a sweep of her divine sense, Jue Ying immediately sensed Hui De’s cultivation level. She judged that Hui De was definitely not powerful enough to kill Hua Yuting, so she completely ignored him.
However, Jue Ying sensed Shui Miao, but could not penetrate his cultivation level at all.
“Was it you who killed Hua Yuting?”
Jue Ying calmly stared at Shui Miao without rashly attacking.
At this moment, Shui Miao was in the appearance of a former hall leader from the Tianyi Sect, with the aura of an ordinary Great Luo Golden Immortal. However, Jue Ying knew that Shui Miao’s aura was chaotic, possibly intentionally concealing his true power. Another reason she didn’t immediately attack was that, logically speaking, after killing a supreme expert, the murderer would normally flee the scene as quickly as possible to avoid retaliation. Therefore, Jue Ying wasn’t entirely certain that Shui Miao was the killer.
“What?”
Shui Miao successfully completed the activation of his protective treasure at lightning speed, obtaining a supreme protective celestial artifact, which he immediately absorbed into his body. He quickly waved his hand and said, “No, no, no! You must have misunderstood. You saw it yourself—I had just finished forging and activating a treasure. That explosion nearly ruined my efforts.”
Generally, ordinary immortals didn’t even know about the existence of the Time Tower.
Only the abnormal genius, Master Luo Tong, the Saint King of Artifice, was capable of forging the Time Tower, and he had forged it for his own use.
Under normal circumstances, forging a supreme celestial artifact would at least take more than ten days.
Therefore, Shui Miao’s excuse was completely logical and convincing.
Jue Ying’s eyebrows slightly moved as she bowed to Shui Miao and said, “I’m sorry. I’m a disciple of the Yuxu Sect. My junior brother was murdered, so I came to investigate. Just now was merely a casual question. I hope this friend won’t take offense.”
“Oh, no problem at all. It was just a question, nothing serious.”
Shui Miao secretly breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that Jue Ying had already ruled him out as the killer. Her polite attitude and apology clearly indicated that she had noticed his ability to forge celestial artifacts and was intentionally trying to befriend him.
Indeed, with the Celestial War approaching, the best artificers in the Celestial Realm had already been snatched up by the major sects as their most precious resources.
Earlier, when Jue Ying sensed Shui Miao’s divine power, she discovered that the artifact he forged was at least a supreme celestial treasure. Although she didn’t know exactly what the treasure was, an artificer capable of forging such a supreme artifact was certainly no ordinary person. Thus, she was genuinely interested in forming an alliance.
Rarely smiling, Jue Ying politely continued, “Friend, your forging skills are truly exceptional. May I ask which sect you come from? Would you be willing to befriend me and help forge some celestial artifacts in the future? Of course, I will pay you ten times the usual compensation. Also, I sensed that your cultivation energy seems quite chaotic!”
“Haha!”
Shui Miao laughed heartily and bowed, saying, “My friend, your eyesight is truly sharp. However, once you understand my experiences, this will no longer seem strange. To be honest, perhaps you won’t believe me, but my master was actually Saint King Luo Tong, the Master Artificer. By a rare chance, I received his guidance, and then he left me, saying that I should strive on my own and then he just left me alone. Since then, I have traveled around forging treasures for others in exchange for spirit stones and secret manuals. I’m curious about everything, and I wanted to learn every strange and rare technique. As I kept learning, my techniques became increasingly mixed, and eventually, I ended up like this.”
Shui Miao, confident that Jue Ying couldn’t see through him, told such a convincing lie that even he almost believed it himself.
“This shameless fellow is such a good talker! I was actually worried for nothing. Hmph! This time, you owe me one…” Hui De sensed Shui Miao’s lies, felt relieved instead, muttered a few resentful words in his heart, and then turned around, leaving with a large group of beast companions.
※※※
Sensing the group of beasts leaving, Jue Ying ignored them directly.
In her eyes, these beasts were merely pitiful, lowly creatures despised by the Celestial Realm—killing them would even invite ridicule.
Jue Ying was also extremely proud, sharing the common prejudice of most Celestials.
At this moment, her entire focus was fixed on Shui Miao.
“I see…”
Such an artificer was extremely rare and precious! Jue Ying pondered and nodded slightly, then asked, “So, friend, may I know your name? Would you consider joining our Yuxu Sect?”
“Oh, you can just call me Jue Qing!”
Shui Miao quickly made up a name as he thought.
“What? Jue Qing… Why did you choose this name?”
The name “Jue Qing” stirred something within Jue Ying, and she suddenly felt curious. This man in front of her seemed quite cheerful—why would he call himself “Jue Qing” (meaning “Absolute Emotion”)?
“Ai!”
Shui Miao sighed deeply and said, “My friend, you may not know, but I grew up all alone, enduring all kinds of hardships and experiencing the coldness and cruelty of the world. I’ve seen through the deceitfulness of people. Whether they are Celestials or mortals, most are insincere, greedy, and hypocritical. Many talk one way on the surface, but think completely differently in their hearts.”
“Take my master Luo Tong, for example. I know he pitied me and wanted to teach me a skill so I could barely survive. But I know he deliberately said that without officially accepting me as his disciple. Therefore, I made up my mind to strive hard, to master the art of forging so he would realize he was wrong, that I am not someone who doesn’t try hard. To motivate myself constantly, I deliberately named myself ‘Jue Qing’ (Absolute Emotion), dedicating my entire heart and soul to forging!”
After finishing his lie, Shui Miao inwardly mocked himself, thinking that he really wasn’t a good person.
Sure enough, Jue Ying was completely fooled!
Jue Ying took a deep breath and said, “Jue Qing, my name is Jue Ying. If you’re willing, shall we become sworn siblings?”
“Eh…”
Shui Miao was momentarily stunned, not expecting his lies to be so effective that they actually moved Jue Ying like this!
No!
No, no, no! She’s trying to win me over and recruit me!
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