Perhaps because his romantic luck had finally run out, he didn't encounter any rich young ladies blocked on the road, any female martial artists having their cargo ambushed, or any martial contests to win a bride along the way.
Martial contests to win a bride were the most troublesome. Once encountered, the only option was to steer clear. If Lu Yang were to enter, the Invincible Core wouldn't permit him to lose, and winning would saddle him with a wife he didn't even know for no good reason.
No matter how he weighed it, it wasn't worth it.
"Huh, it cleared up?"
As Lu Yang neared the carriage's location, he saw cloudless blue skies stretching across the mountain range. The rain had finally stopped.
"Old Meng must have given up on visiting a city."
Not far off, Lu Yang spotted four figures right along his path back.
He walked closer and saw the four figures clearly. They weren't four people, but three cultivators and a living corpse.
Carried on the wind, the sound of an argument reached his ears.
"I already said, every time the three of us tried to pass through here, we ran into all kinds of accidents! It's a warning! There's some great horror up ahead, and we can't go near it!" an elegant, delicate-looking cultivator said agitatedly, stopping his companions from moving forward.
"Brother Ye, it's just a few coincidences. In a world this vast, coincidences happen. I've never heard of any warning like this before." The speaker had bronze skin, short hair, and a hearty, careless air. He turned his head to ask the third companion, "Brother Zhao, you've traveled far and wide and seen plenty. Have you ever come across something like this?"
The one called Brother Zhao had a well-proportioned build, but his complexion was paler than normal, tinged with a sickly cast.
Brother Zhao knitted his brows tightly, as if he had heard of such things before, yet the answer lingered on the tip of his tongue and refused to come to mind.
Lu Yang quietly skirted around the three of them and continued forward.
"Hey, hey, hey! Brother, you can't go that way!" the short-haired young man called out to stop him.
"Can't go that way?"
"It's like something sinister is causing mischief ahead. Just now, the three of us kept running into accidents stopping our advance."
The delicate youth chimed in, "Brother Wenren is right! For instance, just as I was about to walk forward earlier, an error occurred in my cultivation circulation, and I had to meditate right where I stood for nearly half an hour before sorting it out.
"Once my cultivation was running smoothly, we ran into an elderly man who was lost and escorted him home.
"After returning here, we realized we'd left something at the old man's house and had to make a trip back to fetch it.
"And once we came back again, several boulders rolled down from the distance, blocking our path. By the time the three of us moved them aside, we finally realized something was amiss—it felt as if an invisible force was barring the way."
Brother Zhao suddenly looked as though struck by inspiration, enlightened. "I remember now!"
"Remembered what?" his two companions asked hurriedly.
"I heard my elders mention this kind of situation before. When mighty experts debate the Dao and clash in a place, they'll lay down an array in advance to drive away bystanders so that no one else can advance and people have to take a detour. Still, such occurrences are rare. After all, battling in mountains means having to restore them afterward, which is a huge hassle. Fighting on plains or in the sky is far more common.
"There must be high-level experts clashing up ahead! Didn't we see it earlier? Dark clouds gathered, lightning flashing and thunder roaring—that was experts harnessing the power of heaven and earth in battle!" Brother Zhao grew increasingly solemn as he spoke, thoroughly convinced his reasoning was sound.
The delicate youth and the short-haired youth knew Brother Zhao was of extraordinary origin, so they nodded along with his explanation.
"When mighty figures battle, it's best to stay clear if possible. Since we can't cut through the mountains, taking a detour is our only choice."
Lu Yang stared at the three of them for a long while before suddenly asking, "Which one of you three is a woman disguised as a man?"
At these words, the delicate youth called Brother Ye changed countenance, his expression shifting erratically. Under Lu Yang's unwavering gaze, he conceded defeat. "How did you tell?"
"Brother Ye, you..." The other two stared at the delicate youth in shock.
With a wry smile, Brother Ye took off a jade pendant from her neck. Her Adam's apple flattened out, and her delicate features softened into alluring charm, revealing large, watery eyes. Her hair grew long, cascading to her waist, and her chest filled out prominently.
Seeing Brother Ye transform from man to woman, her two companions were even more astonished.
The three hadn't known one another for very long. They had met while wandering the jianghu, and feeling that one needed companions to watch their back on the road and finding their personalities compatible, they had banded together.
Who could have guessed that after going through so much together, Brother Ye was actually a woman?!
"No wonder you never bathed with us, Brother Ye, and insisted that the three of us stay in separate rooms every time we lodged! And whenever we told dirty jokes, you blushed and told us to stop!"
"Wait, don't tell me that woman I saw bathing in the lake that night was you too?!"
Brother Wenren suddenly connected the dots. While camping out in the wild one quiet night, he had gone down to the lake to relieve himself. Under the moonlight, he had spotted a woman with a voluptuous figure bathing, looking just like a fairy in the lake. Regrettably, due to the circumstances, he hadn't caught a clear look at her face.
When he mentioned it to his companions the next day, Brother Ye had just laughed and told him he must have been half-asleep and seeing things.
"I lied. In truth, I'm from the Ye family of Liangzhou," Brother Ye—or rather, Miss Ye—confessed in embarrassment. Disguised as a man, she had traveled from Liangzhou to Huangzhou, where she had befriended these two companions.
The Liangzhou Ye family was an illustrious clan in Liangzhou, having produced high-ranking provincial officials and great cultivators among their ancestors.
"This jade pendant was something I begged from my mother. Mother said that when she was out on experiential training in the jianghu, disguised as a man, she met my father while relying on this very pendant, and no one had ever seen through it. I don't know how this Daoist brother managed to see right through me today."
Lu Yang smiled without answering, too embarrassed to rat out Meng Jingzhou.
To Miss Ye, his smile seemed mysterious and profound.
Miss Ye sighed inwardly. Truly, jianghu figures were unfathomable; even a random traveler encountered by the roadside could see through her disguise.
With her identity exposed, Miss Ye stopped agonizing over the matter. She turned to Brother Wenren, her eyes brimming with tender affection.
"Brother Wenren, I like you! Do you remember when we crossed paths with marauder cultivators and you took a blade for me, rescuing me from their hands? Ever since then, I've had feelings for you!"
Brother Wenren had never anticipated his good brother coming out with something like this, and was caught completely off guard.
Fortunately, he soon composed himself. Letting out a soft sigh, he pulled off his thumb ring.
His body transformed: arms turned slender, short hair lengthened into tresses that draped over the shoulders, and the fabric across the chest stretched taut, full and curvaceous.
Only the skin tone remained unchanged, still bronze and radiant with health.
"I'm sorry. In truth, I was also disguised as a man.
"Remember when I refused to let you treat my wounds after taking that blade for you, insisting on tending to them alone? That was why."
Miss Ye: "..."
Heartbreak had arrived so fast.
Lu Yang, Miss Ye, and Miss Wenren all turned their heads together toward the sickly Brother Zhao. The unspoken message was clear: Your turn.
Brother Zhao flew into a fury. "I'm a man!"
So of the three traveling together, he was the only honest one!
Chapter 409